affiliate marketing
Why anybody – an individual or a company – should use social media?
Jul 23rd
For a long time brand advertising relied almost solely on broadcasting messages to consumers and no actual communication with these consumers – a.k.a. one way communication. Today this traditional model does not work anymore. Now more and more people ask, talk, look for advices and reviews, give feedback and buy… online. And the best part is that you, as a brand or marketer, can talk with (not to, but with) them . This is the new era of advertising – the social media era.
People talk about your brand! No matter if you are happy with it or not, no matter if you are a big brand such as Apple, Starbucks or Sony, or if you are a small brand such as the coffee shop round the corner. Even the people you work with talk about your brand, and there are companies, such as Intel, which have already considered this: Intel Social Media Guidelines.
Social media works and is important today , because it gives a human aspect and authenticity to your brand. More and more are people trusting their human nature to be engaged in and be influenced by a person-to-person communication rather than to engage on a one-way broadcasted message from an unknown source. This is why brands that act on their customers’ behalf get 44% more brand advocates. And if you are not present in the online conversation and do not consider actions based on this communication – you lose opportunities and be sure that your competitors will exploit them.
So… what can you do with social media?
Many tools exist for endless possibilities.
(and these are just very few of them)
These possibilities can be – to create a community, to promote and inform, to get to know more about your customers, to improve your product or service, to deal with complaints, to give support; all of which providing you with a long-term customer relationship!
And what is even more important – all of this is coming to mobile NOW! Via smartphones, notebooks, and God knows what other type of e-mobile devices, people can share their experience, ask, talk, look for advice and reviews online even as they are in your store and are about to buy!
Today people search with Google, but tomorrow people may start searching with Facebook or with any other social network where their friends are!
What is this blog about, after all?
Jul 22nd
If you are reading this, there is a high possibility that you came here while looking for – a way to make money online, free digital product downloads, tips or internet marketing and advertising or something similar to that.
No matter the reason, you should know that in order to “make it” (whatever that “it” is) you either should be/become a good marketer or hire one to develop a marketing strategy or plan for you and your business goals.
Being or becoming a good marketer is impossible to happen fast. There is no quick scheme to learn that and anybody who says or sells you an opposite idea, is wrong.
I write about social media, because I want to give you an insight on cost-effective solutions that work. And am exposing stupid digital products in order to convince you that these can not be a solution. So in general I tell you what can be working for you and what can not be working for you. I am saying this, because most of you are rather attracted to the “EXPOSED” posts. Don’t be – there is no point in using them. I expose these products, because only by trying them yourself you’d realize that they are not worth it.
So, if you want to succeed, I really hope that you give social media and marketing a chance. Even John Chow said (in the video from the latter post) that he managed to succeed, because he had used to work as an Internet Marketing specialist before.
Coming up a little bit later today or tomorrow morning is a post about – why anybody – a company or an individual – should use social media.
For those people that are interested in what i am talking about, here are some older posts on social media and “new era” advertising : )
Shustir.com – the big revolution of small businesses
Mission Statement or something like that
Why was Susan Boyle such a viral success
Sony launches Resistance 2018 – play on Twitter
Tvnima – the 3D future of presentations
Will 2009 the ultimate social year
How has the Internet influenced us to become influencers
Social Media and success online
EXPOSED: Mass Article Control
Jul 22nd
03. August 09 UPDATE: Download links have been updated, guys, enjoy 
UPDATE: Download page has been moved. People who are still interested in the software, can drop me a line.
Back on the “exposed” topic 
Here is a very promising, at least from the sales text, and potentially very useful tool – Mass Article Control.
Mass Article Control basicly consists of two software tools – Mass Article Creator and Mass Article Submitter. These names pretty much explain what the product is about.
“Mass produce thousands of high quality articles from just 1 main seed article – within 30 seconds – at a push of a button… AND THEN.. submit them to the top major article directories automatically!”
Is not this a dream?
I have not had the time yet to personally test it, but here is the feedback from people who already used it:
John Chow reveals his blog business model
Jul 14th
Today i stumbled upon a video recording of John Chow speaking at the Vancouver Business, Marketing and Entrepreneur meetup. It is almost a month old, but if you have not seen it – you really need to check it out.
Almost an hour long, the video gives you an insight of best practices on the web now that work. The topic is How John Chow Makes $ 40,000 a Month From His Blog.
People who visit his blog know that he offers a free ebook on how to make money blogging, which is pretty thorough and extensive, but here in this video he reveals even more about his practices and business.
I have said it before, and will say it again – if you are looking for a quick and easy to understand make money formula – just go to John Chow’s blog and opt in for his ebook. I should now add to this – …and watch the video
My Blog Business Model from John Chow on Vimeo.
And HERE is his original post
EXPOSED: Clickbank Affiliate Blueprints
Jun 14th
13.07.09:UPDATE: Members page has been updated and now it can only be accessed by username and password.
This product launched on June 6. Its price is 67$ per month and you can find its homepage HERE.
The selling idea is that you get a product giving you the basic guidelines to make money as a clickbank affiliate. There is a lot of information loaded to this product, but it is really very basic.
There are money-making blueprints in both PDF and video, and there also are links to a lot of other resources that can be handy for the affiliate marketer.
This information product will be updated every month, so that pretty much explains the monthly subscription fee. I think that this product is suitable for any newbie or advanced affiliate marketer to check out and refresh their knowledge, but yet again do not get the impression that this or any other similar product alone can help you to get any, let alone a steady income online.
Apart from leaving the members page insecure and indexed, there is something really funny, which again proves the fact that people selling such products are really lazy and even ignorant. As i said this product launched on June 6, but here is what can be read in the Official Blueprint:
“38 million people have put up their very first websites online this year 2005 alone. It is estimated that by 2008, the Internet sales industry will top the dollar bank. And to think, majority of those websites will be offering different affiliate programs for people to choose and participate into.”
Members page can be found HERE
EXPOSED: Instant Affiliate Generator
Jun 4th
Today i happened to stumble upon a very interesting product - Instant Affiliate Generator.
This is a 37$ software product offering you the opportunity to turn your website visitors into your affiliates. I guess that all of you are familiar with the method of building email lists by turning your visitors into subscribers – write a free report, get it up to your site and ask visitors to leave their name and email so that they can get your report – classic.
Well, Instant Affiliate Generator offers you a similar approach, but here it gets viral with the tell-a-friend model. For example, you write your report, upload it to your site, and in order for visitors to get it, they need to send your link to 5/7/10 friends. : ) Nice and simple.
You can use that tool with as many scenarios as you can think of, the important thing is that it can really be very powerful.
Here is a more detailed description of this product’s advantages:
Increase Your Traffic – Using this system will multiply your traffic exponentially! The more people visit your site, the more get sent to your site by others. The technique is so viral I was shocked to find how underutilized it actually is.
Boost Link Popularity – With more and more people linking to your site almost everyday from all over the internet, your link popularity will explode helping you to effortlessly achieve great search engine rankings!
Get More Subscribers – Simply add a subscribe form to the same page as your Instant Affiliate Generator code and watch as your opt in list grows more and more by the day, virtually hands free!
Increase Your Sales – If theres one thing that is guaranteed to increase your sales, its more traffic right? Well with ‘Instant Affiliate Generator’ you’ll get planty of it!
Add Visitor Interaction – With all the hype around ‘web 2.0′ more and more people are expecting to be able to get involved in your websites in some way. This allows them to do just that and get great rewards for their efforts!
Gain Repeat Visitors – It’s well known that it can take 7 or more visits to your site before someone decides to buy. ‘Instant Affiliate Generator’ brings people back to check their referral stats giving you another chance to offer them your products.
Unlimited Domains – The simple code can be added to as many domains as you want or as many pages on the same domain as you want. You can instantly increase the profits of literally every page on every domain you own!
Collect Affiliates Details – When someone sends enough traffic to get their reward, simply send them to a subscribe form to collect their gift. Now you’ll build a list of partners who can send traffic to any of your other products or future product launches.
If you want to check the tool, directly on its download page – CLICK HERE
And in case you wonder how you can use this tool successfully, drop me a line, and i will reply to you with a scenario example.
Enjoy
Mission Statement or something like that :)
May 30th
Few days back i added a new section to this blog – Mission Statement. Today i decided to actually add the content as a post, but will still leave the section active, since time will pass (posts, too; ) and this statement won’t be visible on first page while it really should be.
I am aware of the fact that the nature of what i wrote is not really as of a Mission statement’s, but if somebody can name it better – let me know and will change the title : ) So here it is…
It would not be surprising if i say that in today’s world everything is about (getting) MONEY and getting laid. I am sorry if this sounds rude to you, but it is true; even getting laid is sometimes just a matter of money.
In this mission statement, however, i am going to talk only about the ubiquitous need of people to get money from you and relate it to the deranged world of Internet Marketing.
1. The Internet Embraces Scammers!
People who’ve visited this blog more than once know that mostly i expose affiliate products. The idea behind is that people who sell them (a.k.a. Gurus of IM) can rarely provide a 1:1 value as to Money:Product and this pisses people off. Mark Levinson is a Marketing Guru, for example, but not M=== F======= and the like.
There is another side of the problem, though – Internet Marketing Agencies, especially local ones, and ones operating in undeveloped countries or areas. It is so easy to speculate with IM. And this is not because IM can not be measured, it can be of course, but because the Internet is still foreign to most of the people, they do not perceive it as medium, but rather as an artificial, chaotic, digital world. For example people will get furious much more if their billboard has not hit the streets on time, than if their banners have not yet been published. The worst is that agencies take advantage of this! Mediocrity and highly overpriced solutions is what one can really get offered with from such agencies.
2. Be professional – do not buy a product, buy a service!
If you think that you can start your own business online, do not pay for info products to teach you marketing, because there always is a chance that the product is a scam, or is hard to understand or implement, or does not teach anything new to you.
However when you buy a service, your situation and goals are handled individually and results are guaranteed! Further – results are 100% measurable.
3. The best Internet Marketers are not the agencies!
When you work at a 9/17 job and handle several projects simultaneously, there rarely is time left to focus and stay informed for the latest trends in IM. IM is changing in a matter of hours. The best marketers today are either small companies, handling fewer projects, or freelance contractors. Why? Because they have the time to keep an eye on what’s going on online and most importantly – because they are still with low levels of stress.
4. Experience in Internet Marketing does not count! Attitude does!
Today i may be paid to do a campaign for Coca Cola and get world-wide famous, but if i stop doing it for an year – i wont be worth it after that. As i already said it – Internet Marketing changes swiftly. An year from now channels will be different, online service will be different, technology (thus access) will be different, people will be different. When you look for people to get your job done, do not rely on their mind-blowing client list.
5. If you do not have the budget – do it yourself and learn from the best!
This is the backup plan. If you can not afford the budget, do reseach, learn from the best, look for patterns in famous brands’ campaigns, develop a creative idea and do it by yourself. This is 100% possible, the only thing it takes is time.
Why has not anybody told you these facts, yet? Because it would have been against “the Code”, because this information would rather make you spend less money.
Remember – nowadays, expensive does not always mean better.