Ebay Drops Commission Junction

Early this week I read on SEOBook that eBay has dropped commission junction as their affiliate program. Ebay is launching a new affiliate program in May. This kind of sucks for those who have Ebay links scattered across multiple sites. I have a bit of work to do on some of my sites, but it is definitely worthwhile for me to join the new affiliate program.

Ebay has a pretty good affiliate program (it’s one of my favorites). You should join the Ebay affiliate program if you have websites related to anything sold on eBay. If you want to see an example of the primary way I use Ebay’s affiliate program then check out my dinosaur toy pages.

Mock Not the Humble Mini-Site

I look back at my original money-making concepts, and while they were valid, they leave me
with the same conclusion.

I goofed.

It’s not that I got the principles wrong, because you can make money from content sites and
blogs. No, it was more a question of a resource mismatch. My manpower consisted entirely of me and any task I happened to outsource as I needed. That isn’t so good when you’re trying to maintain a blog or content sites.

Those types of sites take a lot of work to keep fresh unless you’re a scraper, and you never want to become one of those because some people consider scraper sites to be unethical. You can’t just let them sit, because fresh content is the only way you get repeat traffic and in the case of blogs, syndication. This means you’re always adding or changing content, which adds work you could be spending making money with something else less effort-intensive.

Mini-sites are another matter entirely. For those of you unfamiliar with them, a mini-site
is a tiny site built specifically to do one thing well. This includes such things as:

• Get you to buy something. If you’ve ever landed on a sales letter page, you’ve seen this type of mini-site.


• Get you to opt-in to a list.


• Get you to click and buy through an affiliate link.

In fact, when it comes to making money online, mini-sites are ideal for the single individual entrepreneur. They don’t take much to maintain once they’re optimized and working, don’t require regular content updates, and aren’t megabytes worth of code in size. Once you add the fact they focus the attentions of their visitors on a single thing, you have a good concept for a low-cost, low-maintenance sales tool. In other words, less time in building and maintaining the site, and more time to promote and profit from it.

I grasped this myself, but my other mistake was to make my mini-pages part of my existing web site instead of giving them their own URL’s. This won’t work well because:

• The URL will be unattractive, or at the very least not memorable.


• It gives your visitors too much of an opportunity to be distracted.


• It makes it impossible to brand with a catchy URL of its own and perhaps go viral.

So learn from my goof, and mock not the humble mini-site. You can make money in other ways, but the mini-site is ideal for a single individual to make and then use in list gathering,
affiliate page promotions, or sales of ebooks. It’s the reason I won’t be using anything else in the future.

How Far Are You Willing To Go To Make Money Online?

Before you decide how you are going to make money online, you need to know how far you are willing to go to make money online.

What are your limits?

Until recently, I haven’t clearly defined how far I am willing to go to make money online. Sure, I have had some general guidelines, but over the years I have been asked to do some things that have been on the borderline of what I am personally comfortable doing.

From now on, before starting any online project I will ask myself:

“Is this method of making money something I feel comfortable sharing with my children, my friends, my family, and others?”

If I am embarrassed to tell my kids what I do to make money online, then I am not going to do it. For me that rules out a lot of things (splogs, some affiliate marketing strategies, gambling, prescription drugs, p@rn, etc.). However, there are a lot of ways of making money online that it doesn’t rule out.

How far would you be willing to go to make money online?

If you knew you could make a really good living, by setting up black hat SEO sites, would you?

What about p@rn? If you were guaranteed to make a million dollars, would you set up a p@rn site?

What about “burn” sites? Would you be willing to tell someone they will win a free ipod if they just follow five easy steps… The first four are easy steps that put money in your pocket through CPA (Cost Per Action) affiliate marketing and the last “action” is purchasing a new car through your affiliate link that pays for the ipod and then some?

I have learned a lot of ways to make money online, but a lot of those ways I am not comfortable with. You need to set your limits up front, otherwise you might wind up creating an online business that you regret.

Am I A Sheep In The Googlesphere?

There were some rather interesting posts and developments this week. Most of them were about Google. So instead of my normal “Internet marketing tips from the web” post, this post should be titled “Internet marketing tips from the Googlesphere”.

Hmmm… Did I just create a new term?

I will have to go “Yahoo” it… back in a sec.

Nope, Yahoo shows 999 results for Googlesphere, rats!

Anyway, the biggest news of the week across the blogosphere was that Google is lowering the pagerank of sites that sell text link advertising. I don’t know if this includes buying and selling banner links or not, but it should since banner ads normally don’t use the no-follow tag.

I think that those who made this decision at Google don’t understand how powerful the blogosphere really is, or they expect most bloggers to act like sheep and fully support Google.

Here are some of the many posts I have read this week about paid links causing websites to lose Google page rank:

Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings On Google (I read it here first)

Part Three – NoFollow is for Blog Spam…no Paid Text Links, wait…Paid Ads…Aww Heck, Just Stop Linking and Let Calacanis Decide the Rankings

Penalty Confirmed – But I Don’t Sell PageRank

Dancing With The Gevil – Defamed By Google?

Garry Conn and Google

How to Profit from Google’s War on Paid Links

Last, but not least, Aaron Wall pretty much takes the words out of my mouth on this topic:

Google is Becoming Wikipedia Without the Talk Page

So, what am I going to do about this issue?

I haven’t decided yet. On the one hand, I have come up with a plan that could REALLY tick off Google, on the other hand I can be a sheep. Decisions, decisions...

In other news…

Tiny start-up rival to Google?
A new company called Proximic has come up with a very cool new technology. From the sounds of things it might become a great way to monetize your site and be a huge competitor to Google’s Adsense. Microsoft, Yahoo, Google… let the bidding wars begin!

Lastly, I got an email from Google’s Adsense program last night about a new service that lets you make money from YouTube videos. I am very excited about the possibilities for some of my other blogs.

That’s it for now…

Now What Do I Do With the Affiliate Link?

If you’re a beginning affiliate marketer, this may be among your first questions. You get the links, but then what do you do with them? You have to get them out into cyberspace to get people to click on them, but how?

The obvious answer is that you put them on your web site, but that’s not the half of it. People who are making good money with affiliate marketing aren’t just posting links willy-nilly on their content sites without any thought. So if you’re looking to make a decent income this way, what do you do with your affiliate links?

• Write entire mini-sites around them: Review pages, landing pages, and pre-sell pages are all examples of this technique. You write a single page centered on the product or service you’re promoting designed to get the reader to click through and then convert.


• Promote them with ezines: You start your own ezine, collect a list of subscribers, and promote your links in content ads or solo advertisements. While running and successfully promoting an email income of this sort requires it’s own set of skills and knowledge, collecting a list only takes a single web page.


• Aim pay-per-click ads directly at the link: This is an older method that’s falling out of favor because companies like Google don’t display multiple pay-per-click ads aimed at the same URL at one time. Nowadays, most marketers aim pay-per-click ads at landing pages (which I mentioned above) to get around this and improve on conversions.


• Write affiliate links into ebooks, free reports, or other ‘.PDF’ products: In this approach, you create your own information product and include affiliate links from related programs. Then you sell the product or give it away as a bonus for doing something else, like an opt-in. Your affiliate links potentially generate back-end commissions, plus you get to add a name to your list for more promotions later.

So if you’re just starting out in affiliate marketing and wondering what exactly you’re supposed to do with your links, you can take some ideas from the methods above. And if any of you more experienced marketers would like to share your ideas for promoting affiliate links, feel free to comment

3 Internet Marketing Tips From Around The Web 7/13/2007

In this Friday the thirteenth version of my Internet marketing tips from around the web, I am only going to write about 3 posts that I read this week. This is in keeping with Daniel’s Big Three Project, which caused me to read through 115 posts to come up with a top 20 list. If that wasn’t enough blog reading, I went ahead and read three more posts this week:

1. What is a Blog Post Really?
This post was prompted by Jakob Nielsen’s article “Write Articles, Not Blog Postings” that kind of disses blogging. I don’t think that Jakob get’s that blogging isn’t just about the article, it’s about the conversation.

2. Comment Spammers the End of Do-Follow Movement?
Based on the comment I left, I obviously agree with Chris’ final decision on the matter. Whatever he decided, I would still be a reader of his blog, because it is quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs to keep up with.

3. Why Text Link Ads Work For Me!
Amanda has had some really great results with selling text link ads and doing paid reviews to make money on her blogs. If you are interested in blogging for money, I highly suggest you keep an eye on what she is doing with her blogs.

In case you missed it… here is my top 20 list from Daniel’s project.

Here’s Why You Should Try The Affiliate Classroom

After going through the Stompernet trial, I decided to compare it to other membership programs that I have tested out. There were two membership programs that I felt beat the pants off stompernet in terms of bang for your buck. One of the programs is the Affiliate Classroom (the other is Easy Profit Auctions).

Here’s the deal. The Affiliate Classroom gives you everything you need to succeed as an affiliate marketer.

They have recently revamped the Affiliate Classroom to make it even better than when I first I checked it out. One of the best new features they have added is a complete step by step online system for creating successful affiliate sites. This brand new system even tracks your progress all the way through and you can use the system for as many projects as you want. In my opinion, it is a perfect way for beginners to start making money online.

My personal favorite part of the Affiliate Classroom is the case studies. The case studies review various affiliate marketing products/techniques and give honest feedback on their results. If you join the Affiliate Classroom, you have to read the case studies. They are VERY helpful.

Another thing I like are the monthly interviews. They provide lots of solid Internet Marketing information in the monthly interviews.

The Affiliate Classroom also has live conference calls, which I found to be very unique and definitely excellent for beginners.

It also provides free ebooks and information that teaches you everything from HTML to Search Engine Optimization. With all the tutorials and books available in the Affiliate Classroom, a beginner really has everything they need to start up a successful affiliate marketing business.

You can ask questions directly to the affiliate classroom coaches or you can ask questions on the private forum and get back answers directly from the owner Anik Signal.

If you are new to affiliate marketing, I suggest that before joining the Affiliate Classroom you read through the free sitesell book The Affiliate Masters Course. Then if you are still interested in affiliate marketing, but you feel like you need more help and/or personal coaching, then you should join the Affiliate Classroom.

While there are some pretty interesting tidbits of information for seasoned affiliate marketers, I think the Affiliate Classroom is best suited for beginners and intermediate level affiliate marketers. However, if you’ve been online for a while making money in other ways, but you’re ready to add affiliate marketing to your arsenal, this product would definitely make it easier to make that transition.

The price is pretty awesome, especially for a program that is loaded with so much information. Right now, you can get a 2 week trial membership for a dollar. That’s a pretty hard deal to pass up…

Click here to learn more about the Affiliate Classroom

Does Web 2.0 really drive business?

The following is a guest post by Sourav Sharma. Sourav is the owner of www.a2zeducation.com, a marketing blog with an essence of blogging, social media and search marketing.

We all know that loyalty pays. It’s widely said that more customer involvement will result in building more loyalty. And it is true as well. But the question remains, does Web 2.0 really bring loyalty and business? When we stepped into the Web 2.0 concept, many started believing that it would revolutionize the internet experience, and the user would have the final say. So, advertisers’ move towards these sites was pretty much expected.

Web 2.0 introduced the concept that users can play around with the content, and many seem to love contributing to and consuming that content. Many advertisers started their Web 2.0 campaigns with visions of generating more revenue than before, but the true picture tells a sad story. MarketingSherpa points out the black hole in the concept. According to the research, ads on a Web 2.0 site don’t convert quite as well as ads on traditional “Web 1.0″ sites.

When we talk about traffic, we can bank upon several 2.0 sites (like YouTube, MySpace, etc), but what we are not looking at is the maturity of an audience. The audience of these sites are still very young, so it’s not fair to draw a comparison. In my article SEO – Sandwiched between Conception and Misconception I showed some concern over the many professionals who have started believing that 2.0 sites rank better then non 2.0 sites. For me, this is also not true.

For me, the 2.0 sites have a long way to go compared to sites like Yahoo or CNN or even MSN, which already have established mature user bases and are doing well by changing and playing with various monetization techniques.

So we should give some more time before directly comparing 2.0 and non-2.0 sites.

Modern Day Approach: Finding Success With Adsense

Introduction: Who Is Garry Conn?

Hello. My name is Garry Conn. I have been following George’s blog for quite some time now. I own and maintain well over 100 various dot Com ventures. However, my heart and soul gets spilled into my personal blog. I enjoy helping people. I hate to see people down on their luck. And when people, especially bloggers, who work so hard to achieve a goal but can’t succeed, I totally feel for them. I want to see people achieve success. I want to see people reach their goals. And I know from experience what it feels like to be down on your luck and I don’t wish that upon anyone.

Agenda: Why Am I Blogging Here?

George and I have known each other for over a year now. We communicate back and forth between our blogs and through email. George and I have a lot in common and I am here to provide some breathing room for him. We all know how busy of a guy he is… and I am too for that matter. However, in May of 2007, I have set a goal to venture out and make guest appearances on other successful blogs. And after talking with George about this, he invited me to come on board and help pull some of the weight here on his wonderful and highly successful site. It is a privilege to be here, and I want more than ever to see George lead the way in teaching thousands if not millions of people about the many different ways you can make money online.

A Modern Day Approach: Finding Success With Google Adsense

I spend quite a bit of time visiting other blogs. Typically these sites are authored by bloggers who share a very similar interest: Making Money Online. However, on so many of these sites, when I contact the authors and get to know them better, they typically say the same thing: “I want to make money online, I have joined and participate in many programs that are supposed to make money, but none of them do!” 

Because I am such a caring person, I really feel their pain and in most cases I spend time with them and show them what they are doing wrong and provide solutions to help them gain success. The most common rant that people talk to me about is their failures with Google Adsense. And with that being said, this is what my first article is about here on Can I Make Big Money Online.

The root of most failures with Google Adsense is caused largely by the fact that most people who participate in the program also roll out and launch the program on their sites that attract readers who already know about the program. Think about it… when was the last time you clicked on a Google Adsense ad? Granted, it happens, and I click on a few here and there as well. But because I know about the program, it is human instinct for me not to click.

...When Was The Last Time You Clicked On An Adsense Ad?

Why Don’t I Click On The Ads? Well, I am not sure what your reasons are, but for me, the main reason why I don’t click very often is because I know that they are advertisements. They are sponsored links that have nothing to do with the owner of the site. Yes, they are relevant… but they are ads that link to pages outside from the site I am visiting. I don’t do this on purpose… it’s just an instinct or habit.

How Do I Find Success With Google Adsense?

I find success with Google Adsense simply for the fact that I author and maintain numerous dot Com websites that attract people who don’t know about the program. The fun part of this is the fact that most of my sites don’t even generate over 100 visits per day. But because of the time I invest into each of my sites by providing creative, unique and strategic writing, I generate extremely relevant ads. Having all this coupled with well thought out and very strategic placement of the ads in addition to highly micro-managing my content and incoming/outgoing links, I produce an unbelievable click through percentage. And to be honest… I have only been doing this for a few months now. On the flip side, it has taken me three years to discover what I have learned. I have participated in many programs on the Internet that make money online. However, Google Adsense has been my golden brick. And three months ago, the blind was removed from eyes and today, I know how to be successful using Google Adsense. I stand by the program 110% and now that I know how to use the program, I am now starting to reap the benefits.

Again, my name is Garry Conn. I write primarily about successful blogging tips. I am a guest writer here for my friend George who runs a very successful, useful and informative blog. If this is your first time visiting the site,  or if you are a regular reader and haven’t already done so; I strongly recommend that you subscribe to his feed. Sit back and join the fun and witness George Manty archive his goal of making big money online. He wants to make $1000 dollars a day! This blog documents his progress and also draws you a map so you too can make money online and follow along the way!

Internet Marketing Tips From The Web 5/4/2007 Take 2

I mentioned earlier that I read a lot of good articles this week. Well, I read so many good articles this week, that I decided to post a second group of articles for your reading enjoyment…

How to Make Money with a Video Blog: An Introduction and Guide
I haven’t read the guide that Maki talks about yet, but I can tell you from experience that this is an excellent way to make money with blogs. Like I said in the comments, “...I have been considering turning some of the blogs that I don’t have time for, into mostly video posts. I also tend to get more links to the posts with videos. I highly recommend testing this out. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.”

Copy Is Not About Selling, It’s About Serving
Excellent post by Michel Fortin on the future of copywriting.

Should You Build a Blog or an EMail Newsletter List?
I totally agree with Chris’ conclusion in this post.

Interview with Search Engine Guide’s Jennifer Laycock
Excellent interview with some solid SEO advice.

Stay Away from In-Text Advertising
I removed Kontera ads from this blog, but I am continuing them on my other blogs for now. I might discuss this more later. Come join in on the argument (errr… discussion).

Clicking Adsense Ads
Interesting discussion on clicking Adsense ads. Do you click on them or ignore them?

Unique Content – Where to Find Topics and Ideas
Good post by Gayla on places to find topics to write about. I currently use all of them.

There were other good articles that I read this week, but between part 1 and 2 you should have plenty to read…

Interview with Mama Duck

A few weeks ago I asked Mama Duck (aka Lisa) if she would do an interview with me. I was really glad she accepted because I have always wondered how she managed to have her blog noticed so quickly.

Q. Mama Duck, can you tell my readers a little about your blog http://lilduckduck.com/ and how you got started blogging?

This blog is a repository for all the things that the toddler has done, destroyed & discovered. It’s also a resource for parents of toddlers that will continue to expand and eventually become an entire parenting resource portal, laid out less like a blog and more like an informational site. It actually began as I was looking for legitimate money making opportunities online, where I came across Steve Pavlina’s blog and Problogger. After doing quite a bit of research, I decided to start my own blog with Wordpress on my own domain.

Q. In 2006 your blog was nominated for “Best Parenting Blog” in the 2006 weblog awards. If I recall correctly your blog had only been around about 3 months when you were nominated. Not only that, but after being in existence for less than a year, your blog has a Technorati ranking of 1,166 . What do you think are the main keys to your quick success?

Blog carnivals, community events, participating in relevant daily memes such as Works for Me Wednesday which can be adapted to include toddler and household tips that are both relevant to my blog topic and great for search engine traffic. Just getting to know people via e-mail (responding to their comments) & through different blog events (Wendy’s casting call allowed me to meet blogging friends right away that I still keep in touch with all the time). I also link my blog in my signature on all the parenting forums, on our signature making board (http://pixelperfectsignatures.com) and in all my e-mails. When I post stories/photos about the little one, I send the link to all my friends and family, rather than just copying it into an e-mail, then they can share with their friends and so on.

Q. What was the first blog you ever read?

Steve Pavlina, who led me to Problogger.

Q. What blogs do you read on a regular basis?

I just tried to clean out my feed reader, but I still have 130 blogs in there! Some of the ones I try to check every day that haven’t already been mentioned are eMoms at Home – Parent Hacks – Daddy Forever – Trizle & West of Mars. How is that for an eclectic sampling?

Q. How much time per day do you spend on blog related activities (blogging, promotion, design)?

It took a lot of initial time investment – learning Wordpress, researching how best to do things, optimizing, tweaking, setting up ads, designing the templates, etc. However, now if I can manage to leave the template alone, it’s just a chunk of time each week to write posts for the next week, then a bit of time each day to check comments, write quick posts, visit others, etc.. During the week I am usually doing well to keep up with orders and the little one, so I don’t have a lot of time to devote to the blog every day. Once the framework is there, it isn’t a ton of work just to write posts & answer e-mails.

Q. If you could only give one piece of advice to someone just starting to blog what would it be?

Research ahead of time. I’ve seen a lot of people who say “I wish I’d known when I started blogging that I need to use search engine friendly permalinks, or that it’s best to be on my own domain rather than Blogger/Typepad, etc” – mostly things that can be learned through just a bit of research, really. It seems overwhelming at first, but it becomes much easier when you just jump into it and try things. I have a local installation of WordPress on my Mac, where I can mess around with templates and coding to my hearts content without breaking the blog (PHP coding was new to me when I started the blog, although I’d done a fair amount of web design in xHtml and CSS), which is a huge help if you want to make your own templates or mess around a lot with pre-made templates.

Q. You use quite a few different methods to monetize your blog. What have you found to be the most successful ways to bring in money to your blog?

Well, the number one money maker for me is obviously my products, which are heavily promoted on my blog. Google AdSense does fairly well, but I’m having more and more trouble filtering out all the competing ads as I branch out into graduation cards, engagement and wedding cards, etc. so I’m looking for another option where I can have more control over the ads that are displayed. Text Link Ads & BlogHer Ads continue to perform well on this blog, Amazon referrals do well around Christmas time or any time I’m writing about toys or other products such as that when I put them in as text links, but not as ad blocks.

Q. What is the best way you have found to bring traffic to your blog?

Good search engine optimization, including creating a sitemap, using custom meta tags & search engine friendly permalinks, using keywords in post titles. Above all, writing good, relevant content to which others link and enjoy reading, which then ranks higher in the search engines. Carnivals & relevant memes are a great way to get started and to meet other people in your blogging niche as well.

Q. Is there any other advice you would like to tell people looking to start a blog?

It’s a commitment, I see a lot of people who slack off and don’t keep up with posting or anything. I try to always have posts written ahead as I do get busy, I don’t have time to write every day. If I can set aside a block of time once a week to write the posts for the next week, it really helps a lot.

Q. One last question, If you weren’t blogging, what would you be doing?

Well, I tend to get a little stir-crazy if I’m not doing ten things at once, so I’d probably be running another type of website, managing a forum, or doing more contract work (which I already do a bit when I’m feeling bored…). It’s very important for me to keep the little one here with me, so I’d definitely be doing something where I can stay at home or bring him along.

I Joined AGLOCO

In my first post about AGLOCO, nobody really gave any arguments that AGLOCO was in some way evil.

On the other hand, Jimi from AGLOCO Cash Machine made some good points in favor of joining:

...
What concerns could anyone have? Spyware? The Google Toolbar is Spyware. The Alexa Toolbar is Spyware. Neither of those places pay you to use it. Your personal information isn’t used for Agloco. Just your viewing habits. You can turn it off or on at any time.

Not getting any money out of it? Didn’t cost you anything anyways.

They are expected to have 10,000,000 users by July. What does that mean? Advertisers may actually be willing to pay for that kind of audience.

Why join now? To build a network. Get a larger share of the pie. Be a part of a start up at the beginning.

In fact, I went ahead and joined through Jim’s affiliate link. I don’t know how much I am going to do to promote AGLOCO, but I do plan on checking it out and seeing if it makes me any money.

You can learn more about AGLOCO on their official website, by clicking here.

Did I make a mistake, is AGLOCO evil?

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