This is something that I wanted to write about for a while now - Honestly, I'm not sure I'm qualified to write anything more than my opinions, but I'm going to anyway :)
When I had my bad experience with Affiliate Junktion I made a determined decision to start building a REAL Online Business. I had been signed up for GDI and done some work on it, but I was still looking for that "Big Money" kind of program. That experience with Affiliate Junktion was unsettling though - I thought 'how could a company obviously making SO much money off me, just screw me over like that?' - I didn't want anything like that to EVER happen again.
So I started doing everything I could to build GDI - It's working, I'm building a solid team. But there is still a MASSIVE need for online marketers to make that Instant Income - People don't get into online marketing looking for Work and they aren't in it to "see the big picture". They want to sign up for something flashy and get rich -
GDI, no matter what sales pages may claim, is NOT an easy business. It takes time and effort. It is a long term business - I have made the GDI Leaderboard 3 times over the past 6 weeks - I am on it again this week. But it's only because it is my focus and my goal to build automated income and a residual paycheck.
When my GDI Business turns into a couple hundred members, and a few levels down, I will have created a life long residual income that will grow month after month.
So no, it's not easy - But the Ultimate Goal of passive, residual income is absolutely worth it.
Join my GDI Team through GDI Gold Rush - This site is the main reason I have made the leaderboards recently. Just go to http://greatopportunities.tk/
So GDI is my Long Term business - I also realize there is a need to earn immediate income. Even with my recent success with GDI, I've only made $300 in bonuses and about $90/month in residual.
So I have to earn immediate income as well - Not only for myself, but for my GDI members. If they don't make any money, they aren't going to stay interested. Then they will quit - I don't want to lose my GDI team, I want them to see my success and understand that it can happen for them as well -
Here are a few of my immediate income earners:
Free Site Signup
This is a great affiliate program so far. Comes with TONS of promotion options which certainly can be a bit daunting - Right now I'm focusing on the referrals portion, but I am slowly moving into the Debt Relief & other niche landing pages that they offer. They give you everything from Water to Gas Conversion to Weight Loss. They even have review sites for various ClickBank products and if you've ever looked into ClickBank, you can make some HIGH commissions there.
In my first 3 weeks I have $800 in pending commissions and another $100 for the signup bonus. That's pretty good considering 10 of those days I was in Hawaii on vacation and wasn't able to do any of my day to day marketing activities.
Right now this is my top "Instant Income" earner - $50 per referral PLUS 5% of your referrals earnings for life.
You can signup and get a full 30 day trial for only $8.95 - That gives you everything and comes with a $100 signup bonus.
You get 22 different landing pages as soon as you sign up.
Join Free Site Signup Here
Take Option #1 for Free Site Signup
I'm still in GDI and that is my focus, but lets face it. It's not easy to get 5 levels of signups and we need to make some money in the meantime.
20 Ways to $100/day
This is a great program! You buy the Ebook 1 time and it comes with exactly what it says: 20 different ways to earn $100 per day. You pick and choose which opportunity may be right for you. But besides that, it also comes with 100% resale rights - I've sold a couple dozen of these and I get the full $27 each time.
No other costs - Just $27 1 time - And it has pretty good appeal considering the double bonus of 20 different ways to $100/day AND the resale rights. Love it and recommend it 100%
Get 20 Ways to Make $100/day Here
SnapDollars UPDATE 1/29 - Snap Dollars is an absolute WASTE of time. I thought maybe I would give the freebie seekers something easy - So I put it on Link Referral for a couple weeks. In no time at all I had 42 referrals. Guess how much I made? 18 CENTS! that's right - 18 freaking CENTS. And that's with 42 referrals!
Don't waste your time with survey's, pay to click stuff, email reading - It's total GARBAGE - I am removing the link cause this is just that bad. It's almost laughable to get 42 referrals and earn 18cents....Do not waste your time!
Anyway, as you can see I am working with a LOT of different stuff. My main focus is on building my GDI Business, but I need a way to "pay the bills" until GDI builds up to the point when it becomes automated income.
I would NOT recommend taking up all of these programs - I am in all of them, but I use PPC advertising for 90% of them, so it's really hands off advertising. You never want to bury yourself with too many projects. Even when I started advertising my Acme page, my GDI signups went down for a couple weeks. Whatever you focus your energy into is what will do the best. My focus is GDI - The rest of these programs are just a way to earn some extra income until my GDI business turns into real money
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Quick thought on why you need to build your OWN List
I am going through some website revamping this weekend. Working on organization and presentation. One thing I noticed was that my link to Ultimate Traffic System wasn't working - I looked around and found out the domain name had expired - So Poof, just like that, another 50+ downline members gone - And for what? $10/year?
The thing that sucks for me is that is now 50 less people on my email list(s). I used to be able to email my downline there once/week.
Now those 50 emails/downline members aren't that many (Sucks that I paid for a lifetime Pro membership though! I had about $30 in commissions never paid either), but it was people who signed up THROUGH affiliate curve. It's not a lot of people, but it's at least a BIT more personal than any safelist email -
The fact that it disappeared doesn't affect me hardly at all - I have to now remove a free advertising resource from my site, but it was just another little "lesson" about online marketing.
The one lesson is that companies/programs/affiliations, etc. can disappear at ANY time. You should never by 100% loyal to ANY 1 company or product.
The next is that it's a good example of why you need to build your OWN email list.
Yes, the money is in your list - But it's more than this. Having a close email list is the best way to remind people that you are there. They say people often need to see something 7 times before they "trust it" - I actually don't really sell very much to my list at all. I use my list mostly to give advertising tips and program recommendations (although obviously program recommendations are selling).
Having your own list is also a great way to let people know you are serious about your success. If the only emails you can send out are on safelists, nobody is going to recognize you and you won't build any name recognition. Once people start to see you, your program, your products etc. they start to think You Must Be Doing Something Right - That makes them want to see what YOU are doing that is different from them.
For me, having my own list is actually very good motivation for me to keep on working hard. I remember several months back I had a very big name sign up for my newsletter - Someone I had seen all over traffic exchanges and what not. It actually made me nervous - I didn't send out ANYTHING for a couple weeks. I thought "shoot, now I have to come up with something good!" - I guess that was kinda silly - I have always been up front and honest about my experiences and never claimed to be any kind of expert, but it did intimidate me at first. I ended up using that as motivation to improve myself - Kind of like when people are counting on you, it's time to Step it Up a notch. Maybe that is just me, but I use my list as motivation to make myself a better marketer - The entire goal of my site was to give beginners a good start in online marketing - To get past the initial "get rich quick stage" and become more -
Anyway, that was another tangent and I gotta get some work done this weekend:
In Summation - Having your own list builds credibility. It gives you a reason to keep going and not quit when your frustrated. It also is a big help when you find a new program that you think is awesome and you can send it out to 700 people who are already familiar with you and trust your recommendations.
So get serious, get an Aweber account and start building your own list. Traffic Exchanges are EXCELLENT for building a list. Learn how to use them properly and in a few months you will have your own personal list of people that come to YOU for help and advice.
The thing that sucks for me is that is now 50 less people on my email list(s). I used to be able to email my downline there once/week.
Now those 50 emails/downline members aren't that many (Sucks that I paid for a lifetime Pro membership though! I had about $30 in commissions never paid either), but it was people who signed up THROUGH affiliate curve. It's not a lot of people, but it's at least a BIT more personal than any safelist email -
The fact that it disappeared doesn't affect me hardly at all - I have to now remove a free advertising resource from my site, but it was just another little "lesson" about online marketing.
The one lesson is that companies/programs/affiliations, etc. can disappear at ANY time. You should never by 100% loyal to ANY 1 company or product.
The next is that it's a good example of why you need to build your OWN email list.
Yes, the money is in your list - But it's more than this. Having a close email list is the best way to remind people that you are there. They say people often need to see something 7 times before they "trust it" - I actually don't really sell very much to my list at all. I use my list mostly to give advertising tips and program recommendations (although obviously program recommendations are selling).
Having your own list is also a great way to let people know you are serious about your success. If the only emails you can send out are on safelists, nobody is going to recognize you and you won't build any name recognition. Once people start to see you, your program, your products etc. they start to think You Must Be Doing Something Right - That makes them want to see what YOU are doing that is different from them.
For me, having my own list is actually very good motivation for me to keep on working hard. I remember several months back I had a very big name sign up for my newsletter - Someone I had seen all over traffic exchanges and what not. It actually made me nervous - I didn't send out ANYTHING for a couple weeks. I thought "shoot, now I have to come up with something good!" - I guess that was kinda silly - I have always been up front and honest about my experiences and never claimed to be any kind of expert, but it did intimidate me at first. I ended up using that as motivation to improve myself - Kind of like when people are counting on you, it's time to Step it Up a notch. Maybe that is just me, but I use my list as motivation to make myself a better marketer - The entire goal of my site was to give beginners a good start in online marketing - To get past the initial "get rich quick stage" and become more -
Anyway, that was another tangent and I gotta get some work done this weekend:
In Summation - Having your own list builds credibility. It gives you a reason to keep going and not quit when your frustrated. It also is a big help when you find a new program that you think is awesome and you can send it out to 700 people who are already familiar with you and trust your recommendations.
So get serious, get an Aweber account and start building your own list. Traffic Exchanges are EXCELLENT for building a list. Learn how to use them properly and in a few months you will have your own personal list of people that come to YOU for help and advice.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Updates to my home website
Tonight I added some articles to my section - I think the Beginners Guide to Traffic Exchanges was far too important to leave as just 1 link on a back page -
I'm still working on more - I started writing an article, but I can't just go on my site and write it - I have to write it where I can think about it and edit it: So I guess the "new" articles will have to wait...But just to share, I'm working on revamping a lot of stuff in my site this weekend...
Last night I added some of the Link Referral reviews - There are over 1,000 great reviews to choose from, so it was easy and quick to find a few nice ones - I'm trying to "add credibility" for even the "get rich quick" seekers...
Anyway, more coming later (I'm afraid to report this was originally a GREAT video from OBA all about MLM and the REAL story about why MLM is the BEST business model online - Problem is you have to be an OBA member...It looked like a generic link I might be able to link straight to, but alas is only for OBA members - Too bad cause it's an EXCELLENT video about MLM and Network Marketing)
I'm still working on more - I started writing an article, but I can't just go on my site and write it - I have to write it where I can think about it and edit it: So I guess the "new" articles will have to wait...But just to share, I'm working on revamping a lot of stuff in my site this weekend...
Last night I added some of the Link Referral reviews - There are over 1,000 great reviews to choose from, so it was easy and quick to find a few nice ones - I'm trying to "add credibility" for even the "get rich quick" seekers...
Anyway, more coming later (I'm afraid to report this was originally a GREAT video from OBA all about MLM and the REAL story about why MLM is the BEST business model online - Problem is you have to be an OBA member...It looked like a generic link I might be able to link straight to, but alas is only for OBA members - Too bad cause it's an EXCELLENT video about MLM and Network Marketing)
Friday, January 9, 2009
Jotting some stuff down to work on later
Tonight I took a drive home to spend the weekend with my family. It was a nice chance to take a drive and listen to music for a couple hours.
I used the time to think about my projects that I want to work on - I have a lot of stuff that is "coming into focus" and a lot of stuff to add to my site
I should probably keep a little recording device on me at all times - I have so many thoughts for different stuff I could do and try out, then I don't get it on paper or remember it long enough to ever make use of it - So I wanted to take a few minutes and jot down some thoughts on upcoming projects
First, Article writing and my home site:
I have some ideas for articles, and I also need to "re-vamp" my site a bit. I get a lot of reviewers who say there is too much info on there - That's fine - My site is all about content...It's not meant to be glitzy or pretty - It's meant to provide my experience and opinion of programs...But it could use some touching up...
Article Ideas to work on:
One Time Offers - What factors should go into your decision making process when considering the MANY OTO's we encounter in online marketing
When did MLM Become a Dirty Word? I think I want to write something about a general misconception about MLM - See everytime someone hears MLM, they have negative connotations associated with it - MLM Simply means this: You AND I both earn THE SAME - The people who work harder and get more signups/downline members earn more - Those who do less work, earn less - I don't understand how people have such negative feelings when they hear the word MLM
Residual Income vs. Short Term Income - The difference and the goals we should have as business owners - This is QUITE a lengthy topic, but I want to have SOMETHING on my site outlining this simple concept for people - Certain businesses should be looked at as a Long Term Business (Like GDI for 98% of us) while something like Free Affiliate Insider is about instant income - I do believe we absolutely need both - My goal is to earn immediate income, while building a long term business with GDI - The entire point, for me, is to NOT have to work - I didn't get into online marketing to spend hours and hours online posting free ads or surfing traffic exchanges...If you are always building a long term business, eventually that can turn into residual income - When that happens, you don't "have" to do anything any longer -
Maybe that's too much stuff - who knows :)
Also, need to come up with some sort of "short and sweet" business builder - The one thing I have learned is that people in online marketing have a VERY short attention span - You can't give someone a huge downline building program with 40 different things and expect them to succeed - What you have to do is figure out What Works Where - For instance, traffic exchanges should be used for 1 thing: List Building - PPC traffic is used for Selling - Something like this
So I'm working and thinking about an "all in one" short series of how to build your business...Certain things need to be included - You MUST have your own Autoresponder. It comes down to a matter of being respectable online - You MUST have a web presence - Your own site is almost mandatory...I have stumbled across several blogs lately and those are great - They don't cost a dime, they do well in search engines, and you write and promote whatever you like -
Anyway, as you can see - Lots of projects and not much focus -
That was what this is - My own personal jotting down for stuff to work on this next week - I have another post coming up right away, but shouldn't be put here -
Oh - Traffic Exchange Page! New ideas - Build another traffic exchange page using JUST a free site - That way anyone can sign up...I HATED that google pages stopped accepting signups just weeks after I used them to build my TE pages...The best free service I ever used for building a quick splash page, and it's gone - So I'm going to use SynthaSite or one of the blogs and build a splash page JUST for list building on Traffic Exchanges...I got nearly 600 subscirbers to my Power Traffic Course - This is the best kind of list building anyone can do - And 600 subscribers isn't Thousands or Millions, but you know what? They read my emails - They respond and ask questions - They see that I'm just like them...I'm learning how to make money online - It's not easy, and I'm not an expert of any kind...But I'm past the initial learning curve and I'm beginning to figure stuff out - That's all I can try to do - Be honest and share what works for me.
So anyway, need another list builder page - Something that ANYONE can set up and do themselves - It will include the traffic exchange stuff, the beginners guide to exchanges, the best paid exchanges online and the best free traffic exchanges - I'm thinking of titles along the lines of "Are you past the Get Rich Stage Yet?" or something like "I'm here for the long haul, are you?" - ANyway, has to be catchy to get attention and has to offer what surfers want - So I will try to come up with a good title to entice subscriptions
Other stuff - Hmm, - Next blog post :)
I used the time to think about my projects that I want to work on - I have a lot of stuff that is "coming into focus" and a lot of stuff to add to my site
I should probably keep a little recording device on me at all times - I have so many thoughts for different stuff I could do and try out, then I don't get it on paper or remember it long enough to ever make use of it - So I wanted to take a few minutes and jot down some thoughts on upcoming projects
First, Article writing and my home site:
I have some ideas for articles, and I also need to "re-vamp" my site a bit. I get a lot of reviewers who say there is too much info on there - That's fine - My site is all about content...It's not meant to be glitzy or pretty - It's meant to provide my experience and opinion of programs...But it could use some touching up...
Article Ideas to work on:
One Time Offers - What factors should go into your decision making process when considering the MANY OTO's we encounter in online marketing
When did MLM Become a Dirty Word? I think I want to write something about a general misconception about MLM - See everytime someone hears MLM, they have negative connotations associated with it - MLM Simply means this: You AND I both earn THE SAME - The people who work harder and get more signups/downline members earn more - Those who do less work, earn less - I don't understand how people have such negative feelings when they hear the word MLM
Residual Income vs. Short Term Income - The difference and the goals we should have as business owners - This is QUITE a lengthy topic, but I want to have SOMETHING on my site outlining this simple concept for people - Certain businesses should be looked at as a Long Term Business (Like GDI for 98% of us) while something like Free Affiliate Insider is about instant income - I do believe we absolutely need both - My goal is to earn immediate income, while building a long term business with GDI - The entire point, for me, is to NOT have to work - I didn't get into online marketing to spend hours and hours online posting free ads or surfing traffic exchanges...If you are always building a long term business, eventually that can turn into residual income - When that happens, you don't "have" to do anything any longer -
Maybe that's too much stuff - who knows :)
Also, need to come up with some sort of "short and sweet" business builder - The one thing I have learned is that people in online marketing have a VERY short attention span - You can't give someone a huge downline building program with 40 different things and expect them to succeed - What you have to do is figure out What Works Where - For instance, traffic exchanges should be used for 1 thing: List Building - PPC traffic is used for Selling - Something like this
So I'm working and thinking about an "all in one" short series of how to build your business...Certain things need to be included - You MUST have your own Autoresponder. It comes down to a matter of being respectable online - You MUST have a web presence - Your own site is almost mandatory...I have stumbled across several blogs lately and those are great - They don't cost a dime, they do well in search engines, and you write and promote whatever you like -
Anyway, as you can see - Lots of projects and not much focus -
That was what this is - My own personal jotting down for stuff to work on this next week - I have another post coming up right away, but shouldn't be put here -
Oh - Traffic Exchange Page! New ideas - Build another traffic exchange page using JUST a free site - That way anyone can sign up...I HATED that google pages stopped accepting signups just weeks after I used them to build my TE pages...The best free service I ever used for building a quick splash page, and it's gone - So I'm going to use SynthaSite or one of the blogs and build a splash page JUST for list building on Traffic Exchanges...I got nearly 600 subscirbers to my Power Traffic Course - This is the best kind of list building anyone can do - And 600 subscribers isn't Thousands or Millions, but you know what? They read my emails - They respond and ask questions - They see that I'm just like them...I'm learning how to make money online - It's not easy, and I'm not an expert of any kind...But I'm past the initial learning curve and I'm beginning to figure stuff out - That's all I can try to do - Be honest and share what works for me.
So anyway, need another list builder page - Something that ANYONE can set up and do themselves - It will include the traffic exchange stuff, the beginners guide to exchanges, the best paid exchanges online and the best free traffic exchanges - I'm thinking of titles along the lines of "Are you past the Get Rich Stage Yet?" or something like "I'm here for the long haul, are you?" - ANyway, has to be catchy to get attention and has to offer what surfers want - So I will try to come up with a good title to entice subscriptions
Other stuff - Hmm, - Next blog post :)
Friday, January 2, 2009
2009 Goals & Programs
Hi,
That last post was ridiculously long winded - Sometimes I just can't help myself.
This post is going to be more serious - I need to outline my goals and programs for 2009.
First, my GDI Business - This is priority 1. In December I doubled my GDI Downline. I went from 32 members in 4 months, to just over 70 total now. I did it with 2 programs:
http://greatopportunities.tk/
and: http://realmoneyfromhome.info/
I did spend plenty of money - But in my mind, it's an investment. Every GDI Member that joins my downline has the potential to build the GDI business for me. I'm sure a lot of people look at a GDI signup as only being $1/month - I don't - I see it as a potential to have a GDI member who goes out and gets 20-30 in THEIR downline...And by me just getting that 1 signup, I could really be getting 20-30 (or more) each time -
So by investing the money up front, I am building a GDI team - A Team that comes to me for advice and promotion tips. And any of them could end up being like me - Someone who is driven to success and will do whatever it takes to accomplish it.
My goal for GDI this year is to have 200 in my downline - Last month I had 40 signups. I am hoping to have another 40 this month - Pretty soon, some of my team is going to be building their own teams and that is when GDI turns into a real income -
I built the Acme Page using Homestead - What a great service. You get a full 30 day trial without even using a credit card. And the base hosting plan includes a TON of great templates and easy to use features - And if you decide that you like what you built, it's only $5/month to have your site published and hosted.
That is a great deal - It's even easier to use than the Yahoo SiteBuilder and cheaper. I don't know if I'm ready to try and "move" all my websites to Homestead, but I'm strongly considering it - Yahoo is like $14/month - It's pretty pricey compared to most hosting plans. Then again, I'm such a clutz when it comes to FTP and transferring sites, I probably shouldn't bother - Besides, most of my important email is all on yahoo - And I don't want to screw that up - Not to save a few bucks/month -
But any new sites I'm building with Homestead for sure -
Okay, other programs: Dieting!
I joined Free Affiliate Insider and got my own diet site. This is a great program
First, I believe it's going to be big because it's obviously a market that is about to be FLOODED with traffic. Everyone goes on a diet after the New Year and this gives us a chance to earn some serious money.
You get hosting for roughly $47 - You pick your own domain name and follow the advertising instructions. It's all laid out very simple and easy to follow. Every time someone takes a free trial, you earn a $20 commission - Over and Over -
Worried about the cost? Free Affiliate Insider GUARANTEES you make $100 WITHIN 48 hours!
so in less than 2 days you earn GUARANTEED commission of at least $100!
Yes, it's true - I got my $100 in less than 2 days, so I can back this program 100%
You can get your own Diet Review Website from Free Affiliate Insider here:
I'm going to be focusing my efforts here as well - We all need to earn that immediate income, and this is a great way to do that - Simple and laid out step by step -
If you want to see my site, just go to http://www.realdiethelp.com/
As you can see, this is a very nice website that I believe is an excellent "seller"
OTHER PROGRAMS:
I never limit myself - I'm always looking for the easiest ways to make money online. I am focused on building my GDI Business, but like I mentioned throughout, we need to make money while we are building a long term business
So I'm promoting Acme People Search - This is what I built my own website for, http://realmoneyfromhome.info/
You earn up to $30/referral AND build GDI as a long term business.
Acme is an excellent program and there are lots of ways to make money. I am finding that people still will not commit to the advertising costs of $29/month. I get lots of signups for step 1 & 2, but then everyone freezes up at 3 I guess.
This is a tricky proposition because the referrals stipulate that you must have OK ratings for step 2 and 3 - 50% is OK - this is where it gets tricky for everyone. As much as Tissa has gone out of his way to really work with me, I am still finding little success in getting step 2 & 3 completions - Nobody Wants to Spend MONEY -
So right now I am heavily promoting Acme - It is building my GDI Business and I'm earning more than enough through just the Reunion referrals to compensate the costs, but I've got over $1k on hold because of referral ratings -
I'd love to sit here and sugarcoat everything but unless you are a good marketer, you may become very frustrated with Acme People Search. It's a brilliant system - It builds GDI, you earn money through 5 different sources...But there is just something about people spending $29/month for the advertising - I made my page Specifically so I could do the "pre-sell" - Still, finding the same results...Lots of step 1 & 2's, but little step 3's -
So if you join Acme (and I do recommend it highly), don't go in thinking all you do is "signup and get rich" - it takes work - I would recommend building your own webpage or blog and give YOUR experience with the program. Just pluggin in the affiliate page doesn't work very well - So if you join, keep that in mind. It's good for income and it's great for GDI - It's just not as easy as it sounds - I love it, but I spent a lot of time and money setting up the promotion campaign that I have - If you really want to succeed with it, you will have to put some work in -
That isn't everything I'm into of course - I have my OBA business going decently. I have another "clone" of affiliate junktion that seems to be okay. Basically, it's very easy to sell but you don't earn any long term income - But I need immediate income as well as long term - As of today I have been advertising for 2 weeks and earned just over $300, so it's easy, but I'm not ready to promote it to my close friends and email list until I actually get paid
I will tell you about something that is in the back of my mind though. Even before the AJ stuff, I realized that these businesses can come and go any time they please - The AJ program is simple, and it's brilliant really. Did you know that most hosting companies pay you up to $100 per referral? That is a big commission!
I've had it in the back of my mind to come up with my own affiliate program - Something "like" Affiliate Junktion where you basically are selling hosting - But you sell it as THE PROGRAM. At $100/referral, you can REALLY rack up commissions in a jiffy.
But I don't know enough about the business aspect of that stuff - I would need someone who knows programming and can build "ready to go" websites - I would need someone to handle the business side of everything with setting up taxes and all that stuff.
But I'll tell you what I would do - I would give my affiliate a Fair Deal! I wouldn't cut 70% of their commissions after I promised to pay them for free leads and I wouldn't switch currencies on them whenever it pleased me.
Someday my goal is to run my own affiliate program - Something involving GDI would be excellent - Some simple $10/month business with some other immediate income generators...Something that practically anyone could do - Who knows - I'm surely a long way off with coming up with my own Affiliate Program - But ultimately, who makes all the money? The Boss, right? So to make the money, you got to be the boss - Maybe that should be my affiliate programs name "be the boss" - Yeah, like that's original :)
alright, till next time -
That last post was ridiculously long winded - Sometimes I just can't help myself.
This post is going to be more serious - I need to outline my goals and programs for 2009.
First, my GDI Business - This is priority 1. In December I doubled my GDI Downline. I went from 32 members in 4 months, to just over 70 total now. I did it with 2 programs:
http://greatopportunities.tk/
and: http://realmoneyfromhome.info/
I did spend plenty of money - But in my mind, it's an investment. Every GDI Member that joins my downline has the potential to build the GDI business for me. I'm sure a lot of people look at a GDI signup as only being $1/month - I don't - I see it as a potential to have a GDI member who goes out and gets 20-30 in THEIR downline...And by me just getting that 1 signup, I could really be getting 20-30 (or more) each time -
So by investing the money up front, I am building a GDI team - A Team that comes to me for advice and promotion tips. And any of them could end up being like me - Someone who is driven to success and will do whatever it takes to accomplish it.
My goal for GDI this year is to have 200 in my downline - Last month I had 40 signups. I am hoping to have another 40 this month - Pretty soon, some of my team is going to be building their own teams and that is when GDI turns into a real income -
I built the Acme Page using Homestead - What a great service. You get a full 30 day trial without even using a credit card. And the base hosting plan includes a TON of great templates and easy to use features - And if you decide that you like what you built, it's only $5/month to have your site published and hosted.
That is a great deal - It's even easier to use than the Yahoo SiteBuilder and cheaper. I don't know if I'm ready to try and "move" all my websites to Homestead, but I'm strongly considering it - Yahoo is like $14/month - It's pretty pricey compared to most hosting plans. Then again, I'm such a clutz when it comes to FTP and transferring sites, I probably shouldn't bother - Besides, most of my important email is all on yahoo - And I don't want to screw that up - Not to save a few bucks/month -
But any new sites I'm building with Homestead for sure -
Okay, other programs: Dieting!
I joined Free Affiliate Insider and got my own diet site. This is a great program
First, I believe it's going to be big because it's obviously a market that is about to be FLOODED with traffic. Everyone goes on a diet after the New Year and this gives us a chance to earn some serious money.
You get hosting for roughly $47 - You pick your own domain name and follow the advertising instructions. It's all laid out very simple and easy to follow. Every time someone takes a free trial, you earn a $20 commission - Over and Over -
Worried about the cost? Free Affiliate Insider GUARANTEES you make $100 WITHIN 48 hours!
so in less than 2 days you earn GUARANTEED commission of at least $100!
Yes, it's true - I got my $100 in less than 2 days, so I can back this program 100%
You can get your own Diet Review Website from Free Affiliate Insider here:
I'm going to be focusing my efforts here as well - We all need to earn that immediate income, and this is a great way to do that - Simple and laid out step by step -
If you want to see my site, just go to http://www.realdiethelp.com/
As you can see, this is a very nice website that I believe is an excellent "seller"
OTHER PROGRAMS:
I never limit myself - I'm always looking for the easiest ways to make money online. I am focused on building my GDI Business, but like I mentioned throughout, we need to make money while we are building a long term business
So I'm promoting Acme People Search - This is what I built my own website for, http://realmoneyfromhome.info/
You earn up to $30/referral AND build GDI as a long term business.
Acme is an excellent program and there are lots of ways to make money. I am finding that people still will not commit to the advertising costs of $29/month. I get lots of signups for step 1 & 2, but then everyone freezes up at 3 I guess.
This is a tricky proposition because the referrals stipulate that you must have OK ratings for step 2 and 3 - 50% is OK - this is where it gets tricky for everyone. As much as Tissa has gone out of his way to really work with me, I am still finding little success in getting step 2 & 3 completions - Nobody Wants to Spend MONEY -
So right now I am heavily promoting Acme - It is building my GDI Business and I'm earning more than enough through just the Reunion referrals to compensate the costs, but I've got over $1k on hold because of referral ratings -
I'd love to sit here and sugarcoat everything but unless you are a good marketer, you may become very frustrated with Acme People Search. It's a brilliant system - It builds GDI, you earn money through 5 different sources...But there is just something about people spending $29/month for the advertising - I made my page Specifically so I could do the "pre-sell" - Still, finding the same results...Lots of step 1 & 2's, but little step 3's -
So if you join Acme (and I do recommend it highly), don't go in thinking all you do is "signup and get rich" - it takes work - I would recommend building your own webpage or blog and give YOUR experience with the program. Just pluggin in the affiliate page doesn't work very well - So if you join, keep that in mind. It's good for income and it's great for GDI - It's just not as easy as it sounds - I love it, but I spent a lot of time and money setting up the promotion campaign that I have - If you really want to succeed with it, you will have to put some work in -
That isn't everything I'm into of course - I have my OBA business going decently. I have another "clone" of affiliate junktion that seems to be okay. Basically, it's very easy to sell but you don't earn any long term income - But I need immediate income as well as long term - As of today I have been advertising for 2 weeks and earned just over $300, so it's easy, but I'm not ready to promote it to my close friends and email list until I actually get paid
I will tell you about something that is in the back of my mind though. Even before the AJ stuff, I realized that these businesses can come and go any time they please - The AJ program is simple, and it's brilliant really. Did you know that most hosting companies pay you up to $100 per referral? That is a big commission!
I've had it in the back of my mind to come up with my own affiliate program - Something "like" Affiliate Junktion where you basically are selling hosting - But you sell it as THE PROGRAM. At $100/referral, you can REALLY rack up commissions in a jiffy.
But I don't know enough about the business aspect of that stuff - I would need someone who knows programming and can build "ready to go" websites - I would need someone to handle the business side of everything with setting up taxes and all that stuff.
But I'll tell you what I would do - I would give my affiliate a Fair Deal! I wouldn't cut 70% of their commissions after I promised to pay them for free leads and I wouldn't switch currencies on them whenever it pleased me.
Someday my goal is to run my own affiliate program - Something involving GDI would be excellent - Some simple $10/month business with some other immediate income generators...Something that practically anyone could do - Who knows - I'm surely a long way off with coming up with my own Affiliate Program - But ultimately, who makes all the money? The Boss, right? So to make the money, you got to be the boss - Maybe that should be my affiliate programs name "be the boss" - Yeah, like that's original :)
alright, till next time -
A New Year and Lots Going through my Head
There is a lot of stuff I've been wanting to post in my blog lately. Since the Affiliate Junktion debacle, I got VERY serious about building my long term business with GDI. I spent a lot of time and money on Affiliate Junktion and it set me back quite a bit - To the point where my wife is telling me I need to quit. It's understandable - I spent about $4,000 or so over the past 3 months advertising different things, most of which was spent on Affiliate Junktion. That's how I was able to get so many signups - I was spending about $30/day just on my AJ advertising. After my last payment were I earned less than what I had spent in September, I was very disparaged. I was expecting to make $4-5k - Not less than what I spent in advertising.
So I got damn serious about GDI. I knew that even though it would take time, at least I would be building a REAL income. Something that would end up working for me.
In November my GDI Downline was at 32 - Today it is at 71...It easily could have been 100, but several of the signups quit before they gave it any chance. That's fine - That's the way GDI goes. They say that 90% of the people who join you will quit - Most people do not have the resolve that I do to succeed. That is just something you have to push through. What you hope is that by getting enough signups, some of those who join will take it very seriously and follow your lead. That's all it takes really - Having a few people in your downline who are serious and want to succeed long term.
I made the GDI Leaderboard for 3 straight weeks. I got the bonus money on 2 of those 3 weeks. This week I have 4 signups and hopefully will get a couple more for another bonus. The $100 bonuses are really the only way to offset the advertising costs
I won't kid you - I'm not building my GDI team using traffic exchanges. I'm spending money on Google & Yahoo advertising. I'm at about $15/day right now - And despite the fact that I am technically "losing money" on the surface, any of the members that stay on my GDI Team could possibly turn into someone like me. Downline members like that, in the long run, will be well worth the investment now.
So my GDI Business is coming along nicely. I believe that in a few more months, I will be up to 150 members. My goal is to get to 200 - At that point, I'm "hoping" that enough of my downline will follow my lead and build their own business. That is when GDI becomes a monthly, residual income.
And that is my goal - Passive, residual income that continues to grow month after month.
Of course what I am finding is that the biggest problem with GDI is that it IS a long term business. Unless you are one of the superstars like Tissa or Ash who get 50+ signups every week, you never see enough income from it.
So you have to earn immediate income in the meantime. This is the area where EXPERIENCE really comes into play - Despite wasting several thousand dollars advertising Affiliate Junktion and getting screwed (sorry, just a fact), I did learn how to advertise using Google & Yahoo Pay Per Click. Now I can plug in ANY program and start advertising it right away. That is why once I started advertising GDI Gold Rush, I got signups almost immediately -
Now it takes me about 1 hour to set up a new campaign and get PPC traffic to it - Right away. That isn't to say you can just plug in anything...For instance, I plugged in a bunch of different Clickbank products and made ZERO sales. I plugged in a Generic GDI Page and got no signups - I got about 100 "prospects" but nobody joined - I plugged in SpiderWeb and got another 100 or so Spider Members - I ended up with zero results there (not even GDI signups)
I 'believe' the trick with selling clickbank products MAY be having your own web page and describing the product or reviewing it. I'm not sure exactly - All I know is I sent about 1k clicks out on 4 different clickbank products and made no sales - Maybe I didn't use proper country targeting - Maybe it's the fact that all I used was a generic clickbank link (no cloaker, just the affiliate link - I've read that people HATE buying something if they KNOW someone is making a commission off it - that makes sense to me) The trick with ClickBank cloaking is a certain set of URL redirects, but they basically require you to use the redirects IN a webpage - So simply advertising them on Google & Yahoo doesn't work for cloaking (seems to work in emails though)
As you can see, I still have a lot to learn :)
Anyway, moving on - The good thing is that for my affiliate pages, Like GDI Gold Rush or the Acme Page, these are whole websites that do a great presentation. The Affiliate Junktion site worked like a charm - I could get 300 clicks daily there because you sell it as "FREE".
Losing myself again, but this is my blog and that's what it's for - here is what i'm GETTING AT:
With the Power Traffic course, the entire point is that you setup all of this marketing to use at YOUR DISPOSAL - Once you know how to drive traffic, you can use it to promote Anything You Want!
Anytime I start a new program (yes, I do all the time!) I simply plug it into my Track that Ad Rotator and it's done - Then I just go to my different exchanges and allocate the credits -
This is also what is so powerful about Google & Yahoo advertising - YES, it's expensive - But it lets you know right away if something is working or not - You can set a budget of $3/day if you want (or less even).
And once you set up advertising, you just leave it alone - It works around the clock - Some people might say it's spending your money around the clock, but for me, I don't like surfing exchanges. I don't like spending a bunch of time on the computer. I would much rather take my family to the zoo and come check my email when I get home. When I pay for advertising, that's all I need to do - check email -
Still, not a perfect science by any means. I already mentioned all the stuff about the Click Bank products and what not - you can't just plug in ANYTHING and make a ton of money.
Other stuff - If you read this far, I'm going to give you my biggest tip for Google or Yahoo advertising. I don't EVER pay their "minimum" click amounts - You don't have to! For Affiliate Junktion, I was only spending 9-10cents per click - For all my advertising now, I only spend 12-13cents/click - What is the trick? Keywords & Ads - Lots of EACH!
I write 20-50 different ads - each one with a different keyword. Then I have several keywords outlining that particular ad - For instance, Earn Money Online would be the title, then just type in everything you can think of relating to that title (in keywords)
Do that over and over - Set your bids for 10-12cents and include the Content Network - ALWAYS have the content network on! You will never get keyword clicks with prices that low, but you will get content clicks - and that's where all my clicks come from -
I never bought any of the Get Google Ads Free things (although maybe I should have :)
I got that tip from an online marketing friend who sadly left my GDI downline right when I gave him the Gold Rush site. He and I have gone around a bit about Affiliate Junktion - Fact is I'm very soured by AJ and once I am soured, I hold grudges - There are TONS of affiliate opportunities online, and I will not waste my time with a company that screws me over like that - period -
Someday I do have to get over it though, don't I? :)
maybe not - This is going to be my super long dragged out post - I need to write another one for the new year and my goals and programs - something more "short & sweet" since us online marketers have zero attention span :)
coming right away - 2009 Goals & Programs
So I got damn serious about GDI. I knew that even though it would take time, at least I would be building a REAL income. Something that would end up working for me.
In November my GDI Downline was at 32 - Today it is at 71...It easily could have been 100, but several of the signups quit before they gave it any chance. That's fine - That's the way GDI goes. They say that 90% of the people who join you will quit - Most people do not have the resolve that I do to succeed. That is just something you have to push through. What you hope is that by getting enough signups, some of those who join will take it very seriously and follow your lead. That's all it takes really - Having a few people in your downline who are serious and want to succeed long term.
I made the GDI Leaderboard for 3 straight weeks. I got the bonus money on 2 of those 3 weeks. This week I have 4 signups and hopefully will get a couple more for another bonus. The $100 bonuses are really the only way to offset the advertising costs
I won't kid you - I'm not building my GDI team using traffic exchanges. I'm spending money on Google & Yahoo advertising. I'm at about $15/day right now - And despite the fact that I am technically "losing money" on the surface, any of the members that stay on my GDI Team could possibly turn into someone like me. Downline members like that, in the long run, will be well worth the investment now.
So my GDI Business is coming along nicely. I believe that in a few more months, I will be up to 150 members. My goal is to get to 200 - At that point, I'm "hoping" that enough of my downline will follow my lead and build their own business. That is when GDI becomes a monthly, residual income.
And that is my goal - Passive, residual income that continues to grow month after month.
Of course what I am finding is that the biggest problem with GDI is that it IS a long term business. Unless you are one of the superstars like Tissa or Ash who get 50+ signups every week, you never see enough income from it.
So you have to earn immediate income in the meantime. This is the area where EXPERIENCE really comes into play - Despite wasting several thousand dollars advertising Affiliate Junktion and getting screwed (sorry, just a fact), I did learn how to advertise using Google & Yahoo Pay Per Click. Now I can plug in ANY program and start advertising it right away. That is why once I started advertising GDI Gold Rush, I got signups almost immediately -
Now it takes me about 1 hour to set up a new campaign and get PPC traffic to it - Right away. That isn't to say you can just plug in anything...For instance, I plugged in a bunch of different Clickbank products and made ZERO sales. I plugged in a Generic GDI Page and got no signups - I got about 100 "prospects" but nobody joined - I plugged in SpiderWeb and got another 100 or so Spider Members - I ended up with zero results there (not even GDI signups)
I 'believe' the trick with selling clickbank products MAY be having your own web page and describing the product or reviewing it. I'm not sure exactly - All I know is I sent about 1k clicks out on 4 different clickbank products and made no sales - Maybe I didn't use proper country targeting - Maybe it's the fact that all I used was a generic clickbank link (no cloaker, just the affiliate link - I've read that people HATE buying something if they KNOW someone is making a commission off it - that makes sense to me) The trick with ClickBank cloaking is a certain set of URL redirects, but they basically require you to use the redirects IN a webpage - So simply advertising them on Google & Yahoo doesn't work for cloaking (seems to work in emails though)
As you can see, I still have a lot to learn :)
Anyway, moving on - The good thing is that for my affiliate pages, Like GDI Gold Rush or the Acme Page, these are whole websites that do a great presentation. The Affiliate Junktion site worked like a charm - I could get 300 clicks daily there because you sell it as "FREE".
Losing myself again, but this is my blog and that's what it's for - here is what i'm GETTING AT:
With the Power Traffic course, the entire point is that you setup all of this marketing to use at YOUR DISPOSAL - Once you know how to drive traffic, you can use it to promote Anything You Want!
Anytime I start a new program (yes, I do all the time!) I simply plug it into my Track that Ad Rotator and it's done - Then I just go to my different exchanges and allocate the credits -
This is also what is so powerful about Google & Yahoo advertising - YES, it's expensive - But it lets you know right away if something is working or not - You can set a budget of $3/day if you want (or less even).
And once you set up advertising, you just leave it alone - It works around the clock - Some people might say it's spending your money around the clock, but for me, I don't like surfing exchanges. I don't like spending a bunch of time on the computer. I would much rather take my family to the zoo and come check my email when I get home. When I pay for advertising, that's all I need to do - check email -
Still, not a perfect science by any means. I already mentioned all the stuff about the Click Bank products and what not - you can't just plug in ANYTHING and make a ton of money.
Other stuff - If you read this far, I'm going to give you my biggest tip for Google or Yahoo advertising. I don't EVER pay their "minimum" click amounts - You don't have to! For Affiliate Junktion, I was only spending 9-10cents per click - For all my advertising now, I only spend 12-13cents/click - What is the trick? Keywords & Ads - Lots of EACH!
I write 20-50 different ads - each one with a different keyword. Then I have several keywords outlining that particular ad - For instance, Earn Money Online would be the title, then just type in everything you can think of relating to that title (in keywords)
Do that over and over - Set your bids for 10-12cents and include the Content Network - ALWAYS have the content network on! You will never get keyword clicks with prices that low, but you will get content clicks - and that's where all my clicks come from -
I never bought any of the Get Google Ads Free things (although maybe I should have :)
I got that tip from an online marketing friend who sadly left my GDI downline right when I gave him the Gold Rush site. He and I have gone around a bit about Affiliate Junktion - Fact is I'm very soured by AJ and once I am soured, I hold grudges - There are TONS of affiliate opportunities online, and I will not waste my time with a company that screws me over like that - period -
Someday I do have to get over it though, don't I? :)
maybe not - This is going to be my super long dragged out post - I need to write another one for the new year and my goals and programs - something more "short & sweet" since us online marketers have zero attention span :)
coming right away - 2009 Goals & Programs
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