Stop Commission Theft! (How to Manually Cloak Affiliate Links)

Cloaked FigureRecently I decided to limit the number of guest posts on my site.  But this is the first time I specifically ASKED for an article.

The other day Cristina Ansbjerg of Optima Lifestyle left a great comment about how to cloak affiliate links.

I feel this is a majorly important technique that every affiliate marketer should learn.  That’s why I practically begged Cristina to write a quick tutorial.  And here’s what she’s come up with…

A few weeks ago Steve posted a very useful article about How to Bypass an Opt In Page.

He created a video to explain very easily how to cloak your affiliate links using a free tool, G-Lock Affiliate Link Cloaker.

This topic is extremely important for affiliate marketers since cloaking your links is a technique you can use to:

Read more

Email Open Rates: My #1 Trick for Increasing an Average Open Rate

#1 Trick for increasing email opens

#1 Trick for increasing email opensEmail marketing is the lifeblood of my Internet business.

Without it; I would make very little money. To that end, I’m always looking for ways to improve the results I get from this medium.

In the last few months, I’ve been experimenting with a technique that’s discussed in a special report about 45 email marketing tips.  This is a technique I’ve used in other areas of my life.  But I never thought how to apply it to my Internet business.

In today’s post; we’ll talk about this technique and how you can use it to improve the results you get from your email campaign.

Read more

Herding Kittens- A Review of Best-Reviewer

Herdint kittens and backlinking

Herdint kittens and backlinkingGetting traffic

whether to your article, blog, landing page or affiliate offer is a huge desire for many.

Whether they are bloggers, affiliate marketers, article writers, freelancers, amazon affiliates or website owners.

The desire is for more.

More traffic.  More eyes on what you write.  More!  More! More!!!

The problem is that getting this extra traffic can seem like herding kittens.

Read more

THE Definitive Guide to Tracking an Internet Business [Part 3]

The Importance of TrackingWelcome to the third (and final) part of our series on tracking.

Here is part 1 and part 2 in case you missed anything.

Last week I had a reader ask why I bothered to dedicate multiple posts to a dry topic like tracking.

My email reply was simple:

“Tracking is important because it shows where your business experiences growth.  You can then use these metrics to get more traffic and make more money.”

Really, I can’t overemphasize the importance of tracking.  This simple task identifies what’s working and what’s not.  Do more of the successful activities and you’ll earn extra income.  It’s really that simple!

Okay, that’s my sermon on tracking.  Let’s continue where we left off.  We’ve already covered ten different things to track in your Internet business.  Now we’ll cover the last five:

Read more

THE Definitive Guide to Tracking an Internet Business [Part 2]

The Importance of Tracking an Internet BusinessLast week I discussed the importance of tracking an Internet business.

Let’s recap what we covered:

  • The importance of tracking to the growth of an Internet business
  • Why you need to review your metrics every month
  • 5 tools I use for tracking
  • Four metrics you should track

Today’s post is a continuation of the last article.  Specifically we’ll review additional metrics you can track with an Internet business:

#5: Video Marketing Stats

YouTube provides excellent in-depth analysis of posted videos.  You can use their tools to discover how people find your content.  This information can be accessed by selecting the Insight button:

Read more

THE Definitive Guide to Tracking an Internet Business [Part 1]

The Importance of Tracking an Internet Business“How do you succeed online?”

This is a simple question that’s been answered a thousand times.

Every Internet entrepreneur has their own opinion.  And each seems to conflict with the other.

If you held a gun to my head, I’d say the key to success is:

Find what works and do more of that.”

It’s a simple philosophy I developed over five years ago.  You won’t find success right away.  It comes by trying a bunch of things and building on the techniques that get results.

How do you know when something is successful?  You learn that with tracking.

I’ve been a tracking fanatic since 2006.  A long time ago, I heard a great quote from Peter Drucker: “What gets measured gets managed.” This is a concept that can be applied to any online business.

My point is this.  Tracking is the only way to know if something works with an online business.  It removes the guesswork and uses statistical evidence to show when a technique produces measurable results.

This is post is titled: THE Definitive Guide to Tracking an Online Business.  It’s the first of a multi-part series where I detail how to effectively implement tracking with ANY online business.

Read more

Sherlock Holmes on How to Overcome Internet Business Failure

Sherlock Holmes.

We’ve all heard the name before.  A legendary character from dozens of books, Holmes could untangle any mystery and discover the truth.   From the Hound of the Baskervilles to his battle of wits with Professor Moriarty, Sherlock was always one step ahead.

Sherlock Holmes Internet MarketerRecently I wondered what Sherlock would do if he were alive in 2011.  Seeing that C.S.I. dominates the “detective” market, he might need a job.  I’d like to imagine that he’d be a fairly good business consultant because he’s great at overcoming complex challenges.

With that in mind, here’s how Sherlock Holmes would solve the many “failures” Internet business owners experience on a regular basis.  To make things interesting, he’s going to answer questions in the Dear Abby style.

Read more

Know Your MWR: Most Wanted Response

A few years ago I learned about something called Most Wanted Response, or MWR for short. It’s a pretty simple concept but it packs a lot of punch. If you want to live the internet lifestyle and blog for a living, you’ve got to treat your site like a business. That’s why you need to do things in a way that will generate the response you want readers to take whenever you decide to design a new website or start a new blog.

A lot of people out there make the mistake of having a site that looks nice enough but doesn’t have much purpose—as if the blogger is trying a little bit of everything all at once, hoping that something will work out. If you want to become a successful entrepreneur, you can’t just cross your fingers and hope for the best. You need to know your MWR.

Read more

The Art of Completing Internet Marketing Projects

Completing projects is a major challenge for Internet marketers.  If you’re like most people, your “to-do list” is way longer than your to-done list.

I used to have a lot of trouble with finishing my online business projects.  What finally worked was a combination of ideas I learned from the Getting Things Done book and a few pointers from my dad.

Read more

10 Online Business Mistakes You Need to Avoid

It’s time for another edition of “Letters to Steve.”   In this series, I answer questions about Internet marketing, lifestyle design or anything else on your mind.  Today, I’m going to cover something William asked in the comments section of a recent post.  Specifically he wanted to know what mistakes to avoid with an online business.

This is a great question because I’ve learned more from my mistakes than anything else.  Here’s what William wrote…

Read more