Popularity: 27% [?]

I came across the WordPress Affiliate Link Tracking plugin called “Ninja Affiliate” today and I’m thinking I might buy it… eventually that is. Because it’s sitting pretty with a $97 cost attached to it. Is that the cheap woman in me saying… “holy crap batman, tha’ expensive!” or is that the norm for these types of plugins?

I’m thinking that’s about the price you’d have to pay for something like this - more and more products I’m seeing are rounding out with a very pretty price tag between $70-$100. I’m totally not surprised. I’m also wondering if the plugin is worth it?

The plugin has been created by MaxBlogPress… and I could have sworn that I’ve seen that name floating around some of the sites I visit. And guess what I have - they do that div on the top of sites that show offers - like on JohnChow.com - you can visit their site and see it in action too - right at the top on a yellow div.

Nothing wrong with that - but now that I’ve figured out where I’ve seen the name before, I’m taking another look at the Affiliate Ninja plugin. They say they’ll give an 8 week moneyback guarantee. Not bad. From their landing page this plugin looks pretty ideal.

I’ve had nothing but headaches dealing with trying to hide my affiliate links - I don’t think for a second that I’ve not lost out at some point on my affiliate sales because people remove that part on the link to go directly to the advertiser. Hell, I’ve done that once or twice… I think it happens. I’m wondering if I’d see a difference by using this plugin over just leaving my affiliate links open to everyone to see on my affiliate sites.

I’ve tried cloaking my links before - and it never worked out and it was harder than I thought to maintain when I did find something that worked - I want easy. I want something that works with WordPress. So that’s why I’m contemplating this as my next purchase to test out.

I’m just curious if you’ve tried cloaking your affiliate links? Have you tried the Affiliate Ninja plugin?

Popularity: 5% [?]

Yesterday I took the plunge and went head-first into purchasing OIOPublisher.  OMG… why didn’t I do this sooner?  Oh right… I’m stubborn and want to save a few bucks.  In all honesty OIOPublisher for $37 is a great deal if you have WordPress and you’re interested in selling ad space on your site.

Seriously, I can’t be happier with the plugin software. I didn’t realize that you can even have an affiliate program with this thing.  If you’re so inclined to do.  It’s crazy!  I set up the 125×125 ad zone in under 5 minutes… I think it took 5 minutes because I had to create a 125×125 holding image.  You can even add text links, banners, custom zones for ads, inline ad space, reviews, RSS - I would have to say all the major ad spots have been covered.

I also like that they have a marketplace - something extra to push the site forward a bit.

I really am glad I “splurged” and purchased the program - it integrates easily (with widgets for the sidebar) and for someone like me - the ability to add or remove ad spots is great.  I also like that you can purchase the plugin and then use it on multiple sites.  There is no per-site licensing.  LOVE IT.  So I’m going to see if I can get it going on a couple of my sites and see what happens.

It’s not so much getting rid of the middle-man… because selling any 125×125 slots has always been up to me… I just love the easiness of it and the fact that I can no longer say I’m a  totally cheap bastard

Popularity: 7% [?]

I’ve been thinking a lot lately on how I can take steps to make my online life a little bit easier… a little bit more automated and I got to thinking about ad sales and how that can end up taking quite a bit of time to set up and then the way I set it up is manually and if someone buys from me it’s all manually done and that can lead to me missing things and lead to less revenue. So I’m on a quest to find something that will work with what I’m running - which is mostly WordPress.

So I’d heard about OIOPublisher before and to be quiet honest I thought spending $37 on a product when I could do it myself seemed silly. Now I’m thinking I will be investing in the program to give it a whirl here. I took a walk through the demo and I’m glad that I did. I had no idea how versatile the program was - seriously I thought it only did 125×125 placements on a site. But this program will do more than that, it will put ads in your RSS feeds, in posts, under posts, etc. Seriously a very versatile program.

I’ve also seen other “big” names out there using the program too - which is a good guide to see what the more successful bloggers are doing to monetize their sites and how they do it and keep their sanity in the meantime

So in the next week or two I’ll be implementing OIOPublisher on this site and we’ll see how it goes. I’d love to get some advertising going - where I’m supporting other affiliate bloggers and their sites or projects. I’m really looking forward to opening the door and getting people’s names out there - even though currently I’m not a “big” name in the industry… maybe I can help get people’s names out there - and their ideas. So fingers crossed!

… and we’ll get the good times rolling and a little more time saved to do things that will get me more productive!

Popularity: 9% [?]

If you’re looking for a way to give your site some flexiblity as to who will see your ads and who doesn’t you might want to check out Who Sees Ads over at PlanetOhz.

As explained on the site:

You most certainly have two types of visitors on your blog : some returning readers, and a majority of first time visitors. Returning readers come to your site for its content and for what you write. First time visitors, and mostly search engine visitors, come because they are looking for something particular, look at the page, and leave.

When you check out this site, you’ll have a chance to see the demo of the plugin in action.  Which I think is pretty neat - then you know what you’re getting yourself into.  There are plenty of options for this plugin (which I love) and you get to set who sees the ads, how many times it’s displayed and what totally rocks is that this plugin is compatible with the third party plugins Adsense Deluxe and Adsense Manager.  It has been said that this Who Sees Ads plugin is pretty powerful on its own and you might just want to convert it all over to this plugin if you like what it does.

This plugin is also Widget friendly.

So check out the Who Sees Ads page - plenty of documentation to go along with the plugin incase it’s not as straight-forward as you’d like.

Popularity: 8% [?]