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Disgusted And Fuming

Written by beffy7 on April 28, 2012 · Leave a Comment

So, you may or may not know that I’ve been trying to get into the offline business world and it has indeed been very frustrating. One of the things I’ve been doing is responding to Craigslist ads. Today I got a phone call from a man in Atlanta who wanted me to make at least one if not more websites similar to this one:

http://www.unlimited500.com/

For the first ten minutes of the conversation, of the guy going on and on in vague terms about these ‘boards,’ I thought he was talking about racing. I know, idiot.

Cash Gifting Scam Then I finally saw the front page and saw that it was a ‘gifting’ program, which I’ve never heard of. Googled it; it’s a pyramid scheme.

The BBB says that if you have to make an ‘investment,’ will be given money once you recruit someone else, and that recruit must also make an investment, then you should “steer clear of the scheme, don’t give in to tempting claims online and never buckle under to high-pressure sales pitches.” His entire conversation with me was laden with sales points.

http://www.bbb.org/us/article/bbb-warns-cash-gifting-pyramid-schemes-flourishing-online-9865

To make matters worse he made it obvious that he was targeting (my word, not his of course) churches, senior citizens, and people affected by the economy such as single mothers. He mentioned telling people who didn’t have the money to pawn things and they could get them back once the money came in. Once it was there turn in the ‘cycle.’

His new website will be called Upon Wings of Angels where 10% goes to the charity, church, etc. of your choice. Oh goodie.

I feel dirty for being on the phone with him for that long. And mad. Really, really mad.

Have you heard of this before? Don’t let your friends or family members fall victim to this.

I Say – All Newbies Should Start With Adsense

Written by beffy7 on September 7, 2011 · 3 Comments

When I started in IM, the ‘hot thing’ for newbies was Squidoo and promoting Clickbank products. And that’s probably why it took me so long to make money online.

The problem with Squidoo, is that you are trusting your business and livelihood to a website you don’t control. At any time, Squidoo can decide that one or all of your lenses don’t meet their TOS, and take them down. And, POOF, there goes an income stream.

Clickbank, on the other hand, is far too sporadic. When starting out, you need to be able to see money coming in to keep you productive. While your commission may be $20 or more a sale, if you only make one sale a month then you may get discouraged. Since most people have never heard of IM, there’s that little voice in the back of your head asking, “Is this really legit?” or “Do people really make a living doing this?”

I know that these questions were always in my head when I first started.

Also, information products are hard to sell to the average citizen who’s never heard of internet marketing. Sales pages can look hokey, and may make people think they’re getting scammed. So, you have to not only be able to generate traffic to your offer, but you also have to be a good persuasive copywriter to get people to trust the product and pull out their wallet. Persuasive copywriting takes time to master. I am not good at it at all, and therefore focus most of my time on other income sources.

And that’s where Adsense comes in.

You'll Be Surprised At How Fast Those Clicks Add Up

With adsense, you only have to focus on giving good content (facts) and driving traffic. The customer doesn’t have to pull out their wallet, they only have to mindlessly click an advertisement. Therefore, you see constant income, even if its only 10 cents a pop in the beginning. This constant income allows you to see that, yes, internet marketing does work and you can make a profession out of it. It’s the motivation that keeps you going.

In addition, a lot of Adsense niches will also perform well with Amazon.com offers. There’s no rule that you can only have one type of income generation on each site. I frequently mix Adsense with Amazon or CPA offers. And unlike Clickbank, people trust Amazon and are more willing to pull out their wallet to purchase something from them.

I like to think of Amazon as the Wal-mart of the online world. They sell everything from groceries to car parts. And that means that someone can come to your site searching for computer parts and end up buying text books or cat food through your affiliate link. I’ve even had people buy flat screen televisions through my amazon affiliate link, and I do not have any websites that promote TV’s.

In my opinion, Adsense/Amazon combo sites are the quickest and easiest way to build your online business. Last month I created an Adsense quick start guide and listed it on the WSO (Warrior Special Offer) forum. In it, I show you exactly what I do to create my Adsense sites to get the maximum results in the shortest amount of time. You can check out the report here.

If you are having trouble getting your IM business off the ground, don’t give up. Try building Adsense/Amazon sites. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

DigiResults Vs. Clickbank: Which Is The Better Choice For Merchants And Affiliates?

Written by beffy7 on July 28, 2011 · 3 Comments

Being a new, full-time marketer, it didn’t take much time for me to get into product creation. But where should I list my products? I promote Clickbank products myself, but when it comes to listing products there, I have to be honest, it intimidated me. Digiresults is the new guy on the block I heard about from folks in the forum. Not many people have heard of it, so I decided to do some research myself. Who should I trust my products, and potentially my livelihood with – Digiresults VS. Clickbank?

digiresults vs clickbank

Product activation and transaction fee

Clickbank requires a $49.95 activation fee for each product whereas you can upload an unlimited numbers of products in DigiResults’ portal without an activation or sign-up fee. When selling on Digiresults, you will only pay $0.25 + 7.5% interest for sales less than $10 ($0.50 +5% for sales $10 and up). This fee is lower than what Clickbank deducts, which is $1 + 7.5% for each sale regardless of the product’s price.

Clickbank’s long time service records and popularity among affiliates and consumers greatly influence their transaction fees. DigiResults is still a blooming company that needs every support it can get, which explains the low transaction fees and the absence of product activation rates.

Payment modes

Clickbank sends commissions to vendors and affiliates every two weeks in the form of checks. Direct deposit options are available but you need to make three checks in a span of 12 weeks. It can be frustrating if you prefer direct deposits but once you qualify, things will be easier for you.

DigiResults, on the other hand, pay through Paypal, which means you can spend the money online or have it deposited on your bank account. The great thing about DigiResults is payments are made immediately after a sale has been made. The fast payment mode is one of the biggest advantages of DigiResults over Clickbank.

Commissions for affiliates

Clickbank allows up to 75% of commissions. However, these fail in comparison to DigiResults’ 100% commission for affiliates. Quite a staggering offer. DigiResults has also come up with a commission payment system where merchants and affiliates are both paid at the same time after a sale. This payment system eliminates conflicting rotating or instant commission systems where the vendor and affiliate take turns in getting commissions.

Refunds

One of the problems in affiliate marketing is when a customer wants a refund and the money needs to be sent back to the unsatisfied customer. Clickbank generally handles refund and cancellation issues. They will contact the vendor and ask that the matter be resolved within 24 hours. The company will issue the refund if the vendor fails to comply after the allotted time. Some vendors have complained that Clickbank is too lenient with it’s refunds and will give refunds for the most ridiculous reasons. This is another reason why a lot of marketers are turning to Digiresults.

DigiResults’ vendors have full control over refunds and cancellation. When an unsatisfied customer requests for a refund or cancellation, they will have to contact the vendor’s contact or email address. Once the request is granted, the DCT or Direct Commission Technology of DigiResults will deduct the amount both from the vendor and the affiliate’s Paypal account.

Marketplace

Without contest, Clickbank houses more products compared to DigiResults, which provides more selections for affiliates. However, this is not good news for new merchants, like myself, who also want to share their knowledge through info products. A broader selling space is what DigiResults provide for starting vendors.

Then again, Clickbank, with more than a decade of service and solutions, have a better and well-structured marketplace. Although it comes with a multitude of products, browsing through them is simpler by clicking related categories. DigiResults’ marketplace can be viewed as bland and fails to offer advanced search categories and features.

Also, Digiresults seems to be flooded with products in the “Make Money” niche, and lacks products in other niches. Having said that, DigiResults is still young and has ample of time and space to improve. A quick search this morning showed a few products in the golf, fertility, and good ole dog training niches.

My Choice

I decided to use Digiresults, mainly due to it’s instant payment features and lack of competition for affiliates. While I don’t regret my decision, there has been some affiliate scams there. Folks with yahoo.com email addresses apply to promote your product. They use yahoo email because you can have an infinite amount of yahoo addresses. They make a sell, the payment is sent to both my paypal account and theirs. They take their affiliate payment, and maybe close their paypal account, I’m not sure. The buyer immediately asks for a refund, and I’m stuck refunding my payment along with the affiliate’s payment.

Digiresults has been notified of this and are addressing the issue. However, it is easy to combat yourself. Affiliates must apply to promote your product. When they do, send them a few questions via email. Ask them how they plan to promote your product and ask to see their website(s). Anyone who doesn’t respond or sends you a questionable answer, do not approve them. Problem solved.
As a vendor or an affiliate, who do you think wins this battle, Clickbank VS. Digiresults?

Oh, And Do Follow Me On Twitter

I’m Dropping LinxBoss (Updated 3/9/12)

Written by beffy7 on July 14, 2011 · 1 Comment

I’m not here to trash Linxboss. I believe its a good program, but, for me, the cost doesn’t justify the means. Let me explain:

I began using Linxboss in April on one single site by piggy backing on someone else’s account from the WPG forum. We’re tight like that there The site I was using it on converts well when its ranking, but hadn’t seen any visitors in months. Within that first month of using Linxboss, my site began ranking again, and I made around $200. Sweet, sign me up!

(If you’re not familiar with Linxboss, the short description is that you give the system a URL and keywords and they build your backlinks. It requires no work from you whatsoever. However, the basic account costs $147 a month and your only allowed 5 sites, with 200 links a month to each)

So, I signed up for the basic account and used some of my older sites I made when I was, uh-hmm, not as IM-wise as I am now. These were sites that used to rank and convert and then disappeared off the face of the earth.

BAM – traffic, sales! OMG – I have found the backlinking holy grail. So, of course, I bump up to the next account level. $250 a month and I’m now able to promote 10 sites. No brainer, right?

Well, here we are in July and what are those 10 sites doing? They’re bouncing everywhere. One day I check the tracking in the link boss portal and see this:

The next time I check I see this:

While this is to be expected with any backlinking program, I am not a guru. I am not even ‘successful’ yet. Yet. I cannot make the equivalent of a car payment each month for these results. For $250, I could hire another full time VA each month. Or I could order 50 backlinking gigs from fiverr.

The money was not spent in vain, however. From this ‘test,’ I’m able to see which sites just need a bit of love to start earning again. So, I’m going to get some fiverr gigs and promote, promote, promote. In theory, the bouncing should eventually stop (with me in the #1 spot I hope) and I should be able to get better results for a one time $50 to $100 as opposed to $250 a month.

The moral, which to learn cost me…entirely too much to admit, is that when your sites fall off the face of the earth, don’t give up. Promote them more, and not with the same old tools you always use. Google likes link diversity. So use different methods, throw some fiverr gigs at it maybe, and the good ones will come back.

Let’s see if I’m right. I’ll let you know.

3/9/2012 UPDATE

Linxboss

I received a letter through the mail (yes, people sill do that!) over the Christmas holidays from Linxboss saying they revamped and I should try them out again. I didn’t, too expensive for me, but maybe they give better results now? If you try them, let me know!

Good Fiverr Gigs?

Yes, fiverr can be hit or miss. I try to only get gigs with the word ‘manually’ in the description. You usually get less links, but the quality is far better.

The Best Place For Automated Backlinks?

The only thing I use consistently is EZArticlelink and Socialadr, and I talk EZAL in my free email SEO course. You can sign up for the course through the form above.

I’m currently testing Build My Rank, but I haven’t come to a conclusion about it yet. Yes, the links are good, but I’m not sure if the price+time is worth it.

When Will We Hear From You Again?

When I have something to say!

Seriously, I haven’t posted on this blog in ages because I’ve been so consumed with building my own sites. I’ve really gotten into the groove of the J-O-B. I enjoy it and am in sort of a transitional state. It’s no longer about making sites just for the money money money, but I’m enjoying making sites that are, well, awesome and that people will want actually want to visit, will want to ‘like’ on facebook because they actually like it, and so on.

So, if I have something beneficial to say, I will. But until then, this blog may not be updated often.

But I’m still around.

Just L – I – V – I – N

Space, Time, and Internet Marketing

Written by beffy7 on July 8, 2011 · Leave a Comment

I’ve been conditioned to live in a world where your job runs your life, you work specific hours, you play IF you have the time, you eat at a certain time, you sleep at a certain time and so on. Now that these boundaries are gone, I’m trying to find my way in this new world. As a result, I’ve been really beating myself up lately. I feel as though I’m never working enough, never accomplishing enough, etc. Probably because I’m trying so hard to get my business going that I haven’t spent anytime tracking my progress. Work on the things that make you money, and right now, tracking progress, paperwork, etc does not fall into that category.

But, I’m tired of feeling guilty all the time. Should I feel guilty that I can’t get myself out of the bed before 10 am? I do. Or that I’m not accomplishing enough? I have no idea, but I do. Internet marketing is supposed to be freedom, and believe me, it is, but I’m still finding ways to beat myself up. So, I decided to tackle the negativity head on and these are my thoughts today.

You Will Never Have Enough Time

Since working online full time, I have so much more time on my hands. I do more in a week than I did in a whole month when I had a ‘real job.’ Of course, it’s not enough. I have so many ideas bouncing around in my head (and finally put down on my brand new whiteboard) that there is no way that I can accomplish them all.

However, Time Doesn’t Exist

I was watching an episode of “Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman” the other day. Some scientist claim that time does not exist. In laymans terms, it is just something that we created in our minds to correspond with movement – the rise and fall of the sun, the movement of planets, solar systems, galaxies, etc. That episode was a bit boring to me, and I didn’t really think about it again until a few days ago when I was sitting at my computer. What time is it? 10 am or 4 pm? I have no idea. The only thing I know is that the sun is out. Today is Thursday, right… Yes, I think it is Thursday. It’s not the weekend, at least…

The Known Universe, One Of My Favorite Images, Click To See Full Size

Then I realized…When you don’t have to be at work at 7:30 am every morning, what does it matter if you work ’till 3 am every night? I wake up when I want. I eat when I’m hungry. I work until my shoulder starts to hurt (really need a new office chair) and then I do yoga. I work some more, until I get bored and I do something else. I may eat lunch at 4:30. What does it matter? What matters? As a full time internet marketer, time doesn’t exist. The only thing that exists is the goal, whatever that may be for you.

But A Schedule Is Imperative

I don’t think I am the type of person who needs or will even abide by a daily schedule. Right now I’m in the mood to write a blog post. Other times, I’m in the mood for something a bit more mindless, such as posting website content, or creating backlinks. I like to do what I feel like doing at the time. I find that the product is better that way. I give as much of the things that I don’t like doing to my employee.

But there has to be some type of structure or I may do 50 hours of work this week and 20 next week. I may only feel like writing blog posts and never do anything else. So, instead of a schedule, I have goals. Right now they are just weekly. Each week I have a list of things I have to accomplish. I can work 20 hours or I can work 60. That is up to me and how productive I am. But the goals have to be completed.

And it appears that I will be working this weekend.

Follow me on Twitter.

Take This Job And Shove It (Part 2)

Written by beffy7 on June 5, 2011 · 9 Comments

So…Did I do it? Did I quit?

You bet I did. But, I would be lying if I said I didn’t waver at all. The day of, June 1st, I was so nervous. Of course, I thought about backing out. I went outside for a walk to clear m head, and I thought of all the reasons for and against quitting. The thing is, I could never quite put my finger on why I shouldn’t quit. I had a million reasons why I should quit and do Internet Marketing full time, but the only reason I had to not quit was because my friends and family thought that I shouldn’t. That just wasn’t a good enough reason for me. So, I did it. I put in my two week notice on June 1st and my last day will be June 16th.

You would think that I would have went home and celebrated. If I had quit my job to start my own engineering firm, everyone would be patting me on the back. We’d go out for dinner, everyone would buy me drinks, we’d get too loud and celebrate. But when you quit your job to do internet marketing full time, people seem to think of you as naive or just lazy. Just yesterday, my excited “Guess what, I quit my job to do IM full time!” was met with a condescending laugh and “Well, I don’t think I would have quit my JOB.” Talk about a punch in the gut. I’ve always been viewed as a girl with a good head on her shoulders, but now I’m being lumped in with the ‘dreamers,’ such as the 40+ year old guy that’s still trying to ‘make it big’ in the music scene. Oh well, I didn’t do this to be popular. And maybe I am a dreamer.

To those of you who are going through or are thinking of going through the same plight, don’t expect people to be happy for you. People are going to think you’ve lost your mind, mainly because they don’t understand the profession. And yes, it is a profession. Be strong, ignore negative people, and seek out positive people who understand you in online forums whenever you need reassurance. There are millions of people who do this, but somehow they are unheard of in the mainstream. That’s probably a good thing, less competition

Why Did I Decide To Take The Leap?

March/April 2011 I received my tax return and instead of putting it towards debt like any sane person would, I decided that this was the time for me to either make it or give up completely when it comes to internet marketing. The only question was how to use the money.

I brainstormed and prayed on it for a long time. I could make a ton of websites for the money, I could get some uber expensive backlinking program, maybe I could start autoblogging, but really what I needed was time since I was still at my day job. Eventually I decided to hire a full time virtual assistant from the Philippines. A member of the forum, Heather, was very successful with outsourcing and had just came out with this guide on how to do it properly. I bought it and followed it to the letter. I have to say, for me, this was the best thing I could have done. My VA writes all my articles, which is a huge savings over most writers online. And that only takes a fraction of his time. Plus, because I have to keep him busy every single day, HE keeps me accountable and my business is growing more than it ever has because of it.

Then one slow day at work I found a PDF copy of “The 4-Hour Work Week” that my mom had sent me. It had been on my hard drive for ages, but that day I decided to read it. It was finished by the next day. I absolutely loved it and Beffy7 Marketing is here because of it. One section that I really enjoyed was an exercise where you think, in detail, what is the absolute worst thing that could happen if you quit your job. For me, I would lose my house and car, my boyfriend would leave me, my credit would be severely damaged, and then I would have to move back in with my parents and live a life of shame. This is absolute worst case scenario, and honestly that scenario isn’t THAT bad. And probably will never ever happen.

Surely, This Won't Happen To Me

Another section I enjoyed asked, what would you do if you lost your job today and had to get money. Well, I could bartend or wait tables. I could sell somethings I have in my house. Then I could sell my car, house, tap my 401k. But before it came to any of this, I could build websites and write articles for people in the forum. I could get money if I needed it, pretty easily.

Within the week after reading “The 4-Hour Work Week” there was an article on yahoo news called “The Top 10 Reasons To Quit Your Job Today.” I sent it to my boyfriend with the subject line “I swear I’m not searching for this.” He blew me off, assuming it was just another one of my phases. The article was by James Altucher and I started reading his blog. I can’t recommend it enough. Here’s one of my favorite posts.

Less than a week later, I decided to quit my job and wrote my first blog post. I won’t be officially self employed until June 16th, but I’m working as much as I can to boost my business. May’s earnings were double what April’s were. I need at least $100 a day to survive. I’m not there yet, but I will be, and soon. Maybe then I’ll get my celebration dinner.

In response to those who say to stop dreaming and face reality, I say keep dreaming and make reality.

~Kristian Kan, Rich By 25

Take This Job And Shove It! (Part 1)

Written by beffy7 on May 5, 2011 · 12 Comments

I’m quiting my job June 1st! That’s right, I’m going to be a full time internet marketer, exciting isn’t it!?

Actually, its more than exciting, its terrifying. You see, I don’t have $1000′s coming in from my websites. Heck, I don’t have adequate IM money coming in each month to even pay my bills. I am basically throwing myself in the deep end and we shall see if I sink or swim.

How did it all come to this? Well, let me give you a little background…

In 2007 I graduated from college with a Civil Engineering degree and I was pumped. I’m going to be a young, female, bad a$$ engineer in a male dominated field. Woohoo, Girl Power! I immediately go to work with a fast growing but small engineering firm. I am super company ‘man’ and can’t wait to take this place over like all the young professionals do on TV.

I buy a condo in 2008 when the economy is starting to dip (“Now’s the time to buy!”), because I’m a young professional and that’s what you are supposed to do right? Shortly after that, my ‘paid-for’ car dies and I have to buy a new car. Now I have a mortgage and a car payment. Living the American dream…

In July 2009 my boyfriend and I go on a vacation to Mexico. It was fantastic, but when we came back the post vacation blues set in. I don’t want to go back to work… Thanks to my depression and my love of google searching, I discover IM.

I buy a lot of products, put up squidoo lenses, buy more products, put up more squidoo lenses, and nothing happens BUT I do not give up. April 2010 I finally find WordPress Goldmine, a no nonsense IM training forum. I get my first site up and get some adsense clicks. Thirty cents has never made me so happy before in my life!

Do I run forward, making site after site until I have the perfect IM life I’ve dreamed of? No, of course not. I’m a procrastinator to the bone and I love to party. Plus websites cost money. So, in between almost daily happy hours, I make a site here and there. Some make me money, some don’t. Somehow, I think I’m going to be able to quit my job going at this rate.

Back to my job – February 2010. I’m still at the very same spot on the totem pole of office power, my boss is AWFUL, my job is very, very stressful and I’m starting to question whether I really even like engineering. I always envisioned myself working on some swanky sky scraper in my professionally looking skirt suit, but instead I’m drawing plans for storm water, water, and ugh, sewer at a desk by the main office printer. I don’t even get the privacy of a cubicle! How ‘hip’ is that?

I decide to face reality. People go to work everyday, that’s just the way it goes. But there is no sense in being miserable. So, I find a new job with a wonderful, kind boss. I get off work at 3:30 in the afternoon every single day. No overtime for this chick. I get vacation days out the wazoo and a raise!

But, I’m still not happy. This job only reinforces the fact that I do not like engineering and I do not like being told what to do, no matter how nice you are. If my work is done, why do I still have to be here every day?!

Ok, this post is entirely too long, and since we’re at a ‘turning point’ in my brief little bio, I’ll stop for today. Nail biter! I’ll leave you for now with this little quote -

I think 90% of people should quit their jobs right now or do something utterly drastic to shake things up. “What would I do?” people can then ask, “I have responsibilities, mouths to feed, mortgage to pay. You don’t get it.” Yes I do. You throw yourself into the abyss. You get scared. You stay up late at night thinking and thinking and thinking. You feel like the death of emptiness is worse than the slow death of your job. But you’ll figure it out. One by one all of your old colleagues will disappear from your life. They will die.

You’ll still be alive.

- James Altucher

PS – be sure to leave a comment and feel free to talk me out of this. (Comment button at top of post) I AM TERRIFIED. Have I completely lost my mind?!