This entry is part of my ‘Checklist For Success‘ series

Should you be trying to make money online? Is this the right business for you?

Is it really possible?
Absolutely. I do it, in fact. I don’t have another job, and I do quite well, by my standards. You can earn a nice income, some of you can probably become very wealthy.

Can anyone do it?
Absolutely not. It isn’t for everyone. I’m not at all trying to make the ‘making money online’ community some kind of exclusive club, in fact I have realized that many businesses out there aren’t for me. I tried sales for a few years, and it really didn’t work out for me at all! I was barely able to get by. It wasn’t a good fit for me. This business is!

Each business takes unique talents and abilities; mine are well suited for making money with the internet, and yours might be as well. However, you might be well-suited for sales, management, to be a personal trainer, to invent new products, or for some other profession.

The last thing I want to do is discourage anyone. I simply want each of you to realize what qualities you will need to have (or develop) to make it. During this entry, I’m going to ask you some tough questions. Be honest with yourself! If you can honestly answer ‘yes’ to most of these, this business might be a good fit for you.

• Are you self-motivated? In this business you are on your own. Can you work without supervision? Can you produce without encouragement?
• Can you write? When I ask this question to people I mentor in person, they usually chuckle a little. Most people aren’t very confident about their writing skills. If you’re writing skills aren’t the best, are you willing to learn? If you aren’t willing, close this browser right now! This isn’t the business for you. You don’t need to be an award-winning author, but you will have to learn how to convey a message to your readers.
• Do you know anything about the web? Are you willing to learn? Many people who start in the business have no intention of learning anything about html/css, publishing, search engines, css, pings, tags, or anything else. Do you know what this stuff is? Are you willing to learn it? I can help you here, but you need to be willing to learn. You will never need to be an expert with these concepts, but you do need to be able to learn some of it.
• Can you learn on your own? If you don’t understand something, will you read about it? Will you search for the answer? Will you search until you find it? Everyone I have ever met who has found success in this business has been willing to learn on their own. I can help you with almost everything you need to learn, but you also need to develop your own problem solving skills.
• Can you adapt? The internet is always changing. Those who find success can adapt to those changes.
• Do you have something to offer? You need knowledge about something to make it! In order for you to find success, you will need to become an expert about something! What do you know a lot about? What do you read about? I think you could make it with almost anything if you learned enough about it.
• Can you overcome fear? You’re going to have to! Learning something new can be scary. Being in the public eye can be terrifying. Can you overcome it?

Hopefully this has given you some perspective. If you can honestly answer yes to these questions, I think you’re a good fit for the business.

In order to blog effectively, you have to know about Technorati. More specifically, in order to properly monetize your blog you have to know how to make it work to your advantage. That’s why I have created the Technorati Bootcamp. It is the intense, thorough Technorati training you need to jumpstart your making money online career.

Each step in the training will help you to understand more about Technorati.

Summary of the Technorati Bootcamp

• What Technorati Is
• How Technorati Is Different Than Google
• How Technorati Rankings Work
• How To Find Where You’re Ranked In Technorati
• Technorati Authority Rating
• Why You Need Technorati To Make More Money Online
• How To Better Your Technorati Ranking In A Hurry (If you know everything else about Technorati please feel free to scroll down to this section.)

What Technorati Is

Technorati is a blog search engine. Think ‘Google’, except Technorati only searches in blogs while Google searches through information on blogs and other types of websites. If you went to Technorati, you could search for anything, just like you can search in Google. Technorati will then return results from the 71 million blogs they have in their database.

How Technorati Is Different Than Google

Technorati searches for information in real-time. You can easily find something in Technorati that was published on a blog 5 minutes ago. Technorati’s database is updated when blogs add new content. It will usually take at least a few days for the same content to get in the Google index, depending on the site that it’s published on. (It happens more quickly on highly ranked sites.)

If you’re searching for today’s information in Google, you’re probably wasting your time, in Technorati you’ll likely find it.

How Technorati Rankings Work

Technorati ranks each and every blog in the world, at least they rank all of the ones they know about. Engadget is currently the world’s #1 blog according to Technorati. The reason that Engadget is #1 is because they have more links from other blogs than any other blog.

The Technorati ranking system is based 100% on links from other blogs. The more blogs you get links from, the higher you will be ranked. Technorati recently published their ranking system, you can read about it here. It basically says that they calculate rankings based on the unique amount of blogs that have linked to you in the last 6 months.

How To Find Where You’re Ranked In Technorati

You will first go to Technorati. You will then look for the search bar, which you will find towards the top of the page. It looks like this:

You will simply type in your domain name and click ’search’. For the purpose of this example I will type ‘courtneytuttle.com’, which is of course my domain name:

Once you have typed in your domain name, you will of course click search. You will then see a chart that looks like this:

If you don’t see it, you haven’t claimed your blog. This means that you haven’t let Technorati know that it’s yours! Follow this link, sign up for Technorati, and claim your blog. Then come back and finish the lesson!

If you do see it, you should be able to easily see what your ranking is. As you can see, mine says, “Rank: 45,767″. This means that my blog is ranked as the 45,767th blog in the world, at least it was at the time I wrote this post. This means that there are 45,766 blogs that have been linked to more than mine.

If you’re just starting out you will probably be ranked between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000. Technorati ranking is very much like golf, the lower the better.

Technorati Authority

Your Technorati authority rating is simple, it is the number of unique blogs that have linked to you. The authority rating for this site is 94; this means that 94 different blogs have linked to me so far. As my authority rating goes up, my Technorati ranking goes down. Remember that down is good for your Technorati ranking.

Why You Need Technorati To Make More Money Online

Many advertisers will decide how much to pay you based on what your Technorati ranking is. If you’re ranked 500,000 advertisers may not want to advertise on your site; they at least won’t want to pay you very much. Here are some specific examples of better opportunities that are only available to sites that have a good Technorati ranking:

• Right now there is an opportunity at PayPerPost that would pay you $25 to write a teeny, 50 word review if your Technorati ranking was better than 9,999. If you don’t have a good ranking, most of your opportunities will only pay about $5. If you can get a really, really good ranking you can take advantage of opportunities that pay $150+. It should take you about 5 minutes to write a 50 word review.
• ReviewMe determines the value of reviews on your site based on your Technorati ranking and PageRank. Bettering you Technorati ranking will better your PageRank. You can read more about increasing PageRank here.
• As you get a better Technorati ranking, you will look a lot better to companies like Text-Link-Ads, who base the amount a link on your site is worth by the amount of links your site has.

As your Technorati rankings increase, you will find that readers will stick around your site longer. If they see that you are ranked in the top 10,000, they will want to know why. I’m not there yet, but I do know that people are finally starting to trust what I say, even though I’m not any smarter than I was two months ago when my site was ranked over 1,000,000 in Technorati.

If you want to build a high-traffic site, you will definitely need a good Technorati ranking.

How To Better Your Technorati Ranking In A Hurry

Now we’re finally getting to what you all want to read right? You want to know how to better your Technorati ranking. Since your Technorati ranking is based 100% on links from other blogs, you need to get links from other blogs! Here are some of the easiest and most effective ways to get those links:

• Use the D-List. You can gets links from those sites by simply commenting on the blogs on the list. Don’t leave junky comments! If you leave productive, relevant, informative comments those bloggers will surely visit your site. You will receive emails from many of them. They will link to good posts that they find. Building links is about building relationships; junk comments defeat the purpose and many of the bloggers won’t even allow them to be published. Write good ones! There are well over 100 sites on the D-List that you can contribute to and get links from.
• Use blog carnivals. Each week I take my best articles for the week and submit them to blog carnivals. Blog carnivals list a whole bunch of articles on a given topic. This article will probably be submitted to a handful of blog carnivals. This means that it will be linked to from several different sites. You can easily pick up 10-15 links per quality article you write.
• Be social. I went out today and commented on about 50 new blogs. Many of the webmasters visitited my site and a few of them linked to articles they found here. When you’re friendly and cool people want to get to know you; they’ll visit your site. Getting them to your site is half the battle, writing content that is worth linking to is the other half.
• Work relentlessly on your site. The more value you can provide, the more you will get linked to. My best articles get linked to often, the ones that aren’t as good don’t ever get linked to. Most bloggers miss this step entirely! They like doing the marketing but don’t like to work on providing more value. Would you rather work to get a visitor to your site once or work to get a visitor that will return everyday? If you provide value, they’ll keep on coming back. They will also keep linking to your articles.

Even if you were starting today you should easily be able to get into the top 100,000 blogs of Technorati in less than 30 days. The positive effects will surely follow. If you are already in the top 100,000, try to get in the top 50,000. I’m trying to get into the top 5,000. I’ll be able to get there and you can too if you’re willing to work for it.

Since the time I posted my April earnings, I have had several people express concern that disclosing my Adsense income was against the Adsense terms of service. I wanted to make sure that I was in compliance, so I did a little investigative reporting, which is a fancy way of saying that I read a bunch of really boring documents.

I found a paragraph in the Google AdSense^TM Online Standard Terms and Conditions that shows that I’m ok. (If you want to see for yourself follow the link):

Confidentiality. You agree not to disclose Google Confidential Information without Google’s prior written consent. “Google Confidential Information” includes without limitation: (a) all Google software, technology, programming, specifications, materials, guidelines and documentation relating to the Program; (b) click-through rates or other statistics relating to Site performance in the Program provided to You by Google; and (c) any other information designated in writing by Google as “Confidential” or an equivalent designation. However, You may accurately disclose the amount of Google’s gross payments to You pursuant to the Program. Google Confidential Information does not include information that has become publicly known through no breach by You or Google, or information that has been (i) independently developed without access to Google Confidential Information, as evidenced in writing; (ii) rightfully received by You from a third party; or (iii) required to be disclosed by law or by a governmental authority.

I made the sentence bold that shows that you can disclose the amount that you make from Adsense.

What You Can’t Disclose

• Adsense Click-Through Rates Of Your Site(s)
• Amount of Clicks on Adsense Ads
• Average Commission Per Click
• Earnings Per Thousand Impressions (eCPM)
• An Inaccurate Representation of Gross Earnings

Since I’m not disclosing any of that information it appears that I am in compliance. I am only disclosing the gross amount which is ok.

refer to :http://courtneytuttle.com/2007/05/09/can-bloggers-disclose-adsense-earnings/

Good websites and blogs target a main set of keywords. With most of my sites, I will target 3-5 keywords with my homepage. This site is about ‘make money online’, ‘make money online free’, ‘earn money online’, ‘internet marketing’, ‘make money blogging’, and some other subjects, so I naturally target all of those keywords.
Choosing Keywords

When you choose the keywords you want your site to be about, make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into. Do you know how hard it’s going to be to get ranked for your site’s keywords? Some keywords are extremely difficult. I’ve chosen a few of those, but at least I knew what I was getting myself into. If you’re just starting out, I would recommend choosing some easier ones. You can move toward more difficult ones after you get some experience.

Let’s have a look at the keywords I’ve chosen so that we can get an idea of how difficult they are. In order to get an idea of how difficult each of the keywords are, I’m going to use the keyword difficulty tool at SEOChat.com. It shows difficulty by percentage - the higher the percentage, the more difficult the keyword is to target.

* ‘make money online’ - 81.85%
* ‘make money online free’ - 83.7%
* ‘internet marketing’ - 84.58%
* ‘make money blogging’ - 80.96%
* ‘earn money online’ - 66.17%

The top four keywords are going to be nearly impossible for most beginners, but the bottom one would be attainable. Even if you know what you’re doing, plan on working for about a year to get ranked on the first page of Google for the top four. Even though ‘earn money online’ doesn’t get searched for as much as some of the others, it brings me the most traffic - because it’s an easier keyword.

Now let’s take a look at some of the long-tail keywords I regularly get traffic from:

* how to find out if supplemental google - 49%
* insert google adsense on my blog - 45.64%
* how to float my adsense unit - 5.48%

These keywords are obviously quite a bit easier to target, and you can see why I go after long-tail keywords for my Saturday case study, HowToMobile.com.
Keyword Difficulty Rules

* If you’re a new blogger or webmaster, go after keywords that have less than 70% difficulty.
* If you go after keywords that have more than 80% difficulty, plan on working for about a year before you get to the first page in Google.
* For instant traffic, target keywords that have less than 50% difficulty.

How difficult are your keywords? I would love to know how difficult the words are that everyone is going after. Who is going after the hardest keyword? Does anyone target one that’s harder than ‘internet marketing’? Who targets the easiest one?

I spent the majority of the last two months experimenting relentlessly with my Adsense placement. According the the Google Adsense Online Standard Terms and Conditions, I can’t publish the exact click-through rates of each of my experiments, but I will tell you that the best placement without question was the 300×250 medium rectangle, inserted directly into each post. The click-through rate on that placement was about 50% higher than it was with any other placement.

You will notice that I still have a vertical Adsense banner in my sidebar, except on my home page, where it usually doesn’t show up due to the fact that only three Google ads will show up at any given time. If I have Adsense on three different posts, Google won’t display the one on the sidebar. It shows up on most of my other pages, including my individual post pages. The sidebar ad unit is still getting clicked somewhat, but the 300×250 medium rectangle gets clicked about three times as much.

How To Insert The 300×250 Ad Unit Into Your Posts
This was a trick that took me a while to refine. I originally added some code into my WordPress loop that did the trick - it only worked temporarily because as soon as I started writing sponsored posts, I couldn’t use that method anymore. Most of the sponsored post companies don’t want Adsense units within their sponsored posts. I had to find a way to insert Adsense into my content posts, without inserting it into my sponsored posts. I removed the code that inserted the ad units and found a different way.

Installing The Adsense Plugin
The easiest way I found to handle the problem was by installing the Adsense plugin for WordPress. The plugin gives me a simple button in my WordPress admin that allows me to insert the 300×250 ad unit into each post:

I click the button, and the plugin inserts the Google ad. When I write sponsored posts, I simply don’t click the Adsense button.

Installing the Adsense plugin isn’t super complicated. Here’s what you need to know to install it:

• How to download and extract files
• Editing a file using Notepad
• How to setup Google ads
• FTP/ File uploading

I’ll walk you through the steps, but it’s obviously going to help if you already know how to do that stuff.

Step-By-Step Installation Instructions

1. Download the Adsense plugin.
2. Extract the plugin. Right click your mouse on the file you downloaded and select ‘Extract All’, ‘Extract Here’ or whatever version of extract your computer has. Continue with the extraction.
3. Open the extracted file with notepad. You can do this by right-clicking your mouse on the file and selecting ‘Open With’. You will then choose notepad and it will open up.
4. In Notepad, look for the following piece of code:
   Your Google Adsense code should be here, but you forgot
   to edit the plugins/adsense.php file and replace the code
   there with your own.
   
   
5. Delete that entire section of code, you’re going to replace it with the code for your 300×250 rectangle.
6. Replace the code you just deleted with this new one:
   
   delete this and paste your 300×250 Google ad code here
   
   Adding that code will make a special box that will make your Google ad float to the right side of your post. If you want to make it float to the left, replace float: right with float: left. Note: make sure you delete what I told you, replacing it with your 300×250 Adsense code - you’re going to have to log into your Adsense account to get it!
7. Save the file and upload it to your wp-content/plugins directory.
8. Log in to your WordPress admin and go to ‘Plugins’.
9. Activate the Adsense plugin.

You’ve done it!

Using The Plugin To Insert Adsense Into Your Posts
When I first installed the plugin, I thought that I had done it incorrectly, because the Adsense button wasn’t there at first. I quickly figured out that the button only appears after the post has been saved. In order to make the button appear, you’ll first have to click your ‘Save and Continue Editing’ button on your ‘Write Post’ screen.

You should then be able to see the button by clicking into your code view:

You should then see the Adsense button in there:

Wherever your cursor is when you click the button is where your ad will appear. I usually insert my Adsense right up at the top, so I place my cursor at the beginning of the post:

After clicking the Adsense button, it should look like this:

In the spot where the shows, the plugin will insert your Adsense. Remember that I created a special box that makes my Adsense float to the right.

This should help everyone to get more clicks from their Adsense. Make sure you let me know if you run into problems anywhere. Be specific if you need to ask a question! If you only tell me that it didn’t work I probably won’t be able to help you out. I’m going to need to know at what point you ran into the problem and what the ’symptoms’ are!

I see affiliates from two perspectives.

Firstly as an affiliate, I see myself as a business partner to those merchants that I promote. I send them traffic, and if I make sales for them, I expect to be paid for my efforts in the form of a predefined percentage or lump sum.

As a merchant, I see my affiliates as partners and value the traffic they send me. My utmost priority is to make sure that any sales that are made are credited to the affiliate that sends me the traffic. This is essential if my affiliates are going to trust me and put effort into promoting my products. This is essential if I want my business to grow!

Most of my own products are related to internet marketing and webmaster tools. Because of the nature of these products, those visitors are likely to be knowledgeable of affiliate programs and probably Clickbank as well.

Imagine this scenario:

Joe goes to Google and searches for "webmaster tools". Something caught his attention over in the Pay Per Click ads, an affiliate link to a product that promises to make link exchanges easier.

"Hmmm" thought Joe. "That looks like a great tool".

Joe clicks on the PPC link and is redirected to a sales page. Scrolling to the bottom of the page, Joe sees that the product is $97.

"I want this", thought Joe, "but $97 is a bit steep".

Joe searches the webpage for that magic link, and he finds it easily.

"Great" says Joe out loud. "A link to a Clickbank affiliate program, and this program pays 50%".

After a few minutes, Joe has signed up for the affiliate program, created his own affiliate link, typed it into his browser, and revisits the sales page.

Joe's mouse clicks the buy link. He fills in his credit card details and clicks the purchase button. Closing his browser, he checks his e-mail. He watches as two e-mails are downloaded to his machine. The first is the download information for the new software he purchased, the second one is an e-mail with the Subject "Congratulations Joe, you have made a sale".

Joe checks his stats online for this new affiliate program and sure enough, he has made $48.50 commission on this purchase. In other words, he only paid $48.50 for the product.

OK, what is wrong with this scenario?

Is it fair that Joe used his own affiliate link to make a purchase?

What about the affiliate who advertised this affiliate program at Google? That affiliate paid for the click that started the sale process, yet did not get the commission.

What is going through the minds of merchants who place links to their affiliate programs on their sales page?

I would imagine that some merchants think about these points:

* I want to make $48.50 per sale minimum.

* If I offer it for $97 and give 50% commission to affiliates I will make my goal of $48.50 per sale.

* By adding an affiliate sign up link to the sales page, I can encourage people to sign up for my affiliate program, buy through their own link and get the software for the real price of $48.50, but the customer will be happy thinking they saved $48.50.

*Great plan!

I am sure that a lot of merchants don't see things this way - they just don't think hard enough about their affiliates.

A merchant that uses a link to his/her affiliate program on the sales page is using affiliate traffic as free traffic (whether they intend to or not). After all, the merchant does not need to spend time optimising pages or buying traffic - their affiliates will do that and send the traffic to the sales page for free. If an affiliate sends someone who becomes a customer, the merchant will make their money.

The big problem here is that being an affiliate is hard work. You do have to create content, buy and review products, possibly even pay for advertising. If YOU are doing these things as an affiliate, is your merchant doing their bit to protect your you? Unfortunately the majority of Clickbank merchants don't, and affiliates waste their time building pages and buying advertising to promote merchants who don't deserve it.

The bottom line
----------------

If you are promoting products aimed at webmasters, the traffic you send will likely know how to "steal" your commission. In this situation it is vital to only promote merchants without the affiliate sign up link.

If on the other hand you are promoting products to the general public, e.g. weight loss products, dog training eBooks etc, this affiliate sign up link poses less of a problem since most of the traffic you generate wont be affiliates themselves (most wont even know what an affiliate is) and wont have the necessary skills to sign up at Clickbank, create a link and purchase through their link just to get a commission.

What can you do?
----------------

If you find a merchant that you want to promote and they have an affiliate sign up link on the sales page, contact them. Tell them about your concerns and that they should treat you as a partner, not the source of free traffic. Suggest that they remove this affiliate sign up link.

The usual reaction I get
------------------------

Merchant: "I get a lot of affiliate sign ups from this link, there is no way I am removing it!"

Ask the merchant how many of those affiliates ever make a sale or ever send any traffic. This is exactly my point. The merchant is getting a lot of sign ups purely to get a discount. For every person who signs up as an affiliate to get a discount, there is one affiliate somewhere being robbed of his/her rightful commission.

Most of the "affiliates" you get via a sign up link on the sales page are only signing up to get a discount, they are unlikely to ever try to sell that product.

The only affiliates who will promote the product, are those that buy the software, use it and like it. They see the benefits and can sell it well to their visitors. These are the only affiliates worth getting, and you wont get them from an affiliate sign up link on the sales page.

The best way of getting hard working affiliates is to protect your affiliates from this type of link hijacking, gain their trust and do everything you can to help them out. Build a relationship with your affiliates and most of all, make sure they are rewarded for the traffic they send. To this end, remove that affiliate sign up link, and when someone buys your product, send them an e-mail outlining the benefits of your affiliate program. Active affiliates respond well to knowing their merchants are protecting their interests.

A final thought
---------------

If there are two similar products, similar price, similar commission, one sales page with an affiliate sign up link, one without, which would you prefer to promote? If you want to make money online with affiliate programs, take it seriously and start contacting merchants.

*****************************************************
Andy Williams is author of the free, ezSEO internet marketing newsletter, offering subscribers up-to-date information on all aspects of internet marketing.
*****************************************************

There will be a million and one affiliates out there who will tell you that the affiliate program they promote is going to be the best one for you.

But have you considered who is really making the money and who gains the most out of affiliate programs.

Let's take a step back and look at the AFFILIATE.

What exactly is the role of the affilate?

* The sole purpose of the affiliate is to PROMOTE the product and/or service

What are the benefits of being an affiliate?

* Get paid a minimal commission that is regulated by the owner of the product/service

In short, As an affiliate it is your responsibility to make someone else rich whilst doing all the hard work. You take on the expenses of advertising, you are the one who usually misses out on subscribers if you haven't first made them your client before they buy the product/service you are promoting.

And all this for what??? Maybe $20 per sale if you are really, really lucky.

You also need to remember that when you are an affiliate, YOU are not the only person promoting that very same product/service.

So what will make your offer any different to someone else who is promoting the exact same product, usually using the same sales technique, offering it at the same price.

To be in the top 5%, which is the amount of affiliates who make more than $100.00 per month, you need to first have a really good, clean, targeted subscribers list of more than 50,000 subscribers, know exactly how to gain targeted traffic, and have a huge advertising budget.

For the other 95%, the only way you are going to make alot of money from and affiliate program is to OWN YOUR OWN.

It really isn't as hard as you might think to set up.

So in conclusion, the best AFFILIATE PROGRAM, obviously is the one you OWN.

About the Author:

Gillian Tarawhiti, is Founder and CEO of Community Training Centre, an Internet Marketing firm providing Online Training and Support to the new and not so new netpreneurs. Gillian is also the author of eBay Billion Dollar Goldmine and the creator of the Multiple Ripple Effect System © 2004.

Permission is granted to reprint this article in print or on your web site so long as the paragraph above is included and contact information is provided to http://www.ezy-money.com

In the last few years, webmasters have discovered that affiliate marketing can be an extremely lucrative way to earn additional revenues from their sites. Now, a purely informational website that doesn't sell anything can generate massive revenues by adding recommendations to products and services via online affiliate programs.

Signing up for affiliate marketing programs can be a very effective way of paying for webhosting fees and bandwidth, domain names, and the time it takes to keep an informational site updated.

So what exactly is an affiliate marketing program? Affiliate programs are nothing more than partnerships with various business online. Partnering up with these businesses gives you the ability to offer additional resources to your visitors and is a valuable way to attract and retain your visitors because you are adding additional value.

Online affiliate programs have a track record of being very successful. They have been responsible for creating massive wealth over the last few years and have really become a popular addition to the webmaster community.

Joining an affiliate program requires you to apply and you can usually gain approval immediately. Many affiliate programs provide you with a host of banners and other tools that you can use to market their products and services and each tool is linked to your unique affiliate ID to ensure that you get credit for the sale.

If you're interested in becoming an affiliate marketer, there are many different programs and products that you can promote. From online poker rooms to diapers and everything in between, there is an opportunity for all. To get started, I would recommend that you check out Commission Junction, one of the leading affiliate marketing networks and one that will give you access to thousands and thousands of different products and services that you can begin to earn money from immediately.

Learn how to become a super poker affiliate by promoting the best poker affiliate programs at http://www.epokeraffiliate.com/.

1. Create an infopacked mini site. Build your mini site for a specific niche audience and then choose affiliate programs specifically for that niche audience.

2. Test and track your ads and promotions for your affiliate programs.

Tracking and testing your ads will show you exactly which ads, promotions and affiliate programs pay off the most for you and are excellent choices for you to continue to promote.

3. Publish an ezine.

Your ezine will give you a powerful way to promote your affiliate programs to your subscribers.

Choose affiliate programs that relate to the content of your ezine and that make it worth your while to promote them.

4. Promote your affiliate programs by recommending their products.

You could recommend your affiliate programs to your ezine subscribers in your publisher's note or you could create a recommended resources section where you promote your affiliate programs in every issue.

You could also recommend your affiliate programs to your visitors by creating a recommended affiliate programs section where you list your favorite affiliate programs along with descriptions of their products or services.

In addition, you could create a best affiliate programs section that helps you build up your second tier by listing the affiliate programs that have paid off the most for you.

5. Write product reviews where you detail the benefits you like about your affiliate program's product.

Make your product reviews honest and hype f~ree and post them on your site along with your other articles.

6. Write your own ads for your affiliate program.

A good way to create your ads is to look at the ad copy on the site of the business you want to promote and also ads they provide for their affiliates to use, and use their unique selling proposition or USP to write your ads.

Their unique selling proposition is a unique benefit that they promote in their ad copy that their competitors don't stress or offer to their visitors.

It could be that their product saves lots of time, is easy to understand, that their product is a complete answer to a problem, or it could involve their price.

Some businesses develop more than one USP so you'll be able to choose the one that you think works best in getting more targeted visitors to their site.

7. Try out the support of the companies you want to promote by asking questions.

This will help you to find out how long it takes them to respond to emails (if they respond to emails) and how professional they are.

8. Create freebies that promote your affiliate programs.

You could offer your visitors a f~ree email course, an ebook filled with your tips or articles or an ebook that provides your visitors with places to promote their businesses.

When creating freebies for an affiliate program that is 2 tier, increase your profits by letting your affiliates in your second tier use your freebies as a promotional item.

9. Create a directory.

Your directory could be an article, ezine, ebook or affiliate program directory.

List your own resources within your directory to increase your commissions. For example, you could add your own affiliate programs to your affiliate programs directory or your ebooks to your ebook directory.

Add a what's new section to your directory to garner more repeat traffic from your visitors.

You could also provide a tutorial on the subject of your directory, or add things to your directory that your visitors can use on a regular basis to get more repeat traffic.

10. Run ezine ads for your affiliate programs.

You could purchase sponsor, feature, classified or solo ads for your affiliate program.

Choose ezines with subscribers targeted to be interested in the products of the business you want to promote.

Run your ads for multiple issues in a row when possible to maximize the profit you get from your ads.

You can also run f~ree ads in ezines as many ezines offer
f~ree advertising on a weekly, monthly or per issue basis to
get more new subscriptions.

Running f~ree ads can help you find out which ads work best,
and which ezines are most responsive before you purchase
ezine advertising.

Article by writer, Ken Hill. Get more marketing tips by
joining Ken's Top Notch Marketing Ezine at:
http://www.netpromarketer.com/

"How To Create A Lifetime Income With Affiliate Programs By Changing Your Focus!"

An often overlooked strategy that could maximize your affiliate earnings

by Mark Meyers

Most people join an affiliate program so that they will make some money by referring people to the products and services of the affiliate company.

This is, in fact, a great way to earn a really nice income.

However, if you JUST focus on this you are missing out on a great residual income stream.

Many affiliate programs are based on a 2-tier commission structure. This means you will earn a percentage for each sale that you bring in and a percentage for each sale that an affiliate that you referred brings in.

For example, you could earn a residual (ie you are not doing the work to earn this) 5%+ from the sales that your sub-affiliates bring in. This can really add up when you have a large base of sub-affiliates.

So where do you find these people that will help build your nest egg?

Let them find you!

Using the search information from Overture: (http://inventory.overture.come) we find that thousands and thousands of people are looking for a way to work at home:

Searches done in July 2004: Work At Home

Count Search Term

313502 work at home
310780 work from home
28662 work at home job
16197 work at home opportunity
12538 work from home job
11149 work at home moms
11053 work at home business opportunity
10371 work at home business

Thousands and thousands more people are looking for a home-based business:

Searches done in July 2004: Home-based Business

Count Search Term

401436 home based business opportunity
362672 home based business
5514 home based business idea
4398 based business earn from home home home home income money work
4200 best home based business
4079 internet home based business
3495 home internet based business opportunity
2999 based business home legite

There are even thousands of people are looking for an affiliate program to join:

Searches done in July 2004: Affiliate Program

Count Search Term

152632 affiliate program
5941 free affiliate program
3999 best affiliate program
3200 online affiliate program
2168 casino affiliate program
2120 affiliate marketing program
2046 web affiliate program
2013 web master affiliate program

Your affiliate opportunity could provide the answer that these people are looking for and this will build a long-lasting money-making business for you too! Sounds like a win-win deal to me.

If you would like to know which affiliate programs I recommend, please visit my website:
Internet-Income-Advisor.com

Have a great day!
Mark Meyers
Internet-Income-Advisor.com

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In "The Internet Income Advisor" newsletter I cut-to-the-chase and give you ideas and opportunities for earning a nice income online. Why not grab a free copy of my new book: Reliable Monthy Income http://www.Internet-Income-Advisor.com/Reliable-Monthly-Income.html-ACF-EA

Affiliate marketing is one tough business. Everyone online today is looking to make or save money in any way they can.

In the good old days when internet marketing was in its infancy, most of the people who clicked on your affiliate links used to purchase without a second thought... but, now as times are getting tougher, and visitors getting more cynical, you'll be amazed at the number who won't!

Just one flaw in a system and you will find dozens of unscrupulous people waiting to exploit it. Same goes for affiliate commission tracker systems. People who know how to manipulate the system will replace your affiliate ID with theirs and "hijack" your commissions.

Most affiliate links are some form or the other of http://www.thesite.com/?YOURID

Where your affiliate id is passed as a parameter. A thief has to simply change the "YOURID" part to "HISID" to put your money in his pocket.

In other cases, there are visitors to your site who simply can't stand the thought of you "making money off them" so they bypass you by simply chopping off the end of your affiliate link that contains your ID.

Instead of buying from http://www.thesite.com/?YOURID -- the bypasser will simply "chop off" the affiliate ID at the end and simply buy from the plain URL http://www.thesite.com/ --without your affiliate ID attached!

Bam! you just got cheated out of your rightful commission.

Studies have shown that this phenomenon causes about 30% lost sales.

By following some of these simple tips you will be able to, if not all, at least confuse most hijackers and, in many cases, often disarm them completely.

You might notice i said most and not all. This is because if the hijacker is well versed at html and javascipt he will be able to eventually get to your affiliate link. However, most hijackers are just opportunists who will only act if they see an easy buck and its this segment that we can beat

The simplest way to hide your affiliate links is using a javascript redirect page.

This is where you hide your affiliate link in a page on your site using a simple javascript that redirects people to your affiliate link.

This way your "naked" affiliate link is not exposed in your actual email messages and ezine ads, but, once people get redirected to the true affiliate link.

One possible drawback of this method is that some affiliate programs, like clickbank for example, expose the affiliate link along with your ID in the browser address bar.

So if the viewer is eagle-eyed he will notice that hes been redirected through and affiliate link.

A safer method to hide your affiliate links is using a zero-frame or "invisible" frame that masks the affiliate link by making it appear you are sending people to a page on your website. In reality, you are actually sending them to your affiliate link.

This technique is also used by many domain redirection service sites.

Unfortunately is the user views the source of the page. He know whats that youve loaded an affiliate link.

The solution is to use javascript encryption to scramble up the page code.

Even though there isn't a 100% perfect solution to this problem, if you want to get paid more often through your affiliate links, make sure it's not obvious you're referring people to an affiliate link.

If they can't see that its a affiliate link, lower the possibility of you getting stiffed of your commission.

If you are looking for a tool that lets you do all this plus earn affiliate commissions even from those folk who dont click your affiliate link then do check out Covert Affiliate

Satyajeet Hattangadi is the Owner of Novasoft Inc, a software solutions provider, who specialize in affordable customized software solutions.

QUESTION: I am considering starting an ebusiness using affiliate programs, but there is so much hype out there I can't figure out which programs would work best for me. Everybody claims their program is best. I'd really appreciate some guidance here.

ANSWER: Great question, Todd. Affiliate programs can be an excellent way to start an ebusiness. Before we dive into the specifics, let me explain how an affiliate program works.

An affiliate program simply means that you sign on as an affiliate marketer for someone else's product. It's your job to market the product, send the company customers, and get a cut each time a sale is made from your efforts. Affiliate program commissions can range from as little as 2% for high ticket items up to 50% for ebooks and informational type products.

As an example, let's say you sign up with Amazon.com's affiliate program. You are assigned an affiliate code which you use to promote Amazon's books on your website. When someone clicks to purchase an Amazon product from your website, your affiliate code is included in the URL and you get a commission for the sale. Some folks have built elaborate websites that sell nothing but Amazon.com's books, and each time they make a sale they get a piece of the pie.

One of the most appealing aspects of affiliate programs is how quickly you can begin making money. You can literally sign up as an affiliate and begin making money in minutes. I've done it, I know it works.

Admittedly, I am not an affiliate program expert, so I sought out the person that many call the Ultimate Affiliate Program Authority, Rosalind Gardner.

Rosalind Gardner began making money with affiliate programs in 1997. She has since grown her affiliate business into a $400,000 a year business and is now considered the authority on the subject. Her book 'The Super Affiliate Handbook: How to Make a Fortune Selling Other People's Stuff Online' has been out since March and is already considered by many to be the affiliate marketers bible.

I ordered Rosalind Gardner's book as research for this article and I have to tell you I found it to be one of the best books on the subject I have ever read. It's a hype-free approach to what affiliate marketing is really all about and how to make it work. The book is 270 pages and leaves no stone unturned. For anyone serious about making money with affiliate programs, I highly recommend this book.

The bottom line, Todd, is this: you can make a lot of money with affiliate programs, if you pick the right product and do your part to promote it. As for which programs would be best for you, I advise that you concentrate your efforts on one or two products instead of starting with a shotgun approach. Pick only top quality products that hold some personal interest you. Never pick an affiliate product just because you think you'll make a ton of money with it.

Remember, you are starting a business. If it's not a business that holds your interest, you won't be in business very long.

Small Business Q&A is written by veteran entrepreneur and syndicated columnist, Tim Knox. Tim's latest books include "Small Business Success Secrets" and "The 30 Day Blueprint For Success!" Related Links: http://www.smallbusinessqa.com http://www.dropshipwholesale.net

In today’s increasingly expensive society, a need for a second income arises more and more each day. The problem with this is that no one has the time to get a second job, so we often Google various methods of making money online. Unfortunately, with all of the money making schemes online today, it’s hard to really trust that one method really works. I, myself, went through this same problem. Spending money on e-books that tell you all these “easy” ways to make money can empty your pockets rather than fill them. Especially because most of these schemes require you to have some sort of expertise of the internet. Now because of this, these schemes may seem like scams, but you have to look at them from a different way. I was fortunate enough to realize that is a plethora of resources available and it’s very possible to make money using MySpace as your gateway.

Since MySpace is the internet’s largest online community, this is the easiest way to advertise or reach millions of people with just a push of a button. This is the bread and butter to making money online. All you need is traffic to wherever you want people to go. Whether it’s selling something, or just PPC (pay per click) advertising, traffic will generate turnover and put money in your pocket. I know from experience that the way to make money on MySpace is easier than you think.

First, you need a way to generate revenue. You can start by joining an affiliate program network. Affiliates programs are when you will advertise a product for a specific seller. Every person that is forwarded to the seller’s website through YOUR advertising, you will make a percentage of the profit, it’s that simple. They seller will provide you specifically coded links that you can post anywhere on the internet, and these links will refer back to your program every time someone uses them. You can also start a blog. On your blog you can have PPC ads which generate revenue for you. After a while, it’s money straight into your pocket. But first you need to get people to click your links and visit your site. This is where MySpace comes in.

With MySpace, you can use bulletins, messages, or comments to post these links, but you have to do so carefully and discretely. You don’t want it to look like spam. You also have to build a large friend list with MySpace. With a large friend list, you can reach all of your friends with the push of a button. The method that I use is with a friend adding program like The Official MySpace Friend Adder. With a program like this, you can add 500 friends per day, and reach out to millions automatically. This program alone has generated hundreds of thousands of referrals to my affiliate programs. All I do now is create a cool looking bulletin with my affiliate link embedded within it, and send it out automatically. Just today I reached over 14,000 people without having to do anything. The great part of this is that I’ve had a great amount of turnover from these people. But you have to make the bulletin’s look interesting. You can do the same thing through commenting. Wirh a good friend adding program like The Official Friend Adder, you can send comments to everyone at the same time. With this you can even post your links on someone’s page and allow people that aren’t on your friend list to click on them.

Making money with MySpace is such an easy way to generate a second income. Just follow the steps I provided, get yourself a friend adding program, and you will be making money in no time.

PaulG is an expert on internet social groups, especially MySpace. Add up to 500 MySpace friends per day, leave tons of comments and messages, and gain traffic to your MySpace profile by checking out The Official MySpace Friend Adder. Try it out for free!

As of today, Google’s latest PageRank update is still going on. It will take at least a few more days for this process to complete, and until then some of you won’t be able to see your PR in the Google toolbar. You can, however, see what your new PR will probably be by checking the Future PageRank tool.

Some of you probably got a little boost; if you read my last post you know that I probably went from a PR0 to a PR3. I consider this a major accomplishment since the site has been up for less than 3 months.

The Next Google PageRank Update

There is no way to predict exactly when the next PR update will be, but we can get a general idea by looking at when the last PR updates were:

• April 27, 2007 - There is no doubt that there is one going on right now.
• January 25, 2007
• January 10, 2007
• September 28, 2006
• July 13, 2006
• April 4, 2006
• February 18, 2006
• December 19, 2005
• October 19, 2005
• July 14, 2005

There have been 10 updates in the last 27 months, meaning that PageRank has updated every 2.7 months over that period of time. As you can see, there has been more distance between the more recent updates, which is why I’m predicting that it will take 3.5 months for the next update. Court’s predicted PR update: August 13, 2007

Going From PR Zero to PR Hero

In order for you to increase your PageRank between now and then you have to start yesterday! The next month will be enormously vital, because links that are added within a few weeks of the next PR update will likely not count for you. If the update does happen in August, you will likely only get credit for links added between now and the middle of July. What if the next update happens in July? You will only get credit for links added between now and the middle of June.

Where Should I Start?

I would start with the easiest way to get links that I know of: Using the D-List. I have been compiling a list of blogs that have the “Do Follow” plugin installed. This means that by simply leaving a comment on these blogs, you will get a link that will count with Google. In order to get a link from your comment, be sure to leave your URL in the box labeled URL or URI.

The latest version of my D-List has over 140 blogs, which equals 140 links if you go through the entire list. Please leave valuable comments. These bloggers have installed the “Do Follow” plugin as a courtesy to you! Make sure that you leave well-constructed comments that will add to the value of their sites. That way it’s a win-win.

I would go through the list more than once! Most of the sites on my D-List are really cool sites, and you should check them out from time to time. Make sure you comment each time you visit!

Commenting on each of these blogs should secure you a PR of at least 1 (probably 2)for the next update.

Where Do I Go From There?

I would also start adding your site/blog to free web directories. Start with the list of directories at AddURL.nu. There are 986 directories there that you can submit to. Every single one of them is free. Some of the directories offer a paid submission, and tell you that you will get listed more quickly if you pay. Don’t pay! Do the free submissions.

You won’t get into every single directory, but if you got into half (which you probably will) you would find yourself with a PR of at least 3 for the next update. (assuming you comment on each of the blogs on the D-List as well) Some of these directories have PR5 and PR6, so links from them will really increase your PR.

I haven’t submitted to any of these directories and I’m already at a PR3, so I am hoping that I can get to PR5 before the next update by submitting to them.

What’s The Next Step?

If you get that far, you will deserve to be a PageRank Hero. Now you need to turn to this list, “102 Ways To Make Your Site A Back-Link Superstar.” I created this list to teach my readers how to get back-links. By using the techniques on the list, you should be able to go from PR Zero to PR Hero.

Have You Set Your PR Goal For The Next Update?

My new goal for PageRank is 5. I should be able to get there as long as we get a full 3 months before the next update. Have you made a goal? If you haven’t you probably won’t get any better! Here are some goals that should be reasonable and are based on your current PageRank:

• PR0 - If you’re starting at 0, you can easily get to PR2 and can probably get to at least PR3.
• PR1 - If you’re starting at PR1, PR2 should be a breeze. PR3 is likely with some hard work. PR4 is very possible, depending on how much time you’re willing to spend working on it.
• PR2 - You guys should easily get to PR3. PR4 is likely with some hard work.
• PR3 - PR4 is likely with some hard work. PR5 is possible as long as you’re really willing to commit.
• PR4 - PR5 is possible for the brave. PR6 is possible, although not likely. If you’re going to make a goal of PR6, you better be willing to bring it like gangbusters.
• PR5 - PR6 is a big jump but is definitely possible. Get to work right now.
• PR6 - PR7 can be reached with enough work and determination. Use the traffic you have now to create more links. Watch guys like John Chow (a masterful linkbaiter) closely, he will probably get to PR7.
• PR7 - If you’re at PR7 you are probably already really good at this and don’t need to read this article. Still you can get to PR8 by creating some awesome linkbait and by using some viral tools.
• PR8+ - Please send me an email letting me know how you did it.

When Should I Start My New PageRank Campaign?

You should have started yesterday! If you haven’t started, get after it right now. I can’t stress enough how important the next month will be. I want every single one of you to become PageRank heroes.