Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Best Influencer Marketing Platforms

After taking stock of all the paying apps mentioned in my blog earlier (Part I), I am moving to influencer marketing programs and sites, which pays for your reach and people whom you can influence.

What is influencer marketing?


It is a form of marketing in which the businesses focus on influential people rather than the target market as a whole. It identifies the individuals in a specific segment which is suitable to the brand, that have influence over potential buyers, and orients marketing activities around these influencers. For participating in such campaigns you need to have large following in specific segments with high engagement. 

Eg, an apparel manufacturer brand will choose 100 lifestyle influencers who have a following of 5000+ on social media channels, each paying them a fraction of the amount of which it would have spend on other mediums such as TV or newspapers. Here the reach is guaranteed, as well as the brand can provide traceable links of direct online purchases. Hence the marketer knows exactly each and every details of the buyer and behavior. This is not possible in the case of other mediums. Hence more and more companies, businesses and brands are adopting this technique.





How you can benefit?


As an influencer, when you already have a huge following and reach, you can cash in on that reach. When the brands approach you or vice-versa, you are able to cash in the reach you command. Moreover, some brands also offer you something in exchange like discounts or products for reviews etc. Brands have various types of campaigns which an influencer can select from, if you are present on many platforms with substantial followers on each channels. 




Following are some of the platforms I have been using and earning from it currently or have earned in the past. 


LINKILIKE - This is a very reliable German influencer platform. I have been using it since 3 years and earning from it. They pay in Euros in your PayPal account for the campaigns that you share on your channels - Facebook, Tumblr, G+ and Twitter. The campaign sharing is tracked and you can check that in your dashboards, payment is done when you reach an earning of 10 You can join by clicking on the URL. above. 


All its campaigns are from BAYER brand and most importantly they do not have any restrictions for specific number of followers. Click link to join. 




ZefmoZefmo’s platform integrates a plethora of influencers - ranging from artists, gadget lovers, social activists, lifestyle enthusiasts, and business leaders - to create impact-full stories. With a reach of over 30,000 social influencers mostly from India, in over 25 categories, Zefmo has both the width and the depth to support a wide variety of brand campaigns. 

Although it has user friendly site, as an influencer you have to send details on mail everytime for a new campaign which is bit tedious, same with its payments. Though they have consistency in payments as well as new campaigns. 

IZEA - Content creators earn money for producing and distributing content for marketers. Marketers scale custom content and influencer marketing programs. They have software to determine the best performing influencer content. They have tie-ups with great brands and great campaigns. 

They give an option, where the free plan members must have $100 in their earned balance to cash out funds. They have a Basic Plan which allows you to withdraw at $50 and a PRO plan which allows you to withdraw at $25. If funds are cashed out before the $100 threshold is met, a $3 early cash out fee is charged. Payments is through PayPal. 

Webfluential - I found Webfluential a bit professional and loaded with features. They have tried to make it more interactive by integrating the walls/feed of all the influencers and the happening, which is quite interesting. Moreover, the add-on of IBM Watson gives it an extra edge in AI (Artificial Intelligence). It gives a detailed personality insights and analysis of an influencer's reach. 

The only drawback according to me is that they have very little to offer for micro-influencers in India/Asia. The fact that you cannot see live or upcoming campaigns makes it bit confusing for new users. 

You can join it by clicking here

TapInfluence - A former blog company, it has ventured into influencer marketing platform. They have big brand names to boast, but mostly US based brands which is quite understandable since it is based in California.

From the influencer point of view, it has its own mechanism to measure the reach and fix  rates that be can charged for the campaigns by influencers. Though they also show median and ideal rates charged which kind of shows where you stand. 

Klear - You need to be Klear in your influencer score in order to woo the brand and their campaigns. The Klear gives you a score you can rely on for your reach. It takes into consideration you reach, engagement, domain and your true reach. So even if you have more than 10,000 followers, and your engagement might be only 5-10% then it will give you a low scoring.

From the time Klout has send reminders about closing, I think Klear is good alternative for Klout. Though again, catering to the US market and brands, it is still growing and claims to have global brands. 

Revfluence - Strictly USA only, infact when I login into the account it displays the message saying "Campaigns limited by Country". Many of their brands does not ship outside USA, so your campaigns maybe limited. 

Apart from the above disappointment, you also get to read following message, which says

On Instagram: You need at least 500 average likes/post, 3000 followers, and 50 posts
On YouTube: You need at least 2500 average views/video, 3000 subscribers, and 20 videos
On Blogs: You need at least 3000 monthly page views and 10 posts

So, if you're a growing micro influencer doing small campaigns, you are in for a disappointment. 

On the positive side, you can easily integrate your social presence on the platform, know your reach instantly and also fix your rates for the channels, after comparing the median rates.

Influence.co - It claims to be the world's first open influencer platform. Keeping it free for influencers, it emphasis on the skills, reach and the caliber of individual. Though it has a unique profile page for influencer, you need to market yourself. Again a platform for influencers where majority brands are from the USA. 

GetEvangelized - India grown influencer marketing site, yet in the initial stages. It promises the micro influencers a platform and brands to get discovered through them. The influencers have the option of getting the payment in bank via transfers or gift vouchers. Long way to go for it. 

Influencer.co - Mind you this is not the same site mentioned above. It has a slight difference if you notice. It has number of ways to monetize your reach in best way possible. USA based though, you can participate if you have substantial reach (around 10k) easily. 

They are a unique influencer site where they host thousands of products from online shops which you can promote to your audiences. So you choose the product, generate a tracking link for yourself and start promoting it on your channels to your followers. It has a CPC & CPA model, the moment someone buys it from the link referred by you, you get to earn. The earning commission ranges from 1% to 20%+ depending on the product category and  demand. 

InfluencerPort - Another new influencer marketing platform from India, which claims to connect brands and influencer with creative bend of mind. Recently started, have a long way to go, lets see how does it copes up with others in the market. 

Spending more than 4 years in this field I felt, the influencer marketing platform/companies should cater to all the influencers, who want to monetize their (wannabe) influence and also to people who are not aware of this market altogether, to help them tap on their following and influence. Very few platforms  have a clear policy and a transparent process of campaigns and payments, which makes the difference between success and failure for them. Few of the influencer platforms like Blogmint, were way ahead of their times but unfortunately it closed down. 

I will keep adding the influencer platforms as and when I find really worth mentioning, which genuinely pays, so that they can make it to this list. Please let me know your feedback on the same in the comments below. 







#996b9054

Monday, November 14, 2016

Paying Apps and Sites

Do you remember the dial up connections, the assembled desktop computers with floppy drives and the hourly rates which use to vanish in checking few emails? It was a reminiscence of the days when internet penetration was low and slow connections. Once started it use to make lot of noise. It used to take minutes to download one photo or page. The internet surfing charges were on hourly basis in cyber cafes which had sprung up everywhere. Recalling it makes me wonder how fast the technology and speed has grown over the past 10 years.

We are now in the age where you do not have to pay for being online but can get paid for it. Yes, you read that right. You must have seen thousands of false and misleading ads about earning online, but not anymore. The sites mentioned below are tried and tested by the experts in the field of marketing, blogging, internet gurus, techies, artists and activist.

Please bookmark this page as I will keep it updated with changes happening in the below mentioned sites and apps. 

work from home

In this series below you will see tried and tested methods over the past 2 years by me and countless other techies and marketing experts who have earned in thousands. But keep this in mind that this is not their only source of income but one of the sources. I have met people who claim to earn entirely from online activities such as blogging, freelancing and get-paid sites, but they are not verified.

One more word of caution, I have put together the sites below by using them for more than 2 years. By the time I publish this blog, few sites my close down and new ones crop up. Make hay while the sun shines is the mantra here. Perhaps you may come across completely new and changed site from what is mentioned below. Hence I will try and update this blog regularly.
paid to login


Website/App
Description
Earning Potential and Invites
Cointasker
Cointasker is not a task master, instead it lets you earn in bitcoins for all the task completed. You have a choice of over 2000 tasks you can choose from, from just listening to FM radio (with ads) or sharing content to surveys. You choose your task. They also have rewards for the active users simply to login to site. You can also add friends and have a wall feature where you can share stuff.

PROS - Very user friendly and lot of options of tasks you can chose from. My favorite, FM radio – you can just keep it on new tab and keep doing your stuff. It also has lot of recommended sites where you can earn bitcoins.

CONS – Very slow site. Cant access at work, often blocked. Most of the tasks are not updated. Deducts your earnings for sharing links, ads etc on your wall.


There is no limit as to how much you can earn since there is lot of choice of tasks. It pays you for basic things like login (10.00 µBTC ) and making friends (0.10 µBTC)


You can join by invitation referral by clicking here
Bonusbitcoin
Bonus Bitcoin is a completely FREE bitcoin faucet paying out up to 5,000 satoshi every 15 minutes.
Also, at the end of each day (around midnight UTC) you will receive an automatic 5% bonus added to your current account balance - provided you made at least one faucet claim during the previous day.

PROS - You can keep the website open in the one tab of the browser claim faucets every 15 minutes at the same time keep doing your work as it has reminder. Best part is that there is no "task" you need to complete in order to claim faucets.

CONS - Sometimes the site is blocked from the work place, too many ads, it will not let you claim if you have an adblocker. And everytime while claiming bitcoins you need to prove that you are not a robot.

BonusBitcoin claims that you can earn upto 5000 satoshis a day. If you do your maths right, every 15 minutes for 24 hours including the bonus!

You can join here by
MyLot
MyLot is community forum which pays you for your valuable contributions to community in any form and for completing Offers by advertisers.

Earning depends on your contributions, engagement and active participation. You can add to earnings by clicking and completing various offers. Minimum earning is $5 before you can withdraw from your account to PayPal.
No referral required, though they are considering it in the future.

You can directly sign up.
CoinURL
CoinURL is a again a strong contender in the Bitcoin earning sites. It offers non-intrusive, high-efficient text and image contextual advertising for your website! Based on the pay per click system.



Click here to join by invite and start earning.
Webtalk
Webtalk is a global big data software technology company focused on relationship-based data mining, storage and search technologies to power the next generation communication and commerce utility.

Earn real cash for your account activity, popular posts, and your referrals to Webtalk. Share up to 50% of our revenue for life. 10% revenue share commissions. 100% ad matching. View Videos, post, share to earn in USD. 

Join by invitation only 

Monkytalk
I was intrigued by the number of people using the site and also people referring to it. Although I didn’t like the UX much of this site, it’s okay to spend 5 minutes frequently per day on it.

Monkytalk has a virtual gold currency which can be redeemed through PayPal later.

Lot of online draws for which you need to be online. The draws are directly proportional to the total new referrals joining the site. Additionally they have other contests too, blogs and much more.

What Counts As A Paid Like:

·        Only likes are counted. Dislikes are not paid.
·        Likes must come from a 'verified' member
·        Liker has not exceeded the maximum likes in the last 24 hours of: 30
·        maximum likes from the same user in last 24 hours is: 1
Join by invitation only, click here
Forumcoin
ForumCoin is an online forum and discussion boards where you earn simply by participating on their forums, no complicated mining required. Use ForumCoin to buy and sell goods and services and exchange for traditional, real world currencies.

Their objective is to become a new world currency, that you can use to purchase anything from apples to zoo tickets.

A simple plain vanilla discussion forum which pays in various ways including Paypal & Bitcoins.
Join by invitation by clicking here
Fiverr
Excellent platform for freelancers. Fiverr is a global online marketplace offering tasks and services, beginning at a cost of $5 per job performed, from which it gets its name. The site is primarily used by freelancers who use Fiverr to offer services to customers worldwide.

You can almost sell any skills on this platform as long as you are able to market it well on Fiverr. The best part about it is that it does not have bidding, which limits the scope for an individual freelancer.

It has one of the best UX and search functionality, which is imperative for a site which has a huge collection of skills and services on offer.
The standard service charges start from $ 5 for any service. The more appealing description you display, the more the chances of getting the gig.

You can offer upto packages in the service you offer customizing the offer.

Click here for
Paidtologin
Every day when you login to paidtologin, you don't only get paid but you also earn one impression so instead of the banner above you could put your and will be shown to the other members immediately.

There is nothing more to learn more about this system. Just plain simple login and the more your refer the more your earnings per login.
Join through referral by clicking on the link here
Wowapp
WowApp is a paid whatsapp, as simple as that. But in terms of quality and efficiency of use, nowhere close to it. It has a “Advertise Me” feature which lets you monetize your content (messages, chats windows) and claims to share 70% of its revenue with the users.

Pros - The UX is appealing and they have included a search which gives you an option to connect with people on the app. But it takes a lot of time to connect and load messages and also to refresh.

WowApp recently increased the sources to earn i.e. games. Cons - They need to seriously work upon the connectivity and downloading of messages before they launch anything new.
You earn one wowcoins which equals 1 US cents. Depending on your network and usage you can earn around



You can join by invites only, click here to download app and join
Dubli.com
DubLi.com is simply earn huge discounts and cash back while you shop online. DubLi.com Cash Back can be combined with other existing rewards on credit cards or frequent flyer miles. DubLi.com’s platform delivers a personalized e-commerce experience, tailored to your shopping interests and preferences for an easier, more customized online shopping experience.

For each friend you refer, you can earn a Cash Back boost, which helps you earn more Cash Back on future purchases.

Once they join, we'll make sure your friends maximize savings with personalized Cash Back deals stacked with coupons.

I tried it only once and was a decent discount on apparels.
Here you can earn huge discounts and cash backs on your regular online shopping. Once you achieve various levels Eg. VIP your
Chitika ads
Chitika is a contextual ad network which means it shows ads relevant to the content of your site, which is I guess the right way for content creators and also the brands advertising. This helps in getting more click and hence more earning for you. Getting started with Chitika is easy as even with a less traffic blog you can get approval here. Once you are approved all you need to do is include a specific code and place it code in your blog. If you are not so tech-savvy and using WordPress, you can use their WordPress plugin to show Chitika ads on your blog.

Minimum payment threshold is $10 in your PayPal account. It has CPC, PPC, CPM Pay-per-call for mobile ads. It supports banner ads, mobile ads, In-text ads, Hovers ads and also highlight ads.
Click here to join the program and start making money on your blogs
Amazon ads
Amazon is one of the world’s biggest marketplaces. Even though we have so many affiliate marketplaces in the world, almost all bloggers, content creators, and big companies use Amazon to sell their products.

Bloggers and content creators that are associates create links for customers to click on and enable them to earn referral fees. The Amazon Affiliate program is free to join and very much user friendly.

You can earn up to 10% referral fees. Every category has a different commission percentage. Once you place the link or ads on your blog/website via codes and sales happen through your link, you get your commission.

Viglink
An affiliate marketing program with a twist. They allow publishers to monetize content through reviews, blogs and websites.

By identifying commercial products mentioned within a publisher’s content, VigLink automatically invigorates those terms by transforming them into hyperlinks whose destinations are determined in real-time, advertiser-bid auctions. Yes, hyperlinks, the defining feature of the Web from the very start. The literal “H” in HTML. Every time a clicked link takes a person from one destination to another, value is created. However, that value has never been fairly priced or available for purchase at scale. Until now.
You can join it by clicking here

Newly added

All the travel enthusiasts, solo travelers, here is one amazing site for you all. This site BuddyTraveler claims to get paid to travel the world. How? You can find a buddy, avail the many freebies posted on the site forums and also refer and earn.  Looks like a distant dream, but no harm in trying though. You can click here to join me . 

Paid to click ads is one of the best paying options available. It is confusing from the many wannabe sites, but following is reliable source. You can join here Star Clicks

It claims to pay $ 0.10 per active user who joins the site. Make sure you invite all your friends interested in travel. 

For your earned bitcoins, you will need a Bitcoin wallet and vault to keep it safe like you keep you money in the banks. Xapo is recommended for depositing all you earned Satoshis and Bitcoins or any other crypto currency. You can download from Google Play.

The funda is clear, social media channels are minting money through ads and paid subscriptions. Internet traffic has an economic value associated to it, the more the merrier. Users have this power of multiplication, the more you connect, refer and publish posts, the more reach it has.

Why not exploit the sites which harness this power of internet traffic and share revenues with users?  If you are not paid for such activities then you are wasting your time, literally. Put a value on all the post, comments, likes, shares recommendations reviews or any activity you do on social media. It SHOULD be for endorsement.