More on Affiliate Junktion...

<<<<< EDIT: my latest blog on Affiliate Junktion is here - You can find more up to date information on Affiliate Junktion here.>>>>>>

One of the things to watch, is that because they are in New Zealand, all payouts are in NZ$. If you check out www.ipower.com you will see they are making $100US per sign up. Not only that but a recent email to me suggested their lowest payout rate is NZ$1.50 (US$1.15). (At time of writing, I thought Affiliate Junktion paid per conversion, they don't, Affiliate Junktion pays per lead. Only Affiliate Junktion themselves know how many leads end up signing up)

If you put that together with the increase in people using keywords like "make money" through Yahoo or Google adwords resulting in a hight cost per click, its easy to see there is plenty of money for them, hardly any for you. (since writing that I have got my cost per click down to €0.03 for Affiliate Junktion ads)

Really the only ones making the money are Affiliate Junktion (maybe Affiliate Junktion isn't making money, see my latest Affiliate Junktion blog here) .

Maybe the occasional member who's experienced with online advertising is lucky enough to target his/her Affiliate Junktion ads effectively and cheaply, but for every member who does, there are no doubt plenty who signup and go nowhere. (that may still be true, but I suggest you get the free information here and then decide for yourself if Affiliate Junktion will work for you)

Day three. Affiliate Junkion, scam or truth a real test.

<<<<< EDIT: my latest blog on Affiliate Junktion is here - You can find more up to date information on Affiliate Junktion here.>>>>>>


After finding out that Affiliate Junction was a legitimate endeavor (see my other posts) I evaluated it as A kind of multilevel marketing program with relatively low payouts (mainly benefiting those running the affiliate program).

I the past day I have considered what it would take to run such a program oneself and its a bit more involved than you think. Maybe the fact that this is a real program, well thought out and simply executed (with importantly easy to follow step) could be of use to some.

To be fair, I decided to say that if your not really comfortable with making your own affiliate related site with content and advertising (possibly including customer log ins, keeping track of income and providing members with reports) than maybe I shouldn't be so harsh.

While I openly admit I personally am exploring other avenues, if your not so web savvy and want to give it a go (knowing that although you might get money from it, the person really makes the mega bucks is the one who brought the program to fruition), then I can say, at the very least you will end up with some very good web hosting for your money.

A comment made on one of my posts made me think that some people just want to make sure its not scam and are keen to give it a go. I can vouch for that at least. Maybe you'll get something more than you pay back, only time will tell. I genuinely think that the system is well executed and if you can't do it yourself, then Affiliate Junktion might be as good as any you'll come across.

Ironicaly I must be making some admission that the Affiliate Junction program has some merit because I'm about to post the link.

If you don't feel you've got what it takes to do better and were just looking make sure you wouldn't be scammed so you can go ahead, then here's the link. Please remember just one thing, most multilevel marketing programs (which parallel Affiliate Junktion) are not much more then pyramid schemes using products to stop the pyramid from collapsing. When the market gets saturated, then it might be hard to get the returns advertised.

Be informed and then make your own decision.
Affiliate Junktion

Day two. Affiliate Junkion, scam or truth a real test.

<<<<< EDIT: my latest blog on Affiliate Junktion is here - You can find more up to date information on Affiliate Junktion here.>>>>>>

This morning (about 12 hours after signing up) I received a conformation email from Affiliate Junktion saying my membership had been approved and to login to the control panel at Affiliate Junktion, a link was provided.

As yet, I have been unable to view this page. I simply get the error:
The server at www.affiliatejunktion.com is taking too long to respond.
Could it be that the Affiliate Junction program is really popular, or something more sinister? We shall see.

I have been trying now for about half an hour, I'll keep you posted.

After another hour the page came up, must just have been some kind of server problems (maybe unexpectedly large traffic).

Heres a screen shot of the control panel ((Edit Affiliate Junktion now uses a slightly different system)):

The getting started page in the Affiliate Junktion control panel tells you to download and install winzip (for those who don't have it), download you free websites a search and replace tool and free ftp software. Pretty obvious stuff. You meant to upload the site you received to you new domain (which you paid for) after replacing the appropriate referral links with your own.

It then simply goes on to explain how to market your new affiliate website using Yahoo and Google Adwords. Nothing here alot of us don't already know.

If you going to advertise a site, then why not make a nice site with information and some good affiliate links (perhaps including the joining the ipower affiliate scheme that Affiliate Junktion uses), this way you'd make a higher return on your investment ((Edit: Boy was I wrong)).

Conclusion:
Athough Affiliate Junktion is not a scam, don't expect to make any money from it ((Edit: Did I say that??? I'm now making over €100 per day!)). (read my post about my personal Affiliate Junktion experience) Affiliate Junktion is more or less a web base multi level marketing system using web hosting membership to give the bottom level something for the money they lose.

Also although you can join Affiliate Junction for free you are going to have to spend real money (first with web hosting and then with advertising through Yahoo and Google) and at $2,00 per sign up the only one who is going to make real money is the owner of Affiliate Junktion. ((Edit: again, boy was I WRONG!))

For a complete novice who can't get it together themselves I guess some money is better than none and you may be assured to know that Affiliate Junktion is not going to rip you off. You may just end up spending quite a bit for uncertain returns.

I for one will spend my advertising dollars on bringing people to more lucrative (for me) Affiliate programs than the one offered by Affiliate Junktion. I'm no longer just weary of scams, now I'll watch out for scam-like schemes similar to Affiliate Junktion.

I'll keep you posted to see if I get my $75 back!! -[edit] as of almost three months later, the $75 is still "pending" (not yet "approved"). ((EDIT: Yes, I got it back, here's my Affiliate Junktion payment proof)

Affiliate Junkion, scam or truth. A real test - day one.

<<<<< EDIT: my latest blog on Affiliate Junktion is here - You can find more up to date information on Affiliate Junktion here.>>>>>>

There are allot of Affiliate programs these days, and most good bloggers are affiliate savvy as are readers. I decide to take the plunge and check out one thats surfaced recently.

The site is Affiliate Junktion. Affiliate Junktion reads too good to be true. It guarantees to make you $150 a day, free to join and free website. We all know that affiliate plans can never 'guarantee' anything. In an effort to find out if Affiliate Junktion is a fraud, I did a bit of research:

I found (from forums/blogs) that after you join with Affiliate Junktion, sure you might get a free website (more on that later), but you have to host it with the service provider in their scheme. For that you have to pay for a years hosting, anything from US$5 to $10 a month (depending on time of year specials - currently only $4.95). Thats US$60-$100. So much for free (although the do promise to re-reimburse you $75 to cover that)

Looking at the site it appears to be New Zealand based. A quick whois check show Affiliate Junktion is hosted by bluehost.com in the US but (care of their domain privacy). OK so its hosted in the US that doesn't tell us anything. I had a look at the affiliate program at bluehost.com and they pay out $65.00 per signup to affiliates. That looks like where Affiliate Junktion is making their money.

So I thought lets see what happen when I sign up and registered my details. I immediately received an instruction email showing that I would have to sign up at ipower.com. Something smelt rather fishy. Why host with bluehost.com and direct people to ipower.com to sign up? So I check out their site, seams legit and a quick look at their affiliate program might hold a clue as to how Affiliate Junktion makes money. ipower.com pays out US$100 per sign up, enough to cover the promised $75 reimbursement and $2 sign up fee Affiliate Junktion pays its members (as I understand it).

About the guarantee to make $150 a day, we'll I check out Affiliate Junktions terms and conditions and it has a waiver that basically says that Affiliate Junktion is not liable for the validity or truth in the content of its site. That way Affiliate Junktion can guarantee and promise all they like it doesn't mean anything. You should know that.

I decided to carry on with the sign up. Hey I could use a years hosting even if the Affiliate Junktion turned out to be a scheme.

Therein I think lies the secret. Affiliate Junktion gets you to sign up for web hosting. This is how it avoids being a pyramid scheme, because at the bottom level there is someone getting a product, and one that most people who are likely to come across Affiliate Junktion (those searching for affiliate schemes) can use.

There are other schemes like that. They are called multi-level marketing. Basically a pyramid scheme which make sure the bottom level never 'breaks down' leaving people with nothing to show for thier money, by providing a product or service. They then encourage their members to duplicate the process and find more members. They even have a name for it, it's called "the cycle of duplication".

Whatever the outcome, I've paid my money to Affiliate Junktion so time will tell if they suckered me. If it is real, ones things for sure, Affiliate Junktion is set to make a bundle and at some stage there will be allot of people saying "I've got my hosting, now what?"

The last thing I did today ways to send my sign up proof to Affiliate Junktion. They are supposed to respond and upload the 'magical' website which will make me $150 per day to my host account. In any case I'll post tomorrow with more... if your thinking about joining Affiliate Junktion, maybe hold off a few days, we'll soon see if Affiliate Junktion is truth or fraud.

Don't cry for Microsoft (the truth is, it never loved you)

Microsoft's history can be simply summarised. It made billions on the back of software that was in fact years behind the competition. What it did right, was to license the software for anyone who used a standard Intel architecture. This made it instantly poplar and useful for a lot of people. Others simply followed suit.

But Microsoft either always failed to make a great product for its time or never bothered. My money is on the latter. So many unpaid programmers making Linux the great operating system it is today must testify to that end.

It's easy to think that if Microsoft really wanted to, it has the resources to make the mother of all operating systems: small (comparatively), fast, stable, secure, bug free, easy to use, good to look at and pack full of useful features. Instead they came up with Vista.

It seams like Microsoft never really cared about its users more than it cared about planned obsolescence. I mean, making a product thats just good enough to keep your customer using it and still in need of the next upgrade may be Microsoft's only true skill.

But theres hope. You've heard of Linux. Maybe you've tried it, maybe you haven't. Linux is a derivative of Unix one of the oldest operating systems there is. But being old doesn't make Unix bad (unlike windows). Unix and Linux just keep getting more and more stable and nicer to use.

Unix based OS's like Linux (and Mac OS X and FreeBSD) are set to steal market share from windows. I foresee a future when only a few scared people won't move away from windows. This is because windows isn't getting really any better, but the others are. Even Mac OS actually seems to be getting better (arguably the best OS for those who want to use programs, rather than play with the OS) despite already being better than windows.

This is the catch up age. Making revolutionary improvements may now be relegated to changes in hardware not software (new touch screen input devices for example). Both Windows Vista and Mac OS 10.5 (leopard) have been called “evolutionary not revolutionary” and Linux is catching up fast.

I would say it's already there. Regarding Linux I have only one niggle left, which is not so much about Linux,more about the community for Unix derivatives. Those **nix (Unix type operating system) experts need to give help advice in both terminal commands AND gui (graphic user interface). Many new comers to Linux, don't ever want to open a terminal window. I have used terminal and know its nothing to be afraid of, but we the masses (and I include myself in the group) only want to use the user interface, we don't want to use terminal.

Linux will beat Windows only when community starts embracing the 'gui only' newbies. Better interest in Linux is good for all parties. What I couldn't say, is how long this will take.

Meantime those who want an alternative operating system to windows now, here imho (in my humble opinion) are the ones to choose. Mac OS, if you can afford it, Linux.

Quite simply, if your about to buy a new computer, or just have a little more then there is no question that Apple Mac OS X Leopard is the best OS at time of writing (and considering all the free, full version, easy to use professionally programmed software, they're better value than PC's).

If an Apple Mac is not viable, and you want to start (or take another look) at Linux these are my favorite distributions:

Ubuntu is the world leader Linux distro (distribution) because its backed by people with money and a large community. It's slick and nice to use.

Download the CD image, burn it and boot from it, your computer will not be change in anyway and you can try it out, all free, all legal:

http://www.ubuntu.com/

If you want nicer still, very fast and well optimised, try the latest version PCLinuxOS its achieved what Ubuntu has without the cash backing (kudos). If you want the 'up and coming” distro, try it, it recently shot to #1 at http://www.distrowatch.com/:

Download the CD image, burn it and boot from it, your computer will not be changed in anyway and you can try it out, all free, all legal:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/

Maybe you'd prefer a Linux distro with a long history of great accomplishments and a large professional user base. In that case Fedora, Red Hat or Open Suse might be for you. I would say, if they were the right ones for you, chances are you'd probably know that already. New to Linux users would be better to try Ubuntu or PClinuxOS.

Last but not least an option close to Linux but not. Pure Unix, the mother of all these advancements has (as I crudely understand it) one cool advantage over Linux. It truly separates the OS from the program layer, offering improved protection against the all too common 'shelf life' which makes the system suffer (most notably speed and stability) after too many programs have been installed and uninstalled. We'll now there's a rather windows like, user friendly version of Unix (FreeBSD) it's called PCBSD and its really worth a look:

Once again you can download the CD free and legal here:

http://www.pcbsd.org/