In this weeks edition of the Weekly Contest Roundup we have a $5,000 laptop up for grabs (and all you need to do is make a comment), an iPod Nano, $100 cash and a few other bits and pieces including the Nintendo Wii contest which is still going. Read on and don’t forget to take a look at Contest Beat for more ways to win free swag.

$5,000 Dell Laptop

WoWInsider.com (a very well known World of Warcraft blog) got their hands on a Dell WoW Edition laptop that retails for $5,000 and they are giving it away via their blog. To enter all you need to do is comment on this post stating either Horde or Alliance (which are the two opposing World of Warcraft factions). There are a heck of a lot of entries mind you, but for the effort versus the reward you may as well check this one out.

$100 Cash

How2Blogger are running their “Super Sexy Holiday ‘How To’ Contest” and you could win $100 cash by participating. What you need to do is simply make a how to post on your blog; for example, how to milk a cow, how to build a car, how to tie your shoes. Do that, and link back to the contest post and you’ve got 10 entries. You can also gain a lesser amount by doing things such as commenting. For $100 cash this one is probably worth entering.

A $297 Social Networking Script

While I can’t comment on the script itself, I can say that I have seriously looked at buying such a piece of software in the past, and no one needs to be told about the amount of money you can make should your social networking site take off. To be in to win all you need to do is subscribe to their RSS feed and the winner will be drawn randomly. Check out the details here.

An iPod Nano

It seems like every week I blog about one or more iPod Nanos being given away and here we have another one. A site called Trusted Tours are giving one away randomly and to enter you can either sign up for their newletter or write about the contest on your blog.

A Nintendo Wii

Finally, I wanted to remind you guys about the Nintendo Wii contest I am running over at Contest Beat. To enter all you need to do is blog about the contest (2 entries) and if you want to get a bonus entry then just subscribe to the RSS feed via email for a total of three chances to win what is probably one of the top gifts to give or receive this Christmas.

Some bloggers have ignored both PPC and SEO. Time spent on search engine optimization (SEO) or PPC (pay per click) can improve your blog as well as make you more money.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO can be done by simply writing a post with optimizing your titles. We rank very well for posts that were made months ago, some aren’t even relevant to our blog. Before Spiderman 3 even was released, we made a post with an image. That image continues to generate a few 100 searches per month.

The most difficult thing to start with is to figure out which keyterms are right for your blog. You have to be realistic and think which terms will get you the most traffic, that are attainable. We’ve chosen keywords that include blogging, such as blogging tips and blogging tools. For several of our keyterms we’ve been able to reach pages 1-3, which also helps us rank for the longtail keywords.

Pay Per Click

This is the more costly effort, however it can drive the most traffic based on your budget. When using PPC management you want to drive traffic to your website or post that will in turn make you money. Whether it’s a post with an affiliate program, or ads that pay.

This works well for specific niche sites when the amount you get when an ad is clicked is high. By starting with a smaller budget, you can figure what earns you money and what doesn’t.

Comment Friday is back and long overdue. As I mentioned yesterday I got pretty busy so I wasn’t able to get a Comment Friday post up. Which means Zybron has had the blog of the week spot for a while now, we have to get someone new in there.

If this is your first Comment Friday, we give one lucky person a free weekly blogroll spot. Along with that we are also giving that winner 50 entrecard points! I am mostly looking for a certain comment or blog that stands out to be selected as a winner.

I am very interested in anything you have to say. Especially on the topics that has been on this blog lately, like entrecard, TNX, and TLA. Don’t forget to check out our Christmas Contest, our Review of Entrecard, why TNX Pissed Me Off, and the latest about the TLA affiliate program.

We have a surplus of entrecard credits that we would love reward our readers with. Entrecard point giveaways have been pretty successful, entrecard is hot!

On this thread we will be giving away 50 points! All you have to do is comment. I will pick out one person who commented tomorrow. Just comment about entrecard or whatever else you want.

Entrecard Recommendations

Along with our giveaway I am also giving away 10 points for everyone who leaves us a recommendation. To leave a recommendation just go to our Entrecard page and write out a little blurb for us.

Comment Friday Returns

I’ve been missing our weekly comment fridays! I got a little too busy and didn’t have the chance to post them. Tomorrow, Comment Friday returns. Along with a free blogroll link, we will also be giving away another 50 entrecard points! All that just for a comment.

Christmas Contest

Don’t forget to enter in our Christmas Contest where 3 lucky winners will each win 100$ CASH. There are also tons of runner-up prizes. This one ends on Monday Dec 17th, so don’t miss out. This contest has an unusually low entry and we’d really like to get tons of more entries. Tell your friends!

Patrick Gavin has confirmed that the information giving to me, was a “miscommunication”. On John Cow’s Blog, he stated

JC, sorry for the miscommunication. We are actively working on a new comprehensive affiliate program for all our publisher products but our current TLA affiliate program IS still alive and well. Sorry again for the misunderstanding.

Patrick Gavin also stopped by BAYB and left a comment, which I definitely appreciate.

He said:

“Matt, sorry for not stopping by sooner, to confirm, the affiliate program is alive and well and will have big improvements coming hopefully in late January.  Thanks and sorry for the miscommunication!”

I have emailed him hoping to get some answers to a few more questions. Hopefully I can then find out why I was told it was being put on hold in the first place.

Make sure to check out the update. Patrick Gavin has stated that the TLA affliate program has not been removed.

Many bloggers have noticed problems with the Text Link Ads affiliate program not reporting affilites. Those mistakes can be costly at 25$ per referral.
Over the past two months we have sent 200+ people to our affiliate link, yet not conversions. Averaging 1-2 per month usually, I figured something was wrong.

Contacting Support

I have contacted support about our referral problems twice. The first time they shrugged it off saying that sometimes it takes 20 days for an affiliate to be reported. Instead of further inquiring about that (which would be a problem itself) I thought maybe I had some left referrals to be processed.

A month later I decided to contact support again stating I was still having problems. Today I received a response:

Our affiliate program is currently on hold and will re-launch completely in the following couple months.

Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for understanding.

Jonathan Dingman
Product Manager

This was the first time I had ever seen something about them acknowledging a problem with their system, that has gone on for weeks.

I definitely think they are in the wrong here without letting people know it wasn’t working. Some people actually spend money advertising their referral link. Others, like myself definitely count on that money every month. Their payouts are always on time and very well organized.

It’s odd that they have stated to me that the affiliate program is put on hold. Yet, you can still go to the affiliate program and promote their service.

The Text Link Ads affiliate program has been arguably one of the biggest money makers for bloggers. Even the big bloggers promote the service, at 25$ a referral, why not?

It’s definitely time for another service to step up and cash in on this void that the Text Link Ads affiliate program will leave on bloggers looking to earn money.

Make sure to check out the update. Patrick Gavin has stated that the TLA affliate program has not been removed.

A lot of the sponsored post affiliate programs are flawed. Pay Per Post affiliate program is a joke, while some of the others only pay when you refer an advertiser. Many bloggers don’t refer advertisers, if they did, they wouldn’t need the program in the first place.

I first reviewed the Sponsored Reviews Affiliate Program when it launched. The one thing they seemed to be lacking was an affiliate program. By having one they made their service that much more attractive to promote. Thats why so many promote Text-Link-Ads, due to their 25$ per referral payout.

Sponsored Reviews affiliate program wasn’t that bad, until they changed it.

New Affiliate Layout

I can understand the need for an advertiser to spend money for you to be paid for referring one. Depending on how much they spend you can earn up to 175$ for referring an advertiser. Not bad.

Where they went wrong is when they changed the blogger affiliates. Before they changed it, you could earn 5$ just for referring a blogger. I assume they must also get their blog approved first for the referral to count.

Now they must earn money for you to get credit for your referral. Your referral must earn 50$ before you even earn 5$! So if they earn 49.99$ you get nothing! For your referral to earn 50$, Sponsored Reviews earns about 17$ (35%).

To change that part of the affiliate program is pretty flawed, in that you could refer 100’s of new bloggers for their system and earn nothing. Looks like I am going to pull my feed ads promoting Sponsored Reviews!