The Preneur

Tracking202 - Free PPC Affiliate Tracking Software

The Preneur — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:42:54 +0000

What is Tracking202?
Tracking202.com is a free online service for affiliate marketers that allows you to track your Pay-Per-Click campaigns. Tracking202 is a real-time Pay-Per-Click affiliate marketing tracking tool that you can use to optimize your Pay-Per-Click campaigns. You can use the information Tracking202 provides you with to see which of your keywords are converting into sales or leads, which text ads (ad copies) or landing pages convert the best and are making you money, and which referrers are performing the best.

There are usually common questions that arise from new users of the Tracking202 program. A more popular question would be whether or not Tracking202 staff members can see your keywords. Tracking202 provides an answer in their FAQ which states:

Yes, we potentially could because in order for T202 to work, we have to store your visitors’ data. However, we have an extremely strict keyword policy; we do not allow anyone in our company to look at people’s data at their leisure. We believe if you entrust us with your data, it is our job to keep it safe.

Feel free to check out the FAQ for other answers you may be seeking. Tracking202 is currently in the public beta stage as of February 2, 2008.

My Experience with Tracking202
I was fortunate enough to watch Tracking202 develop from literally nothing into a great program and tool for affiliate marketers within the last few months. Wes Mahler is the creator, affiliate marketer, and entrepreneur that introduced me to affiliate marketing. He is the mastermind behind this program and he created it not for the sole benefit for himself but to help other affiliate marketers like ourselves.

I will put it on my life that this tracking program is definitely worth a look. Don’t let the free title stray you away from trying out this high quality service. A lot of other tracking programs charge monthly fees up into the hundred dollar range and many of them do not have the features Tracking202 offers. Wes has allowed the users of Tracking202 make suggestions (you still can if you sign up), many of which have been implemented into Tracking202 already.

I have been using Tracking202 for just a little over 5 months now to track my campaigns and have not had a single problem. The only problems I have had are mistakes made by myself and Wes and Steven were always there to help me out every time. I think that it is great to be able to see the clicks generated from my campaigns in real-time. It only takes a few seconds to pull my subIDs from different affiliate networks and update my Tracking202 account.

Tracking202 Special Features

Real Time Spy View of Your Visitors
Ability to Grab Your EPC for Individual Keywords
Ability to Grab Your EPC for Individual Text Ads (Ad Copies)
Ability to Grab Your EPC for Individual Pay-Per-Click Accounts
Semi-Automated Cost Tracking
Support for Cloaking Keywords from Advertisers
Support for Direct Linking
Support for Landing Pages
Much More…

Tracking202 Screenshots

Getting Started with Tracking202
It may be a little confusing for first time users, especially if you have not tracked campaigns before (like myself a few months ago). If you are one of those people Tracking202 has a videos section that shows you how to set up a campaign and implement Tracking202’s tracking URLs from start to finish. You can also feel free to ask questions in the comments below, contact me through the contact form, or contact Tracking202 staff members who are on live support.

Tracking202 Official Website: www.Tracking202.com

Flickr Photo By: mlindqvist

Choosing Affiliate Networks

The Preneur — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 05:05:09 +0000

Which Network to Choose
There are many affiliate networks for marketers to choose from. One might ask, which network should I choose? To be honest, there is no definite answer. However, try to stick to choosing from networks that have created a good reputation and image for themselves (usually the more popular networks not always though). You can read and find a lot of information about affiliate networks provided on blogs and websites. A popular website I like to use to find out more information about the different networks is called Publisher Spot. You can find information and reviews for just about every affiliate network out there. They are well written articles and provide everything you need to know about each network.

Campaigns and Payouts
Each affiliate network varies on the payout amount for their campaigns, whether it be a lead or sale. Some networks have much lower payouts than their competitors, however that can be easily fixed by contacting your affiliate manager and asking for a raise to whichever campaign you are promoting. You should ask your affiliate manager for a raise in the payout for your campaign before you promote it as well as after you generate a few leads or sales for that campaign. Do not be afraid to ask for a raise in the payout. Affiliate managers will usually match the higher payout rate that another network is offering for the same exact campaign. Most of the time it will not even be a problem as most affiliate networks are competing with each other to keep affiliates at their network as well as keep them happy.

My Personal Experience
I was introduced to CPAEmpire by a fellow affiliate marketer and decided to begin my affiliate marketing career with them. I have since then ventured out and promote campaigns through MaxBounty, NeverBlueAds, and COPEAC. You can find more information about them by checking out my “Networks” link in the header. The reviews are short, but I will edit them with more detail in the future. CPAEmpire’s payouts are slightly less than other networks, but as I mentioned before asking for a raise should not be a problem. On the brighter side MaxBounty tends to have higher payouts than other networks.

Obviously, affiliate marketers and entrepreneurs alike will have different opinions about each network. There are pros and cons for every network and with some the pros outweigh the cons and vise versa. The best way to figure out which network you will like the most is by applying to be an affiliate, to whichever networks you are interested in, and testing them out for yourself.

Flickr Photo By: lumowerkx

Beginning Affiliate Marketers

The Preneur — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 19:44:06 +0000

Just Getting Started?
New to affiliate marketing? Want to learn how to create a campaign from scratch? This is the place. As mentioned in the first post, A Place for Affiliate Marketers and Entrepreneurs, The Preneur was created to help others begin their journey into affiliate marketing. There are many things affiliate marketers must research, learn, and understand. For example, basic business concepts such as your return on investment also known as your ROI. As affiliate marketers we do not want to be spending more money or bidding more money on keywords and phrases that will give us a negative net return (net income). We want to generate more leads and sales to our landing pages or advertiser’s pages (direct linking) than we are spending money driving traffic to them.

There are many important aspects in the world of online affiliate marketing. Not only do you need to keep up-to-date on your research, but you also need to understand other business concepts such as marketing. Marketing is important because you will be promoting products, services, or both that other businesses are trying to sell. Creating a campaign can be difficult and if you do not word your ad copies correctly to entice a potential customer to click it you simply will not generate any leads or sales.

Interested? Then Take Action
The Preneur was created to help out beginning affiliate marketers. If you consider yourself a beginner who is interested in affiliate marketing and have not yet taken action to join in on the fun you have come to the right place. Feel free to use the contact form stating your interest in affiliate marketing. Once I feel that there are enough people interested to begin their journey into affiliate marketing I will contact you directly through email and set up a meeting time and date. The meetings will be held through either AOL/AIM or Skype, in which at that time we can all meet and introduce ourselves to each other. Each meeting will last about 1-2 hours so have your schedules cleared. The goal is to have at least one meeting a week until everyone in the group feels comfortable with each other and creating campaigns on their own. These meetings will have beginner affiliate marketers and entrepreneurs, which will provide everyone a great opportunity to network and get to know other people with like interests.

The Importance of Networking
As you can probably tell the whole aspect of this opportunity and experience is to create a network of hopefully, soon to be, ‘Super Affiliates’. Networking is an important aspect in any field of work. Through this network of our very own ‘Super Affiliates’ we will be able to collaborate amongst each other and become the leaders of tomorrow. We will become a group of affiliate marketers whose passion, knowledge, dedication, and willingness to help others will motivate other young aspiring entrepreneurs. We will gain the respect of other affiliate marketers and entrepreneurs and act as role models to those who wish to follow in our footsteps. Let the journey begin.

A Place for Affiliate Marketers and Entrepreneurs

The Preneur — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:46:45 +0000

The Affiliate Marketing Boom
Affiliate marketing seems to be all the talk now-a-days on the internet. With revenues reaching the billions for the year 2007 in the United States and United Kingdom - what more could we expect? The future is and will be the internet. Many entrepreneurs are jumping on the bandwagon looking to make a lot of money very quickly. As the market becomes more saturated making money online through affiliate marketing is going to become tough. The competition is fierce, especially with Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising as more affiliate marketers are competing for the same keywords and phrases everyday.

The Entrepreneur Idea
The idea to create The Preneur (blog) and Preneur Talk (forum) materialized after I was fortunate enough to meet and learn from a fellow affiliate marketer and entrepreneur who is now grossing over $10,000 a month (more on him in the near future). I decided that, I too, want to help other people learn and make money through affiliate marketing online. I know from first hand experience how difficult it can be to understand the concepts and get that first lead or sale. Most affiliate marketing related websites and blogs do not really offer the inside information - why would they? They offer the basics of getting started and that’s about it. Knowing what works and what does not is a valuable asset in this field. Sharing that information to the public would make your job as an affiliate marketer that much harder.

A Place for Affiliate Marketers and Entrepreneurs
With The Preneur and Preneur Talk I plan to do just the opposite. I am by no means anywhere close to being referred to as a “Super Affiliate” by any network or person. However, just like you I have jumped into the affiliate marketing bandwagon (mainly PPC advertising). I began my venture into affiliate marketing in late 2007 and plan on generating revenues in the thousands by the end of 2008. I DO NOT plan on doing this alone.

The most valuable asset anyone could have is not the cash you generate online, but the people you meet. My goal is to develop The Preneur as a blog where people can gain knowledge and information about affiliate marketing. Preneur Talk was created so that like minds (Affiliate Marketers and Entrepreneurs) can collaborate about strategies, keywords/phrases, tracking, and everything related to affiliate marketing. Preneur Talk was also created so that a close network of successful affiliate marketers and entrepreneurs could be formed.

I plan on providing a more personal experience to other affiliate marketers and entrepreneurs that seek help and information, thus strengthening (what I will refer to as) our network. I believe that a 1:1 (one on one) experience helps others become closer to one another and will allow people to ask questions without having to worry what others may think.

Too many times I have emailed or tried to contact well known names in the industry to wait and never get a reply back. Too many times I have posted on the more popular forums to only check back and see no replies to my thread or topic. Too many times I have read different blogs and websites to see the same information provided, but in a different format or words. I want to make a change. The question is, Are you ready to make a change?