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Happy Turkey Day!

13 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on November 21, 2007 in Working Online  

Happy Turkey Day to all my readers! May your stomachs and Pockets be stuffed this thanksgiving! As a way to give a little back I will randomly choose two people from the comments on this post and give them a free CPA-Affiliates.com T-shirt. (make sure to use a legit email as this is how i will get your address to mail u the shirt)

I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

The Online Marketing Bottle Neck is…… You!

9 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on November 15, 2007 in Affiliate Tips, Working Online  

After much thinking and contemplation I realized that at times for myself and many times for others that are getting started, that the bottle Neck (the slow down, The constricting point) is often ourselves. Let me explain.

As online marketers 98% of us like to be in control and are huge statistic FREAKS. I can’t go an hour without skimming through statistical reports of ROI, CTR, EPC etc… but this can also be our down fall. Take a step back and look at it this way.

1. What is the most important thing that you and only you can do?

2. What can I hire someone esle to do for me cheaper than I can?

a. Building Keyword lists (maybe not a person but a tool)

b. Ad Copy (maybe not a person but a tool)

c. Landing Pages/sites

d. Offer/product research (maybe not a person but a tool)

e. Tool for running and analyzing reports.

3. Scalability – Its hard to grow being a one man show.

4. Short & Long Term Profit – Maybe you dont want to grow and are happy with where you are at. But if you aren’t you have to look at both Long Term and Short Term profit and both are PROFIT.

So are you a bottle neck for your online marketing? If you are find a way to move yourself out the way so your business can grow.

What it takes to make it BIG in online marketing

10 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on October 26, 2007 in Affiliate Tips, Working Online  

People ask me all the time how i got into doing what i am doing and how i became a player in online marketing. So i figured i would provide a little insight.

1. It takes focus! – it is easy ESPECIALLY when you work online to get distracted by emails, instant messages, fun sites (that can kill a lot fo your time). So stay focused, If need be don’t check your email during the day, turn off any instant message clients so you can accomplish the tasks at hand. In affiliate marketing don’t get overwhelmed by the number of offers just go after a few and target those untill you make them work.

2. It takes perseverance! – You have to be the type of person that even though you are losng money you keep trying. Even when Google Delists you, you keep trying. You can’t give up in online marketing, as it is constantly changing there are new battles daily with victories and defeats you have to be able to take both in stribe.

3. Don’t get Complacent! – Yes its great when that offer starts earning you a 100 or 1000 a day but don’t get too happy and just sit back.  Cause that offer or campaign can be pulled tomorrow or your rankings can take a dive… what then?

4. Network Network Network – Don’t be a shy fly on the wall. Network with other earners and online marketters. Send them an email if you feel brave (don’t make it lame and say oh i think your awesome can your teach me your ways (these go directly to spam!)) also don’t ask the typical questions be creative. You would be surprised cause as online marketers we love to interact with people since we lack it due to online work. Attend conferences that will help you make contacts. (For affiliate marketers affiliate Summit is the best, it is for the Marketer not just huge companies with big pockets)

5. Have Fun! – If you don’t have fun you will end up wanting to quit this work quicker than a burger flipper at MCD’s (don’t even think they have burger flippers anymore).

6. Be Creative – While you can make money by reading and trying to copy other people to really make $$$$$$$$$ you need to be creative with your approach, its not that hard you just have to try to be different… sometimes the ideas take off sometimes they fail but thats part of the fun.

7. When you start making it don’t be afraid to expand!!!!!!!

You have a tip to help people make it in online marketing leave a comment.

Webmaster Inspiration Month and Contest!

5 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on October 4, 2007 in Online Merchant, Working Online  

Over at Earners Forum they are hosting a Webmaster Inspiration Month Contest! with over $5500 dollars in prizes. Check Out the details below.

The Good Stuff First – Contest Prizes!

With this contest we will have a total of 7 winners! At the end of Webmaster Inspiration Month (Contest ends October 31st at 11:59pm CST) the 7 winners will be chosen. Each winner will receive each of the following:

  1. $250 Gift Certificate to Text Link Ads!
  2. 24 T-Shirts Custom Printed For Your Web Site (multiple shirt colors, sizes from Adult Small – XL, and 6 colors front-side printing) from NDesigns!
  3. $250 CASH MONEY From Neverblue Ads!

    4. In addition to the items above, the submission that receives the most votes (or backs
    as we call them on Earners Forum) will also win a brand new iPod Touch (valued at $300)!                                   

    See Live Contest Rankings!

    Over $5,500 In Prizes!

Contest Details

This contest is rather simple and quite motivational! All you have to do to participate in the contest after registering as a member of Earners Forum is submit your success story in one of the following 6 categories:

  1. Blog Success Story – Submit Here
    How did your blog become the success that it is? Is it highly trafficked? Is it your sole income?
  2. Forum Success Story – Submit Here
    Did you grow it from scratch? Has your membership growth been exponential? Huge traffic and/or income?
  3. Affiliate Marketing Success Story – Submit Here
    Is it your sole income? Did you have a campaign with extraordinary ROI? Did a campaign buy you a new car?
  4. SEO / SEM Success Story – Submit Here
    Are you #1 for a hot keyword? I pwn Google? Did you drive huge traffic to a new site (viral, social media, organic)?
  5. Rags to Riches Success Story – Submit Here
    Did you go from the poor house to Trump’s mansion? Did your net worth finally move in to positive numbers?
  6. “I Quit My Job” Success Story – Submit Here
    Did you quit your day job due to your internet success?

Your focus in making your submission should be to tell your success story and inspire other webmasters to succeed. You can share as much or as little detail as you’d like, but remember as we judge the submissions at the end of the month we will be looking for the most inspiring and the best details. You can make multiple submissions if you want to share multiple success stories, or you may experience success in several of the categories. This contest is not just for those who have made millions, we want to hear from you all. If you started out with nothing and are now profiting $20 a day, then share that success story with us!

I have entered my story and would appreciate your Backs/Votes. My post can be found under I Quit MY Day Job in 2006! And of course feel free to make your entry as there are some great prizes who can’t use some free Text Links, T shirts or most importantly $250 in Cash!

Revisiting my Goals for 2007

5 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on September 9, 2007 in CPA Affiliate Announcements, Working Online  

Ok so back in December for 2006 i set some goals for myself  for 2007 and I figured it was time to revisit them.

1. Improve my health as a web entrepreneur, we have atendacy to sit on our rears a lot. I have a gym membership but have been maybe 10 times. (I do play basketball every other tuesday though)

Unfortunately I have done very little towards this goal EXCEPT i am pumped their is a LA fitness opening up near me that will have Racquetball courts and i used to love playing so when they open up i will be playing like CRAZY! And i cancelled my 24hr fitness membership due to this.

2. Increase Company profit by 40%.

Done! I actually made more by the end of July than i did in 2006 :) .  

3. Do even more Networking by attending conferences. 

Done Went to Affiliate Summit East and I will be making a trip to visit PepperJam Search and Kris Jones this week.

4. Do more experiments with PPC (including 3rd tier)

I have done so and my first tier experiments are going great but once again proving that most 3rd tier are garbage… but I am still testing…

5. Hire a Web Designer and Programmer. (Ties a little bit to #2) 

Done and Done… while not full time I have them a guaranteed amount of work each month.

6. Finish 3 sites that I have been working on since March 2006.

2 of the sites are done and up and running the 3rd is close to completition. (had some CPA offers I had to tackle and get rocking thus held off on pushing the 3rd to completion.)

7. Get my 2nd Business off the ground that I am partnering with my Dad on.

This one is basically on hold partly due to #2 and #4 ;) .

8. Get CPA Affiliates shirts made and give some away!

I had the T-shirts made and have given some of them away. I guess i should hold a contest on my blog to give them away and not just at conferences and other people that have hit me up for one.

9. Revamp one of my first sites Based on Investing - http://www.investingpub.com. As in 2006 it basically got neglected.

Still being neglected…. but maybe at some point i will get to it… as other projects have become priority.

So there you have it. Not to bad if you ask me. and the year is just a little more than half over! Where do you stand with your 2007 goals? If you didn’t ahve any set them NOW it’s never to late.

A Revolution Coming to Wordpress

3 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on August 23, 2007 in Working Online  

A Revolution Theme has come to Word Press. Many of us out there love to utilize wordpress for our blogs but even our sites. Well this theme is kicking it when it comes to making your blog style and design look a “website”. While the theme isn’t free it is cheap $59.95 and you gain access to all the future updates of the design. Plus the design is taking requests for what people would like the theme to be, able to do and look like. Straight from the developers site:

Why You Should Use the Revolution Theme

Revolution is user friendly, customizable theme that is an ideal solution for online magazines, online newspapers, and other websites that wish to use WordPress as a content management system. Custom themes can easily cost you more than $1000, so the $59.95 is a steal!

So If you utilize wordpress then I suggest you check out the Revolution Theme. I will be putting it to use on a few future projects :) .

Leaving Your Day Job to Work Online

15 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on August 20, 2007 in Affiliate Tips, Working Online  

Many people know that in October of 2006 I left my day job (Electrical Engineer) to work online full time, and i get asked all the time how i did it. Well today i am going to go over some things i did to prepare for that day but also how i came to the conclusion that it was worth the risk. ***

First thing I suggest to anyone is that if you are currently doing it as a hobby don’t use the extra money to just have fun, use it to pay off debt. When i turned in my resignation at my day job the only debt i had was my mortgage, no car notes, no credit card bills. I was able to do this because i planned ahead and used the extra money i was making online to pay off those debts. I would highly suggest this to anyone that is considering leaving, that is if you have debt at all.  (If you don’t already have one, build up a nest egg that you culd support your family for atleast 6 months, i recomend a year but 6 months will do.)

Second can i handle working from home or do i need an office. This is a tough call for many but was easy for me. I don’t have kids yet only my wife, so i know the distractions would be minimal. I chose to work at home and so far it has been great. If i had kids i would probably have to rent out an office or build a seperate building or something so that they would know Dad is going away to work.

Thirdly and most important can you handle the ups and downs that come with working online. Talk to any person making money online and they will tell you about the ups and downs. Server crashes, boots from google, hackers, Clients not paying, a fad dies off, the list goes on. With that you want to diversify your revenue streams and make plans of how you handle server outtages etc.. (if 100% critical there are companies that guarantee 100% up time but you will pay for it. ) Depending on how you plan to make your living online will vary your ups and downs greatly. For me i mainly do affiliate marketing, IF an offer gets pulled or cancelled that could mean hundreds or thousands of profit i won’t be getting anymore. Do i panic…. well maybe a little but then i gain composer and move on to the next thing. But with that i also have a baseline of normal websites earning revenue for me thru various revenue streams. so even when i “panic” my earnings online will still more than cover my bills its more of man that sucks that i am not making that anymore.

How did i decide it was worth the risk??? Well it came down to a conversation with my wife as i was basically working two jobs and i enjoyed both of them. One working as electrical engineer from 8 to 5, and from 6 to 10 as webprenuer. As you can see doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for family. So after much thought and discussion. I concluded i didn’t want to look back on my like 5 or 10 years from now still working as an engineer saying i wonder what would have happened had i gone full time working online. That is what sold it for me as i never want to live life with regrets… plus what was the worst case… my wife would have to find a job and i would have to find a job. Not so bad of a failing outcome as most families both husband and wife work 8 to 5 jobs.  So from there i took the plunge into full time online work.

I do have one regret after doing this for over 9 months, I wish I had done it SOONER!

*** Please note that these are my thoughts an opinions and I am not a financial advisor. You have to make your own decision on how you want to live your life and what you want to do with your money.

10 ways to make Money without Money Online

17 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on August 15, 2007 in Working Online  

10 ways to make money without money online was inspired by friends and family asking how they could make money online without money. Of course I tell them you can make more even if you have just a little money like 100 bucks but most said they wanted to go the free route. So here they are 10 ways to make money online without money.

1. & 2. Write on a topic using blogspot or wordpress blog and then to monetize it use adsense or cpa offers to make money off the people that visit your site.  Blogspot and wordpress naturally rank well in search engines so it won’t take long before you get some traffic.

3. Find forums to post on that allow links in your signature and put cpa offer link in footer that would appeal to the visitors of the site. Then just get to posting, make sure your posts are good and on topic otherwise you will end up getting banned.

4. Get paid to post in forums. Many people are looking to give their forums a bump in users or to help kick it off so they will pay people to sign up and make posts anywhere from a few pennies to 30 cents a post. Again quality gets the higher pay.

5. Get paid to write articles, press releases, or blog posts. Many people are looking to outsource and will pay people to write their content for them. If you are a decent writer you can make some good money doing this (some people make a living at it)

6. Get paid to submit sites for directory listings. This one will not make you a ton of money and will take more time but you can make money doing this. If you decide to do this make sure you tout that you are HAND submitting to the directories, and make sure the first few people you do submissions for are 100% correct categories titles etc..

7. Build myspace friends list then sell account. People will actual buy your myspace account from you especially if you built it up yourself and don’t have bots auto inviting thousands (even if you do people will still buy but pay less)

8.Take surveys online and get paid (pinecone research is best). Never pay to join a survey club or site as most of those are scams. All the legit ones are free to join. You can get paid anywhere from .25 up to 100.00 dollars to take surveys and even test out products (I did this right after college just for fun and got some cool stuff to test out)

9. Build up post count on popular forums then rent out forum signature or avatar for a monthly fee.

10.  Get paid to build links for sites or manage link exchanges for sites. Basically you will track and solicit sites for new links for your client. This may mean you are doing just exchanges or maybe your client has money to spend on links so you can offer payment to these sites in return for a link. If you are good at using google for finding sites on topics this could be a good one for you.

So there you have it 10 ways to make Money without Money Online. All it takes is some determination and time. Now you can get started earning some money without money.

It is a great time to be a Online Merchant

5 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on August 14, 2007 in Online Merchant, Working Online  

Right now is an awesome time to be a merchant, if you have a great product. Just think of it this way. Say you are a merchant and you have a good item. Let’s call this item billybobs. So you have a website where you sell billybobs and you are doing well selling them but want to sell more as you have a great profit margin. So you hear about affiliate marketing where you can have people promote your billybobs and give them a percentage for each sale or pay them per lead etc..  Since you are selling a product you would either go with flat rate or a percentage. For this instance lets say the Billybob’s sell for 30.00 and you have a great margin of 20.00.  So it would be worth it to you to pay an affiliate 10.00 of that margin to make the sale. So you join CJ or push your offer thru various Affiliate networks.

Here is the best part for merchants, you get free branding and promotion. Because you only pay out when you make a sale. Trust me there are many affiliates that will promote your product spend anywhere from 10 to a few hundred and maybe not even make a sale but got more of the word out on your billybobs. Plus you increase your sales from those affiliates that promote your product to areas and people you would have never thought to reach. The only downside is you need to clarify if there is any areas you don’t want your product promoted. Other than that have fun enjoying the rewards of being a Merchant on the internet.

Tips, Tricks, Making Money Online This Week

3 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on August 13, 2007 in Affiliate Tips, Working Online  

This week I am going to play a little catch up on my blog and post some Tips, Tricks and talk about making money online. Last week I didn’t post much as i was out fishing with my dad catching a limit of speckled trout :) .  I have some posts in the works and will be posting a new one every day this week. I will discuss merchants, CPA Networks, Advertising Networks, Tips on making money online, and try to share a few tricks that work!

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