MLM / Network Marketing Dinosaurs.
Today while shopping at OfficeMax, a guy approached me and asked, “what kind of work do you do?” I said, “I do stuff on the internet.” He then said, “You wanna know how to make some REAL MONEY?!”…
I immediately realized he was a MLM’er, but I answered with, “what do you consider real money?” He then shows me a copy of Success From Home Magazine that profiled his company. He showed me pics of a couple of Lamborghini’s that the company had given to people. He then went into this sphiel about how easy it was to get that kind of success with his company. Of course, he’d only been with the company for a week and hadn’t made a dime yet.
When I told the guy I wasn’t interested he was stunned. Dude is clearly in the “this is easy money” phase. Before I walked off I sincerely wished him success.
MLM / Network Marketing Dinosaurs
The internet is red hot and this guy (and many others) are trolling around stores trying to hook people into their bizop. IMO, these people are Dinosaurs! Why not push your MLM on the net and generate leads that way?
Wouldn’t it be better to only talk to people who expressed an interest in learning more about your bizop, instead of bothering strangers?
Anyway, if you’re doing Network Marketing, I wish you great success! I have nothing against anyone pursuing their dream doing MLM, so please don’t take my post here as hating on your hustle, k?
Thanks for stopping by!
Tim
Update: November Results & New Goal
I’ll keep this brief….but first I want to apologize for not updating sooner. I definitely appreciate all of you who subscribe and read my blog and I will be posting a bit more. Not daily, but definately more often than I have been.
November Results:
November went very well. I had my best month of revenue & profit since starting affiliate marketing and moved past the $xx,xxx goal I set sometime ago. My biggest week was over $5,000 in commission.
I also won a 24″ LCD HD Monitor in Tyler Cruz’s 5th Market Leverage contest. I was in the market for a new monitor and this saves me a few bucks. 
My New Goal:
My new goal is to hit a $50,000/month. This is a big jump but I’m confident I will reach it. (I absolutely plan on reaching it much faster than it took me to finally break $10K.)
Thanks for stopping by!
Tim
Optimize My Site
As an affiliate marketer you’ve probably heard, “you need to track everything” or “you must track at the keyword level.”
When I got started in affiliate marketing I was tracking at the adgroup level. Which wasn’t ideal to say the least, but it beat not tracking at all. Then I began asking my affiliate manager to place my pixel so I could utilize tracking that way.
That beat the adgroup level tracking,… when it worked. I learned that pixel tracking isn’t 100%, and for some offers, it didn’t work at all. (at least that’s what my A.M. told me) :/
Optimize My Site
I was fortunate to get a copy of Jeremy Palmer’s “Optimize My Site” (OMS) which I now use to track all my campaigns. OMS is a self hosted affiliate tracking program that allows you to see which adgroups, keywords and ads are converting. (no more asking the A.M. to place your pixel!) OMS also cloaks your links and keeps your keywords hidden.
OMS is also very easy to install and in minutes you’re up and running. I’m not so great with technical stuff so this was a definite bonus for me.
The first time I ran OMS I was shocked to see which keywords were converting and which one’s weren’t! There are some keywords that I almost didn’t include in a campaign that are some of my best converters. If I were still tracking at the adgroup level I wouldn’t have been able to identify these keywords since the adgroups overall were at a slight loss.
OMS also has a very simple & clean layout which makes it easy to review and tune your campaigns.
Jeremy Palmer
Yes, Optimize My Site is an awesome program but one of the best reasons to use OMS is it’s creator, Jeremy Palmer. To call Jeremy a class act would be an understatement! He’s definitely one of the good guys in this industry and one of the hardest working. He’s a 7 figure (per year) affiliate earner who was profiled in Revenue magazine, and is a CJ top performer.
Jeremy genuinely cares about helping people achieve success in affiliate marketing. For example, he created The Black Ink Project I & II, which is a complete affiliate marketing training course that he provided to anyone interested in learning this business, FREE OF CHARGE! Other top affiliates have called The Black Ink Project the best affiliate marketing training information they’ve ever seen. He could have easily charged $1,000 for that info, yet he made it FREE.
Anyway, my point is simply that Jeremy is a great guy who truly cares about the industry and he puts out 1st class materials. His support for OMS is excellent and includes membership in the OMS Forum where you can ask questions and interact with other OMS users.
Lastly, I wasn’t paid a dime to write this review of OMS. I wrote this because I believe in the product and use it daily.
I strongly recommend that you check out the Optimize My Site website for more details.
Hey, thanks for visiting. Continued success!
Tim
Discipline -vs- Regret
“Regret weighs tons, Discipline weighs ounces.” - Jim Rohn
That’s a quote that jumped out at me today, while listening to the “Take Charge of Your Life” CD series by Jim Rohn. I think it not only applies to our pursuit of success in internet/affiliate marketing but life in general.
Often discipline seems to be the heavier of the two, but in reality discipline nearly always leads to positive outcomes. I can’t think of one instance where I’ve regretted being disciplined.
For example, I disciplined myself as a student and became the first person in my family to graduate from college. Working long hours, sleeping 3 or 4 hours per night and marathon study sessions were tough while I was going through it but the benefits of achieving my goal of earning my degree dwarfs all the struggle.
Areas of discipline that I’m working on right now are of course my activities in my affiliate marketing business and healthier eating habits.
Hey, if you’re interested in ordering any of Jim Rohns materials you can find his products at Your Success Store.
Continued success!
Tim
August Results
I profitably earned over $2,000 in affiliate commission for the month of August. I more than doubled what I earned in July. It’s also my first four figure month. Overall I’m happy with my results.
For September, my goal is to at least earn $5,000 in affiliate commissions, as I work toward my goal of hitting my first $10,000 month. I’ve got my month planned out, now it’s just a matter of executing my plan.
Let’s make September a great month!
Tim
$1,863 & a Free Mino Flip Video Camera
Over the past 24 Days I’ve earned $1,863 with Market Leverage and I won a Mino Flip Video Camera by placing third in one of their contests put on by Tyler Cruz.
The cool thing about Tyler’s Market Leverage contest is that it got the competitive juices flowing. Unlike all the other Market Leverage contests that required you to write an essay, this contest was based purely on production/commissions earned. I was determined to finish in the top 3 and I made it. (I really wanted 1st place & the 22″ monitor but that guy finished with nearly $20K in earned commissions.)
Overall, I’ve already surpassed my numbers from July and I’m working to finish strong this month.
If you haven’t signed up with Market Leverage, I suggest you give them a try.
July Results
Here are my results for July:
My budget for the month was $1,200 but I spent just under $800. Of course I wanted a higher ROI but any profit beats a loss. From this point forward my target is profitably getting to $10,000/mo as quickly as possible.
What I learned: Keep building more campaigns & make fast adjustments! I found a profitable offer and after making a quick $200 it got pulled. I ended up losing a few days by not quickly moving on to something else.
Let’s make August a great month!
Tim
Got Dreamweaver & Fireworks today. Saved $400
Bye-Bye Xsitepro!
Today my Dreamweaver CS3 & Fireworks CS3 order was delivered. Using my wife’s discount I saved over $400! (…and yes, she & my son will be using the software as well!)
I’ve been using Xsitepro, and even with all the great upgrade features of v2, it still has MANY design limitations. For example, I have some great landing page templates I want to use, but I can’t with Xsitepro.
Black Ink Project 2.0
I’m going through Jeremy Palmer’s BIP 2.0 and on day 6 he released the video “Creating a Site Design with Adobe Fireworks.” That video was an eye opener. It showed how quickly you can create professional looking sites & landing pages.
I’m going to dive into both these programs so I can make the switch from xsp as quickly as possible.
Hey, thanks for stopping by! I really appreciate it.
Tim
Free Money: $100 Yahoo Search Credit
I found this $100 Yahoo Search Credit. These don’t last long and it looks like this one is good for the month of July, so take advantage of it now. Hey, it’s Free Money!
=> Click here for Free $100 YSM Credit
Tim
June was a “Character Building Month” ;)
My brother loaned me some Les Brown audios, and in one of them he says something along the lines of… “don’t say you’re having a bad day, instead say you’re having a character building day.” Well, based on Mr. Brown’s advice, June was definately a character building month.
My first 3 months I came along slowly and earned a profit each month, but this month produced my first “losing” month. Here’s my stats for the month of June:
PPC Spend = $630.77
Commission = $252.00
= $378.77 loss
A few things I learned:
- I still have a lot to learn
- I need to stop fearing the loss of money
- I need to fail faster
- Information overload & wasted time
Naturally I still have a lot to learn with June only being my 4th full month of affiliate marketing.
The fear of losing money caused me to freeze everything and start over analyzing. I budgeted $1,200 for PPC spend for the month, and only invested half of that because I didn’t pull the trigger on other campaigns.
Regarding Information overload, I have decided to trim WAAYYYY back on the amount of stuff I’m reading regarding affiliate/internet marketing. Too many opinions and approaches are not good, at least not for me. I find myself studying, reading and burning up time on all that stuff. Big waste of time.
Ok, July is here so time to put June behind and move forward. Currently I’m working on a direct linking campaign I will be testing in Yahoo as well as finishing up some site changes that a very successful/super affiliate recommended I make after reviewing one of my sites for me. I really appreciate him taking out time to look over my site!
Hey, Good Success this month!
Tim