I very rarely have any trouble with affiliate programs. Every month I make at least $100 on several different networks. It’s a great competition between the different programs, when you participate in multiple networks. I often ask if one network can match another networks commissions, which means more money for me.

Last month I was terminated by the first affiliate network since ShoppingAds became a “closed network” (but that’s a whole different situation). This wasn’t due to a program change, it was due to traffic. I don’t like to curse, but this was bullshit.

Hydra Network Termination

I’ve never heard of traffic levels being unfit for an affiliate network after already getting approved, sometimes I don’t run any offers on a network for months at a time. With some offers I can generate $500 in a month, then $0 the next, it just depends on what I am working on.

I hadn’t worked with HydraNetwork in a while since several lucrative months over the summer. I was able to piggy back my offers on some newsletters through a few online friends who weren’t into affiliate marketing. Throughout my experience with Hydra (1-2 years) I broke $1,000 in earnings, so it wasn’t like I never used them.

Recently, I started inquiring about different programs like Vista Print to get active again with Hydra. Several days later,  I received an email about how I promoted a Bidz offer I was running and had been off and on for months. I responded with my website url and then the next day I received a termination letter.

Bullshit MOVE

What I HATE about this whole thing that if there was some sort of problem, I would have been fine discussing and working it out. Other than that poor excuse of an email by Kollene McGinley (affiliate manager) I was terminated without a “warning” or any REAL information as to why I was terminated.

Let me stress again, I’ve never been singled out and terminated from ANY affiliate program and I’ve been doing this since 2005.

Compliance Letter

They have some “fine print” on the email I received so I am not going to publish it word for word.

However after “reviewing my account” including my monthly uniques, experience and “other criteria”… my “traffic” is not a good fit for Hydra.

The ONLY thing they did right in this situation was that they paid me my pending commissions of $15.50 in about two weeks.

Have you ever experience something like this before?

We always try to keep up with what Kontera is doing, whether it’s a contest or promotion. They have a great company and have even added us to their blogroll on their blog!

If you don’t know what Kontera is, they offer in-text advertising from the top advertisers. It’s a great ad network to add to your websites to make more money. You may even see some Kontera ads in this post!

Double Commissions

If you aren’t a publisher yet Kontera has a great promotion where you can earn DOUBLE. Make sure to sign-up with this special promotional link.

New sign-ups through this promotional link, Kontera will match new publishers first month earnings. As long as you make at least $10, Kontera will double WHATEVER you make.

This offer is valid for new publishers ONLY until January 1st, 2010 so make sure to join now and start earning double.

With the recent economic downturn, more and more professionals are looking to do freelance Jobs to add to their current income.  Jobs are not stable in these times and you need to market yourself.  Using a site such as LimeExchange, can help you locate people and businesses looking to hire freelancers to complete freelance jobs for them.

Working with a freelancer gives you more of a one on one connection with the person working on your project.  This makes for better communication to make sure your freelance project is completed the way you want it to be. With the unique community features available you can build a long lasting relationship for repeat business and success.

Lime Exchange

If you are a freelancer or looking to hire an expert for a freelance project, you might want to check out LimeExchange.com. With a community covering over 150 countries and skill areas such as web developers, writing and translation experts, graphic designers, software programmers, and audio/video specialists, you are sure to find a match for your project.

If you are a freelancer who is looking for a freelance job then they have a Basic Plan that is free.   They have Online Certifications and Skill Tests, a Project Message Board, Certifications highlighted on Profile and Enhanced Profile and Portfolio Features.  All of that and more is included in the Basic Plan.

The site offers multiple payment methods such as:

a.. Paypal
b.. MoneyBookers
c.. LimeExchange Mastercard
d.. Check (US Only)
e.. ACH

If you are looking to have a freelance project completed by a freelancer they offer options such as paying by fixed price, hourly or per task. I think this is great!  Some freelance sites only offer hourly.  I think you may be able to find a better value using this method instead.  They do not charge any fees from a buyer to hire a provider. After you post your project you can search and invite providers to bid on the project.

LimeExchange also offers a buyers reward program.  You can earn the reward points from every project you complete through them that are worth up to 4% of the project value!  The reward points you earn can be used as easily as using cash.  You can use them as cash towards future projects, free LimeExchange services and special discounts or to shop from the product catalog (including such items as iPods, iPhones, Digital Cameras, Camcorders, Gift Vouchers and more).

Another great feature of LimeExchange is their 1099 tax form service! LimeExchange issues 1099 Tax Form to the Service Provider and the IRS on your behalf.  All you have to do is to opt in when you post a project on LimeExchange. They will also send you a consolidated receipt of all the 1099 Tax Forms that were issued on your behalf in any financial year.  One less thing for you to keep track of.

In my opinion, the site was very easy to understand and navigate.  I was not lost at all while checking out the available features.  Like I mentioned, there is a free plan available which will give you what you need to get started and try it out for yourself without much commitment.

Last week I wrote about how to find the different web hosting for your needs. From reviews to simple recommendations, agonizing over which web hosting company to go with can be stressful. What if you are just looking for something cheap or new?

One of our readers mentioned looking for a second host, to build links to his blogs and not have it on the same server. Running a different host can be expensive, but I think I found the solution.

Free Web Hosting!

Lime Domains is offering free web hosting! when you register a domain with them, you can get on their basic web hosting plan, absolutely free. It includes: 500MB Storage, 1GB data transfer per month, 10 emails, and of course ad free web pages.

This type of offer sounds good if you are trying to build different niche sites. Having the websites on different servers can make your links carry more value if you choose to link to your other websites on a different host.

Of course you can chose to use their “standard” or “premium” hosting to fit your growing websites. The standard package is $4.99 per month, and the premium is $9.99 per month.

Domain Registration

As I mentioned the free web hosting plan comes when you buy a domain name. For a standard .com you pay $8.99 each, which is pretty competitive from other registrars. I know my current web host charges more per domain than that.

Alternatively if you already have a domain name you can transfer it to Lime Domain for $6.99. If you do that you will still get the free web hosting.

Not only do you get free web hosting with each domain, you can also try the premium web hosting plan for 15 days free, just to try it out.

One Click Installation

Almost more impressive than the web hosting offer, is “one click installation”. I remember when I first made a WordPress, I was pretty lost. I had to find where to install it, how to do it, and where to put it.

At LimeDomains.com they have and application page where you can see all the different platforms. This includes WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and phpBB. With just ONE CLICK you can install whichever application you choose.

Lime Domain

Usually you get a free domain with your web hosting, but I’ve never heard doing it backwards. What do you think? Is the free web hosting sufficient enough to host your site, or would you end up having to buy the hosting regardless?

I’ve raved about Logical Media in several reviews. Not only on this site, but I’ve guest blogged about it as well. Enough to get about 50 referrals in total. And because I earn 5% of every referral, I will continue to promote them! The support is good, the offers are decent…

However, lately I’ve been having a problem with their payments.

Logical Media Payments

With so many different networks, affiliate support is huge. Market Leverage actually uses Fed-Ex to send checks, regardless of the amount.

The only option Logical Media has for payments is checks. That can be fine, but the problem I have is it takes forever! Okay not forever, but from the date that it is posted to my account, it generally takes over two weeks to get in the mail. The minimum check is $100, so it’s not like it’s a small amount.

Also it isn’t Logical Media’s fault for this one, but I always receive it on Saturday as well! That just adds to the irritation.

I did inquire about a direct deposit option and was told I need to make around $1,000 per month. For most of us that simply isn’t very realistic. My affiliate manager tried to even lower it a bit for me, but I’m not even close to making that much per month.

Months Behind

Another issue is the fact that they are very behind in the payments. Most of the networks I belong to pay out for the previous months earnings on the following months 15th. So for Septembers earnings, I would get it on October 15th.

With Logical Media, just a few days ago I received JULY’s payment! Basically I had to wait 4 months to get July’s payment! If it keeps getting pushed back like that, they could get almost 6 months behind, which in my opinion that isn’t acceptable.

Do you have any problems with your affiliate networks?

A while ago “link trains” were very popular. They were used to gain links for Technorati as well as try to build links to get a Google PR. I wrote about the effect link trains can have on your blog, and now they are pretty much non-existent.

With everything moving into social media, a Twitter or Facebook idea like this could be very beneficial.

TweepML Share Twitter Lists

I haven’t visited the importance of Twitter yet, but I did give some tips on Facebook and how you can increase traffic with Facebook fan pages. However I’ve recently explored Twitter. For me personally it’s not as successful because their are no images to pull you in. But for others, Twitter is huge!

A great thing I found was TweepML, where you can add Twitter user names to a list and make it easy for people to “follow” them.

I was lucky enough to get on the MomDot Mafia list, which is a list of great mom (and dad) bloggers. Within 48 hours I was able to gain 100 new followers.

Another TweepML list I used was a follow-back list. About 250 people are on the list, so I added them all and most of them followed me back.

There are tons of lists you can find for any topic.

Great Bloggers List

I wanted to make my own group strictly for blogger’s. I currently don’t do too much with Twitter on my “blogger” Twitter, so I thought this would be a good way to get started!

If you are a blogger and want to be added to our list please visit:  Great Bloggers to Follow on Twitter.

There you can “suggest” your Twitter username and I will add it. After you do that please follow everyone on the list.

You can share your list with your Twitter or Facebook fans, as well as those on your blog!

I personally love online contests, it can definitely help either brand or promote your business and website. Everyone loves free stuff, it’s not hard to sell someone on something free.

Have you heard of idooble.com? Me neither, but they are making their splash with a huge contest! It’s a great way to get users interested in their brand and already grow a base before they even really launched yet.

Win a Mac Book Pro and More!

The iDooble contest has 100 prizes to giveaway! Here is a list of the contest prize breakdown:

• 1st – Mac Book Pro
• 2-4 – iPod Touch
• 5-10 – iPod Nano
• 11-25 – iTunes Gift Card
• 26-100 – iDooble Tee

To get started, simply create an account. You will be asked to complete a short 12 question profile with a few of your interests in social media. Then the next step is just to start referring people!

For each referral you will receive 10 points for 1st tier, 3 points for 2nd and 1 point for 3rd. You can invite your “friends” via your blog, forum, or any social networking.

Right now the #1 person has close to 10,000 points, but to at least get a t-shirt it looks like you only need to refer about 1-2 people, so it may be worth it just for that. To get an iPod nano or touch is still very attainable if you have reach on your website or social media.

This contest runs through November 2009 so you have plenty of time to start recruiting.

Please join as my referral here.

What is iDooble.com?

iDooble looks to be a social media shopping comparison site. What I think is kind of odd is that they are doing so much promotion for this, but don’t have much information as to what it is.

Right now you can sign-up to be a beta tester and see some screenshot’s as to what the website is going to look like on iDooble.com’s homepage.

It looks like you will be able to shop, compare, review, and share all in one place. Maybe like a super Amazon, with all the stores in one place.

iDooble will give you ways to instantly compare prices for whatever product you are searching for. It will show you the price, reviews, shipping cost for all the different online stores selling the item.

You shopper profile brings in the social media aspect. You can add friends, favorite stores, your twitter updates, make lists of items you may want, as well as display your reviews.

Are you ready to take your online shopping to a social media level?