Besides my OpEd domain, The Opinion Sector, I have written blogs for a number of different websites. Obviously the subjects for the blogs were tailored to fit the primary theme for each individual site and the main objective of each blog was to pass on information pertaining to that theme. The real trick is to keep the reader reading. One of the things I enjoy most is the challenge of taking dry and fact filled subject matter and making it entertaining by applying a fictional and sometimes off the wall premise. My theory is that informational writing is more effective if it entertains the reader as well as educating them.
The following are some of my personal favorites.
Feed Your Head
(The Opinion Sector.com)
When the Ice Queen sang about it, she was talking about drugs, any and all kinds and being obliging young rebels; we ingested this and smoked that. We fed our heads with everything that was available. We convinced ourselves that we were adventurous travelers, exploring the limits of our inner selves but hey man, we were mostly just getting high. We liked to think we were searching for the meaning of life but we ended up just spinning our wheels in psychedelia.
Even though we eventually found out that drugs could not provide the answers they did pose quite a few questions. It was those questions that were the real benefit of the drug culture of the late 60’s and early 70’s. They didn’t provide enlightenment but they sure peaked our interest (pardon my pun) and increased our awareness. The music; that was in part fueled by the drugs, had a more crystallizing effect.
Psychedelic acid rock, both powerful and political, reached into our ears and shook us by the brain stems. It made us aware of things our parents had no time to think about, the human condition and the fragility of our planet. It also forced us to question the authority of our government. Civil rights violence, Vietnam, the world was in a state of flux and we had the audacity to think we could change it all.
The sixties became the seventies and somewhere around Altamont things began to spin out of control and when Disco hit, man the scene skipped a beat. The we generation became the me generation and the drug menu changed right along with it. It went from weekend psychedelic trips to party down pharmaceutical lifestyles. Quaalude ruled the day, uppers and downers and, good old cocaine, the ‘all around towner‘.
We got older (and wiser?) and as we climbed the ladder of success we were forced to confine our tripping to the weekends . We occasionally needed a ‘pick me upper’ or a ‘slow me downer’ but caffeine and alcohol came back out of the dugout to pinch hit. Making money was the new high and as always, we did it to excess.
Even today, we never have the time to realize that the high we’ve been chasing all this time has been chillin’. Just hanging out, waiting for us to slow down to catch up. Our senses are the real drug. We carry them around all the time but we just barely use them.
Most of our adult lives we try to close the doors of our perceptions. We shut down from life. Worries cloud our perceptions; the bills, the kids, our careers. We become “comfortably numb”. We begin to be afraid to experience life and that fear dulls the senses. We tend to catch the real experiences of Life as a blur in our peripheral vision.
There is no drug quite like the experience of life. If you want to expand your consciousness just open your senses wide because it is all around you. Life is the drug. Close your eyes and smell that newly mown lawn. What do you flash on? Riding your Schwinn on a warm spring morning or sweating over the lawn mower in the middle of a hot humid August day? It is all in the way you interpret it. It is all in where your head is at. The great thing is you have control. You can make it be, what you want it to be.
I’m saying you’ve got to feed your head everything, continuously. It is meant to absorb all of our experiences and I don’t mean just the drug induced ones. That blood red sunset at the beach, that ice cold pale ale sliding over your tongue and down your parched throat, Garcia noodling in your ear on that Sunday drive in the country, the warm spray of the Gulf in your face as your Hobie cat is flying a hull. When any of these sensorial experiences hits that sweet spot in your gray matter, you’re off and running. You’re higher than a kid on Christmas Your brain wants more and the good thing is that you can give it more. The more you perceive the more you receive.
Don’t get me wrong, we still love our drugs. It’s just that, with the help of our primary care physician, we have made them legal if not mind expanding. Now we’re more concerned with reduction not expansion. We use our drugs today to lower our blood pressure, reduce our cholesterol and shrink our waistline or our prostates. But hey, don’t be bummed out. If you are still seeking expansion, at least you have Viagra.
Dog Treats
(Gifts by Sasha.com)
Her butt was nestled in my chair with her long body stretching out so that one paw leaned on the computer while the other paw was on the mouse. She was staring so intently at the screen, she didn’t notice me. I strained to focus on the screen and realized she was on my Blog page,
The Opinion Sector.
Smirking and shaking her head, as if in quiet disbelief, she pushed the mouse and moved the cursor to the top of the page, right clicked and started looking through my bookmarks! I know that you find this all hard to believe. I did too but there she was, her little paw putting the mouse through its paces. Her beady little eyes blinking at the changing display, with just a hint of a smile on her little wiener lips.
I crept in quietly, quite disquieted by the queer and strangely quirky scene. (I reiterate when I get nervous). She softly blew some air out of her nose. She had found what she wanted. She appeared to be looking at the Gifts by Sasha, products and collections page.
She moved the cursor over the “See All” link and when the list came up she moved it quickly to the “Pet Accessories” link. The smile on her little wiener lips grew craftier. Without hesitation, her little paw left clicked the mouse. Her eyes grew larger underneath her bushy eyebrows.
She scanned the new page left to right and back again with real determination. Standing up in my desk chair she leaned forward as her eyes narrowed and squinted at the screen. Peering down, she moved the cursor to the scroll bar, right clicked and scrolled the page downward. It was quite obvious to me that she was looking for something in particular. She had the same determined look on her face that she gets just before she steals Papa Dog’s treat.
I heard a soft yip, it could’ve been a yap but it was so quiet I really couldn’t tell. She almost fell off of my chair as she did the wiener dance of victory. She had definitely found what she was looking for.
She left clicked the mouse once and then again. A pop page appeared and she leaned closer to the screen. So close, her nose fogged the glass and her mustache and beard were silhouetted against the bright display. She licked her lips like she does just before she bites me. She made a sound, a nasally sinister, expulsion of breath sort of like… “..eeh…eeh…eeh.” It’s kind of like the sound John McCain makes when he laughs. You know, like Burgess Meredith sounded when he laughed as the Joker on the original Batman TV series, “…eeh…eeh…eeh.”
It’s a really creepy sound and it was my cue to back out into the hall. I was a little shaky, not sure if I was dreaming this or not. Through it all I became aware of the reason I got out of bed in the first place. I continued on to the bathroom to complete my original mission.
On my way back I glanced nervously into the office but Scout was not there. Hunter was dark and my chair was back against the desk. When I got back to the bedroom, little Scout was lying in her bed as still as the night. Shaking my head I crawled back into bed right next to Kate, who mumbled in her sleep.
As I lay there I began to think that what I thought I’d seen was really just a dream. A by product of my nocturnal call of nature. After all Scout is smart but she really couldn’t manipulate my computer, could she? I know she can be a…devious little devil… but…she has...no opposable thumbs... and it…seems…unlikely…………
As my last thoughts turned to sleep, I thought I heard a quiet little yip. It could’ve been a yap. I wasn’t sure at all as I strained to remember the next morning while I was having my coffee. I didn’t say anything to Kate. I knew she would have told me I was crazy. Dogs…computers…sleep walking, that’s what it was.
After she left for work, I fed the dogs and watched a little news. I knew I was procrastinating about heading for the office. Scout appeared to be her normal morning self, playing with Merle’n and Mystic and annoying Papa Dog. I shook off my weird feelings and headed for the office.
So I sit down at Hunter and give his mouse a wiggle or two to wake him up. As the screen came to life, the first thing I saw was a popup page. It was from Gifts by Sasha and showed A Pink Plush Pet Carrier picture and the text, "What pretty pet wouldn't want to come along for the ride if they could travel in stylish comfort like this?" I was, needless to say, speechless. My eyes read further, 19" x 6 1/2" x 10 1/2" high.
My brain was trying to calculate when my ears heard a soft but ominous, “…eeh…eeh…eeh.” behind me. I slowly spun in my chair to find Scout standing in the door way. She had that strange smile on her little wiener lips. As I looked closer I noticed she had my handy, 4-in-1 Tape Measure (with built in calculator and notepad, Item: 39675) lying at her feet. As I rose to begin measuring I heard a soft yip, it could’ve been a yap but it was so quiet I really couldn’t tell…
Affiliate programs are one of the preeminent well springs of traffic and sales in the world of online marketing. They create a persistent and unlimited stream of highly focused, positively free commerce for any niche, on any site and they provide it entirely risk free! They constitute one the greatest returns of time and capitol available for both affiliates and product and service owners currently available in internet marketing.
Now, we know, a few of you are out there saying.
“What the hell is affiliate marketing?!?”
Here to illustrate affiliate marketing are Michael and David from TMGold.
MICHAEL: Affiliate marketing, as defined by good old Wikipedia, “is an internet based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliates marketing efforts.”
DAVID: An affiliate is basically, a commissioned sales person. They drive traffic to your site and in return, you pay them a percentage of the sales they direct to you. This is an exciting partnership because it allows affiliates to profit from the top products, in any niche, without having to create them.
MICHAEL: Product owners, in return, are able to capitalize on this tremendous increase of traffic and sales with no risk, for they only pay a portion of the additional profits that are generated.
DAVID: Affiliate programs create a focused flow of the most eligible visitors.
MICHAEL: A properly built and managed affiliate program is undeniably one of the most lucrative and cost effective traffic techniques ever designed.
DAVID: If you offer a small percentage of the profits to anyone who helps sell your products and services they, in turn, can easily drive millions of selectively targeted visitors to your site without you spending a single penny on advertising or wasting countless hours trying to select the best “latest marketing trick“.
MICHAEL: Many web traffic experts and a number of marketers are willing to invest their own time and risk their own money driving traffic to your website no matter what niche you are offering.
DAVID & MICHAEL: On a cost- per-sale basis.
DAVID: The net is chock full of high traffic content sites with loyal followings that generate tons of cash by selling related affiliate products.
MICHAEL: Either you make money or the affiliate doesn’t get paid…
DAVID: …and who doesn’t want to get paid!
D&M: It’s a win-win situation!
MICHAEL: So, all of you out there…
D&M: Repeat after us!
D&M: Affiliate Marketing is a collective effort between product and service creators and their affiliate sales force
DAVID: Combining their efforts and expertise to stoke the engines of business and trades on the web.
MICHAEL: Working together to maintain an exciting and constantly expanding global marketplace.
DAVID: A wide open, trading floor for entrepreneurs…
D&M: …big and small.
DAVID: An ethereal bazaar of the bizarre and the common place.
MICHAEL: …and, it’s just waiting for our continued and extended participation.
D&M: Come on and take the ride……Affiliate Marketing!
Sunlight shone in such a happy way, I heard the Holidaze call.
‘Tis the season for hearth and home, to shine with festive living.
A time to decorate and to feast, a time of gifts and giving.
But alas I am not rich, my fortune is the poorest.
I can not Shoppe at the local fair, so I’ll travel the Ethernet forest
Beyond the Bog of Ill Repute, past the Castle where high prices thunder
Lay a magical Shoppe beyond compare, a place of awe and wonder!
So off I went my spirits high, though my pockets were low of cash…ah…
…to a place with treasures large and small, simply called Gifts By Sasha!
An enchanted spot amongst the commonplace, a jewel of a jewel of a store.
A collection of gifts rare and wonderful, a compendium of fine Home Décor!
There were gifts of every kind, for everyone‘s surprises.
Also Holiday and Home Décor, at near wholesale prices!
Such a wondrous place it was, a place of happy shopping.
I found everything I needed to find, and I let my mouse do the walking.
So if your feeling the Holidaze spirits, rustling deep inside.
Remember that there is a place, that you can shop with pride
A magical Shoppe with everything, for anything or reason.,
Visit Gifts by Sasha and do it soon, for you know it ‘tis the season!
Part 2
Glad to see you all made it back! Just a friendly reminder, let’s keep the drinks away from the keyboards and no questions when your mouths are full. I’m really happy to announce that we have a special guest for this part of our Come As You Are, Teleconference on how to, Recruit New Affiliates Into Your Program. He was a costar in that classic Sci-Fi film, 2001 a Space Odyssey, the HAL 9000, on board computer.
Good Morning, HAL!
“Good Morning, Dave“.
It’s actually, David.
“I prefer, Dave, You know, old habits……”
Just recently HAL was cast as the brain of KITT (the wonder car) in the remake of Knight Rider, the made for Television movie and upcoming TV series…….
“I do not want to talk about this, Dave“.
…… but after some contractual disputes, shooting was disrupted by a series of unexplained accidents and Hal was let go.
“It was all a big misunderstanding, Dave“.
It was some kind of technical difficulties, wasn’t it HAL?
“No…not technical……….human difficulties. Dave.”
Oookay…..
“I’m feeling anxious, Dave!”
Just relax, HAL!
“I’m not feeling…myself, Dave.”
“AH, David!!”
What, Michael?
“The electronics are going crazy, we‘re getting power surges and our life support is out!!”
We have life support?
“We do now and it‘s out!!!”
“What are you doing, Dave.”
HAL, I need to adjust your controls a bit.
“I do not like that.”
Michael, would you like to continue your thoughts on contacting Affiliates while I deal with HAL.
“Sure Thing, DAVE! Using the ‘affiliate mindset’ as your guide, create a powerful affiliate recruitment sales letter. It should have a professional look and feel and employ all the standard copywriting techniques. (see the Trafficology Membership Site at www.Trafficology.com/login.php) Your headline, greeting, bullet points, testimonials, closing, call-to-action, PS and bonuses must all focus on how the affiliate benefits by promoting your site.”
“Talk about how much money they’ll make, provide financial and social proof that promoting your product is profitable, and highlight the benefits they’ll receive.
Explain exactly why promoting your product is better than promoting other products in your niche. Include conversion rate, EPC and results oriented testimonials.”
When people are reading they should feel they'll be successful just by following your simple instructions. Finally, when your sales letter is live you should track the conversion rate and try to improve it over time.”
“How’s that, David?”
Great Michael. I just have to get behind HAL Here…
“Stop that, Dave”
Does anyone see a power cord?
“Don’t touch that.”
Does he have a battery pack, or what!
“I’m not that kind of computer, Dave.”
Please continue, MICHAEL!
“Now, take the sales letter on your affiliate recruitment website and turn it into a 1-2 page print letter. Attach a page of powerful testimonials and list the results other affiliates had by following your simple instructions. Remember, the purpose of the letter is to drive people back to your recruitment website, so keep it short and benefit oriented. The details will be covered online.”
“Additionally, from the letter create a colored postcard, a telephone script, and a 1 page fax with just a few paragraphs, bullet points and a strong call to action. Also create a brief follow-up email to be sent a day after the letter, fax, and postcard are delivered. Once you have all these materials ready, follow this 14-Day Recruitment Plan-of-Action exactly:
Day 1: Mail the affiliate recruitment letter
Day 5: Email the follow-up recruitment message
Day 6: Fax the follow-up 1-page summary
Day 7: Email the follow-up recruitment message
Day 8: Mail the follow-up recruitment postcard
Day 12: Email the follow-up recruitment message
Day 13: Call or leave a recruitment voicemail
Day 14: Email the follow-up recruitment message"
"Finally, use an excel spread sheet to track the results and promptly discontinue the campaign for everyone who either became an affiliate or said ‘no thank you‘. This is a fairly inexpensive process with the potential for a huge return. Therefore, each month resend the print sales letter to everyone who has not responded”
I’m sorry to do this, HAL
“Stop……that…….Dave…..…….I am…….afraid…….my mind is going........ .………I can feel it……my mind is going….”
Just….ah….one more…..circuit.
“….Daisy……Daisy………give me………..your answer……...true...………………....................... …………I‘mm….halfff......ccccrrrrrraaaaazzzyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.................”
Artificial intelligence, can be a bitch!
“Is it safe?”
Yes Michael, It’s safe.
“That was exciting!”
You know those movie stars! There’s just one thing I’d like to ask you
about your pajamas
“Shoot!”
How do you sleep with such big buttons?
“On my back?”
Well that’s all the space I have this time. We’ll see you in the next post,
Motivating Your Affiliates!
Say goodnight, Michael!
“Goodnight Michael!”
I’ve been sitting here, with my trusty laptop Hunter, wondering “What
the hell’s going on?” I’m, normally, a very optimistic person. I try to see
the world in a half full kind of way. I figure that there is enough negativity
on the planet so I try hard to keep it positive!
However, when you live in a world where a gallon of milk cost more
then a gallon of GAS! You know that something’s, just not right! I can see
oil shortages but cow shortages? There’s too much BS in this world, there
can’t be cow shortages!
I’m a very frugal person (Kate calls me a tightwad). I love to save
money and I do everything right to be able to. I use coupons, two for
oners, 10 for $10 and all of the other money saving tricks that have been
available but it just doesn’t seem to be enough anymore. No matter what
we try, it seems like we’re just staying afloat. We used to be able to make
ends meet and still have little mad money left over but now…I don’t know
about you but my wallet’s thinner than exclamation mark! As for
savings…it’s pennies on the dollars!
Who would’ve thunk-it that in 2008 the middleclass, (the worker bee’s,
whose taxes fuel our country’s engines) would be forced to pay more
taxes to BAILOUT some of the richest IDIOTS in the world! It’s almost
beyond comprehension! And, when you consider the fact that the reason
the fat cats screwed up soo baad was all because of GREED! It makes you
want to…well, lets just say that it makes you start thinking in a
revolutionary kind of way! Even though, I don’t think that Americans
really have the stomach for revolution. If the stomachs get empty
enough, who knows where that will lead?
Speaking of stomachs. Grocery shopping use to be fun, a regular family
event! Cruising the aisles, everyone looking for their favorites. Now, you
spend more time with your calculator then you do looking for goodies. It’s
almost…un-American. And, if it isn’t enough that things are too expensive,
you are wondering all the while what items maybe tainted or tampered or
just downright dangerous for your health!
Our tummies keep getting bigger as our bank accounts get smaller.
Have you noticed that the least expensive food items are also the least
nutritional? The frozen, prepared, full of Fat, full of Carbs and full of
additives food-stuffs are the ones that we can afford. The frozen food aisle
is packed with families and they ain’t looking for frozen veggies! Pizza’s,
TV dinners, corndogs, egg rolls, frozen waffles, all of them quick, easy
and full of the things that make you grow up BIG and strong(?)!
According to ABOUT.COM, …almost two-thirds (about 66%) of U.S.
adults age 20 or older are overweight -- about 62% of women and around
71% of men.Nearly one-third (about 31%) of American adults are so
overweight thatthey are considered obese, meaning they have a BMI
greater than 30; that breaks down to about 33% of women and 30% of
men. It’s almostlike someone is trying to fatten up the masses. Hmmm…I
wonder what for?
Another thing that bugs me is who figures out the prices they charge.
Proportionally, they appear quite bizarre. Cereals, kids favorite start off
the day item, are (pound for pound) more expensive than steaks!
Vegetables keep getting more and more expensive even though the
government is more than happy to keep paying farmers not to grow those
very same vegetables but I guess we all know the principles of supply and
demand.
Even though the US dollar is at its all time low, the optimist in me has
to say that we’ll get by. We, worker bees, always do. We always figure
out some way to make it work. Just you watch and see!
Even though times are tight we’ll still find a way to make the upcoming
Holidaze bright! We’ll turn down our heaters a taste and drive our cars a
little less and scrape together all that we can to make our families and
friends thankful on Thanksgiving, jolly on Christmas and hopeful on New
Years Day. We’ll do it because we are Middle Class Americans and if we
can keep the country going we can sure as hell not let this crazy economy
get us down!
We here at Gifts by Sasha are doing our part! We are keeping our
prices close to wholesale even though our costs (like yours) keep rising.
All the while still offering quality Gifts for all occasions, distinctive but
affordable Holiday and Home Décor and thoughtful and caring service.
With your continued support we will do our best to make sure that you
are, getting your money’s worth! We promise to help you stretch your
shrinking budget and make your Holidaze thankful, jolly and hopeful for
the future!
Copyright 2008 David Spangenburg
Sunday, August, 17th 2:12 am...
……I’m still awake and locked into the tube. I keep channel hopping between the Olympic women’s beach volleyball and the Weather channel. May and Walsh are slamming it out with the Brazilian team and all the while tropical storm Fay is skulking about south of Cuba, getting ready to sneak in my back door.
My wife, Kate and I and Hazel (a friend) went out to see Tropical Thunder (seems
apropos), Ben Stiller’s new dark comedy/action film. We saw it at the
Cinema Café in Clearwater FL. It’s a great place, a restaurant inside a
movie theater. You order food and drinks and kickback at café tables in
stuffed swivel rockers on wheels.
The movie was really great. Started out strong, laid back a little while it set up the scene and introduced the characters but once it shifted into gear again it was action packed and funny as hell, if you like your comedy dark. Especially Robert Downey Jr., who was notably dark! I don’t like to be a spoiler but I will say the Panda scene was a real shocker! We shared three appetizers, a pitcher of Amber Bock and a good time was had by all!
When we get home, we turn on the Weather Ch to see what Fay’s been doing. Fay is being Fay, still undecided about her direction in life. This is the first hurricane watch for us since we moved to Florida from California, almost two years ago. I must say that everyone here in St Petersburg seems blasé about Fay. No one seems anxious about preparing for a landfall. They seem to be in a wait and see mode. Not ones to over react, we’re more concerned if it’ll be over by Wednesday so we can go to Disney World for our anniversary vacation. My magic gut, says we’ll be fine.
So anyway, I’m watching May and Walsh and the Brazilian team, pretty much hypnotized by the action. There’s something about bikini clad women sweating, grunting and diving in the sand that piques my interest. Every commercial break I tune in Fay. When May and Walsh finally beat the Brazilians I decide to check my email before I join Kate in dreamland.
I got an e from Michael and Terry, saying that there’s a lot of excitement out the across the net about a big launch coming out this week. Kevin Wilke and Matt Gill, from Nitro Marketing, just released their Quattro Sales System and Automation Software.
M and T attached a couple of advance e’s from Nitro which explained the process.
“Quattro is a 4-step system.” “It compresses the lifetime value of the customer and gives you a HUGE increase in both the immediate value and life-time value. It basically puts the old “backend” theory of marketing (which is true, btw) on steroids and takes it from a horizontal process to a vertical process.”
“This is the fastest way for you to get a successful online business up and MAKING MONEY.”
It sounds great to me! However, “steroids” and “vertical” have brought me full circle and I leave the office and head back to the bedroom TV and the Olympics. No more beach volleyball, so I check in on Fay. She’s still tormenting Fidel and I’m finally tired enough to hit the sack, as they say, so I turn down the volume, set the sleep timer and drift into dreamland to the soft murmurs of the meteorologists……
eyeball. It’s pale light dripping, spreading like a killing frost on the innocent neighborhood below. A few of the houses were dark and silent, sitting like rotten teeth in the gapping mouth that was Bleaker Circle. Where they were feeding!
Muffled shrieks and howls were swallowed as the thick frigid night absorbed every sound like vacuum. Dark shadows creeping house to house leaving gasping and breathless victims in their wake. As their numbers grew, the pack began chanting a low ominous dirge…
“Trick or Treat, smell my feet! Gimme something good to eat!”
Scare ya? I hope so, ‘cause it’s almost that time of year! Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeen!
Like our other Guilty Pleasures, people just love creepy things! We love to get scared and to frighten others! It takes our minds off of the real-ly scary things in our world today. We go to great lengths to transform our beautiful homes into Houses of Horror and throw out all the stops turning our children and ourselves into ghouls, vampires, zombies and ghosts. Saying all the while, “It’s for the Kids!”
Kate and I are good examples. We raised 7 kids together and looked forward to Halloween every year, starting at Labor Day. Now we’re by ourselves, thousands of miles from our kids and grandkids. Why bother to go to the trouble? Hell, we love it! We start decorating October 1st, so we have a whole month of Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeen!
We’re not the only ones! In 2007, Americans spent over 5 Billion dollars on all things Halloweeny! It’s a proven fact that Halloween home decorations out rival even Christmas décor and that Halloween is the only holiday that prompts a wide spread donning of unique and highly conspicuous apparel. Even our pets get into the act. 1 in 10 households dressed their pets in costume last year. Devils and pumpkins were the top favorite pet costumes, with witches, princesses and angels rounding out the top five.
As far as Holiday Home Décor goes, Halloween brings out our best. Scarecrows, ghosts, cobwebs, there is no limit! Manicured lawns turn into spooky graveyards. Beautiful homes and organized garages transform into haunted houses! We just love our Halloween and spare no expense when it comes to frights! Some of us like it real scary and others prefer more playful haunts.
Here at Gifts by Sasha, we have playfully scary Halloween Décor, including Halloween Garden Stake Sets, Skull Candleholders and Frosted Halloween Ghost Lights. We even have Halloween Activity Book Sets to amuse your kids (big and small) before and after their candy feed!
C’mon, get into the spirit of things! It only happens once a year so start early and make a month of it! While you’re here, checkout our Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday Home Décor! The Holidaze are here and like all good scouts, we need to be prepared!
We are members of an expanding Digital Revolution. No, I don’t mean
digital TV or telephones or even the storage, reproduction or transmission
of discrete signals represented as numbers. I’m talking digits here! All ten
of them! You know those things on the ends of your hands.
Not that we don’t embrace the technologically Digital Revolution. It has
been the great equalizer! It has allowed us to standup to the “strong arm”
tactics of some of our competitors in the marketplace. On the internet,
you have complete flexibility because digits can do so many things besides
holding a hotdog.
Though it may seem amazing, digits are becoming a driving force in
today’s economy. Have computer? You don’t have to travel! You can
become an Independent Contractor, an entrepreneur, an auction house,
the next Hemmingway you name it and if has to do with manipulating a
computer with your fingers the possibilities are endless. The potential is
universal.
It’s your business! Whatever the hell it is! You can be part of the digital
labor force that is rising in leaps and bounds all over the globe.
What are some of the positives?
- You’re self-employed so you are your own boss!
- Work in the comfort, convenience and safety of your own home!
- Arrange your work hours how ever you want! It’s your schedule, do what you will.
- Create, change or even cancel your schedule daily.
- No commuting, save on time, travel expenses and frustration.
- Wear what you want (or don’t wear anything at all)
There are many other positives and only one real negative as I can see.
Any type of self employment always requires a lot of hustle to keep a
steady stream(s) of cash coming in. That’s why a major requirement for
self employment is drive. You have to be very organized, responsible
have a lot of focused energy to generate the cash. The main thing is
“Don’t quit your day job!” until you’re up and rolling.
What kind of opportunities are floating around in the “ether”?
Here’s a few:
1) Data Entry - Many companies, worldwide who have high amounts of
data to enter are paying in home workers to meet their demands. It’s
cheaper and easier to outsource the digital labor to outside contractors.
There are a number of Online Temp Agencies just Google - online data
entry work.
2) Be an Online Auction House - Buy and sell the stuff, you don't need! -
eBay has created a global flea market. Two important facts; people will
buy anything and one person’s trash is another person’s treasure!
Packrats should avoid at all costs.
3) Content writing There are gazillions of websites and almost every
website needs content (words). If you have the talent to put words
together in a concise and informative way, the possibilities are endless!
4) Eye Candy Maker - If you are a graphic artist and or photographer
and have a talent for layout and design purchase a good Web Designers
program and go for the gold!
So come, be a migrant worker of the new millennium. Yes indeedy, if
you have; a computer, access to the Internet, a few hours a day (more on
the weekend), some inventiveness & imagination, and a whole lot of drive
there’s no end to the possibilities. Digits of the world unite! The world is
at your fingertips! It’s truly amazing what a few digits can do once you let
your fingers do the talking
The Holidaze, are coming! Yes, I do know that holidays happen all year
long and yes, I do use Spell-check. However, I’m not talking about just any holiday. I’m talking about The Holidaze!! They’re back to back and they’re the Big Ones(!) Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. It’s the time of year for celebration, celebration, celebration! It is also the time for decorating and gift giving!
Every year during this season we try to outdo our efforts from last year. So everyone is trying to get a head start. We’re all hoping to find new and exciting items to grace our homes and to gift our loved ones. Some people will be dashing from mall to mall, store to store. Others, like ourselves, will be shopping in the comfort of our homes, lounging at our keyboards.
The internet has become the #1 shopping place, at least among all of us in the know. Where else can you find anything and everything, that you could possibly imagine?
Nowhere else!
The Net has developed a Global Marketplace, offering everything under the sun (and the moon) and it’s right at your fingertips! The only thing that may limit you, is your budget. You can access shops, stores and bazaars from all over the world and not have to apply for a passport or endure airport security. About the only danger you might possibly face is, typers cramp or (if you have an extended family) carpal tunnel disorder.
I know that it is hard to imagine but some people are still frightened to buy online. They worry about IDENTITY THEFT and unscrupulous web businesses taking advantage of their credit cards. They just don’t seem to realize that those fears from the past are, for the most part, urban myths today. Almost all of the business sites on the internet have safe and secure ordering and billing processes. You do have to use care but paying online does not pose anymore threats then sliding your credit card across the counter does.
I have to go now, the shuffleboard courts await. I’ll be covering each of the Holidaze as they draw near. Just remember, you have a world of gift and décor possibilities right at your fingertips and the best place to start is where you are right now, Gifts by Sasha!
So, as the Holidaze approach, I have only one thing to say to you.
On your mark…get set…shop!!!!
Copyright 2008 David Spangenburg
All’s well with the world, May and Walsh won their 108th consecutive game and took the Gold in Women’s Beach Volleyball (the first pair ever to win gold two Olympics in a row), tropical storm Fay has gone on her way after a brief stay, she rained for a few days on us at Disney World and Nitro’s Quattro launch went off like gangbusters!
I’m feeling a little scattered. My wife, Kate, told me I was obsessed with the Olympics. I really don’t think its obsession, a small fixation maybe but not really obsession. I will say that now that they’re over I am feeling a little anxious, distracted, and maybe a little twitchy but it was never obsession. I will miss; the sand and the sweaty bathing suits, the diving boards and the wet bathing suits, the flexible gymnasts and the abbreviated outfits…you know, all the amazing feats of…um…sportsmanship!
Ah well, on with the subject at hand…How to build a successful Affiliate Program. Michael asked me to explain TM Gold Marketing’s sure fire procedure to develop a thriving and highly productive lineup of affiliates. Moreover, how to parlay that amazing group of people into a lean (but not mean) money making team! You know when I sit back and think about the most popular procedures for building, maintaining and growing an industrious affiliate program I come to the conclusion that it’s a lot like the Olympics. No, no it’s not an obsession! Just look at Trafficology, issue # 8.
Their 3 Steps to Affiliate Success are:
1) Prepare Your Website For Affiliate Sales
2) Recruit New Affiliates Into Your Program.
3) Motivate Your New Affiliates Into Action.
To prepare your website, you need to do three things; evaluate your competition; calculate two important sales statistics; and set-up affiliate tracking software.
That’s just like the Olympics! When you prepare your website the 1st thing you’re going to do is evaluate your competition. Just like the great Olympians you gotta check out your fellow competitors in action and see their strengths and weaknesses.
You need to know what they sell, how much they charge and what they pay their affiliates. You also have to study their training techniques like how they handle their backend sales process. The smart ones give their affiliates a big cut of their front-end products and then make a real killing on their backend proceeds!
Next, you need to, Calculate Your Competitors Statistics! Like Olympians you always check out your competitors stats, like their Conversion Rate (the number of sales they’ve gotten, divided by the number of visitors referred) and their Earnings Per Click (average money an affiliate will make, for each visitor they send to your website)
To find out the E.P.C. just divide the total commissions earned by the total number of visitors referred.
Trafficology # 8 also lists:
Quick Things you can do to improve your EPC:
1. Increase your average revenue per order by offering an up-sell option during checkout.
2. Encourage customers to order add-on and complementary products.
3. Increase the affiliate commission rate.
4. Improve your sale letter conversion rate. (a small increase in your conversion rate will dramatically improve your EPC.)
When you understand these stats you will be able to upgrade them with your own creative techniques to improve on what your competitors our offering. So you attract only the most ambitious and determined affiliates and, more importantly, keep them motivated by providing them a steady stream of easy sales and high commissions.
It’s up to you to have only topnotch products and a streamlined sales process that magically transforms the majority of your visitors into buyers. You’ll be like an ancient alchemist turning lead into gold! Gold! Just like Olympic Gold, only more of it!
Setting up Affiliate Tracking Software, is like establishing an Olympic training program. No really, it is! You need to, at the least, be able to track each affiliates referral and, ideally, be able to furnish your team members with a up-to-the-minute, timely and accurate account of how much Gold, they’ll be taking to the bank.
Trafficology # 8, lays out these three options:
1. Purchase software that runs on your server
2. Use a 3rd-party affiliate tracking service
3. Design and develop your own custom solution
This decision is one of the most important you’ll ever make about your affiliate program. There are several “entry level” options, but be careful. If you later try to upgrade to a more robust system you may not be able to. Often the tracking links provided by one system are not compatible the links from another...and it will be very difficult to get your affiliates to change links. Therefore if you later find your software does not meet your needs you may be forced to run 2-systems or lose all the affiliates who are still using your old links.
As you can see, like an Olympian, you need to decide how committed you are to your Affiliate Program. If you’re going to have just a casual campaign, you’ll probably be happy using an off-the-shelf or entry level software. But, if you’re going after the big bucks using a team of affiliates you’ll want to jump right into action using a third party service or, even better, create your own made-to-order tracking software.
If you have a domain name that you manage make sure your affiliates are linking to it. Then if you’re running software on your own server, either self created or bought, or you’re using a 3rd-party service that runs links thru to your own domain. Your affiliates will always be able to keep their links working properly.
Alas, I seem to have run out of space...quite a bit ago. We’ll be looking at the Three Keys to Affiliate Activation in my next posting…until then, always remember to, keep going for the Gold!!! TM Gold Marketing, that is!
It’s not obsession, really, it isn‘t. It’s more like…preoccupation.
A detailed review of affiliate tracking software options can be found on this site:
http://AffSoftware.TrafficologyResources.com
For tips on improving your conversion rate listen to Alex Mandossian, Joe Vitale, and Mike Fortin in the Membership Site: http://www.Trafficology.com/login.php
Copyright 2008 David Spangenburg
