The topic of blogging, affiliate marketing, and using affiliate marketing blogs, comes up often. I suppose one reason would be because so many people who blog, use affiliate marketing as one of their sources of income.

I do understand that while using affiliate marketing blogs is [...]]]> Exactly What Are Affiliate Marketing Blogs?

The topic of blogging, affiliate marketing, and using affiliate marketing blogs, comes up often. I suppose one reason would be because so many people who blog, use affiliate marketing as one of their sources of income.

I do understand that while using affiliate marketing blogs is very common to most affiliates, there is a small percentage of people who are just starting out that aren’t very clear on what affiliate marketing actually is. So let me explain what it is and how it’s most commonly used.

How Do Affiliate Marketing Blogs Work?

Let’s say that you become aware of a person or business who has a product or service to sell. If you choose to promote those products or services to your audience, you are paid a percentage of whatever the cost of that product or service might be.

Affiliate marketing comes in many different forms, but when it comes to using affiliate marketing blogs, in most cases money is made when your visitor follows a link from your blog that will lead them to another page or website where they can make a purchase of something that they want.

When that purchase is made, the product owner or service provider will pay you, the affiliate, a percentage of what the client paid… similar to a referral fee. It’s very much like “word-of-mouth” advertising. And when you promote products with recurring fees, it’s very similar to network marketing. You tell someone about something… they check it out and if they like it, they purchase it and you get a percentage of the sale.

Other Variations of Affiliate Marketing Blogs

Other variations are when you simply refer someone from your blog to a website and that person takes some kind of action on the site. For example… you might refer someone to a website or blog and they sign up for something. They might give an email address or complete a survey. Many advertisers will pay their affiliates money just for the referral, even if no product or service was purchased and no money was exchanged. These methods are often called by different names like CPA or cost per action… but the basics are the same. It all comes under the umbrella of affiliate marketing.

Commissions from affiliate sales are often paid out in percentages but are often a fixed amount per conversion.

Affiliate marketing blogs can create a one-time sale or residual income. Let me give you a live example.

I am an affiliate for Social Networking Academy. In my opinion, it’s better… and more honest to promote or become an affiliate of something that you know for a fact is an excellent product. Many affiliates don’t try the products first, and sometimes end up embarrassed and losing credibility. I say… do your homework first! Promoting inferior products to your followers can be very harmful to your success online (offline too).

I am an affiliate of the Social Networking Academy because a lot of people who visit my blog are looking for a way to make money using the internet. This blog membership teaches people how to do exactly that. So, not only am I a member for how it benefits me, but with great confidence, I refer my followers to check it out because I know that for many, it will provide the answer to exactly what they are looking for.

To me, this is one of the best ways to benefit from affiliate marketing blogs. Find your niche (or your audience), then find products and services that will benefit them and make those products and services easily available to your niche.

When it comes to promoting with affiliate marketing blogs, I recommend that you first review the product. Once you’ve had the opportunity to check it out for yourself, write about your experience with the product and provide a way for your visitors to experience the product for themselves.

So when it comes to choosing affiliate marketing as a revenue stream from your blog, if you satisfy a need for your readers… give them something that will benefit them… you will benefit yourself as well.

And do keep this in mind. Affiliate marketing blogs alone can create a full-time income when you learn to do it the right way!

So are you interested in starting an online business? Do you know where to begin, what to do, how to do it? If you do, you are miles ahead of where most people are when they decide to embark upon an online business.

One [...]]]> Should you join a membership site?

So are you interested in starting an online business? Do you know where to begin, what to do, how to do it? If you do, you are miles ahead of where most people are when they decide to embark upon an online business.

One thing about learning how to work online is this. Online marketing is not a game you want to try playing all by yourself. You will waste more time and money than you’d ever imagine if you’re trying to figure out how it all works on your own. This is especially true if you’re new to blogging or working online.

This is the very reason you’ll notice that opportunities for joining a membership site have been popping up all over the internet.

Personally, I think it’s a very good idea, and I only wish I had gotten involved with a  membership site a lot sooner than I did.

When I first started online, I ended up spending thousands of dollars on internet courses, blogging courses, network marketing information… I was really hungry to learn. But, because of my eagerness, I spent way too much time and money trying to get started.

A membership site help you to cut to the chase, leave out all the fluff and sales pitches, and they give you the exact information that you need to know without the information overload problem.

Once I started narrowing my search into specific niches online, I was lead to the benefits of belonging to a membership site. I learned that I could put all of my focus, effort, and energy into the information I needed. And I could access the information that would help me accomplish what I needed at any time.

Usually, when you’re really seeking about specific information, if you’re not out-sourcing, you have to do a lot of research. You also deal with a ton of trial and error to finally get to what you really need.

If you find a really good membership site where the content is ‘real’ and not filled with fluff and empty, useless information, you’re on to something powerful.

I remember when a few of my friends teased me because I had actually become a member of three different membership sites at the same time. They were also in  internet marketing, and in reality, they ended up spending more money purchasing course after course every month than I was spending on all of my memberships combined.

So, why did I take the membership site route to learn what I needed to know about internet marketing?  That’s not a hard question to answer.

1.   When you find a really good membership site, it will over-deliver on content.

2.  The amount of money you will spend for the average membership site will be far less than the money you will spend purchasing products and education.

3.  Many memberships will only last for a designated period of time. In other words, you join a 12 month continuity program, and by the time you complete the program, you have a successfully accomplished your purpose for joining. At least, that’s the way it happened for me.

4.  A good membership site will also have live support. Not only do you get the opportunity for live calls and webinars, but you get access to all of the training and some also over live coaching sessions where you can get all of your questions answered.

What you’ll come to realize is that in every case, even when you’re working online, it’s about interacting with real, live people. Without this aspect of your business, you won’t make it. The sooner we all realize that business is about the people and not just numbers, the better off everyone will be.

Even though my business is now going well, I continue to stay plugged in to membership sites. It makes the work that I love so much a lot easier which makes me much more productive.

So my recommendation is that once you find the niche you’ll be working in, find a really good membership site and get on board. It will cut months and months off of your learning curve.

Below you will find the memberships that I am still a member of, and highly recommend.

For the Internet Marketing Niche

Chris Farrell Membership

 For the Network Marketing Niche

My Lead System Pro

 For the Social Media Niche

Social Media Networking Academy

I’ll soon be launching a membership site for Online Blog Pro… It will be for beginners who just want to know how to become a good blogger and how to make money doing it.

Stay tuned…

When I first started learning how to blog, there was so much that I didn’t realize I didn’t know.  And when you don’t know what you don’t know, you spend a lot of [...]]]> When you’re just starting out and learning how to blog, you want to have a step-step process to follow.

When I first started learning how to blog, there was so much that I didn’t realize I didn’t know.  And when you don’t know what you don’t know, you spend a lot of time doing the wrong things.

I’d heard once that when it comes to learning how to blog, all you do is write every day what you’re thinking about or how you’re feeling. Obviously, I wasn’t listening to people who were using blogs to make money. But, that’s what I’d heard, so that’s what I did.

Problem was… I wanted to learn how to blog to make money, and I wasn’t making one red cent. I was willing to put in the work… I was learning new things — so many things — but I wasn’t learning how to make money online. Probably not because what I’d been told wasn’t true… it just wasn’t what I needed to know for what I was trying to do.

Learning how to blog wasn’t difficult, you just need to know in how to do it right!

Once my blogging “aha moment” came, I realized how much precious time I’d lost on things that didn’t matter at all. Learning how to blog almost came too little to late (so I thought) but I finally got it, and I’m so glad I never gave up.

Before I started working on any of the technical stuff, this is what I didn’t know that I needed to know…

1. What topic was I passionate enough to blog about?
2. What do the people who would read my blog really need?
3. How would I find the people who would be interested in my blog’s topic?
4. When I start blogging, what should I be focusing on?
5. How will I make money by blogging about my passion?

I could go on and on. What I didn’t realize was that these simple questions would make all of the difference of people visiting my blog every day, or no one stopping by at all.

Understanding about how to blog was good, but then came the techie stuff…

1. What type of blog platform should I be using?
2. What is WordPress and Blogger?
3. What are plugins and how do you use them?
4. How do I drive traffic to my blog?
5. What is SEO and how does Google like my blog… and does it even matter?

Again… I could go on and on about what I didn’t know, but I didn’t let that stop me. Another thing I realized early on was that I just needed to get started. I knew my blog wouldn’t be perfect… and it still isn’t… but getting started was the first major step.

So I ended up purchasing several “how to blog” courses to find out what I needed to be doing. To my surprise, learning how to blog wasn’t nearly as difficult as I first thought… I was just missing a few key components. Now it’s all second nature.

So what’s my point in all of this? I’m not sure where you are on your blogging journey, but I do understand how it feels at the beginning. For that reason, I have something for you that I know can help you out.

I’ve created a simple little newsletter that gives you some step-by-step tips on how to get started with your blog, and what you need to be doing with it on a regular bases.

If I had had something as simple as this when I first got started, I would have gotten through the process a lot faster. I literally had to comb through several different trainings, through all of the fluff to get to the “meat” of the matter.

Sometimes you’ll find more ‘fillers’ than anything else when you start to search for answers on how to blog. That’s the reason I put the newsletter together.

Coming up with this ‘tutorial style’ newsletter made it a lot easier for me to give people something they could continue to reference long after I’d had a conversation with them. It started out as simple notes and turned into what it is today.

A very simple blogging blueprint that teaches the beginner how to blog…

So, if you’re new to blogging and you want the simple steps on how to get started, sign up for our newsletter and follow each lesson as you receive it.

I’ve broken everything down into bite-sized pieces so that even the newest person to blogging can understand and won’t become overwhelmed with too much information.

Each lesson will give you a quick over-view, then an assignment. It’s that simple. After just a few lessons, your blog will be up and running, and you’ll have all of the basics in place.

So, don’t waste time like I did. CLICK HERE to sign up for your “Getting-Started” newsletter and start learning how to blog the right way now.

We live in a world with people… real people… Yes, we have machines, technology, computers and all the automation in the world. But do you realize that 99.9% of the people in the [...]]]> If you’ve ever wondered what’s all the excitement surrounding social media… it’s very simple.

We live in a world with people… real people… Yes, we have machines, technology, computers and all the automation in the world. But do you realize that 99.9% of the people in the world would prefer to do business with people over gadgets and machines? That has always been, and regardless of how technical we get, the need for interaction with people will never fade.

We sometimes tend to get lost in internet land and think that growing a business is all about the computer and an internet connection. Wrong!

I love the fact that technology has made things a lot easier, and you can get a lot more done much faster. But for ultimate success, there still needs to be a face, with a name, behind every successful business venture. That’s where social media comes in like a flood.

Think about it in your own personal life. When you call a company to try getting assistance with a problem, what happens when you get a machine rather than a human being. They ask the same mundane, computerized questions every time you call… and you get the same canned answers.

Some may call that perfection… I call it nerve racking… especially when it involves money.

Now consider the fact that whatever business you’re involved in, you won’t make a dime unless real people are buying from you. Machines don’t buy. People do. Machines don’t read your auto-responders — people do.  Machines can’t make an emotional decision, but people do.

That’s where attraction marketing and social media has come into play in a huge way. Social Media is all about you interacting and socializing with people and attracting people to YOU and what you’re all about… then ultimately, attracting them to your product or service.

It’s no secret that the most successful people online are those who have learned how to use social media to brand themselves.

When you begin to use social media effectively, people you’ve never met will start to know your name, a little about who you are and what you do.

Marketers who use social media have managed to present themselves online in a way that draws people into their world.

When you consider all of the social media sites that are online today, it isn’t any wonder that online entrepreneurs are able to amass a small army of associates without jumping through hoops.

It doesn’t matter what your market or niche may be, there is a group of people, large or small, who are interested in exactly what you have to offer.

Social media helps you to find those people and attraction marketing helps  connect you with them.

Facebook, the #1 social media site on the net, has proven to be a mini-planet of its own and many online marketers use Facebook exclusively to conduct very successful online businesses.

When our member area launches in September, there will be tons of resources, education and tips on how to use social media to grow any business. Again, it doesn’t matter if its online, offline, mlm or affiliate marketing.

If you want to create a blogging empire, you’ll want to plug in to our community. Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of leaving social media out of your marketing funnel.

If you learn the right way to attract people to you through social media and attraction marketing, you will never run out of hot, eager, prospects again!

When you think of products for bloggers, it’s all about the things that will help you to become a better blogger.

This page will direct you to products that I use regularly, and that I have used to further my education in blogging, internet marketing, social media, [...]]]> PRODUCTS FOR BLOGGERS

When you think of products for bloggers, it’s all about the things that will help you to become a better blogger.

This page will direct you to products that I use regularly, and that I have used to further my education in blogging, internet marketing, social media, network marketing, attraction marketing and more.

You will find everything from recommended books to videos and recorded webinars, memberships, my personal products, and more.

Some of the products are courses that I have provided for members of Online Blog Pro, as well as team members with my network marketing program. Other products are courses that I have learned from and can make available to you as well.

Simply click on the images below to be directed to a page that will give you more information about the products in each category.

OnlineBlogPro Membership	Internet Marketing Toolkit	Recommended Reading
Recommended Listening	Recommended Watching

We provide basic website marketing [...]]]> No Time To Work Online? Let Us Do It For You!

While I am well aware that some visitors to my site would like to get started working online, I’m also aware that sometimes busy schedules don’t allow you the time to accomplish the basic things you need.

We provide basic website marketing services for those who would like to get set-up and start marketing their products and services online.

We offer these services for work-at-home entrepreneurs as well as small offline business.

With each website marketing service provided, you will have the opportunity to review and make changes (within reason) until you are completely satisfied with the web or blog design and services.

The information below will give a brief description of the website marketing services that we are currently offering.

Create Your Online Presence With a Complete Social Media Setup: $40

This includes setting up your accounts with your username and password (this should be changed after set-up.) I will include the image, your contact information and bio that you provide. This package included complete set-up for the following:

• Facebook
• YouTube
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

A New WordPress Blog: $50

This service will help you get your business online. You’ll now be able to direct your clients and customers to more information about your products and services. The package includes:

• Purchase and set-up of your domain name
• Blog hosting for your WordPress
• All of the necessary plugins installed
• Set-up or integration of your auto-responder account
  
• I also include video tutorials that will show you how to add your own content and maintain your blog.

Squeeze Page for ANY Niche: $40

If you are marketing any product online, you absolutely will need a squeeze page with an auto-responder. You can include your own video, audio, and images.

5-Page Professional Website: $300

Today, if you have any type of business, a website or blog is a must. This service is usually provided for small offline businesses, however, I will also provide the same for individuals, as well. This service includes:

• The purchase of your domain name
• The purchase and set-up of your hosting account
• A complete 5-page professionally designed website… including
  • Auto-responders
  • Video
  • Audio
  • Images
    
• FTP installation of your site to HostGator
• Adding your provided content on all five pages
• Search Engine Optimization for each page

With each service, I will need full access to your username and password, which you will change once the work is complete.

Monthly website|blog maintenance: $30 per month

For a limited time, we are able to offer ongoing site maintenance to some of our busy clients. We will make up to five updates per month to keep your blog or website fresh with new relevant content. You can also email your own content and we will put it in the right place and add appropriate images.

To request any of the service mentioned on this page, visit the pages below: