Thursday

Lost in TV Land

TV Land has grown in the past few years, especially in terms of high end televisions. The push to move toward hi-definition (HD) is making it almost necessary to brave the wild and see what’s available. Luckily, or unluckily depending on your view, there are a plethora of options available. So where is a quality and penny wise person to turn?

For those of you out there like me, we need a quality guide that will help us find our way. Thanks to The New TV Guide, we are able to find our way to everything we need to know about
home cinema systems.

Whether it’s DLP, Digital, or LCD TV’s this guide covers it all. In addition, it provides a very easy to follow break down of the TV differences and what you can expect. Taking your buying experience further, the guide helps with describing accessories you’ll need to complete any next generation TV purchase.


Wednesday

Hosting Affiliate Programs

You may remember me writing an article on Dream Host and the affiliate program that they offer. It is typical that hosting companies offer some sort of program, but some are better than others, as Dream Host clearly has very high payouts. However, if your looking for simplicity, then perhaps 1and1.com is the way to go.

1and1.com offers a very simple, yet effective affiliate program. Although the payouts are minimal, they can addup, especially if your using them as a hosting provider. I just signed up to one of their basic packages to try out their support/services, I'll report back here at what I have found. It's very hard to go wrong with basic packages starting at $2.50 per month though. lol

Although they don't offer the typical cPanel with their basic program, it's definately a newbie frineldy interface. Perhaps it will be pleasant to work with as a side project, but none of my serious high traffic sites. I'll report when I know more.

Banner

Friday

Blogging Job Board

ProBlogger.net is known for it's expertise on the blog market and what works when blogging. Their latest endeavor into the blog market is their Blogger Job Board. This board allows different blog sites to post help wanted ads, with many different niches available.

Currently there is a healthy list of about 15 professional blogs looking for help. Their topics cover everything from link building to linux topic blogs. In addition, their pay ranges as well, from pay per article, to words, to weekly.

Check out what they have to offer and get paid doing what you love.

The PayPerPost Agenda

Since it's creation PayPerPost.com has received attention from bloggers everywhere and not always in the positive manner. The fear to many bloggers is the idea that it commercializes the purest form of news, which is opinion fed blogging. No longer is it safe to trust a sites review of a product, they may be paid to play to make money blogging.

Dan is one such blogger that has adapted to what PayPerPost has to offer. In a recent article on his blog he discusses the pros/cons to such an infrastructure and it's acceptance amongst the net. Dan suggests that this advertising method is ahead of it's time and other major sites should adapt to it's style.

I see domain-specific social networking sites like MySpace and YouTube trying to play an advertising game that doesn't fit their core competency
Going on to explain what can cause a backlash amongst the community, users will slowly start moving toward services such as friendster.com and multiply.com.

Thursday

Learning Diversity

One of the most appealing aspects of earning money online is the very small cost to enter the market place. In typical brick'n mortar businesses there was a large startup fee, which keeps many would be competitors out. However, the internet creates an almost level playing field for all who are interested.

Creating a successful stream of income online should capitalize on the fact that startup costs are small. The risk of diversifying your sites and your affiliate networks is small, yet have the potential to yield great results. The old saying also holds true, don't put all your eggs in one basket, diversify your affiliate programs and the niche products your offering.

Franklin Banker of American Chronicle creates multiple streams of income in this very way, by taking advantage of niches and diversifying.

On the other hand, diversification is a much better strategy in affiliate marketing. I have developed many different online campaigns in many different niche markets, so if one does change or go away, I simply replace it with a similar one and move on with only a small disruption in my income. In this way I truly can make the claim that I have developed "multiple streams of income".
Banker also goes on to discuss how 'easy' it is to do online affiliating, but has left out the secret, so to speak. The days of easy-money on the net are gone and everything worth doing is worth doing right. Although it's relatively low cost to start up an affiliate program and launch a site, it is difficult to bring in targeted traffic. Learn to gain and channel traffic, that's when you find the easy-money.

Wednesday

Walker-i Service

Walker-i is a digital media agency who lies in bed with some major businesses. Recently they announced they would be launching a new affiliate program, Walker Affiliate Software Platform or WASP.

The launch of this software was done to increase efficiences and streamline payouts. The software will have the ability to manage CPA, CPC, lead generation, and supposedly other metrics as well. A number of campaigns will be managed with Walker-i software, name those of Barclay Bank of UK.

"Following six years working with affiliates while at a network I've formed strong business relationships with the UK's leading affiliate media owners. So when it came to working at Walker-i - it seemed the logical step to work with a select group of affiliates directly via a third party solution."

Saturday

AffiliateTip.com and Domains

AffiliateTip.com had an interesting article regarding domain names on Aug 16th. This is a great read for anyone that makes money on the internet, because the basics start with your identity. This identity is the first thing that visitors see, recognize, and remember...it's your site's domain name.

The domain of this site is Dead-Man-Blogging.Blogspot.com and if it was a bigger earner and a hardcore business objective, I would own many more domains. (Nevermind the fact that I would use my own hosting.) The article suggests businesses protect their online identities, even the names of top individuals within the company.

Note to remember: Register the wwwnameofsite.com, the url without the dot with any serious online endeavor.

Friday

Server Hosting Affiliate Program

Recently I signed up to the Dream Host affiliate program. First impressions of hte program leave me feeling slightly out of the loop, but promises of big earnings keeps me in line.

After being signed up for about a month my account has yet to be approved. Staring me in the face everytime I go to check my stats is the following message:

This account is currently pending approval.

If you've already made payment, please fax this form to us and you'll be approved within one business day... thanks!

Now, my fear is that the referrals will start rolling in and DreamHost will decide not to approve my account. However, another more likely scenario is that they do not approve new accounts that are not using them for hosting. Their affiliate agreement explicitly states that you do not have to use their hosting to be an affiliate partner.

For the time being I will continue to track my stats, see what I can earn and start sending emails if my $$'s start rising too high. Afterall they are offering $97 per referral or 10% of the referral for life. Needless to say there are definite possibilities to start earning some scrilla.

Check out what Dream Host has to offer:

Spreading Your Sites Content

Creating one website is difficult enough, but creating a network can be a nightmare. However, some of the most successful sites around are built on a family of sites, creating an interlinked network. If your starting out small, the easiest way to spread content is through RSS feeds.

FeedBurner.com provides an easy and automated way for you to spread "buzz" around for any site you choose, that has an RSS feed. FeedBurner generates some simple html coding that you can embed in any webpage, to display your sites content. This is especially beneficial for having snipets of your business blog on your business's homepage or subpage, without publishing the entire post. In addition, it is automatically updated everytime you make a post, which requires no further modification.

Wednesday

Listing Online Affiliate Site

Its been mentioned a number of times here and on other blogs, link building is the basic foundation for SEO(Search Engine Optimization). Afterall, you don't want to pay for all your traffic and by completing basic seo techniques you can enjoy the benefits of natural or organic traffic from SEs(Search Engines).

The fastest and easiest way to build backlinks is by submitting to directories. For new sites, finding quality directories that are free is the best route to go. Info.VileSilencer provides a great list of free , SEO friendly directories for you to submit to.

Submitting your site to the appropriate category is the next important step to getting the most out of your directory listing. Often times it's difficult to find the appropriate category for your affiliate marketed site, but fear not, there is always an option. The best categories to be listed in the Blackfox Directory would be Shopping and each sub-category therein. But if you can't find an appropriate category, feel free to suggest one.

Taking your time to submit to the Blackfox Directory and other quality link resources will help in gaining organic traffic to your affiliate site. Eventually, moving far enough up the SERPs will enable you to completely turn off your paid visitor methods... ;)

Tuesday

Leading the Affiliate Industry

The latest business helping to build affiliate marketing is straight out of Tokyo, Japan. ValueCommerce Co. is doing it's part to close the gap amongst affiliate marketers and manufacturers.

President Brian Nelson:
"(Clients) don't have to waste money on advertising. You're only paying for the benefit."
By taking advantage of affiliate marketing ValueCommerce, Co. is figuring out which half of the budget was lost on advertising. Through affilite marketing companies can enjoy the benefits of advertising, but only pay for results.

Read what the Japan Times has to say.

Vacation Rental

In a recent press release from MoreMouse.com, they announce the continued growth of Orlando, Florida and surrounding areas. Unknown to most people, Orlando receives more tourists each year than the entire population of California. This figure has a large impact on the economy of Orlando, making tourism a multi-billion dollar industry for the area.

Orlando, known for it's quick commute to 7 major theme parks is also a 45 min drive from beautiful countryside. Unknown to most is the fact that the surrounding area of Orlando resembles much of the beautiful scenery in the UK. Rolling hills, sunshine year round, and friendly communities makes it a must see destination point for anyone.

Although tourism makes up a large part of the Orlando economy, it only contains about 100,000 hotel rooms. The amount of rooms available makes it difficult to accomodate the almost 43.3 million visitors and this is according to 2000 statistics. So maybe finding a hotel room isn't the best route to take, rather a home rental would fit more your style.

If your looking for lodging in Florida consider an Orlando Vacation Home Rental. Consider the benefits of having a 15 min drive to downtown Orlando where you can enjoy the offerings of diverse restaurants and unparralleled shopping. So much to do and plenty of sunshine, spend some of that affiliate cash and take a Holiday in Orlando, Florida.

Paid to Blog

Affiliating is a great way to earn revenue with your blog, coupled with Adsense, and pay per post projects you can turn your hobby into a revenue earning venture. Currently, I am using 2 different paid to post programs. Blogitive, the newest and Pay-Per-Post which is an older and better established program.

The system is simple and easy to use, so anyone can earn. As a blogger you are offered products and sites to blog about, with a certain amount of rules. The requirements typically revolve around providing live links to site or product in question.

Once you have completed the project you are typically paid on a weekly basis, based on what the offer was. By completing a few of these projects per week you can easily add a few extra dollars to your wallet, at least pay for your coffee habit. So get paid to post in your blog and check out Blogitive.com and PayPerPost.com.

Saturday

Amazon Broken Link Reminder

Affiliate giant Amazon has created a new system that will check your affiliate links. By providing an quick and easy page check Amazon will be able to identify:

  • broken links
  • links to outdated or misspelled categories
  • links without Amazon.com Associate IDs
  • product links that have low inventory availability (e.g. out of stock, 4-6 weeks)
Definately good news for those of you with multiple sites and even more complex affiliate code. For example, if you have a different item your looking to affiliate per page. Making sure old pages have updated code can be a daunting task, this program is meant to aid in this process.

Thursday

P2P Affiliate

Kazaa has a new affiliate joining the anti-p2p movement. Altnet, Kazaa affiliate is joining forces with Sharman Networks to help enforce copyright infringement on it's file sharing software Kazaa.

Kazaa is known for having a huge user base with millions of files available for download, for free and without regard to copyright infringement. However, in a recent turn of events Kazaa has settled with the MPAA for a rather large sum of money and agreed to turn over a new leaf.

In addition to offering filter techniques to weed out the illegal files, Sharman networks has also hired Michael Speck. Speck was head of the anti-piracy investigation for the ARIA(Australian Recording Industry Association). A step in the right direction for legal download services. For more news and information on p2p and filesharing check out The-Grayline.com.

Tuesday

Christmas in August?

We are all familiar with the QVC Christmas in July and the programming is just enough to get you salivating over the Christmas season. Although 6 months away, Christmas is on the minds of many, trying to beat the rush, now is the time.

In a recent press release by GourmetGiftBaskets.com they discuss the story of the original St. Nick and how we reached the commercial holiday that is December 25th. Department stores world wide all celebrate Bishop Nicholas and what he's done for retail stores everywhere.

Buying for friends and family is one thing, but preparing for work buddies and bosses, this is a whole nother ball game. Fortunately there are sites such as GourmetGiftBaskets.com that provide their services to help you get your shopping out fo the way, even for these tough to buy for aquaintances. They provide the highest quality Corporate Christmas Gifts at the best prices and provide an easy to navigate website.

Not only does the site provide a wealth of baskets to choose from, which are perfect for associates and other corporate clients, but they also offer other services. Take for example, if you don't see something you want, simply ask and they will make it for you. So get Christmas over early this year, at least the rush, and check out GourmetGiftBaskets.com.