Saturday, September 7, 2013

How To Make Money in Affiliate Marketing

Steps

1. In order to generate income from Affiliate Marketing, first and foremost you need a website or blog site to post quality review about product you are promoting and have your website ranked high up in Google search page.

2. Find a product to promote in your niche by going to ClickBank (CB Engine), Commission Junction, Linkshare and PayDotCom.com. You can also search for a product you like on the internet and go directly to their website and find “affiliate” and you can become their direct affiliate. Search for product with higher gravity, good pay out on each sell, return rate, and future sales commission. Be sure to check for higher gravity, good pay out on each sell, return rate, and future sales commission to consider. Get your hoplink.

3. Get a Domain for the blog site to promote the affiliate product with quality review content in the blog. Be reminded writing an article or story if you are not an expert on the subject should be avoided. . If you are interested in a particular affiliate product to promote, then buy it and use it so you can write a honest fact based review about the product, and there is no doubt your review will be much more appealing to your target buyers.

4. Domain name should be associated with a root keyword for the product you are promoting as much as possible. Unique branding of the product with combination of product name and related keyword will work for SEO.

5. Hosting Service. If you do not already have a Hosting Service, HostGator and BlueHost are recommended for using WordPress Template to build website. These Hosting Services supports WordPress and its installation is available within their CPanel. Each time you create a blog site, you install WordPress for that blog. All the themes and plug-in available for WordPress can be uploaded from your WordPress Blog and it will not require you to use FTP.

6. Creating the site itself is very easy from the WordPress Dashboard.Log into your WordPress blog and upload WordPress plugins and themes from your desktop. In your Dashboard go-to Settings at the bottom to give your title for the blog and description for your blog on Tagline.

7. Go-to Plugins to activate the plugins installed. If you don’t see them there, just do the installs.

8. Go-to Appearance to install Themes if you want to use different themes.

9. Go-to Post to start your blog.

10. Go-to Pages to add About me, Contact, and Privacy pages.

11. Go-to Media to upload photos you want to use.

12. Go-to Appearance – Widgets to add pages in the Sidebar.

13. Save each time you edit

14. This is the most important part of the work for your affiliate website involving your article and keywords search.1

15. You must take time on this one, because this is the foundation of your site before you build on it. This will make the difference between fortune and failure. Think about your angle of attack and draft your article to be posted in your website. Keep writing the article without any concern for keywords at this point to the size of over 1,000 words.

16. After done writing your article, you are going to separate them into three posts and give subtitle for each post. Each post title should include keyword. Review your post draft and find keywords or LSI keywords within your post. This is where your keyword search begins… Witihn your draft posts you should be able to find some related keywords you are going to search… Your will edit your article and finalize your posts after keyword search is complete.

17. Conducting comprehensive search on Keyword with Google Keyword Tools to come up with the Root Keyword (search should not consist of more than two words) and several LSI keywords to use. This is the important step for Search Engine Optimization.

18. Find Less competing long tail key words to consist of 3 or 4 words.

19. Must be related to buying or targeting a market that needs (problems) are closely related to what the product offers.

20. Search Keyword with over 700,000 searches, but no more than 7000 competing websites. Check on Authority site as Wikipedia. If Wiki is ranked at the top in Google pages, you will not be able to compete. See if title tag contains the keyword, if not you will be able to outrank it.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The Affiliate Business

The Affiliate Business

Your affiliate marketing business is just that ... a business. To be successful, you need to treat your business like a business and focus on growth. Your affiliate links are your business; you are the owner of a marketing company, and it is an asset you can grow into more and more assets. Here are three strategies to build your marketing business.

1. Get your own website and domain name.
It looks cheap and marks you as a "newbie" when you post a long affiliate link in your ads. With domain names as inexpensive as they are now you can purchase your own domain name. You can then either forward your URL to your affiliate link or set yourself up with some free hosting and establish more of a web presence. Your best bet is to write a benefit-full description of your affiliate program and link to your program via an HTML link that is part of your description.

2. Build your own list.
Stop relying on one-shot ads to make you money. Real businesses have repeat customers that they cultivate in order to make more profits. You must do the same. Make a commitment to establish relationships with your customers and especially with visitors to your site. Create an email list to keep in touch. Send out periodic tips or articles and focus on helping your customers. Only promote your affiliate links in unobtrusive ways; don't make your emails one big ad.

One of the best ways to build traffic to your list is to write a short report that describes the benefits of your affiliate program. Make this report available only by email. When someone sends for your report, they are added to your list and you can continue to communicate with them.

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 3. Build traffic to your own site and list.
This is where you really make your affiliate links your own business. By having your own site and building your own list you are building your own business and brand, not just marketing someone else's. By doing this, you can market to your own customers over and over again.

Do not overlook this point: When your ad redirects a customer to your affiliate link, you have lost that person as your own customer because you lost the ability to communicate with them on a repeat basis. When you direct customers to your own site and list, they build a relationship with you.

There are many ways to build traffic: write articles, post in forums, market in safelists, advertise offline, etc. My advice is to pick one traffic-building method, work on it for awhile, and master it before moving on to something else. If you focus on offline advertising, write and rewrite your ads until you determine how to get the best response. If you market on safelists, make a list of the top 50, and send your ad to 10 each day. Keep testing to make sure your safelists are responsive.

These three strategies will help you build and grow your affiliate marketing business.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Top Blogging Tools

Top Blogging Tools

The popularity and usefulness of blogging has made it one of the fastest-growing online industries. From personal to business blogs, it is estimated that more than 50 million weblogs have been published, with thousands more starting up each and every day. If you have ever wanted to explore the world of blogging, you should first check out some of the top blogging technologies to discover which tools are right for your Web publishing needs.

Before you begin, consider your reasons for starting a blog. Are you promoting a business, or do you simply want a place to host a personal online journal? Are you blogging to market affiliate programs, or do you want to feature banner and link ads to generate income? If your needs are fairly simple, one of the many free blogging services will probably be perfect for your needs. For bloggers with more complex needs, you may need paid blog technologies and Web hosting services. Blogs serve as excellent content management systems that can be created in a matter of minutes and are easy to use. The following tools are among those used most often by avid bloggers.



Popular Blogging Tools

WordPress is one of the top blogging tools, voted a ‘Forbes Favorite' by Forbes.com. The open-source application offers a wide range of applications and is the perfect choice for users who want to host their blog on their own website. If you're looking for a high-quality blogging tools that offer a wide range of features, WordPress just might be the perfect choice for you.

Blogger is extremely popular for both business and personal blogging. Provided by Google, this free service offers great features such as free hosting, the ability to add banner and text advertising links, and a great range of beautifully designed templates.

TypePad is owned by Six Apart, the same company that offers the popular blogging tools Moveable Type and Live Journal. Basic membership starts at five dollars a month for a hosted blog and offers the ability to post via email or mobile phone.

Moveable Type has gained popularity for use as a business blogging tool. Free options are limited, but paying members have access to improved support, design options, and posting access. Beginners often report difficulty with this blogging platform, but many intermediate and advanced users are committed Moveable Type fans.

Live Journal is a wonderful option for users who prefer community-based blogging. This popular service offers both free and paid options with the ability to connect to friends and join community groups.

Top Blogging Promotional Tools

Once you've started blogging, its time to promote your weblog to the world. There are a number of great services that have emerged specifically to track the millions of blogs that are updated every day. Other great ways to advertise your blog include social bookmarking sites and blogrolls. A blogroll is basically a list of links to related blogs. The following are some of the most popular blogging promotional tools.

Technorati is one of the leading trackers of weblogs. By signing up and adding Technorati links to your blog, you can gain traffic from searchers who use the service to find blogs of interest. This is a great way to locate niche blogs on highly specific topics.

Del.icio.us is one of the most-used social bookmarking sites of the Web. Users can add interesting links to their del.icio.us bookmarks and share their lists with other users. The service also allows users to ‘tag' links by subject, so related posts can be found quickly and easily.

Digg allows community members to rank stories, websites, articles, and blog posts. You can add a links to your blog that allow users to quickly submit the content to Digg. Stories are promoted on the site based on user-rankings and popularity.

No matter what blogging technologies you choose to use, always remember that the key to a great blog is interesting content. Write about the things that interest you and that you are passionate about. Express your personality and become an active participant in the blogging community in order to benefit from all that weblogs have to offer.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Tios on SEO for Affiliate Marketing

Tips on SEO for Affiliate Marketing

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO as it is better known as, is one of the latest buzzwords doing the rounds of the Internet. Essentially search engine optimization means that website owners need to understand how a search engine finds results from the Internet, and what system do they use to determine the hierarchy in which these results are displayed. This fundamental knowledge can then be used by website owners to direct more traffic to their websites.

Before going into the intricacies of search engine optimization, understanding the link between it and affiliate marketing would be appropriate. Affiliate marketing is a source of income, and this doesn't necessarily constrain itself to individuals, but also businesses. Businesses or groups of people can use affiliate marketing to pay the costs of maintaining a website. Although hosting websites on a server may be minimal, there are loads more expense heads, like writers and web designers, copyrights for content, logistical costs, etc.
And apart from just paying off bills, affiliate marketing allows the website owners a tremendous flexibility when choosing the advertisements, so that they are in keeping with the content of the website.

Search engines use an algorithm to determine what the most relevant content on the have Internet. They crawl through websites, looking for occurrences of keywords. Websites usually have metadata tags describing the content of the website. However, due to misuse, the sole reliance on metadata has diminished considerably. A search engine will check the occurrences of the keywords within the body of the text, and also the time it was last updated. All these factors contribute to what is known as the website's page rank, which in turn determines how high up the website goes in the results.

There are a few steps for search engine optimization for a website. These are not secrets by any means, but the key to success here is to consistently improve. This way there is no stagnation of any kind and the content remains fresh. The first step is to continuously update the content of the website, and include relevant keywords that occur often within that text in the metadata. The second step is to try and develop a back linking or ‘link love' scenario, where other websites provide a link to this website. The search engine will also pick up on this, and it contributes to the overall page rank of a website.

Search engine optimization is also important for the individual affiliate marketer, especially if the affiliate has his own website.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Top 10 Affiliates Marketing Tips

Top 10 Affiliate Marketing Tips

Marketers with successful affiliate marketing programs know that the affiliate channel is a cost-effective way to drive incremental revenue. But as with any marketing strategy, if you don't consistently apply best practices to your tactical efforts, you're likely to have disappointing results. Here are ten things you should focus on to improve the performance of your affiliate marketing program:

1. Optimized Data Feed:

The easiest way to get increased distribution is to have the most robust, complete, up to date product catalog possible. This makes your products immediately available to publishers and across comparison shopping engines. It's also the thing we hear most often from publishers as being the most critical piece to working successfully with advertisers.

2. Effective Creative:

Publishers, also known as affiliates, spend time and money promoting your products or services, so you need to make sure you provide effective creative to help them sell your products. Effective creative has consistent brand messaging and a consistent look and feel every place the consumer interacts with it in the buyor- try conversion funnel, from the banner on a publisher's site to your landing page to your shopping cart or lead form. Effective creative also has a clear and highly visible call to action and a compelling offer (see #3 below).



3. Competitive Offers:

Are your offers in line with your vertical or industry? Take a look at what your competitors are offering for similar products or services and evaluate whether or not your margins allow you to provide a comparable or better offer. The trend of offering free expedited shipping proved successful for online retailers during the 2009 holiday shopping season and is continuing to be popular with consumers in 2010.

4. Deep Linking:

It's well known that that deep linking (linking directly from your offer on a publisher's site to the landing page where the product or service can be ordered) converts better than linking to your home page. The fewer pages a consumer has to click to before reaching the item, the more likely that shopper will complete the purchase. An easy way for online retailers to provide publishers with their complete and up-to-date product catalogs is through the use of data feeds, which a comprehensive affiliate marketing solutions provider can set you up with (see #1 above).



5. Optimized Landing Pages:

Your publishers can drive quality traffic for you all day every day, but if your landing pages aren't optimized, then your conversion rate will suffer. Make sure that there's visual consistency between your ads and landing pages, that your copy resonates with your target audience and that you follow through on the promise of your ad by making it clear what shoppers need to do next to get the special offer.

6. Pay-Per-Click (PPC)/Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

Search publishers in the affiliate channel can complement your existing investment in PPC by filling in the gaps in your current search strategy whether that is managed through in-house program or through a search agency. These specialized publishers are able to elevate your ranking on the search engine results page where you may be outranked by your competition. In addition, if you're not using paid and/or natural search campaigns to test the effectiveness of your ad copy, you're essentially just guessing at what works.

7. Simple Checkout Process:

Streamline your checkout process to reduce the steps required to purchase a product. To prevent shopping cart abandonment, list shipping charges early in the checkout process and include thumbnail images of items next to their descriptions to provide a visual reminder for customers returning to their carts from previous visits.

8. Incentives:

Top-performing publishers drive the majority of your revenue and expect to be compensated accordingly. So don't let them down by offering the standard commission you give to all your publishers. By offering special incentives that you tie to a specific product or to a volume or time-based goal, you're letting your best publishers know that you'll reward them for achieving the results you need.

9. Communication:

Lack of communication with your publishers is the cause of many failed relationships. Make it a priority to communicate frequently and clearly with your publishers using the methods they prefer. Many publishers rely on email or instant messaging, but there may be times when they'd appreciate it if you picked up the phone or visited in person - this especially applies to your top revenue-producing publishers.

10. Quality Online Presence:

When was the last time you looked critically at your Web site? If it takes forever to load, has confusing navigation or amateurish graphic design, then consumers are likely to perceive your products and services negatively. Invest in a graphic designer or user interaction designer (or a talented intern) who is skilled at presenting information from a consumer's point of view rather than from a corporate perspective.

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Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Anti-Hair Loss Shampoos

Anti-Hair Loss Shampoos : 

Rub-a-Dub Dub – But Gently PleaseOne easy-to-try option is a shampoo specifically designed to increase the health of existing hair and to reduce the rate of hair loss in both men and women. There are several sources to investigate specific shampoos, research studies which can be accessed to determine the effectiveness of many of these products. Good professional sources include dermatologists and licensed cosmeticians who see hair loss conditions frequently and have had the opportunity to observe the efficacy of a variety of shampoos.

As well, an Internet “Google” search will provide hundreds of products, complete with testimony and small research studies.It’s easy to get confused when investigating the hundreds of shampoos available. With some background knowledge of what has shown to be effective in larger, previous studies, however, you can make more intelligent choices about the shampoos you choose for experimentation.

 And that is the great thing about shampoos – they are relatively inexpensive in this maze of hair loss/regrowth methods, so you can try lots of them without breaking your budget!

1. Surfactants:

 People feel good when their shampoos lather up nicely. Lather, however, is just for psychological effect. Somehow we believe that the more lather a shampoo produces, the cleaner our hair must be getting. Hogwash! The ingredient that causes lather is call a surfactant and does not have cleaning properties. Other ingredients in shampoos actually do the cleaning. Surfactants are, however, pretty harsh, and, for someone who is experiencing more-than-normal hair loss, surfactants should be avoided. There are lots of shampoos out there without it – try some.

2. Herbal Ingredients:

 The most notable herb with some success in hair loss difficulty is Saw Palmetto. Shampoos with this ingredient are certainly worth a try. Saw Palmetto seems to inhibit the production of DHT in men, for example, and DHT causes hair follicles to shrink and close up.



3. Nettle and bay have also been helpful to some people.

 Shampoos which include these might help you too.

4. Essential Oils:

 These oils are concentrated ones which come from plants such as lavender. From ancient times, these have been used to stimulate healthy hair and to decrease the rate of hair loss. We know that we have much to learn from early medicine men and healers. Perhaps this is another example.

5. Tea Tree Oil:

 Many swear by this ingredient, and there are several brands of this on the market. So popular are these shampoos, you can find them at most any drug store as well as health product retailers. As an aside, tea tree oil has also been found to be effective in the prevention of head lice infestations.There are no definitive studies to show that shampoos can actually result in regrowth of hair that is caused by what we all “permanent” conditions, largely the result of heredity and hormones. However, early prevention is important, and experimenting with shampoos during these early stages may provide invaluable help in reducing the rate of loss.

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Monday, August 5, 2013

Mobile Marketing Basics for Affiliates

Mobile Marketing Basics for Affiliates

Now that we are in the 21st century, the era of technology is king. Before, everything was done onthe computer, but no with the introduction of mobile technology such as PDA's and smartphones, theinternet has now shifted from your desk to the palm of your hand. With this shift comes new strategiesfor online marketers, especially Affiliates. This opens up a brand new area that hasn't been aroundfor long and doesn't have an area of set rules. Currently there are four main uses of mobile affiliatemarketing Click-to-call, Smartphone Applications, SMS campaigning, and mobile landing pages.

Click-to-call is one type of mobile marketing campaign chosen by affiliates. Also called Pay-per-call,it allows the affiliate to focus on a set of phone numbers and send them their ads. It is very easy forthe recipient to interact with this form of advertising, all they have to do is click and they are takento wherever the marketer wants them to go. This ultimately gives the marketer great increases inconversion rates.

The next form of mobile affiliate marketing is Smart Phone Applications (Apps). These Apps are veryhot these days, mostly on blackberry, iphone, and droid phones. Apps come in different shapes andsizes and cover a wide variety of subjects, but one thing is common on mobile apps, they all are openfor ads. Selecting an app that deals with your specific demographic can certainly increase business. TheApp market is growing at light speed right now and isn't stopping anytime soon.

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Mobile sites are another alternative for mobile marketing. This idea generally means taking yoursite and making it accessible for viewing on a cell phone. For this online marketers need to do someresearch about what specifications your site needs in order for it to be phone-friendly. This way ofmarketing allows people an alternative to viewing your site on the computer, now they can view it ontheir phones. SMS campaigning is a fourth way of mobile marketing, it gives the Affiliate an alternative to emails.

Nowadays people communicate by two major forms email and text messages. Email marketing hasbeen around for years but SMS marketing is a new idea that is just being explored. One major problemwith email marketing is that it barely gets opened by the recipient, winding up in spam folders. On theother side SMS marketing is pretty much guaranteed to be opened by the recipient upon arrival.

Every form of mobile marketing is being adapted every second. It is important to keep up with the timeand the trends to capitalize your profits. Technology is growing day by day and soon who knows whattypes of marketing will be implemented with new discoveries in technology. Don't be stuck in the past,look into the future, it is full of great opportunities.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

The Affiliate Business

The Affiliate Business

Your affiliate marketing business is just that ... a business. To be successful, you need to treat your business like a business and focus on growth. Your affiliate links are your business; you are the owner of a marketing company, and it is an asset you can grow into more and more assets. Here are three strategies to build your marketing business.

1. Get your own website and domain name.

It looks cheap and marks you as a "newbie" when you post a long affiliate link in your ads. With domain names as inexpensive as they are now you can purchase your own domain name. You can then either forward your URL to your affiliate link or set yourself up with some free hosting and establish more of a web presence. Your best bet is to write a benefit-full description of your affiliate program and link to your program via an HTML link that is part of your description.

2. Build your own list.

Stop relying on one-shot ads to make you money. Real businesses have repeat customers that they cultivate in order to make more profits. You must do the same. Make a commitment to establish relationships with your customers and especially with visitors to your site. Create an email list to keep in touch. Send out periodic tips or articles and focus on helping your customers. Only promote your affiliate links in unobtrusive ways; don't make your emails one big ad.

One of the best ways to build traffic to your list is to write a short report that describes the benefits of your affiliate program. Make this report available only by email. When someone sends for your report, they are added to your list and you can continue to communicate with them.

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3. Build traffic to your own site and list.

This is where you really make your affiliate links your own business. By having your own site and building your own list you are building your own business and brand, not just marketing someone else's. By doing this, you can market to your own customers over and over again.

Do not overlook this point: When your ad redirects a customer to your affiliate link, you have lost that person as your own customer because you lost the ability to communicate with them on a repeat basis. When you direct customers to your own site and list, they build a relationship with you.



There are many ways to build traffic: write articles, post in forums, market in safelists, advertise offline, etc. My advice is to pick one traffic-building method, work on it for awhile, and master it before moving on to something else. If you focus on offline advertising, write and rewrite your ads until you determine how to get the best response. If you market on safelists, make a list of the top 50, and send your ad to 10 each day. Keep testing to make sure your safelists are responsive.

These three strategies will help you build and grow your affiliate marketing business.

Small Affiliates Still Growing

Small Affiliates Still Growing

Despite loudly proclaiming doom, small affiliates seems to be riding the economic tsunami well.

Small affiliates are doing well, it seems, because they target niche markets and keep costs low. Start-up websiteswhich create and aggregate content about topics like sports, business and health, are recording sharp gains in visitors and revenue. Some are also landing distribution partnerships with big media brands eager for cheap content during the recession.



The number of visitors to sports Web site SB Nation, for instance, rose 15 percent from December to a total of 3.4 million in January, according to the company, even as unique visitors to the category of sports sites tracked by comScore Inc. fell 2 percent. SB Nation launched a partnership with Yahoo Inc.'s Yahoo Sports last week and has signed another deal with Gannett Co.'s USA Today."Consumer engagement is shifting toward niche-content experiences," Andrew Braccia, a partner at venture-capital firm Accel Partners, told the WSJ. Braccia, who sits on the board of SB Nation, added that "Three to five years from now, people will no longer be drawing a distinction between traditional forms of publishing and what we know as blogs today."



Saturday, August 3, 2013

Affiliate Marketing Machine

Affiliate Marketing Machine

A study on affiliate marketing that indicates online marketers will spend $2.1 billion on affiliate marketing fees, with U.S. online affiliate marketing spending reaching $3.3 billion in 2012.

That figure includes the aggregate cost of running an affiliate program: affiliate network fees and affiliate commissions. Evans estimates that the affiliate space is growing at 9 percent.

A report from Evans in December 2008 says a growing number of retailers will increase spending on holiday sales-driving tactics like promotions and online advertising. Twenty-seven percent of online retailers will increase spending on affiliate marketing (a 14 percent increase over the previous year) whereas 18 percent will increase spending on banner advertising.

Sitting smack-dab in the middle of that affiliate equation are the networks. The networks' job as trusted third party means they are acting as an intermediary between advertisers and publishers. Serving multiple constituencies requires being a lot of things to a lot of parties. The networks are partners, matchmakers, facilitators, data keepers and more.The major networks have many things in common and perform most of the same basic functions, including tracking technology, reporting tools, payment processing and payment aggregation.

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While each network also has its own specific terms and conditions that must be adhered to by advertisers and publishers, most of the networks have agreed to some basic rules about overriding affiliate commissions and what constitutes flagrant violations of the basic tenants of affiliate marketing.

However, each of the major networks has developed a slightly different flavor. Some are geared towards big e-tailers, others focus on lead generation and still others tend to work with major catalogers. The reasons why an advertiser or publisher chooses a specific network can depend on a variety of factors.It's like having a choice, between Pepsi, Coke, and RC Cola - and in some cases, Fresca.

For advertisers, the choice to work with one network over another can depend on a range of factors, including additional services offered, the technology platform used, the cost of setting up a program, the customer service and the quality of publishers in the network.

Each network has its share of loyal advertisers - large and small. Although there is some amount of churn, where merchants switch their programs from one network to another, that process can be complicated, disruptive and time consuming, so it's not all that common (like customers switching mobile phone carriers). Some advertisers run programs on multiple networks, but in most of those cases one of the networks seems to act as the primary one.

Most affiliates tend to maximize their earning potential and work with several, if not all, of the major networks. Some affiliates work with just one or two based on preference about payments, advertisers in the network and commission rates.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

The Right Keyword Bidding Approach

The Right Keyword Bidding Approach

 Affiliate Keyword bidding techniques are not created equal. With four incredibly different types of approaches, understanding their differences is a challenge in and of itself. But knowing the differences and applying the correct approach to your paid search program and campaign goals can translate into significant performance gains.

Now the question is when and how to use the choices available to you. Over the past few years, digital marketing platforms and consultants have helped advertisers optimize paid search spend using a combination of human analysts and rules and model-based bid optimization software. In this case, technology has played a major role in scaling the challenge of daily bidding on tens of thousands to millions of keywords, from the head to the extreme tail. However, there is still confusion around when to use rules-based bidding or the three major model-based bidding techniques: local optimization, global cluster modeling and global keyword-level modeling. We'll explore the differences between each approach and examine the outcomes.

Rules-Based Bidding

Rules-based bidding is all about reacting to situations, rather than predicting and adjusting by learning from historical conversion data. Advertisers who forego using tail terms and instead focus only on head terms often use rules-based bidding. This strategy works when you're only dealing with a few keywords and have the resources to leverage human analysis, versus optimization software. Of course, this method can only scale so far, as it requires paid search professionals to provide analysis and crunch the numbers on the fly.

Local Optimization

With model-based approaches, it's important to make the distinction between local and global optimization. Local optimization bids each keyword so it achieves the goal in an SEM program, while global optimization (sometimes referred to as a portfolio approach) considers all keywords at once. Using the global approach, bids are assigned so that, on average, the whole group is maximized for a goal. The global approach usually provides higher value from a set of keywords, compared to local optimization, because with local, some keywords are overbid, while others are underbid to achieve the goal, and that results in poor financial performance.

Global Optimization: Cluster-Modeling

Within global keyword modeling there are two approaches: cluster-based modeling and keyword-level modeling. Cluster-based modeling was developed to cope with the data problem surrounding tail terms. Because there was very little historic data for these terms, clusters aggregated data from hundreds or even thousands of keywords, allowing analysts to apply traditional statistical techniques to determine bids. Keyword clusters lead to prediction stability - however, each keyword is actually unique, which ultimately results in a loss of performance when compared to modeling each keyword individually

Clustering has another consideration - the manual tuning needed to optimize the keyword clusters means human analysis is needed on a regular basis on top of the software required to automate the bidding for the clusters. Also, it's very time-intensive to create the clusters to begin with. In fact, this is the biggest issue, because as a cluster ages, performance decays. Combatting this becomes very expensive.

Global Optimization: Keyword-Level Modeling

As mentioned before, keyword-level modeling is another option for advertisers - however, many believed it couldn't be done, because there wasn't enough tail term behavior data available to build accurate models. This is no longer the case. Keyword-level modeling is possible, due to optimization technology developments and sophisticated mathematical techniques.

Leveraging advanced math, software automation and transparency into specific variables that drive individual keyword performance, advertisers can create models for all keywords in an SEM program, not just the low-hanging fruit of head terms. This can result in overall performance gains of over 25 percent compared to clustering, local optimization and rules-based techniques.

The Takeaway

For advertisers looking to create only brand awareness, rules-based bidding works toward driving traffic. Rules-based bidding is a good option for advertisers who aren't seeking revenue - rather, they're working toward impressions.

Meanwhile, advertisers who aren't operating with constraints can leverage local optimization. If there's an explicit goal - for example, to drive as many orders as possible, without regard to cost or profit - local optimization will achieve those results. Granted, most advertisers do have constraints, which makes global clusters an alternative if advertisers only need to track conversions at the campaign level.

For advertisers who want more transparency and deal with large numbers of keywords, keyword-level modeling provides the opportunity to automate bidding while avoiding the performance and maintenance issues associated with clustering. Because this type of modeling provides transparency into the variables that drive keyword performance, keyword-level modeling can result in dramatic campaign gains when dealing with tens of thousands to millions of keywords, whether they're head or tail terms. Compared to the other keyword bidding techniques, keyword-level modeling is ideal for advertisers looking to maximize both head and tail terms, while having transparence and control over a SEM program.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Herbal Medicine : Is It SAFE?

Herbal Medicine: Is It Safe?

As someone who has done 20 years of cutting-edge biomedical research and who runs this web site, I have witnessed the debate on whether the herbal medicine works or whether it is safe to use all the time.Take a latest case report on this month's Lancet (July, 2006). A man who took a Chinese herbal medicine developed bladder cancer. The herbal formula he took is called Long Dan Xie Gan Wan, a formula in recent years already linked to kidney damage in numerous cases. The kidney damage is due to aristolochic acid, a natural compound of a herb used in the herbal preparation at the time. (The aristolochic acid containing herb has since been replaced or removed from most Long Dan Xie Gan Wan preparations. ActiveHerb has not sold this formula because of the safety concern until May 2007 when we obtain the clean product that DOES NOT contain aristolochic acid. Please see it here) The man took the formula for over 5 years.

What can we conclude?

 According to the authors of the report, it "highlights the dangers of unregulated herbal therapy".

Fairly enough, also in the news of this month, is that a study finds acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, damages liver. In the study published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), 40% healthy adults taking maximal doses of Tylenol for just two weeks showed abnormal liver test results. The adverse effect of acetaminophen on liver has been known for a long time but the scale of this damage still comes to the surprise. Now considering Tylenol is a nonprescription OTC medicine used by most, if not all, Americans in their life, what can we conclude here?
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Obviously we cannot simply conclude whether herbal medicines or OTC medicines are safe. We need to look deeper into what might contribute to the adverse effects.A common reason for drug side effects is the improper or wrong use of medicines. In the Long Dan Xie Gan Wan case, the man used it for enhancing the liver for over 5 years. However, the herbal formula is not used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as tonics but rather used for purging the liver. In addition, the herbal remedy is not suitable for a long time use. However, he used the wrong product not only for months but for 5 years. This is a clear case of both wrong and improper use of herbal medicines. In the case of acetaminophen, its accidental overdose causes 100 death and 13000 emergency room visits a year in USA alone (more). The overdose occurs because acetaminophen is included in many OTC and prescription drugs and people unwittingly combine drugs or because misinformed belief that larger doses will give faster pain relief.

The well publicized side effect of ephedra belongs to its misuse as well. While ephedra is a Chinese herb, it has never been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as a single herb for weight loss. Instead, ephedra is used in TCM in combination with other herbs to deal with health concerns other than obesity and no toxic effect is observed.Another reason for drug side effects relates to the poor product quality. While we can trust FDA in ensuring that every medicine on the market is made under the strict quality control procedures, bleach in quality control had previously happened in USA. Quality control of herbal medicines is certainly a major concern. One aspect of concern is the contamination of herbs by heavy metals (e. g., lead) and pesticides. There have been reports of toxicity caused by the excessive lead in herbal products. Another aspect of concern is that pharmaceuticals are mixed into herbs without being disclosed to consumers. For example, a claimed "all natural", "guaranteed to work", male enhancement product may contain the active ingredient of Viagra. It surely works. What you do not know is that really the Viagra ingredient works. This can easily get your health out of control. Here we would like to mention the herbal supplements ActiveHerb sells are strictly selected for their high quality.

Finally, side effects are intrinsic to many medicines and cannot be avoided. Their use depends on whether the benefits or the adverse effects outweigh. Why prescription drugs need to be prescribed by doctors? Because they all have side effects and the doctors' role is to direct their proper use. Remember Vioxx, the blockbuster painkiller withdrawn by Merck at the end of 2004? Vioxx is estimated to have caused 140,000 serious coronary heart disease!

Multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri is a different story. After linked to several patient deaths, the drug was taken off the market in early 2005. But it now comes back with more restrictions on the use.Some herbal medicines have intrinsic side effects too. However, many believe herbal medicines in general have much fewer side effects than pharmaceuticals. This notion seems to be supported by the occurrence of drug adverse reactions in China where TCM is widely used. A vast majority of drug adverse reactions reported in China are caused by chemical drugs. Most TCMs are classified as nonprescription drugs in China and have good safety profiles when used properly. Herbal medicines including TCM are regulated in USA as dietary supplements. This status of dietary supplements partly reflects their origin as food and their benign nature in action in most cases. From a historic perspective, herbal medicines have been developed on a trial and error process on human body over thousands of years, much like today we know what to eat as food and how we test drug safety in current clinical trials.

In the end, what can I conclude? No matter it is a mainstream medicine or herbal medicine, we have to use the right product, made in right quality and obtained from a reliable source, for the right application at the right dose and duration. Any compromise or omission may cause our health.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Bowtrol Store


Cause of irritable bowel syndrome

As discussed previously, irritable bowel syndrome is believed to be due to the abnormal function (dysfunction) of the muscles of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract or the nerves controlling the organs. The nervous control of the gastrointestinal tract, however, is complex. A system of nerves runs the entire length of the gastrointestinal tract from the esophagus to the anus in the muscular walls of the organs. These nerves communicate with other nerves that travel to and from the spinal cord. Nerves within the spinal cord, in turn, travel to and from the brain. (The gastrointestinal tract is exceeded in the numbers of nerves it contains only by the spinal cord and brain.) Thus, the abnormal function of the nervous system in IBS may occur in a gastrointestinal muscular organ, the spinal cord, or the brain.

The nervous system that controls the gastrointestinal organs, as with most other organs, contains both sensory and motor nerves. The sensory nerves continuously sense what is happening within the organ and relay this information to nerves in the organ's wall. From there, information can be relayed to the spinal cord and brain. The information is received and processed in the organ's wall, the spinal cord, or the brain. Then, based on this sensory input and the way the input is processed, commands (responses) are sent to the organ over the motor nerves. Two of the most common motor responses in the intestine are contraction or relaxation of the muscle of the organ and secretion of fluid and/or mucus into the organ.

As already mentioned, abnormal function of the nerves of the gastrointestinal organs, at least theoretically, might occur in the organ, spinal cord, or brain. Moreover, the abnormalities might occur in the sensory nerves, the motor nerves, or at processing centers in the intestine, spinal cord, or brain. Some researchers argue that the cause of functional diseases is abnormalities in the function of the sensory nerves. For example, normal activities, such as stretching of the small intestine by food, may give rise to abnormal sensory signals that are sent to the spinal cord and brain, where they are perceived as pain.

Other researchers argue that the cause of functional diseases is abnormalities in the function of the motor nerves. For example, abnormal commands through the motor nerves might produce a painful spasm (contraction) of the muscles. Still others argue that abnormally functioning processing centers are responsible for functional diseases because they misinterpret normal sensations or send abnormal commands to the organ. In fact, some functional diseases may be due to sensory dysfunction, motor dysfunction, or both sensory and motor dysfunction. Still others may be due to abnormalities within the processing centers One area that is receiving a great deal of scientific attention is the potential role of gas produced by intestinal bacteria in patients with IBS. Studies have demonstrated that patients with IBS produce larger amounts of gas than individuals without IBS, and the gas may be retained longer in the small intestine. Among patients with IBS, abdominal size increases over the day, reaching a maximum in the evening and returning to baseline by the following morning. In individuals without IBS, there is no increase in abdominal size during the day.

There has been a great deal of controversy over the role that poor digestion and/or absorption of dietary sugars may play in aggravating the symptoms of IBS. Poor digestion of lactose, the sugar in milk, is very common as is poor absorption of fructose, a sweetener found in many processed foods. Poor digestion or absorption of these sugars could aggravate the symptoms of IBS since unabsorbed sugars often cause increased formation of gas.

Although these abnormalities in production and transport of gas could give rise to some of the symptoms of IBS, much more work will need to be done before the role of intestinal gas in IBS is clear.

Dietary fat in healthy individuals causes food as well as gas to move more slowly through the stomach and small intestine. Some patients with IBS may even respond to dietary fat in an exaggerated fashion with greater slowing. Thus, dietary fat could--and probably does--aggravate the symptoms of IBS.

For more information visit: http://www.bowtrol.com/?aid=389611

Monday, July 22, 2013

15 Ways To Monetize

15 Ways to Monetize Your Blog

April 1, 2013 Sonia Jackson 21 CommentsinShareHere are fifteen ways to monetize your blog. The key fact about each of these points is that they are all actionable (except for the sponsorship one). In other words you can leave this article after reading and do any of these points right away (except for the sponsorship one, which requires research first). It is up to you which of these methods you choose to monetize your blog, but there is little stopping you from doing almost all of them at the same time.

1 – Set up a donations widget i.e. beg!

There are widgets out there that are titled “Donation”. They exist so that viewers can give you their money with no incentive and no reward. As you can imagine, your donations are going to be few and far between, but your blog may provide a viewer with an answer that they repay with a donation.

2 – Install Pay Per Click Advertising on your blog

These are the adverts that pay you if your viewers click on your adverts. They only pay a few cents and they look pretty tacky, but they are a way of monetizing your blog.

3 – Install Cost Per Mile advertising (CPM)

CPM is an online inevitability. Every affiliate advert may not gain clicks but will gain lots of impressions. Sometimes building a brand involves getting your name out there. Companies can easily create adverts that are not very clickable, but have a positive effect if they are seen. For example, having an advert that is just your logo and your tag-line will be enough to remind the viewer of your company. All they need is an impression of your advert; they do not need to click on it. If you are the webmaster then you can host these types of adverts under a CPM program. You get paid for how many impressions your adverts get, and not for how many clicks they get.

4 – Install Pay Per Action Advertising on your blog

These are adverts that only pay you if there is a sale as a result of your advert. The chances of getting a sale are slim, but the payment for a sale is far larger than payment for just a click. One sale via PPA per quarter may beat all of the payments you get for clicks.

5 – Gain corporate sponsorship for your blog

Finding a sponsor is harder than you think, but is not impossible. How you are going to go about it is up to you. If people knew how to get them then they would not write it on an article, they would do it themselves.

6 – Sell Advertising space on your blog just like a shop window

Create a box or two on each post and offer to sell the space to people who wish to advertise there. Offer to keep the advert there until the blog is decommissioned, or offer a time limit so that you can re-sell the space later.

7 – Install In-Text Ads / rollover text ads

Certain keywords are highlighted in the text and if the mouse pointer rolls over the text they will expand a box with an advert in. The advert must be clicked for you to be paid, but they are a very surreptitious way of installing adverts into your blog.

8 – Install In-Image Ads / rollover image ads

These are adverts that will not run until the user moves his or her mouse pointer over the image. They still have to be clicked for you to be paid, but they are a nice way of hiding the advertising on your website or blog.

9 – Advertise within your blog videos or start a Vlog

Some people install videos into their blog. There are affiliate advertisers that will happily add an advert at the beginning of your videos and pay you to have it watched. You could even set up a video log and dispense with the text itself.

10 – Direct sell your own goods on your blog (new or secondhand)

You can set up your own little adverts for stuff you want to sell. You may also create blog posts about the things you are selling. For example, you could review a motorbike that you just bought, and at the bottom you could offer to sell your old motorbike.

11 – Use your blog to compile an Email Marketing/Newsletter email list

If you are good at blogging then you will have people sign up to your RSS feed. If you are really good, you may be able to get them to sign up to your newsletter. If you do then you can use the email list to send out marketing messages, through which you make your money.

12 – Offer to sell your services

Assuming that your blog is good and on a certain niche, you may be able to sell your services as a consequence. For example, if your blog is on Java programming, then at the end of your blog you could offer to solve your readers’ specific Java problems for a fee.

13 – Demand a paid membership for access to your blog

Assuming again that your blog is of a very high quality and on a certain niche, you could charge to gain access to your blog. You could sell it like a subscription that people have to renew after a few months. You could advertise your blog on social media and via affiliate advertising in order to gain new members.

14 – Build your blog so that you can sell it

Build it up with a great design, smashing content, a weighty daily traffic score and a stunning Google PageRank or Alexa Rank and then sell it off. It takes time, effort and care to create such a blog, and many people do not have the time or skill to do it. So you can sell them their own popular blog that is already set up, running, and effective. If you can gain access to reliable metric numbers to show people then you can set up a bidding system and make some cash.

15 – Sell links from your blog

If your blog is very popular, or it has a good Alexa or Google PageRank then you may be able to sell links from your website. People are always looking to link from high ranking and popular sites. The problem is that Google does not like people selling links. You can get around this by asking people to contact you if they want to link from you. When they make contact, respond with a price list and method of payment.Filed Under: Blogging, Internet Marketing Tagged With: Blog, make money blogging, Monetize

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Empower Network

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See pic below Empower Network here
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Saturday, June 22, 2013

THE BASICS OF BLOGGING AND ONLINE PUBKISHING

By Brandon Cox

Blogging is such a weird word. We never used it until people started keeping “logs” on the “web” of their life called “weblog” and for some reason, we dropped the “we” and were left with the art of blogging. And in a sense, it has changed everything. How? Because now, everyone is a publisher.

Every business, and every institution is now a publisher, and those who publish with the most gusto win. It’s the age where people with few connections and little resources can grow their voice in the marketplace in inexpensive and creative ways.

I’m writing this post for those who haven’t jumped in yet. I’d love to dialog about the latest developer’s beta version of WordPress or Google’s search algorithm, but my goal is instead to reach out to those who are on the verge of blogging and push you over the edge to take the dive. If you need to read no more, head over to WordPress or Tumblr and get started! If you’re still looking to rationalize your decision, read on…

WHY BLOG?

Still with me? Let me give you some reasons to jump in.

Everybody is doing it. This is normally a stupid reason to do anything, but in this case, what I mean is that everybody is talking and conversing about everything, and your voice matters.

It’s easy. There was a time when you needed to know html or write the code for your own blogging platform. Now, with a few clicks you can sign up and from your smartphone, you can blog.

It’s cheap. In fact, it’s usually free, or costs peanuts, to get started.You can earn some income. Don’t plan on getting rich off of blogging. It’s been done before and will be done again, but don’t assume you’re going to be the next John Chow, who makes money online by telling people how to make money online. Most of the “six-figure bloggers” were in the game early, but you can still earn a bit of an income if you’re patient and consistent.You can expand your influence. Ideas change the world, and today, ideas are shaped by the conversation online.

In other words, this isn’t just for geeks and nerds anymore. It’s for you too (assuming you don’t fall into either of those categories).

WHAT TO DO

Convinced? With me? Good.

Now what in the world are you going to blog about?
What does “blogging” look like for you? You can make blogging a time of personal journaling, but I want to challenge you to think a little harder than that. Let’s re-define blogging as putting your passion into words for the world to experience.

Your passion.

If you are passionate about underwater basket-weaving, blog about it. If it’s vintage and retro living, go for it. If you’re all about the latest flip-flops coming out of the fashion scene, blog about it. The blogs I read are those written by people who are passionate, whose passion spills out in a contagious way. In words.

Blogging can include video and other forms of media, and will more and more as time goes on. What I’m getting at is that blogging is the act of allowing your passion to escape your heart and find expression online in a form others can consume.

For the world to experience.

I talk a lot about the experience of reading blogs because I’m a design and communications nut. For me, content is highly important, but so is its aesthetic surroundings. I’m not drawn to mere words. I’m drawn to the experience of reading them in their creative context.

BLOG ON TOPIC

So blog about what you know, what you love, and what you can speak authoritatively about to the world. Stay focused. I blog about an array of subjects, but they are mostly related to each other. If I started blogging entirely about weedrat recipes, I’d lose my readers, no matter how good weedrat stew might be.

NETWORK WITH OTHERS

Writing is good, but reading is better. Speaking is great, but listening is even greater.

Blogging isn’t simply the dissemination of information. Rather it’s the joining of an ongoing, developing conversation about a niche. The more people you help, connect with, and pour into, the more you and your blogging influence will ultimately benefit.

READ GREAT BLOGS ON BLOGGING

Don’t read them all – you’ll go nuts. There are too many of them.

But some of my own favorites are:
WeBlogBetter.com (I started this one, but Kiesha Easley has taken it beyond my wildest dreams).
ProBlogger (A lot about earning money, but a lot about powerful networking too).
Copyblogger (A whole lot of longer posts about writing, communication, and marketing).
Fuel Your Blogging (I used to be the Editor, but Christopher is much better!).
Kikolani (She gathers together some of the best resources on the web).
Social Media Examiner (Not all about blogging, but the broader topic of social media, of which blogging is one part).
Chris Brogan (An expert who blogs his expertise rather freely).
Danny Brown (Few understand blogging activism like Danny).
Michael Hyatt (He understands blogging from the perspective of a respected publishing executive).
For Bloggers By Bloggers (A steady stream of great tips).
Blogussion (Another great site with great tips).
Hubspot offers another list of great blogs too.

JUMP IN!

Here’s my step-by-step guide to getting started with blogging in a half an hour or less. Understand that if you can get hosting, a domain, and a custom-designed WordPress theme, you’ll be better off in the long run. But this isn’t the long run. This is the moment of taking the plunge.

So here’s my challenge:
Sign up for an account at here.
Pick a nice theme that reflects the personality of your blog. You can change later, and even move your WordPress blog to a self-hosted platform. For now, pick something pretty.
Create an “About” page where you tell the world whom you are and other ways to connect with you (link to your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social profiles).Write a blog post. No, “This is your first blog post.” doesn’t count. Craft a catchy, attention-getting title and briefly pour your heart out.

Post the hyperlink on Twitter, Facebook, and wherever else you hang out online. Don’t be shy. Do it!

Oh, and below, in the comments, tell me where you blog! What would you add to what I’ve said (for the soon-to-be newbie bloggers)?

Source: BrandonACox.com

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Step by Step Blogging System

If you’re a blogger, your most common problem is likely not knowing what to write. You open your word processor or editor to find a blank canvas staring back at you, which causes the same thing to happen to your mind — it goes blank.
Week after week, you struggle to pull together coherent posts that are just this side of rambling, and in the back of your mind, you know that you’re not doing the best job of managing your blog to ensure that it helps you reach your goals.

The solution?
Develop a system around your blogging efforts. 
Here are the steps I took to create a system for producing and managing content for my own site.

About a month ago, I was approaching yet another week of blank canvases, so I set out to find a way to be more intentional and focused with my content. The first thing that came to mind was an editorial calendar. Big magazines and newspapers have used them since the dawn of the publishing industry, so I was fairly confident the solution would work for me, but I didn’t want to just throw together a calendar in spreadsheet form and think that all my problems would go away. I really wanted to approach this as a big magazine would, so I started by thinking in terms of a single magazine issue and how an editor might produce andmanage its content.

Step 1: Choose a Theme

If you think about a single magazine issue, there’s generally a theme to it, a common thread that ties together the articles within it, so that was my first step — develop a theme. I decided to have “focus months” on my site to guide the content for a given month. This would help me accomplish a couple of things. 
First, it would make my content more intentional. It would center my efforts around keywords and information that was relevant to my target audience.
Second, it would help me better anticipate the content I was going to create, which would allow me to line up guest experts and interviews that were relevant to the content.
I was immediately able to come up with themes for the next six months.

Step 2: Choose Your Sub-Topics

Once I had a theme in mind, I was able to think about sub-topics within that theme that would deepen my coverage of the content that month. At first, I just listed out the possibilities for sub-topics without thinking too much about them, and created a list of ten or twelve ideas. As I created the list, I noted possible guest experts who might provide greater insight into the sub-topics than I could provide on my own.

Step 3: Establish Your Schedule and Content Needs

With my topic and sub-topics ready, I had to decide on the frequency I would publish. I settled on publishing one content piece per day (could be an article, an audio piece, etc.). I decided to interview guest experts within the sub-topics and then spread out the content over the course of the month.

My plan would be to line up and interview guests the month before I intended to publish the content. That way, I would avoid last-minute scrambling to produce content and could instead focus on quality well in advance of publishing. This would also help when I got sick or took time off, since I would already have content on tap for the given week or month and could simply schedule it to be published (or, even better, hire someone else to do it for me).

I decided that the number of weeks there were in a given month would be the number of guest experts I would line up for that month (five weeks, five guest experts). And to make things simple, each guest expert would produce one week’s worth of content (five content pieces per guest).

My site has a mix of articles and audio, so I decided to do one-hour interviews with each guest (and then each interview would be divided into four shorter content pieces) and then have each guest contribute one article in addition to their interview. That made it really easy on my guests, since they only had to show up for a one-hour interview and create one article. Plus, that little bit of effort on their part would equate to weekly promotion for their businesses, since I would be spreading their content out over the course of the month.

The great thing for me was, instead of having twenty to twenty-five separate content pieces to create on my own in a given month, I would simply do four to five interviews (depending on the number of weeks that month) and knock out four content pieces in one hour. Of course, that meant a lot more planning on the front end, but then the actual content creation part would become very easy.

Step 4: Produce the Content

So, I knew how many guest experts I would have (the same as the number of weeks that month), and I knew how many content pieces I needed from each of guest (always five), so that let me know how many titles I had to create for the month.

Say, for instance, the month’s theme was “balance.” I knew I needed five content pieces, so I created five generic titles.
Stress-Reduction Tips
Personal Renewal
Food and Mood
Balancing Home and Work Life
Disconnecting from Technology

Then I could create more interesting titles from the generic ones:
60-Second Stress-Busting Techniques
The Importance of Personal Renewal
Is Food Affecting Your Mood?
Creative Ways to Balance Work and Home Life
Cut the Cord: How to Disconnect from the World

This part was surprisingly simple. While I normally could sit and ponder blog post titles for what seemed like hours, I was immediately able to think of several ideas when thinking about picking the brains of experts on a given topic.

Step 5: Create an Editorial Calendar

I had my theme, my sub-topics, and even the specific post titles for the content I wanted to create. All that was left to do was actually create the content, edit it, and publish it. That meant that I actually had to conduct the interviews and then lay out exactly when I was going to edit and publish the audio and articles contributed by the guests.

Why a System? Why Not Just Blog?

If you’re running a business blog, there’s generally an underlying purpose behind it. Maybe you want more clients or to create a fan base for an upcoming book. Whatever the case, there’s a reason that you blog, and the content you create should help you reach your end goal. By being more intentional and focused with your content, you’ll achieve greater success in a much shorter period of time and make sure that your content is, in fact, serving the audience it’s intended to serve.

My favorite things about having a system?
Content has become so much easier to create
My efforts are more focused and are helping me reach my goalsI’m more intentional when it comes to guests, which means greater cross-promotion, back links, and visibility with new audiences.
I’m no longer staring at a blank screen wondering what I’m going to write.

So, what’s your blogging system?
How are you staying on track and organized when it comes to your blogging efforts?

THIS IS THE BLOGGING SYSTEM!!

by amber singleton riviere
AUG. 26, 2010
Like this post? Share it! 

Sunday, June 16, 2013

4 Steps to Monitize Your Blog

BY LEYL MASTER BLACK
Feb 09, 2013

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

While there are currently tens of millions of blogs worldwide, close to 60 million powered byWordPress alone, many bloggers are not yet monetizing their sites.

If you're one of these bloggers, a good place to start is with affiliate marketing: directing readers to a product or service in exchange for a commission on the sale (or other action) when it occurs. Connect Your Blog With Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr"If an individual is looking to monetize their blog, I would make a strong case for affiliate marketing as the best avenue for doing so," says Josh Waldron, founder of creative design firm Studio JWAL LLC.

 "Blogs with quality content attract loyal readers. Since readers benefit from the content offered, they grow to trust the authors of that content over time. Consequently, an author's blog posts are a logical place to promote relevant products and services without compromising the integrity of the content."

Here are four quick steps to monetizing your blog through affiliate marketing.

1. Choose Relevant Affiliate Programs

Affiliate ads pay per action, which means that readers will need to click on the ad and then either sign up or register for something, or make a purchase before you get paid for the action. The more relevant the ad is to your content, the higher the likelihood visitors will click on the ad and perform the desired action.

So, what type of affiliate program will provide the most relevant ads for your blog?

If you're focused on a particular topic, you will want to join affiliates specifically associated with your content. For example, if you have a photography site, you might apply to be an affiliate with a camera equipment dealer.

Many bloggers start with Amazon Associates since Amazon sells millions of diverse products that are likely to be a fit for most bloggers. Amazon pays commissions of 4% to 15%, depending on volume and product type.

To find other targeted affiliate programs, check out popular affiliate clearinghouse sites such as Commission Junction, LinkShare, and ShareASale. All three offer access to thousands of affiliate programs, but you must apply separately to each one.

While you should choose programs related to your content, you don't have to feel restricted to stick too closely to your niche, says marketing consultant Dennis Duty.

Think about what other types of products your audience might be interested in."Perhaps your Halo audience would enjoy other FPS games as well," says Duty.

2. Consider an Affiliate Aggregator Service

If your blog topics are more diverse, you might consider a program such as VigLink, which automates access to more than 30,000 affiliate programs and monetizes the links on your site for you.
For example, if a blogger is writing about a new pair of shoes they found on Zappos, instead of having to sign up with the Zappos affiliate program directly, they can work with VigLink, which will automatically append the affiliate code to the link and pay the blogger their earned commissions.
While VigLink typically keeps 25% for this service, the company claims that because of their size, they "often negotiate higher commissions that more than cover our share," says Oliver Deighton, vice president of marketing at VigLink.

In addition to automatically monetizing existing links, VigLink can also optionally insert new, ordinary links where none existed before.
For example, if a blogger mentions a product, brand or store, they don't have to worry about linking it themselves: VigLink will take care of that with its link insertion technology, which optimizes for both user experience and revenue.

"For most websites, link insertion lifts VigLink revenue by more than 90%," adds Deighton.Deighton notes that while any blogger can try VigLink, bloggers will find the most success if their content is geared toward commerce."Hobbies, fashion, tech gear, deals and savings are all topics that naturally lead to spending; religion, food, raising children are less ideal," adds Deighton.

3. Create Content That Sells

Many bloggers will actually write reviews of products with affiliate marketing in mind.

"The power of a blog is that it's easy to aggregate a lot of loyal fans for niche topics.
This lends itself to making recommendations and providing affiliate links to those recommendations," says Chris Conrey, a partner at digital marketing company Vuurr.com.

But just throwing out links to products with no rhyme or reason will result in a quick exit by visitors, writes Lynn Truong, Editor-in-Chief of Wise Bread, a popular personal finance site.

"Think of affiliate ads as additional resources that complement your content," says Truong.

"Don't put up a list of your favorite books, hoping people will click on the affiliate link and purchase the books just because you listed them. Take some time to write a detailed review, and use affiliate ads to point them in the right direction if they decide to act on your information."

4. Integrate Affiliate Links Appropriately

If you do add affiliate links to your site, make sure you maintain a balance between monetization and user experience, suggests web designer Kevin Spence.
One way to do this is to keep the majority of your content ad-free.

"What I would recommend to people is to think of 5-10 great pages that you could use to promote affiliate offers related to your niche. Then link to those money pages from your sidebar, footer or somewhere else that will give them a lot of visibility from the other pages on your site. Keep the rest of your site ad-free," says Spence.

"The goal is not to monetize every page, but for every page to be a potential gateway to monetization.

"More Small Business Resources From OPEN Forum- How to Use Hashtags to Promote Your Small Business- 10 Things You Didn't Know About Yelp- How to Master Social Media Like a Famous ComedianPhoto courtesy of noqontrol via CompfightLEYL MASTER BLACKLeyl Master Black is a Senior Managing Director at Sparkpr, one of the world's top independent PR.

LEYL MASTER BLACK
Feb 09, 2013

Friday, June 14, 2013

Entrepreneurship & Small Business


As a Budding Entrepreneur, Where Do You Start?

Michael Skok -
LinkedIn Influencer13 Jun 2013

I am often asked by prospective entrepreneurs how I got started and what they might learn from it.
But my answer is: “Don’t follow me.” Follow your own path by finding a problem worth solving that you are uniquely qualified to solve* and can get passionate about. Then have the persistence and patience to pursue it.

Problems

Passion

Persistence

Patience

Problems

Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
The key is to look around and get in front of a mega-trend and then look to solve a major problem or issue in order to fully leverage that trend. The good news is we don’t lack for major trends represented by multiple, multi-billion-dollar underlying markets.

Take for example:
Living in a Resource Constrained World:
The world population will grow by nearly 30% in our lifetimes to 9 billion people. Population growth stresses natural resources and it will be compounded by economic development across Asia, India and Africa – areas that are already stressed from a resource standpoint and by consumption per capita that is forecast to grow more rapidly than population, further straining resources.

Using energy as a proxy for other resources – today, the United States consumes twice as much oil as China. But as China’s total energy demand surges 60% in the next 15 years, it will consume 70% more total energy than the US.
Note that India, Indonesia and Brazil (just to name a few) have higher rates of growth in per capita energy consumption than even China.

According to the International Energy Administration, $620 billion a year in oil and gas investments are required just to fill this demand.
Thus, game-changing innovation and entrepreneurship is mandatory in areas like: solar, access to hard-to-get resources and low-cost energy storage systems.
There are problems of equal magnitude in food, water, electronics and healthcare – terrific opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovators.

Everything as a Service:
The “out-servicing” era:This is a revolutionary, highly-disruptive approach to technology and business models across multiple industries – all driven by software. Consider the post-PC era of tablets, mobile devices, and the “Internet of Things” – from cars to appliances to industrial equipment – that are connected to the cloud 24 x 7.
It will allow new entrepreneurs to zero in on their core value with laser precision – innovate there and outsource or as I call it “out-service” the rest.

It’s a major reason why the current $15 billion software-as-a-service revenue will leap to 10 times that as we move from discrete systems to continuous cloud services – another huge opportunity.

The Need To Scale Infrastructure:
In order to enable and support the “out-servicing” era, whether it’s cloud computing, big data or mobile, there’s an insatiable appetite for content and connectivity.
Today, there are about 9 billion mobile devices and that is forecast to grow to 50 billion connected devices in 2017.
In 2012, networks handled more mobile data traffic – than in all preceding years combined and yet it’s forecast to grow at a 66% compounded rate until 2020.
So, the opportunities to develop scalable, software-defined infrastructure, policy engines, data mining systems, content and applications from gaming, to education, medicine or wearable computers is huge going forward.
Know that along the way you will of course run into naysayers, challenges and even failure. To overcome those you will need a healthy dose of passion, persistence and patience.

Passion:
Pursue your passion, find your flow, trust your instincts.
In order to pursue these kinds of big problems, you will need to learn to tap your internal energy.
That energy may initially come from a basic need. For example, if you’re just starting out, it might be the need to pay off your student debt. And those needs are important if not critical.

But in time, I believe our passion is the sustainable source of positive energy.
If you’re not already aware of your passion, start by finding your flow.
Flow is literally that activity where you find yourself free flowing and lose track of time it’s so natural. Composers find it in music. Athletes find it competing.
Programmers find it coding. Where will you find yours? Here’s a paradox: you will only know when you find it because you will lose yourself in it. So it may take careful self-observation.

There’s a wonderful TED talk on this subject here.It can take time to find your true passion. Enjoy the journey, the exploration and the learning about yourself. As you navigate, you will build your compass that will help you find your true north, your true calling in life.
And precisely because you focused on and took time to find that passion, you will build the conviction and instinct to pursue it. And you will need that as many people and things may conspire to divert your flow.
Don’t let them; it will sap your energy. Eschew the cynics; find your own path to positive energy.

And always trust your gut instincts. They will ultimately serve you well, even though it may not be obvious at the time. Sometimes the hardest decisions are the best. And they may include what NOT to do. So often “less is more” in everything from products to life.
And in that vein, if the noise gets too great, keep taking things away until you find silence. Learn to meditate if necessary and in the peace, reconnect with your convictions. It is often in the pause or the gap that the “breakthrough thinking” has room to arise.

Persistence and Patience

Great entrepreneurs have a bias for action that’s admirable.
They get in the flow and focus on doing a few things well and build on success. They ask more questions than they answer, and they listen more than they talk. But even with all that it takes time to build something of impact and importance.
And while you may get lucky, luck is a poor basis to build a life on. By contrast, patience and persistence really do pay off.

On average in our business it takes 5-7 years to build a company of any significance. And typically even longer than that to build a sustainable, independent public company.

So, while I hope you’ll find a breakthrough to prove those averages wrong, be compassionate with yourself if you find it’s taking longer and proving harder than you thought.

In the immortal words of Winston Churchill “if you’re going through hell, keep going!”

Some of our greatest investments took longer and traveled more tortuous and twisted paths than we could ever have imagined but then ended up being bigger successes than we ever thought possible. If you can just get back in the flow and enjoy the ride, you may never want it to end and that’s the basis to build something really enduring.

Wishing you a life of entrepreneurship, passion and the persistence and patience to enjoy the journey!

*If you’re not sure what you are uniquely qualified to do or perhaps you are just starting out in life and have no experience, read this.

This column was originally published in Forbes.

Michael Skok is the creator of Startup Secrets. Held in conjunction with Harvard innovation lab, Startup Secrets is a series of workshops (taught by Michael) designed to create a framework for entrepreneurs to think through some of the key steps that could accelerate their success in starting a business.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

MLM Top Earners Ranks Update March 2013 - Business For Home


Stephen Scott – The Team Building Project – Joins Empower Network

Ted Nuyten.
12 Jun 2013 

Stephen Scott is founder & CEO of The Team Building Project an organization with 36,000 members around the world.

The Team Building Project was conceived and developed by Stephen Scott, a proven Digital Marketing Expert with over 20 years of business development, web site design & architecture, database design, viral marketing, social networking and computer programming experience.

In addition, Stephen is considered a network marketing and MLM expert having successfully developed organizations in multiple countries.

Stephen: "Empower Network’s Viral Blogging System is the lucrative solution to a complicated online marketing world.

Empower Network offers world class marketing, business and life training from people who walk their talk and get results with what they teach.

The company also hosts one of the Internet’s largest publishing platforms and content networks for bloggers and content marketers.

The Empower Network provides several different products.

The first is the blogging platform and Fast Track training series.

The blog is set up instantly when you join and optimized, all you have to do is create content.

The blogging system comes with a series of eight Fast Track training videos.

Empower Network provides an in-depth explanation of how and why the blogging platform works.

Empower Network also covers some core business principles that will help in your new success blog. The blogging system and eight Fast Track videos are only $25 per month.

The second program is the audio series of interviews with industry experts is called the Inner Circle. The Inner Circle is a library of audios which feature a lot of good information from industry experts, the Empower Network founders and successful Empower Network team members.

This is everything you need to get started!And we have an affiliate program for marketers that pays YOU epic 100% commissions!

You want to join? Click here!!