Category: WordPress

Make Money With Affiliate Program

One of the easiest way for to make money online is via make money with an affiliate programs. What is an affiliate program? An affiliate program is for example you recommend someone a product you really like and share it with your friends, if person buy it from your affiliate links, then you will make some percentage of sale. You will not have to create a product, ship it, or take customer calls for questions and return issues. It is simple enough once you understand the concept. You know what is best thing about promoting an affiliate, most of the affiliate programs are free to join, costing you nothing when you are starting out and short on cash.

All you have to get started is to sign up for these 100% free affiliates and you will receive a special affiliate id that is unique to you or your business. Most affiliates will also show you how to attach a special ID to a product and place it on your site or facebook page. So, if anyone will click on that link and buys something you will get commission.

Another thing I like about an affiliate program is that most affiliate program will pay you for other stuff people may buy through your affiliate link. For example, let’s say you have special product link about cannon g12 camera, someone clicked on the link and did not purchase the camera but purchased books, or kids toys, you will still get commission for the things bought. Isn’t that cool? I think so too.

One of the popular affiliates are amazon.com, walmart.com, target.com, bestbuy.com and so on. Some people make money via facebook or free blogger websites, and that is good for starting out. But if you want to make serious money and make sure your links and writings does not get deleted by facebook or blogger host, you should buy and host your own domain and hosting.  You can see how to start a website for step by step guide for details.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email, I am in process of creating a free eBook which you can download, so if you get a chance subscribe to website via email, so you will get news about it.

I also want to share all affiliate programs, I personally use in my online business and share with you one that are successful for me. All of these affiliate programs are 100% free to join. Many of these programs are internationally available, that means you can be China, Africa, Australia, Canada, US or Mexico and you will be able to join and make money with it.

Why You Should Not Use GoDaddy For Your Internet Business

Avoid Godaddy

As an internet marketer and working from online business, one the way I make some money is via affiliate marketing. For example, if I recommend a product and if my reader buys it, I make a small commission. Affiliate marketing is one of the great way to make money, selling other people’s product without much effort to create a product myself.

As a person who has lost some money on stupid or over hyped products, I know it is not fun to lose money on crappy products. I like to do ethical internet marketing and show you which products to NOT buy and save your money. I have  written a few reviews to show you products that I have used and/or like. Here is a popular domain and webhosting Godaddy and why you should avoid using it.

GoDaddy Hosting and Domains

I have been GoDaddy Customer and still in process of removing my domains with other Registrar such as Namecheap or Bluehost. I have been a customer and an affiliate for GoDaddy but I am no longer recommending Godaddy for following reasons;

1. GoDaddy upsells pricy add-ons.

Many people use GoDaddy’s dirt cheap coupon codes to get $1.99 domain and cheap hosting. However, when you try to buy it, godaddy tries to add so many upsell and some additional item so your final price is much higher. One time, I had to call back to remove extra add-ons that came with upsell.

2. GoDaddy is confusing for Newbies

A few of my clients was trying to set up  first blog, and Goddady site was confusing and hard to use for novices. As seen in #1, Godaddy upsells and adds some services that it becomes expensive, confusing and frustrating for some. Unless you know and have used it before, I would suggest buy from elsewhere or if you must buy it, make sure to have an expert next to you.

3. GoDaddy Supports SOPA and Backs Off

As I have written in my post SOPA  issue, which is thankfully postponed for now, Godaddy was initially supporting SOPA and PIPA. In easy terms, that means, if you had a domain or hosting from Godaddy, they can shut down your site if you used any copyright material or even linked to it by chance. So think of this way, great site like wikipedia would not exist, as there will be no free knowledge sharing, no downloads, no linking .

After many internet marketer took their business away, GoDaddy relented and stop supporting SOPA sort of. When you are running a business, you want to protect your business and content and work with companies that are stable and stable in decision making.

4. GoDaddy Hosting is slow

Godaddy apprantely puts so many domains on one server, slowing the websites for everyone involved. As these sites competes for space and bandwidth, it slows down your site, means if you lose your readers and customers for sites that sell merchandise.

Not only that, if your site loads up slow, Google penalizes your site and ranks it much lower. Why would anyone want to rank low, knowingly?

Another problem with slow hosting and slow server is, you will not know if anything is broken or needs maintenance on your site for half an hour or longer.

5. GoDaddy does not give you cPanel Control

For those of you, who are already blogging knows the power that cPanel can give in controlling and managing your domain and content. I have bluehost for hosting this website, while they are about $6 a month compared to $4 a month for GoDaddy, bluehost gives me cPanel to manage my domains. As an administrator of your site, I rather have a control of my own site and content via cPanel. You get none from Godaddy.

6. GoDaddy have lousy relationship with publishers.

For Godaddy, if you are a small publisher making little money for them, they do not care much. I have 4 people told me, they bought Godaddy from my links, yet it never clicked or registered with GoDaddy. I sent them proof of purchase from clients and their email and there was no response. I finally got to talk with one person, who seemed nice enough but did not do anything for me in the end.

Not only that, clients who bought Godaddy domain or hosting, had a such as terrible time with Godaddy customer service that I felt as I recommended them, it was my responsibility to only recommend good product with good customer services. Now, I know all Godaddy’s Rep are not bad, some are good, I have had a good customer service with them. However, generally speaking for many people, customer services from Godaddy left much to desire.

Conclusion:

I have been a Godaddy customer and have both good and bad experience. I still have a few domains with them, which I am in process of moving to Namecheap. As namecheap is cheap and provides free whois guard, unlike Godaddy or bluehost.

The biggest lure of Godaddy is abdunce of coupon codes available, making you feel you are getting a great domain and/or hosting a cheap price, but by the time you buy it it may not be cheap at all and you end up spending same of more for the same thing. See example, here is a rough price breakdown for domain according to domain comparison site.

Price Breakdown:

  • GoDaddy $10.69 per year
  • Namecheap.com $9.69 per year
  • Name.com $8.99 pear year

See Related Posts from other bloggers about Godaddy:

iThemes GoDaddy Post

Avoid Godaddy

6 reasons to avoid Godaddy

SOPA Bill And How It Could Affects All Bloggers

First time I heard of SOPA was a few months ago. At the first bill sounded good to untrained eye as it said to protecting copyright law for websites, writers and so on. But, it is much more complex than that. Rightnow, many bloggers and sites are protesting against SOPA bill, and rightly so.

To understand much complex SOPA issue, here is an article I found which explains it well;

I am against SOPA, as it is kills the free knowledge sharing internet as we know it.  Right now wikipedia in US is down to protest it, this is what I saw earlier on their site:

Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States – the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate – that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.

This will be the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it’s a decision that wasn’t lightly made. Here’s how it’s been described by the three Wikipedia administrators who formally facilitated the community’s discussion.

You can show your support for Wikipedia and Against SOPA, please show your support here:

https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/SOPA/Blackoutpage

Last month or so many bloggers and internet marketer pulled out from GoDaddy, one of the biggest domain and hosting place as they openly supported SOPA and PIPA.  Basically, in simple terms, Go daddy can shut down your site, if there were any complains against your site, content and ask questions later. Many people pulled away from Godaddy and went to other registars such as NameCheap.Now, they (Godaddy) are claiming to oppose the SOPA (sort of) after many internet marketer and bloggers transfered the domains and hosting elsewhere.  Moral of the story is, we mere people have lot of power, only if we got together to do and see what is the right thing to do, as so in this such case!

If you have not read about it check out;

So, where to you stand on SOPA, make it known. One does not have to take site down like wikipedia, specially when I am a small fish, but we can certainly take business elsewhere and support freedom on internet to share knowledge freely without worry over shutting down sites.

SOPA and PIPA could affect even smaller blogger like you and me, know and learn about it and oppose it.

3 Common PPC Marketing Mistakes

I am not PPC expert by any means but before jumping in anything 100%, doing right research helps and these are a few things I have learned which I want to share with you all.  PPC, Pay per Click, marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools that are available on the internet today. But just like any other advertising campaign it needs to be done with careful planning and consideration in order to avoid certain pitfalls that may occur while you are creating your marketing campaign.  If you begin your PPC marketing plan without careful planning first you have set yourself up to lose thousands of dollars and tons of wasted hours.  There are books available that you can read that will help you put a great plan into place for your PPC Marketing plan.

Putting a successful PPC marketing plan is easy though without books if you avoid a few of the more common mistakes that most people make. Note though even if you have discovered that you have made one of the following errors that can be easily fixed quickly and get your campaign back on track.

1. Mistake 1

The most common mistake people find themselves doing in creating their PPC marketing plan is using their homepage as the landing strip.  While to most business owners it may seem logical to have your visitors brought to your homepage there are reasons why this should not be done.
• People who will click on your advertisement are most generally looking for a specific item. Instead of bringing them to the home page, create a landing strip for your ad to bring them too.  This will allow you to bring your customers exactly the right spot that they are searching for. This will make them happy because you saved them time and as a result they are more than likely to visit again.  Each of your landing page should be keyword specific relating to your add. It should also not contain any other links or distractions.

2. Mistake 2

If your landing page is confusing to your reader you will lose sales as a result.  If you create a PPC that is targeted to the visitors key word it will result in sales almost every time as long as it easy for them to read and understand.  Your landing page should also be part of the keyword that they are searching for.  Make sure that it easy for the reader to find. You should also have several different landing pages if you have several different keywords or topics.

3. Mistake 3

Every search engine that is available on the internet today will use its own methods as to where to place your ad.  One of the biggest mistakes that people who are new to PPC marketing make is that they do not tightly target their keywords well enough to get considered for optimum placement on the search engines.  Over 85% of all search engine results are based on the top three ads.  If you are not able to focus your keywords well enough you will not make the top three and have the potential to lose a lot of money as a result.

As you can see the more common mistakes made by new users to the PPC Marketing world are fairly easy for anyone to make. Knowing how to fix them is the key to a great PPC marketing campaign.

9 Blogging Tips For Bloggers

Blogs are a great way for anyone to get their ideas across to others and a great way for businesses to do some free advertising. Creating a great blog is an excellent way to drive more traffic to your site. When building your site there certain tips a person should pay attention to when they are writing their blog.

1. Write

When you are writing your blog write it with your reader in mind.  When a reader is looking for information that may pertain to your idea they want the information in a way that they can both read and understand easily.

2. Valuable and Worthwhile

With everyone busy life no one has time to waste to look at a boring site. If you cannot think of anything creative to talk about, then try to do interview, or even a book. Anything will do as long as you are not posting useless content.

3. Proofread
I have a big problem with this. It is grave importance that you proofread your material before you push that post button. Once you push that post button that is it the error is out there and there is no way back. Respect your reader and keep your site free of errors and easy to read.

4. Short and Simple

Keep your postings as short and simple as possible because its human nature that people are scanners. You will need to make your point quickly otherwise risking losing your reader completely.

5. Lively

Write to your readers like you would talk to your friend or family member. The more lively your posts, the more snagged your readers will become. Make it seem like you are talking directly to them and only them. But be sure to make your point quickly.
6. Links

Use links as often as you can. This will help you create credibility and help establish you to the reader as an expert on the subject. You can also create a network by linking to other similar blogs. The other bloggers will clearly thank you.

7. Keywords

Use your keywords as often as you can it will allow you to stay on task and the search engines will love it. The more keywords you use the higher your rankings on the search engine your blog will appear.

8. Write Clear

You need to write your blogs in a way that the average person can understand. Do not ever try to put more than one idea in a sentence this will confuse your readers. Make sure you use your commas as often as possible

9. Headline

Make sure your headline is easy to understand and should have keywords relating to your blog in it.

If you follow these simple steps, you will have a great written blog and with some luck it will be in no time with a lot of readers.

How to Leave Comments That Will have 100% Chance Of Approval

I and occasionally a friend of mine write for this blog and we both have full time job, so working on this site comes when we have a free time. We were having such a bad comment spamming awhile ago, and we were spending time clearing spams from genuine comments. It was not fun, and we had turned off all comments and kept only trackback features. See Why I Took Out Comments Off From Blog.

But, I missed having genuine conversation with other readers and bloggers. I do get occasional tweet or facebook mentioned but it is not the same as comment feature, which is more personal and friendly. After talking with a couple of other bloggers and friends, I am turning comments back on and I hope to get to know my reader friends.

Here are some commenting suggestions will be appreciated. Rest will be deleted.

This is not a spammy or automated blog, and I hope I get genuine comments and not automated comment blasts.

1. Please use your name or name @ blog name.

2. Please do NOT use your keyword as a name, such as cheap xbox, best ipad reviews and so on.

3. Write a meaningful comment based on post you are commenting.

4. Only “Good job”, “I agree” type of comments will be considered spams.

5. Do not add link, unless it is useful and relevant to subject and readers. This blog uses comment luv feature so your latest (or chosen) post will be linked.

That is about all! Hope you had a good Christmas and enjoying little break before the new year starts.

Please check out, I changed home page to create a how to start blogging in 7 steps, after getting many requests. Hope you like it.

Blogging and Business

How Upload a PDF Files Into WordPress Blog

I love blogging in my free time and share what I know and have learned along the way. It is my way of writing about things I am passionate about and create some passive income earning from site.

If you have looked in to blogging, you may want to try it. There are free blog platform as well as self hosting word press account. I have done it many ways from site build it site, to free blogging platform and now self hosted wordpress account through bluehost hosting.

I like WordPress as a blogging platform, it is easy, powerful to use and does not require any html or coding background to get started. However, if you know a little blogging tricks along the way making your blogging job much easier.

While I am not Word Press or Blogging expert, I am sharing a bit of knowledge I have learned from my blogging so far.

How to add PDF file in to your Blog Post?

Let’s suppose you are blogging away and you want to create a free or paid ebook and you want to share it on your blog post. How does one go about doing it?

There are many ways to do it. For sake of simplicity, I want to focus on free ebook give away on your blog.

  1. You can use free or paid email marketing tools such as mailchimp or aweber to get readers to sign up for your blog or newsletter.
  2. You can use feedburner to get reader sign up and send ebook manually. But that can be time consuming.
  3. If it is ebook that people should pay for it, you can use other services to have it handled and we will look in to this later in detail.

I like the method of quick and easy download for any PDF files I have created, specially without any sign up worries. Let’s look in details, shall we?

Assumptions:

I have made a few basic assumptions here.

That you know bit about wordpress blog and have basic knowledge of using it. And you have PDF file already created on computer.

How to upload a file in to a WordPress Blog Post?

  1. Go to WordPress Dashboard and Click on new post.
  2. Go to edit mode, give title of post, that will make saving draft much easier.
  3. Just above the post, click on “Add Media” button.
  4. Use file section and select your PDF file from your computer hard drive and click on “Upload” button.
  5. Make sure PDF file is less than 8 Meg. If it is larger, you may want to upload it via your hosting account. It will depend on your hosting site on ways to upload it through it.
  6. Another window will pop up with shows a Title, Caption, Description, and Link URL.
  7. Fill in any of the fields the way you want, including Title and Link. If you will not Type URL link, it will create it for you.
  8. You can go and see URL through what is is uploaded in Media section. You can do that Via media section on your WordPress dashboard.
  9. Now, click file URL or copy paste URL in to your post. If you are using html, do following; <a href=URL Iink from media here>eBook_name </a>. If you are using Text editor, you can put a link through chain symbol and place your URL link there.
  10. You “file URL” and can insert in to post or manually type it in as written above.
  11. Now, you have PDF file posted, save on “save draft” before you publish it.
  12. After saving the file, click on “preview” to see how your file and post looks and click on PDF link to see if file is downloading fine and it is same you intended to put it on your blog.
  13. Once you have it set, write information regarding the PDF file, add appropriate image or videos and publish it.
  14. Now your readers can download PDF file for easy click and free.

Hope you enjoyed this small tutorial. You can take a look at the video for any clarification as something seeing things makes it lot easier to follow.

How to post a PDF file in to WordPress Blog

How To Create A Web Site That Sells

Your business website is essentially your storefront, business card and most significant marketing piece all rolled into one. How it affects your visitors and customers is then essential to your success. Provide a memorable experience and customers are sure to return time and time again. Let’s take a look at five keys to creating a website that sells.

Key #1 Make your website interactive.

As the internet continues to grow and evolve it’s becoming more important to create a community around your business. To accomplish this you want to engage your visitors and customers. This can be accomplished a number of ways. You can:

* Provide a forum
* Post surveys or polls
* Enable visitors and customers to review or rank items. For example a “How valuable was this article?” question and a scale of 1 to 5 stars or a ranking from 1-10.
* Offer a blog and inspire comments and feedback
* Host contests and sweepstakes
* Publish video and audio content as well as written content. This gives users another way to access you and your personality.

Key #2 Make sure your website provides value.

People go online for a number of reasons. They go online to research a potential purchase, to seek solutions for a problem they’re having and to be entertained. If your website provides all three; products, information, and entertainment then you’re in tip top shape. The good news is your content can provide both the information and the entertainment and when written well, can also inspire purchases. Here are a few ideas to provide value for your customers and prospects:

* How to articles, videos, and audio
* Tips articles, videos, and audio
* Case studies
* Workbooks and reports
* Interviews with experts
* Product reviews

Key #3 Make sure your website is easy to navigate.

It takes a visitor about 20 seconds to make a decision about whether they’re going to stay on your website or click away. If your site is laid out nicely, with products and services, information, prices, FAQs, and content easy to find then people are more likely to hang out – the longer they stay on your site the more likely they are to make a purchase or to return again.

To make your site easy to navigate consider:
* Keeping your site simple.
* Keep your pages uniform with the same options and appearance.
* If you have a lot of content, great! Use drop down menus and organize your content by topic for easier access.
* Offer a search function where users can search for products, services, or content topics quickly and easily.
* Provide a way for users to easily go back to previous pages. A back key is an option however if every page has the same options and drop down menus, including the ability to quickly return to the home page, a visitor will always be able to find what they need.
* Test your website’s appearance on different browsers to make sure every visitor has a good experience.

Key #4 Make your website easy on the eyes.

Ever visit a website and the text was so small or the colors so incompatible that you couldn’t read a word? Readability is critical to a selling website. Make sure:

* Your colors are easy on the eyes,
* Your graphics aren’t distracting
* And keep formatting like underlining, bold and italics to a minimum.
* Spacing between sentences and paragraphs is adequate
* Font size is large enough for people to read and font is easy to read

Key #5 Give them a soft sell.

People expect to be sold to and they’re looking for it – they’re wary. Instead of hitting website visitors with a hard sell, provide information, solve their problems and show them the benefits of your products or services. They’ll be much more receptive and appreciative.

Creating a website that sells requires a structured approach and a desire to create the best experience possible for your visitors. Once you’ve created your website, consider testing it and asking associates, friends and family for their opinion.

Starting your Home-Based Service Business Tips

Question: How to Start a Home Based Service Business?

The current trend is towards more home-based businesses. They require lower overhead and startup money making them easier for entrepreneurs with limited fund. If you are thinking about starting a home-based service business, here are a few tips for getting started on the right foot.

What is a service business?

Service businesses are those that provide help to others. This can be anything from mowing the lawn to managing business accounts. The basis of a successful service business is one that supplies a need. In your area, it may take some research to discover the top service needs and then figure out which one you can provide.

Benefits of a home-based service business

There are several benefits to running a home-based service business. First of all, you can run the business from your home. Since you already pay a mortgage, utilities and car payments, the only thing you need spend money on now is the equipment for your business. And, running a service that began as a hobby means you already own most of the needed equipment.

Secondly, a home-based service business requires low overhead and startup costs. We alluded to the startup costs above and the low overhead means no employees but you. The key to keeping the overhead low is taking on only as many projects as you can safely and efficiently handle by yourself.

Home-based service business options

As we mentioned, you can usually run these service businesses out of your home. Establishing a website for selling your services lowers the overhead even more and maximizes your profit. With the Internet as your potential customer base, the opportunities are endless for marketing and finding clients. Here are some home-based service options.

Virtual assisting has taken off in a big way in the last ten years. Using a computer, fax machine, telephone, and Internet access, you can perform various administrative duties for large and small companies. You are paid for the work that you do so there is no extra charge for the company. Virtual assisting skills run from transcription to accounting to managing email and company websites.

Transcription by itself can be a profitable venture. Medical offices and businesspeople are always in need of someone to transcribe their audio or video files. It is far easier and less time consuming to record an interview or dictate a medical procedure. Your job will be to turn that file into a document for patient charts and online use by various businesses.

Ghostwriting is the process of writing articles, novels, eBooks and more for an individual or a company. Using your writing talent, you can make a lot of money creating literary works (print and electronic) for others who need them.

Getting started tips

There are considerations before beginning any type of business even a home-based one.

1.    Check out the local laws for registering and zoning a home business. Most home businesses require no zoning issues unless you will be meeting clients in your home and posting signs in the yard.

2.    Small business tax laws. Now that you are a business, you are subject to different tax exemptions, deductions and payments. Sites like www.irs.gov can give you the information you need.

3.    Set up a separate work space at home. This could be as simple as using a spare bedroom or den with a door to keep your work separate. If you rely on the telephone a separate phone line can be added. When a workshop is needed, consider using a garage or purchasing a large outbuilding.

4.    Use on and offline marketing methods to find clients. This includes: viral marketing, newspaper and Yellow Pages ads, flyers and direct mailings, email marketing, article marketing, setting up a website and etcetera.

5.    Create a schedule to divide time between work and family. Balancing both is hard. Scheduling time and sticking to it means more gets done and no one is slighted.

A home-based service business is an alternative for people who want to know entrepreneurship without spending a lot in upfront costs. If you have a talent and can meet a need, consider a home-based business.

Start a Blog To Make Money

An online presence is important these days for whatever enterprise you engage in. to connect with a wide variety of people there is no bigger forum than the Internet. If you are looking for a way to show off your expertise and also make a little money while doing it, consider starting a blog.

What is a Blog?

A blog is actually an online journal of sorts. With a blog you can upload daily posts about anything that you want. Some people create personal blogs as a way to keep in touch with family members. Pictures, videos and other information are uploaded so your loved ones are current with what is going on with you.

Here we are going to talk about business blogs. This is a blog that you begin to attract traffic in order to sell products or services. To be interesting to others, your blog will need to:

•    Have updated content for visitors
•    Be marketed to draw traffic
•    Register with search engines so it can be found in the rankings

How to Start

If you are new to blogging, use a free blogging platform to get your feet wet. Sites like Blogger.com, WordPress.org, Blogspot.com and others offer free blogs to users. Depending on the site you choose, the themes and plug-ins (added features) will vary. Most will walk you through the process step by step so that you can be up and running in no time.

Before you start posting, decide what will be the theme, or niche of your blog. A jack-of-all-trades type of blog doesn’t do as well as one that is geared towards a certain niche. If you like crafts, that can be your niche. Create posts that talk about how to craft, what to craft, how to make crafting profitable and so on. Once you have decided on a path, it is time to create that great content.

How to Make Money

In order to make money with your blog, you need to have people visiting it. That is where marketing comes in. to draw traffic you have to get the word out about your blog. Tell all of your friends and family members that you are online with your blog for a start.

Any money-making venture will take place once you have built your readership with interesting posts. Then you can put into play a number of profitable additions:

•    Google AdSense
•    Selling Advertising
•    Affiliate Marketing
•    EBook Marketing

The simplest one to pursue is Google AdSense. You are using targeted advertisements to create revenue for your blog. You are paid per clicks on the ads.

There are other options where you can get paid when someone makes a sale on that website. That is more likely to happen when you join an affiliate program. Join affiliate program that work well with your website niche.

EBooks are short downloadable electronic books that you can create yourself and sell on your website. They can be on a variety of subjects but in order for them to sell, you must be able to offer new information to your customers.

Blogs can be used to build revenue. Start with your chosen niche and market your blog to find the traffic you need. Then, utilize these ideas to turn a profit.