Tribal Formula Review

This isn’t an actual review, well, not what I would consider a review anyway.  I am not making any recommendations one way or another.  I don’t recommend products I have never tried myself and since I have yet to try this particular course, I don’t know enough about it to say whether it lives up to the hype.

However, I do think you should take a minute, read the rest of my post and click through to check out the site for yourself.  Yanik Silver recommended it to me this morning and that was enough for me to at least check out the site and watch the free videos.  The video’s were compelling and the information was interesting.  There is the usual hype that goes along with these types of products but if you look past that, the idea behind Tribal Marketing is pretty interesting.

You can get access to the free Tribal formula video’s on the Tribal Marketing Association web site.  If you end up buying the course, I would love to get some actual feedback from you.

Good Article on Writing Product Reviews

I have been following Lynn Terry for quite awhile now and have been pretty impressed with both her blog and her role as one of the regulars on the Internet Marketing This Week podcast.   If you read my blog I assume you are actively promoting products or services in some way and earning a commission for your effort.  One of the most effective methods at generating commissions is to write clear, genuine and comprehensive reviews of the item or service you want to promote.  Lynn wrote a really good post this morning on how to write a good product review.  You can check it out on her blog Writing a Product Review

While you are there, I would recommend you subscribe to her RSS feed, she posts some great stuff.

Epicenter Network Pays Nearly $1Million

Epicenter is not a network we have worked with yet or done any kind of thorough review of but we did come across some interesting news on their web site today.  On July 20th, they posted a press release stating that they paid out nearly $1,000,000 to affiliates in the first half of 2009.  That’s pretty impressive for a relative newcomer (they were founded in 2005).  These commissions were paid to affiliates that used the companies DM2 web hosting and design platform.

“Epicenter Network’s DM2 is the only platform of its kind to aggressively share revenue with its publishers. The huge amount of income distributed to network participants speaks volumes about the quality of the DM2 site development tools, as well as the attractiveness of the DM2 business model,” said Smokey Burns, CEO of DM2 parent company Epicenter Network. “All types of Web entrepreneurs, whether domain owners, site developers, content developers, affiliate marketers or simply someone with a great web site idea, are discovering the ability to realize income through DM2.”

We applied to Epicenter earlier today and hope to get a chance to review their network and their platform in the coming weeks.  Until then, you can head over to the Epicenter web site and read the full press release.

Motive Interactive Network Review

Motive Interactive is very similar to what we tried to do with LeadCrunch.com oh so many years ago.  The main difference is, they have done a better job.  Motive is an affiliate network that specializes in CPA offers.  They were founded by Brendan J. Smith and Colin Johnson back in 2003.  Read our full Review of Motive Interactive below.

Much like us, they couldn’t find software that they liked so they set out to build their own.  Their proprietary performance advertising platform is called Advent and it’s pretty impressive.  Having been where they were, I know how much time, effort and money goes into building a system like this.   The platform uses Ajax technology to deliver the data you want quickly.  This technology makes the internal navigation easy and convenient as everything you need loads right there on the same page.  Finding the right types of offers with the ad types you are interested in is easy with their search system.

But as we all know, technology can only get you so far.  It’s important and as an affiliate you need to be confident in the technology that powers a network but it’s only part of the equation.  They still need to have worthwhile offers to promote.  So, how does Motive rank in terms of their list of offers?  I wouldn’t say they are in the top 5 in this area but they have a very respectable list offers to promote and are certainly above average.   As of today, while writing this review, Motive Interactive has 255 live offers.  They claim (like every other network) that they have the highest payouts on these offers.  I didn’t take the time to verify this with every offer they have but the offers I did check they were very competitive.  They have the standard ad types that most networks seem to have but I did spot a few programs that I haven’t seen anywhere else.

They offer a great selection of ad types, including banners, email, POP, social media, co-registration, incentivized, search and text links.  Of course, not all ad types are available with each offer but it’s nice to know that they support a wide variety.

On their web site they highlight the following reasons why a publisher/affiliate should consider using them:

• Highest Payouts
• Top Performing Offers
• Reliable Payment Schedule
• Host and Post Offers
• Best in class Interface
• Advanced Tracking and Reporting
• Registration Path Technology
• SID and AID Technology
• Multiple Ad Formats and Ability to Customize
• Superior Customer Service

Some of that is marketing speak that I can’t speak to, I haven’t used them long enough to speak to all of those points.  However, the points that I can speak to, the offers and technology, I think are pretty spot on.  If you haven’t tried this network out yet, it is one that I recommend.   Go to Motive Interactive’s Publisher Sign Up page and fill out the application.  Expect to get a phone call or email from them verifying your information.  That is something that not enough networks do, I love know that they go the extra mile to ensure that the affiliates they are bringing in are of a certain quality.

Affiliate Track and Pepperjam Working Together

I just received an email from Pepperjam Networks about a new partnership they have entered into with Affiliate Traction.  We have talked about Pepperjam before but have never mentioned Affiliate Traction.   They are an agency that specializes in representing Online Retailers in the affiliate marketing space.  They are not a network themselves, they represent companies and setup affiliate programs for those companies with other networks.

Affiliate Traction has a pretty impressive client list, they manage affiliate programs for some top tier companies like Skechers, JC Whitney, CO Bigelow, Laguna Tools, Tool Barn and The Watch Co. just to name a few.   You will find these programs are now available on Pepperjam, one of our top rated networks.

With the addition of Pepperjam, Affiliate Traction is now working with the following networks:

• Google Affiliate Network
• Commission Junction
• ShareASale
• AvantLink
• Affiliate Future
• Pepperjam Network
• Azoogle Ads
• CX Digital
• Hydra
• and Motive Interactive

You can check out Affiliate Traction and read more about them by going to http://www.affiliatetraction.com