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.
November Blog Post Roundup
Posted by Alan Mater on Dec 5, 2009
It’s December already, and we just got our first snowfall of the season. I took this picture with my cell phone while hunting this morning. The snow was coming down hard, but you can’t tell. There was already about an inch of snow after an hour and a half.
I like this time of year, although it can sometimes get too cold.
I’ve been very busy lately, so the amount of posts I made last month were very few. If you happened to miss one you’ll find it below.
Thanks for being a reader of my blog, and I hope you’ll find what you’re looking for. If you have any ideas or would like me to blog about something, just let me know. 
Monetize Twitter – Sokule Makes You Money
3 Tips To Create Blog Content That Gets Noticed
What Are You Thankful For This Year?
Join Me On These Social Network Sites
New FTC Regulations For Bloggers and Affiliate Marketers
Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed so you’re sure to be updated when I add anything new to my blog. 
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.
3 Tips To Create Blog Content That Gets Noticed
Posted by Alan Mater on Nov 12, 2009
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…
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.
Ezine Articles – Free Website Promotion
Posted by Alan Mater on Oct 23, 2009
By now you should know how effective article marketing is for your online business. However, there’s another way in which you can use your articles that a lot of people overlook or never think of.
There are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of ezines (electronic magazines) available on the internet. In fact, if you have an email list of subscribers, then essentially you own an ezine. And I’m guessing you provide your subscribers with useful ezine articles on a regular basis.
Keeping this in mind, have you ever found it difficult to keep creating ezine articles to send to your list? A lot of successful ezines have been around for years and have tens of thousands of subscribers. That’s a long time to try to keep creating ezine articles to keep the subscribers interested.
So, what does an ezine owner do in this case? It’s very simple. They allow other people to submit ezine articles to them which will be sent to their subscribers. Can you see the possibilities here?
This opens the doorway for you to get your message out there to thousands of people that might have never known about you otherwise. This is absolutely huge!
Here’s how it works…
You first find ezines that are related to what you do or what you provide. If you own a website or online business, then find ezines related to that. Next thing you’ll want to do is contact the ezine owner and ask if you could write articles for their ezine on a weekly basis.
If they agree, you’ve just set up a very good proposition for yourself. Now all you have to do is create an article every week for that ezine. It shouldn’t be very difficult as you should already be familiar with the niche.
Now, the most important part is to then create an “about the author” section at the end of your articles. This only has to be one or two sentences about yourself, what you do and what you provide. Of course, you’ll want to leave a link to your website so that the readers can check it out.
This results in getting interested people to visit your website. The goal is to get them to subscribe to your ezine (newsletter), make a purchase, fill out a form, click a link, etc. You want them to take action!
Ezine articles can be an effective way to promote your website and should be part of your overall marketing strategy. Now, a problem with this is that it can take a lot of time to search for and find related ezines.
I recommend you use the Directory of Ezines to find ezines to write articles for. Not all ezines will allow article submissions, but the Directory of Ezines has an awesome search interface that will allow you to search for only ezines that do. There are many other search parameters as well, including categories, specific keywords, ezines that allow solo ads and more.
There are many perks to becoming a member of the Directory of Ezines, especially if you become a lifetime member, which is what I am. At least check it out and see if it’s right for you.
No matter how you find potential ezines to partner with, just remember, this is free advertising for your website that has a lot of positive potential, so don’t ignore it. Ezine articles can have a huge impact on your online business.
Get 80 High PR One Way Backlinks Each Month
Posted by Alan Mater on Oct 19, 2009
You may recall a previous post I wrote the end of last month about Angela Edward’s backlink service. Well, as it turns out, there’s a guy by the name of Paul Johnson who also provides a similar service.
Paul’s service is almost identical to Angela’s. The only difference is that Paul provides 50 High PR one way backlinks every month, opposed to Angela’s 30. Another difference is that Paul’s backlinks come from PR 4 and 5 sites, as well as higher PR sites. The lowest PR that Angela provides is 6, up to PR 9.
I highly recommend both services for website owners that are looking to increase their search engine ranking for their chosen keywords. With each site you’ll be able to create a link using your desired keywords. The more one way backlinks pointing to your site from high PR sites, the higher your website will rank in Google for that keyword phrase.
Getting quality, high PR one way backlinks to your website is critical, and Angela and Paul have provided a way for us to do just that. They’ve done the hard work in finding the sites. All we have to do is go create our links and watch our rankings increase. It really is that easy.
Here are the links to check out Angela and Paul’s backlink services:
If you sign up for both services, you pay a small fee of only $13 a month. Angela’s service is $5 monthly, and Paul’s service is just $8 monthly. In return, you get a total of 80 high PR one way backlinks every month from both services. That really is a steal.
Remember, you need high PR backlinks to your site. If you don’t jump on this opportunity to increase your search engine rankings, your competitors will. I personally use both with very positive results.
PPG Annual Marketing Contest
Posted by Alan Mater on Jul 2, 2009
The PIPS Power Group (PPG), a group of mentors established to help Plug-In Profit Site members excel with their home business, is holding their 2nd annual summer marketing contest.
For whatever reason, I didn’t participate in last year’s contest. This year, however, I decided it would be a good idea for me to participate as it can only help my work from home business. Getting motivated and staying focused on daily tasks can be hard, so this contest is a way to keep me on track with what I need to do.
I just wanted to share with you all what requirements were included with this contest, so you can get somewhat of an idea of what it takes to market your online business and that it takes a daily and consistent effort on your part.
Here’s what we are required to do each day:
- Post at least once to our blog
- Post at least 4 comments on other blogs
- Post at least 4 forum posts, on 4 different forums
- Make at least one post in the PPG forum
- Write at least 2 articles per week
After that, we have to post our daily activity of what we did, including posting the links to all the posts we made in forums and blogs, a link to our blog post, etc.
Now before the marketing contest began, we posted how many inbound links we had to our site as well current Alexa ranking. The winner of the contest is the one who has the biggest positive difference of those numbers and what those numbers are at the end of the contest.
The PPG marketing contest runs for 6 weeks, and this is day 2 of the contest. So far I’ve been able to manage to meet the requirements for yesterday, and I’m on a good track to meet them for today.
Doing these tasks everyday will make a positive impact on my business. Looking at this, this should give YOU a good idea of what is needed to take your online business to the next level.
If you’re struggling with your business or just want to take it to that next step, but feel like you just keep hitting roadblock after roadblock, I highly recommend checking out the PIPS Power Group and see what they can do for you.
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