Archive for October, 2007
Monday, October 29th, 2007
Shopping Ads, a new CPC Ad Network and monetizing kid on the block is in for bloggers to start blogging to the bank.
Like their slogan goes “monetize your site with live merchant listings” bloggers are sure getting good CPC from their blogs.
ShoppingAds is owned by Peter Galvin of Text-Link-Ads and AuctionsAds. The site, which is in private beta testing is currently doing so well on my blogs.
Shopping Ads unlike Auctionads is based on a CPC (cost-per-click) model instead of the CPA (cost-per-acquisition) model and it has a CPC of around $0.25.
Shoppingads has also partnered with a number of online merchants to display their inventory like Amazon and shopping.com .
Shoppingads like John Chow’s TTZ Media Affiliates offers publishers the ability to either add your own keywords or let publishers recommend ads based on their website’s content.
Increase your site income with ShoppingAds >>>
Posted in ShoppingAds, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, October 25th, 2007
In its effort to take over the SMS Message world, Clickatell earlier this week hired Chuck Drake as Executive Vice President of Global Marketing, and Bill Wolfe as Executive Vice President of Research & Development to help steer the affairs of the mobile company.
Clickatell has also upgraded all its servers and if you are an existing client, you will realise there are now many IP Addresses available for use in sending SMS Text Messages.
With over 8,000 active customers worldwide, including Barclays Bank, BBC, CNN, FNB, and Oracle, Clickatell has proven itself as the leader in providing mobile messaging solutions to large enterprise organizations and delivering online SMS services for small to medium businesses.
With the explosion of cell phone usage, mobile messaging is fast becoming a ubiquitous and cost effective way to communicate directly to customers, partners, and employees.
Clickatell is bolstering its worldwide facilities to meet the growing demand for SMS messages being sent globally for a multitude of applications. Having expanded coverage to include an additional 85 networks, Clickatell supports more networks and carriers than any other messaging provider in the world. Clickatell has further upgraded its enterprise-grade facilities to include hosted services, receiving the SAS 70 stamp of approval, a widely recognized standard used as a proof point used by Chief Security Officers to examine the due diligence process needed to assure data security, safety and integrity.
Within its existing 24×7 system, Clickatell has significantly extended its customer support capability by enhancing Quality of Service (QOS) and reliability of its IT infrastructure, which is built on the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework, a set of industry guidelines and best practice techniques for managing IT infrastructure, development, and operations. In addition to these enterprise-grade additions to its facilities, Clickatell has added network support in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and has also increased reliability in China, Hong Kong, and Japan.
In addition, Clickatell has hired Chuck Drake as Executive Vice President of Global Marketing, and Bill Wolfe as Executive Vice President of Research & Development. These two executives are poised to bring a strong focus in the financial services sector and building large infrastructures to support millions of mobile transactions.
Chuck joins Clickatell from MarkMonitor and Corillian where he led both companies to achieve market leadership status in their respective Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Enterprise software markets serving Financial Services, Retail, Manufacturing, High Technology, CPG and other verticals worldwide.
Bill joins Clickatell from VeriSign and Openwave Systems where he was responsible for managing critical business cycles to provide complex, intelligent, highly secure, and reliable enterprise infrastructures to deliver core communications services targeting the Entertainment, Technology, and Telecommunications markets.
Via Clickatell
Posted in Clickatell API | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
Under a month of monetizing with WidgetBucks, Ads performances and CTR seem to be far better compared to some of the Ad Networks I have already been using on my blogs and websites.
My WidgetBucks account so far has 8 referrals and Click-Thru revenue in also doing impressively OK. Don’t forget the $25 sign up bonus is sitting comfortably in mybucks.
WidgetBucks has also updated its control panel and below are the Payments schedule:
1. Earnings accumulate from the first through the last day of the month
2. Referral commissions are posted during the first week of the subsequent month
3. Finalized earnings are posted during the first week of the subsequent month
4. Payment is issued 45 days following the month your account balance reaches $50.00
If you really want to start blogging to the bank, then Join WidgetBucks and start making good money online with your blogs.
Posted in WidgetBucks | No Comments »
Monday, October 15th, 2007
Today is Blog Action Day for the Environment …. Hurray!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What is this day About?
This is generally a day where real bloggers who Blog To The Banks (LOL) write articles on their blogs to promote environmental safety and quality.
What can we do as bloggers?
We can serve as an ambassadors by blogging to help to protect and improve the environment. Bloggers can also take it upon themselves to make sure that air, land and water are looked after by everyone in today’s society, so that tomorrow’s generations can inherit a cleaner and healthier world.
In Short this is what you can also do to help
- Post on your blog relating to the environment on Blog Action Day
- Donate your day’s earnings to an environmental charity
- Promote Blog Action Day around the web
What did i do on this day?
Well instead of my normal 3 Plates of my favourite Fried-Riped-Plantain and Beans, I decided to forfeit two of them and take just one in solidarity of this great day of celebrating the environment as a blogger. Hope you also did something interesting. Cheers.
Posted in Ramblings | 1 Comment »
Monday, October 15th, 2007
The first part of the tutorial on to retrieve two-way text messages from clickatell gateway was basically about creating a mysql database that will store data received from Clickatell Gateway via the Callback Url.
This tutorial is will just show you how to create your “settings.php” which declares the main settings of your programme. It stores your mysql login details and the clickatell gateway api login details.
All you have to do is copy and paste the code below and save it as “settings.php”. Then you change all the xxxx in the code to the appropriate values per your mysql database and your credentials at clickatell.
settings.php
<?php
$baseurl =”http://api.clickatell.com”;
//User details @ Clickatell
$user = “xxxx”;
$password = “xxxx”;
$api_id = “xxxxx”;
//mysql details
$hostname_conn = “xxxx”;
$database_conn = “xxxx”;
$username_conn = “xxxx”;
$password_conn = “xxxx”;
$conn = mysql_pconnect($hostname_conn, $username_conn, $password_conn) or trigger_error(mysql_error(),E_USER_ERROR);
?>
User Details @ Clickatell
//$user = This is the username assigned to you by clickatell
//$password = This your clickatell api password;
//$api_id = The api id can be generated on your clickatell control panel
User Details @ Clickatell
// $hostname_conn = This is your database hostname
//database_conn = Change this to the name of your database
// $username_conn = This is the user logon to ur database
// $password_conn = Change this to your database password
Part 1 | Part 2
Posted in HTTP/S | No Comments »
Thursday, October 11th, 2007
Online Money Making avenues for bloggers and publishers is on the ascendancy once again.
About two weeks ago Mpire Corporation launched its Ads Network WidgetBucks promising that it was going to pay bloggers more than what Google pays its publishers. (Tried and Tested and So Far So Good)
After WidgetBucks comes TTZ Media Network, a new Adverting and Affiliates Network from the internet dot com mongul, John Chow.
Well for those of you who don’t know John Chow, he is by far the known blogger who makes money online and tells people how he makes it and the amount he makes. (interesting isn’t it?)
What is TTZ Media
TTZ Media provides shopping ads to its affiliated sites. These ads feature hot selling products from thousands of online stores. When a reader clicks an ad and visits the store, the affiliate makes money.
Unlike other shopping network that will only let you pull from a board category, TTZ Media ads allows extra keyword matching for products.
TTZ Media ads are completely customization. Not only can affiliates control border, background and link colors, they can even control the hover color and font style.
Entry Requirements
- You must own a domain name. No free hosted sites allowed.
- Website Content Should be English only.
- You Should have High quality content.
- Your Site must be Updated frequently.
Features
- Publishers have access to customized Ads Code Setting with Code generator
- Publishers enjoy detailed Ads Performance Statistics
Payments
TTZ Media Affiliates currently offers payments via Checks and Paypal. The Minumum payment threshold is $20.
Join John Chow’s TTZ Media Affiliate Network now and start earning more income on your blogs.
Posted in TTZ Media | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
Google’s Adsense monetizing programme for bloggers and website publishers seems to be growing stronger and stronger by the hour even as many advertising networks spring up.
Earlier this year, rumours were rife that Google was going to add video ad units to the already existing adsense money making product streams. Well after a long period of waiting for this interesting ad feature Google this morning officially started monetizing videos on youtube.
It was announced on Google’s Official Adsense Blog that the service is now ready for publishers and bloggers to use on their blogs and websites.
We’re excited about the launch of video units — a new way to enrich your site with quality, relevant video content in an embedded, customizable player.
Simply embed a snippet of code and have relevant YouTube partner content streamed to your site. You can choose categories of video to target to your site, select content from individual YouTube partners, or have video automatically targeted to your site content.
Companion and text overlay ads are relevant and non-intrusive. To further blend the YouTube player into your site, you can also customize the color scheme and layout as well as choose from three different player sizes.
[Via Google Adsense Blog]
The new format is known as a “video unit,” and consists of three things:
1. A customizable embedded player
2. The Video Content
3. The Advertisement
Below is a sample of the Google Video Ad Unit
In order to use the service, publishers will need both an AdSense account and a Youtube account. Upon registering for the AdSense video program, the two accounts will be merged.
Similar to Google text version of AdSense, advertisers are charged only when an individual clicks on an ad. In the video program, however, both the site publisher and the video producer will be given a share of the ad revenue.
Note:
Google Video Ad Units is Currently Available for United States Publishers whose websites are in the English-Language Only.
Posted in Adsense | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
In an earlier post, I wrote about what a two-way (2-way) or bidirectional messaging is and the sms messaging provider to consider if you are considering building a 2-way sms application.
This tutorial shows you how to retrieve your two-way messages from Clickatell’s Gateway using their HTTP/S Protocol. It is fairly simple and almost the same as using a Callback URL to retrieve SMS Message response from Clickatell gateway.
Before using this tutorial, make sure two things are done
1. REQUEST for your Clickatell two-way number.
2. Set the callback URL at your control panel on Clickatell’s website. eg. (www.mboateng.com/2way/callback.php)
Once these two things have been done, you will need to create a mysql table which will store data sent to your web server by Clickatell’s Gateway API. Below is the mysql script.
Mysql Table (tbl_messages)
CREATE TABLE ‘tbl_messages’ (
‘msgid’ int(10) NOT NULL auto_increment,
’sender’ varchar(50) default NULL,
‘recipient’ varchar(50) default NULL,
‘dated’ varchar(50) default NULL,
‘message’ text,
PRIMARY KEY (’msgid’)
) ENGINE=MyISAM;
//The sender field stores the number/ name of the sender
//The recipient of course will be your Clickatell assigned number
//The Dated field will store the timestamp of the sms message
// The Message fields stores the SMS Message
Part 1 | Part 2
Posted in 2-Way SMS | No Comments »
Monday, October 8th, 2007
Are you planning to get your own SMS Number where you can receive inbound text messages direct to your system applications or Web Applications? Are you also planning to undertaking a two-way sms messaging application? Well the best place to consider is Clickatell.
Clickatell makes extending your messaging capabilities with two-way SMS simple. You can easily receive messages by making use of their HTTP, SMPP or FTP application programming interfaces.
What is Two-Way(2-Way) Messaging
A Two-Way(2-Way) SMS Messaging Service enables you to SEND and RECEIVE SMS Text Messages and Manage responses directly on your PC through an SMS Application.
For example a web advertiser can send out messages to all its web publishers (using say bulk sms) and receive replies from them directly to his PC.
Sending the SMS message could be easily done with your existing email client, server, website or a business application.
Two-way messaging requirements:
* Clickatell API account.
* Apply for a two-way messaging from inside your account
How two-way messaging can help you:
* Bidirectional Messaging
* Clickatell’s two-way messaging is currently available in over 100 countries.
Check Out More on Two-Way SMS Messaging @ Clickatell >>>
Posted in 2-Way SMS | No Comments »
Monday, October 8th, 2007
Revenue reports for WidgetBucks have been trickling in per their 48-72hrs revenue reporting system and this is my report for three days of monetizing with widgetbucks. The money earned is about $34.
Comparing the number of impressions to the total Clicks, Click-Rate seems to be quite low for the 300×250 banner sizes. I am beginning to feel two things are not going well with my blogs.
1. Either the Ad categories don’t match the blog content or
2. The Ad placements are just not right for monetizing purposes
The 728×90 Banner seems to be doing better than the others with a Click-Rate of 3.1%. I will still experiment for some few days and see what comes out of the other banner sizes.
Well on the lighter side, if the $25 bonus widgetbucks promised on sign up is anything to go by, then i guess I am right to say i have made my first $50 with widgetbucks. Huraaaayyyyyyy.
Well for those on you who don’t know about WidgetBucks and might be wondering what it is, It is the hottest pay-per-click(PPC) Online Money Making Stream for Bloggers and Publishers.
Click here to register with WidgetBucks and Start Earning some Cash!
