Upcoming Work-At-Home Seminars

I’ll be conducting a series of in-person seminars at Piedmont Virginia Community College this fall.

Create or Find a Work at Home Job Saturday, September 25   9:00am-noon

Companies are hiring virtual workers to keep productivity up while saving on costs. Learn which companies use telecommuters, what jobs are available now, how to identify your skills and how to protect yourself from scams. Includes worksheets, handouts and free access to an online directory of resources. Go to www.pvcc.edu/wfs or call 434.961.5354  to reserve your seat in these workshops which will be held in the Stultz Center at PVCC.

Earning Income Online Saturday, October 2    9:00am-noon     $49

Discover how to find work or launch a business online using your existing skills and interests. Identify the assets that are potential money-makers, determine the best way to make money from your ideas, use free and inexpensive online tools to generate income and develop a plan of action. Includes worksheets and handouts. Go to www.pvcc.edu/wfs or call 434.961.5354 to reserve your seat in these workshops which will be held in the Stultz Center at PVCC.

Become a Virtual Assistant Saturday, October 16   9:00am-noon    $49

Do you have the skills to provide office and administrative support? If so, then a virtual assistant (VA) career may be right for you. Learn what a VA does and how to get started. Identify the skills you have and the services you can offer, who needs your services and how to get them to hire you. Gain business start-up basics and learn how to set your fees and get paid. Includes worksheets and handouts. Go to www.pvcc.edu/wfs or call 434.961.5354 to reserve your seat in these workshops which will be held in the Stultz Center at PVCC.

WAHS Podcast #96 Affiliate Programs

This week I talk about affiliate programs.

If you’d like to download any episode you’ll notice a new “Download MP3″ below the player. You can get the podcasts through iTunes as well.
Listen here:

You can also subscribe through iTunes.

Resources Mentioned On the Show

Commission Junction
Clickbank

Looking for a product to promote? How about the Jobs Online Toolkit? You’ll help others find a way to work at home, and get paid doing it!

* Affiliate marketing is a real and viable way to make money at home; however, its not fast or automatic. Like any other legitimate work-at-home option, it requires learning the process, making a plan, and doing the work. Some great resources on how to make money with affiliate marketing include:

• Affiliatenaire
• SuperAffiliate Handbook
• The Niche Blogger

Effective Email Marketing Doesn’t Have To Be Complicated

There are very real concerns about list building and promoting to the people on your mailing list. And all the conflicting information out there doesn’t help matters when you’re trying to do the right thing.

Whether you’re new to list building or have been at it for awhile, it’s completely normal to hesitate about sending offers and even feel a little guilty about doing it.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1) If you have not yet made the attempt to promote your business to your subscribers, don’t act hastily by inundating them with an onslaught of email promotions. Start out slow and test the waters first. An initial email letting them know you will be sending them valuable offers will open the lines of communication and lessen the shock value of promotions appearing in their inboxes.

2) A subscriber who is not interested in receiving your offers will have the opportunity to let you know, and most will not hesitate to be very forth coming. Just as they had the chance to “opt-in” to your mailings, they will now have the chance to “opt-out” of your promotions.

This will help you weed out subscribers who aren’t customer material. The good news is that most people will appreciate and be receptive to your offers given.

3) Once your list knows what to expect, you can begin the actual task of promoting. That doesn’t mean you can send them multiple offers on a daily basis until they exile your address to the world of SPAM. However, it does mean that you will have to stay on top of contacting your list and make a point of doing so frequently enough to stay current and fresh in their minds without filling their inboxes with clutter.

4) It’s important to maintain a balance between content-driven emails and those containing promotions. Selling to your list requires a delicate balance. Mix it up without mixing messages. In other words, alternate between information and promotions but don’t blend the two.

You do not want to take the risk of your message getting lost. You want to remain to be a voice your subscribers can trust without becoming too sales-driven and you also want to make sure your offers are clear without getting lost in your content.

I know that selling to your list can be intimidating because I used to feel that way too, but you have to remember that you’re running a business and emailing your list is not charity work.

If you have not yet made the attempt to promote your business to your subscribers, or you feel in the wrong when you do, it’s time to overcome your fear of selling to your list so you can make more money. Head over to Email Marketing Sweetie and learn how to grow your list, reduce your workload, and boost your income.

About Melissa Ingold : Melissa Ingold is the CEO of Internet Marketing Sweetie, and she is a full-time entrepreneur with over 8 years of experience working online. She has built a successful online business through information product marketing, affiliate marketing & management, membership sites, and content marketing. Read More About Melissa

The Secret to Making Money with Affiliate Programs

Work-at-home statistics in general tend to be dismal. Success in affiliate and related type marketing isn’t much different. Most people make very little money if anything at all. But what the stats fail to mention is how often failure isn’t in the method, but in the execution. Many people get roped into the idea that once they set up a website or blog, and submit it to a search engine, the money should be coming in. It doesn’t work like that. Launching the site and submitting to search engines is just the first few steps. The “work” in affiliate marketing isn’t building the site, its marketing it. You can have the best monetization resources, but if no one is visiting the site, you won’t make money.  So here are some quick tips and resources to make sure you have the traffic needed to earn income from a monetized site.

1. Provide unique quality content that fits the mission or topic of the site.
2. Optimize the site for search engines (SEO). Even just basic SEO techniques will improve your ranking in the search engines and therefore increase traffic.
3. Create a marketing plan. You can’t rely on search engines to drive traffic to your site. Getting yourself known around the Internet increases your website exposure and well as your search engine ranking.
4. Build a list. To increase the chance of making a sale, provide a list or newsletter. This will give you the chance to make offers to a visitor in the future. Be sure your emails aren’t only offers or readers will unsubscribe. Instead focus on informative articles or tips with an ad or two. To encourage visitors to subscribe, offer them a free report or other incentive.
5. Monitor your results. Study your traffic using Google Analytics, the web stats tools that come with your hosting service, or a statistic plug-in for WordPress (if that’s what you’re using). Use the information to determine what sites are sending people to yours. What keywords are being used to search and find your site in the search engines? What pages are the most popular? You also want to track affiliate results. Which programs are getting the most clicks? Why is that? Is it placement? Program? Type of ad (text vs. banner)?  Many of the programs will allow to create a special tracking code so can know which ads are working where.

Read a full version of this report for free here: Monetize Your Website or Blog

Simple Steps to Monetize Your Website or Blog – Free Teleseminar

No product? No service? No problem! There are thousands of resources online willing to pay you to help them promote their products and services. Join Leslie Truex as she shares simple steps to add great affiliate products and services to your blog or website.

You’ll learn:
- How to choose the best programs for your site.
- How to maximize the income potential of your affiliate links.
- How to avoid bad affiliate partners.
- And more

This free teleseminar will be held May 11, 2010 at 9 pm. All you need is a phone line to access the call.

To learn more and register, visit Simple Steps to Monetize Your Website at Global Teleclass.

Get Paid to Help Others Work At Home!

Did you know that Work-At-Home Success has two affiliate products that you can use to make money while helping others find their own work-at-home path?

Affiliate programs are an easy low-cost way to make money online. In just three steps you can start earning money*:

1. Sign up for one or both of the programs.

2. Get your affiliate links.

3. Let others know about the great products you’ve found to help them work at home.

Jobs Online Toolkit

The Jobs Online Toolkit provides a complete step-by-step resource to not only teach people how to find legitimate jobs, but how to get hired as well. It includes tons of places to search for jobs worldwide plus a list of over 300 companies that are frequently hiring. The Jobs Online Toolkit pays 65% for every person referred who buys and comes with a host of marketing tools to help you promote it. The program is run through Clickbank, which is free. Visit the Jobs Online Toolkit Affiliate program to learn more and sign up.

The Work-At-Home Success Bible

Sign up for Amazon.com’s Associate’s program to help spread the word about The Work-At-Home Success Bible. Joining is free and easy.

1. Sign up for Amazon.com’s Associate’s program.
2. Log into your associate’s account.
3. Click on the “Links and Banners” tab at the top of the page.
4. Click on “Add Product Links now” from the first option.
5. Enter “Work-At-Home Success Bible” or ISBN “978-1-598969-916-6″
6. Click on “Get Link” next to the Work-At-Home Success Bible option.
7. Select your link type in box 1.  (Text/Graphic/Text&Graphic)
8. Customize the link if you want (optional) in box 2.
9. View the preview provided to see how your link will look.
10. Copy the code in box 3 and paste it on your web page or blog.

* Affiliate marketing is a real and viable way to make money at home; however, its not fast or automatic. Like any other legitimate work-at-home option, it requires learning the process, making a plan, and doing the work. Some great resources on how to make money with affiliate marketing include:

• Affiliatenaire
• SuperAffiliate Handbook
• The Niche Blogger

How to Make a Fortune Promoting Other People’s Products

By Jimmy D. Brown of “Affiliatenaire”

There must be a reason why some affiliates succeed and some fail, a reason why some affiliates profit moderately and some affiliates profit substantially.

There must be a reason.

There is.

And that reason is this: “super” affiliates start, sustain and strengthen relationships with subscribers.

It begins and ends with a list. Even a small one can be a powerful, profitable mechanism if you follow these 7 guidelines…

1. CAPTURE THE OPTIN FIRST.

Instead of sending traffic directly to your affiliate link, send them to YOUR site where you offer some kind of list for them to join. (Hint: Mini-course works best) Once you have them on a list, they become an asset. If you send them directly to an affiliate page and they don’t buy, they’re gone forever. On your list, you can follow-up with them indefinitely.

Note: You can even redirect them to your affiliate link AFTER they join your list, effectively getting them where you wanted them to go in the first place.

2. DIFFERENTIATE THE OFFER.

Instead of sending out the same, tired, lame advertisement that every other affiliate in the world sends out, write your own. Trust me when I say that many people find it OFFENSIVE when they receive two dozens duplicate emails from two dozen list owners all promoting the exact same thing in the exact same way. And even if they don’t find it offensive, it’s not as effective if you simply rinse and repeat what everyone else is doing.

Hint: Here’s how you differentiate…

3. SPEAK FROM EXPERIENCE.

Nothing – nothing – nothing speaks louder than RESULTS. If you want to lose a few pounds, who do you turn to? Someone who is still struggling with their own weight or someone you’ve seen drop 35 pounds? Exactly.

The way you make your mailings / ads different is you speak from your own personal experience. This product or service that you are promoting as an affiliate, how has it been useful to you personally? What results have you personally achieved? When you used it, what happened?

Note: If you haven’t personally used the product, then shame on you for trying to make a quick buck from it hocking it to others!

4. OFFER A COMPELLING INCENTIVE.

Another way to be different – and to dramatically increase your chances of getting a sale as an affiliate – is to offer some kind of compelling incentive if someone buys the offer through YOUR referral link. Whether it’s a special report or access to an audio recording, personalized consultation or advertising, a private training call or existing products and services, this can be a highly effective method of converting fence-setters into paying customers.

In order for it to work well, it must be UNIQUE (I.E. You’re the only one making the offer) and USEFUL (I.E. Something of great perceived value to the reader).

Note: Don’t have anything to offer? Don’t worry! There are many ways to easily obtain extra incentives: conduct an interview, hire a ghostwriter to create articles / reports for you, buy reprint rights to other products, assemble a bunch of free articles and other resources into a private access site, etc.

5. LOOK FOR RESIDUAL OPPORTUNITIES.

Rather than exhaust your efforts on purchases that give you a one-time commission, why not make the most of your marketing by looking firstly for offers that pay out ONGOING monthly commissions for your referred sales?

There are many different residual income generating services such as membership sites (ranging from PT Cruisers to weight loss), stock photos and clipart, hosting, autoresponders, databases (from hiking trails to sermon outlines) online magazines and a variety of other subscription based opportunities that reward you with monthly recurring commissions.

While you definitely want a mix of types of affiliate programs to promote, your priority should be in identifying and promoting those services and programs that will pay you month after month, instead of only one time.

6. BUILD A SALES ARMY.

One of the biggest untapped sources of income in any list is that of “turning subscribers into partners”. In other words, find those on your list who are interested in making money and provide them with training and materials to promote affiliate programs as well.

This has a two-fold advantage for YOU:

* First, if you find 2-tier affiliate programs, you can get your subscribers to join the program through your referral. Anytime they get a sale, you’ll earn a commission as well. You effectively get free commissions from their effort.

* Secondly, you can use their efforts to build your own assets. For example: If you provide them with a 10-page report to give away to promote their affiliate link, you can include a page in the report promoting YOUR list! You effectively get free subscribers from their effort.

7. MONETIZE FOR MULTIPLE STREAMS.

As your own list continues to grow, you certainly want to diversify in your offerings. (Not to the point of bombarding your list with offers every day of course!)

* Promote other affiliate programs.

* Create your own products. (Even short $10 reports will earn profit!)

* Establish joint ventures.

* Co-author products.

* Cross promote.

* Conduct surveys.

There are MANY ways to make money from you list and keep your list growing, growing, growing!

Remember, it all comes down to: starting, sustaining and strengthening relationships with subscribers.

And that’s how you make a fortune as an affiliate promoting other people’s products.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Jimmy D. Brown is the author of “Affiliatenaire”, teaching you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in only 1-3 hours each week. Discover how you can get cash in the bank without a website, experience or even an idea! Visit “Affiliatenaire” to learn more.

How to Promote Any Affiliate Program In 5 Easy Steps

By Jimmy D. Brown of “Affiliatenaire”

…………………….

Using ezine articles is a great way to promote your favor affiliate program.  What I’d like to do in this article is provide you with a simple system for effectively writing
an ezine article that strategically promotes your offer.

There are five steps…

1. CHOOSE THE OFFER YOU WISH TO PROMOTE

This one is kind of a no-brainer. It all begins with deciding what you want to promote. What offer would you like to send traffic to.

HINT:  You can promote your affiliate link directly, but what works better is to promote a list at YOUR site which you then use to promote your affiliate link over and over
again after the visitor becomes a subscribers.

2. DETERMINE YOUR “USEFUL, BUT INCOMPLETE” APPROACH.

I love to use what I have coined as the “useful, but incomplete” approach when using freebies of any kind. (Ezine articles, free eBooks, reports, eCourses, etc.)

What I mean by that is simply this: You provide your reader with “useful” information (something they find of value and are able to actually apply) but make certain that it is “incomplete” in that they can better use the information by making a purchase.

That’s “useful, but incomplete.” And it works like a charm.

The idea is to use your content to build up to your desired response. You provide the reader with content, and then you make an offer that allows them to fully utilize the
content, gain extra insight from the content or maximize the content in some additional way.

Let me give you an example -

If I wanted to promote an autoresponder service in an ezine article, how could I do it?  I’d write an article that explains how to benefit from using autoresponders. My article would exlain different uses of autoresponders and how the reader could profit from implementing the ideas.

** I.E.  7 Ways To Create Revenue Streams With Autoresponders

Naturally, they will need an autoresponder service in order to use the information, right?  And I just happen to know of a great service they can use.  More on that later.

OK, so that’s an example of how to promote a SERVICE offer with your ezine article. What about a software product or an eBook?

Want some examples?

Good, because I’ve got two…

TO PROMOTE A SOFTWARE PRODUCT.  Let’s suppose you want to promote a software program that creates “ecovers”.  How can you do it?

– Write an article outlining how important presentation of your offer is, and how creating a cover graphic can increase response rates by up to 1300%

– Write a step-by-step tutorial article for “do-it-yourselfers”, explaining how to design your own graphics from scratch.  Then promote the software as a super-simplified way of doing it.

TO PROMOTE AN EBOOK.  Let’s suppose you want to promote an ebook that teaches advanced list-building strategies.   How can you do it?

– Write an article that covers the “basics” of building lists, and then promote the eBook as the “advanced” tactics.

– Write an article on how to profit from a list, and then promote the eBook as the “how to build the list.”

See how easy this is?

That’s how it works. Determine what your “useful, but incomplete” approach will be, and then…

3. TURN YOUR APPROACH INTO A TIPS OR TUTORIAL ARTICLE.

Let’s use my example again. I decided that I would describe various uses of autoresponders and how the reader can actually profit from them. What kind of tips list or tutorial could I create?

* How to Generate More Subscribers, Sales and Profits With Automated Follow-Up Messages”

* 7 Powerful And Profitable Ways To Use Autoresponders To Skyrocket Your Sales and Subscribers!

* Want to Increase Your Online Profits And Leads? Here are 7 Ways to Do It…

I actually went with the middle title. I wrote my list of the 7 ideas that I wanted to share. And I had the makings of a perfect article to promote an offer.

That’s all you need to do. Determine your end result. Decide how to get there with your “useful, but incomplete” approach. And then develop a list, or even a step-by-step tutorial for your article that leads the reader along.

With each new “idea” or “way” or “tip” or “step” or “strategy” that you share, you can further direct the reader towards realizing their need of your upcoming offer, and lay the foundation for them to accept the offer.

4. EXPAND ON EACH POINT TO BUILD YOUR CONTENT.

Here’s more of the easy part. Just “fill-in-the-blanks” to complete your article. Write 1-2 short paragraphs for each of your points. Make them good. Provide quality content. The offer you will soon make will see poor results if your information isn’t useful.

Remember, you are trying to presell the reader on the idea that they are going to need your offer. If you don’t provide them with quality information that they WANT to begin using immediately, then why will they want to buy what you are promoting?

Light a fire in them. Motivate them. Challenge them. Give them such nuggets of gold that they want to keep mining until they hit the mother lode!

5. PUT ON THE FINISHING TOUCHES WITH THE “FIVE PILLARS”

There are five things that you should always do to finish up your ezine article. Don’t skip any of them. They are all critical…

* POLISH. Re-read your article. Does it provide information that really is “useful” to the reader? And yet leaves them wanting even more? That’s what you want. Polish it. Put on the wax and make it shine. It has a very specific purpose — make certain it has the means to achieve it.

* PROMOTE. Use your resource box to promote your offer. This is why we’ve written the article, right? Remember step one? It’s time to put it into play. Give the reader what they (hopefully) are wanting…a way to maximize the information you gave them.

* PROOF. Don’t do this yourself. Have a trusted friend, relative or co-worker check your article for grammatical and typographical errors. The last thing you want to do is present a poor image after sharing some high quality information.

* PUBLISH. Zip your new article out to your favorite list of publishers. Submit it to the announcement lists and the ezine directories. Don’t forget to publish it yourself in your own newsletter!

* PROFIT. If you’ve covered all the bases that I’ve mentioned, then profits are almost certain to start coming in when your ezine article is published. You deserve it. Be proud of your accomplishments.

And then start it all over again!

That’s how you promote your favorite affiliate program in 5 easy steps using ezine articles.

Obviously, there are many  other ways to promote your affiliate program, as well as a considerable more “details” in the strategy we’ve looked at today.  If you’d like 52 great ways to promote your affiliate link AND complete step-by-step details for each of them, be sure to read the important details below…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of “Affiliatenaire”, teaching you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in only 1-3 hours each week.  Discover how you can get cash in the bank without a website, experience or even an idea! Visit Affiliatenaire for more information

Turn Interests Into Income on the Internet

The number of people earning a living online is exploding. Every day people are turning their skills, interests, passions, and even rants into an income. You can too, even if you’re not tech savvy or don’t have a lot of money.

I’m doing a live 3-hour seminar on “Turn Interests Into Income on the Internet” March 6, 2010, 9 am to Noon at Piedmont Virginia Community College. In the course you’ll learn how to:

• Identify the assets you have that are potential money-makers
• Determine the best way to make money from your idea
• Use free and low cost online tools to turn your idea into income
• Develop a plan of action to turn the dream into a reality.
• And more!

To learn more or to register, visit Piedmont Virginia Community College online or call 434-961-5354.

WAHS Podcast #79 Ask the Pajama Mama

This week is Ask the Pajama Mama where I answer your work-at-home questions.

If you’d like to download any episode you’ll notice a new “Download MP3″ below the player. You can get the podcasts through iTunes as well.
Listen here:

You can also subscribe through iTunes.

Resources Mentioned On the Show

Creative Hot List
Media Bistro
Canadian Telework Association

Next Page »