Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective & easy ways of making money online. It gives everyone a chance to make a profit from the sales generated of other people’s products, by various promotional efforts. Affiliate marketing programs are aplenty & more and more people have found it to be an easy way to make money online.

But despite all its advantages, there are people who tested the waters of affiliate marketing never to return. Why? Because they feel that it’s not worth the work involved. What these people don’t know, however, is that they are doing the no-no’s in affiliate marketing. Thus, they give up and lose the chance to earn a passive income for a long time.

In order for you to avoid being one of the many unsuccessful affiliate marketers, it pays to know what the common pitfalls are in this business. Below is a short list of affiliate marketing mistakes you should know of. Read the rest of this entry

Sharing content through social networks is not a new concept (infact nothing is really a ‘new’ concept anymore!). You will have seen blogs with lots of sharing options to bookmark the blog, to retweet the blog & to share links on Facebook – something that is used a lot on this blog too in order for our readers to easily share this content.

Until recently, sharing a blogpost on Facebook has been slightly clunky in that you had to use Facebook Connect to share the content as a status update.

Last week, Facebook users will have noticed a few changes recently to some features, most obviously the change that got rid of the ‘Become a Fan’ on Pages and replaced it with ‘Like’. The ‘Like’ feature is now pretty much uniform across Facebook – incorporated into status updates, wall posts, individual pictures, photo albums etc..and now Pages.

Those of you who have WordPress.org blogs setup can now install one plugin which puts a ‘Like’ button into your blog posts so that your readers can ‘Like’ your post and it will publish the fact that they like your post on THEIR newsfeed. This instantly gives the blog post viral & sharing possibility through facebook unlike before where sharing on facebook was always a little clunky (clunky being a technical term, of course). It is now on par with the TweetMeMe button and others on blogs to share on Twitter etc. You can see this in action on this blogpost. Why not click on the Like button so you can see how it works.

Here are two places you can get this plugin - here or here (two versions, essentially the same thing though). You can choose to put it at the top or bottom (or both) of your blog posts & pages.

Are you a budding photographer? If you like to snap pictures at family events or at friends’ parties as a hobby, put your photography skills to good use in ways that will earn you money for your efforts.

Here are seven ways that you can make money with digital photography.

Photography has changed since the instant camera was developed. With a digital camera, you can take a not so good picture and make it perfect using a variety of software options, such as Photoshop. Best of all, pictures can be printed on high-quality glossy photo paper on your home printer or at a kiosk for just a few pence per picture.

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It has been said that you have about 3 seconds to capture the attention of a visitor to your website or blog.  The most powerful part of your blog that will help you achieve this is your headline.  I’m no copywriter but I know how important a skill it is to be able to write effectively in order to compel your visitors into reading your content. It is a skill that I am learning & practicing all the time.

There are several elements in creating a compelling headline and here are a few tips to help you create better headlines for your blog posts.

1. Tap into Your Visitors’ Emotions

Psychologists say that people’s buying decisions are based first and foremost on their emotions.  Use headlines which trigger an emotional benefit or reaction with your visitors & readers.

Emotions & feelings that you can tap into with a headline are a desire to feel:

• Attractiveness
• Sexy
• Assertiveness
• Confidence
• Energetic
• Pampered
• A sense of belonging
• In control of their own destiny
• Wealthy
• Proud
• Respected
• Safe

2. Make it Active

Headlines need to be compelling so it is important to use active language – i.e. language that shows movement and commands attention.

For example, ‘Stop Smoking Cravings With This Simple Step’ is an acceptable headline for a blog post, however it does not command any action nor does it tap into any emotions.  However, ‘Conquer Your Smoking Cravings With This Simple Step’ can make a big difference.  The word ‘Conquer’ is an active and emotionally powerful word and readers receive the benefit of feeling powerful and in control and it commands action.

3. Let Your Reader Know They’re Important

The word YOU is a very powerful word.  You want to try and make your readers feel as if you are talking to them directly and are genuinely interested in solving their problems and helping them achieve their goals. Instead of using I, Me or We in your headlines, use You where possible.  Using the headline example above compare the two options to see which one looks more personal & compelling:

Conquer Your Smoking Cravings With This Simple Step

Stop Smoking Cravings With This Simple Step

Your readers want to know what’s in it for them and when they can assess that information in the headline, theres a much higher chance that they are going to be compelled to continue reading your article or blog post, and possibly making a purchase from you.

Here are three more ideas for powerful headlines:

1. Make a promise or offer a desired outcome – i.e. Stop Smoking
2. Make it newsworthy – i.e. New smoking cessation tool makes it easy for you to stop
3. Ask a question – i.e. Do you want to stop smoking?

Three Simple Steps to Write Headlines That Sell

So now you have some ideas about what types of headlines can compel your visitors to continue reading your blog, how do you begin to write those powerful headlines?

Step One

Get to know your audience intimately. What are their hopes, dreams, desires, and problems?  Understanding your visitors will help you create an emotional and powerful headline directed specifically at your audience.

Step Two

Determine how your products or services are going to help your prospects solve their problems.  For example, if you sell gym & fitness equipment and your audience struggles with feeling attractive then you can create a headline that highlights a specific benefit that your fitness equipment offers to solve that problem.

Step Three

Write ten to twenty, yes twenty, possible headlines.  Not only will this give you practice writing compelling headlines, it will help you hone your copywriting skills.  And if you think you have a few winners you can always test them for conversion rates to find out which headline is more effective.

Marketing and copywriting experts consider your headline to be the most import element of any effective marketing piece.  Take the time to craft a compelling, and selling, headline and you will reap the benefits for years to come.

Advertising on Facebook is one of the bandwagons that many business owners will jump on this year to promote their products & services online, however it was actually launched back in November 2007 so it’s been around for a while. I’ve been using Facebook’s pay-per-click platform for about 12-months now and can now say, with experience, that I actually prefer it over Google’s Adwords platform for a number of reasons.

Before I get into that, I just want to frame this up properly and share some common stats about Facebook that you may already have heard about, but are worth being repeated:

• Founded in February 2004 with a $500,000 investment (followed by 2 further rounds of private investment injecting $12.7million in 2005 and $27.5million in 2006 into the company). Microsoft also took a $240million equity stake in 2007.
• 400million (400,000,000) active users reached in February 2010 (6 years since launch)
• 200million users log-in every single day
• Facebook stock is valued at $10billion (May 2009)
• There are 1.5 million business Pages created by business owners

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Kerwin Rae who is a business marketing & joint venture expert and an Internet marketer is one of my favourite speakers. I spent some time with Kerwin at his UK events during 2009 and really like his content and information and am really glad that he is back in the UK during February 2010 running his Power Up Your Marketing event.

Kerwin’s event is in London on the 5th and 6th February 2010 and you can book onto the seminar for free here –> Kerwin Rae’s Power Up Your Marketing

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When I first attended Chris Howard’s 3-day Breakthrough to Success seminar in London in August 2008, I had no idea what NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) was and had never really heard of the ‘personal development industry’. I had no idea how to use & implement the tools that I would learn by attending this event into my Internet marketing business – which are now priceless to me.

I arrived at the venue in London not knowing what to expect really. I had received an invite by email from a mailing list that I was subscribed to so I had registered about 6 weeks prior to the event. Didn’t think i’d stay for all three days, but wanted see what it was like anyway.

The 3-days that followed really blew me away – the content that was delivered by Chris and his team was really fascinating; the showcase of information; the sleek arrangement and running of the weekend by ThinkBIG Education (then ‘Christopher Howard Events’) and the really friendly crew members helping to run the event.

After attending the Breakthrough to Success event in London, I started reading more about wealth creation and personal development (I bought Chris Howard’s book at the event called Turning Passions Into Profits) and a number of other books that Chris and his amazing event crew had mentioned to me throughout the weekend (such as Think and Grow Rich, The Alchemist, Rich Dad Poor Dad). I had never really heard of these books before the event and didn’t realise how ‘big’ they were in this industry.

The weekend also gave me a great networking opportunity with around 1000 other people and I made some great contacts who ended up becoming clients and/or suppliers. Not bad going for a free event!

Throughout the weekend, I learnt things that I had never even heard of before such as Strategic Visioning and the Decision Destroyer process that Chris takes the participants through from stage. The key to all of my new learnings was that anything that I want to achieve and accomplish is down to my mindset and the way that I thought. I learnt new ways of thinking, new ways of asking questions and new ways of communicating. The best part of it all was that all these new learnings & skills were totally transferrable and I could use them all in my Internet marketing business, as well as in my personal day-to-day life.

The Breakthrough To Success London weekend seminar with Chris Howard was a fantastic eye-opener for me in many respects. Not only did I see this great speaker but I saw the way the event ran as a business, albeit as a participant and spectator. I knew at the end of day 1 that I wanted to learn more about this industry from a business point of view and wanted to get involved in helping to run the event, because the crew seemed to be having so much fun! Now, I work with ThinkBIG Education to run the events and get to spend a lot of time surrounded by great people who have become very good friends.

I will be at the next London Breakthrough to Success seminar which is on February 12-14 2010 at the Ibis Hotel in Earl’s Court.

You can register you complimentary tickets to the event by clicking here.

A blog that I follow recently published this article about a blogger (Glen Allsopp) who hated writing at one point, but who went on to love the process of writing and blogging…ended up making a whole lot of money in doing so.

A great read if you are blogging and getting bored or frustrated writing your blogposts. Take some inspiration from Glen’s article below…

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There are a number of differences between a Facebook group and a Facebook page that many people do not know about, or that are not very obvious to the uninitiated.

If you are thinking of starting a group or a page on Facebook, here are some things that you should know and consider when deciding which to go for to promote your business/cause/hobby etc:

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Ten years ago the Internet was still in its infancy, let alone mobile Internet & telephony. Today, there are more mobile phones on the planet than human beings (apparently since 2004, actually) which tells its own story about how fast the technology has developed and made accessible to almost everyone. There was a point in 1985 when Vodafone claimed that where would only ever be ‘about a million’ mobiles sold..ever!!

The first decade of the 21st Century gave us so many new ways of using the Internet and communicating with our mobile phones in other ways than just telephone calls. We were introduced to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Skype, iPod, iPhone, DAB, HD, PS3, 3G, MP3, MP4, GPS…the list goes on.

The question is, what does the next 10 years hold for mobile technology? Read on for 10 predictions…

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