One Entrepreneur’s Journey to Selling a Website for $200,000

There are many success stories out there about people who have built websites and have sold them later for a large sum of money. I love these stories because each story is a little different, but the underlying themes are generally the same. 

This is a guest post by Patrick Meninga who recently sold his flagship website for $200,000 dollars. He had worked on his website for 4 years before being approached by an advertiser who offered to purchase it. It’s a great story of what hard work combined with some smart thinking can do for your website and he offers some great advice for all of us. 

I asked Patrick if it was okay to disclose the website that was sold and he said it was totally cool! (Thanks Patrick!)

The website he sold was a site he created about addiction and recovery called Spiritual River. The site presents his unique ideas about how to overcome any addiction using a holistic approach to personal growth. 

Here are some of the things Patrick learned from his experience. 

I recently sold my flagship website for $200,000 dollars, and to be honest, the site was not even for sale at the time.

I am a long time reader of SPI and I used many of Pat’s ideas to help me build the website. Let me tell you exactly how I did it, and give you advice if you desire the same thing.

Most internet marketers would advise you to start a website about something that you have extensive knowledge, expertise and interest in. But, I would go one step further and make sure there is potential to make money with your topic too.

It’s not about what you know, it’s about what you know that’s also profitable. Starting a website about free poetry will probably never make you any money, even if you rank number one for most of the related keywords.

Consider a topic and look at the type of advertising that appears on similar websites. How much is a new customer worth in each case? How much are people willing to pay for advertising? If the answer is “very little” then move on and find something more profitable.

Every time you publish an article on your website, ask yourself: “Would anyone share this article for any reason?” If the answer is “no” then you should not publish the article.

When someone lands on your website you have an opportunity to capture attention and possibly take the relationship one step further. If your website has low quality, uninspiring or spammy articles, then what kind of impression are you going to make on new visitors?

Here is the guiding principle when it comes to content on the web: nobody cares. Anyone can go to the search engines and read hundreds of different articles about payday loans. Why would they care if there is yet another unoriginal 400 word article about payday loans on your website?

If you want to succeed online then you have to rise above the sea of web spam and offer something unique, something original and have insight and ideas about your topic.

If you publish an article that could have been outsourced for under 10 dollars then you are probably wasting everyone’s time. Yes, you might play this game for a while and even get some search traffic, but your website is not going to stick around for the long haul if that is the type of content you normally publish.

Be original. Be insightful. Create something amazing.

Anything less is going to end up in the dust bin of the interwebs.

My website sold for such a large amount was because I averaged 3 new articles per day for the 4 years that the website existed.

The long tail is where my website site made all of its money. The best keyword on the site made less than 50 dollars per month in income. Much of the site’s authority came from having over 1,500 articles.

I wish I would have published three articles every day, but in reality my journey was much more erratic. I went for months at a time without publishing a thing, but other times I was publishing over 20,000 words per day.

All told, I averaged 3 articles per day. If you are interested in building a serious online empire like I did, I suggest you aim for a similar level of output. Writing one article per day is not going to get you to your income goal in a reasonable amount of time. Three articles per day will make things really exciting if you stick with it for at least a year.

It is possible to create a healthy income stream while publishing less, but most people are not going to be that lucky. If you are interested in creating a long term, sustainable income then you should focus on both quality and volume.

Pat (Flynn) stepping in here for second. I had to comment on this section because I partly agree, but I partly disagree. It’s obvious that the more content you post on your site, the more (long tail) keywords you’ll eventually rank for and the more traffic will come your way. I’ve experienced this first-hand with my security guard training niche site. But, in some niches 3 articles per day is overload for its readers (imagine trying to take action when if I posted  3 articles per day on SPI) and for many people it’s just impossible to post 3 quality articles per day, let alone 3 quality articles per week. 

The point here is: push yourself as much as you can, both in terms of quality and volume. Just be careful about prioritizing volume over quality – it should be the other way around. It’s like working out – you get the most benefit to your body by just pushing yourself a little bit more when your mind tells you you’ve had enough, but go too crazy and you just might hurt yourself.

Don’t hurt yourself. 

Okay back to Patrick!

When you start to get regular traffic and people begin to leave comments on your site, you should answer those comments and start to have conversations with your visitors.

Some comments may be worthy of a new post in order to further discussion. In other cases you may talk about a new topic and ask for feedback, which will also encourage discussion.

Once you are receiving comments on a fairly regular basis and you see a small community forming, you might consider adding a discussion forum to your website.

I believe it’s important to do this for a number of reasons. In the eyes of the search engines, having a community of people who regularly visit your website and join in the discussion can help you because:

People create free content for you every day, expanding the size and footprint of your website.Repeat visitors improve your “stickiness” metric, showing trust in your site.Fans of your site can help spread your ideas via word of mouth or by creating real links.

If you are receiving search engine traffic every day but failing to build a community by “capturing” some of it, then you are missing an opportunity.

Engage your audience and start a discussion if you want to build a following. My website sold for a large amount because it was more than just a search engine trap. The buyer of the website saw value in the community and knew that this would help it to be a sustainable investment in the long run.

Many internet marketers get their start with Google AdSense, but the search for online income should not end there.

If you look at the businesses that are advertising via Google Adwords to purchase your traffic, you will learn how to move up the value chain. The Adwords advertisers are profitable. This should be a big clue as to how you should be monetizing your website.

For example, let’s say that your website is about food allergies and you are making a certain amount of money with AdSense on the site. You examine your advertisers and realize that most of them are buying your traffic in order to sell your audience an eBook about food allergies. In this hypothetical example, you would be better off selling that book directly to your audience rather than using AdSense.

This is an example of “moving up the value chain.” If people are buying your traffic via Adwords, there is always a way to move up the chain and monetize more efficiently.

I was able to negotiate direct advertising deals based on this technique, and eventually one of my advertisers made me an unsolicited offer to purchase my website. It was the experimentation with monetization that led to this opportunity.

Pat (Flynn) again here. When I started GreenExamAcademy.com I was running Adsense on the site and noticed one advertiser that was advertising their practice exams for this test. I built a relationship with them and eventually started selling their practice exams as an affiliate on my site. Commissions from one sale as an affiliate was the equivalent of  30 Adsense ad clicks. I’ve been an affiliate for 3 years and have made over 6 figures promoting their product. So yeah, this works.

If you reinvest 100% of your earnings into site growth then you never get to enjoy any of your success.

On the other hand, if you never reinvest any income into growing your site, then the rate of growth will be very, very slow.

Therefore, I would recommend that you reinvest a certain percentage of your income. One strategy is to start by reinvesting 50% of your income into the website until you reach your monthly income goal. After that, reduce your investment into the business to 25% of revenue.

That way you can aggressively grow the business until your reach your desired income level. After that, you insure that the site stays fresh and continues to grow.

How do you reinvest your earnings into the website?

There are two options. One, you could pay for more on-site content, and essentially hire writers. Two, you could pay for promotion.

I think it’s wise to avoid the first strategy and pursue the second. Write your own content and use your income from the website to further promote it and increase its authority. This is a smart strategy for two reasons:

When you outsource on-site content, quality typically drops. This is not good for your brand or long term outlook.If you outsource your promotional efforts, it frees your time and mental energy to focus on creating great content on your website.

Create amazing content on your site, then outsource the promotion of that content. This will free you up to create more amazing on-site content.

Pro tip: One way to implement this idea is to use paid Stumbleupon traffic. Create an amazing article on your website, then spend as little as five dollars sending traffic to the page. See how many people give it a “thumbs up” and then create another piece of amazing content to repeat the experiment. By examining your results and comparing the number of “likes,” you can continuously refine future articles that you write to better serve your site visitors. Thus, this can become an iterative approach to crafting the best possible content on your website.

If you are using AdSense then you are aware that Google makes a certain percentage from each pay per click transaction. If you were to go direct with one of your advertisers and eliminate Google from the equation, both of you would come out better.

Pay attention to the advertisers that show up on your site when you run Google AdSense. Examine their business model, see how they are making money, and understand how they profit from purchasing your traffic.

Then approach them with a proposition. Ask them if they would be interested in eliminating Google and buying your traffic directly. Brainstorm and consider other compensation models. You may be able to negotiate a much more profitable deal if you go direct with the company.

This is exactly how I stumbled into such a lucrative sale for my website. I contacted all of my AdSense advertisers with a friendly email that sought to open discussion and negotiate a direct relationship. This led to a few trial runs that basically fizzled. Then one advertiser approached me and eventually offered to buy my website for a huge sum of money.

It is very likely that the biggest websites in your niche monetize traffic more efficiently than you do. Capitalize on this and reach out to the big players and offer to negotiate a direct deal. If they know the value of your traffic (and they obviously do!) then they should be eager to either advertise directly or purchase your site outright.

Internet marketers are always giving advice. Take all such advice with a grain of salt and test everything. What works for them will not necessarily work for you. Every niche is a bit different.

The key is to take action. Once you have some traffic and income trickling in, it is time to make a serious effort to really grow your website. Take massive action if you want big results.

For example, how many articles are you publishing per day on your website? One? Could you push it to two or three?

The long term effects of publishing multiple articles every day are enormous. When creating an authority website, volume matters – a lot. Push yourself to create lots of new (quality) content and this will also allow you to do more testing about what works well and what does not. Thus, you learn simply by taking action and refining your approach based on your results.

Most people who dabble in internet marketing give up long before they see a payout like the one I received. The problem is that there is so much spam on the internet that the search engines have to “put everyone on probation” for such a long time in order to see who is really serious and who is not.

This creates a barrier to entry, but it also represents a huge opportunity. Most people do not have the patience to keep creating high quality content while the search engines turn up their noses at them.

Realize that this is an opportunity for you to persevere and be rewarded. The average time to success on the web has been stretched out considerably. Most people will give up within the first year or two due to lack of results.

If you create amazing content over and over again, eventually you will be rewarded with a steady stream of traffic and income.

But, you have to believe in the process and have the determination to keep pounding away.

Be patient enough to let success find you.

Create something amazing, and one day you might be telling someone like I did:

“Yes, I will sell you my website for $200,000 dollars!”

Thanks, once again, to Patrick for sharing his story and advice. You can read more from Patrick on his blog at Make Money with No Work. Any comments or questions? Please leave them in the comment section below. Cheers!

Tagged as: guest post

View the original article here

Continue Reading

How to Start a Podcast – Pat’s Complete Step-By-Step Podcasting Tutorial

Starting a podcast has been one of the best decisions I have ever made for my brand. Ever.

Since starting The Smart Passive Income Podcast in July of 2010:

The show has surpassed 2,000,000 total downloads. (Sept. 24, 2012 – see graph)The podcast has become the #1 way people who read my blog found out about me – that’s above search, social media and links from other websites. (See survey results)I was contacted by a Hollywood producer who listened to my show to consult as the social media director for a $10M independent film (See IMDB)Fox News reached out to me to feature my story on the evening news.I led a panel at Blog World Expo in New York this past June about the power of podcasting. It was cool to see the room filled beyond capacity. (See image)Several other big-name bloggers have started their own podcasts, including Michael Hyatt, Michael Stelzner and Derek Halpern - and even more recently Seth Godin.I’ve become more confident as a person and better skilled as a speaker. It was the perfect stepping stone to conquering my fear of public speaking. Next year, I’ve already been booked to speak at 4 different events around the United States, and have been asked to speak at even more events around the world.

And, most importantly, the podcast has enabled me to build a stronger relationship with my audience – much stronger than I could ever do with just my blog alone. The language that people use when they describe listening to my podcast is as if I was there speaking to them in person:

“Thanks for keep me company while I was…”“I was scrambling, taking notes while you were talking about…”“It was when you said [this] that I decided to…”

It’s incredible, and I get emails every single day from listeners who have taken action and are seeing results because of the podcast. That is what’s so cool about all of this – people will listen, people will connect and people will take action. As a content provider, that’s exactly what you want people to do, and when you feed your voice into people’s heads there is no chance to skim your content or take shortcuts. It’s you and them – one on one, except in reality it’s you and potentially millions of other people, all at the same time.

Do you really need me to convince you any further? Now is the time to start a podcast and this post is here to help you get started. Now about this tutorial…

I first announced my interest in starting a podcast back in December of 2008. You can actually read this announcement post and listen to a short test recording I did. Personally, I hate it. I find it very difficult to listen to. If you’ve listened to my show before  you can definitely tell how much I’ve improved my skills since then!

We all have to start somewhere.

That was in December of 2008, but I didn’t publish my first podcast episode until July of 2010! That’s a year and a half later!

Why did it take me so long?

Because setting up a podcast was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Podcasting was brand new to me, relatively technical and I just didn’t know where to begin. After trying to figure it out on my own, I gave up and put it aside until I finally got some help a year later from two dear friends of mine: Jason Van Orden from Internet Business Mastery and Cliff Ravenscraft from Podcast Answer Man. Both Jason and Cliff inspired and personally helped me setup my podcast. Thank you both if you’re reading this!

Since I became interested in podcasting, a lot of great “how-to podcast” tutorials have popped up on the Internet that I wish were around when I first started. The best one I’ve seen, by far, is from Cliff Ravenscraft over at LearnHowtoPodcast.com.

The tutorial that you’re reading today was not created to “out do” any of the other podcasting tutorials out there. Cliff’s is fantastic and there are several others too (I actually asked Cliff permission to publish this post and he was more than supportive about it. Cliff – you’re awesome!), but I know I have a particular style of teaching that resonates with a lot of my audience, and so here is my version of how to start a podcast. I hope you enjoy.

Podcasting is extremely fun and exciting, but there is one thing you must do before you start podcasting:

Commit.

You must internally commit to podcasting, as you must do with anything that is potentially beneficial but takes some time and effort to do.

You have to say to yourself:

“This is something I’m going to do, and this is something I’m going to keep doing.”

It’s easy to get excited about the potential of podcasting and what it can do for you and your brand. The possibilities are endless, but only if you keep at it.

My best advice is to enjoy every single part of it. Once you start thinking, “Ugh, I have to record another episode soon,” that’s when you should remember why you starting podcasting in the first place.

Results take time, so you might as well enjoy it.

Before I get into the step-by-step videos I wanted to give you the roadmap so you sort of know where we’re headed.

Setting up a podcast is not push-button easy, but it’s not rocket science either, and once you set things up the first time you’ll have done most of the work. Then, all you have to worry about is producing more audio content and just posting it onto your blog. Everything else happens automatically.

Each particular episode of your podcast show is an individual audio file, typically an mp3 file since it’s the most favorable as far as sound quality and file size. We’ll talk more about recording equipment and what elements to include in your show later in this tutorial.

For the purposes of this example, let’s say you record your first episode and export the recording as SPI001.mp3, which is now on your desktop.

Before you upload this file anywhere, you need to provide some more information about this specific piece of audio. This is what is called tagging the file, or in technical terms, editing the metadata or ID3 tags. You need to include this additional data along with your audio file so that media players can understand and display things like the title of the podcast, your name, the episode number and even the artwork for your podcast. I won’t get into too much detail here in the roadmap, but when I talk about each of these parts individually I’ll give you all of the tools and resources you need.

After you have your audio properly tagged, you must upload and store SPI001.mp3 onto a server somewhere so that whenever a media player wants to play it (from a website, from iTunes, from a mobile device, etc.), it knows where to call that audio file from. You could store your audio files on your own website’s server, but I 100% do not recommended that because you could easily run into bandwidth issues and your site could slow down or even crash as a result. If you upload your audio onto a separate server just for your podcast media, you run no risk of overloading your own site and you’ll be able to provide a better experience for your audience too because the audio will stream much faster.

Once you upload SPI001.mp3 onto a server you’ll get a link that points directly to your audio, such as:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/patflynn/SPI001.mp3

This link is important because, like I said, this is the link that media players and directories like iTunes use to play your podcast episode.

But here’s where it get’s a little tricky because we’re going to talk about feeds, which is a technical term that always seems to confuse people, including myself at times.

A feed is a standardized way to syndicate written content so that it is more easily read by other websites, applications and directories. The specific technical format of a feed makes it so that you, the end user, can read data in a way that is more pleasing and easy to read.

If your website is on a blogging platform like WordPress, you’re already setup with a feed. People who are subscribed to your feed will automatically get your new content whenever you publish new content on your site.

So how do feeds relate to podcasting?

Podcast directories such as iTunes, Stitcher, Zune and others read your feed and scan it for properly tagged mp3 files. That’s how they know a new show came out, because it’s shown in your feed.

Unlike what I had originally thought, you submit your feed address to podcasting directories like iTunes – you don’t upload each individual episode to them. This is why after the initial setup, all you have to do is keep publishing audio content on your website and iTunes and other directories will automatically get updated when new episodes come out.

Don’t worry if all of this sounds a little too technical right now – trust me, I understand. The rest of this tutorial will make it much easier for you than it was for me when I first started.

Before you start recording, and even before you dive into the tutorial videos below, there 5 things you need to prepare. Have all of this stuff handy for later – you’ll thank me for it.

1. Your Podcast’s Title

You’re going to need a title for your show. For most of you, the name of your blog, or the name of your brand along with “podcast” will make the most sense, but you also have the opportunity to add a few extra words to target specific keywords that you’d like to potentially rank for in iTunes.

iTunes is definitely a search engine – don’t forget that.

Don’t go crazy with the keywords though (don’t keyword stuff with a billion keywords in your title!) and try to keep it as natural as possible, but don’t be afraid to pick a few select words either.

My podcast’s title, for example, is:

The Smart Passive Income Podcast: Online Business | Blogging | Passive Income | Lifestyle

Look up “online business” or “blogging” in iTunes. Scroll down to the “podcasts” and “podcast episodes” section and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

2. Your Host / Talent Name

This is, of course, your name, but you can add a little bit more to help your show rank higher for certain keywords in iTunes. Just as with your podcast’s title, don’t go crazy with it. But, at the same time, don’t be afraid to help people (and the iTunes search algorithm) understand who you are.

My host / talent name, for example, is:

Pat Flynn: Online Entrepreneur, Business Strategist and Blogger

Look up the word “blogger” in iTunes and scroll down to the podcasts section – you’ll see what I’m talking about.

3. Your Podcast’s Subtitle

iTunes and other directories may ask for a subtitle for your show. It’s weird though because I don’t ever see the subtitle used anywhere. That said, it doesn’t hurt to have a short, small description for your podcast handy for later, just in case. A couple of sentences should suffice.

4. Your Podcast’s Summary / Description

This is the main description for your podcast. In iTunes, you can have up to 4000 characters to describe your show. Your copy should be engaging and descriptive, but also include several keywords that you’d like to target in iTunes as well.

A great description that relates to your show will naturally include keywords anyway, so keep that in mind.

As a reminder, write this all down and save it for later so you can copy and paste when you need to.

5. Your Podcast’s Artwork

Your podcast is going to need some artwork – a square image that represents your show. As much as podcasting is an auditory medium, the graphical, visual element that represents your podcast plays an extremely important role.

For one, it’s what people will see in podcasting directories, such as iTunes, before listening to a single spoken word and before reading any written words about your show in the description or summary. Your artwork is your podcast’s first impression, and it’s also what competes for attention with every other single podcast that’s out there.

For iTunes, specifically, a visually appealing podcast image gives your show a better chance of being featured in highly visible sections of iTunes, such as the New & Noteworthy and Staff Picks section in your category.

And lastly, your artwork is what people will see on their media players – their computers and portable devices – when they pull up and listen to your show. It’s an important element for reinforcing your brand identity to your followers.

Specifications:

You will need one (1) 1400 x 1400 pixel image that you feel best represents your podcast. This is indeed a rather large image, primarily because of the retina display capabilities of some of the new media players available on the market.This image should be in a .jpg or .png file format.This image should also be readable at much smaller sizes. Many directories and portable media players will automatically shrink the larger image size to fit smaller areas, so it if looks good at 1400 x 1400, but not at 300 x 300 (for example), then it’s not going to work very well. Some devices shrink the size to as little as 73 x 73 pixels. Personally, I’d optimize it for 150 x 150 – if it looks good at that size, then it should read perfectly everywhere else. Remember this when you design (or hire someone to design) your 1400 x 1400 pixel image.In additional to the one (1) 1400 x 1400 pixel image, you will need the same image in a different filename at 300 x 300 pixels. You will need this when uploading your artwork as discussed in Video 5 below.

Once you get all the above stuff taken care of, you’re good to go. Now it’s time to get your show up and running on your site. Here’s how to get it done.

(Click Here for the YouTube Playlist for the 6 Videos Shown Below)

In this video, I go over some equipment options including microphone and microphone accessories (with audio examples of each), and software to help you record your show and interviews for your show too.

There’s a lot that goes into recording a high-quality, engaging show. Here are my top 10 tips to help you get the most out of your podcast.

Once you finish recording and editing your show, there are some very specific things you have to do to turn it into a podcast episode. I do my best to make the technical stuff as non-technical as possible for you.

You MUST host your media files on a server outside of your own website’s server. Here’s why, and also my top recommended media host (and a discount coupon too!).

Setting up your feed is the MOST important (and most technical) part of the podcasting process. But, you only have to do this once, so do it right and you’re all set. I walk you through exactly how it goes down, step-by-step.

This is where (and how) to submit your podcast so people around the world can listen to you and your show.

I truly hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I spent over 30 hours putting this tutorial together for you and I know it’ll help you fast-track your way to a successful podcast.

If it has helped you in any way, please do me a favor and let me know in the comments section below and also share this tutorial using the social media buttons at the bottom of this post. Thank you!!

Cheers, and I’ll see you and your podcast on iTunes very soon!

Why you need to start a podcast and EXACTLY how to do it. (via @patflynn) (click to tweet)

Tagged as: how to start a podcast, podcasting tutorial

View the original article here

Continue Reading

“I’m Fine, Thanks”

In January, my good friend Adam Baker from Man vs Debt asked me if I was interested in helping him out with a new project he was working on.

In the online world, “project” could really mean anything – a new website, an info-product, a course, software, etc. – but this project was much different – and far different anything I’ve ever been a part of before.

It’s a full-length documentary called I’m Fine, Thanks - a project I not only agreed to participate in, but I fell so much in love with it that I decided to help partially fund the project too.

In short, the documentary is about the issue of complacency in everyday life.

When I asked Adam what the goal of the film was, he said, “We want I’m Fine, Thanks to give thousands of people inspiration to live their lives based on their own hopes and dreams – not someone elses vision or script for their life. We want to push people to take the first small action to reignite their passions.”

This resonated with me big-time, because personally I know that if I wasn’t laid off like I was back in 2008, I’d be living a life where I was happy with the way things were (remember, I never wanted to leave my job) – but I wouldn’t know what it would be like to be this happy.

Adam and his crew of 4 film makers took a 2 month, 10,000+ mile road trip across the country interviewing over 60 people who each share their unique stories and thoughts about this idea of complacency.

On March 15th, Adam and his crew – Grant Peelle (Director), John Cropper (Camera Op), Dustin Koester (Sound), and Bryan Olinger (Director of Photography) visited our home in San Diego and hung out with the Flynn family for the day.

They filmed daily life in our home and even joined my wife and I downtown for date night, since it was a Thursday.

Part of the day also included a very intimate interview, which brought out a ton of emotion as I told my story on camera.

Adam wrote a few blog posts during the trek and even included a snippet of his experience in San Diego with my family here, which was really kind of him.

Adam, his family and the entire crew are now living in Northern California to work on finishing the project in time for it’s world premiere at Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit this July, and then hopefully at a number of premieres around the country after that.

I’m really proud to be a part of this, not only as someone who was interviewed but as someone who financially helped make this possible too.

Today, I’m Fine, Thanks starts it’s Kickstarter campaign, so I invite you to please watch the trailer below (which has some footage of my son and I!) and if the message resonates with you, then please consider backing the project. Even a pledge of $5.00 gets you a digital download of the full documentary (yes, the full thing!) once it’s finished.

(or you can watch the trailer on the Kickstarter Page here)

And here’s a Facebook button to help share the campaign and spread the word.

Thank you again for taking the time to watch, and I’d love to hear what you think!

Lastly, big props to Adam for his vision. It’s been amazing watch the project progress since the start of the idea in January, all the way through execution and the upcmoing premiere in July! Talk about taking an idea and taking action with it!

Cheers, and look out for a new podcast episode coming and the end of the week!

Tagged as: documentary

View the original article here

Continue Reading

Blogging News Stories as They Happen

Blogging news stories as they unfold is one of the most

exciting and controversial applications of technology

that bloggers have discovered. One thing that makes the

blogosphere so active is the fact that it is possible to

update a blog instantaneously, so the news on blogs

tends to be more current than the news in the paper, or

on television. Unlike news delivered by these other

media, news that appears on blogs does not have to

travel through a series of editors and administrators

before it reaches the public eye. This has some

advantages, and some distinct disadvantages.

One of the most notable cases of news hitting a blog

before appearing in other media took place in July 2005

when terrorism struck London. As passengers were

evacuated from a subway car near an explosion, one

man took several photographs of the scene with his

cellular phone, and within an hour these images were

posted online. First-person accounts of the catastrophe

began appearing on blogs soon after these photos

appeared, and people all over the world learned about

the events in London by reading the words and seeing

the photos posted by bloggers.

The fact that these stories and images were being spread

directly by individuals operating without the added

filter of a reporter helped to make the crisis feel very

immediate to people across the globe. When it comes to

blogging, news often appears in a very personal context.

This has the potential to be the beginning of an exciting

new era of reporting, one that takes "New Journalism"

to it's logical next step by putting the power to shape

how the news is written and read directly into the hands

of the public.

Many bloggers and cultural commentators who are

champions of the weblog movement feel that this

growing trend of individuals who getting their news

from blogs is a good thing, because it makes the flow of

information more democratic. By decentralizing the

control of news, blogs allow more voices to enter the

field of debate about important current events.

However, many people are adamantly opposed to the

use of blogs as news outlets, and there are plenty of

good arguments on this side of the debate. Unlike

newspapers or television stations, few blogs have fact-

checkers, and there is little attention paid to journalistic

accountability on many blogs. This can lead to the rapid

spread of misinformation, and more than one falsehood

has taken the blogosphere by storm. The questions

about whether blogging news as it happens is ethical or

not are very complicated, but no matter where you stand

on the topic of current events blogs you are almost sure

to agree that this movement has the potential to

revolutionize how modern people get their news.

Continue Reading

Blogging Teens

Every day, blogs are created by people of all ages and

from all walks of life, but when it comes to blogging,

teen writers are truly on the cutting edge of the

movement. Because today's teenagers are the first

generation of people to have grown up using the

internet at every stage of their development, many

adolescents have a seemingly innate sense of how to use

web technology to express their innermost thoughts and

ideas. Older writers often experience a kind of learning

curve when they begin to blog, but many young people

find that using a word processor and blogging software

feels more natural and direct a mode of communication

than writing in a diary ever could.

One of the reasons why blogs have undergone a kind of

explosion in the teen community and are growing by

leaps and bounds is the fact that they provide a unique

mixture of visibility and anonymity. A teenager can

invite friends and peers to read his or her blog with a

simple email, thereby winning attention or possibly

even praise. Of course, with visibility usually comes the

possibility of embarrassment, but the fact that it is

possible to blog anonymously with an invented handle

or nickname negates a lot of the potential for

humiliation. Many a blogging teen lives in fear that a

parent or guardian will discover his or her blog, but by

publishing under an alias a teenager can spill his or her

secrets without fear of being traced.

Outside the world of blogging, teen writers often have

very limited opportunities to be published. Magazines

and journals are often reticent to publish young writers

who may not have as much credibility as older writers

with a lot of experience and extensive credits to their

names. This can discourage adolescents from writing or

from seeking chances to publish their work. By

blogging, young people can begin to gain a following of

readers without first having to win the attention and

support of an editor or publisher who may not be very

interested in teenaged authors.

Between the fact that blogs provide young people with a

chance to exercise their impressive technical aptitude,

to gain visibility without compromising privacy, and to

build a readership for their writing without having to

jump through the traditional hoops of the publishing

industry, it is little wonder that are so many teenagers

with blogs. For some teenagers, blogging is even a very

social endeavor that allows them to meet people with

similar interests from all over the world. Many a

blogging teen has discovered that having a weblog on

the internet is a great way to explore self-expression

and, often, to win positive feedback from new friends.

Continue Reading

Blogging News Stories as They Happen

Blogging news stories as they unfold is one of the most

exciting and controversial applications of technology

that bloggers have discovered. One thing that makes the

blogosphere so active is the fact that it is possible to

update a blog instantaneously, so the news on blogs

tends to be more current than the news in the paper, or

on television. Unlike news delivered by these other

media, news that appears on blogs does not have to

travel through a series of editors and administrators

before it reaches the public eye. This has some

advantages, and some distinct disadvantages.

One of the most notable cases of news hitting a blog

before appearing in other media took place in July 2005

when terrorism struck London. As passengers were

evacuated from a subway car near an explosion, one

man took several photographs of the scene with his

cellular phone, and within an hour these images were

posted online. First-person accounts of the catastrophe

began appearing on blogs soon after these photos

appeared, and people all over the world learned about

the events in London by reading the words and seeing

the photos posted by bloggers.

The fact that these stories and images were being spread

directly by individuals operating without the added

filter of a reporter helped to make the crisis feel very

immediate to people across the globe. When it comes to

blogging, news often appears in a very personal context.

This has the potential to be the beginning of an exciting

new era of reporting, one that takes "New Journalism"

to it's logical next step by putting the power to shape

how the news is written and read directly into the hands

of the public.

Many bloggers and cultural commentators who are

champions of the weblog movement feel that this

growing trend of individuals who getting their news

from blogs is a good thing, because it makes the flow of

information more democratic. By decentralizing the

control of news, blogs allow more voices to enter the

field of debate about important current events.

However, many people are adamantly opposed to the

use of blogs as news outlets, and there are plenty of

good arguments on this side of the debate. Unlike

newspapers or television stations, few blogs have fact-

checkers, and there is little attention paid to journalistic

accountability on many blogs. This can lead to the rapid

spread of misinformation, and more than one falsehood

has taken the blogosphere by storm. The questions

about whether blogging news as it happens is ethical or

not are very complicated, but no matter where you stand

on the topic of current events blogs you are almost sure

to agree that this movement has the potential to

revolutionize how modern people get their news.

Continue Reading

If You are Already Blogging, Money May be Just a

Click Away

If you already spend a fair amount of time blogging,

money may come to you literally as soon as you ask for

it. Once you have an established blog with a regular

readership, it is easy to turn a profit through advertising.

By hosting sponsored links or banners, you can see

income from your hobby almost overnight. Even if you

did not start your blog intending to turn a profit, making

supplementary income from your blog may be easier

than you think.

Of course, even for people who have spent months or

years blogging, money from advertising revenue may

not add up to a large sum. The amount of money that

you can make as a blogger depends on a lot of different

factors, but perhaps the most important element of the

equation is the topic of your blog. If your blog is on a

subject that appeals to a demographic that advertisers

have a strong desire to reach, you will be more likely to

be able to turn a large profit on your blog than if your

blog is on a fairly obscure subject that does not draw

the kind of audience that advertisers need to appeal to.

Of course, the only way to find out where you fall on

this spectrum is to try hosting some ads. If you are

already blogging, you have nothing to lose.

Continue Reading

Using Product Recommendations To Increase Your Bottom Line

In affiliate marketing, there are many ways in which you can increase your earnings and maintain the account that you have worked so hard for already. Most of the techniques and tactics can be learned easily. No need to go anywhere and any further. They are available online, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

One of the more important ways of increasing affiliate marketing bottom line and sale is through the use of product recommendations. Many marketers know that this is one of the most effective ways in promoting a certain product.

If the customers or visitors trust you enough, then they will definitely trust your recommendations. Be very careful in using this approach, though. If you start promoting everything by recommendation, your credibility will actually wear thin. This is seen especially when recommendations are seemingly exaggerated and without much merit.

Do not be afraid to mention things that you do not like about a given product or service. Rather than lose any points for you, this will make your recommendation more realistic and will tend to increase your credibility.

Furthermore, if your visitors are really interested in what you are offering, they will be more than delighted to learn what is good about the product, what is not so good, and how the product will benefit them.

When you are recommending a certain product, there are some things to remember on how to make it work effectively and for your advantage.

Sound like the true and leading expert in your field.

Remember this simple equation: Price resistance diminishes in direct proportion to trust. If your visitors feel and believe that you are an expert in your niche, they are more inclined to making that purchase. On the other hand, if you are not exuding any confidence and self-assurance in endorsing your products, they will probably feel that same way and will go in search of another product or service which is more believable.

How do you establish this aura of expertise? By offering unique and new solutions they would not get anywhere else. Show proof that what you are promoting works as promised. Display prominent testimonials and endorsements from respected and known personalities, in related fields of course.

Avoid hype at all costs. It is better to sound low key and confident, than to scream and seek attention. Besides, you would not want to sound unprofessional and have that thinking stick to your potential customers and clients, now would you? Best to appear cool and self-assured at the same time.

And remember; prospects are not stupid. They are actually turning to experts and may already know the things that you know. If you back up your claims with hard facts and data, they would gladly put down hundreds, or even thousands worth of money to your promotions. But if you don’t, they are smart enough to try and look at your competitors and what they are offering.

While recommending a product, it is also important that you give out promotional freebies. People are already familiar with the concept of offering freebies to promoting your won products. But very few people do this to promote affiliate products. Try to offer freebies that can promote or even have some information about your products or services.

Before you add recommendations to you product, it is given that you should try and test the product and support. Do not run the risk of promoting junk products and services. Just think how long it took you to build credibility and trust among your visitors. All that will take to destroy it is one big mistake on your part.

If possible, have recommendations of products that you have 100% confidence in. Test the product support before you begin to ensure that the people you are referring it to would not be left high and dry when a problem suddenly arouse.

Have a look at your affiliate market and look at the strategies you are using. You may not be focusing on the recommendations that your products need to have. You plan of action is sometimes not the only thing that is making your program works.

Try product recommendation and be among those few who have proven its worth.

Continue Reading

Here's Why Using Camtasia Can Increase Your Affiliate Checks

Since there are already lots of people getting into affiliate marketing, it is no wonder that the competition is getting stiff. The challenge is to try and outdo other affiliates and think of ways to be able to attain this.

There are also many tips and techniques being taught to these affiliate in order to best plan their strategy for their program to work effectively so that more earnings will be achieved.

What better way to wow your prospects and customers than to record and publish top notch, full motion and streaming screen-captured videos. Nothing like feeling your hard work getting paid by having your customers jumping up excitedly in great anticipation to buy your product right there and then.

This is Camtasia in action. It is a proven fact; giving your customers something they can actually see can explode your online sales instantly.

You do not need to have trainings and education to be able to know how this system can work for your affiliate program. Anyone can create stunning videos, from multimedia tutorials and step-by-step presentations available online. The process is like having your customers seated next to you and looking at your desktop, as you show them the things they need to see and hear. All this done step by step.

For those who does not know it yet, how does Camtasia works?

1. It can record your desktop activity in a single click. No need to have to save and compile all your files because it is recorded right there and then.

2. Can easily convert your videos into web pages. Once converted you can have your customers visiting that certain page. Videos are easier to understand and take in unlike reading texts which oftentimes is a trying thing to do.

3. Upload your pages. Publish them through blogs, RSS feed and podcasts. You may want your Camtasis videos to get around and reach out to other people that may be potential customers in the future. Nothing like being visible in many sites and pages to advertise yourself and get your message through.

There are other things you can do with your affiliate program using Camtasia. You can…

Create stunning multimedia presentations that are proven to increase sales because all the senses are engaged. This also has the tendency to reduce skepticism among hard-to-please customers.

Reduce refunds and other customer issues by demonstrating visually how to use your product and how to do it properly. Complaints will also be minimized because all the facts and the presentation are there for the customers to just see and hear about.

Promote affiliate products and services using visual presentations. This is an effective way of redirecting your viewers straight to your affiliate website after they are finished with the video. Make the most of the presentation by putting your site location in the end and make them go there directly if they want more information.

Multiple your online auction bids exponentially when you give your readers a feel of what you have to offer. Based from reports, auctions that includes pictures increases bidding percentage by 400%. Imagine how much higher it will be if it were videos.

Publish valuable infoproducts that you can sell for a much higher price. It will be all worth the price because of the full colored graphics menu and templates that you will be using.

Minimize miscommunication with your customers. Instantly showing them what you want they wanted in the first place is making them understand clearly the essence of your affiliate program. The good thing about multimedia is, nothing much can go wrong. It is there already.

These are just some of the things you can do with Camtasia that can be very helpful in your chosen affiliate program.

Note that the main purpose of using Camtasia is to boost the income that is generated from your affiliate program. Although it can be used for entertainment and enjoyment purposes, which is not really a valid reason why you choose to get all through that trouble.

Try to focus on the goal that you have set upon yourself to and achieve that with the use of the things that may be quite a lot of help in increasing your earnings.

Continue Reading

Choosing The Right Free Blogging Tools

There are many free blogging tools on the market, but

loading up your blog with all of the free accessories that

you can find isn't necessarily a good idea. While it may

be tempting to add a visitor counter, a flashy

background, an exciting new font, and a cluster of

quirky animated gifs to your blog, this kind of plan can

easily backfire. The key to getting the most from free

blog tools is being selective.

It is a great idea to learn about all of the kinds of free

blogging tools that are available so that you can make

an informed decision about what to add to your blog,

but try to remember that just because you can have

something doesn't mean that you need it. Practice

restraint and only choose the options that you think will

really be useful. If you can find out how many visitors

are reading your blog by checking your traffic statistics,

a visitor counter is likely to add unnecessary clutter to

your page. If your blog is text-based, a flashy

background can be more of a distraction than an benefit.

Be realistic about assessing what kinds of blog

accessories will help you realize your vision and

improve your site. Remember that even a blog tool that

doesn't cost you any cash may not be an asset in the

Continue Reading

To Join a Blogging Site or Not to Join

Joining an established blogging site like live journal or

blogger has plenty of advantages, especially for the blog

novice. Sites that host a lot of different blogs often have

very useful tutorials about building and updating your

blog, and you are likely to encounter a very user-

friendly software interface at an established blogging

site. In addition, these sites provide a kind of instant

community of fellow bloggers who can provide advice,

insight, and feedback. These established sites often

keep directories of their members, which can be great

news for your traffic logs because it means that other

bloggers on the site will find out about your pages.

However, there are also some downsides to linking up

with a large blogging site. By posting within the

established templates of a site like blogger, you run the

risk of having your blog look and feel like everybody

else's. The blogging movement is very much about the

creation of distinctive sites and the development of

individual voices, so it makes plenty of sense that many

bloggers would shy away from the cookie-cutter look

and feel that these blogging sites often promote. Many

bloggers feel that the content of a blog is what makes it

distinctive, not the look of the blog, but many members

of the blogging community feel that the visual impact

of a blog should match the originality of the writing.

Continue Reading

ASP.NET Blogging Software

Of all of the different kinds of programs on the market

today, many people feel that Microsoft's recently

released ASP.NET blogging software is the most

advanced. In many ways, this particular program is

more adaptable and more versatile than any other

blogging software on the market. Although most of the

people who favor the program are accomplished coders

who are familiar with programming languages like html

and C++, this new program from Microsoft is much

easier to use than a lot of other blog design software

that incorporates hands-on coding. One of the things

that makes ASP.NET stand apart from its competitors is

the fact that it allows designers to use a wide variety of

programming languages when they build a blog. This

means that a larger number of coders can realize their

dreams by programming in the language with which

they are most familiar and in which they are most

accomplished.

A lot of people have welcomed ASP.NET blogging

software with enthusiasm and with open arms.

However, that doesn't mean that the ASP.NET program

is right for everybody. If you are not familiar with

computer languages like javascript or perl, you may

find that the release of ASP.NET does not directly

affect you at all. However, if you are an experienced

web designer, you are likely to find much to celebrate in

this exciting new program.

Continue Reading

Mobile Blogging is on the Cutting Edge

Mobile blogging is an exciting phenomenon that is

sweeping the blogosphere. One of the reasons why a lot

of bloggers are attracted to the medium of blogging in

the first place is that they enjoy being able to make

frequent updates and posts that keep all of their visitors

up to speed with current situations. Mobile blogs, or

"moblogs," take this to the extreme by allowing users to

post things literally as they happen. This new wave of

moblogs and mobloggers keep web surfers up to date

with good and bad events of importance as they occur

all over the world, helping to make international

communication faster and more accurate.

Many people feel that the limitations of blogging have a

lot to do with geography. After all, there is only so

current that a blog can be when you need to run home

and boot up in order to update it. However, mobile

blogging marks the beginning of an thrilling new era

when web-based communication can happen

spontaneously from any location. Moblogging devices

mean that there is almost nowhere on the planet that

remains off-limits for bloggers.

Mobile blogging is still in its infancy because the

technology that makes it possible has only recently hit

the global market. The first moblog technology became

available over a decade ago, but it is only the past two

or three years that mobile web devices have become

user-friendly enough to appeal to most consumers. As

camera phones and other mobile technology become

more popular, more and more bloggers are getting away

from their desks and are hitting the streets. Moblogging

is becoming much more widespread that it was even a

few months ago, and mobloggers are quickly attracting

a lot of attention with the blogging community. It is not

yet clear whether moblogs will become the dominant

kinds of blogs in the years to come, but the current

trend seems to imply that moblogs are here to stay.

Mobile devices make it possible to blog from the sites

where current events are unfolding, which is one of the

reasons why mobile blogging has so much thrilling

potential to revolutionize the blogosphere. A moblogger

with a camera phone can post blog entries from, say, the

foot of the podium at a presidential speech, or from the

stands during the final moments of the world series.

This enables bloggers to experience the same real time

thrills that live television coverage provides, but in a

more democratic medium. The combination of mobility

and individual control that moblogging provides

certainly places mobloggers on the cutting edge of

today's communications technology, and it is hard to

imagine that the number and prestige of moblogs will

not continue to grow in the coming years.

Continue Reading

Blogging For Business Owners

If you run a small company, you may find that the world

of blogging for business owners is a world that you

want to be a part of. Blogging is a great way to get the

word out to consumers about your product or service,

and it can even be useful for inspiring employee loyalty

and helping you keep your workers at peak morale. If

you are looking for a way to take your business to the

next level, consider what starting a blog might be able

to do for you.

Blogging for business owners has a lot in common with

all other types of blogging, but it has its own unique

pitfalls and strengths. The key to having a successful

blog as a business owner is keeping your goals clear

and concrete at every step of your blogging adventure. It

can be all to easy to get sidetracked, especially if you

are just learning about the exciting possibilities of

blogging technology, but if you want your blog to

succeed you need to stay focused. Write up a plan for

how often you will update, how you will promote your

blog and retain readers, whether you will feature

photographs or video, and other aspects of your blog,

and then stick to it with the same kind of determination

that you used when you built your company.

Continue Reading

Using A Free Blogging Web Site

For first time bloggers, a free blogging web site is a

great way to get started in the blogosphere. Popular

blogging web sites like blogger and eponym allow users

to set up and host a blog without paying any fees at all.

This encourages people to start blogging, because the

fact that one of these sites can provide you with all of

the tools that you need to get your blog up and running

without spending any money means that you have

nothing to lose by starting a blog. The fact that it is so

easy to find a way to blog for free is one of the reasons

why so many people who have never had any other kind

of web presence before find themselves drawn to

blogging.

By signing up with a free blogging web site, you may

find it easier to get listed in search engines that you

would if you were starting your own blog from scratch.

For example, google runs the free blog hosting site

blogspot and crawls its pages very often looking for

updates, so if you have your site hosted by blogspot you

are almost guaranteed to be listed on google's blog

search engine. This easy access to search engines can

take some of the work out of promoting your blog, and

can help you gain a following with a minimum of

marketing effort.

If your blog attracts a large readership, you may want to

consider moving your site. Many people feel that being

hosted by a free blogging web site gives a blog a kind of

amateur flavor that is fine for a new member of the

blogosphere, but is not appropriate for a high-profile

blog. Having your own domain can help you make your

blog feel professional, and finding a company that will

host your domain is not difficult or expensive. Once

your blog takes off, you will probably be able to sell

enough advertising space to be able to afford to buy a

domain and pay for a hosting package, and still have

money left over. However, it does not make sense in

most cases to invest in these glossy luxuries before you

have a sizable readership.

Starting your blog on a free blogging web site is a great

way to build a following before you spend any money

on your blog. If and when your blog becomes popular

and you are ready to take the next step and purchase

your own domain, your readers will follow you to your

new home. The fact that it is possible to use a free blog

host like blogspost, blogger, or eponym as a kind of

incubator for your blog is great news for bloggers

Continue Reading

Top 3 Ways To Boost Your Affiliate Commissions Overnight

The ideal world of affiliate marketing does not require having your won website, dealing with customers, refunds, product development and maintenance. This is one of the easiest ways of launching into an online business and earning more profits.

Assuming you are already into an affiliate program, what would be the next thing you would want to do? Double, or even triple, your commissions, right? How do you do that?

Here are some powerful tips on how to boost your affiliate program commissions overnight.

1. Know the best program and products to promote. Obviously, you would want to promote a program that will enable you to achieve the greatest profits in the shortest possible time.

There are several factors to consider in selecting such a program. Choose the ones that have a generous commission structure. Have products that fit in with your target audience. And that has a solid track record of paying their affiliate easily and on time. If you cannot seem to increase your investments, dump that program and keep looking for better ones.

There are thousands of affiliate programs online which gives you the reason to be picky. You may want to select the best to avoid losing your advertising dollars.

Write free reports or short ebooks to distribute from your site. There is a great possibility that you are competing with other affiliates that are promoting the same program. If you start writing short report related to the product you are promoting, you will be able to distinguish yourself from the other affiliates.

In the reports, provide some valuable information for free. If possible, add some recommendations about the products. With ebooks, you get credibility. Customers will see that in you and they will be enticed to try out what you are offering.

2. Collect and save the email addresses of those who download your free ebooks. It is a known fact that people do not make a purchase on the first solicitation. You may want to send out your message more than six times to make a sale.

This is the simple reason why you should collect the contact information of those who downloaded your reports and ebooks. You can make follow-ups on these contacts to remind them to make a purchase from you.

Get the contact information of a prospect before sending them to the vendor’s website. Keep in mind that you are providing free advertisement for the product owners. You get paid only when you make a sale. If you send prospects directly to the vendors, chances are they would be lost to you forever.

But when you get their names, you can always send other marketing messages to them to be able to earn an ongoing commission instead of a one-time sale only.

Publish an online newsletter or Ezine. It is always best to recommend a product to someone you know than to sell to a stranger. This is the purpose behind publishing your own newsletter. This also allows you to develop a relationship based on trust with your subscribers.

This strategy is a delicate balance between providing useful information with a sales pitch. If you continue to write informative editorials you will be able to build a sense of reciprocity in your readers that may lead them to support you by buying your products.

3. Ask for higher than normal commission from merchants. If you are already successful with a particular promotion, you should try and approach the merchant and negotiate a percentage commission for your sales.

If the merchant is smart, he or she will likely grant your request rather than lose a valuable asset in you. Keep in mind that you are a zero-risk investment to your merchant; so do not be shy about requesting for addition in your commissions. Just try to be reasonable about it.

Write strong pay Per Click ads. PPC search engine is the most effective means of advertising online. As an affiliate, you can make a small income just by managing PPC campaigns such as Google AdWords and Overture. Then you should try and monitor them to see which ads are more effective and which ones to dispose of.

Try out these strategies and see the difference it can make to your commission checks in the shortest of time.

Continue Reading

Here's How To Avoid The 3 Most Common Affiliate Mistakes

Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective and powerful ways of earning some money online. This program gives everybody a chance to make a profit through the Internet. Since these affiliate marketing programs are easy to join, implement and pays a commission on a regular basis, more an more people are now willing in this business.

However, like all businesses, there are lots of pitfalls in the affiliate marketing business. Committing some of the most common mistakes will cost the marketers a large portion taken from the profit they are making everyday. That is why it is better to avoid them than be regretful in the end.

Mistake number 1: Choosing the wrong affiliate.

Many people want to earn from affiliate marketing as fast as possible. In their rush to be part of one, they tend to choose a bandwagon product. This is the kind of products that the program thinks is “hot”. They choose the product that is in demand without actually considering if the product appeals to them. This is not a very wise move obviously.

Instead of jumping on the bandwagon, try top choose a product in which you are truly interested in. For any endeavor to succeed, you should take some time to plan and figure out your actions.

Pick a product that appeals to you. Then do some research about that product to see if they are in demand. Promoting a product you are more passionate about is easier than promoting one for the sake of the earnings only.

Mistake number 2: Joining too many affiliate programs.

Since affiliate programs are very easy to join, you might be tempted to join multiples of affiliate programs to try and maximize the earnings you will be getting. Besides you may think that there is nothing wrong and nothing to lose by being part of many affiliate programs.

True, that is a great way to have multiple sources of income. However, joining multiple programs and attempting to promote them all at the same time will prevent you from concentrating on each one of them.

The result? The maximum potential of your affiliate program is not realized and the income generated will not exactly be as huge as you were thinking initially it would. The best way to get excellent result is by joining just one program that pays a 40% commission at least. Then give it your best effort by promoting your products enthusiastically. As soon as you see that it is already making a reasonable profit, then maybe you can now join another affiliate program.

The technique is to do it slowly but surely. There is really no need to rush into things, especially with affiliate marketing. With the way things are going, the future is looking real bright and it seems affiliate marketing will be staying for a long time too.

Mistake number 3: Not buying the product or using the service.

As an affiliate, you main purpose is to effectively and convincingly promote a product or service and to find customers. For you to achieve this purpose, you must be able to relay to the customers that certain product and service. It is therefore difficult for you to do this when you yourself have not tried these things out. Thus, you will fail to promote and recommend them convincingly. You will also fail to create a desire in your customers to avail any of what you are offering.

Try the product or service personally first before you sign up as an affiliate to see if it is really delivering what it promises. If you have done so, then you are one of the credible and living testaments aware of its advantages and disadvantages. Your customers will then feel the sincerity and truthfulness in you and this will trigger them to try them out for themselves.

Many affiliate marketers makes these mistakes and are paying dearly for their actions. To not fall into the same situation they have been in, try to do everything to avoid making the same mistakes.

Time is the key. Take the time to analyze your marketing strategy and check if youa re in the right track. If done properly, you will be able to maximize your affiliate marketing program and earn higher profits.

Continue Reading

Learning How to Make Money Blogging

There are two major types of business models that

entrepreneurs use to make money blogging. The first

and most common way to turn a blog into a profit

making machine is to sell advertising to different

companies and brands who want to reach that blog's

readers. The second kind of money making blog is one

that helps a single brand improve its image by creating

positive associations between the blog and the product

in the mind of consumers. Both kinds of blogs can

make a lot of money, especially if the creator has a keen

mind for marketing.

If you are blogging with the goal of selling advertising,

there are two basic ways that you can go about

recruiting sponsors who want to put ads on your site;

you can let someone else do all of the legwork, or you

can do the work yourself and keep all of the revenue.

Within the first group, many people make money

blogging by selling space through Google's AdSense

program. The advantages of this program are numerous,

as it requires very little effort on the part of the blogger

or webmaster to begin raking in profits. However, most

people discover that they make less money through this

method than they had hoped that their blog would earn.

Selling advertising directly to companies who want to

put banner ads or sponsored links on your blog can take

quite a bit of time, but it is often fairly lucrative. If you

have a lot of contacts in industries that are related to the

topic of your blog, you may want to try to go this route.

People who have a strong background in sales and are

experienced at pitching proposals can make quite a bit

of money by renting blog space to interested companies.

The most serious problem with this model is that you

often have to build quite a sizable readership before you

can attract advertisers, which can mean that you have to

do several months of work before you start to make

money blogging.

As blogging becomes a more and more lucrative

business, a lot of established companies are considering

how they can get into the action. One way that

companies are capitalizing on the blog movement is by

having blogs that provide a kind of friendly face for

their corporation. Often, a company will employ an

established blogger to create a weblog designed

specifically to appeal to that company's customers and

to create positive associations with the brand in

consumers' minds. More than one writer who never

even dreamed that he or she could make money

blogging has been approached by a company and

offered quite a pretty penny for this kind of gig.

Continue Reading

How to Learn Blogging Software

A lot of blogging software is specifically designed to be

simple to use, but even the least intimidating blogging

program can feel very overwhelming to somebody who

has not spent a lot of time learning the ins and outs of

different kinds of software. Particularly for newer

bloggers, learning how to use the interface of blogging

software is the most difficult part of blogging. If you are

somebody who feels comfortable expressing themselves

in another medium, it may prove to be well worth your

time and effort to learn blogging software, but that

doesn't mean that the task will be easy.

The main thing that will help you find success as you

learn how to use a new kind of blogging software is to

try and take things slowly. Many people get so excited

about learning to blog that they try to rush into the thick

of it and start exploring the most complicated features

of a program right away. This can lead to getting

confused and feeling frustrated, and all too many

potential bloggers burn out during this stage of the

process. If you take your time learning the basics of

your blog software program before you move on to

more advanced techniques, you will be more likely to

retain what you have learned, and to keep feeling

positive about your ability to understand the world of

Continue Reading

How To Choose The Best Blog Content Writing Service

How To Choose The Best Blog Content Writing Service - Web 2.0 - BlogsSearch by Author, Title or Content

Article ContentAuthor NameArticle TitleHomeSubmit ArticlesAuthor GuidelinesPublisher GuidelinesContent FeedsRSS FeedsFAQContact Us How To Choose The Best Blog Content Writing Service   by Mark Weylandin Web 2.0 / Blogs    (submitted 2012-08-28)

Blog content writing has become considerably famous in the past few years because a blog's success reflects on the image of a company and in its turn helps the organization get the desired revenues. The success of a business blog is primarily dependent on the content in it and style of its presentation. Blogging requires a special skill and probably this is the reason many companies prefer to outsource blog content writing rather hire a team of in-house content writers. So, if you are running an organization, you would naturally want the best for your business in all possible aspects and specially the revenue. This is the reason you would want to hire the services of a responsible provider who would come up with an impressive blog for your company. But, nowadays because of the commercialization of blogging services, it is difficult to select a particular blog content writing company that will promote your brand name through well-written blogs. The given article tells you how to proceed as you select a trustworthy provider for your company.At first you need to make a list of all the well-known blog content writing services in the market, which might be helpful for you. You can take references from some of your friends, acquaintances and colleagues to make your job easier. In this initial list, jot down the names of all possible service providers that you can think of. In the next step, you can do the shortlisting from the broad list.

Make a detailed study of the blogs that those service providers had written and from those sample articles try and make an idea of the quality of writing that the provider can offer. Blogging is much different from any other kind of writing. The blogs need to be written in a distinct style along with being sufficiently informative. So it has to be a heady mix of style and content. You need to find the service provider who has the right mix of both.

After going through several blogs, when you have more or less shortlisted several providers, you must find out if they have enough experience of working with clients who have operated in the same domain of business as you do or at least a similar domain. You also must check the SEO ranks of the web pages for which they had supplied content in the past. SEO is crucial for a website because it helps sufficiently to gain the desired traffic.

If you want to crosscheck the credentials of the service providers once more you can contact the previous clients of the blog content writing provider and get the first hand information regarding their services. They would be the best persons to answer all your queries. And if you are satisfied, you can very well go ahead and avail the services of the particular provider.

Finally, discuss the service rates and finalize the deals with the blog content writing service provider. About the Author

Mark Weyland has been providing blog content writing service for more than a decade now. His blogs are informative, relevant and authentic.

Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines
whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included.

Mark Weyland

RSS FeedReport ArticlePublish ArticlePrint ArticleAdd to FavoritesArticle DirectoryAboutFAQContact UsAdvanced SearchPrivacy StatementDisclaimer

GoArticles.com © 2012, All Rights Reserved.

View the original article here

Continue Reading

A Day In The Life Of An Affiliate Marketer

Being in the affiliate marketing business is not that hard now with the internet at your disposable. It is much easier now compared to the days when people have to make use of the telephones and other mediums of information just to get the latest updates on the way their program is coming along.

So with technology at hand, and assuming that the affiliate is working from home, a day in his or her life would sound something like this…

Upon waking up and after having breakfast, the computer is turned on to check out new developments in the network. As far as the marketer is concerned there might be new things to update and statistics to keep track on.

The site design has to be revised. The marketer knows that a well-designed site can increase sign ups from visitors. It can also help in the affiliate’s conversion rates.

That done, it is time to submit the affiliate program to directories that lists affiliate programs. These directories are means to attract people in joining your affiliate program. A sure way of promoting the affiliate program.

Time to track down the sales you are getting from your affiliates fairly and accurately. There are phone orders and mails to track down. See if they are new clients checking the products out. Noting down the contact information that might be a viable source in the future.

There are lots of resources to sort out. Ads, banners, button ads and sample recommendations to give out because the marketer knows that this is one way of ensuring more sales. Best to stay visible and accessible too.

The affiliate marketer remembered that there are questions to answer from the visitors. This has to be done quickly. Nothing can turn off a customer than an unanswered email.

To prove that the affiliate is working effectively and efficiently, inquiries would have to be paid more attention on. Nobody wants to be ignored and customers are not always the most patient of all people. Quick answer that should appear professional yet friendly too.

In the process of doing all the necessities, the marketer is logged on to a chat room where he or she interacts with other affiliates and those under that same program. This is where they can discuss things on how to best promote their products.

There are things to be learned and it is a continuous process. Sharing tips and advices is a good way of showing support. There may be others out there wanting to join and may be enticed by the discussion that is going on. There is no harm in assuming what opportunities ahead.

The newsletters and ezines were updated days ago, so it is time for the affiliate marketer to see if there are some new things happening in the market. This will be written about in the marketer’s publication to be distributed to the old and new customers.

These same publications are also an important tool in keeping up to date with the newly introduced products. The marketer has put up a sale and promotion that customers may want to know about. Besides, they have to keep up with the deadline of these sales written in the publications.

It is that time to show some appreciation to those who have helped the marketer in the promotions and sale increase. Nothing like mentioning the persons, their sites and the process they have done that made everything worked.

Of course, this will be published in the newsletters. Among the more important information that have been written already.

The marketer still has time to write out recommendations to those who want credible sources for the products being promoted. There is also time to post some comments on how to be a successful affiliate marketer on a site where there are lots of wannabees.

Two objectives done at the same time. The marketer gets to promote the product as well as the program they are in. Who knows, someone may be inclined to join.

Time flies. Missed lunch but is quite contented with the tasks done. Bed time….

Ok, so this may not be all done in a day. But then, this gives you an idea of how an affiliate marketer, a dedicated one that is, spends the marketing day.

Is that success looming in the distance or what?

Continue Reading

What Is a Blogging Tory?

The term Blogging Tory refers to any one of the many

authors affiliated with the conservative Canadian

community known as The Blogging Tories. Today,

there are over a hundred and fifty text-based blogs

associated with the group, and there are new Blogging

Tories every day. The Tories stand as an inspiring

example of a successful online community where the

ever-increasing numbers of affiliated members enjoy a

fertile environment for discussion and debate about the

ideas that shape the face of Canada.

The majority of Tory bloggers do make political events

and topics the focus of their blogs, but not all of the

content that a Blogging Tory creates and publishes is

overtly related to the movements of the Canadian

parliament or the prime minister. Although the

community members were brought together by a shared

conservative viewpoint, the fact that not all of the

postings on all of the member's blogs focus on political

topics is one of the most exciting things about the

Blogging Tories. On any given day, the main website's

blogroll may feature postings about Olympic medalists,

a James Bond film festival in Quebec, or a comical

personal experience with a telemarketer. The idea that

having a political affiliation in common makes it

possible to have a fruitful discussion about other kinds

of topics has interesting implications for how online

communities are established and how they grow.

Continue Reading

Easy Profits Using PPC In Your Affiliate Marketing Business

PPC is one of the four basic types of Search Engines. PPC is also one of the most cost-effective ways of targeted internet advertising. According to Forbes magazine, PPC or Pay Per Click, accounts to 2 billion dollars a year and is expected to increase to around 8 billion dollars by the year 2008.

Let us take a quick look at how PPC Search Engines work.

These engines create listings and rate them based on a bid amount the website owner is willing to pay for each click from that search engine. Advertisers bid against each other to receive higher ranking for a specific keyword or phrase.

The highest bidder for a certain keyword or phrase will then have the site ranked as number 1 in the PPC Search Engines followed by the second and third highest bidder, up to the last number that have placed a bid on the same keyword or phrase. Your ads then will appear prominently on the results pages based on the dollar amount bid you will agree to pay per click.

How do you make money by using PPC into your affiliate marketing business?

Most affiliate programs only pay when a sale is made or a lead delivered after a visitor has clickthrough your site. Your earnings will not always be the same as they will be dependent on the web site content and the traffic market.

The reason why you should incorporate PPC into your affiliate marketing program is that earnings are easier to make than in any other kind of affiliate program not using PPC. This way, you will be making profit based from the clickthroughs that your visitor will make on the advertiser’s site. Unlike some programs, you are not paid per sale or action.

PPC can be very resourceful of your website. With PPC Search Engines incorporated into your affiliate program, you will be able to profit from the visitor’s who are not interested in your products or services. The same ones who leave your site and never comes back.

You will not only get commissions not only from those who are just searching the web and finding the products and services that they wanted but you will be able to build your site’s recognition as a valuable resource. The visitors who have found what they needed from you site are likely to come back and review what you are offering more closely. Then they will eventually come back to search the web for other products.

This kind of affiliate program is also an easy way for you to generate some more additional revenues. For example, when a visitor on your site does a search in the PPC Search Engine and clicks on the advertiser bided listings, the advertisers’ account will then be deducted because of that click. With this, you will be compensated 30% to 80% of the advertisers’ bid amount.

PPC is not only a source of generating easy profits; it can also help you promote your own site. Most of the programs allow the commissions received to be spent for advertising with them instantly and with no minimum earning requirement. This is one of the more effective ways to exchange your raw visitors for targeted surfers who has more tendencies to purchase your products and services.

What will happen if you when you integrate PPC into your affiliate program?

PPC usually have ready-to-use affiliate tools that can be easily integrated into your website. The most common tools are search boxes, banners, text links and some 404-error pages. Most search engines utilize custom solutions and can provide you with a white-label affiliate program. This enables you, using only a few lines of code, to integrate remotely-hosted co-branded search engine into your website.

The key benefits? Not only more money generated but also some extra money on the side. Plus a lifetime commissions once you have referred some webmaster friends to the engine.

Think about it. Where can you get all these benefits while already generating some income for your site? Knowing some of the more useful tools you can use for your affiliate program is not a waste of time. They are rather a means of earning within an earning.

Best know more about how you can use PPC search engines into your affiliate program than miss out on a great opportunity to earn more profits.

Continue Reading