Archive for June, 2008
Now, I’m sure a lot of you guys are just sick of all these social bookmarking sites. I mean, whenever I mention it to another person, 99% of the times it’s the same reaction.
“Damn, WTF? Yet another social bookmarking site? How many of these damn sites are continually coming out each and everyday?!”
Hey, I’m not going to lie to you, I have the same reaction sometimes. Usually what people do is try a handful of them out and narrow down which ones bring them the most traffic. Take “the Triangle Strategy” that Patrick of Piggybankpie came up with. But a majority of these sites will not help with backlink juices for you to rank high in certain keywords.
Below are a bunch of dofollow social bookmarking sites and I will continue to update as I find them. I would suggest signing up for a majority of them now and I’ll write a follow-up post on a very easy way of submitting to all these sites in less than 5 minutes.
Oh, and before I forget, can you guys please check to see if you won the unclaimed prizes? I know for a fact that a bunch of you guys read this blog that won, and I even gave you a backlink. 
Claim those prizes already before I donate it to one of my top commentators!
And Barry, you’re one of my top commentators and you won something! Claim it already!
Lastly, yes, that’s a picture of Christina Milian. You guys already know that I like putting pictures of hot celebrities on here, so if you’re still reading up to this point, I will give a backlink to those who suggest a beautiful celeb that I have not put on here before. If I use that celebrity, I will give you full credit for suggesting it to me.
Some people must be blinded by the killer titles of some posts or maybe they simply don’t care. But why do people feel the need to not read my posts and still try to give their two cents? People like that are just proof there are just some people out there who do it all for the wrong reasons. For instance, trying to win a contest or just to get a backlink from your top commentators plugin.
My first instance, my current Market Leverage sponsored contest in which people decide to just ignore the rules on how to enter assuming their comment of “Oh, I hope I win this contest!” will count as an entry. Well, because of their inability to follow a simple rule, none of those peoples’ entries are going to count.
Why won’t their comments count?
I’m not a big fan of constantly repeating myself but I mentioned this one too many times and yet, people still manage to just ignore the entry rules. If you look at the image below, I circled one of the ways to enter the contest. All you have to do is leave a comment and answer of the following questions provided.
First of all, I can understand if someone was to enter my contest by subscribing to my RSS Feeds and then unsubscribe, that’s fine. Whatever. But if you’re going to try to win a prize from someone’s contest, you should at the very least read the post and the ways to actually enter the contest, right?
Yeah, see, I thought so too. But wrong!
People are doing the same thing so I even decided to be nice and leave a comment on that post just to remind those folks to answer one of the following questions to actually be entered into the contest. Yes, that was out of courtesy but I bet you those people won’t read the comments because if they don’t read the rules in the post, why would they bother reading the comments? Matter of fact, how do those people expect to win when they probably won’t ever come back to this site?
Out of another courtesy, I decided to edit my contest post and type in the first paragraph in red bold that if they do not answer the question(s), their entries will not count. I figured if I mentioned it on the first line, then people would follow the rules.
Wrong again!
It seems as though there will always be a handful of people who expect something when they don’t listen at all. I mean, I’m holding this contest (and any of my other contests) for my readers but don’t expect me to just give it to some random person who will stop by once and never come back. Well, if they win but never come back, they won’t see the prize(s) either. I do not contact winners individually, I make it their responsibility to claim their prizes.
And yes, there will always be people who don’t claim their prizes but that just makes it better for the other contestants.
So, to the handful of people who commented stating they hope to win or trying to play the “oh, feel bad for me” card, don’t expect to win when you never officially entered. Honestly, I don’t feel bad especially if you cannot read the first line of the contest post.
Sorry for this rant, but it’s getting annoying trying to remind people to follow the rules or just read the post. And I know I don’t have to remind people their entries won’t count but I think I’m a nice guy.
We all have dreams and goals that we want to achieve. Many of us want to quit our 9-5 jobs and work freely at home, or maybe work out on the beach with your laptops. I mean, isn’t that why we all strive to push and make money online? But here’s the thing, your dreams and your goals are just that, they’re only dreams and goals; it’s the dream turn reality that we want. Of course, we cannot achieve that if we don’t execute.
It’s funny, just the other day I got some Chinese take-out and they always give fortune cookies. Of course, it must have been fate telling me she’s going to slap me silly because this is what the fortune said:
“Some people never have anything except for ideas. Go do it.”
Now, I would like to think I’m an idea man with a lot of ambition, but it should never stop there. I’ve come up with tons of ideas to make money online, get traffic, come up with new and creative things to separate myself from the herd but if I never execute those ideas and dreams then I’m just like everybody else.
A dreamer…
We all have dreams but unfortunately, not many of us do anything to push ourselves to bring those dreams to our realities. And although, some dreams may be a little out of our reach, most are doable.
Now, if you’re having dreams of swimming in cash like Scrooge McDuck, well, that’s just not logical and you need to stop watching old cartoons. Plus, I tried to swim in money before and believe it or not, it hurts. If you don’t believe me, try diving in a pool full of dollars and coins!
But luckily, most people don’t swim in money. And yes, you can make as much money as you want if you put your mind to it, execute your ideas and lastly, do not procrastinate because more than likely, you’ll never go back to it.
Even if the whole world tells you your ideas and dreams are stupid, don’t let that stop you. And don’t put it off because you shouldn’t care what the rest of the world thinks about it.
For instance, I used to think I was too short to play for the NBA but a guy named Mugsy Bogues just proved me wrong. He’s shorter than most of us (he was only 5’3 when he was starting in the NBA) and he will probably be remembered for that. A man in a land of giants.
But he had a dream, he pushed himself and he proved a lot of people wrong. See, he executed and made his dream his reality.
And of course, we all know Martin Luther King, I don’t even need to explain that.
You know what separates the real online money makers from the wanna-be’s? Well, besides the real money constantly being deposited into their bank account, it’s also the fact that these online money makers spend tons of time executing and working their way to their goals and dreams.
I’ve talked with people like Jonathan Volk, Paul of Uberaffiliate, Jason of Theuniversitykid on instant messenger and all of them are down-to-earth guys. But these are the same guys who are constantly on the internet, constantly working hard and constantly making money online. I mean, Jonathan has a goal bar on his blog on how much he wants to make a month, once he accomplished that, you think he just settled?
Nope. He just raised that bar even more.
See, personally, I’m not that type to set my goals extra high, I set it low. Once I accomplish that goal, I move to the next step and I just continue to cross these goals off my list.
My only problem, I procrastinate. Yes, I have dreams. And yes I work my way to bring those dreams to my reality but my only downfall is I end up doing it very slow because I’m a procrastinator. Lol…
And this post isn’t only for those trying to make money online, this goes for all those people who have dreams but just leave it at that. Honestly, there are only three words that I have to say (and no, it’s not “I love you”) but Nike made it famous…
“Just do it!”
First of all, man, I’m still trying to recuperate from last night’s Game 6 Celtics win over the Lakers to take the NBA Finals Championship. Yes, I was at the game and almost lost my voice. But no, I was not flipping cars and rioting like some people. There were too many riot officers at almost every point. (Please see image below of North Station)
But as I recuperate and take in my victory with the bet I made with Bloggernoob , I’ll just sit and smile and wait for prize! Speaking of prizes, besides my current Market Leverage contest , here are a bunch of other ones you should consider checking out (and I know I miss a lot of them, just let me know and I’ll add it).
MoneyBites – Has a similar contest to Zac’s and Tyler’s but instead, you don’t necessarily need to sign up through his affiliate link. You just need to be signed up with ML and send him your publisher number via e-mail so he can keep track.
His prizes consists of mainly money prepaid rewards cards totaling $600.
Contest ends July 13th
Tyler Cruz – He’s holding an “Affiliate Marketing Challenge” for those who sign up through his referral link. His prizes are similar to those of my contest, but instead, he’s giving away an iPod Touch instead of a Nano.
Currently, first place and spanking his competition’s ass so I guess he really wants that iPod Touch. But the Flip Mino and other prizes are still up for grabs.
Too bad I signed up for ML prior to his contest! Contest ends July 11th .
Jonathan Volk – There are various ways to gain entries for his contest and his prizes are similar to Tyler’s and yes, that includes an iPod Touch. Man, I feel left out with my Nano, but it happens!
Contest ends June 30th .
Uberaffiliate – Paul has come up with a different contest (but mine is more fun ) in which you write up an article on “the mistakes you’ve made in affiliated marketing, and what you’ve learned from it. Yup, just as simple as that. Of course, if you’re not into AM, um, I don’t know?
Contest ends June 23rd .
John Chow – John’s giving away the entire bag of stuff instead of first, second, third places. It’s as easy as leaving a simple comment to his contest post , but you could also write a post linking to his contest page and to Marketleverage.com .
Contest ends June 20th .
Zac Johnson – I’m a little jealous. Zac’s prizes includes the same ones as my contest but in addition, he is also giving away an iPod Touch. Yes, that means he’s giving away an iPod Nano and Touch.
The thing that sucks is the fact that the only way to win the iPod Touch is to join ML through his affiliate link and whoever earns the most. Just like Tyler Cruz, too bad I joined ML prior to their contests!
Contest ends: Not sure?
CDFnetworks – Hurry, hurry! This contest ends today at 10pm PST. The easiest way to enter is to just leave a comment on his contest post. He has the same prizes as my contest. But again, hurry on over there because his contest ends today !
Affiliate Confession – In addition to the ML prizes, Alan has found sponsors willing to contribute a Nintendo DS Lite, USB Missle Launcher and Banana Bunker. And you have to do to enter is link to his contest post , Market Leverage and Vat19.com . Yup, just as simple as that. But make sure you leave a comment when you have done so to let him know you officially entered.
Contest ends June 25th .
Garry Conn – Hurry, this contest ends today as well! Garry made it pretty simple for those that are lazy to write a blog post, he wrote it for you! All you have to do is copy and paste and publish! That’s it!
Again, hurry! That contest ends today!
Bloggernoob – I’m sure he won’t let me enter his contest because he lost the Lakers vs Celtics bet to me, but Noob is holding a contest for ML as well. You can simply comment on his contest post and kiss his ass or just blog about it and link to his contest post.
Hurry, his contest ends tomorrow June 19th !
I’m sure there are TONS of other Market Leverage contests out there, especially since they made a huge splash in the Blogosphere waters but those are just some quick ones that I have seen.
What are you waiting for? First , go enter my Market Leverage contest and then enter every other contest!
I know I said I was going to start my affiliated marketing career a while back but hey, I procrastinated a little more than I should have. I don’t know why I procrastinated as much as I did but I finally took the dive into the affiliated marketing waters with the big sharks fishes. Now, let’s see how it goes.
Okay, so technically, I did do some affiliated marketing before as I used this blog as a landing page and I had quite a bunch of people who were willing to sign up through my affiliated links – whatever it was. Though, the links were all related to my niche like paid review sites, affiliate companies, etc so my readers were kind enough to sign up through my referrals.
But that just wasn’t enough because my blog isn’t as big as I want it to be. And that’s fine with me; I don’t need thousands of people following me and all that extra exposure of fame. I rather be the director in this movie than the actor, the man simply behind the scenes, the one who makes tons of money but no one really knows who he is.
And so I started…
So, I officially created my first landing page. It’s pretty basic and the idea actually came from Zac Johnson, he created a landing page template for his readers. Yes, I downloaded it too but instead of using his, I took his example and the information he supplied and did some research of my own.
With the information and landing page example, I found lots and lots of other landing pages throughout my research. I decided to do a mixture of all those landing pages into one and that’s how I begun my affiliated marketing campaign. And I actually didn’t go with the campaign he suggested because I figured all of his 3,000+ RSS Feed subscribers would potentially try the same thing.
Lots of competition = not a good chance for me which = high CPC costs if I did PPC advertising for that specific campaign.
Now, I know this is not going to be easy because I will be testing out a few different methods (all legit ways) which will also include PPC advertising, but I’m going to hold off on that for a little bit; especially since I’m a noob, I’m going to be doing a lot of trial-and-error.
Out of all the reading, researching, testing that I have done so far, the best way is to be creative. Now, all the super affiliates like Zac Johnson, Paul of Uberaffiliate, Jonathon Volk, etc mainly use PPC advertising and spend thousands on it. That is probably the quickest and easiest way, but if you don’t have that type of money to spend, then this is where your creativity takes place.
You want to utilize all the sources you can possibly use. Yes, it’s going to be harder. And yes, it’s going to take more time and effort. But if you don’t have a lot of money to spend and you want to get into affiliated marketing, then I guess you really have no choice, huh?
Instead of cramming all that information in this one post, I’ll stretch out what I have tested. I mean, I’m a creative person so I’ll find ways.
Of course around the same time I begun my affiliate marketing campaign, I have also seen quite a bunch of bloggers like Tyler Cruz, Gyutae of Winningtheweb, Jason of the Theuniversitykid (he hit his first $1,000/day), etc taking on the affiliated marketing recently (or earlier before but finally mentioned it on their blog) and I wish them all luck, of course, not too much luck if they’re going to be running the same campaigns as me.
