Friday, February 6, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
My most popular Secret Shopping Company is Market Force
(My Original Blog Post: http://signupandmakemoney.com/blog/2009/02/my-most-popular-secret-shopping-company-is-market-force/)
Market Force used to be known as Shopncheck and was only one Company. Market Force has really come a long way and teamed up with a bunch of other prosperous Mystery Shopping Companies and Merchandising Companies to make it what it is today. In my humble opinion they are the best Secret Shopping Company out there. Don't get me wrong, I know there are a lot of other really good paid to shop sites out there, but the amount of income I make with Market Force surpasses all the other Secret Shopping Companies out there. Market Force also has a good system set up for scheduling and reporting your results online.
If you aren't currently a shopper with Market Force, I highly recommend taking advantage of this free opportunity. That's right, I said free! The only tools you'll need to be a successful Mystery Shopper are the following:
As a Secret Shopper myself, I am not allowed to mention who Market Force's clients are. I can say that I respect their clients for wanting to improve their customer service. In my opinion, that is what makes a Company stand above its competitors.
If you like Market Force, then you'll like my other recommended Secret Shopping Companies to join. They are all free, so you have nothing to lose. Some websites will charge a fee for this same list, but I think that's unethical. You apply for these Mystery Shopping Companies almost in the same way you would apply for a job. Except as a Secret Shopper, you are considered an Independent contractor and work on your own. This also means you are responsible for keeping track of your income and expenses when tax time comes around.
If you are new to owning your own business and have only had a job your whole life, then take a look at some of the tax deductions you can benefit from having your own home based business.
Market Force used to be known as Shopncheck and was only one Company. Market Force has really come a long way and teamed up with a bunch of other prosperous Mystery Shopping Companies and Merchandising Companies to make it what it is today. In my humble opinion they are the best Secret Shopping Company out there. Don't get me wrong, I know there are a lot of other really good paid to shop sites out there, but the amount of income I make with Market Force surpasses all the other Secret Shopping Companies out there. Market Force also has a good system set up for scheduling and reporting your results online.
If you aren't currently a shopper with Market Force, I highly recommend taking advantage of this free opportunity. That's right, I said free! The only tools you'll need to be a successful Mystery Shopper are the following:
- A vehicle to get from point A to point B
- Computer
- Printer
- Scanner or digital camera
- An Internet connection
- The ability to work on your own and self motivation
- Good writing skills
As a Secret Shopper myself, I am not allowed to mention who Market Force's clients are. I can say that I respect their clients for wanting to improve their customer service. In my opinion, that is what makes a Company stand above its competitors.
If you like Market Force, then you'll like my other recommended Secret Shopping Companies to join. They are all free, so you have nothing to lose. Some websites will charge a fee for this same list, but I think that's unethical. You apply for these Mystery Shopping Companies almost in the same way you would apply for a job. Except as a Secret Shopper, you are considered an Independent contractor and work on your own. This also means you are responsible for keeping track of your income and expenses when tax time comes around.
If you are new to owning your own business and have only had a job your whole life, then take a look at some of the tax deductions you can benefit from having your own home based business.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Poad Team is not a normal Traffic Exchange
(My Original Blog Post: http://signupandmakemoney.com/blog/2009/02/poad-team-is-not-a-normal-traffic-exchange/)
The Poad Team Traffic Exchange has a good set up as far as getting traffic to customer's websites. It's rare to see a traffic exchange ask it's surfers questions about the sites being rotated. I love what the Poad Team Traffic Exchange is doing when it comes to surfing websites.
How many other traffic exchanges out there will ask their viewers to confirm an important piece of informative information about their website specifically? Not too many obviously. Most traffic exchanges only ask their viewers to click a certain image confirming they have viewed the site for the required amount of time. The thing that makes Poad Team so different is that they will ask a specific question to the surfer (usually the individual that is promoting their site will determine the question to be asked) while they are viewing the advertised site.
What this does is it makes the viewer really have to take a look at the site being advertised. In order for the viewer to be credited for viewing the site, he or she has to answer a specific question about the site. I think more traffic exchanges should take advantage of this business model even though it is a little bit annoying for the surfer trying to build up credits by surfing. At least the surfer will know his or her site will be viewed very carefully by the next anxious surfer.
Take a look at my other recommended traffic exchanges to see if they may fit your needs.
The Poad Team Traffic Exchange has a good set up as far as getting traffic to customer's websites. It's rare to see a traffic exchange ask it's surfers questions about the sites being rotated. I love what the Poad Team Traffic Exchange is doing when it comes to surfing websites.
How many other traffic exchanges out there will ask their viewers to confirm an important piece of informative information about their website specifically? Not too many obviously. Most traffic exchanges only ask their viewers to click a certain image confirming they have viewed the site for the required amount of time. The thing that makes Poad Team so different is that they will ask a specific question to the surfer (usually the individual that is promoting their site will determine the question to be asked) while they are viewing the advertised site.
What this does is it makes the viewer really have to take a look at the site being advertised. In order for the viewer to be credited for viewing the site, he or she has to answer a specific question about the site. I think more traffic exchanges should take advantage of this business model even though it is a little bit annoying for the surfer trying to build up credits by surfing. At least the surfer will know his or her site will be viewed very carefully by the next anxious surfer.
Take a look at my other recommended traffic exchanges to see if they may fit your needs.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
My Yahoo Pay Per Click Search Marketing experience
(My Original Blog Post: http://signupandmakemoney.com/blog/2009/02/my-yahoo-pay-per-click-search-marketing-experience/)
I have been using Yahoo's Search Marketing (currently offering a $25.00 sign up advertising credit) for well over a year now to drive traffic to my Pre-Paid Legal affiliate site. Since I began this marketing technique I've learned some very important lessons. I'm no expert on pay-per click advertising or anything like that, but I've learned enough to make money doing it.
I only use pay-per click advertising for promoting a specific product or service. I find it to be the best way to promote products because there are millions of searches conducted daily on the major Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. I find pay-per click advertising to be less effective on something that is too wide spread. An example of this would be my sign up bonus site. This site has way too much information on it and really isn't promoting a specific product. Instead it promotes a lot of products and services. Also since my site is fairly new, only a little over 1 year old, not too many people even know what I have to offer is out there. Therefore, my sign up bonus site does better in organic searches. Organic search results is a whole other subject that we won't get into at the current moment.
What I've learned from using Yahoo's Search Marketing. One of the biggest reason I chose to use their PPC services is that Yahoo will Geo Target specific States and Provinces. Since Pre-Paid Legal's services are limited to certain US States and Canadian Provinces, Yahoo Search Marketing turned out to be a great match in my online marketing ventures of promoting it.
Your ad has to be very specific. When I first started using Yahoo Search Marketing my ad was something like this, "Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. - Legal protection for less than a cup of coffee a day." This ad was fine, but not very specific. It would very easily get mixed up as being Pre-Paid Legal's main website or close to it. I definitely didn't want this because then I would get clicks from current members and associates just trying to log into their back offices. Even worse, I would get current members trying to contact me thinking I am Pre-Paid Legal's Corporate office wanting to cancel their membership. This really sucks. Now their click cost me money and all they wanted to do was cancel their account.
Now my ad is very specific. I even got it to the point where I don't want people to click on my ad. I know this sounds silly, but it's true. You really have to set up your pay-per click ad to the point where you are only going to get specific hits that count. Now my ad reads something like this, "Independent Associate of Pre-Paid Legal - Sign up to become a member here." As you can see this really shuts a lot of people out. I'm an Independent Associate now, not the main website. Not only that, but you can't even get more info at my site, it is only available for interested prospects to go ahead and sign up right away.
I'm not saying that it is really that simple. You'll still get people clicking on your ad trying to cancel their accounts, etc.. But the number of bad clicks will drop dramatically and you'll receive a lot more targeted hits from the prospect's search results.
The last thing I wanted to cover was the bids. You can go ahead and be really competitive and spends a whole lot of money per click or you can just do the minimum bid and put a high daily budget to get more clicks throughout the day that won't cost you as much per click. If you like Yahoo's PPC advertising, then take a look at my recommended pay-per click sites to see if there are more you'll want to try out.
I have been using Yahoo's Search Marketing (currently offering a $25.00 sign up advertising credit) for well over a year now to drive traffic to my Pre-Paid Legal affiliate site. Since I began this marketing technique I've learned some very important lessons. I'm no expert on pay-per click advertising or anything like that, but I've learned enough to make money doing it.
I only use pay-per click advertising for promoting a specific product or service. I find it to be the best way to promote products because there are millions of searches conducted daily on the major Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. I find pay-per click advertising to be less effective on something that is too wide spread. An example of this would be my sign up bonus site. This site has way too much information on it and really isn't promoting a specific product. Instead it promotes a lot of products and services. Also since my site is fairly new, only a little over 1 year old, not too many people even know what I have to offer is out there. Therefore, my sign up bonus site does better in organic searches. Organic search results is a whole other subject that we won't get into at the current moment.
What I've learned from using Yahoo's Search Marketing. One of the biggest reason I chose to use their PPC services is that Yahoo will Geo Target specific States and Provinces. Since Pre-Paid Legal's services are limited to certain US States and Canadian Provinces, Yahoo Search Marketing turned out to be a great match in my online marketing ventures of promoting it.
Your ad has to be very specific. When I first started using Yahoo Search Marketing my ad was something like this, "Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. - Legal protection for less than a cup of coffee a day." This ad was fine, but not very specific. It would very easily get mixed up as being Pre-Paid Legal's main website or close to it. I definitely didn't want this because then I would get clicks from current members and associates just trying to log into their back offices. Even worse, I would get current members trying to contact me thinking I am Pre-Paid Legal's Corporate office wanting to cancel their membership. This really sucks. Now their click cost me money and all they wanted to do was cancel their account.
Now my ad is very specific. I even got it to the point where I don't want people to click on my ad. I know this sounds silly, but it's true. You really have to set up your pay-per click ad to the point where you are only going to get specific hits that count. Now my ad reads something like this, "Independent Associate of Pre-Paid Legal - Sign up to become a member here." As you can see this really shuts a lot of people out. I'm an Independent Associate now, not the main website. Not only that, but you can't even get more info at my site, it is only available for interested prospects to go ahead and sign up right away.
I'm not saying that it is really that simple. You'll still get people clicking on your ad trying to cancel their accounts, etc.. But the number of bad clicks will drop dramatically and you'll receive a lot more targeted hits from the prospect's search results.
The last thing I wanted to cover was the bids. You can go ahead and be really competitive and spends a whole lot of money per click or you can just do the minimum bid and put a high daily budget to get more clicks throughout the day that won't cost you as much per click. If you like Yahoo's PPC advertising, then take a look at my recommended pay-per click sites to see if there are more you'll want to try out.
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