Cornymans Money-Blog

Sunday, December 27, 2009

CMF Ads: My results of the SPIKES

Image by hongiiv via Flickr

I tried the new feature in CMF Ads called Spikes at the Christmas weekend. It took 3 days during this time from 24th - 27th December until i received 50 "unique" visitors from CMF Ads.

Let's look at the numbers from Google Analytics:

32 from 50 visits have been recorded - which leaves 18 visits as Drop & Run visits (36%)

From the 32 visits only 43,75 % (14) have been NEW VISITS (unique)
The average time on the site from these 32 visitors has been 1:32 minutes (40 seconds more than my usual average time)
Bounce rate & Page views (can't be calculated as my code was duplicated and i just changed it to the new Analytic codes on 26th December) - therefore i bought a new spike to test it again :)
The recorded visits (32) accounted for 3.3% of my overall visitors (946) in these three days.

My Conclusion

As we usually shouldn't count Drop & Run visits because there is no real value in them, i paid 20 cents for 32 visitors (0,625 cents/visitors) who stayed longer than the average visitor on my blog.

The longer on-site time could be connected with my article about CMF Ads and the comments from CMF admins as only CMF members visited me through CMF Spikes.
We will see what happen when i don't update or have another topic as myr first article in the future.

As CMF Ads doesn't know which member visited me already from EntreCard or Adgitize the uniqueness lacks in my opinion. New visits have been just 43,75% which means there are more than 50% who visit me regularly from EntreCard/Adgitize/CMF Ads.

At the moment i believe the drop & run visits will increase as there is nothing that stops the member (like EntreCard where you have to "look for" the Drop box or in Adgitize for the next ad to click on), especially if they have already visited me from EntreCard/Adgitize on the same day!

The Bounce rate might increase as well as more and more members have already visited your blog from the previous Spikes purchase, following this the average time on the site will decrease.

Using Spikes as a permanent way to drive traffic to your blog is not the best way if you DON'T UPDATE YOUR BLOG before you buy a new SPIKES.

The Spikes will be used up during the weekdays (and after they are now established) faster than during the last few days as more and more members see this as a way to earn easily money for their advertising campaigns (DROP & RUN TRAFFIC).

Actually there are have been more than 109 Spikes member which would give you already 21,8 Cents if you have visited them (enough to self-fund a SPIKES) and new blogs are added each hour.

UPDATE:
After 4 hours i received -for my SECOND SPIKES- 10 CLICKS from CMF Ad members, only 3 got recorded by Google Analytics with an average time on the site of 0 seconds and 1 new visitor (who also didn't like to read)!
That's being said, i seem to be right that it's more for the incentive of 0,2 cents than for staying and reading the actual blog (after the blog might have been visited in the previous days)!

What should YOU DO?

Give it a ONE-TIME try, 20 cents is not much for getting up to 50 visitors who stay a while on your page.

Don't expect many comments (got 5 comments from CMF only members, the other comments were mainly given because i commented on their blog!)
Write about your experience with CMF SPIKES or a topic related to CMF members/blogger to attract them a little longer on your blog, express your views in the CMF forum :)
Members with mainly paid post may get visitors but i doubt that Google Analytics will count this visits (after a second Spikes is purchased) as the first impression of a blog counts - similar to Adgitize where many members avoid ads which haven't Adgitize ads on it themselves, members remember "bad blogs".
Buy a second SPIKES after some days not immediately after your FIRST ONE has expired!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

NEW @CMFAds - Get a Traffic Spike!

I just logged in at CMF Ads and what did i see a new way to get TRAFFIC to your blog! And it's a cheap way, too.

You just pay 20 cents and can get 50 visitors (0.4 cents/visitor) to your blog with the new TRAFFIC Option called Spikes.

The Advantages of Spikes

As an incentive to use this new TRAFFIC Option called Spikes the members who click on your Spike will receive for each click 0.2 cent.

That means if 50 blogs have bought an Spike (at the moment: 60), you can get 10 cents when you visit all 50 blogs. This money can be used "immediately" (i had around 5 minutes delay in recording these spikes in my funds) to buy an ad on other blogs. No longer waiting for 30 days until your first ad on your blog has finished!

As a security to get unique visitors, you can't click more than once each day on these blogs. After you refresh the page the already clicked blogs will disappear until 24 hours are over (UPDATE: or if already 50 other members have clicked on that blog it won't appear on the same day and on the following days, only if the advertiser buys again a spike!).

This system is only for Publishers, advertiser can't take part in Spikes!

The Disadvantage of Spikes

I think it will be the same like we can see in EntreCard and Adgitize with an incentive system to produce clicks (visits) for the members who bought a Spike - not only your visitors will spike but your BOUNCE Rate will SPIKE, too :)

I just clicked the 20 available spikes and that's it, you don't have to click through to another ad (like you do with Adgitize) or look for the Drop box of EntreCard. The visit may last just for a few seconds in a worst case scenario.

Conclusion

The Bounce rate seems to get a problem (for the advertisers) as i had already visited most the Entrecard/Adgitize-Blogs which have been in the Spikes list.
Perhaps i will use from now on this Spikes List as my start for dropping my EntreCards and Adgitize clicking. As it will give me the incentive of getting some cents for advertising or recovering/reducing the costs of my own spikes.
But nothing really new when you already a member of EntreCard - there you get ECs for each visit on a members blog- or Adgitize - there you get click points which convert at the end of the day in cents, too.

It's kind of a new paid-to-click opportunity with less cents than from Neobux but it won't turn into scam like many other PTC-Sites as it is funded by the paid advertisers!

For me a good opportunity to find some new "CMF-Ads only"-Blogs which i have never visited in the past!

What would you think about producing not only some traffic for these members but also giving them some COMMENT LOVE for getting some cents incentive from CMF-ADS?

After i missed out to comment on the first 20 blogs, i started to comment on all the other 40 blogs and will further comment on the newly added blogs!

We will see in the next weeks how many members will renew their spikes and how it affected their visits/bounce rates!

If you like to use this new cheap system at CMF Ads or if you want to place an CMF ad on my blog for 33 cents (between 5.500-6.500 ad views/month for your blog, 8.000+ pageviews/month), simply sign up here.

Monday, December 21, 2009

ADGITIZE ADS NOW AGAIN ONLY 14$ + Giveaway of Adgitize ads!

Adgitize has reduced the Ad price back to 14$ from today on. This was announced just minutes ago.

The members who bought ads with the higher prices will get an FREE EXTENSION OF THEIR AD DURATION (Cost will be paid by Adgitize):

If you have an ad in the system today at the higher rates then we will extend that ad for 22 days for $24 ad / 10 days for $18 ad / 5 days for $12 ad. Adgitize will pick up the cost during those extra days and you won’t see a reduction in publisher payouts with the extended ads. All ad bonuses will be paid at the level of the ad price. As we progress through January 2010 you will see earnings begin to drop each day as new ads enter the marketplace at the new prices. This will be a gradual process.

The effect on the earnings is similar to the earnings in November, this time just in the opposite direction - downwards.

To maintain a healthy financial level for Adgitize themselves, the earnings from the TOP EARNERS will be cut down by 2 - 4 $.
I think this means you only can get a cash rebate of a fully paid ad when you get more than 430 points from January/February 2010 on!

More information will come as soon as Ken Brown replies to the comments or in the forum to our questions!

UPDATE:
The affiliate / referral bonus will sink to 5$ for a 14$ ad, 3$ for a 10$ ad and 2$ for a 7$ ad!
For the existing members the traffic will sink from now 88 visitors back to 60 - 80 visitors (depending if we reach again the 200 advertiser accounts level in the next few weeks).
In the last 6 hours since announcement 5 new advertiser accounts (could be more than 5 additional ads) have joined to the new ad price!

That's why NOW IS THE TIME to sign up (if you're not yet an Adgitize member) and start advertising in the days before Christmas and get a nice traffic boost (up to 88 visitors/daily). The earnings will be high until mid of January 2010, afterward they will reach the level before the November price hike. You will see a good income in the next two weeks as most of the blogger are in holiday (especially as Advertiser with a 31 day ad for 14$).

BONUS for my REFERRALS (who haven't advertised yet or didn't renew their ad in the last 6 months)

A 777$ Giveaway in Adgitize FIRST TIME ONE WEEK ADS (111 ads)

You can choose between

50% of my referral income for your FIRST-TIME AD via Paypal (less fee of 0.30 $ +3.9% of the amount = 0.36 - 0.42 $)

for a one week ad (7 $) - 1,50 $
for a two week ad (10 $) - 2,00 $
for a 31 day ad (14 $) - 3,00 $

OR

a FREE ONE WEEK AD for 7$ (gives you 60 -80 visitors/daily -> 420 -560/week + earnings of 50 - 75 cents/daily, for the week up to 5 $ for you),

If you choose the ONE WEEK AD, you'll get a gift certificate from me (valid for 90 days).
PLEASE write me a comment on this post or in EntreCard a message so that i can sent you the certificate number (after affiliate approval from Adgitize) and you can use it immediately for your advertising and test yourself how much traffic and earnings you can achieve in this FREE WEEK.

Time to read Part 3 of Adgitize: Can we RISK advertising again? to see in which areas you can increase your earnings!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Adgitize: Can you RISK advertising again? -Part 3-

Is buying an Adgitize ad a risky business?

The final part of the Adgitize series "Can you RISK advertising again?" which will give you some tips to increase your possible earnings in Adgitize.

After looking into the reason why we lost so many advertisers in Part 1 throughout November and in December (at the moment we are at 139 advertiser accounts), mostly because of the fear that the earnings would be lower than the invested money, second reason will be Christmas time and not being able to do the daily blogging task to reach acceptable points which was discussed in Part 2 of this blog series.

Increasing the possible earnings in Adgitize!

First of all, it's NO MORE RISKY to buy an ad in Adgitize :)
The only risk would be if you really want to gain back the whole invested money and you know for sure that are not able to do the necessary tasks (write daily ONE article + visit 50 advertiser) on more than 5 - 7 days in each month.
Even when you score on some days just 300 or 310 points (60 - 75 cents) and on 5 out of 7 days between 380 - 410 points (77 - 95 cents), you can earn back the invested 24$ (~ 78 cents/daily) for a 31 day Adgitize ad.
One of the most important advices which i can give is:

Put 10 Adgitize ads on your blog divided into 2 ad groups - like you can see on my blog (1 ad group with 1 ad and 1 ad group with 9 ads). There are many other possibilities how to mix the different ad groups so that it matches with your blog template.
Publish daily articles and click daily the necessary 50 ads (or 100 ads if you're not yet advertiser), DO THESE TASKS ESPECIALLY ON WEEKENDS!

WHY WEEKENDS and USA-Holidays CAN INCREASE YOUR EARNINGS BY 10% and MORE!
Weekends are usually days where many blogger take a break from blogging and take care of other activities. This is your chance to gain extra earnings in Adgitize!

Even when you score slightly lower ad and page view points during the weekends (i loose sometimes 20 points) as less blogger are active, you still can score the full points by visiting 50/100 advertiser and post an article.

In the past i scored each weekend (from Friday to Sunday) around 10 to 20% higher earnings than during the weekdays.
And if you are active on the special USA Holidays like on 4th July (Independence Day) or Thanksgiving (last week of November) or the upcoming Christmas days and New Year, you will see that your earnings on these days will move up by more than 20% (if you score your average points, in the point range 200 - 290 it can be that the earnings move less upwards as more members slip into this tier!).

MORE THAN ONE BLOG? Creating one or more accounts, what would be better for you?

This might be a difficult answer because it depends on your time and on your ability if you can write daily a blog for each of the containing blogs in your accounts.

If you combine all your blogs in ONE ACCOUNT, you can score higher ad/page view points. In my case i can reach already 100 ad view points if i get around 180 - 300 visitors to all of my four blogs. Now that i reach 100 ad view points i can't get anymore higher.

In this case it would be a possibility to split my four blogs in two accounts. If i would do this, i would put one high traffic blog and one low traffic blog into each account so that the earnings would be the same for both account.

Advantage of splitting your account

The first advantage of splitting your account would be that you have now the ability to get TWO (2) blogs for FREE into the Preferred Publisher list which can give you up to 20 visitors daily for each blog and additional 10 advertiser points in each account.

The second advantage would be that you can advertise two of your blogs. With just ONE ACCOUNT, you can advertise two or more blogs, too, but as Ken Brown mentioned yesterday :
If one blog has been clicked by a member, this member won't see anymore the second advertised blog during his actual advertiser visits!

What's your experience with CMF Ads - SPIKES?
	Good traffic
	Poor traffic
	lower bounce rate than average
	high bounce rate
	don't stay long on my blog
	stay longer than other visitors
	no comments
	some comments (1-5)
	more comments (6-15)
	not many new visitors
	many new visitors

pollcode.com free polls