I couldn’t tell you how many times growing up a case of boredom got me into trouble. I mean, I guess there’s a shred of truth to the old adage, “the devil finds work for idle hands”… But let me tell you a more recent story about the time when being bored out of my mind set me on a path that would change my life for the better in ways I never dreamed possible.

It was a Saturday, just over 2 years ago, and I’d almost finished dredging through my email… hoping to see a nice “commission earned” email. At that point I was still approaching marketing like I was playing the lottery. I’d throw an affiliate link out there everywhere I could and pray someone would bite. As you can Imagine, there was no commission coming in that day.

Then, just as I was about to log off and turn on the TV, one headline in particular caught my eye. “Golden Nuggets and Giveaways!” it proclaimed and both sounded better than what was on TV that morning so I was intrigued to say the least. Apparently, there was an online seminar starting in just a few minutes, and a massive giveaway was to be held. Totally appealed to my mindset at the time so I quickly grabbed the conference room software and logged in, eager to see what was up for grabs.

Now, I’d always avoided online seminars, and quite frankly, contact of any kind with other marketers. I was really green at this point… clueless you might say, and I was scared to death that should anyone find out, they would broadcast to the world, “Don’t buy from him! He has no idea what he’s doing!” I also had a
suspicion that this was just going to be a cleverly disguised pitch session. But what I found when I logged in absolutely blew my mind.

Here was a rogues gallery of site owners, many of whom owned sites that I was promoting, hanging out, openly “talking shop” with anyone and everyone in the chat room. Finally there was a voice to go with the names and flashy photos and I couldn’t believe what they were saying. After the big giveaway was over, the room was opened up for questions and time after time, these folks were telling people NOT to promote their affiliate links. What?! these site owners, many of whom were six figure owners (or would be later that year as it turned out.) and while they admitted that they LOVED when we did promote their sites directly,  they insisted that this simply was NOT the way to make a solid income online. This was the first of many “golden nuggets” that I would discover that day, and every Saturday since, without fail, I have been back in that room, picking up new tips, and now sharing a few of my own here and there.

In a nutshell, that single off the cuff decision to log in for that first seminar was a turning point. One That would eventually lead me from sweating it out in a restaurant to making a cozy full time income from home. I’m still in my pajamas as I type this and let me tell ya, this is what freedom feels like.

Oh oh oh.. I almost left out the best part of the story. That priceless seminar I attended, was literally, priceless, and still is to this day. All it took was a free membership at Affiliate Funnel. No upgrade required even. I guess they figured anyone who “gets it” would become a powerful asset to the company if they
learned to promote effectively. Now that’s just smart business.

Want to see what it can do for your business? Here’s the schedule…

Where? :
AffiliateFunnel.com

When? :
Saturdays at 12 noon EST – Saturday List Building Sessions (Four part series, restarts monthly. Catch pt1 this saturday.)
Mondays at 8pm EST – Introductory sessions for new members of AF. Get off on the right foot building YOUR business.

Get the conference room software on the lessons page inside the member’s area and mark your calendars. Hope to see you there

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Hands free income.  That’s really the dream isn’t it.  But what’s the truth behind all these hype machines?  Are auto-pilot income streams a reality?  Let’s think this through for a minute shall we?

If you’ve spent any amount of time cahsing after easy money online, you may have found some marginal success building downlines and residual income streams, but ultimately, what happens 99.9% of the time?  You find yourself with a rapidly diminishing downline of non motivated people and before long, your monthly commission checks start to disappear.  Next thing you know, you’re back to square one looking for the next big foolproof system.

Well here’s the thing that separates those who get it from those who don’t.

What you want isn’t just auto-pilot income,  what you REALLY want is sustainable auto-pilot income.  Chances are, you’ve already got an idea of how that can be accomplished, but you just haven’t been able to put the pieces together so allow me to assist.

Has it ever crossed your mind that the only people getting rich off of these things are the people who built the program? Well, you’re not far off from the truth and you know why?  Because they own the mailing list.  They have the right to mail every single member in their database every time they have something new to sell.

What do you think you could do if you had a mailing list like that?

Imagine being in a position where you could take your downline with you, from one affiliate program to the next, selling them tools and info products along every step of the way… knowing that if one program you’re promoting goes belly up, you can just mail out to your list about the next sure fire winner.  Sounds downright mouth watering right? But how do you do it?

The first thing is to stop giving your money to every shiny website that promises you overnight succes.  Just not gonna happen, and realize that the only real “auto-pilot income machine” that exists is the one you build yourself.  Once you get that, it comes down to focus.  In the beginning, all you should be spending money on is the tools that will allow you to build your own mailing list.  Broken down to the bare essentials, you need only 3 things…

A webhost - If we were talking offline business, this would be like your storefront.  It’s where your website “lives” on the internet.  Like a storefront, there will be rent involved, but for the purpose of building a list, you can get a suitable web host for under $10.  (I know of one that’s less than $5).  With a webhost, you can have full control over your advertising, and your website doesn’t have to be all that special to get the job done.  I know a guy personally who makes a quiet fortune from a rather ugly 3 page website.

An Auto-responder - A lot of folks are confused by the name of this tool.  To clarify, this isn’t something that automatically responds to emails for you like a vacation setting or something, This is the software that you use to manage your email list.  From creating the sign up forms, to sending out your emails on a pre-defined schedule, your auto-responder is like your own virtual salesman who never needs a break.  It is absolutely THE most important piece of the puzzle and I don’t think there’s a successful affiliate online who would disagree.

A Tracker - This is how you keep track of which of your ads are bringing in the money and which are just dead weight.  You see, when building your first mailing list, your primary goal is to keep tweaking your system until you’re averaging at least $1 per subscriber who signs up for your list.  Achieve that, and you’ve found the holy grail of internet marketing.  True auto-pilot income as at this point, you need only drive traffic to your subscribe form and watch the checks come in.  The kicker?  What do you think happens when you hit 8,333 subscribers?

Go ahead, do the math… I’ll wait.

So it seems the truth isn’t exactly sexy… there’s some *gulp* work involved.  Who’d of though working from home really involved work eh?  But as a former restaurant manager, I gotta tell ya’, I’ll take a few keystrokes and mouse clicks on MY schedule over the traditional 9-5 headaches any day.

So what will you do now?  Will you be in the top 3% who “get it” or will you shrug it off and keep looking for a company that will pay you to do nothing.  If you chose the latter, hey… good luck with that. If you’re ready to get to work on that dream, but prefer a step by step approach in layman’s terms, I encourage you to try the course on offer at All About My First List.  10 steps in ten days (or at your own pace) and you’ll be in a much better position to start earning a Sustainable income.

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Easy there, we’re not discussing an adult social network here, but “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine” is the root concept behind my best source for free leads to date, manual traffic exchanges.  I know folks will be screaming till the end of time that these things don’t work, but having taken the time to learn an effective way to use them, I strongly disagree.

If you never heard of one, a manual traffic exchange basically works like this.

• You View ads in a frame for anywhere from 10-30 seconds
• After 30 seconds, you’re asked to click a verification image in order to be credited.
• The credits you earn get your own site added to rotation for others doing the same.
• Most exchanges also allow you to convert your credits for banner or text ad impressions too.

Simple enough but why is this any better than other advertising methods?

Well I’ll tell ya’ why I love them.  First of all, everyone who is viewing your ad is doing so to earn visitors back the their site, so it’s safe to assume a few things here…

• They’re probably selling stuff if they want visitors right?
• They would likely be interested in more stuff to sell. (any “make money from home” type of stuff should do.)
• They would probably be interested in even more traffic, so they can sell more stuff.

So with an audience like that, it shouldn’t be all that hard to find someone interested in your affiliate links right?  Well really it all boils down to pinpointing the best way to advertise in a frame.  Not rocket science really.  Keep the ad “above the fold” (not too “tall”) and it has to load quick since you only have a few seconds.  You’d be shocked at how effective a strong headline, a quality freebie, and an opt-in form can be at grabbing new subscribers from a TE.

Disagree?  Well, hey, you’re entitled to that.  More than one way to gather leads, but I’ll stand by the exchanges for as long as they keep delivering the hits, and there’s no sign of them slowing down any time soon.

Thinking about giving ‘em a shot?  Be sure to grab a free copy of this guide, packed with screenshots, to speed up the learning curve a bit.

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Has Tony Tezak killed squeeze pages for good?

Well I certainly hope not considering designing them for others is a significant portion of my income, however after 3 days into to the launch of Tony’s next generation traffic exchange “Tezak Traffic Power” I must admit, I’m a bit worried.

A quick look at this screenshot from my aweber new subscribers report tells the tale tells the tale better than words…

As you can see, I got a HUGE spike in sign ups when TTP Launched.  I can only imagine what those numbers would have looked like I had I remembered to log in a assign more impressions when the first batch ran out.  What’s really killing me is that an ad that was a flop as a squeeze page, is on fire as a trimmed down list ad at Tezak Traffic Power.

What surprises me even more is that in all the buzz around this new exchange there’s been very little mention of how powerful the list ads feature at ttp is.  I’ve honestly never seen a free to use program like this that does so well at bringing in fresh leads.  With over 5,000 people actively surfing ttp in just the first 3 days it doesn’t look like this lead source will be drying up any time soon.  Knowing that Tony has teamed up with affiliate marketing powerhouse Paul Kinder and technical mastermind Tim Rash I have no doubt that this feature will continue to drive in the prospects for years to come.

So to Recap, Here’s the REAL long term benefits as I see them…

• List Ads

• Tony Tezak

• Paul Kinder

• Tim Rash

• Paul Kinder’s famous customer care team we all love from Traffic-Splash (yep, they’re on board too.)

• A Uniquely powerful next generation Traffic Exchange script

No Matter How you look at it, Tezak Traffic Power is a winner, and my new not so secret weapon for increasing my opt-in rate. Hats off Tony, Paul, Tim and the team… you guys have really out done yourselves.

Still on the fence? Try out the list ads at Tezak Traffic Power before you make a judgement. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at your results.

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