Clickbank - Someone Stealing Commissions?

Most bloggers today and internet marketers (Affiliate Marketers) use Clickbank, Commission Junction, and a host of other intermediary service providers to enable the marketers and bloggers to advertise a product and get paid. The way it works is a blogger writes an article or creates a page on his or her website, then either puts an ad on the site, or a link within the body of the post advertising the product. If that ad or link gets clicked on, then the blogger will get paid a commission if there is a sale.

I have used both Clickbank and Commission Junction. The interesting thing is that while I get clicks, I've never once gotten a sale. I never paid much attention to it since neither of those sites were very high on my list of marketing arms.

But recently, I began to wonder. 

First, I read an article somewhere about some guys who were literally stealing the commissions. It's way over my head, very "black hat" stuff, but apparently, it is doable. Not sure how, but it is being done. Second, I began to look at the stats and realized that there was a statistical probability that this was happening to me. Third, I discovered, inadvertently, that there were entities/producers of products, mostly digital ebooks, who were somehow gaming the system. You'd make a sale, but it never was registered as a sale. Somehow they are able to keep the sale off the Clickbank radar.

Maybe it's time to start rethinking the system. For me, I think I'll be pulling any Clickbank ads I have remaining. I'm way to busy to try and track it and find out who's doing what. Isn't worth it to me, frankly. But, I'll be looking closer at all of them I use, as well.

The best one so far is Google's Adsense, with a close runner up being Amazon. They're pretty straightup and I've not heard of anyone gaming the system. Probably being done. I just haven't heard of it, and have not experienced any problems.

I'm hoping that Clickbank and the others who have such a power position in the internet marketing arena will one day work closer to the Google and Amazon model. Otherwise, I'm convinced they're going to keep on losing advertisers like myself, which is no big loss in just myself, but multiply those like me by 100,000 and you have significant numbers leaving the ship.

North Carolina SB 31 bill seeks to turn healers into felons

Recently, an article came to my attention done by one of my favorite web sites, Natural News. The article deals with the legislation being passed in North Carolina and creates criminal penalties and the prohibition of those who believe in natural healing as opposed to Big Pharma's "medicine only" approach. It's a heavy-handed piece of legislation. Anyway, this excellent article needs to be distributed and read, because it will (or already has) come to your state, eventually. 
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North Carolina SB 31 bill seeks to turn healers into felons; but the health freedom backlash has already begun

Learn more: 

Today, in North Carolina, if you claim to be "practicing medicine" (i.e. treating any health condition whatsoever) using any holistic modality (including nutrition), you are instantly a criminal felon. But if you don't claim to be treating anything, then there's no reason for people to visit you for health treatments then, is there?

A warning to those who would seek to crush the freedoms of the American people

I have a warning for the legislators of North Carolina and every other state that is persecuting natural healers, herbalists and homeopaths: What you are seeing right now in terms of the public backlash is just the beginning of the info war that will ultimately see the reestablishment of our health freedoms and the collapse of the pharma poisoning of our nation.

We, the health freedom movement, proclaim that no state, no government and no entity has any authority whatsoever to criminalize or imprison those who practice holistic healing modalities, and that any attempt to engage in a witch-hunt criminalization of those who practice natural medicine will result in a popular revolt against your false authority and your broken, bankrupt systems of chemical-based medicine.

Learn more: NATURAL NEWS - North Carolina Health Freedom  

Earthquake Activity in Arkansas

I subscribe to an Earthquake Notification Service

Over the years, the Arkansas area has always generated a frequent number of earthquakes. However, in recent days, from February 15-17, there have been a greater number than I remember seeing. But, what's even more interesting is the size of these quakes.

Most of the quakes have been small, ranging from the 1.0 to 3.0. These few days have seen at least two quakes at 4.0, with lots of high 2.0's. The intensity and frequency seems to be on the increase.

Guess I'm wondering whether this is something that the government ought to be sending out notice on to the populace. Is there a danger? I'm no geologist, nor am I even close to being an expert in such things. But, I am smart enough to see patterns. I'm seeing one here that is troubling. If I had more "smarts" in this area, I wonder if I'd be afraid?

The New Madrid Fault line runs through the Arkansas area. Contrary to a lot of "talking heads" about it being a "dead" fault, most of the experts hold otherwise. At the end of February 2011, the small town of Greenbriar, Arkansas was hit with a magnitude 4.7 earthquake

A Missouri state geologist named  Joe Gillman said stated that an earthquake of the magnitude of the 1811-12 quakes is supposed to happen once every 500 years or so. However, a moderate quake, a 6.0 to a 6.5 magnitude quake is expected to happen  every 90 years. The last quake in the New Madrid fault area was in the late 1800s. The Mississippi literally ran backwards. Lakes were created.

Gillman takes the position that a biggie quake is one the way. He said, “We are due, if not overdue, for a moderate-sized earthquake. Such a quake could devastate power lines and underground water and waste water pipes, and many buildings could crumble.”

Just passing along info to those who care.

Here's one of the 4.0 mag. reports I received:

Region:                            ARKANSAS
Geographic coordinates:            35.276N,  92.360W
Magnitude                         4.0 M
Depth:                            6 km
Universal Time (UTC):             17 Feb 2011  10:49:48
Time near the Epicenter:          17 Feb 2011  04:49:48
Local standard time in your area: 17 Feb 2011  10:49:48

Location with respect to nearby cities:
   6 km (4 miles) NNE (27 degrees) of Greenbrier, AR
   6 km (4 miles) SSW (203 degrees) of Guy, AR
   7 km (5 miles) SE (128 degrees) of Twin Groves, AR
  60 km (37 miles) N (357 degrees) of Little Rock, AR
418 km (259 miles) SSW (207 degrees) of St. Louis, MO

Max Banner Ads Plugin for Wordpress

MAX Banner Ads Plugin for Wordpress a Real Gem

I have been a subscriber to Max Blog Press for a number of years, and have had the Max Banner Ad plugin for Wordpress for about a year. Indeed, I have several of their plugins. (Definitely check out some of those free plugins MaxBlogPress has. They really are good.)

I like the Max Banner Ads Plugin for Wordpress for a number of reasons, but maybe the best is the fact that it is easy to set up. I'm a bit of a klutz, so when I went looking for a decent plugin for banner ads, I wanted something that was simple to use, but effective. I found it in the Max Banner Ads Plugin. This little plugin displays your ads in your posts where you want them - top, bottom, within the post, wherever. It can also rotate your ads. The plugin serves a real need for placing ads precisely. No other plugin I have used comes close to doing what Max Banner Ads does.

Now...if they'd just make this plugin available for Blogspot, I'd be even happier.

Oh, by the way. I'm not even an affiliate. :)