Reputable Affiliate Networks That Really Pay Out

So, I’ve been in the affiliate marketing game for a while now. The list below is NOT a full list of affiliate networks that are reputable but it is a list of reputable affiliate networks that really payout and I know this because they’ve paid me. lol

Amazon Affiliate Program
ShareASale
ClickBank
MoreNiche
MarketHealth

(Read my ShareASale article)

Finding a good affiliate program is just one part of making cashola with affiliate marketing. I’d highly recommend getting your free account through Wealthy Affiliate and starting your training.

One thing to know is that when you are a member of wealthy affiliate, if you need anything from domains, hosting, training and such – it’s there. Success online can be reached alone, but it’s hard to just take 2 minutes and get your free account. :0)

Enjoy!

Any affiliate programs you’ve gotten paid from? Share it with us in the comments.

Is ShareASale Affiliate Network a Scam?

Jessica Lauren Vine

3.9 million Americans are working from home now, and some of them are affiliate marketers!

Affiliate marketing is a great way to bring in extra cash from home when you find a reputable affiliate program.

If you’re only starting to research affiliate marketing, you may be asking “Is ShareASale affiliate network a scam?”

I’ll just tell you right now that, no it is not a scam. I do need to tell you a couple of other things before you get into promoting the different products there.

Is Share a Sale Affiliate Network a Scam – How ShareASale Operates

Ok.

YOU become an affiliate of ShareASale.
Merchants come to ShareASale hoping YOU will sell their stuff
When you sell their stuff – you get paid

Pretty simple, right?

Most of the time it is pretty simple.

When you are deciding what offer to promote through ShareASale, it is most powerful to believe in the product or service you are promoting.

If you don’t use it yourself, it’s pretty difficult to tell other people they should use it. I know there are plenty of people that DO promote products and services they’ve never used, but I’ve never felt good about it. Up to you though.

When you are checking out the different offers you can promote, make sure they have money in their accounts to pay you and that they pay a decent percentage of commission. You don’t want to make peanuts.

If you sell a product and they only pay you $1 for a sale, it’s going to take you quite a bit of work to start making good cashola. Do yourself a favor and find some offers that will pay you more money every time that you make a sale. 😀

The reason I wrote about ShareASale today was that I got an unexpected payment from them. lol I just passively wrote a post about a service that I use because it was helpful to me and I didn’t even realize I had been making sales for the past five months… lol

Now you have your answer to “Is ShareASale affiliate network a scam?” and can see the beauty of making money blogging. 🙂

Wondering where I learned how to create money making websites? Check out my Wealthy Affiliate review and hear my story.

Are there any other affiliate programs you’d like me to review? Let me know in the comments.

Why Are Keywords Important for a Successful Website?

Jessica Lauren Vine

There have been a lot of changes to SEO in the last years, but one thing remains – Google loves quality content. So, what about keywords?

Are keywords important for a successful website and why?

If you’re new to online marketing, there is so much lingo to get used to. One of the terms you are going to hear a lot is “keyword” or “keyphrase.” You may be wondering, “Why are keywords important?”

Before you can understand why keywords would be important to your website, you need to understand more about what keywords are. Keywords are well… keywords that you want people and search engines to know your content is about.

For instance, in this post, my keyword is “why are keywords important,” and that is what I want you and anyone else to know this article is about. When you focus on a keyword, the search engines will also pick up that this is what your blog is about, so that is what makes keywords so important.

Why Are Keywords Important? Here’s Why – Keyword Research

Before writing a blog post, you need to do keyword research. You can do keyword research through keyword tools or through going to search engines like Google and seeing what some related terms are at the bottom of the search page when you type in your niche in the search engine.

You can make keyword research as complicated or simple as you want to make it but I like it somewhere in the middle.

I use a tool called Jaaxy that helps you figure out which keywords are being searched for, how much competition there is and which ones you might want to target for yourself.

You can try it out yourself in the window below if you like:

It is really easy to get lost in the keyword research part of things, but even if you pick a keyword and don’t rank for it, it is still good for your website’s content. The more high-quality content you have on your website, the better your rankings will be.

Inbound Marketing

Keywords are part of the inbound marketing strategy when you want to attract potential clients to your website. Whether you are selling a product or a service, you need to have a strategy in place that is going to allow you to get the results you want without stressing you out.

Inbound marketing with the proper keywords can allow you to set yourself up for passive income and we all know that passive income is like the holy grail! lol

So, have you tried keyword research? Do you understand why keywords are important? Leave a comment and share your experience.

Trade Show Marketing Ideas to Take Your Trade Show Skills to the Next Level

Jessica Lauren Vine

Tradeshows bring in billions of dollars for B2B companies.

When you book your business into a trade show, you need awesome trade show marketing ideas to get attention. There are many vendor options at most trade shows, so your company needs to have a unique selling proposition to get people interested in your service or product.

Continue reading to find out ways to get people engaged with your business through trade show marketing.

Contents

1. Engaging Displays

Having an engaging display is more important than you might think. An engaging display is like a beautiful book cover. While we say that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, we definitely do judge books by their covers.

Your “cover” or your display should be neat, tidy and eye-catching. There are even technologies that will allow you to set up 3-D displays that don’t need viewers to wear glasses. Imagine being able to have your product popped out in 3-D style without having to give out glasses.

2. Friendly Greeter

People visiting trade shows are more likely to come to your table if there is a friendly greeter. If you are afraid of talking to people and aren’t sure how to engage, you can hire a trade show host that will get people to come over to your table.

These people aren’t inexpensive so make sure that you prepare to pay. If you can develop the skills to talk with anyone, your trade show success rate will skyrocket.

3. Giveaways

Giveaways are always a great draw. Sometimes we miss the mark with our giveaways because we try to get cute or we are cheap. It doesn’t pay to be cute or cheap.

You need to be effective.

Electronics are a good bet when it comes to giveaways. Make sure you have the hottest product on the market if you want to get the most opt-ins.

Put Your Trade Show Marketing Skills Into Action

If you put these things into action, your trade show marketing ideas and results will be much better than if you left these things out.

While it may be a stretch to talk to people and get them to come over or it might be uncomfortable to spend a good amount of money on your giveaway, you have to take a risk to get the reward.

What are some ideas that you have about trade shows? Leave a comment and let us know.

Outbound Marketing vs. Inbound Marketing

Jessica Lauren Vine

As a business owner, you want to spend your marketing budget in the place you’ll get the most bang for your buck.

The SBA has their thoughts on how much you should spend on marketing, but you’ve got to make your own decisions about where to spend and how much.

When you look at outbound marketing vs. inbound marketing, you can be sure that inbound marketing is going to win out in the long run and you’re going to spend less cash getting the audience that you want.

Outbound marketing usually broadcasts ads by marketing to the masses. Inbound marketing is surgical and targets people who are likely to be interested in the products and services that are offered.

A Look Into Inbound Marketing & Outbound Marketing

To fully understand which type of marketing is for you, you need to look into it a little further. While I am a fan of inbound marketing, maybe you like the outbound marketing approach better.

Outbound Marketing Examples

TV/Radio Ads
Telemarketing & Cold Calls
Email Marketing
Trade Shows
Newspaper Ads
Press Releases
Brochures
Postcards
Catalogs

Inbound Marketing Examples

Social Media
Blog Content
Video Marketing
Microsite
Email

When you are choosing your marketing strategy, you need to figure out if you want to attract people to you or if you want to put yourself in people’s faces.

Inbound marketing allows you to be more of a welcome solution to people and can come in contact with people at any given time. You may find people at the beginning stages of the buying process and have to nurture them through the sales process.

On the other hand, you might find them near the end of the sales cycle where they are ready to purchase. This is why it is important to craft your nurturing process carefully.

With outbound marketing, you are blasting the masses in search of people that need your product right away. You aren’t likely to find a large percentage of these people, but you don’t need a lot of people to make money from this group if you know what you are doing.

Many people find it helpful to use inbound strategy and use outbound strategy to promote their business. Figuring out which one is best for you or if you want to do a mix of both inbound marketing and outbound marketing will allow you to get started on your marketing journey.

Marketing Your Product or Service

The best thing you can do to get your product or service out on the market is to continue to spread the word.

You have to get the word out about your product or service on a consistent basis. If you aren’t consistent, you are going to fall behind in your efforts and your competition is going to take the lead.

Having a plan in place or finding a company that will help you market your products and services is a great way to get started on the road to success.

Whether you are focusing on becoming an authority in your niche, creating passive income without caring about whether or not you create a name for your business or if you want to work on your email marketing strategy, you need to have a plan so you can be effective and start creating the results that you want.

Which strategy do you prefer? Inbound marketing or outbound marketing? Share in the comments.

Remote Jobs You Can Work from Anywhere

Jessica Lauren Vine

3.9 million Americans now work remotely.

If you want to live a location independent life, unless you are retired, you need to find remote jobs you can work from anywhere.

Whether you decide that you want to RV full-time, become a housesitter or any other lifestyle that requires you to be mobile, you have to find a way to support your lifestyle. Let’s look at some remote jobs you can work from anywhere.

Contents

1. Copywriting

The need for copywriters is everywhere. Look around, and you are going to see words on signs, promotional papers and more. Someone had to write them. Why not you?

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is where you sell someone else’s product, and you get a cut of the commission. You are not a sales rep for the company. You simply refer people to the link and make money for sending them.

3. Online Language Teacher

If you know multiple languages, you can make money teaching online.

4. Customer Service Rep

There are many companies that no longer want to require their customer service to come to a specific location. Many companies are happy to have their reps operating from home.

5. Reference Librarian

You can help people find the information they need through the online library.

6. Coordinator

You can coordinate just about anything online. Find a company that needs a coordinator and see if they will let you work remotely.

7. Sales Associate

Many sales can be performed online. Look for a company that will let you work in their phone sales or live chat sales department.

8. Interpreter

There is a serious shortage of interpreters. If you can help people understand each other, you will be busy all of the time.

9. Graphic Designer

You don’t have to be a major artist to start your graphic design business. Many programs will help you take your semi-good talent to the next level.

10. SEO Consultant

Every business wants to rank at the top of the search engines. If you can help them get noticed on the search engines, you won’t hurt for business.

11. Social Media Manager

Managing social media can be done all online. You may be required to post updates, or you might be asked to reply to comments and requests as well.

12. Virtual Assistant

Virtual assistants can do a variety of different things from checking email, setting appointments and more.

13. Transcriptionist

Many people like their meetings, webinars or other conversations to be transcribed. If you have a high WPM typing rate, you are going to make more money.

Start Living Your Dreams Today

With more jobs offering the options to work remotely, there is no reason you have to stay in one place. These remote jobs you can work from anywhere are just the tip of the iceberg.

Try researching jobs in your current field to see if there are remote work opportunities so you can work remotely from anywhere.

Have you worked any remote jobs? Feel free to share with us in the comments section.

The Surefire Way to Become an Authority In Your Field

Jessica Lauren Vine

You want to become an authority in your field. There is no doubt about the benefits of being seen as an authority and thought leader in your chosen industry.

When people see you as an authority in your industry, it is easier to open doors. Whether you are landing a new client, job, appearance or speaking gig if people already know who you are and know that you know your stuff they are much more open to what you have to say.

You already know the benefits, but how do you become an authority in your field? How do you get your target market’s ear in a noisy world?

Contents

Tips for Becoming an Authority In Your Industry

1. Develop a Leadership Mindset

If you don’t have a leadership mindset, it is impossible to become an authority in your industry. You have to think about the industry as a whole vs. only you and your business if you want to lead the entire industry.

Attending leadership events in your industry, looking for new developments and innovations is a must. You also have to be willing to share what you’ve learned.

2. Put a Plan Into Place

Before you start moving forward with your authority marketing efforts, you need to have a sound plan in place.

The shotgun approach rarely works and is going to lead you to burn out and less than impressive results.

Figure out which social media platforms you are going to frequent as well as how many times per week you are going to blog. Some people blog once a month, some people once a day and some people still aren’t sure that blogging is a good use of their resources.

The standard is once per week and should keep you in the good graces of the fresh content part of the Google search algorithm.

3. Publically Address Changes in Your Industry

Keeping quiet when major changes happen in your industry is a sure sign that you are not an authority.

You need to be up on what is happening, and you need to share your opinions and best practices. If you remain quiet in these times, this is a great opportunity for other people to jump ahead of you and proclaim their own authority on the topic.

4. Always Be Learning

If you aren’t growing, you are shrinking, and you always want your knowledge and intuition to grow and develop. Even if you learn one new thing a day, week or a month, you will be well in front of most people that don’t take the time to learn.

The more you learn, the more you will be able to share. The more people learn from you, the more they see you as a leader and authority in the industry.

What are you going to do to show yourself as an authority in your industry? Leave your comments below and let us know.

5 Simple Ways to Reduce Site Slowness

Jessica Lauren Vine

Aiming for a site load time of 2-3 seconds is a must.

No slow sites, please!

If you don’t visit your site often, you might not notice that your site is going slow and that you need to reduce site slowness.

Try using a test like the Google Page Speed test will allow you to see how your site is really doing. While it may appear fast on your end, that could be because of your browser cache.

You want to make sure you are getting a true reading on your site. You also want to make sure people from all over the world get a great experience and not only from one part of the world. Good site speed for people all over is a reason you might want to consider using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) for your content.

If you’ve checked your site and see you need speed. Continue reading to learn ways to reduce site slowness.

Contents

1. Remove Plugins You Don’t Need

While plugins can do a lot of cool things, they may slow down your site. If they are keeping you from doing what is necessary, you need to find out which ones you can uninstall.

While it is recommended that you keep the number of plugins that you use to five or less, I don’t do it on my own site because — I need those!

2. Limit Social Media Sharing Buttons

Only have main social media sharing buttons on your posts and pages. The more code you have a site, the more it is going to lag your page and cause slowdowns.

Having social sharing buttons is good for getting the word out there, but overdoing it won’t help. Most people aren’t sharing to obscure social media sites anyway.

3. Enable Caching

Caching is where you are going to need a plugin if using WordPress. Find a cache plugin to install on your WordPress site, so you are able to store files of your site locally for people to have faster access.

Any time you update your website, you want to make sure to clear the cache. If you don’t clear your cache, people will see the old version of the website.

4. Optimize Images

Large or unoptimized images can cause major problems for your site’s speed. Slow page speeds due to images are an easy fix. You can optimize the photos before you put them on your site or if you think a plugin is worth the space, which I do, you can put a plugin up and wha-la!

Optimized images give the visitor a better experience and keep your site speed at its best.

5. Use a CDN

Content delivery networks aka CDNs deliver your content from different parts of the world, so your visitors get a fast experience no matter where in the world they are.

Serving your site from a CDN can mean big speed improvements. If you are a beginner, this can be somewhat confusing so you might want to hire a WordPress tech to set it up for you.

Was this post helpful to you? What was your favorite tip? I’d love to hear in the comments below. 🙂

5 Simple Small Business Marketing Ideas You Can Use Right Away

Jessica Lauren Vine

person writing down small business marketing ideas

As small business owners, we wear all of the hats. Creating sales funnels, using inbound marketing strategies and more.

There are so many hats on our heads that it can be hard to find the one we are supposed to wear for small business marketing ideas.

Contents

Small Business Marketing Ideas for Today

Instead of stressing out and trying to reinvent the wheel, continue reading and use the following five ideas to get started.

Blogging

If you want a low-cost marketing tactic that is straightforward and allows you to build a relationship with your potential customer then blogging is the way to go.

Blogging allows you to write about topics your audience cares about while showcasing your knowledge on the topic. Since you already know about the topic and are an expert, this makes it easier for you to write about the subject.

When blogging, it should be part of an overall strategy that will allow you to get people into your funnel. Simply having people come to read your blog is not enough.

You need to get people on your web. You might do this through having them opt-in to your email list through a content upgrade, pop-up, pop-over, etc.

Network on Social Media

When it comes to small business marketing ideas, this is as simple as it comes. Network with other business owners online. Other business owners understand how it is to do business and besides for that, they have more connections than most people.

You can also network with your potential customers online. Getting to know people that might want to do business with you will help you gain their trust. If you are selling high ticket items, you may only need a couple of sales to make your networking worth your while.

Infographics

Infographics are a great way to get people’s attention. When you use infographics, you can convey your message easier and allow it to stick with people. Infographics are great for going viral, especially on platforms like Pinterest.

Check out the infographic I did for my 7 blogging mistakes article here.

Have a Customer Referral Program

Creating a customer referral program will allow you to have a pack of raving fans that are more than happy to share about your great service.

These customers will often already tell their friends about you, but having a rewards program shows your appreciation. A rewards program is always a great way to create customer loyalty and new customers.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the best ways to follow up with potential customers as well as buyers. You want to segment your lists so that you don’t send the same email to potential customers as you would to buyers. You want to tailor the emails that you send so that people are interested in what you have to say vs. being annoyed.

Which of these tips are you going to implement in your business? Share in the comments below.

5 Reasons Your Email Marketing Strategy Isn’t Working

Jessica Lauren Vine

Depending on the industry, open rates can be anywhere from 18% to 37%. Increasing your open rate can help increase your other metrics as well.

Does your email marketing strategy feel like it is a big flop?

Most people find themselves pretty frustrated when they are beginning their online marketing journey. Even when you become a seasoned marketer, it can be frustrating to get your email marketing act together. Continue reading this article as I talk with you about five reasons your email marketing strategy isn’t working.

Contents

1. Your Strategy Isn’t Really a Strategy

You can’t very well call it an email marketing strategy if you don’t have a strategy in place, now can you? Many people say they have an email marketing strategy when in fact their strategy is to throw it out there and hope that something sticks.

If you want to win with your email marketing, you need to have a plan.

When will you send emails?
To whom will you send emails?
How is your list segmentation?

There are so many questions to ask before you launch your email marketing campaign.

2. Not Understanding Your Target Market

Who are you talking to when you write these emails? You have to know who you are talking to be effective. If you are writing to anyone, then you are writing to no one. Knowing who you are talking to will allow you to personalize it.

For instance, with my blog here, I know I am talking to families that want more freedom and time to be together, travel their country and maybe even the world at some point. That is why everything that I write about helps people achieve that goal.

Fail to understand your target market at your own peril.

3. Less Than Clickable Subject Line

If your subject line is a snooze, you have to amp it up. If you can’t get people to open your emails, you don’t have a chance.

If you know who your target market is, it makes it much easier for you to get their attention because you know what they want to see and read. Don’t be afraid to be unique.

You don’t want to sound like every other email going through their inbox.

4. Poor Design in Your Emails

When people do get into your emails, how do they look? Design is important. If people are opening your emails to see plain, lazy and boring email, it is likely that they will unsubscribe or at least stop opening your emails.

You might even end up in the “read later” folder that no one goes back to.

5. They Don’t Recognize the Sender

If you are sending emails, make sure people are able to recognize the sender. If they signed up for Suzy’s Email Tips and you are sending it from Susan Smith, they aren’t going to know who you are. Since they don’t know who you are, they aren’t going to open your emails.

Don’t Bomb Your Campaign With Poor Planning

Don’t let poor email marketing strategy hold you back. Learn how to win with email marketing so you can create the life of your dreams going where you want to go whenever you want to go.

What is one thing you’ve learned about email marketing that has helped you? Share with me in the comments.

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