by Nick Throlson | Jan 26, 2014 | Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Summit West 2014 Recap. It was great to see everyone & meet hulk hogan as I was representing my hosting company HostGator. “Hulk Hogan said what would it take to convert me to HOSTAMANIA.” I said if he can pick me up ill move all my websites over 😉 no he did not pick me up but 6 months of free hosting from them cant beat that! Big Thank you to ShareASale For the Super Hero VS Super Villains Party & a Huge Thanks To Darren Blatt for hosting Affiliate ball was great night!
Sign up with HOSTAMANIA
listening to Secrets of Top Six Figure Bloggers
Shoemoney & Ian Fernando had some great tips when it comes to Facebook advertising. The tools that they use as well as having many accounts at once since Facebook usually caps & has spending limits per day.
The Last day of Affiliate Summit decided to head out at 2 pm Vegas time and 30 mins later Publisher Clearing House calls me I won $100. So we headed back since we were only about 5 miles out.
VIDEO Recap
by Nick Throlson | Nov 30, 2013 | Affiliate Marketing
The Affiliate Ball is back! The official party of the Affiliate Summit on Monday night, January 13th?will take place inside of the Paris Hotel & Casino at Chateau Nightclub. Party organizer Darren Blatt says, ?For the first time our venue will be located inside of the same hotel as the Affiliate Summit which will make things super convenient for our guests. Last January we threw the Affiliate Ball there when we had Big Boi of Outkast perform. This venue is perfectly suited for an event like ours?.
Recognizing industry players for their internet contributions the AFFY Awards will be presented once again. If you'd like to recommend someone worthy of the spotlight you can give the Affiliate Ball your feedback at?http://www.affiliateball.com/affy/?. ?The Affiliate Ball is a celebration for the affiliate community where the real stars are the guests?, Darren explains. ?The AFFY Awards gives us a chance to utilize our stage to turn the spotlight back on those who have done so much for our industry. The online feedback form is not a voting platform, it's strictly to get idea's of those who deserve this special recognition?.
More information will be released in the upcoming weeks about who the big name artist will be. Past artists include: Busta Rhymes, Nelly, Big Boi of Outkast, Mixmaster Mike of the Beastie Boys, Ice-T and Coco, Doug E Fresh, Three 6 Mafia and many others big names.
SocietyInvite, IMGRIND and iBallers are main sponsors and Sellhealth also took a large sponsorship for this much anticipated event.
You can RSVP now on the site at?http://www.affiliateball.com. Be sure to check out the new promotional video seen here?http://youtu.be/Ii_bwMjK0Dg
For sponsorship information please contact?info@affiliateball.com?or call?818 825-3972
by Nick Throlson | Jul 27, 2013 | Affiliate Marketing, Guest Post, Web Design
The internet is full of people looking to make a quick buck, but earning real cash online is easier said than done.
There are plenty of scams out there which promise easy money, but deliver nothing but misery. More often than not, making a living online takes real dedication and a lot of talent.
With that in mind, here are five ways you can make some cash online.
1 – Advertising
If you've spent any amount of time at all surfing the internet, you'll have noticed that adverts seem to be everywhere and where there are adverts, there's money to be made.
Unfortunately, you can't just set up a site and expect the money to come rolling in – you'll need an established website in order to turn visitors into cash.
But if you've got a blog you've worked on for a number of years and it gets a steady flow of traffic, then you can turn that into cash through advertising.
There are a number of options open to you – one of the most popular is signing up for Google's AdSense programme which pays you each time someone clicks on a Google ad.
Alternatively, you could join another ad network such as Kontera, which uses in-text advertising or you could even negotiate with advertisers on a one-to-one basis.
Be careful though – you need to ensure any ads you sell meet with Google's webmaster guidelines, otherwise you could receive a penalty from the search engine and that could lead to a fall in traffic.
2 – Writing
If you're an accomplished writer, then the web offers a whole host of avenues for you to unleash you talents.
Sites such as Textbroker offer authors the chance to earn money by creating content for people who need it.
The amount they pay out won't make you rich, but it can provide you with a nice little side line.
Alternatively, you may want to reach out to sites directly and offer your services. If you're doing this, it's a good idea to have a strong portfolio of work which can back up your efforts.
3 – Sell things
Selling things online can be a great way to generate some cash, although if you want a sustainable income you'll have to do more than sell your old CDs on eBay.
If you're a talented artist of craftsman, sites like Etsy can offer you a superb marketplace for your goods.
With Etsy, you have to pay $0.20 to list an item and they also charge 3.5 per cent commission on each sale.
However, this is offset by the fact that they are one of the most-visited websites in the world, meaning your work is exposed to a huge audience of potential buyers.
4 – Selling domain names
If you know what you're doing, it's possible to make a sizeable chunk of cash through buying and selling domain names.
However, you need to be careful as you could end up with a portfolio full of worthless names no one wants to buy.
Here are a few tips to help you identify valuable domain names:
They should be short and brandable – anything longer than two words is probably too long.
They should use a well-known domain extension – .com is probably the best bet as it is the most popular.
Avoid names that are confusing – domains with numbers in them or that are spelled oddly should be avoided.
Avoid names that feature trademarked terms – you don't want to end up facing a costly legal battle.
A domain name is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, so bear that in mind when looking to turn a profit.
5 – Become an affiliate
Affiliate marketing allows you to share in the success of some of the world's biggest companies. When you become an affiliate you are given a code to include in links which shows that a visitor has found his way to a website via yours.
If that person then becomes a customer of the site you're affiliated with, you get a slice of the money.
Again, you'll need a steady flow of visitors to make it worth your while, but if you're attracting traffic it can be a great way to earn cash.
So there you are, five ways to turn the internet into another source of income.
Article by Will Stevens, part of the 123-reg.co.uk blog team. The company is the UK's largest domain registrar and also offers a “sell my domain” service for people looking to divest domains they have previously acquired.
by Nick Throlson | Jul 24, 2013 | Affiliate Marketing, Guest Post, Web Design
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is one of the most widely-used and quickest ways to draw more potential customers to your site and increase sales.
But PPC can be risky, especially if you're a beginner as you can wind up not getting the results you were expecting while spending a significant amount of money.
Creating an effective PPC advertising campaign can make the difference between a thriving business and simply wasting your budget.
But don't panic. You too can create and run a successful campaign, just make sure you avoid these six very common yet extremely costly PPC mistakes:
1. Sending visitors to your home page
This must be one of the most common mistakes, especially among those who are just starting out with PPC advertising.
Say you have an online shop where you sell laptops and tablets.
You've decided to run a PPC ad for the keyword “Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2” and in the ad you include a URL that, when clicked, redirects users to your site's home page.
Now the user is on your home page and there's no sign of a Lenovo ThinkPad anywhere.
Do you really think he'll stick around and start searching through your site to find a product you promised he will find if he clicks on your ad?
Of course he won't.
So, always redirect your PPC visitors to targeted landing pages.
If you advertised a Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2, include the URL to the product's landing page.
2. Badly converting landing pages
If you invest time and money into PPC advertising, don't neglect the landing page you're sending visitors to.
If you do, it's like throwing money down the drain.
A successful PPC campaign goes hand-in-hand with a great, highly converting landing page.
This means clear and conversion-oriented copy and effective call-to-actions that will make it easy for visitors to sign up, download or buy.
3. Missing out a call-to-action
Not including a call-to-action in your ad is costly as it's what gets users to click and go to your site.
Every ad you create needs to include a clear call-to-action such as “Buy Now”, “Download Now”, “Free Shipping”, etc.
A call-to-action is very important and could mean the difference between a user ignoring your ad and one actually clicking on it and buying something from your site.
4. Relying entirely on ‘broad match' keyword ads
There's just too much competition to even bother running a PPC ad campaign using broad search terms and keywords.
Instead, focus on phrase or exact match terms thus making it easier for your potential customers to find you.
Yes, you are decreasing your traffic potential but you're ensuring that your ads will only appear for search queries that are relevant for your business.
5. Targeting too broad an area
This is another common mistake and it can be an extremely costly one.
Say your business only serves London. Why would you waste money advertising in all the UK?
It doesn't make sense. Make sure you're only targeting the areas your business serves and nowhere else.
Google makes this easy as it allows you to target not just specific countries and cities but also postcodes.
6. Not testing your ads
If you create two ads, can you tell which one will perform better just by looking at them? Of course not!
Unless you're a psychic, there's no way to know which ad will make more money other through testing them.
So, start testing now. Create several ads and run them simultaneously.
Make sure you use Google AdWords' automated rules as it automatically pauses low-performing ads with low click-through rates.
All you need to do is create a rule for each campaign where you choose to pause ads when CTR < 0.2 and Impressions >= 1000.
If you're just getting started with your first PPC advertising campaign, take some time to educate yourself and come up with a strategy to ensure you get the most out of your campaign.
It's only normal to make some mistakes at the beginning, just make sure they're not one of the above six.
What are the most common PPC mistakes you've noticed?
Guest post by Alex Gavril, part of the 123-reg.co.uk?blogging team. 123-reg is the UK's largest domain name registrar and it offers managed PPC advertising.
by Nick Throlson | Mar 18, 2013 | Affiliate Marketing, Web Design
Affiliate marketing is the practice of promoting someone else?s products online in an attempt to earn commission.? There are merchants accepting affiliates in almost every niche these days, from financial services to video games.? The first thing that many affiliates want to know is, ?Which niche should I choose??.? Hopefully, these tips will make your choice easier:
Approach 1: Promote What You Love?
A lot of people enter affiliate marketing by accident.? They start a blog about a hobby that they love, and decide to monetize this by signing up to related affiliates.? This can be a fun way to learn about affiliate marketing, and if you are lucky you may make some money from it too.
Unfortunately, many of the most popular ?hobby? niches are not ones that are easy to monetize.? If you run a video game blog, or a site about a TV show, you?d be lucky to pay your hosting bills from your commissions.
Approach 2: Choosing a High Paying Niche?
Another simplistic approach is to simply log in to your chosen affiliate network website and sort the campaigns by pay, then start a website about whatever the highest paying keyword is.? If you don?t mind writing thousands of words about payday loans, obscure drugs, or no-win no-fee lawyers then this could be a successful strategy.
There are two downsides to choosing a niche based on pay alone.? Firstly, the high-paying niches change frequently, and if you?re going to try to keep up with those changes it?s likely you?ll burn out. Secondly, the high-paying keywords tend to be high competition keywords too ? do you really want to have to throw resources at trying to outrank a huge number of experienced affiliate marketers?
Competition?vs?Popularity
The best products to promote are:
- Products you believe in and would use yourself
- Related to a niche that you enjoy writing about and researching
- See a good amount of search traffic
- Are relatively low competition
- Are consumable products, or otherwise ones that encourage repeat purchases
Choose evergreen products whenever possible, especially for your first few sites.? Once you have gotten the hang of setting up and ranking sites quickly you can try to capitalize on trends (such as major movie releases or popular music artists) if you wish.
To determine whether a niche is popular or not, use the?Google?Adwords?Query?tool.? Make a list of keywords related to the niches you are thinking of using, and run them through the tool.? In the ideal world, you want a keyword with a lot of searches (including long-tail versions of the keyword), and minimal competition.
Don?t fear competition too much ? every niche has competition in it ? after all, if there were no affiliates, merchants wouldn?t bother to keep their programs going.? You want to avoid the very high competition niches, but you should try to establish yourself in a specific area of a healthy niche.
The best way to establish?yourself?is to pick a relatively narrow part of a broader niche.? For example, if you?re targeting a male audience and want to sell sports?supplements,?narrow down that audience and run a bodybuilding website, or a site for strong men.? It?s easier to build a reputation as an authority if you specialise in one narrow part of a niche.
This article was written by B. Frisby, working for?Clicksure?Payments. Find out more about them on their?about page.
The internet is full of people looking to make a quick buck, but earning real cash online is easier said than done.
If you've spent any amount of time at all surfing the internet, you'll have noticed that adverts seem to be everywhere and where there are adverts, there's money to be made.
If you're an accomplished writer, then the web offers a whole host of avenues for you to unleash you talents.
Selling things online can be a great way to generate some cash, although if you want a sustainable income you'll have to do more than sell your old CDs on 
If you know what you're doing, it's possible to make a sizeable chunk of cash through buying and selling domain names.
Affiliate marketing
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is one of the most widely-used and quickest ways to draw more potential customers to your site and increase sales.
