The Real Nitty Gritty on Dollars.com
- By Klixxx Webmaster Services
 We've all
seen the ads - we've all read the marketing. But how many of you are
totally aware of what the Dollars.com (www.dollars.com)
program is, does and offers to both affiliate programs and webmasters?
Klixxx Magazine took an online demo tour of the program and spoke
with Dollars.com President Rick Latona, getting the inside scoop on
what this unique B2B program is all about!
What is Dollars.com?
From the outside, Dollars.com looks like your run-of-the-mill adult
webmaster affiliate program. But once you get inside, you can see
that there's nothing average or common about the technology that runs
this mega exchange - in fact, some of the ideas and tools implemented
here are like nothing our industry has ever seen before.
When asked to describe the Dollars.com program in a "nutshell," President
Rick Latona told Klixxx: "It's a business to business (B2B) exchange
for the adult Internet industry. We've connected a banner/ad management
system to tour delivery to payment processing to a banking system
for commission disbursements. These four pillars of our system give
us an omniscient software platform that is aware of all aspects of
the transaction, allowing for real time and extremely accurate data
to be used in a point-click environment for the trading of traffic
and joins."
OK - but what does that really mean to the average adult webmaster
or Internet entrepreneur running his/her own affiliate program? What
can Dollars.com do for you?
WEBMASTERS
For starters, as a webmaster - or "Publisher" as they are referred
to within the program - working with Dollars.com means not having
to worry about getting shaved by your sponsors. "We don't allow advertisers
to shave - and we read their processing point data dumps directly,"
explains Latona, of the program in place that allows them to verify
that shaving is NOT happening within the Dollars.com system. "They
would get caught if they tried."
The Dollars.com program also gives webmasters more control over their
choices, and options available, when using a sponsor/affiliate program
on their websites. "We give Publishers [webmasters] a point-click
interface to control their business," said Latona, as he unveiled
the interface via the online tour. "They can take back a buried link
that goes to a sponsor and send it to another sponsor at a click of
a button. Utilizing our RPM [revenue per 1000 impressions] technology,
they can maximize their traffic at the banner delivery level rather
than at the click level."
"[Webmasters] will save a ton of time and make a whole lot more money
overall," continued Latona, and stated that for a complete list of
benefits, webmasters should contact Dollars.com representatives directly,
as everyone's business is different. "When we know more about our
customer's business, we can better describe how we can help them."
AFFILIATE PROGRAM OWNERS
For the affiliate program owner - or "Advertiser" as they are called
within the Dollars.com program - there are many unique options and
opportunities available. There are tools that assist in fraud control
and utilities that help keep charge back ratios in check - and access
benefits that help advertisers to obtain more webmasters, more traffic
and ultimately more joins.
"They can run [Dollars.com] it on their own and inside of the Dollars.com
exchange if they like," explained Latona, of the Publisher side of
Dollars.com. "We sit parallel to their program and require little-to-no
integration on their side. That being said, if they want to run their
program exclusively through Dollars.com they can. An advertiser that
puts their sites into Dollars.com will receive primary benefits, such
as access to the Dollars.com network of Publishers; Publisher fraud
controls; complete control over processing and price points; free
hosting of tours and banners; plus the ability to make more money
on cross-sales and exit traffic."
Bold Beginnings...
The Dollars.com program didn't just pop up overnight, in fact, as
it has developed, it has continued its evolutionary process, adding
input and implementing new ideas every step of the way. According
to Dollars.com President Rick Latona, it took about a year of planning
before they started coding the software back in January of 2003, and
it has been a work in progress ever since.
"We are launching with just a core group of beta testers who have
helped us build and refine the program," says Latona. The companies
who have been beta testing the program pre-launch include SEXMoney.com,
TrafficCashGold.com, PornKings.com, EpicCash.com, LightSpeedCash.com,
OxCash.com, NaughtyAmerica.com, CapitalBucks.com, Think Pink and Latona's
own CJBucks.com.
"Our goal is to be a full-service Internet advertising network utilizing
the absolute best technology to deliver the best results for the Advertiser
and Publisher alike, each and every impression of an advertisement,"
explained Latona, of the goals he's set for Dollars.com. "In order
to achieve this goal we need to 'connect' the Advertisers and Publishers
onto a single software trading platform. That explains both where
we want to be and the spiral galaxy surrounding our logo."
But is the adult industry ready for such a complete interactive B2B
program? "I certainly don't think the entire adult industry is ready,"
said Latona. "However, I'm absolutely positive that those who are
ready will reap the benefits of such a system. The best analogy for
explaining this is that those companies who understand eBay the best
sell the most products on eBay. Those companies who understand Google
the best get found on more searches than those who don't. My advice
to the skeptics, learn Dollars.com before your competitors do."
But before you can earn - webmasters and affiliate program owners
should really contact Dollars.com staff to take the training seminar
demo tour, discuss specific interests, needs and options and learn
more about all of the ways that the program can be tailored to work
best within their own businesses.
Latona agrees that education and personal consultations are the key
to finding even greater success with the Dollars.com program. "Dollars.com
is fundamentally different from all other systems out there. We are
doing daily training seminars utilizing Internet broadcast software
such as Microsoft's Live Meeting. We hope to be doing these training
sessions in English, Spanish, Russian and German by the end of the
year. Additionally, we are forming distribution partnerships in many
markets around the globe so there will be Dollars.com representatives
in high-concentration webmaster areas, such as Southern California,
South Florida, Amsterdam and Toronto."
What is RPM?
RPM technology is, as Latona described it, "the core of the Dollars.com
platform where most decisions get made." The Publisher's RPM (Revenue
per 1000 Impressions) helps the webmaster to better compare and contrast
the results of the Advertisers within his inventory, in order to maximize
the income generated from each banner impression. This information
is valuable for both the Publisher and the advertiser - but in different
ways. As Latona put it, "Judging your traffic on how much you make
per click will always lead you to the wrong judgment." The Dollars.com
program helps webmasters to utilize their statistics in a whole new
way, providing them more complete data with which they can make more
informed decisions about which programs are maximizing their traffic
the best.
For the Publisher, RPM is figured based on revenue and impressions.
Latona explained, "The Dollars.com program takes the commission revenue
and divides it by the impression count. So an RPM of .50 means that
the Publisher made 50 cents per 1000 impressions of an advertisement.
This is extremely valuable information if you are rotating 40 advertisements
in one spot."
"Our system knows the RPM of that spot and the RPM of each advertisement
in that spot. Therefore, we can now adjust the display count of each
advertisement to raise the average RPM of the spot where the banners
are rotated. We call the spot a 'zone,' and the display count a 'weight.'
Each banner in a zone has a weight. Adjusting the weights inevitably
leads to a higher average RPM for the zone. And a higher RPM in a
zone means more money!"
"For advertisers," continued Latona. "We look at gross credit card,
dialer and check receipts divided into the impressions of an object
such as a consumer price point, a tour or a join page. That means,
we can tell the advertiser what the RPM of a join page is if the price
point has a $1 trial and if the price point has a $5 trial. Advertisers
can even rotate those price points for a true and accurate picture
of what they should be charging."
Latona said that the theory behind RPM is that the click-through ratio
is a variable and the only constant is the impression count. "In other
words," he said, "The only thing that happens every 1000 times you
display a banner is that you display the banner 1000 times. Knowing
how much money you make from a constant action is more valuable data
than how much money you make on a variable action."
How to Become a Publisher [Webmaster]
Latona explained that there are four different levels of Publisher
status. "To be a Level 1 Publisher you can use all the tools in the
system, but you can't withdraw any funds. Once you have proven your
existence by sending in a government issued piece of identification
and passing our security checkpoints, you will become a Level 2 Publisher.
Level 2 Publishers can withdraw their funds 14 days after they have
been earned."
"After being a Level 2 Publisher for six months and having generated
at least 100 transactions," continued Latona, "You become a Level
3 Publisher. Level 3 Publishers can withdraw their funds 7 days from
when they earn them. Level 4 Publishers can draw their funds the next
day. To become a Level 4 Publisher you must have been a Level 3 Publisher
for at least a year and you must have done at least 1000 transactions
in the system."
How to Become an Advertiser [Affiliate]
At this time, the Dollars.com program isn't accepting all sites into
the exchange. Latona said that they are currently "looking for great
sites," and that they prefer sites with exclusive content. The cost
of being an Advertiser at Dollars.com is 5% of the payout to the Publisher.
In other words," explained Latona. "If you pay $30 for a join, then
your real cost will be $31.50. We sometimes charge a set-up fee, but
it depends upon how complex a program is to add to the exchange."
This set of checks-and-balances helps to create a solid working environment
for all webmasters and Publishers involved in the program. Verifying
your identification and "proving yourself" within the program enables
webmasters to work at higher levels and receive additional privileges
within the system. Having true "verifiable" stats through the Dollars.com
program helps Publishers to stay "honest" with their affiliates. This
makes the Publishers from Level 2 on up much more valuable to the
Advertisers (affiliate programs), and in turn, gives the webmaster
rewards for moving up and achieving each level status.
More Data. More Opportunities - More Money. For more information on
how you can sit in on a daily training seminar demo tour, visit www.dollars.com
or contact the Dollars.com staff directly through the website.
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