Wealthy Affiliate: The Good, The Bad, and The Unfair

First, an update: looks like blogging take #3 isn't going to happen. Ugh. Maybe I should try PPC ads again?

I was messing around the other day and came across a program called "Wealthy Affiliate." It wasn't like other affiliate programs--instead of just trying to sell the same site you just joined, WA equips people to start their own home business based on anything they like. And a starter account is free.

How could I resist? I looked around the site and joined up, and in the next couple days had watched all ten of the starter videos. They were very well done. WA is built around a strong community atmosphere, and you can work alongside other people in your same position as you get step-by-step help setting up your own Wordpress website. I was loving it... and then the free lessons ended. They had covered basic setup of the website and everything was all set to happen, but then what? There were no instructions on where to go from there, other than to sign up for a premium account to learn just how to publicize your site and how to profit from it. Basically, you're just left with an empty shell of a website with an "about me" and a "privacy policy" page, with no traffic, no domain, and no profits. Ugh... foiled again.

I'm trying to patch it up and get it set up to actually make a profit, but it's hard without everything they had implied they would provide as needed. I can scope out the WA site to find conversations, but I can't ask questions without a premium account and I can't access any new "classrooms" to learn about a topic.

Yep, I feel pretty cheated. Google Adwords won't even accept the new site because it's using a subdomain, and I'm really reluctant to go back to Bidvertiser after what happened last time.

So for now I'm going to skulk back to paid surveys and article writing and keep my eyes peeled for something that could actually help. I'll keep you posted as to my results!

Day 24: Risk Taking

I took a risk today. I bought something that was six dollars on the pretense that it would pay itself off.

Well, I couldn't resist. I was very curious about the whole e-mail processing thing, and even though I can see right through the scams (most of them, at least) there were a couple opportunities that seemed like they might be legitimate, so I figured, why not? The condition that I set for myself was that I would spend no more than $10 for it--almost everything out there costs at least $15 to get started, suspiciously identical to the cost you get per e-mail. The site that I decided to try out was only $6 and appeared to be different--not an MLM scheme or a pyramid format at all. I bought the system and then downloaded and read through the manual, hoping the money would be rolling in by the end of the day.

I can safely say that what I bought was not what I was expecting. It was well worth the $6 I spent on it, I think, but it's not the guaranteed moneymaker it claimed to be. It provided some fabulous e-mail marketing ideas and a long list of ad sites to explore, along with pre-written messages. The catch? You have to sell something... and it's up to you to figure out what. While at first it sounds great--"you can choose which companies to write for and then it's easy!"--the only options they list are for online affiliate programs. There's no product, no guaranteed business at all, no assignments... just a nice marketing scheme.

So now what? I'm obviously frustrated at how incomplete the system is, but at least it isn't a pyramid scheme where I just get people to "purchase" info on how to do exactly what I'm doing. I'm trying to decide what to sell. Affiliate links are the best I can find. I have several PTCs to promote, and I joined one of the recommended sites. I'm trying it out, and we'll see if it works.

More positive news today is about one of the huge PTCs that pays a hundred dollars or so a click, Richgo PTR. Minimum payout for basic members is $10,000, and I'm already past $6,000! This is for sure one of the fastest moving PTCs I've found. If the payout is fast as well, then I'll have it made!

It really is amazing to see things picking up speed now, and I can't wait to see how it all goes over! Please follow me on Twitter for more tips and updates, and check out Clixsense--and Richgo!--to start making money on your own!

Day 18.1: Marketing 101

I'm afraid I've been out with my family for most of today, so I have very little new to write. However, I've recently been talking with some pros at marketing about how they do it. As I've said before, I'm not a salesman. As a matter of fact, I'm very shy and socially awkward by nature. I need pointers on how to get others excited about things and motivated, even for times when I'm not trying to sell anything at all. So what did the experts have to say?

• Downplay the actual selling. I've made huge mistakes in this asking people to please join this or subscribe to that. However, there are tools designed that do a much better job at selling than I ever could. All I need to do is get them in contact with that tool, and I'm all set. Leave buying and selling out of it, and you'll be much ore successful.
• Be enthusiastic. Duh! Obviously you need to be enthusiastic! But you also need to be genuine in your enthusiasm. Why do you use a product yourself? Play out how well it's worked for you and how much you're loving it, and others will become curious.
• Be yourself. Your friends and family will know if you're copying and pasting from a pre-made script of any sort, and they're much more likely to take an interest in something if they know you're genuine.
• Sell to potential buyers. Don't waste your time selling something digital to your aunt who doesn't even have Facebook. Look for people who already have a history for that kind of thing and who would likely be interested.

Well, those are my starter points. In upcoming days I'll try to put those words into action myself, and then I'll give a report on how well those tips work. But they're words from the experts, and they make a lot of sense.

To get more tips and updates, please follow my Twitter feed. To make your own online income, check out Clixsense, and to join me on the best new up-and-coming social network, please e-mail me about Rippln and I'll send you an invite! Watch the video below for details.

Day 11.3: Social Media: Acceptable for Business?

My most recent entrepreneurial endeavor was joining an interesting service I just learned about that uses Facebook and Twitter to advertise. You don't advertise your own link--you go with someone else's instead, and then someone else will advertise yours. I'm curious to see how it works out in a while. I'm using my personal Twitter account, which has a bit over 300 followers, almost all of whom are total strangers. I feel kind of bad about it, though. When I first got Twitter about a year ago, I posted tiny short stories on it or cheerful thoughts. After I joined Comic Booked, I used Twitter almost exclusively to advertise for it, and then now I'm using it to advertise some links. I still post something more personal once in a while, but there's no question that my personal Twitter feed is nothing fun to read. Just a list of ads. Is that ok?

One of my big fears about running an online business is that I'll start abusing social media. I've said before that I hate spam and I don't want any association with it. I've also said that I'm a horrible advertiser, and so anything I post promoting anything winds up just like an annoying ad. How far is too far?

One of the most common advice given to those who want to promote anything, online or offline, is to tell friends and family! Get the word out! Post about it on Facebook or Twitter! My big question is... will anyone still want to be friends with me if I do?

I don't know the answer. My current views are that if you're going to use social media for business, then get a separate business account for it, just as I've done with Twitter. But I don't want to have a dozen Twitter accounts and five Facebook accounts just to get my point across to the right audience. I want to advertise, but not spam. How can I do that? How can I get my notices to people who actually want to sign up instead of just shouting out to everyone? I guess I still have a lot to learn.

Day 10.3: Traffic Exchanges: Do They Really Work?

By the end of the day now I have two direct referrals in addition to the two indirect for Clixsense. If any of you were the second, thank you! If not, you should totally join. Anyway, I was looking at where exactly my referrals were coming from. The second one I couldn't trace, but the first referral... wasn't from this blog. It shouldn't have been a surprise. My personal advertising stinks.

My first referral was from a traffic exchange. You might be familiar with them--Traffic G, Easy Hits 4 You, etc. You go from ad to ad, and for every one you look at someone looks at yours. I was a total skeptic at first. Even though I do sometimes click on ads to learn more about whatever program they stand for, I considered myself the exception. Who would really care to look into something that I posted? Seriously? And then decide to join it? But that's what happened.

Don't get me wrong, that was only one person (that I know of) who signed up, and it really was about time. I joined the top seven traffic exchange sites to check out a program called Traffic Exchange Profits. Every day lately, I've been pulling up all seven in different tabs and clicked through them nonstop for a long time. Hundreds of ads a day, and these are the best traffic exchanges out there.

So are they really worth joining in the long run? The answer is, that depends. If you don't have much time and don't want to sign up to more than one or two, I'd have to say no. You'd be better off asking friends and family instead, or posting something on Facebook. If you really want to get something out of traffic exchanges, though, it's possible. I'd recommend joining Traffic Exchange Profits first to get a list of the best ones out there and strategies for how to work them. Be committed to your work and set aside some time every day to do nothing but surf. It's not as boring as it sounds--many of the top sites offer rewards for surfing or allow you to play games or win prizes. And if you join enough, you won't have to worry about idle waiting time.

Traffic exchanges can work, but only with the right strategy, and only if you're very committed to making them work. Otherwise, I'd say not to bother. There are many ways to advertise out there, and there are bound to be some that would work perfectly for whatever you're doing!

To know more about my personal plan for earning money online (and it's working, too!) go to Freeinternetmoney.biz. To join Clixsense and start building your own money-making downline, click here. And for updates and more tips on online entrepreneurship, follow me on Twitter!

Day 9.2: Making Traffic Work for You

When it comes to any kind of business on the Internet, whether blogging, marketing, or even just posting a cute little webcomic for the fun of it, there's one thing we can all agree on: traffic is awesome. Every site need traffic to survive, and when you know you've been getting it, that's a good feeling. Trust me. But for some of us, traffic isn't enough. If your online business is primarily for entertainment and recreation, traffic might be all you need--just the satisfaction of knowing that you've brightened someone else's day or spread awareness of an important issue. But if you're trying to make a living online... you'll need more than just traffic. You'll need active traffic. People who are willing to try out what you've got. People who like what you stand for so much that they decide to stand for it themselves

This blog is now at almost a thousand views. Considering it's only been up for a little over a week and that I'm a total newbie to online marketing, that's substantial. I get a warm fuzzy feeling whenever I think of someone else reading my own words or joining my Twitter feed. It's an author's dream come true! But one of the goals of this blog was to generate cash. Obviously, I knew that no matter how good of products I advertised and how well I advertised them, only a fraction of a percent would click a link, and even fewer people than that would go through with something--even if it was free and easy and awesome, like Clixsense. Almost a thousand views... and not one click. Not even out of curiosity. I'm giving this blog a full thirty days to generate so much as a cent, but my point is this: if I'm getting traffic, if I've got the whole world hanging on my words, but no one clicks, I can't make a cent off of this. Traffic without action is dead. (Well, not entirely, I really do love views and readers!)

So what can be done about it? My problem is simple. I need to find a way to make my traffic work for me. Unfortunately, I lack the tools and the knowledge to do so. As the old adage goes, you can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. This is especially frustrating when I consider my own willingness to be an active member of traffic. I always want to explore and learn, and it's hard for me to understand why not everyone does.

So what's my strategy? I might not know the secret to making my traffic work for me, but there are people out there, masters of the Internet, who do. I have taken it upon myself to figure out what there secrets are and how I can replicate them! I've already got a start. Traffic Exchange Profits (I dare you to click the link!) is a program built around the idea of driving traffic to action. While it hasn't fully answered all my questions, it has a free video series explaining the concepts involved. I highly recommend them.

I don't know how to move my traffic to action, but I'm going to find out! Follow me on Twitter for more updates and tips, and to take a look at my own strategy on making money online, check out Free Internet Money and Turbo Income Charger. Cool stuff's happening!

Day 6.1: Am I a Spammer?

I hate getting spam. I hate the idea of spam. I especially hate the idea of my being associated with spam, with those creeps who sit behind their computers sending out mass emails every day. I prefer to think of myself as a young entrepreneur, trying to see if I can make it big time on the internet--or at least, trying to see if I can make it small time with a decent income. I use methods that I have learned from experience or that have been advised to people in my predicament. I try not to go too overboard with my advertising... but have I already blown it?

Ok, let's see what's happened. Reddit is awesome. I got an account only a few days ago, and it's a fun site to explore and get a good laugh out of the latest meme. Really. It's also a good place to get your voice heard on the internet and to share your views with others... isn't it? I've been told before to take advantage of Reddit. Honestly, I thought half the point of Reddit was to share your thoughts... but I guess I was wrong. I was banned from one of my favorite groups, Writing. No reason was given, but the only one I could think of was "blogspamming." Is that what I was doing? I only submitted each link once, and for the most part, they've been positively reviewed if anything. And only one or two were even addressed to writing. But two have also been voted down, and my views dropped substantially yesterday. I've lost my favorite audience. Why?

What constitutes spam? I usually think of it in terms of junk mail or excess "newsletters" that no one wants to read, or annoying tweets by robots. On the internet, I think of it as posting the same thing over and over again on forums and sites. On Reddit, I would have thought that submitting the same link two or three different times would count as spam. I didn't think there was any problem with "harmlessly" promoting my own work, my own thoughts and ideas. I only wanted to engage a community of interested readers.

I was almost in tears as I went to bed last night, thinking about the ban. Why couldn't it have been just a warning instead? I had no idea I was doing anything at all wrong! But apparently, the misunderstanding was on my part. I have decided that until further notice, I will not post anything I write to Reddit. Of course, I'd be honored if someone else did, but that will be left to the readers. I never intended to bother anyone at all with this blog, and I can take a hint if I'm not wanted.

Will I keep blogging? Of course! Will I keep trying to engage online communities? Yes, if I can. Will it be a success? I'm very doubtful right now. Losing Reddit means losing most of my publicity, and without publicity a blog dies. I don't want it to die. Help me, Internet! Please... just keep reading. And I'd love if you could follow me on Twitter or join me on Clixsense or Swagbucks while you're at it!

Day 4.2: Six Ways to Improve Monetization

First a disclaimer: As I already said in my last post, I am incredibly sorry if you suffered from the horrible ads that I had on this site. I was checking my Reddit account and saw that someone had posted a comment for an earlier post, saying "how ironic." There was a screenshot then of my blog with the ads. Yes, it was ironic, and in the worst of ways. I want to discourage those sites, not help them out. I want people to stay away from them. I did not know that those would be the ads that would show up when I joined BidVertiser, and I myself was offended at the sight of them. I have removed them now. I respect you as readers, and so from now on the only ads I'll show are for sites and products that I myself support and am an active part of. Keep in mind that I'm still fairly new to this and am learning. The intrusive ad problem was a bad mistake and will probably not be my last. I am sorry, and thank-you for staying with me.

Monetization is new to me, if you can't already tell. I'm still working out the best way to do it. As I've been trying to compose a list for my own (and your) reference: How to get good ads on your site:

1. Have a reason to trust the monetization site. Look it up and research it before joining blindly, like I did.
2. Do not assume that all ads are good ads. This was another mistake on my part. The ads I had actually harmed my traffic as well as offending me. Find out what your getting before getting it!
3. Think about your audience. While many monetization sites say that they will match their ads with your content, that is not always true. That was yet another mistake I made. If you can find a way to show ads/banners only from sites that you know and genuinely think people should join, go with that instead.
4. Think about what would attract you. Are the ads you're looking at getting good enough for you to click on? Would you click on them if you saw them on another website? That should be an indicator for whether others will be interested.
5. Make it personal. If there's anything that you yourself actively support, see if there's a way you can advertise that instead of a product you don't have any experience with.
6. Sell your own stuff. If you have something to sell--say, a self-published book--sell that. That's the best way to get a profit from ads.

Basically, my theory is this: if you support it, chances are others will too. Don't walk into something as serious as monetization blindly. It could ruin you in the long run. Hopefully these tips will help you if you're interested in monetizing your own site.