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Passive Income with Auctions Anyone?
My friend Vera Raposo has started her Auction Strategists blog and I'm giving her a hand where I can. Nope, I'm not into auctions much myself, but the idea behind this blog is to offer tips to auctioneers who want to create more passive income with their efforts. Lynette Chandler is also on board with her easy-to-use tech tips to help streamling the auction marketing process. Check it out here.
Instant Split Commissions - A Good Deal?
 Recently, I was approached by someone who wanted me to sell his product as an affiliate. He tried to sweeten the deal by offering "instant split commissions" through PayPal. I'd heard of this before, but never gave it much thought until someone offered it to me. After considering, I said I'd check out his product, but I wouldn't accept the instant split commissions. He seemed surprised that I was refusing to be paid the minute the customer made the purchase. The way these programs work is that the customer makes the payment an equal payment to two PayPal accounts (the merchants and the affiliates). Thus, as an affiliate, you get your commissions right away. Sounds good, doesn't it? Not so much to me. First of all, if a customer is paying me, I am responsible for the sale. I may have to deal with PayPal complaints if there is a problem with the service or I may have customers contacting me directly for support. I'm just an affiliate - I don't need to deal with that. Second, if a merchant is paying commissions via PayPal, I expect them to use the "mass pay" feature where I don't pay any fees for receiving the money. The instant payment option will suck up a LOT of your commissions in PayPal fees. And let's look at this from the merchant's point of view. Certainly he saves time in trying to send affiliate payments (but if he's paying by PayPal and his affiliate script supports Mass Pay file formats - it only takes a few minutes to pay out affiliates). This system might also motivate affiliates when they want to get payments right away. Why promote a program that pays in a month when you can get paid now, right? But honestly, as an affiliate manager, my star affiliates aren't the people who need cash right away. They are usually people who earn a consistent income with affiliate programs and are happy to wait for a big fat juicy affiliate payment once per month. And what about refunds? I wouldn't even want to go there. If you refund the money, you have to get your affiliate to refund the other portion. I imagine that could be quite a headache. I think I'm staying clear of this one.
New Website Phobia
For a long time in my networking groups, I saw what I like to call "new website phobia". This phobia inflicts people who are fearful of starting a new website for a variety of reasons: - Because they think it costs too much
- Because they think its too much work
- Because they think they already have a website, so they don't need another
No, I'm not talking about setting up a website for dog lovers, another for bird watchers, another for golf and yet another for homeopathic remedies. You can certainly do that, but I'm just talking about building websites in your chosen target market for specific purposes. Whether it's for list-building, providing specific information to your target market or selling your information product. If you want to have one website do all your jobs for you: traffic generation, sell a product, relationship-building, list-building and so forth - you have some extremely hard work ahead of you. If you've surfed around my sites (come on, I know you're spying on me, just a little bit!), you'll see I have all kinds of websites. This site is a relationship builder, other sites sell products, others collect email addresses and so forth. The result has been building more relationships, selling more products and rapidly expanding my email database. Like I said, for a long time, I saw people fearful of starting new websites...but that is changing. Just yesterday, I emailed a fellow online business owner who offers transcription services on the side. I wrote to her and said, "Do you have a website that outlines your services, so I can recommend you in my upcoming course?" Well, she responded and said she didn't have anything, but she quickly purchased the domain and the site will be up tomorrow. She doesn't have to make it complicated. She just needs a simple page that outlines why people need her services, what she offers and a way to order. That's it! I'm sending her the targeted traffic and she can also use this domain for others to send recommendations her way. If you stick with one website, all your information and products will inevitably get buried in the clutter. Present a clear and focused marketing message with your websites and your marketing will improve greatly. As far as it costing too much. No way! You can grab cheap domains just about anywhere (I resell them here). You can also get web hosting for as little as $15 per year, so there's no more excuses. The new purposeful website you create will net you way more than it costs to get them set up. So, challenge yourself this week. Create a website that just promotes your newsletter. Or create a website that sells just one of your products. Then send traffic to it and see the results!
Markety-Goodness....mmmmmm
Well, I'm just finishing up some work and getting ready to head off to the Most Marketed....oops.... The Happiest Place on Earth. We're off to Disneyland with the boys and I'm looking forward to a few days vacation. Of course, I'll be thinking marketing all the time because you just can't get away from it when it comes to Disney. ;-) If you're sticking around the office, I have some "markety-goodness" for you. This is a phrase used by that meanie anonymous poster in one of his comments and I just loved it. He, of course, meant it in a more negative sense...but I love "markety-goodness". I hope you love "markety-goodness" too! In the past weeks, I've been studying David Garfinkle's Breakthrough Copywriting course. It's been really eye-opening and I've got a ton of strategies to improve my copy. You can actually pick up excerpts from the course at the links below: -> More great information from Michel Fortin on testing. It's a short PDF document that includes some great ideas for making more money from your existing business. -> Here's a great document by Mike Stuart ("The Internet Audio Guy") that shows how you can increase your profits with audio. I'll keep you up-to-date as I keep working through the course. I'm about only about 20% of the way through -- but have learned some effective strategies to improve my copywriting and "markety-goodness".
Who's This Michael Lee Austin?
 Hmmmm...this guy looks familiar. Couldn't be one of my favorite marketing teachers, Armand Morin, could it? Not only is Mr. Morin...err...Austin...a great marketer, he's also a very talented country singer. Now, country is definitely not my thing, but I think I can spot talent when I see it. Last April, he treated us to a performance at the BigSeminar. I stayed for the whole entire thing, but when he was done and they started playing other country music, I politely excused myself from the room. ;-) Anyway, you can learn the full story behind this Michael Lee and watch a brilliant video put together by Armand. Geez...I still have trouble making my web cam work.
We Don't Need No Web Pollution!
Recently, Lynn Terry blogged about junking up the web. She was talking about all the sites and projects we have out on the net and may leave behind some day...who would pick up the pieces after we're gone? But I've had another kind of web pollution on my mind and it's the pollution created by people wanting to make a quick buck...and the marketing product peddlars who sell them the means to create it. When spamming the searches came into vogue a couple years back, I was pretty naive to it. I even looked at some of the products and tried them. Realizing that creating garbage for the net wasn't for me, I let the programs sit idle on my hard drive. Then, came my apathetic stage. I knew other people were doing this and accepted that was just their "business model". It wasn't the kind of model I wanted - building garbage, getting traffic, having the search engines catch on and ban me, then rebuild again. But I figured it was up to each individual to decide what they wanted to do. Fast-forward to April 2006 and it's getting ridiculously out of hand. Each week, it seems there's a new ebook or software program that will solve all your business problems - and they're totally unethical and against search engine guidelines, but NOBODY tells you that. THAT'S what makes me mad. No, I don't like it when I do a search on Google and I'm presented with some of the garbage created by those wanting a quick buck (and remember, it might be quick to come...but it's also quick to disappear)...but I can deal with that. What I can't tolerate is when my readers and members are drawn into this pollution because they are not told that what is being sold is largely unethical and against search engine guidelines. (You can read more about this web pollution on my Affiliate Marketing Sweetie information page) In the past 4 years of working online, I've tried a lot of different things. The only thing that works for the long-term is SMART marketing and creating LASTING VALUE. Anyone up for that?
We Must Be Aliens!
After 4 years of having an online business, most my friends and family kind of understand what I do. But most say they've gone to my blog and they still don't get it. Obviously, this guy who commented on my blog (he's about the 16th comment in) is in the same boat. Although he was a bit rude, I can appreciate his sense of humor and I sure hope he appreciated mine (keep reading the comments to find my suggestion for him a little bit further down). He even thinks that Affiliate Marketing Sweetie sounds like Amway. Amway? Yikes! So, let me provide an explanation as to what I do. I have a great time creating information that people are looking for online. Whether they want to learn how to lose a few extra pounds, how to get more website traffic or get their wee baby to sleep at night - I provide them that information. Usually, they'll find my websites by searching on a search engines or through someone else's recommendation. When they come to my site and read the articles, I might make some money when they click my product recommendations (I get a commission when someone buys the products). I also work with Google with their Google Adsense program and they pay me very well to post their customer's ads on my sites. When someone clicks the ads, I get paid. I also sell a few of my own information products to help people do the same thing...and that's about it. It's not a bad job providing people with quality information they're looking for and getting paid for it, don't you think?
Hump Day is My Friday
I'm going to regret using the word "hump" in my blog entry title (the traffic that comes in after things like this is WEIRD!)...but so be it. A little while ago, I saw a commercial that mentioned "hump day" and I must admit, I'd almost forgotten all about it. For those who don't know, "hump day" is typically Wednesday, which is the middle of the work week. Once you've made it past this hump, you're past the halfway point of your week. Well, interestingly enough, Wednesday is the end of my official work week. My kids go to preschool Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday...so after that, my computer time is limited. So, when people say it's "hump day", I get all warm and fuzzy thinking that I'm done my hard work for the week. When's your Friday? ( Edited to Add: But I will be working a little in the next few days because I'm getting ready for this!)
Feeling Ignored? Learn How to Ask Questions.
If you're just getting started in online business, it can definitely be overwhelming and you have a million questions. I've been online for just about 4 years and I still have a million questions! But I've come to realize that I don't need to know everything now and when I want to learn something, I need to get as specific as I can. I see many overwhelmed people go to forums and ask questions like... - How do I get traffic to my website?
- How do I write and sell an ebook?
- How do I make money online?
...and often they get little to no response or people just throw a bunch of affiliate links or pitches for business opportunities. That's not really so helpful. Why does this happen? Because your question is just TOOOOOOOO BIG to answer. There is too much involved in generating traffic, writing & selling an ebook and making money online. There is no quick answer. People on forums are busy people, so BE SPECIFIC and you'll get specific answers. Let's say you do want to know about getting traffic to your website. Start by searching Google (or whatever search engines) for some information and read a few articles. You're going to start to get some ideas...some may be good and others may be garbage. Or if you want to know about traffic, make sure you're signed up for my free Truth about Traffic course or buy an ebook on the topic. Then you'll get a solid grounding in traffic and you'll have some idea where you'd like to go next. Perhaps, you want to start with an Adwords campaign and you start setting up your campaign and you get stumped. THAT'S when you go and ask a question, a very specific question, and people will be able to help you in a more meaningful way. But first, do you use the forum's "search" function to see if someone else has already asked that question...because if you ask a question that was answered a week before, you may also get ignored. :-( And don't forget to have a specific subject line. Don't say, "Help!" or get cute with your subject lines. Say what your post is about. That way, the people who are truly knowledgeable on the subject can immediately see your request for help and give you a hand. The Internet marketing community is a great way to get answers to your questions, but you've got to know what you want to ask. And if you already know what you want to ask, but don't know where to ask, here's a couple suggestions: Here's to a great online education!
Need a Date? A Soulmate? Google May Have the Answer
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