That’s why I’ve been paring down all I’ve been doing and refocusing on my marketing plan.

There’s never enough time to do everthing.

I drop into IAHBE a couple of times a month for an hour or two to read anything new that is on-topic for me.

Act on your dream!

JD

Sires last blog post..Joining The Crazy Blogging For Money Train

I won’t say none of my downline is active, but most of them are marketing far less than they could.

It takes a lot of work and at least some money to build a marketing business.

I think lots of people sign up for SFI because it’s free and they believe the hype they see on other sites that all they have to do is sign up and get ready to buy that fancy car and huge house.

Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t work like that, and I’m happy to say that SFI doesn’t mislead people with those kinds of claims. Yet, still, people arrive at SFI with lots of mistaken beliefs about mlm and online marketing.

I didn’t do much with SFI for the first couple of years for a couple of reasons.

1. I don’t like mlm. I don’t want to waste my time and effort on people who won’t take action or respond. I much prefer affiliate marketing where I earn based on my own efforts.

So, I treat SFI as an affiliate marketing business. I’m happy to refer people to SFI and I’ll freely offer my help and advice, but i don’t offer certificates or do their work for them.

2. SFI didn’t offer products or services which I felt comfortable promoting.

Well, that’s not exactly true. I really like their non-toxic cleaners and I’ve saved a good bit of money by subscribing to some magazines through their affiliate store.

I’ve also made some nice commissions on both the cleaning supplies and magazines.

But, as you’re already aware, most of the magazines are available for subscriptions only for people in the USA and the shipping costs for the cleaning products are prohibitive outside the country.

When SFI introduced IAHBE, I jumped on it because I’m exactly in their target market. Even if I weren’t an SFI affiliate, I’d continue my IAHBE membership. I’ve learned a lot from the materials on their site, and I get enough of the free books and magazine subscriptions to make the membership cost neutral.

Plus, I earn enough in commissions, as I said earlier, that the IAHBE membership is free.

So, I’m very happy about being a member of IAHBE and the value I get from the membership.

Still, I know what you mean about losing money. You can’t build a business unless you turn a profit. SFI is not one of my most-profitable profit centers, but it regularly produces profits, so I’ll continue with it.

I’ve owned several businesses and I always allow two years before a new enterprise breaks even and starts returning a profit.

Of course, we all have our own goals, time tables, and expectations, don’t we?

Still, I’m looking forward to seeing what the new ecommerce store brings.

I was disappointed when they put Nice Offers on hold, because I’d been gearing up for heavy promotions this year, and they suspended new business registrations about two weeks before I was going to invest several hundred dollars in direct mailings to local businesses and in custom postcards for follow-ups. So, at least they stopped it before I wasted the money and time.

I also killed over 40 Squidoo lenses that were devoted to promoting Nice Offers, and I have three blogs that I’ll be taking down or repurposing, if I can find a way to make them work without the Nice Offers coupon system.

So, that was really disappointing and I was tempted to drop SFI, but I’m earning enough that I don’t want to do that.

Hopefully, they’ll get their act together in time for us to market the new store by late October or early November.

We’ll see.

Act on your dream!

JD

Sires last blog post..Joining The Crazy Blogging For Money Train

I’m a Bronze Team Leader with SFI Marketing Group and I’ve been subscribing to IAHBE since it was introduced. That upgraded me to EA status and since then, I’ve become a BTL.

It costs $29.95 per month, but I earn more than that in commissions, so essentially it’s free. I get a check for the extra commissions after the subscription is deducted.

I know what you mean about SFI being restricting for you as an Aussie. Until recently, it was harder for international affiliates to market their offerings outside of the USA.

SFI is going to introduce a new ecommerce site in the coming months that is supposed to make it much more attractive to affiliates who live around the world.

We’ll see how it turns out. I’m optimistic, but I don’t get excited until I see the release version.

Act on your dream!

JD

Sires last blog post..Blogs Are A Great Way To Show Off Your Photos

It’s always nice to meet a fellow blogger who is earning some income from his efforts.

I’ve never actually considered Google Adsense as affiliate marketing. I normally think of it as paid advertising. Either way, I’m happy to deposit the monthly check. (grin)

When I first started my marketing business, it was after Mom’s cancer surgery and I’d just closed my metalsmithing business to take care of her full-time. I did that until my savings ran out and then got really serious about online marketing.

At first, I could barely afford the $5 for webhosting, and this was before free blogging was available.

Still, with effort, I started getting commission checks from several companies.

As my business made money, I started spending more money for hosting, advertising, and a variety of marketing tools.

Now, I find the more I spend on marketing and advertising – coupled with making use of what I’ve purchased – the more I earn.

I’ve spent money on a few things that didn’t increase my income and dropped them after two or three months.

I’m not trying to convince you to change your approach, just sharing my experiences.

Of course, now there are lots and lots of free tools and services, so these results are subject to change at any time.

I appreciate your visit and comments.

Act on your dream!

JD

Even though I am not making a fortune I am enjoying myself as I walk the path of making a little on the side via my blogging ventures.

Sires last blog post..Blogs Are A Great Way To Show Off Your Photos

Yes, that is a shame, especially considering how much work you put into blogging.

I’ve tried lots of affiliate programs and I’m rather surprised that the programs that worked best for me two years ago are still the programs that work best for me now.

At first, I thought I was going to make money by building travel sites, but that was very competitive and non-productive – for me.

Then, I tried to promote consumer products, especially electronics and computers, and that didn’t work.

I make enough from Adsense to cover my online overhead every month, plus a little profit.

I kept asking myself what is my passion? What do I love doing?

I kept coming back to two topics: affiliate marketing and working at home.

Both of these are very competitive and I don’t advise anyone to enter this arena unless you’re prepared for a long slog and hundreds of thousands of competitors, many of whom are more knowledgeable and better financed than I am. In addition to that, many of the sites in this area have teams of people building them and driving traffic.

So, normally, I would say this is a bad idea, but it’s what I love doing.

I’m trying to segment myself by only promoting tools and services that work very well for me, and which I believe will work well for my readers.

I believe that is the key. You have to find a niche for which you have passion and the drive to approach it long-term, and you have to decide what you’re going to promote.

You know what they say, “If you’re trying to sell to everyone, you’ll end up selling to no one.”

I tried the shotgun approach for a long time and I still have some of those links out there. I’m trying to find and delete them, over time.

I started a lot of websites and blogs for testing and I’ll be closing and/or redirecting them over the next year.

I’ve decided this will be my primary blog, because I can do things here that I can’t do with johndilbeck.editthispage.com.

My primary website will be http://www.AYearFromNow.com and I’m working on a major rebuild of that site that will be released in a couple of weeks.

So, now, I know several pieces of the puzzle: my niche and subniche, the products I will promote, and the sites to which I want to attract visitors.

It has taken a long time to get here, but I feel like I’m on-track, now.

I believe you’ll do better once you find your niche, the products you use and want to promote, and the site you want to focus on promoting.

It is so easy to scatter our attention and activities and not get results for our efforts.

Focusing on your target is the key. Write about what really floats your boat (and fits within your niche) and, over time, people will find you and come to trust you.

At least, that’s been my experience over the last decade or more that I’ve been earning through affiliate marketing.

Act on your dream!

JD

Mitchs last blog post..What Kind Of Car Do You Drive?