How To Make Money Online With CPA Networks Part-7

Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 01:36

How To Apply To Selective CPA Networks

This the make money online with cpa post continued from here, you can also read my previous posts part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6 .

CPA networks are far more selective than PPC affiliate networks. Don’t expect to just fill out an online form and expect an acceptance letter in your email. The process is more lengthy and many Internet marketers fail to get accepted because they don’t realize that CPA networks verify everyone who applies. That means that they not only check the information you put in your application, but they often cross-check it with other information elsewhere. Anything that doesn’t match is a red flag and can signal a rejection. And, many of the top CPA networks don’t just want anyone applying. It doesn’t provide value for their advertisers or the network. So, they will want to make sure that you are capable of publishing a CPA network campaign that drives tons of traffic to their advertisers.

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So, they will most likely end up calling you up or asking questions relevant to this issue. Being prepared with good answers can mean the difference between a yes and a no. To increase your chances of getting into these selective networks, we are going to review some of the cross checks they perform and questions you might expect to see. Let’s start with the application form.

The Online Application Form

Don’t think that lying on the form as to your actual traffic level or whether you have a website is going to somehow increase your chances of being approved. You can expect they will look up the answers you’ve given on your application form and quickly reject you if they notice disparities. So, it stands to reason that you want to tell the truth, except when truth is something that will automatically disqualify you. Not having a website will not automatically disqualify you, and neither will having a low traffic count. Believe it or not, what they are most interested in knowing is that you can do the job of a publisher in a CPA network, even if you’re doing it on social networks or via email list marketing.

Good IP Address

Probably the biggest fumble on the application process is submitting the form from an IP address that doesn’t match the country you claim to be from on the application. It’s sad, but some networks only take US affiliate publishers and international ones are still going to be confused by this snafu.

So, if you have outsourced the application process to India or China, thinking that they can fill out applications for you, in a mass submittal process – guess again! That IP address will be checked and you will be automatically rejected. The simple solution is to either fill out your own forms or hire someone within the country that you are claiming residency, preferably someone within the United States of America. It may seem a bit unfair, but affiliate networks have dealt with so much fraud originating from would-be Internet marketers overseas that they are particularly cautious, in this area. And, other times, it’s because the money that is made on these sites has to be reported to the Federal government once it goes over $600 in income. For that, they would need a Social Security Number or EIN number issued to the citizen of the United States.

Check Boxes On Forms

There are various check boxes that are going to appear on the application form. In general they have a box checked incentives, don’t uncheck it! If they want to know what advertising method you currently use, make sure you click on PPC. Yes, you are applying to a CPA network, but they want to know if you are a legitimate Internet marketer. Since CPA networks are rather new and about 80% of revenues still come from PPC, then that’s what you should click to make you look knowledgeable. The other reason is that many networks favor a marketing approach of harvesting Google keywords in a PPC campaign to use to market CPA offers. They are also going to want you to tell them how you found out about them. Check off the box that says that you found out from a friend who does not work for them. Word of mouth referrals are very important when trying to maintain some semblance of credibility.

Pay Attention To The Contact Information

Some Internet marketers think they are being smart to submit fake or throwaway email addresses, so they aren’t bothered with spam. But, this is going to be cross-checked to the information on websites that you claim to own. So, it better be an accurate and working email address that matches the ones given on your websites. As for the phone number, expect CPA network administrators to actually call you.

They will verify that the area code in your phone number goes to the state of residency that you gave them on the application form before that. If it doesn’t match, that’s another red flag and can disqualify you. If you give them a fake number, you won’t get their call and you won’t be accepted. If you give them the right number, and they call and you don’t answer, they don’t call back and you’re rejected.

That’s what they call tough luck. So, keep an eye on your phone after you submit your application. (I actually got a call from market leverage,clickbooth,motive,neverblueads etc.)

Are They Really Your Sites?

And, don’t expect them to take your word for it that you are in fact the owner of the sites that you listed. It’s not a hard thing to check the ownership of the sites by doing a WHOIS record lookup online. So, you should go ahead and do it before they do to make sure you are listed as the owner. Sometimes, if you are using a third-party hoster, their name shows up instead of yours. If that happens, it can be grounds for a rejection. Just call up the host and ask them to put your name in as the owner and that will resolve that issue before it comes back to bite you in the butt.

Is Your Domain Top Level?

This is not as important as the first three, especially if you don’t even own a site. But, if you do, they will want to see that you have a top level domain that ends in .com or .org. If you are on someone else’s hosted site, like a WordPress.com community blog, you won’t have your own top level domain and you won’t look very professional.

However, even if you don’t own a website, you can still prove that you have sufficient traffic if you have a Facebook friends list with thousands of friends or you use mini-sites as landing pages that generate huge traffic. All they’re really interested in is to make sure you have the opportunity to grab massive amounts of traffic for their advertisers.

What If I Don’t Have A Website?

You can still get accepted as long as you can convince the affiliate manager that you have what it takes to be a successful publisher. That means that you will need to outline to them your plan of action for getting traffic into the offers. You can still use PPC-to-CPA without a website, and it is the number one answer that affiliates love to hear. Just be sure you understand what that involves, in case they dig a little deeper.

You can also try some CPA marketing using a popular Youtube channel that you own or if you have an agreement with someone to buy advertising on it, that can work too. As long as you can really make a case for knowing how to drive traffic into the offers, they are going to have to take you seriously. Of course, the website would be nice, but they won’t turn you down automatically for that reason, unless it is part of their service agreement to have one. But, that would kick out many people who love to market behind the scenes and wouldn’t be a smart move on their part.

After Submitting The Application, Then What?

You’re not done! If this were a CPC application, you would just wait around for the email telling you that you’ve been accepted, almost immediately, but this is CPA and the process is lengthier. After you send out the application expect to wait at least 24 hours. Keep a close eye on the phone whose number you used to apply for the network.

Hopefully, you gave them a phone number that matches your current state residency and that you will be available at within the next 24 hours. If they call, answer it, because if you miss the call they won’t call back. It may lead to an automatic rejection and it can be harder to change their minds, but there’s still hope. If you miss the call, and you know for sure, then don’t be afraid to call or email them after 24 hours to check on the status of your application.

This will at least give you another chance at talking to someone within the network who can get you approved. If you can’t get a hold of anyone, there is still one final way to try to contact someone: AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). You can go to the following website: http://affaimlist.com and see a listing of most of the administrators’ AOL usernames and whether they are online or not. Locate your CPA network administrator by the CPA network name and then see if you can IM them to find out the status of your application. At the very least they will know that you are keenly interested in getting approved and will do what it takes to convince them that you are on the up and up.

How Can You Increase The Chances Of Being Accepted?

1. Get Your Own Domain Name – Top level domains increase your chances of being accepted. It’s not expensive or hard to think up a good domain name. Use Host Gator, at hostgator.com, to host your domain name for as little as $4.95/month. Registering your domain name doesn’t have to be expensive either. You can get that done for $8.85/year at domainabbey.com.

2. Start A Blog – If you use Host Gator, you can start a Wordpress blog on your domain for free.

3. Get A Great Niche – Pick a hot niche and attract traffic with less effort.

4. Update Blog Frequently – Start with at least 5 articles. If you don’t want to write your own, get some free from Ezinearticles or Articlebase.

5. Monetize The Blog – Add ads to the blog to get some income rolling in. Use Clickbank.com or any of the affiliate partners listed in the Appendix.

6. Get Emails With Your Domain – Don’t use emails that end in hotmail, gmail, yahoo, or msn.com. Those free emails make you look less credible than putting down your own email address like yourname@yourdomain.com.

7. Answer The Phone – Your affiliate manager will call and you had best answer the phone. Answer the questions and prove to them that they need you more than you need them.

What Questions Will They Ask?

The call is usually a mini interview and you will be asked questions. Be as honest and forthright as possible, but keep in mind that they are asking you the questions to determine if you can do the job. So, be prepared to give them the right answers. A typical scenario might go as follows:

Q: How many uniques does your website get?

A: 50,000 to 100,000 uniques.

Q: How do you drive traffic to your sites?

A: I create blogs or websites and then use PPC on Google (more on this in the next post).

Q: How long have you been an Internet Marketer?

A: 1 and ½ years.

Q: What do you find works for you?

A: PPC.

Q: What types of verticals or categories have you promoted?

A: I’m interested in anything that converts, from gaming and email submits to ring tones.

Q: Do you offer people incentives?

A: No.

Q: What’s your advertising budget?

A: $100 per day.

Q: Have you joined other networks?

A: Yes, and then name those that you are in.

Q: How did you find out about us?

A: A friend told me about you.

The biggest fumble to avoid is in this question:

How Will You Drive Traffic To Advertisers’ Offers?

For this question, you are going to answer PPC to CPA. That’s pay-per-click to cost-per-action models. You will have to have a Google Adwords account and have some experience with Google keywords to set up a PPC advertising model. When you set up an advertisement in Google it will ask you for the display and the destination URL. The display URL is usually what the potential customer sees.

The destination URL is where the advertisement will lead them when they click on the display URL. That’s where you would use a CPA network URL for the offer that you’ve chosen to link PPC to CPA. Of course, you have to pay for the Google Adwords campaign, so there are definitely upfront costs here.

CPA networks love this particular model because it rests on Google’s ability to dominate the Internet and get the advertisement out before a large demographic that is targeted to your ad. Is it the best way to drive traffic to advertisers’ offers? That’s debatable. However, that’s what they want to hear. So, tell them that. After you are signed up, you can investigate other ways to promote the ads the way you think will generate the most revenue.

And, don’t forget that if your content needs grow as you work with PPC as well as CPA, that you can use websites like EzineArticles or ArticleBase to get more free content. They will also give you plenty of ideas on how to explode traffic on your sites.

In the next post (post I will write about some sample networks,and how to join them.