You Will Not Get Rich From This Blog

Today I wanted to show you how to take any program or website your trying to promote or earn hits for and make your own custom splash page using Splash Page Maker. I’ve included five tutorial videos showing how easy it is to create and use splash pages.

At the bottom of this post I’m going to share a few of my favorite Traffic Exchanges for you to use to promote not only the new splash page we are going to make, but also your other affiliate links if you choose.

What is a Splash Page? A Splash Page is a brief to the point web page that fits within the average computer users screen. It usually has a strong statement and a brief description or details that grabs someones attention and encourages them to follow through by clicking the “Call to Action” link on the page.

The examples I’m going to show you are very very basic and of course you can make far better pages. My goal was to show you a few simple steps and get you started. I also want to stress that your NOT locked into using the same old affiliate links that everyone else is using to promote a particular program. Creativity is encouraged and you can even use a personal picture of yourself ( highly encouraged ) to brand yourself to a particular program.

Now, you do not have to use Splash Page Maker to just make Splash Pages. Your more than welcome to create your own sales pages ( capture pages ) or newsletters. Really, whatever you want.

One of the reasons I really enjoy Splash Page Maker is that I can make subtle or dramatic changes to my work and I don’t have to go back and delete my links that I have floating around the internet. The changes are live so correcting mistakes or changing things around is simple and painless.

Enjoy the videos. I really hope you find them useful and informative. I have more tutorials on splash pages in the works so make sure you subscribe to this blog so you don’t miss a post.

Using Traffic Exchanges to promote your Splash Pages ( or Affiliate Links ):

I’ve used Traffic Exchanges for about nine months now. Just long enough to get me completely addicted. I’ve built my subscriber list for this blog mostly through traffic exchanges ( T.E.s ), I’ve promoted them individually and earned affiliate commissions, I’ve won cash prizes while surfing ( see my post “Big Traffic Splash Day….” and “….thanks Paul!!” ), and of course I’ve racked up thousands and thousands of hits for various affiliate programs. Were all ad campaigns successful? Absolutely not. Some did well, some sucked big time, but I’ve learned not to give up and keep trying new techniques, which is what this post is all about.

Just in case you didn’t watch Video 5.

What is a Traffic Exchange? A traffic exchange is simply a program that allows you to share your affiliate links, programs, splash pages, opportunities, websites and such with other traffic exchange users in exchange for viewing theirs. You earn credits to show your pages ( offers ) by viewing other members websites. All T.E.s require you to view another members website for a predetermined amount of time. After viewing a page, you simply verify that you are a real person by selecting a matching image, number or even something that just says “Click Here”.

Do Traffic Exchanges Work? Absolutely!!! They work on so many levels if you give them a chance. I can promise you that surfing a hundred pages and then giving up will probably not produce any results, keeping your pages ( affiliate programs, etc ) in rotation will.

Out of the hundreds of traffic exchanges out now, I use around twenty. Do I surf all twenty every day? No!! I couldn’t possible manage to surf twenty T.E.s a day. Getting a couple hours a day in is all I can handle. So I mainly concentrate on five or six exchanges everyday. The other exchanges I’m a member of get about a half hour of my time each, every month. I’m not saying they are not worthy of more of my time, I’m just being realistic and perhaps a bit biased. You can obviously choose your favorites and surf as much or little as you’d like.

I’ve made it very clear throughout this blog that Traffic Splash is my favorite exchange for many reasons; traffic, affiliate commissions, awesome admin, daily contests and rewards.. etc, etc…

Royal Surf would have to be my second favorite, followed by Blue Surf, Traffic Witch ( read more about The Elite Surf Club )and Start Exchange. All Exchanges are Free to join and upgrade options are available for more benefits.

To wrap up this rather long post, I wish everyone much success with your marketing and money making endeavors. Keep in mind that there are going to be many frustrating days. There will also be many rewarding days where we can do no wrong. We just gotta keep trying and working with the tools and resources that are available to us today. Like Splash Page Maker =P.

Have a Great Day Everyone. Thank you so much for reading what I write and I hope you got some use out of my little tutorial today. Although, I just watched them for the third time and I cringe at all the “Um’s” and “ugh’s”. Too funny.

Phil ( philsfault ) Ames
Subscribe to You Will Not Get Rich From This Blog by Email

Daily Babble, I Advertise, Traffic Exchanges

Ya know, I’ve had various degree’s of success and failure with Affiliate marketing over the years. I’ve learned that there is no magic red button that will generate an instant cash flow. I’ve learned that despite what every other advertisement tells you, you will NOT earn much money by doing nothing. A bit of work and motivation is involved. It’s not difficult work and a lot of you ( ME ) might even enjoy it. Especially when you see those commissions start rolling in and that first check or Paypal payment arrives. It’s exciting! You pull out your note book and frantically write “what if’s” and you see your financial freedom just a couple months away. If only you can kick your advertising into high gear and turn that $20 a month commission check you just received into a $200 a day commission check. Oh wait! You have a credit card. Perfect. You figure you’ll just throw a couple thousand more dollars down on advertising and you’ll make enough money that month to not only pay your credit cards but also keep the money train rolling.

Um, here’s the problem with that. First, it’s never a good idea to spend more money than you can comfortably afford to lose. Regardless of how confident you are or how well you did on the last ad campaign you ran. Second, keep in mind that the majority of the people you introduce into whatever your promoting will simple not do anything, quit, or have very little success ( see my post, “Hey Where’s my $168,840?” ) Meaning that your early success is short lived ( if only everyone shared our enthusiasm ). Most of your referrals will go inactive and your earnings will decrease rapidly and you’ll find that your plan falls apart very quickly. You’ll get frustrated, your ads don’t have the same energy and a lot of you will simply give up. Of course you still have to pay back the credit card.

Please don’t give up. Often all it takes is a bit of focus ( the “F” word ). Actually, it takes a great deal of Focus, which is something I’ve struggled with for years. Changing the way I do things, dropping out of fantastic programs that I wasn’t doing anything with and rediscovering the programs that got me going and earning with affiliate marketing in the first place. Oh and constantly learning and tweaking my current and past promotions.

Here’s a great comment reply from Eddy Salomon at Work at Home no Scams that I just had to steal ( hope you don’t mind Eddy ).

Hi again Amy,

What you experienced is common in any marketing. Sometimes you’ll hit them out the park and other times you’ll strike out. I just went through the same thing this past week with clixsense with some ads and programs I tried. But here’s some advice. Pick offers that you would actually try if the shoe was on the other foot. Look at their page like the user would. Do you see things that would turn you off. If so, then it’s probably going to turn off the people you’re trying to target.

In terms of the ad copy, don’t just use what the company provides you. Use an ad that would appeal to you and reflects what the site is about. So to answer your question, everything is important. Your ad copy, the type of offer and their landing page (website) should all be good. At the very least the landing page should be attractive.

But I’ll say it again some ads and offers will do better than others. That’s part of being a marketer. You just need to keep testing and adjusting until you find the ones that work for you.

One of the ways I’ve learned to improve and grow is by using different tools and programs to enhance my money making efforts. Another is to stop joining every new program I see. I remember listening to a teleconference with Tim Sebert ( GDI fame ), and the one thing I got out of it was “Focus on one business at a time”. Although, many of us including myself, have a hard time focusing on just one business. Especially when there are so many awesome programs today. Multiple Streams of Income is a wonderful thing, but we are basically diluting our efforts and not reaching our full potential in any one particular income opportunity, if we continue to try to market fifty things at once.

So am I saying quit everything and just promote ClixSense? Yes and no. Obviously a lot of us would have a difficult time choosing just one program to promote, but if your paying for a $20 a month subscription for something you absolutely can’t live without and doing nothing with it. Drop it! At least until you can find the time to “focus” on it more. Otherwise your just wasting money and most likely checking your stats way to much to see if any magic commissions have rolled in while you were sleeping.

This month I took a hard look at what I was doing online and made some decisions. As this blog suggests, “I am not rich”, and as the opening paragraph of this posts states, “I’ve had various degree’s of success… with affiliate marketing”. So I made some tough decisions this month which I feel will not only improve the quality of this blog, my personal success, but also the success of those that follow what I do. I honestly want everyone who visits my blog for the first time or who follows me regularly to learn something new and / or leave with new inspiration and motivation. Whether it earns me a commission or not. My commissions will come later, keeping you the reader encouraged and supplied with honest and helpful tools and information is my renewed “FOCUS”!!!

Thanks for reading my little rant today. To kick things off, tomorrow I should have my long anticipated “Splash Page Tutorial” post up. Your not going to want to miss it and I look forward to reading your comments and emails after it’s published.

Have a great day everyone. I hope you enjoyed your weekend. California continues to enjoy summer type weather and we are looking forward to another week of heat ( love it! ).

Phil ( philsfault ) Ames
as always don’t forget to Subscribe to You Will Not Get Rich From This Blog by Email

Daily Babble

Hey Everyone,

This post is actually a modified post I wrote a few weeks ago about “legitimate paid survey opportunities” and what to avoid. Although I’ve added a bit to it, for the most part it carries the same message and I believe it’s better than before. So I just wanted to post the new and improved version. Enjoy.

I was talking to Eddy Salomon from WorkatHomeNoScams.Com this week and we were discussing the fact that a lot of people still don’t understand what a real survey is. So I thought I’d talk a little about legitimate survey opportunities and what to avoid.

First – a legitimate survey does not require you to complete offers. Yeah, you guys have seen those IPOD ads Congrats you’ve just won an iPod, Complete the short survey to claim your Prize. Wait, hold on, where’s the survey? All you see is a ton of stuff to sign up for. NOT A SURVEY!

Second – NEVER PAY A WEBSITE A FEE IN ORDER TO TAKE SURVEYS!! I really don’t think I need to elaborate further. Legit Survey opps are 100% FREE, and so is joining ANY consumer research panel.

Third – Don’t quit your day job. Occasionally you will be invited to take part in higher paying survey opportunities, but don’t get used to this. I can almost guarantee that your not going to wake up at five A.M., complete a 20 minute survey, make $80 and go back to bed. At least not for the average person. Some demographics will qualify you for some higher paying ops, but mostly just get used to and be happy with a few extra dollars here and there. How much you actually earn will depend on how many surveys you qualify for and complete. Most surveys pay between $2 and $10 each. Occasionally you’ll be asked to test a product. The company will then supply you with the product and some basic instructions. These usually pay pretty good and often your allowed to keep whatever gadget they send you.

You probably see ads everyday that say you can make $25 – $200 an hour completing surveys and participating in Focus Groups. Although these opportunities do exist, the higher paying “focus” groups usually require you to drive to a location to participate. Do some research on these companies before you join, and don’t be suckered into paying a fee to take part in consumer research. Those that scream Surveys are SCAMs are most likely the victims of these websites (where’s my iPod Extreme? ).

Consumer Research is a huge industry and a vital part of how products and services are developed and presented to us “the consumer”. Our opinions are important and although we won’t get rich working a few hours a day completing surveys, we can enjoy a nice supplement to our monthly income for our involvement.

Now that we got that out of the way, do realize that there are a ton of Super Fantastic, Legitimate and FREE Research Panels floating around the internet. My Top Four are listed below and are pretty much all I can handle. All four have been around for several years and in my opinion are the best of the best.

American Consumer Opinion Get paid for sharing your opinions and ideas by answering online surveys. Win money in monthly drawings just for being a member. Win money in drawings when you fill out a screener (a short questionnaire). Get paid each time you complete a survey (a longer questionnaire). American Consumer Opinion pays by check per survey completed. You won’t see a ton of surveys, usually one or two a week. My first survey panel. I’ve been a member since 2004.

Survey Savvy Earn Money when you complete a survey. Earn Money when your friends and family you have referred complete surveys. Earn Money when referrals of the friends and family you have referred complete surveys. This is one of my absolute favorite Survey Opps to promote because of the referral program. Plus you can request a check at any time!!

My Survey Earn Points for taking surveys and for referring others. Redeem Points for cash, prizes or charity donations with just a few simple clicks. Many additional opportunities to win cash and Reward Points. Automatic entry into the $10,000 sweepstakes just for being a member and another entry each day you log into My Survey. A chance to win 50,000 Reward Points when you take the First Chance Survey. Earn an entry into the Survey Completion Bonus Sweepstakes for each survey you complete. A couple years ago I completed a beverage survey in an hour and not only earned $8 but qualified to participate in a two week study where they sent me a Palm Pilot. All I had to do was spend a few minutes a day entering what I drank each day and I made an additional $60. I had to send the Palm Pilot back by the way.

Lightspeed When panelists participate in surveys, they will usually earn Lightspeed Points. Once they earn enough Lightspeed Points, they will be able to redeem the points for cash, prizes, and online gift certificates. In addition, they will always earn an entry into the quarterly $5,000 Lightspeed Sweepstakes and an entry in the daily 5,000 Points-A-Day Giveaway, where one panelist earns 5,000 Lightspeed Points each day. Lightspeed is known for sending out tons of surveys a week. Some Weeks are heavier than others and of course your demographics will determine how many survey opps you receive and qualify for. Pays by Paypal at $5 or higher.

For more “LEGITIMATE” survey sites please visit:
Miss Money Hunter
and
Getting Paid Online ( A Lot of Great Australian Survey Ops )

This post is also published on EzineArticles.Com

Phil ( philsfault ) Ames

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Daily Babble, Surveys