101Phones Not Paying Me My Commission
Posted by Mitch on Feb 19, 2010
Once again, I have to “out” one of my affiliate programs for not processing my commission on a product I’ve marketed for them.
At the end of my post about the Six-Figure Blueprint book, I posted an affiliate product from 101Phones, a 2-line phone with two portable extensions, which in essence gives you 3 phones to put in different rooms. About two weeks ago I had someone purchase that phone; I know that because I was informed of the purchase. I got the numbers I needed to verify it, just in case I never got credit for it.
This is another company through Commission Junction, so I went to the CJ site and found the affiliate information for these people and sent them an email with all the information. By the way, I waited a week to see if my commission was going to show. I waited 3 days, and didn’t hear a thing. I then sent a second follow up email, and I included another email address I found for the company, as well as an email address I had for CJ, which I’d had to use at one point last year when I initially had problems getting credit for another sale. Here it is, 4 days after that one, and once again I’ve not heard anything.
In the second email, I told them if I didn’t hear from them I was going public with my complaint; this is it. Now, why am I doing this? One, I think two weeks is long enough to wait for notification of my commission, especially since CJ says it should only take a week at best. Two, I don’t want anyone else getting cheated if these folks are scam artists. Three, I know they’re on Twitter, and since my posts show up on Twitter when they see the headline, if they care about their business, they’ll head over here and see what I’ve written and I’ll get some kind of action. It worked that way when I had issues with both Panda and Football Fanatics in the past.
It’s hard enough to make money online without feeling as though you’re being cheated. This time around, though, I have to admit that I’m surprised I haven’t heard from Commission Junction either. After all, they’re the initial folks helping to support these companies, and it has to make them look bad when they’re affiliates aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do.
If it takes another 4 or 5 days to get some action, I’ll be removing any advertisements for their products, sending them an even sterner email, then probably dropping them forever. I kind of like their stuff, and the product was delivered very fast, but if this is how they treat their affiliates I don’t want to have anything to do with them.
Yeah, this is how I take a stand; I hope y’all don’t just sit by and let someone treat you badly, especially when it’s money that’s concerned.
Yes We Can Be A-List Success Stories
Posted by Mitch on Jan 3, 2010
The other day, I read a post on a blog called Wordpress Theme Customizations written by a guy named Costa on the topic Are You Still Dreaming To Be Famous Blogger. His point is that people will read what these A-list bloggers have to say, buy what they put out, and often you’re not only left with a product that didn’t really tell you anything you could use to try to get where they are, and not only are they not really even blogging anymore as much as managing, but you will never reach the level these guys got to, and that maybe it’s time for you to just be who you are.
He makes some interesting points, and I hope you click over and read what he had to say. I, being me, do take some exception to some of what he had to say, but not because of the reasons he chose. Here’s my take on it all.
Any one of us can be an A-list blogger. What that means, however, is that at some point you’re going to need one of two things. One, you’re going to need a major break of some kind. Two, you’ve got to be set up to capitalize on that big break when it comes.
This post isn’t about any of that, however. What it is about is not giving up on a dream, no matter how big, no matter how small (yup, now I’m channeling Horton the elephant). Anthony Robbins once said “if you have nothing to live for, you die.” If you’re not trying to accomplish something with your blog, why bother with it at all? If you’re willing to be less than your potential, why bother?
True, based on reality, everyone can’t be an A-list blogger. Does that mean you can’t be? Not at all. You could be a famous blogger without being an A-list blogger. You could make a lot of money without being an A-list blogger. You are whatever you are, and you can potentially be whatever you strive to be. Even if you never made it to the A-list, you will always feel secure that you have gone all out to be the best, and you can never take anything but pride in that. And there’s a lot to blogging; just check out these stats from The Future Buzz.
I do agree with Costa on one point that says a lot of what you purchase doesn’t end up giving you exactly what you want. For instance, that Beyond Blogging book on the side there isn’t a book that’s going to give you step by step instructions on being a better blogger. It’s tales of how some bloggers who have made a lot of money did it. It’s motivational; nothing wrong with that.
It’s like networking, for those of you who work for yourself; it is what you make of it, and if you leave a networking event without meeting at least one person, most of the time it’s your fault. Some people join organizations thinking those organizations are going to help them make business contacts that are going to bring money into their pocket. But that’s not what most groups are about, so it’s their fault for thinking that.
Now, if you want some free ebooks that may or may not help you, you can check out this post of mine offering some ebooks on affiliate marketing, and then this other post with more ebooks on affiliate marketing. These are free; go for it.
Back to my premise. I’m shooting for great success in 2010. After all, I’ve just been named one of the Top Baby Boomer Men of 2010, thank you very much. 
After that other post of mine on publicity, this is a nice start to the new year. But I don’t have to be the only one shooting for the stars. The world is big enough for all of us to try to be as big as we want to be, whether it’s A-list blogger, famous movie star, or just rich person without any notoriety whatsoever.
Just don’t give up on your dreams because it seems like a hopeless cause. Remember this quote from Winston Churchill: “Success in life consists of going from one mistake to the next without losing your enthusiasm.” Now let’s get out there and conquer the world!
Beyond Blogging Has Now Launched!
Posted by Mitch on Dec 27, 2009
I hope everyone has had a great Christmas and is looking forward to a great new year. And I hope you didn’t spend all your money because the Beyond Blogging book has finally launched! Actually, it launched some time ago, but I’m not quite sure when. I’m in New York, and one of the authors of the book lives in the Canary Islands, and I have no idea what time it makes it here. So, I’m basing it off England time, though I think the Canary Islands are near Spain; geography isn’t my best subject by a long shot. So, either it launched about 15 minutes ago or an hour ago; either way, it’s launched.
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So, what is Beyond Blogging about? I wrote a review about it, which you can check out. Yes, I’ve read the book, so I’m not pushing anything on you that I haven’t seen. Then there were the different stages of the selling process; this is my first true joint venture project. So I wrote a review, then invited you to check out their special report, and finally there was the enticing video and offer to join the affiliate program as well.
Now, based on how these things work, I guess I’m supposed to write one more post in a couple of days as the followup reminder, and I’ll do that. And, as you can see, I’ve already added the book there on the left side where I hope some folks decide they want to possibly check on it as these posts slide away. It may not stay there, though; more information coming on that elsewhere.
So, get out there, buy the book, sign up for the affiliate program and sell the Beyond Blogging book yourself. Thanks for reading; and now, sports.
November Income Report – Going Backwards
Posted by Mitch on Dec 2, 2009
When I posted my October income report, I really thought that was about as far back as I could possibly go. Well, I was wrong. This month’s income is even worse, and I have to admit that I don’t have high hopes for December at this juncture.
First, the numbers; short indeed:
Adsense – $50.62
Google Affiliate Network – $3.07
Infolinks – $7.90
If there’s any bonus for the month, it’s the strong jump in income from Infolinks. What I decided to do early in November is add it to my Medical Billing Answers site on a trial basis. Seems it’s working, and I’m going to leave it there for now. I also decided to add it to my Smoke Not So Much site as well, but that site generated almost nothing. However, that site did generate its first Adsense money in November, so maybe it’s close to being ready to start generating something positive.
I guess the good news is that I’ll be getting an Adsense check at the end of the month; who-hoo! I probably need to figure out a better way to drive people to my sales page, which is highlighted by me holding that parrot on the right, as well as figure out how to drive more people to my other sales pages, if I’m going to continue doing this stuff. At least this blog sent 6 people there in November, Commission Junction should be bringing in nice money; I know I’m doing it all wrong, though.
And that’s that; let’s see what the final month of our first decade in the 21st century has in store for me.
10 Affiliates I’ve Talked About Before
Posted by Mitch on Oct 4, 2009
I thought this would be somewhat interesting, for two reasons. I’m going to mention and link to posts where I’ve talked about affiliate programs or products that I’m trying to make money from. One reason is that some of these posts were pretty early, and didn’t get seen by a lot of people, and I’d like to reintroduce them to the masses. The second reason is that I’d like to do some internal linking, something I’ve talked about from time to time here that others should think about doing with their blogs and websites, as it’s an important part of getting the most out of your blogs and websites. I hope you visit the posts and the links throughout these posts, just to see what I’ve done, but it’s also to show you that, every once in awhile, there’s nothing wrong with marketing yourself, something else I’ve talked about often around here.
The first affiliate product I ever talked about on this blog concerned Ultra Diamonds. It’s interesting because I ended up having to write a follow up post months later because, like most things, there were a few people who didn’t like Ultra Diamonds and thought I was a bad person for helping to market them. Hey, no one’s perfect, but their stuff looks really neat. I’m marketing it off my Services and Stuff site, along with most of the other products and services I’ll mention here, and if you go to the original post, it’ll show you the link to the actual page so you can see what I’m trying to do with some of these things.
The second thing I wrote about was the Harry Potter series, and on that post I decided to market a water globe rather than what was, at the time, the upcoming 7-book series or the first 5 movies; missed the boat on that one.
The third thing I advertised was this affiliate of mine called Things You Never Knew Existed, which is, well, an amalgamation of strange and wonderful stuff that you just can’t get everywhere. It seems I made a sale from the page that I’ve linked to from here last week, which is great. If you check out the page on my S&S site, as well as the page from my Ultra Diamonds site, you’ll see that I just picked a few things, but if people click on any of those things they can search the actual websites for other things, and if they purchase I earn. Nothing wrong with that. By the way, those 3 things all came in the first month I had this blog, which was created in December 2007.
The fourth thing I introduced was something called X10 Home Security, a fairly nothing post that explains why no one wanted to bother with it, but one that you’ll see has been updated so that I at least said something about it. This post was written in February 2008.
The fifth thing I wrote about was Excalibur Gifts, which is a pretty neat site that markets a lot of knives and cutlery, which is pretty neat. It wasn’t all that long of a post, but at least it was accurate.
The sixth thing I wrote about was the Rich Jerk program. This was actually the first thing I ever bought, then started to market, through Clickbank. Right now, I think it’s one of the few things I still market on Clickbank, mainly because of this blog. I’m not marketing anything new through them because I just started feeling, last April, that I just wasn’t sure that I’ve been treated fairly by them as it pertains to sales. I could be wrong; let me know by maybe buying Rich Jerk’s $10 book. It’s actually very good.
The seventh thing I wrote about was my own product, called Using Your Website As A Marketing Tool. It was my first ebook, and, though I haven’t made a lot of sales, it’s still a product that I created, that’s at the top left of this blog. That, and I’ve written about it lots of times on this blog; hey, if I can’t talk about myself, who else will talk about me, right? This post and the previous two were originally written in April 2008.
The eighth thing I wrote about was a follow up product to The Secret that is also a Clickbank product. It was short but sweet, called Laws of Attraction Booster, and I have it and thought it was pretty good.
The ninth thing I wrote about was FreeCreditReport.com, a product I use and actually wrote a pretty good post about, if you ask me. And I’ve made money off this product, though I’m not sure if it’s because of this blog or another place where I wrote about it.
The tenth product I wrote about is my last Clickbank product, Error Doctor, and it was another pretty good post because I talked about a lot of different things, and there’s even pictures! I don’t do a lot of pictures, though some people say that you’ll attract more folks to your site with pictures.
And that’s that. There’s 10 products of mine that most of you have never heard about (though I’m betting many of you have heard of Rich Jerk and FreeCreditReport.com), and I got some internal linking in also; yeah! (update; the programs for Excalibur Cutlery & FreeCreditReport have expired, which is why there are no links)
September Income Report – Better Than Expected
Posted by Mitch on Oct 1, 2009
On the last monthly report, I wrote that I believed September was going to be a bad cash month. Well, it turned out better than I had hoped, but man, just a few more cents and I’d have been happier than I am, though I can’t really say I’m depressed about it all.
Here are the numbers:
Adsense – $93.86
Google Advertising Network – $3.77
Chitika – $1.03
Commission Junction – .70
Infolinks – .03
Grand Total – $99.39
So, just cents under the $100 mark; I’m not upset about that. What I am surprised about is that, though my blog grew in subscribers and readers for the month, I didn’t earn anything from this blog this month. And, once again, I really didn’t drive anyone to any of the things I wrote about this month. Well it’s possible I drove some to TalkBiz, but I’m still out of town and that’s the one password I forgot to send myself, so I can’t check it at all. But based on track record, I don’t have high hopes on that one.
If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice something missing. I earned nothing from TLA, better known as Text Link Ads. I dropped them pretty much after a few days of writing about it in my monthly update in September. I did so because the amount had gone down to a point where it didn’t make sense to have it anymore. So, I got rid of it, and have petitioned Google for page rank again. Now, I don’t know if I’ll get it or not, but it’s possible that one day I’ll look and see it there. I guess we’ll find out about that also; not worried, about it, though.
What I am worried about overall is that I have to increase my internet and affiliate marketing money, and fast. With what’s going on with my mother and my needing to be gone, I really need to ramp up the residual income thing in some fashion. I can keep up with some writing, but not all of it, as Mom and my grandmother need a bit more attention now than I can give to the writing. I’m not quite sure how I’ll get it done yet, but I’ve been working my way through Barbara Ling’s free Beginners Make Money Cookbook, which is more than 240 pages of stuff, and I’m hoping to pick something up from there. Hey, doesn’t hurt to try, right?
And I’m still hoping that my affiliate links will start generating income at some point, though it may take awhile to really get it going. After all, I’m still shooting for that $200 month; baby steps.
By the way, you’ll also see something a little different that I’m adding; I actually added it on another recent post. I don’t have my links underlined in my copy, as you’ve noticed, but that means when it’s a link to a product you might not know it from the others. So, you’ll see an dark blue underline whenever it’s a product from now on. If it links to a post that’s then pushing a product, it won’t; just to be clear. That should help you out, and thus, you might decide to check it out since it’s pointed out as a product. Or not; gotta try new things.
There you go; how did you do this month?
Update – Heck, I actually forgot something. I sold one of my products, my Management Training Program, for $39.99, which means I actually did surpass $100 for the month, finishing at $130.38. Okay, now I feel much better. 
The Secret Is There’s No Secrets
Posted by Mitch on Sep 20, 2009
Back in March, I wrote kind of a rant post on people who keep writing these posts about driving massive traffic to one’s blog. In it, I griped that these people keep writing the same thing, almost to the point where I wondered if people are just copying what someone else says without putting any real thought into it.
Six months later, I’m still seeing the same kind of thing, only these days people are couching it within the phrase “The Secrets To…” or something like that.
I read a couple earlier today, knowing what I was going to see and was still irked by it. One talked about how to get more visitors to your blog. The other was about how to get free advertising to one’s blog. Both are the same exact things I’ve seen before; nothing new, and not even written all that originally. Like I said, it’s as if people are just copying it from someone else’s site.
Now, I’ll be a little bit fair. Maybe, to someone, this is all new information. It’s just hard to believe, after I’ve been doing this for so many years, that this is new stuff for all that many people, especially the people who are writing it. And, to be fair again, I guess the other problem is that there’s not really much new that anyone can really offer on most of these subjects.
I mean, really, what’s new that someone can come along with to help drive traffic to their blogs anyway? The only things I really haven’t seen much of is sending email to everyone in your email address book asking them to visit your blog, leave a comment, and invite others to stop by. That’s something I’ve done, but only when I feel I’ve written a post that deserves a bit of attention. I’ve never asked anyone to Digg or Delicious or anything else to my posts other than sharing them. I do have that little thing above the comments box where people can do it if they so choose, and I do appreciate it when it happens (though I’m not on Digg or Stumble Upon, so I always wonder how I get traffic from those two places).
The other thing is to try to do offline marketing to see if you can drive people to your blog. I’ve seen postcards sent out to get people to visit websites, but never a blog. I’m thinking the costs of doing it would be prohibitive; after all, those costs are prohibitive when you’re using that kind of marketing for other reasons to begin with.
So, like the myth of “You Can Make 100,000 A Day If You Buy This Program,” the myth of “The Secret Of” is just that; a myth. Now, this isn’t to be confused with something I talk about all the time, that being the movie The Secret, something I’ve mentioned often but never really written about; I’m going to have to get that done soon, probably on my other blog, as it talks about the Laws of Attraction, and I need to have it bringing more people to me than sending people elsewhere.
So, we’re agreed? No more belief in “secrets of” other than what I’ve put below?
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