A research study was carried out by SecureData to measure consumers’ confidence and perceived safety while surfing online. Using 1500 consumers from the US, UK, Japan, Germany and France, consumers were questioned around their confidence and perceived safety of the internet.

Over half the interviewed consumers did not trust their Internet Security software. Despite this finding, most interviewed consumers were still actively participating in online banking, and online purchasing with their credit cards. This is not at all surprising. With online advancements making it more and more difficult for the average non-technical shopper to keep up to date, it is fast becoming acceptable to just do. It is a well known fact that hackers are working night and day to clear out our bank accounts. Yet in reality, there is not that much we are able to do, as to understand how to stop them, will consume so much of our time, we wont fit in the daily task of earning the money to place in our bank accounts.

It’s a fact of life that we protect ourselves with the product which does the best marketing campaign, and that is why affiliate marketing is such a powerful tool. Take advantage of your site visitors’ time. They give you their time in the hope you will make their visit worthwhile. Think carefully when you plan how to market a campaign. You have a lot of power as people don’t take the time to research. So sell it correctly and your visitors will buy it.

Talking about campaigns…

The latest offer for TrafficSynergy.com is focused towards our TrafficSynergy South African affiliates. It is a click campaign for Magazine subscriptions. The site also sells books, gear, clothes and other interesting extras for using on Getaway experiences. Magazines include Oprah, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, House and Leisure, Femina, Wegbreek, Getaway, Golfer, Wine, Popular Mechanics, Leisure and Wheels, and Wiel. If you have the traffic, place your banners carefully. The position you place them in could be the difference between your visitor clicking on one of these banners, or simply closing their browser and finding something more interesting to fill their minds with.

With the heat wave in Cape Town making it hard to understand the snow in London, it is possibly best to lie yourself on the beach (or alternatively sit yourself in front of the fire place) with an interesting magazine. Whether it is hot or cold, there is never a moment when one does not find value in letting ones mind wander as ones hands turn the pages through a glossy magazine.

Take advantage of this offer, it is one of those campaigns which fit nearly every affiliates’ website.

Technology is forever extending its reach. What is amazing is how it silently fits into your life without you being any the wiser. Take for example the Mate 1 Intimate Encounters - 4 field dating offer. If you sift through the 17 pages of creatives you will notice that a lot of the banners are geotargeted. This means that the banner will read the IP address of the city you are in, and place that city name on the banners.

Thus, if you are sitting in Los Angeles, this dating offer's banners will say "Meet girls in Los Angeles". And phenomenally, yet completely expected, if your IP address is Cape Town, South Africa, the banners change to "Meet girls in Cape Town".



The exponential growth of internet usage in South Africa has helped put South Africa strongly on the virtual map. With the relatively low price of labor complimented by the strong online skills of many South Africans, more and more international advertisers are seeing the advantage of including South Africa within their advertising and advertiser budget.

The Mate 1 Intimate Encounters - 4 field dating offer was previously only paying for US, UK, Australian and Canadian traffic. In the enthusiasm to include South Africa, they are now looking to test the form out with South Africans. It is all to do with quality. And since TrafficSynergy is the world’s largest link to the South African affiliate marketing world, it is all up to TrafficSynergy affiliates.

You can either pay your family and friends to complete the easy lead form, with no intention to ever participate in this online dating site. Or you can run the campaign legitimately, and help TrafficSynergy, find unincentivised single South Africans who are generally interested in meeting new people through Mate 1 Encounters. The difference between the two types of leads is often opaque, but in terms of quality and sustainability that the offer will continue, the difference is crystal clear.

Fraud on any offer is clamped down hard. And since a handful of rotten eggs can make the whole basket be thrown out, so too will a single South African affiliate destroy the undecided world opinion of South African affiliates.

Along with the launch of South Africa on Mate 1 Encounters international dating site, we have lifted the payout substantially.

Are you a PPC affiliate?
Are you running TrafficSynergy offers?
Have you ever been interested in knowing which of your adwords are actually bringing you the leads and sales?

If you answered yes to all 3 questions then read on, this post is for real.

The TrafficSynergy team has found a way to help you! TrafficSynergy has come up with a technologically, phenomenal tool for TrafficSynergy affiliates. This new TrafficSynergy tool will allow you to know exactly which of your keywords converted. Thus, if you managing a Travelstart campaign on the TrafficSynergy affiliate network, you may have 300 keywords. A simple dilema, would be to determine whether your keyword Kulula is being clicked on and resulting in a sale. The answer is now available.

The best part of this new TrafficSynergy tool, is it is 100% free. This free product is not currently available anywhere else or through any other affiliate programs. This simple, free version will benefit any affiliate. Thus, as always TrafficSynergy remains the leader in affiliate marketing. TrafficSynergy has integrated this deep level tracking into our system to benefit you. We are looking for as many affiliates as possible to take advantage of this great way to target your adwords campaigns.

Simply send us your Google Conversion Tracking code, and we will do the rest.

Also, due to the overall volume of Student Loan Consolidation leads going through our network, we have lifted the payout to a record high. To view your new payout, log into your TrafficSynergy affiliate account and click on the link on the welcome page. Remember this campaign is only for US traffic. It can be promoted through banner, email and PPC marketing.

So not many deep thoughts for today as with so much on the go, there has not been much time for us to focus our attention anywhere except on pure work.

Today while running along the promenade, I passed a tall, strong, outdoor looking, middle aged man wearing a black Virgin Active T-Shirt. He had a startling resemblance to Sir Richard Branson. I’m not sure if he is in South Africa but whether or not it was him, it made a simple run very exciting.

Often, especially in online marketing, we have so many interesting thoughts, that sometimes we forget to take advantage of the thoughts that are really smart. Although the concept I am about to tell you about, you will probably read and go, "Ofcourse you should do that!” most of you will probably never taken the time or effort to test it out. The idea is simple.

A good site, like a good shop, never gives you a reason to leave. If this mission is accomplished and they manage to keep you on their website, when should they encourage you to leave? Many sites encourage you to look around and often provide you with something you can spend your money or time on, in some way. But once you have bought, and you have exhausted the site, why do so many advertisers let you close the window and move by your own free will.

One of the most powerful pieces of real estate on a website is the thank you page... the page which says "thank you for spending time on our site, and we hope to see you again soon." This is the page you land on when you have bought the goods, or submitted your details. You, as the site visitor, are now lost where to go, as you have probably been very tightly led throughout your time on the site.

Place ads on the exit page. TrafficSynergy has tons of options for you to choose from. Your visitors have no reason to stay once they land on this page, so don’t just let them go, tell them where to go. There is a lot of money to be made on the exit, yet most websites undervalue this moment, and leave their visitors hanging.

And yes it was too good to believe. Dell was probably the most talked about South African site on Friday afternoon, as they chose (or at least some close to fired person chose) to advertise their laptops for R0. Now although logically anyone reading this would straight away laugh it off as a stupid mistake, temptation and logic, surfaced and I, along with many others, patiently selected the exact model I wished to purchase.

Whether it was or was not a stupid thing to do, the thought processes were simple. If enough people support the cause of a free Laptop, the mob will dictate and the Laptops will be free. As predicted, shortly after lunch time today, I received the Dear John letter from Dell, apologizing for the inconvenience and promising to reimburse if the travel costs had been deducted from my credit card.

But is that really good enough? Is that not a low, and false way of getting free advertising to their site. Whether it was intended or not, a lot of people stopped in their tracks to visit the Dell site, and select a Laptop they probably did not actually need. From this false marketing drive, Dell benefited hugely. Dell benefited hugely both in terms of traffic and branding. Perhaps it was in fact a preplanned marketing campaign which went horribly wrong. They calculated their figures based on the rate at which visitors normally visit their site and purchase, without considering the most important exponential constant to the equation. If something is free, everyone will buy!

But as the Brand Manager takes the criticism he is about to receive, the Dell brand will strongly grow within South Africa, as there wont be many people who will say to themselves "I will never buy a highly superior laptop from Dell, because a while back they got themselves some free advertising!"

What a day! With all the ADSL problems based around a supposed cable break between South Africa and Hong Kong, none of our affiliates have had an easy day. With the internet going up and down, logging into your affiliate accounts has been a time consuming process. Not only did you need patience, but also lots of anti frustration by being blocked from obtaining the links needed to run the 1 day click Musica campaign.

Despite so many of our affiliates being unable to advertise the Musica campaign, TrafficSynergy affiliates brought Musica 26107 impressions and 1000 clicks. And the most important variable of this equation, the whole marketing drive took a single day! Stats wise this means for every 26 people who saw a TrafficSynergy Musica banner, 1 visitor clicked on the link to land on Musica's site. Using Ananzi's 500 clicks in one month for Mango as a benchmark, this is a 6100% growth on Ananzi's already extra-ordinary achievement.

Publicity is something you always pay for, either through money and favors, or through doing something good / bad. In our case it appears the Blogger community is hitting our TrafficSynergy name pretty hard. For those who are not aware of the whole story, here is a summary.

TrafficSynergy.co.za is running the lead generation campaign on behalf of the organizers for the South African Online Industry Summit. They are looking for online awareness which will bring them leads they can convert into paying delegates. We specialize in affiliate marketing and only affiliate marketing. The campaign is paying the affiliates 10% of the sale value of the tickets. This means that if the ticket gets sold for R8000, the affiliate who brought the lead to the Online Industry Summit organizers, will be paid R800 - definitely worth promoting.

The site design is simply hosted on our site as we believe the South African Online Industry Summit is definitely something we are proud to be a part of. The South African Online Industry Summit is meant to provide a broad picture for all those dabbling or looking to make use of any online marketing, and is certainly not aimed at technical gurus. Thus, if you are commenting, good or bad, on what the lead form looks like, how pricey the tickets are, or simply how interesting the panel looks, you are indirectly advertising the conference and helping to build awareness of its existence. Thanks!

We have read a number of posts where you direct your readers to the online lead generation form, yet take no monetary credit for yourselves for bringing the traffic to the site. Don't waste your thoughts, make money from them. If you know how to catch your readers’ interest, and they follow your links, why not get reward for it.

Good or bad, the conference is sure to be a huge step in educating the largest South African brands on the power of internet marketing. And then we as Bloggers all benefit as the brands spend their budget online. And where do they spend it? On the sites which have the traffic. And that is us!

Oprah Winfrey generated her wealth from the same model, don’t charge for what you do, charge for being around. When she started her talk show, she had a simple arrangement. Her show was free; all advertising earned was hers to keep. This model forms the foundation of affiliate marketing. No one will pay you for writing your thoughts on your Blog, but advertisers will pay you for being able to reach out to your readers.

To pick up your links to get credited for referrals to the South African Online Industry Summit, you will need to sign up to TrafficSynergy.co.za

Life is all about timing. Driving along the N7 yesterday, some glass from a recent accident was sprayed by an oncoming car, and hit my car straight on, smashing the glass of the windscreen. If I had braked one second earlier, I would not have been hit by the glass, and possibly if I had accelerated one second earlier, the glass would have flown through the window and straight into my eye. But since the timing happened the way it did, my shatterproof glass now have a huge dent in it with spider lines accenting the strength of the impact.

Whether timing is based on fate or luck, the founders of TradeDoubler were definitely at the right place at the right time, in 1999 when the company grew from a dream to a reality. For all those internet marketers who are tired of beating their heads against the wall trying to convince their fellow South Africans that advertising on the internet is a reality which is exponentially growing.... finally we have a solid argument. For those who don’t keep up with the exciting online news, AOL has put in an offer to buy out TradeDoubler for $900 million! TradeDoubler's goal is (as stated on their website) "to improve your online business".

Technology is moving fast. So fast it is sometimes impossible to keep up to date with all the new developments. Within 2 years, laptops will be the size of a fist, with more features than humanly possible to imagine. And as if comfort is not the top priority, the keyboard will open out to ensure touch typing addicts never have to learn a new skill.

I personally believe one of the most valuable traits I ever learnt was touch typing. For those who have never taken the time and frustration to slower their speed down to ensure the correct fingers are placed on the correct keys, you will probably not know why typists choose to type with perfect finger posture. There is a silent therapeutic advantage to touch typing which no one ever discusses but all typists know exist. Typing is like playing a musical instrument. It allows the creative side of your brain to form patterns with your fingers, while the left side checks if the right side is typing reader friendly sentences. One of the only other times one uses both sides of ones brain is in a game of chess.

You are probably reading this and wandering why I am not disclosing the daily happenings of the TrafficSynergy team. Today was one of our most successful days to date. We have moved forward with a number of exceptional advertisers, details to follow when the relevant documents are signed. What I can tell you, is we have another awesome one day click drive with Musica. This means that the Musica click campaign will once again be active. The exceptionally high payouts are returning to make it worth your while promoting Musica. We have also added a number of new banners to brighten up your web pages. The banners include top Play Station 2 Games, Cricket 2007 and Eragon, the XBox 360 game Rainbow 6, Gwen Stephanie, Snakes on the Plane, SmackDown verses Raw, and DVD Step Up Banners. Move fast, this campaign will only last one day, so get those clicks going.

Lots of exciting developments we will soon be able to tell you about, so keep reading.

Wi-max can serve over 30km, does not need line of sight, but does not require the ridiculous 3G data prices. Now that is awsome! Can you imagine how many more people would connect to the internet if the whole of Cape Town was wireless like Knysna. Then internet companies would start competing and the price of data would plummet allowing the South African community to become an online community. And that is where the beauty of affiliate marketing lies. When the whole of South Africa catches up to where the US has been for years, shopping on line will become the norm.

I imagine life will be a lot easier. Advertisers, who for decades have seen the worth of advertising in the daily newspaper, will finally realize that advertising online is just as powerful if not stronger to build your brand. And that the added advantage of making sales is only important because it is measurable through tracking. Had online marketing been as ROI ignorant as the traditional method of putting your ad in the newspaper, advertisers would appreciate their online branding as a definite, measurable variable of success.

And what did the TrafficSynergy team get up to today? We have futher developed the interactive banners we acitivated last night for Travelstart. If you have not recieved the email, click here. This means when you place one of these interactive banners on your website and one of your visitors clicks on the banner, it will open in a new window. This will allow you to keep them on your webpage to earn ongoing income during their browse around.

We have also added a number of extra sizes of Travelstart interactive, so you are able to place the banner on a page of your website and make it look like it is one of the tools you are offering your visitors.

Don't forget to get your entries in for the South African Online Industry Summit. Make sure to add the Summit Banners to your website as this campaign has a HUGE payout!

With one day left to the working week, we are working our fingers to the bone, to get you another fabulous offer. Hopefully it will be ready to launch tomorrow. I cant give you too much detail, but what I can tell you, is it is looking for any English speaking traffic, is great for young and old visitors, and has a whopping payout. Cancel your plans for the weekend.... this offer is worth spending the weekend building your campaign around!

This campaign is flying.....

For those of you who have been promoting the TravelStart campaign, I am sure you are all very excited about how well it has been going. But wait.... there's more. The TrafficSynergy team has been very busy implementing interactive TravelStart banners into our network. Now your visitors can select their departure & destination cities as well as dates of travel right there in the banner on your site. This is hot!!! (even hotter than Paris Hilton's motorbike which says "This is hot!" every time she turns the handle bars to the right).

Since most of you are proud internet enthusiasts, the TrafficSynergy team has added a twist to this awsome TravelStart campaign. By going into the html of the creative, you can preset the cities you want your banners to display. Thus, if your traffic is young, ambitious and wanting to travel the world, appeal to their global desire to travel. Set London and Germany in the destinations. If your traffic is striving to follow the trends locally on a tight budget, appeal to the low cost airline seekers by setting Durban and Cape Town as the prepopulated destinations. If the theory sounds fantastic, but technically speaking you have no idea what I am talking abount, drop us an email on HelpIdontunderstand@TrafficSynergy.com

As a bit of store away information, one lucky TrafficSynergy affiliate managed a sale on Loot for R7000. This is our largest single Loot sale to date. It shows the online world are spending on all ranges of sites, and they are no longer only trusting their budgets with the likes of Kalahari.net This proves yet once again, the value of replacing your low commission Kalahari banners and rather pushing books, DVDs, etc to the much higher commission payouts from CNA, and Loot. Also, why not replace your 0% Kalahari commission on electronic goods to the 2.5% SACamera is offering our affiliates.

And another Wednesday draws to a close. And as we wait to hear President Bush's new plan for the war in Iraq in a near virtual real time enviroment, one marvels at the wander of technology and how small the world has become.

Goodnight!

Beaten to the excitement

Today has been hectic! Not only did Trafficsynergy go down in the archives of new cost modeling advancement, but so did Apple Inc (the renamed version of Apple Computers).

For the first time ever, TrafficSynergy in conjunction with SACamera will offer the affiliates choice. This model is based on the "We hear you" philosophy. There are 2 campaigns running side by side. The ZA SACamera Click Campiagn and separately, the ZA SACamera Sale Campaign. Thus the choice lies in the hands of the affiliates.

Only time will tell, which performs better. For those choosing the click option, we are tracking your sales on the backend. If you want to know how many sales you could have made, drop us an email. We are here to help you make the most of your online career. SACamera can be marketed to most countries within Southern Africa and is one of the oldest and most trusted online sites, so dont delay, pick up one or both of these great camera campaigns today.

As if the excitement of a new model and a new campaign is not enough, we also added a top offer for your US traffic. The offer - Russ Dalbey: Real Estate Home Business - also has an awsome payout! Russ Dalbey: Real Estate Home Business is a great offer for winning in the Cash Flow Biz. It has sharp creatives and a really well done landing page, making this offer very attractive to consumers. And if I have not yet convinced you to test the offer out, log into your affiliate account, look at the payout, and I can guarantee you, it wont take much to convince you.

And last but not least, the apple iphone.....

Microsoft founder, Bill Gates earns $4 million every night when he goes to sleep. I wander how peaceful his sleep will be tonight, knowing his product he is about to launch will try take on the ipod (about 10 steps behind the iphone).