Bob's Work Site

Tag: CLICKTRACKPROFIT

  • Luke Is Alive June 4, 2020

    First #lukeisalive post instead of a video

    Just to give you a summary of my history with the #lukeisalive challenge. I started doing posts for the challenge with a story line of what was doing. After a while I started doing videos as my entry into the challenge. Yes, I said videos. doesn’t sound like me does it. I am not in these videos so being camera shy doesn’t really apply here but they are helping my video production skills. Please let me know what you think of the video.

    You may be wondering why I am doing this or more importantly why would you want to do this. The answer is “BLOCKCHAIN” technology. Are you familiar with this new, rapidly growing technology? I wasn’t until I became actively involved with CLICKTRACKPROFIT.

    How would you like to get paid to do things you are already doing. You can get paid to play game, blog, comment on posts, and many more. I have earned over $200 in the last 2 months by posting and commenting on the blockchain called HIVE. See the right side column for ways you can learn about the BLOCKCHAIN in general and the HIVE in particular. Enough for now. Take a 62 second break, enjoy some music from the islands and watch is today’s video.

  • Results Are In

    I would like to thank everyone who used their time to provide their thoughts on yesterday’s post. I ask whether people thought a HitsConnect tracking link, software for tracking advertising results, should work in CTP’s Gauntlet, a feature designed to provide feedback on web page design, should work or not. Well, the results are in and I want to share them with everyone.

    I didn’t have to spend much time analyzing the results. The were unanimous. 100% of the responses thought that a HitsConnect tracking link did not have to work in the Gauntlet since the Gauntlet is not suppose to be an advertising platform. I yield to the unanimous opinion. I will never bring it up again.

    The other question that occurred several times in the responses was, “Why would anyone use a HitsConnect tracking link in a non-advertising environment?”

    My answer to that question is, “I consider the Gauntlet as part of my testing of a new page and I want test my page exactly as it will run live.” I am sure I can attribute that philosophy to my 40+ years of delivering software to clients who expect perfect results. And, believe me, no matter how much we thought every scenario had been tested, the client would find one we never imagined.

    My favorite example of this is a system where the user entered the quantity of a product to be shipped to a store. There was a limited number of stores on a page and the user expected to complete 1 page at a time. We delivered the software after extensive testing. In less than 4 hours I get a call that says it doesn’t work. I talked with the user and the problem was that they could enter data past the end of the page. We test more and could not produce the result the user was describing. I went back to the user and ask them to show me. I watched and they were right and I saw the problem. They knew how to type and were not looking at the screen while entering data. None of the programmers knew how to type so they watched the screen as they entered data. The programmers saw they were ate the end of the screen and the users didn’t. We made a very small change that stopped the user after the last store and made a noise to let them know. Problem solved.

    Enough said, I am moving on in search of my next windmill. Thank you all again for your input.

    I look forward to your feedback to help me improve,
    Bob Caine

    PS – I switched pictures because It dawned on me that a real photo is probably more credible than a caricature.

  • I Have to DE-CLUTTER First

    I have to de-clutter first.

    Yesterday, I was so befuddled about how to put a marketing plan together, it woke me up early. After thinking about it most of the day, I finally came up with a starting point at least. What I came up with is not a full blown marketing plan. It is more a plan for what I need to do to advertise more efficiently. If I am more efficient, I should be able to put a plan together.

    So I thought about where does all my time go when I want to start marketing something new. Most of it goes to entering urls into traffic exchanges and sending emails. I can spend hours going from one traffic exchange to another enter the new urls. It dawned on me I have the solution to this – ROTATORS.

    I use HitsConnect as my tracking software and it has rotators. Why don’t I put HitsConnect rotator URLs in the traffic exchanges instead of the direct links. I am sure many others have thought of this but it was an original idea to me today. If I use rotator urls then I can change what link I am showing in multiple sites by just changing it in HitsConnect. Also, this sets me up for split testing. Just add the urls to be split tested in the rotator, drive the traffic to the rotator and, poof, I am split testing. The only other thing I need to do is reset the counters.

    How easy is that? I don’t even have to type what is entered into the rotator. HitsConnect provides a list of all the urls entered and I just have to check the ones I want in the rotator. There is a couple of complications with this method.

    1. There are some traffic exchanges that don’t allow rotators. I assume this is because only one site is verified when a link is added. So a rotator could ‘hide’ a site that does not meet the te’s rules. But I am going to give it a try. The traffic exchange will let me know if I do something wrong. I will just have to keep a list of those TE’s that reject my rotators.
    2. To me the bigger problem is the HitsConnect urls. I have run into several sites that when I use HitsConnects tracking urls, they won’t verify when checked or they verify but don’t display. The original url displays fine, the tracking url displays fine outside the traffic exchange but do not display in the TE. (HitsConnect says this is because the traffic exchange hasn’t updated something.) So I will just have to use a different rotator. I will add these to the list too.

    Hopefully, the list doesn’t of problem TE’s doesn’t get to long or this idea won’t work as well as I think. So, tomorrow I will start changing the sites displayed in the TE’s to rotators. That will easily take all day, maybe more.

    I didn’t intend for this to be a review of HitsConnect but it did. I really believe rotators are the way to go and once I get all the traffic exchanges converted I will save time. At least, I won’t have to wonder about what is being displayed on what traffic exchange reducing elminating that clutter from my mind.

    Until Next Time,
    Bob Caine

  • Dreams!

    I have absolutely no idea what kind of dreams I had last night or any night. I never can. I never remember my dreams. But, I woke up this morning thinking about branding on traffic exchanges. Branding is one of the two big B’s in ClickTrackProfit.

    We know CTP thinks traffic exchanges are useful. There is a landing page creator. The gauntlet is designed to get feedback on capture and squeeze pages used on TEs. And, there are traffic exchanges in the mastery challenges. So, CTP recognizes traffic exchanges are part of affiliate marketing but in all the lessons, there is not a single reference or lesson about traffic exchanges. Surprising.

    Let’s think about branding on TEs. The best know and obvious place for branding is the squeeze and capture pages. You can create your own and most of the TEs I know have some pages they have created that you can brand. This is great and will be seen. But think of the other places that could be branded.

    Banners could definitely be branded. Unfortunately, I have never seen a TE that has branded banners. This means you have to create your own. If you use Adkreator, you can create 9 different size banners. If you use Canva, you can create banners. If you use graphics software like Gimp or PhotoShop, you can create banners. And of course you could always hire someone, to create some banners for you. Why would you do this? I think branded banners would make you stand out. No one else is doing it. The more you are seen, the more you will be remembered.

    But the biggest branding opportunity on TEs in my opinion, is the chat functionality that most traffic exchanges have. It is free and requires very little effort. I just recently started saying ‘HELLO’ on every TE I surf. This not only gets my brand out there but it gives me a chance to meet and talk to new people. I have met several new people since I started using chat.

    We all know ads on traffic exchanges do not have a high success rate but if we are going to use them, shouldn’t we use it to the fullest extent? I have read articles that say people need to see something at least 7 and as high as 21times before they buy. Wouldn’t you think exposing them on traffic exchanges would help email marketing? Aren’t they more likely to buy if they have seen it several times on TEs? I certainly think so.

    Angry Crab

    While I was surfing SeaLifeHits today I found the Angry Crab badge. This may mean that the Angry Crab surf badges will be used tomorrow.

    This just speculation on my part we will see what tomorrow brings.

    PS – As always your comments are not only welcome but encourage. My post will only improve with your help. Thank You in advance.

  • It Has Been A Good Day

    It Has Been A Good Day

    It has been a good day. I actually managed to get everything done that I wanted on a day that had additional commitments. The plumber was here fixing a leak I have in the basement. This has reeked havoc with all the rain we have had in Alabama the last 3 weeks. And, the real time killer was taking our 7 month old, 75 pound puppy, Sarge. to training. It is fun and with a large dog necessary.

    Back to today’s accomplishments

    • I installed and used SteemPress. Now I can create my post in WordPress and it is automatically posted in Steemit as well. I still need to figure out tags but thanks to a comment by @lisamgentile, I learn about default tags which helps. Pictures transfer fine and the posts show up in Steemit very quickly. This is going to be a big help.
    • I completed my 3rd ‘surf 1000 sites’ on SeaLifeHits with the AngryCrab surf badges. Only need 7 more to complete the ‘Surf More’ Mastery task. I hope the Angry Crab surf badges show up tomorrow but that is not likely from what I know.
    • I did some work on cleaning up my blog bobswork.com but still have a lot to do. It has been so long since I used a WordPress blog that I am going to have to relearn a bunch of stuff.
    • I did 4 lessons in the CTP training. I would have liked to have done more but time didn’t allow more.
    • I did several Scavenger hunt’s on CTP.
    • And finally, I had enough time to write this post.

    Hopefully, I can be as productive tomorrow as I was today. I need to

    • Start cleaning up my blog
    • Create the second splash page I need for the SeaLifeHits Mastery Challenge
    • Of course create a new post in my quest to post 366 days in a row
    • Do the normal surfing necessary.
    • Do some CTP training
    • Comment on posts on Steemit and CTPtalk

    We will see what tomorrow brings.

    PS – As always, your comment are not ony welcome, they are encouraged. The only way I am going to get better is with your help. Thank You

  • The Angry Crabs Are Here

    angrycrab.png

    Yeah! The Angry Crab surf badges showed up today at SeaLifeHits. I thought maybe they showed up because I found the Angry Crab badge yesterday. But I had a comment from @crusin that says they just randomly appear and only last for a day. It is going to take a long time to finish each of the Mastery’s in ClickTrackProfits. Getting the referrals and commissions I need to complete the SeaLifeHits will probably take me even longer than the Angry Crab surf badges. 
    The good news is the the Angry Crab surf badges showed up. The bad news was that I had to surf 1000 sites and that takes time. I chose to forego the time I have allocated for training modules at ClickTrackProfit (CTP) for surfing. I hate not doing any training in a day because there is so much training and I am only 34% done. Maybe I can double up on training modules tomorrow.

    Another thing I am planning on doing tomorrow is start using Steempress. As I understand it, Steempress provides a bridge between my WordPress blog and my Steem blog. From what I have learned so far about Steempress, my post should show up here, Steemit, but I won’t know for sure until I try it. I am hoping that images get copied as well but noting I have read so far says that they get copied or not. I will just have to try it and see.

    Using Steempress is going to create more work because my WordPress blog is not in good shape. I am going to have to get it up to date with what I am doing now. I started the blog years ago when I was pursuing very different programs. I am going to have to change a lot.

    blogging.jpg

    By the way, the WordPress blog is http://moreincome4u.com. Please understand that I need some time to get it cleaned up

    PS – All constructive comments, good and bad, are not only welcome but encouraged. I can’t get any better without your help. Thanks in advance for your comments.#steempress#ctp#bobcaine#sealifehits

  • Side Tracked

    angrycrab.png

     Still no Angry Crab surf badges yesterday or today. But I did find the Angry Crab badge. Maybe that will turn on surf badges I need.

    Boy, did I get myself side tracked yesterday. I have been working my way through the training on ClickTrackProfit. (Any of you who are CTP members know there is a LOT of training.) I’m in section of the training called ‘Profit’. One of the modules is ‘Color Theory’. I got fascinated learning about color theory in advertising. It is one of those things I never gave a thought before.

    When I do splash pages, I have always just used the colors that looked good to me. I like a splash of color on the pages I create without going crazy. Black and white by itself would be boring. I almost always make “call to action buttons green but there was no thought be hind it. It turns out green is the best color for a ‘SUBMIT’ button. Split tests have shown over and over that green buttons get more clicks. Here is a list of colors and what they represent.

    • Red – exciting, bold
    • Orange – friendly, cheerful
    • Yellow – optimistic, warm
    • Green – healthy, peaceful, growth
    • Blue – dependable, strong
    • Purple – creative, imaginative, royal
    • Gray – neutrality, calm
    • Black – sophistication, simplicity

    Red headlines, black text, green button on a white back ground make very effective pages.

    If you are interested in learning more about color in advertising, just Google “Color in Marketing”. Here is on page I found particularly interesting.

    Color Psychology in Marketing: The Ultimate Guide

    So I spent a lot of time yesterday learning about color. So much time there wasn’t any time left for anything else.

    Thank You for Reading,
    Bob Caine

    paintcolor.webp

    PS – As always your constructive comments are not only welcome but encourage. I can’t get better without your help. Thank you in advance.#ctp#bobcaine#colorinadvertising

  • Splash Page for SLH Mastery

    angrycrab.png

    First, the SeaLifeHits surf badges are the usual Turtles today not Angry Crabs.  Maybe tomorrow.

    Yesterday, I told you I was going to work on the splash pages I needed to qualify for SeaLifeHits Mastery challenge in ClickTrackProfits. I got one done. Here is what I came up with.

    Attacking Fish

    I would love to know what you think about it. The more feedback I can get the better. So, please, take a few seconds, view the page and let me know what you think – good and bad. I really appreciate your time and efforts to provide feedback.

    Also, as predicted yesterday, creating this squeeze page took me a lot longer than it should. As you probably noticed, I used Adkreator to create the page. It made creating the page fairly easy. The thing that slowed me down the most was picking a template to use. There is almost 200 squeeze page templates and I looked at every one before I picked one. Then, I had to figure out a workaround for an Adkreator limitation. It doesn’t provide a way to assign a URL to the button. I got around this by making the whole page a link. You got to do what you got to do.

    I call it a limitation but I think it actually is an advantage for many part-time affiliate marketers. Adkreator is designed to produce very professional looking graphics for those of us who have no desire to become graphic artists. It is not uncommon to reduce functionality in order to make use easier. I think Adkreator has done an outstanding job combining ease of use with functionality. I am sure you have used software that has so much functionality that it becomes very difficult to use.

    This was very true of the video editor I used called VideoPad by NCH Software. This software lets you combine videos, add images, modify sound tracks and I am sure much, much more. All I needed to do was create a short clip from a longer video. Creating the short clip was no problem but saving it. I found another one of my workarounds to save the clip. I exported it and that seems to have saved it but I still don’t know how to just save an edited video even after reading and watching all the tutorials. Maybe I will figure it out next time I use the software.

    Now I need to move on to the second splash page I need (no guarantee it will be done tomorrow) and continue my quest for Angry Crabs.

    image.png

    PS – As always your constructive comments are not only welcome but encourage. I can’t get better without your help. Thank you in advance.#ctp#clicktrackprofit#bobcaine#sealifehits

  • A Productive Day at CTP

    I missed a few days of posting on Steem regretfully. But what is did for me is give me a direction for this and my Steem blogs. I am going focus on my ClickTrackProfit experiences. Lord knows there are many, many things to write about. Below is my first post along those lines.

    I swore I was going to post here everyday. Well, that didn’t work out. I absolutely have to make this a priority. I will never get better at creating posts if I don’t work at it. Hopefully, today’s accomplishments made time available.

    I have been working on the various Mastery tasks in ClickTrackProfits. In particular, I have been working on the mastery tasks for SeaLifeHits Traffic Exchange. One of the tasks to obtain Mastery of SeaLifeHits is titled ‘Surf Badges’. Completing this task requires claiming all the turtle badges 50-1000 15 times. I finished that task today. It takes a long time to surf 1000 sites. I don’t have to do that any more – YEAH!

    I do still have to complete the ‘Surf More’ tasks which requires claiming all the Angry Crab badges 50-1000 10 times and I only have 1. The problem with this task is I never know when the Angry Crab badges are going to be used instead of the Turtle badges. I just have to login everyday and surf 50 sites to see if it is a Turtle or Angry Crab badge day. (And there are days with no badges.) It doesn’t take that long to surf 50 sites so that isn’t a big deal. It is just a matter of them showing up. I will get there.

    SLHturtles.png

    PS – As always your constructive comments are not only welcome but encourage. I can’t get better without your help. Thank you in advance.#clicktrackprofit#sealife#hits#bobcaine

  • My First Steem Post

    The following post was my very first adventure into Steem. I am going to copy the posts I created in Steem before I installed SteemPress and then I will try a short post to learn how SteemPress works.

    Hello Steem World,

    My name is Bob Caine and I am brand new to the world of Steem. I have been learning about Steem through the training on ClickTrackProfit and SteemSavvy. At the moment, I am on information overload trying to understand the ins and outs of Steem. I realized that the only way I am really going to learn how Steem works is by using it.

    I spent a good 30 minutes this morning just trying to get logged in to follow Jon Olson. But the age old trial and error method finally was successful as you can tell by the fact I am posting this blog entry. I plan on posting several times a week just to report on my Steem Educational Journey. Once I get more comfortable with the functions of Steem, I will expand the focus of my posts.

    I know there is a lot to learn and am going to take Jon’s advice. I will not try to rush to learn it all. I will take my time and make sure I understand what I am learning. I have already discovered that there is a whole new way to stylize my posts that I have to learn.

    Wish me luck. All advice is welcome and encouraged.

    Thank you for taking the time to read my first post,
    Bob Caine

    I Will Find the KEY!

    #steemsavvy #jongolson #jonolson #learningsteem #newtosteem