Top Affiliate Programs - 5 Factors To Consider

Looking for a way to make money with your website or blog? One of the easiest ways to monetize a blog or website is by promoting products as an affiliate marketer - where you promote someone else's products. There are literally thousands of webmasters who are earning five figures doing just this.

What is affiliate marketing?

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia defines affiliate marketing as, "a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts." To put this more in layman's language, affiliate marketing is where you promote a company's products and earn a commission for doing so. The four key players in affiliate marketing are the merchant (or retailer) who supplies the products, the network (more about this later), the publisher or affiliate and, of course, the customer.

Before you leap into affiliate marketing, it's important to look at five key factors.

The pay out

Smart marketers understand that their web pages are like shelves in a grocery story. They don't want to fill their web pages with poor paying products any more than super markets want to fill their shelves with products that don't pay well. You need to "stock" your home page with affiliate products that offer the highest possible commissions.

The value offered

The program you're promoting as an affiliate must offer a high degree of value and it must be something that your visitors need and can quickly understand. Here's an example of what I mean. Millions of Americans are struggling with debt today. According to the Federal Reserve, median household debt in America has risen to $75,600. Many Americans spend decades as slaves to their debt. One in four Americans has more credit card debt than savings. The average American family is carrying $15,799 in debt and many have $20,000, $25,000 or more in debt. This suggests that any product or program that offers debt relief could be a good one to promote.

What help do you get?

Your time is as valuable as your "real estate" or the amount of space on your homepage. You don't want to have to spend a lot of time creating banners or sales copy to promote an affiliate program. In choosing a retailer to promote, you should make sure it provides sales tools such as banners, text links and sales copy that you can just copy and paste into your site to make it as easy as possible for you to promote its products.

Does it belong to an affiliate marketing network?

It's important that any company you think about promoting is part of a network such as Share-A-Sale or Commission Junction. That tells you the company is legitimate and not some fly-by-night entity. Plus, networks like Share-A-Sale make it easy for you to track important statistics such as your 7-day and 30-day EPC or earnings per click.

What's the company's history?

When you serve as the affiliate of a company, you're putting your website's brand name on the line. You want to be associated with a company that has a good track record for dealing fairly and honestly with its customers.

A good start

If you use this five factors as a checklist in evaluating potential retail partners, you should be off to a good start in affiliate marketing.

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The Mad Hatter: An Online Media Planner's Many Roles

"You must be the Mad Hatter" says the Swift Heart Rabbit.

And the Mad Hatter says "Why do I always have to be the Mad Hatter? Why can't you be the Mad Hatter for once? Oh, alright, I'll be the Mad Hatter again! You like hats? I'm mad about hats!"

Kudos to Lewis Carroll for a marvelously written book.

Such is the role of the Online Media Planner and Buyer in the Advertising and Marketing Industry today.

Like Carroll's Mad Hatter, the planner is required to wear a lot of hats. Such that in order for him/her to wear those many hats, passion should always come first.

For without passion, the role of the planner will prove futile to a cut-throat industry.

What are the hats, err, roles a planner must fill up?

The Six Roles an Online Media Planner must be:

1. Historian

2. Marketplace Barometer

3. Negotiator

4. Net worker

5. Statistician

6. Technologist

The list maybe short, but I assure you, the roles are not easy. Media Planning and Buying is not for everyone. Some may be down right boring but extremely necessary.

Historian - Just as clients are looking forward to you predicting the success of their online campaign, more so for everything that has been done in the past. This will mean brushing up on previous campaign Spending levels, ad formats, contracts, performance metrics, CPM's and other media levels are just SOME of the things a client will ask from an online media planner. They are fairly easy to answer if they pertain to only one client, but its another ball game if they ask about a competitor or someone else who is advertising.

Marketplace Barometer - OM planners are expected to be intuitively aware of everything that happens online. These can be goals in the online arena, amount of advertising budget a competitor is spending and never forget, knows the "Next Big Thing". Reliable resources are few, but clients will expect this. That's just the way it is.

Negotiator - OM planners should be such tough negotiators driving to the point that not a single site placement has no prayer of making any profits at all! It takes a lot of skill, guts and excellent working relationships with the publishers.

Networker - Media Planning does not stop at 6:00 PM. Clients ask online media planners about relationship issues that are clearly not media-related, say "Who do you know at Yahoo that can give us feedback on how much advertising spend they dished on..." or "Is it possible if you could get Sports Illustrated to give me free tickets to..."

Statistician - The basic figures a planner should be familiar with are: reach, frequency, CPMs, unique users, page views, cost per click, and cost per sale.

Technologist - Not only should a media planner be updated with technology trends but fundamentally as well. They may not be computer programmers but they should be able to tell the client say, what an IP address is or the difference between a static and dynamic page.

The many hats of the OM planner is encompassed in a single role: To be the client's Steward with other media. This encompasses advertising relationships, marketing, PR and other business relationships of similar nature.

"I think I should understand that better, if I had it written down: but I can't quite follow it as you say it..." - Alice

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An Introduction to Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking is gaining popularity across the globe as children and parents alike gather together to put their memories not just down on paper but all sorts of colourful cardboards with special scrapbooking supplies carefully dotted around. How do you think you would go at scrapbooking?

Scrapbooking is the art of creating and storing treasured memories in an orderly manner within a book - there is never a right nor a wrong way of doing it. Your book is your book it can be as complex or simple as you choose it to be.

Thomas Jefferson was scrapbooker. He was one to keep newspaper articles from his two terms as president. Every Sunday, Mark Twain made time to fill his scrapbooks with treasures he found on his many adventures, photos and articles that he wanted to keep, so that he could remember and reflect upon.

When getting started yourself, some basic materials should include the book, binder or album; some photos and some adhesive. At this point you can add stickers, stamps, sketches and other momentos in a layout you desire.

Scrapbooking usually has some sort of photography or hand drawn pictures. However, with the technology that is available to us today - you can now take a video and later pull still pictures from the video and print them for your scrapbook. In essence capturing your "ballerina" in mid twirl; or the look of concentration on the kicker's face when he attempts to make the winning field goal; or you don't want to miss the look on your little leaguers face when they hit their first home run or make that great catch!

It is common for children to be on some sort of sports team, in a school club or part of a neighbourhood program, that requires them to be a "team player". These are fond memories (and life lessons) that you will always want to be able to capture and freeze to show the future generation or perhaps family members that missed the special moments.

Remember to include names, dates, places and a comment for two; so that the viewer will understand the whole picture, there is no guessing of who, what, where and when? So that anyone can pick up your scrapbook and almost be transported back to that special time or event that was so important to you!

There are special themed scrapbooking stickers available online and plenty of scrapbooking layout ideas to read up on. Not to mention special pens for scrapbooking that are permanent and will not smear or fade over time. This is referred to "journaling" in the scrapbooking world and it is one of the most important parts of the scrapbooking process.

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Your Scrapbook Layout Ideas

Scrapbook layout ideas are an old art. Most people have been doing this for a number of years, which is a lot more fun when compared with putting every thing inside a picture book.

A Scrapbook Layout Ideas or Amateur Record Keeper

The difference from a scrapbook and a record is that the amateur can adjust their pattern and design. These models can vary for each page and there's no limit to what can be done to really make your scrapbook look remarkable.

The first thing needed for a customized record will be the references and materials to be used. These consist of the images, scissors, mastic, magazines, paper, producing content; and of course, the actual paper that produces each page inside scrapbook publication.

The best scrapbook layout ideas are for books assembled with paper that has to be acid and lignin free. Individuals who use these materials will not have a problem with sticking or discolored pictures or cutouts when working with chalk, crayon, and ink as they compose their records.

Scrap booking reports are available in plain paper or with flower or chocolate striped designs. This should help anyone who has a notion how to place pictures and other souvenirs in the scrapbook.

Different Looks for Each Project

Manufacturers also have made the particular paper in various shapes and measurements to give the enthusiast the chance of constructing each album and scrapbook layout ideas to be a memory book with a different look when compared to past projects.

There is no wrong or right way to think of a structure. It goes to the ingenuity and thoughts of the person. Keep to a color plan, the message you are coming up with and how to convey the memory you are attempting to

keep in this scrapbook. Each scrapbook page is going to be seen by itself but also as part of the whole scrapbook.

Help to Sort It All Out

Having a tough time sorting out your scrapbook layout ideas? Don't worry because there are sites, sets, patterns and articles to help you with this. There are themes that can be gotten at no cost, training videos showing the system, to helping you as needed.

The first focus when looking at each page in the scrapbook is the heart. So, you need to put an image to be the center heart of the book and place other souvenirs or embellishments around it.

An event can be the structure with three or more photos added to the page. These have to be selected carefully as too numerous pictures will increase the risk of redundancy, that each photograph is only a scaled-down part of the event. Use a set of two types of scissors and varying the cut edge or outline of the photograph is a good concept to separate each photograph into a separate individual memory.

In the event the structure will not fit in one page, distribute the photographs over a couple of pages. The memory is the same but done on a much more substantial scale.

Designing the Scrapbook Layout Ideas

Designing scrapbook layout ideas and formatting the book are quite a bit of fun. There aren't any limits from what can be done. Try one way, cutting edges, adding embellishments, etc. now and a different method on the next page. Each page of your scrapbook will show your innovative expertise and surprise and interest your friends as they thumb through your scrapbook layout idea in book form.

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How to Put Together a Memory Book Layout in Less Than 30 Minutes

Scrapbookers often have busy lives where it's rare to have huge spans of time just for making scrapbooks. It's a luxury for mothers with small children, scrapbookers who work 24/7, and for everybody else whose days are full. Often enough, all we have is a few minutes here and there to scrapbook.

Here are a few hints to make the most of those few golden minutes:

1. Choose Your Favorite Products

We all have some products that we use repeatedly in our scrapbook layouts. Whether it's a favorite brand of textured cardstock, a sketch that turns up many times, or a handful of decorations, these are the things that we can call our "go to" items. They can save us from scrappers rut, rescue us from a pinch, and save us a bunch of time. When we know that we have products we love that we can count on to make effective scrapbook layouts, we avoid unnecessary looking for things to use. Place these products where you usually work, and you will always be ready to make a layout.

2. Systematize Your Supplies

Organizing your stash ahead of the time goes a long way toward becoming effective in your scrapbooking. This helps prevent non-stop searching for lost punchers, misplaced scraps of paper, and doodads you forgot you had. When you have only a few minutes, having what you need within easy reach saves a lot of time.

3. Limit the Product You Use

One of the tested ways to make) quick and easy scrapbook layouts is to use only a limited amount of product. Complicated techniques and decorations take a lot of time to complete. The quickest pages often use only a beautiful foundation paper, a meaningful snapshot or two, and a few of favorite doodads. When you only have 30 minutes, you must often make a choice between keeping it simple and making a complex layout. That doesn't mean fast and easy pages are not meaningful. Your choice of photos and how you journal go a long way toward adding depth and meaning to your page.

4. Apply Classic Rules of Design

One of the best things we can do for our scrapbooking is to become familiar with some design principles. These are fundamental guidelines that have been used in art, architecture, and photography, for example, that have great applications in our hobby. You've probably heard of some of them, such as the use of contrasting hues, the rule of thirds, the use of 3's, and parallel placement. Even if you don't know what these are called, you probably have used a few or all of them in your pages, or have seen them used in other people's layouts. You can find out more about these guidelines online or in most design books.

5. Let Go of Perfection

When making a scrapbook layout, striving for perfection is an impossible task. We can take a lot of time when we endlessly move around photos, embellishments and other page elements. There has to be a point when we say enough and stick those items onto the layout. The objective of scrapbooking is not perfection. Life isn't perfect; neither should scrapbooking. This is especially true if we only have half an hour to work on the page.

Next time, you only have half an hour, remember these suggestions. Make the best of those precious bits of time to be creative and document your full life.

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Responding to a Collection Agency's Interrogatories Correctly

If you are one of the thousands Americans who are facing potential lawsuits from creditors, don't be a sitting duck and learn how to fight a credit card lawsuit the right way. The fact is, many creditors expect their customers to not know any better. If you know how to fight a credit card lawsuit and you show them that you will not take the lawsuit sitting down, you just might have the lawsuit dropped in an instant.

On the other hand, if the lawsuit pushes through and you are in the phase where you need to respond to a collection agency's Interrogatories, then you still need to get as much information as you possibly can about how to fight a credit card lawsuit.

Here's how the Interrogatories phase will play out:

You will receive a set of questions from the plaintiff regarding your Personal information like your name, address, social security number, bank information and in some cases, employment questions. You need to respond to each and every question or object to certain questions. If you object to a certain question, make sure to provide grounds for your objection. For other questions, you need to provide a short, concise response.

It's important to object to certain answers that require divulging certain information you shouldn't divulge such as your Social Security Number. Here's a simple text format to object to this particular question:

Defendant objects to giving out his Social Security Number on the grounds that it [insert the grounds for your objection]. The defendant Answers that his or her full name is [insert your full name].

One of the most important factors to remember when learning how to fight a credit card lawsuit is to define the grounds as to why you are objecting to a certain Interrogatories question, particularly those that require giving out sensitive information. It's never a good idea to randomly object to all interrogatories questions without giving a clear answer why.

However, do remember that the plaintiff will likely present several trick questions to get you to admit that you own the debt in dispute and you did not pay for the debt. So if you can, you can either seek the help of a lawyer to guide you through the interrogatories state or in case you are representing yourself Pro Se, always read, re-read, understand each question and answer it with caution. In addition, a little researching will go a long way.

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