If you’re a blogger and/or affiliate marketer and you live in the United States, then you’re probably aware of the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that will go into affect December 1, 2009. That’s in less than 4 hours from now, by the way.

Here’s the official release of the new regulations on the FTC website: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

I’m a blogger (obviously) and an affiliate marketer AND I live in the U.S., so I needed to listen up to these new changes and how they were going to effect how I do business.

When these new regulations first came out, there was a lot of confusion and not many people knew exactly what needed to be changed to be in compliance. I’ll be honest, I was very confused myself, and I still am, kind of. Maybe you were in the same boat, or still am. If you are, that’s good because I’m going to provide you with everything you need to know. Well, I’ll provide you with the links that will provide you with everything you need to know.

I wanted to get the facts about what I needed to change, if anything, so I wouldn’t become non-compliant and get in trouble with the FTC. That would be a very bad thing. I want to avoid this at all cost because it can be costly if the FTC comes after you.

After reading Peter Lee’s blog post on the New FTC Guidelines, I was just left with a million questions because everything was left up in the air. There weren’t any definitive answers, and that wasn’t Peter’s fault by any means. No one was sure at that point.

After a couple weeks or so, I finally started getting answers. I found a couple of resources that I found very helpful in getting some concrete answers. The first resource is an interview that Jim Edwards did with Mr. Rich Cleland, Assistant Deputy at The Federal Trade Commission. I took the time to listen to the interview. It’s lengthy but worth every second of it.

Listening to this FTC Interview is a must if you want the facts about what these new regulations entail and how they’re going to affect you as a blogger and affiliate marketer.

Another great resource I found through Twitter is: http://www.clicknewz.com/?s=ftc

Here’s one more from Mike Young’s Internet Law blog: http://mikeyounglaw.com/wp/2009/10/16/testimonials-federal-trade-commission-ftc-websites/

These resources should give you the information you need to stay FTC compliant in your blogging, affiliate marketing or online business venture.

What do you think about the new FTC regulations? Do you agree with them? What do you like or not like about these new regulations? Share your thoughts below…

Social media is a great way to get the word out about what you do. It helps build your brand and bring awareness to your online business, products and services. I’m a member of various social networking sites, and I want to invite all of you to join me. There’s some you may not have ever heard of before.

The site that I spend the most time on is Facebook. I’m a huge fan of the site. There’s many networking aspects of the site that you can use to bring awareness to your business, so that’s a huge plus. I use my account for both personal and business. This allows you to see who I really am and helps me to be more transparent and open to everyone. Become my friend on Facebook and get a peek into my personal life and also get to know more about me.

Follow me on Twitter. I don’t spend a whole lot of time on Twitter, but I do find it useful to find resources from others that I follow. If you follow me, I’ll follow you back, assuming you’re not a spammer. Also, I never reply or even read my Direct Messages (DM’s), so if you want to get my attention on Twitter, @ reply me, and I’ll get back to you.

If you like making useful videos, then hit me up on YouTube. I don’t have much time to make a lot of videos, but I’ll slowly be getting more out eventually. I like watching videos that provide real and useful content that I can learn from. If you subscribe to my channel, I’ll subscribe back.

Here’s some other sites you can find me at:

Sokule – Just like Twitter, but you can make money.

DirectMatches – The largest business networking site. You can also make a good bit of money from this site.

LinkedIn

I’d love to have you network with me on these sites, so if you’re a member or want to become a member, just sign up and send a friend request to me.

This is a problem that all bloggers have to face, including myself. There’s a million different reasons why someone doesn’t like your blog or doesn’t like what you write. And, these reasons could even be causing some loyal readers to unsubscribe from your blog’s RSS Feed.

However, this post isn’t going to cover any of that stuff. Yes, that happens a lot, but there’s another reason why you may be losing blog readers. In fact, this problem could be hindering people from even reading your blog in the first place. And, I know for a fact that you want as many people to read your blog. Afterall, I feel the same way.

So, what could this problem be?

You may be l0sing blog readers because your blog simply takes too long to load. In this day and age, people are more impatient than ever. I happen to be one of those people, so if a page takes forever to load, I’ll just move on to something else. Well, good chances are there’s more people out there that do the same.

If your blog takes more than five seconds to load, you may want to look into speeding it up a bit.

This idea hadn’t even dawned on me until I read Sid Savara’s guest blog post on ProBlogger’s blog about 5 Plugins To Make Your WordPress Blog Blazing Fast.

The post covers 5 amazing WordPress plugins you can use to speed up the load time of your blog. I highly recommend you check out the post, especially if you’re having problems with your blog loading slow.

This could be due to images and other factors, including the popularity of your blog and how much traffic it receives on a daily basis.

One plugin that is recommend is WP Super Cache, which I’ve installed on this blog. It’s only been a day so far, so I haven’t noticed a huge difference yet. But then, my blog doesn’t get 1,000′s of visitors a day.

This is something that all bloggers need to be aware of and take into consideration. You don’t want to be losing blog readers before they even have a chance to read your blog.

I started my online business roughly 4 years ago. At the time I didn’t give much thought and consideration into getting it going. However, around a year and a half ago, I decided to get serious. During that time I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with other online business owners in various forums.

Over the past year and a half I’ve gotten to become close online friends with a select few of them and have gotten to know them on a more personal level. We share the same interests and collaberate in the same forums.

Well, to my surprise, one of those friends decided that she is selling her  home business website. I was shocked to find out about this, but I can understand her reasoning. Circumstances change from time-to-time, so sometimes you have to make hard decisions.

The decision my friend Tanny made was to sell her Home Business website. A decision that was hard for her to make. I don’t want to get into too many details about why, but I do want to help her get the word out.

You see, selling her website is a high priority for her, so as her friend, I’m doing everything I can to get her website seen by as many potential buyers as possible.

You can also help me do the same by ReTweeting this post and passing it along to your online friends as well.

To get full details about her website, please visit the auction page on Flippa: http://flippa.com/auctions/78715.

I’d really appreciate it if you can spread the word, and I know that she would be grateful as well. There’s still 24 days left to bid, so that should be plenty of time to get the word out.

Thanks a lot, and if you have any questions about Tanny’s website, either comment on the auction page, or you can comment below and I’ll be sure to forward your question to her.

Another month gone by. I didn’t do as well as September, but still not a bad run. Let’s take a look at where things stand as far as how much income my site brought in.

• Google Adsense – $17.97
• Yarie.com – $30.40
• SFI – $6.17
• Clickbank – $139.36
• Responsive Data – $9
• Free Traffic System – $10.00
• Angela’s Backlink Building Service – $3.75

Total income for October is: $216.65

Where income lacked in some places, it made up for in others. Clickbank did very well thanks to the new addition of Adam Berry’s Flip Switch Profits course, which I highly recommend.

This income doesn’t include my proofreading, re-writing and blogging services.

If you run a blog I’m sure one of your many goals is to create content that brings in a large readership. Afterall, your content is what matters the most when it comes to getting to gaining readers and having them continue to come back for more. A problem you may face is coming up with ideas on what to write about that’s going to attract a readership.

I’ve put together 3 tips that you can put into action right now to create blog content that gets noticed.

So, without further delay, let’s get right into it…

Tip 1: Find content to write about with YouTube videos

Videos are the new medium on the internet, and there is a TON of information in the form of videos, not just on YouTube, but on every other video site. Videos are great for spreading content in a more personal way. However, there’s no actual content, or text, about what is being talked about.

This is where you can benefit. Find a video that relates to your blog content, and create an article based on what the video is about. It’s just like transcribing an audio file into print form, but with a video instead.

This will be completely unique content, and you can do it for any niche or subject. There’s really no limit as there are a massive amount of videos on literally any subject you can think of.

Tip 2: Use Twitter and other Social Networks to find hot subjects to write about

This strategy will take a little more work, but it can be very effective. With this technique you’ll be blogging about current, hot topics that everyone is buzzing about. This should no doubt get your blog some exposure.

If you’re on Twitter I’m sure you’ve seen a particular subject that everyone is talking about. This could be true for any number of social sites. Start blogging about that subject, if it’s suitable for your blog, of course.

On Twitter, an easy way to find the most talked about subject is to go to the home page, and on the right-hand side, you’ll see Trending Topics. These are the topics that are most talked about, and this will save you a lot time to find them.

Tip 3: Read other blogs to get ideas for your own blog

Most bloggers are subscribed to RRS feeds of other blogs that they find interesting and are related to their own blogs. Sometimes a blogger you follow might write about something that really perks your interest.

One particular blog I follow is Peter Lee’s Work From Home Blog.

When this happens, what you can do is expand on what they talked about or even create a spin on the subject. You can even get a little controversial if you have a different point of view. This is another way to get exposure and a lot of comments.

When going this route, just be sure you don’t copy the post, as this is stealing. It’s okay if you want to quote a portion so that people reading your post can understand what you’re talking about. A link back to the other post wouldn’t hurt either.

What do you do to create blog content that gets noticed? Share your tips in the comments below…

Last month went by very quickly. Luckily for you I was able to get quite a few blog posts written. I hope you enjoyed them all and learned a thing or two. In case you missed any, you can check out last month’s blog posts in this blog post roundup.

Increase Web Traffic with Traffic Exchanges

How To Maximize Your Results With Traffic Exchanges

New TwitterLink Comments Plugin Installed

September Income Report

Internet Marketing Articles – 1 Month Free PLR Membership

80 High PR One Way Backlinks Each Month

Ezine Articles – Free Website Promotion

Easy Free Keyword Research

Discover Commercial Intention of Keyword Phrases

If you’ve ever wanted a legitimate way to use Twitter to make money, then this is it. The site is called Sokule and literally stands for “so cool.”

From what I’ve seen so far, it really is SO KULE!

There’s been attempts to monetize Twitter before, and there are some sites that post ads to your twitter account while paying your for those posts. The problem is that it junks up Twitter and could potentially turn your followers against you if they figure out what’s going on.

So, those methods of making money aren’t very reliable and may not last long at all. Heck, Twitter themselves haven’t even monetized the site.

What Sokule does is really very “kule” in the way you earn money. Instead of posting ads on Twitter through your account, you earn money through the Sokule site instead.

Sokule is almost identical to Twitter in that you post 140 characters for your “followers” to see. Followers on Sokule are called Trackers. In reality, you’re making money using Sokule, but it also utilized Twitter. Let me explain.

Sokule is just like Twitter where you make posts and get “followers” and also “follow” others. But, posting on Sokule will also make that same post to Twitter for you, once you set it up. And, the post on Twitter will contain a link at the end that points to your Sokule page.

See how “kule” this is? It get’s better because Sokule let’s you monetize your page, allowing you to post affiliate links, program links, videos and ads. This is one way you make money.

Sokule also has different levels of membership. With Sokule’s affiliate program, when you refer other members to the site, you can earn money if they sign up for a paid membership. Sign up is free, but the paid memberships offer a lot more than just the free membership. I highly recommend the paid membership if you want to really take full advantage of what Sokule offers.

There’s more I can say, but just go to Sokule and check it out for yourself. View the benefits between the free and paid memberships and see which would be a better fit for you.

As always, I’d love to read your comments. So leave them below.