I came across LinkShare just a few short months ago when I was in the beginnings of my affiliate marketing adventures. I was checking out some of the online stores that sold items in a niche I was interested in (what everyone should do when starting out) and I joined their affiliate program, which happened to be with LinkShare.

So, I joined a few more programs, built some lenses and websites, and fast forward to today where I am now earning almost $500 in passive income each month, just after four months of being with LinkShare. That’s not too bad for a newbie, I don’t think.

The road with LinkShare has been filled with long, hard-working days, and even some bumps every now and then. Here’s a review of LinkShare and my experiences with it. There are thumbnails of images in this post, and they’re small to keep loading times of the page down. Click them for larger versions.

1. The Signup Process

Joining LinkShare is fairly easy, and just requires the general information such as name, address, phone number, email address…etc. Additionally, if you’re in the US you need to provide your Social Security Number for tax purposes. International affiliates don’t need to provide an SSN, but I don’t know the specific tax requirements for other countries.

One page two of the signup process you input information about your business model, website, and site category. If you don’t have a website, you can use one of your lenses or your Squidoo Lensmaster Page. I’ve done this in the past with other affiliate programs before I had websites without any issues.

The final page is just a confirmation that tells you to go check your email. It took only a few minutes for me to get mine and I could login to LinkShare and check out the various affiliate programs there.

2. The Interface

LinkShare’s interface is pretty decent, and it’s fairly easy to navigate around, join programs, create links, and check stats. I’m a tech-savvy person, so it was easy for me to find my way around but other non-techy people I’ve talked to about LinkShare have said that it’s easy to get used to.

Above is a picture of the old LinkShare interface–what they’ve been using primarily until recently and what I prefer to use (I’ll say why later). However, just a couple months ago or so they rolled out the new LinkShare Publisher Dashboard, which features a sleeker interface.

So far, I don’t care for the new dashboard. The reporting on it has been way off, and there’s no way (that I can find, anyway) to search for individual products to build affiliate links for. This is very annoying, because if I want to search for a certain product a store offers I can’t, and instead I’d have to scroll through thousands of products to find what I’m looking for. Ick. The old LinkShare interface has a search feature, and the reporting is much more updated and accurate. Until the new Publisher Dashboard has these features I’ll consider switching, but not until then.

3. Finding Partners & Creating Links

Finding advertisers to partner up with is easy with both LinkShare interfaces, and you can browse them by category as well as search for specific ones. The majority of programs are manual approval, meaning you apply and someone looks at your profile to see if you’d be a good match for their program. They respond fairly quickly, and the longest I’ve had to wait to get approved is a week. This may seem like a long time, but I have applications with programs on Commission Junction that have been pending for months. If you email them about your application or apply a second time to the program that can sometimes expedite the process.

Creating links is easy with the old interface, but as I said, terrible with the new one. Not much else to say. I like the look and features of the new dashboard, but until LinkShare fixes the issues with it I’ll stick to the old one.

4. Tracking & Reporting

Reporting isn’t real-time for the programs I’m primarily involved in, as commissions only post when a product has shipped. Stats are updated in batches at various different times throughout the day. LinkShare is really good with stats, and there are tons of fancy graphs and stats analysis doodads.

Above is a screenshot of the options available in the old interface. The new one has similar reporting features as well. However, LinkShare also has a performance analytics feature called SynergyAnalytics, which is some pretty neat software that generates some excellent reports, tables, and graphs.

LinkShare has a serious problem with its tracking, however. There is no way, to my knowledge, to keep track of where sales come from. Every other affiliate network I’ve been with has had some type of tracking such as subID tracking, so I can tell where sales come from (in this case, what lens or website). I read somewhere that LinkShare disabled subID tracking several years ago, and for the life of me I cannot figure out why they would do such a thing.

As you can imagine, it is very frustrating to not be able to tell where a sale comes from. If you have dozens of lenses and websites promoting products from the same merchant, it really would be nice to know where the sales come from so the most effective ones can be worked on and improved. If there is some sort of tracking like this, I can’t find it anywhere. And believe me: I’ve looked everywhere.

5. Payments

LinkShare offers two main payment methods: check and direct deposit. The first couple months I had checks mailed, and only recently switched to direct deposit. LinkShare requires you to receive and cash at least one check before you can select direct deposit as a payment option (identity verification, maybe?). Payments are usually issued between the 15th to the 20th of each month, and it took roughly a week for me to receive my checks. My most recent direct deposit reached my bank account about two days after the “payment sent” box appeared on my LinkShare dashboard.

Conclusion

So far, in my experience, LinkShare has been pretty good affiliate network. If not for the missing features and bugs in the new Publisher Dashboard and the insanely-weird absence of any kind of tracking, it’d be a top affiliate network in my books. I’m moving a bit away from LinkShare because of these issues, and trying to work with other networks such as Pepperjam Network. However, if you’re just getting started in affiliate marketing, LinkShare can be a nice place to begin–especially if an online store you’re interested in has their affiliate program with it. I will still continue to use LinkShare for for the merchants that are exclusive to it and I started out with.

Originally, they picked five great Superhero lenses and donated $500 to charity for each one, but I guess that they decided it’d be fun to pick some runners up. The email I got from Anne said:

We’re big softies. We couldn’t pick just five:
http://blogs.squidoo.com/lensoftheday/
Happy to say that Ben Carson makes the list!

Please let me know where you would like the $100 donation to go. And please send me your snail mail address as we have a special surprise for you!

Thanks and congrats!

Anne

Wow! I was floored when I read this. I never thought I’d win, and I didn’t really build the Superhero lenses hoping that I’d win. I just did it for fun and to kind of give back a little of what I’ve been given. I was even more surprised when I saw that I’d be getting a super special awesome surprise in the mail. I’ll keep on the lookout and let you know what I get when I get it. In case anyone wants to know, I had the $100 donation sent to Save the Children.

Also, while looking at that Lens of the Day blog post, I noticed that three of the Superhero runners-up are regular chatters in the Captain Squid Chat Room. I thought that was pretty neat! If you haven’t done so yet, you’d better swing by sometime and say hello. We’ve got a great community there with some amazing people and lots of innovation and thinking going on!

Why do retailers do this? Well, they spend millions and millions of dollars each year on advertising. When we partner up with them through affiliate programs and promote their products for them, we do it at our own risk. Since it’s cheaper and safer (for them) in the long run to just pay affiliates (us) a cut of the profit for selling something, these big companies prefer to do this and be able to spend less on advertising costs. We spend our time promoting their products, get a share of the profit for each product purchased through us, and the company spends less on advertising. It’s usually a win-win situation.

To join an affiliate program and start promoting products is very easy. There are literally dozens of big affiliate programs that are partnered with hundreds (thousands?) of companies. Some of the bigger and most prestigious ones include Linkshare, Commission Junction, and Pepperjam Network. Simply sign up with one of these programs (free, never pay to join an affiliate program) and look for some products that are relevant to your lenses. Usually, all you have to do is copy and paste some HTML code into your lens and it will generate a link or picture people can click through to buy the product. You’ll then receive a commission for each item sold.

I’ve seen a LOT of lenses that have had great potential for earning money, but their owners don’t seem to know about affiliate programs and a lot of opportunity is lost. All they would have to do is join one of the programs listed above and earn some money for their hard work of creating a great lens. Most of these lenses have some of the Squidoo money making modules such as Amazon, and I have no idea how well they’re doing on that, but there can be other more rewarding alternatives. Don’t get me wrong, Amazon is great–there just are often alternatives that are more targeted. For instance, if you build a lens reviewing art supplies, wouldn’t you rather buy them from a trusted art supply store instead of an all-in-one superstore like Amazon that sells tens of thousands of products ranging anywhere from computers to lingerie to even groceries? I know I would, and I think that a lot of people would agree.

Also, like I mentioned earlier, never pay to join an affiliate program. You should never have to pay to promote other people’s products for them, and any affiliate program that tries to charge you for the “privilege” of making them money is almost always a scam. Stick with the guys that have built up a good reputation, and be sure to check out each affiliate program before you join it to be sure it’s legit. A simple Google search of the program’s name should bring up enough reviews and information to verify it. If you see a bunch of people complaining about it, then find a different program to work with. There are plenty out there. I’m working on a list of trustful affiliate programs that I recommend, so stay tuned for that.

And, if you join Linkshare, Commission Junction, or Pepperjam Network and are having trouble getting started, just shoot me an email and I’ll see what I can do to help you out.

So, basically, the term Squidüber in my own invented language means “super squid” or something like that. It’s pronounced “SquidOOber,” and in a way it sounds similar to “Squidoo”, so that’s why I chose it. I also wanted to combine one of my favorite things ever (Squidoo) with a favorite pastime (gaming), and thus, Squidüber was born.

Additionally, I wanted to coin up my own Squidoo phrase, since the folks over at Squidoo HQ seem to like creating new terms (SquidFlix, SquidWho, SquidVids) and I just couldn’t resist following suit.

And that’s that!

Eventually, the Squidoo Staff responded and said that they had a database glitch, and they got lenses up and running but now traffic stats are broke.

Great. All of my lenses have no traffic stats now. HQ said they were working on fixing the issue, but who knows when it’ll be fixed. Since my lenses were down for half of the day, I probably missed out on earning some $$$, and I don’t know what will happen. Things will be resolved I’m sure, but it gets a little nerve wracking to see something happen to my hard work. I can only imagine what the feeling would be for someone like The Captain who have hundreds of lenses and most likely depend on Squidoo for a good chunk of their online income.

And, I know that I have no room to talk when it comes to breaking stuff. I’ve had my fair share of troubles with SquidTop and I understand what it’s like to manage a lot of people by myself. Since Squidoo’s staff is very small, I can relate to them and what they deal with. I guess this is a lesson that we shouldn’t keep all of our eggs in one basket, and that includes Squidoo. Things like this happen and it’s good to have backup sources of income in case one of them fails or is interrupted.

Anyways, I hope this gets fixed soon and that nothing was permanently damaged.

Anyways, with all of this action (and other stuff) I haven’t had much time to do things I really like, such as blogging and lensbuilding. I only got two Superhero lenses done by the deadline, so I guess there will be no fun charity contest for me. Oh well, I’ll make one every now and then just for fun and to “give back” a little bit.

Enough of my rambling. Just wanted to update on my status, and I’ll post something of use pretty soon.

I just finished on my second lens for the Squidoo Superhero Project for Charity. As of this writing, I have 4 days, 13 hours, and 41 minutes left to create three more lenses for the Superhero Project. Think I can make it? I hope so!

My second lens for the project is about Dr. Ben Carson, who is a gifted neurosurgeon who has saved the lives of thousands of people, and become a great role model for millions (including me). In 1987 he performed a medical procedure to separate siamese twins who were joined at the back of the head–the first time such a procedure was successful. Really neat stuff. Since I’m a nursing student, his life story is especially fascinating to me.

That’s Superhero Lens #2 down now, and just three more to go.

Some of the features include:

• Checks tags and color-codes them by number of lenses
• Counts tags, and links to traffic stats and the Wordtracker keyword tool
• Increases the height of text edit boxes
• Makes the workshop the full width of published lenses
• And more…click here for a full list

Squidoo Enhanced has been a big help in my Squidoo journey, and I would have had a much harder time without it. I know that my Squidoo traffic has increased significantly because of the suggestions this tool has made, and it’s saved me a lot of time and trouble.

Anyways, installing the addon is a breeze. All you have to do is:

1. Download and install Mozilla Firefox Web Browser, if you don’t already have it
2. Install the Greasemonkey Plugin for Firefox
3. Restart Firefox
4. Install the Squidoo Enhanced Script here
5. Go to your Lensmaster Dashboard and enjoy!

Additionally, there is another SquidUtils addon script that cleans up the SquidU forum, removes some of the clutter, and adds some more goodies. You can find it here.

Kudos to thefluffanutta!

I really admire Squidoo for making the option available to contribute to charity like this, and of course for the lensmasters who donate their time and work toward a good cause. Contests like the Superhero Project are not only loads of fun, they also make me feel good when I build lenses that will support people who need help.

Anyways, my first lens is Remember the Troops. It’s not entirely finished yet, so it looks a bit incomplete, but I’m still finding new stuff to add to it. There are only five days left in the Superhero Project Challenge, so I’m pretty late in getting started on this. I’m going to work hard though and see if I can get all five done by the deadline.

How about you? Are you participating in the Superhero Project too?

I’ve been having to answer support requests and fix broken stuff almost nonstop since I got back, so it’s left me with little time for blogging, building lenses, and working on my millions of other projects. To top it all off, I had a migraine on Friday and another one yesterday, so that was very annoying and I was mentally incapacitated. This is strange, because I haven’t had a migraine for over a year now and getting two back-to-back was a little unnerving. Today I’m feeling much better, but I still feel a little nauseous and “hung-over”. I did a little looking on Squidoo and I couldn’t find that many really great lenses on migraines, so maybe that’ll be my next project when I get some time…

What someone really needs to make a lens about is how to stop time…or at least how to grow a couple extra appendages or something, so I could get more done. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Edit:Tonight I noticed that my RSS feed wasn’t working right. It seems that Feedburner really screwed something up. I’m really sorry to anyone out there who was having problems with it, but everything’s fixed now.