2006 was an incredible year for my business. My second year in operation and we grew over 300%.
But, it wasn't a year full of only success. I made big mistakes this year, the 2 that bit the most cost me a total of $120,000.
I fell for a "too good to be true" trap and made a horrible outsourcing decision purely out of greed and I paid dearly and actually am STILL paying in lost opportunities.
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I know you're probably in shock right now, right? I mean think about...$120,000 can buy an entire house in some areas.
I know that the $120,000 "sounds" like a lot of money, but I've learned to look at it as an "investment in my business education" rather than a loss. See, when you put the $120,000 side by side to the MILLIONS in ... Read More →
Here are just a few trends to watch for in the coming year.
Social Networking: By now, almost every online marketer has heard of social networking sites (such as MySpace) and have figured out that they are most likely the future of media. Many online social networks started out small, and now a few are becoming a global brand. However, marketers need to be creative in order to develop campaigns that integrate brand messages, without offending those who don't want to be marketed to.
For this reason, a key trend for social network marketing will be "integrating brand engagement." That means marketers need to develop websites where visitors do not see sneaky ads. Instead there will be more tools, characters, and icons that will promote customer empowerment and self-expression.
When Honda introduced the new Element, they did so with a MySpace page and ... 
Tied to customer service, the term “outsourcing” represents an economic boon to many and a four-letter word to many more. But in general, it’s the practice of cutting operations costs through assigning tasks to outside individuals or groups who can perform those tasks more cheaply and (possibly) expertly.
Many writers, web designers, and other “experts” provide outsourcing services that affiliate marketers can use. However, whether you should outsource or not depends on where you are with your business.
Let’s say you’re going like gangbusters. You own several successful websites, you’re making money hand over fist, and you see new markets on the horizon. Maybe you want to develop content for a new market but would rather not spend precious time building a new website yourself. Or maybe you enjoy developing good web designs but would rather leave the content to others. Depending on specific needs, preferences, and available funds, outsourcing may make sense in this situation.
You’ve heard the quote that Mark Twain supposedly made famous: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.” Well, statistics don’t lie, but they can overwhelm us to the point that numbers attack us in our nightmares.
But if you’re going to succeed as an affiliate, you need to pay attention to certain statistics and work toward improving them.
One such statistic, the click-through rate, is the percentage of ad impressions on a website that result in click-throughs. I.e., someone sees the ad on the site and is intrigued enough to click on the ad to see where the link takes him or her. The visitor may click on the ad either with a purpose that could eventually lead to a sale, or merely out of curiosity. Either way, the visitor’s clicking on the ad constitutes a click-through and improves the ad’s click-through rate.
An even more important statistic, as it pertains to the profitability of your affiliate business, is the conversion rateRead More →
Most marketers use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a strategy to get more traffic. But some of these strategies can go too far and get a website banned by search engines. When this happens, you will not receive any organic (free) search engine traffic and will have to pay for every click you get!
We have absolutely been swamped with questions from everyone who does not quite understand what we mean when we say "Our magazine is now brandable!"
Basically, YOU can start making money from the magazine, month after month. ALL the *monetized* links are going to now be YOUR links.
For example...
1) All links that promote Affiliate Classroom
2) All links to product reviews we do
Here's what is even is more powerful. You can have YOUR name and website PROMINENTLY displayed in the Table of Contents stating the magazine is distributed by you. Think about the power behind this...
Each and every month YOU now get a VIRAL marketing tool to give your readers and site visitors. If they decide to pass it on to their friends and their readers, YOUR links go with it and your name and branding go with it!
Branding literally takes 2 minutes and you can do it right from your computer.
Here are the steps:
Step 1:
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Social Networking is a new big word for something that's been done for a long time. It basically means "Word of Mouth."
That's why social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are so popular. People sometimes want to know what others think about a product or service before they buy it. The best way to do this is ask your friend who might know. Now, with the existence of these very large networking sites, you can ask a lot of people at once for their opinion, and probably get quite a few different answers.
The American Marketing Association (AMA) did a survey and found that the social networking sites may now be playing a larger and more influential role in e-commerce than was first expected.
I started a MySpace page at the beginning of the year, although I have to admit, I haven't been very good at updating it. However, it was easy to start, and doesn't hurt as a linking tool to my other web sites. If you don't have a site, you should put one up. You never know when it might come in handy for one of ... 
When selecting a domain name that fits your site best, you have to decide which top-level domain you want to have.
So ask yourself, do you absolutely need ".com" in your domain name, as many prefer, or are you okay with ".net" or ".biz"? Since ".com" is recognized worldwide as the domain name of business, you will most likely want to stick with it.
Opinions among SEO experts are divided about whether to include keywords in your domain. But if you are building a small content site in a very specific niche, 
TAG, YOU'RE IT! Let the child in you live, but this time through your blogging! There's an interesting game going on where bloggers are tagging each other. Every time you get tagged, you have to tell the blogosphere 5 things they don't know about you.
Then, you have to tag 5 more people.
I was tagged by 
Our 
