Now, you can get away without knowing how to create your own graphics, but you may be limited to the projects you can create as well as progressing a little slower because you will have to wait on a graphics company you hire to do the work for you.

If you know knowlege of graphics, but you would like to learn what it takes to make good graphics, then I would highly recommend taking a look at this great graphics course by Design Guru Ryan. It explains all of the graphical elements you need to create a great website or salespage. Ryan has designed graphics and websites for some of the best online marketing products so this is one guy you should learn from. Here’s the link:

Dressed to Convert by Design Guru Ryan

Once you Here are a few ways you can get graphics for your site:

Buy Graphics Software

The first thing you can do is buy some graphics software and learn how to use it. If you have never used software like Photoshop or Corel Draw then your learning curve will be pretty steep. Plus, these software programs are a bit expensive.

If this is the option you choose, then the best way to learn how to use this kind of graphics software is to just go to YouTube.com or some other video site and watch some tutorials. Simply type in what you are trying to accomplish, along with the words “photoshop” or “corel draw”, and a ton of tutorials will be listed.

Once you have the listing to these tutorials, open up your graphics software and follow along as the person shows you what to do. The secret to learning to use these graphics programs is to do a task a few times until you are comfortable with it. If you just do something once, you will never remember how to do it in the future so will always struggle to get used to using these software programs.

Another good tip would be to set up a file, or a bookmark folder, where you can categorize all of the links to these tutorials you find online for easy access to them in the future. This way you stay organized and don’t waste time looking for that great tutorial you once found.

If you want to buy your own graphics software but want to keep your costs down then check out these links to cheap graphics software on eBay:

Cheap Photoshop Software on eBay

Cheap Corel Draw Software on eBay

Free Graphics Software

If your budget is tight, then you may wish to use a free graphics program that you can download online. Although it may not have all the features of the higher end graphics software programs, it still does a good job and there are plenty of video tutorials on YouTube etc. that will walk you through how to use it. There are other free graphics programs online, but this one is the most popular, and very similar to photoshop.

Gimp - #1 free graphics software

Outsource Your Graphics

If you have no knowledge of how to create graphics, then you may want to have a graphics company or designer do them for you. The disadvantage is that you will have to wait a few days for them to finish the job for you but you will get professional graphics for your website.

Here are a few great companies that you can outsource your graphic designs to:

Pulp Mini-Sites - These guys have designed some amazing online marketing sites
Design Guru Ryan - One of the best designers
99 Designs - cool approach to having your graphics designed.
Guru - outsourcing of graphics
eLance - outsourcing of graphics

Online Graphics Generators

Another alternative to get free graphics for your website, is to use a free generator online. To find what you are looking for, simply do a Google search and type in whatever you are looking to design with the word “generator” after it. So you would search for: “header generator”, “button generator” etc. Once you find a site that allows you to create what you need, you simply download it and place it on your website. It’s that easy, and it’s free!

Create a Graphics Swipe File

A last piece of advice I would give you, is to set up what’s called a swipe file on your computer so you can save cool graphics from other websites that you come across, and cool graphics that you create, so you can use them on other websites.

This DOES NOT mean you are stealing graphics from other people’s sites. You are using them for ideas or color schemes for your own graphics that you will be creating or will have created for you.

In your swipe file you set up folders like this:

Main Folder: Swipe Graphics

Subfolders:

Headers
Footers
Text
Buttons
Icons
Boxes
etc.

Then you set up another file called:

Main Folder: My Graphics

Subfolders:

Headers
Footers
Text
Buttons
Icons
Boxes
etc.

Then, when you visit a website with a graphical element on it that you like, you right click on the graphic then save it to your “Swipe Graphics” folder. When you need to design something in the future you reference this “Swipe Graphics” folder. If you are going to pay to have something designed for you, then send the designer an image you like so they can create your own image based on the one you sent them.

Once you create your new graphic, or have someone create it for you, save it in your “My Graphics” folder. This way, you can use it on other sites that you create in the future. After you do this for a while, you will be amazed at how many graphics you end up with in your “My Graphics” file, and how easy it is to put together a great looking website, very quickly.

Hope this helps,

The first thing you have to do is decide what kind of websites you will be creating or what you need the software for. You can use it for building your normal website, smaller niche sites, squeeze pages and you can use this software for salesletter type pages. Let’s take a look at each of these:

Normal Website

A normal website is going to have a homepage with inner pages that hold the main content of the site. A site like this may have one theme but it may also contain other branches of this main topic to sell other products etc. This type of site can be any length but typically your normal website will be about 20 - 50 pages or more.

Niche Site

A niche site is a smaller site that is very specific. It centers around one product, or topic and does not contain any information that is not related to this theme. It could be as small as a few pages, or upwards of 20 - 30 pages or more if you had enough niche specific content to put on it.

Salesletter Site

A salesletter site is a site which starts off with a long salesletter describing a product and its benefits. As you near the end of this page you are presented a buy button that you would click on to purchase the product. By pressing this button you would then be taken to a check out to buy the product or to a “one time offer” page that would try to upsell you on a related product. A salesletter page could be one page or several if you include a terms of service, contact, about us, privacy policy and thank you page.

Squeeze Pages

A squeeze page is simple a 1 page website with a headline a sub headline, some bullet points and an opt in box or buy button to capture someone’s email address or have them go to a saleletter page. Although the main page is really the focus here, if you want to build a proper squeeze page you should also include a privacy policy page as well as a contact us and about us page. You do this to avoid higher Pay Per Click charges if you decide to advertise on Google’s Adwords program.

Other Types of Websites

Now, there are other types of sites out there like adsense monetized sites with hundreds, if not, thousands of pages, there are forums and there are blogs. These types of sites don’t actually require website software to build them. These types of sites are scripts that you install on your hosting server which have a back office that you log in to make your changes. Once you change the colors, upload images, or write some text, etc. are you simply hit “save” or “install” and your changes are automatically made for you. These types of site are usually quite easy to set up once you are familiar with your web host and how to upload files to your server.

What Kind of Website Do You Build?

This is a decision that is based on what you want out of the website and how much work you want to put into building your site. So here are the first questions you should ask yourself:

1. Do you want to make money?

2. Do you want to tell the world your story?

3. Do you want to tell the world about a certain topic?

4. Do you want to create a place where other people can talk about something?

You stumbled upon my blog so I take it you are wanting to make money. So, here are some ideas for some sites you can use to create money making websites.

Personal Websites

How can you make money telling the world about yourself? Easy … you put some ads on the pages you create. These ads can come in the form of banner ads, images, or text ads. If someone clicks on them you make a few cents or a dollar or two depending on what your site is about. If they click on one of your banners and buy a product, you could make a whole lot more in the form of a commission.

You can use some easy website software to create a simple 5 or 10 page website that talks about you and what you are interested in. Now, this type of website isn’t going to make you a ton money unless you make it exciting enough to attract a huge following and you add lots of content on a regular basis. So, if you’re going to create this type of site and you want to make lots of money from it you better think big!

If you are new to building websites then you really shouldn’t be going out and buying expensive website software. A better solution would be to start a blog like this one. They are very easy to create and they allow you to write till your hearts content without any website building knowledge. You can even create a blog for free. All you have to do is sign up at WordPress or Blogger and get your free blog. If you want your own blog on your own web host, then you will need to buy a domain name and set up some hosting. Then you direct the domain name to the host, install your blog and you are off to the races.

Adsense Sites

An Adsense type site is one that has lots of web pages of content. Within this content there are blocks of text ads from sites like Google Adsense, Yahoo Publisher Network, etc. The content can come in the form of articles or even posts on a forum or discussion board. As people visit your site, and click on these links, you make a few cents or if you have a high paying topic then you may even make a dollar or two. Take a legal site for instance. Law firms can pay Google upwards of $40 - $50 per click. If someone clicks one of these links from your website, you would get approx. 20% of the $40 - $50.

If you are interested in starting this type of website you don’t need website building software either. The solution is installing a script on your web host. Once installed, you simply log in to your back office and ad your Adsense code and pages are created for you. Now beware … these scripts can scrape other people’s content and put it on your site. Unfortunately, if you use this kind of content, you may run in to duplicate content issues in the search engines plus it’s not your own content. So, your best bet is to either write your own articles, have someone write them for you, or buy private label rights articles (PLR articles) and re-write them a little before uploading them to your site. Then, your content will be unique and fresh.

Here are a couple of really good software script that will create these types of sites in minutes:

Site Builder Elite - lots of features and lots of ways to monetize it

Article Site Pro - easier to set up

Hyper VRE - Free Program or you can upgrade for more features

Here is the best PLR Article Content for Your Website:

PLR Pro Article - $1.00 trial for 14 days

Niche Sites

Niche sites are smaller sites that are very topic specific. An example of niche site would not be about “widgets” in general, instead it would be about “blue widgets”. The idea here is that going after a very popular term would have you competing for search terms that the biggest companies in the world already have locked up.

By tightly focusing on a niche within a main topic, you can go after keywords that are not searched as much. It would be easier to rank for these lower searched keywords because there aren’t as many sites on these topics. Now, if you create lots of content around many lower searched terms and add all this traffic up, it means you will still have a lot of visitors to your website even though you aren’t tailoring your site to main keywords. Within a niche site you can also monetize it with Adsense ads, you can ad banners, affiliate products etc.

If you would like to create a niche website, the solution can be found in the above programs I mentioned. Although these programs will build many hundreds or thousands of pages you can also build smaller sites with them. If you want more of an ability to customize your website then you will want some real website building software such as Dreamweaver or Microsoft’s Expression Web.

Here are links to them on eBay so you can pick yourself up a cheap copy:

Cheap Dreamweaver Website Software - most popular website building software

Cheap Expression Web Software - like the old FrontPage program

Both of these programs take a little learning but they do some with great tutorials and more tutorials are available online.

Normal Websites

For this type of website you are going to need some real website building software that I mentioned above and, of course, some knowledge of how to use it. Now keep in mind that there are millions of websites out there, so although you may not know how to use real website building software, it’s fairly easy to get started. As you gain more knowledge you can then add more advanced features.

Steps You Should Take

As you can see there are a few different options when building websites. If you are totally new to making money online, I would suggest getting yourself a free blog first at one of the two sites I mentioned above. Then, pick a topic and start writing about it. Upload a few images, build some links to it and monetize it with a few ads. This will at least give you a feel for the different elements of a website and a few of the different ways you can make money.

Once you get your feet wet with a free blog, expand your horizon. Maybe you get some real website building software, or a script, and build a bigger and better site with lots of great content on it. Maybe you get your own domain name and hosting (look for my domain name and hosting articles on this site) and install your own blog. It’s really up to you what direction you take. By doing it this way, it will be a lot easier to understand how it all works.

Once you make your first dollar online it really becomes addictive. So go get started and make sure you check back regularly for more useful online money making information.

All the best,

P. Wilson

You know how blogging is huge right now? You know how search engines love blogs? Why not capitalize on it? Why not market your affiliate programs through blogs? I know … I know … people are already doing this. They are getting free Blogger or WordPress blogs and slapping an affiliate product on them in the hopes that they make some money. This is totally tacky. They use some crappy template and only have one or two pages. How is this site ever going to last any longer than a couple of days. My father always said “if you’re going to do something do it right or don’t do it all.”

So how do you do it if you don’t use free blogs?

Well, you can start your own blog that you host. Then, you add some real content and gain a following. Once you gain your readers trust they will buy whatever you promote. Now this is a better way to go about affiliate marketing but there is something even better … the ultimate affiliate marketing system!

That’s not the name of it, that’s what I am calling it because it really is. I know your dying to know what it is so here goes … It’s called Super Affiliate Blogger.

Buy Now!

So Why Is This An Amazing Affiliate Marketing System?

There are many features which I will get into in a second but the main thing is that it combines all types of affiliate marketing into one package. What do I mean? Well, if you haven’t already found out by now there are a few different ways to go about affiliate marketing. You can:

1. Create a website with products on them

2. Create a blog with products on them

3. Create a salesletter with products on them

4. Create a squeeze page with an opt in box or products

5. Article Marketing

6. Post Ads

7. Forum Marketing

8. Review Sites

Now, all of these different avenues have one thing in common. They all have affiliate links in them or they lead you to a page with affiliate links in them. The problem is, all of these different avenues have you creating multiple sites etc. In doing so, you are having to format your pages differently. A squeeze page is different from a salesletter page, which is different from a blog etc. Then you’re going to have to put your link tracking software on all of those sites. That’s a true pain in the butt. You are going to have to put your stat tracking software on all of these too so you can see where your visitors are coming from and so on. This is pain in the butt too. What if you could put all this under one roof? If you could, it would save you so much time. Well, now you can with Super Affiliate Blogger .

This affiliate marketing system allows you to create a blog like this one. Okay, this is great for adding content and gaining the trust from your readers who will buy your products from you. Then, let’s say you wan to do a squeeze page. No problem with Super Affiliate Pro. You create a new page and in doing so you choose a new template.

Well, in looking at your keyword list you’ll notice that it’s not perfect. You got some obscene words in your list, you’ve got some misspellings that don’t make sense, you’ve got words that aren’t related to what you want to write about, you’ve got some symbols in the text etc.. So now you’re going to have to go through your whole list and delete the keywords and symbols you don’t want to use. Unfortunately, this takes a lot of time that you really don’t have. So how can you go through this list and take out the words that you don’t want to use quickly and easily?

I came a across a keyword tool that is incredible. It’s called Keyword Manipulator. It really has saved me tons of time when trying to narrow down my keyword list and the best part is it’s only $19.99. For that price, it really is worth the money.

So What Does This Keyword Tool Do?

Okay, you’ve built your list list of long tail keywords related to your topic. All you do is pull up Keyword Manipulator and copy your list in the column on the left.

Click Here for Video of Keyword Manipulator in Action

Now, you have a bunch of choices. You can:

* Clean Up Your Lists - Remove obscenities

* Find and Replace - Turn “las vegas attorney” into “las vegas lawyer”

* Remove Illegal Characters - Remove ,?,?,?,?,?,?,?, ,@,$,#,!,%,^,&,*,(,),_,+,},{,[,]

* Change the case - Make everything lower case, UPPER CASE , Title Case , Sentence case

* Sort Your List - Sort your list alphabetically, reverse alphabetically and even randomly (my favourite)

* Adwords Ready - Add “quotes” , add [brackets] or add both. This is great for adwords users

* Duplication - Remove duplicate words from each line

* Expand your list - Add lists of states, citys and anything else to your keywords.

* Fully Expandable - Make your own lists and add to the included lists of cities and states.

* RSS2Blog help - Add #BREAK# and #TITLE# to your lists, this function is tailor-made for anyone who uses RSS2blog

* Alter Phrase length - Trim down each line to less than X words

* Remove Spaces - Remove Spaces from the beginning and end of each line.

* Clean Spaces - Remove Multiple Spaces from inside each line.

If you want to save a bunch of time when you’re narrowing down your keyword list, I highly recommend Keyword Manipulator. It really will save you a lot of time and effort and you can’t beat the price!

To learn more about Keyword Manipulator and see it in action please visit this link.

Other Essential Keyword Building Tools:

Wordtracker Free Keyword Tool

Keyword Elite

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A website host is where you will upload your website with your FTP program. I know, it all sounds a little confusing if you are a newbie. In a second, I will go through the necessary steps to get your website online. For now though, let’s talk about website hosting services.

Because I personally don’t have just one website, I need a web host that allows me to host unlimited domain names and plenty of server space so that I can upload larger websites (some with videos) and not run into extra monthly charges. I also need a web host that allows me to utilize a database if need be. This blog has a database so having this capability would be necessary if you want your own blog like this one. There are other programs out there that allow you to create niche type sites that have a database of articles sitting on the server like this one which is great for building niche websites with Google adsense ads on them. Check out Site Builder Elite.

A great program that makes me a fair amount of money each month is called Build a Niche Store. This program definitely needs a database. Now, don’t let the word database scare you. They really are more simple to implement that you think. Also, any program you buy that needs a database to operate, would have easy-to-follow instructions to set it up.

To re-cap:

1. You need to be able to host unlimited domain names.

2. You need tons of server space.

3. You need to be able to set up a MySQL database.

4. You need all this to be cheap.

Now you know what you need in a web host which one do you go with:

I have 3 web hosts that I have sites with. Why 3? Well, I have some different businesses that I am managing and they were already set up on some other hosts. They really don’t require huge space although these other hosts do have the space and are priced fairly.

The host I use for all my online money making ventures is Host Gator.

So why Host Gator? There are actually a few reasons. I host unlimited domains with them. I have unlimted bandwidth (good for running videos, 1000 Gigs of disk space (which I’ll never use) and it’s only $14.95 / month. Now, when you are just starting out you may not need all this space. If this is the case then you can get their $7.95 / month plan which would more than do the job. Try to stay away from the $4.95 month plan. It only allows you to host 1 domain. If you are getting into online money making I guarantee you will have many domains once you get the hang of it. For the sake of $3.00 / month your best bet would be the next plan up. Then, if you really get into it, go with the plan I’m on.

Another thing I really like about Host Gator is that it has the standard CPanel when you log in. This is huge when you go to get a web host. Some hosts feel they have to come up with their own unique back office where you make changes to your settings. Unfortunately, this can sometimes be confusing. Because Host Gator has the standard CPanel there never a worry about setting things up the right way. I realize you may not know what a CPanel is right now, but once you sign up for a hosting plan and get your log in info, this is the first page you will see.

So how did I hear about Host Gator? Reall, it was from just being involved in online money making. Once you are in this circle you hear about the services everyone is using. Host Gator seemed to be very popular because they offer the services that online marketers need. Anyway, if you are in need of a web host go check them out.

Okay so now you know the web host to go with here are the steps you will have to follow to get up and running:

1. Sign up with a web host.

2. Buy or Download (for Free) a website editing software program.

3. Plan out what you are going to be doing example: niche article site, squeeze page to build a list, your own blog or website etc.

4. Buy a domain name. If you don’t know which one is best read my article about domain names here.

5. Go to your welcome email from Host Gator (if you signed up with them) and write down their DNS (NameServer) info. There will be 2 of them in your e-mail.

6. Log in to your domain name registrar like GoDaddy etc.

7. Navigate to your domain name in your account and click on it.

8. Then change the NameServer (DNS) settings to the ones you wrote down from your hosting account.

9. Confirm the change you just made.

10. Close out of your domain registrar account.

11. Work on your project.

12. Once completed, upload it to your new web host through an FTP program. Personally, I use Filezilla which you can download for FREE here.

In the future I will be going through all of the steps involved in the various money making program you can get involved in. Unfortunately, it takes time to write all this stuff. I’m trying to go as quickly as I can but it will take a while. Please make sure you check back regularly.

All the best …

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Now we are moving on to part 3 of this article on domains. Hopefully you’ve leaned a little so far and hopefully you’ll learn a little more.

SalesLetter Page for a Product - Which Domain is Best?

So let’s say you are creating a salesletter for a product you are going to sell. What domain name should you use? In this situation, I would definitely go with a dot com name but not just any name. You should:

1. Make it a memorable name.

Let’s say that you come up with a pretty good product to sell. Don’t you want to be able to brand it so people remember it and talk about it? If you have this long name with all sorts of hypens no one will ever remember it and no one will want to type in all those hyphens. Instead, you first want to check if your products name is available to register. You do this before you even start producing the product. You don’t want to get ready to release your product then go to register a domain name for it. If the name is taken you may be in big trouble. So … name first … create the product second.

If you get the name you’re after then great. What do you do if your name is taken? Well, here are 2 very popular online marketing products:

Butterfly Marketing - by Mike Filsaime

AutoPilot Profits - by Ewen Chia

In both of these cases, they added a word at the end of the name that describes what they are. Although they are multiple word names they’re also very memorable. So, don’t get upset if your name is taken. By adding a descriptive word to the end of it, you can still create a memorable product and you may get a little help in the search engine rankings because you have relative keywords in your domain name.

2. Keep it short

The shorter the better (within reason). Again, the 2 examples about are not super short names but they are short enough that you will remember them and it doesn’t take a huge amount of effort to type them in because these are words you already know how to spell. What I am getting at is this. If your domain name is taken you don’t call your product the “superduperonlinemarketingreportforprofits.com” This would be far to long. Try adding one word to the end of the name you want. Or add a word to the beginning if it works better example: profitsuperstars.com. Your name is vital.

I would really suggest thinking long and hard about the right name before you get too far long in the product creation process. The right name can get you excited to get the product finished, it can keep you focused and as I said above it can became a name that people will remember you for.

3. Be descriptive

In the example above AutoPilotProfits.com tells the whole story. It says you are going to make money without having to do much work. Great domain name! The less people have to think the better. This name also gets people excited because it’s got the word “profits” at the end of it. Nothing gets people more excited then the chance to make money. Well, maybe one other thing does, but you get what I mean.

Here are some words you can use:

money, profits, wealth, cash, dollars, easy, simple, quick, fast

4. Be Mysterious

The example above “Butterfly Marketing” really creates this mystery about it. Think of it this way, if you’re an online marketer and you see something called “Butterfly Marketing” wouldn’t you be wondering what that is? Because you are a marketer and you haven’t heard of it before it would make you want to click on it to find out more about. Maybe it’s something you’ve been missing all these years this kind of domain name makes you want to find out more.

5. Web 2.0 or not?

The online world is switching to Web 2.0 and so are the domain names. Because a lot of names are taken and the younger people are all texting each other domain names have gotten abbreviated. Names that delete letters or switch letters around are in style now. Think about “flickr”. There’s no letter “e” but you still know what it says. Now although these names are cool they can be hard to remember. Now, think about your target market. You are trying to advertise to people who have money. People who are retired. People who are sick of their job. These people are not that familiar with switching or deleting letters. So, your best bet would be to come up with a domain name that is the correct spelling.

Anyway, I hope this post has taught you a little about domain names and how to choose the right one if you are creating a salesletter or product page. I’m going to continue on with this topic when I find time because there are a few other thing to talk about like the Google Sandbox, How to Buy and Sell Domain Names etc. so please check back in the future.

All the best …

Go here for Part 2 and here for Part 1

Okay … here we go:

Promoting Affiliate Programs - You Can Use Cheap Domain Names for This

Okay, let’s say you are going to do some article marketing. This means you are going to write a 400-600 word article about a topic or product etc. and in your Author Bio box at the end of the article, you’re going to mention where to buy the product or give them a FREE report etc. In this instance, it would be the perfect time to use a cheap domain name. Why? Because no one is ever going to see it plus most good article directories won’t let you include an affiliate URL in your Author Bio box.

One of the best article directories, Ezine articles doesn’t allow you to even link to an internal page on your website (you have to link to the actual URL of your site) so, if you want to submit your articles to Ezine articles (highly recommended) you need a real domain name in your Bio box. This is where a cheap domain name will do the trick.

So … here’s what you do:

1. You buy the cheap domain name from: 1&1 , GoDaddy or any other registrar you use.

2. You create your Author’s Bio box at the end of the article.

3. Within your Bio box you create a text link and have it take them where ever you want to take them.

Here’s what your link would look like if you inserted it into the Author Bio box: example link. As you can see, you cannot tell what domain extension is being used with this link. So whether you buy a .com or a .info, .biz etc. it really doesn’t matter if this is all you are using the domain name for.

—————————

If you don’t know how to create a text link here’s the code:

<a href=”http://samplelink.com/”>Your Text Here</a> Just copy and paste this code into your Bio box and change the web address and the text.

————————–
Now that you understand what a text link is, and have the code for a text link, you have to choose what you are going to do once someone clicks on that link.

You have 3 options:

1. You can have the person go to your own website or landing page with an offer or giveaway etc. on it.

2. You have them go to your website but then it immediately re-direct them to an affiliate page with an offer on it.

3. You set up a re-direct where you first bought the domain name. This way you don’t even have to own a website.

So, let’s talk about each of the 3 options above and the advantages and disadvantages or each. The first option is just you having your own website. This means you took your domain name and set it up with on your server. Then you added your offer, giveaway etc. to your website or blog. When the person clicked the text link, they went to your own site.

Advantages

Now, the advantage of this is that you can test, track and change your offer or the information on the page based on your click through rate CTR. You are in total control because it’s your own website. You can also track what people are clicking on, how long they are on your site etc. Also, if this site makes some money it may be worth something if you go to sell it one day. Plus you may add some other pages to this site at some point in the future. Who knows.

Disadvantages

If you’re taking the person who clicked on the link to your own website to see the offer, then they click the “buy” button, you will be sending them to an affiliates site (unless you are selling them your own product). If so, the person is going to see another salesletter that the affiliate created. Is this going to frustrate or confuse people? It’s hard to say but would you really wan to read 2 salesletters? It really depends on what was on the page that you created. If you are doing it this way I would really keep it brief and use some nice images and some bullet points to get them interested enough to read the full details at the affiliates site. Why write a huge salesletter when you are going to be sending them to one anyway?

The second option is a little more tricky. What you do here is take your domain name and set it up on your host. Then, you create a blank web page. To make it re-direct the visitor you add this code between the <head></head> tags:

———————————————-

<head>
<meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”0;URL=http://www.wheveryouwanttosedthem.com “/>
<title>You Page Title Goes Here</title>
</head>

———————————————–

Advantages

The advantages of doing it this way is that the person who clicks on this link will not see that it’s a .info, .biz etc. extension so you can go ahead and load up on those cheap domain names. Also, the person will be re-directed to the actual salesletter that has probably been tested so it converts well instead of going to a site that you create. Doing it this way means you can also put tracking code etc. on the page that you created.

Disadvantages

The disadvantages here are that you can’t change the salesletter page because you are sending the person to the affiliates site. It may not be a disadvantage but you will definitely need a web host and some knowledge of how to create a web page with the code above.

The third thing you can do is set the link up to re-direct straight from where you registered the domain name. This is easily done and most registrars allow you to do this. Personally, I like GoDaddy’s re-direct feature. You simply go into the control panel navigate to where you can change the DNS server info. You then paste whatever link you want in the box they give you click okay and within a few minutes the link will re-direct.

Advantages

This is a great way to re-direct people if you want no headaches of hosting a site, creating a web page etc. Re-directing this way doesn’t require you to even have a website. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen an ad that says “Make money online … no website needed!” if so, this is what they are having you do. You buy a domain name then set up a re-direct to their site. All you have to do is advertise and get people to click on your link. Once they do, they go to the affiliates salesletter page.

Disadvantages

The disadvantages here are pretty much the same as the last topic. You don’t have a website. This means you have to rely on the affiliates salesletter to sell the product. Also, you can’t put any tracking code on the site because there is no website.

Go here for Part 3 of this Article

If you are reading this, your probably somewhat new to online marketing and making money online. If so, you will quickly realize that having the right domain name(s) is vital to your online business. Why? Because depending on what you are trying to do, the right name can can increase or decrease your profits.

Below are a few online money making topics. I’ll try to take you through what names you should be buying and what to do with ones you are not using.

Niche Website

Okay, let’s say you are starting a niche website. This would be a content type of website (20 - 40+ pages) with Google Adsense ads, ClickBank ads or Amazon ads on it to generate revenue.

Now, most people don’t like paying the $10 for a .com domain. So, people try to cut corners and buy a .info, .biz or .us domain for $2.99. They figure they’ll invest as little as possible because this site could be a failed venture. This thinking could be a big mistake. What you should be trying to do is project your site as being a trusted source for whatever information you have on it. This way, people will click on your link in the search engine listings and visit your site. Once they visit, they may click on an adsense link or buy a product from you.

Now … think for a second … When was the last time you ever visited a .info or .us site? I bet you can’t even think of one your have ever visited. If so, it’s a rarity.

So …

1. A .com name extension will be more trusted because it is the most popular extension. This will get more people to visit your site.

Now, what you have to also do is think not only in the present but in the future as well. Let’s say you start this new niche website and it’s making a little money. You get a bunch of links over the next few months/years. Then, the unexpected happens, you need money in a big way. Because of this, you have to sell off some of your websites. What do you think is going to bring more money if you try to sell your site, a .com or a .info? If you’re really making some good money with a .info site you may get a good price if you try to sell it but the problem is getting people to even look at it to see if they want to buy it. As soon as someone that’s looking to buy a website sees a .info extension they may not even bother to look at it. How can you sell something for top dollar if you can’t get the most people looking and bidding on it?

So …

2. A website with a .com extension will probably sell for more in the future.

And …

3. A .com extension will attract more potential buyers if you have to sell your site. More buyers drives the price up.

So, if you are building a niche website and you want to take your online business seriously forget the .info, .us domain names. If you really cannot afford the $10 a GoDaddy or whatever then go here for your domains:

1&1 - Domain Names for $6.99

1&1 is a great domain service with cheaper names. You can save a few bucks over GoDaddy if you buy them from here. Personally, I have at least 120 domain names and the vast majority are with:

GoDaddy

When you have a lot of domains, it is a real pain to transfer them to a different registrar. So for now they will stay with GoDaddy even though it’s a little more expensive. To date, I have never had a problem with them and there customer service has been excellent. Also, these companies don’t want to lose your business. So, if you have a bunch of names to renew just call them and they will give you a deal. So really, they aren’t that much more expensive after all.

Probably, the best domain registrar is:

Moniker

They are more expensive (more than $10 per domain) but if you are serious about buying and selling domains these guys will really look after you. They actually have a domain tasting program that allows you to try your domains for a few days before you actually have to buy them. This is great for a program I will talk about later.

So hopefully, you quit buying those .info and .us names for your niche content sites. They next section tells you how you can use cheap domain names.

Go to PART 2 of this Article

This type of service is not only good for sending out one-time emails but you can also pre-load multiple email messages into it so that it sends them out over a timed interval automatically. Marketing rules say that you have to make contact with someone or “touch someone” up to 8 times with your message before it actually sinks in and they make a purchase.

Let’s say that you were trying to sell an ebook that you just wrote, or had re-sale rights too, from a banner ad you have on your website. If people don’t keep coming back to your website time and time again you will only have one opportunity to sell it to them. How many people do you actually think are going to buy it from an ad on your site? Very few.

Okay, now let’s say you try a different approach. Let’s say you don’t advertise the ebook for sale on your site at all. Let’s say that you give away a FREE chapter of your ebook. You offer it for FREE by putting a small amount of autoresponder code on your site along with some sort of banner or text. This code allows people to enter their email address. Once they press submit, your autoresponder service, automatically sends them a link to this FREE chapter. The person then downloads the chapter you promised them. Now, you still haven’t made a sale so your probably wondering how this approach works better?

Well … let’s say that you give the person who requested the chapter a few days to read it. Then, your autoresponder sends them an email message asking them if they liked it as well as another link to order it from you. By doing this, you have reminded them about your ebook, you have touched them twice and you gave them another opportunity to buy it. Those who really liked your FREE chapter will buy it. Others, may take a while to come around. So, a few more days later you send them another email you crafted and pre-loaded into the autoresponder. This email mentions the benefits of your ebook or how it is going to solve their problem etc.

Maybe you hit a nerve with this email and you get a bunch more sales. For some, it will take more coaxing so you keep writing emails and pre-loading them into your autoresponder. Maybe you find another product you can give them if they order your ebook. Maybe you offer a discount for those who haven’t ordered. Once you’ve touched them enough times or you have made them an irresistible offer, you’ll see that your conversion rate go through the roof as opposed to just throwing a banner ad on your site.

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Now, that sounds great! You really can sell a lot of ebooks instead of just a few here and there. Well … it gets better!!! You still have their email address and by signing up for the FREE chapter they also agreed to receive other offers from you. This means that you can keep sending them emails about any neat offers you come across. So not only can you sell something else to those people who didn’t buy your ebook but you can sell even more stuff to those who did buy it! It’s a known fact that once you’ve sold a product to someone you become a trusted source. So, if you recommend other products to them, they’ll be more apt to buy from you or through a link you send them in an email.

So now you know the importance of having an autoresponder, which ones are the best? Well, it really depends what you’re after. If you need to send out emails on a regular basis then you’ll want to go with a service that offers unlimited messages that you can send out. The autoresponder of choice amongst internet marketers is Aweber. They really do offer a fantastic service at a very reasonable price. Here’s their pricing for Aweber:

Service Plan Pricing Savings

Paid Monthly $19.95 n/a

Paid Quarterly $53.85 $6.00

Paid Semi-Annually $101.70 $18.00

Paid Yearly $179.40 $60.00

(this works out to $14.95 per month)

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These fees allow for up to 10,000 subscribers in your database. If you have more than 10,000 subscribers each additional 10,000 is $9.95.

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So there you go, you can see that it is very reasonable to have your own unlimited autoresponder service. Personally, I went for the full year of service. I figured I was going to use it to make lots of money by sending out emails so why not save a few bucks with the yearly fee?

Here’s the link to sign up with:

Aweber - Autoresponder Service

Now that you have a feel for Aweber, let’s talk about 2 other very good email services. These services offer a few other features and tools that Aweber does not but they are also more expensive. They have some better email creation tools, tracking, templates and other neat things that you can use. I would suggest checking these other 2 programs out just to see if what they offer meets your needs better. The 2 programs below offer FREE trials so give them a shot with a small list just to see the difference.

For one of my other business projects, I actually use Vertical Response (below). I do so, because I started with them and didn’t feel like migrating my list over to Aweber. Plus, I really like the stats feature they offer. It tells me exactly how many email were sent, how many got opened, charts, graphs etc. I then compare this data to other campaigns I’ve run to see which campaign is performing the best. (you can do tracking with Aweber too by inserting code into your email links but it does take a little extra work)

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Constant Contact - Email List Management Tool - 60 Day Free Trial

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VerticalResponse

Vertical Response is a very much like Constant Contact. (I actually use this service for another business that I run.)

As a final option, you can always purchase your own autoresponder software and install it on your server. The advantage here is that once you buy it, you never have to pay again to send out emails. I really suggest staying away from this method though unless you know what you are doing. I say this because people have been bombarded with spam for so many years they get a little grumpy when they receive too many emails. If a person thinks you have sent them spam and you haven’t followed the CAN-SPAM Act rules precisely, you can have your website shut down. So as I said, be very careful when deciding on this option.

I have a few programs I can refer you too or sell but I am deciding against offering them to you for the reason above. If you really want one of these programs just do a search under autoresponder software you will surely find what you are looking for.

Okay, now that you have a good feel for autoresponders, it’s time to get one. You cannot wait on this. If you’re serious about making money online you’ll hear the term “the money is in the list” over and over again. Well, you can’t build a list without an autoresponder so don’t delay. Even if you are a newbie, at least sign up and get a feel for how they work. This will put you ahead of the curve and you will be able to easily add the necessary code to your website.

There are many facets to email marketing. In the future, I’ll expand on this topic and how to get the most out of your autoresponder so please check back regularly.

All the best …

What kind of affiliate products can you sell?

Well, you can sell pretty much anything these days. There are literally thousands of products that have affiliate programs. Once you sign up, you can sell ’til your hearts content. I’ll show you how to do this in a minute.

Why would companies offer affiliate programs?

Think of it this way. If a company has a product they want to sell they could hire salespeople, or have their existing salespeople, cover the country and sell it to every store or outlet they could. If this was the route they decided to take they would have to pay their salespeople a salary and/or commission or both, travel expenses, marketing materials, training etc. as well as their advertising costs to create awareness of their product(s) to consumers. Then, they would have to sell their product at retail to the stores that were going to sell it. All of these expenses can add up to a hefty percentage of the purchase price leaving the company with a tiny profit.

Because the company is giving up a large percentage anyway, it makes sense to have regular people that are web savvy (or have popular websites) to sell their products for them. In doing so, they can get hundreds, if not, thousands of people selling their products for them almost instantly. This means they create a huge sales force very quickly. These people not only create awareness across the country almost instantly but they can cover the whole world. So they get huge exposure very quickly. The company doesn’t have to pay advertising costs because the affilates do all the marketing for them. The company can sell their products for retail instead of wholesale thus allowing them to increase profits. The company also saves on hiring, training, managers, expenses, office space etc.

So that’s why companies offer affiliate programs. It’s a good thing the numbers added up for these companies because it presents a great opportunity for people like you and me.

Now, affiliate programs are not the only way to make money online but they sure are one of the easiest ways. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of affiliate programs.

Advantages:

1. You work as much as you want.

2. You can make as much or more from the sale of a product than the company whose product you are selling.

3. Minimal effort to enroll in these programs.

4. No cold calling or selling or travelling.

5. Many different ways to promote these products.

6. Don’t have to ship anything.

7. Don’t have to deal with customer complaints or returns.

8. Thousands of products to choose from.

Disadvantages:

1. Can be costly if you decide pay for advertising and have a minimal return on your investment.

2. Can violate the companies Terms of Services knowingly or unknowingly and get thrown out of a good program.

3. You are not selling your own products (an ego thing).

4. Low commissions on some items.

There are many people making a great living purely through affiliate marketing. In writing this, it just re-enforced how great affiliate programs are and the fact that you really can’t go wrong getting involved in some of these programs.

How to Get Started

Okay, now you know a little about affiliate programs how to do you get started. I’m only going to mention a couple of the programs here. There are hundreds you can join but in the online marketing circles, these are the 3 that rise to the top. If you want to find other programs, just do a search for “affiliate programs” and you will see them all.

ClickBank

Well … the first thing you should do is go to ClickBank. This is the affiliate program of choice for people online marketers. Why? Because ClickBank is a marketplace where people go to sell their digital products like software and ebooks. Because the authors or these products only have to create the product once and have no other real costs, they can afford to give out huge commissions to affiliates who want to sell their products. In most cases, you can make as much, if not more, than the person who created the product. Typically, if you are selling tangible products through other affiliate programs you may only make a small percentage so ClickBank really is one of the best programs if not the best program out there.

Commission Junction

CJ is another favorite amongst online marketers. They have a huge list of well-known companies whose affiliate programs you can join. The difference between CJ and ClickBank is that with CJ you can actually advertise brand name products from companies that everyone is familiar with. Although the commissions are lower on these products you have a larger audience of buyers that are buying these products anyway. So you don’t have to try to hard to make a sale. Just throw a few ads on your website and you are off to the races.

LinkShare

Here’s another great program. It’s just like CJ so you better join this one as well. Just click the link below to go to their site.

Anyway, go check out CJ, LinkShare and ClickBank. Make sure you bookmark those sites (as well as this blog) because I guarantee you will be using them very frequently.

How to Sell

There are many ways you can sell these products. You can:

1. Place ads or banners on your website or blog.

2. You can advertise through Pay Per click programs on Google’s Adsense or others.

3. You can do an email marketing campaign to a list of people.

4. You can advertise on sites like Craigslist (WARNING - DO NOT attempt this unless you know what you are doing otherwise you will get banned - I’ll tell you how another time).

5. You can post on popular forums through affiliate links in your signature line.

6. Send out a creative press release.

7. Article Marketing with Affiliate in your author’s bio.

8. Place online classified ads.

So there are a few ways you can advertise affiliate program. In the coming days, I’ll go more in-depth about each of these ways to advertise affiliate programs so make sure you check back and try out a few of my suggestions. In the meantime, go check out the 2 sites I mentioned above and get a feel for how to use the sites and all of the products you could be selling.

All the best …

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