I’ve been extremely busy as of late, especially with taxes, personal issues and working on other projects to test new things out. One of the things that I’m in the process of testing is automated blogs with strictly Adsense ads (or pay-per-click ads) versus ones with strictly affiliate products.

Now, I’m not exactly comparing the two because when it comes down to it, I’ll probably have both running and I’ll just be tweaking each one to see how much money I can possibly make with very little work.

How Do You Set Up An Automated Blog?

Well, setting up an automated blog isn’t very hard; it just takes a little work just like any other way of building traffic, making money online, etc. You are basically setting up a Wordpress blog with key plugins, taking content from RSS Feeds of your choice and submitting to various sites and directories to build links and get traffic.

I would explain how to do it but it’ll be easier if you guys just read the controversial post on setting up an automated blog written by Jason.

Some Key Things to Keep in Mind

A few things you want to keep in mind based on things I have read from comments and forums are:

- Make sure the content you’re taking is not copyrighted. Some sites bluntly say you cannot republish content from them without permission, and it should usually be easy to see because they should have a copyright on their footer.

- After setting your Wordpress blog up, you basically want to get and save lists that include: keyword-based RSS Feeds, sites to submit your RSS Feeds to and a ping list.

Like I said, once you get these lists, you obviously want to submit to all of them but you also want to save them. You will need them again, especially if you decide to rinse and repeat the process.

- Don’t give up! Supposedly, the worst thing that can happen is you make no money but you gain a Pagerank of some sort. You could always sell links or even just sell the entire site for profit. I mean, you’re not doing much work besides the initial setup. After that, everything should be smooth sailing… for the most part.

Conclusion and Additional Notes

I forgot to reply to some of your comments on previous posts but a lot of people mention the “duplicate content” myth and getting in trouble from the Big G or whatever. Well, there are only a couple of things you have to keep in mind about that.

First, you won’t be penalized by Google if you don’t have duplicate content within your own site. There are codes to avoid that anyways but I’ll try to make a separate post for more information.

Secondly, if you avoid copyrighted material, you should be fine as well. Getting your website banned from search engines is a very, very long process and it’s not even guaranteed.

Below are reasons I found in which they would potentially remove your content from the search engines:

- If the site is a spam site.
- If a webmaster believes the site is engaged in buying or selling links that pass PageRank.
- If the content posted constitutes copyright infringement, which will require a DMCA takedown request.
- If the site is believed to house malware (viruses, malicious software, phishing, etc.).
- If a webpage contains personal, private information, request for removal can be made via the URL removal tool.
- The site owner has modified a page so that it no longer contains the information or image that concerns me.
- The site owner has removed a page/image or blocked it from being indexed by using robots.txt or meta tags.
- You’ve been unable to work with the site owner, but the information appearing in the search results is one of the following:
- Your social security or government ID number
- Your bank account or credit card number
- Your image of my handwritten signature
- Your full name or the name of your business appearing on an site that’s spamming Google’s search results.

So, I’ll try to keep you guys updated. I’m sure some of you guys will ask for URLs of the some of the sites, I’ll consider sharing one or two but strictly with password protected posts, which are only for my e-mail subscribers.

But would you try it out too?  Questions?

I know a lot of you guys already know how to cloak affiliate links manually or maybe you already have an affiliate cloaking plugin such as the Ninja Affiliate Plugin (like I do) but if you don’t know how to or don’t want to pay any money, here’s how to do it.

I think there are a few different ways you can go about cloaking affiliate links manually but I think the easiest way is to just redirect your visitors.

First, I would open up a blank notepad and copy and paste the following html code:

<html>

<head>

<title>TITLE OF YOUR AFFILIATE LINK</title>

<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,nofollow”>

<script> window.location=”YOUR AFFILIATE LINK GOES HERE“; </script>

<meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”1; url=”YOUR AFFILIATE LINK GOES HERE “>

</head>

<body>

<p align=”center”>You are being taken to the correct page.

<br>If the page doesn’t load after 5 seconds, <a href=”YOUR AFFILIATE LINK GOES HERE“>click here</a>.

</p>

</body>

</html>

Now, this is basically a redirect link with the option of having your visitor link through if the page doesn’t load correctly. But that rarely happens but at least you’ll have the backup just incase.

The only things you have to change are the title of the redirect page and simply insert your affiliate link in the proper areas (which I highlighted in red for you guys).

Once you get that done, just save the notepad document with an easy name to remember for the affiliate link and add “.php” as the extension.

So, say you’re cloaking a link for MarketLeverage or something, just save the notepad document as “marketleverage.php” so it’s easy to remember.

Now that you have the redirect file, you want to put that onto your server. I would suggest creating a subfolder titled “goto” or “go” and put the file in there.

Okay, you’re just about done. Now, when you link to your cloaked affiliate link, just use the URL as “http://www.yoursite.com/goto/marketleverage.php” and whenever someone clicks on that, it will redirect them to your affiliate link.

I hope that’s easy enough for you guys. Let me know if you have any questions!

First of all, I would like to thank MarketLeverage once again for their generosity in sponsoring this contest with a great prize. And a special shout out to Dina for helping me put this together and continue being a great contact as well as a great part of the ML team. Though, I’m going to have to apologize because I was the basic holdup on the second drawing. So, sorry everyone and sorry Dina!

Now, before we get to the winner who was chosen for submitting the best affiliate tip/secret, in my eyes, I’m going to ramble on for a couple of paragraphs.

This contest didn’t get as much publicity as most of my other contests simply because I didn’t have as much time to promote it like I have with some of my others. There were a few reasons behind this; but most of it surrounded the lack of time in December as well as the fact that I was having problems with my computer, internet as well as e-mails.

In addition, there seemed to be a lack of entries because some people mentioned they didn’t know too much about affiliate marketing so they felt as though they couldn’t enter because they lacked the knowledge.

Of course, since some didn’t enter because they were just starting out in affiliate marketing and they didn’t have much to contribute as a secret, others benefited from it because they had less competition.

Less competition = better chance to win.

You guys should all keep that in mind when it comes to making money online. Because you’ll soon find out that you always want to find things with less competition so you can benefit from it.

A few instances that would be good with less competition would be, but not restricted to, keyword research, affiliate marketing, building traffic, selecting a niche (get out of the make money online niche while you can!) and so on.

Okay, I’m getting sidetracked a little bit here…

So, there were a total of 14 entries that were submitted in various ways. Some people decided to comment with their affiliate tip on the contest post, some were dedicated enough to write an entire post and lastly, some took the time to e-mail me directly so their secret actually remained a secret. Well, for the most part.

Although, there were only 14 entries, it was still hard for me to choose one winner. Everyone had good tips, some had similar secrets and I had to do my best to pick only one.

There will be only one… (okay, if you’ve seen the movie Zack and Miri Makes A Porno, then you’ll get that line)

Again, it was hard as hell to pick one winner. Matter of fact, I was talking with Dina and asked for her opinion on how to choose one. Some of you guys went into step-by-step details, others wrote an overview on the what’s and how’s while the remaining wrote a simple paragraph or two.

Well, I went with a basic tip and one that would work with affiliate marketing and with any business strategy you go with.

Anyways, the winner is…

Read the rest of this entry »

T3Leads is an affiliate network that is slowly creeping up to people, in a good way. Plus, it’ll be pretty profitable for you as well.

T3Leads tends to have leads primarily in the financial area which includes credit cards, insurance, debt and more. This is probably the best time to promote these types of leads, especially since everyone is in a financial crunch. I mean Massachusetts and other states just asked for a $1 Trillion dollar bailout! Plus, the unemployment rate continues to climb.

T3Leads does not sell generated leads. That basically means the affiliate gets the most out of the money. And who doesn’t like that? Their affiliate program is directly tied with a large network of banks and other financial institutions.

So, in essence, they don’t have like five companies working in between them. Some affiliate networks are like that and by the time the money gets down to you, the affiliate marketer, the payout ends up being chump change. With T3Leads, you get the most out of your leads.

I’m not sure if this is true as I’m pretty new to this company but it is said that “guarantee” the highest conversion rate in the industry. I am told it ranges from 1:6 to 1:9 which is a very high conversion rate. And it’s good for you if you’re a PPC marketer because you spend less and make more.

Also, a little birdie informed me that affiliates can order free ePassporte cards. Tell me that isn’t convenient?

The thing I like about T3Leads is how they payout and the frequency in which they do it. Normal affiliate networks pay you once a month, no matter how much you make within that period. On the other hand, T3Leads pay you on a bi-weekly basis and if you’re a pro affiliate marketer making over $1,000/week, you can request weekly payouts also.

In addition to getting paid bi-weekly or potentially on a weekly basis, you have the option of a quick transfer through Paypal. I’m sure most of you guys that are associated with affiliate networks know they usually pay by check, which could take anywhere between 7-10 business days to arrive in the mail at the end of the month.

Well, all that goes out the window because Paypal is pretty instant. Plus, you help save the environment by not having a check issued to you!

Not only that but they have 24/7 support and a pretty helpful forum incase you ever have questions or need help with promotional methods. I mean, everyone is there to help each other out.

In conclusion, I would suggest checking them out and taking advantage of the opportunity with the financial dilemma going on. I mean, you don’t have much to lose, yet, you have so much to gain simply by signing up with T3Leads.

First, my laptop crashed with some crazy virus or spyware and now it’s not turning on so I lost most, if not all, of my information on there. Currently, I’m on someone else’s computer and I’ll write a separate post about it. So, if you sent me an e-mail, it’s not that I’m ignoring you, I’m just trying to get everything fixed.

Did I not say a contest was coming soon? Of course, the lovely Dina of MarketLeverage commented the other day hinting on my contest; it’s because the one and only MarketLeverage has been generous enough to sponsor this contest as well!

You’ll be able to win a brand new Flip Mino HD or an iPod Nano, not to mention some additional prizes on top of that!

There are two different parts of this contest in which both are related to affiliate marketing and MarketLeverage. But don’t you worry your pretty little head off; this is not an affiliate marketing challenge but rather just sharing your affiliate marketing tips.

The Prizes:

- A Flip Mino HD or an iPod Nano (Blue)
- Amazon Kindle
- $100 ML Rewards Card
- $50 iTunes Card

How to Enter:

Submit a video or text tips related to affiliate marketing – it’s that simple. You can do so by either posting your affiliate tip (or secret) as a comment here, as a blog post or you can even e-mail me if you want.

If you submit a video, please send me the link. Also, keep in mind that if you are the winner chosen, you may be featured on MarketLeverage’s blog. That’s added exposure to you and your site. Hint, hint!

But here are some things to keep in mind when submitting your affiliate marketing tips and the contest as a whole:

a.) You can only use MarketLeverage as an example network. (Makes sense, especially since ML was nice enough to sponsor these lovely prizes for you guys)
b.) I will choose the best affiliate tip from the contestants and they will be handed their choice of a Flip Mino HD or iPod Nano
c.) This contest is also featured on tons of other sites, you can check out the other sites here.
d.) The winner from each site will then be entered for a chance to win the Amazon Kindle, $100 ML Rewards Card and/or the $50 iTunes Card. The blog owners that are running this contest will then vote for their favorites and that’s how you win!

Deadline:

December 31st, 2008 I know, I’m sorry for posting this late but again, my laptop and ALL my information crashed so that pretty much sucked. And see, my birthday is this week but I’m giving YOU a present instead. (Well, technically MarketLeverage is on my behalf )
e.) I can’t vote for the winner from my blog, I can only vote for the winners from the other blogs that are featuring this contest.

Simple enough contest if you ask me. I feel as though I’m missing something but if I am, I’m sure Dina of ML will come and yell at me.

Make sure to subscribe to my RSS Feeds to stay updated to see if you won!