Domain Purchased & Wordpress Setup

Recently, The Monetizer ran into a bigtime issue (potential scam) with a website called Regfly.com. They supposedly sell domain names with privacy protection included, but after a week and no sign of the domain I purchased in WHOIS, I submitted a dispute to my credit card company. See "Beware of Domain Scams!" for more info on that. That's all pending, but in the meantime I decided to take advantage of the free domain deal offered by BUY.com and GoDaddy, mentioned in my previous post. I bought a cheap DVD and then within 48 hours received my code for a free domain name (free for the first year) from GoDaddy. After some careful consideration, I took the plunge and used my coupon there to get a domain.

Right after my domain purchase, I immediately pointed my DNS (Domain Name Servers) to my Hostgator hosting account. With Hostgator's baby package you can host unlimited domains under one account for $10 a month, which is a great deal. Even cooler, you can set up Wordpress very simply through Hostgator's control panel. For a great tutorial check out Courtney Tuttle's Internet Marketing post: "Finalizing Hosting and Installing WordPress".

So within less than an hour I was able to buy a domain name, have it registered and set up hosting with Wordpress. Now all I have to do is choose my Wordpress theme, install plugins and transfer the Blogger blog stuff to Wordpress. Since I've been a longtime user of Blogger and barely scratched the surface with Wordpress, I'll detail my further adventures in an upcoming post. As mentioned above I recommend, consult Courtney Tuttle's Marketing School for a great video tutorial on setting up all of the above for your blog!

Buy.com's Free Domain Name Deal

The online retailer Buy.com
is currently offering customers a free domain name from GoDaddy.com with any purchase made at Buy.com. Once you've made your purchase and checked off the GoDaddy checkbox on their banner, you'll be emailed a redemption code for a free domain name within 48 hours after your order. So if you've wanted to test out or start aging a new domain name for your blog or website over the next year and don't want to spend too much, this is quite the deal. Of course you will have to spend some money, but you can find a few items at Buy.com that are under $10 with free shipping. You may even have been eyeing a certain electronics item that can be found at Buy.com. Now's your chance to buy it and also get a domain name to start aging it for Google and other search engines!

One example of an under $10 product with free shipping is these snazzy looking iFrogz headphones. Pick em' up for yourself, as a gift, or shop them off on eBay if you can!

Or if you're a DVD Sci-Fi/action movie fan, The Matrix 4 Film Favorite collection is $10.95 with free shipping. You'll not only get the movies but a new domain name for yourself. Shop around the site though as they have all sorts of goodies from music to DVD's, computer equipment, books and video games.

The GoDaddy/Buy.com free domain offer will expire April 1, 2009. Makes sure you check off the checkbox on the GoDaddy banner for a free domain when you're confirming your purchase. Follow this link for more instructions on Buy.com & GoDaddy's free domain name deal or visit Buy.com
.

Beware of Domain Scams!

First off, apologies for no recent posts here at The Monetizer blog as its been a busy time! The Monetizer recently "took the plunge" so to speak and purchased a new domain name (for another blog venture) and then the baby hosting package with Hostgator.com. The issue so far hasn't been with Hostgator at all. Their customer service has been exemplary and prompt. Hostgator's been recommended by many fellow bloggers as the host company to use as they allow you to host unlimited domains on the same account. The main issue has come with the domain site, Regfly.com, and their questionability as a valid company.

This past weekend I became inspired to buy a domain name and didn't do my full homework. Lesson 1, investigate any online company as best you can before paying up. I did a search for domain names with privacy, and regfly.com came up in the search. Upon checking out their site, it seemed like a legit business and the deal seemed great. A domain name for just $9.99 with WHOIS privacy included. For anyone who isn't familiar with WHOIS.net, it's a registry database where you can find out the owner (registrar) on any domain name. Basically when you buy your own domain name, www.yourdomainname.com, your name, address and phone number go into the WHOIS database, and is public info. (For anyone with a website who wasn't aware of WHOIS, go check it out and see what info's available on you!) Luckily, you've got the option to protect your privacy, but it's usually costly. For example, I believe GoDaddy charges an additional $7 to $10 a year for this protection, on top of the $10 domain charge. Regfly's deal seemed great as you got the domain and the privacy all for $10. But like they say "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is".

Regfly was quick to process my order, and send me the official confirmation by email. They provided a live account there which I can log into and check out the domain name. The problem is that the domain name isn't in the WHOIS database after 4 days, meaning that anyone can still buy that domain, yet I've been charged for it. The other problem, regfly.com has very poor customer service. Their "customer support ticket system" has been a slow affair where you type out your problem and wait for them to respond. They responded to one question I posted with an answer asking me for more info, then closed the response so I couldn't respond to their inquiry. Very fishy.... Basically, I've opened a second support ticket now stating I expect the domain name to be in WHOIS within 24 hours. If I don't see this, I'll definitely be disputing the charge on my credit card. To further add to this, I did some Google searches on regfly.com today to find some other customers posting on forums with similar issues to mine. Friends, beware when you go looking for a good deal online for hosting, domains or any other product/service. There's some great deals to be fished out, and also some scammers waiting for us to bite!

In another update, ShoppingAds.com has finally payed The Monetizer straight to Paypal! They are a program of their word, so be patient if you've hit the minimum payout level there yet haven't seen a payment. They typically will pay on the 26th of the month, although my payment was postponed and I received it about a month later.

Here's to your success,
The Monetizer

ShoppingAds Payment hits a Snag

ShoppingAds is a popular monetization method that I've recommended before here at the Monetizer blog. They offer banner style images and text links which direct people to eBay auctions. Should someone purchase the item, you profit with a nice commission. The minimum amount to be earned is $50 before payout.

The Monetizer had surpassed that $50 mark and was on schedule to receive my first payment from the company on January 26th, 2009. Lo and behold upon logging in on Monday, ShoppingAds had the following note covering my account area:

All currently accrued monthly earnings are pending.
Unfortunately for reasons beyond our control,
they may be disqualified at any time by our affiliate advertising partner before the next payout date.

To receive payment your traffic must follow the following guidelines:
* No adult content, your website/blog can not have adult content or themes.
* No forcing ANY clicks what so ever, any computer program or forced website popups (and so on) forcing your web visitors to receive a ShoppingAds click when they visit one of your webpages is strictly prohibited.
* No homemade eBay or ShoppingAds banners or graphics of any kind for your links, you must run a ShoppingAds banner generated from the website "get ads" page or valid ShoppingAds link that contains the words "on eBay" in the visible link text.
* We must be able to see your incoming referrer information, if you are running ads in an environment which obscures where your clicks are coming from, we'll need you to contact us with the URLs where your ShoppingAds are being displayed.
* Absolutely no posting of links or ads to 3rd party websites!
You must be the owner of the website where you are displaying ads.
I.E. posting links to "craigslist" pages, "woot.com" forums, etc.
or any other forums/blogs (and so on) that you are not the website owner of is prohibited.
* You may not display ShoppingAds links as an advertiser through a 3rd party ad network.
I.E. signing up for "adbrite" and buying your ShoppingAds links out for different website publishers to display.
* You may only have ONE ShoppingAds account.
If the same one publisher is caught running ads on more than one ShoppingAds signup all related accounts will be removed from the program.

If you do not follow the above guidelines our affiliate partner may remove your account and not pay for your traffic, therefore you can not receive your earnings.

Our staff here at ShoppingAds will work hard to make sure that your traffic is accounted for and will be considered valid for payment.

Contact us right away if you have any questions about how your blog or site may be disqualified.
(include the URL where ShoppingAds are running as well)

Thank you and we appreciate you for being a publisher!

Ok no problems there, but it's funny how bill collectors will all but knock down our doors with a battering ram if a payment isn't on time. The "unfortunately for reasons beyond our control" part doesn't sit well with me. Things do happen, but that language right there is very similar to Google's policy of just yanking an account without paying up, with no explanation. It's disappointing in the regard that people can honestly run ShoppingAds on their blog or website, and then be declined a payment which may have taken several months to acrrue. Of course I have a few more days to go to see if they pay up and will post the results.

In the meantime, a lesson learned is to tread with caution when using affiliate programs or moneymakers. As I blogged once before each program has specific rules to be familiar with, and "fine print". Some pay once every few months, some every other week, etc. Clickbank has an interesting payment policy based on how many different credit card and check or Paypal orders you've received. You can see in the text block above many of ShoppingAds rules and restrictions for accounts. Another thing to consider is the fact that while you may be self-employed blogging or running niche sites, having just one or a couple programs running really controls your finances. If they choose to not pay you or just flat go out of business, you could find your income source greatly diminished or gone.

I recommend if you have a decent traffic site to choose eBay partner Network if your site qualifies. They offer a payout every few weeks for a minimum of just $5. New eBay signups can earn you up to $25. Many bloggers and marketers are keen on building niche sites using eBay's Partner Network as it can provide some nice passive income if done properly.

Here's to your success!