2009--Time to Focus and Time to Shine

With the New Year (2009) almost here, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on how to get MORE out of your online business in the coming year.

I KNOW
- You want your online business to succeed.
- You want your online business to make money.
- You want your online business to give you the freedom to live the kind of life you truly desire.

But how does this happen? Here are a few quick tips for you.

First you have to believe in yourself and get serious about your business. You need to be willing to do what it takes to get real results and succeed.

1. Devote at least 5 hours per week to working on your online business.
It's imperative that you set aside a minimum of 5 hours during the week where you concentrate 100% on making your online business more productive.
This can be working on a new product, website, ads, sales letters, promotions, etc.
Just make sure you WORK and don't allow yourself to get side tracked. STAY FOCUSED.

2. Spend a little more cash on advertising. You need to spend money to make money as the saying goes!
Yes. You actually do need to spend a little bit of money on your online business in order to make money.
Without advertising your online business is will not succeed.
Try and set aside $20.00 per week and use this cash for advertising only. Better yet aim for $100.00 a month if you can.

Test new ads, and rerun ads that have worked well in previous campaigns
Take a small amount of your profits and put them back into your advertising budget so you can place more ads.

Then REPEAT THE CYCLE.

3. Remember to constantly test and retest.
One of the best ways to make considerable gains with your online business is to always test new ideas.
Testing will help you learn what works and what does not.
Try testing different ads, headlines, products, web sites, ezines, articles,etc.

The most successful marketers are the ones who are constantly trying to improve.
Always be open to what's new and be on the lookout for what's in demand.
Keep it fresh, new and exciting.

Use these 3 tips and you will find a HUGE jump in your online productivity.

Happy New Year! Here's to your success in 2009!

Sue

Give Yourself a Gift that Keeps on Giving!!!!

Time for a little Holiday Cheer! Here is something that truly works!

A new online community has formed which is providing ordinary people just like you, a chance to earn long term, high volume residual income.

Ordinary members of this community are shown the secret of how to leverage just $25 into a staggering $75,000 or more in as little as 5 weeks.

And you can do this with.........
No Selling!
No Products!
No Customers!
No Gambling
And No Investing!
In fact, you'll be completely shocked at how easy it is to do, and how little work it takes.

This new Cash Leveraging System is probably the most incredible and profitable turn key system, anywhere on the internet, and you can start using it yourself today!

If you're interested in making truly staggering amounts of money, using a strategy that;

Runs itself - hands free......
Accumulates wealth exponentially......
Provides you with long term residual income......
And is never effected by self competition......
Then you absolutely have to take a look at The Cash Leveraging System and see exactly what it will do for you:

http://www.todaysleverage.com/


This really does have the potential to change your life permanently, and give you the sort of financial freedom that you currently only dream about.

Don't put this off, or forget about this information I am giving you.

This could be a once in a lifetime opportunity that you will never get a chance at again.

So grab it with both hands and get ready to see just how easy making money can really be.

I did and I am really glad I did!

To your sucess, Sue

List Building - 5 Easy Ways to Multiply Your List Building Super Powers

If you're tired of just not getting anywhere near enough subscribers for your list, then here are 5 simple things you can do right now to turn this situation around faster than a speeding bullet!

1. Add a subscriber sign up box to every page on your website. If you've got more than 1 web page on your site you simply must do this because you never know which page people will arrive at. Especially if your website has been fully indexed by the search engines.

2. Add a pop-up on exit window (or exit grabber) to your website pages that includes your subscriber sign-up box along with a special offer like a free ebook or audio you give people in return for subscribing.

You can create unblockable popup windows from here for free: http://popinbuilder.icoder.com
What's great about popups that "only" appear on exit is they don't get in the way of your website content because they're only seen when someone leaves your website.

3. Add a signature file to every email you send out. Signature files are just simple messages that you can have your email program automatically tag on to the end of every messages you send out. So why not write a quick P.S. with a link to your website? Whilst it won't instantly get you 100's of new subscribers, over time it will.

4. Swap emails with other list owners. Here's all you do with this one, I'm sure you're already subscribed to dozens of other lists on subjects similar to the list you're building. Just pick an email you've been sent recently that's part of an ecourse you subscribed to, then reply back with a request for an email swap. In other words, you'll promote them to your list if they do the same for you.

5. Use viral co-registration to put your list building on autopilot
Viral co-registration is simply you advertising other people's newsletter on your website, and they do the same for you... but in a way that grows and expands your exposure and the number of subscribers you get.
Systems like this are very simple to use and when you set them up right you can turbo charge your list building with very little extra work.

What I like about viral co-registration list building is you don't even have to publish a newsletter or ezine. You can advertise anything you're able to deliver by autoresponder. If you know your way around your favorite HTML and email programs I'm certain you could have all 5 list building multipliers set up by noon tomorrow.

------------------ Resource Box ----------------------
ListHero is the fastest, easiest, simplest way to build your list using the power of viral co-registration. Go here now and start growing your list and your income for FREE: listhero.com/40117
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Focus On the Positive

It seems that lately every time you turn around some IM guru wants you to buy something from them and everyone and their brother is promoting the answer to all your problems on making money on line. Please do not fall for all the hype. Just slow down and think about what you need to accomplish and what you need to learn. Keep in mind you can get a ton of Free information for most of your IM needs, just by searching on google. Start slowly so you do not get overwhelmed and stay focused!

Look at my last post for some of the best free training out there on the basics. And I can't overemphasize how important it is to learn the basics first. Ts you master one thing, you can proceed to the next step. But it is important to do things in a logical sequence.

QUICK AFFILIATE TIPS for this Month:

Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t.

Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses.

Focus on what you have, not what you don’t.

Focus on giving, not receiving.

Focus on future possibilities, not present limitations.

Focus on being grateful, not fearful.

Most people who become successful in affiliate marketing and the Internet marketing business, keep learning and never give up. They believe in their success and visualize it. If they meet a challenge they try some type of fix or workaround, or get the help they need but they do not give up! Please don't give up!!!!!

Persistence and patience is critical along with believing in yourself. And finally and perhaps most importantly, when you do achieve success, take the time to help others by sharing what you have learned so that others may succeed too.

To your success, Sue

Learn the Basics for Free!!!!

I just found a great site that offers 39 hours of free video training to help beginners learn the basics of Internet marketing. I am not sure how long these guys can provide this for free but I just signed up and would urge you to do the same!

Dave Issacs and Aaron Leighton have put together some terrific step by step instructional videos to help beginners get started the right way! Learn one step at a time. This is the best way to learn if you are just starting out.

But how do YOU really learn the skills necessary to be a success?

Until now, for beginners, it has always been a little "hit and miss" because everyone will tell you or give you just a few of the pieces of the puzzle but won't show you how to put the entire puzzle together.

Dave and Aaron have assembled one of the most comprehensive and easy to understand video training systems EVER compiled on a single website.

I am not sure how long this will be made available but I would urge you to join now while it is free. Just go to http://www.learn-the-basics.com/bfm/?thanks=13944 and get started today!

The Thanksgiving Giveaway has launched---download your gifts now!!!!!!

I am big on Giveaways and doing giveaways with your products is a great tactic for building your customer list!!!!!

David Canham and Bill McRea just released their Thanksgiving Giveaway and you have just 10 days to pick up

• Tons of ebooks
• Tons of scripts
• Tons of products

At no cost to YOU!!! These guys teamed up and called in some favors form a whole bunch of top online marketers and convinced them to give away their product. These products are worth thousands and thousands of dollars, so what are you waiting for? Go get it now!

Get Ahead on line with a Brand New Great Affiliate Marketing Training Course, best of all it is Free!!!!

OK I have taken a little time off, because I needed to think about what is really important and necessary when learning affiliate marketing.

My best tip today is to bring you one of the best courses I have found for beginners that offers over 40 hours of step by step training and video lessons on learning affiliate marketing. All for FREE! Yes you heard me right, it's FREE!!!!.

Mark Ling the owner of AFFILORAMA is providing over 40 hours of step by step videos in his training course. Lessons include:

Getting Started Tips
Site Building
PPC strategies
Marketing Ideas
Search Engine Optimization
Interviews with Internet experts and lots more.

Mark is giving a huge amount of value to you upfront because he truly wants to help people get ahead online and build a community of like minded users.

Don't wait go now to http://www.affilorama.com/ and get started on improving your skills. You have an opportunity to upgrade if you like but I would try out all the training courses first and then decide.

Isn't it great to know that there are good people out there who truly want to help others be successful as well. Just remember you heard it here first. Here's to your success! Sue

Create value for your Customers and Build Better Relationships--Here's One of the Best Ways to do just That!

Free Cash Producing software that you can ReBrand!!!!Calvin Woon and Jonathan Teng the IM Buzz Creators have done it again. They are offering free lifetime private access to their IM Buzz Software! Just click the link below to check it out and be prepared to get all the things you need to do your affiliate marketing business and the necessary training to go with it.

Best of all you can re-brand this with your own website URL and use the free software to profit by selling the software at full market value or give it away to explode your list.

You also get free instant access to the re-branding rights of twelve of their previously released viral buzz software! This takes viral marketing to the highest and perhaps most effective level found anywhere.

Just think of the value you are giving your customers !!! What are you waiting for? Get it before the free lifetime membership runs out. These guys are the real deal and their products are great. It is one of the best ways to build a relationship with your customers and your list. All I can say is get it before it is gone!

To your success, Sue

Building Long Term Traffic for your Business

I promised myself I would always provide quality information and good tips and proven strategies that work. I have been offline for a couple of weeks being inundated myself with a lot of worthless or at the very least poor advice on how to do Internet marketing and affiliate marketing. No wonder people are confused out there. Who can you trust ? Where is a quality product?

Unfortunately in today's market you need to be suspect and know "if it is too good to be true" it usually is. If you are new to this business, you need to go back and read through my blog on how to get started successfully, with the right mentors and a plan.

Please don't fall in with all the hype about quick sales and how easy it is to be making money over night. That's just not true. This business takes work and commitment and perseverance and education in order to achieve success!

So in keeping my promise to you, I am delighted to be able to offer you some great information from a respected Internet marketer that works. I do this myself and get some of the best traffic becuase it is targeted.

Today I want to encourage you to get Matt Callen's free ebook on "The Article Marketing Blueprint" . His goal is to show you one of the most effective ways of building long term traffic as well as how to monetize your website by simply using "articles".

This is an excellent 45 page blueprint on article marketing and even better it is FREE!!! Matt even provides case studies --I don't know how long Matt will have this available but I would encourage to do to http://www.simplyplr.com/free-book/ and opt in to get your copy today! Article marketing is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your site and is a strategy that is built to last!

Kudos's to Matt for doing this exceptional ebook and don't wait too long or it could be gone. Have a great week, Sue

Top Seven Ways Writing Articles Can Explode Your Business!

One of the best ways to get traffic to your site is to write articles and not just anything but articles with good quality content and with 300-600 words. Let me explain, in today's ever growing competitive Internet marketplace, the importance of attracting highly targeted traffic to your website can't be overemphasized. Without traffic there is no opportunity to profit or make a sale. So routing web traffic to your site is one of the only effective ways to survive, especially in today's economy and the cutthroat world of ecommerce.

Getting high search engine rankings can be very difficult for most.
Fortunately, there is number of website promotion strategies you can use to drive traffic to your website.
These tactics range from doing paid advertising to affiliate marketing. But keep in mind that most of these techniques require payment.

Nevertheless, there are ways to promote your website and increase your web traffic without spending anything. And writing articles is one of the best web site promotion strategies you can use, that can be very, very effective. So how, does writing articles help improve your web traffic?

Here are the top seven ways in which it can help explode your business.

1.Reach more people
When you write good articles, it would be a shame not to share them with other people. You can post your articles in your website or you can submit them to other sites such as e-zines and online publishers such as http://www.goarticles.com
By submitting your articles to these sites, you give exposure not only to your ideas but also to your website. Simply include a link back to your site or include your information in the resource box. But make sure you read the publisher requirements prior to posting your article.
With this, you get exposure and free advertising as well. Submit your articles to popular e-zines and take advantage of their popularity.
Other sites who find your article relevant may also link back to you. so by writing an article you have the chance to increase your link popularity, which is one of the most important strategies in the Internet world. Remember that most people are looking for information online and by filling this need with your quality article; you may reap the benefit of more exposure and higher web traffic.

2.Free Advertising
Submitting your articles to other websites presents an opportunity to advertise your website without paying exorbitant fees. Although you should avoid marketing language in your articles and make it informative and useful to your readers, you can always include your site's link in the resource box. In addition, by making your article relevant and helpful to your readers, you are making a good impression for your website, and building your online reputation as an expert, which could ultimately lead to a visit and hopefully a purchase. Good quality content in an article is far better and more effective than a few lines of ad space. You have a very special opportunity to pre sell your product or service to your prospective customer.

3.Gain High Search Engine Ranking
Create a new web page for your article in your website. Optimize your article to make it search-engine friendly. Use top-ranked keywords and Meta tags that can give your website a high search engine ranking. As soon as you upload your new web page to your server, search engines will spider through it and you can gain an increase in search engine ranking. Remember that search engine optimized content is a very effective strategy to gain a high ranking in search results.

4.Increases Link Popularity
Instead of looking for other sites who would want to establish reciprocal links with your site, ( those days are pretty much over) you can simply submit an article to other sites. Just do not forget to include a link to your site in your resource box. When these websites pick up and publishes your article, you automatically get a link partner. Try to get as many link partners as you can. Link popularity is one of the factors used by search engines in determining search engine rankings. Make your article especially useful and appealing, so that more websites will be encouraged to publish it.

5.Optimizes your site for improved search engine ranking
By making your site keyword rich, you can greatly improve the search engine ranking of your site. If you are still confused by SEO, go to http://www.seoinpractice.com to get a free handbook full of good information to help you navigate this area. Remember that keyword density is one of the most important factors that search engines use when determining the search engine ranking of site. Aim for 4% density but if you get close it is still good. Remember, you should always provide relevant, useful and pertinent information. Avoid the temptation of overusing keywords just to gain a high ranking as this may turn off most web surfers. Relevance and quality content are still the most important things to consider when writing articles and it will be doubly useful to your site if you make these articles search-engine optimized.

6.Establishes a Good Impression and Reputation
By writing excellent, original and relevant articles, you not only give your site exposure, you are also creating a good impression on your prospects. Encourage more people to visit your site and do business with you by establishing an impressive reputation through your articles. Be seen as an expert in the field and your will ultimately gain more customers eager to do business with you.

7.Enhances your credibility through references and testimonies
Certainly, your articles are going to receive feedback and testimonies when you publish them in e-zines and free article sites. Record the positive feedback and comments you receive. Then use them as promotional material in your website or in any of your advertising efforts. Your credibility will be greatly enhanced by this feedback, and it will create a good impression on your prospects as well as your existing customers, while building your online reputation. In this highly competitive world, excellent credibility and trust may be the only things you need to attract new customers or make loyal patrons out of your existing customers. Original, relevant, useful and pertinent articles are important tools you should utilize to improve and explode your business.

So get started writing today and watch your traffic grow! I will be back by the end of the week with more tips and free resources on affiliate marketing.

One of the Quickest Ways to Increase your Bottom Line--Product Reviews

I got a chance to speak this past month with a Top Internet Marketing expert who is making millions on line-- Alex Ngheim. it was a great conversation and he offered some terrific advise. He told me that for those who really want to be successful at doing affiliate marketing the best tip is to start doing Product Reviews!!! And that's what we are going to focus on today.

Think about it. Doing Product reviews or Product Recommendations to increase your affiliate commissions and bottom line really does works. Just look at all the sites out there dedicated to Product Reviews. Why is this one of the more important ways of increasing your affiliate marketing bottom line and why do so many marketers think this is one of the most effective ways to generate sales. Because if the customers or visitors trust you enough, then they will definitely trust your recommendations. And consequently lots of sales can be generated using this technique.

But you need to be very careful in using this approach. Your reputation is on the line. Only promote and review quality products and products you actually use. If you start promoting anything and everything by recommendation, your credibility will actually wear thin. You can't fake it. This is especially noticeable when recommendations are seemingly exaggerated and without much merit. You need to not only talk about why you like and use the product but don't be afraid to mention things that you do not like about the product or service. This will actually make your recommendation more realistic and increase your credibility.

Furthermore, if your visitors are really interested in what you are offering, they will be more than delighted to learn what is good about the product, what is not so good, and how the product will benefit them.

When you are recommending a certain product, there are some things to remember on how to make it work effectively and maximize your advantage.

• Sound like the true and leading expert in your field. Remember this simple equation: Price resistance diminishes in direct proportion to trust. If your visitors believe that you are an expert in your niche, they are more inclined to buy. On the other hand, if you are not exuding any confidence and self-assurance in endorsing your products, that will come across and will go in search of another product or service which is more believable.How do you establish this aura of expertise? By offering unique and new solutions they would not get anywhere else.
• Show proof that what you are promoting works as promised. Display prominent testimonials and endorsements from respected and known personalities, in related fields of course.
• Avoid hype at all costs. It is better to sound low key and confident, than to scream and seek attention. Besides, you would not want to sound unprofessional and have that thinking stick to your potential customers and clients, now would you? Best to appear cool and self-assured at the same time.
• And remember; prospects are not stupid. They are actually turning to experts and may already know the things that you know. If you back up your claims with hard facts and data, they would gladly put down hundreds, or even thousands worth of money to your promotions. But if you don’t, they are smart enough to try and look at your competitors and what they are offering.
• While recommending a product, it is also important that you give out promotional freebies. People are already familiar with the concept of offering freebies to promoting your won products. But very few people do this to promote affiliate products. Try to offer freebies that can promote or even have some information about your products or services.
• Before you add recommendations to you product, it is given that you should try and test the product and support. Do not run the risk of promoting junk products and services. Just think how long it took you to build credibility and trust among your visitors. All that will take to destroy it, is one big mistake on your part. Only do product reviews that you have 100% confidence in and use it yourself.
• Test the product support before you begin to ensure that the people you are referring it to ,will not be left high and dry when a problem suddenly arouse.
• Have a look at your affiliate market and look at the strategies you are using. You may not be focusing on the right recommendations for the products you have. Make sure you check out your competition. What are they doing that is effective

You need to remember that your plan of action is sometimes not the only thing that is making your program works. I recommend your try product reviews and be among those successful marketers who have seen great results in their affiliate commissions.

Come back later this week for more free tips and resources on affiliate marketing. Check out my website at http://affiliatespeedway.com/ for even more free information on how to get started in affiliate marketing today and the blog page offers all kinds of free resources just like my links Page here on my blog. And based on today' economy there is really no better time that now to get started at making money online and becoming your own boss!!!! To your success!

Here's another Great Mentor--Michael Rasmussen with some Terrific tips to save you Time and Money

OK I thought it was important to let everyone know about another great expert, who has quality products and really spends time with his customers and readership because he wants them to improve and succeed on line. He is very well known in the world of Internet marketing and his name is Michael Rasmussen. You can check him out at http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/ he has some wonderful products to help you in your business and a wealth of information that he is willing to share with his readers. I would encourage you to sign up for his newsletter and I personally use his "email promo's exposed" product along with his great "minisites" product. You can learn so much from him and he makes it easy to understand, when you are a beginner, which is important. Even better, today he gave me permission to post one of his most recent newsletters on my blog, so this is a real treat!!!.
Enjoy this and I highly recommend his products and newsletter to help you succeed online!

Here is his newsletter by Michael Rasmussen:

Hi Sue,

Michael Rasmussen here and it's time to answer another set of questions from my readers. You're in that group, so you get the benefit of the great questions your peers ask me. A lot of people wonder why I do this. There are really three big reasons...First, I care about whether you succeed or not.Internet marketing really isn't rocket science...once you know what you're doing.

Before you "get it",though, it helps a ton to have somebody actually answer real questions that real people ask along the way.
Second, even after you're an "expert", it's great to get new ideas from other people. You never know when an answer to a question will press just right button in your brain...and boost your profits.
Third, I get literally thousands of emails every week,and it's impossible to answer them all. So I set up this system to help me manage email better, while still giving you the information you need. So read on, and I hope you enjoy the learning.

CURRENT ISSUE -------------
Having been in Internet marketing for years, I pretty much taught myself everything I know about this business. But I definitely remember feeling a little lost when I started. It was overwhelming, to say the least. Two things in particular seemed to crop up a lot: how to set up a website, and how to create a product without working myself to death. These are still hot topics, because I get asked those questions all the time. This issue should give you some guidance.

1) How do I set up a simple website to sell a single
product? (asked by Christin Tamburo)
This is probably THE question for people just getting started, and it really assumes you have a product already. Let's say you do...The first thing you'll want to do is know what web pages you'll need. That's not hard, and you only need three to start with:
* A sales page, where you pitch your product and ask people to click the order button
* A buyer registration page, where you send people after they purchase your product
* A thank you (or download) page where you actually deliver your product I strongly recommend registering your buyers to build your buyer list, but if you want to start as simply as possible, you only need the first and third pages--a sales page and a thank you page.
Either way, what you're creating is called a mini-site. The next natural question is, how in the world do you create this stuff? Do you need to know HTML? Maybe. If you can get a mini-site template, you'll probably be all set. Even if you have to buy it, it might cost you anywhere from $100 to $300, which might be less than you'd pay somebody to do create a site for you at a freelance site.

That's really all there is to it. The biggest effort is creating your sales copy. That's what sells your product. Most people just getting started can't drop big money on an expensive copywriter, so they try to do it themselves. An alternative, especially if doing it yourself scares you, is to visit popular marketing forums which allow members to post special offers. Sometimes you can get fantastic copy for less than $200 through these specials. Once you have the pages and copy, all you'll have to do is plug in a payment processor, like ClickBank, so you can take credit card payments online. ClickBank has very helpful setup instructions, and it's really easy to set up. It'll cost you $50 to host your product there. Adding it up, you might spend $550 to set up a pretty nice mini-site, if you don't want to do it all yourself. And you won't have to know HTML to do it!

2) I recently bought a package of website templates,complete with graphics. What do I do with it now? How can I get set up to sell it? (asked by Robin Guidotti)

This is related to the previous question, and the answer applies to more than just website templates. If you've bought a product you can resell, all you have to do is set up a mini-site to sell it! Your expenses will be similar to the ones I gave in the previous answer. If you've bought website templates, you might even be able to use one of them (or borrow material from several) and dramatically cut your costs.
You can pay a freelancer to install a template at your domain so you can just fill in the sales copy, and soon. That might cost you $100 to $300, but you pretty much avoid all other costs.

3) How do I come up with something to sell online? I mean, I'm not an "expert" at anything, so what kind of product can I create? (asked by Pete Feiner)

Most people new to online marketing make the mistake of thinking they have to be experts on something before they can create a product in that niche. Not at all! Really, if you can get past that hang-up, you'll be very far ahead of the game. The easiest thing to do is to find a product with some kind of reprint rights in a niche you want to target.
That could be:
* Resale Rights (RR), which give you the right to resell a product as-is (meaning no changes allowed)
* Master Resale Rights (MRR), which give you the right to resell the product and pass along the RR
* Rebranding Rights, which let you include your own affiliate links in a product, but typically no other changes
* Private Label Rights (PLR), which let you change a product however you want to resell it, and even put your name on it as the author. Think about what those rights mean to you...you get a product with barely any work. It's a great way to start. Focus on finding a good niche, then essentially buy a product. It won't cost a ton, and you can get up and running fast. Another option is to interview somebody (or several people) in your niche and record the interviews. That gives you a very popular audio product without doing much work to get it, other than setting up and preparing for the interview. But back to those reprint rights products. I often get a question like the next one...

4) I just bought a huge package of resale rights andPLR products. How can I differentiate myself from everybody else selling these? (asked by Dorris Kearcher)

First, Dorris, it's great that you know you need to differentiate yourself. Many people don't, and then they wonder why their product doesn't sell. There are several ways to differentiate yourself when you resell products, whether PLR or otherwise:
* Add more value by including extra components you created on your own. This could be an additional"report" or ebook, an audio version of your ebook(Google "text to speech" for free tools) or something else.
* Get your own graphics. Most people will use the graphics that came with the package. If you get your own, you'll probably stand out.
* Rename the product if you can. That's another way to make your product not sound like everybody else's.
* Edit the product if you can. If you're allowed to,edit the content to put your own stamp on it.Those are just a few suggestions. Feel free to get creative with your own twists and modifications. The bottom line is, you're saving a ton of effort on product creation since you're not starting from scratch. Invest some of that savings by working to make your product different. That effort can pay you back big-time.

5) What price should I put on my digital product? I've seen all kinds of numbers, and I'm a little confused. (asked by Johnathan Vassel)

Lots of people get confused by this. Contrary to popular notions out there, there are no "magic"prices. Sure, $19.95 is often better than $20, but a price of $19 can outsell a price of $17, or vice versa. Only testing will tell you the answer. Here are some rules of thumb, though:
* See what other people in your niche are charging for similar products. Odds are good that those prices are what the market likes. Copy them!
* Don't charge a price that's silly high. Remember,the goal is to make the thing sell. If your 20-page ebook is really worth $1,797, great, but most aren't. Charge something that seems to fit the product and you'll do better.
* Don't charge too little. If your product is good, don't be afraid to put a good price on it. A nice piece of software should probably sell for more than$7, unless charging that little is a part of your on-purpose marketing strategy.
* There are no magic prices, but numbers ending in "7"DO tend to perform well. So when in doubt, charge something that ends in "7". I'd choose the multiple of 10 that feels about right for the product and the market, then tack a "7" on it. For example, you might charge $37 for a meaty ebook, or maybe up to $97 if the information is really good enough. Like I said, there's no magic price.
More often than not, you'll need to guess at a decent price, then put it out there to see how it performs. If it doesn't work, change the price and see if that helps.

OK that's the end of Michael's newsletter--look at all that valuable information and he is doing it to help educate his readers and because he wants you to succeed! As I said he is one of the good guys online! What are you waiting for???? Go sign up for his newsletter and check out his incredible products at http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/

Make it a great weekend! I will be back next week providing more valuable tips and free resources to help you with affiliate marketing and succeeding online! All the best, Sue

GiveAways can be a Great Place to get Free Resources and Software for your Business

Just getting started in affiliate marketing? My tip today is to check out the free giveaways going on. Giveaways are a great way to get free resources and software to help you in your business. But please practice some caution and only download what you need and are actually going to use. So listen up, there is an excellent giveaway going on right now and I urge you to check it out while you can!!!!!

My friend Jason James just released the internet's most massive giveaway ever:
http://www.greedygiveaway.com/version3/go/5994
Simply sign up and get the scoop.

-tons of ebooks
-tons of scripts
-tons of everything you've ever wanted
Where did all these goodies come from?

I teamed up with Jason James who has called in some favors from a whole bunch of top online marketers and convinced them all to give you TONS of Products at no cost to you.

It is our way of saying "thank you"!

These products are worth thousands and thousands of dollars and have already made the owners thousands and thousandsof dollars.
I just can't hide the excitement. This is probably some of the most exciting news I've ever shared with you. And it's FREE!!!!

Go get it now!http://www.greedygiveaway.com/version3/go/5994

To your success,
Sue

7 Questions to Ask before you buy Anything

I thought after listening to the economic bad news yesterday it was time to provide some great affiliate marketing tips from a real expert--Rosalind Gardner. She is a straight shooter so enjoy this article!

7 Questions to Ask Before You Buy Anything
By Rosalind Gardner Manage Your Money

Stop wasting money on products you don't really need
This may come as a shock to some, but if you really want to get rich, the first thing you need to learn is how to spend money - or NOT spend it - as the case may be.

And what with national consumer debt and bankruptcy numbers reaching all time highs in the U.S. in 2008, it's apparent that there's more than just a little foolish spending going on.
Although some responsibility for the current mayhem can be placed squarely on government officials and lack of regulation, this article is about taking personal responsibility for our financial well-being... and taking it seriously.

In the years that I've been helping aspiring netpreneurs build their online businesses, I've been shocked over and over again to witness how people waste money - and worse, manage to throw good money after bad.
There was the woman who spent more than 100K (the bulk of her and her husband's retirement savings) trying to market her book. She bought every course, attended every conference, paid tens of thousands for mentoring and after years of pursuing her dream, she still had nothing to show in return. The sad truth of her story was that she spent her money on instruction that she didn't put to use and would have been better off hiring a publicist.

I've had to talk many people out of buying some of the products I recommend. For example, it simply doesn't make sense to buy a PLR content package for your non-existent website, especially when you're living in your car and can't do business using the library's Internet connection. (Yes, I really did have that conversation.)

Then there are those who spend money frivolously either through blithe disregard to, or lack of awareness for, their precarious financial situation. For example, does it make sense to spend hundreds of dollars to have your windows washed when you can do it yourself and you're already hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and only one job loss away from financial ruin?

Likewise, if you're in that situation, wouldn't it make more sense to spend time, rather than money, learning how to install your own blog?
If you've had issues with over-spending, ie. can't pay your credit card bills on a monthly basis, here are a few essential questions to ask yourself before you buy anything.

• Can I afford this product? If it's a toss-up between paying the rent and buying the product, the answer to this question should definitely be 'no'. However, if all your essentials are covered, and spending that money won't cause even the tiniest bit of regret later, proceed to the next question.
• Do I really need this product? Obviously, if you want to start your own .com website, you need a domain name and hosting. On the other hand, you probably don't really need to spend 5 grand on the domain name aftermarket to get that 'perfect' domain name. Take time to ask yourself whether you are acting on the basis of wants or real need.
• Will I use this product? Doing market research is essential to ascertain profit potential in a specific niche and Wordtracker is a fantastic research tool. But if you're only planning to start one site in the next 6 months, you're not going to get a lot of benefit by purchasing a year-long subscription.
• Can I buy it (or achieve the same results) cheaper or for free? To get traffic to your website, you'll have to learn how to market it online. However, buying an $800 a month subscription to learn SEO techniques may not be the most effective use of your money. Evaluate and compare a number of different marketing courses. Spend time (not money) researching free sites (like this one) for marketing tips and strategies. Put them to use and make some money. When you've made enough to pay for a course to enhance your skills, buy the one that gives you the most bang for your buck.
• Can I wait to buy this product? While you're picking up a PLR pack for your gardening site, you see another PLR pack and think that'll be perfect for the next site you have planned. Resist the urge. Unless you know for sure that you're going to start that site and can get a discount for buying in quantity, buy only what you need when you need it.
• Will this product save me time or money? If you've mastered the art of creating successful PPC campaigns and are well on your way to becoming the next big PPC affiliate, a tool like SpeedPPC is an excellent time-saving tool. However, if you're just starting out and have never manually tweaked an Adwords campaign to produce real income; that high-end tool could cost you time, money and hair.
• Will this product help me financially? If you're already doing business online, this question might well be answered by the PPC campaign tool example above, because time is money --- and saving time and money means making money. However, if you're just starting out, you need products that help you build your knowledge, one step at a time and in an appropriate order. For example, you probably don't need What Google Never Told You About Making Money With AdSense if you're planning to become a virtual assistant.
  Ask yourself those questions whenever you plan to make a purchase (online business related or not) and I guarantee that you won't regret wasting money on products you don't need or want... ever again.

Great article by Ros, don't you agree? This is the kind of information that can help you to stay on track and focus on what is necessary for your business. Remember buying more information and more and more products, does not guarantee success and may not be the right answer for what you need to do. There are a lot of free resources available on the Internet that can assist you, try those first and see what happens. As always I am here to help and will be back with more free resources and affiliate tips later this week. Make it a good week. To your success, Sue

Tools to use and these are Free!

If you want to be a successful affiliate marketer you have to have the right web marketing resource tools to do the job. In an effort to help I want to tell you about some great resources out there for you that are free. Here a just three that can help you right away.

Google Analytics. This is an absolute must even if you are a beginner in affiliate marketing. This allows you to learn about where your visitors come from and how they interact with your site, how long they stay and what they look at and how quickly thy leave, all this information can help you improve your marketing messages and create higher converting websites. And it's free. If you haven't had time to check this out yet do it now, just go to http://www.google.com/analytics

WebCeo. It is important to understand and learn what you can about search engine marketing and optimization. This site offers a free edition to get you started along with a free download of their Web Ceo Quick Start Guide. This is must for learning about keyword research, linking, ranking, and more. I am not sure how long this free resource will be available but I urge you to go to http://www.webceo.com/ and pick up your free edition along with the quick start training guide today!

SeoCentro This is a great free site for web marketing resources including

• Meta Tag analyzer Tool
• Rank Checker
• Link Popularity
• Keyword Analyzer
• Keyword Density
• Search Saturation
• Keyword Suggestion

This is just an example of a few of the great tools available to you and this site is easy to use, even if, you are a beginner. Just go to http://www.seocentro.com/ and I guarantee you will be using this free tool often.

That's all the tips I have for today but come back later this week to learn more about affiliate marketing and get some good tips and quality free resources to help you in your business. I wish you much success in your business endeavors.

Think Strategically about Your Business

Now more than ever before the Internet is getting crowded, with 500 blogs being created everyday and 1000's of people started a business online, each and every day. How do you compete?

To be successful you need to think strategically about your business and focus on money making activities, understand the key critical components of your business and determine what needs to be outsourced. You can not possibly do it all. You need to understand the key productive steps, the process you need to adhere to and forget about buying another product or tactic that will only keep you struggling.

Luckily one of the best business experts out there for Internet marketers has put out a new report on what is happening now online and how important it is for online business owners to know what it is going to take to be successful in the online world in 2008 and beyond. Please listen to Rich Schefren, he is the real deal.

Rich Schefren has been very successful in the offline and online world and is highly regarded by the top Internet marketers around the world. I would encourage you to pick up his free report, "The Internet Business Manifesto" which details what you must do to be successful online and why most Internet marketers struggle.

You can pick up this free report at http://www.strategicprofits.com/newrules/stream It is one of the best articles out there and I highly recommend you get it and read every word and print it out so you can refer to it when needed.

There are just a few people I listen to and Rich is one of them. I hope you enjoy this free resource and get it now as I am not sure how long he will keep it available. Apply what he says to your online business and you will be headed in the right direction for lasting success. Enjoy and I will be back with more free resources later this week.

The Different Types of Affiliate Marketing

OK I thought it was time to talk about the different types of affiliate marketing out there today because Affiliate Marketing Programs have never been more popular than right now!!!!

Why? There are any number of reasons. But more and more people are coming on line and discovering this is a very effective way to make money if you have the patience and the commitment to do the work involved.

Today, both merchants and affiliates can clearly see that affiliate marketing can work for both of them. The merchant views affiliate marketing today as the chance to advertise their products at a lower cost. The affiliates, on the other hand, wants to do affiliate marketing because it can be as an easy way of earning profits online by doing what they like most, actually creating and promoting websites. And the opportunity to make money is 24/7.

For merchants and affiliates alike, affiliate marketing is now considered a key main source of profits and revenues.

So the question you need to ask now is what type of affiliate marketing will work best for you? Are all affiliate marketing programs the same? Are the benefits the same? Or are there affiliate marketing programs that work better than the others?

There are actually different types of affiliate marketing. The most basic affiliate marketing programs, however, falls under two categories: pay-per-click (PPC), and pay-per-performance (PPP).

• Pay Per Click (PPC)
PPC is the most popular type of affiliate marketing for affiliates with small websites, and probably the easiest way for them to earn money. It can also be the most expensive form of marketing if you are not careful. In this affiliate marketing type, the merchant pays an affiliate whenever a visitor is referred to his site, that is whenever someone clicks through the merchant's banner or text ads. The affiliate gets paid a certain amount even if the visitor he referred does not purchase anything from the merchant's site. However, typical fees for PPC affiliate programs are small, usually not exceeding a dollar for every click.

• Pay Per Performance (PPP)
PPP affiliate marketing is the most popular among merchant and is also the most lucrative type for the affiliates. In this type of affiliate program, the merchant only pays the affiliate whenever his referral translates into an action—that is whenever the visitor the affiliate has referred actually buys something from the merchant's site or when the visitor becomes a lead. This means a lot of savings for the merchant. On the other hand, it becomes the most lucrative type for the dedicated affiliate, for commissions in PPP affiliate marketing usually comes in the range of 15% to 20% of the actual product sales.
Pay-per-performance affiliate marketing can be further classified into two popular types: pay-per-sales (PPS) and pay-per-lead (PPL).

Pay Per Sale (PPS)
In a pay-per-sale type of affiliate marketing, the merchants pay the affiliate a certain fee whenever the visitor he has referred to the merchant's site actually buys something from the merchant's site. Affiliates are often paid on commission basis, although some other merchants may opt to pay a fixed fee. But no matter what the basis of the fee is, it is generally higher than the fee paid to affiliates in a pay-per-click affiliate program.

Pay Per Lead (PPL)
The pay-per-lead type of affiliate marketing is a slight variation of the PPS type and is often used by insurance and finance companies and other companies who rely on leads for their company to grow. In this type of affiliate marketing, the affiliate is paid whenever the visitor he referred to the merchant's site fills up an application form or any similar form related to the business of the company. Compensation for this type of affiliate marketing is based on a fixed fee whose rates approximate that of the fixed fee in the PPS type.

Aside from these three specific types of affiliate marketing, a lot of other affiliate marketing types exist. If the classification is based on the depth of the affiliate network, it can be classified as single-tier, two-tier, and multi-tier affiliate marketing. There is also another type of affiliate marketing that pays the affiliate each time the customer he has referred purchases something from the merchant's site.

• Single-Tier, Two-Tier, and Multi-Tier Affiliate Marketing
These types of affiliate marketing are based on the different levels or tiers in the affiliate network by which payments are made. In a single-tier affiliate marketing program, the affiliates are only paid based on the direct sales or traffic he has referred to the merchant. All the previously mentioned affiliate marketing types (i.e. PPS, PPL, and PPC) fall under the single-tier classification.

• In two-tier affiliate marketing programs, the affiliate is not only paid for the direct traffic or sales that he refers to the merchant's site, but also on every traffic or sales referred by various other affiliates who joined the affiliate program through his recommendation. Multi-tier affiliate marketing works the same way, although the affiliate gets additional commission for a wider number of affiliates in different tiers in the affiliate network.

• Residual Income Affiliate Marketing
In residual income affiliate marketing, the affiliate gets paid not only once for every customer he has referred to the merchant's site. Rather, the affiliate is also paid whenever the customer he has referred returns to the site and purchase another product. Compensation for such type of affiliate marketing is based on either sales percentage commission or fixed fee basis.

The different affiliate marketing types virtually work differently for merchants and affiliates alike, and each generally have their own list of benefits. Which type of affiliate marketing will work best for you? A lot of people gravitate to a two tiered program where they can get paid more than once.

But be sure to take the time to do your own research and then decide what is right for you. Always remember to look for a quality product to promote and choose which type of affiliate marketing program will suit your marketing business best. I hope this helps explain the different types of Affiliate Marketing available today and that you found this information helpful and I will be back with more free tips and resources later this week.

More Ways to Make Money with Affiliate Programs

OK I hate to admit it, but we had to move last week and it it took a little longer that I expected to get settled so I apologize for being offline for more than a week but I bet you can appreciate how much you end up doing when it comes to moving and getting everything back in order. Now that I have found my computer I'm back! I wanted to give you some more really good tips on making money with affiliate marketing so I brought the rest of Allan's article here for you to enjoy and learn more. He offers lots of ideas to get you moving and maximizing your own affiliate marketing business.

This is the second Part of Allan's article on "53 ways to Make Money with Affiliate Programs" these are great tips to help you in your affiliate marketing business. For those of you who have just come on board and missed the first part of Allan's article, just look below. Remember just focusing on one or two ideas can bring success. Enjoy his article and come back here for more real tips on affiliate marketing.

More ways to make money with affiliate programs By Allan Gardyne Published 08/27/2008 Business ideas Have you seen all these ways affiliates earn commissions?

PPC, bonuses, offline marketing, software with embedded affiliate links, widgets, shopping communities... affiliates generate revenue in a wide variety of ways.
Here are some 28 more idea generators...

26. PPC direct to advertisers
It's much more difficult than it used to be, but some affiliates still join affiliate programs, buy pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and send the visitors directly to the vendor, earning a commission on the sale. This technique was popularized by Chris Carpenter in GoogleCash.

27. PPC to websites
Pay per click marketing is one of the toughest ways of generating affiliate commissions because your money can run out so fast if you get it wrong. However, when it's done right it has the potential to be much more lucrative than most other affiliate marketing methods.
You buy PPC traffic from Google AdWords (or Yahoo! Search Marketing or MSN), send it to a website, and have a high enough conversion rate so that you earn considerably more in commissions than you spend on advertising. That's the goal.
To achieve it you need certain skills, such as the ability to select products that pay well, write eye-catching ads that get the click, write compelling web pages and monitor the results.
It's more challenging than many ebook authors would lead you to believe, but if you get it right, the rewards can be huge.
The SpeedPPC system, invented by my business partner Jay Stockwell, enables you to get great Google Quality Scores and click-through rates and create perfectly targeted landing pages which are dynamically created. You can do a month's work in minutes. SpeedPPC is best for experienced PPC marketers. If you not sure you need it, read the glowing testimonials for SpeedPPC.

28. PPC arbitrage
Google and Yahoo! have taken steps to restrict PPC arbitrage, but haven't killed it entirely. Affiliates buy PPC advertising on cheap keywords, sending visitors to pages using contextual advertising, hoping to generate more revenue than they spend.
For example, they may buy traffic from Google AdWords and send it to a page monetized by Yahoo! contextual advertising, or vice versa. You need to be good at achieving high conversion rates and monitoring statistics.
Other affiliates add a twist to the technique by sending visitors to pages which promote pay-per-lead products, in which affiliates are paid for the lead.

29. Brandable reports and brandable ebooks
Affiliates create reports and ebooks and allow other affiliates to rebrand the reports and ebooks with their own affiliate links and give away the reports.
You need to produce a high quality, genuinely USEFUL report that other affiliates will be happy to give away. Here's an article explaining how to create Brandable ebooks.

30. Affiliates pay other affiliates
To build a large opt-in list very fast, affiliates pay other affiliates a small commission, typically 50 cents or $1, for every person they refer who downloads a free report.
Such reports are typically highly controversial (remember "Death of AdSense"?), attract public arguments and generate buzz. They usually presell products on which the author earns a commission.

31. Affiliate bonuses
Especially popular in the Internet marketing field, bonuses are offered by affiliates to encourage more sales. The most effective bonuses are ones that complement the product being sold. For example, a case study which shows how the affiliate used the product to achieve X amount of sales.
The pitch often goes something like this: "If you buy this ebook through my affiliate link and send me your receipt I'll give you..."
One problem is that affiliates normally have to check those receipts and manually send the bonuses. Steve Diamond solved that problem for ClickBank affiliates by creating affiliate bonus manager software which automatically sends the bonus to the customer.

32. Videos
First, videos were powerful sales tool for vendors. Videos make it easy to demonstrate a product. They increase conversion rates, sometimes dramatically.
Then affiliates caught on and started using videos, too.
The simplest way to put a video online is to grab a digital camera that takes videos and follow the instructions at YouTube. Then you can simply paste the code that YouTube provides into your website. YouTube kindly hosts the video for you - no bandwidth problems.
Eric Holmlund and Michael Nicholas have made things even easier for affiliates by coming up with Affiliate Video Brander, which enables affiliates to use affiliate vendors' videos and still direct traffic through an affiliate link.

33. PLR - private label rights
Affiliates use PLR (private label rights) articles and PLR products in a variety of ways to save time and money and generate revenue. For example, PLR articles can be used as blog posts, website content and in email courses. Here are some good places to find PLR articles.

34. Offline affiliates
Offline affiliate marketing can be as simple as posting notes on noticeboards in shopping centers and colleges, or as sophisticated as getting yourself interviewed on radio or buying ads on TV.
Offline marketing can be done by using a short, memorable domain name which redirects people straight to the vendor's site. Or you can send visitors to your site where they opt in to get a free report. The report presells the affiliate product, and the visitors are also signed up to an autoresponder series.
Some affiliates visit offline businesses. Others volunteer to speak at club meetings and arrange teleconferences.
One affiliate vendor who provides a heap of assistance and tools for offline affiliates is Ken Evoy of SiteSell. He provides an Offline Sales Kit which includes marketing guides, a PowerPoint presentation, brochures, fliers, ads, handouts, etc. He pays $75 commissions, plus commissions on renewals.
"Chambers of Commerce are a perfect place to meet lots of local business owners," Ken tells his affiliates.

35. Type-in traffic
Affiliates buy dozens or even thousands of domain names which contain keywords which are so common that people can successfully guess the domain name. People type the domain name straight into their browser and arrive at a site that promotes affiliate products, or PPC links.
CNN reported in 2007 that Rick Schwartz owns 5,000 domain names and says he makes $2 million a year from type-in traffic.

36. Freeware and shareware plus affiliate links
You - or a programmer you hire - can create software which promotes an affiliate product. As a bonus, you can get hundreds or thousands of one-way links to your site.
Directories such as Download.com, TuCows.com, FreeDownloadsCenter.com and thousands more list freeware and shareware software.
Smart affiliates tap into these huge traffic sources.
They create a simple downloadable application that promotes an affiliate product. In his book, Confessions of a Lazy Super Affiliate, Chris Rempel describes how he creates three types of freeware programs that promote a high-converting, big-demand affiliate product. Then he mass-submits the shareware to about 600 software directories.
If authority sites review the application, you can score a freak success. Chris has one application that has been downloaded more than 140,000 times and generated $19,000 in commissions.
He says he's created more than 150 applications promoting a wide variety of products. In his book, he describes which types of applications work best, and how to create them.

37. Upsells and back-end sales
Vendors create upsells and back-end offers promoting affiliate products, knowing that they're striking at a crucial moment - when the customer is already in a buying mood.
Upsells are most effective when the customer is able to acquire another product without having to enter their name, address, and credit card details a second time. This is extra work for your programmer, but well worth doing.

38. eBay
On eBay, affiliates used to be able to sell downloadable reports $1 or so. The reports would presell a product and contain affiliate links. The auction site clamped down on that, so affiliates put their reports on a CD and sell that. Because more costs are involved, they now need stronger skills.

39. Widgets
Widgets are snippets of code that can be added to websites and blogs and can spread virally. An early popular one was Trivia Blitz, a java game applet provided by Uproar.com in the late 1990s. It included an "Add this game to your website button" which enabled it to spread to thousands of sites. Those who spread it earned a referral fee.
These days, developers are creating applications for Facebook, such as iLike, which has more than 4 million active users and generates revenue when users follow links and buy music on iTunes or tickets on Ticketmaster.
Here's an interview with Ali Partovi which includes a discussion on how the iLike widget generates revenue.

40. AdSense
Many affiliate marketers love AdSense because because it's so easy to paste some AdSense code into a website or blog and get paid per click when your visitors click on the AdSense ads. Although it's hugely popular, it's just one of many ways to monetize a website.
These days, affiliates who own a large number of sites often own what they hope will become an AdSense empire. These MFA (made for AdSense) sites are often built with the help of PLR (private label rights) articles, cheap labor from outsourced workers and perhaps article spinning software which turns one article into hundreds.
And Google doesn't know what's going on, right?
More forward-thinking affiliates are building networks of sites that contain high quality, genuinely unique, useful content. They're building valuable sites that have a good chance of still ranking well 10 years from now.
I'm no longer surprised when I come across affiliates who have been using AdSense for years but haven't bothered reading the free helpful tips published on the AdSense site. Here's a good case study of a successful AdSense publisher. It's free on Google's own site.

41. Data feed sites
Merchant data feeds enable affiliates to add hundreds or even thousands of keyword-rich pages to a website. However, you can't just grab a merchant data feed from an affiliate network, shove it online and hope to get a lot of traffic from search engines, says affiliate datafeed veteran Gary Marcoccia. He says data feeds must be coupled with relevant content. I interviewed Gary to get his advice on affiliate datafeed sites.
Datafeedr is a new membership service which makes setting up stores using a merchant data feed quick and easy. Based on WordPress, it's provided by Eric Busch and Stefan Everaet. You can choose data feeds from CJ, LinkShare, Shareasale and ClickBank. Datafeedr is designed for affiliates who aren't techies and don't want to hire a programmer.

42. Data feeds + PPC
Sites using data feeds can be large and complex, with various types of content added to make each site unique. In contrast, affiliates who send PPC traffic to datafeed sites usually aim to keep each page fairly simple, with nothing to distract visitors.
One way to combine PPC and data feeds is to use SpeedPPC. It provides a Campaign Builder, Landing Page Generator, and Affiliate Datafeed Software.
Using the Affiliate Datafeed Software, you can import data directly from data feed files to build a super-targeted campaign and matching landing pages. Manually, this would be a extremely tedious and time consuming.

43. Incentives or rebate sites
"Incentivized" sales are encouraged by affiliates who offer points, prizes or cash rebates to people who buy through that particular site. The aim is to persuade customers to return to the affiliate site next time they wish to buy. Some affiliate networks won't accept incentive sites.
Sometimes large companies are involved. You may not think of American Express as being an affiliate, but it is: ShopAmex.com.
Rebate sites like Memolink.com, ExtraRebates.com and MrRebates.com collect email addresses - a valuable asset. Memolink says it has 10 million members, and has its own referral program.
Incentives offered don't have to be cash. PhoneHog.com offers its members free minutes of long-distance phone calls when they sign up for offers which pay PhoneHog per lead.
For example, Josh Kulp's NoCostGifts.com, which is aimed at U.S. residents, promises cash rebates and directs people to bargains and gifts at favorite restaurants and department stores, DVDs, movie tickets, long-distance calls, electronics, and so on. To receive any of these offers, a visitor has to become a member, so Josh collects email addresses fast.
I interviewed Josh to find out how he created the site and how his system works.

44. Teleconferences and teleseminars
Teleconferences and teleseminars increase credibility and trust by allowing potential customers to ask questions and sometimes listen to existing customers talk about their experience with the product. Teleseminars can sell many thousands of dollars worth of affiliate products in only an hour or so.
They can also be recorded, and the recording sold via an affiliate program.

45. Charity sites
Some shopping mall style sites say they give all or some of their affiliate commissions to charities. Charity sites vary hugely in quality. Some are rather vague about how much they donate.
If you're planning to create a charity site you need to provide solid proof that you're donating the money to charities.

46. Affiliate networks and CPA networks
Affiliate networks and CPA networks used to be just places affiliates would go to find products to promote. Then successful affiliates started launching their own CPA networks and taking a slice of the action from some of the products offered.

47. Affiliate podcasting
Podcasting (from the words "iPod" and "broadcast") involves distributing audio or video files via RSS to people who can play them on their computers or on MP3 players.
Podcast fans like the fact that they can transfer the file to their iPod and listen to it while they're out walking or away from their computer. Whoops! If they're out walking, they can't click on the link you're telling them about, can they?
Visual folk wish podcasters would provide a transcript.People like to learn in different ways - reading, listening or watching. By using podcasts, you widen your audience.

48. Social shopping communities
Kaboodle.com does its best to make shopping fun. It's obviously working - the site has more than 600,000 registered users and gets more than 7.5 million visitors a month.
Kaboodle, launched in 2006, describes itself as a "social shopping community where people discover, recommend and share products".
Visitors can organize their shopping through lists, discover new things from people with similar style, get discounts on popular products and find best prices. Members create and join groups, share advice, feedback and product suggestions and personalize their profiles with polls and other widgets.
Another social shopping community is venture-funded ThisNext.com, where members discover products based on recommendations.

49. Interactive sites
Here's an innovative affiliate site which doesn't fit neatly into any of the previous categories. It's Zafu.com. If you're looking for a nice bra, pants or jeans, you head to Zafu and answer a few questions on fit, size and styles. Zafu's "jeans-finding engine" then locates the ideal items for you from among 90 brands and explains why each style works for your body.
More products are coming soon. Zafu is growing into a clothing search engine.
When you do something clever like this it's easy to get wonderful free publicity. In its first six months more than 1 million women used Zafu's jeans-finding engine.
Zafu earns an affiliate commission on every bra and pair of jeans sold. The site also carries advertisements.

50. Visual search engine
Another highly innovative site is Like.com, which describes itself as the "first true visual search engine". You can search for products by color or texture. When visitors like the handbag or shoes or whatever they see and click, they're whisked directly to the affiliate merchant.
Like.com's owner, Riya Inc, raised $19.5 million in venture capital and, according to VentureBeat.com, is raising millions more.
CEO Munjal Shah says Like.com gets more than 5 million unique visitors a month and is buying traffic profitably. He won't say just how much traffic he's buying.

51. Customers provide product review videos
Kurt Lohse's Nuuvy.com allows anyone to provide video reviews of products - and pays from $1 to $10 per review. Under each video, there's a "Where to Buy" link, which takes you to coupon site KeyCode.com.
ExpoTV is another affiliate site which encourages visitors to provide video reviews of products. Visitors can earn up to $10 per video. They earn 1 cent each time a video is viewed.

52. Sites with a cause
One of the most powerful ways of selling is to be the public face of a worth while cause. That's what Randy Paynter, founder of Care2.com, has done. It grew out of his apartment. Now it has more than 50 employees and more than 9 million members. He promotes green living, health, civil rights, and a heap of other causes.
Another affiliate-driven site with a vision is MarchOfDimes.com, which fights for the health of babies.
If you motivate people, they'll spread the word for you, giving you unbeatable free publicity.

53. Social networking, social media
Affiliates join Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and so on and communicate and build and strengthen bonds in a friendly, helpful, interesting way with other people, without blatant advertising. Instead of trying to sell, smart affiliates provide excellent content. Eventually people follow links which lead to the affiliates' websites, buy products and sign up for their newsletters and RSS feeds.
In Traffic Secrets 2.0, John Reese says on CD No.7 that 99% or more of Internet marketers are using social media incorrectly - and waste an awful lot of time.
Whew! I'm running out of steam. Social media is a huge topic. We'll have to leave that for another day.
This two-part article "53 ways to make money with affiliate programs" doesn't cover every way you can make money with affiliate programs, not by a long way. Perhaps one day I'll do an update and add to the list.
If you're doing something innovative which deserves a mention, I'd love to hear from you.
In the meantime, I hope this list has helped spark a useful ideas.

OK that's the end of the article and I hope it got you thinking about focusing in on 1 or 2 ideas to help you in your own affiliate marketing business. Start today and keep at it, don't give up. I'll be back later this week with more free affiliate tips for you.