The Nicher

I think we all know by now that I love holding contests. Why? Because people won’t buy my stuff on eBay, so I have to give it away. Um, I mean, because it gets me links and traffic. Right. That’s what I meant.

Now, when I sponsor a contest, I generally am offering only one prize that only one person will get. When Garry Conn and PepperJam host contests? They freaking pay you to participate.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Garry Conn, he’s sort of a stealth John Chow and Darren Rowse rolled into one. But his focus is on internet marketing, and can actually speak in terms that mere mortals can comprehend!  Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Chow and Rowse, but sometimes their tips are just waaay over my head.

Garry, however, is extremely patient, with a wonderful blogside manner. He not only takes the time to respond to each and every comment, but he solicits questions from those of us who are not blessed with the automatic money making gene. Plus, he’s positively rotten when given half a chance. Or less.

So why am I talking about Garry Conn and how he teaches you to make money online instead of the contest? Simple. The first contest was on his blog. It didn’t engender the same kind of excitement that everyone thought it would, so it’s been moved (sort of) to PepperJam’s blog.

If you don’t know what PepperJam is, you can Sign Up for Pepperjam Network and Get a $10 Sign On Bonus and look around, or ask me about it in the comments, and I’ll try to do up a proper post eventually.

The contest is this. In order to get people excited about their new PepperJam storebuilder, they’re PAYING YOU $10 to build a store with the storebuilder, or add a store to an existing website. Then, submit the link in the comments of the contest post, and email them as well. One entry only. The top prize? $1000 cash.

I’d get cracking though, because that $10 is only for the first 100 entries, and they’re already up to 37 entries.

If you haven’t signed up for PepperJam yet, I highly recommend it for the quality of their affiliate partners, ease of use, and all around niceness. The CEO is such a lovely fella that he offers personal suggestions in the comments of blogs, and Twitters. And, if you sign up through my link, I get $7.

And trust me, the storebuilder is so easy to use. The shop ends up looking a lot like Build A Niche Store as far as the product feeds go, but can be added just about anywhere. It’s even been optimized to be cut/paste into WordPress!

Still not convinced?

It took me less than 2 minutes to insert that little store in here. And with all the programs and product feeds available on the PepperJam Network? You could build an amazing store. Or mix and match on your BANS sites. Or just monetize the occasional blog post better. Or just be a geek like me and use it to go shopping yourself.

I will warn you, however, that the storebuilder can be a little glitchy from time to time. If you don’t see the product feed here, or actually at PJN, don’t worry- it will be back.  Sometimes it just displays the search box, but I’m sure they’re working on that.

You may have noticed a new widget in my sidebar. I love this thing, and I think it’s absolute genius.

So what’s it all about? Funny that you should ask that. (Ok, so I couldn’t think of another way to lead in.)

That widget is from a company called YouData. They’re sort of a broker of advertising. But they’re not quite like all the other greedy bastards who broker ads. No. These guys, they actually have ideals. And ethics. *shudder*

You see, they don’t like cookies, tracking programs, etc. And apparently, they don’t like wasteful traffic either. Instead of paying a website for every click or sale that comes through their ads, an advertiser actually pays the consumer to view his or her ads.

Lemme ’splain. No, there is too much. I will sum up.

Consumer: After you sign up with YouData, and fill out your MeFile (with basic data like gender, age marital status, blah blah), your YouData account will match you with advertising suited to your demographic. You can download a widget to your desktop to view advertising, or log into your account at YouData.

First, matching ads will load up on the widget, and you can click to collect a few cents just because you saw the ads (usually about $0.05 per ad). Then, you can click individual ads which will take you to the actual website of the advertiser. These are usually worth around $0.15 each. I earned about $6 in my first week looking at ads when I wasn’t doing anything else, and it worked out to about $25 an hour. I also found some very cool websites and products that I’d never heard of before- because the ads were targeted to me.

Supposedly there are commercials as well, which are worth more. I haven’t seen any yet, but YouData is still young.

Advertisers: Instead of spending $0.25 a click or more when people may just be randomly clicking your ads, or clicking them to “tip” a blogger, you pay the consumer directly. But you get to choose the demographic, so your ads are targeted. Plus, you have a willing audience, and they’re more likely to stick around a little longer on your site than random clickers.

Affiliates: Sorry. YouData doesn’t believe in cookies or tracking programs, so they don’t offer an affiliate program, and it’s possible that you won’t be allowed to advertise affiliate sites (I haven’t asked, so don’t quote me on that). If you have an actual product to sell, you should be golden, as with having a site that happens to have affiliate products on it. But there’s still a great reason to get people to sign up… And that’s because of the benefit to bloggers.

Bloggers: You can have a widget installed on your blog. When a YouData member is on your blog, the widget will show that there are ads to be viewed. If they choose to view their ads on your blog, they can also choose to split the “profit” with you. It’s automatically set up to be 50/50, so if they forget to adjust before viewing ads, you’ll automatically receive 50% of the cost of the ad. It’s a more ethical way to tip, kind of fun, and actually circumvents the ad blindness problem.

They don’t have the widgets automized yet, but you can email YouData’s support, and they’ll set you up with one (I have a widget on 3 of my blogs).

You can also advertise your blog through YouData- one of the Wal-Mart Moms bloggers already is. I may for one of my planned blogs as well.

Downside: No affiliate program. The widget is occasionally glitchy. There’s still a limited number of consumers to reach this way since they have to actually sign up and fill out a profile to get ads. You must have a text capable cell phone to sign up, since they text your confirmation code (to prevent multiple signups).

Upside: Your ads are targeted. There is currently very little competition for your market’s attention. Your market’s attention is practically undivided since you’re paying them. Oh, and did I mention that they pay out via PayPal every Friday? On time? No banning you just as you’re about to reach payout because even 1 penny is considered payout. And the guy that runs it? Yeah, he’s a Disney fan. And YouData has a Twitter account for updates and service issues. And, if you don’t have text on your cell phone, send a message to support- they’re calling a friend of mine to give her the confirmation code. Now that’s service.

Any questions? I may not be able to answer them, but I’ll try!

To tell the truth, I’m a little surprised, but yes.

About two weeks ago, I tried an experiment in contests for links. I built a Squidoo lens on my favorite skincare products, emphasizing that they’re vegan friendly as that would give them more appeal to most people who would be attracted to the products anyway. Since I’d just found out about the FDA trying to pass legislation that would put most small cosmetic businesses out of business, I posted a video about the legislation and links to a quality post on the subject, as well as a petition against it.

Next, I tweeted the contest, posted it on most of my blogs/sites, and contacted the blogger who was hosting the video and petition, as well as the blogger/twitterer who I’d initially heard about it from. They in turn tweeted about the contest.

For entry, I required one link to EITHER my lens, the skincare product store, or the post with the video and petition. After all, I was trying to get the word out about the products and the petition as much as experimenting with the link backs.

I allowed links to be from blogs, Twitter, other social networks, StumbleUpon, Digg, etc on the theory that blogs are actually the least viral of the above. Most entrants actually linked to all three (store, lens, post), and some from several locations- just because they thought the products were cool, were het up (Pennsylvania Dutch term) about the FDA Globalization Act of 2008, because they liked me, or because they thought it was cool that all my proceeds from that lens were being donated to the Grameen Foundation (a very worthy charity that offers micro-loans to start ups in third world countries, and even the US).

The prize? 1 lip balm, and 1 soap from the seller I was promoting. And yes, I paid for it, even though I literally can not make money off of that lens as long as I’m donating the profits.  Totally worth it, however, as the total was under $10, and I didn’t have to schlep to the post office- simply ordered online and put in the winner’s address.

Despite the fact that there were only 5 entrants, the incoming links seem to be bearing fruit as the visitors continue to climb a week after the contest ended. The winner was so appreciative, that she immediately Stumbled the lens, and I’m receiving visits from that as well.

And I am ever so happy, because merely 2 weeks after publishing the lens, my Vegan Skincare Products lens is ranking at #31 in the Green category, and #5815 over all. This is the best that any lens of mine has ranked in a category- though I have to admit that the Green category has less competition than many others.

What worked? Having a handful of friendly peeps on Twitter who wanted the luxury of handmade soap and lip balm, and who are social networking addicts. Having the contest benefit someone who has a large following (the petition is hosted by a popular blog), and sending out the good karma (supporting small biz, donating to charity).

Obviously contest results will vary on a number of things. If you already have a strong following, you can pretty much offer anything and get a huge response, or you can interest a sponsor. If you don’t mind pimping yourself out, or if you have a circle of friends who like to promote, you can have all the social networks covered.

But if you only have a few Stumble happy friends? Yes, you can still use contests to your advantage. They may not be as effective, but they’re a great way to jumpstart a new project.

Now, to find the guy who makes the Lancaster County Towing Company t-shirts with the picture of a horse and buggy on the front… I’ve got a deal that he just can’t refuse.

Have you ever noticed that when people are particularly stressed, even minor ha-ha moments bloom into laugh your @$$ off funny?

Wall Street Melt Down = Marketing Humor

So, I’ve got a few links to share that have at least good sense information if nothing else, but are also very funny.

1.) Whore Presents: 6 domains that really should have passed the “don’t make a 5th grader laugh” test.  Seriously folks, just because you know what your domain says, don’t assume the rest of us do!

2.) A video on how to produce a viral commercial: Every Small Business Owner Must See This Immediately  (That means IMers too)

There have been numerous discussions on how Twitter can make money; There have been just as many concerning the wisdom of paid tweets.  But now there’s another way to monetize your Twitter account- with much less controversy.

TwittAds is an advertising liason between twits and advertisers. I found out about them through one of ProBlogger’s tweets. What they do is sell advertising for your Twitter profile background.

As someone who has only just figured out how to set up my background, I think it’s a smashing idea. After all, my background isn’t doing anything for me, and it’s completely non-obtrusive.

What you’re allowing the advertiser to do is rent out your Twitter background for a specified period of time- either a day, week, 15 days, 1 month, or 3 months at a time. You can start out at a day just to see what you think of the program, or jump right in at a month, as I did.

You also set your own price. There are no guidelines for this, and I saw prices ranging all over the place, none of which seemed to be based on any specific numbers.

You set the price, the length you’re willing to advertise, and advertisers pick the twits they want to advertise with. I seem to have set my price a little low ($25 for the month), but it’s a number that I’m happy with as payout is at $20. And if I change my mind before someone purchases the advertising (which you can turn down if you choose), it’s changed with just a few clicks of the mouse.

TwittAd home page

I think it’s an interesting idea, potentially a good money maker, and shouldn’t upset too many potential followers.  Use your own judgement of course, but for now, I’m game!

So far I haven’t found an affiliate program for TwittAds, though, so I’m sorry about that. Perhaps if the service proves lucrative for them one will be offered.