This may very well be the biggest giveaway I’ve ever seen…

http://emarketing-success.com/Recommends/EWW

Signup is totally F*R*E*E - Yeah!!! Don’t you love free?

As a member, you get access to over 1,000 products and services all the way through September. But I really encourage you not to wait. Sign up right away and visit the site often, because the organizers have set up an interesting method of determining the order in which the different contributors’ gifts are listed. As a result, the listing changes, and as more contributors join the program, you may see new gifts being offered everyday.

Here’s the link again:
http://emarketing-success.com/Recommends/EWW

Paula.

P.S. I forgot to mention that there are Mystery Prizes everyday.
The sooner you sign up, the more mystery prizes you will receive.

Yesterday I got the following email from the More Than Traffic program…

Commission Alert
Your c1 commission is being paid today.
Check in post.
Thanks MTTAccounts.

So let’s wait and see if I get the check!

Paula.

No one would want to buy fruit from a grocer that left the spoiled fruit mixed in with the fresh fruit. Neither would anyone want to purchase a car from a dealership with junked autos mixed in with the new cars! We all know this, and need to keep it in mind when we design our websites. Your website is YOUR “grocery store” or “car dealership”, so you must take the time to make it an enjoyable place for buyers to visit. It should not give your visitors any reason to think that you are an amateur, rather than a trained and experienced professional. Your website always reflects directly on your product or service, so having a well-designed website is an absolute must.

The first key to your website design is “surfability”. Take some time right now to check out several different web pages. What is it that makes them appealing? Were there any that you couldn’t wait to get away from? Why was that? Take the time to make some notes and do your research well. Remember that people usually have a specific goal in mind when they visit your site. They either want information or they’re looking to buy a product. Make it easy for your visitor to find what they want without them having to search for it. And don’t put extraneous information on your site that is not relevant to your product. Your website content should convince the buyer that they need your product to solve their problem.

Your home page should do one job. This page should be the easiest starting point for a potential customer to find and purchase the products or services on your site. It should load very quickly and be easy to view. Here is your chance to make a great first impression - helping you to close, rather than lose, the sale. Keep things simple. Provide easy to find links to the pages that your visitor will want to see. One good method of laying out your home page is with the use of tables. And while pertinent graphics can help with sales, be sure to keep the size and number of graphics to a minimum. An excessive number of banners, buttons, or special effects can slow down your web page load time significantly. In fact, most people will likely click off to some other website if your page is taking more then about 10 seconds to load - even with a 56K dial-up connection.

Try to use mild colors to make your web site easier on the eyes. And you’re better off sticking to basic black and white if your website provides a lot of content for the user to read. You can still brighten up your web page by using color in tables to highlight, compare, or emphasize certain information, but make sure not to stray too far from your overall, professional design. Try to present a look that will be most appealing to those who are most likely to visit your site frequently.

Also, many users still use a monitor resolution of only 800×600 pixels, so keep your web page designed to fit well even with that screen size. Or set the table widths on your pages to a percentage value, rather than a fixed pixel width, so that your web page will automatically “resize” itself to fit the visitor’s screen resolution. Remember also that there are several different browsers that your visitors may be using, so try to ensure that your web pages still look good on all of the most popular browsers.

In closing, be sure to keep in mind that the overall look and feel of your website will greatly influence how well your products or services will sell. A properly designed website should be a key component of your marketing strategy for your products and services.

If you haven’t read it as yet, be sure to read my previous post on More Than Traffic (MTT) to get the whole background on this.

Now for the update…

I’ve just sent out the following email through MTT’s affiliate support ticket system (it’s pretty self-explanatory):

From Paula Fugaro, Affiliate ID AF6L9947U9:

My March C1 Commissions from my back office:

COMMISSION
Personal Clients & Commissions
Surname � � � DatePaid
Order
Package� � � � Client ID � � � Paid? � � � C1comm � � � C1 Paid? � � � 15% Traffic � � � 100 Sales � � � 1st 500$USD C2 Bonus � � � ?
Fugaro� � � � 24th March 2006
1
MTT1� � � � CL6543J24N � � � YES� � � � � $100.00� � � � NO� � � � YES � � � YES � � � 14th Jul 2006

Your total C1commission for this period is: $100.00

To authorise accept this commission please click the accept button.>>>>>

When I click the “accept button” I get this message:

COMMISSION
Personal Clients & Commissions

Thank you for accepting your C1commission payment. This commission will be processed and sent to you by postal check/cheque to the address listed in your affiliate member area. This will be administrated now. Your member area will alert you when this payment has been sent. Please check your member area on the 15th of this month. Your MY CLIENTS list will display PAID instead of UNPAID when sent.

I first clicked the “accept button” on the 1st or 2nd of June. It is now June 17 (2 days beyond June 15) and my commission is still not listed as paid.

Please advise,
Paula Fugaro.

I’ll keep you all posted on this.

Paula.

If you’ve been in the Internet Marketing field for any time, you’ve probably seen many ads over the past couple of months for a service called More Than Traffic (MTT).

I actually signed up as a MTT Affiliate back in March - on the 23rd to be exact - but I have not been promoting this program because I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t a scam first. (There are many similarities between MTT and a program that I ran into at the end of 2004 called Monopolizer, which did turn out to be a scam.)

Now the service, if it actually works as advertised, would be pure advertising nirvana. However, I didn’t want to promote something that I had any misgivings about, so I decided to test it myself first. So here’s a recount of my experience with MTT so far…

I signed up as an affiliate with MTT on March 23 and immediately ordered a package for one of my affiliate programs. I did have some initial problem with sending the payment, so the payment actually got processed the next day - March 24. Cost: $169.

So, today (June 14) I am now 82 days into their traffic delivery process - well beyond the 68 days they quote for starting to see traffic delivered to my URL. In my Client Back Office, it shows that my traffic delivery system is at STEP 09 - “Test traffic engaged… Sending start up traffic volume… Still refining… Test traffic being delivered from software network and Search Engines… Software actively refining in real-time… Collecting live data from test traffic… Flow increasing… Please wait for traffic alerts by email…”

However, I have NO traffic being sent to my affiliate link (I have a tracking code, so I know where my traffic is coming from), even though one of the traffic delivery emails that I previously got (on May 2 to be exact) stated that “Your delivery is scheduled 68 days from payment. The delivery is heavy duty between day 68 and day 120. The peak time is between days 80 and 120.” So I’m now even 5 days into their “peak time” for traffic delivery with nothing to show for it.

Also, since I ordered this package through my own affiliate link, I should have gotten $100 in commission for this ’sale’. According to MTT… “Commission is paid-out 30 days after order payment’s month end”
AND
“Definition of 30 days: Your client pays for order on 27th April 2006. MTT calculates 30 days after 30th April 2006 and pays you. Prior to payment on the 30th day you will receive an email with a link to a private electronic statement asking you to confirm
your details and amount due and where you would like us to send your MTTaffiliate+commission. Complete this online and submit it back to us. Payment is made via your chosen method on the 30th day exactly.”

So by my understanding, I placed the order on Mar 24, so I should have been paid commission 30 days after Mar 30/31 ie. April 30. However, I got no indication of any payment or request for approval of payment after April 30. So on May 6 I submitted a support ticket about this, to which they sent out a canned response on May 12 with the info about the 30 days quoted above. So I responded to that email re-iterating the
dates of my order etc. Then on May 18 I got what seemed to be a more personalized reply that stated:

“Please read the commission terms again:
Your affiliate commission is queued currently to be paid out
at the end of May 2006.
This commission will be paid to you 30 days after May 1st.
You will get an e-statement in the last week of this month.”

So I guess commissions get *calculated* 30 days after the end of the
month that the order was placed, and THEN get PAID another 30 days
after that?

Anyway, the very next day, May 19, I got an email from “Jean” with an
“End of monthly cycle accounts notice” and sure enough there was now a link in my Affiliate Back Office for commission payments.

But… of course when I clicked on the link, it just said that commissions would be processed on May 31, and that I should click on the link then - on May 31.

Finally, on Jun 1 (not May 31 like it had said), when I clicked on the commission link, it provided notice of my $100 C1 commission payment due for the Mar 2006 order and asked me to approve that payment amount. When I clicked on the link to approve the commission payment I then got a notice stating the following…

“Thank you for accepting your C1commission payment. This commission
will be processed and sent to you by postal check/cheque to the address
listed in your affiliate member area. This will be administrated now. Your
member area will alert you when this payment has been sent. Please check
your member area on the 15th of this month. Your MY CLIENTS list will
display PAID instead of UNPAID when sent.”

Notice it says that I will be paid by check even though I’ve selected the option to be paid by PayPal in my account profile. So I guess tomorrow when I check my back office, it will state that I’ve been paid, and then I’ll have to wait a week or so to see if a check arrives.

I’ll keep you posted with how things are going over the next couple of weeks.

Sorry this was soooo long, but I wanted to give you all the facts, and not just opinion.

Paula.

Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy
http://www.Prosper-At-Home.com/jrnl

When you are starting out in a new home business and no one knows who you are, one of the greatest challenges you will face is how to drum up new business.

If there were not people in your community or marketplace that you knew who needed your products or services, you probably would not have started your business to begin with. But, once you have talked to those who you personally knew who needed your what you offer, then your next task is to find others who will help keep your doors open.

Many people know that they must turn to advertising at some point in the future, but they hope that day will be long down the road. For some, this utopian concept will come to fruition. But for the rest of us in the real world, we must come up with creative solutions for meeting our home business advertising needs while working within our budget.

Most people have a misconception about having to spend lots of money in order to advertise their home business. When you start out, you honestly will not have much money available for advertising, and if you do, you should still spend it wisely.

Before you jump headfirst into the world of advertising, let me share some of the lessons I have learned concerning this most important topic.

LESSON #1

It does not have to cost an arm and a leg to advertise your home business, unless you fail to plan and fail to test.

As much as is possible, you should always test your advertising. If you jump in and start dumping tons of money in to advertising without first testing your advertising, you might find yourself broke and without sales at the end of the road. Most people who commit this error write off their failure on the home business they chose or the economy or any of a hundred other excuses. But, if they are unwilling to take responsibility for their mistake, they will never learn from their mistake. Don’t let this be you.

LESSON #2

All testing should be done in blocks. If you begin to advertise simultaneously in newspapers, radio and television, how will you know which advertising is bringing people to your cash register? You won’t. All you will know that something might be working, but you will not know what is actually doing the trick.

Even if you tell people in your advertising to tell you how they found you, my experience shows that fewer than 10% of the people ever will tell you anything — and those people who do may not even get the facts straight! You cannot rely on your customers to tell you what advertising is working for your home business. You must put in the extra effort to know for yourself.

LESSON #3

Only when you have a proven and solid advertising portfolio should you venture to drop big bucks in an advertising campaign. Even then, you should be careful to keep further measurements to determine how much the maximum advantage of an ad would be. Sometimes you might be able to reach ten times as many people, but depending on the kind of media and other factors, the additional exposure will only generate twice as many sales. Keep your eye attuned to situations like this to get the most from your advertising dollars.

LESSON #4

As Lesson #3 illustrates, sometimes your best advertising investment may actually cost you less money. When you are first starting out, whether you are running a home business or a business outside of your home, you need to be able to get people talking and thinking about your business.

If you are busy testing ads in media’s such as the newspaper, magazines, radio, and television, you need to learn ways of promoting your business that do not require large cash expenditures. A few examples are:

· Word of Mouth
· Business Cards
· Press Releases
· Non-Primetime Ads on Radio and Television

Here is more information about each type of low-cost advertising:

WORD OF MOUTH

This of course is the cheapest kind of advertising on the planet — it does not cost you anything. Ask your customers if they know anyone who could also use your products or services. When they are happy with your offerings and service, they will be willing to tell you whom you can contact, and they will pass the word for you.

BUSINESS CARDS

You can usually pick up 500 business cards for about $20. When you do, hand them out. Do not give more than a couple of cards to each person. If they need more cards from you, they will ask.

Some people are known to network with others on a regular basis. Some of these people are also known to be always looking for an extra few bucks. With these people, you can suggest to them that if they write their name on the back of one of your business cards and the card is presented to you, then you will pay a referral fee to them. You do not have to offer much — sometimes one dollar is enough. Look at your home business and your offerings and decide how much would be a good referral fee.

PRESS RELEASES

Press Releases are a good source for generating news about your home business. The business editor at your local newspaper is always on the lookout for a good business story to fill the business news section of the newspaper.

Of course, the business editor understands the economics of running a paper and is more inclined to run your story if you buy advertising in his/her publication, but will still print stories for special events and openings.

The important thing to remember about Press Releases is that it must be constructed in the form of a news story. Even if you are a sole proprietorship, quotes from you should be written in a third person format: John Doe said, “Your quote here.”

A Press Release should pack the most important information at the beginning of the copy, and leave extra details towards the end.

You should always provide the reporter who gets the task a simple and easy way for him/her to contact you directly. Often the reporter will want to contact you to get details that will enhance their take on your story.

NON-PRIMETIME ADS ON RADIO AND TELEVISION

Believe it or not, some of the best rates for radio and television are on the overnight and non-primetime venues. These target times are not a total waste as they can easily keep the infomercial people in business.

These off-hours are just less populated than the primetime hours.

Don’t be afraid to check your local radio and television rates for non-primetime hours to see what bargains may exist. With television, primetime is 7pm to 10pm. With radio, primetime is 8am to 5pm. This sure leaves a whole lot of hours available to advertise your home business at discount rates!

IN CONCLUSION

When it comes down to it, there is a lot to understand about advertising, but when you have the basic knowledge down pat, everything will fall into place and bring more dollars to your bank account.

About The Author:
————————————————–
Stone Evans Will Personally Build A Money Making
Website Just For You That’s 100% Ready To Take
Orders And Pull In Massive Residual Profits Today!
Get All The Exciting Details And Signup Now At:
http://www.Prosper-At-Home.com/jrnl
————————————————–

NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the “About The Author” resource box. Thanks!

OK. So here’s how this `Get A Free iPod` website works…

You register for an account and then have to complete one of the offers that they show you. I found an offer for discounted Inkjet cartridges, which I needed to buy for my printer anyway, so I went ahead and purchased through their link.

Then (and here’s the kicker) you have to refer 5 people who will do the same - complete one offer - and then you’ll get your free iPod.

So… if you know at least 5 people who’ll be willing to do the same, go ahead and give it a try. I’ll be sure to let you know if and when I actually do get an iPod.

Cheers!

Paula.