What's a Cookie?

No, not chocolate chip.

A cookie is a small data file that certain web sites write to your hard drive when you visit them. A cookie file can contain various types of information, including a user ID that the site uses to track the pages you've visited, and traffic patterns.

Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies; however,  browsers can be manually set to refuse cookies or indicate when a cookie is being sent or you can flush your browser of cookies from time to time.  If cookies are disabled or refused, you may not be able to access all areas of some sites.

Is it Good? Checklist for Persuasive Landing Pages

After writing a landing page, ask yourself the following questions to see if it passes the test of effective copy:

Does my landing page....

• Have a great headline?
• Tell a good story?
• Offer proof?   (Testimonials/etc)
• Make the benefits of purchase/action clear?
• Create curiosity?
• Anticipate objections/doubts and counter them?

Other Suggestions.

• Be concise
• Use action verbs and colorful adjectives. (People are moved by emotion)
• Educate/inspire. Nobody likes hard-sells. 
• Use a confident & authoritative tone

Model after the best.  Practice.  Develop over time.  Test.

Web Analytics 101: Definitions: Goals, Metrics, KPIs, Dimensions, Targets

By Avinash Kaushik

It is surprising how often these "simple" things come up.
"What is the difference between a metric and a key performance indicator (KPI)?"
"What is a dimension in analytics?"
"What is segmentation?"
"Are goals metrics?"
And many more.
There seems to be genuine confusion about the simplest, most foundational, parts of web metrics / analytics. So in this short post let's try and see if we can fix this really basic problem.
Definitions and standard perspectives on these terms will be covered in this post:

1. Business Objectives
2. Goals
3. Metrics
4. Key Performance Indicators
5. Targets
6. Dimensions
7. Segments

A standard definition will be provided, but more than that my hope is to solidify your understanding with concrete examples and pictures.  Read More

What is the DMCA?

The DMCA, (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) was created in 1998 to protect provide hosting services like YouTube from being help liable for users who may post copyrighted material.

User's who feel their rights have been violated, and content used without permission can write to the provider using contact info cataloged at the copyright office, state there has an infringement, and request that the material be taken down.   The process is fairly simple.

Sometimes companies will abuse the DMCA provision and overstep and make demands that infringe into fair use territory, (eg: parodies), and other material that may be protected. 

U.S. Copyright Office website at http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf,

10 Reasons to Buy CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6

Highlights

• New! Native 64-bit support
  
• New! Multi-core processor support
• New! Multiple trays in Corel Connect
  
• New! Smart Carver and Shape tools

1. Complete professional graphic design software suite
It has everything you need for professional graphic design, illustration, layout, tracing, photo editing, web graphics, website creation and online collaboration in one complete suite that is easy to

Woot! Let's DO this!

#Proudparentofbrandnewfacebookad

Exxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxcited!!!!

5 Top WordPress Plugins for Affiliates

If you are new to using WordPress, the following free WordPress plugins can help you take your affiliate websites to the next level with functionality:

1. All In One SEO Pack – Absolutely necessary for EVERY WordPress and affiliate site. This plugin optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).
   
2. XML Sitemap Generator – This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It supports all of the WordPress generated pages as well as custom ones. Everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update. If you are looking for maximum search engine rankings, this plugin is also a MUST HAVE.
   
3. WP-PageNavi – Adds a more advanced paging navigation your WordPress blog. This is a more sophisticated paging system for more complex affiliate websites.
   
4. WP-Affiliate – Easy affiliate link masking and more. This is necessary if you want to cloak your affiliate conversion URL’s.
   
5. WP-PostRatings – Adds an AJAX rating system for your WordPress blog’s post/page. Perfect for review sites!

Source: The Affiliate Theme

Humanize Your Website With Live Chatting

People just want to be heard.

To be seen.

To know that they matter.

They want to be in relation to real people, not stuffy avatars, or typical cookie cutter scripted videos.  ~And that includes on your website!


Here's an idea: how about adding a chat widget to your website so you can engage in real time with new visitors to your site?   It's immediate, real life contact.  And if you're not available, there are even some  services that can pick up the slack and do the initial chatting on your behalf; gathering vital contact data and questions and forwarding them to you via email for further followup.

For example, when you become aware that someone is perusing your site, a chat could immediately launch:

"Hello!  Thank you for visiting my site, it's a pleasure to see you! My name is Annie, may I have your name?

And if it's someone chatting on your behalf, their goal should also be to secure contact info. so you or someone who represents you can followup.  For example,

"Before we proceed, may I have your phone number and email address in case we get disconnected?"  

Or, 

"The next step would be for me to have one of our team members contact you to answer additional questions and off you additional support. "


You could ask, "Would you like to be contacted?" or "Would you like to be put on a mailing list?" Or even better: 


 "I'll be happy to send you an information packet (or report, etc) via email." 


And finally, to seal the deal and develop rapport and further connection,


"Thank you for contacting me. Please take a moment to watch our informational video here____"

This is a great example of creative lead generation, leading to better ROI  (return on investment), and conversions.

Try it out!  Lemme know me know what you think!  :)

Beautiful Nightmare. Ready. Set. Go?

Been feeling groggy and tired, but pushing through. Decided at midnight to take a "nap" and woke up at 2:00am in a nightmare. I was suddenly plummeting uncontrollably, and then ferociously accelerating up up up in a run-a-way elevator that wasn't stopping on recognizable floors.  When it did stop, I was blinded and could only see the faint, disturbing outlines of unfamiliar, strange and frightening worlds unknown to me.  Everything was in an infuriating, undecipherable, terrifying haze.  And then the elevator would began racing again, the doors still open as the eery goings-on raced by.

What a metaphor! This affiliate marketing journey is exciting but terrifying, and currently totally unpredictable. What's next? I finally feel like I have a good strong base of knowledge - enough to get going.  But, on what? The next step is the real step. The most important step. And perhaps - the hardest?

What is An Alt Tag? (Or Alt Text?)

Alt Text is HTML that gives some alternative text with images.  It's often overlooked or not used at all, but it's an important and useful tool for improving SEO results. 

* It gives more info on an image or an image's hyperlink
* It can be helpful for folks with disabilities
* It can be helpful for text-only browsers
* It can help people with slow connections navigate a site while images are still rendering

How to Pick A Niche

Confused about what direction to go? Where to start? Here's a quick breakdown based on content from Yaro Starak:

First,

1. Do Keyword research to find out how many searches are going on
• Goal: Over 1000 searches a day 
2. Check  Google search results to see how much competition there is
   
   • Goal: Less than 10,000 competing pages

Firewall breech? Spam attack? Pinterest Goes Wild!

A mysterious uninvited pin is sweeping Pinterest and is threatening to invoke a riot!  From demure crafts and tiered cakes to cussing and curses,  Pinterest is totally freaking out!   In the past few minutes, 3 pins by the  now much vilified Gabrielle Union,  have been "repinned" without consent over 85,000 times provoking a chorus of vitriolic outrage.   Have the bots and zombies taken over?    What is going on?  What is happening?   Is someone using bots from daisy-chained computers to infiltrate the ladies?   Now we're all gonna hafta see the doctor and get ourselves checked for trojans!?  

Helllllp! 

Poll: Which Forum Tool Do You Prefer?

What is "Quality Content" according to Google Panda Update?

On Feb. 24, 2011 Google began instituting a series of major changes to their algorithms with the goal of more effectively distinguishing "high quality" from "low quality" sites in effort to return the most relevant, and helpful results to their Google users.  Now, more than ever, if an affiliate doesn't add value beyond what the supplier adds, they can expect a lowered page ranking.   Effectively, this can be seen as a call to action for affiliates to strengthen their work, provide quality, and use their own authentic voice.

Starting Your First A/B or Multivariant Experiment

Google outlines in detail how to design and set up your first Website Optimizer experiment, the different types of testing, and how to interpret experiments' results.  There's also a video walkthrough of the experiment setup, Website Optimizer User Guide which covers much of the same process.

Where is my "Upload Theme" Tab? (Wordpress Problems)

PROBLEM:

I purchased a domain yesterday and transferred from Wordpress and would now like to
change themes. However, when I login to WP, I am missing the "Upload Theme" tab under "Appearance". I did find a WP Forum Thread that describes my problem, but the solution was unclear.  Do I need to reinstall WP?  
___________________________________________________________________________

SOLUTION:

Because I had ALREADY purchased the domain with Wordpress, everything was was STILL on their servers, NOT the new domain host as I had thought.   So, apparently the "1-click" transfer works only for brand new domains that you purchase with the new host.   So, in this case, I had to change the "name servers" at Wordpress to my new hosts' servers.
I did so in the following 9 steps:

What is a "rebill"?

A "rebill" is.....
a service, or  subscription that is billed on a continuous, ongoing basis.   Rebills are often associated with "free" trials that later bill customers until canceled, (in example: acai berry, colon cleanse, e-cigarettes, teeth whitening, male enhancement, penny auctions.)

Netflix is an example of a "legitimate" company that uses a rebilling system. 

How Do I Install a Wordpress Theme?

[By shames at intogeek.com as per the recommendation of BlueHost Support via chat at 2am this morning.]

This process can seem daunting at first, but after you learn how to do it you’ll find installing a theme to your wordpress site is quite easy. All you need to start this is a wordpress site, and a theme .zip file already downloaded to your computer. If you don’t have a theme file to install yet, you can find many just by searching google.com for ‘wordpress themes’. Here are the steps to install a theme:

Protect Yourself! How to Make The Ultimate Password

How To Protect Your Password:
[Per BlueHost]

• Memorize your password, do not write it down
• Do not share your password
• Do not use the same password you use on other services (gmail, Yahoo, etc)
• Avoid using one password for all your logins
• Avoid logging in from public computers
• Change your password frequently
• Be wary of allowing your password to be remembered by browser plugins or other utilities

Tips for choosing a password:

• Avoid dictionary words
• Use a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters
• Use a combination of capital and lower case letters
• If you use a word, try to combine multiple words, or use "made up" words
• Avoid familiar items (names, phone number, etc)
• Avoid common passwords and generic sequences (ie. "password", "admin", "123456", etc.)
• The more characters you use, the safer (use at least 8)

Virtual Assistants (VA's) on ODesk

Need help? Technical expertise? Don't have time? Limited resources?   ODesk may be a service you want to look in to. 

Basically, ODesk allows you to do more with less, and help out a contractor along the way.

 The following resources can be found using their services:

What's one book that every marketer should read?

From CakesTV Episode 4:


Nana Gilbert-Baffoe (From Tracking202)  @NanaGilbert

•  Do the Work by Steven Pressfield.  Procrastinaction, getting things done, distractions, helped him get focused. The whole world is trying to distract you.
• "The Mean Startup" Testing in the marketplace to make sure your idea is worthwhile.

Ricardo De Sousa (aff)
Kindle is helping him read allot more.  He keeps it by him on the couch. 

• Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!  The book teaches you to start setting and achieving goals.
• Classic and best advertising book:Ogilvy on Advertising
• Helped him allot. CA$HVERTISING: How to Use More than 100 Secrets of Ad-Agency Psychology to Make Big Money Selling Anything to Anyone

Aaron Kelly (Internet Lawyer

• Keith Rosen, "Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time"   The book that pushed him into getting into the space and learned about branding.  He has 5 copies.  

Steve Howe (c2m)

• CA$HVERTISING is a must-read 
• Rich Dad Poor Dad: 
• AfBuzz, or Aff401 syndicate sites to read the top news

Nick NickyCakes 

•  Influence: Science and Practice (5th Edition)

Which hosting service should I use for Wordpress?

The official WP hosting recommendations (http://wordpress.org/hosting/) are:

• Bluehost
• Dreamhost
• MediaTemple
• Laughing Squid

Microsoft Advertising Accredited Professional exam

Interesting.  Microsoft Advertising adCenter offers a series of video training modules and then a  "Microsoft Advertising Accredited Professional exam" in exchange for official "accreditation".  Courses are organized by category, allowing you to hone your focus based on your personal needs as a Microsoft search advertiser.

Available Course Categories:

Introduction to Microsoft adCenter Getting Started Targeting Tracking Ad Performance

Optimizing Ad Performance Microsoft adCenter Budgeting and Billing Microsoft adCenter Desktop

Interesting?

How to Improve Your Conversion rate

[By the Microsoft AdCenter]

Are customers buying what your selling? No? If your ads have a good click-through rate (CTR) but their conversion rate is low, it's time to take a hard look at your landing page.
Here's some ideas to help you improve your landing page performance:

• Make it relevant. For each ad, be sure you're sending potential customers to a landing page with content that's relevant to their search keyword. If they don't quickly see what they were expecting, there's a good chance they'll abandon your site. adCenter has a great way to help. It's called dynamic text and it can work wonders by sending customers to

What Does CPM Mean?

• CPM is a phrase used in relation to online advertising and marketing related web traffic.   
• CPM means clicks per thousand impressions. 
• Where does the M come from?  The M in CPM comes from the Roman numeral system.  (M means 1,000!)
• CPM shows an affiliate how much money they are making per thousand impressions.  
• Or, if you own a website, and want to sell an advertisement space on your website, you would typiccaly sell space per thousand impressions. So, if you are charging say $4 CPM and you want to show your ad 10,000 times, then you would charge $40.

What is a CPA offer?

CPA is the abbreviation for "Cost Per Action" meaning, sales are not required to receive compensation as an affiliate marketer.  An "action" could be something as simple as filling out a form with a name, a zip code, an email address.  Or perhaps signing up for a trial.  Once THE ACTION is completed, the affiliate receives commission that could be from a few cents to hundreds of dollars.

Companies can promote their products and services through CPA offers facilitated by CPA networks and executed by CPA affiliates who can direct target traffic to the offers using a number of methods: email marketing, video marketing, cost-per-click, etc....

6 Biggest Affiliate Moneymakers

Per an affiliate manager at RevupNet on Feb 21, 2012 the affiliate publishers that actually make significant money are:

1. Major Coupon sites, like retailmenot, and savings.com
2. Major Bonus sites like Upromise and Ebates
3. Major Loyalty Shopping Networks: like Cartera and DBG
4. Major Product Comparison Sites: like TopTenReviews
5. Cheators: Affiliates that cheat and bid on merchants trademark terms in Google search, pretending to be them
6. Niche content sites that have high SEO ranking on particular product related keywords

What is PHP?

PHP is the acronym for   Hypertext Pre-processor.

PHP is a scripting language that is embedded into HTML.

PHP contains HTML with embedded code that does "something".  It's enclosed in special start and stop instructions and is executed on the server, then sent to the client. The client receives the results of running that script, but won't know the underlying script.  

What is FTP?

FTP is the abbreviation for File Transfer Protocol.

FTP is used to exchange files over the Internet (a TCP-based network).
Meaning,
FTP is used to download files from a server using the Internet
and
upload files (like a webpage) to a server.



The FTP technology works like HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) for transferring webpages from a server to a person's browser

 
and SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) for transferring electronic mail across the Internet in that

FTP uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols to enable data transfer.


TCP/IP is the abbreviation for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.
TCP/IP was created by The Defense Advance Research Projects Agency to interconnect defense department computer networks. The Internet, an international Wide Area Network, uses TCP/IP to connect institutions across the world. 

How To Buy And Sell Domains

Before entering in the domain name game, you need to educate yourself.  To read about the history of domaining, buying and selling domain names, this is an excellent resource:  The Domain Game, by David Kesmodel.

 

There are a number of excellent online resources as well, such as:

• Domaining.com -  An aggregator of domain names news and blogs 
• NameBee.com    - Also an aggregator of domain news and blogs
• iGoldRush.com  -  One of the oldest resources on domain names
• eRealEstate.com -  Domaining info from Rick Schwartz 
• DNJournal.com   - A Forbes site about domaining

New Corel Video Editor, VideoStudio Pro X5 Ultimate is going live March 7

New Corel VideoStudio Pro X5 Ultimate to go live Wednesday March 7. It will have $500 in bonus movie-making and editing features for just $100 bucks. 

Top 10 Reasons to Buy  Video Studio Pro-X5 Ultimate

1. Corel's most comprehensive video-editing package

With breakthrough speed, easy-to-use features and high-value creative video effects plug-ins, new Corel VideoStudioProX5Ultimate has everything you need to take your video-editing potential to the max. The huge variety of tools in this release makes it ideal for anyone who wants to create more sophisticated productions without added complexity.

2. NewBlue Video Essentials and NewBlue TitlerEX

Enhance, optimize and accelerate your productivity with NewBlue Video Essentials, a best-selling collection featuring 20 highly practical effects. You also get NewBlue TitlerEX, the easy-to-use titling solution that lets you create beautiful, complex and

Affiliates' Wordpress Plugins, Widgets & Themes of Choice

The 2011 Affiliate Summit polled their attendees and then generously shared the results in the published Affiliate Summit Report.  There's a number of interesting findings, but I found two areas to be particularly  helpful.

First, it was determined that the most popular Wordpress theme used by affiliate marketers is.... [drumroll please] the "Affiliate Theme".  (how appropriate), and I plan to be checking it out asap.

And second, the top Wordpress widget of choice for affiliate marketers?  The Clickbank Widget.

Awesome Tool: AWeber Auto-Responder

AWeber is a email marketing tool that facilitates communication to subscribers and helps increase readership.  It automates emails, newsletters, subscriptions ~ all kinds of cool things!  It also has a tool that you can use to create your own opt-in boxes... Basically, it's an all-in-one product that increases efficiency and reduces the tedious manual labor of building and maintaining an email list.  (Time is money!)  They currently service over 102,000+ businesses and

3 Tools To Design A Landing Page

• Step 1)  Create a simple page using an HTML Editor  (such as kompozer.net)
• Can insert table and cells, and then simply type in content, add photos and links
• Switch to "source" tab to manually modify HTML code
• Opt-in boxes can be made by using a snipped of code from the auto-responder that you decide to use.  (I plan to use
• Step 2)  FTP Client  (such as Filezilla-project.org)
• Upload Kompozer file into Filezilla (your FTP client)
• Filezilla has a split screen: a local site (your computer), and a remote site (
• Step 3)  Connect the Kompozer file to the server space
• Connect to the hosting space (the server space) by entering your domain, username & password in the boxes at the top of the screen.
• Highlight the file (on the left hand side of the screen in the "local" area, right click & "upload"

Words, Lets be Friends.

OMG!  Say wha? Slow down!  Speak English! Doooood.  What does THAT mean?!      #commonlyheardphrasesinmyhead 


When it comes to learning about affiliate marketing & monetizing content, one of my biggest sources of aggravation has been the inundation of new wonky terms.  Like cracking any field, this voyage comes with an entire set of acronyms and industry specific lingo that must be learned as if it's a second language.   There's so much that authors take for granted or consider common knowledge, that for a noob like me, it can be pretty #facepalm provoking.  But, alas, I know it's just a part of the process.

#sigh

Often times, I've found that to make meaning of posts, I had to decode sentence by sentence, literally googling terms and abbreviations one at a time.  It became clear that starting a list of those terms would be a good idea.  That way I could refer back to it later, pop-quiz myself,  and

Today's To-Do List: Getting Started

GOALS FOR TODAY:

1) Sign up for affiliate networks

2) Pick a couple offers

3) Begin to research, gather info, plan a first campaign

Complete With NickyCakes Recommended Contacts

Don't be confused: It's all the Same Thing

Publisher = Affiliate = Associate = Partner = Reseller = Content Site

What is a Squeeze Page?

A "SQUEEZE PAGE" is a single, simple web page created by internet marketers with the sole purpose of capturing information and creating an"EMAIL LIST" for follow-up marketing.  There NO exits, no hyperlinks to prevent the visitor from distraction.  Thus, a visitor has two option, register to receive further information, or leave the site.

A "SQUEEZE PAGE" spells out who you are, what you're offering, and why folks should be interested.   It also should allay folks' fears of spam through specifying your privacy policy. Email subscribers self-select themselves and inasmuch have identified themselves as bonified INTERESTED.  With that interest, your probability of "success" increases.

COMMON ELEMENTS OF A "SQUEEZE PAGE:

What is Google Website Optimizer?

Google Website Optimizer is a free tool that helps you test and fine-tune campaigns.  It boost conversion rates by removing the guesswork from your landing page designs.

There are two main types of tests, and a third ‘advanced’ test as per a Nickycakes commenter.

1)Standard A/B Test
You split test one url against another. Good for testing 2 different landing pages on one domain.

JillianMichaels.Com Affiliate Program

JillianMichaels.Com offers a three-tiered commission program, so that when you drive more subscriptions, you increase your revenue.   The three tiers are as follows.

Tier 1: Earn 70% of $0-$2,600 in initial enrollment fees per month

Tier 2: Earn 80% of $2,601-$5,200 in initial enrollment fees per month

Tier 3: Earn 90% of $5,201+ in initial enrollment fees per month

And that doesn't suck. 

How the program works:
1. Sign up to be a publisher through Linkshare.
2. E-mail their affiliate team & include your Linkshare member number & website URL.
3. Follow the instructions on the invite to join our program through.
4. Place banners and text links on
your site.
5. They pay 70% of the sale price for every paid subscriber. You have the opportunity to earn up to 90% of the sale price per subscription.

8 Ways to Maximize Your Kewords

There are 8 ways to maximize your on-page keyword usage. 

1. Title
2. URL
3. Meta description
4. H1 
5. H2-4
6. Body
7. B/Strong
8. IMG ALT

The more you utilize, the greater your return.

6 Recommended Affiliate Networks (per NickyCakes)

Apparently, there are hundred of Affiliate Networks.  So, I'm wondering, how does one know which ones to pick?  My understanding, at this point, is that there are 4 biggies:

• Commission Junction:
  
• LinkShare
• Clickbank
• Google Affiliate Network

You're safe sticking with these, and they offer advantages that others don't, such as consolidated payments, and upfront EPC (earnings per click.  Linkshare works with over 700 merchants in a wide variety of categories with big names like Target, Nordstrom, Disney and American Express.  ClickBank offers downloaded products, mainly Ebooks.  It's cheap to join, there's a huge variety of products that range the gamut of quality.   A good place to search for niches.   Google Affiliate Network is a professional site, also with big name clients like CompUSA, EddieBauer, HP, Kohls, VerizonWireless, etc.

So, I'm curious - are these the BEST affiliates networks?   Today I will be looking into networks recommended by NickyCakes below, and will likely sign up for several, if not all..... I'm ready to launch this thing!   Curious about other people experiences with any/all of these networks. 

Advaliant – They have a lot of really good exclusive offers that convert "amazingly well". 
Good affiliate managers (AM):  Geofferson Marcy, Alla Semenchenko, Richard Okolo.

Ads4Dough – A upfront network run by Jason Akatiff.  They'll help you with what's converting, how to promote, and give you landing pages where you can put your ad.  They offer great tools.   Experienced, knowledgeable AMs.

Convert2Media – Run by Ralph Ruckman, former owner of cashtactics blog.  "Good guys who know their stuff."

NeverblueAds – Good for beginners.
Nickycakes recommends: Scott (ext 289)


CX Digital – Previously "Incentaclick"   They’re one of the largest networks around, in terms of number of affiliates. Many offers, good place to start. 
Good AM’s: Winkie, Debrani