Home Biz Cowboys - Day One

Are You Struggling With
How-To Make Money Online
With A Home Business?


Don't feel bad, as there are many people who are in the same position as you are.

The Good News is that it does not have to be hard for you. There are people who have come before you, who have struggled and overcome the obstacles to creating several successful online home businesses, and they are willing to share with you their secrets to making money online.


Get Started By Selling Other People's Products and Services...

When one is getting started online, it may be that you don't have your own products and services to sell...

Don't feel bad... I did not have my own product or service until four years into my online business experience...

Chances are that by the time you have reached this website, you already have an understanding of what Affiliate Programs are and how you can use them to make money...

If you don't know what Affiliate Programs are... In a nutshell, they are software systems that will enable third-parties to sell a company's product or service, in exchange for a commission for having referred the person that bought the product or service...

In some cases, you will find a particular product or service that you want to promote, and then you will sign up to be an affiliate for that company...

In other cases, you will join an Affiliate Network, to gain access to dozens or hundreds of products and services that you can refer people, in exchange for an affiliate commission...

The most well known Affiliate Networks include:

I have a membership with all of these Affiliate Networks. I make the most money from ClickBank and Commission Junction, although I have made money from pretty much all of the affiliate networks.

A common issue that I find with the various Affiliate Networks is that many of the affiliated businesses require manual approval for new advertisers of their products. Generally, when I am typing something like this web page or another, I realize that I want to promote a specific product or service in that moment. I realize that I have just set up an opportunity to promote a particular product, and I want to be able to add the affiliate link now - not in three days when the seller gets around to approving my website for their sales network...

I mention this, because ClickBank does not operate that way... If you find a ClickBank product that you want to promote, you can get your affiliate link right then, with no waiting...

I consider this to be a major plus for the ClickBank network. That may also be the reason why the ClickBank network has the biggest product offering and probably the largest number of affiliates of any network out there.

This is also why I suspect that it should be no surprise that when most Affiliate Marketers tell you about promoting affiliate products and services online, they generally tell their story based on the ClickBank system.

Getting started is easy... Simply go to the above links and sign up for a free account at the Affiliate Networks that have caught your interest. Then shop their systems for products and services you would like to promote.

Once you have found something that you want to promote, apply for the right to sell that product (if necessary), and then set up your sales pages for those products or services you want to promote...

The minute you start sending customers to the Affiliate websites, if those customer buy as a result of your referral to the seller's website, you will earn a commission based on the sale that you delivered to the seller's website.

A lot of people wonder if they send people to a website, and that person buys, will they really get their commissions?

In a short answer, Yes.

In a long answer, Yes. The Affiliate Networks cannot survive financially unless they deliver on their promise to pay. The minute an affiliate network stops paying their affiliates for actual sales generated, then the affiliate network will have lost the trust of the people that generate an income for them. And the truth is that the Affiliate Networks make hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions as a result of supplying the Affiliate System to their sellers and their affiliates...

So, if you are not yet affiliated with any of the above networks, now is the time to sign up with those networks...

If you only want to sign up for one or two of those Affiliate Networks, I recommend ClickBank first and Commission Junction second...

As to the other networks, it really depends on how diverse of a product offering you would like to make available to your websites' visitors...

Very literally, there are thousands of online marketers who are making a great living only selling ClickBank products. If you would like to explore a blueprint that will show you how you could potentially generate half a million per year in ClickBank commissions, you should seriously consider purchasing The Clickbank Code. This program will give you access to 28 videos that will walk you step-by-step through the process of building a ClickBank business that could set you up for some heavy commissions for several years to come.


Invest In Yourself...

When you sign up for that affiliate program, don't promote the affiliate URL directly.

Instead, spend $10-$15 to register a domain and get a good hosting company to host your domain. Once you have your domain set up, then fix it so that your domain name points to your affiliate URL (see video below for details).

The reasons to do this are many, but the main reasons are that your new affiliate program may not produce the expected results. You may decide at some future time that you would like to promote a different or an additional affiliate program. But if all of your advertising points to the affiliate URL, then you cannot redirect your advertising to where you can begin to make real money.

If you promote the affiliate website, then the affiliate website owns your future. But you did not get into this business solely to make someone else rich, but to make yourself rich...

So it is important for you to remember to always, and I do mean ALWAYS, to promote yourself FIRST, and the affiliate programs you wish to promote second.

I utilize a number of domain registration companies to purchase domain names, including:

For web hosting, I use Site 5, but other good web hosting companies include:

For the record, most of these web hosting companies also offer domain name registration, so if you are inclined to do so, you can buy your domains at the same company where you buy your web hosting.

If you doubt the advice I am offering, I recommend that you read the advice to two of the web's top bloggers:

Quotes from Two Top Bloggers

ProBlogger.net asks: What would you do differently if you had to start your blog over?

Seth Godin: "...if I had to pick something, it would be directing to a domain I own (sethgodin.com) instead of sethgodin.typepad.com"

Kathy Sierra: "Use my own domain name instead of a typepad domain! If I’d had even the slightest clue my blog would ever end up with this much traffic, I would have been much smarter. It’s much too hard to change it now without completely messing with rankings, etc."



If you would like to know how to set up a domain name to forward to an affiliate URL, please watch this video that shows you exactly how to make this happen:


How to Use a Domain Name to Set Up Web Forwarding


If you want to buy domain names or web hosting from the company mentioned in the video, 123 Reg.co.uk, click here.


There Is More Than One Way To Promote Yourself Through A Domain...

Just above, we showed you how to point a domain to point directly to an Affiliate URL and that may be the best option for you right here, right now. But there are times when you need your domain name to point to a customizable website.

One of the easiest ways to create a new website from scratch is to use one of the Blogging Applications available online. One of the more popular Blogging Platforms is WordPress.

Inside of my Site 5 web hosting account, there is a link provided with all domains that is called Fantastico.

Using Fantistico De Luxe is super easy... In fact, it is so easy, a caveman could do it. ;-)

Watch the following video clip to learn how to install WordPress using Fantastico. Although the Domain Control Panel as it is shown is from the web hosting company, Host Gator, you will find the same Control Panel setup (cPanel) with a lot of web hosting companies, including my web hosting company, Site 5.

Watch the Word Press installation using Fantastico here:


Installing WordPress Using Fantastico


If you want to buy domain names or web hosting from the company mentioned in the video, Host Gator, click here.


Customizing Your Internet Presence...

If you choose to set up a WordPress blog, the management of your new website will be super easy... So easy, a caveman could do it... (If you have not figured it out yet, I live for Geico commercials...)

If you desire to learn from a professional how to set up and customize your WordPress blog in such a way as to convey a professional storefront to your customers, I strongly recommend ordering this video collection: Professional WordPress Setup Tutorial Videos.

What you learn in this video set will serve you for a lifetime, setting up attractive, consumer oriented WordPress blogs.

If you don't get the video set, you will need to learn the process the harder way, through the school of hard knocks. To be honest, I learned through the school of hard knocks myself, but I have always had a strong computer aptitude.

Once you install your WordPress blog, utilizing the Fantastico De Luxe application shown in the video above, you will want to install a customized template for your blog. If you are going to do this by the school of hard knocks, the first website you will need to visit is the WordPress Templates website: here.

After you have installed the WordPress Template that you believe will best serve your website, then you should consider adding some WordPress Plugins. You can learn about WordPress Plugins, here.

For the WordPress Plugins, I recommend using at least the first two Plugins shown below, and depending on how you want to approach your blog website, perhaps even the third Plugin shown:
  1. Yet Another Related Post Plugin - This plugin will enable you to show related story links, directly below existing posts.
  2. Sociable - This plugin will enable you to add Social Bookmarking links to the bottom of all of your posts, to make it easier for people who visit your website to add your web page to their favorite social bookmarking websites.

  3. Back Links Magnet - This plugin will enable you to have targeted articles fed directly into your blog, and more for the value of search engine marketing, to have Links created that will point to the various pages within your blog website. (This is only useful if you want to have articles that are written by professionals in your industry to be posted within your blog.)

Some people prefer to have articles written by professionals plugged directly into their blogs. If you are one of those people, the third plugin shown above will help you to get content into your blog website.


Why A Custom Blog On Your Domain?

If you are using your domain to point to an Affiliate Program, then you do not need to bother with setting up your own Content Management System (CMS), as represented by your WordPress blog.

But sometimes, it makes more sense to point your advertising to your website, and from your website to promote several programs, rather than just one.

I talked to a lady just last week, who wanted to promote three affiliate programs, and in her case, I recommended the WordPress blog setup.

Once you have your WordPress blog up and operational, then you can make individual posts or pages that provide an opportunity for you to tell you readers about the various affiliate programs you promote, and why you believe your reader would want to purchase those items.

From YOUR website, you can direct your visitors to any affiliate program or product that you want to direct them. And from your advertising, you can direct your visitors to any page within your website that you want them to read.

In this way, you will gain more sales, because you will have the opportunity to tell your visitors about more than one program that may be of interest to them... Let's face it... not everyone who will visit your website will want the primary program you are promoting... It could be that one item is simply priced too high for someone else to seriously consider. If the price is simply too high, the consumer can browse your website and find other items that might be more in their budget range...


I have a blog that I have set up in this fashion, in a really off-beat niche market.

From that blog, I promote four affiliate programs, and I do so with pages that tell people why they would be interested in those products. I also feed related content into the blog, utilizing the Back Links Magnet plugin.

I am not getting rich from that website, mind you, but I am making more than enough money to keep it operational. As a general rule, I make about $300 per month from that website. If I told you the niche, you might be surprised, as it has nothing to do with Internet Marketing... (Just so that you know, I am not a one-trick pony... I have dozens of domains from which I earn money... And I have not had an outside job, since 2005. I generate all of my income from my online enterprises.)

With my advertising, I drive visitors into the main page of the website. The article content brings people to my website, and once they arrive, they tend to read dozens of pages on the website. As a result, I get several opportunities to present the products I am selling to them. And it works out well for me - given that I have spent a whopping three hours to develop the website and another three hours to promote the website.


Learning About The Advanced Features Of Your Website's Control Panel...

I am always a bit taken aback when I speak with my customers and they tell me that they have no idea of how to check their website statistics...

I live and breathe my website statistics, because it helps me to identify what it is that I do well and what it is that I am doing poorly...

I consider one's website statistics to be one of the most essential elements of developing a successful website...

But most webmasters do not even realize that they have website statistics available in their hosting account...

As stated previously, web hosting companies such as Host Gator and Site 5 utilize the same basic control panel (cPanel) to serve their customers' needs. cPanel is such a powerful web hosting application that most web hosting companies utilize it to help their customers to be more successful, as webmasters.

Inside of my cPanel, in no particular order, the tools that I use most often include:
  • Web/FTP Stats
  • File Manager
  • FTP Manager
  • Redirects
  • MySQL® Databases
  • Fantastico De Luxe
  • Error log
  • Cron jobs
  • Mail

Since I know that most people never learn about their Web/FTP Stats (and AWstats), I also know that most people never learn to utilize the other tools provided to them inside their website's cPanel.

As a result, I would like to direct you to another video tutorial series that will teach you how to get the most value from the cPanel tools... This video set is very inexpensive at $7, meaning that it is a program that any one can afford to purchase, and in my mind, should be a program that everyone should want to purchase: Click Here to learn more about your cPanel, or spend the next year trying to figure out all of cPanel's component tools on your own.


When You Take This Tutorial To Heart...

One of my favorite mentors suggests that the difference between success and failure is generally measured in a fraction of a degree.

He points out that the easiest thing for you and I to do is nothing... And that it is hard to take the actions we need in order to be successful...

In his case, he said that he was flat-busted, broke and did not have the money to buy groceries for his family. But he borrowed several hundred dollars from a friend, so that he could attend a seminar that promised to teach him how to become wealthy.

He says that it would have been much simpler to have stayed home that Saturday afternoon, rather than to go to the seminar that he had borrowed money to pay to attend.

In fact he says, while he was wrestling with traffic to get to the seminar location, his mind was trying to convince him to blow off the seminar and not go to it, after all, he needed to do some work around the house...

He made two decisions that forever changed his life and the lives of thousands of other people...

First he decided to find any method possible to get the money so that he could attend that seminar.

Next, he decided not to listen to that inner-voice that kept telling him that this thing could never work out for him.

Those two decisions forever changed the course of his life...

With the information that he learned at the seminar, he made $3,000 during the following week... With the information that he learned at the seminar, he has made umpteen million dollars over the last 25 years...

With what he learned at the seminar and in the school of hard knocks, he has been able to teach others to do as he did... Over the last decade, he has helped teach many people the lessons that he has learned, and as a result, thousands of people have also joined the ranks of America's millionaires...

If only he had stayed home and fixed the screen door on his house, he would never have made his millions, and I would not know how he did it and how I can do it myself...

If only... he had made the wrong decision that Saturday morning...

Success and failure are both defined by the decisions that you will make in your life...

We can show you the vehicle that could lead to your future success... We can even teach you how to drive that vehicle... But if you sit in the vehicle and stare out the windshield, never applying the gas, then your failure will be the result of your having decided that you did not want to drive that vehicle....

In the end, it is you and ONLY YOU that will decide if you will become a financial failure or financial success in this lifetime...

So, are you going to drive this vehicle down the road of financial freedom, or are you just going to sit in your driveway and mutter to yourself about how this vehicle cannot drive?



p.s. If you have found the information on this page useful, then you will also find the Home Biz Cowboys Mailing List to be essential to the growth of your online business...


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Day One on the Internet