For this, I thought CartFlows would be one of the best ways to make that experience both unique and profitable. I've heard Adam Preiser talk about it a lot and I think this is a good use for it, time will tell.

I'm not reviewing CartFlows now. But I've heard some people say that CartFlows is "just as good or better" than ClickFunnels. I've heard one or two variations of that phrase before and always makes me raise an eyebrow in slight disbelief.

I might get into all the features and review the product later, but so far, so good. CartFlows is different in many ways, but the most important differentiator about it as compared to ClickFunnels is that it is built for WordPress. Clickfunnels is a software as a service offering (SAAS), while CartFlows is a self-hosted software package.

As with everything built on WordPress, it comes with benefits and trade-offs. I will look into these as I progress through the project.

So many questions! I'm going to list the questions I have so far right here and maybe if this turns out to be awesome, I'll do a series of posts with tutorials or q&a. So here are some questions and notes.

• Can we use the Woocommerce standard check-out WITH the cartflows offers?
• Should we disable woocommerce checkout and use cartflows checkouts exclusively?
• If we use only CartFlows will the "shopping cart" be missed by customers?
• Can we tie multiple "flows" to each other and sort-of-daisy-chain them?
• The integration with Elementor is ok, but I was hoping for a bit more.
• It seems "heavy" maybe this is just me right now, bogged down with building, testing, designing, etc.
• How well does it integrate with its cousin, cart abandonment plugin.

The post My First Taste with CartFlows. A Clickfunnels Alternative. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

We have done four episodes and we are settling into a schedule. As of right now, we have scheduled Tuesday nights and you can join our group to get the episodes live.

We're also working on getting our Youtube channel up as well as developing our Facebook page.

Our first episode kicked off and we talked about AHA! moments in online entrepreneurship and affiliate marketing. The whole thing was a play on words with the content and the title. AHA Talks stands for After Hours Affiliate Talks, but episode 1 was literally about those "aha! moments" that we have as entrepreneurs and affiliate marketers.

Join our Facebook group here to catch the live shows, replays, and ask questions and learn more about affiliate marketing.
https://notagrouch.com/night/

The post AHA Moments Announcement appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Rather than giving you a step-by-step guide or a how-to video, this one covers one of the ways many people will tell you to use for monetization, yet I disagree with.

Before you get started, you should at least know how you can start a blog for profit. That's what I talk about in this video, or rather what NOT to do to monetize your blog.

The most popular ways to make money with a blog are related to advertising.

But there are other ways as well, this is a short video, under 5 minutes that covers some gotchas and advice that will help you before you start a blog and should help you define your goals and do some planning in advance.

As a side note, obviously one of the things you need for a blog is web hosting.

Too Long; Didn't Watch?

If you didn't want to watch the short video, or you wanted more depth, then I'll give you a short summary and some tips next.

Advertising is the easiest way to monetize your blog. You can easily place contextual ads from Google, or Bing, or even other networks, but it may not be the most profitable.

Instead, I suggest you monetize your blog with other methods and with specific steps.

Here Are the Basic Steps to Start a Blog for Profit

Step 1

Obviously, first thing is to get web hosting and start your blog. This should take less than two hours. Use the link I gave you above then follow the instructions to use the one-click installation service for WordPress and you'll be up and running in no time.

If you need help, make sure you use my link and I will setup your blog for you. It just takes about a day. Purchase your web hosting here, send me an email and give me your information. In return, I'll install the blog for you with everything you need to get started.

Step 2

Once you have your blog installed, get an email list so you can begin a relationship with your readers. You will ask for their email address on your blog in exchange for exclusive information or an insider's view of your blog or content. You can use Aweber to accomplish this, they have a free month trial that will be enough to get started.

Once your Aweber list is set up and ready to go, connect it to your blog. You can use the Aweber code and the HTML widget in WordPress, or use a more sophisticated plugin like Optinmonster.

Step 3

Start producing good content. Whatever topic you decided to write about, get to work. Start writing blog posts. Write the best content you can at this time, write fast, publish fast.

You will get better with time, and you can always go back to fix any mistakes you make, but put your best effort forward now.

The key here is to hit the publish button. Write five to 15 blog posts before you tell anyone about your blog. Try to write daily. Then you can start monetizing it.

Step 4

Once you decide how to monetize it (I'll give you a few options next), start promoting your blog everywhere you can. The goal is to get people to read your blog and sign up for your email list.

You will monetize your blog posts directly, but having the ability to email your readers each time you post a new blog post is what's going to make you great money.

As the not so old adage goes, the money is in the list!

Here are the basic ways to monetize your blog

Advertising

Obviously, advertising is the easiest, but as I mentioned above and in the video, it may not be the most profitable. In fact, you may not make any money for a long time. You could get lucky but ads most likely will take a while to yield results.

You could advertise affiliate products or your own products which I will cover next. To do that, use a WordPress plugin like Adsanity or OIO Publisher.

Affiliate Marketing

This is my favorite way to monetize my blog and social media. Affiliate marketing works very simply.

You find a product or service that offers an affiliate program. There are thousands and thousands. Some of the best-known brands offer an affiliate program.

You sign up for the affiliate program, obtain your personalized links and use them in your content. In case it wasn't obvious, the program should be a good match for your content and ideally, it should be a product or service you love or use.

It doesn't have to be, but it will inspire more trust with your readers if you are not only promoting the product, but also using it.

A tip here is this: find the product you use, or love, or the best match for your type of content. Then go to google and type in the product name then add this to your search +"affiliate program."

You can also search directly on the brand's website to see if they have an affiliate program, but often they won't advertise it there which is why I recommend you do a search specifically for affiliate program.

You can also search for "partner program" or "referral program" or "rewards program" because some companies refer to their affiliate program with their own name.

Create your Own Product

This can be extremely profitable, but it can also be the toughest. I don't recommend it for beginners because product development takes a lot of energy, forethought, and planning.

Don't let me discourage you from starting your own product, but be aware that it's a bit tougher than it looks and certainly a lot harder than many marketers will tell you. With that disclaimer in place, be aware that you can make all kinds of products.

You could make an information product, like a course on a topic you are an expert. Think about how many courses are available in Udemy, Lynda, and other platforms.

Physical products could also be great for your blog. You could find a manufacturer and distributor and start making a product that you sell on your blog.

Or you could white-label a product, meaning you find a product that you can label as your own and market any way you want. Rumor has it that Kylie Jenner started her billion dollar empire this way.

The blog will serve as its own advertising and PR machine, and a plugin like Woocommerce can do the e-commerce part effortlessly.

Write a Book

This is just a slight variation of the previous method of "creating your own product" but a little more specific. As I mentioned, an information product is a viable option. It's relatively easy to write a short book and sell it, you can sell it in all kinds of marketplaces.

Amazon has a great program for people that want to self-publish. You could self-publish your book and sell it on Amazon anywhere from $0.99 up to $30.00 or more. Obviously, you will have to test out the pricing and build up a marketing strategy, but a big part of that can be done on the blog.

Once you write your first book, you can write another one and keep going. Amazon and your blog will continue to promote the book so you can focus on new products or other books. This could make a nice recurring income stream.

Here are some books that can help you with that:

• Publish Your Book on Amazon for Free: How to Self-Publish Without Paying a Dime (link)
• How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should (Third Edition) (link)
• Self Publish to a World of Readers: with Amazon, Apple, Google and Other Major Retailers (link)

Native content

This one can be a little tricky but it can also be highly profitable. First, a really quick overview of what native content is.

Native content refers to content that fits the topic, writing style but also promotes a product. Think about those advertorials you see in magazines. They're usually 2 or 4 pages long and they look like articles, but if you look closely, you'll see the word "advertisement" somewhere in the article.

The way you make money with this method is by generating traffic to your blog using your email list and social media, and then by making deals with brands. The deals will usually include what's called a "sponsored post" or an "influencer post."

Brands pay anywhere from $50 up to tens of thousands for a well-written article or blog promotion campaign. It will take time to raise your prices and to have the ability to make deals with brands, but you can do it if you focus on quality content that is niche.

Other Methods

There are tons of other methods you can use, so this blog post isn't comprehensive but you can start with any of these methods and grow more sophisticated over time.  I wanted to tell you of four more ways you can make money with your blog, but I'll cover those in separate blog posts because they require some complex modifications to the standard blog. These include:

•  directory blogs where you gather information about a niche group of websites, businesses or people.
•  user-generated content blogs where your audience creates content for you.
• e-commerce where you sell a number of products with a proper shopping cart.
• membership-based blogs where you offer content to paying members.

In Conclusion

Starting a blog for profit is a great way to make money online. To start a blog is simple, but to make money with it requires a little more effort. The main obstacle is being consistent and dedicated to it.

If you can overcome that, then you'll do fine.

You'll need to decide your main strategy for monetizing your blog, but all blogs need an email list. Then you can use advertising, affiliate marketing or even your own products to start making money.

The post How to Start a Blog for Profit. Avoid This Method. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I've talked about Shareasale before, I told you about Refersion and they even interviewed me a couple times. I promote Peerfly even though I don't really make money from their products.

But I wanted to highlight another network that is starting to pop up in my radar more and more frequently.

That is GrowSumo.

I'm seeing a few of big names and new names using the GrowSumo affiliate system. Seems that they're making themselves a name in the affiliate space.

Maybe I missed the boat, but I just recently found out about them.

I think you should check it out and see if they have any vendors that might fit your niche.

They have a lot of companies and I'm sure they're adding more every month. Right now, the majority of the available merchants seem to be software based.

I'm partners with Evernote, Streak CRM, and recently a couple of new companies I'm learning more about. I'm trying to get some demos from these new companies so I can show you what they're all about.

I made a video about Streak a couple years ago, and it still gets traction so I thought it would be time to revisit that.

But back to GrowSumo.

They have a centralized dashboard to show you all the activity going on with your partnerships. And they are really staying in touch with me as an affiliate. I have been on the dashboard a few times and their chat bots keep popping up.

Speaking of, you should hear the interview I did with Heather Havenwood about chatbots, it's right here.

GrowSumo seems to make it really easy for the affiliate manager to send a quick message to their affiliates. That's pretty standard but I think GrowSumo does it the best right now.

Although the new UI for Shareasale is pretty slick too... I'll talk more about that later, in another blog post.

GrowSumo really takes out the problem where affiliates sign up and they forget about your product. I admit it, I've done it.

It goes a little bit like this: Your program caught my eye, your product seems good, it fits my audience so I sign up and then forget all about your program.

Growsumo has kept me coming back for more and just today was the latest little trick to keep me coming back. I've only started promoting a couple products from their marketplace, but I have one sale and a few installs.

But another notable thing is that GrowSumo just kicked over $5.00 just for getting clicks!

I looked at the dashboard and there are other tiers that will get you more bonuses. But that's refreshing.

Not only do I get commissions and stay in touch with my affiliate managers, but GrowSumo is encouraging us so that we promote the programs.

You can check out their marketplace right here.

I know that $5.00 is just whatever, it's $5.00. It's even gimmicky, but when did an affiliate network pay you to promote their vendors' links. And just to get some clicks. Not even sales yet! (well, just the one).

It's almost like getting paid just for clicks. I suspect this will be temporary as they ramp up their user base, so take advantage of it now while it lasts.

Check it out when you get a moment at GrowSumo.

The post GrowSumo Gave me Five Bucks Just Because appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Eventually, she wants to quit her job.

She heard about affiliate marketing and decided that it sounded like just the right opportunity for her. She found that she could work a few hours each day and by all accounts, she could make really good money.

So she did some research on Google, and on Youtube and started learning about making money from home using affiliate marketing methods.

Everything was going great until she realized that several weeks had gone by. She came to the realization as many beginners do, that all the different gurus and tutorial videos she found were pulling her in all different directions.

So she asked:

I'm overwhelmed with all this, what should I do? What should I do next to start my business and grow it?

The answer to that is simple and many people will overcomplicate it. It's a very short bullet list to work on to get results. I've narrowed down the answer to three simple steps.

If you feel like Susie, overwhelmed, a little bit lost and just kind of searching for direction on what to do next, then this is for you.

Assuming you have a product to promote...

Assuming you already picked a product or offer you want to promote, then the next few steps are your immediate tasks.

If you don't have a product to promote or an offer that you'd like to then let me know what your interests are, or what you are good at in the comments and I'll give you a few tips.

Finding out the right niche for people is one of my superpowers. But let's get on with the three tips:

I also created a video if you want to check that out:

Step 1: Create a landing page for your offer.

Keep it simple and without fluff. To start, I recommend you take the assets provided to you by the offer manager and use them. Use similar copy, similar colors and make it easy to understand.

The landing page must contain the benefits of the product, enough information about it for the viewer to become interested, and a call to action.

For your first landing page, I suggest that you ask the visitor to join an email list as the call to action. Using the email list, you will provide the reader with more information and an opportunity to buy the product.

Step 2: Create at least three emails to be sent automatically

Use your autoresponder to send at least three emails to those that subscribe via your landing page.

Each email should be captivating and engaging and ask the reader to take action. Ideally, the action is to visit the official offer page (using your affiliate link) and then let that page close the sale for you.

After you have the three emails in place, test them with a test email account of yours to make sure it's working and all your links are clickable as they should.

Set your autoresponder to send out one email each day. First, a welcome message to introduce yourself; include a short story explaining the most compelling benefits of the product.

Then the other messages should help develop and establish you as an authority and trustworthy source of information about the product, its benefits and the problems it will help solve. Think about including engaging stories, customer testimonials, use cases, case studies and similar information that will help convince the reader to buy the product.

If you need specific direction with this, look in your affiliate dashboard or contact your affiliate manager for some guidance. It is my experience that the affiliate managers will be really helpful with this.

Step 3: Send people to visit the landing page. 

This could be challenging if you're not familiar with traffic generation techniques. But you can do it if you set some time aside and focus.

Your goal is to put the landing page in front of as many people as possible. You can do this with free advertising, or with paid advertising.

I'm a big proponent of paid traffic for online businesses because it is highly targeted, easy to quantify, and generally provides better results than free traffic.

However, paying for traffic can be an overwhelming task on its own.

I suggest you try getting a little bit of free traffic first, just to double-check your landing page, your emails and to get you into the flow of things. Get free traffic for a few days, maybe up to a couple weeks.

There will be a few changes you want to make as you run these small tests. Maybe you made a typo, maybe you forgot an image, maybe you want to change the color of the background on your landing page.

With free traffic, you can easily work through those minor mistakes and other than your time, you really haven't lost much.

I would run that test for about a week, maximum 2 weeks. No more than this. After your landing page has been tested, and your emails are delivering properly, then buy some traffic.

That's it. This is a cycle and so long as you keep bringing the offer to people then some of those people will join your email list, and some will buy.

Later on, you can work on getting better, more targeted traffic, optimizing your sales copy on your landing page, improving your open and click rates from your emails and even going back to some of that sweet, sweet free traffic.

But first, revenue!

You can even develop a strategy to generate sales without spending a lot on paid traffic, but if you want to get started, and generate results quickly these are the three steps you must take.

Additional notes

Where to get traffic? You can buy traffic from Facebook, Twitter, Bing, Google, Instagram, Pinterest, and many other places. Set a budget aside to do this every week, and check your stats every day so you can make adjustments.

Make sure you keep adding new emails to your autoresponder series, and when you have ten or twenty, you should then send an email manually every day to your list.

For your landing page, I recommend that you use Leadpages or Clickfunnels, both of those links will give you a free trial to start. But if you're cheap or budget conscious, then you can use Aweber or even your WordPress website.

If you use WordPress, just make sure you use one of the page templates for your theme which remove the sidebars and footers so the reader doesn't get distracted by those. You could also use something like OptimizePress.

Conclusion

Don't let the firehose of advice on Google, Youtube or emails from gurus overwhelm you. When starting out, there are only three things you have to do to generate revenue and start growing your business.

Later on, you can learn more, you can adjust things, you can add more ingredients to the mix but if your business isn't generating revenue quickly, you'll be discouraged and possibly go broke. Complete the three tasks outlined above to start getting results as soon as possible.

These are basic cornerstone strategies to start generating revenue for your online business.

Before you get caught up on my own simple advice and start overcomplicating it, make sure that you do all this quickly. Remember that you don't need to know everything and how everything works.

I have made the big mistake of studying and learning one thing relentlessly until I became an expert at it. I studied it and reviewed it and asked questions to satisfy my fearful curiosity.

This is a mistake if you want to be an entrepreneur and it's understandable. It comes from a place of fear, fear of failure, and fear of making a mistake. I talked about failing recently, you can see that here.

You will make mistakes, and you will fail, but the important part is to fail as you're trying to do something and not just learning about it. Get started now.

The post What Should I Do Next to Start Making Money Online As An Affiliate appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

It’s essential that you get your business prepared for 2018 by learning the strategies that are going to take place. This will help you to stand out from the rest of your competition and get a great start when it comes to sales and promotion throughout the year. If you start the year great, you’ve got the best chance ending the year great.

Here to give you a head start in the digital marketing game, here are eight key advertising trends that are going to shape our every move in the upcoming year.

Continuous Ad-Blocking

Back in 2017, the number of users who installed ad-blockers on their mobile devices nearly doubled with an increase of 90%. As of December 2016, over 236 million internet users had one of the most popular ad blockers installed on their computer browsers. This has been continuing year or year and looks set for 2018 to be the biggest yet. This means it’s vital that you don’t just rely on ad-marketing by rather use a balance of techniques.

Instead of just using paid advertisements on publisher websites, in 2018, you’re going to need to start thinking outside the box. Try to think of new, industry-relevant ways that you can get your message and brand in front of your customers.

Of course, the main way to do this will through content marketing, but more on that later. However, there are ways that you can get around ad blockers. One of the most popular ad blockers, known as Ad Blocker Plus, is free for users and allows them to navigate the web, speeding up their browser experience and hiding those pesky ads.

However, Ad Blocker Plus doesn’t block every single ad. It does, in fact, operate what is known as an ‘acceptable ad policy. Ads can be whitelisted to this service and places are accepted on the basis of the size, distinction and placement of the ad itself. If it’s not the in the way of the user’s experience, you can still get your ads shown.

Bear this in mind when spending your budget on paid advertising campaigns. Here’s the link for how to get your ads whitelisted.

However, there will be some restrictions, and obviously, not all ads will be able to be shown at all times. This means that the ads you do use need to be clever and of the high-quality, such as the ones you can manage and create using Adobe Experience or AdRoll.

Bigger and Better Than Ever

As we all know, Google and Facebook have been the dominating force in the ad industry over the last few years. However, with all the implementations and features that the tech-giants are adding over this year and next year, the race is on to be bigger and better than ever before!

You’ll also want to consider other marketing giants that are taking the world by storm. In particular, you’ll want to draw your focus to Instagram and Snapchat. Although somewhat similar and each platform being each other’s rivals, both are extremely popular and if you haven’t already got an account on either platform, you need to do so now!

“Of course, this means you’re going to need to adapt and add to your existing content marketing strategy which takes time and budget, but the return and interaction you’ll get back from your customers are unparalleled” – explains Maria Williams, a Content Marketer at Write my essay company.

Stricter SEO Guidelines

SEO has changed in recent years from being based on the keywords that user’s use when trying to search for something to websites and businesses having to give their users the best experience possible. This means all businesses will have to up their game in 2018, giving users the most fluid and best possible experience.

With this in mind, as the year starts to draw to a close, you’ll need to start considering how you can improve your user experience. Your website needs to be extremely easy to navigate and well laid-out. One of the most important factors you’ll need to consider is the overall speed of your website.

You’ll lose about 30% of your users if your website takes over two-seconds to load and you’ll be ranked lower in the Google search bar. Bear this in mind when it comes to uploading high-quality images and data-heavy pages.

You’ll also want to consider whether or not your website works well on mobile devices and there are no dead links!

High-Quality Content

Content marketing is still taking off bigger and better than it has ever been before. However, instead of spammy articles, users are looking for really high-quality and valuable posts that can change their lives. This means businesses and marketers will have to proofread and edit their content (for example, by using Big Assignments or State of Writing online editing tool) to absolutely perfect or risk their hard-earned follower counts.

As mentioned in the first point, content marketing is, and has proven to be, the way forward, and it’s essential that you strive for absolute perfection. This means instead of spending your time creating 20 or so average articles to put out, instead focusing on putting 3 or 4 amazing articles that provide real information and value to your reader.

For advice and guidance on creating this kind of high-quality, engagement-creating content pieces, you can check out online writing resources such as Coursework service and Australian Help, two sites that are home to professional writers that have been keeping up with these trends.

Programmatic Advertising Boom

This industry and technique have been building up momentum all year, and it’s predicted that programmatic advertising is really going to come to the forefront of marketing early next year.

This means you’ll be able to bid for advertising space, all while receiving valuable information on your users that can help you define and target your audience much more effectively.

If you haven’t got started with programmatic advertising, now is the time to do so. You can start using online services, such as the Rubicon Project or Google’s own DoubleClick program.

Valuable Information

We’ve seen this consideration increasingly becoming important throughout 2017, but the value of your copywriting online will be one of the things that define you as a business.

Whether it’s your content marketing campaign, your website copy, your product descriptions, your contact page or the content of your email marketing strategy, you must consider the quality of your work.

This is because, as mentioned above, users are looking for the best experience possible and Google is looking out for high-quality pieces, website and content to put at the top of their search engine results page.

This means you’ll need to invest a serious amount of time and money into your content, rather than sitting down trying to cram as many keywords into an article as possible.

If, as you’re trying to run a business, you don’t have time to write the content for your website, your articles, blog posts etc. don’t risk uploading poor-quality content. 2017/2018 has also brought around a wealth of writing services, such as Custom essay or Academadvisor, who can create the high-quality content on your behalf.

It’s All About Video Media

This has been a reoccurring theme for many years but, what is known as outstream videos, are becoming more and more popular every single day and 2018 is going to be huge for them. It’s predicted it could even be as much as 77%!

An outstream video is a video that’s played on a computer or mobile device and means that advertisers can play videos outside the players, such as following a user as they scroll. This makes for a better ad experience for the user while still giving you the opportunity to advertise your business.

Hand in hand with the consideration on social media, you need to make sure that you’re taking full advantage of the features that are available to you.

Going back to Instagram and Snapchat, both are extremely heavy when it comes to visuals and, if you think creatively, you’ll be able to create your own niche and community of followers based on the content that you implement.

This means using the ‘story mode’ on Instagram and especially using live videos. It’s worth noting that only 29% of businesses have considered using the Live Video feature on Instagram, but it’s predicted that this will skyrocket over the coming year. Make sure your business is ahead of the game.

Chatbots are Taking Over!

Okay, so they’re not taking over, but 2017 saw a huge increase in chatbots, especially for companies. In fact, there’s over 100,000 of them already, and this number will only increase in 2018. Predominantly, on websites such as Facebook, although 2017 was a year of ups and down as the service didn’t quite take off as expected.

However, 2018 will be a lot different and chatbots are expected to be a huge driving force when it comes customer experience and interaction with a business. Once again, this all about building up this customer experience and making it as perfect as possible. Not everybody who has a question for a business has the ability or time to phone, nor wants to. Sometimes, international borders mean a phone call simply isn’t feasible, but they still don’t want to wait for an email reply.

“Many people would rather sit at their computers while chatting every few minutes to a representative from your business. Chatbot software and platforms are now readily available for businesses to implement and it’s well worth looking into as a business, especially if you have, or want, a lot of interaction from your customers” – explains Rosemarie Janssen, a Marketing Manager at Essayroo.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, many of the trends that are coming up in 2018 could potentially define the marketing industry forever, so it’s vital that you pay attention to what’s going on, allowing you to be one step ahead of the game and one step ahead of your competition.

Remember to think creatively and explore all the options, features and platforms that are currently available to you to find the best way to promote, advertising and spread the word when it comes to your business.

About Gloria Kopp.

Gloria Knopp is an advertising manager and a content writer for Paper Fellows. She also regularly contributes her articles to The Tab and PhD Thesis Writers blogs. Gloria is an author of Studydemic blog where she writes her guides and tips for students and educators.

The post 8 Key Digital Advertising Trends That Will Take Place in 2018 appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Maybe this sounds like you: A blogger has been blogging for months, maybe even over a year and hasn't made any money.

Perhaps they've made a few dollars here and there. But the reality is that most bloggers, and chances are that includes you, don't make enough to even cover basic costs.

It's not for lack of trying or for lack of skill, generally.

Keep in mind most successful bloggers didn't make money until months after starting their blog.

What do affiliates need to start making money online?

There are many things that comprise the recipe for profits online, but I'm going to cover two important factors that would help you make money if you haven't made enough money from your blog yet.

I know it can be frustrating.

Making money online is more than just posting content and sharing it. You can have a huge following and still fail to make a decent income. In this video, I dive into one of the main reasons why you're not making money despite all your efforts.

Check out the video and take action. If you're not profiting from your blog, maybe it's time you try something new, or time to upgrade your methods or products.

And if you don't think that these are the missing ingredients for your blog to start making money, let me know more about your situation in the comments and we can figure it out together.

https://youtu.be/t9ZgNvtSB2s

If you didn't want to wait for the entire video. The key of one of the messages is to start working with higher-end products which in turn pay out a higher level commission.

If you're interested in learning how to do that and start earning more money than ever before, check out the 21 step training I talk about in the video right here.

The post Affiliates: This Is Why You’re Not Making Money Online (Video) appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

This is a topic that is highly debatable and you'll find proponents of both methods. Each one has its merits and disadvantages. At the end, it comes down to how you send emails to the subscribers.

If you annoy your subscribers or send them irrelevant content, they will make SPAM complaints whether they joined your list via double opt-in, or single opt-in.

In some cases, the discussion isn't just a matter of opinion but a matter of law. Some countries or jurisdictions require that you collect email addresses properly and with full disclosure to the subscriber. That can be difficult with single opt-in methods.

I want to debunk a myth that permeates this discussion, too, while we are at it. In the U.S., businesses are guided by the CAN-SPAM Rule, and this does not specify that a subscriber has to opt-in. Here is a quick guide for business compliance on using promotional emails. In fact, you can theoretically email anybody you want so long as you follow the actual CAN-SPAM laws. The law doesn't say that the recipient of a marketing or promotional email must have opted in first.

Now that I got that out of the way, I thought I would make a short video talking about what I think it's best and why. Check out the video below and let me know what you think in the comments.

I mentioned some tools in the video so I'll link them here. So if you want to start an email marketing campaign, the three main tools I use are these:

Aweber - hosts my email lists and manages the sending and tracking of emails to my subscribers. Start for free here. Aweber allows single opt-in or double opt-in.

Optinmonster - provides me with opt-in boxes, sliders, and helps me capture people's attention before they decide to leave my blog or websites. Optinmonster doesn't have a free option or trial, but it's worth it if you have a website, doesn't matter if it's WordPress or not. Check it out here to learn more, or look through previous posts I've written about Optinmonster.

Leadpages - allows me to create amazing landing pages that connect to my email lists, they also have SMS opt-in services like leaddigits and it's all around one of my favorite landing page builders. Start for free here.

I recommend all three of these services if you are looking to start your email marketing efforts for your business.

The post Which Should You Use? Single Opt-in vs Double Opt-in appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I know I'm a salesman, everyone else is a salesperson too, some of you just don't know it, so this post should be helpful to you as well.

So I've been studying some sales techniques and methods. Today I'm breaking down a video I found that was extremely helpful and I think it might be useful for you if you want to improve your sales at skills.

See, selling is just about overcoming objections to convince the prospect that what you have is valuable and useful for them, today. Not tomorrow, not after they talk to their partner, not after they think about it, today. Now.

The first thing is to be sure and make sure that your product or service is, in fact, valuable and useful. Without that, even if you can convince someone to buy something, your results in the long term will be lackluster.

If you don't believe in your product or service, your prospect will feel it, and even if you sell it, you will have trouble sleeping at night, so don't do it. But if you know in your heart that the product is good, the service is good then the sale needs to happen.

Closing the Sale: 9 Common Objections by Brian Tracy

This video covers nine common sales objections. I've been studying this video and a few others on the same topic. I'll probably share those with you soon as well.

This video is by Brian Tracy. If you have never heard of him, you should learn a little bit more about him.

Before you watch this, and as you go through your own journey on learning to be a better closer, remember one of Brian's quotes:

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, 'What's in it for me?' - Brian Tracy

This reiterates what I mentioned above about making sure the product or service you are offering is going to help your customer. On with the video, a few notes after the video below.

The nine common objections and how to recognize them and deal with them effectively are listed below with timestamps.

1. The unspoken sales objection  (0:24)
2. The excuses and impulse sales objection (1:03)
3. The malicious sales objection (2:00)
4. The request for more information sales objection (2:47)
5. The show-off sales objection (3:11)
6. The personal sales objection (3:54)
7. The factual sales objection (4:26)
8. The general resistance sale objection (4:58)
9. The last ditch sales objection (5:50)

The video is short and sweet and I wish it had some more guidance about the specific situations, but it's a great start. My main question is whether these objections have a relationship to each other, specifically I wonder if they come in a particular order.

Do you agree that these are the most common objections? How would you handle them differently?

The post How To Close the Sale: 9 Common Objections appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I'm talking about online advertising. Over the past few years, marketers have been developing a new way of advertising to you. 2017 may be the year when it grows up and becomes mainstream.

This new model is euphemistically called "native advertising" and it's the central topic of my video below. It's a very close cousin to "influencer" marketing.

It's not that I don't like the new model. I love it! For us, advertisers and marketers, it's a boon. But for you as a consumer it sucks.

Over the past 15+ years, you've been complaining about ads on websites. So much so that enough of you have adopted ad-blocker programs.

The other day my friend came over and told me about a little raspberry pi machine that can block advertisements at your network level. You don't even need a browser plugin. Amazing.

But the problem is that marketers, advertisers and every one of us that works in this space still needs to advertise products and services to you. And most of the time, they are good products and services you actually want; advertising has gotten smarter over time.

Maybe too smart.

Blocking ads and the expectation that all content should be free has pushed the industry to native content and influencer marketing. What's the problem with native content? I think it hurts you as a consumer and adds unnecessary red tape for us publishers.

More of my thoughts in the video, I'd love to hear yours too so let me know in the comments here or in the video.

The post Is Native Content Bad for You? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The short version of this requirement is that if I'm getting compensated for a post, or a review, or a post in social media, then I should disclose that payment or compensation. This used to apply only to the mainstream media and big celebrities but with the rise of influencer blogging and social media influencers, it now applies to us as well. It is worth noting that many celebrities endorse products and services AND they don't disclose that they are compensated for it.

You might have noticed that in some of my recent posts, there are some boxes highlighting a specific block of text. They look like the box below:

This blog makes me money. It makes me money 24/7 and I'm very proud of that, and it is because of that income that I can bring you new updates on a regular basis. You see, I don't have a job, I spend most of my time with my kids and family and friends. And I like it that way.

Every time you read my blog, and whenever you click on a link and purchase a product or service, you're helping me live the dream. And for this, I appreciate you tremendously, not every link makes me money but some do.

Also, solely clicking on a link will not make me money; only if you purchase something will I get compensated. So please, if you find the products or services I talk about useful, give them a try and I'd love it if you let me know when you have purchased something because of my recommendation.

I hope we can continue this relationship for years to come. But in the spirit of transparency, disclosure, mutual trust and understanding, I've just updated my affiliates and sponsored content disclosure. You can find it here, but I also included it in its entirety below:

Sponsor & Affiliate Disclosure

[insert page='sponsor-affiliate-disclosure' display='content']

The post About Making Money on My Blog appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

But I thought I'd give you a new list of programs that piqued my interest.

Before I jump into it, I should also point out another post that you probably want to check out if you're new to the whole idea of making money with your blog. It's a collection of Q&A related to monetizing a blog. There's also a video where I give you some tips I've picked up along the way.

Let's get started, shall we? Oh! One more thing, before we get going, if you don't mind giving this a quick share on Twitter, you can do it with te link below or the quotes sprinkled throughout the article.

Hiver

This is a new company in the helpdesk arena.  It is excellent for businesses because it integrates with Gmail and Google apps and instantly activates a help desk system that can be shared across the support team so that every customer interaction can be managed, assigned, shared, tagged and resolved directly from the inboxes of support personnel. This is a terrific opportunity for blogs that provide business advice, technology reviews, software as a service blogs and other related niches. Payouts are great at $200 to $400 per sign up. Sign up here.

Pure Paw Nutrition

As the pet care market grows, any blog with a pet-centric audience should take a look at these guys. I was impressed by their website which is vibrant attractive, their product seems great too. But what caught my attention is the smart use of an LTO (limited time offer). This should help with conversions significantly so if you have a dog training blog, pet related blog or anything to do with dogs, you should take a look at this affiliate program. Their cookie last 30 days and they pay 11% which is great for such a competitive space. Sign up here.

Zen and Soul

If you're into fitness, well-being, and specifically yoga, then this affiliate program is for you. They have everything you need for your yoga experience so if you have that type of audience, then this might be a great addition to your blog. The user experience on the site is good and the design is attractive so that should help with conversions if you have the target audience. Their cookie will remain for 30 days and they pay out a 20% commission on every sale! You can sign up here.

Connex Digital Marketing

This caught my attention because it's one of the few companies I've seen offering this type of service and using affiliate marketing to promote it. This is ideal for any blog that provides online marketing information. What's more interesting is their pricing structure. They have a great price system that makes these services affordable. The payouts are a flat $100.00 per sale with a 30-day cookie which isn't' that great, but if you have enough traffic, you could make a few hundred dollars up to several thousand dollars each month just from this. Sign up here, and look for Connex Digital Marketing when you log in.

Skimlinks

Skimlinks has been around for quite a while but it's worth mentioning because it makes things easier for you to monetize your content by automatically changing links to be affiliate links. Another benefit of using Skimlinks is that you partner up with them and benefit from their volume rates. The biggest benefit by far is that you don't have to sign up for tons of different affiliate programs. Definitely worth checking out if you have a lot of content that you haven't monetized before, or if you've started a blog recently and want to save time and effort. Sign up here.

Linktrackr

Linktrackr is awesome. It's a private link shortener that works like Bit.ly but you can use your own domain (or pick from one that they offer). I use it for all the links you see that start with oglink.it. The reason this is a good program to promote is because they pay a decent commission and they offer a service every blogger needs. This would be ideal for a blog that talks about blogging, online marketing, social media, influencer marketing and similar topics. Pay ranges from 30% to 50%, the cookie lasts 30 days AND there is a 2-tier program. A 2-tier program means that you get paid an additional commission from the sales generated by anybody that you refer. Sign up here.

Creditsaint

This is a credit repair service that can fit into a financial blog, or lifestyle blog, maybe even a making money blog like mine. Their offering is to help customers fix bad credit and start building good credit and many people need this. They offer a solid $100.00 payout per sale and have a terrific 90-day cookie. Sign up here and search for Creditsaint under merchants.

CEFA

An excellent offer for any fitness-centric blog. This program is attractive for a couple reasons. Council of Exercise Fitness and Athletics offers CEFA certification for trainers and other fitness professionals. The reason it seems like a great program is because it has brand weight by being associated with some of the top fitness brands, like 24hourfitness, Equinox and others. For you as an affiliate, the payouts are awesome at 50% and the cookie lasts forever. That's awesome! Sign up here and search for CEFA

After thoughts and a couple words in closing

Some of you asked me if I gave you the proper link to some of the programs before, because you went to the Shareasale website and didn't find the program. I want to clarify that when I say "Sign up here" and then search for the name of the program, you need to be signed up and logged in with your username for the search to work. Signing up for Shareasale and most affiliate networks is free, just takes a couple of minutes.

The post 9 More Programs to Help You Monetize Your Blog appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I get a hundred new offers every week or more, most of them are boring, others don't pay enough, many of them are pure junk,  and the vast majority are outside of my niche.

I thought I might share some of the most interesting ones with you. These are also the offers that I would consider if I were in their niche. Without further ado, here are 9 new programs to help you make money as an affiliate.

925 Attire. (out of business)

From their own site: Attire 925 was created to bring business casual apparel and footwear to fashionable women of all sizes! The payout is pretty low at 5% and the cookie is only 30 days but the niche is interesting. This would work well for a fashion, or lifestyle blog. It appeals to working women, stay at home moms. Apply here.

The Ruggedbeard Company

This is the shop to get your beard all the TLC it deserves. The Rugged Beard Company provides oils, balms, and waxes for beards and mustaches to keep them healthy and looking their best. The cookie is a bit low at a 30-day retention, but for a physical product, commissions are at a solid 10%. This would work well for a male-centric lifestyle blog or a fashion blog. Apply here.

Cajun Crate

The subscription model is permeating all types of markets and food is one of them. The Cajun crate takes the monthly subscription model and spices it up with a cajun centric box of Louisiana cooking delights. The commission is quite low for a product like this and I really want to strangle the affiliate management team for not offering a recurring based commission, but they're set at 5% with a 30-day cookie. The audience is anybody that likes the convenience and surprise of these type of boxes and anybody looking for a unique gift. Would work great with a lifestyle blog or a foodie blog. Apply here.

Ocassioni Eleganti (out of business!)

This got my attention because it is a jewelry shop with unique and affordable designs, but their commission is very high for a physical product like this and their cookie is awesome. They make some really eye-catching jewelry that won't break the bank so it's perfect for a fashion blog, lifestyle blog, or other blogs with similar budget conscious but stylish driven audiences. Their payout is 15%, paired with a 120-day cookie! That's yummy! Apply here.

Breast Actives

This is interesting because the payout is big! The product is based on a do-it-yourself at home therapy program. It's essentially a breast enhancement program based on natural products. I can't say if it works or not because, well... I don't need the product; my man-boobs are big enough, thank you very much. But the results and testimonials look terrific. This would be great for a site centered around self-image, body image, self-confidence, body positivity, self-help, natural remedies and related topics. The payout is $44.00 per sale! Apply here, then look for offer number: 31681.

The Flavor Run

Perfect for fitness blogs! This is a program where you can promote these awesome 5K runs that are happening throughout the country. They're adding new locations each week and it would be a perfect fit for a fitness blog, running, lifestyle and even a local or events blog. The commissions are 10% and the cookie lasts for 30 days. Apply here, then search for The Flavor run.

Bunny Williams

This program is for blogs focusing on the sophisticated side of home and living. The products offered would fit into the home and garden category but after browsing some of their catalog, the pieces are fit for a museum or a model home. The commission is really competitive at a solid 15% commission but their cookie leaves a lot to be desired with a short 15-day lifespan. If you want to promote this, you better be good at closing the sale quickly. Apply here, then search for Bunny Williams.

The Nooky Box

This one is rated R or maybe even NR, but it's definitely NSFW. I told you that the box subscription business is thriving. This one is a box subscription service for your wilder side. Their tagline reads Yay Sex! So yeah, this is an adult subscription box service that sends you new toys, oils, and games to spice things up in the bedroom. The payout is great at 10% and they have a great long lasting 120-day cookie. Apply here, then search for The Nooky Box.

Patch Collection

Sports are always a good seller if you have the audience. As you gear up towards your favorite sport, your visitors will want to get patches for their favorite teams. But there's a twist, even if your blog isn't about sports, you can make money with Patch collection. They offer pop-culture related patches as well for things like DC Comics, Star Wars, Marvel and more. Commissions are 10% with a 30-day cookie. Apply here, then search for Patch Collection.

In conclusion.

That wraps up a round-up of 9 new and promising affiliate programs you can join today and start making money. I would love to hear back to know about your experiences with them and if you found this useful, I would appreciate it if you took a few seconds to share this post in social media using one of the buttons available or any of the tweetable quotes.

Money by Andrew  Magil via CC

The post 9 Programs to Help You Make Money with Your Blog appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The issues are similar to picking a domain, or a username in a social media site.

If you're an experienced affiliate then you automatically know what to do, but if you aren't too familiar with the industry then this could be a daunting step.

Your subid, or subdomain, or affiliate id is something that you should think about when you sign up to be an affiliate for a product or even if you're just going to use a product.

Sometimes when you sign up for an affiliate program or an affiliate network, you are automatically assigned an alpha-numeric affiliate id. In those cases, this blog post will not do diddly squat for you. Head over to the home page and read another one of my recent articles.

In other cases, you'll be asked to pick an id when you join the program and this id or username will be used as part of your affiliate links.

I'll use Leadpages as an example.

When I signed up for Leadpages, I knew I would be using the service for many different types of promotional campaigns.

I didn't want to tie my name down. Leadpages requires you to pick a name that will be used in your custom URL when you join and activate an account. Once you pick that, you cannot change it.

Some people would automatically pick their usual name or their brand name for something like this, but I didn't and let me tell you why.

I  use Leadpages to promote all sorts of products so I picked a versatile name, instead of "oscargonzalez" or "notagrouch" or something like that. Instead, I picked "websystem." It's generic but sounds official.

If I were planning to use the Leadpages account just for one purpose and never deviate from that, then maybe I would have picked a different name, or my usual name like notagrouch, something more branded perhaps.

This is the dilemma of picking our username or userid, or subdomain, or subid when we join a site. If you're going to use the link in various scenarios, you should consider a balanced approach.

If you're going to use your affiliate link in different websites that you own, you should also consider the name of your user id or affiliate name and try to make it flexible to fit the different websites.

Case in point, the Amazon associates program allows you to create different user ids for your links, not just for tracking, but for perception and branding.

You have to consider branding and perception.

Some people will make a judgment on the name that is visible. Some people look for your affiliate id in links that you provide for them and will actively remove it sometimes.

If you use a generic name like I mentioned above then it's a little more difficult to discern, and I could use that same URL on my personal blog, on a business blog, on a totally new niche blog and the name will still be fine.

In fact, I would say that marketing is the art of manipulating perception.  Just like you spend time coming up with a name for your next project, or website, spend some time thinking of the different names you could use when joining a new affiliate network and consider the different type of applications for your affiliate links.

The post Affiliate Setup Tip: How to Pick your Affiliate ID. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Many will start but only a few will finish. Will you make it to the 90 day mark?

If you're an affiliate, a blogger, a social media professional or regular business person I recommend you join the challenge. If you want to learn Youtube and Facebook video then you should definitely join.

If you have a limited marketing budget, you should also join in the challenge as this could be the best way to market anything on the cheap.

You are invited to join the 90 Day Video Challenge.

The 90 Day Video Challenge is a challenge you can complete to improve your marketing skills, increase subscribers, fine tune your video production skills and ultimately make more money.

How does it work?

After you join the challenge, you are committed to publish one new video each day for 90 days straight. If you miss one day, you're out!

Who can join the video challenge?

Anybody that is willing to take up the challenge and improve themselves, learn something new and meet other like-minded people.

How do I join the challenge?

Make a commitment that you're going to do it, and join our Facebook group: 90 Day Video Challenge. In the group you'll find instructions and tips as well as support from other members to help you get through the challenge.

What kind of videos?

You get to decide what kind of videos. Most people do vlogs, or short informational videos about their business.

Do I have to be on camera for my videos?

No, you can make videos by creating slideshows and adding a voice over, you can make tutorial videos where your face isn't shown. There are many ways to complete this challenge without being on camera.

Is there a bounty or prize?

Not at this moment, but we're working on something. The biggest reward is the benefits that you get from completing the challenge; subscribers, experience, and more money!

Is there a penalty if you fail the challenge?

No, just your own feeling of defeat.

If I complete the challenge, will I become a YouTube star?

Probably not, but you can try.

The post 90 Day Video Challenge appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Shawn Collins is the co-founder of Affiliate Summit and he usually delivers the 1st time orientation session to kick things off at the summit.

Some of the great tips that you can take away from this "session" are pretty simple and sometimes, common sense.

Send a couple of texts to your loved ones to let them know you're missing them because you're going to be busy for the next 3 days. The event is jam packed with sessions and with over 5000 people attending, you should be networking and learning all day long, you are going to be busy!

When you go grab a meal, always try to find someone to eat or drink with. Sometimes you'll create great relationships when sitting down over a meal. Even if you came by yourself, this is a great way to network so don't just go out on your own to grab food and come back.

Get connected to the WiFi, the information is in the agenda.

Use the agenda to plan your days. There is so much to do and the days go fast. Make sure you have a plan of action, set some goals and follow through.

Be present here! Don't spend time on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, or Social Media (unless you're posting about the event). You may be tempted to talk about the latest episode of your favorite show, or talk about your sports team, or whatever. But you'd be wasting your time if you did that!

Stay away from the noise and chatter that's not related to the event because in 72 hours or so, you'll be heading home so make sure you take advantage of it while you are here.

The post First Time Orientation at Affiliate Summit appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

But you are not interested in becoming an affiliate, instead, you have a product. You want to get affiliates to sell your product or service. And you wonder, how do you get an affiliate program started so Joe will sell for you?

This is what I am exploring with you today. I guess, the first thing I would ask is not How?, but Why?

Should you start an affiliate program or not?

As with most marketing decisions, starting an affiliate marketing program isn't something to be taken lightly.

I am think that nearly every company, product or service can benefit from an affiliate program, if you deploy and manage it correctly. With that premise, it is easier for me to explain when you should NOT start an affiliate program.

You should NOT start an affiliate program...

Do not start an affiliate program as a way to save your company or as a last-ditch effort to generate revenue . If your company is in trouble and you need money, you need to fix the problems before you introduce a whole new set of complications to your business.

Do not start an affiliate program without sales statistics or brand recognition. If you are new and don't have a brand or endorsements, then most affiliates will want to see some proven conversions and sales before joining your program.

If you don't have these numbers to show, or if they're too low for your industry then your program may lose affiliates' attention quickly and then it can easily stagnate and make it hard to get traction later.

Do not start an affiliate program expecting the affiliates to do your work for you. You need to guide your program with strong direction and leadership. Even though they are selling for you, they are a type of customer to you as well.

Affiliates are a hybrid of employee, customer. You need to have strong communication channels that work for you and the affiliates. You need to give marketing materials, a good infrastructure, and most importantly, motivation and fresh campaigns to promote.

But if you think you are starting a program for the right reasons, then here is a list of a few basic things to keep in mind as you get ready to start your affiliate program.

If you think you are ready to start an affiliate program, then...

Study the best ones and most popular in your industry and overall. Study the networks, study the affiliates, study the competition, study, study, study.

Get yourself an affiliate manager with a decent track record to help you set it all up and maybe even manage it for you. You can find people and agencies that do this. You can attend local meetups and regional or national events to meet them as well.

Get your self to events with other affiliates and affiliate managers. Immerse yourself in the industry and culture so you can better understand how to work more efficiently, and effectively.

Join other affiliate programs as an affiliate and go through the experience. Did you find it enjoyable, inviting, motivating? What would you change in your program? Ask yourself questions to hone in your skills and develop a better program.

Affiliate Summit West is coming up in January and this is perhaps the best event you can attend to learn about all the different aspects of affiliate marketing also known as performance marketing. If you are serious about starting a program for your company then you owe it to yourself the due diligence of attending. Click here to find out more.

The post Should you Start an Affiliate Program? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

If you want to work from home then you gotta take the leap. There is no reason to continue dealing with a soul-sucking job that takes up so much of your time and gives you a minimal reward.

Working from home is awesome and I highly recommend it. But there are risks, and pitfalls and things you'll learn along the way.

This is another great video that will save you YEARS of experience with a barrage of excellent tips. It's like a compilation of things you forgot about and things you never knew could be a problem.

They also cover some of the best tools you could use to get your work done at home and some of the best productivity tips I've seen.

The post Working at Home. Tips, Hacks and Q&A appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

If you're considering starting an affiliate program for your business or your product then this is recommended viewing.

The Top Five Affiliate Management Myths Debunked.

One of the best takeaways:

If your site is not already primed to convert visitors to buyers, then affiliate traffic will NOT increase your revenue.

The post Top Five Affiliate Management Myths appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Thomas the Apostle is a person in the Bible who does not believe the claims of Jesus (who can blame him?). He doubts the claims that Jesus died and rose three days later. He wanted to see proof.

He was one of the 12 apostles and sometimes people call him doubting Thomas. The story says that eventually Jesus showed up to Thomas and showed him proof.

So maybe you're a little bit like Thomas and want to see proof that affiliate marketing works.

I want to show you a screenshot of one of the products I am promoting right now. By promoting I mean I wrote about it a couple times and I posted it in a few of my blogpost. It maybe took me 20 minutes total to promote this product.

Here's the screenshot of the results so far:

This has been going on since early August and I've generated a total of $269.81 in commissions. When you consider that this is one of dozens of products that I promote, then you realize it's not such a bad deal to do affiliate marketing.

Here's the overview for this account. Not to bad for about 20 or 30 minutes of work. What's even cooler about this is that it will (should) continue making money for some time to come.

The post Are You Like Thomas? Here’s Your Proof! appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The short answer is NO, it isn't.

When you think you found a niche that isn't competitive, there is a reason why. Option 1, because there is no money to be made there, or option 2, the niche isn't developed.

Option one means that the niche exists but nobody is going to pay for products in there, or the products available are so low profit that it will take you years to make a profit. This is definitely not a place for beginners to go. I promise, you will quit and quitters fail.

The second option is great if you have the next five to ten years available for yourself and almost an unlimited budget to educate the people and market your product well enough for that niche to mature. If the first option is only reserved for experts, then this second option is the one that only bored billionaires should try.

If you watch this video, at least the first 6 minutes. You'll hear the same thing, and take it from an established expert, Jeremy Schoemaker aka Shoemoney.

The post Affiliate Question. Isn’t it Better To Find a Niche with Low Competition? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

It's pretty awesome and I've been using it for the better part of 2 years now. They keep adding new useful features but one of the things that sets them apart is their speed.

You have also heard of WordPress, I hope. WordPress is a content management platform that lets you create landing pages, blogs, pages, forms and more. It is free to use but you have to pay to have it hosted somewhere.

Both Leadpages and WordPress are standalone products and both can do some similar things, but they also work together if you use the Leadpages plugin in your WordPress installation.

Leadpages lets you use their full infrastructure to create and promote your landing pages, but you can also make it work with WordPress so your landing pages are inside of your domain even though Leadpages is hosting them.

Take for example my new landing page for my book. Here are two examples of pages that illustrate what I said before.

1) Using ONLY Leadpages: https://websystem.leadpages.net/work-anywhere-profit-online-free/
2) Using Leadpages on my own domain: notagrouch.com/work-anywhere-profit-online-book

Those two pages are identical except for one thing. One of them is displayed through my Leadpages account, while the other one is displayed here on my notagrouch.com domain.

The benefits of using option 1 is that you don't need a website of your own. You pay for Leadpages and you can start building pages immediately, like option 1. The downside to this is the URL branding; notice it says "websystem.leadpages.net." Some people would prefer to have it like option 2, under their own domain.

The key benefit of having your pages hosted in Leadpages exclusively is that you'll get the fastest speed possible. When you use the Leadpages WordPress plugin to bring in your landing page under your own domain, like option 2, then you will give up some of that speed.

In my testing, the speed difference has been significant, between 1 and 1.5 seconds.

One or two seconds may not seem like a big difference but in the world of websites, speed can make or break your business. Most people will wait about 3 - 4 seconds for a page to load, that number is decreasing fast as websites improve. It is critical for your pages to load as fast as possible.

Check out the test between the two different methods of loading the same page.

Method 1, Leadpages directly.
Load time 1.99 seconds, size 729.3, grade 86/100

Method 2, Leadpages using WordPress plugin.
Load time 2.74 seconds, size 756.6, grade 86/100

Almost a second slower when using WordPress. This could be for a number of reasons which we won't get into, but the important part is that Leadpages is built for speed; use it for your most critical time-sensitive pages that need to be served fast.

Use Leadpages with WordPress when you want to extend the branding of your own domain to your promotions, but a slightly slower speed may not be a big deal.

Overall in a simple test like this, page to page I have found Leadpages Always performs faster than Leadpages with WordPress. If you think you want to check out Leadpages, I would recommend it for sure. I use it and recommend it to most of my clients.

The post Is Leadpages faster than WordPress? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WhQkKVoGkY

And no, you don't have to already be making money online to start living the Dot Com Lifestyle, all it takes is determination, a plan and execution. Oh yeah and good guidance. So stick around, subscribe or leave comments here to join me in living the Dot Com Lifestyle. Work anywhere, work anytime and do whatever you want with your time & money.

A good way to get started is by downloading the eBook, The Ultimate Online Profit Model, available free here.

The post The Dot Com Lifestyle Personified with Terry Lamb appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I think I mentioned before that I was going to be featured on inmotion Hosting's newsletter to the affiliates. That means, the affiliate newsletter that the other professionals receive. It's also nice to be featured in a great newsletter by one of my sponsors.

Inmotion Hosting is one of my biggest sponsors. So I send them a good share of my business. Something must be working, don't you think? Although I can always improve on things, and I continue to do so weekly based on feedback I receive.

So Jason Hong, inmotion Hosting's Affiliate Manager asked if I would write a column for their newsletter. I decided to write about the way I am doing business in RealFreeWebsite.com. By offering a lot of value. Always, as much as possible. And in return, your affiliate commissions will increase and become more regular.

Normally this newsletter goes out to the active affiliates for the company, but they also post it online. You can read it here.

I think some of the points I'd like to drive home just by telling you about them here are these:

The easiest way is to offer a bundle of products tailored to a specific group of people. I create a bundle, and I create a promotional campaign around it. The goal is to get the target audience in my email list, and then offer them unparalleled value.

In the newsletter, I explain that by bundling stuff together and adding a service or setup component to the products then you can add a ton of value around your offers. This sets you apart from all the other affiliates promoting the same products. This is especially useful and beneficial when you're a new affiliate. If you weren't aware of it, this is the exact thing that is covered on the Affiliate Bonus Domination course.

This was back in October, but this post has been waiting on my queue for a while, I think it was time to share it with you. Since then, Jason Hong has been featured on my blog already in a video giving you a couple of monetization tips for your blog & website.

[woocommerce_shop_messages]

The post Featured on inMotion’s Affiliate Newsletter appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The post Peerfly T-shirt at Costco appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

As you would guess, the conference is about affiliates, Clickbank happens to be one of the best established networks out there to do what they do. Digital products. They specialize on helping you launch your business or enhance it by promoting the products in their catalog. This is one of the most common affiliate marketing models.

I promote several products from Clickbank and they have products in a niche that would probably fit you. But here is Josh Valencia from Clickbank and he explains way better than I can.

Oh yeah, Clickbank also will have beer for you at Affiliate Summit.

The post Josh Valencia Explains What is Clickbank? #ASW14 appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

That's why I go to Affiliate Summit, to learn, meet people and partner up. This is the premier event to talk affiliate stuff. But here are some things I wish I knew the first time around.

Affiliate summit is teeming with people looking for new business and partnerships. Bring your A game, be prepared and most importantly, be open to meeting potential clients, vendors or partners. These people are unlike any other group of people I've ever met or hung out with.

Tip #1

Never, ever, judge a book by its cover. Unlike other professional events I've been to, people here are comfortable with who they are. To you and me, they may appear to be something completely different than they are. One moment  you could be sitting next to a regular Joe like you, and the next minute you could have a millionaire blogger or a super affiliate on the seat next to you. During one of the parties you could be having a drink with the owner of a multi-million dollar company. I can't emphasize this enough, do. not. judge. Get to know everyone you can, and listen before you are listened to.

Tip #2

Take pictures. This may sound trivial, but if you are at Affiliate Summit, you most certainly have a website or a blog that will need content. Pictures are excellent source of material for blogposts and articles. Do not miss this chance to take pictures of, and with some really interesting people. Don't worry about your outfit, your hair, or the background too much. Take the picture and seize the moment!

Tip #3

Start listening and researching now. Start doing some google searches and finding out who is going to be there, who they are and what they do. Look for companies that may provide a product or service or potential clients or partners, but don't forget to just make friends. A good place to start is Google+ and Twitter by using the hashtag #ASW14. Here are a few good links to help you get more involved:

• Missy Ward is co-founder of Affiliate Summit. I highly recommend you check out her blog.
• Shawn Collins is the other founder for Affiliate Summit and you should also keep an eye on his blog.
• List of exhibitors coming to Affiliate Summit West 2014.
•  Tricia Meyer is a blogger and affiliate marketer very much in tune with the industry.
• #ASW14 on Twitter listen to what's going on Twitter about the event.
• #ASW14 on Google + If Google+ is your cup of tea then check this out.
• Shareasale, one of the big players at the event. They host a great party and you'll see their booth in the meet market.

Tip #4

Leave a little extra room in your luggage. If you like schwag, leave some room in your suitcase for it. Lots of vendors will have little giveaways or gifts for you. Some of these are actually useful or just plain cool. In some cases you could even win prizes and stuff.

Tip #5

Bring a backpack. If you're a girl, you may want something different but I would still recommend a backpack over anything else. You can put your laptop or ipad in there along with a bottle or two of water, some snacks and other stuff. You'll have room to put swag away too until you go back to your room to unload the loot! There is wifi connectivity for attendees and you should find a place to plug in your laptop & phone charger so bring those with you as well.

Tip #6

Must wear comfortable shoes! Whether you go from one session to the next or prefer to spend your time networking and meeting vendors at the meet market, you'll be doing a lot of walking. Just like any other big conference, the hallways are spread out throughout the convention center... but don't forget, this is Las Vegas. Everything is more in Vegas, including walking.

There are other tips that you can find throughout the internet, and here is a little video I asked my friend John to do for you. He's the first person that invited me to ASW back in 2013, and so I thought it would be fitting for him to give you some of his tips as he has attended every event since it started.

Tips from John Chow

So, are you ready?

The post Affiliate Summit Tips for New Attendees appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The Affiliate Summit West takes place in Las Vegas and it will be held at the Paris hotel January 12 - 14. If you want to learn about making money online, through affiliate programs and networks, systems and all that good stuff, then you need to be there. If you have a product or service which you need to promote and get out to the masses, then you should also be at ASW14 because you'll get a chance to talk to Affiliate Networks and Managers that can help you add an affiliate program to your business.

The sessions are intense, hour long usually and jam packed with information that you can use TODAY. With information about what is working and what isn't working, how to do things the right way. There are also expert panels with Q&A and tons of networking. Then there are the parties. Parties are off the hook! Check out this little video I made with footage from the Affiliate Summit East event that took place this past August.

In case you are wondering why "save the boobies"? Well turns out, Affiliate Summit donates a portion of their proceeds to research for breast cancer.

I'm really excited about attending my 3rd Affiliate Summit and I'm excited to tell you that I'll be giving away 4 tickets. I just have to figure out how to give them away. I'll announce it on Monday. If you've got any ideas about what I should do to reward 4 lucky individuals with a free ticket, then leave me a comment.

Hope you can join me and maybe you'll even win one of the free tickets! If you are not subscribed to my blog yet, then subscribe now so you get the announcement on Monday.

The post Affiliate Summit West 2014. Want a free pass? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

In the other hand, if you find yourself as a punching bag for people trying to knock down information products, this is how I look at them and maybe it will give you some ideas.

The post Movember and Infoproducts appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Well, what about those products that only pay you once. Perhaps try this:
Negotiate with the owner for a recurring model for you. Really. Some affiliate managers will negotiate payout terms with their top affiliates so if you're making sales and you commit to certain number of sales, you'll be able to get higher payouts than advertised and sometimes you can request recurring payouts instead of one-time. These are individual contracts made on a case by case basis.
Sometimes they invite you to contact them if you can make more than just a few sales. Believe me, I have several programs where I get paid way above the normal payout, because I have a commitment of bringing in a good number of sales.

A very small example. This is one of the networks that pays my commissions. Today I got three sales related to earlier blogposts I made and or simply related to something I talked about or tweeted about earlier this month. Take a look at the screenshot:

Add more value to the offer you're giving and add a recurring billing item in the bundle, or value proposition. I spoke of that exact thing on the newsletter article I wrote for inmotion Hosting last week.

I offer a free wordpress installation service at Real Free website. Well, turns out, I also offer premium theme customizations, sometimes some of the plugins or other services I recommend have a recurring billing model. I bundle things together and I offer several products and try to find one or two that pay me every time the customer pays their bill.

Right now, I can tell you that Aweber's affiliate program is like that, as is Leadpages, as is Optinmonster and several others. If the product is good, and you have a genuine interest for your audience to use it, then find the product that will pay you a recurring fee instead of one time payment.

Yes, sometimes the payment is only a 10% payment, or maybe 20%. But if you think that a customer may stay with the business for 6 to 12 or even 24 months, or even several years, that small percentage can turn into a lot of cash coming in on auto-pilot. Literally.

That's how you make recurring affiliate income. The amounts don't have to be huge (although they can be). But consistent commissions, increasing each time you solve a customer's problem... don't mind if I do.

The post How to make recurring affiliate income appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

This is the second article in a series of posts to help you get more out of the internet. The previous article was about Evernote.

Just like Evernote, Dropbox is easy to use and jam-packed with functionality and utility. Dropbox is an app that stores your files in the cloud and synchronizes it across all your devices. It is safe and secure from prying eyes because the files are stored with a high level of encryption. Due to its nature Dropbox works best with a high-speed internet connection.

But it's not just storage.

In addition to saving your files and making them available on your iPhone or iPad and your computers, Dropbox lets you share any file or folder in your account with anyone. You can share a file privately via email, or publicly by using a public link. When you send someone access to your file or a folder via email, only you and them can see and access the files or folders and you can revoke the permissions at any time. Sharing a file publicly lets you post it to Twitter, or Facebook or even your blog.

I use the sharing feature all the time to share picture folders with friends and family and I also collaborate with clients in various projects using shared folders. Instead of having to email each other new files or edited files, we just put the files into a shared folders. If more people become involved with the project then we simply give them permissions to access the folder. It's quick and easy.

Ok, this sounds great but how much is it?

Drobpox just like many of today's apps and services operates on a freemium model. The app offers a free version that works for most people. You get 2 gigabytes (GB) for free just for signing up.

After you sign up, you can earn more storage by sharing the app with your friends or family and by completing basic tasks like connecting your mobile device, uploading pictures to your account. From time to time Dropbox will offer special promotions to increase your storage even more. I currently have about 64GB of storage for free.

If the free version isn't enough for you, the Pro version offers three plans, 100 GB, 200 GB and 500 GB at a cost about $1 per GB/year. Dropbox also offers a solution for teams or companies where you can buy 1TB of storage for up to 5 people. In the business plan, additional users are $125/year and if you use all the initial terabyte of space, they'll increase it at no charge, making the business plan a virtually unlimited storage plan.

I can only assume and predict that prices will drop overtime as storage becomes cheaper and cheaper in the next year or two. But at $500/year for 500GB it is still a bit pricey if you compare it to your run of the mill local hard drive. So the convenience of having your files accessible from your phone, or laptop and desktop is what make Dropbox so attractive.

Why do you need it?

If you ever find yourself emailing files to yourself just so you can get them from your laptop or a friend's computer then you may need Dropbox. I use it daily and it is extremely useful. I move a lot between my desktop and my laptop because I work from home and various locations. I need flexibility, but I also need my files. So I have a folder in Dropbox where I keep all my current work; that way my files are available on my laptop when I go somewhere. I also have the app installed on my iPad and on my Galaxy S4 so if I need to read a document quickly I can do it without having to get to my desktop or open up my laptop.

You need Dropbox if you want to be more efficient and if you want to leverage the technology that is currently available. You can get pretty creative on how you use Dropbox, I use it daily for many different cases. There is even a way to have a website built with Dropbox, but I'll leave that for another post. But I can think of three ways I use Dropbox on a regular basis.

Here are a few use cases

As a Blogger

I can use Drop box to gather photos, and save notes or reading material to have handy at any time. Dropbox has a photo uploader feature that lets you automatically save your photos from your phone to your account. That way you can attend an event, or location that you want to blog about, take pictures and by the time you sit down to write about your experience your photos will be available for you to edit, upload and post on your blog. No messing with cables or memory cards and memory card readers, etcetera.

Sales 

If you are in sales, you can keep your brochures and sales documents in a folder that is easy to access from wherever you are. You can have videos, photos, audio or PDF files there easy to show a potential client at a moment's notice.

Real estate professionals

Dropbox is ideal for realtors and real estate teams. While somebody is out in the field taking pictures and saving them to a shared Dropbox folder, somebody else in the office can get to work on the marketing materials for the property. Or if the agent is out with the client and somehow forgets a document, an assistant or team partner can put the document into the Dropbox folder and it would be available for the agent in the field in just a couple minutes, easier and more reliable than sending email.

Photographers

If you are a photographer and like to share your photos in Instagram, or Twitter, Dropbox is for you. You can take your photos with your nice camera, then save them to your Dropbox account. They'll be available to share via Instagram or Twitter or 500px. This lets you share your photos in social media networks without having to compromise the quality of your photos. As an extra bonus, Drobpox has a nice system to view photos online so you can browse through your photos, create galleries and generally manage your photos through the Dropbox system.

Webmasters, programmers and other techies

The geeky side of me also uses Dropbox to save configuration files for several applications I use. This is how that works. I use a program that connects to people's websites via FTP (I'll spare you the geeky details), all the website information is saved in the program and I have dozens of them. Instead of having to re save all the information on my laptop and having to update it any time it changes between my desktop and laptop, I have moved the configuration file for this app to a Dropbox folder so that any changes I make are automatically available on my desktop and my laptop.

It plays nice with other apps. Dropbox has a really nice developer program so that other people developing apps can enhance its functionality. One of my favorite third party services that interacts with Dropbox is If This Then That (IFTTT). I can have IFTTT automatically save any photo that someone tagged me in facebook to my Dropbox for example. I could also have photos I post to instagram automatically be saved to Dropbox for backup purposes.

In conclusion

Using Dropbox requires no special skill. In order for you to use Dropbpox, simply install it and then start saving stuff to your new folder, just like any other folder. This automatically makes the folder and files available online via a web browser, or on any other computer that you install Dropbox. Install the mobile app for iOS, or Android and you'll have your files available there as well. Windows phones used to have a Drobpox app but it is no longer updated or published.

Dropbox is one of my favorite apps and I consider it a must have for anyone trying to wrangle the interwebs. It will save you time, headaches and make your life generally easier. All you have to do is use it and take advantage of it. You can download it here.

If you are already using Dropbox, how do you use it?

The post Access your files anywhere with Dropbox appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

As I mentioned on a previous post, many companies have an affiliate program. This means that you have a good chance of making some extra cash if you try to use an affiliate program on your blog.

Apple has an affiliate program for iTunes content. You can sign up to be an Apple iTunes affiliate by applying here.

That means you can promote apps, music videos, Television shows, Movies and other paid content available on iTunes.

Maybe you like to review books, or movies or music. You could add some of the affiliate links about the content you review or write about. Using these links on you blog or website will pay you money when clicked on.

I've never promoted this before so I can't tell you how they have worked for me, but I just applied so I will keep you updated when I my application is approved or denied.

Something I noticed is that they seem to be active and keep you can read their page of affiliate resources. Looks like a good tool for new iTunes affiliates. You'll find link generators, banner generators and even an RSS generator.

The post iTunes affiliate program. Did you know they had one? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The article was full of mud-slinging, assumptions, and clearly Mr. Kogan has no idea how to run a business. Frankly, I'm surprised he's made it this far.

Let's start with some background. Ruslan Kogan has an online electronics outlet, Kogan.com is based out of Australia and does nothing more than resell other brand's products. It's a middle man, nothing more. That's not a bad thing per se, but it may put things in perspective when you read some of the quotes from his article, like:

We were then able to generate a list of sites that drove the sales to Kogan. I had not heard of a single website on the list.

For the record, I'd never heard of "Kogan" and you probably haven't either, at least not before this piss poor attempt at some PR. It's amusing how he knocks on the affiliate sites because they're unknown when his site himself is but a tiny speck in the electronics reselling arena.

I couldn't help but to take some of the article a bit personal since I am a full time online marketer and a huge part of that is being an affiliate. And this guy came out swinging and took aim at the entire industry. Not once did he take a moment to do some introspection and try to figure out how his disaster might have been caused by his lack of analysis, research and understanding.

He should have done some homework before hiring a so called "Marketing Consultant" to run his first ever affiliate program. Instead he chose to do his research after things went awry:

So I asked the Marketing Consultant to lower the commission we pay to the affiliate network to 5 percent. I wasn’t surprised a week later when he told me that we still did $200,000 of sales through them in a week. I then asked him to lower the commission to 1 percent. Once again, the affiliates delivered $200,000 per week in sales. Whatever these affiliate sites were doing to drive sales to Kogan.com, it didn’t change as our commission to them was lowered by 90 percent. This defied general economics principles, so I started to get very skeptical.

I then got the marketing consultant to lower the commission we pay to half the sites on the network to zero percent.

BTW, what kind of research is this anyway? Tricking the affiliates into joining his program and then lowering the commissions because things aren't going as planned? Now, that is the move of a shyster.

The fact is that this guy had no idea what he was doing and jumped in head first without so much as basic advice or analysis from an Affiliate manager. A marketing consultant had no business leading the efforts of running an affiliate program. The affiliate world is so broad and diverse that you really need an experienced, professional Affiliate manager to work with you. Not a consultant.

An affiliate manager, would have advised Mr. Kogan to review the terms of the program. The affiliate manager would have or should have also advised him to be selective of the affiliates and the methods used to promote the program. Everyone has their own terms, even within a large network like Commission Junction, Shareasale, Clickbooth and others.

When it comes to affiliate marketing, there are dozens of ways of promoting a product. Email marketing, PPC, Oragnic search, banner ads, social media, content marketing, coupons, vouchers, in person events, video marketing.

It's up to the merchant (Kogan in this case), to set their terms. For example, some companies do not allow you to run PPC campaigns targeting the brand's name as a keyword. Other companies do not allow voucher or coupon websites to promote the products. Some companies don't even allow email marketing. But the beauty of it is that this is all within their control.

Just as I wrote before, affiliate marketing is nothing more than performance based commissions. You produce a sale, you get a commission. Plain and simple from that point of view, but like almost any other sales process, there are restrictions as to how you can generate your leads and how you can promote and advertise. Mr. Kogan failed to do any due diligence into these matters. Which leaves all the blame of his affiliate marketing fiasco to rest on his shoulders and nobody else. Shame on you Ruslan for calling the entire industry a scam.

A little perspective please

Now let's bring some perspective into this for you, for my readers and for those of you trying to learn more about affiliate marketing, affiliate sales and the world around it.

Here's me, at Affiliate Summit East 2013 (#ASE13) in Philadelphia, and I took this picture explicitly to show you the caliber of companies that are involved with affiliate marketing. Perhaps you've heard of this little company before? You recognize the logo? I thought so. And you really think such an iconic household brand would affiliate (no pun intended) itself with a "scam industry"? I very much doubt it.

Some of the biggest brands in the planet use affiliate marketing. Some of them use it to promote their products and encourage their fans, consumers and others to promote them. Sometimes they themselves promote other products that add value to their own offerings. Now, these brands you'll recognize.

Here's a quick list that I compiled in about 10 minutes of well known brands that offer affiliate programs. You might have heard of some of these, perhaps...

• 24hour fitness
• Adidas
• Adobe
• Allstate
• Audible
• BOSE
• Best Buy
• Black & Decker
• BodyGlove
• CVS
• Capital One
• Columbia
• Cost Plus World Market
• Crucial
• Dell
• Discover
• Disney Store
• Etnies
• Firestone
• Gamefly
• Garmin
• Godaddy
• H&R Block
• Hertz
• Home Depot
• Jack LaLane
• Jelly Belly
• Kay Jewlers
• KitchenAid
• Lenovo
• Lindt Chocolate
• Loehmann's
• Lowe's
• Marvel
• Microsoft
• Netflix
• New Balance
• Norton (Symantec)
• Petco
• Phillips
• Public Storage
• Quicken
• Reebok
• Safeway
• Samsung
• Sears
• Sketchers
• Skype
• Spalding
• Sprint
• T-Mobile
• TomTom
• Toys R' Us
• TrendMicro
• TurboTax
• Verizon Wireless
• Vons
• Walgreens
• Warner Brothers
• Weight Watchers
• West Marine
• Zappos
• Zillow

I think that illustrates my point. Don't believe the hate, affiliate marketing is a completely valid industry. You can make additional money doing it part time, or do it full time, like any other job.

It requires skills, knowledge, connections, and hard-work. Just like any other industry, there are bad apples. Fortunately even in this case, we're not looking at a black sheep type of situation, but just an inexperienced and lazy business owner that took the easy path of putting the blame everywhere but where it should have been. Within his own organization and management.

After the original article, another more level-headed article was published at VentureBeat that puts things in perspective and is much more eloquent than my own.

The post Is the Affiliate Industry a Shyster’s Industry? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Real Free Website was born out of the desire and need to help other people be found online. If you've been following me for a while, then you know that I actually started setting up free websites for people from my Notagrouch.com blog.

Many people read my blog and I often get questions on how to setup a blog or website. Most people don't need anything fancy. But they need to be online. Whether you are a business owner, a musician, a hobbyist, an athlete or even a student, you need to have a presence online.

I was spending a lot of time answering questions. Educating people about how the internet works, how websites work, what they should do next, where they should go for help. How to market themselves using a website. All in the hopes of getting new business to design another custom built website. But there was a disconnect. Most people that are looking for free advice, direction and the like, can't afford a professional web designer. Or they think they can't afford a professional web designer, but that's fodder for another blogpost.

Normally I build custom designed websites starting at about $3000.00 USD and going up to $25,000. That's a lot for most people. And so their next option is to hire someone cheap from Craigslist for like $450 or have a family member, friend, neighbor, or someone else "do their site." Their other option is to roll up their sleeves and do it themselves.

I usually think that the best option is to pay a professional to fully take care of your website. From design, to implementation, to support and maintenance and this comes out to a pretty penny. Believe me, even at $3000 or $5000, I'm very inexpensive compared to other "design agencies" out there. Many  design agencies outsource their work to me. So I know what it costs to build a site and I know how to do it right.

I still wanted to help people so I decided to streamline my process and give them a new option, I just couldn't keep spending hours and hours giving away my knowledge and time for free. So the option became this: Get a free quality website setup as I would set it up for my clients, for free. The same security settings, same best-practices, same plugins, and same quality.  Then give them the tools to design something great upon that foundation.

This gives people the tools and know-how needed to make their website stand out.  So I did this. I got really good at setting up sites quickly and with minimal expense for me. Then I found a hosting company that took pride in their support and provided very reasonable prices. I moved a few of my sites over to them to test them out, they passed all my tests. Then I found their affiliate program and joined it.

A match made in heaven. Combine my expertise at setting up websites with the web hosting services by Inmotion Hosting and Real Free Website was born. I took the same offering I had on my personal blog but I made it available to the public by branding it on its own.

So I decided to launch the service recently and I had a special offer at launch. Sign up to get a free website setup and you'd get three amazing bonus items. Free coaching or training from me, Free Email autoresponder setup and Free SEO evaluation and setup.

The grand opening went really well. It passed all my expectations, and it makes sense. I've never seen an offer like that or anything like that and that is what most of the people that made the choice to get a free website told me too.

So the next steps to continue to grow that business is to produce new training videos, more blogposts and I will also be publicizing specials on a regular basis so that the value continues to be unsurpassed.

Thank you for everyone that supported my venture online!

The post The Real Free Website Grand Opening. A success! appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I knew the people with negative responses just didn't know mucha about how it works. As I explained before, Affiliate Marketing, Online Marketing and Internet Marketing are just fancy and specialized terms for promotional or performance based sales & commissions. You promote a product that you love, and in return the company rewards you when a new customer signs up.

It's simple and it works. For those of you that are still skeptics, I thought I'd show you the payment I got yesterday. I get these regularly and they are increasing. One of the beauties of internet marketing is that as you create information and share it online, it stays there "forever" so work I did a month, two months or even six months ago continues to generate revenue. Even though I am no longer "working on it."

That's how people make passive income and say that they "make money while they sleep." Anyway, here is a screenshot of one of my payments. This payout equates to about 2 hours of work. Wouldn't you like to make $300/hour?

Trust me, affiliate marketing works. It's not a scam, it requires work but once you get the hang of it, it's easier than you think. Here's the proof.

The post Affiliate Marketing Works. Here’s proof. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The post What is Affiliate Marketing Vlog 3-27 appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Let me explain it the best way I understand it. Affiliate Marketing is the process of marketing a product for someone and getting a commission when the target audience or intended consumer purchases the product or service. I also asked the Twitter world what they thought Affiliate marketing is (answers at the bottom of the post).

In other words, being an affiliate is pretty much like being a salesman. You promote a product and when it sells you get a commission. There are a few differences between an affiliate (the person that does affiliate marketing) and a sales person.

An affiliate tends to be a jack of all traits. While a salesperson can have many skills, generally their job doesn't require all of them and instead they just need to know their one product inside out. Salespeople tend to know one product or product line and they know it well and they work for that one company that produces that item or series of items. An affiliate marketer is a high-tech sales person. They need to know how a website works, how email systems work and they must be in tune with more than one product.

Often times, affiliate marketers build their own websites, run their own email systems and run their own ppc, or cpm campaigns. They have to go out and hustle and make connections and partnerships  often these are calle JV's (joint ventures). The difference as I see it between a salesperson and affiliate is that a salesperson tends to sell one thing and usually for one company. An affiliate may sell a dozen or more products from as many companies.

In order to get started with affiliate marketing, all you need to do is come up with something you're good at and find related products in that space or niche so you can promote them. For example, I'm an affiliate for various hosting companies, software companies and service providers related to internet technologies. You'll find them throughout my site either on the sidebar as sponsors, or sometimes in my blogposts.

You can find tons and tons of affiliate programs on the internet. They can be related to virtually any industry and they offer various commissions structures. Some of the most common affiliate marketing niches are fitness, health, and making money or starting your own business. Obviously, the more popular a niche is, the more competition you'll encounter.

Sometimes, you can make a flat fee commission, sometimes the payments are percentage based. Sometimes, your favorite products have affiliate programs you can join. And since you're (presumably) happy with the products, you may tell your friends about it. Why not get paid when you do that? That's the core of affiliate marketing. Promoting products and getting paid to do so.

The best example I have is my Free WordPress offer. If you buy the hosting which I recommend, the company in turn will pay me a commission. This is how I can build you a free WordPress site with all the bells and whistles.

There are many other topics I'll cover surrounding affiliate marketing, like ethics, affiliate networks, promotion techniques and methods, and who's who of internet marketing (the parent industry of affiliate marketing). Stay tuned.
I also went out to Twitter and asked the question. I got a number of responses. Mostly they seem to be negative and appear to come from jaded perspectives. Many people believe affiliate marketing to be a waste of time or right down unethical. But having been in the trenches with some of the biggest affiliates in the world, I can tell you that those notions couldn't be further from the truth. But I'll share the answers I got anyway:

@notagrouch use your digital reach to promote someone else's marketplace offers for a fee.

— Sales Performance.ca (@SPerformance_) March 24, 2013

This is a great answer, succinct and to the point but it also speaks a little bit about how to approach the affiliate marketing space. "Using your digital reach" is key because you should promote products or services which you believe in and you'll most likely be able reach those people that are within your network already.

@notagrouch probably a whole bunch of work for little ROI ???

— Jolie B Studios (@JolieBStudios) March 24, 2013

This is a typical answer for almost anything that you do to make money. You gotta keep in mind, most people give up way too early and way to easily. Affiliate marketing is not a quick rich scheme, and if you ever enter the space, stay away from anyone that promises you'll make tons of money overnight. It just doesn't happen that way.

In perspective, some of the biggest names in the world have affiliate programs. For example, Amazon, Home Depot, Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and new names too, like Hootsuite.

Speaking of the biggest names in the industry. My buddy John Chow weighed in, as usual with some humor:

@notagrouch Affiliate Marketing was invented by @johnchow

— John Chow (@JohnChow) March 25, 2013

By the way, it is worth mentioning that before I ever met John Chow in person, he had inspired me to make money online. He is a huge influence and has taught me a lot of amazing things about internet marketing.

Another one of my friends also gave a good answer:

Hi Oscar,marketing other business products,earn commission, giving more exposure to company product RT @notagrouch: What is affiliate mkting?

— Lynn Brown (@LearnIt2EarnIt) March 25, 2013

Here are a few more answers I received:

@notagrouch IMO, affiliate marketing is a group of marketers, sales, promoters, all representing for the same brand name of product(s).

— Dennis Coble (@DK_Coble) March 24, 2013

@notagrouch - Affiliate Marketing is when one promotes/markets a product/service. They receive commissions for each sale they generate.

— iDefineTV (@iDefineTV) March 24, 2013

To learn more about Affiliate Marketing, you can read my posts tagged with Affiliate Marketing section and make sure you attend the next Affiliate Summit.

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