February BANS Update

Here’s my Build a Niche Store status update for February:

• I just got a check in the mail from Commission Junction for $97 and change.
• My pending balance is $29.42 and climbing. At least this is over the $25 payment threshold, so I’ll be getting another check next month.
• I created another new BANS site around

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Market Research has NOTHING to do with Keyword Research!

Jim Morris wrote an excellent article titled “Market Research (or finding a profitable niche market) has NOTHING to do with Keyword Research!”

Here’s a snippet from the article:

“No — don’t look at any search count. In fact, don’t even look to any single keyword database, tool or source to look for a profitable market. Keyword research is what you do AFTER you have

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Affiliate Marketing is a Business

When people are first starting out with affiliate marketing, one of the most important lessons they need to learn is that this is a business. Now some people get that sooner than others. Myself? It took me awhile to figure that out, but it was important that I did.

Here’s why…

1. You need to make more than you spend. Just about every new business loses money at first, but eventually, it needs to start earning a profit or it won’t be sustainable. That’s why keeping track of your business earnings and expenses is so important.Fortunately, it’s easier than ever to keep tabs on everything. Both Intuit and Microsoft have free versions of their accounting software available for download. While these free versions don’t have all the bells and whistles, they’re far superior to spreadsheets.

   You can download either Intuit QuickBooks Simple Start or Microsoft Accounting Express and start getting a handle on your business finances.
    

2. Time is money… and neither one grows on trees. If you treat affiliate marketing like a hobby, then you’ll spend a lot of time on marketing forums. You’ll constantly be looking for the “next new thing.” You’ll be the guy or gal who buys the next great e-book from that so-called “guru” who made $100,000 last month (hey…. here’s a little secret they don’t want you to know… that “guru” made their money selling e-books to folks like you).However if you treat affiliate marketing like a business, then your time–and how you spend it–becomes more important than ever. As a business owner, learning new techniques and networking with others on forums is important, but it takes on a different perspective. As a business owner, you realize that the most important way you can spend your time is working on ways to improve your business and your profits.

   Suddenly, spending 4 hours tweaking the color scheme of your new site just doesn’t cut it anymore. You realize the colors are good enough, and instead work on ways to promote your site more effectively.

   Suddenly, as a business owner, wasting your time learning a new technique for success isn’t as enticing, as you realize the potential with the method you’re already using, but also realize you haven’t put in enough time or effort to see it pay off yet. So instead of bouncing around from method to method, you stick with what you’re doing through fruition.

   Suddenly, paying somebody to do some of the grunt work on your campaigns starts to make a lot of sense, and you start to outsource some of those tasks (keeping point #1 in mind of course) so your time is freed up for more important things.

   Can you see where this is going? Every business owner and every business is run in different ways, but the fact that you treat your affiliate marketing like a business is the key to proper time management so you can take things to the next level.

There’s probably a lot more that could be written about this subject, and why treating your affiliate marketing as a business is a good thing, but I’ll just stop here and ask for your thoughts. Why do you think it’s important to run your affiliate marketing as a business?

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Free Directory Submission with digiXMAS

I was browsing the Digital Point Forums earlier today and discovered a post about digiXMAS. This is a free software tool that allows you to submit your web sites to 150 directories. It uses an auto-submission process, so for each site you pick a category and enter in the CAPTCHA, and that’s it. After a few entries it starts to remember which categories apply to your site, so it will begin to automatically select them for you. So for most of the directories, all you have to do is type in the CAPTCHA if one exists, and click okay.

Pretty easy, and boom, your site is now listed with 150 directories. Those are free one-way backlinks to your site. Very nice!

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I’m getting REALLY SICK of Mass Control

…Begin Rant…

No offense to Frank or his Mass Control product, but…

I’m getting sick of all of the affiliate marketers SPAMING THE CRAP OUT OF ME on their mailing lists, trying to sell me Mass Control.

In fact, I don’t think I’m on one single IM mailing list that hasn’t pushed to get me to purchase Mass Control. Some of these people are offering… oooh are you ready for it… huge bonuses if I buy from them.

Well guess what?

I DON’T SELL MY OWN PRODUCTS! I DON’T NEED MASS CONTROL.

I’m an affiliate marketer, and most of these lists are SUPPOSED to be geared for affiliates.

This is yet ANOTHER example of the IM gurus milking IM wannabes for cash, and I’m THIS close to unsubscribing from a few of these lists…

Look, when I sign up to a “guru’s” mailing list, I expect them to try and sell me stuff. That’s what they do. I’m willing to put up with it because in-between the sales pitches, they often gives some free valuable tips, insight, or advice. Besides, a lot of the stuff they “pitch” isn’t half bad, and worth checking out.

I don’t need 66 messages (yes, that’s SIXTY SIX messages) pushing Mass Control down my throat… PULEAZE…

Now that the launch is over and closed, can we get things back to normal… PLEASE!?!?!?

…End Rant…

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