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!

Do you remember the first web site or blog you ever created? Do you remember how proud you were of your solid colored background, your tacky centered text and your awkwardly aligned images? Do you remember how many hours it took you to get it all together? When was the last time you went back to look at your very first site?

The web has come a long way in since then. It amazes me how much has changed since the very first time I laid eyes on those annoying “blink” and “marquee” tags from the days of old. Things have changed, fortunately, for the better since those days.

Now comes a whole new evolution in web design, Jimdo. Jimdo is an online web design platform that takes all of the hassle out of the creation and launch of you very own site (or blog)… Read More

Many new bloggers just don’t know how to increase their rss subscribers. It’s not that the content isn’t good, there just isn’t an audience yet. Blogs take a little bit of marketing regardless of who you are. We took a while to get rolling, but that was just due to inexperience. One tool that was vital to our success thus far, has been the power of giveaways.

Free Stuff Draws RSS Subscribers

When you subscribe to a blogs RSS feed, you do so because you don’t want to miss anything from the blog. Whether it be for the content or some sort of giveaway. Once you get a RSS subscriber chances are you should be able to keep them for a while. Sometimes I stay subscribed to a blog just because I’m too lazy to unsubscribe.

Our latest RSS boost came from just offering a few prizes for subscribing to our feed via email. The number went from 14 to 74 within about 2 weeks. Even with the contest over, our email subscribers remain at 74. I plan to have other smaller giveaways like our TNX points giveaway as well. Make sure you don’t miss them.

CyberStreet Proof

I have been subscribed to Cyber Street Report for a long time, when they had a completely different theme. When I subscribed their RSS feed numbers stayed at about 10-15. I hadn’t visited them in months, until the posts surrounded blogging reviews and entrecard.

With the entrecard craze surrounding the blogosphere, Cyberstreet jumped on board and promoted the hell out of it. They have even decided to giveaway entrecard points. Give the people what they want right?

In a few short days of offering free entrecard points, it has seemed that their rss feed count has doubled or tripled to 36 readers. While this isn’t that much yet, the growth is great. I’d imagine as the prizes continue so will the feed subscribers increase.

The great thing with this is that it didn’t cost them anything to give these points away. There isn’t any excuse not to reward and attract readers with the tons of opportunities out there. Pick a service and promote it!

There is Always Help

If you still haven’t been inspired as to what you can do, make sure to contact us with any idea you might have. We might be able to throw in a prize to make your giveaway that much better. To follow with Cyberstreet, I also plan on giving away some entrecard points. Give the people what they want… right?

Blatant plug warning! 🙂

WordPress and Firefox have something in common. They are both extendable by user generated add-ons – WordPress Plugins & Firefox Extensions.

I love finding and trying out new Firefox Extensions and WordPress Plugins. You can find all these in the official Firefox Add-ons directory or the WordPress Plugins directory. But, often times I have found useful plugins through someone else’s recommendation.

Top Firefox Extensions

So, I started out creating my Top Firefox Extensions list. This list serves as a reference for myself as well as anyone else looking for great Firefox extensions recommendation.

Top WordPress Plugins (65+)

With this list being the most viewed post in ShanKri-la, I decided to make a Top WordPress Plugins (65+ plugins) list where I could categorize and publish the plugins I try and use. I have just started creating more blogs and find myself going to ShanKri-la Admin Panel to find out what plugin I was using. This list is going to help me a lot and I hope for you too.

15 WordPress Tweaks for a (New) WordPress Blog

I have published my collection of WordPress Tweaks, tips & tricks at Techie-Buzz.com that I gathered and implemenred in various WordPress blogs over the months. I wanted this list to be an excellent resource for a new blogger on WordPress blogging platform to get the most out of this wonderful solution. Even if you have been on WordPress, I am sure you’ll find a few tweaks that you can implement.

Plus, when my friends or fellow bloggers ask me about a Firefox Extension or a WordPress Plugin I use, I can just direct them to these lists. Such a time saver!

I am not trying to create a link bait post with these lists by creating it once and leaving it to rot. The first two lists are to be constantly updated as I find new extensions and plugins. So, don’t forget to bookmark the lists to come back for new stuff.

Visit ShanKri-la for more tech tips | Subscribe to ShanKri-la Feed

Welcome to another edition of the Weekly Contest Roundup, courtesy of Contest Beat. With Christmas on its way the contest scene seems to be hotting up a fair bit – what better way to make the holiday season even better than by winning an Amazon voucher or cash for some gifts, or even winning a Nintendo Wii for yourself (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)? You’re going to definitely want to take a look at some of these contests so without further ado…

A $400 John Chow Review

A review from JohnChow.com would normally cost you $400, however Winning the Web has decided to give one away for free on his blog. You’ll need to do a little bit of work to enter though, here’s a quick rundown:

• Subscribe to the Winning the Web RSS feed.
• Look for letters at the end of upcoming Winning the Web posts.
• Unscramble the 11 letters to make a word/phrase.
• If you’re the first person to figure it out you win the free John Chow review

Sound a bit complicated? Trust me it isn’t – check out the full details here.

A Nintendo Wii

Last week I asked for websites and businesses who might be interested in sponsoring a contest on my blog to get in touch. Well CellforCash.com graciously offered to put up a brand new Nintendo Wii and I will be giving the console away on Christmas Eve. Entering is really easy and all you need to do is make a post about the contest and also include a link back to the sponsor. Once that’s done just comment on the post with a link back to your entry and you are locked in the draw. Check it out.

A 8GB iPod Touch

FileLime are running a bit of a marketing campaign at the moment and have decided to give away a 8GB iPod Touch to bloggers. To get in on the action you need to make a 100 word post about FileLime and link back to both their homepage as well as the contest page – then just submit your entry via the form you’ll find on their site. This one ends on December 18.

Lots of $100 Cash Prizes + More

Finally, I need to blog about the contest running right here at BAYB (like you already didn’t know!). Matthew is giving away a whole bunch of $100 prizes thanks to his sponsors NeverBlueAds, plus a whole lot of other bloggers have offered reviews and ad spots. Entering is super easy too – all you need to do is blog about the contest and include a link to BAYB and their sponsors. In my biased opinion, this contest along with the Contest Beat Nintendo Wii comp are definite musts to enter. 🙂

See you next week and don’t forget to check out Contest Beat for more contests!

Not too long ago I wrote a TNX Review. What would draw in any advertiser is the low cost of links. PR 3 links run as low as 200 points which is only 26 cents! Do you realize how little you are selling your links for?

Advertising is a Pain

This system would be great for advertisers to get tons of links for cheap, if it was easy. I’ve had a lot of problems, with a very unhelpful staff. Since there is no support system via email you must take it live or through the forum.

My problem (which can be viewed here) was that several of the websites I had purchased links from weren’t displaying them. Support kept telling me to wait and so I did. Before my monthly link expired I checked the websites again. Only 2 of 8 websites were displaying the links. Apparently I must be blind because the support said “I found pretty much all websites displaying your link.” I didn’t know invisible links existed. Now that my thread is closed “Alex” the support has changed his mind and said “all websites did display your link.”

Funny how things change.

TNX Points Giveaway

I did secure a refund and have no intention of using them again. I would have to be given a lot of free points and I don’t see that happening.

I currently have 2,400 points, but only 1200 available for transfer. I figure I could give 6 people 200 points, which means a free pr3 link. All you have to do is leave a comment about your experience with TNX. I am interested in hearing how you like them and would love your input on the support problem in question.