StockWeblog Market Timer Launch

After a great deal of development, the ClickBank site for the StockWeblog Market Timer is finally ready, as is the ClickBank kit on this site. So this week I am going to start seriously looking for affiliates.

The affiliate program will include 75% commission from ClickBank, along with 110% to the top affiliate each month.

OpenDNS

I have been having a lot of problems with my internet connection recently. The bandwidth always seems fine once I connect to something but getting connected is a problem. So I decided to try OpenDNS…

A DNS server translates domain names (e.g. eidoan.com) to IP addresses (e.g. 66.7.201.74) which then allows the computer/ISP to retrieve whatever information you are looking for on the internet. Normally your computer uses the DNS server provided by your ISP.

According to their website, OpenDNS is just a better DNS server. Not only is it faster, both in speed and updates, but it also blocks some phishing sites and corrects certain typing errors, such as eidoan.cmo instead of eidoan.com.

The setup process was very easy. Just go to your Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) settings for your connection and change the default DNS settings to:

Preferred DNS server: 208.67.222.222
Alternate DNS server: 208.67.220.220

You can find more detailed instructions here.

I entered these settings on my computer at home, restarted it, and my internet connection has never worked better.

Web pages load quickly and Outlook Express is connecting to my mail accounts faster then ever. Also, my two biggest internet problems lately, which were that I was having trouble getting connected to my AIM account through Trillian and getting connected to Vangaurd, are completely gone now.

So, unless Insight did something to fix my connection at the exact same time I restarted my computer after changing the DNS settings, I have to attribute the improvement in my internet access to OpenDNS.

Google Pay-Per-Action Beta

Google innovation continues to improve the world of internet advertising. I just found out that Google is now beta testing a “pay-per-action” advertising program that will work similar to AdWords, except that instead of paying for clicks and hoping those clicks will turn into sales/leads, the advertiser will just pay for the desired actions that are actually completed.

This will, in effect, create a massive affiliate network as powerful as ClickBank.com but probably many times larger. Advertisers will only have to pay advertising fees when they actually get a sale or actually get a lead. This does shift some responsibility to the publisher to look for the program that they think will make the most sales but given the success of many other affiliate programs out there, I think many sites will be willing to use these ads. I plan on using both sides for Hill Seven’s operations.

AdWords publishers can register for the beta here.

Edit 03/23/07 3:05 PM EST: What I don’t understand is how Google will ensure that every conversion is properly tracked. The advertiser will have to put a segment of code on their site to allow the end result to be tracked and allow the publisher to get paid, but would it be possible for the advertiser to cheat? Maybe they could set up the process correctly to start out with but change it later. Maybe they could have two different ending pages set up, one with the tracking code and one not with the code and when a transaction is finished the buyer is randomly directed to only one of them, so the advertiser only pays for some of the actions. I’ll have to study Google’s FAQ on this more closely.

The Internet Will Make Everything Free - Introduction

I am constantly amazed by how many things are now available for free on the internet that you once had to pay a lot of money for. Maybe the quality is not always as good but it’s usually pretty close. I think that two major things have caused this 1) open source programs and 2) need for more website traffic.

1) Linux has been driving open source as a concept, and while I have been (until recently) very skeptical of open source programming, I now see that this can create some very useful applications. This blog, and all of the Hill Seven sites are created in WordPress, which is an open-source project.

2) “Free” is a powerful marketing tool. We all know this. All things equal, if you needed a product or service and you found out you could get it for free from a company you are not familiar with when you’ve been paying a lot of money to a well established company, there’s a good chance you’ll at least try the new way. There are two good examples of this. Most people use Microsoft Office, but Microsoft charges hundreds of dollars for this software. Open Office is one free alternative to this. I have not used it yet myself, but I plan on trying it soon. Google is also making their own web-based office suite. It does not yet have all the functions of MS Excel or Word, but I am sure their plan is to get their eventually.

Anyway, I find this topic interesting and I plan to write about the various sites that are a part of this idea in future posts on this blog.

SurpassHosting.com

After using several different hosts over the years, I have finally found one that I am completely happy with, SurpassHosting.com. Thanks to the recommendation of a friend, I set up StockWeblog.com on a Surpass Hosting “shared” account in late October and found the connection to be excellent and the support staff very helpful. I have since signed up for a VPS server from them and now host all my sites on it.

Over the last three months, I have sent the support staff a variety of different questions or requests for help on different things. Every time, either the Senior Engineer Davie or one of the other support people have emailed me back within a few hours with a thorough answer to my problem.

Their most basic shared plan is only $6/month but they also offer VPS servers (what I have) as well as dedicated servers, reseller plans and co-location. And as I have stated, their quality is better than any other host I have ever used. So I would highly recommend them for any one’s hosting needs.