I have been working on a few different projects over the past few weeks, and 2 are coming up very quickly, and I can’t wait to see the outcome of both!

I haven’t been blogging lately because of these projects, but I will say that one will be discussed in the near future, but I’m not sure “when.”

I also want to talk about Landing Pages, and some people I’ve worked with lately. Actually, I take that back… only one is worth talking about, as she’s been super awesome since day 1, and she always comes through for me when I need a new Design…on time, every time.

You can visit her site here: www.SemanticFlow.com and check out her work. The stuff in there is good, but it still doesn’t justify her work, in my opinion. Some of the LP’s she’s made for me were just amazing, especially for the price.

I’ll definitely be using her services again soon. Give her a shot and see what she can do for your next project!

Logo Designers seem to come and go, don’t they? It seems like every time I find a good designer, they disappear on me, somehow. I’m currently looking for a new one for a few projects, but I’m pretty picky.

I stopped messing with PHP back in 2007 (“for good”), because I was so frustrated with it. I had too many clients, and way too much work, and I was getting extremely stressed out… I wouldn’t even do anything for myself, other than quick redirects, or tiny scripts. But, as of this week, I’m jumping into a few new projects OF MY OWN. I will finally be able to use php for my own projects, unlike before.

Anyone watch 4th and Long with Michael Irvin? Way off topic, I know… but the show was awesome. Can’t wait for future episodes.

I’m still a member of several sites, but I haven’t been very active because of my projects going on… so, if you don’t see me around – PM me and I’ll get to it as soon as I can.

My old host deleted my site and left me hanging like I figured they would one of these days. Assholes. Stay away from HighFluxHosting aka Tremato. They changed names because they were getting shit for their old name, and now I’m going to make sure they understand that it’s not OK to delete people’s shit.

Stupid me…I forgot to make recent backups but, luckily, I found a Cached page through Yahoo! and grabbed all my old posts and put them in accordingly. The bad part? I no longer have about 30 comments that were within those posts… sorry guys!

I have some new posts coming up (ideas anyways) that I’ll try my best to get to in the next week or so… hopefully you’ll find them useful!

Posted by Clint Lenard | No Comments »

OK, this is a little bit of a rant about a few “Super Affiliate” Bloggers…

Where do I start?

I can’t stand seeing all of these “Super Affiliate” Blogs all over the net, that only talk about how great they are, but have very little REAL content.

Most of these guys are nothing more than Rich kids who were handed a ton of money to play with and got lucky enough for another handout.

What’s sad is, I can seriously see one of these kids (most of them are) being kidnapped by someone who believes all of their stories they post up on their blogs. They all tend to brag and boast, and even show their earnings on their blogs – not even thinking about what COULD happen offline.

Making 6 figures a month after spending 6 figures a month is not all that impressive. Seriously, it’s not. I know they never mention how much they spend, but it’s something to keep in mind, as it’s the truth

I’ve ran into a few of these clowns online and saw how “elite” their PPC skills were. Wow. Not impressed at all!

Why does this bug me? Because there’s a lot of people who have suffered Financially because of these types of blogs that were simply trying to pawn off a product or program they have never even used…

Several of these dudes promote ppc coach, and none of them are members of the program. They’re simply promoting anything they can (and a lot of it is crap) under their “brand” (using their REAL names, of course) and it will eventually backfire…big time.

Some of these guys are the types that talk crap on “Gurus” – not even realizing that they’re just as bad. Promoting friends’ junk, and very little useful information, all for a quick buck and a favor.

Fact: No Millionaire Affiliates call themselves “Super Affiliates.”

Fact: All self proclaimed “Super Affiliates” mention that they’re “super affiliates” on their blog, or as tagline somewhere. Nobody else that knows shit about this industry actually calls them “Super Affiliates.”

Here’s something to think about:

If a Blogger is talking about how much money he/she’s making per month, or per day, on a consistent basis – he/she is simply trying to sell you something. End of story.

Here’s some awesome blogs to check out if you’re looking for REAL Affiliate Marketing Content:

CDF Networks – Chad Frederiksen’s blog. This is definitely my favorite blog. There’s always something new and interesting, it seems like. He’s been really consistent in providing great content.
CashTactics – I won’t lie… when Ruck gave this site away, I thought “great, there goes the blog…” — but I was wrong. Kris and Andrew have been killing it with some great content over the past year!
AdHustler – Brandon always has tons of case studies. This dude is really consistent, and a lot of good stuff can be found on his blog.
Masterless Samurai – Wes rarely posts these days, but everywhere he goes – there he is… the dude provides some of the best content I’ve yet to see on any blog. Some more advanced topics, for sure!
Slightly Shady SEO – Although it’s more SEO related, this kid is always posting up great information. No way I could leave him out of the list.

There’s others… but these are on the top of my list of REAL Affiliate Marketing blogs. Always great info, and always on point.

Posted by Clint Lenard | No Comments »

No, this post isn’t just for Linkbait. The title is what it is. There’s definitely a few similarities, although MOST Affiliate Marketing is perfectly legal and ethical.

What I’m speaking of is mostly about those Affiliates who promote CPA Offers with Rebills.

I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine, and he sent me a link to a story about how Colombian Drug Smugglers are using Semi-Submarines to get past Authorities.

OK, so you’re probably wondering HOW these two occupations are similar, right? Well, let’s take a look…

For decades, Colombians have played a game with the DEA that involves “catch me if you can” type antics. They were very creative in what they did, and they weren’t about to give up and lose big money. Of course, there’s always those few smugglers who get caught…

For years, Affiliate Marketers have played a game with the FTC that involves “catch me if you can” type antics. Most play by the rules, but a few really don’t give a damn. They’re after those big bucks. A few have been caught… a few more will be caught soon enough.

Much like Colombians who use submarines to slip under the radar, Affiliates will try everything they can to do the same. Obviously, nobody REALLY wants to get caught. It just so happens that there’s always a few idiots who seem want to try their best to do so.

Affiliates will use any type of traffic they can get. They’ll test it all. Some will fail, some will convert. The main thing is — the Affiliate just needs to get the product and the customer closer to each other.

Colombian Drug smugglers will do the same… they’re looking for whatever “in” they can find to get that product closer to the hands of the customer. Some of their methods will work, while others will fail.

The key is: being creative, and not worrying about the law…both Blackhat Affiliates and Drug Smugglers are doing this just like each other. Creativity in getting the people and the product together is how both of these groups are making their money…and who’s to blame?

In the end, we know that most Networks aren’t like Drug Cartels. They’re not looking to push the Governments resources, time and money to be used against them. But, could it be true that certain networks are turning the other way, just for a quick buck?

Could it simply be bad employees (Affiliate Managers) who are stirring things up?

In the end, someone always pays…

Staying under the radar, pushing the limit and simply deceiving the customer…that’s how these Flogs and various other Blackhat methods are going to make this Business look downright dirty in the end.

It’s might sound crazy, it might sound downright stupid…either way, it’s unfortunate, but it’s true. There’s too many unethical Affiliates out there that are simply killing this Business for the rest of us.

Now, I’m not taking any personal stance against any specific party. I really don’t care too much at this point. There’s nothing I can do. The FTC is now working around the clock to take down these “traffickers,” much the same way the DEA is working to take down the real traffickers, smuggling drugs into the U.S.

As I stated before…in the end, someone has to pay. There’s plenty of hard working, honest, and ethical Marketers out there doing their job the right way. Then, there’s those who are going to push the limits and test the deeper waters, hoping to slip by the Eagle’s Eye, looking closely on this industry.

Be careful.

Posted by Clint Lenard | 11 Comments »

Real quick — I know a lot of you probably heard of Market Samurai from Ed Dale, as they promoted it on the 30 Day Challenge.

Well, today I got an email that had a special discount for $97! (Ends SOON!!!)

http://www.marketsamurai.com/c/ourmistake

This is NOT an affiliate link.

I, personally, bought this program today and I like it. I also like collecting tools…

So, with that being said, ONLY buy this if you’re a full on Affiliate Marketer who does Article Marketing, SEO and PPC, etc. Otherwise, it’s probably not needed

This special discount is going away either tomorrow or the next day…I forget. Grab it now if you really want it!!!

And, please…don’t show up 3 months from now telling me the link doesn’t work. This is a 48 hour special, I believe. It’s MARCH 25TH today, so it should end within the next 24-36 hours.

Posted by Clint Lenard | 3 Comments »

You’re probably seeing this everywhere today. It’s called AffiliateTheme by UBD.

AffiliateTheme will be used on a lot of new sites over the next few months. So, does that mean it will become saturated?

Honestly, I had mixed feelings in the beginning. But, now that I see how it really works, I’m seeing that anyone with half a brain can make this theme super customized without hacking through any code…so it’s nearly impossible for it to become too saturated, IMO. At least not for a while…

There’s so many options available for this bad boy, and you can easily build out quick landing pages or mini sites without knowing HTML, which is awesome for anybody…even newbies. ESPECIALLY newbies, to be honest. At first I thought “this is way too expensive for newbies.” And, it is very expensive – but since you have to have Landing Pages and Mini-sites, I think it would be a GREAT investment for any Affiliate Marketer.
Definitely check it out and see the examples and the video!

[UPDATE]

After playing with this thing for over 24 hours, I actually like it a lot. This thing is like XSitePro on steroids, IMO. It’s using Wordpress as a backbone, since it’s just a theme, which makes it far better than most products out there.

All SE’s love Wordpress, and there’s a reason why. The system is based on Blogging, and it’s well known that it’s very professionally coded and has been designed especially with search engines in mind.

A lot of people think this system takes a lot of time to learn. Not true. Actually, you can learn this system in a matter of 2 hours, tops. They supply you with Videos, Tutorials and even a Support forum.

What makes this theme even more special is that it’s easily customizable…as in you can quickly create your own Banners and Backgrounds based on this theme, within a few minutes. If you’ve got basic Photoshop skills, it’s not a problem at all.

AffiliateTheme

Are you good with CSS? If so, this theme lets you bring in your own CSS with a few clicks.

Know your way around Wordpress? That makes it even better… you can obviously, EASILY customize this theme with ease, through the code itself.

BUT, if you don’t know ANY of the above, that’s what makes this theme awesome. It’s made for people of all levels, and it makes it really easy for those who don’t know HTML, or have never built their own website.

I prefer the Super version, as it comes with a ton of extra banners and stuff. It can also give you more ideas for future Layouts/Banner versions for other projects. While it is a bit expensive, it’s FAR, FAR cheaper than hiring an LP designer, or buying Dreamweaver and trying to learn it.

If you’re a newbie – I highly suggest this theme. ESPECIALLY those of you who don’t know much about HTML, or don’t have the time or patience to learn it.

AffiliateTheme

Posted by Clint Lenard | 4 Comments »

First off, this post is not for beginners, or even Affiliates whose Business is not bringing in a decent profit. If you don’t have extra money to spend, do not attempt this at home…

Seriously, I think it’s really backwards thinking to outsource everything when you’re a newbie. You’ll never learn this Business from the inside and you’ll never know how much money you may be losing. DO NOT get stuck with outsourcing everything without first learning the ropes in this Business!

Moving on…

In any Business, you need a team. The problem with most Businesses is that they fail to build “the right” team, with “the right” players. Rather than spend quality time looking for quality team members (employees), most managers simply stick to “good enough.”

In Affiliate Marketing, you cannot use this way of thinking and become successful. If you choose to build a team, you need the best players possible, or your Business can literally fail overnight.

If you need Design work done and your Designer is a week late – this can destroy a campaign, right? So why stick with this person?

It amazes me how many chances some people give others, even after they’ve screwed up more than once, JUST because they were simply too LAZY to spend more time on finding a Designer (in our example) that will be prepared, or even a few backups to turn to in case that person is not capable of doing the given task.

I’m currently building my own “rolodex” of “team players” that I can test out for small jobs and slowly, but surely, be able to count on them to do bigger tasks… right now I’m taking names, emails, AIM info, etc. for Banner Designers, LP Designers, XHTML and CSS coders, PHP programmers, Server Admin’s, etc.

Since I need my Business to move as smoothly as possible, I’ve already been slowly building this team and testing out some designers, content writers (articles, blog posts, etc) and even a few XHTML/CSS coders to implement my LP Designs, etc.

I’m always struggling to get my work done, so now it’s time to step it up several notches and have others helping me out in my Business. Some people are looking for work, and a ton of Internet Marketers are looking/needing to hire!

If you’re wasting time with doing stuff that is NOT a strength of yours, you’re KILLING your Business. You need to focus on your strengths, and have other people fill in the voids.

If you can’t write good, why bother? There’s plenty of people out there that are very affordable, if not downright CHEAP, that provide excellent content. The same can be said about Landing Page Designers, Programmers, etc.

The more you focus on your weaknesses, the more your Business BECOMES that weakness. You’ll be wasting valuable time trying to accomplish something that someone else has been fully trained to do, and can do for cheaper than the time you’ve put into the same project.

I know of some people that actually go out of their way to learn something new – just because they think they need to program something themselves… this is STUPID and a MAJOR waste. If you want to learn something because you have a burning desire to learn it, then go learn it. But do it on YOUR OWN time, not your Business’ time!

Go figure out what your strengths are, your weaknesses, and even what you don’t like doing — and then write them down. Make a list of things you’d love to have OTHER people do, and go out and find those people!

Stop wasting time and money on pointless work. There’s far too many people out there that are more than capable of doing that job for you, for cheap, while you work on YOUR STRENGTHS.

Posted by Clint Lenard | No Comments »

Maybe this topic is a little young… maybe not. I haven’t heard anybody really talk about it, and I haven’t read anything, either…so, let’s dig in!

I’ve always told people to keep an eye on Twitter Search, as I seriously think it will become a major factor in search for the future. Not to mention news.

But what’s better than TWITTER TRENDS!?

Think about it. Every NEWS STATION is now on Twitter. Everyone is slowly but surely finding their way there… the latest news and trends are on Twitter quicker than anyone can imagine. If someone gets shot on the corner of Hollywood and Vine, Twitter will have it covered quicker than news, thanks to Twitteriffic and Twitterberry.

The data is going to pile up quickly, too. Hash or not, the news will be there. Are you going to wait around for Google or Yahoo Buzz to give you an update, when you could have it nearly hours before?

Right now, when you go to your Twitter home page, you’ll notice there’s a new Trends drop down menu, along with a Search Box. This has been released within the last few days, and it’s going to be an awesome tool for any Affiliate.

How can you use this? Like any other tool, obviously!

Click on this link and you’ll end up directly on the Twitter Searchbox.

When you arrive at this page, you can see the top 10 trends on Twitter, happening RIGHT NOW. Not in the last few hours… this data is NOW. LIVE.

You can do a search for any topic you like. You can use the # symbol followed by the keyword (ie, #acai), or you can simply enter in the Keyword (ie, acai)…or both!

When I last did a quick search, the trends showed #pcn09 as the number 1 rising trend…2 minutes later, the term “cleveland” showed up. Apparently, there’s a 15 year old girl missing in Cleveland. Amazing? Yes.

Google cannot do this for you, but Twitter can. People are using Twitter, and Twitter is producing it’s results for all to see. Use it and you will find a lot of up and coming trends.

Follow this up with your normal research, and you could have a killer campaign on your hands!

Posted by Clint Lenard | 2 Comments »

UPDATE: I am no longer a member of PPC-Coach.com, as I was banned for making Affiliit.com … apparently the owner (Will aka ppc-coach) does not like competition, although that’s not what this site was built for.

1. PPC-Coach is very limited…strictly PPC, and a lot of outdated methods and material.
2. Affiliit.com teaches INTERNET MARKETING, using SEO, PPC, PPV (later in the course), Article Marketing, List Building, etc., etc… there’s NO competition here. None at all.

So, you won’t see me on that site ever again. You can read this post here for more details, if you’d like.
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end update
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Alright, I’ve decided to do a simple tutorial on how I create polls using a simple system I’ve developed that keeps me from losing focus, and allows me to create polls within 30 minutes, regardless of size.

If you’re a member of PPC Coach, you’ll understand this post… if not: you may not have a clue.

WARNING: This system I’ve come up with uses several paid tools. They will be listed, but I wanted to give you a warning. I will try my best to come up with alternatives (free), but I can’t promise the same results.

Anyone that has done polls already knows that there’s a few tools available for quick research. BuzzDash.com is a great resource, but Yahoo! Buzz is another, as well as Google Hot Trends.

So, what I like to do first is come up with an idea. I use BuzzDash.com and Yahoo! Buzz to start my research with. What am I looking for? I want to see what’s hot, what looks like something people are interested in…

But my MAIN goal is to find something that I know will either make someone extremely angry, or extremely happy…or somewhere in between. Either way, I want the person to CLICK THE AD, go to the Poll and SUBMIT THEIR VOTE — and when they’re done, I want them to PUT IN THEIR INFORMATION. Right? Of course.

So what we’re looking for is something that everyone knows about… for instance: Chris Brown and Rihanna.

(more…)

Posted by Clint Lenard | 22 Comments »

— EDIT —

Here’s a pollfactory discount link to get $25.00 OFF the normal price!!!

———————

I purchased pollfactory last Septemeber when I joined PPC Coach, but I have not had the chance to use it as I completely skipped doing Polls at first. I wasn’t into doing Email Submits, and I wasn’t comfortable with building polls.

When I purchased the script, I thought I’d buy it just in case, as the price was cheaper than it is now, and I knew the price would go up.

Over the past Month, I’ve been training a few newbies in Affiliate Marketing through Webex and I decided to give pollfactory a shot when a few newbies wanted to ask questions about building polls on Wordpress.

Being the “system” type, I couldn’t even stand THINKING about taking more than 10 minutes building a poll. That’s just INSANE in my mind. It’s not like it’s a “REAL” site, as you’re really testing a bunch of Polls, it’s a little frustrating to think you may spend up to an hour building a poll or 10, only to find that it absolutely WILL NOT convert.

So, I tend to show people how to use pollfactory instead. I realize there’s a few other scripts available, but none of them are as professional as pollfactory is, in my opinion.

(more…)

Posted by Clint Lenard | 4 Comments »

I’ve been pretty busy over the past month with my own stuff, but I’ve also been helping out an old friend, as well as some new ones. With the way the economy is, it seems that everyone is scrambling for something new, afraid of what may come tomorrow…

I can’t blame them. Personally, I don’t trust any corporation these days, and only a few are succeeding during the hardest of times. Even the almighty Google seems to be suffering.

Who cares, right?

(more…)

Posted by Clint Lenard | No Comments »