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TylerCruz.com: An Internet Entrepreneur's Journey

The journal of a young web entrepreneur on his journey to wealth.

Playing Catch-Up is TiringJanuary 5

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It’s been two weeks since I last gave update on my web projects so here’s my first project update of 2009.

I worked very hard the 2nd and 3rd week in December and so by the time Christmas Eve neared I decided to take a little break. Well, that “little break” ended up turning into a two week vacation!

First, one of the gifts my girlfriend bought me for Christmas was a DVD box-set of the first 4 seasons of House, and so I naturally had to watch those back-to-back which took me about 4-5 days including watching all the special features. When I watch a TV series I haven’t seen before on DVD, I always like to watch them from the beginning to the end.

After my House fiasco I bought Grand Theft Auto IV which entertained me for 2 hours before I got bored with it. I then caught up on a lot of my video sites such as

Goodbye AdToll Peel Away AdJanuary 4

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Just short of a year ago I added a Peel Away Ad advertising option to my blog. Located at the very top right corner, the Peel Away Ad was a flash ad which showed a small animated image (about 50×50 pixels). When hovered over with the mouse, it would show a quick “peel away“ animation (hence the name) and reveal a much larger (around 500×500 pixels) image.

I originally added the Peel Away to simply add another revenue source to my blog. I also liked the innovative aspect of the ad.

However, the Peel Away Ad didn’t end up doing well for me and the ad company that I used to add it to my site started to go downhill. As a result, I just finished removing it from my blog.

Here is a detailed list of the reasons why I removed it in case any of you are using it or were thinking of adding it to your blog.

1. Company Sold and Managed by New Owners

I originally heard of AdToll after they purchased a couple of paid reviews on my blog back in June 2007. In addition to reviewing them on my blog and on

Affiliate Marketing Challenge 6 ResultsJanuary 3

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Unfortunately, the 6th Affiliate Marketing Challenge had a number of big setbacks, the biggest one being a super affiliate slowing his campaigns down a lot.

On the other hand, even though his campaign slowed down by 60%, he’s still producing very impressive numbers and easily took 1st place. In addition, there was a great increase in new active sign-ups which is always encouraging to see. While November set a record-breaking month for gross commissions, December seemed to have the opposite effect with many of the pre-holiday shoppers having been exhausted of funds, as well as the many holidays spread throughout the month.

I’d like to thank everyone who participated for entering, and especially thank MarketLeverage for sponsoring their 6th competition in a row!

Blog Earnings: December 2008January 1

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Last month my blog income set a new record of $6,663.94 which was $800 more than my previous record. While it’s an absolute treat getting to announce new income records, in most cases it’s nearly impossible to keep up such a pace. Standard deviation and variance dictates that there will be some dips. The important thing is what the long-term trend shows: are things moving up over time, or moving down?

That being said, it should be pretty obvious that December 2008 didn’t perform too well for my blog. There are three reasons for this:

First, the holidays really slowed things down. Companies and employees get a lot of time off in late December, and people go visit their families and friends, taking a break from the Internet. Secondly, my largest referral with MarketLeverage saw a big drop from the volume he was doing. Lastly, a new referral I had signed up was doing absolutely awesome but suddenly and mysteriously stopped completely about a week into the month.

It’s funny because I had predicted that the month would actually exceed

Affiliate Marketing Challenge 7December 29 2008

Note: The results of the Affiliate Marketing Challenge 6 will be posted on January 2nd.

What better way to start 2009 than with a brand new contest? What makes this one unique from my previous six competitions is that we have a new sponsor. That’s right, XY7 has come on board and is excited to sponsor my 7th Affiliate Marketing Challenge.

Since this is the first competition XY7 has sponsored on my blog, they opted to start with a more conservative prize total. However, I can guarantee you that if the first competition goes well that their next one will be considerably larger. XY7 is known for giving huge prizes away. Take a look at the post I made a few days ago showing some videos of the larger prizes they’re known for giving away.

There is a total of $7,500 worth of prizes up for grabs (which is quite a bit considering it’s their first contest), including a 55-inch 1080 HDTV, Sony 60GB HD Camcorder, Playstation 3 & Rock Band 2, and yes… even a freaking Segway i2!

Whether you’re a super affiliate, medium affiliate, or brand new to affiliate marketing, we have prizes aimed just for your skill level.