Simple Business Ideas

If you’re using free blog sites to build your business, listen to this. These sites are free to use, but to use these sites you have to follow their rules. If you don’t, you can have all of your blogs removed, never to be seen again. This was the focus of a couple of posts on the Warrior Forum recently. The links to these posts are at the bottom of this article.

These posts were about accounts shut down on blogspot and wordpress.com. Apparently what happened was that these marketers spent the time to create a few blogs. Then they found out that all of their hard work was for nothing because their accounts were shut down. The reason was that they didn’t follow the rules of these sites.

Even though these sites are free to use, they are not very tolerant if you don’t follow their rules. This is especially true with wordpress.com, not to be confused with a wordpress blog you have installed on your own site. On the free web site, they don’t like blatant commercial posts. They are quick to delete the account of anyone who violates this policy.

That isn’t to say that you shouldn’t use these sites. They are very useful and can get you a lot of backlinks and traffic to your money site. Just remember that they own the sites, they make the rules, and if you want to get the benefits of using their sites, you have to take the time to understand their policies.

And don’t base your entire business on using free sites. You can spend a few bucks on a few domain names and get a hosting account that allows unlimited sites. That way you can set up as many blogs as you want and advertise all you want.

Take a few minutes to read through the following threads so you can avoid having your free sites from being shut down.

Blogspot Blogs Removed Thread

Wordpress.com Killed All My Blogs Thread

Filed under: Marketing by Steve Wellman
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The way things are now, if you want to get someone to subscribe to your list, you need to offer an “ethical bribe” of some sort. Of course I’m talking about offering a bonus in exchange for a name and email address.

When you ask someone to enter information to get something, you have to motivate them to enter the desired information. The more information you ask for, the less likely it is that someone will subscribe. If you ask for name, email address, phone number, and postal address, you will find that you won’t get as many people willing to subscribe. The less information you ask for, the easier it is to get them onto your list.

That’s why most of the time all you’re asked for is name and email address. Once in a while you will come across a subscription box that only asks for an email address. And rarely you can get the free offer without having to give up any information at all.

This is something that you can test. The usual way of giving away your freebie is to offer it AFTER someone subscribes to your list. That’s the cost of getting the information. There are people who are willing to sign up right away, and there are other people who are reluctant to sign up for another list. Let’s face it, there are a lot of list owners who do nothing but send out promotion after promotion. I know you won’t do that, but potential subscribers don’t.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be requiring a name and email address before someone gets your bonus. It does mean that you need to be aware of the resistance that may be in the mind of some of your potential subscribers.

You can do things a little differently. You can offer your free bonus without any strings at all. No name and email address. Let anyone who wants it download it, and put info in your ebook that it can be given away freely. Why would you do this?

Because you are demonstrating the value that you’re delivering without someone signing up for your list. The key is to put an offer to subscribe to your list and a link to your optin form. You may not get as many subscribers this way, but the subscribers you do get are more targeted. And since you are allowing everyone to give it away, you could get more exposure for your offer than you could by yourself.

Another way to give away your bonus and still encourage them to subscribe is to give away your bonus and deliver great content. Then, let them know that you have more bonuses available for them absolutely free. All they have to do is subscribe to your list and they will get access to more of your great free content. There is no right or wrong way to get subscribers, just different ways.

There are a lot of private label rights products and resale rights products that you can purchase to give away that don’t cost a lot of money. And if you want to create your own report and create a PDF you can do it with OpenOffice for free. Hope this was useful for you.

Did you realize that there are really only 3 steps to building and profiting from a list? Marlon Sanders does, and he shares it in his FREE report called “ “The Only 3 Steps You Need To Make Tons Of Sales Online In 2010″. Get It Here…

Filed under: List by Steve Wellman
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If you’ve been involved with Internet marketing for any  length of time, you know that the fastest way to make the most money is to have your own products to sell. A lot of us start out by becoming involved with affiliate marketing. But making the jump from being an affiliate marketer to selling your own product is a pretty big step.

Not to worry. There are a lot of products available right now that you can buy, and once you have completed your purchase, you can sell the product as your own and keep all of the profits. The money is deposited directly into your account instead of you having to wait for a check to get paid.  These products are called Master Resale Rights products. So what exactly are Master Resale Rights products?

A product that comes with Master Resale Rights is a product that, once purchased, you can sell over and over again. You don’t have to share the profits with anyone. There are certain terms that come with Master Resale Rights products that you need to be aware of. Not all of the terms are the same, so be sure to go over them before you make your purchase.

With Master Resale Rights products, the product you get can’t be altered in any way. You have to sell it without any changes. Most of them come with a sales page, and you can edit the sales page any way you want. In fact, I wouldn’t waste my time with Master Resale Rights products that don’t include the web pages and graphics.

A lot of the Master Resale Rights products have terms that you need to be aware of. For example:

You may not be able to sell the product on an auction site.
You may not be able to give the product away.
You may not be able to use the product as a bonus.
You may be required to sell the product on its own, without adding any other products.
You may not be able to add the product to a membership site.

Master Resale Rights products great because all of the work has been done for you. The product is created, the web pages are done, the graphics are included. If you come across a Master Resale Rights product that doesn’t include all of these items, move on to one that does.

Settting up and selling a Master Resale Rights product is a great way to learn how to set up your web pages and order process. You won’t have to spend any time in product creation, and you can get started now.

Once you learn how to effectively use Master Resale Rights products, it will be a lot easier to make the move to creating and selling your own products. To find sources of Master Resale Rights products, do a search and you’ll have a lot to choose from.

Discover how to point and click your way to creating amazing web pages – sales pages, opt-in pages, article pages, review pages and more. See how easy it is by clicking here…

Filed under: Master Resale Rights by Steve Wellman
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I’ve got to admit it. I’ve become a bit lazy lately. I have an affiliate ID with ClickBank, and whenever I want to promote a product, I just go there and select a product from their marketplace. ClickBank is the biggest affiliate marketplace for downloadable products. But they aren’t the only affiliate network out there.

What happened to make me realize this? It came from an email that I read this week. In it, a marketer was promoting one of his products, and he mentioned that I could make some money if I became an affiliate for it. I took a look at the product, and decided to set up a promotion for it. After all, I had a ClickBank ID, so I was all set. Right?

No.

This marketer was selling through another affiliate network. One that I had heard of, but had never taken the time to take a look at. Big mistake. So I signed up for the free account at the new affiliate network, took a look around, and was very pleased with what I discovered.

The site is similar to ClickBank and it’s called PayDotCom. They have a huge list of products that you can promote in several categories. And it turns out that a lot of marketers have decided to leave ClickBank and sell their products through PayDotCom.

The thing I liked about PayDotCom is that it is easy to get an account, it’s free to sign up, and they have a lot of products to choose from.

If you’re interested in selling your own products, PayDotCom is less expensive and easier for you to get your product listed. While ClickBank charges $49 for each product you list, PayDotCom charges $29 once for as many products as you want to sell. Good news for cash strapped beginning marketers.

Get Started With PayDotCom Here…

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing by Steve Wellman
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Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money. But one thing that comes with the territory is losing the commission on affiliate sales. This can happen because there are people out there who will find out what product you are promoting and use THEIR affiliate link so they can get get paid instead of you. You can and should cloak your links, but if someone is determined, there’s no way to stop them.

Another problem is that even if someone clicks on your affiliate link, if they don’t buy right then, you won’t get the commission. If they do buy later on, you still won’t get paid unless they come back to your site and click on your link.

While there some sellers who will put a cookie on a visitors computer that gives you credit for the sale, it’s essential that you have your cookie put on your visitors computer for every affiliate promotion you do.

There’s a solution for you that’s free called CookieFire. Here are some of the features:

• It allows you to silently and invisibly cookie visitors to your blog and static pages without them knowing.
• It cuts dead those lost sales from people who simply WON’T click affiliate links.
• It DEFEATS the link cloaking problem – buyers KNOW that all a cloaking script hides is an affiliate link so often they just WON’T click.
• CookieFire gives you a serious advantage over other affiliates
• If you want to see a big hike in your affiliate commissions, make sure CookieFire is part of your affiliate toolkit.

Important Note:
I don’t know how long CookieFire is going to be available for free. So get it now. Even if you don’t have a wordpress blog, get it. Then when you do get your Wordpress blog, you’ll have it on your computer, ready to use. Get this immediately by clicking here…

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing by Steve Wellman
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Believe it or not, it’s really not that difficult to create a web site. First, you have to have the desire to learn how to do it, then you have to learn a few skills, and then you have to get started. It’s easier to create your site if you break it down into a step by step process. Here are 6 steps to creating a web site.

Step 1: Create Your Header Graphic
Most web sites have a header graphic. While it isn’t necessary, it can add a look of professionalism to your site. You can purchase them online or create them yourself. A no-cost way to do this is to use Xheader software. You can choose from over 500 header graphics in several themes. More info here…

Step 2: Add Special Effects To Your Header Graphic
This can be as simple as adding your picture, a picture of your product, adding drop shadows to the text, to adding animation. Not necessary, but it is worth looking into.

Step 3: Set Up Your Web Page
You can use free software to create and edit your web pages by using Kompozer. Select a layout for your web page, things such as tables, forms, graphics, and testimonial boxes. Or you can use templates. There are both free and paid templates available for you to use. Often these templates come with graphics included.

Step 4: Create Your Sales Letter
This is where you enter the content for your web pages. It can be a sales letter, an article, or an opt-in page. This is the step where you set up your pages to get your visitors to do what you want them to do – buy something, fill out a survey, or subscribe to your list.

Step 5: Set Up Your Payment Systems
Decide on how you are going to accept payments. This isn’t necessary if you’re an affiliate marketer, but if you decide to sell your own products you need a way to get paid. There are 2 ways easily do this – ClickBank or PayPal. Once you decide on a way to accept payment, you need to get the code you need for the links to the payment page and payment buttons on your own web pages.

Step 6: Launch Your Site
Here is where you upload your site to your hosting account. Once you upload your site, look at every page, click on every link, and try out every form. Make sure that your graphics and tables are showing up correctly. If you find a problem, now is the time to fix it.

Now that you’ve done these 6 steps, you’re ready to get busy promoting your site. It really isn’t hard to create your web site if you break it down into these easy to do steps.

Create your own unique web sites without spending money on graphics or web developers. All it takes is the Web Design Dashboard. Click here for more…

Filed under: Web Development by Steve Wellman
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One of the free ways to get links to your site or affiliate offers is posting on forums. There are a lot of forums out there that allow you to include links. But you need to read the rules on EVERY forum you visit before you start posting and adding your links.

There are forums that will not allow you to post any links until you have made a certain number of posts. If a site requires 25 posts before you can add links, be prepared to take the time to contribute to the forum before you start promoting your site.

Some forum sites only allow certain types of links. There are forums that do not allow affiliate links, but do allow you to provide a link to a page on your site.

To make the best use of your time, pay attention to how active a forum is. If you visit a forum in your niche and see that the last post was added a week ago, that’s a good indication that there is not a lot of traffic on that forum, and it may not be worth your time. You could make a post or two if they allow you to post a link to your site, so you get a backlink.

As far as getting traffic to your site or your affiliate offers, don’t count on a flood of traffic. There are several factors that determine how effective forum posting is for your business. There is a thread on the Warrior Forum that talks about the topic of forum links that has a lot of really good information.

It covers the subject in more detail than I can here, and while you’re there, take a look around. The Warrior Forum is full of great tips and ideas to get the most out of your marketing efforts. Read the thread on the Warrior Forum here…

Find over 250 affiliate products that pay instantly into your PayPal account. More here…

Filed under: Web Site Stategies by Steve Wellman
No Comments » Tagged with: forum backlinks

Getting links from other sites to yours is a big factor in getting good search engine rankings. There are several ways to get links, from free methods to paid solutions. No matter where you are in your online business, you can start getting links to your site at no cost with a minimal investment in time. Here are 2 of those ways

The first method is posting on forums. To get the most benefit from the links, make sure to target forums that are related to the site that you are linking to.

The first thing you must always do whenever you visit a forum that you’re interested in posting on is to read the forum rules. Make sure that you are allowed to include links back to your site. Some forums require that you have a few approved posts before they will allow you to include links.

When you first start participating in a forum, use your best judgement on when to include links back to your site. Make sure that when you start a new conversation or add to an existing one that you have something valuable to say. Don’t post just for the opportunity of getting links. You’ll be able to develop a good reputation in your market if you offer helpful information to others. If your posts are blatantly commercial and your only intent is to advertise your site, you could end up getting banned from the forum.

The other free way to get links to your site is to comment on blogs in your target market. Most blogs allow posting a comment, and allow you to include a link to your site. Again, if you’re going to comment on someone’s blog, make it a useful comment instead of just an ad. Often, a comment has to be approved before it shows up on the site and your llink is live. If you put up garbage, it will just get deleted and you’ll be wasting your time.

To find the forums that you can start posting to, just do a search for your market with the word forum. For example, “Guitar Players Forum”. To find blogs that you can comment on, you can use the search engines. Most of them have the option to search for blogs related to the keyword phrase that you enter.

When it comes to blog commenting, there is something that you need to be aware of. There are a lot of blogs that us “no-follow” on their sites. In simple terms, that means that when the search engine visits the blog and finds your link, it will not follow it to your site, and you won’t get any credit for the link. If the blog is getting a lot of traffic, you can still get visitors who read your comment and click over to your site.

However, it’s better to comment on blogs that allow the search engines to follow your link. There is a free piece of software that will find the blogs related to your keyword and that will tell you whether or not the blog uses the no-follow attribute. It’s called Comment Kahuna. Get it here.

There you have 2 free ways to build backlinks to your site. Get started now.

Filed under: Main by Steve Wellman
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Did you realize that there are actually marketers who are willing to give you 100 percent commissions? In other words, a product is selling for $27, someone clicks on your affiliate link and buys, and you get $27 credited to your account. Some of these sellers will also immediately deposit the funds into your PayPal account. Instant affiliate commissions and 100 percent commissions. Why would they do that?

Good question, and there is a really good answer. First, it gets the attention of potential affiliates, and gets more affiliates on board. That means more exposure for the product. This is really a good way to get affiliates, especially if you’re a new guy or gal on the block. By offering 100 percent commissions, you get other marketers selling for you.

The next question is why anyone would sell a product and make absolutely no money from selling it. Simple. Once someone buys, they are going to be on the product sellers list. If they are happy with the product that they just purchased, it gives the product owner the opportunity to offer other products on the back end. In other words, repeat sales.

This is a technique that you should pay attention to if you’re ready to roll out your first product. You don’t have any testimonials or a track record, so it’s more difficult to get people to trust you and make a purchase. You’re going to have to drive all of the traffic yourself, either paid ads or free methods that can eat a lot of time.

It’s a lot easier if you have an army of affiliates promoting the product for you. They are spending the time and money getting traffic to your site. To get these affiliates. you have to offer something special. Let’s face it, offering 50 percent commission is what’s expected. If you offer to pay the full purchase price as a commission, and affiliates are looking around for products to promote, which product are they going to look at – the product that offers a 50 percent commission or your product that offers a 100 percent commission? Easy choice.

The way you can use this to your advantage is to create a product and offer 100 percent commissions, and get affiliates on board. Make sure that you another product ready that you can offer your new customers. Now that you have them on your list, offer the second product. With the second product, you keep all of the profits, and you have the opportunity to make multiple sales to these customers over time.

Of course, once you get established, you won’t be giving such a high commission rate. But when you’re getting started, this is a very effective way of getting affiliates and  customers.

Find the sellers who are willing to pay you 100 percent commission immediately into your PayPal account. Go to Affiliate Commissions Instantly right now…

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing by Steve Wellman
No Comments » Tagged with: affiliate commissions

When you get started in affiliate marketing, one thing to keep in mind is that not all products you can offer are going to be right for you. For example, if you promote physical products, you will usually get a small commission. Amazon.com offers 4-6 percent commission. Ditgital products on the other hand can bring you 50 percent commission or more.

Most products you offer will pay you a commission for each sale, and you won’t get credit if someone who buys from your link purchases something else in the future. This isn’t always the case, but it is something to remember. And you don’t have any control on when you will get paid for the sales you generate. Sometimes it’s every 2 weeks, sometimes it can take a month or more.

Since you’re going to be doing the work to set up systems to get people to your affiliate links so you can get credit for the sale, you want to choose products that will get you your commissions quickly and that will pay you more than once for each sale you make.

Let’s look at 2 ways you can get paid quickly and how you can get paid over and over again for each customer you get for the seller of the product.

The first way is to find and promote products that pay you quickly. It’s up to you how long you’re willing to wait to be paid. I prefer to get paid as soon as possible. The best way I’ve found is to find product owners that will pay me immediately into my PayPal account every time I generate a sale. In other words, instant affiliate commissions. You can find these yourself using the search engines and looking around at different affiliate networks.

The second way is to find recurring affiliate programs. In other words, something where a customer buys over and over again. Membership sites are an excellent example of this, as are products with auto-ship features such as nutritional products.

It’s even better if you can find affiliate programs that pay instant affiliate commissions AND pay you each month a customer remains signed up for a membership or some other continuity program.

You can find these affiliate programs by searching for them yourself, or you can pay for access to a list of these types of affiliate programs.

I use a product called Affiliate Commissions Instantly. This is a nice piece of software that has listings for over 200 affiliate programs that pay commissions instantly into your PayPal account, and it include many membership sites that will pay you instantly and for as long as someone remains a customer.

Whether you decide to find these affiliate products yourself or you decide to take a look at Affiliate Commissions Instantly, I recommend that you focus on getting paid immediately and getting paid over and over again. Here’s more info on Affiliate Commissions Instantly…

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing by Steve Wellman
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