SFI announces opening date for new store

December 13, 2008 by John Dilbeck · 4 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Marketing, Network Marketing, Poll, Private Success Team, SFI Marketing Group 

In this week’s SFI Marketing Group affiliate newsletter, the grand opening date for the much-anticipated SFI store has been announced:

OFFICIAL LAUNCH DATE FOR NEW SFI STORE ANNOUNCED!

An official launch date has now been finalized. The brand new SFI store will be unveiled at 11 AM CST on MONDAY, JANUARY 5TH.

Also launching on January 5th will be an array of major, new SFI system enhancements, including:

* Dramatic simplification for getting started, becoming an EA, and more
* New training program for new affiliates
* Tons of new marketing and business-building aids
* More “internationalization”
* New and improved EyeEarn
* An improved compensation plan with five exciting new bonuses
* More incentives for becoming an EA and maintaining EA status
* More incentives for advancing through all the Team Leader ranks
* A more powerful and lucrative Executive Bonus
* Affiliate Center facelift (new, simpler navigation and menus, etc.)
* MUCH, MUCH MORE!

Stay tuned for further updates and get ready for the new year and “SFI 3.0!”

So, it’s official. We now have just over four weeks to make our plans on what we want to do to promote SFI, the new store, and the other changes we’ll see in 2009.

For the latest information on the store, including FAQs and many screenshots, see:

https://www.sfimg.com/NewStoreUpdates.sfi

(The page, above, is only viewable by SFI affiliates. If you’re interested in what’s coming down the road and you’re not an affiliate, you can join for free and learn more about the features of the new store before it is announced to the public. This new store should help all of us earn more commissions, if it lives up to its potential.)

(Update August 2009: Affiliate links removed, as I no longer promote SFI Marketing Group.)

I’m not going to repeat what I’ve already written about SFI. You can see more of what I’ve said by browsing the SFI Marketing Group category on this blog.

I have mixed feelings about SFI. I believe it is a great company and that they’re trying to help us all earn more in an ever-changing environment. They’ve tested a number of things in the last few years and not all of them worked out as expected. The announcement of this new store and the new system enhancements offer hope for the future, but I’m not going to gush about it. I’ll wait until the store opens and the new site bugs are worked out before making a decision.

I think SFI offers some great training for people new to affiliate and network marketing, and you can get this training for free. That’s one of the best things about the company; they’re working hard to help their members succeed online.

Still, even though I’m earning ongoing commissions from my marketing efforts, it’s not as much as I’ve expected, based on the length of time and the amount of marketing I’ve been doing.

I’ve put SFI on my probation list, as I’ve previously discussed. I’m giving this new program until July 1, 2009, to prove itself. If I see a substantial increase in my commission checks – and if the promise of the store lives up to the expectations – I’ll continue with the company. If not, it will be time to move on.

I respect Gery Carson and all he does at SFI, but it’s time to see more return for my efforts.

In anticipation that the store may become a huge success, I’ve started a Squidoo lens for SFI Marketing Group Store where I’m posting a teaser for now and will add relevant information after the store opens in January. (That lens has been deleted.)

I haven’t decided exactly how I’m going to do it, but I’m planning on promoting the store on multiple sites and I’ll be helping all the affiliates in my downline who are EA and above by using their links in some of the ads.

What do you think? Select any of the choices in the poll, below, that apply to you, or add your own in the Other section, by typing it into the gray box at the bottom, above the Vote button. The answers appear all mixed up because the poll is set to randomize the answers in an attempt to reduce bias. You can select one or more of the answers; please check all that match your opinons.

What do you expect from SFI in the coming six months and what are your plans to promote the company and the new store?

I’m looking forward to your comments.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Keyword research tools – Shopping.com Consumer Demand Index

December 13, 2008 by John Dilbeck · 11 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Marketing, Websites 

Do you want to promote popular products?

How can you find current lists of popular keyword searches for hot products already organized by category?

Is this an impossible dream?

Not at all.

See Shopping.com’s Consumer Demand Index for a list of all their categories. Click the category name to see a list of relatively current keywords and search phrases.

If you then click one of the search phrases, you’ll go to a page that lists the products related to that term on Shopping.com.

Yes, Shopping.com is a competitor if you are promoting popular products through your affiliate links, but look at it another way. They’ve done a lot of your keyword research for you, and they’re making it available, for free.

In addition, they group everything by category.

These pages should help you in your brainstorming and keyword research.

I wouldn’t depend on this as my only source for keywords, but it’s a nice tool if you promote the products they list or similar products.

On the other hand, if you’re shopping instead of marketing, is this a helpful page?

Who does it help most? Shoppers or marketers? Customers or competitors?

What do you think? Helpful or not?

Act on your dream!

JD

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Are you chasing your tail?

December 12, 2008 by John Dilbeck · 18 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Marketing, Poll, Success and Failure 

Introduction: The purpose of this post is to get all of us thinking about what we’re doing to build our businesses and what we’re doing that is just a complete waste of time. Caution, this post rambles even more than most of the other things I write. I want to solicit your opinions and hear about your experiences. I’ll ask more questions than I’ll answer. I hope you’ll think seriously about the questions I raise and join the conversation.

Now, on to the questions of the day…

If you look back on the last year – assuming you’ve been building your online business that long – have you been making progress or just chasing your tail?

You know what I mean.

We all love to watch a kitten or puppy chase its tail and run in circles until it falls over. It’s entertaining. It’s amusing. To us.

To the kitten or puppy, it’s frustrating.

If they don’t catch their tail, they get tired and quit. If they do catch it, they learn not to bite so hard the next time.

You’ve seen this and laughed. If not, do a search on YouTube. I’m sure you’ll find many hours of interesting pet videos that illustrate the point I’m making.

In fact, the very act of searching on YouTube and watching these videos is a good example of chasing your own tail. After spending minutes, or hours, doing this, what do you have to show for your time and effort? Not much.

The same principle applies to building your home business.

Are you making progress, or are you simply chasing your tail?

Are you running off, hither and yon, looking for the secret to Internet marketing success? How many websites have you visited? How many newsletters have you subscribed to? How many gurus have you followed? How many ebooks have you bought and downloaded? How many of those ebooks have you read? How many affiliate marketing programs have you joined? How many social networks have you joined? How often do you tweet on Twitter? How many friends are you trying to keep up with? How much email have you read?

Or, are you spending your time developing and promoting your marketing business?

If you’ve done your basic homework, you probably already know all you need to know to begin building your online business. There are no secrets. Much of what you need to know is available to you for free. For example, read Ken Evoy’s free ebooks, the Affiliate Masters Course or his best selling Make Your Site Sell!, which is now free to download.

But, if you don’t plan to study those books – or whatever guides you prefer – and put into action what you learn, what’s the point? If you don’t learn and act on what you learn, you’ll never build a business, no matter how busy you are.

Are you building your business or are you simply chasing your tail?

If you intend to earn a living from marketing, don’t you think it is time to learn how to build a marketing system that will work for you? A system that will help you focus on what works best and do more of it?

There are so many distractions and so many things are promoted as the best way to become successful with your online business, but most of them don’t work for most of us.

How do we stop chasing our tail and focus on what works best when we don’t yet know what works best for us?

It is especially frustrating when what works well for me may not work well for you, and vice versa.

Still, there have to be some basic marketing fundamentals that will apply to all of us, don’t you think?

Which is better? (A) Posting free classified ads on a dozen sites or (B) building your own focused marketing blog or website?

Which is better? (A) making 100 Squidoo lenses on assorted topics or (B) making 100 Squidoo lenses on different topics related to your marketing niche?

Which is better? (A) promoting a hundred different products and services or (B) promoting the top ten products for your particular niche?

Which is better? (A) talking about everything you think about or (B) focusing on your particular niche and branding yourself so others will think of you when that topic comes to mind?

Which is better? (A) promoting hither and yon hoping for one-time sales or (B) building a marketing funnel (or funnels) for your business and each of the products and services you recommend to your readers?

Which is better? (A) spending hours a day clicking on a traffic exchange or (B) spending a few days creating a new marketing funnel for a particular product, including writing a benefits-laden report about the product, creating an autoresponder series for it, writing a page about it on your website, blogging about it, creating a Squidoo lens about it, tweeting about it, and promoting everywhere that is appropriate, with the goal to get your readers to join your list and download the report you wrote.

I’m asking these questions just to get you to think about this. There are no right or wrong answers. Well, maybe some choices are more right than others, especially if you’re serious about building your online affiliate marketing business.

What do you want to accomplish at the end of the day, week, month, or next year? Do you want lots of visitors to your sites? Do you want good ratings on your lenses? Do you want lots of comments on your blog posts? Do you want lots of people to subscribe to your list(s) and download your report(s)? Do you want larger commission checks every month? What do you want to accomplish with the time, effort, and money you invest into your business?

Are you just chasing your own tail?

I’ve done a lot of that and I’m starting to realize how much time I’ve wasted, and time is much more valuable than money.

What do you want to earn as payment for the effort you put into your marketing efforts? Enough for a movie and dinner? Maybe make a car payment? Pay your rent or mortgage every month? Earn enough to quit your job? Build a business that enables you to thrive and not just survive? What is your time and effort worth?

I hope this post sparks a good conversation. What are we doing that gets us nowhere and how can we substitute better methods to build our businesses?

I know which way I’ll be going in 2009. Have you thought about what you are going to do?

What do you think will work best – for you – in 2009 as you work hard to define your niche, target your best customers, promote the best products and services they need, and increase your revenue?

I’m all ears.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Site Build It – the best time of year to buy

December 12, 2008 by John Dilbeck · 7 Comments
Filed under: Act On Your Dream!, Sitesell and Site Build It, Webhosting 

Are you familiar with Site Build It!?

If you’ve visited any of my sites, blogs, forums, and communities, you’ve most likely seen ads and articles about Site Build It! and why I like it so much. Still, you may not have taken the time to really learn about it and why it is like no other online business solution. Site Build It! is much more than just a webhosting company.

It’s an all-in-one hosting, site-building, and online-success-making system that can possibly change a life. SiteSell, the manufacturer, actually guarantees online success if you follow the proven system.

Here’s a short video that explains the product…

Take the video tour, now.

Over 100,000 customers, including me, have already used it to create real online businesses that let us work from home or wherever we want (it’s a Web based system). Sitesell has plenty of testimonials to prove it too. Take a look at their Case Studies page.

Or this page of videos that were actually done by their customers…

I Love SBI

But the best news of all is…

Now is the absolute best time of the year to buy Site Build It!. They have a Holiday Special going on where you can buy-one-site and get-one-free. It ends up being about $150 per site.

(Although Sitesell offers discounts on purchasing two sites at other major holidays, this is the only time of the year where you get the second site free. All the other holiday specials offer the second site for $100 when you purchase the first site at $299. This holiday special is a true buy-one-get-one-free discount. Don’t miss it.)

I know what you’re saying. Why do I need more than one site?

You don’t! You can always give the other one away as a New Year’s gift. Or sell it. Or find a friend who wants a great deal too.

But you might want to keep it. Did you know that the majority of people making a full-time living online have more than one site. You just might double your pleasure… and income.

When you get one site to where it is producing a reliable income stream, you’ll understand why you may want to create other niche-oriented, content-rich sites to increase your revenue with additional income streams. Not everyone wants to manage more than one site, but many Site Build It! subscribers do.

And did I mention that Sitesell guarantees your success. Yep! You can get your money-back if you don’t feel that it will help you build a successful online business. There’s really no risk involved. (If you ask for a refund in the first 30 days, you’ll get 100% of your money back. After that, Sitesell will refund your subscription price on a prorata basis at any time during your one-year subscription period. Their site offers all the details.)

Once you understand the Site Build It! process, you’ll be hooked.

Most people think that all you need is hosting and site-builder software to make a Web site. That’s technically true. But getting people to find that Web site is the key to building a long-term business that actually makes real money. Without traffic your site will be lost in the wilderness.

One reason webhosting is offered so cheaply by so many companies is because of the few resources most websites require. Since most sites get very few visitors, some other webhosting services, not Sitesell, put hundreds of domains on a single server (computer) and rake in the cash from domain owners whose websites sit there waiting for someone to visit.

On the other hand, the Site Build It! system helps you build a site that people are looking for. Their C-T-P-M system teaches you how to create a site that’s in demand. Once you have traffic, then you can choose many ways to turn that traffic into revenue. Here’s a page that explains their proven process…

Site Build It’s C-T-P-M system for online business success.

Doesn’t it just make sense?

But I don’t know anything about the Internet, you say. Or HTML. I’m no computer geek, you’re thinking.

Can you send email? Have you used a word processor? If you can do that, you can build a Site Build It! site. It’s really a simple process that is doable by anyone. All you need is the motivation and commitment to follow the process.

If you can’t do that then Site Build It! is not for you. It’s not “Get Rich Quick.” There’s really no such thing. But if you have the motivation and a little brains you CAN do it.

After all, your success is guaranteed. What have you got to lose.

Here’s where you can go to read about that guarantee…

Site Build It’s order page with a link to the guarantee.

And maybe use that Buy-One, Get-One-Free Special to start a whole new life.

But hurry. This holiday special offer ends at midnight on December 25, 2008.

(If past history is an indicator, there is a good chance that the offer may be extended until just after January 1, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Don’t procrastinate; you don’t want to miss this special.)

Who knows, perhaps you or someone you know will be able to change your, or their, life in 2009. Why give someone a gift that will be a flash-in-the-pan and will be forgotten or ignored in a few days or weeks. Give the gift of Site Build It! and help someone develop one of the most important skills of the 21st Century.

Do it for yourself or someone else you care about.

I’m happy that I am a Site Build It! subscriber and I’ll be adding a lot to my site in the coming months.

I hope you’ll be one of the new SBI success stories in 2009.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Getting back to work

December 12, 2008 by John Dilbeck · 11 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, CafePress, Friends and Family, Success and Failure 

I’ve been missing in action the last couple of weeks.

After Mom’s funeral and burial, I thought I was doing okay. For about a week, I was surrounded by family and some of my closest friends and everything was going well.

Then, last week and this week, I have been alone in this house with so many memories of my Mom and Dad, and I just haven’t felt like doing anything. So, I took some time off. Mostly, I’ve been watching movies and TV shows I’ve rented from NetFlix and sleeping.

I’ve downloaded a couple of thousand emails and responded to the most important. The others will be skimmed or just deleted. If you sent me an important email and I haven’t responded in the next week, please resend it. I’ll try to keep up from here onward.

This week has been rather miserable. I woke up from a nap and thought I was getting a kidney infection or worse. The pain was sharp and intense. I couldn’t get comfortable sitting, standing, or lying down.

Fortunately, after a few days, I was sure it was a pinched nerve instead of a kidney infection or stone, so I started doing some easy stretches several times a day. Yesterday, I felt a pop when I moved just right and the pain is now much less and seems to be going away. That’s a very welcome relief.

If you’ve ever been in constant pain, you know how hard it is to concentrate on doing anything while you’re hurting.

I didn’t expect Mom’s death to take all the wind out of my sails, but it did. So much of my life has been focused on caring for her that I just didn’t know what to do. So, I gave myself permission to do nothing, for awhile.

This morning, I woke up for the first time feeling like I wanted to get back to work.

I tried making myself get back to work last week, but it wasn’t working. Today, however, I feel very different. I’m looking forward to getting my business back on track and writing about the things that have been working for me.

Fortunately, even though I haven’t felt like doing anything for the last three weeks, my websites have been working night and day for me. I’ve continued to make affiliate commissions for sales of Site Build It! and other products I’m proud to use and promote.

Even though I haven’t done much of anything with my Squidoo lenses for the last couple of months, I still received a payment from Squidoo this week and that doesn’t take into account the sign-ups to various offers and affiliate commissions I’ve made on those lenses.

Lots of you have been purchasing t-shirts, calendars, mugs, shopping bags, and other products from my Shirts-Mugs-Hats.com shop, powered by CafePress. While sales are lower than last year, it’s always nice to see lots of “You made a sale at CafePress” subject lines in my incoming email. Thanks to all of you who have purchased this year!

And, of course, there are quite a few other, smaller, income streams that add up to enough to make working at home profitable and worthwhile for me.

I have plans for more systematization of my marketing efforts in 2009 and I’m going to share what I’ve been learning with you in the coming months.

To be sure you don’t miss anything, you may want to subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed (see the large RSS icon at the top-right of every page) or subscribe to the postings via email by filling in the form at the top of the right column of every page, right below my photo.

I’ll do my best to make it worth your while.

Despite the world-wide economic problems, it is still worth promoting quality products – whether they are your own or via affiliate links – and earning from every sale.

Everything moves in cycles. The economic situation will improve in time, and those who put in the work now will be in a good place when confidence rises and people start spending more in the future.

It’s okay to take some time off, now and then, but it’s not okay to quit.

I’ve just been taking some time off, and now it’s time to go back to work.

Act on your dream!

JD

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