Recently Google made a change to their privacy policy. This is news to affiliate marketers and especially eprofit members because Google accounts (Adsense, Analytics, Gmail and more) are a big part of the process.
This video released from Google takes a quick look at the new all encompassing privacy policy from Google:
Also, here is a look at the policy from another perspective – the CBC – which is a Canadian broadcast channel :
If your goal is to earn a full time living online, then there will probably come a time that you need to drive some paid traffic to your site, offer or landing page. There are a lot of ways to do this, and one of the most popular are Facebook ads.
At one time Facebook ads were the proverbial golden goose. Just a couple years ago they were so much cheaper and it seemed like you could get away with a lot more. Things are different now of course, but Facebook ads are still an amazing way to direct highly targeted traffic to your offers.
The infographic below looks at how to create a killer campaign in Facebook, as well as some interesting facts about Facebook Ads – a must view for anyone who wants to make money online!
Recently, we wrote about SOPA here, and the effects it could have on online marketing. The bill while helping protect created content, still brought some potentially scary problems for online marketers, and bloggers in partciular.
It seems that SOPA/PIPA is now being pulled. I am sure some rewritten form of SOPA will appear in the future someday, but for now it is being pulled.
One of the reasons for this, was the great job the tech sector did in getting the word out about SOPA. The most glaring example of this was the Wikipedia black out. For one day Wikipedia (and other sites) were blacked out and only showed information about the SOPA bill.
In order to show the power of this online protest, check out this image on Congress support of SOPA before and after the “blackout”:
As you can see the results speak for themselves.
Recently, a friend (who I work with online) and I were having a discussion about working from home, and online marketing. We were having a couple of drinks, and venting off some steam to start the new year.
Basically we bitched.
We moaned about lousy clients, buggy software and our fear of PayPal shutting our account on a bogus complaint. It wasn’t our most productive meeting but it did allow us to blow off some steam. It also allowed me to sit back and think about what I truly appreciate as an online marketer…
1. Flexibility - While I work as much or more than my blue collar friends, I can mostly choose the time I work. No shift work, and if I have to move something around in my calendar, I almost always can.
2. No Commute - I can literally wake up and walk two steps to a computer and work – if I wanted to. I have an office set up though and to get there, I just have to walk down a couple of stairs. That is my commute. I avoid wear and tear on a vehicle, rising gas costs, it’s greener and I live in Canada, so I avoid super dangerous winter driving conditions.
3. There is no salary cap – Online marketing isn’t the NFL, I can technically make as much money as I want. If I need to boost my earnings – I just have to find the time and figure out how to do it. I don’t have to ask for a raise. If I need some extra spending cash, or an unforeseen event – I can at least attempt to make the needed money.
4. It’s Casual – I take my work very seriously, but I can still sit in my home office in a tank top and shorts on a hot day. If I want to go grab a coffee, that is almost never a problem. My bulldog is currently lying beside me and I have offensive rap music blaring. This scenario probably doesn’t happen in most offices or jobs.
Online marketing is full of pitfalls and there is a massive learning curve. At the end of the day though, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. The 4 above points play a big part in that, and if they sound appealing to you – consider the world of online marketing.
There is a lot of discussion on eProfits about domain names.
People want to know what domain they should pick, why they need to pick one, should they use .com, why are none of their choices available and etc…
It can be a pretty stressful choice when you are new to internet marketing. The good news is most domains will cost you $11 so you can try a couple. Remember though, $11 is how much UNREGISTERED domains cost. If you are dead set on a domain name that has already been registered, you might have to pay hundreds…thousands or even MILLIONS of dollars.
Domain names can be BIG business. The infographic below looks at just how massive the world of domain names can be…
If you have been active on the internet recently, or following any tech news then you have heard of SOPA.
SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act. This is a bill in congress right now, that enacts wide sweeping changes to online copyright laws. While the people backing SOPA (groups like FOX and the RIAA) say this act will help them from the free spread of their copyrighted material, opponents say it goes too far and it could change the online landscape drastically. It could negatively effect innovation and freedom of expression.
Should Online Marketers Be Worried About SOPA
I think yes.
SOPA could put some really powerful laws in place and that could lead to a real loss of power for webmasters. For example, under the new proposed laws you could have hundreds of perfectly legal blog posts, but if you mistakenly included something copyrighted – your site could be shut down. Your whole site could cease to exist. Then it would be up to you to take legal action to get your site back up.
Seems pretty drastic to me, and very draconian.
The people who want this law to pass, do have a legitimate gripe with online piracy, but if they spent more time and money figuring out how to lucratively harness the internet, rather then battle it they would be better off.
The good news is that this law has attracted the attention of some huge online entities like Google, Wikipedia, and Reddit. They have been doing their best to spread the word abvout the potential damage this law could cause. The public had moved to make their voice heard, and now the White House and the Obama administration has stepped in to make sure changes are made to SOPA.
Continue the fight! If you’d like to learn more about this issue:
This inforgraphic takes a look at 12 different reasons people would need a plugin, and reccommends a couple o f plugins for each category.
You don’t really NEED each of these plugins, but this is a great primer for people who aren’t quite use to the idea of plugins and how they can/should be used.
Google Adsense – still going strong in 2012. I know it isn’t everyone’s favorite way to earn money, but it is a pretty simple way for someone with a site to start earning some extra cash.
If you want to use Adsense to monetize your website or blog, there are a couple tips you should keep in mind:
If you keep these tips in mind, you are off to a great start. I hope your 2012 is your most successful year yet!
One thing I have noticed with new members is they ask me if they can use their WordPress.com website to go through the eProfits style of affiliate marketing. WordPress.com is a wonderful service and it is one of my favorite resources
One problem with WordPress.com is you don’t have full control over your site. You are at the whim of WordPress.com at the end of the day. There are also some functional differences and this Infographic takes a look at some of those:
For the most part, we talk about affiliate marketing here. There is a lot of money to be made with affiliate marketing – and in fact the billion dollar industry continues to grow and grow.
That said there are other ways of making money online. Anyone who wants to not just make extra cash, but a living online, would probably be best served creating multiple streams of income.
I for example use affiliate marketing of course, but also have a membership site and am committed to product creation. All three of these incomces combined mean that I hvae the luxury of typing to you right now from my warm and cozy home, while wearing Ralph Lauren pajamas. And it is 1pm!
Seriously though, product creation has been a big boon to my bottom line. I wanted to take a look at some of the pros and cons at product creation:
Cons
Pros
As you can see, the cons of Product Creation can be intimidating, but the pros far outweigh it. If you are looking to make money online, consider packaging your knowledge into something as simple as a PDF eBook – and start selling your OWN products, not someone else’s.
![Self Hosted WordPress.org vs. Free WordPress.com [Infograph]](http://cdn.wpbeginner.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/platformcomparison.png "Self Hosted WordPress.org vs. Free WordPress.com [Infograph]")
