I’ve been an admirer of Elite by Design’s template for quite some time. The theme doesn’t feature gradients or bright colors like other Web 2.0 templates but it is clean, beautiful and features unique colors.

Here are some of the features as stated by Elite by Design:

• If you are looking to make money from your blog via ad placement
• If you are looking for a fresh theme in the wordpress marketplace
• If you want a clean, ordered coding structure
• If you are in need of a clean theme to suit all of your wordpress needs

The blog really is good for making money via ad placement. The design comes with several areas which can easily be dedicated to advertising:

Like all bloggers you are probably wanting your RSS feed count to grow. Elite by Design comes built-in with a prominent location for RSS subscribers:

What About Customization?

Elite by Design is easily customizable. And although the original site features a text-only title, yours can easily include a logo with your blogs name.

Each upper field is also customizable. The “featured design” can easily be changed to a featured article, anything is possible.

Conclusion

The Elite by Design Theme is highly recommended. Usually themes of this quality can run from $200 to $500, sometimes more depending on the design company.

With Elite by Design you have three choices to choose from:

Single use with a credit link to the author: $65

Single use without a credit link to the author: $100

Multiple use (No resale): $175

This article is part of the series “Looking at Affiliates”.

With the last article of Looking at Affiliates, I thought I would give an overview of what each affiliate has to offer.

Overview of all affiliates mentioned:
MoreNiche – Small selection, but good payouts and good referral program.
Amazon – Tons to offer, small commission but trusted brand. Must use country-specific websites.
DealDotCom – Can’t review products, one product per day. Referral program.
PayDotCom – Decent sized selection, referral program.
WidgetBucks – Good signup bonus, CPM and PPA sucks.
NeverBlueAds – Good selection. Mostly only pays to US and Canada but also has some selection for other english speaking questions. Has some to offer to other developed countries.
Merchant affiliates – Large selections, can sell basically anything. Trusted brands. Direct affiliating has a higher payout.

Well, this ends the series “Looking at Affiliates”. I just wanted to go through a few of the most talked about affiliates currently. I’ll post more about affiliates as they come along.

This article is part of the series “Looking at Affiliates”.

The great news about affiliate marketing is the ever growing importance we as webmasters are playing. Merchants are slowly moving towards direct affiliate programs, especially the large corporate sites. In the coming years we will see the trend expand and finally trickle down to the smallest of businesses–allowing for a much broader affiliate choice than today.

Until then, here are some large corporations with direct affiliate programs you might have missed:

• Walmart
• Overstock
• Circuit City

Large companies with third-party affiliate programs:

• Apple (iTunes only as far as I can tell)
• Best Buy
• Dell
• Harrods
• John Lewis
• Karstadt
• Kays
• Laura Ashley
• Marks & Spencer
• Procter & Gamble
• Vodafone

Most companies using third-party programs can easily be found on Commission Junction (serving most of US/Canada) or Zanox (serving most of Europe). If not, they probably aren’t offering an affiliate program just yet.. In this case, contact their sales department and ask why they aren’t taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity to increase sales.

This article is part of the series “Looking at Affiliates”.

NeverBlueAds has been around for sometime, but was discontinued and finally re-launched last year. The program itself might seem overwhelming at first. Before registration is complete, you must wait for a phone call confirmation from a representative within the following 48 hours. The representative will ask what your website is about, how you plan on using NeverBlueAds and possibly about your traffic situation. The phone call takes only a few minutes and you will be ready to display the ads right after the phone call is finished.

The program offers a wide selection of advertising, ranging from automotive to travel to technology and computers. There really is something for everybody. When selecting a campaign you are shown the average network earnings along with network EPC and if you are able to incentivize the product; which can be a great help when deciding what to choose.

NeverBlueAds allows for different types of promotion: web, email, paid search, and even downloadable software. Although not all are accepted by specific merchants.

Merchants choose how much is paid and what action must be made. The merchant also chooses what countries are allowed (generally only Canada and USA are).

Like other affiliate programs, you also receive credit for referring others. Although the commission rate is smaller, 2% or $2 (your choice), NeverBlueAds is still relatively unknown towards smaller publishers, so the commission is easier to come by than a place like DealDotCom or WidgetBucks. The referral must be from North America, UK, Australia, New Zealand and part of the extreme Southeast Asia in order to receive credit.

Conclusion

If your site receives mostly Canadian and United States traffic, you might as well give NeverBlueAds a try. If not, you can still sign up and check out what they have to offer. It isn’t a total loss for foreign visitors.

This article is part of the series “Looking at Affiliates”.

WidgetBucks has been around the blogosphere the past few months as the next big thing. What thing however, is still being decided.

WidgetBucks offers a few ways to “rake” in the money:

1. Widgets. Basically an affiliate program, but with less of a selection and more of a craphole. You don’t get to choose exactly what ads are chosen, but you do get to select the category. Oh, but you don’t get to choose when the affiliate ad is chosen. More details of its crappyness below.
2. CPM ads. Just like any other CPM program. You select the category (or you can let WidgetBucks bot crawl your site) and you earn money for every thousand visitors. The problem? You don’t get to choose whether these are the affiliate ads are shown. There’s also an annoying timer that changes what ad is shown every 1 to 10 seconds. It’s also flash.
3. Referrals. The best thing that WidgetBucks has done. You get money every time someone signs up through you. So please, sign up through me. Another good thing? You get $25 for signing up. The bad? They won’t pay you until you reach $50. The ugly? Their ads.

Alright, so their ads aren’t entirely ugly… just annoying. 1-10 second flash images changing across the screen. Sure, it might catch the eye of the annoyed visitor, but they will barely be able to see what is actually going on. Actually buying the item is a whole other story.

So lets refresh, shall we?

The good: They will pay you $25 just for signing up. You also get the chance to refer your friends for more money.
The bad: They won’t pay you until you reach $50, which can be impossible for smaller bloggers and might take much more time compared to other affiliates/cpm programs.
The ugly: The ads. They are flash, ever changing and can annoy the visitors. 1-10 second frame changes is too fast for visitors to actually see, realize what they are, then read and finally click through. Hell, even their referral ads change every few seconds.

Conclusion

I don’t recommend it, but if you are willing to try, might as well sign up now. Maybe you’ll have better luck with the CPM ads or sales. Who knows? Maybe someone will get lucky.

[edit]Rumor is that WidgetBucks is doing away with the $25 signup. So if you want to join, join now![/edit]