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