I wrote this guide in 2017, the year I hit my first $100 day with a content locker. It is still the post most people land on first, so I rewrote it to say what that day actually took, and what it did not.
Short version: CPA marketing pays you when a visitor completes an action, an app install or an email signup, instead of a purchase. A content locker is how beginners usually do it. You put something you made behind the locker, the visitor completes one offer to open it, and the network pays you for that offer. The money comes from doing that honestly, at volume, for months.
This post walks the whole chain: picking a network, finding something worth locking, keyword research, hosting and the landing page, the blog post and the video that send traffic, and how to promote it. Read one section, do it, then come back for the next.
If you have never heard the term CPA, read my post on earning money online first. It covers the basics.
What the screenshot does not show: the niche research, the page, the video, and the weeks of uploads before the numbers moved. Follow this guide and you will have the setup I had. Whether it pays depends on what you lock and how much traffic you can send it.
What this guide covers:
- Picking a CPA network
- What a content locker is, and what you can lock honestly
- Finding a niche you can deliver on
- Keyword research with free tools
- A brand name, a domain and hosting
- The landing page and the blog post
- A YouTube video that sends traffic
- Social profiles, indexing and video optimization
A niche, in affiliate terms, is one specific group of people who want one specific thing. And since someone always asks:
In terms of affiliate marketing, a niche is a specialized market. Within that specialized market, the affiliate is able to target groups or one group of people.
According to grammar girl, the most widely accepted way to pronounce niche is "nitch".
Picking a CPA network
I have run lockers on two networks: OGAds since 2016, and CPABuild since 2017, which now operates as AdBlueMedia. Both still pay me, and I keep a full review of each with my invoice history, the payment terms and the rules: the OGAds review and the AdBlueMedia review.
How they compare, from those reviews:
- OGAds: running since 2014. Pays on Net-7 or Net-30, set per account, through Tipalti, with a $50 minimum. Every one of my 187 invoices has been paid. Best fit: phone traffic you own and can explain.
- AdBlueMedia (was CPABuild): pays weekly through Tipalti with a $50 minimum. It paid me in 2025, but I have not run a locker on it since 2019, so for a new locker it is unproven. Fine for referral income.
- CPAGrip: Net-30 as standard, with faster terms for publishers who earn consistently. Worth a look if you run a game or app with its own currency.
- CPAlead: running since 2006 and pays every 24 hours, by its homepage. I have not used it, so I am listing it, not rating it.
Which one I would start on: OGAds, because it is the one I can back up with my own invoices. Whichever you pick, read that network's own terms and payment page before your first click. OGAds approves accounts by hand and asks where your traffic comes from, so have an answer before you apply.
Affiliate disclosure: some links below are referral links. OGAds pays me 5% of what you earn, for life. AdBlueMedia pays me a share of referred publishers' earnings. Hosting links pay a one-time commission. Full disclosure: /affiliate-disclosure
Sign up: Apply to OGAds or Apply to AdBlueMedia. Both are free to join.
What a content locker is, and what you can lock
A content locker is a bit of code the network gives you. You paste it on the page that holds your download, and it covers the download with a short list of offers. The visitor completes one, the network records the lead, the locker opens, and you get paid for that lead. The whole business is that one exchange, repeated.
What you can lock honestly: anything you made and can hand over the second the offer is done.
- A download: a template pack, a preset, a spreadsheet, a checklist, a PDF you wrote
- A tool you built: a calculator, a config generator, a small script
- A guide: the long version of a tutorial, a video course, a walkthrough with the files attached
- The full version of something you give away as a free sample
The test is simple. If the locker opened and the visitor got nothing, or got something that was not yours to give, it is a fake reward. Game currency, gift card codes, premium accounts and cracked software are the usual ones. None of those exist on your end, so every offer completed for them is a lie to the visitor and to the advertiser paying for the lead.
How to read an offer's allowed traffic
Every offer in the network's offer list carries its own rules: the countries it pays for, the devices it runs on, and the traffic types it allows. Open an offer before you send it a single click and read that list. A locker is incentive traffic, so Incent has to be on it. If the offer bans incentive, social, search or email traffic and that is where your visitors come from, the leads get reversed and the account gets reviewed.
The rule also covers how you describe the offer on your page. "Complete one offer to unlock the download" is fine. "Fill this in and get a free phone" is not, whatever the offer says. AdBlueMedia prints its rules above the offer list: deliver the incentive you offered, no fake or misleading rewards. OGAds bans fake content in its publisher terms.
Why fake-reward lockers get publishers banned
The advertiser is paying for a real person who wanted the app or the signup. A visitor who installed it to get a Steam code that never came uninstalls it a minute later, or disputes the charge. The advertiser sees junk leads and scrubs them, and the network reverses your earnings to cover it. Do it at volume and the network closes the account to keep the advertiser. Both networks' terms let them keep your unpaid balance when they do.
It is also the thing journalists and platforms look for. In 2023 Wired traced a years-long scam, PDFs promising free Fortnite skins and Roblox currency uploaded to thousands of sites, to CPABuild affiliates. CPABuild has since been renamed AdBlueMedia. YouTube's spam and deceptive practices policy covers fake giveaways and misleading titles, and a channel built on them collects strikes until it is gone. The 2017 version of this guide told you to do exactly that. Do not.
The OGAds review and the AdBlueMedia review each have a section on the rules you agree to and the ban complaints I could trace.
Finding a niche you can deliver on
Niche research is the part most people skip, and it is the part that decides everything after it. You cannot write a page or a video that converts if you do not know who it is for and what they want to download.
When you are doing some CPA niche research, you'll also learn that experience counts. It's just like riding a bike. All you need to do is get started with niche research and you will begin to correlate different data between different niches and know which is best!
Start with what you can make. List the things you already know how to produce: spreadsheets, Canva templates, presets, configs, guides for a game you play. Then list the people who search for those things. Where the two lists cross is your niche.
In 2017 I told you to pick a blackhat niche because it was easy. The easy part was true. It was also why the accounts died. Pick the niche where the download is real and you can make it better than what is already ranking.
If the niche splits into sub-niches, one page per download, you get more keywords to rank for from the same work.
If you are stuck, my post on finding low competition niches walks through it with a tool.
Keyword research
Once you know what you are giving away, find the exact words people type to look for it. Your page title, your video title and your tags are all built from them.
Affiliate marketing is mostly research. If the keyword is right, a plain video and a plain page still pull traffic. If it is wrong, nothing you do after it matters.
The chain is: the video sends people to the blog post, the blog post sends them to the landing page, and the landing page holds the locker.
Free keyword research
You do not need to pay for tools to start. Keyword Tool Dominator gives you a couple of free searches a day, and KWFinder has a 10-day trial. That is enough to check a short list.
Keyword Tool Dominator
Keyword Tool Dominator pulls long-tail keywords out of Google's autocomplete for whatever seed you give it, and ranks the suggestions by how often they come up.
Search for what your audience types. If you are giving away stream overlay templates, search "stream overlay template" and read the suggestions it returns.
Now that you have a long list, check which of them you can actually rank for.
KWFinder
KWFinder is the paid tool I use. The trial is limited, and the KWFinder review has the current plans and a walkthrough.
Put your top suggestions into KWFinder one at a time and look at two numbers: the monthly searches and the difficulty score. You want searches you can live with and a difficulty a new site can beat. It also lists related keywords around your seed, which is where the sub-niches come from.
Write down the five or so keywords you are going to build for. Everything from here on is made for them.
Producing the content
Niche and keywords done. Now the part you can actually ship: the content.
When creating content, it is important that you give yourself enough time (preferably 2-5 hours per day). If you want to work on your content creation more than 5 hours, then that is okay! However, it is important to always remain patient and if you feel like your brain can't handle more than 5 hours of content creation per day, then you need to be the judge of that.
Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better
This is probably one of the most powerful sayings that comes into play for affiliate marketers, which use search engines as their main traffic source.
It simply goes like this: "If you create content that ranks high, so what... I can too". Just grasp this fact into your mind. All you need to do is believe in your content that you create. If it is better and more high quality in Google and Youtube's eyes, then you will be looked at as "better" and rank higher!
Do not let competition be the thing that picks your niche. If the download is better and the page answers more, you can outrank what is there.
Come up with a brand
It's been proven that Google LOVES brands. Why? Well this is because branding yourself makes you more reputable in the customer's eyes.
Deciding on a brand name is quick and easy. One trick I like to do is broaden up my niche.
For example, if your download is a set of stream overlay templates, most of the people who want it are streamers. The broadened niche is streamers, and the brand name describes that group plus what you do for them. Keep it short, keep it honest, and leave "free" and "official" out of it.
If you have a hard time coming up with a niche or just can't think of a brand name in general, go to Name Mesh and generate one yourself!
Set up your hosting platform and domain name
Just like any business, it requires hosting and a location. How else are you going to convert your customers? What your hosting platform is going to do is host your landing page and blog.
Setting up your domain
The domain is the address of your site. It is what lets you put your brand name on it. I register mine at Namecheap.
How to register a domain for your brand
- Search for your brand name on Namecheap.
- Add the domain to your cart and check out. Skip the hosting upsell; hosting comes next and costs a lot less than the bundle.
Setting up your hosting
Now that we have a domain name, you must get a host for your domain. What a host does is well.. host your files. Your domain name just essentially is an easy shortcut for you viewers to find your host!
Hosting costs money, but not much. I have hosted all my affiliate marketing projects with HostDare, and the steps below assume it.
How to buy hosting and set up WordPress
- Head over to HostDare.
- Click Services > Order New Services.
- Order the starter package.
- Once everything is paid for, go to Services > My Services.
- From this list, pick the host with the domain name you have bought.
- Press "Login to cPanel" and you will be logged into your hosting control panel.
- Scroll down to the "Softaculous Apps Installer" menu.
- Click the WordPress icon within that menu.
- Click "Install".
- Enter the username and password you want. (I cannot do this for you.)
- Change the site name to your brand name and the site description to your tagline.
- Press Install.
That is it. WordPress is installed. Now the landing page.
Your landing page
The landing page is one page with one job: say what the download is, show it, and hold the locker. It does not need to be pretty. It needs to be true.
In 2017 I told you to copy someone else's landing page with HTTrack. Do not. The page belongs to someone, the networks have seen every copied template, and a copied page usually makes promises you cannot keep. AdBlueMedia has a template editor that builds the page and the locker together, no HTML needed. OGAds gives you the locker code and a get-paid-to site builder. Either way, the network's own tools are where I would start.
What goes on it:
- A headline that names the download
- A short paragraph on what it is and who it is for
- A screenshot or preview of the real thing
- The locker, on the download button
- One line on what happens: complete one offer and the download opens
If you build the page yourself as plain HTML, paste the locker code where the download button goes, then move the files to your host:
In order to do that, you need to zip your files first into one file. Upload that file to your designated directory within the host.
When the file is uploaded, right click the .zip file and press extract. Your files are now on your web server. Your host's file manager docs cover it if the menu looks different.
Stuck on the upload? Contact me with what you tried.
WordPress: creating your post
The blog post is where the convincing happens. The video sends people here, the post explains the download, and the button sends them on to the landing page.
It is important to know that your blog needs to be structured very well and look authoritative for this CPA method to work.
However, if you are not familiar with Wordpress, refer to this guide. This should get you started with Wordpress.
You must have a great blog to really convert your audience. If you blog doesn't look professional enough or lacks content, Google and your niche audience will not convert.
Since the video will link here, the post has to answer the questions the video raised.
Here are the elements your blog post should have:
- More than 1,000 words: Google treats a thin page as a thin page. Write the long version.
- An introduction: one paragraph on the problem and the download that solves it.
- The how: how you made it, how to install or use it, with screenshots of the real thing.
- The why: why yours is better than the three already ranking. Be specific.
- The what: what it works on, what it does not do, and what it costs, which is one offer. Answer the questions straight.
- A button to the landing page: the one link that matters. Make it obvious, and put it near the top and again at the bottom.
A good post takes a day or two. Spend an hour of that proofreading, because a post nobody can read converts nobody.
YouTube
YouTube is one of the most underrated sources of organic traffic. It is the second largest search engine, and people search it for exactly the kind of thing you are giving away.
With this being said, Youtube is a great source of traffic. We can redirect the traffic from your Youtube video straight to your blog post that you have just created.
Here are the elements your video should have:
- A custom thumbnail: the picture people see before they click. Videos with a clear custom thumbnail get clicked more than videos without one.
- Confidence: if you do not sound sure of the download, nobody watching will be either. Record it twice if you have to.
- Clear direction: tell people where the link is, what the locker asks for, and what they get. Say it once in the middle and once at the end.
- The real thing on screen: screen-record the download in use. That is the proof. If you cannot show it working, you do not have something to lock.
Thumbnail, confidence, direction, and a real demo. That is the whole video. Now to get it seen.
Promoting your content
I'm going to briefly explain how to setup your social profiles, index your website, upload your video properly, and get people engaged and start sharing your brand.
These are the steps we are going to take to promote your brand:
- Setting up social media accounts
- Indexing your site
- Uploading your Youtube video correctly
- Optimizing your Youtube video correctly
Setting up social media
Set up a Facebook page and an X profile, which most people still call Twitter. Add others if your audience lives there.
Make sure your descriptions are very high quality and contain a lot of information about your brand! Don't just put something like "free templates here". Instead, make a 3-5 sentence about your brand. Try and use the same description for every social media account for this CPA method!
Example: Your Brand makes free stream overlay templates for OBS. Every pack is made in-house, and each download unlocks after one short offer. Get the latest pack at yourbrand.com.
First off, we are going to setup our Facebook page. Now, if you don't have a Facebook account, get one now!
In terms of Facebook, the best way to talk about your brand is to create a page.
How to create a Facebook page
- Create your Facebook page by going here and pick a category that fits a website.
- Add a profile picture and a cover picture.
- Paste the description you wrote above into the page description.
- Add a button that points at your site.
- Put your website under About.
X (Twitter)
Last but not least we have Twitter. Twitter can be a little complicated, as far as knowing the importance but to be better safe than sorry, we are going to setup Twitter.
How to set up the account
- Go here to sign up with your brand name, a phone number and a password.
- Verify yourself via SMS.
- Pick your username. The brand name, or as close as you can get.
- Skip the suggested accounts to follow.
- Open Edit Profile and set your header, profile picture, bio and website.
Both profiles done. Put the site link in each bio and post the video and the blog post from both.
Getting your site indexed
Indexing is how the search engines find out your pages exist. Google Search Console is the way in: add your domain, verify it, and ask for the blog post to be indexed. The old public "submit URL" form is gone.
How to index your site with Google
- Open Google Search Console and add your domain.
- Verify it with the DNS record or the HTML tag it gives you.
- Paste the blog post URL into URL Inspection and click "Request indexing".
- Submit the sitemap WordPress generates. On a default install it is at /wp-sitemap.xml.
A new site with no links pointing at it can take days to show up. Keep posting and keep the video live; the links you build later speed it up.
Bing
Bing Webmaster Tools does the same job for Bing, and it can import your site straight from Search Console. Do it the same day. It is one form, and it is traffic you would otherwise never see.
How to submit your site to Bing
- Open Bing Webmaster Tools and import from Google Search Console, or add the site by hand.
- Submit the same sitemap.
- Use URL Submission on the blog post.
Uploading your video to YouTube correctly
I see so many people doing this step wrong. They make a rather-great Youtube video, a kick-ass landing page, but they just fail to optimize their content properly.
Now I am going to show you how to optimize your content correctly, so more visitors can view your content!
- Go to the YouTube upload page here.
- Press "Select Files to Upload" and select your video. It will process while you fill in the rest.
Now the part that gets you traffic: the optimization.
How to optimize your video for YouTube
- The title: the most important field. Use your main keyword and make it specific. For the overlay example that is "Free Stream Overlay Templates for OBS (2026 pack)".
- The description: short, plain, and to the point, with the keyword in it. Summarize the blog post and put the link to it in the first two lines. Here is a description that did well for me:
- Tags: search your keyword on YouTube and use the autocomplete suggestions as your tags. That is what YouTube already associates with the term.
- Category: put the video in the right category under the advanced settings.
- Thumbnail: upload your custom thumbnail. If you do not see the option, you need to verify the channel here first.
Once every field is filled in, press "Publish".
What a $100 day actually takes
A $100 day is not a trick. It is one niche where the download is real, a page and a video built for a handful of keywords, and enough daily work that the traffic compounds. Mine took months of that before the screenshot above happened, and most days before it were far lower.
Start with one download you can make this week. Lock it, point one video at it, and watch the stats for a month before you change anything.
Where to go next: the OGAds review and the AdBlueMedia review for the networks, finding low competition niches for the research, and contact me if you get stuck. If this helped, send it to someone who is starting.
