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Physical Product Sales on Blog Case Study: Live the Ride Wristbands

March 22, 2012 By 8 Comments

Bike198 Live the Ride Wristbands

Over the past couple of weeks, I rolled out my latest product release on Bike198.com…the “Live the Ride” wristbands.

Backing up – awhile back (about 6 months ago), I was trying to figure out another physical product I could release that would increase brand recognition and be easy to put together. After some thought, the idea of the wristband came up so I asked our Facebook followers what they thought…and they loved the idea.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash, The Web Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Top 20 Free Resources for Entrepreneurs

August 30, 2011 By 4 Comments

The internet contains a wealth of information for entrepreneurs seeking resources on all levels of setting up and operating a business. Setting aside time to look for such resource material will pay dividends but there are 20 such sites recognised here, that will lead you in the right direction and they give you a good place to start. And the great news is that they are all FREE. They are:

  1. A good place to begin would be at Intent Hub in which you will find an intuitively organised series of resource sites that give advice on when to start or not to start, how to develop your plan, the importance of a business model, how to get a good team around you, developing your product, creating a business identity, creating the right structure and how to develop an interest among investors.
  2. Pivotal tracker – a free project management tool, Dropbox a free fileserver, BaseCamp for online collaboration & project management have a free account.
  3. An efficient way to set up and co-ordinate your backend data is with Force.com. There is a free version that is well worth serious consideration.
  4. A Javascript application that has remained free so far is the Joyent Smart platform.
  5. Those getting involved in technology and media start ups should not do so without becoming familiar with Employment Law Traps for your state/country.
  6. Quora products is of course the place to go for all the links that you could dream about, all on the one site, a must bookmark for all aspiring entrepreneurs.
  7. All the information you require regarding legal and financing documents for startups, including fill in the blanks contracts has been very kindly put together by Ted Wang and made available for free on his site called Series Seed.
  8. Matthew Bartus has a lot of relevant information to impart on how to increase your VC Valuation on his site of the same name.
  9. We all know that the number of advisors on the web is quite prolific and all you need to know about them can be located on Venture Hacks, a site put together by Babak Nivi.
  10. Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati’s online insight into venture financing is well worth studying on their site, Term Sheet Generator.
  11. Brad Feld has also created a worthwhile read on Term Sheet Series regarding venture financing as well.
  12. Any entrepreneur knows full well the importance of seed funding and to get the low down on the best practices in this area, Seed Funding by Mark MacLeod, will prove to be well worth the visit.
  13. Private individuals who are most likely to provide funds to assist the starting of a new company are known as ‘angels’ and to find out the varying types of angels in the investment world, an inspection of Scott Edward Walker’s work called Angel Financing is an entrepreneur must.
  14. When does it become advantageous to incorporate? This is a question many people argue over, therefore the site, Start Up Company Lawyer, that is contributed by Yoichiro Taku, is quite valuable in this area.
  15. Frank Demmler has put together quite an interesting study on his Founders’ Pie Calculator, an important tool in seeing where your business stands at any specific time.
  16. We are all subjected to abiding by the law but it can often be difficult to understand the language of lawyers, especially when starting up. Mark Suster has assisted here with his post, Work with Lawyers.
  17. A successful start up can sometimes be difficult without somebody to share the idea with and this has been recognised by Naval Ravikant with his contribution, Pick A Co-Founder.
  18. Google App Engine allows you to build and host web apps on the same systems that power Google applications. Offers a free quota of 1GB inbound + 1GB outbound bandwidth, up to 43 million requests and 6.5 CPU hours. Supports Java and Python development environments.
  19. The comprehensive site, delicious.com, will help you find expert resources on most topics. A great tool to fall back on when trying to position your product in a competitive market.
  20. For online invoicing, time tracking & billing software you cant go past FreshBooks free account.

In addition to the resource materials outlined here, all entrepreneurs could also benefit by taking out a good life insurance policy, as there is little to be gained if your enterprise got off the ground only to flounder because you became injured or ill to the extent that you were unable to continue managing its growth. Or in the case of your untimely death, left your beneficiaries to carry the debt of your start up costs.

 Kristy Ramirez writes for Life Insurance Finder where she helps people to compare life insurance quotes and select the best life insurance policy to meet their needs at the best possible price.

Filed Under: Generating Cash, The Web Tagged With: , ,

Diversify Your Income Streams: The Nexus Tax and Bloggers

June 30, 2011 By 12 Comments

Yesterday, I received an email from one of the companies that I am an affiliate with that should have a lot of bloggers incredibly nervous.

With the impending passing of the California Budget which includes an Affiliate Nexus provision we have begun the process of removing all publishers located in the State of California.  From what we understand the Governor needs to sign the bill by July 1st and that when he does it will become effective immediately, if the Governor does not sign the bill all publishers will be reinstated to our program.

This is not something new. North Carolina and Illinois have also passed similar laws that allow for taxes to negate the money that companies use to pay affiliates. As a result, companies like Amazon.com have pulled their affiliate programs from these states because those programs are no longer profitable for the company and the bloggers.

For the bloggers that were depending on these commissions to support the bulk of their income stream, they are now without cash!

Diversifying Income Streams For Long Lasting Growth

I think I have probably told this to every blogger I run into and mentioned it in every presentation I have ever done…if you want to be successful over the long haul, you have to diversify your income streams. Business changes from day to day. What was great today could be gone tomorrow.

You have to ask yourself one simple question. If my #1 source of income was gone tomorrow…what would I have left?

If you answer is nothing, you are in a lot of trouble as a law like this…or some companies choice to leave the market completely…could leave you broke and penniless.

Successful companies are successful because they continue to grow and expand. As market conditions change, the economy does its thing and people’s tastes adapt to times, there are going to be periods in which certain areas that generate income for your business are up and down. When you diversify into multiple, related areas, you are able to handle the swings. When one is down, another one may be up. If one goes away completely, you are able to make up the difference in other areas instead of starting back from square one.

As a blogger, you have a lot of areas outside of just affiliate revenue that you can diversify into to keep your ability to go the distance healthy.

  1. Make Your Own Products and Services (eBooks, consulting, membership sites, physical products)
  2. Sell Direct Advertising
  3. Pay Per Click and Pay Per Impression Advertising (Adsense, Contextual, etc)

By jumping into different income options and expanding your offerings, you are taking the steps to insure that your blog is always generating income. Perhaps the best and longest lasting of these would be to create your own products and services that not only make you money…but strengthen your brand name at the same time.

Not Every Income Stream Is Right For You

Now…with this said. Not all of these areas will work for your blog. Just because you want to diversify, that does not mean to keep things going that do not work. In some markets, PPC/PPM advertising payouts are horrible and not worth the screen real estate. Choose what you implement carefully and test how they perform on your blog before deciding whether or not it is worth the effort and space.

And…like most things in life…this too can change so you have to be willing to test out income producing assets of your blog even if they might not have worked well in the past. With new knowledge and new market conditions, they could be a viable option now when they weren’t before.

Do Your Market Research

What is working for your competition? Is that an option for you? What are they not doing that might work in your market that you could capitialize on and set the bar?

These are all questions you should be asking yourself as you look for unique ways to produce income. While it is always good to look at what your competition is doing to make money on their own websites, sometimes it is even better to try what they are not doing as you might have found a hidden gem in your industry. It is always a good idea to keep tabs on the people around you for ideas.

How I Diversify On My Blogs

All of this theory is great, but how do we implement it in practice. On Bike198.com, I diversify my income streams with the following assets:

  1. Direct Advertising
  2. Sale of Review Products
  3. Affiliate Advertising
  4. CPC Advertising (2 banners)
  5. My Own Products (Ramped Riding eBook, 29er T-Shirt, Riding Kits)

As you can see, there is a lot to pull from to generate income. All of these avenues produce consistently month over month.

How do you diversify your income streams on your blog?

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

BlogWorld Expo Recap and A Bonus!

May 31, 2011 By 3 Comments

As many of you already know, last week was BlogWorld Expo East in New York City and I was invited to come talk about review blogging and how to capitalize on current buying trends to turn that into blogging profits. To be honest, I was a little bit nervous! I have presented in conferences before in the professional business to business world, but this was my first time jumping into the bloggers trade show arena. I was stoked for the opportunity and at the end of the day…everything went perfectly.

Speakers I Attended At BlogWorld East

Conferences like BlogWorld are a great chance to listen to varying opinions and suggestions of other successful bloggers and marketers throughout the industry. There were a couple on the list that I knew I was going to want to hear and since I arrived in the Big Apple on Monday and my talk wasn’t until Thursday, I had the time to network and hear others.

Lewis Howes – Webinars

For those of you that don’t know Lewis, he has quickly become the king of webinars in the industry (he also happens to know a ton about LinkedIn if you are interested in that as well). You can dig into his content at LewisHowes.com, but his talk was on “How to Turn Your Blogging Passion into a 6 Figure Business with Webinars”…and he isn’t kidding. In the first quarter of this year…he has cleared over $250k by doing webinars. I don’t know about you…but I think that is insane and you can see why I wanted to hear what he had to say.

This ex pro football player took himself from living in his sisters basement to killing it online by doing webinars. His first LinkedIn promotion ended up netting over $8k for an hours worth of work! Those are concrete results showing that the environment is changing for promoting digital and physical products online. My main interest in hearing him talk was to get the nuts and bolts on how to get this going on my end as I have been looking for a way to more personally interact with my online friends/audiences.

Lewis didn’t disappoint and there was a ton of great information included. I’ll be starting something up really soon.

Johnny B Truant – Radical Transparency

Johnny is one of those guys I have been quietly watching for some time. Honestly, I really respect how he presents himself online and how he is able to act like himself and attract raving fans at the same time. When I saw he would be doing a talk on this at BlogWorld, it was on my list of must do’s.

Out of all of the presentations at BlogWorld East this year, Johnny’s was the one that got me thinking the most. The way he brings himself into his content and his relationship with his readers is nothing short of amazing (and a lot of the time…hilarious). I think we find ourselves trying to get too “professional” with our tone and talk online, and Johnny is the in your face reminder that blog readers want to connect with bloggers…not some boring cardboard cutout. The more honest you are with your readers and bring as much of you to the table as you can…the more response you will get and the more success you will see.

Far too often, I try to be Mr. Business on here when I should let go a lot more. I don’t wear a suit to my office…I am sitting in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with my dogs at my feet…and that is a good thing! Radical transparency is just that…being yourself at all cost and letting people connect with who you really are…not who you think they want to connect with. This one hour session will hopefully radically change how I speak online.

You can check out Johnny’s site here: The Internet Made Awesome

Syed Balkhi, John Chow and Zac Johnson

As you saw from an earlier post with David Risley’s intro of these three, there is never a dull moment when you get Syed and Chow together. While their talk was monetizing outside of banner ads, it was basically information that anyone already making a sum of money online knows. Things like why you need a newsletter and setting up a sales funnel were main topics in the conversation. Syed also highlighted the need to teach people how to use tools and complete things in your respective niche to create value and increase affiliate commissions (which I completely agree with). Zac illustrated how diversifying income streams can also open up your possibilities.

Again, all information I implement on my blogs and if you are not doing it now…you need to start today if you actually want to make any money online. It was fun hanging out with the guys over the course of the week and they even made me work “honk if you are horny” into my talk due to some horns they got from the book expo that was upstairs…yes…they literally said “honk if you are horny” on the horns themselves.

Here are the links so you can check them out for yourselves. John Chow (johnchow.com), Syed Balkhi (WPBeginner.com), Zac Johnson (zacjohnson.com) and David Risley (davidrisley.com)

Shane Ketterman – Rapid Success and Google’s Strong Hand

Shane is a newcomer to the block that has made HUGE strides in a very short period of time. After 7 months of blogging on his iPad blog (now sold), we was getting over 12,000 visitors a day and making thousands of dollars by capitalizing on events and teaching people how to use their new tablets.

The story is really a cool one as he went through the process and how he dealt with this rapid success. Unfortunately, he also got hit hard by the Panda update from Google (from what I can guess by what he was saying…the content scrapers are what did him in…not his content. He was writing five 1,000 word posts a day of unique content which is just insane!).

So there are two main things you need to take away from Shane (@rewirebusiness).

  1. Never put all of your eggs in one basket. Google traffic and Adsense can go away quickly if that is all you are relying on.
  2. Have a newsletter!! If Shane would have started a newsletter from day 1, he could have kept things rolling much better with a database of people that wanted his content.

When it was all said and done, Shane made out pretty good on the sale. It would have been much better without the Panda hit, but he is onto new things and I am excited to see what comes out of it.

Networking…Networking…Wait…

Outside of hearing some great speakers, BlogWorld was also a great time to put faces with names of people that I talk to online all of the time. I wouldn’t call it networking…I call it solidifying friendships. It was great to be able to hang out with everyone and I am looking forward to doing it again soon.

Unfortunately I will not be making it to LA for BlogWorld West as I will be neck deep in having our first baby around that time. If that isn’t a good excuse to miss…I don’t know what is! Our first child, Daniel Merrill Sutton is due October 25th..so we will be just a little bit busy! ;)

Oh yeah…the Bonus!

Some of you probably scrolled all the way down to the bottom of this page before you read anything above. That’s ok…I do it to! Just make sure you scroll back up at some point. There is some good stuff up there from some great bloggers and internet people.

Anyways, I am going to be annoucing the bonus in my newsletter this week, so if you are not already subscribed, click here…enter your info…claim your free eBook and watch out for a very cool announcement on something I am going to do for you and do it for free this week. I’m stoked and there will be a lot of value to it…so stay on the edge of your chair for this one.

In case you missed it…click here —> Blogging Labs Newsletter and Free Problogging Is Dead eBook! and then watch out for a killer free deal this week.

Filed Under: Blogging, Content, Generating Cash Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Role You Play In Buying Decisions And How To Turn That Into Blogging Profits

April 28, 2011 By 10 Comments

Online shopping is the fastest growing segment in retail shopping. More buyers are looking to the internet on a daily basis to pick up items they need by using the convenience of click and ship. However, there is one major problem most online buyers face when looking to capitalize on this convenience…the in store help and hands on experience. In previous shopping experiences, the consumer would see and use the product in the store while asking questions to an associate to aid in the purchasing decision. When you shop online…you get rid of that interaction…or do you?

Online shoppers are turning to blogs and websites for honest, online product reviews to help them make purchasing decisions. This is where you step in as the blogger and provide that personal experience they are missing through forgoing the in-store experience! Better yet…you let them know where they can purchase these items for the best price and receive a commission off of that sale. This is the new way of buying online and it equals massive blogging profits for your business.

There is a bonus at the end of this article…so keep on reading…

Where I Got My Reputation In Blogging

Most of you already know this…but I got my blogging rep by getting in free product to review for Bike198.com. In the first 9 months, I had already surpassed over $100k in product and that was just the beginning. Not only was I helping out riders in the industry by providing honest opinions on products they were looking to purchase, but I was also providing exposure for companies looking to get their product in front of potential customers. Through this…I was able to grow my blogging income to include a lot of affiliate revenue and bonus revenue through the facilitation of product in my industry for review purposes.

Talk about a cool way to live. The same products I used to pay thousands for a year…I was now getting for free and profiting from it! All I had to do was be honest!

BlogWorld Expo: Time To Share The Story

Next month (May 24-26), BlogWorld Expo comes to NYC. On May 26th at 11:15am, I will be delivering my presentation on The Role Bloggers Play In Retail Purchasing Decisions and How That Equals Blogging Profits. I am completely stoked about the opportunity and look forward to seeing you there if you are going to be at BlogWorld.

I will be sharing how I have generated over 6 figures of online income by positioning my blogs as that source for online buying research and how you can do it just like I did. I will also be presenting recent trends in online purchasing and showing you were I think things are headed for the future. We always have to be planning ahead right?!

Bonus: 50% Off!

To celebrate and get pumped up for next month, I want to offer you guys a 50% off coupon code that you can use on Ramped Blogging and Ramped Reviews. All you have to do is enter “BlogWorld” as the coupon code at checkout and you can watch the price cut in half! I truly believe that we learn from those that have been there before us to drastically decrease learning curve time periods. I want to help you get on the right foot to see success earlier and that is the main driving force behind delivering the presentation and why I have no secrets in how I run my business.

Click here and use coupon code “BlogWorld”: Ramped Blogging | Ramped Reviews

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , ,

Generate More Blog Income By Inviting Reader Reviews

April 20, 2011 By 10 Comments

I have this theory…if you are not moving forward…you are moving backwards. There is no standing still and just going through the motions with business building and blogging. You are either looking forward to the future and planning for those changes or you are letting others pass you by that are making the conscious decision to get that done.

On Bike198.com, I have been looking for a way to get even more reader interaction and do so by drastically increasing my site size with product heavy, SEO gold that contains affiliate links. I want to be able to provide the same quality I have with reviews into a user experience that allows riders to review their products as well. With that idea in mind, the database of products labeled “Rider Reviews” was born. Now…I just had to build it…

Building Out A Reader Review Section

Ironically enough, I tested about every single WordPress option I could find. Every single plugin seemed to be ok…but they lack a polished look or were too hard to get everything looking correctly. I started searching around for a stand alone php script to accomplish the same goal and just happened to fall upon Reviews For Joomla (not an affiliate). The layout, ease of use and basic design was exactly what I was looking for. Better yet…it installed over Joomla so I would have a very strong back-end content management system to aid with setup.

Rider Reviews at Bike198 Home

With this system, I can have the products loaded in and then my readers have an incredibly clean, easy to use layout to give ratings and reviews for products in the industry. There are even features to allow them to compare ratings and features which adds a ton of function into that portion of the site.

I installed Joomla 1.6 into a subfolder of Mountain.Bike198.com (this one will only have mountain bike products) and got to work…

Handling Of Affiliate Links

Now…a section of your blog like this is only really good if it is generating income. One of my biggest nightmares with this entire project was trying to figure out how I would actually handle the affiliate linking. The idea of searching for my specific affiliate link, getting it on the right product and then making sure it wasn’t broken 24/7 seemed like an incredibly daunting task just in itself.

Ironically, a friend of mine that owns MyGolfSpy.com recently came across VigLink and started testing on his forum. What VigLink basically does is takes your links to popular stores online (ex: Amazon) and automatically handles all affiliate revenue for you. Of course, they take their cut but it takes all of the management process out for you with a simple line of code. Now I was able to get the products loaded with a link to a store and not have to worry about whether or not I am getting credit for the sale. VigLink claims to get a higher percentage commissions on sales due to their larger audience, so the cut they take should drastically reduce the difference between using them and doing it on your own. The time management side was the real payoff for me though.

If you are only building out a section of your site like this that has 12 or so products (maybe even up to 50), managing it yourself might make sense. As of right now, I have 696 total mountain bike products and bikes listed, so you can see how that can get out of control quickly.

Getting The Products Loaded Into The System

A review system like this is worthless if you do not have an accurate representation of your industries products listed on the site. Let’s be honest, I do not have the time to load over 1,000 products into a website. That is a lot of busy work that I can’t even fathom doing and it is also the main reason this idea I have had for over a year is just now coming to fruition. To get some help, I enlisted the help of Chris Ducker over at Virtual Staff Finder to help me out in finding a virtual assistant. After interviewing 3 candidates, I found the perfect one for me.

Rider Reviews Product List

After sending over one training video, I started sending Lauren (my new VA) the list of products each day and the site started expanding rapidly. My industry is a little unique as we have a ton of parts and related gear.

Now…I don’t want you to look at my site and think this isn’t possible on your site just because of the magnitude of products. In other industries…you might not have this much of an extreme workload where you need to hire someone on to help. In my case, I did and it is working out perfectly.

How do you get people to actually use it?!

As you can see by visiting Rider Reviews, there are a couple of reviews already started on the site by my readers. However, like with any social interaction environment, there is going to have to be some incentive to get the ball rolling. I already have several contests lined up for my readers that are based around getting the review section populated and useful for new visitors. Once those go live, it should be great to see the new reviews come in on a platform that allows my readers to have a voice in the industry and basically runs on its own while also generating income.

Rider Reviews

As you can imagine, the SEO benefit of this section has already returned great results and it is just getting started. I am going to check back in on this project here to let you guys know how is it progressing. There are still more products to load and some design work to get completed before I start running the contests, but…from what I am already seeing, it is going to be my my largest asset on Bike198.

Check out: Rider Reviews at Bike198 | VigLink | Reviews For Joomla

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , , ,

6 Ways To Increase The Perceived Value Of Your Free Ebook

April 5, 2011 By 9 Comments

We all know the potential benefits of offering a free ebook or the classic “7 Part Email Course” to try and encourage our website visitors to complete an action such as subscribing to our RSS feed, signing up for our mailing list or liking us on Facebook. The reason this method of “ethical bribery” is so popular is quite simply because it works. But for everyone who reads about your free report and signs up, just as many people decide *not* to take the plunge and leave your site empty handed.

Assuming your free ebook really *does* offer your visitors significant value then you *both* just lost. Your reader missed out on some high-quality information that isn’t available anywhere else and you just lost a potential new subscriber.

Not good.

What’s even worse is that the hardest part of this whole equation is getting those visitors to see the message about your free ebook in the first place. So once they’re on your site we need to do everything possible to encourage your readers to take that desired action in exchange for your free ebook.

Fortunately there are a whole raft of ways we can do this and they’re all focused around one main concept – increasing the perceived value of your ebook. In other words we want your visitors to feel like they’re getting something of real value. We want them almost feel guilty about what a great deal they’re getting from you. Like they’re getting something worth paying for – but for free. That’s the key to maximizing downloads of your free report.

So how do we go about accomplishing that task?

1. Design An Ebook Image

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and when it comes to free ebooks this may not be far off the mark. Over the years dozens of marketers have tested their signup rates for free ebooks both with and without an image. Almost without exception more people sign up when an ebook image is present.

Getting an ebook cover – a graphical representation of your ebook – is easier and cheaper than ever before so there really is no excuse whatsoever. I’ve recently been experimenting with Fiverr and have had a number of high quality ebook images for just $5 each. If that increases my signup rate by just a few percent I think that’s the bargain of the century.

2. Use Different Media

So many people offer a free ebook or free report that there is a risk that this method is starting to lose it’s effectiveness. Like banner advert blindness the more there is of something around the less attention we pay to it.

So another technique worth considering is offering the same information as your free ebook but in another format. The best examples are either audio formats (“download our free podcast”) or in video format.

Sure, it’ll take you a day or two to change your current ebook into a new format but if that boosts your results it may be a worthy investment – particularly when you can make video or audio for free these days and easily upload it to your website.

3. Use Social Proof

By nature humans are social creatures and we listen to and trust the opinions of others. Most of us want to be part of the gang rather than lonely outsiders. That’s why peer pressure works so well.

Social proof takes this concept into the 21st century and onto the internet. If you can enlist the help of other people in your niche to spread the word then this will often increase interest in your free ebook and also increase it’s perceived value.

A few ways to use social proof to boost your signups are to show testimonials on your website from people who have already read your ebook. Send copies to prominent bloggers and Twitterers in your niche, asking them to mention it to their tribe if they like it. And make it easy to “Like” your signup page on Facebook.

4. “Sell” Your Ebook

You need to help your readers to understand *why* your free ebook is valuable and what benefits they will receive from downloading it and this is where a degree of ethical salesmanship comes in.

Don’t just tell your visitors they *can* download your free report but explain why they *should* in exciting, attention-grabbing language.

5. Really Sell Your Ebook

Have you ever considered actually trying to sell your free ebook as a paid ebook? Assuming your free ebook really *does* offer significant value to readers then there’s no reason why someone shouldn’t be willing to pay to gain access to it.

Not only can this become an additional revenue stream for you but how much more valuable will your offer be on your website when you can explain to your readers that you’re currently selling copies of your ebook for x amount of dollars but if they subscribe to your RSS feed they can get it for free and save their money?

6. Publish It As A Hard-Copy Book

This is the idea I am personally most excited about at present and that I am putting into practice on a number of my sites. Image the power of actually having your ebook published as a paid-for print book. You know; the kind you’d buy off the shelf from Barnes And Noble.

Just imagine how much it could increase the perceived value of your free ebook if the paper version was actually for sale on Amazon and other people were actually payng money for it and leaving positive reviews.

I visited a website the other day that was doing just this. The owner of the website wrote a book on property investment which has sold incredibly well on Amazon and has numerous glowing reviews and five-star ratings. As soon as you see the book on Amazon it makes you want to buy a copy.

And yet there on the authors site he’ll give you a free PDF version of the book just for joining his mailing list. Did I sign up? You betcha – in an instant.

So how do you publish your free ebook as a proper paper book with as little expense and hassle as possible? Simple. Just sign up for a free account at CreateSpace.com and follow their simple instructions.

Now it’s your turn. What helps to increase the perceived value of a free ebook for you and what would increase the chances of you taking an action in order to receive an ebook as thanks? Please leave us a comment below with your thoughts…

This is a guest post by Richard Adams of Lifestyle Design Unleashed where he writes about building online businesses, quitting your job and living the internet lifestyle. Visit Richard today to download your free copy of his highly regarded traffic-generation ebook “WordPress Traffic Explosion”.

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash, Tutorials/How To

Is There Money To Be Made From Affiliate Programs?

March 31, 2011 By 5 Comments

This guest post was submitted by James Martell. Given the current state of “push button” income schemes…I thought it was highly relevant to post here.

Sadly the online “opportunity” training arena has become populated by hucksters and professional liars who’ll resort to ever trick in the book to market your a** off until they’ve drained you of not only your bank account (or credit cards) but your self esteem too.

I’ve been a full time “affiliate marketer” since a buddy showed me how back in 1999. And I’ve been teaching what I know since 2001. And I didn’t start teaching until my affiliate income was up to $10,000 a month.

I’ve witnessed hundred’s of success stories since then. So yes, there is most definitely “money” to be made, both with affiliate programs and with training.

Income Claims and Sleazy Tactics Have Muddied the Waters

Regrettably, consumers are a lot more wary these days; and with good reason. I, like you, am appalled at the ridiculous “overnight riches” (with little effort) claims I regularly receive in my inbox.

And I have come to loathe those confusing pop-ups that won’t let you get off their site unless you answer their sneaky trick question: press Cancel or Okay. Heck, the other day I found one that would not go away whether I hit Cancel, OK or hit the red X upper right.

Oh, they think they are so clever – so marketing savvy.

But I’ll say this: they are phony, slimy amateurs because “marketing”, whether online or off, are based on establishing trust. Would you ever do business with someone who came to your office or home and refused to leave when you said no thank you?

Not likely. Yet those tactics are commonplace online these days.

How I Made $200,604 in 36 Hours with This Simple Secret

Headlines like this are ridiculous on any level, but mainly because the big lie behind it is that even if someone did make that money, it is certainly not going to happen for you if you buy their BS “system” for $97 (before midnight because it’s so powerful they’ll be forced to take it off the market so it doesn’t get saturated. Yeah, right.)

Our rich friend above could have gotten access to a mailing list of 2 million. He might have spammed everyone on it and made a bunch. Big deal; I could rob a bank too.

For those who feel no compulsion to play by the rules, yes, they can make wads of cash fast. They can also find the FTC at their door, lose all their assets, be forced out of business and/or go to jail.

Are You Practiced In The Art Of Being Ethical?

I always made it a practice to rarely make income claims on my websites promoting my affiliate marketing training. Not that I did not have the stats to back it up. It was more of a strategic plan to gain the trust of my readers. It was also because I knew very well, as does every coach, mentor or trainer in any field, that most simply do not have what it takes.

I know this has cost me money in lost sales. Sadly, many prefer the “big lie”. They want to be sold by someone selling the dream. But I refused to do that.

You could say I’m practiced at it.

I’d prefer teaching students how to come up with a topic for their website, such as rocking chairs or keyboards, or any number of solid consumer products that are sure to stand the test of time and generate ongoing, steady revenue for site owners.

Maybe not as fast or as easy as some “opportunities”, but nevertheless it’s legal, ethical and bankable.

About the Author:

James Martell lives in White Rock, BC with his wife Arlene and their three children. James is a pioneer in the affiliate marketing industry and was successfully profiting with affiliate websites as early as 1999.

Filed Under: Generating Cash, The Web Tagged With: , , , ,

Rant Alert: Problogger Generated Content Is Not A Business Strategy!

March 1, 2011 By 10 Comments

Ok…I am really f’in sick and tired of this played out model that some bloggers are trying in attempt to make it to the “big time” without any time investment of their own. And I am calling you out right now to put an end to this crap…because that is what it is…crap.

The process usually goes something like this.

  1. They ask for you to answer some interview questions (I’m cool with that…so I answer them. 9 times out of 10 they are unoriginal and cookie cutter)
  2. They put these questions together into some kind of product that is free or paid (free…ok…paid…questionable but if it is packaged correctly it could work…ie…you put more into than just the interviews and there better be a damn good affiliate program)
  3. They then hound you and tell you how to promote it because they have no traffic or social reach. (wait…what?)

This model sucks. Why on Earth should I do all of the work for your product? Why am I building your list? Why is the only thing you have to provide for all of my work is your “hope” that everyone does exactly what you say without any credibility, to create exposure?

Oh yeah…and they want links back to their site that has a dozen posts and no real content.

For some reason, bloggers that have zero experience in creating successful sites have made the decision to try to piggyback off of the hard work of others and this has happened to me on more than one occasion lately. Does the “I don’t have an original idea so I need to get it from others in order to be successful” model really work? No…because people will just go to the real thing.

What happened to generating quality, unique content? Why is everyone trying to make it in the blogging/make money online niche by just rehashing the thoughts of others? Do you not have any real experience? If you do…why are you using mine?

So do I like doing interviews? Absolutely. It not only gives me a chance to other bloggers but it also gets my ideas out there. I have been interviewed and I have interviewed other bloggers. Do I think I should have to promote your product for you to be successful with nothing in return? No.

Whenever you look to others for help, you should always ask yourself…“am I offering more than what I am asking for?” In business, you are always trying to provide more value than your cost. If you are asking for more than you are giving, you are probably on the wrong track and need to rethink your strategy. In 99.9% of the cases I am talking about here, they are offering nothing and asking for a lot.

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash Tagged With: , ,

Where Bloggers Go Wrong And Why They Are Broke And Penniless

February 24, 2011 By 19 Comments

There is one fundamental reason why 99% of bloggers never make enough money from their blogs to live off of…and it is incredibly simple.

This past week has been an interesting one filled with conversation. After a post about paid subscription models in blogging and how that could change in the future, there was a ton of conversation around paid content online and whether or not it would work within current audiences. Honestly, it created a great conversation that got me thinking about how I want to structure my blogging in the future.

But…it also brought out one very sore thumb in the blogging world that is the reason most bloggers will never make the big time. So where do they go wrong? Like a horse with blinders on…

They are too busy thinking like a blogger instead of like a business owner.

Blogging in itself was built on the foundation of online journaling. There wasn’t any true monetary platform until these online journals started getting traffic that was rising above corporate websites. Through some growing pains, the art of blogging and the world of capitalism figured out how to leverage this traffic into dollars through various forms of advertising and promotion. But…at its heart…most bloggers still think like the bloggers of old. The only difference now is that some of them are at least covering their costs and putting a little bit extra in their pocket at the end of the month.

When I brought up the idea of paid content in blogging, one of the biggest excuses that it wouldn’t work is because big media (magazines, newspapers, etc.) has a lot more resources to hire writers, photographers and other assets to create more value that the individual blogger can not accomplish. While they are true in that on a low level…they are forgetting one key thing that will keep them broke.

What if the paid model opened up the resources to accomplish those things?

I am not saying this is the answer or the only way to do things, but it illustrates a great point within the blogging world. When you take the money you make online and reinvest it into growth of your business, you are no longer the sole blogger trying to make it. You are applying fundamental business models to your online empire to insure future growth and more money. However, if you are not able to think outside the “blogging box”, you will never get past just being able to pay for your hosting and a night out to dinner a week.

When you look at your blogging, you have to start thinking about growth and future income outside of just affiliate promotions and banner ads. You have to start developing areas of your blog with future growth in mind and not just how you can make an extra 5 bucks today. You have to be open to new ideas and willing to test these ideas.

If you keep thinking like a blogger…you will never be more than a blogger.

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash Tagged With: , , ,
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