It has been a while since I have posted. But I plan to post much more often in the future.

I have just finished the 11 lessons to the 2008 Thirty Day Challenge preseason.

There is a lot of information in these lessons.

You can also get it free, just like I did, just go here.
http://www.ThirtyDayChallenge.com/challenge/20757

WHAT IS THE THIRTY DAY CHALLENGE?

In a nutshell… The Thirty Day Challenge is about making your first $10 online. For a full 30 days we are going to be showing you exactly how to start your own Internet business and generate your first income online without spending a dime.

That’s right, this is going to cost zip, diddly, nothing, nada, ziltch. The entire training program is free, and you won’t have to spend a thing to get your business started and begin making money. No credit card

And it is free. Ed Dale does a great job in the preseason lessons. He introduces such things as

The Flock browser
Flock Settings and Tips
Speeding Up Flock
Installing Flock Add-ons
Signing Up To Twitter
Using Twitter in Flock and Installing Twhirl
Using Google Reader
Getting Started with StumbleUpon
Getting Started with YouTube
Help with your searches on Google
Getting Started with FriendFeed
Tips For Watching The Videos

All of these things and many more will be use during the 2008 Thirty Day Challenge.

Again it’s free, just go here.
http://www.ThirtyDayChallenge.com/challenge/20757

Then you will get information about the 2008 Thirty Day Challenge.

The 2008 Thirty Day Challenge starts on August 1, so go to
http://www.ThirtyDayChallenge.com/challenge/20757
now and get the information and sign up. Again the 2008 Thirty Day Challenge will not cost you anything.

This will be a great experience for all who will take the effort to signup and then do the 2008 Thirty Day
Challenge.

Thanks for reading this review.

Do not let this opportunity pass you by. There is no reason not to sign up for the 2008 Thirty Day Challenge. It will not cost you anything. Sign up here.
http://www.ThirtyDayChallenge.com/challenge/20757

Also, please use the opt-in box above to subscribe to my newsletter.

How To Make Money Online (yes, even if you’re a newbie)

Have you noticed how difficult it is to actually get any REAL information about how to make money online?

It’s a nightmare isn’t it? You start off buying up everything you come across - all promising your overnight riches but only to disappoint you and leave you out of pocket. Well it doesn’t have to be like that as Michael Cheney is about to explain in this interview.

Michael Cheney, one of the most-respected names in Internet marketing, has been online since 1995 and is the man behind the 6-Figure launches of AdSense Videos, 11 Days To List Profits and Michael’s Traffic Videos.

After receiving 1489 responses to a survey he put out to his list one big request came back from almost everyone;

“Give us something easy, step-by-step and proven to make money online that anyone can do!”

So that’s what he’s giving you in the new product Start Your Profits Today.

Q. Michael, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us today.

A. My pleasure - I know a lot of people out there want to get started making money online so it’s my job to get out and spread the word about how easy it is.

Q. So what do you see as being the main hurdles to newbies being able to make money on the internet? What is it that’s stopping them?

A. To be honest with you I think the main thing is information. There is just so much BAD information out there. Scams. Cons. Just bad information that is leading people astray and wasting their time and money. I mean you get onto the Internet and the first thing you see almost is these get-rich-quick schemes. It’s not your fault for seizing these so-called opportunities as they are presented so well. And believe me - I know there are thousands of you out there who have been taken for a ride by things like this. People on my list have been telling me this.

Q. Yes, you ran survey didn’t you to ask your list what they wanted? What sort of questions did you ask them and what did they say?

A. Well I asked how I could most help them. You know - I’ve been online since 1995 and make a lot of money online but I was keen to tap into their BIGGEST challenges and needs. So I asked them what sort of information they wanted to learn. What style of learning they preferred and how they wanted this information to be delivered. I was totally blown away by the responses - I got 1489 people completing the survey!

Q. So what did they say?

A. There some big common themes that kept coming up as I looked at the responses and all the comments. These were that people want something that is STEP BY STEP, something that is AFFORDABALE and something that takes you right FROM BEGINNING and doesn’t leave anything out. You can get really frustrated when you start investing in products that claim to make you money online only to find that leave out a massive piece of the jigsaw. Or they forget to mention that you need to buy X, Y and Z just to make their system work. And that’s where Start Your Profits Today is different.

Q. How do you mean exactly?

A. Well, for the first time - I take you, as a total newbie beginner, right through the entire process from beginning to end on making money online. You discover how to get your own website address, how to create your website and how to start bringing the money in by selling other people’s products. This is a distilled version of the best making-money techniques I have ever used in my 13 years’ online experience. This is quite simple the fastest, easiest and best way to make money online and I show you what to do every step of the way.

Q. Sounds great. So how do you take people through all these steps?

A. Simple - I have recorded short videos on-screen of me actually doing each of these steps so you just follow the simple success formula - WATCH. COPY. EARN. You cannot go wrong, even a child could do it. I’m serious!

Q.You’re right, it does sound really easy. So tell me, what are some of these steps that you go through in Start Your Profits Today?

A. You learn how to pinpoint the most profitable products to promote. You like that title?! I like to have snappy titles that inspire you to take action as it’s not all sexy make-money stuff right from the beginning. There are obviously crucial steps you need to take in preparation. You know - to get your website online, to get your website address and to add words and pictures to your website etc.

Q. So what exactly do you need if you’re a beginner starting out trying to make online? Are there some items you need to buy?

A. Great question - yes you do need to have a few essentials. You just can’t make money online without them. You’ll need your own website address and of course your own website. I show you where to get this and the best, cheapest place to go for this in Start Your Profits Today. Other than that you can do everything else pretty much for free.

Q. So you don’t need to buy lots of different things to get started online?

A. No not all. I’m a big believer in doing things that are free! I started out with nothing, working from my bedroom in a poxy one-bed bachelor apartment. Now I live in $800,000 house in the country. My point? When I started out if there was a free way to do something - I found it! And I’m still that way now so I uncover some of these insider money-saving secrets in the videos as well.

Q. So wrapping up then - who would you say would benefit from these videos? Do you need to have a basic level of knowledge on the internet to get started?

A. If you can turn on your computer you are good to go! Seriously! You’ll see that I take you by the hand and guide you through every step of the way. I hate jargon so you won’t see any of that and it’s all explained in simple English and you can go along and progress through to the money at your own pace.

Q. You really do seem to have created a product that every newbie is going to want! So I guess the big question is - how much money can they make using Start Your Profits Today?

A. Well this all really depends on your attitude. If you have a great attitude and you put in the time to go through the steps then there is honestly no limit. You could quite easily be bringing in a few hundred to a few thousand extra dollars a week once you are up and running. What you need to remember is that is exactly the same system that I use in my multi-million dollar business. It works for me, it works for thousands of other people and it will work for you too.

Q. That’s great Michael. Thank you again for your time today, I really appreciate you doing this interview for us. Well all that remains now is for anyone listening to this interview to get over to Start Your Profits Today and start your profits today!

If your opt-in list is not growing, it’s likely that your business is not growing. List growth is essential to promoting affiliate programs and Internet Marketing. Below are five reasons why.

1. A small list is not sufficient.

Well, it might be if nearly everyone on your small opt-in list bought every time you presented them with a new opportunity. However, that is not likely to be the case:

a. Everyone that gets an email from you will not open it.
b. Everyone that gets an email from you and does open it will not visit your site.
c. Everyone that visits your site will not click on your offer (advertisement).
d. Everyone that clicks on your offer will not buy what you are offering.
e. Some that receive an email from you will click through to your offer and purchase what you are offering.

2. A growing list provides you with more prospects - potential customers.

The more prospects you have the more people you have an opportunity to build relationships with. The more people that you build a good relationship with, the higher your conversion rate for each of the steps above will be; i.e., more opened email, more visitors to your site, and ultimately more sales.

3. A growing opt in list is essential to your Internet Marketing success.

If you are promoting affiliate programs then you must have more and more people to promote your products to. But you must be careful to consider your list as more than customers.

Your subscribers must be people that you want to help. Along with the offers there must be a constant flow of good useful content that they feel is valuable to them and provides answers to their problems.

If they come to feel that your only interest in them is to collect their money, you will lose their trust and you will lose them as future customers. Content is what keeps the gold in the treasure chest. Help them out with what is holding them back and keeping them from being successful. Ask them.

A growing list of happy subscribes means a greater potential of future customers. Keep your list strong and keep it growing.

4. Your list is you most valuable asset.

I know that you’ve heard that before, but you need to believe it. Like any other business, you want your assets to continue to grow.

As the size of you opt-in list grows so does your potential success at promoting affiliate programs. And then one of your other assets, income, will also grow.

5. A growing opt-in list provides you with more leverage.

Your subscribers will be at different levels in their trust of you. Some will be very trustful while others will be somewhat skeptical - maybe a lot skeptical. Some will need to hear from you more before they will buy. But you will be able to leverage from those that are ready.

Also, you will be promoting several different products over time. Some of your subscribes will be ready to look at a few of your offers, others will not be ready to look at any of them. However, since your list is growing, you have more leverage to reach the people on your list that are ready.

So, work on constantly growing your opt-in list and your will have greater success in your efforts at promoting affiliate programs. Internet Marketing depends on a happy list of opt in subscribers.

Promoting Affiliate Programs – 5 Steps To Getting Started

Obliviously, if you are going to be promoting affiliate programs, then you need an affiliate program to promote. Will you promote your own affiliate program or someone else’s affiliate program?

Step 1. Develop or find an affiliate program to promote.

In today’s Internet marketing people are getting started with an online business by promoting affiliate programs that others have developed. And, they are being quite successful in doing so. There are many affiliate program data banks that you could search. ClickBank is one of the largest and better known.

The ultimate objective is to develop your own affiliate programs to.

Step 2. Obtain you own web site.

In promoting affiliate programs you need your own web hosting account. Most owners of affiliate programs provide a web site that host the sales letter for their program. However, you do not want to use this free web site as your primary promotion site. You want to have control over all of your content and your business. With your own web hosting account you will also be able to examine your web traffic statistics.

Many people want to get started without obtaining a web site and web hosting. And indeed, there are affiliate programs that will allow you to do this. However, you are in an Internet business and the Internet runs on web pages.

Therefore, you really should not expect to run an online business with out obtaining web hosting. A good web hosting company will allow you to host more than one web site when you purchase the appropriate hosting package.

Step 3. Subscribe to a good autoresponder system.

More important than getting traffic to your sales page is getting traffic to a lead generation system. This should be hosted on your own web site. You build what is commonly called a squeeze page on your web site. Your autoresponder company will generate the code that is necessary to put a sign up form on your squeeze page. Your objective is to get traffic to your squeeze page form and get people to fill out the form

When they do your autoresponder will collect their name and email address and build a database of subscribers for you. You are building a list. I’ll bet you’ve heard that the money is in the list.

You now develop a series of messages to send to your new subscribers. This series of messages is also stored in your autoresponder. The first message should be a welcome letter. Using your messages you begin to build a relationship with your subscribers. Give them useful and informative information. Your Subscribers are like gold to your business.

If you teach them what you know about your niche, over time some of them will spend money to buy your affiliate programs. You give and help and when they trust you they will likely order the affiliate program that you are promoting.

Step 4. Get traffic to your site.

You got your lead generation system established. Now you need to get someone to fill out that form so that they can start seeing your messages.

There are many ways to get traffic to your squeeze page. If you offer something free, an informative incentive, some of your traffic will sign up using your opt-in form.

One of the quickest ways to get traffic to your squeeze web page is to use pay per click. Using Google AdWords ads your can quickly get a lot of traffic. This can be expensive if not monitored. Your are bidding on how much you will pay each time someone clicks on your ad.

When someone clicks on your ad you will have to pay, even if they do not fill out and submit your form. In this case, you do not get a subscriber, but you still have to pay. So, you need to monitor your traffic and make sure you are getting a good return for your money.

That being said, you will generally get a lot of subscribers so this is a good and a fast way to build your list. Your results per click may be low but you generally will get a lot of clicks so you will get signups. Just watch your cost.

Another way to get traffic to you site is to submit articles. This is a long-term strategy. This method takes a while to get the traffic to your site. There are many web sites, called article directories, which will publish articles that you write.

If you write unique and quality articles these directories will publish your article. In exchange for the information that they get to publish on their site, they will allow you to place your own ad, called a resource box, at the end of your article. In this resource box you place a link back to your web squeeze page.

The directory promotes your article along with many others and over time some of the reader’s will click through to you web site. These visitors are pre-qualified. They already know a little bit about what you can provide. Having read your article, they decided to take a closer look by clicking on your web site link.

Step 5. Provide useful information to your subscribers.

I discussed this a little bit earlier but it needs to be emphasized in a step of its own. This is important and cannot be overly emphasized. Your subscribers must fell that they are getting quality information from the messages that you place in your autoresponder.

Some will tell you not to send them sales letters. This may be good advice for the first couple of messages. But the whole purpose for building the list is to make money. If you do not sent them sales message, how will they buy from you?

You can always include a link back to your sales site or blog. But in the end you will also need to send them messages that are sales letters.

Every once in a while you will want of promote a new affiliate program or one that you really believe will help them in their efforts.

Generally, in this case you will use the broadcast feature of your autoresponder.

The final step. Get started!

When will you do it? Until you get started you will get nowhere. You have to start somewhere. Start with the information provided here. Also, the chances are good that you have an abundance of additional material on you hard drive. Use some of it. Subscribe to my list building eCourse.

Learn as you implement things. You can refine, rearrange, improve, and implement new things as you go along. Just bite the bullet and get started.

1. Make sure your website content is good.

Improving and adding to your blog content or a regular basis will help in your list building efforts. It will also help you in your efforts to persuade your visitors that you are knowledgeable in your niche.

Make sure that your information is useful and that it meets needs. Then it will be of value to your visitors and this will help you to build your list.

Make sure that your opt-in box or signup form is on every page of your blog. Make sure it is located in a prominent place on each page. You want to take advantage of every possible opportunity to build your list by giving your visitors as many chances as possible to subscribe to you opt-in list.

2. Free items.

You can improve the chances of your visitors signing up by offering them something for free. They provide you with their name and email address and you provide them with the free offer - eBook, eCourse, etc. Many times this free offer will be just the enticement that someone needs and it will improve your list building efforts.

3. Drive more traffic to your website.

There are many ways to do this. I will mention two here.

For long-term traffic, write and submit articles with your resource box at the end.
For fast traffic try Adwords.

In both cases you are trying to build your list so drive traffic to your squeeze page. Hopefully, that they will fill out and submit your subscribe form.

4. Use testimonials.

Many people like to here what other people like about what you are offering. So add a testimonial to your squeeze page. This could encourage your visitor to opt-in to your list.

List building is important to your success. Continue to search for ways to encourage your visitors to join your list.

In promoting affiliate programs with articles, what should be included in your article?

First, you really should be promoting affiliate programs by submitting articles. Doing so can greatly improve your Internet marketing success. This happens because submitting articles can increase the traffic to your site. Many affiliate marketers use it as their primary traffic generation method.

When you are submitting your articles to article directories or posting them on your blog, you should be concerned with keywords, keyword phrases and keyword density.

However, you still want the quality of your article to be high. Therefore, make sure that in your attempt to accomplish keyword emphasis, that you do not make your article uninteresting for the reader.

Keyword emphasis is essential for search engine optimization, but more important is the readability for your visitors. Return visitors are important to your success so make your article is interesting and easy to read.

Since having a high ranking in the search engines is also important to the traffic that you receive to your site, you need to strike a good balance when trying to accomplish keyword emphasis. Try for around 3-5 percent keyword density.

Another thing that your article must have is a good subject. If the subject does not attract the attention of your readers, they may not read your article. Then, they will not click thru to your site. Also, they will not post the article on their site so that you have a link back to your site.

All of this is important to increasing your traffic.

Also essential to obtaining traffic is good content. The best way to measure good content is to answer the question, “Does this article help the reader with solving a problem?”

The fact is that people like to find solutions to their problems. They also like to see content on your blog or website that is relevant to the subject of your site.

If you provide useful information your status as an expert will be enhanced. Your readers may return for more. If they do, they will expect good content that they can use.

A resource box is critical if you will be submitting your article to article directories and/or ezines. You won’t need this if you article is posted on your blog or included in your own newsletter.

However, your reason for submitting it to article directories is so that you can get additional traffic to your site. So, be sure to include a link back to your site.

If your article impresses your reader, they may click the link and visit your site. Any visitor is a potential customer.

Hopefully, these tips or suggestions will help you in efforts at promoting affiliate programs by driving more traffic to your website or blog.

How to split test your sites for the best conversion rates.

If you want to insure that your promotion efforts are getting the best results possible you need to be split testing. Promoting affiliate programs involves many actions and split testing should be one of the actions you are taking.

There are several types of split testing. In this article I will discuss what some marketers call A/B split testing.

It is a very simple test where you select some part of your website or sales letter and test different versions of that part. Your objective is to determine which version is the most effective.

Basically, you take your list of prospects and split it into two sections, part A and part B. You need to make sure that your original list is divided in some sort of random way.

You do not want list A to have some sort of bias over list B. For instance, list A should not be make up of all your previous paying customers while list B is made of all those who have never purchased anything from you.

This would be a biased division of your original list. So make sure you randomize the division of your list in some way.

Now, you take some section of your website and develop two different versions of that part. Then you send one version to list A and the other version to list B.

For example, you might send list A your offer with free gift 1 and send list B the same offer but with free gift 2. What you are trying to test is which free gift brings you the most customers.

You might want to test different color schemes, different wording, different fonts, different sets of benefits, etc.

In the free gift example, if more prospects from list A accepts your free gift and also buys what you are offering, you might conclude that you obtain a higher conversion rate if you offer free gift 1.

That’s your overall objective of the split testing - to determine which version results in the best conversion rate, the most sales.

Now that you know which version converts the best you could test other sections of your web page or sales letter. After several tests you could determine the best version for future use.

It should be obvious that the larger your list the better your ability to determine the actual trend of the results that you obtain from your testing.

You may have to refine the split testing several times, but as your do you will determine the best version of your web page to use in promoting affiliate programs to your future prospects.

You could then make that version available for all of your affiliates. As a result, their success at promoting affiliate programs will be more successful. And of course your profits will increase.

Many affiliate marketers use this technique and know that it is one of the most productive methods for promoting affiliate programs.

The key is to have an affiliate program that you believe in and has proven to be a very successful product. It is very important that you do not just go out and recommend anything and everything. If you do, over time, you will lose the trust of your readers. No one can know and use every product that comes along.

Another thing, how can you recommend something that you have not used yourself? If you are going to use product recommendations as a way of promoting affiliate programs, then you must buy the product and use it yourself before you start recommending it to others.

In your recommendation do not use exaggerations and don’t fail to cover the things that you do not like about the product. Actually, you should point out anything that you don’t like about the product. It will help to develop trust in your recommendation and let the reader know that you have actually looked at the product.

With your information about what you think is good and what is not so good about the product, your visitors will be able to determine if they would be interested in the product. They will also be able to determine if the product meets their needs and if it will benefit their efforts.

If the product has an affiliate program and your visitor is in the business of promoting affiliate programs, they can decide it the program you are recommending is one that they would like to promote.

By making an honest evaluation of the product you will be perceive in a more acceptable manner and your readers will be more likely to at least review the sales page for the product. You can then let the sales page sale the product.

As your visitor reviews the sales page, he will remember what you said in your recommendation and it will likely influence his decision to buy or not to buy.

If you have avoided hype and pointed out a few of the real benefits of the product, your visitors will be able to see how the sales letter relates to your assessment of the product. If you are perceived as an expert about the product and it squares with their needs and their niche, they are more likely to act on your recommendation.

If you have been promoting the product for a while, your readers will know that this is not just a “jump on the latest bandwagon” attempt to make a profit off of them. They will see your recommendation as an attempt to clarify why you are promoting the program or product.

If your readers feel that your confidence in the product is high, it might influence their confidence in the product and you might find a new customer. They will not feel that you are trying to force them to buy. You are saying, here is a product that I use and recommend and hope that it will help you in your efforts also.

Product recommendation is a proven method for you to add to your business of promoting affiliate programs. Try it as a technique for your business.

Mindset!

It seems that everyone wants to be an Affiliate Marketer. If you want to be involved in Affiliate Marketing you must have a mindset:

==> To Study
==> To Work
==> To Focus
==> To Believe

Let’s take a closer look at each one of these.

Study:

You may be a newbie or and expert, but either way study is necessary if you wish to succeed or if you wish to continue to succeed in promoting affiliate programs.

You need to study what others have done and what theyare doing. You must learn the basics and then you must learn where affiliate marketing is moving. You must stay up to speed or the market will pass you by.

You must develop the desire to learn, if you don’t have it already.

Learn Affiliate Marketing
Learn List Building
Learn Blogging
…
Learn all aspects of the industry

Work:

If you don’t do this, you will not have a business and thus no income. This is where most people that get involved with promoting affiliate programs fail. They want to get involved in making money online, but they don’t want to work.

They get involve and then they find out that work is involved. They find out that this is not an “I join, I get rich enterprise”. It requires effort. Many are not willing to change their mindset to accept that work is involved.

Promoting affiliate programs requires application of all the things that you learn. You must learn and be able to distinguish how, or if, what you have learned will improve your business.

If it will improve your business, you must work to get the knowledge applied to your projects. Just knowing that a new concept exists will not help your business at all, you must put forth the effort required to implement the concept.

Focus:

You must focus on the tasks that are required. If your studying and research efforts have resulted in a new concept as noted above, stay focused until you get it implemented.

If you really want to make money online, you must set goals and stay focus. As an example, let’s say thatone of your goals is to find your niche - your marketing area.

You start studying and researching. Then you get an email that says that the way to build traffic to yousite is with Google AdWords.

The email offers you a product to help you get setup.So, you start looking at that product. Why? You don’thave a marketing area yet, much less a product. You don’t need advertising yet.

Stay focused. Find your niche, your marketing area, and then move on to the next step. If you do not stayfocused, you will never be ready to market a product, because you will not have one.

There are many secrets to promoting affiliate programs , and staying focused has to reign close to the top. I’m not sure that is a secret, it’s just common sense.

Believe:

You must believe in yourself. You must believe in the process. Your attitude toward your efforts to build your business must be positive. Know that you can do it. Others have and if you apply yourself you can too - that you must believe.

Commit to the efforts that are necessary to make it happen. Be optimistic. Everyday determine to accomplish something that will build your business. Believe it.

If you will make a strong determination to Study, Work, Focus, and Believe in yourself and the process, you will find success in promoting affiliate programs. That’s the secret.

It is a very will established truth that any online business must have a way to reach customers. In addition, all Internet Marketers, regardless of their niche would like a low cost way to communicate with customers that are also interested in information in that niche.

As far as being effective and low cost, email marketing is one of the best ways to promote your product to others.

Using an autoresponder to store you list of opt-in subscribers and customers, you have a means to be direct communication. You can have a list of prospects and when a prospect becomes a customer, you can move them to your customer list.

You can obtain an autoresponder that has this capability as well as many other functions that you will need in your autoresponder at aWeber.

There are many ways to track your advertising and test what is working best. Your autoresponder will provide tracking information. This will allow you to test and experiment with different ads, procedures, squeeze pages, etc. Maybe you will discover a method that will increase your conversion rates.

With email marketing you can sent out short messages or long messages. You will not be restricted as to the amount of space you can use to elaborate on your subject or offer.

You can even put part of the message in your email and direct your reader to your blog so that they can read the rest of your message on your blog. This might help to prevent ISPs from flagging you long message as spam.

Email marketing is low cost and it could prove to be a fast way to make profits as you test the market for your new products.

Communication with your list so that you build respect and trust is the only way that you will be able to have repeat customers.

If you make your communications regular and consistent, your new subscribers will soon perceive you as being credible and their reservations about doing business with you will decrease. Over time you will gain a new customer and your list of customers becomes larger. The larger your list grows the better for you and your potential for success.

Don’t ever doubt the benefits of building your list.

One of the biggest benefits is that you do not have to use your resources to seek out customers. Your list is a build in collection of customers that trust you enough to be responsive to many of your offers.

Establishing a responsive list allows you to be about the task of promoting affiliate programs while you continue to build your list larger and larger.