Sunday 19 July 2015

Making Money Using Clickbank – Where Do I Start?



Clickbank is probably one of the best known affiliate programs online. But you’ve signed up with them & now you don’t really understand the site or know what to do to start making money. (If you haven’t yet joined their affiliate program, you can by clicking here)


Your first thought is maybe to promote as many products as you can, more products equals more chance of profit right? As I mentioned in a previous post, Wrong!


Before we get into the promoting products side of it, let’s just look at Clickbank & see what everything means.







Looking at the image above, we have signed in & clicked on the “Marketplace” tab at the top of the page. This then brings up a list of all the niche categories. if we click on one of those it will then bring up a list of sub-categories relevant to that niche (see image below)








For this example I am clicking on “Mens Health” I am then going to click on the advanced search option at the top of the screen….






By clicking advanced search, it will enable us to narrow down our search so we can find the best products for us to promote.


Take a look at the screenshot below. You will see that I have ticked some options for our search.






Let me explain why I have selected to search around these parameters:


“Gravity” – If you searched google on the term Clickbank Gravity, you will find a lot of views, explanations & opinions on it, everyone being different.


It’s not unusual for a product on clickbank to show a gravity of 161.10, this means that 161 affiliates have sold at least ONE in the last month BUT one could mean one affiliate has sold 1000 units.


So it’s a very unclear piece of information. I always choose a gravity of under 100. But I would eliminate a product that showed a really LOW gravity say 12 when we go through the results.


The other two parameters I have ticked & altered are the intial sale in $ & the average sale in $. They are just averages I like to use.






The last parameter I tick is “Vendor has affiliate tool page available” that means that we are able to get Banners, pre-written emails, sometimes tweets all ready for us to use on our website or email to our email list (if we have one)


Depending on how you intend to promote the product, you may not need affiliate tools, but I want to be able to get banners/ads so I always choose this one.


Right, so let’s see what products our search returns.


Majority of results appear to be selling Male Enlargement Products (it’s now I wish I’d chosen a different niche as an example) But we shall carry on regardless, we’re all adults here right?





This was the top result (I chose to sort results by gravity high to low) & you will see we have gravity of 57.65, an average sale of $36.61 & it shows an average rebill of $36.53 so this means that we have the chance of a recurring income if the customers continues to subscribe (not all products offer a rebill option)


I have highlighted some text under the product description which reads pebible.com/affiliates. This is exactly what we are looking for, this is the page where we get our banners etc. (our affiliate tools)


If we go to that page now……






I have scrolled right down to the bottom, that is usually where you will need to go if you can’t see the tools on the page. We need to click on “Or Skip Registration” (see arrows) you can fill in the info in the box above if you like, but that’s usually just a way of them getting your email address so you go on their mailing list.


By clicking there we are greeted with our tools page & as you scroll down you will see Banners, Email Swipes there are even three promotional videos you can use. It all depends how you wish to promote this particular product.


Now the MOST important thing is your “Affiliate Link” & you will find it on the tools page (see below)






Without this link you wont be getting any commission AND where it says CLICKBANK ID within that link (URL) you MUST REMEMBER to insert YOUR Clickbank ID. So if your ID (this is the username you chose when you first signed up to Clickbank) was ABC123, you affiliate link would be ” http://ABC123.pebible.hop.clickbank.net ” Without your code inserted Clickbank will not know whose link got the sale you see.


How you promote your product is totally upto you & you will find subjects like that in a variety of posts on my website. The banners can sit on your website Or you can place them on other peoples websites (see post)


On all Affiliate Tool pages you will see HTML code under the supplied banners, you simply paste this code onto your website NOT FORGETTING TO INSERT YOUR CLICKBANK ID !


OR you could right click on the banner, “save image as” & then use the image that way. When you use it on your site or use it as an advert on someone elses, just link it to your affiliate code URL.


I hope this explains the basic outline of Clickbank for you & how you can alter the search & find the products & codes you need.


As always feel free to leave comments below & let everyone else know how you are getting on.

Thursday 9 July 2015

This is The Real Deal

Hi guys (& gals),
      I hope you are all ok. The sun's shining here in the Uk, which as you know makes a nice change. I wanted to post a personal note to you all as I the most common question I get asked is "Can anyone really make money online?"  I can totally understand why some people would think it's some made up dream or a conspiracy that only a few chosen "special ones" can do it & I believe the reason people are sceptical is because there are so many people out there tyring to sell "Get Rich Quick" schemes, making promises which they know & I know do not work, Don't get me wrong, they do make money but only for the person selling them. So in that respect they ARE making money online!

     Obviously I don't know you all personally, I don't know your work ethics or mindsets & I do believe that some of the stuff you may have tried didn't work because you gave up after a couple of months. I certainly don't blame you for that, I blame the sellers that made you believe you would be RICH in weeks or even days, maybe instantly. Trust me there is no magic "Press here for money to appear" button.

     I earn money online but I 'm still learning, the same as you & I wanted to introduce you to a guy I met online. His name is Kyle & along with his business partner Carson he runs "Wealthy Affiliate" as with anything in the niche we love so much I was sceptical but, & I don't say this often, I was very very impressed with what he has achieved with this site.

    I will mention first that this a FREE site & for free Kyle & Carson will teach you right from the beginning how to set up a website, SEO, Keywords, Affiliation the list goes on. The whole Wealthy Affiliate site is a total library of tools you will need & has a great community feel to it. So if you get stuck , need help, have a question or anything at all you will get an answer from other people in the same situation as you. You will even get to chat to Kyle himself.

 It would appear that Kyle & Carson having made fortunes themselves have now dedicated their business to helping YOU.

  You have the option to go premium & upgrade after the first ten lessons, but even if you choose not too you can still continue with your new online business & still get help as & when you need it.

 You are never alone that's the fantastic part I think.

  Click here to see the site  & sign up for a free account. Even if you do nothing else, I would strongly recommend taking a look.

  I honestly don't believe you will get a better platform to teach you how to make money online.


  Take care, stay safe & enjoy,
Richard



Tuesday 7 July 2015

10 Steps to a Successful Affiliate Marketing Strategy



The landscape for affiliate marketers has changed significantly over the past year.

From tighter legislation for affiliates, to Google cracking down on thin affiliate content, and a general increase in competition on the web, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for affiliate marketers to get ahead in the game.

Despite this, many smart individuals and companies continue to generate millions by staying one step ahead of the rest.

So, what is it that affiliate marketers need to do to succeed in 2015 and beyond?
1. Go one inch wide and one mile deep

Many first-time affiliate marketers make the mistake of going one mile wide and one inch deep: trying to dominate forty niches in their first few years.

When you hear about friends making millions from Clickbank products, and marketing products in emerging niches, it can be tough to stay focused.

The price for losing focus, though, is having a portfolio of 21 websites in random niches all with a pitiful domain authority generating next to nothing in sales.

By all means, experiment with different niches once you’ve achieved a level of success you’re happy with on your first website, but to begin with go one inch wide and a mile deep.
2. Create content that your competition can’t compete with

One of the biggest challenges facing affiliate marketers right now is the need to prove their value as middlemen in the value chain.

One of the biggest advantages affiliates have over established brands, and one of the greatest opportunities to add value, is the ability to be agile and act quickly with content marketing.

While brands spend months approving their content strategy and holding fruitless meetings, affiliates can be creating content of such a high standard, that competitors simply won’t have the resources to compete with, and Google would be foolish not to drive traffic to.

This is the strategy that we’ve adopted for most of our affiliate marketing sites at Venture Harbour.

Take Qosy for example. Every 4-6 weeks, Qosy publishes a 3,000 – 8,000 word guide educating readers on tough buying decisions, such as how to choose the best scotch or an engagement ring. While not all of these posts contain affiliate links, affiliate links are often added if a site we’d be recommending anyway has an affiliate program.



It’d be hard for Google to argue with this content not adding value. After all, some of the guides have received close to 10,000 shares and have been used by the brands themselves to educate their own customers. Generally speaking, each guide takes about 40-50 hours to produce, and is benchmarked to beat the best existing piece of content on the topic in virtually every aspect (from design and share-ability, to page speed and on-page SEO).

Over the next year I think we’ll see more and more affiliates adopt this kind of strategy.
3. Build a brand that adds value to the consumer

It’s no surprise that Google’s brand-bias is strengthening. For many affiliates, this is quite a concern, as affiliates haven’t traditionally had to concern themselves with building a strong brand.



When you look at the leading sites in insurance, travel, property, personal finance, and homeware, it’s interesting to note that many of these sites are affiliate sites. They’re also strong brands.

Moneysupermarket, Agoda, Houzz, Which, LastMinute.com, and Compare.com are all ultra-successful affiliate sites due to the strength of their brands, their editorial integrity, and the value they offer consumers.



Over time, affiliate marketers will find it increasingly difficult to succeed without a brand that user’s trust, so consider what you’re doing to develop the brand of your affiliate website.
4. Build a foundation of recurring affiliate revenue

With affiliate marketing, there is no assurance that your current strategy will work in a month’s time. Whether it’s due to Google updating their ranking algorithm, your favourite affiliate program shutting down, or media buying costs increasing, you’d be wise to mitigate against the possibility of major changes.

There are two very effective ways to do this: diversification and by building your recurring revenue.

I’ll talk about traffic diversification in a moment, but let’s first talk about recurring revenue.

Most affiliate marketers focus on one-time payouts, which is generally smart as, due to inflation and the ability to earn interest, $100 today is worth more than $10 per month over 10 months.

The problem is that one-time payouts don’t protect you against major changes in your strategy. That’s why I recommend building up a portion of your affiliate revenue in recurring revenue.

Obviously, the feasibility of this approach depends on your niche and what products are available to promote. If the option is available, I’d highly recommend building a foundation of recurring affiliate income so that you peace of mind that no matter what happens you still receive a certain amount per month for the foreseeable future.
5. Don’t rely on a single traffic source

In February 2011, many successful affiliate woke up to find that they’re probably going to go out of business in a matter of weeks or months, no thanks to Google releasing the initial panda update.

The same thing happened again when Google launched the Penguin update in April 2012.

It’s happening to brands who’ve built up organic Facebook Page audiences, and it’s going to happen time and time again across many third-party platforms whose business model revolves around selling eyeballs.

Some of the people hit by these updates were good friends and clients, which is why I’ve been preaching about diversification of traffic ever since.

Ideally, you should own your audience – not rent it. If you absolutely have to rent it, rent it from multiple sources.
6. Be prepared for mobile

In November 2014, mobile accounted for 46% of all affiliate clicks and 26% of all affiliate retail sales. How does this affect the individual affiliate?

For one, if you’re directing traffic to sites that aren’t mobile friendly, you’re probably losing a lot of potential commissions.

Google have also started to send some rather blatant nudges to webmasters that their websites should be mobile friendly. In November, they launched a mobile-friendliness checker and began experimenting with displaying whether a page is mobile-friendly or not in search results.



So, having a mobile-friendly site could become a good strategy for outranking your non-mobile friendly competitors in the search results.

Another consideration is that with more people using and purchasing from mobile devices, certain niches, products, and search criteria will rise in popularity, and can be capitalised on by forward-thinking affiliates.

Needless to say, if you’re not prepared for mobile, you’re preparing to be left behind.
7. Get in front of breakout and seasonal trends

Affiliate marketers have been taking advantage of trends for a long time. Yet, new trends continue to breakout, creating hundreds of new weird and wonderful multi-million dollar niches every year.



So, how can you find out what trends are likely to emerge in 2015?

The first differentiation to make is between seasonal and breakout trends. Seasonal trends are recurring, and often predictable, peaks in popularity that you can prepare for in advance.

Google Trends is your best friend for identifying seasonal trends. While you can just type in a keyword to see how it’s search volume fluctuates throughout the year, you can also use the category functionality to find seasonal trends in specific industries.



Breakout trends are much harder to predict. From electronic cigarettes and online TV, to selfie sticks and cinnamon flavoured whisky, even the most experienced industry experts often have a hard time predicting as far as six months into the future of their industry.

Regardless, reading the predictions of experts in your industry is a good place to start. If you want to know what products might be worth promoting in the travel industry in 2015, for example, you might want to experiment with search queries like:



You could even try to predict which countries are about to increase in popularity, and begin promoting hotels, flights, and other products that might help people traveling to that area.



Finally, there are a lot of great websites like TrendWatching.com that can help you estimate where the World is heading. Ultimately, though, knowing what’s around the corner comes down to having an acute awareness of what’s being talked about and piquing people’s curiosity in your industry.
8. Promote products that raise your affiliate income by an order of magnitude

When I began affiliate marketing, I promoted products ranging from $0.10 commissions to $100 commissions. It soon became clear that, while having a large volume of low commission sales can create a solid foundation for your affiliate revenue, true growth comes from high commission sales.

My strategy for growing affiliate sites has always been to find products that add value to the site’s readers, and that also have the potential to increase the site’s revenue by an order of magnitude.

If you’re currently generating $1k per month, what products will get you to $10k? If you’re at $10k, what do you need to do to get to $100k?

The answer is usually quite simple: you have to add an extra zero onto the size of your commissions or the amount of traffic you send to publishers. More often than not, this requires a refocus on which products you promote.
9. Focus on topic targeting, not keyword targeting

Google’s attempt to reduce the SEO community’s focus on keyword targeting hasn’t exactly been subtle.

From removing keyword data in Google Analytics and exact-match keyword targeting in Google Adwords, to improving their understanding of similar terms, it’s becoming harder for digital marketers to target individual keywords.

While on the surface this may seem like bad news, it’s arguably a blessing in disguise as it encourages a shift towards topic-targeting, and a focus on capturing long tail traffic.



Instead of trying to rank your content for ‘best gardening tools’, you might instead focus on creating an in-depth piece of content on the topic of gardening tools that helped gardeners choose the right tools for their garden.

By taking this approach, it doesn’t matter whether you rank for ‘best gardening tools’. What matters is the aggregate amount of relevant long-tail traffic you receive to the content.
10. Experiment with unusual content formats for recommending products

A few years ago I heard the story of how an app developer tried to download the Amazon app to make a purchase from his phone, only to realise Amazon didn’t have an app.

He developed an unofficial Amazon app, which was effectively just an app that displayed their website in an iframe. Of course, every single product included his affiliate link – so he earned 5-8% of every sale bought through the app.

Because Amazon didn’t have an official app, his app became extremely popular, making him a very, very, rich man.

I wanted to end on this point to get your creative juices flowing. Most affiliate marketers do the same old thing in a different niche, when the biggest rewards are usually reserved for those doing the exact opposite.

In 2012, I created WhatIsMyComfortZone.com (a calculator that measures the size of a persons comfort zone). Essentially, it works by filling out a survey on what challenges you’d be willing to overcome, and then it spits out a breakdown of how your score compares with other users, along with a few recommendations.

If a user said they wanted to skydive, their results page would include a link to book a skydive. While I never expected to earn anything from these (what’s the likelihood of someone impulse booking a skydive?), I decided there was no harm in making these links affiliate links.

To my surprise, I checked my AffiliateWindow account after 12 months, and what do you know, a bunch of people did impulse buy a skydive, earning a $40 commission per sale.

While a few skydiving referrals hardly made me rich, these two stories will hopefully give you some ideas about alternative formats for affiliate marketing.

Imagine if, instead of writing another 1,000-word review on the top 10 products in your niche, you developed a calculator or a quiz that used a series of criteria to automatically redirect them to the product that’s best suited for them?

Above all else, 2015 is going to be a year where affiliates need to get creative, outthink the competition, and really prove their worth in the value chain.

What are you doing to make that happen?

Sunday 23 November 2014

10 Young Entrepreneurs to Follow in 2014



Young people have always been able to see things in new and innovative ways.

Lately, they’ve been taking that vision and founding businesses.

The trend took off with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who founded Apple and Microsoft in 1976 at the age of 21. Then came Mark Zuckerberg, who programmed Facebook while still a student at Harvard University and became a billionaire by the age of 23.

Now Zuckerberg’s Facebook is being challenged by a new generation of young entrepreneurs. These kids aren’t just digital natives, they’re mobile and social natives. The list of ten young entrepreneurs below is full of bright minds that will be re-imagining the world in 2014 — and not one of them is older than 23.



#10

Madison Robinson

Founder of Fish Flops

Age: 15

Madison first had the idea for light-up flip flops for kids when she was only eight-years-old. Seven years later, Robinson’s Fish Flops are being sold in national department store’s like Nordstrom’s. Over 60,000 Fish Flops have been sold, whichThe Daily Mail estimates as “retail sales of at least 1.2 million.”






#9
Lucas Duplan

Founder and CEO of Clinkle

Age: 22

Duplan is the Stanford computer science drop-out behind the world’s biggest app that doesn’t exist yet.

Clinkle’s mission is to completely replace your wallet with your phone. But thanks to a cloak of secrecy, nobody in the general public knows what makes Clinkle different from well-positioned competitors like Square and Google Wallet.

Duplan assures us that they’re “building something fundamentally different from everything else out there.” That would certainly explain the record-setting $25 million in seed funding the company raised in 2013 from the likes of Richard Branson and Peter Thiel (former CEO of PayPal).

There are rumors that Clinkle’s killer advantage is that it makes seamless phone-to-phone transactions through high-frequency sound – but then there’s also speculation that Duplan’s poor management of the company is driving employees away in droves.

If Clinkle goes up in flames in 2014, it may discourage further venture funding for young entrepreneurs. If it succeeds, you may just be paying for your next cup of coffee without reaching for your wallet.






#8
Khoa Phan

Freelance Vine Editor

Age: 23

Back when I profiled the ten YouTube channels with the most subscribers, I saw that many of the video creators with the biggest audience were those that had adopted the video platform early and immediately started building a brand for their channel.

23-year-old Khoa Phan started his vine account the day after Twitter bought the service for $30 million and he’s been growing with the benefit of the inside track ever since. Mashable listed Phan as one of the top ten users to follow on Vine but he’s nowhere close to Vine’s most subscribed account (as of January 2014 Nash Grier and KingBach are neck and neck at 4.8 million followers each).

But thanks to Khoa’s polished construction-paper-meets-stop-motion style and “have a good day” personality, he’s been more marketable than other top Vine users. Phan has inked lucrative video production deals with a bevy of big-name clients: Snapple, MTV, (RED), Livestrong, and Peanuts Worldwide. It will be interesting to follow Khoa Phan and see if he can transition his 7 second videos from a successful service business to an online empire.






#7
Stacey Ferreira

Cofounder of MySocialCloud

Age: 21

Have you ever forgotten an important online password? MySocialCloud looks to end that problem permanently by securely storing all of your usernames and passwords in one place.

Ferreira was only 18 when she cofounded MySocialCloud with her brother Scott. By the age of 20, they had raised $1,000,000 in venture capital from the likes of Richard Branson and Alex Welch (CEO/Founder of Photobucket).

Ferreira is currently speaking, co-writing a book, and working on her second start-up.



#6
Eden Full

Creator of SunSaluter

Age: 21

Eden Full was still in high school when she started developing the SunSaluter, a solar panel that rotates with the movement of the sun to maximize efficiency. It’s tracking mechanism uses thermal expansion instead of an electric motor, making it relatively low maintenance and low cost.

When Full applied to Princeton, she mentioned the SunSaluter in her application letter. She got in – and soon got in with a professor who worked in Kenya over the summer and offered to give her a little bit of funding. In the summer of 2010, Full went to Kenya to try to implement her prototype in the real world

The hands-on experience showed Full how far her SunSaluter had to go if it wanted to be a complete success. Eden told Entrepreneur, “I learned that while our product worked, it didn’t work well. The trip taught me what the people there actually need and how to design better for them.”

Making the prototype better would require her full attention and more money, so Full applied for the $100,000 Thiel Scholarship and won in May 2012. Full took a year off school to further develop the SunSaluter and the company she’s built around it (Rosseicollis Technologies Inc.).

To date, Eden Full has helped over 6,000 people get clean water and power. She returned to Princetonto study Mechanical Engineering in Fall 2013, but she’s still managing the Rosseicollis team via email. Can the SunSaluter continue to grow and reach it’s goal of helping 1.5 billion people while Full is a full-time student?



#5
Nick D’aloisio

Founder of Summly

Age: 18

The Wall Street Journal just named their Technology Innovator of 2013 with an article declaring that he “has changed the way we read.”

In March 2011, D’aloisio released Trimit, an iOS application that analyzed text content and condensed it into a summary of either 1000, 500, or 140 characters. The app was good enough to be featured by Apple and to garner $300,000 in venture capital from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing.

D’aloisio used the funds to create a new-and-improved version of the app called Summly. Summly was acquired by Yahoo in March 2013 for $30 million. Nick is currently going to school in the UK while helping Yahoo develop their news digest.

“I absolutely want to start another company,” D’aloisio told the Wall Street Journal. “Serial entrepreneurs get addicted to creation. I want to be passionate. I feel really bad when I’m not doing something new.”



#4
Caroline Walerud

Co-Founder/CEO of Volumental

Age: 23

Volumental started as a robotics research project at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. But when they developed a breakthrough 3D scanning technology, it quickly became a breakout business with $330,000 in soft funding from a Swedish innovation agency and articles in Tech Crunch and Mashable.

Volumental has built “the world’s first cloud-based 3D scanner.” It’s real innovation is in automation and ease of use. All you need to use it is a browser with a depth camera and you’ll be able to easily make models of anything around your house (even your self).

Caroline Walerud is the 23-year-old co-founder and CEO of Volumental and the only young entrepreneur on this list who you can view as a 3D model. Last year, she led the company on a successful Kickstarter campaign ($27,362) in order for them to hire a new employee who would be dedicated to making the 3D models something that you can actually print out.

In December 2013, Walerud was named Super Talent 2013 by the Swedish Business magazine Veckans Affärer. But as the CEO of company that’s automating and simplifying the ability to create 3D models and print them, by December 2014 she might be a household name globally.



#3
Brian Wong

Co-founder of Kiip

Age: 22

Kiip is helping companies link virtual achievements to real-life commercial promotions. It might come in the form of a coupon after beating a level on your favorite game or a free bottle of vitamin water after completing a five mile run.

It’s all based on the idea that marketing at a ‘moment of achievement’ finds people at their most engaged and receptive. Wong came up with the idea while watching people immersed in their iPads on an airplane and founded the company in July 2010 alongside Courtney Guertin and Amadeus Demarzi. They’ve since raised $15.4 million in venture capital.

How’s this for a ‘moment of achievement': Kiip reaches “70 million users through 1,500 games and apps” (Forbes). And the company has established partnerships with some of the worlds biggest companies, including McDonald’s, Sony, and Amazon.

In 2013, Kiip was one of Fast Company’s 50 most innovative companies. In 2014, Wong says the goal is profitability.



#2
Evan Spiegel

CEO and Founder of Snapchat

Age: 23

Snapchat is turning social networking upside-down by emphasizing privacy and impermanence. The Snapchat app has been growing end over end. It went from 200 million “snaps” (images) uploaded per day to 350 million in just four months (June-September 2013).

In 2013, Facebook saw a decrease in daily use among teens (16% in the US), which is Snapchat’s primary demographic. That explains why Zuckerberg reportedly offered $3 Billion cash for Snapchat – and why Spiegel refused.

If Snapchat can maintain its growth and find a way to monetize, then Spiegel will be the world’s next young billionaire. But with Snapchat’s recent security breach and Spiegel’s reputation as an “arrogant” novice those are two big ifs.

Whatever Spiegel and Snapchat do in 2014, the world will be watching.


#1
Palmer Luckey

Founder of Oculus VR

Age: 21

Oculus VR is developing the virtual reality headset that Business Insider called “most definitely the future of gaming.”

Palmer Luckey is the 21-year-old who started it all by developing the initial headset, incorporating with two partners, and launching a 2012 Kickstarter campaign that raised $2.4 million.

2013 brought even greater success: $91 million in venture funding, 50 employees, and a growing community of indie developers around the world creating applications for the Oculus Rift prototype.

At CES 2014, they’ve debuted a brand new, high-definition prototype called Crystal Cove and it’s already the talk of the show. Oculus is shooting for a consumer release of their first virtual reality headset by Q3 2014. If all goes as planned, they won’t just upend the videogame industry; they’ll create a revolutionary new ‘virtual experience’ industry all its own.



A New Generation of Young Entrepreneurs

While it’s exciting to think about what these ten young entrepreneurs will accomplish in 2014, the young entrepreneur movement is much bigger than just the ten names above. A recent poll from the Kaufman Foundation found that more than half of millennial have started or want to start their own business.

Sunday 24 November 2013

How to Make the Most of LinkedIn Groups



Are you a member of a LinkedIn group? Do you spend time networking in LinkedIn groups? LinkedIn groups are great way to build credibility and make new connections that can ultimately help grow your business.


You can join up to 50 LinkedIn groups. However, it’s difficult to gain traction in 50 groups as well as find the time to participate in that many. I recommend that you go ahead and join up to 50 groups, but select 5-10 groups to spend your time on in order to get the most benefit out of your participation.


With over 1.5 million LinkedIn Groups, it can be difficult to find relevant groups and determine which ones might be the best for you to join. It is also important to find groups that are well-managed. Unfortunately there are many LinkedIn groups that are not well-managed and that makes the experience within these groups less than optimal. Not to worry, I’m going to give you some insights on how to find the quality groups.


Below are 5 tips for maximizing your LinkedIn groups experience.
#1) Use LinkedIn Search to Find Relevant Groups to Join


In case you haven’t noticed, LinkedIn search has been significantly enhanced. This includes the ability to search for relevant groups (based on your network) and it also includes the ability to search for discussion topics within open groups!


To start with, search for groups using keywords that would be a natural fit for you based on your geographical location, industry, prospects, alumni, community/charity organizations, hobbies and interests. Try searching LinkedIn Groups with the keywords that actually describe your natural affinities. For example, type in the name of the college you attended to find potential alumni groups that exist on LinkedIn.


You can also take advantage of Boolean search operators for smarter searches on LinkedIn. (I recently discovered this Tip Sheet on Boolean Search from LinkedIn Corporate Solutions). To locate a LinkedIn Group that was in my geographical location and my industry, I searched LinkedIn Groups using the Boolean Search Operator “AND” for the keywords (social media AND Dallas). LinkedIn showed me 25 results of groups based in Dallas AND focused on social media!


Another interesting finding was when I typed the word “hiking” into LinkedIn Group search, I found a group with over 1000 members who share this passion. There is no better way to start relationships than connecting around a common passion or interest!


For each LinkedIn Group that is displayed in search results, you have the option to view members in your network who belong to the group as well as “similar groups”.


You can even reach out to your LinkedIn connections and ask them what they think about the groups that they belong to. This gives you a solid reason to reach out and connect with your network.


LinkedIn group search is extremely powerful for discovering the right groups to join.
#2) Review the “Groups You May Like” Suggestions from LinkedIn


The easiest way to navigate to the “Groups You May Like” feature is through your to navigation menu bar under “Groups”. There you will see these options. (The Groups Directory option is the primary search area for LinkedIn Groups)


When you click on the “Groups You May Like” feature, LinkedIn will list suggested groups for you to check out based on your network connections, profile information, skills and expertise, and existing group memberships. (You may also notice some groups (or subgroups) on this list that you already belong to.
#3) Evaluate the Quality of a LinkedIn Group


How do you know if the LinkedIn group you are interested in joining is going to be a well run, quality group?


In some cases, you may just have to join the group and spend some time there to make that determination. However, here are a few ways to evaluate the group for quality:


Is this LinkedIn Group a Quality Group?


-Who is the group manager, and are they engaged and visible?


-What are the group rules? (hint: if the group rules don’t exist or they are not well written, chances are the group is not well-managed)


-Do a good majority of the discussions involve questions and dialogue?


-Are there lots and lots of promotional links or an abundance of “self-promotion”?


-Are the top influencers in the group credible?


-Is the group manager among the top influencers?


In a well-managed group, you are going to most likely see a manager who is visible throughout the discussions and a strong set of rules.


The quantity of membership and the activity level of a group aren’t always correlated to whether or not the group a quality group. I’ve seen some very large groups that are very well-managed and some very small groups that aren’t managed at all!


Be sure to evaluate the stats of the LinkedIn group you are interested in as well. There you can learn more about member demographics, activity, how long the group has been around, and more.
#4) Consider Joining Corporate Sponsored Groups


There are a number of corporate sponsored groups popping up on LinkedIn. This is where LinkedIn has officially partnered with brands or corporations to help them build robust groups. Within each of these groups, the organization can drive member visits and discussion participation while also controlling the ad display space within the group site.


Examples of these corporate LinkedIn Groups include: Intuit (small business group), Citi (Professional women’s network), Staples (small business network), and Capital One (Business traveler network).


What I love about corporate sponsored groups on LinkedIn is that they are very well-managed. The discussions tend to be in-depth with rich dialogue amongst members. These brands/corporations have a vested interest in making their groups successful, and in every case there are dedicated group managers in place who facilitate the dialogue and keep the groups spam-free.


I have found as a member of several of the groups listed above that the discussion questions submitted weekly (and delivered via email) by these group managers are intriguing and enticing. They make you want to jump right in and give your own insights and opinions!


If you run your own LinkedIn group or you’re thinking about starting one, you could learn some terrific strategies as a member of these corporate sponsored groups.
#5) Adhere to LinkedIn Group Participation Best Practices


In order to make LinkedIn Groups serve as authentic forums for discussions and dialogue, we can all do our part to maintain the integrity of the groups we belong to. This will make the LinkedIn Group experience better for everyone.


Additionally LinkedIn is doing its part by helping group managers fight promotional posts. If you are thinking about posting a discussion that contains the words me, my, or I, don’t count on it showing up. Most likely it will end up under the “promotions” tab where it’s highly unlikely that anyone will see it.


In order to successfully build influence in LinkedIn groups, your best bet is to authentically engage in discussions and contribute value-added insights.


Below are some best practices to remember as you find the right groups to join and start engaging with members:


-don’t just drop into groups and promote your products or services


-don’t auto-post your blog articles into LinkedIn groups (Instead, provide links to reputable sources of information within the context of discussions that can help members. This can include your blog articles if they truly serve that purpose.)


-ask questions and provide thoughtful answers


-contribute to ongoing discussions and new discussions consistently


-share meaningful, helpful, interesting, and reputable content


-send invites to connect with mutual group members only after you’ve spent some time participating in the group (Ideally the best time to send the invitation is when you’ve interacted with members in a discussion!)


I hope that these tips will help you make the most of your LinkedIn groups experience. LinkedIn groups provide an amazing opportunity to position yourself as a thought leader and an influencer. If you lead by example with your participation, others will follow.


Are you spending time in LinkedIn groups? How do you find the right groups to join? What are your thoughts about the value of LinkedIn groups? Leave your comments below.

Sunday 3 November 2013

Make Money Online: 100+ Tools and Resources



Making money online is a dream for many, but the simple fact is that it's often just as tough as making money offline. Due to requests, we've put together a list of the most popular money making methods today, many of them focused on blogging and peer production.


A word of caution: for the sake of completeness, we've included a small number of sites that have been criticized for their ethics. If it sounds too good to be true, it generally is. Commenters are welcome to share their experiences of the various sites.


Get Paid To Write








Weblogs, Inc. - Apply to blog for one of their ninety plus blogs or submit your own topic idea. They will pay you per post that you write and you must meet their minimum post requirements.


PayPerPost - Get paid as much as $500 or more a month writing articles and reviews of their sponsors on your blog.


Blogsvertise - Their advertisers pay you to mention and talk about their websites, products and services in your own blog.


Review Me - After your blog has been accepted in their network, they will pay you $20 to $200 per post that you write.


Smorty - Earn $6 to $100 dollars per post you write on your blog. Amount paid for each post depends on the overall popularity and page rank of your blog.


SponsoredReviews - Write reviews for their advertisers' products and services on your own blog. They charge a 35% transaction fee for their services.


LoudLaunch - Blog about the advertisers campaign releases that meet your interests. They pay once a month.


Blogitive - Get paid weekly via PayPal for posting stories that interest you.


BloggerWave - Select the advertiser opportunities that best suit your blog and write reviews on their products and services.


InBlogAds - Write about websites, products, services and companies on your blog and get paid for it.


BlogToProfit - Make $250 dollars or more by writing new posts on your blog.


Creative Weblogging - Write 7 to 10 posts per week for their network and they will pay you $225 per month.


WordFirm - Make money publishing books as a freelance writer from home.


451 Press - Write for a blog within their network and receive forty percent of all generated revenue.


Digital Journal - Network of bloggers that get paid to report on newsworthy articles through their blogs.


BlogBurner - Sign up for a free blog and get paid for writing new posts. Your commissions are generated through Adsense clicks.


Squidoo - Earn money by writing your new blog, or choose to donate your earnings to charity.


About.com - Become a paid guide writing articles for About.com. Compensation depends on the growth of your page views.


DayTipper - Earn $3 for every short tip you write and get published.


Helium - Earn a share of their advertising revenue by writing articles in their channels.


Dewitts Media - Get paid to write your own blog. This site requires you have a minimum page rank of 3 to sign up.


BOTW Media - Make money writing a blog for their blogging network.


CreamAid - Get paid to submit blog posts in their directory.


BlogFeast - Generate revenue from pre-installed Google Adsense ads when you blog in their network.


Mashable - Mashable hires freelancers and new staff, offering one of the largest platforms for tech bloggers.


Advertising Programs








Google Adsense - Most popular pay-per-click advertising provider. Make anywhere from $0.01 to $5.00 plus per click on site relevant ads.


Text-Link-Ads - Approve or deny the advertiser links that appear on your site. They pay you 50% of the sale price for each text link sold on your website.


BlogAds - The average blogger makes anywhere from $50 to $5000 dollars a month selling blog ads. To participate in this program you will need to get sponsored by someone in their network.


LinkWorth - Here you will find eleven different options to fit your advertising needs. Choose from text based advertisements, sponsored ads and paid blog reviews to name a few.


CrispAds - Access to over six thousand advertisers in their pay-per-click program. You choose the advertisers that suit you best.


Chitika - Offers six types of advertising to fit your needs.


AzoogleAds - Delivers targeted advertisers to their network of publishers to bring you the most profitable solutions.


Vibrant Media - Offers in-text contextual based advertisements.


MediaFed - Place advertisements in your blog's RSS feed to generate additional revenue.


Qumana - Embeds ads directly into your posts. Ads are generated from keywords that you select. Not particularly popular with readers.


PeakClick - Austria based pay-per-click provider. Provides automatic insertion of site targeted ads.


DoubleClick - Offers a full suite of products for publishers that enable you to forecast, sell inventory, serve ads and analyze campaigns online and through other digital channels.


Tribal Fusion - They offer reliable payments, free ad-serving technology, a dedicated account manager and up-to-date, real-time reporting, with a 55% payout. Must go through an approval process.


AdBrite - Approve or reject any ads purchased for your sites. Also gives you the ability to sell ads direct with "Your Ad Here" links.


ThankYouPages - Shows ads based on demographics and relevancy. Majority of traffic must originate from U.S.


Clicksor - Inline text link advertising, underlines words directly in your posts making them clickable advertisements. Once more, we'd say that inline ads are not popular with regular blog readers.


TargetPoint - Contextually and search targeted pay-per-click ads.


IndustryBrains - Place relevant contextual text listings and graphical ads on your site.


BloggingAds - Post one-time ads on your site. Pays via PayPal.


BulletAds - Performance based online advertising network.


AdsMarket - Match your traffic to handpicked advertisers with top-converting products and services.


ROIRocket - Targeted campaigns specific to your marketing needs.


AdKnowledge - Offers complete outsourcing of your advertising management. Runs ads in websites, email and search engine inventory.


Yes Advertising - Payouts for running ads from their sponsors. Also offers a referral program that pays 20% of the referred webmasters earnings.


RevenuePilot - Offers pay-for-performance and pay-per-click advertising for your sites.


SearchFeed - Integrates paid advertisements into your site's search feature.


Bidvertiser - Display text ads on your site and advertisers bid for placement.


Pheedo - Monetize your RSS feeds with this program.


ValueClick media - Generate revenue by displaying ads through banners, pop-unders and rich media. Be warned that pop-unders are unpopular these days.


OneMonkey - Another text based advertising program.


Yahoo Publisher Network - Use the internet giant, Yahoo, to display targeted ads on your site.


Q Ads - Monetize your site by placing ads anywhere you can add a picture.


Affiliate Networks and Programs








Amazon Associates - Link to Amazon's products and services and earn up to 10% of the sale price. Converts well for product-focused sites.


ClickBank - Over 10,000 products to promote with commissions as high as 75%.


Commission Junction - Promote the advertiser's products and services in exchange for a commission on leads or sales.


LinkShare - Pay-for-performance affiliate marketing network. Gives you the ability to use individual product links on your site and generate revenue from sales.


Affiliate Fuel - Serves as a middle man to bring publishers and advertisers together to promote products and services.


LinkConnector - Affiliate marketing network that offers a zero tolerance fraud policy to keep you safe while conducting business.


LeadPile - Affiliate network that allows you to generate and sell trade leads to the highest bidder.


Forex-Affiliate - Affiliate program that allows you to earn commissions from trading Forex (currency exchange) online.


incentAclick - CPA (cost-per-action) affiliate program that guarantees the fastest ROI in the industry.


AdPlosion - Earn revenue by selling leads, clicks and products from their advertisers. Also runs an incentive points program in addition to your commissions.


AffiliateFuture - Another affiliate program that pays you for generating leads, sales and clicks.


ClixGalore - Affiliate network consisting of 7500+ advertisers for you to choose from.


ThinkAction - Affiliate network that claims to have the top payouts and the possibility of earning over $100,000 dollars per month.


RocketProfit - Affiliate network, pays via check after your commissions reach $25 dollars.


CafePress - Earn affiliate commissions by selling your personally branded merchandise.


Avangate - Make money selling popular computer software titles through your site.


Paid Social Media Programs








Dada.net - Social site with a revenue sharing program that pays you for referring friends and driving traffic.


Jyve - Pays you to provide answers, advice and peer support to people in need of some help.


Cruxy - Specializes in social video, but serves as a venue to sell your digital media.


BitWine - Get paid to give advice and answer questions for people, on subjects of your interests and choice.


Ether - Make money answering questions for your peers over the phone. You set your rates and call availability.


UpBlogger - Social network site that pays you based on the amount of visits you receive to your uploaded content.


JustAnswer - Help others solve their problems and earn money for your knowledge.


MetaCafe - Upload your videos and earn money based on the number of views you receive.


ChaCha - Get paid to offer support to members of their community.


AssociatedContent - Earn money by uploading your videos, text, audio and images to their site. Earnings are determined by the exposure you receive from your content.


myLot - Pays you for posting, commenting and using their social network.


KnowBrainers - Another site that pays you to get involved with the community and answer questions. Optionally you can answer questions through the RSS feeds on your own blog.


Everything Else That Pays








Google User Research - Google Pays you money to participate in their user research studies online.


Microsoft Research Panel - Get paid from Microsoft for providing feedback on their products.


Amazon Mechanical Turk - Amazon pays you to complete simple tasks that their computers can't understand. Payments are a matter of cents.


eJury - Earn $5 to $10 dollars per verdict rendered as a mock juror for practice trials.


WorkingSOL - This company pays you to handle technical support for many large companies. You can work from home on the computer or by phone and decide what times you are available.


Appingo - Always looking for experienced copy editors and proof readers. Must submit a resume.


IntelliShop - Pays you to shop at stores in your area and write a review of your experience.


Mahalo Greenhouse - They pay $10 to $15 dollars per site you submit to their directory.


Focus Pointe Global - Get paid to join their focus groups and voice your opinion. Available to teens and adults.


Agloco - Sign up, download their toolbar and get paid to surf the internet. This site has been criticized as a "pyramid scheme", although the founders deny the allegation.


Arise - Make money providing phone, web and email support and sales for 40 plus companies in their network.


CraZoo - Earn money for starting new threads and posting in online forums.


Tutor.com - Get paid to tutor people online.


ForumBoosting.com - Make money posting in forums across the internet.


Share-A-Pic - Earn money by uploading and sharing your pictures on their website.


Opuzz Voice - Earn money by doing voice overs for their clients online.


SlashMySearch - Get paid to search the internet with their search engine.

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Secrets of Affiliate Millionaires - 7 Alternative Success Tips in Affiliate Marketing Business

There are many affiliate marketing strategies to help you to generate a million dollar in your affiliate marketing business on the internet. Alternatively, you will discover and learn 7 success secrets of affiliate millionaires in this article. With those secrets, you will become a wealthy affiliate millionaire in the long term, not overnight.

1. Selling Primarily Informative Product Online.
It is obviously that selling informative products online is perfectly fit to the affiliate marketing business. The reasons, why it is perfectly, are: (1) people are always looking for the information online (2) you can offer services along with those informative products online (3) people can download and get those informative products instantly and (4) those informative products are the intellectual properties online.
The only possible drawback for selling the informative products online is that people can look for free information on the internet. To solve this possible drawback, that is why you have to offer your expert services along with those products, if you want to become an affiliate millionaire. With those services, you are so far away from your competitors.
The real secrets of affiliate millionaires are: (1) sell information which can be used to solve other peoples' problem and (2) offer your expert services along with those informative products to help others easier.

2. Stay Focus On The Market.
There is no doubt that there is a lot of information on the internet. With those overwhelm information; it is easier for affiliate marketing entrepreneurs to lose their focus on what they are doing in the affiliate business. Otherwise, there are so many low-value tasks to prevent you from your success in your affiliate marketing business. For example, checking emails, replying customers' emails, performing account works, and performing tax issues are the low-value tasks for your affiliate marketing business. You can absolutely find automated software tools or assistance to handle with those tasks. To become an affiliate millionaire, you have to optimize your time to the highest value tasks for your markets and business. Your time is a money and very valuable for your business. For instance, opening a new line of business, focusing on customer's needs and closing sales are high-value tasks you should do.
The real secrets of affiliate millionaires are: (1) stay focus consistency on what you are planning and doing for your affiliate business (2) maximize your time for the highest value tasks, which generate sales for you, in your affiliate marketing business always (3) get the high-value tasks done always for your business and (4) look for new opportunities in your markets always.

3. Deliver Over Your Customers' Expectation.
Delivering your products or services over your customers' expectation is one of the most significant habits of millionaire. Likewise, if you want to success in affiliate marketing business, you need to deliver your affiliate products along with your services over your customers' expectation. The minimum delivery to your customers is not enough to become an affiliate millionaire. With this habit, you will impress your customers and they will be happier with your delivery.
The real secrets of affiliate millionaires are: (1) deliver over whatever you think your customers' needs (2) delivery over the expectation all the time and (3) think about long term success and relationship with customers if you want to become an affiliate millionaire.

4. Generate Passive Income Through Recurring Affiliate Programs.
Your wealthy in financial in affiliate marketing business, like other business, is based on the passive income. It is an absolutely great idea to generate your passive income for your affiliate marketing business. There are many opportunities to generate recurring passive income from online affiliate programs on the internet. The highest recommendation is to look for great recurring affiliate program online, what you are believe that it can solve other people' problem. With those programs and appropriate affiliate marketing strategies, you will generate a lot of passive income for your affiliate business. It means you will be paid for life if you can refer those programs. In general, you can search those programs in the search engines, like Google. You will discover a thousand of programs.
The real secrets of affiliate millionaires are: (1) look for a valuable recurring informative affiliate programs for your markets and (2) promote those recurring programs with multiple affiliate marketing strategies.

5. Hire Sub-Affiliates Through 2-tier Affiliate Programs.
What if you can generate commission without your action, what's happened? You will live in your dream life! Another secret of affiliate millionaire is to promote 2-tier affiliate program in your market. You will have your own sub-affiliate marketers who are willing to promote the products and you will be paid commission when they can generate sales.
The real secrets of affiliate millionaires are: (1) hire sub-affiliate marketers through multiple marketing strategies (2) support those sub-affiliate marketers with tools, research information, and special reports and (3) keep motivating sub-affiliate marketers.

6. Improve Yourself And Mindset Always.
One of the most valuable assets in your affiliate marketing business is you. You have to improve yourself and mindset always. You have to think and behave like other millionaires do. With those habits and behaviors, you will grow yourself and business exponentially in the future, of course.
The real secrets of affiliate millionaires are: (1) think and behave like other millionaires do and (2) improve yourself and mindset to the positive way, like positive thinking, critical thinking and proactive behavior.

7. Believe Strongly In Yourself, What You Do and What You Will Do.
To become an affiliate millionaire, you must have a faith. You must believe in yourself, what you are doing and what you will do. You have to drive yourself to where you want to go in the future with the strong belief. Without this faith, you will lose your direction for yourself and your business.
The real secrets of affiliate millionaires are: (1) setup a clear vision for your affiliate marketing business (2) believe and respect in what you are doing and what you will do in the future and (3) drive yourself to where you want to go with your strong faith.

Final thoughts, the affiliate marketing business is all about "creativity". You have to combine what you have learned from this article and take it into your action accordingly. With those secrets of affiliate millionaires, your life will be changed forever! Also, you will earn top affiliate commission and success in the affiliate marketing business in the long term, not overnight or short term.