Clickbank’s New Layout – Pretty Awesome!

January 19, 2010 by

I was pleasantly surprised the other day when I went to go log in to my Clickbank account.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t because I had a ton of new money waiting for me (on that note, my Clickbank sales have been awful lately, but that’s beside the point). Instead, the pleasant surprise was Clickbank’s new “Marketplace” layout.

Before the change, navigating through Clickbank in order to find interesting and worthwhile products to offer was a little bit cumbersome. It’s not that it was time consuming, but it took a lot of clicks of the mouse to get where you wanted.

After the change, you can find what you want much more quickly. The fact that they have each category broken down by relevant niches is very helpful when you’re trying to find the very best products for your affiliate review sites, like the one I have at Top Twitter Programs.

Also, you can now search by product type, which was something that wasn’t previously offered.

Anyway, if you haven’t already done so, head over to Clickbank to check out the new layout. I think you’ll be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

What are your thoughts on the new layout? Leave your comments below.

Filed Under: Affiliate Programs Tagged With: , ,

Start a Blog – How to Pick a Topic for Your Blog

December 29, 2009 by

This is the first post in what I hope will be a very helpful series for anyone who is interested in starting their own blog, or, for that matter, improve an already existing blog.

I’ve been blogging for over four years now, and over that time I’ve learned a lot of things, had a lot of fun, and made some pretty good supplemental income. Hopefully my experience and advice can help get your blog off the ground faster, keep you from getting frustrated, and help you build up your rainy day fund.

On that note, here’s the first post: How to Select A Topic For Your Blog

Whether you just want a platform to express yourself or a way to make some extra money (or both), blogging is, without a doubt, the best place to start. It’s easy, cheap, and if you play your cards right, can be extremely profitable.

However, many people stop before they get started because the first decision you have to make for your blog is often the most difficult: what do you blog about?

There tend to be two schools of thought when it comes to this:

  • Pick a topic based on what has the potential to be the most profitable
  • Pick a topic based on your interests

Obviously, the best answer for you depends on what you’re trying to get out of your blog.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

How Mesothelioma TV Ads Prove Any Niche Can Make Money

December 16, 2009 by

Mesothelioma TV Ads

Over the past month, while watching TV I’ve seen probably 25 commercials from three or four different law firms advertising their services for people suffering from Mesothelioma. After seeing a couple different commercials and not really knowing anything about Mesothelioma, or why anyone afflicted with it might need a lawyer, I decided to do a little bit of research.

Without getting into too much detail, Mesothelioma is a type of cancer which, in most cases, is brought about by long-term exposure to asbestos. Asbestos is a material that was used in brake pads, pipe insulation, drywall, and various other products before being essentially outlawed in the late 1980’s.

(Before I continue, please understand that I am not trying to make light of Mesothelioma in any way; I am merely using law firms’ advertisements as an example of niche marketing.)

Considering the number of people afflicted with Mesothelioma is very small in comparison to the amount of people watching TV at the time any of the law firm’s ads appear, one would think these firms have set themselves up to lose a lot of money. After all, getting a commercial played during prime-time TV certainly isn’t an inexpensive endeavor.

However, not only do these firms not lose money, but apparently they stand to make a small fortune on settlements and litigation.

In essence, what these law firms are doing is akin to what you or I might do for one of our niche sites. While our site likely will not appeal to everyone on the internet at any given moment, there are enough people out there who are looking for the information or product that we provide that it makes our site worthwhile and profitable.

So, these Mesothilioma lawyer ads are a perfect illustration of what I stated in a previous post: somewhere someone is looking for exactly what you have to offer.

Click here for more info on mesothelioma.

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Run a Legit Business or Pay the Price

December 11, 2009 by

In case you haven’t heard, Google has finally taken steps to ban advertisers who promote links to “scam sites.” These types of sites and offers include crazy get-rich-quick schemes, teeth whiteners and weight loss products.

Previously, Google would simply take down an advertisement if it pointed to a sketchy site or violated any terms and conditions, in essence banning the advertisement, not the advertiser.

Obviously, this is pretty huge news, as Google is critically important to any internet marketer, and is more than likely the marketer’s largest source of traffic.

Aside from being news worthy, Google’s actions illustrate an even larger point for those of us who are internet marketers: you have to focus on running a legitimate business.

Unfortunately, too many internet marketers have become modern day snake oil salesmen. They pitch products they know nothing about, or worse, that they know won’t live up to their outrageous claims, and try to scam as many people as possible in order to money.  Once one well runs dry, they simply pick up and move on to the next bogus product or niche.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Affiliate Programs, Entrepreneurship, General Business News, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,