Why I Left Internet Marketing from The Top--And What Stayed with Me

It was all paying off at last. I was becoming a success, and all my work and research was finally starting to pay off both in money and with respect in the online marketing community. This blog was running strong, I had a nice buildup of followers that was growing almost daily, and I was getting to network with others in the field. And then one day, it all came to a crashing halt.

It's something that we all know about, something that I especially was susceptible to: stolen credit card identity. Unfortunately, I don't know where it went wrong. I gave out just too much personal information somewhere, possibly in several different places. One day I noticed that one of my credit cards had a series of monthly charges going back to early spring. It was for a site that I mentioned before as a scam, one that I left before even completing an account: the Internet Lifestyle Network. I never agreed to pay for their services and left before I was even done signing up. I deleted my info from their site and cancelled too many subscriptions from them... but I should have suspected something when the emails kept coming anyway. Fortunately, my credit card company sided with me, and I had my missing money refunded within a couple days when it was clear that the charges were no fault of mine.

The Internet is a dangerous place. After discussing it with my husband, I decided to leave Internet marketing and restrict my activities elsewhere until we had time to sort through some favorites (like Clixsense) and verify that they're fine. We haven't gotten around to that yet, unfortunately, though hopefully we will soon. Maybe someday I'll even get to go back to surfing (which I confess I do miss quite a bit). But for now I'm laying low.

There is one thing that I have kept up with during all this. I was skeptical of it when I started and of the program that inspired it. Back in March I wrote my review of Wealthy Affiliate, filled with skepticism and disappointment. No, I'm not paying $50 a month for a full subscription, and in fact haven't even been to the site in a while since it was grouped with all the other potentially suspicious sites. But the project that I started with it, a Wordpress site called "Finish That Novel!" has been growing by leaps and bounds. It has been getting a very positive reception from Facebook and (especially) Twitter, and it is something that I am proud to share with friends and family. I recently saved up enough money from the one survey service I was allowed to keep up with to afford Wordpress hosting, and after some cosmetic changes hope to make that a reality.

In the end: I still think Internet marketing, done well, can be a terrific way to earn money and make friends. Stick with a product that you sincerely believe in, and then add enough of yourself to it to make it unique. Find out what services and wisdom you can offer that would help people, and make for yourself a genuine business that you can be proud of. And remember to keep it fun. If you're not enjoying yourself, then maybe you'd be better off at a traditional 9-5 job.

Cheers!
--Amanda

Professional Social Media Accounts: The Essential Secret

When I started out as a writer/contributor for Comic Booked.com, I was briefed on the importance of social media networks for online businesses. We needed to publicize ourselves, our articles, and the site as a whole--and the more sharing, the better. We had to build our follower bases as much as possible and then tweet/share/+1 everything we wrote on as many platforms as possible. That makes sense, of course... but then people lost interest in everything I had to say. I started losing friends and followers that were people I knew and cared about, because as far as they were concerned I was just spamming them with the latest comic book news. Ouch.

I've mentioned this before on this blog, and I have to say that it's one of the trickier dilemmas I've had to face as an online professional. I found a solution to the social media problem soon after I started writing this blog by opening up a separate Twitter account for E.O.I.P. (@onlineincome19), where I focus exclusively on tips relevant to my business and this blog. My followers here are not my personal friends, and neither are those I follow. Instead, I use this account as a way to connect solely with professionals and information sources who can help me and/or hopefully benefit from what I have to say. I have only experienced growth from this account, and only positive reactions from others who have found it. Why? It's targeted. I'm sharing information with people who actually want to hear it, while at the same time preserving my other social accounts for my personal life.

Three questions that come up regarding professional social media accounts are when, why and how. I've already tackled a lot of the why. The timing depends on your business. You should open new social media accounts as soon as you're ready to start seriously promoting whatever you have to offer. "How" is a bit trickier. I want to stay as far from spamming others as I can, and I also want my updates to be regular and consistent. There's a super easy way to manage a professional Twitter account: find good sources of information and subscribe to them. Every blog has an RSS feed that you can find if you look around a bit, and if you go to your new Twitter account information, you'll find a place where you can input the RSS feed. That way, whenever the blog updates, the new article will show up on your Twitter account without your having to do anything. This has helped build my following and establish my reputation even though it took only a few minutes to set up.

If you run or are heavily involved with an online business, a professional social media account is essential to your success. It's also something that takes only moments to start on and no time at all to monitor, and will bring you traffic and popularity in a way that nothing else can.

MLM: Scam or Opportunity?

When it comes to work at home job opportunities, MLM's are some of the most prominent offers out there. Name a product, any product, and type it into your favorite search engine with the word "affiliate" next to it, and you'll get results. (I tried that exercise myself and was surprised at how many affiliate marketing opportunities there are). While not all of these are multi-level-marketing, many of the more publicized versions are, including Mary Kay, SFI, and others. If you get paid to refer others and then get paid again based on their own earnings, it's MLM. So... is that a bad thing?

There are definitely things to be worried about when dealing with multi-level-marketing schemes. Almost no one who gets involved actually makes money, and in fact many people lose money from buying the very products they need. So there is a big difference between MLM and "easy money." Another thing that marketers need to be aware of before joining is the emphasis of the program itself. Are you joining Avon because you love their products or because you're desperate? If it's the latter, don't bother--you'll only lose money in the long run and there are many other ways to make money online or at home that won't hurt you like that. However, if makeup is your forte and you really love telling your friends about an amazing new product you like, then sure--this is an opportunity just for people like you.

Some MLM's have what I call "squint" products: if you squint hard enough, you can see the product, but it's not really there. One popular such program is the Feeder Matrix, a forced matrix pyramid scheme that technically sells marketing and publicity e-books... but most affiliates probably don't even know about them. The Feeder Matrix is about building down your pyramid as quickly as possible, and I will admit that it does a good job at it.

So all things considered, are MLM's a bad thing? One of my frustrations joining SFI was its dependency on an active downline. While you can earn quite a bit by selling things on TripleClicks, your earnings will never really take off unless you have at least one or two active affiliates in your own downline so that you can earn from them. It's something I really don't like about SFI, but still a lot of people do make money from it and it has a good reputation among Internet marketers. It wasn't until I found some products on TripleClicks that I actually wanted and liked that I decided to work at it--and that's what makes the difference.

Products might not be as big as active downlines in MLM's, but you won't get that downline or the necessary enthusiasm unless you're genuinely excited about what it has to offer. I bought a set of Russian flutes from Triple Clicks last month. I love them. They're beautiful and fun to play, and I have no trouble talking to others about where I ordered them. It just works.

My conclusion about MLM is this: if you like the product, go for it. If not, then don't. It's great to get paid for telling people about stuff you genuinely like and use, but it's a chore to advertise something that you're not even sure about yourself. If you've tried MLM and haven't had any success, you might want to rethink. Find something you're passionate about and go with that instead. You'll love the difference!

Beware The "Prelaunch" Specials: The Newest Scams

I've been reflecting on my online progress over the past few years, and naturally some patterns have stood out. There is one in particular that I fell for twice, and lately I've been seeing ads for several similar types of programs. What eye-catcher is this? The all-new, completely revolutionary earning system... _________ now in prelaunch! Join now and be on top of everyone else when it starts!

Yeah, it's tempting. That's why I fell for it twice. You see a short video or read some info on this brand new program, and it looks remarkable. On top of that, you can have the "privilege" of being one of the original members, practically one of the founders.... It's too good to be true. And yeah, it is.

So what's wrong with joining a pre-launch? Isn't everything brand new at some point or another? Every trend has to start somewhere. Well, yes. But unless you were seriously a founding member of Google or Amazon, you've probably noticed that you've really never been involved with the beginning of a trend. Trends start with a very small group of people, often only one person, who has a great idea and who gets it starting, eventually making it public. There is no in-between. Either it's in development or it's already out, and if it's something you can already join... it's out. You're not one of the first; you're one of the many.

Rippln was my biggest mistake in this area. I joined Rippln just over a year ago and was, as I remember, very excited about this new social network. I sent Facebook messages to people telling them about it (sorry to any of you who are reading this!) and chatted with the other members about how great this was going to be. Apparently, people were signing up on the pre-launch left and right, and it was no wonder: this was going to be a social network that pays you! But, as the days to the official "launch" drew nearer, Rippln started to change. It wasn't a friendly new social networking site... it was an expensive pyramid scheme. They began to email me, asking for hundreds of dollars so that I would attend special "training" webinars, and the fun games that they promised were just gimmicks in the end. There wasn't even a decent product with Rippln, just a promise and a feeling of being a part of the beginning of something big. No one joined under me, but as I saw the true nature of the scam, I was relieved and decided to quit before they took any of my money away. My question was, "Since when have social network media required hundreds of dollars just for basic training?" Yeah, I failed big.

My Perfect Inter.net was another pre-launch that I joined. It was not an all-out scam like Rippln, but the quality fell very far from the ideals that it projected beforehand. It was supposed to be the perfect "Internet," with everything you wanted all on one page--emails, games, sales from your favorite stores, latest messages and updates from friends, and news. Oh, and it also pays you to refer people. I joined and made an account when it was still "WazzUb" and didn't think much about it. After it officially launched I visited my page, looked around and played a game of solitaire, and then left. I've only returned two or three times since then. Yeah, it has what it was promising... but the layout is awful! Brightly flashing colors, more ads than features, and an overall headache of an experience was what I found.

Moral of the story? Don't fall for the pre-launch. It's an illusion, a way for people to profit off of you without having to give you anything at all right away. If you're seeing ads for it, it's too late to be one of the first members anyway. Look for something established and proven, something that has both positive reviews and positive results. Clixsense, Amazon Turk and SFI may not be fast earning opportunities and they may not look exciting compared to others, but they have a track record.

Traffic Exchanges: A Testimony

The traffic exchange is a simple idea. You view my site, I'll view yours. The more sites you view, the more views you get to your own site. It sounds like an amazing way to generate traffic... until you realize the nasty shortcoming of the fact that it's a seller's market. No one who surfs is looking to buy anything or join anything. You'll get a lot of views, but pretty much no attention at all.

I never put much stock in traffic exchanges either, until recently. My first Clixsense referral was from a TE, but otherwise... I had nothing. And then I met Lucie. One day last month I was doing some spare surfing on a few traffic exchanges, and I was on the look for anything that could boost my online income. I signed up for several programs, but this training was different. Lucie was promoting a claim that she could teach me to get a good, steady income from traffic exchanges alone. It was free training, so I signed up, but I wasn't convinced that she was anything more than a desperate affiliate until a few days later. I was continuing to surf, and I recognized her profile picture on an ad for another traffic exchange. Under her picture she was credited with having earned over a thousand dollars on that site alone.

Do TE's even pay that much money? Some of them give out odd pennies for prizes or hold lotteries at regular intervals, but a thousand dollars is a lot. Lucie was not a desperate affiliate. She was doing very well, and she was offering me her system for free.

Did it work for me? Surprisingly, yes! I got my first signup within only a few hours after completing step one of the system. When I started active list building after finishing the training, I got two subscribers within the first couple days. It's slowed down since then. One subscriber was active and signed up under me on a traffic exchange, and since then he has been actively referring people under himself. I have quite a downline on that site now! Unfortunately, it's not a site that pays money for anything. Just credits.

This weekend, my free trial for Traffic Wave came to an end, and I did not renew it. I had set aside some money just for that purpose, but after researching and looking up options, I decided to put that money into SFI instead so that I could become an Executive Affiliate. I moved my list over to MailChimp (not an autoresponder, but when my list is too big to handle on a one-on-one basis I should have no problem signing up for a paid TrafficWave subscription. The good news is that I shouldn't have to wait long. Three paid TW referrals will completely pay for my own account, and so I'm hoping that within the next month I can return to that. In the meantime, I'm continuing to surf. I'm getting new referrals almost every day, with a click-through rate of about 3% (which is decent for a TE).

Do I recommend traffic exchanges to the average marketer? That depends. If you plan on only surfing on one site for only a few minutes here and there, then don't. If you are willing to put the work into it, joining a bunch of programs and surfing for several hours a day after designing your own splash page, then go for it! Because now I know--it works if you know how!

Interested in Lucie's course? I'd love to share it with you and help you out wherever I can! Just give me your contact info on my squeeze page here or my website here, and I'll send you the first step ASAP!

SFI: Affiliate Scam or Genuine Opportunity?

I joined SFI recently. I was hesitant about it at first, knowing that it's proud of its "affiliate opportunities"--which in the language of work-at-home scams means, "I bought into a scam. Please join me so that I don't have to feel so bad about it!" In fact, I probably wouldn't have joined at all if it weren't for my awesome sponsor... but that's for another article. Anyway, I joined SFI a few weeks ago, and here's an inside look at what I found:

First, the good. It's a lot bigger than I thought it was. SFI owns the online TripleClicks store, which I've been hearing about lately. It also boasts 100,000 ways to earn (though I still have to learn what most of those are). If you want, you can focus exclusively on selling things through TripleClicks. Even better, if you can't get anyone to buy except yourself you'll still find yourself earning through it by the end of the month. How does that work?

When you first sign up, you're encouraged to explore and participate in the SFI website. In return for visiting pages and reading popular articles, you can earn VersaPoints, which (among other things) translate as shares of TripleClicks. If you earned at least 1500 VersaPoints in the span of the month, you get paid according to your number of shares. VersaPoints can be earned very easily when you first start out with SFI, and also for every SFI member you refer. However... that also leads me to the bad.

The bad: No matter how much SFI brags about its many ways to earn and the importance of TripleClicks, it all comes back to affiliate marketing. If you can talk people into buying from "your" store as opposed to Amazon or Ebay, good for you, but the rest of us can only hope to earn by sponsoring more affiliates. It gets old fast. Also, the community is not nearly as close and tight-knit as it pretends to be. It's very hard to contact support, and if you just stick to asking fellow affiliates, there's a good chance that they won't be able to help you. Plus, SFI cuts corners. I joined in the end of March, and earned about 1000 VersaPoints in my first few days. I was excited to finally earn my first 1500 and be able to get paid for it... but that never happened. By the time I reached 1500 VP, it was April. It doesn't matter how many points you can earn, so long as you earn it within the same month. That being said, I confess I feel cheated compared to everyone who joined just a few days after I did and will get their money without having to refer anyone or sell anything.

My conclusion? Enter at your own risk. Even though there is decent business being conducted there, it's predominantly an affiliate scheme and it's hard to work around that. Can you earn from it? Yes. Is it a scam? Not really. Is it a good idea? I guess all that depends. I'll try to keep up with it for a while to see if it goes anywhere, but I'm not letting my hopes go up. You can make up your mind for yourself, and I do encourage you to check it out if you're curious here.

What Gurus Don't Tell You: The Importance of Ownership

Internet marketing gurus drive me crazy. They're all the same: they sit there behind their webcam in their luxurious homes telling how they were once so desperate for money and now have a fortune because of their miraculous "system," which they will share with you if you pay them enough money. You know that something's got to be working for them if their finances have improved too much, so you decide to give it a try. You wheedle down the price as much as possible by clicking the red x and then "stay on this page" several times and then make the purchase. The system is yours. You get it set up, plug it in, and... nothing happens. What is it that the gurus don't tell you?

The truth is, if they told you the one thing they all have in common then they would have nothing to sell to begin with. That is because the one thing that they all rely on is their brand--their stamp of ownership on their system. They're the admins. They're the boss, the founder, the guy in charge. And that's where it all comes from.

In most cases, you can't expect to make a cent from paid affiliate programs. People want to buy something new, something that they haven't seen before. You need a site, a system of your own to sell. And don't be cheap about it either. If you really want to keep people coming to you, help them out. Give them something they need, a handbook and step-by-step instructions on how to do something. A further secret: it doesn't even need to be about making money.

When I started out, I thought that the only way I was going to get anywhere in this industry was if I chose a major niche and capitalized on it. Entrepreneurship seemed the most logical because of the many affiliate opportunities available. One thing that Wealthy Affiliate taught me was that you don't need to go crowd chasing--a steady trickle is all you need to be successful in your industry. You could go with birdwatching or knitting or medieval weaponry. Chances are, you might be even more successful simply because you don't have as much competition as you would with a major niche. How do you profit on it? There are two good ways that I've discovered. One is through affiliate systems. You'd be surprised how many affiliate programs there are about anything under the sun--simply google your keyword + affiliate and you'll likely have several good choices to choose from. Depending on where you live, Amazon Associates is also a good option for pretty much any niche. It's easy to sign up and add whatever you want to your site. The other option is to display. I haven't made any money this way, but many people do and it is worth looking into. Every time anyone clicks on an ad they see on your site, you get paid.

Later I plan to report on a few options that can help you get started, but for now hopefully you're a step closer to making it work online.