These people or companies are not really clients because you’re never going to get any substantial business from them. I call them “wanna-be clients”. You need to avoid them like the plague. They are vampires, sharks, whatever you want to call them.

Here are some very typical indicators of a wanna-be client:
- He doesn’t know his own product or service well enough.
- He has no significant references.
- His business develops very slowly.
- He wants everything but doesn’t want to pay for anything.
- He constantly tries to bring your price down.
- He wants a lot of free consulting without ever having done any business with you.
- He is not willing to make any prepayments.
- He never pays on time, or even worse, he doesn’t pay at all.
- He says all of your competitors are better and cheaper than you.
- He always complains about everything.

My advice: Stay away from those people. They are bad luck. They cost you so much time and you’re never going to make anything off them. Rejecting a wanna-be client is not a missed opportunity but an avoided nuisance. Leave this junk up to your competitors.

I’ve lived and worked according to this principle for many years now. As a result, I work with people who know what they’re doing and who are willing to pay good money for good service. Remember, life is about quality and not quantity.

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Today Apple released their iPad, a new tablet computer that looks and works pretty much like a blown-up version of an iPod Touch. Many people seem to bash the iPad because its hardware is nothing special, also because it doesn’t even have a USB port. Why do I think it’s still a great piece of technology at a reasonable price?

It’s the software, primarily the operating system. Apple spend an awful lot of time on making things just work for the user. They invest a lot of research and development to make their products simple to use. No-one needs a manual for the iPod, iPhone or iPad. On the other side, there are even MP3 players that you can’t get working without consulting the manual.

Same thing with Mac vs. PC or iPhone vs. others. The hardware used is quite similar. The iMac isn’t using Motorola chips anymore but Intel. And the screen and the drives come from third parties too. The hardware is nothing special, designed in California but made in China. But it’s still superior because it just works. How many times have I had to help my dad figure something out on a Windows PC. I’ll just have to get him a Mac at some point.

Even if some devices give you much better hardware, their overall user experience still can’t compete. If your time is worth to you more than money, go for Apple. Yes, their products are not perfect and a bit more expensive. But with a one-time expense you can save yourself time everyday.

P.S. This post was written using the WordPress application on an iPhone. This is something I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish that smoothly with any other mobile device that I know.

Programs vs. Offers

Affiliate networks are usually about merchants. Some of the programs bombard you with every possible banner, link and product feed they have and don’t really help you much in making a choice. CPA networks on the contrary are usually about landing pages. A CPA offer may have a couple of landing pages, but that’s it. Lately the affiliate networks have adopted the CPA trend and started what they call campaigns. They’re basically integrating landing-page-only programs into their portfolio.

Direct Relationship vs. Blind Network

In a traditional affiliate network the merchant (or the agency) has direct contact to the affiliate. In a CPA network the affiliate talks only to the network, not the merchant. Usually the merchant doesn’t know the identity of the affiliate either.

Approval Process vs. Instant Start

Most affiliate programs have an admission process, many of them approve affiliates manually. In a CPA network you have no direct relationship with the advertiser, so there is no approval process. Affiliates can start right away and pull their codes. Don’t you hate how long some affiliate managers sometimes take to approve you?

Open vs. Confirmed Transactions

Probably every affiliate network can assign leads and sales a certain status: unconfirmed, confirmed, denied. I can understand the point of the merchants as they only want to pay for transactions for which the customer has actually paid. But affiliates, especially those that do media buying, need to know their final revenue by the end of the day. They can’t do effective media buying if they don’t know much money they actually made the previous day. So it’s no surprise that most CPA networks don’t get into this. They solve this for example by paying for every transaction but with a lower payout.

Secrets vs. Transparency

There are still a number of affiliate networks that keep the performance of their programs secret. On the other hand, CPA networks are usually brutally honest and give you access to the metrics. Not only that you see the stuff in the interface. The other day I received an email from a CPA network with a list of all eCPCs for their search offers. I’ve never received this from any affiliate network before, even when I asked them for it.

Conclusion

Very simple. If you are a content publisher, stay with the good old-fashioned affiliate networks. They provide you with all the fancy ads that you can throw on your sites. Also, the really big brands want to be in control of their affiliates so you won’t find very many of them on CPA networks. However, if you are a media buyer who wants to drive hardcore sales, go for the CPA networks.