This thread is made to focus on CPALead, but many of the tips, tricks and methods will work for MANY CPA Companies and Affiliate Marketing in General.
I will cover everything from Signing Up and Getting Approved for CPALead, to Customizing Your Gateways, Getting FREE Traffic, and any other methods to make money with CPA I come across.
In addition to CPALead, which is for Mainstream Websites, I may mention AdultAccessNow, which is for Adult Content. They are both essentially the same thing. All methods should work for both of the networks. All or most of these tips should be able to be adapted for both.
If you want to Post your Own Methods, or ask any questions, please feel free. I am not a Guru or anything, just a regular guy, but I will do research and help you with anything I can. Please do not post to argue, if you don’t find this thread helpful for your particular needs, just close it
What IS CPALead?
CPALead is an Incentive CPA Network that works exclusively with a “Content Blocker” Gateway. This Gateway forces Users/Visitors to complete a CPA Offer before accessing your site, downloading files, watching movies etc. When they complete the survey or offer, you get paid! The payments are usually around $0.50 and $1.00 for regular surveys, and $3.00 to $7.00 for mobile offers.
I personally think CPALead is the easiest CPA Network to get started in, due to their amazing tools, and ease of integration into any existing website or blog. They even have a wordpress plugin to install, which lets you select if you want to block certain categories, posts etc.
Here is the official link to the wordpress plugin:
WordPress › Official CPALead.com WordPress Plugin WordPress Plugins
Here is a step-by-step guide to creating your first Gateway, and integrating it into your site so you can start earning!
1. Log in to your account.
2. Click on “Widgets”.
3. Click on “Create New Widget”.
4. Select Content Type, what type of content do you want to block?
5. Look for “Create Widget” and click “Webpage Containing Digital Images/Ebooks” etc for example to start.
6. Use the arrows to choose a gateway style you like. We will work on Custom Designs Later. After choosing, click continue.
7. Leave the default box clicked. Click Continue.
8. Leave the defaults click for now, and Click Continue.
9. Access time: How Long Do you want users to have access for after completing 1 offer? 0 is forever.
10. Tease Time: How Long Before the Gateway Pops Up? 0 is instantly. 0 is best for start.
11. Click Continue.
12. Leave the defaults, and Click Continue.
13. Name your Widget “Test” or something similar, its not important. Click Continue.
14. Scroll down and click “I agree, Create this Widget.”
15. “Invite a Friend” Will pop-up, just click Cancel for now.
16. Leave the default boxes, and Click “Generate Code.”
17. Copy/Paste the script after <head> and before the </head> tags on the web site to be protected.
18. You may have to insert the code on every HTML page, if you are running WebSite based entirely in HTML.
19. Test your site. After Saving/ReUploading the Web Pages with the Code, Visit Your Site.
Thats it. Now just get some traffic to your site, and watch the money come in. On Average, Even with random traffic, 1 in 50 visitors who see the Gateway will complete an offer. With Targeted Traffic, Usually 1 in 6 will complete an offer.
Applying and Getting Approved:
Many people are afraid to apply for CPALead. It is true, they are strict on who they accept, but getting accepted is easy!
1. Be Honest.
2. Tell them about your past work with other CPA companies.
3. List the best blogs you own.
4. If you run an adult blog, apply to AdultAccessNow instead. CPALead is NOT for adult content.
5. Tell them if you will use PPC, Adwords, Banner Ads etc.
6. Tell them if you study other blogs or forums always looking for the best new methods to make money.
7. Make sure you tell them that you are HONEST.
Thats pretty much all you need to say, if you get rejected, just apply again in 3 days with some minor changes, and even email them to ask WHY you got rejected.
Website Information:
Main Website: List your Most Visited, Best LOOKING website. Hopefully a .Com website if you have one.
Website Category: Choose the Category which best fits your website.
Daily Views: Estimate, and choose what a “Good Day of Traffic” is for your site.
Where did you hear about us? Warrior Forums
Website Description: Tell them all about your website currently AND any plans for the future you have.
Please describe how you will get your users to complete our surveys: This is where you can tell them about your past work with other CPA Companies, about your PPC tactics, about your unique content etc.
If you do not already have a website, or you are looking to start a brand new website dedicated entirely to CPALead, this post is for you. I will show you step by step how to create the most basic CPALead Ready Site, that can actually make you good money!
Step 1: Copy the following Code to a new Notepad file.
Code:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>CPALead Website</TITLE>
<META HTTP-EQUIV=”Content-Type” CONTENT=”text/html; charset=iso-8859-1″>
<META NAME=”keywords” CONTENT=”CPALead Website”>
<META NAME=”description” CONTENT=”CPALead Website”>
</HEAD>
<body background=”image1.jpg”>
<FONT size=2></FONT>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Step 2: Decide what Niche/Type of site you want to run. Most popular are Celebrity Images, Streaming Movies, Hot New Music etc.
Step 3: Edit the Title, Keywords, and Description of the Code you copied in Step 1 to Match the Niche of the site you want to run.
Step 4: Use Google Images to Search for a Large Background Image that matches the Niche of the site you will run. Type “Britney Spears Background” for example, if you were running a site related to Britney Spears.
Step 5: Copy the location of the image, and replace “image1.jpg” with your new image location.
Step 6 For An Image Site: If you will do an Image Site, find the images you want to use, and place them into the code we copied earlier. Use “<img src=”IMAGE LOCATION” /></a>” and replace Image Location with the actual location of the pictures you want to use. Place this code under the “Font” section in the original code. You can place as many images as you want on a page, but remember, too many files, or too big and the page will load slowly, causing users to leave. You must copy the entire “<img src=”IMAGE LOCATION” /></a>” code for each individual image.
Step 6 For A Streaming Movie Site: If you will do a Streaming Movie Site, first you must find a stream of the movie you want to show online. Then, you must see if the host has “Embed” code. If they do, all you need to do is copy the “Embed” line and place it under the font section on your website.
Step 7: Log in to CPALead, and follow the directions to make a New Widget for Images/Movies or whatever niche you have chosen.
Step 8: Copy the code, and place it into the Code we copied originally, between the <head> and <title> sections.
Step 9: Save the file as index.html, and upload it to your favorite host.
Step 10: Test the site. Visit the address, and make sure the CPALead Gateway is popping up to ask you to complete a survey.
Step 11: Log in to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or your favorite Social Networking Site or Chat Room, and ask people to visit your site. Tell them what they can expect to find from your site. If your site is about Britney Spears, find a Britney Spears fan page or chat room, you are much more likely to get people willing to complete the surveys.
Thats it!
You have a working CPALead website. All you need to do now is promote it. Make sure you log into the CPALead Homepage and Click on the “Statistics” tab to see if people are clicking on the offers. If you are receiving 0 clicks, there may be an error in your code. Ask a trusted friend to visit the site from their computer and ask them to click one of the offers if it pops up to make sure everything is ok.
YouTube Method
YouTube can be an amazing source of free traffic, if you have the time and patience to work with it.
Step 1: Decide what Niche/Theme you will target.
Step 2: Create a basic website around that theme, if you do not have one already.
Step 3: Create a new widget for YouTube only, so you can track the results.
Step 4: Create a new YouTube account just for this theme, make the name something Catchy, not spammy sounding.
Step 5: Find some images related to your Niche using google images, and save them to your computer.
Step 6: Using a moviemaker program or “OneTrueMedia”, upload the images and create a simple video.
Step 7: On YouTube, insert a link in the description to your website where CPALead is running. Then upload the video to YouTube.
Step 8: Once your video is uploaded to YouTube, comment on others videos, add new friends, subscribe to other videos.
Step 9: Wait and watch. Money should come in, slowly.
Thats it.
It can be fairly time consuming, but the benefits can be amazing. If your video becomes a hit, you can get thousands of views every day. YouTube is great because as long as you don’t break the rules, you video is permanent, and you will receive views (slowly) forever.
Of course, if you have the knowledge, put more time into your YouTube video, and you will receive much more views and better click through rate.
New Movie Trailers and New Music Releases work best for YouTube.
Teasing Your Visitors
If you are planning to integrate CPALead into an already successful website, you may be afraid that a giant PopUp like CPALead will scare away your visitors. There are several ways around this.
After you Create a Widget, click on it under the “Widget Tab”, and then click “Edit Widget”. You will see several different options, and I will cover a few of them today which should help keep your users coming back day after day.
AccessTimeGlobal: You can set a length of time that will pass between CPALead popups, after a user successfully completes a survey. If you want to grant them lifetime access, leave it set at 0. You can test out different time lengths which work best for your site. I would reccommend leaving it at 0, and only limiting the time if you are seeing SOME conversions, but want a bit more. Start with a 48hour limit and adjust every few days until you are happy.
Enable Close Button: This is a big one. If you have this box checked, users can simply close the button, and browse your website normally without completing a survey. This make it CPALead less likely to scare away visitors, but you will have very low earnings. If you want users to be able to choose whether or not to complete a survey, use a title on your widget like “Please Help Cover The Costs of Hosting, Complete 1 Easy Survey” or “Please Donate” etc.
Close Button Delay: Add a few seconds to this to get a few more click throughs before the users close the gateway.
Tease Time: In my opinion, this is THE most important option you can change in a gateway. Tease time allows users to view your site without any gateway for a set time, and then after the time expires, the gateway popsup. This is great for movies or songs. You can allow the user to watch a portion of the movie, then have the gateway popup asking them to complete the survey to finish the movie. At this point, the user knows you have a legitimate copy of the movie, and they are already into it, so they are MUCH MUCH more likely to complete the survey. You must test different tease times every few days to reach optimal times.
New Tip: Custom Skins
Custom Skins can really be a major difference in how many people fill out your surveys. If you do it right, you can double or triple your conversions. If you do it wrong, you can lose everything.
So, what is right, and what is wrong?
Right:
Use a Background picture related to your niche.
Easy to read.
Professional looking.
Wrong:
1 color for entire skin.
Hard to read.
Colors do not mix well.
Cheap and rushed looking.
What this means, is you need to test several different versions of similar skins. Even a few pixels bigger or smaller can make the difference. Create an image, upload it, and actually visit your site to see how it looks.
Here is an example of a great custom skin:
Here are the step by step directions to creating your first custom skin:
1. Create a new .jpg file in Paint or Photoshop, whichever you are most comfortable with.
2. Set the image attributes at Width 530pixels and Height 255pixels. This is a good basic size to start with, and should work for most all widgets.
3. Search Google Images for a picture that relates to the content you are blocking. If you are hosting music, search for music etc.
4. The perfect image is either a mostly black background with an image at the right edge of the picture, or mostly white with an image at the right edge. You can edit with paintshop if needed. I will show an example below…
I simply searched for “movie background” in Google Images, and slightly edited this image to work as a Widget Skin:
5. You can also add a thin border, either red/blue/white, around the entire picture to frame it and make sure it stands out.
6. Now that you have your image, log into CPALead, and click on Widgets, and select the widget that you want to test your new skin on.
7. Upload your skin to imageshack, and copy and Direct Link.
8. In CPALead, click “Edit Widget”, Scroll down and look for “Use Custom Widget Skin” and tick the box. In the box below that, paste your Link from imageshack into the box. Scroll down and save.
9. Now visit your website and have a look at your new gateway. How does it look? Do you like it? If not, edit it slightly and load it again.
10. Run the new skin for a few days, and check to see if your conversions are higher or lower. If higher, great, if lower, try a new skin or go back to the default skin.
I don’t really understand how youy could use Google trends with CPALead. Google Trends niches have very short life spans.
The key is getting your content on the market ASAP. Even though the Trends disappear after a few hours from Google Trends, they are still hot searches for days and months.
The easiest way to do this, is to find a marketable Google Trend, such as a Hot new movie or song, or celebrity video, find a copy of it, upload it to your site, THEN upload a teaser for it to YouTube.
Place your website link in the YouTube description, and start promoting the video. If you are one of the first to get your video up, you can easily get thousands of views and hundreds of hits to your website.
Even though it wont stay a “Hot Trend” forever, people will still stumble upon your video every now and then, resulting in random leads indefinitely for the life time of the video.
