The Official Alibaba.com Success Guide
Posted by Alan Mater on Feb 28, 2010
I had the opportunity to review a book titled, “The Official Alibaba.com Success Guide.”
I was offered a free copy of the book, and being interested in what Alibaba was all about, I took the offer. I not only agreed to review the book because I was interested, but I thought that maybe you all would be interested as well.
Afterall, it has everything to do with entrepreneur-ism and selling products online. I hope you find this book interesting and thought provoking, just as I did.
If you’ve never heard of Alibaba.com before, it’s the largest B2B marketplace provider.
Alibaba is all about Global Trade, which is what makes the world go ’round if you didn’t know. Every product we handle first came from an idea. The idea is then turned into a prototype, which is then mass-produced and distributed worldwide.
Alibaba makes this whole process as simple as possible by creating one single place for product inventors and manufacturers to come together and do business directly.
The “Success Guide” provides inside tips and strategies for sourcing products from the marketplace that you will find on the website.
What I liked most about the book is that it provides real-life experiences from the founder of Alibaba and other successful business men and women. Not only that, but it outlines in easy to understand terms how to get started selling online and forming partnerships with companies and manufacturers. It goes through the entire process from start to finish, giving you all the information you need to know as well as tips to make everything as easy as possible for you.
The book also has screenshots that illustrate what it’s describing in relation to the website. What’s really cool is that both the book and website go hand-in-hand. The book is basically a guide on how to use the website, but at the same time the book itself is a motivational and instructional tool. It’s simply brilliant.
If you’re looking for encouragement and inspiration, there’s none better than from the mouth’s of some of the most successful people in the world. You will find them right in the book.
Let’s get into what exactly Alibaba can do for you…
Say you have a product idea. You’ve done all the research, testing, etc. and know there’s a market for it. You just need some way to bring the product into reality that you can then sell to the masses. That’s where Alibaba comes in. You can converse directly with manufacturers from all around the world. This is huge if you’re an inventor and looking for contacts that will be able to manufacture and mass-produce your product.
The other side to this is what really caught my attention (since I’m not an inventor 
). Say you don’t want to create a product of your own but want to sell existing products. You also want to get wholesale prices on your items so you can earn a decent profit from each sale. Alibaba is a good source to find such items because again, you can deal directly with manufactures and get the best possible prices. Selling on eBay came to my mind.
Do you see the benefit of having a site like Alibaba.com where you have hundreds of manufactures ready to do business with you directly at your fingertips?
If you’ve been looking to sell actual physical products online, then I recommend taking a look at what Alibaba.com has to offer. And, here are some Sourcing Tips to help you in your search to find manufacturers and products.
Interested in getting a copy of the book? You can get it on Amazon today…
Affiliate Power Group – Online Business Coaching – Affiliate Marketing Training
Posted by Alan Mater on Jan 25, 2010
In my previous post, I briefly mentioned about the importance of having a mentor or group of mentors that can guide you on the path to online business success. One of my loyal blog readers, Dennis Edell, pointed out that all successful people (especially the top 1%) have a mentor. Well, I don’t know that I’d consider myself successful (financial wise), nor am I in the top 1%, but I do have a group of mentors that have helped me out tremendously in learning affiliate marketing.
The reason for this post is to introduce you to the group of mentors I’ve had the privilege of working with. What’s unique, I believe, is that they’ve been open to helping ANYONE who is either new to affiliate marketing, struggling to make money, or looking to take their online businesses to the next level. There’s not too many successful internet marketers that are willing to work one-on-one with people, as pointed out by Meka, a recent reader of this blog.
Of course, they can’t literally work one-on-one with every single person, but I think they got a pretty good setup in place. They have a membership site designed specifically for people who want to get into affiliate marketing by setting up niche blogs. This is certainly the starting point in which anyone who is serious should take in order to start earning some extra income online.
The membership site provides an outline and step-by-step action plan to follow, from planning, getting your website set up, marketing/advertising, optimizing and bringing in a residual and passive income month after month. The mentors who started this membership site all are regular people just like you and me who had a desire to be their own boss and work from home. They saw an opportunity and did everything they could to see their dreams become a reality. They call themselves the Affiliate Power Group.
The mentors have been successfully working from home with affiliate marketing full-time for a number of years and are now sharing their experience and knowledge with the rest of us. That’s my main goal and purpose of this Work From Home Blog. I just love helping people and giving back, and it’s obvious that they’re very willing to do the same.
The great thing about Affiliate Power Group is that they have a built-in forum (just updated) where you can ask questions and get direct answers from the mentors as well as other members. This is where the one-on-one attention is created because you have direct access to each mentor at anytime. You can also email or message any of the members directly for specific questions if you prefer.
As mentioned in my previous post, being able to have direct communication with those who are successful in your field will give you the edge you need to become successful yourself. It helps you grow mentally and provides personal development needed to turn that “hobby” of a website into a real online business. I’m not saying you have to go spend a $1,000 to form an LLC, but you have to realize that creating a successful online business takes a lot of hard work and persistence. If you treat it like a real business, it’ll reward you as such. That’s something that took me a long time to realize, which is why I’m still not where I want to be yet (my monthly income reports are proof of that).
Affiliate Power Group is able to help anyone just starting out, struggling to make money, or trying to take their affiliate marketing business to the next level. You can give their affiliate marketing training a try for just $1. $1 will give you access to the entire membership site plus all the bonuses. This is a huge deal, and I know once you see the value you’ll receive, you’ll want to continue your membership.
The total cost of the membership is very undervalued. Although, I like to look at it as the mentors over-delivering, which is really what they do. Seriously, learn the business or take yours to the next level for just $1 today. You won’t be disappointed.
Make Money With CPA Affiliate Networks
Posted by Alan Mater on Dec 20, 2009
In one of my previous posts about working from home with affiliate marketing, I talked about how affiliate marketing is the easiest way to get started making money online.
This post is going to cover a way in which you can start generating money with affiliate marketing without having to actually sell anything. Interested? You should be. You can earn a decent amount of money from your web traffic by promoting CPA ads.
CPA stands for Cost Per Action. The way CPA ads work is that you promote a particular ad or ads that are related to the content and niche of your site. CPA ads can be found for practically any niche you’re in.
When someone comes to your site and sees a link to a product or service you’re promoting for a CPA network, and they click on the link, they’ll be taken to the owner’s site for that offer. Your affiliate ID will be included.
Here’s the best part. All that person has to do is take some sort of ACTION. This action doesn’t involve actually buying anything. If the person is interested in the offer and fills out a form to learn more, you automatically get credited for the sign-up. This earns you a set commission into your account for that CPA affiliate network.
The commission earned for each sign-up can range from $1 to $3. If a sale is generated, the commissions can be $20 all the way up to $60 or more, depending on the offer.
Here’s an example…
You’re promoting a survey site for a reputable company, and they’re paying $3 per lead. Someone comes to your site, sees the ad and clicks on the link. They go to the survey site and read over the offer. There’s a form that requests their name and email address so they can be sent further information (which is how leads are generated). They fill out the form, and you’re automatically credited with $3.
It’s that simple. You don’t have to sell anything at all. Although, the money you can earn is a lot more if you do make a sale on top a lead.
Here’s a tip: The shorter the form is, the more likely someone is going to fill it out. So, try to find offers that only have one or two lines for them to fill in. If you can’t, don’t worry, if it’s a good offer it may convert just as well. It all comes down to testing different offers.
Here are the two CPA Affiliate Networks that I use and earn money from:
I just want to note that getting approved for CPA affiliate networks can be a little tricky. If you decide to sign up for one of these and run into any problems, just let me know, and I’ll help you out.
Also, both of these companies have the option to be paid directly to your PayPal account, which is very nice.
Do you use CPA affiliate networks to earn money? What companies do you use? How are you doing with them? Share your comments below…
How To Avoid Getting Scammed With Work From Home Jobs
Posted by Alan Mater on Dec 16, 2009
No one likes getting scammed, especially when it involves losing your heard earned money. I’ve been there myself, so I know exactly what it’s like. That’s why I put an article together to help you avoid getting scammed. I don’t want to see the same thing happen to you.
Let’s face it, scams are everywhere, and it’s hard to tell sometimes if they’re really legitimate opportunities or jobs. When all else fails, use your gut feeling, and dare I say it, common sense. If it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.
Read Legitimate Work From Home Jobs – How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off to learn what you can do to avoid the scams and find legitimate work from home jobs.
Also, here are some resources that I didn’t include in that article that will help you out tremendously if you come across an opportunity that you’re not sure about.
Ripoff Report – This is a very high authority source if you’re searching for practically anything that someone may have gotten ripped off from. You can also submit your own ripoff report if you’ve fallen victim to a scam.
Scam.com – A forum with many different threads about various scams.
Have you ever been the victim of an internet scam or opportunity that took your hard earned money and ran? Share your experiences below and also any tips you can share to help others avoid the scams.
New FTC Regulations For Bloggers and Affiliate Marketers
Posted by Alan Mater on Nov 30, 2009
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…
Join Me On These Social Network Sites
Posted by Alan Mater on Nov 29, 2009
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.
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. 
Are You Losing Blog Readers?
Posted by Alan Mater on Nov 21, 2009
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.
My Friend’s Home Business Website is for Sale
Posted by Alan Mater on Nov 18, 2009
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.
Discover Commercial Intention of Keyword Phrases
Posted by Alan Mater on Oct 30, 2009
If you liked my last post on Free Keyword Research, then you’re going to like this post even more. I created another video to show you a very cool way to determine whether the keywords you’re using are keywords that people are searching for with the intent to buy something.
Sounds awesome, right? I know that if you could rank your website for a keyword phrase that people search for to find stuff to buy, that you’d make more money. That’s the whole purpose of this amazing free tool.
Check out the video to learn more…
Here’s the link that I referred to in the video:
adlab.microsoft.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/
Let me know what you think!
Easy Free Keyword Research
Posted by Alan Mater on Oct 29, 2009
After reading the title you’re probably thinking there’s no way that keyword research can be easy, let alone free. I think that too many people make keyword research a lot harder than it has to be. And, while paid tools are great when researching keywords, I think that for the majority of people they’re not needed.
What IS needed though is knowing how to do some basic keyword research when you’re looking to rank your articles, blog posts, and web pages on the first page of Google.
Keyword research is essential, and it’s a lot easier than you might think. I put together a video explaining how you can use a free tool to find “golden nuggets” that are going to provide the traffic you need. Follow that up with a little research on your competition, and you’ll be well on your way to getting a top 10 listing.
Once you find the keywords you want to use, remember to include those keywords when building backlinks to that article, blog post or web page. That’s how you’re going to build up your rankings in the search engines.
And, speaking of backlinks, the two methods of backlink building I recommend to get the fastest results is using Angela and Paul’s backlink building services. They are worth every penny and can produce massive results.
I hope with this little tip you’ll be able to bring in more traffic and sales for your online business.
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