John Dilbeck and Friends: Affiliate Marketing

Save lots of money on guitars in April at Musician's Friend

John Dilbeck — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:11:25 GMT

I love music of all types, and now and then I do my best to make some recognizable music by playing one of my guitars or banjo.

Sometimes, someone actually says something kind about my abilities.

So, why am I talking about this?

I just got an email from the Musician's Friend affiliate team about how you can save Up to 50% off at the April Guitar Extravaganza at MusiciansFriend.com.

If you're in the market for a guitar and accessories, this is a good time to see what's available at Musician's Friend.

You can always find good deals on a huge selection of musical instruments, accessories, and related items there.

Act on your dream!

MindPerk streamlines their affiliate links

John Dilbeck — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:14:59 GMT

MindPerk is a store that sells self-improvement, motivational, and business training books, audio books, and more.

Here's how they describe themselves:

Thank you for visiting MindPerk, your self-improvement store, where we offer the largest selection of quality self-improvement and business training products anywhere. Each of our products passes a rigorous pre-screening process which insures that only the finest, most effective programs are listed. Please enjoy browsing. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us for prompt, helpful customer service.

I've been an affiliate for MindPerk for awhile, and the more I learn about the products they offer, the happier I am to recommend them.

Commissions are a nice bonus.

MindPerk has recently streamlined their affiliate links so they are shorter and look less like an obvious affiliate link. Gone are the main tip-offs such as linking through a cgi program and having question marks to separate the parameters.

This is a great change.

Why?

Because some people don't like to use affiliate links. I'm not sure why. You don't pay more when you purchase if you use an affiliate link to get to the store than you do if you just go directly to the store's site. The commissions don't come from higher prices, they come out of the merchant's marketing budget.

This streamlining of the links also means you may want to upgrade all your links to their store if you are already an affiliate.

If you are not an affiliate and would like to recommend top-quality self-improvement products, you may want to consider the MindPerk affiliate program.

This is a two-tier program that pays well on your own sales referrals and those of the affiliates you refer. You can learn more by going to the main MindPerk site. When you get there, browse the store and see what you think. If you are interested, you can click the Affiliate link at the bottom of most pages and join.

Of course, it's free to join their affiliate program. They pay you; you don't pay them. That's how it should be.

MindPerk pays between 7% and 10% for sales made from your referral link. It starts at 7% and increases 1% for every ten sales you make.

If an affiliate signs up from your link, MindPerk pays you 10% of the commission revenue they earn. When you have referred a few dozen affiliates who actively promote their products, you can build a tidy passive income stream - in addition to the commissions you earn from your own marketing efforts.

Unlike affiliate programs such as Amazon.com's, MindPerk offers a 90 day cookie and also tracks their traffic log in case someone erases their cookies after visiting.

For what may be a limited time, MindPerk is offering a $10 sign-up bonus to new affiliates. You will be paid this bonus along with your other commissions when your regular commissions exceed $30. (This means your first check will be $40 or more, after you've made sufficient sales to earn it.)

If you are looking for quality self-improvement products to purchase for yourself or to give as a gift, or if you want to build a new income stream by marketing quality products, come visit MindPerk and see for yourself. Do it now, while you are thinking about it.

Act On Your Dream!

ArticleMarketer.com switches to new affiliate program script - update your account

John Dilbeck — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 23:15:11 GMT

ArticleMarketer.com has recently switched to a new - and better - affiliate program script.

If you are already an affiliate, but have not migrated to the new affiliate account within the last week or so, you need to go take care of that now. They are no longer tracking links from the old script.

When you create a new account with the new program, be sure to put your old affiliate ID in the box near the bottom of the sign-up page to make sure that commissions and second-tier affiliates are tracked by your new account.

When I created my 21st Century Articles directory (now closed), I signed up with Article Marketer to receive article submissions in a few categories. I was always pleased with their service on the receiving end and recommend their services for submitting your articles to a variety of article directories.

If you are an affiliate marketer who is interested in article marketing, you may want to consider signing up for your ArticleMarketer.com affiliate account. It is a two-tier program that pays well and performs a great service for its members.

Act on your dream!

Discovering great movies and TV shows with Netflix

John Dilbeck — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:30:22 GMT

For the last couple of years or so, I've been a very happy member of Netflix. I pay them about $18 per month and I can watch as many movies as I want (with up to 3 DVDs out at a given time) every month.

Over the last year or so, I've been discovering some TV shows that I'd never seen, since cable TV isn't available where I live and we've never thought we needed to get a satellite dish.

Since I'm a full-time caretaker for my Mom, I can't go to the theater when a new movie comes out, but I can watch it a year or so later when it comes out on DVD.

Lately, I've been watching a lot of TV shows. I just finished watching the entire Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis series. It's great being able to add all of them to my queue and then every time I send a DVD back (using their prepaid envelopes), Netflix sends me the next DVD on my list. I was a fan of the original Stargate movie a couple of decades ago and now I'm a huge fan of the TV series.

Last month, I discovered the Smallville series, about Clark Kent as a high school student, before he became Superman. I wasn't sure I would like it, but it is a different twist to the Superman legend and I like the way they present it. I have one more episode to watch from season one and I just added the rest of the series to my Netflix queue.

Just last week, I rented The Wizard of Oz from Netflix for my Mom. We were talking about a reference to that movie on Stargate and Mom said she'd never see The Wizard of Oz! Well, we had to remedy that right away. I added the movie to my queue and moved it to the top of the list. A couple of days later Mom had the opportunity to enjoy one of the real movie classics.

I've also been watching some of the other classics, including 12 Angry Men, The Grapes of Wrath, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and several others as I think of them.

We live about 100 miles from the nearest TV station and our reception ranges from great on a cold, cloudy day, to terrible on a clear, summer day.

The "reception" is always outstanding when I watch one of the Netflix discs, however.

What is prompting me to write about this is that I recently remembered I'm an affiliate for Netflix, but I've never really promoted them and I'm not sure why.

After all, I'm a huge fan of their service.

They offer many thousands of programs and movies to watch, there's no late fee if I want to keep a movie and watch it again, and I can watch as many movies as I can if I watch them and return them the next day, all for only $18 per month.

I just learned that they now have a budget plan that only costs $5 per month and you can have one movie out at a time and can watch two movies per month. I think that's a great deal if you already have cable or regularly go to the movies. This way, you can watch one or two movies a month that may not be available to you, otherwise.

Of course, with the price of movies and snacks growing so much, the $18 monthly plan is very attractive - not to mention the price we're paying for gasoline.

I like walking out to the mailbox and seeing that red envelope with my next viewing experience on the enclosed DVD. After I watch it, I just put it back in the provided envelope and drop it in the mail. No fuss, no muss.

If you haven't tried Netflix before, why don't you take advantage of the free trial and see for yourself if you like it.

Netflix Delivers DVDs to your home. NO LATE FEES. Try for FREE!

Try it for free for a couple of weeks and see what you think.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Act on your dream!

GeoAffiliate Marketing Directory Enters Beta

John Dilbeck — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 10:51:17 GMT

Dan Nickerson has been pioneering the concept of GeoAffiliate Marketing with his Got-Zip and Pagellan sites and their offshoots for a few years.

Now he is introducing a new Affiliate Program and Business Opportunities Directory called GeoAffiliate.

It combines affiliate marketing with local sponsorships and promotion. You can join for free and start adding your most lucrative programs and BizOps into the directory.

Since it is in beta, it's still rough around the edges and many features have not yet been added.

It won't cost you anything to join and submit your favorite affiliate programs (two-tier and multilevel are probably best at this point).

In fact, the sooner you add your links to the directory, the more likely you are to secure sponsorship of your favorite program.

I've added nearly a dozen of my favorites to the directory and I'll be adding more as I have time.

Even if all you get from adding your program are a few signups in your downline, it will be worth your time.

Yes, the information about GeoAffiliate is sparse at this point, but I have been working with Dan for a couple of years and I trust him to be fair and to live up to what he says he will do - and more.

Don't miss this opportunity. You can add your listing for free and don't have to spend any money if you don't want to. At this time, however, it is easy to sponsor your affiliate link for your county, state, or internationally, but that does cost money.

I've secured state, county, and/or international sponsorships for a variety of affiliate programs I like, including Apsense, Aweber, Site Build It!, Nice Offers, PageSwirl, WebBizInsider, I Love Hits, Soaring4Traffic, MerchantCircle, and ProTrackerPlus.

You can still secure sponsorship for your county and state for those programs if you want, but you'll have to pay to do that.

Join today and start adding your favorite programs into the directory.

Remember, this is a directory for affiliate programs and business opportunities - not for products and services, at this time.

Act on your dream!

Building my Favorite Science Fiction shop at Zlio

John Dilbeck — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:07:08 GMT

I just wrote about Getting ready for the winter shopping season on Zlio over at my Open your own Zlio shop group at Apsense.

Now, I know a lot of people aren't interested in selling books, but I've done pretty well over the years selling books and movies I like. I've sold more through Amazon.com, but I thought I'd give Zlio a try.

One reason is because it is easy to create new categories and add new items into those categories at Zlio.

I can do the same thing with an Amazon.com aStore, but it feels more difficult.

One thing the Zlio shop offers is an RSS feed of the latest items added to the store and I have a suspicion, not yet proven, that this will help bring more visitors to the shops.

Of course, favorite science fiction is a very crowded field with over 17 million pages returned at Google. But, I thrive on attracting customers to my sites and shops and I'm looking forward to selling books and movies on my Favorite Science Fiction shop.

Will I earn a lot from this? No.

Is it worth doing? I think so.

It is one more stream of income that will produce indefinitely from work I do today. It's easy to do and there is very little maintenance needed. I don't mind getting paid for work I did months ago and I'm looking forward to getting paid months from now for work I did today.

A year from now, I'll be happy that I put in the work on these shops.

What are you doing today to act on your dream?

Zlio.com - Create your own shop

John Dilbeck — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 16:01:52 GMT

I was doing some work on one of my websites this morning when I saw an Adsense ad for Zlio.com. It said I could create my own shop, sell stuff, and make money.

Ok. That sounds good to me.

Lately, I've been building several Amazon.com aStores and Zlio.com looked like it could be similar.

I have a number of shops I've created including:

CafePress.com

John Dilbeck's Shirts, Mugs and Hats.

Amazon.com

Motivational Books

John Dilbeck's Amazon Store

Zlio.com

Home Business Products - Store mode.

Home Business Products - Blog mode.

Note that a Zlio.com shop automatically creates a store in both shop mode and blog mode, and the blog mode has an RSS feed.

I've only spent about an hour playing with my brand new Zlio.com shop and there's only a few items in it, but I was impressed with the variety of products available from a lot of the biggest merchants.

If you are interested in movies, music, and other popular entertainment topics, you could easily build a shop promoting your favorite items.

I think, but I'm not absolutely positive, that you can open multiple shops.

Plus, and here's a nice kicker for all of us affiliate marketers, you can earn from the shops created by people you refer to Zlio.com.

It think it's worth checking out if you'd like to have a shop of your own.

Take a few minutes and build a Zlio.com shop of your own. It's free and you may earn some income from it.

Act on your dream!

Top 15 things I have learned about affiliate marketing

John Dilbeck — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 12:53:43 GMT

I have learned several lessons that I think may be valuable to anyone who reads this. You may agree or disagree, but at least give it some thought.

1. Anything that is a good value today will be a good value a year from now.

2. The more the hype, the less the value or longevity.

3. If it has a deadline, run away, don't walk, run - in a zig-zag pattern.

4. Don't send your valuable prospect away on first contact. Try to get their contact information so you can follow-up - yes, build your list. (I wish I'd done more of this.)

5. If you can't understand the compensation plan after reading it twice, you may never understand it, so maybe it is best to avoid it.

6. Always try to get residual income rather than one-off commissions.

7. Try to get life-time customers.

8. If more than five people email you about something the same day, avoid it.

9. Spillover is a myth. It may happen now and then, but don't depend upon it.

10. Earning money - no matter how you do it - is work. It takes longer than you think and it takes more creativity and effort. Nobody will do your work for you.

11. Don't spend more than you can afford. Define your budget and stick with it. If your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall.

12. Don't go into debt to try to make more money. Pour a percentage of your revenue back into tools and marketing. As a result of this, I'm spending more on marketing every month than I made the first two years of online marketing. But, it's all a percentage of income. I have no debt and I intend to keep it that way.

13. It takes a long time to start earning money with online marketing (unless you are very lucky or very good at what you do). It took months for me to earn my first commission check, and several more months before I got my second one. Now, I get checks from several companies every month. It did not happen overnight, but it can be done with perseverance, even if you make a lot of mistakes along the way.

14. Don't pay attention to how much money someone is claiming to earn. There is a huge difference between gross and net.

15. Help others grow and advance, don't take advantage of them just to get their money.

Agree? Disagree? Let's talk.

Act on your dream!

Building your affiliate funnel

John Dilbeck — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:49:31 GMT

Over the last few years, I've basically taught myself the art of affiliate marketing and I'm doing pretty well with it.

Unfortunately, however, I've approached it rather haphazardly and I've made some of the same mistakes most affiliate marketers make.

I've not applied myself systematically to building a mailing list for the products and services I promote. I'm not promoting myself first, and that's a mistake.

Most of the time, I've sent you kind readers right off to one of the merchants I promote or to a service I recommend without learning who you are before you go.

This year, I'm going to do better.

So, I was very interested when I learned that the experienced marketers at Affiliate Funnel have released a new set of squeeze pages and an autoresponder series that presents several lessons on the gentle art of promoting yourself first and then using the low-pressure "tell, don't sell" approach to marketing.

I spent a few hours this morning customizing the letters and adding them to my autoresponder. Everything was easy to do and I'm ready to show it off.

If you go to this Affiliate Funnel squeeze page, you can see how they have personalized it with my photo and the subscription form for my Affiliate Funnel Report.

Please, feel free to subscribe to see the system in action.

I'm going to follow this example and create more lists where I can systematically tell you what I recommend and why. I believe it will increase the effectiveness of my marketing efforts as well as the revenue I receive.

Isn't that what we all want?

I think this Affiliate Funnel Report does a good job, and I would welcome your feedback or comments on it.

Act on your dream!

FreeIQ - The Marketplace for Ideas

John Dilbeck — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 08:34:13 GMT

Brad Fallon, CEO, has recently introduced Free IQ, an interesting new website that brings content providers, purchasers, and affiliates together.

Free IQ looks to me like it combines some of the features of several sites that are doing well: Squidoo, Lulu, CafePress, and a few others.

Like Squidoo, Free IQ asserts that most people are an expert in something, and then provides a platform for you to express your expertise.

Lulu.com offers a place to sell your ebooks and also offers extra features for print on demand real books as well as help in marketing your real bound books in bookstores and online retailers.

CafePress provides services for selling your CDs and printed ebooks.

Free IQ offers some of these services, but in a totally different way. They do not offer print on demand services. They don't offer an unlimited number of one-page lenses as Squidoo does, but they do offer multiple categories on your publisher's page.

Here's a brief introduction from the Free IQ "Learn More" page:

We believe everyone knows something that's valuable to someone else.
And some people know things that are very valuable to many other people.
So who decides whose ideas are more valuable?
The answer, of course, is everyone! We all do. This is the "Marketplace for Ideas," where the best knowledge, ideas and information rise to the top. At Free IQ, the best content appears at the top of every search, based on actual reviews.
In a nutshell, we base our search result rankings on the feedback and reviews by people all around the world. (In fact, Free IQ has more than one patent pending based on the way in which the very best ideas rise to the top of our search results.)
Do you have knowledge and ideas to share?
Are those ideas presentable in a video or audio format? How about an e-book or an article?
Whatever your choice of media (video, audio, or print), Free IQ is the place to offer (present?) your knowledge to the world. And we'll host your materials and stream them - for free!
This is why, when you want to learn more about almost anything, Free IQ is the ideal place to learn from the world's best experts - for free.
We believe that internet video offers the best way to learn what you want, when you want - and the best thing is, it's Free!
Go ahead and try it. Search for any topic you're interested in learning more about - from business management to marketing to software to your favorite hobby - and see all the experts and authors and speakers on that subject.
Our patent pending search algorithm causes the best information to appear at the top, based on the reviews of the free information by other people interested in that same topic. In fact, other Free IQ users all over the world screen all the available information for you, so when you want to know something, the best video and audio presentations come out on top.
Now that's a Marketplace for Ideas!

You can read more on their site by clicking the "Learn More" link at the top of the page.

If you have information you want to share with others, you can upload your ebook, video, teleseminar, audio, or other presentation to Free IQ and make it instantly available to others.

Now, I'm brand new to this site, but I already see a problem developing.

Many people have uploaded some of the free ebooks that Ken Evoy wrote. Yes, as affiliates, they have the right to upload copies of Make Your Site Sell! or the Affiliate Masters Course.

However, this will clog the system with duplicate content, the only difference being whose affiliate links are branded in the copy that's being distributed.

Free IQ claims that their review system will bring the best content to the top of the page, so why do we see the exact same ebooks spread throughout the page? I'm not saying the best content won't bubble to the top over time, I just see this as one way the system will be clogged with duplicate content.

I think it would be better for a Five Pillar affiliate to write a report of his/her own and recommend good resources for people who want to become an affiliate master or sell from their sites. Then, it would be easy to reference the resources you recommend and still provide unique content that you can show on your publisher's page.

Now, that's how I intend to test this site. To that end, I've created my publisher's page for John Dilbeck.

Currently, there is not much on the page, but I'll be adding some articles or small ebooks as I have time to develop them. Free IQ looks to be an excellent way to market and provide your content on a site that is relatively easy to use.

Not only that, but it will help you build your mailing list. If you have an Aweber account, you can plug your mailing list in directly. If not, you can choose to have leads emailed to you.

Back to finding info on Free IQ. Just go to the Free IQ home page and either enter a search term or click one of the tags.

You will be taken to a page that has free content in the left column and paid content in the right column. In other words, you can read, view, or listen to (as appropriate) the information in the left column for free. You can purchase, should you decide to do so, the information in the right column.

If you want to review an item, give your opinion, or leave feedback, all you have to do is Join for free and create your account.

Content Providers

If you are an expert on almost any topic, Free IQ may be a good place to display your expertise and pass along your best ideas.

At the moment, while Free IQ is still in beta, there is no limit on the size of the files you upload. They will stream or let others download your products for no cost to you. If you are providing content for sale, there is no monthly fee to use the Free IQ shopping engine to sell your information products. When you make a sale, Free IQ will charge you 5% of the sales price, plus credit card processing fees. You don't even have to have a merchant account.

Once you've created your free account (see above), you can upload your content and see how well the system works for you.

Currently, I'm not sure if each content provider has to take part in the affiliate program, or not.

Affiliate Program

One of the things that attracted me immediately to Free IQ is their two tier affiliate program.

If you join the Free IQ affiliate program, you will get paid for the purchases made by anyone you refer, not just once, but for an entire year! Of course, many of the people you refer will buy nothing or maybe one item. However, if he or she does buy multiple items, you'll get paid for each of them for an entire year.

You also get paid a percentage of any content sold by any Content Providers you refer.

While not as good as having a lifetime customer, getting paid for a year of purchases beats getting paid (maybe) for a single purchase.

If you are interested, you should read the affiliate program page to learn more about some of the innovative things Free IQ is doing.

You are invited to join their affiliate program and see for yourself how it works for you.

It's free to join and you can quit at any time if you find it doesn't work for you.

Again, to recap, this site is still in beta and there is no way to tell if it will gain market share or not. It looks interesting to me and that's why I'm passing it along to you.

Internet marketing newbies - sign up for the Newbie Report

John Dilbeck — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 22:08:44 GMT

Dan Nickerson has done it again.

Every time I turn around, Dan has come up with a brilliant idea and implements that idea before you can turn around.

This time, he has created the Newbie Report to help new Internet marketers learn more about the tools, processes and sites you need to master to profit from your marketing efforts.

It's free to sign up for the newsletter.

The site already has links to some of the best marketing sites a new online marketer needs to find. Not all of the sites I'd recommend are listed, but it's an outstanding start. I'm sure he'll be expanding the listing as time goes by.

It even comes with a free affiliate program.

Go to the Newbie Report, sign up for the newsletter (the sooner the better, you'll see why when you do it), and learn how to be more successful in your marketing efforts.

I'm not a newbie, but I'm looking forward to learning more from Dan.

Check it out right now!

Time to shop for great gifts - posters, photos, and art prints

John Dilbeck — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 17:20:33 GMT

I love posters and I've built an artstore on JohnDilbeck.com that links to items I love, including castles, dragons, wizards, and many other subjects.

Here's a list of other topics for which I've built my own store pages:

Artists

Musicians and Actors

Movies and TV

Places

Ireland Art

Nature & Outdoors

Other

If you aren't particularly interested in the same topics I am, you can select from over 300,000 items, some of which are sure to be of interest.

Here are some of the topics you may choose to browse directly at the Art.com site:

Art.com offers over 300,000 items from which to choose.

It's easy to find what you're looking for at Art.com. You can click on my selections in the menu to your left, go to their site and browse their main categories, or use the handy search box, below.

Top 100

Top 100 at Art.com

What's New?

What's New at Art.com

LIFE Picture Collection

The LIFE Picture Collection at Art.com

Other Popular Art

To make it convenient, I've put together some samples from a variety of interest areas. Just click one of the following links to see a sample of the art that is available in that category. A new window will open with items that you will, hopefully, find to be of interest.

Popular Movies

Movies posters and prints

Popular Music

In addition to art prints, photos, and posters, Art.com offers a framing service so you can do all your gift buying and framing at the same time.

The selection is huge and the prices are right. Order today to avoid the holiday rush and to be sure to get the items you want.

Sell art prints and posters and earn great commissions

John Dilbeck — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:36:24 GMT

I am a member of a great affiliate program that I'd like to tell you more about. The Art.com Affiliate Program is a fantastic way to make money with your web site.

Art.com has over 100,000 prints, posters and photographs from many categories including fine art, sports, movies, music, celebrities and more. All you have to do is link to Art.com images on your website and you’ll earn 25-30% commission on all sales through the website.

Art.com also offers state of the art custom framing giving you the opportunity to earn greater commissions on framed prints.

They offer a range of linking tools that automatically generate html for products chosen and comprehensive reports to help you track your performance.

Just visit their affiliate program page and sign up for the program. It only takes a few minutes.

I'm sure you’ll enjoy being an Art.com Affiliate.

Want to see some ways to market these items? Come visit my artstore on JohnDilbeck.com.

You'll see samples of search boxes, text links, and whole pages devoted to specific topics such as castles, dragons, wizards, and many other subjects.

Go to one of these links and see the list of subjects I've developed in the left column menu.

You can create your own artstore featuring the subjects you love and you can link directly to the subjects of your choice at art.com without building your own store. The choice is yours.

This is a two-level affiliate program, so you can also earn 5% of the commissions earned by affiliates you refer to the program.

I've earned some great commissions from this company. You can, too.

Scott Boulch, author of Death of Adsense, has new blog

John Dilbeck — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 06:42:34 GMT

Scott Boulch, author of Death of Adsense has a new blog for discussing the ebook and topics related to it.

In his most recent post (as of this writing), Scott proclaims The last battle cry of the dying Adsense "Gurus".

He makes some interesting points, and obviously has more experience than I with earning from Adsense.

If you want to follow this subject, his blog is the logical place to do so.

His follow-up book, Life After Adsense was supposed to have been released yesterday morning, but I haven't had the time to download it, yet.

Scott sure has gotten a lot of attention with this, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

The Death of Adsense?

John Dilbeck — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 14:48:50 GMT

If you have been reading my blogs for any length of time, you are already aware that I am not one of those people who follow the latest fad or breathlessly tell you why you just have to purchase the next great whatchamacallit.

I'm not going to start now, either.

I've gotten several emails over the last couple of weeks about "The Death of Adsense," and, since I earn enough from Adsense every month to cover my hosting and advertising expenses, I wondered what it was all about.

So, I downloaded the ebook and read it.

The author makes some good points, but I have no idea how it will all play out.

I'm not even going to try to tell you what he says in the ebook. You can download it yourself and get it "from the horse's mouth." It's only 18 pages long and you should be able to read it in less than a half hour.

When you sign up to download the book, you become an affiliate, and for a limited time, he is paying affiliates a half-dollar for everyone who follows your link and downloads the book. Not bad, making fifty cents when someone downloads a free ebook.

However, that's not why I'm telling you about this. If his analysis (or hypothesis) is correct, then you need to be aware of this if you depend upon Adsense for income.

I am not saying that Adsense is dead and I don't fully agree with what he says in the ebook.

And, here's the spoiler, the ebook ends just as he is about to tell you the alternative to Adsense. That's why I haven't been talking about this.

Today, however, he is supposed to release the second ebook that explains his alternative income system. Will it be worth the read? I don't know.

I do know that, in the past, it looks to me as if he created websites that were designed to skim as much money from Adsense with as little work as possible, and I'm sure these sites were low-quality at best. I don't know this for a fact, but I'm assuming this is the case.

(You know what they say about assuming....)

Anyway, later today you may be able to get the "Life After Adsense" ebook. I'm sure there will be a lot of people trying to download it, so it may or may not be available.

I'm not going to recommend either ebook to you, but I will tell you how to get your own copy and decide for yourself.

I am a full-time affiliate marketer, but this time, I'm not going to use an affiliate link to send you to his site. I don't want the 50 cents if you download the ebook, because I cannot truthfully tell you that I recommend the information contained in it.

So, buyer (or downloader) beware, use your discretion and think for yourself.

Am I going to download the "Life After Adsense" ebook to go along with the "Death of Adsense" ebook I downloaded a few days ago? Yes, I am.

Am I going to do what it says? I have no idea. I'm going to read it and think about it before doing anything.

What you do is up to you.

Here's the site to go to: http://www.thedeathofadsense.com/

I have not seen a decline in my Adsense revenue, and I'm hoping it is because I do my best to build sites with the best content I can create. I try not to take any short-cuts and I'm willing to build my business using a slow and steady model - the tortoise approach rather than the rabbit approach.

Am I curious about what's in "Life After Adsense?" Yes, I am. But, at this time, I don't have any plans to change my business model or redo my marketing plan.

That may change tomorrow. Maybe, maybe not.

What do you think?

Sale ends today!

John Dilbeck — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 11:48:11 GMT

Musician's Friend had a surprise, two day sale, and I'm only seeing it this morning.

You can save big on musical instruments and accessories today.

Not Going Back to School Sale: Save Up to 68% in all categories

Take an extra 10% off accessories! Use code: DETENTION

If you are in the market for a musical instrument, you may be able to save a bundle by buying today.

What Is Holding You Back?

John Dilbeck — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 13:46:30 GMT

Context: Dr. Robert Anthony, reaching your goals, goalsetting, The Secret of Deliberate Creation

What Are You Waiting For?
By Dr. Robert Anthony

Are You Putting Off Your Dreams? Or have things slowed down recently? Is your life visibly changing the way you want it to? Or are you still stuck with the same problems?

I woke up today thinking about three people who contacted me this week concerning the progress they were making reaching their goals. They each said the same thing in a different way.

Although they all made good progress in the beginning, they are now all stalled. It's very frustrating for me because I got myself caught up in their dreams. I imagined how their lives would be when they've completed the changes they needed to make. I can easily see the benefits they will gain such as a much larger income, more satisfying relationships and the pride of knowing that they are doing exactly what they always wanted to do – and earning a great living from it.

It's also frustrating for another reason. Although I can see the finish line, they are standing still. The frustrating part of all this is they have all the tools necessary to succeed, but now they are stuck. So why have they stopped?

I can't say I know the answer for each of them. I'm sure there are many reasons. But I suspect there is one cause in every case. They have come to the point where they have done everything they could comfortably do and now they have arrived at a place where they've never been before. Any new step forward, represents a step out of their comfort zone.

If you want to improve the results in your life, you have to accept the fact that you can no longer do the same old things the same old way.

Making a commitment to change your life is a big step. It usually occurs when something has happened to make you realize that you are unhappy with some aspect of your life. Often this event or circumstance will jolt you into deciding that the time has finally come to change your current situation.

The charge that you get from deciding to change your situation will keep you going through the early stages of your transformation. For example, it can energize and motivate you to read a book, take a course, and even go through all the details of setting up a business. All those preparatory activities are necessary and good – but they amount to nothing unless you are able to get your dream started. And getting your dream started -- actually kicking your dream into action -- is new territory. New means strange. And strange means uncomfortable.

Having been involved with a number of very effective training programs over the years, I've been disappointed by how many bright and ambitious students fail to finish their training. And of those who finish, less ten percent turn their hard-earned skills into substantial or measurable results.

Then weeks or months later they look at the courses or programs they have taken and wonder, as I'm doing about these three people now: "What happened?"

If you feel that you were off to a good start but are currently stalled, you need to admit to yourself that you have probably slipped back into your comfort zone. More than likely you have been deceiving yourself that you are making progress, but at the same time you are really not getting anywhere.

What you need to do is take action. Even if it is a very small action. Nothing you can tell yourself, nothing you can say to others, nothing you can think or feel or imagine is going to get you out of the mental bog you're mired in. The only thing that can rescue you is – to take that next step.

Maybe you know what that is. If you know exactly what it is, DO IT! If you don't know, or aren't sure, allow you intuition to guide you. Do whatever you feel compelled to do, but do it NOW to get yourself going again -- even if it means entering your discomfort zone.

I said earlier, I am disappointed by how many people start to change their lives and then stall. Many of these people are good at the initial study phase, but lose pace when it comes time to make those next steps, transitioning from knowledge to action.

On the other hand, I'm thinking now about many people who have succeeded... about the hundreds of unsolicited letters I receive from people who have taken my "Secret of Deliberate Creation" program and are now living the lives they dreamed about. All they did was just FOLLOW THROUGH until they got results. They just applied simple steps outlined in the program and the changes were almost magical.

What is your dream? To become a freelance artist / writer / consultant? To own your own business? To become financially independent... perhaps even wealthy? Don't put off the success you've always dreamed about. My "Secret of Deliberate Creation" program will show you how to get started NOW and give yourself the jolt you need to make that final change to move you from where you are to where you want to be.

Want to discover more?

Visit www.thesecretofdeliberatecreation.com NOW.

Do you want to become an Ultimate Rep?

John Dilbeck — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 11:53:28 GMT

If you are interested in building multiple streams of residual income from your own online marketing business, I urge you to visit Ultimate Rep to learn how you can have your own home business.

You can read more about why I recommend becoming an Ultimate Rep.

Affiliate Marketing: More ways to market products online

John Dilbeck — Thu, 18 May 2006 20:41:33 GMT

Context: free marketing portal, LinkScout, Affiliate Power Ads, ClickBank, CB-Top, Traffic Syndicate 25, affiliate marketing

Earlier in the month, I recommended LinkScout, and it is becoming one of the central hubs of my affiliate marketing efforts. I upgraded to the pro version and I'm already seeing some results. Not bad for such a small investment.

Today, I want to recommend a new form of advertising I've adopted here at John Dilbeck and Friends and which I'll be rolling out to many of my other sites over the coming weeks.

I'm also going to recommend another free marketing portal to you.

First, let's talk a moment about advertising space on your websites, blogs, forums, and other online real estate.

I'm a huge fan of Google Adsense, and I'm happy that it is paying my overhead and making some profit for me. But, Adsense may not be the best advertising method for every site or even for a few pages on a site.

I've been watching Affiliate Power Ads for several months and today I implemented their ads on the top of every page on John Dilbeck and Friends. I'll be adding them to several of my Internet marketing and affiliate marketing sites over the next few weeks.

Why? Because Adsense pays only a few cents per click and my visitors have to leave my site. Affiliate Power Ads markets products from ClickBank and several other affiliate programs. Some pay 50% or more of the selling price to the affiliate (me, and you, if you want). Some of the products are membership sites that pay monthly residuals. So, instead of earning a few cents and losing a visitor, I stand to earn hundreds of dollars and there is no visitor loss, because the ads open in a new page.

Affiliate Power Ads should be okay to use on the same page with Adsense ads, because they are not contextual, but I don't think I want to use them on the same page, anyway.

I've been hesitant to use the Affiliate Power Ads on my sites because I'm hesitant to recommend many of the products being sold through ClickBank. Some of their products are outstanding, some are garbage, and some can get you in trouble if you don't do your own individual research before using them.

I've decided that I can't police everyone's buying habits, so a general Buyer Beware should suffice. Do your homework before you pay good money for any ad that says you can get rich with no effort if you buy their product. It just ain't a'gonna happen!

Now that I've made my peace with advertising products through ClickBank, I want to recommend another free portal: CB-Top. This free portal offers over 10,000 products through ClickBank and several other affiliate programs. You can get a free site for yourself, and, after you update your affiliate links, you will earn good money for every product or service bought through your portal.

The check I received from ClickBank today is more than enough to upgrade my CB-Top portal to a pro version. You only have to sell one or two products a month through your portal to earn a profit. Sell more, and it becomes another income stream.

I'm working on several other products I'll be recommending to you in the next few days.

There are two keys to earning a profit with affiliate marketing:

1. Sell good products (yours or the merchant for which you advertise)

2. Send enough visitors to your site.

By centralizing your affiliate marketing through LinkScout (or a similar service of your choice), driving traffic to that portal, and letting that site send visitors to your marketing sites, such as CB-Top, you will start earning a profit.

There are other tools that come with LinkScout and CB-Top, such as banner and URL rotators, but I'll talk about them another day.

So, how do you get visitors to your portals? I use a variety of methods, including blogging, linking from my sites and forums, and I'm starting to use more traffic exchanges, such as Traffic Syndicator 25.

I've been testing several traffic exchanges, and, so far, TS25 is one of my favorites. While I'm reading my email, working on websites, and blogging, I keep my TS25 surfing window open and click on the next site when I have a spare moment. When you are online as much as I am, you can earn lots of visitor credits as you go, without much extra effort. Since I want to get all the value I can from this exchange, I upgraded to a pro account. You can build traffic with a free account, but it is more efficient with a paid upgraded account.

I've done my homework and I've read the opinions that the sites I describe here range from useless to outstanding. My opinion is somewhere in the middle, tending to the very useful area of the scale. So, now, I'm testing them to see how they perform. With more data, I don't have to rely on opinions and hunches.

As long as they earn a profit, I'll continue with them.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post your comments to this article. I welcome your feedback.

Did you get your ZipSense, yet?

John Dilbeck — Tue, 09 May 2006 15:21:59 GMT

Context: Dan Nickerson, Got-Zip.com, ZipSense, GeoAffiliate Marketing

Yesterday, May 8, 2006, Dan Nickerson released ZipSense, an eBook that offers much more than just information, including:

100's of Rapid Fire Tips to help you Earn More and Save More..

A 2 Year Subscription to one of the Most Innovative Internet Marketing Concepts online today..

A Guaranteed Commission every Month for 2 Years.

A Chance to have your Link Randomly Displayed for 2 years on 1000's of Webpages.

Access to our Private Forum where we'll be adding more tips and benefits regularly.

Oh and one more thing. You know how every Ebook always says that you have to order today or the price is going to go up. Or join now and we'll include this Special Offer Today Only.. Don't those offers irritate you?
As always I have a different approach, so here's my Special Offer.
Got-Zip Territories are limited... so the longer you wait to purchase ZipSense, the more likely it becomes that your home Territory will be claimed by your friend or neighbor. And worse, if it's claimed by a Prospector, it could cost you up to 50% of all your future Got-Zip income. So that's why you shouldn't hesitate to purchase ZipSense and Claim a Got-Zip Territory ASAP.
WAIT, I just added one more Amazing Bonus.. You can use The Coupon Code you'll receive for Got-Zip up to 3 Times. The Only Catch... Each time has to be a different subscription type. (1 ZipCode, 1 County, 1 State)

I've claimed my Zip Code and home county. Have you?

Learn more about ZipSense. Don't forget, you can earn a nice commission on every copy of ZipSense that you sell, if you become a ZipSense affiliate.

I read ZipSense a couple of days ago and I like the information and the way it is presented. Throw in all the bonuses, and it is a great value. I personally recommend ZipSense, Got-Zip.com, and Dan Nickerson.

Get a free affiliate marketing suite at LinkScout

John Dilbeck — Fri, 05 May 2006 19:13:11 GMT

Context: LinkScout, affiliate marketing, free advertising, search engine, link exchange, affiliate programs

You can get a free affiliate marketing suite at LinkScout.

Why?

The main reason I recommend this site is because you can easily add your affiliate programs, network marketing programs, websites, blogs, lenses, forums, affiliate sites and links, and more, and advertise just one URL.

You can build a site here for free, but it is well worth the $10 per month or $79 per year (as of May 5, 2006), to have a paid Associate membership. You can read about the extra benefits of an Associate membership and decide for yourself how valuable this could be to you in terms of saving both time and money.

I've had a free membership for about two years and it's been tucked away in the back of my mind for when I was ready to upgrade and get serious about marketing both their services and my products and services. That time arrived this morning.

Come see my new LinkScout suite and play with it to see what LinkScout is all about.

I'll be talking more about this service as I learn to use it more effectively.

If you want to sell more online, it is well worth investing $10 per month to centralize your advertising.

If you are involved in affiliate marketing or mlm, you should sign up for your free membership today.

Do you like Jerky?

John Dilbeck — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 01:39:36 GMT

Context: Doug Moore, jerky, buy jerky, sell jerky, affiliate marketing

Doug Moore asks, Friends, do you like jerky?.

I love jerky and I like the looks of both the products Doug is offering and the associated business opportunity.

I'm considering it. How about you?

What has Dan Nickerson Been Up To?

John Dilbeck — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 00:24:55 GMT

Context: Dan Nickerson, Got-Zip.com, Pagellan.com, Mystery Launch, geoaffiliate marketing

As you may already know, Dan Nickerson is the CEO of Got Zip Inc, and I don't think I've seen anyone with the creativity and work ethic Dan has.

While most people would be overwhelmed creating just one major website, Dan is working on at least three major sites, a dozen smaller sites, and still has time to help people work on their own sites.

He helped me quite a bit with one of my sites earlier this month.

So what is he doing with Mystery Launch, Pagellan, and Got-Zip?

More people are claiming, and subscribing to, their zip codes at Got-Zip. Pagellan is growing and you can create your own free home page there that makes it easy to shop from over 100 top shopping sites on the Internet. The Mystery Launch will be announced within the next month.

I have a good feeling about Dan and Got-Zip, as well as the associated sites he's building. I'm a subscriber for my home zip code, 28906, and for my home county, Cherokee County, NC.

More and more good things are happening for subscribers, including a free link directory, free text advertising on thousands of pages, free webhosting for county and state subscribers, and more.

If you are going to be buying from online sites, let me invite you to check out Mystery Launch, Pagellan, and Got-Zip. You may become a customer and you may decide to subscribe to your own zip code.

Keep an eye on this one, folks.

Underground Giveaway - Free Offer

John Dilbeck — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 16:43:52 GMT

Context: Internet marketing, affiliate marketing, freebies, free stuff, Underground Giveaway, ebooks

I rarely use the word "unbelievable," because I've come to believe that almost anything can happen, for better or for worse.

In this case, however, I am very surprised by this offer.

Internet marketers have formed a highly classified alliance, underground, and they are now giving it away as a gift.

I was given permission by Aurelius Tjin (Owner of Underground Giveaway) to give you free private access to the membership worth $4197 and growing.

It has taken months for these marketers to prepare for the launch of this website and it is now available to people who have granted access.

So I urge you to go there now. I can't guarantee it will remain free.

Underground Giveaway

http://underground-giveaway.linktodetails.com

I recently accepted this free offer and I'm still surprised by what I found there. There are over 100 free gifts (at last count, 119) consisting of software, ebooks, reports, resources, and more. Some of the products come with resell rights and a few have master resell rights.

In general, I'm not all that impressed by resell rights, but some people make a very good income reselling ebooks and other products. With master resell rights, you can sell resell rights to others.

One thing I've learned is that you should use your best judgement when following any advice or using any tools. Make sure the products you sell and promote are products you love -- and are products that do no harm. I haven't had time to review all the free gifts and bonuses in this collection, so I am not personally recommending them, but I did join and I'm going to make use of some of them in my online marketing efforts. Later, after I've had time to read and try some of the information I find, I may come back and personally recommend some of the products. Or, I may come back and recommend against some of them.

One thing I've already noticed is that there are several offers of Private Label Rights articles, and I will warn against indiscriminate use of these. I don't think it is right to put your name on articles you did not write, whether they are bought from PLR collections, reworked from the public domain, or written by a paid ghostwriter. I think it can damage your credibility and reputation and I think less of people - even well-known "gurus" - who represent themselves as the authors of articles, reports, and books they did not write.

Do not even think of reworking and submitting these PLR articles to article directories. Some directories may accept them, but how are you going to look when many other people seem to be the author of the article you are claiming as your own? Can you say "plagiarism?"

I should also say that this is a money-making proposition and anyone who is promoting it, including me, is probably using an affiliate link in case you decide to upgrade from a free account to a gold or pro account. If you do, the person who referred you will earn a commission, myself included.

Yes, the free offer is valid, and you can get all these products at no cost. Or, if you want to accept the very reasonable offer for upgrading, I believe you will get your money's worth - and you can recoup that investment by marketing the Underground Giveaway yourself. I'm considering upgrading to a gold membership and I don't mind a bit that the person who recommended this to me will earn a commission. I would have paid for many of these products if I had found them outside this offer.

I believe there is a very useful library of valuable information about business, mailing lists, web traffic, affiliate marketing, and related topics in this collection and I would not be surprised if the number of free gifts and bonuses grow over time.

For now, at least, it's free. if you want to learn more about earning an income through Internet marketing, check out the Underground Giveaway right now.

I think you will be hearing about this from everyone interested in online affiliate marketing. I think a lot of people will waste a lot of time and money finding and buying what you can get free with this offer. I think the general confusion level will rise as you try to download and read all the free stuff in this offer - so you should plan what you want to do and don't get sidetracked.

I think a lot of money will be made by the people who recommend the Underground Giveaway and by the people who learn and use the knowledge in the collection you can get for free, today.

All the best.

Act on your dream!

John Dilbeck

Musical Instruments Spring Clearance Sale

John Dilbeck — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 15:53:38 GMT

Context: Musician's Friend, Spring Sale, musical instruments

Musician's Friend is having their annual Warehouse Spring Cleaning.

If you are looking for a real deal on musical instruments and equipment, be sure to see what's available before it sells out.

You can save hundreds of dollars on outstanding instruments during this clearance sale.

Reworking JohnDilbeck.EditThisPage.com

John Dilbeck — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 06:28:01 GMT

After years of having this blog hosted by Userland for free, I've decided to pay for hosting it on their servers.

At some point, some of the original material from this blog may be restored. Right now, I'm starting over from scratch.

A lot has changed over the years and some of the material that was here is no longer relevant. My interests have changed, my business has changed, and this blog is going to change.

It may be a few more days before I turn my attention to writing here. I'm still trying to get some other tasks completed.

Over the last couple of weeks, I started my own article directory for business, communications, and technology articles. You are invited to visit 21st Century Articles. It is a free service for both authors and publishers. I'm going to be fairly picky about what I accept, so you will never see thousands of articles there, but I intend for the ones you will find to be better than average to excellent in quality.

I recently took down my sites at 21stCenturySmallBusiness.com and MurphyNCBusiness.com. The former is a casualty of my declining interest in writing about small business in general. The latter is being completely rebuilt and part of it may reside in a category on this site.

There's never a lack of things to do, as can be attested by my growing to-do list.

I want to make use of the features of this site more than I have in the past.

I invite you to register on the site and feel free to comment on any article or subject. Feel free to agree or disagree, but you must be civil about it. This is my play ground and if you can't play nice, you'll just have to find a play ground of your own.

I will be writing about a variety of topics here. It ought to be a fun ride.