Still don't understand how we get paid (IF)

I got that we get paid according to clicks and we share the clicks with Wizzley.

I got that when something is bought by referral from our articles we get paid the percentage according to our current level at Wizzley.

I got that I have to check the figures on my own personal chitika and viglink, zazzle, allposters, and amazon affiliation pages to see if I earned anything from Wizzley.

So far so good?  Did I understand correctly?

For March, I had a grand total of 4 clicks on Amazon, 203 impressions on chitika, nothing showing for zazzle or allposters that I could figure out. This comes to a big fat zero.  I have heard that when I have 50 pages I will likely start earning something. 

My questions are: 

(1) It is clear that there is some activity (small, I agree) on my pages and that that is generating some income (likely miniscule, proportionately speaking) for Wizzley. I understood the squidoo system to give me some ad income based on rank that, I assume, has something to do with the amount or quality of traffic my lenses contribute and therefore, I can earn some money even if actual clicks and sales are low. Here on Wizzley it seems, even if I contribute quality traffic that does not, however, lead to sales or clicks on my articles (even perhaps if someone then goes directly from mine to another that does lead to clicks) then I don't earn even a fraction of a cent. Is there a threshold I must pass in number of clicks in order to get paid?

(2) If I do not get paid below a certain number of clicks, does that mean that I have contributed to Wizzley coffers but am not sharing in the fruits of my labours?

(3) This leads me to believe that the best articles to put out here on Wizzley if I want to earn a living are clearly sales-directed rather than information based. Is that so?

(4) Why is there no summary for us of our earnings here on Wizzley that would make life easier?  It may seem like a small matter for the computer savvy to go to all those places and check earnings, but for me it is not simple, as I also struggle to understand every new thing that comes our way, such as how to use viglink beyond just letting it do its automatic thing. (Sorry, by the time I get around to reading and understanding what's on their site and in the articles here there will be something else to take its place or it would have changed unrecognizably. In addition, how can I do all of that and expect to build the remaining 40 articles to get to 50? Too much for this old brain to take in all at once.)

Sorry for this lengthy tome. (Is there another article here somewhere?  Once I understand this, maybe I'll write:  "Understanding getting paid on Wizzley for the dummy (like me)". I think I'm going to make a series of these.)

Thanks.

I was about to post the same questions! I'll be interested to see what the pros say. I'm a newbie too, with a grand total of 6 published pages that have earned 11 total AdSense clicks. I understand how small this is but I was curious why I didn't see any earnings (like 3 cents?) in my AdSense account. Help, please? (And Sheri - I'm in my 20s and I still don't get it! Don't worry about your "old brain" )

Thanks brl.

Regarding 1 and 2 in my original post: I understand the difference between squidoo and wizzley regarding ranking/tiers. But if I'm supposed to get half the clicks, then if I have clicks, why is there no money - why does it say "zero" beside my number of clicks? And if I have clicks that I'm not getting paid for, then does that not mean that Wizzley is getting it?

I also understand that impressions are different from clicks. And impressions don't bring in anything. Just clicks, right?

So clicks per impressions just gives us a gauge for how well we have set up our article as far as encouraging people at least to look at what we are offering. Right?

So now I'm going to ask another question:

(5) How much are clicks worth on Wizzley?  Are there different amounts depending on what is being sold? Or is the value of a click determined by other means?

Sheri, 

Neither Amazon clicks or Chitika impressions earn you or Wizzley money. Amazon sales and Chitika clicks do. 

You get the money earned on your share of page views, Wizzley get the money earned on their share. Wizzley don't know what you earn - they don't have access to your accounts. 

It sounds like you haven't yet earned any money on Wizzley. 

Information articles can earn well if they have high traffic. It's not my area of expertise, but I do earn some money this way and there are others that specialize in information pages. But just like sales pages they need to be commercial to earn money. 

Did that help? If not, keep asking questions until we get there. 

Sheri: 10. Apr 2012, 09:32

---

... But if I'm supposed to get half the clicks, then if I have clicks, why is there no money - why does it say "zero" beside my number of clicks? And if I have clicks that I'm not getting paid for, then does that not mean that Wizzley is getting it?

I also understand that impressions are different from clicks. And impressions don't bring in anything. Just clicks, right?

So clicks per impressions just gives us a gauge for how well we have set up our article as far as encouraging people at least to look at what we are offering. Right?

So now I'm going to ask another question:

(5) How much are clicks worth on Wizzley?  Are there different amounts depending on what is being sold? Or is the value of a click determined by other means?

Sheri, what kind of 'clicks' are you speaking about? As for Amazon / Zazzle / Allposter and other sites that sell something, you only earn something if somebody buys something, but nothing per click.

As for Adsense / Chitika and similar, you should indeed see an amount of money for each click, if you have clicks here, but no money, you should check if you have filled out everything correctly. For example if you have added Wizzley to your allowed sites in Adsense etc.

As for how much clicks are worth, that doesn't depend on Wizzley, it depends on the Ads Google and Chitika decide to show to a specific visitor to an article. Amazon and other affiliate programs pay you a commission when somebody buys something.

Hope that helps a bit ;-)

OK. Now that is a bit clearer - affiliate buys and chitika clicks.

So then why on our analytics page are they showing us amazon clicks? That's all I have on the analytics page - amazon clicks / impressions  - if I am understanding it correctly. If that doesn't get me money then why should I be particularly interested in that?

Unless it is to give me an indication of my ability to at least arouse some interest in the products I offer. And if that is so, then why are there no zazzle analytics or allposter analytics, etc?  These would be of interest to me in the same way that amazon is, no?

And I do not agree that Wizzley doesn't know how many clicks I have on chitika - they certainly must because they are sharing it with me at whatever percentage I am at. If they do not know how many clicks each of us have it is only because they have not set up the stats for that, but it would be easily recorded, I would think.

On the chitika page, they show me impressions and impressions per click. Is that not backwards?

Thanks for allowing me to finally clear this up in my head.

Sheri, Wizzley is sharing with you the ad IMPRESSIONS, not the clicks. This means x% of the time your ads show and x% of the time their ads show. When a buyer / reader actually clicks is a bit of a random lottery that evens out over time.

And yes, the analytics of Amazon here on Wizzley helps you to determine which ways of promoting products works best.

You asked if Wizzley could show earnings, I said they couldn't see your earnings in your account. Unless you're referring to something else?

The page views are shared so Wizzley doesn't need to share out the clicks - each time a page loads either your id or Wizzley's will be embedded. Wizzley could intercept clicks, but it wouldn't know if they were deemed valid clicks or how much they earned. 

Sheri, I think the problem you are thrashing around in your head is related to you having been a Squidoo writer. Their method of reward is completely different from any other writers site, such as Hubpages, Wizzley, Xobba etc. If you forget how they do things then you might be able to get your head round how other writers sites *give you the opportunity to earn*.

The last part of the last sentence is the operative mechanism *give you the opportunity to earn*.

They all give the opportunity to earn. It is up to you to write something that causes an earning opportunity to become reality.

I'll take each *opportunity* separately. It seems you do not have a Google Adsense account as you mention Chikita - they being mutually exclusive on all sites as far as I am aware.

Chikita - have you read JoHarrington's Chikita article - if not, you should.

As explained above you will only earn anything if someone clicks on an ad, presented by Chikita, when you are the recipient of the impression, not Wizzley, (i.e. on your 50% share of the impressions). [This is the same for Adsense].

To give you an idea of the number of clicks I get, as an Adsense promoter:

per 1,000 impressions I get around 5 to 20 clicks. So on Wizzley where I get 60% share as I have 100+ articles I need to generate approx 1,700 pageviews to get 1,000 impressions, and thus say 5 ad clicks. The amount of money I earn per ad click is determined by the ad value, which can be between 1 cent and $20+. I try to influence which ads get shown by the use of keywords but beyond that I have not influence (neither will you with Chikita ads).

Amazon: you will only earn if someone buys. I average about 4% clicks to purchase. That is for every 1,000 clicks I see around 40 purchases. The amount of commission I earn is dependent on the products that are purchased. For 40 purchases that takes me into the 6.5% commission bracket. To earn $100 I would need to sell in excess of $1500 of Amazon goods. That averages out, for each of the 40 items @ $37.50 each.

The statistics you are seeing are probably: Chikita impressions - not clicks, Amazon clicks - not sales.

Wizzley shows Amazon analytics because it knows how many clicks through to Amazon have been made. It is useful to know which products are causing reader interaction so you can either concentrate on those and enhance how you are causing the clickthroughs, or adjust those that are not performing as well.

As far as Zazzle and Allposters is concerned I do not use these so cannot give you an answer.

All in all you must learn how to create pages that cause a visitor to click. The best way to do this is to view pages of those that are successful at earning from the various opportunities available to them. Take advantage of the learning process they have gone through to get to the point where they do certain things that cause an action. If you have been used to receiving income from the generation of articles that merely attract visitors (and not buyers) then you will have to adjust to earn from any other site other than Squidoo.

Zazzle and Allposters work the same way as Amazon except with a straight percentage.

Muddy waters slowly slowly clearing up.

Yes, it is a different mind-set at squidoo. So I have to upload a new programme into my head and restart the computer.  Like learning a new language - you use a different part of your brain for each one.

I found your use of actual figures very helpful, humagaia ( and also found it amusing that you write "chitika" as "chikita" - I am constantly reminding myself that chitika is not a banana! ).

And now I finally understand how there is a random assignment of page views given to wizzley and to me and not that wizzley gets them all and gives me half. Important difference.

Regarding zazzle and allposters - why do we not have the clicks on these listed in our analytics stats?  Do I have to put these sites on google analytics myself to be able to get those figures?  Please say no, that you are working at this very moment on adding them to the analytics table. Please. Please.

Sheri, You are not alone. I have 41 articles so far and zilch. Not one penny. I really should be spending my time writing for Suite101 where I'm making money now. I'm trying to turn out commercial articles where we are more likely to get sales through Amazon, but no luck. I'm going to try to stick it out too 100 articles and see what happens.

I could be writing all kinds of articles on education since that is where my expertise is, but I've found those articles don't pay or pay very little.

Zazzle offers the option of connecting your store(s) with your Analytics account. It's a fairly painless process: simply create a new account within your Analytics account (enter the URL of your Zazzle store), and then add that ID into the settings of your Zazzle store.

Allposters offers all your pertinent stats in your affiliate account.

Again, our internal stats are designed to be an overview...ball park figures, so to speak. Google Analytics offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date stats on your content.

Right now, Allposters and Zazzle stats disappear next to the sheer volume of Amazon ads on Wizzley. That's why we don't want to re-code everything and add more bulk to Wizzley---and slow down our loading speed---until this situation changes, significantly.

Sorry to say this, Achim, but there is nothing painless here. Nothing at all!

I think I'm going to put my brain on hibernate until tomorrow morning (it's now 9:30 pm here).

I want to say that I am thrilled with all the patience people here have to explain all this stuff to people like me. And I'm also grateful when someone else pipes up and says they don't understand either, so I don't feel like the only one.

Sheri, before you go hibernating ;-) it would be easier for us to help you if you would put just one concrete question / problem at a time before us. That way we can help you step by step through the process! And yes, we have all been there when we started, soon you will explain the 'newbies' here how it is done ;-)

Sheri: 10. Apr 2012, 14:27

---

Sorry to say this, Achim, but there is nothing painless here. Nothing at all!

I think I'm going to put my brain on hibernate until tomorrow morning (it's now 9:30 pm here).

I want to say that I am thrilled with all the patience people here have to explain all this stuff to people like me. And I'm also grateful when someone else pipes up and says they don't understand either, so I don't feel like the only one.

Sheri, I am not a numbers person and I don't write here to make money, but to promote my Zazzle stores (for the most part) and earn $ that way.

I'll be glad to help you add Google Analytics to your Zazzle store(s) - it is easy - or I wouldn't be able to do it.  I've added it to some of my stores, but truthfully I never check it.

Send me a message if you do want help.  I can't help with anything else - because I am clueless!

Pam

Because we love you all, especially you Sheri, Achim and I have made this new page and video which I hope clears up a few things.  http://wizzley.com/making-money-on-wizzley-impressions-clicks-sales/

Sheri, you are the brave one for asking the pertinent questions. 

Sheri: 10. Apr 2012, 08:45

---

I got that we get paid according to clicks and we share the clicks with Wizzley.

I got that when something is bought by referral from our articles we get paid the percentage according to our current level at Wizzley.

I got that I have to check the figures on my own personal chitika and viglink, zazzle, allposters, and amazon affiliation pages to see if I earned anything from Wizzley.

So far so good?  Did I understand correctly?

For March, I had a grand total of 4 clicks on Amazon, 203 impressions on chitika, nothing showing for zazzle or allposters that I could figure out. This comes to a big fat zero.  I have heard that when I have 50 pages I will likely start earning something. 

My questions are: 

(1) It is clear that there is some activity (small, I agree) on my pages and that that is generating some income (likely miniscule, proportionately speaking) for Wizzley. I understood the squidoo system to give me some ad income based on rank that, I assume, has something to do with the amount or quality of traffic my lenses contribute and therefore, I can earn some money even if actual clicks and sales are low. Here on Wizzley it seems, even if I contribute quality traffic that does not, however, lead to sales or clicks on my articles (even perhaps if someone then goes directly from mine to another that does lead to clicks) then I don't earn even a fraction of a cent. Is there a threshold I must pass in number of clicks in order to get paid?

(2) If I do not get paid below a certain number of clicks, does that mean that I have contributed to Wizzley coffers but am not sharing in the fruits of my labours?

(3) This leads me to believe that the best articles to put out here on Wizzley if I want to earn a living are clearly sales-directed rather than information based. Is that so?

(4) Why is there no summary for us of our earnings here on Wizzley that would make life easier?  It may seem like a small matter for the computer savvy to go to all those places and check earnings, but for me it is not simple, as I also struggle to understand every new thing that comes our way, such as how to use viglink beyond just letting it do its automatic thing. (Sorry, by the time I get around to reading and understanding what's on their site and in the articles here there will be something else to take its place or it would have changed unrecognizably. In addition, how can I do all of that and expect to build the remaining 40 articles to get to 50? Too much for this old brain to take in all at once.)

Sorry for this lengthy tome. (Is there another article here somewhere?  Once I understand this, maybe I'll write:  "Understanding getting paid on Wizzley for the dummy (like me)". I think I'm going to make a series of these.)

Thanks.

I thought I would address a few things in your original post that I am not sure have been answered here.

Squidoo pays us directly.  Wizzley does not.

Squidoo pays us by collecting the Adsense and other ad money into one big pool, then redistributing it out according to lensrank.  Lensmasters cannot see what is collected nor how it is divided.

Wizzley Adsense income from our pages is paid to us directly by Google Adsense.  Same with Chitika.  These are paid be predetermined amounts per click.  Once you reach the threshhold with these companies, they pay you directly.

Squidoo collects the Amazon and Ebay and CafePress sales money from their modules, then splits it with the author whose page it comes from and pays us our half. 

Wizzley does not pay us Amazon or Ebay money.  Amazon pays us what we earn from Amazon, and Ebay sales/clicks are paid through Viglink.  Again Wizzley does not pay us Ebay.

Amazon pays per sale.  Ebay pays per click but rates vary depending on sales.

Types of articles you put here depend on how you earn money best on this type of site. 

Wizzley does not have access to your earnings, so therefore cannot give you a summary. 

Thanks you everyone for finally clearing this up for me.

I appreciate your putting up with me and my repetitiveness until I finally get it totally (I hope).

Thanks for your love. Hugs back.