Friday, August 15, 2008

Updated Site Build It! 5 Pillar Program lens on Squidoo If you don't already know it, I'm a huge fan of Site Build It!, Ken Evoy, and their 5 Pillar Affiliate Program. I've joined and tested hundreds of affiliate programs, and the 5 Pillar Affiliate Program remains at the top of the list. You can earn generous commissions from each sale, and recurring commissions from each annual renewal. This is true lifetime commissions, and the folks at SiteSell go out of their way to make sure you are credited for the sales you make. It is a two-tier program, so you can earn residual commissions each time someone you refer to the affiliate program makes a sale. SiteSell offers outstanding training, a regular newsletter for affiliates, great promotional tools, dedicated affiliate managers, and free members-only forums. The 5 Pillar Program remains one of my highest paying and most reliable income streams. Have you joined, yet? It's free, you know. Come learn more about the Site Build It! 5 Pillar Affiliate Program. If I were going to recommend only one affiliate program, this is it. Act on your dream! JD 9:03:01 AM    comment []

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Private Success Team Update Ray White announced earlier today that he has made major changes to the Private Success Team sign up page, including new graphics and a simpler design. Starting today, new Private Success Team members will only need to sign up for two programs rather than the three that were previously required. SFI Marketing Group remains our main affiliate program and Soaring4Traffic is the traffic exchange that will be promoted to meet our traffic needs. Ray just announced a new email series that will provide all Private Success Team members with a better understanding of what our goals are and the process we take to build everyone's downline in both programs. If you wish to start building your list and promote the Private Success Team system, the email series will be available for you to copy and modify. It is highly recommended that you sign up for this email series to better understand the direction we are taking. You are invited to sign up to my customized version of the Private Success Team message series. You may sign up here: http://johndilbeck.com/splash-pages/pst-splash1.html This new email series is a total of eight messages spread over a period of about two weeks. Each member will be allowed and encouraged to copy the original messages and to create a customized series for you to promote the Private Success Team. This is a great way to promote and build your list at the same time. Ray added that we are in the process of adding more splash pages to our system in the near future. This new email series will be encouraging new members to join us in the forum for questions, comments, or concerns. We sincerely hope that you will join us so we can work together to help each other build our teams and grow our businesses. Please drop by the forum at your earliest convenience. If you are not already a member of the forum, come and join us right away. http://www.creativemeasure.com/forum Ray has been hinting that activity in the forum can be rewarding as he has plans to reward those who participate. We hope you join us in the Private Success Team and start promoting it right away. Let's get back to business and work together to build this team. By the way, don't forget to login to your Soaring4Traffic members area, click the Downline Builder link in the left column, and be sure to enter your referral username for the Private Success Team. We will be sending more members to the downline builder, so don't miss out on getting a referral. Similarly, the traffic exchange downline builder in Soaring4Traffic will be promoted for our new Private Success Team members to join other traffic exchanges. Make sure you have your referral IDs entered. Come join our Private Success Team and we look forward to seeing you in the forum. Act on your dream! JD 11:41:04 AM    comment []

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Site Build It! Special Offer It's scary trying to build a successful online business when the great majority of websites do not succeed in attracting new visitors and making the sales you need for your business to grow. Site Build It! offers the tools you need and a proven step-by-step process for building an online business that offers a much better probability of succeeding. During the special offer, instead of paying $299 to subscribe to Site Build It! for a year, you can choose to pay $399 and get two subscriptions. Keep one for yourself and give one to a friend, associate, or someone in your family. (Note: even if you look at this posting after the Halloween special has expired, the above link will still take you to the SBI order page - and - if there is a current special, the image will inform you. How's that for keeping you informed of any special promotions for Site Build It?) Give the gift of Site Build It! to someone who is newly retired and wants something new to do or to a college student for building an in-demand skill for the real world. There are so many possibilities. Take advantage of this special and it may help you change your world. This Halloween Special Offer promotion for Site Build It! expires at midnight on October 31, 2007. Act on your dream! JD 6:01:03 AM    comment []

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Sitesell announces Snippet Build It! for 5 Pillar affiliates On Friday, in the 5 Pillar #291 newsletter, Ken Evoy announced the introduction of Snippet Build It! This is a tool that can be used by 5 Pillar affiliates to build links to over 60 landing pages for promoting Site Build It! Many years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and the rocks weren't quite hardened, Sitesell was selling some of the best ebooks ever published. Make Your Site Sell! was the Bible of online marketing that helped me start building my marketing business. Now, it's a free download and there is a lot of very valuable information in the 1,500 or so pages of this ebook. I still refer to it now and then. In addition to outstanding ebooks, Ken wrote a number of courses that were delivered via email. I remember taking all of those courses as they were introduced and updated. I still have several of them in a 3-ring binder, and they are covered with notes and bright yellow highlights. Now, these courses are available as free downloadable PDF files. I still highly recommend my favorite, the Affiliate Masters Course, because it offers as much as some courses that cost around $100 and you can download it free. It was always free and still remains free. Over time, to make it easier for Sitesell's 5 Pillar Affiliates to market these products, Ken introduced Page Build It! - a tool for building customized gateway pages. Around the same time, give or take, the Build It! tool was introduced to make it easier for affiliates to build web pages (or just snippets of code) that combined text and graphics. This was a cutting-edge marketing tool when it was introduced. Now, I hope you'll excuse my memory, but a lot of water has gone under the bridge since these tools were first introduced, so I may not have all of this exactly right, but I believe the gist of it is accurate. These tools for building pages and code snippets eventually lead to the first, less-than-impressive versions of Site Build It! But, Ken and the folks associated with Sitesell were not content with what SBI was and continued to improve it and add new features. Now, several years later - a very long time in the online marketing world - Site Build It has become an incredibly effective tool for building online businesses. More tools are added all the time and older features are updated continually. So, as I said, Ken announced yesterday that Snippet Build It! was available and I just now spent about a half-hour playing with it. I am impressed! What used to be the Build It! tool has been streamlined and greatly improved. Now, 5 Pillar affiliates can easily and quickly create links to over 60 different landing pages that tell the story of SBI and why it makes sense to use it rather than traditional webhosting. It's easy to go to the page, select either text or image, select the desired landing page, and build a link. If you select text, and a landing page, you can type the text you want in the link and see the link created as you type. It makes it simple to try several phrases to see which one you like, and then simply copy and paste the HTML code to your websites, blogs, and other places on the web. The text links in this article were created using Snippet Build It! as a test of using the system and it is easier than hand coding the links as I normally do. Not only is it easier, the landing pages are grouped by their order in the buying cycle, and this is explained in an excellent article that was also released yesterday. Why is that important? I've gotten into a rut of referring prospects to just a handful of the many pages that are available. Now, by using Snippet Build It!, it will be much easier to choose just the right page to link to, depending upon the point I want to make in an article or advertisement. This combination of being easy to use and providing a full list of the available landing pages (and this number is growing all the time) helps me provide the information you may need in order to make your final decision to buy, or not to buy, a subscription to the Site Build It! system - or to become one of our affiliates and make money promoting the best way to build an online business. In addition to text links, Snippet Build It! makes it easy to build graphics links using some new banners, buttons, and logos. For example, the following is a link to the Site Build It! main page, and was created in less than five seconds: The new graphics use less text and more people. They use more right-brained emotion and less left-brained logic. Now, I'm a left-brained logic kind of guy. I rarely make my decisions based on emotion. I spend a long time learning about something before I buy. Most people, perhaps you, make more decisions based on emotion and then later justify it with logic. Site Build It! is great for right-brained people. It is an exciting system that has helped many of its subscribers build successful online businesses, and quite a few have left the corporate world and are now living their dreams and working from home. Of course, not everyone is this successful, but SBI offers the tools and training to make it much more likely to succeed. Many people have said they were exposed to SBI and didn't believe that it was as good as many of us believe it to be. So, they moved on and built websites using other services. After a year or two of butting their heads against the technical hurdles, they remembered Site Build It! With more experience, they were better able to judge the benefits SBI offered and some bought on the spur of the moment. Rather than regretting the purchase, most of them regretted wasting a year or two trying to build their online businesses the hard way. Yes, some people do not do well with SBI, and some people don't like what they can't do with SBI - so Sitesell offers a money-back guarantee. You can't lose by trying it. Oops, I'm getting off track. Back to Snippet Build It! The new graphic images are more colorful and appeal more to right-brained people, in my opinion. I think they will be a welcome addition to the marketing tools offered to 5 Pillar affiliates. But, nothing is perfect. A few minutes ago, I offered my opinion about the new marketing tool on the members-only SBI forum. I think it is a huge improvement over the older tools and I welcome the ease-of-use and organized listing of the more than 60 landing pages we can promote. On the other hand, I believe we need a wider variety of graphics that are specifically targeted to each landing page. But, you know what? I don't doubt that Snippet Build It! will be improved over time and that we'll see more and better-targeted graphics to go with all the other marketing tools that Sitesell provides its 5 Pillar affiliates. It's easy to recommend something when I know from first-hand experience how much it has helped me build my online marketing business. I'm working from home 100 miles from the nearest traffic jam and loving it. I don't believe I would be where I am today if it weren't for what I've learned from Ken Evoy and all the many Site Build It! webmasters who help each other on the free, members-only SBI forums. I'm a very satisfied SBI customer and have many plans for expanding my Act On Your Dream! website. You know what? At first I balked a bit at spending $300 a year to build a website, but after building dozens of sites and blogs over the last few years, and wasting more than what I would have spent to build several more SBI sites, the only one that has never given me any trouble at all is the one I am building using Site Build It! Over time, that becomes more and more important, because I'm getting tired of wasting my time and efforts on sites that don't work or get destroyed by hackers. I'm one of those hard-headed people that just has to do it my way and I don't regret all the testing I've done. I've learned and I'll be turning more to SBI in the future, except for some of my sites that require perl and php programming to make them work. I just renewed my subscription to SBI for another year, and a long time before my subscription expires I will have earned back my $300 investment several times over. It's not an expense, it's an investment. Just as Site Build It! is the best tool I know of for building a successful online business, the marketing tools that Sitesell offers its 5 Pillar affiliates continue to get better over time, too. I am very happy that I found Ken Evoy and Sitesell those many years ago. I hope you'll find it worth the investment of your time and money, too. Act on your dream! JD 4:39:43 PM    comment []

Sunday, September 23, 2007

I have been having problems updating this site I've been having some problems updating this site for a bit over a month. When I started using this new computer a couple of months ago, I installed Radio Userland (as suggested) in my Applications folder using my Administrator account. But, I was doing all my work in my jd account, and Radio Userland does not operate as most Mac OS X applications do. I was having to switch between my jd account for everything else and my Administrator account for blogging to this site. That was unworkable. So, I reinstalled the program in my jd account and started a process of searching through the databases and updating all paths and other configuration elements. It took a long time to get it working again. In early September, I finally managed to get it working so I could create and maintain my static sites, such as JohnDilbeck.com and GeorgiaDragRacing.com. But, I still couldn't blog. Well, that's not specifically true. I could blog, but it wouldn't upload the necessary files to my server. Finally, after a lot of searching and thinking, I found the problem. I changed one configuration item deep in the database and it started uploading the entire site from back in late 2005. This will take some time because of my slow dial-up connection, but it's upstreaming steadily as I type this. I really like Radio Userland, even though it can be difficult to use at times. It blogs right out of the box, but that's not my primary use. I have lots of blogs. I mainly use Radio Userland to manage my large static sites. I can create a new database for every site and store the page data in one place, the templates in another, and things like CSS files in still another. Once it is set up, it makes it easy to maintain large sites. Some of my sites have multiple sections and I use a different template for each section. Currently, I'm updating JohnDilbeck.com to a totally different design and it's easy to update a section at a time. If what I just did fixes the upstreaming and blogging features (and it looks like it will), I can finally turn my attention away from maintaining the tools and back to maintaining my sites. Even with the two or three months of work it has taken to get this operating smoothly, again, I would not switch tools. Radio Userland has been a very effective and efficient system that I have used for years. It's not for everyone, but after all the years I have spent learning to program computers, manage databases, and do all the other things, it's nice to have a system that is programmable and based on a database on my desktop. I look forward to updating my sites and getting focused on marketing for the fall and winter buying season. I just finished updating my art store where you can purchase posters, fine art, and photos from art.com and books and other products from Amazon.com. I'm testing a new system for marketing related items being auctioned on eBay, but I haven't decided if I want to keep using it or not. It's nice to get past this final roadblock and back on track. Act on your dream! JD 8:12:26 PM    comment []

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

New Web Master designs on CafePress It has been a very long time since I've been able to upload any new designs to my John Dilbeck's Shirts, Mugs, and Hats store at CafePress. Over the last few days, I created a dozen or so new designs and I'll be adding them to the store over the next few days, as I can. I thought it was appropriate to add some new designs to the Computers and Internet section. There are several designs in the WebMaster products, including the newest. Sometimes I see Webmaster as one word and sometimes as two. "Web Master" offers a new take on the design and it's now available on a number of products including clothing, tiles, stickers, magnets, buttons, mugs, steins, and probably a few I can't think of right now. Web Master Show the world that you control at least a portion of the World Wide Web, or give your favorite nerd a gift proclaiming her (or his) technical prowess. These products are available now. Act on your dream! JD 2:05:52 AM    comment []

Monday, August 13, 2007

Kevin Anderson has passed on I won't try to tell you about Kevin Anderson. Others knew him better and will tell the story with more knowledge and feeling than I can. Kevin was a true online marketing pioneer and the founder of Cognigen Networks. Jack Spirko wrote about the loss of Kevin Anderson on his blog, and some of the top Cognigen agents are expressing their feelings about Kevin and all he did for us. If you do anything related to online marketing, you should read Jack's article. If your company offers replicated websites for affiliates, you should read the article. Kevin, you will be missed by lots and lots of good people. Don't wait to act on your dream! JD 9:15:17 PM    comment []

Monday, July 30, 2007

Top 15 things I have learned about affiliate marketing I have learned several lessons that I think may be valuable to anyone who reads this. You may agree or disagree, but at least give it some thought. 1. Anything that is a good value today will be a good value a year from now. 2. The more the hype, the less the value or longevity. 3. If it has a deadline, run away, don't walk, run - in a zig-zag pattern. 4. Don't send your valuable prospect away on first contact. Try to get their contact information so you can follow-up - yes, build your list. (I wish I'd done more of this.) 5. If you can't understand the compensation plan after reading it twice, you may never understand it, so maybe it is best to avoid it. 6. Always try to get residual income rather than one-off commissions. 7. Try to get life-time customers. 8. If more than five people email you about something the same day, avoid it. 9. Spillover is a myth. It may happen now and then, but don't depend upon it. 10. Earning money - no matter how you do it - is work. It takes longer than you think and it takes more creativity and effort. Nobody will do your work for you. 11. Don't spend more than you can afford. Define your budget and stick with it. If your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall. 12. Don't go into debt to try to make more money. Pour a percentage of your revenue back into tools and marketing. As a result of this, I'm spending more on marketing every month than I made the first two years of online marketing. But, it's all a percentage of income. I have no debt and I intend to keep it that way. 13. It takes a long time to start earning money with online marketing (unless you are very lucky or very good at what you do). It took months for me to earn my first commission check, and several more months before I got my second one. Now, I get checks from several companies every month. It did not happen overnight, but it can be done with perseverance, even if you make a lot of mistakes along the way. 14. Don't pay attention to how much money someone is claiming to earn. There is a huge difference between gross and net. 15. Help others grow and advance, don't take advantage of them just to get their money. Agree? Disagree? Let's talk. Act on your dream! JD 7:05:46 AM    comment []

Monday, July 16, 2007

Vote for your favorite traffic exchanges I've had a Squidoo lens about Traffic Exchanges for quite some time and never really did anything with it. A few days ago, I decided to add a module so you can vote for your favorite manual traffic exchanges. I encourage you to rank the page by clicking on one of the stars at the top of the page. Your comments are always welcome. Act on your dream! JD 6:21:54 AM    comment []

Ray White introduces Soaring For Traffic (This article is part of my Marketing Tools and Techniques: Traffic Exchanges series.) Normally, I won't be promoting the latest and (supposedly) greatest thing, so don't be afraid that I'll bombard you with untested programs that may be here today and gone tomorrow. I prefaced this recommendation because Soaring For Traffic is a new traffic exchange, but I believe it will be around for a long time and I think it will rise to be one of the best. I've known Ray for a few months and I have seen for myself that he knows quite a bit about Internet marketing and is always working to learn more and to share what he learns with others. I first met him on the Affiliate Funnel forum, where he answered some of my questions about ad tracking on traffic exchanges. I did some searching and found that he is the owner of Private Success Team, where he is busily helping others learn how to market on the Internet more successfully. I recently learned that he has been working for about a year to introduce Soaring For Traffic, his free traffic exchange and downline builder. Lately, I've become more discerning when it comes to traffic exchanges and I'm reaching the point where I probably won't join too many more. Over the last year, I've joined and used about 75 traffic exchanges with varying amounts of success. Now, I'm a member in about 60 and actively use about 20 of them. I am an upgraded member in about a dozen exchanges, and I just upgraded my account with Soaring For Traffic. Although Soaring For Traffic is free, you will get more traffic with less time and effort by upgrading to one of the two upgrade levels. I chose the highest upgrade and I'm looking forward to using this exchange a lot in the coming months. I added about 170 sites to this exchange in one fell swoop by using my Page Swirl rotator and spent another hour or two advertising it on some of my marketing pages, including my LinkScout marketing site. After I'd finished setting everything up, it was time to surf the new exchange and see how I liked it. I found a couple of small errors when setting up to use the exchange, but surfing the sites of other members was easy and the site responded quickly, even on my very slow dial-up connection. The downline builder part of the site contains five money making affiliate programs and I'm a member of three of them. I didn't count the number of traffic exchanges in the downline builder, but almost all of my favorites were there and I saw only a handful of sites I'd never tried before. I know that Ray will be a helpful and responsive owner, and that is a big part of being an upgraded member of an exchange. Even though Soaring For Traffic is new, it already has over 1,500 members and is growing quickly. Regarding the problems I encountered, one was just an incorrect height and width attribute in the HTML code for a 100x300 sidebar button link. That was easily corrected, and I'll let Ray know about it as soon as I publish this. The other was a bit more of a problem, but probably has an easy solution. The site offers a way to personalize one of the splash pages that can be used on other traffic exchanges. It features your name, photo, a banner, and a testimonial. I filled in the form and submitted it, only to be told that the banner URL was incorrect. No problem; the exchange is new. However, the real problem, for me, was that the error page did not preserve the entries on the form that were correct. As a result, a very complimentary testimonial was lost. Ray, if you read this, I said some nice things about you that nobody will read because the form lost my heartfelt compliments. With only a couple of minor negatives (which I'm sure Ray will fix quickly) and lots of positives, I heartily recommend Soaring For Traffic to you. (Update: Ray corrected the problems I mentioned, and I'm a very happy Soaring For Traffic member.) If you want to be a free member, this exchange is better than most. If you plan to upgrade, the prices are right and the One-Time-Offer page offers good discount pricing for an annual or lifetime membership. If that doesn't fit your budget, the second One-Time-Offer (OTO) page offers a 33% discount on the highest upgrade level, making it a good buy. Normally, the highest level, Soaring Eagle, costs $14.95 per month, and I think that is over-priced for a 1:1 surf ratio and anything less than 1,000 credits per month. However, the second OTO page offers the Soaring Eagle level for $9.99, and I think that is the proper price for what is offered. I don't know if either of these discount pages will be available should you join, nor what they may offer at that time. These things are always subject to change. If you don't take advantage of either OTO page, you'll pay more, perhaps a lot more, in the long run. Soaring For Traffic will be one of the dozen or so traffic exchanges I'll use on a regular basis. You can join Soaring For Traffic for free and see for yourself how well it works for you. You'll get a lot more for your time and effort if you upgrade. Act on your dream! JD 6:15:20 AM    comment []

Sunday, May 7, 2006

Get a free affiliate marketing suite at LinkScout Context: LinkScout, affiliate marketing, free advertising, search engine, link exchange, affiliate programs You can get a free affiliate marketing suite at LinkScout. Why? The main reason I recommend this site is because you can easily add your affiliate programs, network marketing programs, websites, blogs, lenses, forums, affiliate sites and links, and more, and advertise just one URL. You can build a site here for free, but it is well worth the $10 per month or $79 per year (as of May 5, 2006), to have a paid Associate membership. You can read about the extra benefits of an Associate membership and decide for yourself how valuable this could be to you in terms of saving both time and money. I've had a free membership for about two years and it's been tucked away in the back of my mind for when I was ready to upgrade and get serious about marketing both their services and my products and services. I'll be talking more about LinkScout as I learn to use it more effectively. If you want to sell more online, it is well worth investing $10 per month to centralize your advertising. If you are involved in affiliate marketing or mlm, you should sign up for your free membership today. 2:02:49 PM    comment []

Thursday, May 4, 2006

Free and Paid Classified Advertising at Adpost Context: classified advertising, advertising, marketing, affiliate programs, Site Build It I've been spending some time over the last few weeks getting ready for doing some major advertising to drive more sales to the merchants with whom I've affiliated. Lots of online marketers use online classified ads to market their products and services, and I'm no exception. I learned of Adpost a few days ago and posted a new ad to their site. Initially, I planned to post a free ad, but three of the upgrades were inexpensive enough that I posted a paid ad. Why? For only $9.99, I was able to get priority ranking for the ad. It also extended the life of the ad from 30 days with two 30 day renewals to up to 180 days with five renewals at no extra charge. A half-year of advertising for $10 is a no-brainer, to me. I posted the ad in the Business Products and Services category. There are 26 subcategories and my ad applies to all of them. So, after a bit of thinking, I posted to the Marketing / Sales subcategory. I paid another $9.99 to extend the ad to the other 25 subcategories. My geographical area is North Carolina, Other, because I live in a very rural part of the state. I wanted to advertise to a wider audience, so I paid another $9.99 to extend the ad to all geographical regions in the United States. So, now, for less than $30, I am advertising Site Build It! for a half-year to a wide audience, that is targeted to people looking for Business Products and Services. But, as you've heard on many TV infomercials, "That's Not All!" When the ad was submitted and paid for, several new options became available. Now, I have My Personal Adpost with a simple URL that lists all my active ads. While there is only one ad on the page today, there will be many more as I have time to create and submit them. It will be easy to advertise this one page and show multiple ads in one fell swoop. My Personal Adpost comes with a manager - free - with tips on how to use it to promote my offers. It is suggested that I put the URL on my business cards, letterheads, flyers, brochures, signature files when posting on other sites, email signatures, websites, and blogs. In the manager, you can name your Personal Adpost, add text to the upper-right area of the page, and, optionally, limit it to display only ads in one category or country. But that's not all! (grin) Once my ad was accepted and posted to the site, I was given the option to create a new thread in the Business Products and Services Forum. I started the Any questions about Site Build It? thread to discuss the SBI service. (I just checked on this forum thread, May 4, 2006, and it is missing. Why?) That's a lot of service for less than $30 and an hour's work. Since Sitesell's 5 Pillar Affiliate Program pays so well, if I only make one sale per year with this ad, it will still be profitable. If I make more than one sale, I'll promote Adpost Classifieds heavily, both online and offline. Of course, I'll link to My Personal Adpost at http://johndilbeck.adpost.org to make it easy for offline advertising. If you are looking for a great place to post your online advertising, I recommend Adpost. It's free to set up your own account and to start advertising today. What are you waiting on? You are invited to comment on this article. 6:19:58 AM    comment []

Monday, March 20, 2006

Because I'm the Mommy, That's Why! Context Tag: shirts, mugs, hats, CafePress, Mommy, Daddy. When you were younger, you'd watch your Mom or Dad get more and more frustrated when you wanted something. Eventually, one of them would say, "Because I said so!," or a variation of that. Kids don't give up easily. They'll try asking, begging, throwing tantrums, and other assorted ways to dominate your attention and get what they want. Now, you're the parent and your kids are doing to you what you did to your Mom and Dad. Because I'm the Mommy, That's Why! Because I'm the Daddy, That's Why! Here are a couple of shirts to help you save your breath. Just wear them and point to the slogan. The Because I'm the Mommy, That's Why! design has been one of the most popular in my t-shirt shop. They also make great gifts for your children when they complain about children of their own. More similar designs are available in the Because, That's Why section of Shirts-Mugs-Hats.com. 8:31:43 AM    comment []

Thanks for shopping at USA Flag Wear Context Tag: t-shirts, mugs, hats, CafePress, American flag, patriotic shirts I would like to thank the good people who have been buying items from the USA Flag Wear section of Shirts-Mugs-Hats.com. If I knew how to contact you, I would thank you personally. If you've never browsed this section of my CafePress store, I think you'll find some patriotic products here that will be just what you're looking for. Designs in the following categories are available on multiple products. America the Beautiful USA - Don't Tread On Me God Bless America God Bless the USA I'm Proud to be an American Land of the Free, Home of the Brave Let Freedom Ring! USA - No More Sanctuary for Terrorists Americans - Soft and Cuddly on the Outside, Hard as Steel on the Inside USA American Flag USA - We Stand United If you have any suggestions for products you'd like to purchase, please feel free to let me know. 2:11:21 AM    comment []

Sunday, March 19, 2006

RichSatire.com - a fun look at marketing hype Dan Nickerson is a very busy affiliate marketer who has a sense of humor and an eye for jumping on a new opportunity. He has many irons in the fire, including Got-Zip.com (a GeoAffiliate Marketing site), Pagellan.com (a shopping site where you can create a personalized home page), and one of his newest, RichSatire.com. It started with a light-hearted joke on one of Dan's forums, and then, almost before we knew it, Dan ran with it and created RichSatire.com. You've seen the hype on the TV infomercials. You've read the hype on countless websites. Now, Rich Satire, celebrity spokesman, is pitching for Crappo Products. Do you panic when you see more hairs in the shower drain? Maybe Follicle Frenzy is for you! Are your six-pack abs covered with flab? Try the Ab-Tazer for stunning abs. Do you have to lose that weight? Look into Rapido Weight Loss. These are just the first products you'll find at RichSatire.com. Note: if you don't have a sense of humor, don't bother visiting the site. (Context tags: humor, satire, hype, affiliate marketing) 6:26:16 PM    comment []

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Who "owns" your zip code? What? You mean someone may own my zip code? How? Don't be concerned. It's not what you may be thinking. Dan Nickerson has created a remarkable GeoAfilliate Marketing concept and has created several websites to make it work. With most affiliate marketing, an individual joins a merchant's program and then promotes the merchant's products using an individualized affiliate code. Dan introduces a different way of doing affiliate marketing with Got-Zip.com. Instead of promoting a merchant's products with your individual code, you just send them to Got-Zip.com. Dan handles joining the various affiliate programs, approximately 100 at this time, and the site maanages your commissions based on the zip code in which the visitor/purchaser lives. When you go to the site, you tell it your zip code and a cookie is placed on your computer to remember it. That's it. From then on, when you visit Got-Zip.com and make a purchase, the person who "owns" your zip code (and/or county or state) will get a part of the commission from that transaction. If nobody "owns" the zip code, county, or state, the unclaimed commission is put into a reserve pool and is shared by all the folks who own other territories. How do you "own" a zip code? There are three ways. Well, actually, there are six ways, depending upon where you live. You can "own" a zip code by paying an annual fee. If you live in the zip code you purchased, you are considered a resident. Otherwise, you are considered a prospector. A prospector, who lives outside a territory, can purchase the area. However, if a resident comes along later, the resident can also purchase the area and they will share commissions on any purchases made by residents of the area. However, if a resident buys a territory first, prospectors are locked out and the resident gets the full share of the commissions. Zip codes are "sold" on an annual basis. Counties and States are sold based on a monthly subscription. At this time, all the states are taken, but there are still many counties and zip codes available. I don't know if this will stall out or take off and fly. However, I've read all the posts in the forum that go back over a year and Dan appears to be honest and hardworking. He has some very innovative ideas. Based on my evaluation, and gut-feeling, I "bought" my 28906 zip code and Cherokee County, NC. I probably would have bought North Carolina, but someone beat me to it. If you decide you want to be a part of this, you should be aware that it will take some time before your investment will pay off in profits unless you can generate sales to people living in your territory. If you just purchase a territory and wait for others to do the work, it may take a long time to profit. One good thing is that nobody so far has lost any money by trying it. In the past, if someone cancelled their subscription, all their payments were refunded. Now, they have a territory auction to give others a chance to purchase your territory from you. What happens if you live in a sparsely-populated rural county, as I do. Is it fair to pay the same price for that zip code or county as someone else would pay for a territory in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, or another territory with many more people and prospective customers? It depends on several factors. Are you a resident or a prospector? How much local promotion are you going to do? Do you have traffic funnels you can use to direct people living in your territory to Got-Zip.com? Depending upon your personal marketing initiative and creativity, you may be able to make more sales in a smaller area than someone else can generate in a more-populated area. You get your share of the commissions on sales in your territory. What I didn't realize at first, and which makes this more attractive in my opinion, is that you also get an equal share of the commissions on sales in territories that have not been claimed. But, I don't believe you can depend upon that to earn a profit. It may offset some of your investment, but you need to generate sales from residents in your territory to make this really profitable for you. And, you may also earn from others' promotional efforts. Perhaps a customer sees advertising from one of the other territory owners and they make a purchase. If they live in your territory, you'll get the commission (or at least your part of it). The same holds true if someone living in another territory sees your advertising and makes a purchase. The "owner" of that territory will profit from your promotional efforts. The easy part of this is that you don't have to use affiliate codes to earn from it. All participants just send folks to Got-Zip.com and the site's software and administrators sort the commissions by zip code. If you type in the Got-Zip.com URL, don't forget the hyphen. If you want to be a part of this, you should take a long-term view on your participation. You will not earn massive profits in a short time with no work. I'm going to be watching this site and this new concept of GeoAffiliate Marketing to see how it works. I invite you to visit Got-Zip.com and make a purchase from one of our many merchants. Who knows, I may make a commission off your purchase. Or maybe someone else will. But, you'll still be buying products you like from vendors you trust and will not pay any more by going to Got-Zip.com to find the merchant and click on their link. We'll appreciate your business! 2:32:30 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2008 John L. Dilbeck.