Tip Jars Part Two

November 16, 2008 by John Dilbeck · 31 Comments
Filed under: Advertising, Musings, Web Services 

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about tip jars since I wrote What do you think about tip jars on websites? back in September.

As I wrote in my last comment on that thread, I leave tips on some very useful sites, such as thefluffanutta’s SquidUtils.com. He provides an outstanding service for Squidoo lensmasters and I’m happy to leave him a tip when I think about it.

I’m going to leave the PayPal donate button in the right column of this blog, whether or not it gets used.

On the other hand, I removed the TopSpots list yesterday.

After two months, with thousands of visitors and no nibbles, I simply deleted it. *Poof!*

I’ll still use that service to advertise this blog on other blogs I like, but won’t be offering it here.

In general, I don’t like to have paid links on my sites, and this was the only one where I was doing anything like that. So, even though I was playing by all the rules I know, it never felt comfortable for me.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with TopSpots, but it just doesn’t feel like a good fit here.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Help Save the Boobies

October 6, 2008 by John Dilbeck · 5 Comments
Filed under: Musings, Volunteering 

For a few moments, I’m going to turn my attention away from affiliate marketing and towards something I find just as interesting and certainly more important.

The people who know me the best know that two of the things I appreciate most in this world are boobies. There, I said it.

I want to encourage you to do what you can to help save the boobies.

On a more serious note, most people know someone who’s life was tragically impacted by breast cancer. This is your chance to help promote the 7th Annual Blogger Boobie-Thon to raise funds for breast cancer research and to show your appreciation for boobies everywhere.

This fundraising drive ends at midnight on October 7, 2008, and they have a goal of raising $10,000. With one day left, they need to raise about $2,000 more to reach their goal.

Please do what you can to help.

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An affiliate program I chose not to join

August 24, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Musings, Opinions, TV 

In general, I like to maintain a positive outlook on life and I rarely write posts that contain negative comments about companies and people I don’t know and with whom I have no personal experience.

However, in this case, I’m going to make an exception.

Again, none of this is based on personal experience or knowledge, and I’m sure there are at least two sides to every story.

This morning, I wasn’t feeling very well and I was moving slowly. I watched Meet The Press (still miss Tim!) and then Face The Nation.

I’d printed out the latest Five Pillar Affiliate Report, more on that in a later post, and had left the TV on as background noise while I read.

Then something caught my attention and I started watching the TV show – an informercial about Russ Dalbey’s “Winning in the Cash Flow Business” training materials.

From somewhere, I don’t remember where, I already knew a little bit about cash flow notes and, from my experience long ago, knew that making money by brokering sales of these cash flow notes based on the time value of money isn’t as easy as the show made it out to be. For one thing, a lot of people who have a cash flow note (from lottery winnings, settlements, lawsuit judgements, and so forth) prefer to get a monthly or annual check and don’t care about getting a lump sum, especially when that lump sum is a lot less than the total value of the note.

Have you tried to explain amortization to someone? That’s a lot easier than explaining the time value of money, especially when they have absolutely no interest in talking to you.

I’m not saying that money can’t be made this way, but it surely isn’t as easy as the infomercial leads us to believe.

But, what it did really well was to build excitement about getting lots of money easily. Then, there was the deadline designed to make you reach for your credit card. I don’t remember the actual price of the course, but if you bought it before the show was over (18 more minutes, nine more minutes, one more minute) there were bonuses, free shipping, and a discounted price that was purported to be about a quarter of the regular price.

Now, I understand how this works. The course is obviously a loss-leader and is designed to get you on their list. I suspected that it would be followed up with back-end upgrades and additional offers, so – even though I was tempted – I didn’t reach for the phone or a card.

Later, after reading the 5 Pillar newsletter and taking a nap, I got online and Googled “Winning in the Cash Flow Business.”

I was shocked by what I read on a couple of sites where people had posted their reviews. They were overwhelmingly negative with only a very few positive reviews.

Now, that may not mean as much as it does if you take it only at face value.

If I’m satisfied with a purchase and I learn something that works for me, I’m not going to be looking for a place to review it, unless it is really spectacular.

On the other hand, if I am dissatisfied with something, I’ll express my opinion.

The stories I read about this business were scary. Buy a course for $20 or $40 (it varies) and then someone calls you on the phone and pressures you to spend thousands of dollars. That’s unconscionable, if the stories the reviewers related are true.

There are people out there who must feel as if it is morally wrong to leave a sucker with any money in their pocket or any credit on their credit cards. I’m not saying this company fits that characterization, I don’t know, but there are others who are expressing that sentiment.

(You may want to read what Ken Evoy wrote about Success Stories And Mooch Marketing. Before you reach for your credit card, stop, think, and and perform your due diligence. Learn from the mistakes of others and don’t get suckered in by the glitz, glamor, and promises of easy profits.)

One of the things that caught my attention was that several people related that they had been scammed again (my emphasis).

What does it take to learn?

How hard is it these days to do some research online before handing over your hard earned money or easily spent credit?

Now, I don’t know if most of the stories the people told are true and accurate representations of what they experienced with this company. I don’t know if any of them are true.

But, I don’t have to burn my hand when someone tells me the stove is hot.

When you do a general search for something and the majority of the results on the first page warn of scams, pressure pitches, mistreatment, and not following through with what is promised, why on earth would you send them your money or associate with them in any way.

So, that was my mindset when I found the company’s official website.

As is my habit, I scrolled to the bottom to see if they have an affiliate program, and they do. I clicked on the link and read about it.

It looked great. Super Easy. Fast Payment. Big Commissions. Why Is This The Best Affiliate Program Online?

Yes, it was tempting.

In fact, I’m sure I could make money promoting this.

But I’m not going to.

As I’ve said before, “if it’s not good enough for me, it’s not good enough for you.”

I won’t buy it, so I won’t promote it. It’s just that easy. I sleep easier at night knowing that I wasn’t a part of someone being bilked for thousands of dollars.

Now, I don’t think I’m your parent or guardian. You’re free to make up your own mind and buy the product or join the affiliate program and promote it. It’s totally up to you.

Again, I don’t know if the stories I read are true or not. I don’t know if the company is reliable or not. I don’t plan to do any more checking.

Two aphorisms come to mind in a situation like this…

  • If there’s smoke, there’s fire
  • If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is

Maybe this stove is hot and maybe it’s not, but I’m not going to put my hand on it to find out. There are too many other ways to make money online that I know are legitimate and ethical.

I know that I won’t promote it and that’s the end of my story.

Act on your dream!

JD

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BlogCatalog accepted 21st Century Affiliate Marketing

August 1, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Blog Directories, Blogging, Customer Service, Musings 

This morning, I reapplied to BlogCatalog to include this blog in its directory. This time whoever reviewed the application approved it.

Here’s the message I received:


Your blog (21st Century Affiliate Marketing) has been reviewed and your updates have been approved.

If you would like to make any changes to your blog listing, you can do so at anytime by logging into your Blog Catalog Account at ( URL removed ).

If you have any
questions/comments/suggestions/ideas
please feel free to contact us.

Thanks,
BlogCatalog

I’m not going to lie to you. I liked this letter much better than the previous one and I am happy that this blog is now listed in their directory.

Still, I have no idea why I had to go through this process. No specific reasons for either decision were given.

It leaves me wondering what and why, but it’s time to move along.

When you get the results you want, it’s time to be grateful, thank them, shut up, and move along.

Thank you, BlogCatalog, for accepting my blog and listing it in your directory.

Here’s the BlogCatalog page for 21st Century Affiliate Marketing.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Why did BlogCatalog decline my blog?

August 1, 2008 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Blog Directories, Blogging, Customer Service, Musings 

Yesterday morning, I spent some time sprucing up this blog and added it to my blogs on BlogCatalog.

While there, I joined SezWho, added BlogCatalog widgets and links, and – as far as I can see – did everything required to be accepted into their catalog.

I wonder why they declined to add 21st Century Affiliate Marketing to their blog directory.

I received the following email:


Dear John Dilbeck,

Thank you for submitting your blog 21st Century Affiliate Marketing
(http://21stCenturyAffiliateMarketing.com)
to BlogCatalog.

Unfortunately upon reviewing your blog we are unable to grant it access to the directory.

The most common reasons for not getting into Blog Catalog are:

  • We could not verify ownership of your blog.
  • A link back, widget or meta-tag is required to verify site ownership. visit:

    http://www.blogcatalog.com/buttons.php

    for more information.

  • The URL you submitted is not a blog.
  • The URL you submitted is solely for commercial purposes, or is suspected to be spam.
  • Your blog is brand new and/or doesn’t have enough content to make it truly valuable.
  • If this is the case, please resubmit after you have made more postings.
  • Your blog contains pornographic material.
  • At the time of review your blog was unavailable or there was a typo in your submission URL.
  • Please make sure the URL submitted is correct and accessible

If you believe this to be a mistake, you can login to Blog Catalog and change anything which may have caused it to get declined. After updating your blog, it will be put back into the submission queue.

If you have any
questions/comments/suggestions/ideas
please feel free to contact us.

Thanks,
BlogCatalog

I’m sure they could verify ownership of the blog. My name and photos are all over it.

I have links and widgets installed that link to BlogCatalog.

The URL I submitted is definitely a blog.

The URL I submitted is used for commercial purposes, but not solely. It definitely is not spam.

The blog is relatively new, but I think it already has content to make it valuable.

I’m pretty sure that it doesn’t contain pornographic material. I may not be able to define pornography, but I can recognize it when I see it.

Perhaps the blog was unavailable. I don’t know. It’s available now.

The submission URL is correct. I’ve tested it.

So, I have no idea why BlogCatalog declined to add 21st Century Affiliate Marketing to its directory.

Maybe someone will take a moment and explain the decision.

This brings up a wider consideration, and that’s poor customer service.

I would think that a specific reason easily could be given for declining a blog submission. That way, we wouldn’t be left guessing and wasting time addressing something that could have been specifically addressed.

I had no problem getting it accepted into BlogCatalog’s competitors’ directories, including MyBlogLog.com.

Now, it’s not going to distress me if they don’t accept this blog in their directory. I still like BlogCatalog and I’ll continue using some of their widgets on my site – although I may drop the one that shows a big fat zero ranking in the bottom left corner of every page.

I’m going to resubmit the blog to BlogCatalog this morning and then I’ll move on, whether it is accepted or not.

I’m really disappointed in how they handled this and the lack of any specificity in their reply to my submission. I know they could have done better. I think this reflects poorly on them, but I’m just one blogger out of many thousands of members of their service.

Perhaps I just don’t deserve better treatment?

Act on your dream!

JD

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Act On Your Dream! — Issue #6 — Getting back on track, is available online

September 9, 2007 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Act On Your Dream!, Musings 

After a very long hiatus, while I was trying to decide on a new approach, I have published the latest issue of the Act On Your Dream! newsletter.

It is archived at Act On Your Dream! — Issue #6 — Getting back on track

If you would like, you can subscribe to Act On Your Dream to get the next issues when they are published.

I intend to publish the newsletter on a regular basis, probably twice a month, and I want to feature you and what you are doing to act on your dream.

What can we do to help each other find the success and freedom we all want?

Act on your dream!

JD

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NeoOffice – a great replacement for Microsoft Office on Mac OS X

July 31, 2007 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Musings 

A couple of weeks ago, I installed NeoOffice.

Now, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t replacing Microsoft Office. I quit using Microsoft products over ten years ago and didn’t upgrade after Word version 5 for the Mac, several years before.

I’ve been using Microsoft products seemingly forever. I started with Word version 1.0 on the Mac and I used Microsoft Office on both Mac and PC for quite some time, since Windows 1.0 and Microsoft Office 1.0.

I even wrote a book using Word 5 for Mac that included table of contents and an index, so I feel like I know the product, even if I haven’t used any of the most recent versions.

For most of the last ten years, ClarisWorks and AppleWorks have offered everything I needed, and since I own my own business, I’m not tied to any corporate dictates about the software I have to use.

The only problems I faced were people who sent me documents in .doc format, which I could not read and didn’t feel much of a need to read. If they sent the files as Rich Text Format (.rtf) files, then I could import most of them into AppleWorks – at least well enough to read.

I was perfectly content until last month, but then my needs changed.

I have plans to write a variety of reports and short ebooks over the coming months. I spend a lot of time researching various things and I’m going to write about them and make the reports and ebooks available – some free and some paid.

In the past, I would have written in PageMaker and produced the PDF files by printing to the included Acrobat distiller.

With my new iMac, I can no longer use PageMaker, so I had to look at different solutions.

As you may already know, it is easy to print to PDF from just about all Mac OS X applications, but I discovered something that was very surprising.

It seems that the applications I had available could create active hyperlinks in the docments, but those hyperlinks would not be active when I printed the documents to a PDF file.

I tried AppleWorks, and, while the PDF showed the correct words styled with underlines and blue text, the links were not active; I could not click on the text and go to the URL in my designated browser.

I downloaded Nisus Express with the same results.

I tried Voodoo Pad with the same results.

While researching the problem, I found on a forum (don’t remember which one) that Word would create PDF files with active hyperlinks. That wasn’t an option for me.

So, if Word would do the job, I wondered if there was an alternative that would do what I wanted. I’d been following OpenOffice for awhile, and I was willing to install X11 and OpenOffice if it would do the job.

While researching this, I ran across a project I’d never heard of: NeoOffice.

NeoOffice takes the OpenOffice code and turns it into a Mac OS X application, complete with easy installation, and the Mac look and feel.

Best of all, it wasn’t related to Microsoft and it was free.

The trouble was, however, that it was a 145 MB download, and on my slow dial-up connection, that just wasn’t feasible.

I mentioned this on the NeoOffice forum and several people offered to burn a CD and send it to me. I accepted an offer from one very generous person and a few days later, when the CD arrived, I was able to install and start using NeoOffice in less than an hour.

The NeoOffice team used to ship CDs, but discontinued doing so due to lack of demand.

Linboo.com had been shipping the NeoOffice CD, but when I tried their site, it was offline. I didn’t know if it would come back or not.

Since then, it has, and LinBoo ships a variety of Unix and Linux CDs, including NeoOffice 2.1 and OpenOffice. If I’d waited a day or so, I could have ordered directly from them.

I am perfectly happy with NeoOffice 2.1. It does exactly what I want to do.

At first, I was really disappointed. I tested a short report with multiple hyperlinks, and, when I printed it to PDF, I got the same results I’d been getting with all the other applications I tried. The resulting PDF had what looked like links (underlined and blue), but they were not active.

So, apparently, the fault lies with the Print to PDF feature of Mac OS X. I would say that not creating active hyperlinks is a rather major shortcoming of the programming. I’m surprised that Apple hasn’t fixed this problem.

However, when I went looking through the NeoOffice menus, I noticed “Export to PDF.” That sounded promising.

Instead of printing to PDF, I chose to export to PDF and that made all the difference.

The resulting PDF file has real, active hyperlinks.

Why is this so important?

If I were writing a short report of 10 pages or less, I would have to edit the document and print to PDF. Then, I’d have to load my full version of Acrobat (version 4), add hyperlinks to the PDF in the appropriate places, and then re-save the PDF report.

For a one-off version of a short report, this is not much of a problem. However, the longer the report or ebook, the more the links and the more trouble to rewrite and update all the links. I don’t even want to get started if I have to go through such a complicated process.

I intend to update these reports and ebooks as it becomes necessary, and I don’t intend to go throught this process over and over. I should be able to modify the report and produce an updated PDF with all the links in place, directly from my word processor.

Now, with the NeoOffice export to PDF command, I can do this exactly how I want. Perhaps I’m getting lazier as I get older, or maybe I’m finally learning about this “work smarter, not harder” concept.

I tried a variety of different links of varying complexity and all of them worked as desired when I exported the document to PDF.

I’ve tried exporting word processing docs (Writer) and spreadsheets (Calc) and the resulting PDFs were exactly what I wanted.

Now, I am not a corporate power user and have no need for probably 99% of what NeoOffice provides, but now I have the perfect application for creating reports, ebooks, and even books with tables of contents and indexes.

A side benefit – that some of my friends may appreciate more than I will – is that I can open .doc files directly and they don’t have to send the files to me in .rtf format. I still serve on a nonprofit committee that makes small seed grants and matching grants for fundraisers to small grassroots nonprofits in western North Carolina, and the standard format for sharing information by nonprofits is Microsoft Word.

If you have a broadband connection, you can downlowad NeoOffice for free, or you can get a CD from LinBoo.com.

If you don’t use a Mac, you may want to look at OpenOffice.org or purchase a CD with OpenOffice from LinBoo.

I’ve had no problem with NeoOffice and I spent half-a-day putting the various modules through their paces. The only thing that feels weird is that NeoOffice opens all the modules in one integrated whole and that feels more like AppleWorks than Microsoft Office. As long as your computer has enough RAM, it shouldn’t be a problem. Right now, I have Radio Userland, TextWrangler, Safari, Preview, and NeoOffice all running in a Mac with 512 MB of RAM.

I’m happy with NeoOffice, and I recommend it to you if you want to dump Microsoft Office.

Will it do everything you need or want?

I don’t know. You’ll have to test this for yourself, but the cost is right. There is very little work or risk involved in trying it for yourself.

Act on your dream!

JD

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Do you know The Secret?

February 10, 2007 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Forums, Musings, Powerful Intentions 

Something interesting has been happening over the last year or so.

When looking for places to promote my businesses, I found a new social networking site called Powerful Intentions and set out to create a presence there. Come visit my Powerful Intentions profile, if you would like.

At the time, I was not aware of the Law of Attraction and had no real interest in it. Now, this is not true for my life as a whole, just for my focus last year.

Many years ago, I was very interested in things related to manifesting our own reality and spent quite a bit of time learning and trying various things.

Now, fast forward to last October or November…

My friend, Linda Miller, was talking about “The Secret” and I started seeing it everywhere I went, especially on Powerful Intentions.

I learned about Abraham/Hicks and read one of the books. I started thinking about manifesting reality rather than working so hard to make it happen.

I got a copy of The Secret in December and didn’t know what to think about it the first time I watched it. I liked it better the second time, and I plan to watch it a third time this afternoon.

Last Thursday, I watched Oprah’s show on The Secret movie and book, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot since the show.

There are a couple of forums on Powerful Intentions where you can learn more about The Secret and the Law of Attraction. Join the discussions or just lurk, as you desire.

To join in the discussion, I’ve added a new section to my A Year From Now Forum dedicated to discussing The Law of Attraction.

You are invited to discuss these topics to come to my forum and join in the discussion.

If you haven’t seen The Secret, you can purchase a copy from Powerful Intentions.

What do you think?

Act on your dream!,

JD

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firstRSS provides outstanding RSS syndication in WordPress 2

August 29, 2006 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Musings, RSS Syndication 

firstRSS, by Chris Hatcher, is an outstanding plugin for syndicating (publishing) RSS feeds in your WordPress 2 pages.

Previously, I was using CaRP for this purpose on static PHP pages and dynamic WordPress 1.5 pages. It continues to be my script of choice for static PHP pages.

However, when upgrading several of my blogs, including Blog Feed Syndication and 21st Century Webhosting, from WordPress 1.5 to version 2, all my feed syndication died. I was using the plugin runPHP to execute CaRP commands in my blog pages, but it didn’t work when I upgraded the blogs.

I tested several solutions before I found firstRSS, which worked the best and was, by far, the easiest to use.

All you have to do is install the plugin in WordPress 2, activate it, and use a very simple call to list headlines or show full RSS feeds in your WordPress 2 pages. It is supposed to work in postings, too, but I have no need at this point for doing that and I have not tested it.

Converting from runPHP to firstRSS did require editing all the pages that were publishing remote RSS feeds, but it was easy to do, if a bit tedious.

I heartily recommend firstRSS to you if you want to publish RSS feeds in pages on your blogs powered by WordPress 2.

Thanks, Chris, for an elegant and easy-to-use way of syndicating these feeds.

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What Is Holding You Back?

July 27, 2006 by John Dilbeck · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Musings 

What Are You Waiting For?
By Dr. Robert Anthony

Are You Putting Off Your Dreams? Or have things slowed down recently? Is your life visibly changing the way you want it to? Or are you still stuck with the same problems?

I woke up today thinking about three people who contacted me this week concerning the progress they were making reaching their goals. They each said the same thing in a different way.

Although they all made good progress in the beginning, they are now all stalled. It’s very frustrating for me because I got myself caught up in their dreams. I imagined how their lives would be when they’ve completed the changes they needed to make. I can easily see the benefits they will gain such as a much larger income, more satisfying relationships and the pride of knowing that they are doing exactly what they always wanted to do – and earning a great living from it.

It’s also frustrating for another reason. Although I can see the finish line, they are standing still. The frustrating part of all this is they have all the tools necessary to succeed, but now they are stuck. So why have they stopped?

I can’t say I know the answer for each of them. I’m sure there are many reasons. But I suspect there is one cause in every case. They have come to the point where they have done everything they could comfortably do and now they have arrived at a place where they’ve never been before. Any new step forward, represents a step out of their comfort zone.

If you want to improve the results in your life, you have to accept the fact that you can no longer do the same old things the same old way.

Making a commitment to change your life is a big step. It usually occurs when something has happened to make you realize that you are unhappy with some aspect of your life. Often this event or circumstance will jolt you into deciding that the time has finally come to change your current situation.

The charge that you get from deciding to change your situation will keep you going through the early stages of your transformation. For example, it can energize and motivate you to read a book, take a course, and even go through all the details of setting up a business. All those preparatory activities are necessary and good – but they amount to nothing unless you are able to get your dream started. And getting your dream started — actually kicking your dream into action — is new territory. New means strange. And strange means uncomfortable.

Having been involved with a number of very effective training programs over the years, I’ve been disappointed by how many bright and ambitious students fail to finish their training. And of those who finish, less ten percent turn their hard-earned skills into substantial or measurable results.

Then weeks or months later they look at the courses or programs they have taken and wonder, as I’m doing about these three people now: “What happened?”

If you feel that you were off to a good start but are currently stalled, you need to admit to yourself that you have probably slipped back into your comfort zone. More than likely you have been deceiving yourself that you are making progress, but at the same time you are really not getting anywhere.

What you need to do is take action. Even if it is a very small action. Nothing you can tell yourself, nothing you can say to others, nothing you can think or feel or imagine is going to get you out of the mental bog you’re mired in. The only thing that can rescue you is – to take that next step.

Maybe you know what that is. If you know exactly what it is, DO IT! If you don’t know, or aren’t sure, allow you intuition to guide you. Do whatever you feel compelled to do, but do it NOW to get yourself going again — even if it means entering your discomfort zone.

I said earlier, I am disappointed by how many people start to change their lives and then stall. Many of these people are good at the initial study phase, but lose pace when it comes time to make those next steps, transitioning from knowledge to action.

On the other hand, I’m thinking now about many people who have succeeded… about the hundreds of unsolicited letters I receive from people who have taken my “Secret of Deliberate Creation” program and are now living the lives they dreamed about. All they did was just FOLLOW THROUGH until they got results. They just applied simple steps outlined in the program and the changes were almost magical.

What is your dream? To become a freelance artist / writer / consultant? To own your own business? To become financially independent… perhaps even wealthy? Don’t put off the success you’ve always dreamed about. My “Secret of Deliberate Creation” program will show you how to get started NOW and give yourself the jolt you need to make that final change to move you from where you are to where you want to be.

Want to discover more?

Visit www.thesecretofdeliberatecreation.com NOW.

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