If you’re a Canadian affiliate marketer like I am, you probably haven’t been too pleased with how strong the Canadian dollar is doing. Most of my affiliate income All of my affiliate income are from programs based in the US, which means one of 2 things, A) I get paid out in US funds or B) my payouts get converted from US to Canadian.

For the early part of this year, it wasn’t that bad, the US Dollar was still worth more by about 5 cents. But now, the Canadian dollar is worth more than the US dollar and as my payouts have been coming in here and there throughout this month, I’ve been losing money! Mind you, we’re not talking about losing hundreds of dollars, but it does add up. It all seems like a lose, lose situation.

So, how can I and other Canadian affiliate marketers keep the commissions in their pockets and still make more money with the dollar being strong as it is? Take control.

1. Put your payment on hold

Some affiliate programs allow you to put a hold on your payout. Putting a hold on your payouts (ie. with Google Adsense) will allow your commissions to simply add up until you’re ready to be paid. When the US dollar is stronger, remove the hold. If you’re making more than $100 per month with AdSense, think of it this way, its just like the time you started out with AdSense and had to wait a several months before you received your first Google check in the mail! If you still have yet to receive your first AdSense cheque (check) or you only receive an AdSense cheque once every 2 or 3 months, then its not that bad for you right now, but i still recommend putting a hold on your pay outs, just in case you strike it big much faster than you originally hoped! (Please note that changes to your AdSense form of payment must be made by the 15th of the month to affect the current month’s payment cycle.) Alternatively, if you cannot put a hold on your payout, you may have the option to modify the payment threshold, which will allow you to prolong your payout until you’ve reached that specific amount (ie. ).

2. Open a US dollar bank account

By opening a US dollar bank account, you can deposit your USD cheques and not lose money in the currency conversion. Opening a US dollar bank account is easy. Personally, the only thing I didn’t like about it was the monthly fees and transaction limitations per month. I only recommend opening a US dollar bank account if the money you’re losing on USD to CAD currency conversions is greater than the cost of having this type of bank account. Again, when the US dollar becomes stronger, withdraw and try to get the best currency conversion rate you can get around town.

3. Find alternative affiliate programs in Canada

Trying to find a quality affiliate program can be difficult I know. I’ve had affiliate managers contact me more recently and want me to try out their system. There’s no guarantees however. Some companies just don’t payout and some just don’t offer a quality product. What I recommend is checking out high quality affiliate forums where you can learn about what works and what doesn’t, like WickedFire. Ask other Canadian affiliate marketers what works for them and what they do when the Canadian dollar is strong.

Here’s how the Canadian Dollar is performing:

Source: Yahoo! Finance

I hoped you like this post. Please comment or share this post below. thanks.

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Top 3 Reasons Why Yahoo! Publisher Network Program is Still in Beta

Make money with Yahoo Ads (Yahoo’s “adsense” program). I got asked about different affiliate marketing programs and how to make money with contextual ads last week. One person asked me if there were any Google Adsense alternatives out there because Google shut their adsense account down due to a “terms of service violation”. Although there are many different ways to make money online, Adsense or rather Affiliate Contextual Ads for me has always been consistent and making money on different types of niche sites has never really been an issue.

So, what does a person do if they’ve been booted off Adsense?

As I mentioned earlier, there are many different ways to make money online other than Adsense. You can sell banner ads, sign up to amazon’s affiliate marketing network, and even try other affiliate contextual ad networks such as bidvertiser or even Yahoo’s Publisher Network beta program.

Yahoo! Publisher Network Beta Program

Yahoo’s Publisher Network Beta Program is just that, Beta. Its an affiliate contextual ad program similar to Google’s Adsense but with one major limitation that I to this day cannot still believe; the fact that it is only limited to Americans. Ok, ok, if you know a little about Yahoo!s program, you’ll know thats not the only condition. Here’s what the sign up page says,

To be considered for the Yahoo! Publisher Network beta program, please enter your information below. Participants of the program must have a valid U.S. Social Security or Tax ID number, and web site content that is predominantly in English and targeted at a U.S. user base. Yahoo! will contact you about your eligibility to participate and about availability of the program.

Well, I find that its rather quite disappointing that Yahoo! has decided to limit their affiliate contextual ad network program with these conditions.

Top 3 Reasons Why Yahoo! Publisher Network Program is Still in Beta

1. Quality control requires time. Like many affiliate marketing programs, there are specific requirements your website must qualify for in order to be considered into their program. Chitika for example requires a minimum of 10,000 visitors a month to your site to be considered. By enforcing requirements, you then are able to set standards and ensure the websites and content that your ads are embedded into provide your advertisers with quality leads as compared to other networks where although the ad copy may be relevant, but you get sites that are MFA (a.k.a. “Made for Adsense”). Quality control requires time and resources. Possibly, something Yahoo! doesn’t have much time of or they’ve just given up on the whole idea.
2. Not a high priority. Its possible that Yahoo! may not be worrying or have a dedicated team working on making money from their contextual ad program like Google has been so successful with Adsense. But, thats a reason in itself; it would take a lot of resources to further develop and support this program and it seems that their program isn’t high on their priority list. Yahoo! could still just be focusing on Yahoo! Answers
3. They’re just focusing on content. As I mentioned in my second reason, Yahoo! Answers, in my opinion is one of the best things Yahoo! has ever developed. Its not just another Wikipedia, but its a niche that I believe many people overlook especially when developing a “FAQ”; most companies neglect the importance of an FAQ. Yahoo! definitely hasn’t and today, Yahoo! Answers is rich in content, has been built around a social media aspect of encouraging user interaction by allowing anyone to ask questions and create conversations about anything they want to know about. For those of you that remember or know, Yahoo! started out as a content portal. They did it well and still do it well. Despite their lack of success with acquisitions such as Geocities, they’ve been able to maintain their customer loyalty in many places all over the world, such as Asia and the US.

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed my post about justifying Yahoo!s reason to still have yet to expand their Publisher Network Program. You can always learn more about the Yahoo! Publisher Network Program.

I do want to add that, if you do have a quality site, a resident of the US, look into their Publisher program and let me know how it works out… no, really. I live in Canada *sigh*. I’d love to try it out.

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