Going Social Anywhere and Everywhere

On the eMarketer website there’s an interesting article about the power of going social. Under the subtitle “Tweeting while driving ” the writer says,

“Despite the slowing growth of Twitter after its explosion earlier in 2009, many users still cannot get enough. Crowd Science reports that in August 2009, although only 27% of Twitter users posted daily, 46% checked for updates every day. Almost one in five social media users reported using Twitter in the past week.”

H1N1, Swine Flu Prevention Affiliate Marketing Scams

Linda Buquet, writing on the 5 Star Affiliate Blog, has brought to our attention a blog post on an affiliate blog called Money Making Scoop. Linda says, “The blog post suggested a marketing ploy that is dangerous, unethical and illegal. He suggested affiliates try to sell various herbal products by saying they will ‘prevent’ the swine flu.” DON’T DO IT! You can get into big trouble with the FDA or FTC for making false medical claims.

PPC Classroom V3.0 is LIVE!

It launched only an hour or so ago. There are Over 20 courses offered now just $1.And there’s an ENTIRE suite of TOOLS that will automate your PPC for you 100%. These have never been released to the public before! You don’t want to miss this opportunity.

Amazon Associates Now Integrates Directly with Twitter

There’s a post on the Amazon Affiliate Blog today that’s of interest to all Amazon affiliates. The writer says, “We are excited to announce the launch of a new feature called Share on Twitter. You can access Share on Twitter from the Site Stripe and post links to your Twitter account from Amazon detail pages in just two clicks.”

Craigslist Now Warns About Affiliate Scammers and Tells Users How to Get Back at Them Where it Hurts – Right In the Wallet!

Linda Buquet has a very interesting and helpful post on the 5 Star Affiliates blog today. Linda says, “I think (hope) most affiliates know that they aren’t supposed to do affiliate marketing on Craigslist. Not only is it against Craigs TOS, but many affiliate networks prohibit CL marketing and will withhold your commissions.”

Ah….but apparently not. Cragslist has a full page warning to users and details how to get back at unscrupulous affiliate marketers. Beware you black hats!

Announcing the “PPC Automation 1 – 2 – 3!” Webinar Series

Yours when you get the $1 Trial of PPC Classroom 3 Now…

http://my.affiliateclassroom.com/go.php?a=3026&l=32&sy=2

Get PPC Classroom 3 through this link now and receive 3 Bonus Automation Webinars:

Bonus Webinar #1
One Amazing Webinar with our own Super Affiliate Amit Mehta
Let Amit walk you through the course and show you EXACTLY how to get started.

Bonus Webinar #2
Get started faster with a Q&A call with one of our highly successful VIP Coaches to answer your AUTOMATION TOOLS Questions!

Bonus Webinar #3
Receive another Q&A call with a VIP Coach to answer your other “Getting Started with Automation” Questions!

Get the Bonus “PPC Automation 1 – 2 – 3!” Webinar Series with your $1 Trial of PPC Classroom 3 now…

http://my.affiliateclassroom.com/go.php?a=3026&l=32&sy=2

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5 Super Affiliate Habits Revealed

PPC marketing is the fastest way to start generating traffic if you’re an affiliate marketer. Since traffic is the lifeblood of online sales, PPC marketing is the fastest way to start getting momentum for your online business.

Follow these habits to enter the mindset and execute the strategies of a super affiliate:

1. Stay consistent no matter what.

At the beginning, only 3-5 percent of the offers you test will be winners. That alone can be profitable for you as long as you scale your offers correctly. After a few months, about 5-10 percent of the offers you test will be winners — which, if you scale them right, could generate enough income for you to quit your day job.

As a beginner, you should use the affiliate network ClickBank to find offers. Signing up for ClickBank is quick and easy. It is key for you to get up and running quickly with testing offers.

2. Move into Yahoo! Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.

Yahoo! Marketing and Microsoft adCenter most of the time will give you a lower cost per click than AdWords. They also have much lower standards than AdWords for what they will allow, from whether your landing page is relevant to whether the grammar in your ad conveys too much hype. The main downside to Yahoo! Marketing and Microsoft adCenter is less traffic. But hey, having your campaigns on Yahoo! Marketing and Microsoft adCenter will give you a safety net of revenue if you get a Google slap.

3. Improve how your funnel converts.

Improve the copy of your ads through methods such as split testing and constantly adding words that better resonate with your customers. Changing a headline on your landing page can quadruple profits overnight. For search campaigns: have one keyword per AdGroup –- use the keyword in the headline. This will give you the best results.

Improve your landing pages by speaking more directly to your niche of customers. Think through their fears, motivations, and lifestyles. You will win them over if in your copy you explain their problem better than then they can.

Once your landing page copy is solid, build your landing page into a real site. Altogether, your ultimate goal should be to set up a handful of affiliate sites that are generating long-term sustainable profits.

4. Join the community.

Don’t dip your toes in the water. Jump in. To grow your skills and business long term, you need to surround yourself with affiliates as dedicated to self-improvement as you. You can find a strong affiliate community within well-moderated forums such as WickedFire and ABestWeb.

For the most organized and supportive community, though, you will want to join PPC Classroom 3, the course we launch today: We have forums, we have coaches, we have monthly Q and A webinars, and we monthly have niche case studies.

5. Use tools to grow your campaigns.

To be profitable in PPC marketing, you don’t really need to innovate. You just need to know and use the tools available to you. Pretty much every step in the process can be structured and scaled by an automated tool. From improving the effectiveness of your ad copy to expanding your keyword lists to organizing your sales stats, there are highly effective tools you could and should use.

For rapidly creating keyword lists for each campaign, use a keyword suggestion tool, such as those we provide in PPC Classroom 3. Use it to build keyword lists of 50 to several hundred keywords, max, for each of your campaigns. Set a daily budget for 5 dollars for every 50 keywords.

The step-by-step process above is just a taste of what he and the rest of the Lurn team provide to our students within PPC Classroom 3, which just launched this afternoon!

In PPC Classroom 3, we run the gamut of providing you with tools for your campaigns. We also give you case studies of great campaigns, courses on fundamental and advanced PPC lessons, and forums filled with dedicated students and experienced staff.

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Announcing the “PPC Automation 1 – 2 – 3 !” Webinar Series
Yours when you get the $1 Trial of PPC Classroom 3 Now…

http://my.affiliateclassroom.com/go.php?a=3026&l=32&sy=2

Get PPC Classroom 3 through this link now and receive 3 Bonus Automation Webinars:

Bonus Webinar #1
One Amazing Webinar with our own Super Affiliate Amit Mehta
Let Amit walk you through the course and show you EXACTLY how to get started.

Bonus Webinar #2
Get started faster with a Q&A call with one of our highly successful VIP Coaches to answer your AUTOMATION TOOLS Questions!

Bonus Webinar #3
Receive another Q&A call with a VIP Coach to answer your other “Getting Started with Automation” Questions!

Get the Bonus “PPC Automation 1 – 2 – 3!” Webinar Series with your $1 Trial of PPC Classroom 3 now…

http://my.affiliateclassroom.com/go.php?a=3026&l=32&sy=2

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

IAB Takes Up Arms against the FTC’s Latest Endorsement Regulation Campaign
On the ReveNews website, Andrew Wee is blogging about the FTC’s latest ruling. Andrew says, “If the Federal Trade Commission had the intention to spark off a wave of sometimes worried, sometimes angry and often indignant blog posts and forum chatter with their “Final Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”, they’ve certainly succeeded.” Read the rest of this post — you’ll want to know this.

Affiliate Links being Blocked by AVG AntiVirus
Linda Buquet, writing on the 5 Star Affiliates Blog says, “I was reading a couple of disturbing threads at ABestWeb over the weekend. Members there have discovered that AVG, the #1 free antivirus program, is totally blocking all Linkshare affiliate links and is also blocking CJ links on one of their domains. This is a very serious issue as we head into the busiest shopping season of the year.” It certainly IS a serious issue. Linda provides links to two threads in which the issue is being discussed. You should probably check this out.

Tips From A C2M Millionaire
Ruck has posted an article on the Convert 2 Media website about a publisher who is only 21 years old. Ruck says, “this publisher achieved $1,128,000.00+ change in the month of June. An incredible feat by any means but what is truly remarkable is that he’s only 21 years old and been in the business for a little over a year.” You’ll want to read the rest of this success story.

Banner Ad Turns 15, Earns Learner’s Permit
Do you think banner ads are as old as the Internet? Have you ever thought about it? Me neither! But Click Z reports, On this day in 1994, HotWired.com made Internet history by becoming the first online publisher to display a banner ad. The unit was 468 x 60 pixels and was purchased by either Volvo, MCI, Club Med, Zima, 1-800-Collect or AT&T, all of which reportedly bought ad space that fateful day. The AT&T version above asked/promised, “Have you ever clicked your mouse right here? You will.” Interesting read!

Bad Campaign Worse than None at All
During its analyst day presentations yesterday Carol Bartz (Yahoo! CEO) told financial analysts not to worry about the move, insisting it was just a matter of “running out of time.” Still, it does make you wonder what the big guys are up to. We might want to keep an eye on this one.

In part two of this two-part blog, we continue our look at tips for making the most of your time.

Tip #6: Recognize Distractions

There is a reason why businesses block sites like Facebook, limit the time you spend on personal phone calls, and try to keep office chit-chat to a minimum. All of these things slow down productivity.

These same distractions will slow down your productivity at home, too. So, do these things on your “recess” breaks. Don’t kid yourself about what is and what isn’t a distraction. If your two-minute check of what’s new with your Facebook friends usually turns into a half-hour-long trek, then it is a serious distraction for you. Recognize it and plan for it. It doesn’t mean that you can’t do it — you just have to count it as a recess or schedule it for non-business hours.

Tip #7: Reward Yourself

When you reach your goals, or beat your expectations, reward yourself. In fact, consider placing your potential reward in the goal.

For example, “When I make my first sale, I’m going to my favorite restaurant for dinner,” or “When I reach $1,000 in commissions, I’m taking my spouse away for the weekend.”

Reinforcing good behavior is a time-tested psychological tactic. Believe it or not, it will work even if you are both the rewarder and the rewarded.

Tip #8: Get Dressed

Yet another way to psychologically trick yourself into more successful behaviors is to simply get dressed every day. This means you need to get up and get through your morning routine — your shower, coffee, workout, and breakfast — BEFORE your scheduled business hours begin.

Some experts will tell you that getting dressed and putting on shoes turns on something in your brain that tells you it’s time to do something. Even if you don’t believe that, you can believe that when you have your morning routine done early, you won’t be tempted to waste time catching up on these things during the day. Plus, you’ll find that your spouse, family, and friends will appreciate not seeing you lounging around in PJs and old sweatshirts every day.

Tip #9: Leave the House

A lot of affiliate marketers get into the business specifically to stay home with children or other family members who need care and support.

However, if you have the chance to leave the house at least a few days a week, do it. This helps clear the at-home distractions like laundry and the dog. Plus, it’s another great way to trick yourself into getting things done. When you leave, you’ll want to get everything done that you can before you go back.

Try going to your local coffee shop, fast food restaurant, library, or college campus. Many of these places offer free or low-cost wireless Internet and a comfortable place to plug in and get things done.

Tip #10: Share Your Accomplishments and Failures with Someone

This is one of the principles behind community-based weight-loss programs, like Weight Watchers. It’s easier to let deadlines slip by and goals disappear when you’re only responsible to yourself. So, share your goals with someone else. Your spouse is a good one, and the members of the online communities like the forum at Affiliate Classroom are another great group.

Tell them what your goals are. Let them know when you’ve reached your goal and don’t be surprised when they notice that you’ve missed a deadline or fallen short of an important benchmark.

Overall, remember that your success is tied directly to the time and effort that you put into this. So, manage those two resources as efficiently as you can — your bottom line depends on it!

One of the great things about becoming an affiliate marketer is the freedom that it allows you to do what you want, when you want.

However, all of that freedom can turn otherwise efficient people into TV-watching couch potatoes in a matter of a few months. When nobody is holding you to deadlines, reigning in your expansion ideas, and expecting you to be somewhere at specific times, you may find your efficiency slipping.

In part one of this two-part blog, we will look at five tips for making the most of your newly acquired time.

Tip #1: Keep a To-Do List in Front of You

Whether you go with good old-fashioned paper, the slightly higher-tech dry-erase board, or the truly high-tech project and time management software and apps (like Microsoft Outlook, Omni Focus or http://www.RememberTheMilk.com) keep track of the things that you need to do in a to-do list.

Here are a few rules of thumb when it comes to your to-do list:

1. Keep the list in front of you so that you see it, can edit it, and live by it.
2. If it takes longer to write down the to-do task than it does to actually DO the task, just do it!
3. If something has been lingering on your list for more than twice as long as other items, make a decision on its true importance. Are you really going to do it? Is it worth having someone else do for you? If not, erase it from the list.

Tip #2: Set Goals and Tight Deadlines

You are the boss now, but along with the perks come the responsibility. Nobody (meaning you) is going to get anything done unless the boss (yes, you again) is setting goals and deadlines. Think of your projects as something that you’re outlining for an employee. What should they accomplish? How much time should it take them? When should they show results?

Use this as your guideline to get things done. In fact, challenge yourself to beat the goals and exceed expectations. You probably did that for your last boss; give yourself the same respect.

Tip #3: Create and Stick to Your “Business Hours”

When you work from home, you’ll find that people around you will think that you’re not “really” working. Your spouse will want your help around the house, the kids will want to play, and your friends will want to hang out. Before you know it, you’ll find that you’re giving in to them, and in fact, you aren’t really working.

But affiliate marketing takes time and effort. You have to invest your time into making your business a success.

So, decide on hours that you are “at work.” You don’t have to stick to 9-5, or Monday through Friday. But you should have a schedule and a place to go where everyone understands that you are “at work.” If you stick to your schedule, your friends and family will, too.

Tip #4: Give Yourself “Recess”

I guarantee that you will NOT be able to fight the urge to occasionally clean up a room, run to the store, water the plants, walk the dog, play with the kids, change a load of laundry, or catch a TV show. When you are home, these things are all around you and can trap your attention.

If they do, let them. You deserve a recess. But give yourself an end time.
Some experts say to set a timer for around 20 minutes. Do what you need to do, get it out of your system, and then get back to work.

You’ll feel better knowing that the laundry is done, the dog is walked, and the kids got your one-on-one time.

Tip #5: Maintain an “Idea Bank”

Affiliate marketing calls for a lot of creative thinking. Though this can lead to a lot of great, profitable ideas, it can also lead to a lot of time wasted on half-researching every little idea that pops into your head.

Keep the ideas flowing. But, as you think of new ideas, or come across something interesting while researching another topic, add the thought to an “idea bank.” This can be a notebook, a text file on your desktop, or another dry-erase board.

This will ensure that you stick to your goals and don’t get sidetracked by every new idea that pops into your mind. Plus, chances are that when you go back to the idea bank later, you’ll think some of the ideas you had were pretty crazy, and you’ll be happy you didn’t waste hours researching them.

For those ideas that are good, you’ll be able to spend adequate time researching and planning them after you finish your initial set of goals.

In part two of this blog, we’ll take a look at five more tips for successful time management to help you efficiently use your time, stay focused, and be successful.

You can sacrifice a couple of hours of your life to the TV gods tonight watching the Family Guy marathon, or you can unleash your inner entrepreneur.

Get out your stopwatch and do these five steps to launch your own revenue-ready online business.

Worried about committing before you are sure of your end goal? Fuggitaboudit! All these steps will help you with whatever Internet marketing path you choose. This kickoff gets you off of zero and on your way to hero.

You’re never again at zero after you’ve started. Launch your business in two hours by completing the following five steps:

1. Identify your PASSION (20 minutes)

Grab a piece of paper. Write a list of the things you love most — at least five items. Rank them, with your favorite topic as #1.

Go to Google. Individually enter the top five items in your list into a Google search, noting for each one the number of results. Now re-sort your original list, with the items with higher results moving up the list.

2. Find an affiliate PRODUCT related to your passion (20 minutes)

Sign up for ClickBank. Find products related to your TOP 3 list items starting with number one.

Find two products for each of your TOP 3; add the two prices together; re-sort your TOP 3 list, and see what the highest priced topic is.

That is your theme, and your first two products.

3. Launch a WEBSITE (59 minutes)

Register a domain name with GoDaddy: Pick something with your theme in the name. Fastest method: Enter your theme and pick one of their suggestions. Use one with a “.com” ending. Select the least expensive hosting package and none of the extras. Search for “godaddy coupons” on Google before you check out to get a discount. By registering your domain and hosting together, you minimize delays in set up.

If you don’t have an FTP software to handle files on your new hosting package, go to Download.com and get the free CoreFTP software.

Download the free WordPress blog platform by signing into GoDaddy, clicking “Hosting,” then “Manage Account,” then “Your Applications,” then “Blogs,” then “WordPress,” and finally “Install Now.”

Use an included sample template for your site. Lots of templates are available, and you can update and replace your selection at a later time.

4. Write your first POST (20 minutes)

What’s on your mind related to your theme? Write it! You may have a book in you (everyone does), but this is not the time for the book! Pick one simple point or idea to express. Write three paragraphs. If you need more, break it up and come back to it later with additional posts. This is all about completing the entire process once, so you can expand on SOMETHING that is complete.

Go to your ClickBank account. Get your coded link to one of the two products you identified, and paste it at the bottom of your post. Sample: “Also, check out X.” Hyperlink X with the affiliate-coded link you obtained via your ClickBank account.

5. SUBMIT your new website to Google (1 minute)

Submit your website to Google for free at http://www.google.com/addurl/.

It will take a while for it to show up in search results. Until then, feel free to share your work directly with friends and family. You have your own online business.

Now that you are up and running, nothing can stop you. Energized by progress, you are no doubt already thinking of more posts, more placements for your affiliate links in your blog, and more ways to get traffic to your site.

Go get ‘em!

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Share your thoughts and tell us of your new site launches!

These PPC practices are three of the principle practices that millionaire super affiliates do consistently that regular affiliates, who feel that they are just hitting their head against the wall, don’t do.

If you want the best chance of entering the super affiliate ranks, follow these tips:

1. Test 5 to 10 offers per month.
Most offers will not be successful, but with this level of testing you should find a winning offer fastest. It may take testing 15 offers to find a winner, an offer that makes you $100/day of profit. Drop offers that aren’t winners after you’ve spent 2X to 3X the product’s commission.

We’re releasing a video VERY soon that goes into details on how to do this. Remember, our PPC expert Amit Mehta went through 15 FAILED campaigns before he hit a success. It takes time, yes, even with the right training. Amit was doing it all on his own.

You have a chance to really cut your risk by using PPC Classroom 3.0 (releasing on November 3rd).

2. Dramatically expand your keyword lists for the winning offers you uncover.
A typical affiliate only bids on 10% of the converting keywords for an offer, and typically they’re the most obvious keywords. He or she who bids on the most converting keywords conquers the niche, so find those other 90% of converting keywords. Use a program such as KeyCompete.com, which will tell you the thousands of keywords the super affiliates in your niche are bidding on.

Again, we’re about to release a whole set of tools that will help do this FOR you on November 3rd. Either way, in the next few days, look for a video from Amit that explains exactly how to find those other 90%…

3. Advertise in the content network if your customers buy your product on impulse.
The offers that work in the content network are impulse buys. These are those products that internet surfers aren’t actively seeking, such as dieting offers, make money offers, or free trial software download offers. Advertising on the content network has the potential to give you much more traffic and less cost per sale. Make sure to completely separate your content campaigns from your search campaigns, and organize content campaigns by grouping keywords within adgroups based on that group’s theme.

Promoting CPA Offers in the content network is another great way to go!

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT – We’re about to release a FREE report (revised) on what we’ve found after training over 20,000 PPC affiliates! We’ve found a very consistent trend in the affiliates who are succeeding online.

The report will be released ANY day now. Watch for an email.

Also, PPC Classroom 3.0 has been getting worked on for almost a YEAR now. Not only are we updating and releasing even MORE education to propel you to the top…

BUT…this time…we’re also releasing an ENTIRE suite of TOOLS that will automate the entire process for you. Yes, so you can LUrn in place AND use the tools to automate the entire process.

Just watch your email – we’ll have tons more information coming out soon!

We’ve been carefully watching the FTC’s new ruling on endorsements (review sites) and testimonials to determine how it might affect affiliate marketers. When the new ruling first came out, there was talk about an $11,000 fine for those caught out of compliance. But that information was detracted, and now there is no mention of a fine. However, since it IS the FTC making the new guidelines, affiliate marketers should take notice.

The FTC has now published their final guidelines, for the changes that affect Testimonial Advertisements, Bloggers, and Celebrity Endorsements. Here is an excerpt from their site:

"The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service."

Basically, what they’re saying is that if you receive payment of any kind (including free products) for reviewing a product, you need to disclose this fact to your readers. I’m fairly certain that payments made while marketing an affiliate product fall under this category. That’s probably why the ruling was made in the first place.

I haven’t seen this put into place on any blog sites yet to see how the information will be noted, but you should keep your eyes open while reading blogs to see what others are doing, and see what might work best on your blog.

We’ll keep you posted if any new information becomes available.