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Now that eBay is not allowing any 3rd party networks to use their networks and forcing everyone through their “partner” network I am curious how those of you using it are doing?

eBay made a drastic change in their payout structure a couple months back entering in a quality score like system. The idea was to reward affiliates who were sending eBay users that were engaging in the site immediately and not just using some gimmick to get them to eBay so they could take advantage of the ridiculously long cookie duration.

The new model pays you per click that you send to eBay and how much you make per click depends on the quality of user you send over time.

This will obviously reward users who have a call to action. The ones who had gimmicks to cookie the planet in hopes they buy something within the next 90 days can no longer spray and pray and I am guessing they are getting hosed.

So how is your site doing?

There have been a lot of followup questions and posts from my post last week about how I made 15k from Twitter in a month.

Many people seem to believe that paying me $400-$5,000 for 1 tweet about something can’t possibly be worth it. I totally understand that. Actually, the first time someone paid me ANYTHING to tweet I thought it was a rip off (for them).

Hell, I thought people that were paying me up to $2 PER CLICK when I made $133,000.00 from Google AdSense in one month were TOTALLY CRAZY. But they kept coming back for more…. Then the next month I did a direct deal with a company who wanted to be the exclusive advertiser for that web property. I guess it was worth it to them because they continued on for many months after.

Want to know the really funny thing… after my post last week I got like 20 offers from sponsored tweets in the gambling and web hosting space. I guess they think 6-8 CENTS per click is a good deal =P.

But just like 5 years ago when I thought I was the one making out I am probably the dumb ass making some affiliate a ton of money converting to huge offers for pennies.

So is paying for tweets worth it?

In next month’s ShoeMoney newsletter (November ’09) I am going to talk about an actual true life case study. Hollywood believes Twitter TOTALLY ruined one movie costing a film company $50+ MILLION. Two weeks later another movie came out where Universal Pictures invested a couple hundred thousand in positive, well timed, paid tweets through ad.ly and the movie did amazingly well (despite very bad reviews in traditional media). I have some great quotes from talking to Hollywood agents and movie studios about how Twitter is taking over their advertising budgets.

Sign up for the ShoeMoney newsletter! You won’t want to miss this amazing story.

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We’ve been so busy since returning from New York City at this years Elite Retreat, that I haven’t had a chance to do a recap of the event.  The event was a great success, and I know all of the attendees agree.  This ER was a little different that the past events, because we had it in New York City for the first time.  New York is a great city, but it comes at a high cost.  I think our expenses were double what they were in San Francisco.  We also had two large sponsors for this event, our main sponsor was Epic Advertising.

I would like to personally thank them again for being such a big part of our event.  And then our other big sponsor was Neverblue.  Both of these companies allowed us to throw a great event, with limo pickups, great food and lots of drinks…

As you probably read in my posts before, the event took place at the incredible Hotel Gansevoort in the meat packing district of NYC.  The hotel was insane; great location, great staff and the meeting room was one of the coolest I have ever seen.  It was located on the top floor of the hotel, with floor to ceiling windows, looking out over the Hudson and NYC skyline.  Attached to the meeting space was a full bar, which was open to us all day and night.  It’s always nice to get a few drinks in, to give the networking a jumpstart.  The meeting space was converted back to a nightclub when we were finished each day.  Apparently the hotel is a pretty popular night spot for the area, and people were literally wrapped around the block waiting to get in.

The evening before the event began, we also have a meet and greet, just to let everybody get a chance to get to know eachother.  Everybody arrived at the hotel in their own limos, and then had a chance to get unpacked before the party.  With the hotel being a popular spot, we had to have security guarding all the entrances to our event, so no stragglers could get in.  Overall it was a great evening, and a good start to the event.

Thursday, is the first day of the event, and we start bright and early at 7am – 8am with breakfast.  Some of the attendees skip the breakfast and stroll in around 8, but the first day is usually the most scheduled and jam packed.  We began with our new MC, Rebecca Kelley, doing intros for the speakers and then letting all of the attendees introduce themselves.  She did a great job, and fit the mood of the conference very well.  We gave her very little direction, and she handled it like a pro.  Day one we ran through all of the speakers starting with Neil Patel, Chris Winfield, Brian Norgard, Aaron Wall and lastly was myself.

We were doing great on time, and finished exactly as planned, for our keynote, Seth Godin.  Seth did a great talk, off the cuff, and had a lot of interaction with the crowd.  Including giving away copies of his books.  He spoke for a couple hours, and even hung around to meet some of the leaders and attendees.

After Seth was finished, that was a wrap for the formal part of the day, and we immediately headed next door for open bar and appetizers.  With a great dinner that evening at a really nice steakhouse, called STK.  Which was literally a half a block away.  I think everyone had a great time at the restaurant, mixing and mingling.  And the food was awesome.

Friday, the second and last day of the event started a tad later than anticipated.  There were some rumors of some after hours going on the night before, so some of the attendees strolled in a little late.  Day two, is very laid back, and is all about 1 on 1′s and networking.  We also try to have some ad-hoc speakers, just to make sure people get more information than they’d ever know what to do with.  This year we had Jon Kelly and Lauren Feldman speak.  Both did an excellent job, and I think gave the attendees plenty of things to think about.

Overall, the event was a great success for us and all that attended.  The leaders, Aaron Wall, Neil Patel, Chris Winfield, Brian Norgard, Jon Kelly, Lauren Feldman and Rebecca Kelley all did awesome.  I want to thank our main sponsors again, Epic Advertising and Neverblue.

Congratulations to the 2 finalists in the $3,000 adtech content revenue strategies giveaway

Please vote for your favorite entry on who should win the trip to NYC and a full adtech + Content Revenue Strategies pass:

Reminder:

Also for ShoeMoney readers there is a special discount code good for $100 off the cost of a Content Revenue Strategies pass (makes the price ONLY $350 TOTAL). Use promo code CRSNY82 during checkout.

The contest will end at 8am Friday morning!