Work From Home Carefree - Be Your Own Boss Get Rich Make Money Working From Home Weblog. Billion Dollar Industry!

In the past, you may have you heard of a 22 year old  guy, Rob Benwell who wrote the book  “Blogging To The Bank.”  He came  out with this top-seller about blogging last year, but unfortunately, while the overall book was excellent, the “white hat” community had a few problems with it being too “black hat.” 

Well now it seems Rob has changed his methods a little in an attempt to please everyone; and also create Blogs that last forever. 

Of course, I don’t have any experience with this, but it seems like black-hat strategies allow you to make a quick buck, and then die away,  You really have to mass-produce them quickly to keep up – and make money before the search engines shut you down.

It’s stressful, annoying and for the most part, a waste of time.

However, with Rob’s latest (just released today) version of “Blogging To The Bank,”  he reveals all the strategies that he uses to create blogs that not only last forever but are optimized to convert into affiliate sales. Rob gives you details on everything you need: 

1. Where to set-up the blogs
2. What plug ins to use (how to install them)
3. Exactly where to put your ads
4. How to use Private Label content
5. How many times to post
6. Where to ping
7. What Web 2.0 utilties to use and how…  and more. . .

It’s about 61 pages long, and even though it’s short, it covers Web 2.0 concepts like how he uses Squidoo to generate massive traffic. This section alone could save you from making some big mistakes.

It’s a very inexpensive product and MORE than worth the read. This is absolutely a sure proof way to start your online business  if you have not yet and are struggling to figure out what business model to use.

Learn more about he actually made $34,244 in just 1 month from his blogs, building them the same way he teaches you…
 

 I like to FISH for fish….the kind that swim in lakes and rivers and have gills and scales. Fishing (with an ‘F’) is a wholesome, outdoor activity that it would be hard to find fault with. But fishing (with an ‘F’) is not the kind of phishing that I’m talking about here. I’m talking about the unscrupulous act of phishing for information….YOUR information.

Phishing is a term used to describe a particularly obnoxious attempt to trick you into giving up your personal information to a person who is not trustworthy. In the case of phishing, YOU are the fish that somebody wants to catch.

A phishing email will arrive in your inbox and look as though it has been sent from a legitimate business like PayPal or your bank or mortgage company. Unless you are diligent, it is very easy to get caught by a phishing email. There are some tip-offs that will identify a phishing email for what it is.

1. You will not be addressed by name. The letter will begin with Dear Friend or Dear Customer or Dear Account Holder. Emails that are REALLY from legitimate businesses will use your name.
2. The email will ask you to click on a link that is included in the email where you are supposed to verify your personal information…. your account number, your social security number, your password, your credit card number etc. Legitimate businesses will NEVER ask you to click on a link to verify information. NEVER!

I am not trying to make you paranoid. I just want you to be diligent. The best policy is simply never click on a link in an email that you are the least bit suspicious of. Legitimate companies won’t ask you to supply or verify personal information. THEY already have it. The senders of phishing emails WANT it.

Internet Retailer published a provocative article in their July issue, “Gaining sex appeal, affiliate marketing is receiving more attention.”

Affiliate marketing—using one site to drive traffic to another—has long been viewed as a cost-effective way to drive online sales and customer acquisition. But it never has captured the attention of retailers in the same way that sexier marketing tools such as e-mail and search engines have.

That may be changing as retailers discover that an affiliate program can be leveraged to enhance results of an overall marketing campaign. Retailers with successful affiliate marketing programs are aligning their overall e-commerce marketing objectives with their specific affiliate-marketing strategies, says Chris Henger, vice president of affiliate marketing at DoubleClick Performics Inc., an affiliate marketing company.

Spot on advice in the article from Chris Henger, vice president of affiliate marketing at DoubleClick Performics, and Kerri Pollard, vice president of client development at Commission Junction.

Plus some sexy numbers from the AffStat 2007 Report.

This is chapter 7, Choosing the Right Affiliates, of Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants.

I’ve got a couple points you should consider in choosing affiliates.

One thing I want to mention is that it’s very important to focus on quality over quantity. You really don’t need thousands or tens of thousands of affiliates.

It’s more about the qualified affiliates who are going to do a good job of promoting your affiliate program.

To that end, you should definitely not consider auto-approval of affiliate applications. Without question, you should be manually approving all affiliates, so you can see what they’re doing and what they are all about.

When manually approving affiliates, you should have a certain criteria to qualify these affiliates for your affiliate program.

The actual criteria will vary from one affiliate program to another, depending on the vertical of your affiliate program and which affiliates make the most sense.

Some things I like to do to gauge whether an affiliate might be a problem or a good affiliate for me…

• Domain being submitted is a well known domain, but the contact information is based in a P.O. Box and/or a free e-mail service (Yahoo, Gmail, etc).
• E-mail doesn’t match domain being submitted. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but it’s just an indicator to consider.
• Site is down or “under construction”.
• Inverted first and last name (common practice of fraudulent applications originating in China).
• Validation of a real Social Security Number.

It’s very important to perform due diligence. You must find out whether an affiliate seems legitimate or whether they are a potential liability.

I cannot comment enough how you must treat the affiliate application process seriously.

In my opinion, transparency is key with affiliates. You have to know what they’re doing and where they are doing it.

Some affiliates have privatized domain names, so you cannot see who is behind the given domain. I understand people do this for various reasons, but I think it’s a good practice to stay away from these players (with some exceptions on a case by case basis).

I like to know who I am working with, and if they are going to cloak their domain, I have to wonder what else they might be hiding. It may well be an unfair prejudice, but I think it’s a prudent practice.

Also, you should consider calling each of your applicants to have a chat with them on the phone. Use this as an indicator to see how they respond to various questions. If they act a little uncomfortable with some questions, it could raise red flags for you.

It also gives you a snapshot about who they are and how they plan to promote your company.

Again, spend time and attention on the application process. Quality should be your focus. Work with partners that make sense, rather than just building up a huge database of random affiliates.

In the end, you’ll find that you have a more successful affiliate program.

Videos of other chapters of Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants are available for free at http://www.affiliatemanager.net/videos.shtml.

Below are the Top Ten Affiliate Programs for June 2007 as tracked by the Affiliate Tip Affiliate Program Directory.

The Top Ten affiliate programs are calculated by the number of clickthroughs each program received in the affiliate program directory.

Disclaimer: While we attempt to include only legitimate programs in this directory, no warranties are made. Please research each company carefully to arrive at your own conclusions. If you experience difficulties with any of the programs listed, contact us, so that we may investigate them.

1. Hydra Network
2. Payless ShoeSource
3. Orbitz
4. Advanta Bank Corp
5. eHealthInsurance
6. zZounds.com
7. Amazon.com
8. The Scholastic Store Online - Scholastic Inc.
9. Shopzilla
10. Skirt Spot

CPA networks are treated as individual affiliate programs for the purposes of the Top 10 Affiliate Programs list.

Affiliate programs can be submitted to the directory at http://www.affiliatething.com/reg.php.