The Core

Never done anything with AMT but we have worked with some Filipinos and other outsourcers also.

1.  I had a writer rewriting descriptions for products on datafeeds. The quality was OK. Not perfect but passable. I was paying per description and the lady doing it was pretty fast so she could probably earn $400-500 or so per month if she worked really, really hard. I found her through an ad on Craigslist in Manilla. I had about 80 applicants and maybe 20 of them completed a quick test I sent them to weed them out. Out of those 20 there were maybe 3 that were good enough.

2.  When we started with Traffic Geyser we got a programmer of Rent-a-Coder from Nepal and he built the first version of the system for around $500. He did such a great job we hired him on full time and had him bring in 3 more programmers. He is probably the best programmer I have ever worked with. Rather than just doing what we told him to do he would find ways to improve stuff on his own.

3.  We have had other programmers we have tried that just never panned out. Some we found through places like bestjobs.ph, 123employee.com, rentacoder, and other similar places. They would never get anything done, take way too long, and always have excuses.

4.  There are also tons of sob stories so you have to be ready. "Can I get paid in advance so I can pay for my mom's surgery" and stuff like that.

So it is really hit and miss. Mostly miss but if you can find a good worker it can be worth the hassle of finding them.

We have found some good programmers in the past at VWorker. It usually takes a few before you find a good one but there are some very good ones in there.

A friend of mine just put out an ebook of 100 ways to save money using Fiverr.com. Looked through it just now and while there is nothing you can't find from going to the site it is a good, quick way to get a feel for the type fo stuff offered there. http://fivebuckebook.com It is free but he is asking for donations to a charity.

In a lot of ways I like the smaller meetup better also. That is why I like the SAS Thinktank. Only about 100-150 people.

But I also enjoy the larger conferences like Affiliate Summit. I think they are expecting 4,500 people or so in Vegas this year. But I am able to ignore most of the people there so it kind of seems smaller. There are maybe 50-75 people I would talk to on a regular basis there. Everyone else is just filler.

I have a friend who works for that company. She says that guy can be kind of a tool but he does know his business stuff. At Blogworld last month they set three Guiness world records for the largest cup of coffee, the largest cup of iced coffee, and the largest coffee mug. I would guess they spent $20,000 or so on that but the publicity and links they can generate from something like that will more than pay off in the long run.

Rather than just paying for links he is now using good old fashioned publicity to get the job done.

Here are some stats from a couple different merchants on my last 100 sales:

Merchant 1 ($150 product. Unlimited cookie)

Same Day Purchase: 67
1-2 return days: 9
3-5 return days: 5
5-15 return days: 9
15+ return days: 10

Merchant 2 (lots of different products. Sports related stuff. 60 day cookie)

Same Day Purchase: 80
1-2 return days: 4
3-5 return days: 3
5-15 return days: 4
15+ return days: 9

On both merchants it looks like 10% of the sales come over 15 days out. I used to think cookie length was pretty insignifigant but after seeing those numbers that is a good chunk of sales that are coming after the first day. I would have never thought 10% of the sales would be over 15 days out. So I would push for 30+ day cookies whenever possible.

Not sure if the network is full of it or not. But cookies are important.

Have you ever tried Crazyegg? It gives heatmaps of your site so you can see exactly where people are clicking and what links they click on.

One of the best uses I have found for it is you can even see just regular text people try to click on. If there is a phrase that keeps getting clicks you can just make it into a link and see an almost instant increase in sales.