My Amazon FBA Journey - Abbreviations

In 'My Amazon FBA Journey' posts I'm going to cover the good and the bad as it has happened to me (and my daughter). The bad are not likely to be negatives for the Amazon FBA system, but rather the affect it had on me as I come to grips with how it all works.

I will try and offer useful insights into what I've misunderstood, learnt, tried and failed, tried and succeeded. Let's just say it's quite a journey.

In this post I'm going to list a few of the abbreviations I've come across, which are never clearly explained, so I've often to run a Google search to find out for myself. A lot of things are assumed by writers and help lines, SKU for example. We know what it does , but what does it stand for - and do I need to use it? (Well yes, you do.) 

An acronym is an abbreviation which can be said as if it's a word - which is why users assume everyone knows what they are talking about. It's jargon - and the use of jargon should only be with people who use it themselves. So if you want to bring in new people, then use the full phrase, followed by the initials - ie always say what it means early on in the verbal or written conversation. (Here endeth the first grammar lesson!)

So, for what was intended as a quick post, here are just a few of the acronyms and abbreviations which you need to be aware of in your Amazon FBA (or merchant) business inventory.

1. SKU - A Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) is a product and service identification code for a store or product, often portrayed as a machine-readable bar code that helps track the item for inventory. A stock keeping unit (SKU) does not need to be assigned to physical products in inventory. Use it to identify your products quickly. This is your ID code for the type, model, colour, size etc of the product or service you are selling. Find out more in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_keeping_unit
2. ASIN - (Use of this one really annoyed me btw!)  The Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) is a 10-character alphanumeric unique identifier assigned by Amazon.com and its partners for product identification within the Amazon organization. Wikipedia again: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number
3. FBA - yes, even the FBA term itself. Fulfilment by Amazon helps you grow your business in the UK and internationally when you sell on Amazon and through other sales channels. In fact it to be grammatically correct it should be used as simply FBA otherwise it reads 'Amazon Fulfilment by Amazon', which is a bit daft. But FBA on its own applies to other things too, so even I tend to always say 'Amazon FBA'. (Google FBA just for fun!)

One more I would like to mention here and now is the Buy Box. It is neither an abbreviation nor an acronym. It actually means what it says, but there is an awful lot of perceived mystery and exclusion around it. And I don't think there needs to be.

The Amazon Buy Box simply refers to a seller's product having the yellow Buy Box in their listing, which in turn means most people will click the yellow box to buy - so because it is against your product, you get the sale. 

However, because Amazon sell stuff too, and have such tremendous buying power, there's a bit of a myth surrounding this that you haven't a hope of 'winning' the Buy Box. Other sellers have the same opportunities as you to do though - and with my very first batch of products, when I was testing the system, I dropped my price to just below the others' and the Buy Box was mine! (But one has to avoid getting into a price war!) Read up about the Buy Box, but don't think for a moment that you will never, ever benefit from it - it just depends who you are up against at the time.

That's all for now. I'll put some more acronyms in as and when I come across them.

Lyn Hill
UK

My Amazon FBA Journey

Using the massive power of Amazon, the Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA) programme is for people like you and me to sell physical products using their site as if it were our own.

Here is some background for this first post in what I intend to be a series of articles as you join me on my journey with Amazon FBA selling.

For starters, while I have been working some kind of additional income generating business for many, many years, for the last 15 I have leaned more towards online marketing which I can come home to of an evening and do from my armchair with a laptop. eBay was one of my successes (and is similar to the FBA concept in many ways) but my USA supplier did the dirty on me and my family circumstances changed so I had to stop.

I will also add that I am of pension age and still work full-time as a self-employed database administrator. I have no intention of retiring properly - but I am tired of getting up in the morning and no paid holidays or sick leave.

My SO is just as weary but has little interest in anything business-wise but will no doubt be pleased to benefit from the fruits of my labours. B-)

The other person who is with me in this venture is my daughter. She has run her own very successful gardening business in the past, but her health means that she can no longer do this so is now earning just above minimum wage. She has the enthusiasm to help me keep going through the being worn out by the time we get home syndrome.

In this blog I am going to chart my journey for you, give you the links to the various information I have found useful and some warnings about the not-so-useful stuff I've learned. I will keep it first person (I instead of we) for the most part, as I want you to know this is indeed me talking to you. So here we go...

I started with the Amazon FBA (Fulfilment By Amazon) programme in November/December after I received an enticing email from one of the most interesting entrepreneurs in the UK, Robert Evans. (His emails are wonderful, by the way!) 

It was after I had read the first lesson of Rob's new FBA course that I realised I could do this FBA thing, so having talked it over with my daughter, we got started. 

(By the way, I live in the UK, so everything I am writing about this relates to my UK Amazon FBA experience. Other countries' processes may vary. Some of the links I add will be affiliate links which mean I may receive a commission. I would like to think that you will find my blog useful enough to sign up to something through me, but understand that you may prefer not to.)

The Enticement
I have been trying to find an online kind of business which I am comfortable with - which means I can see how to do it, even though there may be a steep learning curve; I think I will enjoy doing it; it isn't so monotonous that I will get bored with it; it doesn't have high start up costs so I can do it on a shoe-string; doesn't require me to take phone calls or plug into weekly meetings or webinars (I hate videos too) and I won't be pestered by US companies trying to enrol me into their services. 

I've been following Robert Evans (check out his YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/CapitalRobert) is quite a lad. He has a great sense of fun, amusing style of writing and always seems to come up with ways and means of doing business which are very down-to-earth and do-able. I have bought a couple of his systems and most recently I was so intrigued by his FBA offering that I decided to sign up for it.

His unique selling point (USP) was that he was going to write up his FBA journey 'live', so to speak. And true to his word, this is what he has done. He releases each part of his course once he's done it and of the ten parts we are (at time of writing) up to part eight.

The plus side is that he can present it in easy to understand chunks. One of the few downsides is in having digested the lesson and actioned it, we have to wait for the next part. So, to supplement my learning, and having read the first three lessons very quickly, I then went on to buy some Kindle books, researched some FBA sites online and tried to move my business along faster than the lessons.

I must say that this course of action seems to have worked for me quite well. 

The ship leaves harbour...

I'm going to finish this post with a bullet-point summary of what we did and where we are right now:

• I started the course on 30th October 2016. 
• Set up our Amazon Seller Pro account a few days later.
• Researched using the guidance from the course and bought some products.
• Got my head around what I had to do to get them listed with Amazon.
• Worked through the fear of a) what to buy, b) making a mistake, c) DOING IT ANYWAY!
• Sent off our first box to Amazon at the beginning of December - 8th to be precise.
• Sold out of all but one of our 14 products within 3 days.
• Claimed our disbursement from Amazon at the beginning of January (£99 - being what Amazon pay us once they have deducted their fees)
• Had one product return notified (I have to ask for a product removal to get it back)
• Bought some more products and shipped them off just a few days ago and I am now waiting to see how well they sell.

Phew! 

Here are what I consider to be the most useful links I can give you right now

The first has to be to FBA Wizard Pro. There are other product sourcing sites which Rob recommends, but by lesson 6 he had found this one and I can understand why. It's brilliant. !4-day money back guarantee to test, lots of helpful videos and an incredibly supportive admin/developer who answers questions almost instantly. I can't praise Shaun highly enough, so here's the link to FBA Wizard Pro. I have also subscribed to their Wizard Bar service as that is so very, very useful: FBAWizardPro

ProfitSourcery has some great PDFs if like me, you prefer reading - a 7 day trial at time of writing (although I don't use them at the moment, they got me started): ProfitSourcery

And for the wholesale side I have joined Esources : Esources and I'm thinking about joining https://www.wholesaledeals.co.uk

I use TopCashBack - see if the store where you've found the deal you want to buy to resell is listed with them. If it is then you'll get some cash back! TopCashBack

Some Kindle books
I just yesterday came across a UK specific ebook:

The A-Z of Amazon.co.uk FBA - by Ned Browne

Others I have been through are USA specific:
Amazon FBA Decoded by Erdal Gul
Amazon FBA Complete Guide by Dan Johnson

There are masses of them! Each one may just have that little insight which will help us all exponentially.

Some specific advice
Watch your profit margins. I work on the basis of fees taking up about one-third of the selling price - on top of which we have to buy the product first and add any shipping to get it to us (unless I can do pay and collect). Look out for sales - but due diligence, always!

And VERY VERY IMPORTANT

• I strongly recommend you set up a Gmail account specifically for everything related to your FBA business.
• If you want to flip Amazon products, you must not use your own personal Prime account to buy them. Set up a separate account (Amazon don't mind) and make sure you use the right one.

That's all for now. I'll be back in a few days with some more miles added to my Amazon FBA journey.

Lyn Hill
UK

A Great Social Media Marketing Course - Shaw Academy - Personal Review

My, my - that was easy!

I've just achieved a Diploma in Social Media Marketing!  

(Pretty good for an old codger like me. Gained a Distinction too.)

So, what's this course all about? 

Online

Ten lessons

Four Assignments

One Exam

Easy.

I am so pleased with the course that I decided to sign up as an affiliate and do my very best to promote the Shaw Academy which I did it with.

My Link to the Shaw Academy main site

Right now, I'm so excited with my result (only took me 20 minutes to answer 100 questions) that I just couldn't wait to set up this post. Where I will fall down is in not doing it perfectly, but you know: perfection takes time and if we wait for it we will never get anything done! (Sorry Daniel!)

So, with this very succinct personal review, please check the Shaw Academy website to see what they are offering. They are not expensive and I found the Social Media Marketing very easy to follow, despite the fact that I couldn't join even one session live online.

Very Good points

• Daniel Byrne's lovely Dublin lilt
• Comprehensive lessons for the Big Five Social Media sites (can you guess which ones?)
• Each lesson at least 1 hour long - with Q & A session at the end
• Detailed walk-throughs of setting up your promotions
• Detailed discussions of analytics on all
• Online Reputation Management concepts
• Strategies

Not quite so good

• A written transcript would take a fraction of the time to read (but probably not sink in so well, if I'm honest)
• Some of the walk-throughs were a bit basic - but then I have done that sort of thing already, many of my fellow students may not have
• Contact with course leader seemed to be one-way - him to me - even though I always answered his messages as if they were indeed personal. (It didn't alter the value of the course content.)

Learning Points I will take on-board (eventually)

• Use beautiful, relevant images wherever possible (images attract more eyeballs to stay)
• Use all the analytical tools available to plan campaigns and monitor effect
• The correct tone for the site being used
• Even though I hate the time it takes to watch a video, I did enjoy them and I never closed down before the absolute end in case I missed something important
• The value of online learning - in my own time, even if I can't attend live. Do it anyway!
• There's more to Social Media than meets the eye, so still lots more to learn 
• 
  

Why don't you pop over and take a look at what's on offer. If you do one, look out for the fantastic Lifetime Family Membership offer which may come your way!

 Once more, here's my Link to the Shaw Academy main site

 

How Fast Will My Online Business Grow?

I have just come across someone else's blog post which I think summarises one's expectations pretty well. It's from Brian Rooney (TrafficWave and TOAN) and here is the link to it:

The Role Of Patience In Network Marketing

I think the phrase 'Network Marketing' can be applied to most of the programmes which I am a part of - after all, although I don't go out meeting people, and I really don't waste my valuable time on social sites - I am advertising in various ways to get people to at least come over and take a look at what I am offering. I share some things with my online friends who I may meet in various traffic exchanges or share an email with from time to time.

But I'm not going to digress - pop over and read Brian's blogpost. It's very, very good.

The Role Of Patience In Network Marketing

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ProfitClicking Keeps Improving

ProfitClicking Keeps Improving

I know I'm writing a lot about ProfitClicking, but it's such an interesting system that I'm treating these blog posts as an ongoing ProfitClicking review. Hopefully it will help interested people to make a decision about joining or not, and give a bit more confidence in the programme to those who have joined, but are not too sure if they did the right thing.

Here's a message which I sent today to 2 people who have recently joined my downline:

Hi

Thank you for joining me in ProfitClicking. I'm not going to keep pestering you with messages, but I did want to say hello and let you know how I use the system.

It took me a while to get my head around it all, but I am seeing my funds increasing every day. Over a couple of months when I started, I put about $200 in of my own money, but now I just keep re-investing - usually every day if I can login. I built up my surfing credits by surfing more than the requisite 3 sites daily, which means that I don't need to worry about that. Also, I have bought a couple of Panels and upgraded them, but you won't need to do that for a while.

The main thing to do is surf 3 sites a day (or double) - I suggest 6 a day for a week or so. No need to do any more - use that time to surf elsewhere instead, if that's what you like to do. Then re-invest the funds in your wallet by buying ad packages - or if you want to, put in some of your own money over a period of time.

Oh - and don't forget to add your 3 websites so other members can see them.

As a guide, by doing what I have said above, I now see $30 or more every time I login - last week I had $43 one day and 3 days later another $43.

Bear in mind that ProfitClicking will take back the 'free' $10 startup about 45 days down the line, but they can only do that when they see the funds in your account, so you don't really miss it. (I don't know why they say it's 'free', but they do.)

-----------------

There's a great video you can watch - CLICK HERE

I say it as I find it. It IS working and I have high hopes for a genuine long term income with ProfitClicking. I want to retire sooner rather than later!

But it isn't the only string to my bow, so I will soon start to post about some of the other things I am doing and methods that I use too.

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String + Bow - My Archery Bog

Quick Update For ProfitClicking Upgrade

Quick Update For ProfitClicking Upgrade

Just received this response from ProfitClicking support in answer to my question about not being able to upgrade at the moment. There's nothing to worry about. Everything is in hand!.:

Hello:Our members do not lose their matured purchases, they are in the queue waiting for the matrix to be completed, then all accounts will be adjusted. IT Dept. is still working on the site.

You do not need to upgrade in Profit Clicking in order to participate in the ad packages, even to get commissions from your referrals!

Only after 4 of your Ad Packages mature, does it start to get interesting to upgrade in Profit Clicking, so you earn more money than just your daily sales profit.

Currently, the upgrade button is not functional. Please keep in mind, that there is no need to be an upgraded member at this point in time, other than access to the "Big Success Breakthrough." The Ad Package feed is inactive so whether you are upgraded or not you will not be receiving free PC Panels for every four matured Ad Packs. You also don't lose anything because your expired Ad Packs will be pending until we resume the feed.

It won't be long now so please keep an eye out for the latest announcement in your dashboard.

Your upgrade to Level 1 will provide you with several benefits:

1) Access to the PC Success Course, the "Big Success Breakthrough," worth thousands or even much more if you are able to apply this training to your own life.

2) Ability to receive the second half of your Ad pack earnings, by allowing you to receive free PC Panels (matrices) you're entitled to when your Ad Packs mature -- worth a great deal, depending on the extent of your Ad Pack participation.

3) Entitlement to buy PC Panels (matrices) without having to first participate in purchasing Ad Packs potentially makes you the fastest money available at Profit Clicking without promoting your website.

Upgrade to level 2 will cost $57 every 3 months - Pays a commission of $28.50 per sale. Product: Killer Success Tricks 1-7

Upgrade to level 3 will cost $117 every 3 months - Pays a commission of $58.50 per sale. Product: Killer Success Tricks 8-?

PC2 and PC3 are coming soon!

Thank you for being a valued member of Profit Clicking.

.

 

What's happened to Just Been Paid?

What's happened to Just Been Paid?

Just Been Paid/JSS is now ProfitClicking. It has been a tedious process, but the money is rolling in again and they have come up with a much slicker site. Still a few teething problems and lots still to do, but although I was really disappointed at first, I'm now seeing the benefits.

Practicalities: not much has changed other than the daily requirement to surf at least 3 sites every day. Now that's a bit of a pain if you want a vacation as you won't get paid for the days when you can't surf. I need to see if it's possible to do it on my mobile (cellphone) then it won't be quite so bad.

Rather than buying 'positions' you now need to buy ad packages - still $10 each and do the same job. The weekday and weekend % benefits look as if they have doubled; not sure if that's permanent, but good to see.

Some days the system seems really slow. Best to leave it and go back an hour later, I've found. It has taken weeks! A hard time for everyone, but true to their promises they look as if they will take JBP/JSS to new heights and I'm with them all the way.

Pop over, take a look and grab your $10 starter cash (pay it back automatically after 45 days): CLICK HERE.
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How Is Just Been Paid / JSS Tripler Doing?

How Is Just Been Paid / JSS Tripler Doing?

I'm really, really pleased.

I joined mid April, have put in a total of $170 of my own money, received back $100 which I have re-invested into purchasing positions. I now have 26 positions which are making me just over $5 a day. This means that I can re-invest for a new position every 2 days. (I think I've worked out these figures correctly, but it is a bit fiddly!)

I received my $10 loan to get started (paid back to the system automatically on day 45).
I paid the $15 upgrade - which I don't think I needed to, but what the heck!
I added $70 of my own to get 7 positionsat the beginning.
I added more x $10 or $20 to get the 4s as close together as possible.

The program recommends you buy 4 positions at time, but not all of us can do that. What I have been doing is buying extras whenever I can and as close as possible to the re-invested one. I reasoned that the more positions I had the faster my cash would grow and therefore it all grows exponentially.

Here's a summary of everything I have done since I started keeping a log mid May (before then I had 'made' enough to re-invest in 2 positions to give me a total of 9):

16-May	4.90
17-May	6.70
18-May	8.50
19-May	9.85
20-May	11.20
21-May	3.20
22-May	5.20
23-May	7.20
24-May	9.20
25-May	11.20
27-May	4.80
28-May	7.20
31-May	14.4*
01-Jun	3.60
02-Jun	6.00
03-Jun	8.40
04-Jun	1.60
05-Jun	4.80
06-Jun	8.00
07-Jun	11.20*
08-Jun	4.60
09-Jun	7.15
10-Jun	9.70
11-Jun	13.10*
11-Jun	3.10
12-Jun	7.10
13-Jun	11.10*
14-Jun	5.30
15-Jun	9.50
16-Jun	12.95*
17-Jun	6.55
18-Jun	11.35*
19-Jun	6.35
20-Jun	11.35*

I don't for one minute pretend to understand how this works, but you can see my balance growing every day and just keep re-investing so it happens faster. Those with a * are where I re-invested. You can see that in the last couple of weeks I have been able to 'recycle' faster and faster. 4th June was when the original $10 loan was claimed back.

At the top of the chart I was gaining my $10 roughly every 5 days, now it's every other day.

My next step is to find out what I should be doing from now on - and even what I should have been doing from the beginning. There's a lot of information to digest and to be honest, it isn't presented in a very understandable way. BUT THE SYSTEM WORKS!

I will keep you posted. Meanwhile pop over and check it out for yourself: CLICK HERE

Just Been Paid & JSS Tripler

Just Been Paid & JSS Tripler

Now I won't claim that I understand how this program works exactly, but I must say that I am becoming rather excited - which is quite good considering we older Brits don't usually get excited about much!

Anyway, I joined this on the recommendation of a good online friend, with whom I am involved in other biz opps too. I was intrigued by Just Been Paid & JSS Tripler to the point where I asked my friend if it really was all it claimed to be.


I was automatically given an advance of $10 by the system  (everything's in US dollars) and spent $15 upgrading myself, $20 to buy a matrix position and a further$50 to buy some more positions for myself. So now I have 7 positions and I have already bought 2 more using the money the system has made me. Apparently though, it is better to buy in multiples of 4 at a time - so I plan to do that.

I can see that the more positions I have the faster my cash will grow, but I have decided to re-invest that money into more positions for a while to give it a boost.

I admit that it is quite hard taking everything in when I have limited time - and there's lots of repetition. But the system is definitely working so one to become involved with I reckon.

Pop over and check it out: Go to Just Been Paid / JSS Tripler

They do have some great self-development products which you access depending which grade you are:
"Upgrade Your Brain,"
"Big Success Breakthrough,"
and "Killer Success Tricks"
to become vastly more successful in all areas of your life.
and "JBP's Leapfrog Course"

I haven't had a chance to check these out yet, but they are on my list.Click the square to find out more.


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Why do I need an autoresponder?

You’ve heard of them, but you are not quite sure why you would need an autoresponder. Fair enough. It isn’t always obvious, especially if you have an ‘offline’ business. It’s kinda essential though, if you do any kind of ‘online’ marketing. But let’s look at offline retail in this post.

I’ve had an autoresponder (AR) for several years, but I probably don’t use it to it’s full capacity. I actually have 2 different ones – TrafficWave is my current main one, and NPN which I will bring into use soon (I’m concentrating on other things in NPN at the moment).

By the way, if you click through to TrafficWave, there’s a free report you can get about how TW can help your retail business. You don’t need to commit to signing up with TrafficWave.

Even though you may have a conventional, offline business – shop, restaurant, service etc – you still need an online presence, but that is not the purpose of this article. However, by having a website and/or blog, you can set up a short form to capture a name and email address. Then you have your list started and can send messages and broadcasts to your subscribers.

You can have a whole series of messages, all pre-written (by yourself or someone else) and loaded into your AR to be sent out at set periods. You may choose to do this once every 2 or 3 days, once a week, twice a month. You have the control, so if you have something you would like to say, you can say it.

You may also send a broadcast message every now and then, for example, if you have a special offer, to announce a sale period, new product announcement. You could send out a coupon code or run a contest of some kind to suit your business – and it may even help to keep you one step ahead of your competitors! So, if you are agreed that you need an autoresponder, then you will want to check out the leaders in that field before you commit.

Here they are:
AWeber, GetResponse, TrafficWave, (I deliberately haven’t put NPN in this list because it’s AR is not it’s primary business.) There are others, so run a Google search to find more. Most will charge a monthly fee, What you need to examine are the costs – how many lists can you have, and how many subscribers per list before you have to pay more.

One more thing you must look into is ‘deliverability’ and here is a page where you can find out more about that (yes, it’s a TrafficWave page): http://www.trafficwave.net/members/acmeinfo/delivery.html 
I must admit that I’m comfortable with TrafficWave, and I can even offer you a free trial for 30 days if you click through one of my links and join – but bear in mind you will need to take time to set it all up, so use the 30 days to get all the training reports you can and have a good look round the site to find out how it all works. If you would like to take advantage of this, please enter your details below:

Name
Email

These days you must take advantage of every tool and resource you can get your hands on to keep your business going and also expand your reach. Get your website or blog set up and then add an autoresponder to keep in touch with your customers.

TotallyTweetable - use it.

This is a real Game Changer and is being hailed as 'Social Evolution'. 

What a concept!

The world of marketing online has been dying slowly for a while now as people are fed up with 'opting in' and getting mail boxes filled with nothing of any meaning. Spam is the killer (the real stuff tastes horrible too.)

So this system takes the traditional email marketing and modernizes it and then blows the roof of your exposure by adding in a pretty neat VIRAL twist.

TotallyTweetable

You get to leverage the power of hundreds of people and get your message some of the biggest exposure online.

Totally Tweetable is TOTALLY F*R*E*E for a limited number of people - so do not delay. You will be amazed at the system.

It has harnessed everything that is working online and bundled it into one system that will skyrocket your results.



I am stunned - move fast. TotallyTweetable is the most explosive program online - bar none!

I have been looking for the fastest way to get my marketing material out to the widest audience and I just found it. These guys are marketing geniuses and have opened the doors to something here which has so much value for people that I am amazed they are doing it for free....

I am sure that won't last - thousands are already talking about this.

Here is the insiders view....
Old methods of marketing simply don't work - email inboxes are TOO full and people just don't pay attention. The world is mobile - and social. This system TAPS THAT (and they don't mention it on the front page... But it hits the big 'FB' as well.... although I am not sure... maybe I just found a loophole...Who cares... It blew my exposure skyhigh!)

Look -
the bottom line is this.....

Be fast - this is evolutionary marketing at it's finest and to be honest... if you are not tapping into totallytweetable in a few months, your marketing is just plain not going to get read.

So get in - get the system working for you and get tons of exposure with other people just WAITING to send out some tweets for you (with YOUR message in them!).

http://budurl.com/tweetableU

To your success,

Lynda


P.S. - Marketing means getting your message out to more people, more often. Social marketing is an evolution and is every marketing mind's dream, make it a reality!

All Out Ads - My New Text Ad Exchange

Well, I have decided to start my own Text Ad Exchange! It's called All Out Ads and I am very excited about this new venture.

So, what is a Text Ad Exchange?



In a nutshell, it's somewhere you can place all kinds of advertisements for - just about anything. But to be honest, online business programs are the main category, but there's no harm in placing ads for anything else. As long as the are 'legal, decent and honest'!

What's somewhat unique about my site is that I have lots of guides about using it: downloadable ebook, videos, tutorials and online chat support as well as the usual support system. It has been set up for me by AdminForFree, so other than check a few things every day, they handle practically everything else. (See the blue banner below.)

I'm going to be adding another site soon, once AOA has grown a bit more, and no doubt more in future.

So please pop over and register - it's free. Then place some ads.

--->>> CLICK HERE


-----------Update May 2012------------ After just under a year, I decided to withdraw from managing my own text site. I have put this notice at the bottom because the reason is I just don't have the time to do it justice. Admin For Free have been brilliant and encouraged me to stay on a lot longer than I really wanted to - they will have me back too. But, although I had lots of ideas, my online business has changed direction and the site was falling down without more active involvement. I wish the new owner/s every success - and still recommend it as a great way to get to know the ins and outs of text ad advertising.

Cash Twist - Why I Joined

New Year always brings a raft of new programs, so the canny on-line marketer (of which I hope I have now learned to be one) will sit back and watch the firework show before jumping on board with both feet.

It's also a time of consolidation. So I've dropped a few programs which weren't working after a long time, changed how I do things a bit and started to re-think strategies in general.

I've made a few great on-line buddies along the way and take note of what they say and recommend. So, when one (his name is Marcel) suggested I take a look at Cash Twist, I asked a few questions, made sure I had space to slot it into my repertoire and joined up.



It's only a one-time $9, you need an AlertPay account first, and you also need to be able to get onto the internet every day.

So, what's it all about?

In a nutshell, the system is obviously designed to make money for everyone - as fast as possible. But like every good system, they do have real products for you too, mainly in the form of advertising specials at the moment. But the whole concept is about getting people to sign up under you. The faster thay come in the sooner you will cycle through the system.

Now, I don't pretend to understand the ins-and-outs of matrix builders. I go with the flow and do what I can to advertise as much as possible. I mainly use Traffic Exchanges (see my big AcmeWeblog section about these - CLICK HERE) as well as Text Ad Exchanges (soon to write about those in AcmeWeblog).

It's far too early for me to say if Cash Twist is working yet. There's a great forum with lots of action, and Marcel as my sponsor is very supportive. I give it as much time as I can, which is all any of us can do; it has to slot in with my other on-line biz commitments, so I may not grow as fast as other people who can devote more time.

As with all things I get involved with, I will give it at least 6 months of hard work. As Yoda says: Do or do not. There is no try!

My best suggestion is that you do the same. It's only $9 - price of a couple of burgers or coffees. I will be happy to give you all the support I can.

You can also go through to the Official Cash Twist blog HERE

----------- Update April 2012 ----------- Although I am still a member of Cash Twist, I don't do any active promoting of it. If it grows it grows. The program is still going and lots of people seem to be doing OK with it, but I have moved to other thigs.

I don't do sales...I do marketing.

I received this message in my inbox yesterday. Apparently it was written by Jay Kanik.

I think that it's really inspiring. Every seasoned or aspiring Internet Marketer should frame this and learn it by heart or refer to it often. I know I will, which is why I have posted it here.

Enjoy!


I don't do sales...I do marketing.
I don't do cold calls...people call me.
I don't sell...I show.
I don't enroll people...I sponsor them.


I don't wish I was online...I get a website.
I don't hope for traffic and visitors...I advertise.
I don't email...I use an autoresponder.
I don't spam...I have 100% optins.


I don't join deals...I join businesses.
I don't do it tomorrow...I do it today.
I don't spend money...I invest it in my business.
I don't waste money...I make it.


I don't get rich quick...I build cashflow and wealth.
I don't wish it was easier...I make myself better.
I don't want it to work...I make it work.
I don't hope for success...I create success.


I don't wait for a leader...I become the leader.
I don't follow...I lead.
I don't tell people what to do...I show and mentor them.
I don't watch others...I take action.


I don't quit...I work harder.
I don't quit...I learn more skills
I don't quit...I take more action.
I don't quit...I try again.


When I don't quit....I succeed.


Does This Sound Like You?

Do You Want To Be More Like This?

Are you ready to take action?

Instant Blog Subscribers - Review

Instant Blog Subscribers - Review

I've been putting this off for a while. You know, I really don't like poo-pooing everything I come across, but here we go again. I'm not awfully keen on Instant Blog Subscribers.

I'll keep it short though. (Bear in mind that this is a system used to advertise in traffic exchanges. I have a couple of pages on one of my other blogs (AcmeWeblog) all about these and how people - including me - are making money with them.)

Yet another blog to keep updated and masses of emails coming through to my mailbox every day.

To be honest, I imagined it would be a place where I could promote my existing blogs. Sadly no. Even as a free subscriber, you have to set up one of their templates. Do we all have time to do this - to keep it fresh?

Then there are the emails which you need to click through to give you more showings of your own IBS blog. Now, if I'm just clicking to get my points, I'm not reading them all as I go. So, what are the chances of my own blog being seen?

Is it a way to get a beginner blogging? Not really. Better to pop over to one of my other blogs where I explain how to get started with blogging: HERE

But if you would like to see for yourself, here's the link: Go To IBS

and you might like to take a look at those other blog exchanges I mentioned:

-->>BlogClicker
-->>BlogBlasterSurf

View .doc attachments right in your browser - Official Gmail Blog

View .doc attachments right in your browser - Official Gmail Blog

PLR Empire Profits Review

PLR Empire Profits Review

PLR (private label rights) products have become a really big thing for people who use different types of content in their business. Articles, ebooks, blog posts, emails, videos, audios, software, and so much more are all things that website owners use in their business for different reasons.

Up until now only those who wanted to sell their own products, or those who make money with their sites using PPC (Pay Per Click) or by selling advertising have been able to take full advantage of products that come with PLR.

Now though with the PLR Empire Profits course affiliate marketers can learn to use private label rights content to sky-rocket their affiliate commissions.

This is a full blown course that not only comes with 5 different workshops that teach you how to profitably use private label rights products in your affiliate marketing business, but also live coaching with an affiliate marketing expert!

Here's exactly what's in the PLR Empire Profits course:

First are the 5 different workshops that you get that teach you incredible tactics for making a killing as an affiliate marketer. They are...

Workshop 1 -- Affiliate Marketing The Right Way Workshop

In this workshop you'll have to forget everything you've been taught about affiliate marketing! Most of it hasn't worked anyway! This workshop will wipe your brain of all the misinformation you've been given about affiliate marketing, and will help reprogram your brain to actually be successful! You'll start at the beginning so that you get off on the right foot, and then you'll be shown the real "insider secrets" to making money with affiliate marketing.

Workshop 2 -- Affiliate Squeeze Page Workshop

In this workshop, you'll learn how to setup your own squeeze page that will allow you to build your own email list. You'll learn how to create your squeeze page, and then how to take PLR products and turn them into killer products to entice people to give up their name and email address.

After that, you'll learn how to take emails to load up your autoresponder, so that you can sell to your new subscribers on autopilot!

You'll learn everything from A to Z, including the techie stuff! By the time you finish this workshop, you'll have your own squeeze page that will work for you 24/7 on complete autopilot!

Workshop 3 -- Review Blog Cash Workshop

In this workshop, you'll learn how to setup your very own blog, put video reviews on it, and collect big time commission cheques.

Review blogs are awesome cash-cows! However, most people don't know how to set them up and use them right, so they do a lot of work, but never see any money. You can avoid this problem and learn the right way to do this!

You'll be shown exactly how to install your blog, set it up correctly, and use it to get a ton of traffic!

This tactic alone can put you profitably in the affiliate marketing business even if you did nothing else!


Workshop 4 -- Buying Frenzy Bootcamp Workshop

With this workshop, you're going to learn an amazing tactic that has been used by super affiliates over and over again to send people into a complete buying frenzy.

You'll learn how to take PLR products and turn them into bonus products that make your customers jump to buy anything through your affiliate link.

You'll start by taking PLR products and turning them into bonuses for any product you want to promote as an affiliate. Once that is setup, you'll learn how to create the perfect emails for the product and send them to your list. These emails will send them into a total buying frenzy!

This workshop is unique and NEVER been taught anywhere else. This is one of the biggest kept secrets in the affiliate marketing industry!


Workshop 5 -- Affiliate Backend Profits Workshop

Want to really take your affiliate marketing to the next level? Then you've got to have products of your own to sell to your buyers! In this workshop, you'll learn how to contact people who buy through your affiliate link, and sell them your own products for 100% of the profits.

You'll start by taking PLR products and setting them up so they're ready to sell. Then you'll contact those who have bought through your affiliate links (or subscribed to your list) and sell these workshops to them.

The cool thing here is you're using PLR products that are already created, so you don't have to create them from scratch. Plus, you're contacting people who have already bought things from you, so these are PROVEN buyers!

There is literally no better strategy out there for this kind of profit, and you'll learn everything you need to do to accomplish it!

Now not only are you going to get access to all of these workshops, but you're also going to get a free membership to MyAffiliateMarketingHelper.com where you'll be able to meet each week via live webinar with Super Affiliate Liz Tomey. During these live webinars you can get all the help you need from Liz to help you with your affiliate marketing business.

Just this one component makes the entire PLR Empire Profits course worth the tiny price tag!

If you're ready to take your affiliate marketing business to the next level, and use the secrets of super successful affiliate marketers make sure you grab the PLR Empire Profits course by going to:

http://budurl.com/plrmentoring

TE Command Post Review - First Impressions

TE Command Post Review - First Impressions

Clever system, but I'm not sure it's worth it.

I may have only done a few reviews recently, but I really do believe you want to know how I feel about products, not just give a sales pitch in the hope you will go and buy through my link. TE Command Post is a case in point.

Yes, it's a clever system, but it has its limitations and although I have upgraded to the Silver level, I'm not sure at this stage if I will keep that going. So let's see if I can put what I think into a nutshell.

First off, I'm a serious user of the traffic exchanges. I use them to promote several opportunities and they work very well for me in that I am starting to make money from my efforts. I am quite well organised though, and have come to know which sites use up my credits fast and which are slower. (If you would like to know more about the whole traffic exchange process, then please visit my other blog AcmeWeblog.

I have had masses of emails about TE Command Post - and I mean masses. Everyone and their aunts are promoting it. But that happens with new programs, and I admit to being a sucker to check most of them out. It did mean, however, that I could carefully choose just who I signed up under, which was good.

Nuts and bolts

TECP was easy enough to set up, instructions are very clear, and apart from a couple of very minor niggles I had 18 of the traffic exchanges I wanted to monitor set up fairly quickly. But then I do have software on my PC which lets me find login details and referral IDs very quickly.

Advance warning...

Make sure you have your traffic exchange login details, (username and password) as well as referral ID (which may or may not be different from your username) to hand as you will need them. I have a spreadsheet with most of them and use LastPass to autofill logins, which was why all this was simple for me.

What TECP aims to do is give you an up-to-date summary of your credits in the TE's you decide to monitor through it. I decided not to monitor those TEs I use where the credits last a long time. I usually only need to surf them once a week and it's easy and fast enough to build up a new stock. So HitsBoosterPro and High-Hits are not on my list in TECP.

But those sites where the credits disappear very quickly are! Here's a snapshot of some of them:

I can click on the green circle and it expands the data to show me which of my urls have credits assigned and which have run out. There are also menus to see the same for banners and text ads. From these pages I can go straight through and login to the TE to sort things out if I want to. Straightaway I can see that there are 3 sites where I have a lot of credits to assign, so that's quite useful.

There is an option to set Traffic Alerts - this comes through as an email message which summarises all of the above information and which you can set to alert you depending at user-defined credit and impression levels. This actually really bugs me! They have a very annoying phraseology for this, so I turned it off!

URLs have breached minimum settings
3 banners have breached minimum impression settings
3 textlinks have breached minimum impression settings

What else?

There's the usual downline building thingy and affiliate programme and...

...you have to upgrade to get more.

The extras include having some banner and text ads which show to other members. A free member can't have these.

Here's a summary of the upgrade options:

Membership	Free	Silver	Gold
Price	Free	$9.97 monthly	$19.97 monthly
Max TEs	10	20	50
Max credits/urls displayed	all credits/urls	all credits/urls	all credits/urls
Max banners displayed	totals only	all banners	all banners
Textlinks - totals only	totals only	all textlinks	all textlinks
Number of jumplink/ Downline Builder levels	1	3	6
% commissions	10%	25%	50%
Max banner ads	none	2	5
Max text ads	none	2	5
tecp alerts	No	Yes	Yes

I would like to have seen more of a control panel so that I could group sites together and go directly to surf them, have the stats monitored so I can check how many I have done in a session and link it all to a fast browser (oops, TEBrowser does most of that - CLICK  HERE to take a look).

I'm sure they will react to feedback and we may see these additions in the future.

Bottom line - is it worth it?

$9.97 a month to monitor 20 sites? - I don't think so.

$19.97 a month to monitor 50 sites and have a few more banners displayed to members - still not enough sites for my purposes, so still not worth it.

My verdict

I have a few weeks of my silver upgrade left to run, so I have time to look around a bit more, but right now, I very much doubt I will renew my upgrade. $9.97 can buy lots of credits in some TEs and that would be a far better use of my funds.

Having said that, you owe it to yourself to check it out for yourself as it may suit your needs better than mine.

Automated Ads Review - First Impressions

Automated Ads Review - First Impressions

Well, I must say, this is a neat little program. Jeff Dedrick has done it again (he has some great ideas)!

See that bar above with 4 mini banners? That's what Automated Ads does. Can do square ones to go on the side too. And not just for Blogger Blogs, they work in WordPress as well and there's even a plugin for that.


So, here's my quick review. (As it has only just been released I haven't made any money yet.)

• You need to register with ClickBank to get these to work for you - there's a link when you first login to the program if you are not already a member.
• It was very easy to set up, but I had to go through the short videos which explain exactly how to add them to my sites - Blogger one had me fooled until I'd watched them.
• It looks as if there are buttons to select and copy the code, but using those didn't work - had to swipe the code and copy it from the box instead.
• So far I have only used the quick start campaigns. The 4-banner above is one option and the square one top right of the sidebar is another. I think they look very good. If you want to change the category you just have to set up another ad and replace the code.
• Not that many categories in the quickstart, but you can create a custom campaign (watch the video first!) and you can check the ClickBank site to help you decide.
• In WordPress only, there's an option to automatically have a banner at the bottom of every post.
• Banners refresh when page reloads as long as there are more than 4 in that category.
• Need to experiment with different banner sizes to see what works best (see example below).
• Able to exclude any you don't like via the 'edit' option.
• Cost - a bit expensive on the monthly upgrade at the moment - so I'm using the free version first and will upgrade once I see some money coming in, but only if I see a need to do so. Not much point if I'm not going to add banners of my own. There is a special 14 day trial offer - but I may forget to check if I need to cancel it, so I'm not going for that yet.

Yes, I think this is a neat little program to add to your web pages and blogs. As it's free too, then it's a no-brainer.

Enjoy

Here's another example from the health and fitness category, it's a bit wide for this particular blog, but refresh this page and you get the idea:

What Makes Money Online?

What Makes Money Online?

There are many wild claims, lots of hype, as many scams, just plain lies - and then there are the ones that actually work. I'm about to tell you what is working for me. In other words, what is bringing in some money at last.

OK, so at the moment, it's not exactly a fortune, and when converted from US dollars, it's even less, but after several years experimenting, hopping from one programme to another, trying all sorts of things online, I'm making money with affiliate marketing through traffic exchanges.

What's more, I only started the main system which does this in January 2010 and 4 months later I have received 2 commission payments from it. I am steadily working every day and it continues to grow steadily. In addition to this, I do a few other things which bring in small amounts throughout the month. These may be commissions from referring people to join me, a percentage of what they paid for advertising, rewards for doing little things. It all mounts up, and as it grows it is starting to pay towards my online activities. Eventually I will be making enough to cover all my expenses so that I start to make a profit. As that develops I will find I am making good money, perhaps enough to pay for a holiday, replace a car, house improvements and more.

What is likely to happen is that it will start to grow steadily and then suddenly explode - online biz does that. You just have to keep plodding away at it and before you know it, the money starts to come in.

For now, I'm just going to pop down the links to the systems I'm using. Then in the next few weeks I will give an overview of each one and explain a bit more of the reality of how it is working for me. I'm not going to mention anything about eBay - although I was quite successful with it, I am not 'doing' that right now.

First up - MY INSTANT BIZ - I've been in this for about 16 months. Would have gone faster if I hadn't diversified. Excellent training and great support:

http://www.myinstant.biz/s.php/guide/lmhill
Next - TrafficWave + OceanSwell the one where I'm making most money each month. But that's the end result - here's how I'm doing it http://vitalviralpro.com/m/20088

Then there's SuccessQuik. This is a way to make money by promoting advertising resources, bit like an advertising broker, I suppose. By the way, nothing of what I do costs a fortune to start, in fact most of them are free, but you do need to spend a few dollars each month to move them along. Back to SuccessQuik - well, just click through HERE.

Now we come to some novel systems. One is quite new and innovative, the other has been going for about 16 years.


Rip-Tide Army - free to join and you also can look through the forum to see just how excited everyone is.

F5M + Jonathan's websites - Jonathan has developed a team rotator program and it takes a lot of the worries out of getting started. Just $5 to begin, so must be worth doing.

Well, that's it for now. Back later with a bit more information.

Lynda H