Have you heard of video site maps? How about using them in conjunction with your affiliate marketing? There’s a good chance you may have heard of them, but, very few people actually know how to benefit from them. Over the course of the next few posts, you will learn an EXTREMELY powerful way to stand out in front of the crowd in the search engines.

Here is a link so you can sign up for Google Webmaster Tools today. In the next few lessons we’ll be covering the whole process of doing affiliate marketing with video site maps in more detail.

Until then…all the best:)

Are women better, more focused, and more successful overall with their affiliate internet marketing business, than men? I’m not really sure if there has ever been any type of data to back any of that up or not, but, I do know that I’m noticing a trend with my own sales between the amount of women who follow through, and actually use certain memberships as opposed to men.

How am I able to tell the trend? Well, basically it comes down to refund or cancellation rates, especially of the types of memberships that are used for actually “building” a successful affiliate business. While there could be different reasons for a cancellation, what I’m really beginning to notice is that women are sticking to their guns and genuinely working towards their goals more often than men. Now, please don’t get me wrong. I’m not really suggesting anything here. I’m merely stating what the stats are telling me lately.

It got me wondering why this might be the case. Here are a few of the ideas I had pop into my head:

- women seem to understand that an affiliate internet marketing business, is like any other, and expect it to take FOCUSED hard work..the same as it takes to build any business, online or off. I could be wrong on this, but, men, are generally known to be more the “dreamer” type.

- women are known to handle money and finances far better than men. This I WILL have to agree with. I’m the WORST when it comes to handling finances! While this may not be true of every family or situation, men often allow their spouse to handle the paying of bills, keep track of the finances in the bank account etc..because they realize they are NOT the greatest with this stuff themselves, and don’t trust themselves to keep up with things properly.

- perhaps more women come from a secretarial type of background, so they are more content with putting in long hours on their computers? Again, this is just a guess, but, certainly it is true that more women than men come from a background similar to this.

- women don’t buy into the HYPE associated with salespages quite as eagerly. Again, this goes back to perhaps women being known as “realists” as opposed to “dreamers”. They don’t believe so much in the “lottery..get rich overnight” mentality. Unless, you come from a well off family, or are expecting some type of inheritance in the future..”get rich quick” doesn’t exist. At least not in the real world, and it’s especially true of building a successful long term affiliate internet marketing business.

So what do you think?

Do you think some of the reasoning above may explain some of the findings I’ve been experiencing with my own data?

My earliest mentor, and some of the women I’ve known that have went on to be successful later on, are very focused and hard working. They are also the type that know that it takes time to see results, and understand, patience will pay off and is necessary with this kind of business.

I also know many successful “male” marketers as well. Whichever the case may be, they are all the type to never give up, and no matter how many times they may have fallen on their face, they get back up and keep going. Which in the end, whether male or female, eventually will lead to success.

Most of the findings are based on membership of The IM Advantage. The IM Advantage is an exceptional value no matter which way you look at it (Linkvana costs $147 a month offering only one service) and The IMAdvantage offers 5 times the services (including a better variation of the service Linkvana offers) and more valuable perks.. built into one membership, for the same price. While there is still work involved (there is with anything) it handles the automation of many of things we need to do as marketers on a daily basis.

I’ve been finding that more men seem to cancel after one month, as opposed to women. Which, is not enough time to see results of efforts for any business! While, the women who have memberships there seem to be actually hanging on, doing the work, and seem to understand the true value..and actually put it to work for themselves. And so it should be. This membership solves a GREAT deal of the problems associated with search engine marketing, as opposed to completely doing it by hand.

Are these findings pure coincidence, or do you think women may be more “cutout” for the type of work that’s involved with affiliate internet marketing?

I’d like to know your opinion on it. Please leave your comments below!

When you begin your journey with your affiliate business, there are many pitfalls and hindrances that may get in your way. Hey, the thing is my friends, as marketers we are always going to prodded, pushed, and pulled, in so many different directions it’s very easy to lose your way. The people who ultimately become very successful in the end, are people who have come up with a way to master their focus.

Years ago, when I’d first started online, it was my dream to become one of the elusive super affiliates we’ve all read so much about. And yes, I certainly did get side tracked more than a few times myself. Recently, I was in jeopardy of doing that once again.

You see, the more successful you become with your affiliate business, or your online ventures as a whole, all of a sudden you begin getting all sorts of different opportunities offered to you by tons of people. Yes, some of them can be very tempting to!

Give Yourself A Kick – Get Your Power Of Focus

Recently, I had to turn down a few such great opportunities. I remembered one of the cardinal laws of success I’d learned years ago through Simpleology.

What Is That Cardinal Law?

It’s really straight forward, but, it’s one of the most powerful lessons you can ever learn when you are aspiring for success in your life. The simple law is called “The Law Of Straight Lines”, and of course it’s based around the true scientific fact that “the shortest distance between two destinations is a straight line.”

Simpleology has been around for a few years, and it’s responsible for more success stories in the online marketing world, than any other. It’s soul purpose is to teach and develop your focus on attaining your goals in life. It was designed by Mark Joyner who had to fight his own demons to maintain his focus to become the legendary marketer he later became.

Ask Yourself Some Questions…

When you are developing your affiliate business there is no question that you are going to have to pay a price for the success that eventually comes to you. This is true, whether it’s an aspiring pro athlete you are attempting to become, a successful musician…you name it.

Your affiliate business is not any different. You are going to have to pay the price for success. You have to learn and implement strategies, test different markets, measure your marketing effectiveness and so forth.

The next time you are faced with a decision to purchase a product or,  take a course of action that may hinder your progression in becoming the affiliate marketer you aspire to be, ask yourself some questions such as:

- Does this opportunity have anything to do with this years plan that I’d laid out for myself?

- Is it going to help with my long term goals I’ve made for myself, or the goals we have set
for our family? (of course, that’s if you have one)

- Is it honestly going to help increase profits? This can fall into many different categories
here

i.e - is it going to help me to drive more traffic to my sites? (more traffic = more sales)
- can it help with my conversion? (higher conversions = more sales)
- is it going to help with my productivity level (higher productivity methods = more sales)

I’m sure you are getting the idea here. Often times it’s so easy to jump the gun before really thinking things through, but, these are questions you really have to look at when other opportunities arise.

Developing self mastery and the power of focus will become your greatest asset in your affiliate business venture. If you are passionate about being successful in this area of your life, it’s going to become absolutely paramount that you develop this side of yourself.

If you are having trouble in this area (90% of online marketers do), then perhaps you may want to look at something like Simpleology. I know it’s helped me tremendously in the past, and will continue to into the future. Not only will it help you to develop focus, but, it will also help you learn many things about yourself you may not have known.

Remember, it’s your success that counts, and to be successful in your affiliate business, you’ll need FOCUS!

Hey guys,

Below you’ll find a video which contains a very cool way to do some niche research. Also, some quick ways to make money with affiliate marketing in certain niches.

Also, I have some updates on the Niche Research packs for you to!

Are you interested in Affiliate Genie yourself? Check it out right here…

Today, I have a video for you to watch that I think will definitely help a lot of people out there. Would you like access to my own Internet Marketing Tools, some of which, cost as high as $197 a month? Find out how below..(the video is a little smaller than I’d hoped, but, I’m sure you’ll find it to be helpful to you)

This video runs for 25 minutes or so, but, please take the time to watch it all, as there you’ll find out how I can help out a lot of people out there, who don’t necessarily have the budget to access some of these amazing internet marketing tools.

It’s all about helping one another, so watch it now, and you’ll find out how I can help you to become much more profitable in your own online business today!

Well, just recently the big boys at Google were at it once again. Unfortunately, they slapped and permanently suspended thousands of Google Adwords accounts..yet again. For affiliate marketers who rely of Adwords, many are once again devastated, and also…telling Google to “stick it up their (you know what)” and are turning to PPV to increase web traffic. Hey, and why not? For keywords that Adwords advertisers were paying around $2.00 per click, with PPV you can pay around $0.02. Yes, that is 2 cents!

Thankfully, my Adwords account is fine, and I wasn’t slapped, but, you can bet I’m looking into alternative methods for driving traffic all of the time. After all, traffic and conversion is the name of this game. Without it, affiliate marketers and online business owners do not have a business. It needs to be made the MOST IMPORTANT factor. Well, perhaps it depends on the way conversion is attained..again..against the hype thing. Didn’t I just make a post on that?

Moreover, unlike the money hungry Google, with PPV, you don’t have to worry about quality score, ads, or all of the rest of the BS that Google makes you go through just to so you don’t get slapped. Of course these factors are also necessary to keep your CPC down as well. Yes, there is competition, but far far less, than with Google Adwords.

One of the beautiful things that I’m discovering with PPV traffic is that this traffic source doesn’t require any type of ad to be clicked on for the PPV networks to be making their money. Actually, they make more of their money simply just by directing traffic to your pages and offers. Unlike Google, who rely on a click for them to be paid, the PPV networks do not at all. One more cool thing about PPV is that it’s almost like the return of the Google Cash days. You can use direct linking to any site you want. This can be a direct link to an affiliate offer, CPA offer etc. They don’t care if you have pages upon pages of relevant content on your web sites for increasing value to the searcher, or clicker, for improving quality score or any the rest of it.

But, it isn’t without it’s downfalls to increase web traffic. That is what this article is all about, which we will get to in a minute. The information contained in this article will save you literally hundreds of hours of your time, and also hundreds of dollars of your hard earned money.

With the recent slaps at Google, and also, with the release of courses like George Brown’s Traffic Ultimatum, and also Rapid Mass Traffic, PPV is beginning to get a lot of interest out there. It caught my attention as well with both of these courses. Like you, I’m no dummy! If I can be paying TONS less for traffic than what Google is costing people, it’s not a wonder why all of us wouldn’t be interested. These courses are both very eye opening, and I’m very glad I acquired them myself.

That said, here is the real dilemma and problem I’ve found with creating campaigns that will be successful using PPV.

The Problem – Creating Keyword And URL Lists To Increase Web Traffic With PPV Is A Real Headache….

With PPV campaigns you are not only bidding on keywords, but, you are also bidding on competitors and closely related url’s for your traffic.

You can find all of these url’s manually using Google, MSN, Yahoo, and also sites like Quantcast. But, it’s very time consuming. You also want to be drilling down even further. In Quantcast they also have a section called “Audience Also Likes” and also an affinity number attached to it. To really get as much traffic as you can, and to also kick your competitors to the curb, we want to be drilling down, and finding as many url’s that are related as possible.

The more url’s and keyword combinations you are bidding on, the far less competition you have, which also, translates into paying far less for your traffic. Knowing, and doing this alone, is enough to have most of your competition scratching their heads as to why you are getting far more traffic than them. The thing is, there are some special little tricks that you need to know, that most competitors do not.

For instance…

When you are bidding on keywords PPV sites will rely on certain modifiers which can give you far more traffic. Things such as *,+,-,_,&,%20,/, and =. Also, modifiers in domains maybe .,/,* as well. I realize that probably looks pretty confusing. But, the reality is that certain search engines and networks use these modifiers in the “search keyword” strings. So if you have, and are using these exact modifiers in your keywords and url structures, you will be literally stealing a lot traffic from your competitors since most of them are not using them, or, they simply do not know the importance of it.

Also, just as in some fully scaled out PPC campaigns, you also want to be using misspellings of keywords, demographic data before or after certain keyword phrases etc. There is more to it than that, but, this is merely a blog article, and to do a full scale explanation would be like writing a mini book!

While I had some exceptional keyword tools already in my arsenal of tools, I found that to really scale out PPV campaigns more effectively, I still wanted and required something more that would save me a LOT of time. For without a tool such as this, it would literally take hundreds of hours of work to do some of this work required.

Thankfully, I found two such tools that are EXCELLENT for helping in this regard. One of them is very low cost, and one, is completely free.

The first tool, I found quite by accident really. That said, I’m very happy I found it indeed. Have you ever heard of Speed PPC? If you know anything about Adwords, I’m sure you have.

You see, I wasn’t actually looking for an Adwords tool. I was looking for some great keyword tools, but, with what I found, I literally saved myself hundreds of dollars on not only Keyword tools, but, I also got a tool that functions just like Speed PPC for a fraction of the cost.

Essentially, it’s 11 tools in one. It has 10 built in keyword manipulator tools built right inside of it, plus, another tool that works exactly like Speed PPC.

Speed PPC is for creating hundreds or thousands of PPC adds all at the same time. In PPC, to be the most effective, you want to be targetting “one keyword”, “per adgroup”, and each of them targetting exact, phrase, and broad match individually. No small task! But, for getting the most bang for your buck in PPC campaigns it’s absolutely essential.

It’s for this reason that Speed PPC was originally developed. The problem with Speed PPC though, is that it’s very expensive for most people to attain. See here…Speed PPC. But, please don’t buy it…it’s merely for demonstration purposes.

As you can see, it’s not cheap, and that’s without all of the keyword tools built in.

The tool I found to increase web traffic and use for building PPV keyword lists is called PPCKeywordToolz. It contains the 10 keyword tools, plus the tool that does exactly what Speed PPC does.

This personally saved me hundreds of dollars…pretty nice. PPC Keyword Toolz

The second tool for pulling out all the stops for building large PPV list is completely FREE. This is another extremely helpful tool that will save you many hours in scoping out different url’s to be targeting in your PPV keyword campaigns. It was built by Matt Harward, and he had it built for this exact reason. He is a PPV marketer himself, and he needed a solution to all of the tedious hours he’d been spending rounding out his campaigns to make them much more effective.

It’s called Laser URL. There seems to be a bit of a glitch with the top of Matt’s blog, but, if you scroll down, you will find the download, and also the training videos on the page as well.

Well, thankfully, this was a case where some research to increase web traffic and find the proper tools really paid off. I started my investigation yesterday morning, and a few hours later..I’d found some excellent tools which will save hundreds of hours of time, and also…a LOT of money!

I hope you found this helpful for yourself as well….

Take care of yourself, and all the best!

Davin

Finding An End To The Hype?

Recently, I received an email from a subscriber who had written in apologizing that he was going to unsubscribe from my newsletter. It’s certainly not everyday that you receive a letter from somebody actually apologizing for doing that. In the letter, he explained that he wanted to express that it wasn’t anything personal, just that he was getting so many emails from so many different marketers (somewhere around 500 per day) that he simply felt he had to cut them all off, as he was suffering from so much information overload he just couldn’t take it anymore.

I completely understood what he was saying. I wrote him back, and thanked him for writing in to me, and for taking the time to do that. I also explained to him, that I completely understood what he was feeling, as I’d went through the exact same thing myself at times. I told him that I actually urge people to unsubscribe from mailing lists all the time, even my own if need be. I also explained that personally, I had unsubscribed from hundreds of them myself, and only remained a member of the peoples lists, who I feel are still helping me to become a better marketer myself.

Recently, I have spoke to a few of my close friends in marketing about how I would like to be a lot less involved with the IM niche, by the end of the year. For some that do know me fairly well, I’ve expressed this desire quite a few times now. But, also, at the same time, I wasn’t quite in the position to walk away from it just yet. The reason being, that it does make up for a fair chunk of the profits that I do make online, to fund my business in other areas. It helps to fund things like link building services, certain memberships I need to be a part of for growing my business, and that sort of thing. And well, also of course, the funds I need to support living in general.

While I do believe it’s important for people to be involved in the IM niche to some degree, as it really helps with branding, and building positive relationships with others of whom you are trying to help become successful themselves…it would really be nice to be less reliant on that side of the business.

Some people reading this may be asking the question…Why? As I do know that some marketers are only building their list in this niche, and not trying to focus efforts anywhere else.

It is a good question, and at least from my perspective here is my reasoning…

One of the huge pitfalls I find with being an affiliate marketer in the IM niche, is actually being able to find and promote quality products that aren’t all filled with hype. If you are a marketer that is trying to get away from the hype associated with marketing, unfortunately, it’s a bit of a task in the IM niche.

Yes, there are some products out there, that are straight up with people, and extremely helpful without the hype associated, but, these days it’s almost becoming a rarity.

So many marketers, who release new products have been trained over the last few years to use tactics that perhaps do improve conversions with sales, but, it is almost saddening that the hype has been taken to such a level that marketers feel they need to rely on it, just so they can make sales. In fact, sometimes, I sometimes think that it cheapens people’s view of the products.

While, I have always done my best to review products as much as I can before recommending them to subscribers, and other people…there still comes the problem with many of the sales pages provided by vendors in which we drive traffic to the offer. The problem is, that although, certain products are very, very, good and helpful, as soon as you send people to the sales page…there they are once again…at a hype filled sales page!

Of course, if you are promoting that product as an affiliate, then it also gives the impression that you (yourself) may be labeled as a hype filled marketer yourself, which personally is not the path I want to be heading in.

I’d like to get your opinion on this as well. Are there people out there who also feel that it’s getting very tough to be an affiliate marketer in the IM niche, while trying to keep things hype free as well?

Please let me know…

Affiliate internet marketing is continuing to gain popularity at a steady pace in 2010, just as in recent years. I have to say that at times when I read certain things in online forums, or perhaps from a negative thinking newsletter subscriber I do have to sort of chuckle at times.

Often in forums you’ll read something to the tune of:

“This stuff is all BS. I’ve tried hundreds of online programs that claim to teach you how to make money online, and haven’t made a single dime yet”, or else, “None of this works anymore! Maybe back in 2002 when everybody had things so EASY, but, it’s just not like that anymore!”

Let’s analyze that first statement a little closer…as I’ve seen this a lot.

This person claims to have tried hundreds of programs or courses. This is actually the part that needs to be paid attention to. How in the world are you ever going to see any kind of success if all you are doing is bouncing from course to course, or program to program? The simple answer is that you won’t….and there lies the problem.

The second statement? Well, all a statement like that usually means to me is that this type of person has already made up his/her mind that they aren’t even going to bother giving an honest effort to succeed. They have moreless deemed themselves a failure before they have even given themselves a chance to succeed as an internet affiliate.

The truth of the matter is that there are more people becoming successful with affiliate internet marketing than ever before, and also, there is a never ending sea of products and services out there to be promoting. Which in turn, leaves the door open for people to find success than ever before. In fact, with new online businesses coming online every single day, it’s an absolute gold mine for finding profitable products to be promoting.

Achieving Success Faster With Affiliate Internet Marketing

Here are a few tips that I’ve come to know to be true in finding success faster with your online marketing. I’m not saying I haven’t went down some bad paths from time to time myself, because I have, but, in the end these are lessons that always ring true, and will always remain.

1. Once you have made that purchase of an online course that is teaching you what you need to know and do to become profitable as an internet affiliate, stick to that one course only! Yes, believe me I do know, that it’s always a temptation to purchase that shiny new course that may be the new buzz of the week. And in the IM niche, well, things that are new, and the supposed “never before released” information products do sell, but, resist the temptation if you are already implementing another course.

If for instance you purchased Commission Blueprint 2 a couple of months back (which is very good by the way), stick to only working on that course alone. I know that is a tough thing to do, with so many things being thrown at you all the time, but, in the long run, you will find success faster by only sticking to what that teaches you, if you are implementing it consistently, than buying that next new course that came out this week…which will only distract you from what you already started.

2. Learn your software programs well, and stick to them. The same thing goes here. We are constantly being promoted new softwares, tools, and aids to help us with our marketing.

Instead of purchasing everything under the sun, stick to the programs that you really like from the get go. If we are always having to learn yet another software program, it’s only going to slow the process of becoming a successful internet affiliate, and this is a HUGE time killer!

If you’ve already taken the time to learn DreamWeaver well, then you will most likely be most productive sticking with it. Or perhaps, you enjoy using Wordpress. The point is, stick with what you like, and keep using it. Just because something is new on the market, doesn’t necessarily mean it will be better, and you are better off to keep using what you have become comfortable using.

3. Do what you need to do to develop a positive mindset and outlook. Affiliate internet marketing does require that you have a positive mindset. It requires discipline. I’ve found a few different things along the way that keep me forging ahead. I like to surround myself with positive people, and positive input. You really do become a product of who you listen to, who you hang around, and all the rest of it.

If you are being fed negative input, by negative people, it’s like stunting your growth! Find the things that speak positively to you, and be inspired by it often.

4. Well, as much as some marketers may not like me to say this..”Unsubscribe from the mailing lists of the people who you really don’t care if you learn a thing or two from them or not.”

I know that might be a harsh thing to say, as a lot of my own business success comes from email marketing. But, I’ve been on lists myself, and it seems that with some, all they want to do all the time is market to you. Sure, we are all marketers in the end, but, how much do some of these people really care about your success?

You can usually tell in a short amount of time, if they are actually trying to help…or if all they want is your money. Personally, for me, Anik Singal almost drove me right over the edge with his constant, day in and day out, promotions. Sure, he makes a lot of money…but, give it a rest buddy. I know he takes pride in his aggressiveness, but to me, it only felt like he wanted to squeeze every last dime out of his subscribers.  It was never really anything that he’d line up for free for his subscribers or anything (at least without a hitch to it), usually just buy this..buy that..buy,  buy, buy. That doesn’t speak to me…you?

Of course, that is just one I’ve unsubscribed from, but, there has been a LOT.

5. I’ve mentioned this before, and will always recommend this….

Find a person as an accountability partner who’s opinion really does matter to you. I know it works for me, to keep me grounded, and also to continue striving. If I feel I’m somehow letting another person down, it gives me a kick in the butt, and yes…sometimes I need one!

I hope you enjoyed these tips on helping you to enjoy success with affiliate internet marketing faster. Always remember…stay positive…and stay the course!

Should that be you sitting in that computer desk chair building your affiliate business?

If you are reading this and taking offense, please understand that it’s to help illustrate the difference between people who actually end up making a living for themselves online, and those who drift off into the darkness.  There are a lot of people who have went on to work full time from home as a result of having their own affiliate business, or another type of online marketing model.

Every once in a while I get letters from members of my subscribers on my list. A lot of these letters are either thank you letters..or they could be letters asking for help. Hey, I get the odd “I hate all marketers” types to! But, I think most list owners come across that every once in a while.

It’s funny though, but, for every great letter I get, I probably get 5 or so that go something like this.. (yes, there is sarcastic pun intended here)

Hypothetical But Realistic Letter From Subscriber

“Hey, it’s been about a month now and I’m still not making any money from that one web site I built with like 5 pages on it. I went through the gruelling effort of building 3 backlinks to it as well.

Still no money! I’m in dire straights here and I need to pay off a $5500 loan in 3 weeks. I thought this was going to do it for me.

What a scam that product is that you sold me..I want my money back and I’m going to request a refund!”

(I want a refund so I can go buy some more marketing courses from somebody else..and request a refund for those to)

Sincerely,

Lost In Space

The Opportunity Seeker Or The Business Builder – Which Are You?

Over time in marketing you come to realize that there are two types of people who are into this Online Marketing thing.

1. The Opportunity Seeker
2. The Business Builder

It’s unfortunate, but, the reality is that “the opportunity seekers” outnumber “the business builder” by the thousands.

The Opportunity Seeker

So what’s an opportunity seeker? Basically, it’s a person that wants success and is thrilled about how wonderful the whole experience may be, but, they either aren’t ready or willing to actually work for it. These are the people that seek the “quick fix” or that “push this red button and poof”..”I’m rich” type.

Now the sad part is that this makes up the majority of people trying to work their own affiliate business from home. It doesn’t matter how many products and courses they buy, “coaches” they may try, or anything else. Most of the time it’s not the courses they buy either. There are tons of great courses and products out there. But, they won’t succeed because they WON’T work..or at least they won’t work hard enough or long enough at proven methods until they start having success.

Until such people take responsibility for themselves and their actions to do whatever it takes to succeed, most simply they won’t. These people can’t be helped until “they decide to help themselves and get things done…then keep going until they succeed!” They waste their own time, other people’s time, and essentially could be called an energy drain.

Can you imagine what a lot of these people would actually accomplish if they put all of that energy they use into blaming others for not having success, blaming the products they bought and requested a refund, and the countless complaint support tickets they put in, and actually put it into building their affiliate business?

I’m sure you get the point. I’m not trying to be harsh here, merely trying to shed light on an all to common situation.

The Business Builder

Now, the business builder is a whole different blend of cloth. He/She understands that whether it’s an offline business, or an online business, it’s going to take time to build.  They also realize that the building of such things take a lot of work, and they are willing to do it.

People like this, once started, don’t know how to..or even want to quit. They are willing to make the sacrifices needed. If they fall on their butt for a while because something isn’t working, they get right back up and keep fighting for what they want. They realize there are no secrets and magic pills, and know by diligently applying proven methods they will eventually get the success they deserve.

The truth of the matter is this, “You aren’t going to be a success until you decide you are going to be a success!” It’s that simple..no more statements need to be said.

“The Opportunity Seeker” or “The Business Builder”..who are you?

I wish you all the best in your success with your affiliate business, or any of your online ventures..never quit!