Ad HustlerConfessions Of A Serial Internet Entrepreneur

Convert2Media is a newish network on the scene but is run by industry veteran Ruck formerly from CashTactics.net.  His blog used to rock and now his network does too.  Ruck sent out an interesting email today to all of his affiliates:

Morning C2M,

I wanted to drop a note that Convert2Media is not going
to be dealing with Email Submits for now on. Seriously,
they are the biggest headache in the world. From Advertisers
and Agencies scrubbing to the offers just stop converting for
odd reasons, we are doing away with them.

The retarded part of all this is when this stuff gets pulled uneducated
affiliates assume and place the blame on C2M. A little clarity here, if
you dont get paid, we dont get paid. Plain and simple.

I will put up a more detailed response for anyone that may
want more clarification on this in the forum but for right now,
please pull all email submit offer links immediately. I’m seriously
sick of the bullshit we have to deal with and more importantly
that these offers have so many flaws that providers of these
offers have a number of options to screw you out of money.

The buck stops now with Email Submits. Until I can find a solid
provider or someone different out there that will actually respond
to customer service, we just arent going to deal with it.

Please pull all email submit links immediately.

Thanks,
Ruck

Some people may think a move like this is crazy considering the shear volume that can be generated through email submits.  I think this move solidifies why Convert2Media is going to be the network to watch in 2009 and beyond.  Ruck is not just some suit sitting in an office trying to run a corporation.  Ruck was a top affiliate who knows what it’s like to be in our shoes.  By removing email submits from the network he is doing something that not many other networks do.  PROTECT THEIR AFFILIATES.

I’ve personally generated huge volume on email submits but they are the sketchiest offers on any affiliate network.  Email submits are scrubbed and shaved to hell.  Some are so blatently obvious that they rob affiliates blind.  I think that more networks should take convert2Medias lead and either ban email submits OR be damn sure that they aren’t participating in shady tactics. Yes, there is a lot of affiliate fraud on email submits, but if you are paying an affiliate to generate a lead which is defined as the user entering their email address, thats what they should be paid on, REGARDLESS OF QUALITY.  As an email submit advertiser, if you don’t like the quality you should ban the affiliate from promoting your offer, not steal their traffic.

If your not already an affiliate of Convert2Media, join now.  You won’t regret it.

Ad Hustler

There’s a lot of different people and styles of marketing in the affiliate marketing industry.  Some people like to keep it completely clean and safe.  Some people are shady.  Some people are in between.  I feel like more and more people will be pushed into some shadier styles of marketing/tactics this year.

Why do I think this?

Every time you turn around one of our traffic sources is cracking down on something.  Facebook hates mobile, they hate weight loss, they hate profit.  Google pulls the same stunts.  Google hates ringtones, they hate landing pages that collect info, they hate berries, they hate landing pages with no content, they hate blog style landing pages.  So what’s a pimp to do?

All of these crackdowns and policing just force people to get more and more shady.  On Facebook, advertisers cloak their ads or they change the landing page after an ad gets approved.  People are now teaming up to cloak Google.  Who would have ever thought that publishers would get together to beat big brother?

The bottom line is that all of these crackdowns and shake ups will result in one thing.  The people getting cracked down on will get smarter, take more risks and turn up the shady factor a notch.  My suggestion to traffic sources is to let the market rule.  If enough people are scammed with blog style landing pages, people will stop believing them.  If every sponsored search result on Google is NamesWeightLoss.com people will become suspicious.  You don’t need to be big brother and protect everyone from us evil affiliates.  We will wear out our own welcome and only the strong would survive.

Keep Hustlin’

Ad Hustler

Happy New Year Everyone.

2008 is now a memory and 2009 is a reality.  I’ve accomplished a lot in this past year and hope you have to.  It’s time to take a look inside yourself and set some aggressive but attainable goals for 2009.

I wish you all the very best.

Ad Hustler