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Affilate Related Movie : The Joneses

The Bum — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:00:10 +0000

The Joneses and how it Relates to Affiliate Marketing

Summary:
A seemingly perfect family moves into a suburban neighborhood, but when it comes to the truth as to why they’re living there, they don’t exactly come clean with their neighbors.

A Bummy Review of The Joneses:

I want to say that this is an absolute must for everyone in our business. Going into the movie, I had no clue what it was actually about since I had “acquired it from a site” only because I saw a few actors I really like… *cough* Demi Moore *cough* Amber Heard *cough* David Duchovny… I meeeean .. Lets move on. So, the movie is basically about a “family” living the grand life in a wealthy community. The twist is that they are really a group of sales people who pretend to be a family while showing off all their great stuff in order to make their neighbors envious of all the glitz and glam they have. In turn they are selling their neighbors on buying everything from frozen sushi plates to high end cars. It’s incredible to see how they are able to use everyday things and make them seem like must have items. As you can guess, there are obvious problems that lie within a “sale” like this and the movie definitely shows a worst case scenario of what a game like this can cause. I kind of want you to watch the movie, so I won’t go too much into the twist at the end and ruin the movie for those of you who haven’t seen it yet. All-in-all, this is a must see movie for us Affiliate Marketers. The acting was good, the plot kept you interest in the movie, it’s an interesting movie subject to start with, and Amanda Heard does what she does best in all her movies by giving us a few seconds of “fine viewing”.

How it Relates to Affiliate Marketing:

I am not going to be obvious and say “well they are salesmen and that’s what we basically are”. There was actually a more interesting lesson I got from this movie. Demi Moore’s character is the “head” of the family and wants to see more production out of her “husband”, David Duchovny. Before this gig he was a car salesman, so he was basically a direct seller. Now he was selling a life or a lifestyle. He had to reach a whole community which is sort of impossible to do one by one. He needed a new plan of attack, which is something all of us can say we have realized once or twice in our careers. Basically, what he came up with was to stop focusing on selling people and work on forming relationships with people of influence. He targeted a young golf course employee / pro and kind of made him a believer in what he was trying to sell. Now he new that through the day, this employee would talk to more people than he ever could. Plus it was this kids JOB to sell since he worked in the golf course’s Pro Shop. In time when the kid saw how well Mr. Jones was using this club or this putter, he would tell other club members about how it improved Mr. Jones’ performance. Basically he planted seeds with targeted people and had them be an extension of his sale. It’s a great way to look at referrals and selling. You always want to make friends and you always want to put your best foot forward when meeting new people because they are an extension of your business. You may not sell them on an idea, but they know people and those are the people you can sell without even meeting them. Its the same with websites. The way you set up a website can effect how your word of mouth goes. For instance, a Facebook “Like” button is a tool or an extension of your sale. A person who likes what you have can press a button and now you have been broadcasted to 500 new people. Its just a thought of mine and something that really stuck out to me while I watched this movie. So in summation, watch the movie and see how Mr. Jones uses the people around him to do the work for him. It’s a cool concept and it may open your eyes a little bit.

My Rating:
7.5 (I’m harsh on my scale. anything above a 7 is a must see)

Lazy Affiliate Marketers 12 Step Program

The Bum — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:06:09 +0000

Hello, My name is The Bum and I’m a Lazy Affiliate Marketer…

We admit we are lazy and have our minds constantly thinking about the quick buck. Our theology is making us poor and living with our mothers.
We have come to believe there is a Power greater than ourselves that can put us in our place. Lets just hope Mom will still make us dinner.
We have made a decision to change our ways, to stop the endless night of e-whoring and other black hat methods that have no future promise.
We have sat down and searched for the reasons we are lazy and have come up with answers besides “waking up at 2pm keeps me refreshed”.
We have admitted aloud that we are lazy and have not done ENOUGH to reach our goals of being a successful Affiliate Marketer.
We are entirely ready to have our mothers pick on us for being lazy and making us realize that these are all defects we can be rid of… by nagging us further.
We humbly ask others for help and actually LISTEN to the answers instead of looking for the shortcut in their answer.
We have made a list of all the things we have done incorrectly over the years and are taking the necessary steps to learn from them as well as fix them.
We have correctly identified and fixed all shortcuts we have taken over the years.
We never stop evaluating and learning about ourselves so that we do not start to fall back into old lazy habits.
We take the necessary trips to the golf course, casino, or bathroom to take a little time away from the computer to really think about what we are doing. Using the time to really be creative without the answer right there in front of you and a few keystrokes away.
We receive our first honest check and realize that these steps have given use a base to start from. Something solid and long lasting that you can build around…..and we also see our mother’s hand out to collect her monthly living fees :-/

I’m pretty sure I am at step 7. Definitely had my mother give me enough “encouragement” to change the way I have been over the last 2 years. Can’t wait to get my first real check so i can give her some cash from it….. ugh

A Real Start…

The Bum — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 21:35:29 +0000

Ok ENOUGH screwing around. The whole point of this blog was to document a money making journey from start to finish. Have I done that? NO… I had the idea, but didn’t have a plan. Which is a good lesson for anyone who is reading this blog right now. All of us have a lot of ideas, god knows I have had a LOT of ideas which I have thought up and left on the back burner. The idea is not nearly enough. We all have ideas, but the only way to make an idea reality is to sit and plan out all the proper steps to complete your goal.

I’ve just blown your mind with inspiration right? No? Well I am going to try a little harder. I was working at a job I didn’t like much and finally got away from it. Now, I find myself in a unique situation where I have a little freedom to take a little time and get things rolling for myself. I have some time, but not a lot of it and need to make sure that I use it wisely. See if I can’t figure out a way to make some money on my own, then I will have to go and find a job that I really don’t like…again lol.

I spent the last week reading and came across a few helpful articles. One article I read in BlackHatWorld.com was extremely helpful to me because it mapped out a plan over the course of 2 months and answered a lot of questions people had about the plan he was attempting ( READ HERE ). He is a guy who already knows what he can do and knows what it would take to achieve his goal. Over the last couple weeks he has answered questions that other forum members asked and has given updates on his results. Seeing his plan got me to think about this whole idea that I have tried to get across to all you readers. This is a guy who is running a side project just to see how it goes. He isn’t doing this to make a living, so I know its not out of desperation. He knows what it takes to get going on the internet on his own. So, over the next few weeks I am going to follow his lead where I actually DO and not just talk. I promise you all that I am going to have a FEW different things going on over the next couple weeks and we are all going to experience them together. Stay Tuned

My Realization… Batter Up!

The Bum — Sun, 02 May 2010 12:37:45 +0000

I been really bored the last few weeks. I mean the kind of bored where you find yourself talking to people you don’t even like to talk to just because they are the only people online at the time. I hope you know what I am talking about and it is not a feeling the The Bum is privy to.

I been up and thinking about why I am still trying so hard to make it big on my own. I have about $100 bucks to my name at the moment and big things look like they are on the horizon. Yea I said big things, but how big? I don’t know to be honest. I personally don’t even know if It will turn into anything big at all. That’s the thing though. I have heard myself say that sort of thing before and then nothing came of it. Things that I thought i planned out perfectly and had all intentions of going through with, but just never had pan out the way I thought they would. So, why is it that I am continuing to do this to myself when I know that in 2 months I will have to find a real job and become a working adult? Well I am a little crazy for one thing. Besides a little bit of lunacy, I think I am conditioned better than others for this type of disappointment. I played baseball for 17 years of my life and if there is anything baseball players are exceptional at is failing. Who do you know is happy with succeeding 30% of the time. We feel one day and we get back up the next and try again. I think that’s why I know I am right for this field of work. Affiliate marketing is exactly like baseball. First of all, it takes a lot of practice and attention to detail to be successful. Secondly, You will never bat 1.000. You will fail a lot trying new stances and new techniques, but when it all comes together you will be able to see the ball coming at you like a huge watermelon. I have failed so fair in my journey to becoming a self made marketing superstar. My coach has sat me on the pine, but I know that my time is better spent thinking about the next adjustment I need to make rather than picking splinters out of my ass and feeling sorry for myself. All it takes is one idea and one solid method to get back into the lineup. Find that grove… get into that zone… and see a watermelon sized wad of cash flying towards your wallet.

I guess the lesson here is to figure out if you can handle the stress and the failure. It can last for a week or years, but you will get to a point where everything comes together and you just click. It’s all green from there baby!!

Happy Easter!!

The Bum — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:08:21 +0000

OK so For Easter I thought I’d give you all a little money making advice. This is not really an online marketing solution, so you will have to walk out into the sunlight this one time. First thing you have to do is drive around and scout places that seem to be hosting Easter Egg Hunts for children. I would suggest parks and churches for the best and biggest Egg Hunts. Once you have scouted them out a little bit, pick one out and try to blend into the crowd a little bit. Yep this means you will be around PEOPLE and you have to do your best not to come off as a pedophile or else this method is pointless. Start helping some of the children find the tougher eggs. Now here is the trick… Once you find an egg, DON’T GIVE IT AWAY JUST YET. Look around and point the child in the opposite direction in order to be alone for a minute. Pocket the egg and it’s contents. Repeat these steps about 10-15 times and you should come out with some gas money. Either that or you come out with some good chocolate to shove down your throat while you sit in front of the computer tricking horny guys into filling out E-Mail submits all night. WHAT!? I’m the only one???

HAHA Hope you enjoyed… Happy Easter Everyone!

To Be or Not To Be…Legit?

The Bum — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:17:26 +0000

     I have a dilemma. I might be afraid of making money. I said MIGHT BE. It is either that or my pride is getting in the way of earning an income with CPA marketing. In my case, I have been trying to start legit and by the book in order to make a nice steady income, but the truth of the matter is that its tough as hell to do that when you have no cash to back up your mistakes. Coming to the realization that my lack of funds is ultimately causing me to be scared to test the market, I ask myself I should start smaller and cheesier. In order to make a few bucks now, should I go and try E-Whoring or run Craigslist Job scams? This questions has been nagging at me for some time now and I feel like my pride is basically the only reason why I haven’t been subjecting myself to a less than respectable means of making money.

     First I would like to describe my thoughts on why it is so difficult to remain honest with no money to back it up. Real marketing consists of tests, research, leads, and statistics. You have to be able to use all the information given to you and put it to use for you in such a way that would give you the best opportunity to make a little profit. testing takes money and time. If you believe what they say then time also equals money so you are just getting hit twice there too. You may have a flawless method that has a lot of potential to make you money, but if you don’t put it to use in the right niche then you are screwed! Takes time to fine out what niche will serve your method the best and time is expensive. Now I feel that knowledge is a use factor in this time equals money formula. The more knowledge you have about marketing then the less mistakes you will ultimately make in the long run. Less mistakes equals less time spent looking for the right formula to make money. I kinda like to think of this like how I was in high school knowing I had pretty good grades so a good SAT score wasn’t as important to me as it was to a person with sub-par grades. Knowledge and money kind of counter balance each other. More knowledge you have less cash you need and vice versa. I fall in the category of needing a little cash to get something going.

     Now that I have identified myself in the “need cash” category, I have to make a choice. Do I stay legit and struggle or do I make a sacrifice and go after horny people for a living? It’s a good questions right? well maybe its not. Maybe there is something I am missing in all of this. Well there is. What is blackhat? My definition of blackhat may be different from yours and I may be lumping a lot of things into one category. Think about it when you read these blogs from “superstar” marketers. You think they are blackhat guys? Do you think they are totally legit? HELL NO! These guys are for the most part fallowing the rules, but they are stretching the rules as far as they can without getting caught. Some people like to call this grayhat marketing. Over the past year I have come to the realization that nothing is really as nice and clean as it seams. There are always little loopholes that people use in order to take advantage. This is where I need to be. There is a line between fraud and legit. Luckily that line is really thick and isn’t straight because different companies and different people have conflicting views on where the line is drawn. Most affiliate networks will look the other way as long as you are bring them some cash. If the advertiser comes to the network then there may be some disiplinary action, but until then you can get away with the little stuff that may give you a nice edge.

     You might have just read this and thought,” Is he done yet?” or “If you knew this was the case, how come you wrote about it?”. The simple answer to that question is this. We read the success stories about people making five grand a day and they think one of 2 things. Either the guy is cheating his ass off or he is a genius with a great network of methods. Truth is that most of these guys are no smarter than you or me. They just grew a pair and took the extra step. They learned the rules and figured out how they could be skewed in such a manor that would help their cause. Anything wrong with that? not at all. You aren’t sitting there talking to half naked 50 year old men trying to get them to fill out leads all day and you are not stealing from innocent people. Simply using the system to your advantage and raking in a little extra cash.

     So, I guess the question has changed. To be or not to be…legit? No… more like, when you gonna get off your ass and just do it?

Hard to Get…Hard to Satisfy

The Bum — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:59:35 +0000

     Well it has been a few weeks since I last wrote a post and I was thinking… IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!!! HAHA … I’m Kiddinggggg, I promise. I have been a little bit wusy starting up my last year of college. Trying to get into all my classes and get settled. I haven’t been doing too much marketing, but I haven’t totally ignored it. I have kept up with the Twitter stuff. I now have 10 accounts and a total of 25,000 to 30,000 followers. Making about 3 bucks a day with that only promoting RevTwit and gettiong like 30 clicks a day or something like that. Not a lot of money by any means, but it’s posting the ads for me so there isnt much work involved.

     I began writing this post as an update to what io have been up to. I wanted to make sure that all 9 of my faithful readers didn’t feel like i forgot about this and forgot about them. I realized a lesson I learned as i was about to write down the next thing that I had been doing the last few weeks. I bought an E-Book a few days ago ( I KNOW! I said don’t waste your money on E-Books, but it was 10 bucks and promised it wasn’t a blown out method) and well it was a good Idea. I went with it for a few days and I actually made a few bucks without putting any money into the method at all. I was only testing it, but i made $27 in 2 1/2 days. I thought I found something to hold me over for the next few weeks which was nieve of me to think. After 2 1/2 days it seems that the website that had the loophole that I exploited FIXED THE LOOPHOLE and rendered the method useless. I am not giving too much detail to the method for a few reasons. I bought the book and don’t have permission to give information about it, it is very blackhat, and it doesn’t work anymore so why bother LOL. The point I am trying to make is that affiliate marketing is not stable or steady. You may find a method that will always work and not get saturated, BUT you will always have to adjust the niche or the lead in order to keep your conversions up and the money the same. Always moving on to the next best thing and keeping up on what is popular now. Don’t get comfortable and don’t be satisfied with anything that makes you a couple of bucks at the start because it will most likely become saturated and non-profitable in the long run.

     I hope that isn’t being interpreted as me saying there is no method that will ever work for long periods of time. That is not what I am saying. For example, PPC/keyword advertising is something that will always be popular and be a money source. What i am saying is that those people who do PPC for ResV ( Diet Pill ) will fail in time when the ad has been out there for a while. Those people need to take advantage of the method with that niche for a while and then use that same method and find a new hot lead in order to make good money. See the method is good, but the product gets old. There are methods that are long term, most are not, but either way you must not become satisfied. Try to remember how long it took for you to find the current method you are using and then imagine if it became totally non-profitable and you had to look for another method. Get the start on it when you are making money. This will allow you to do more research and more experimenting rather than waiting till you don’t have a method or money and not having the funds to find a new method to go with.

     Ok I am done rambling on. I really try to make these posts entertaining for my readers. I have a feeling this one may be one of the less entertaining, but I think it is one of the more important lessons I have learned in all the years I have been in the internet business.

Twitter Karma

The Bum — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:23:04 +0000

     It has been a few days since I have written anything, but is to be expected from now on because it is impossible for someone to continuously pull topics out their butt and have a lot to say about them. However, I have had some bad luck with a topic I covered a few posts ago and it has really been bothering me. Im not a very big fan of the actual usage of Twitter and how popular it is these days. I am pretty sure I stated this in my previous post when I talked about making money off Twitter [ Freak the Tweet Post ]. I think that was a mistake because I have been failing miserably to get people to follow my account. I mean I was rolling for a week or 2 and i was getting like 300 new followers a day to my Twitter account. STOP RIGHT THERE!!!!! Twitter has put up a speed bump and my Porsche is an inch off the ground. I don’t get what is going on. I didn’t change my method and i haven’t been banned. I just can not gain a follower if my life depended on it.
BUM WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME THIS!?
     Karma is a b**ch and I’m payin’ for my comments about Twitter. SO I HAVE TO FIX THIS. I am going to try to let you all know about a good program that may make you a little bit of money with your Twitter account. Don’t be mad if you know this because it is not a big secret, but I feel like I have to share ANYTHING with my readers in order to turn my Twitter luck around.
     RevTwit.com Is a website that allows you to profit from your Twitter accounts. I was just turned to it a few weeks ago and I was immediately interested in the system. They allow you to sync about 10 accounts to their system and you can actually pick from categories of ads you would like them to AUTOMATICALLY submit as posts on your account. Yep, they will automatically post up to 2 ads on each account per day and you will be paid per click. I was probably thinking the same thing you are thinking. DIRT CHEAP CLICKS RIGHT? Well no. I actually saw ads that paid from $.05-$.13 per click. Get a few accounts with a TON of followers and you can make a pretty penny with payouts like that. It just all depends on what type of ads you want to run as well. The banner below will allow you to sign up to the site. They payout with Paypal which I am a big fan of. Well I am hoping this is something you all can use. Might be played out, but it is a little extra income.

THE BUM EXTRA!!
Okay. I haven’t don’t this for you all in a while, but I am sharing an idea I had. I am sure I am not the only person thinking about this, but maybe someone who is smart can hook some people up. I have not done this idea, but I am still sharing it.
Wordpress is a wonderful tool and I encourage all webmasters to do something with a blog. Keeping with the theme of this post I was thinking that it would be nice to take advantage of RevTwit’s shortURL system. You put in a URL to the short URL generator on RevTwit and it will spit out a short URL that will pay you money every time it is clicked. Cool huh? NOT IT!!! I want to take it a step further and incorporate that with WordPress plugins that do bookmarking. The Tweet This button is a big one for me. If someone can find the API for that and code a plugin for WordPress that will allow you to put a Tweet This button on your blog that will automatically post on Twitter using a Short URL from RevTwit, then you may be able to make a little bit of money from that. If it’s already possible then tell me how, but if not then get to work because that’s a frickin’ gold mine.

Marketing Update : V-Blog #3

The Bum — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:35:13 +0000

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFKnyPx8h40

Well I was just letting you guys know what I have been up to lately with all the stuff i have been trying out. Twitter is working ok and I can see the advantages of creating these accounts. I don’t have many followers yet and the sites have seen a rise in traffic. This is good since I am able to target the people I am following.

Freak the Tweet : The Twitter Train

The Bum — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:59:25 +0000

Well I am sure that you are all aware of of the freak of nature we call Twitter. Ugh, its taking over our lives. I am sorry, but I can really care less to hear when your taking a dump or what Ashton Kutcher has to say about life. I mean, dont get me wrong at all, That 70′s Show and Kelso are priceless. I just don’t care what he has to say post-1979. To me, Twitter is just glorified “Reply to All” text messaging.

Now that I have said all that, why the HELL aren’t you using this crap already!! I mean seriously it can be a great marketing tool and will be filled with tons of targeted, yes TARGETED, traffic. There are tons of tools that will allow you utilize Twitter in a way that can help you and your affiliate marketing campaigns.

I recently saw a method that will turn Twitter traffic into profitable traffic for your blogs. It will take a couple programs in which I will cover in a few short sentences, but the main jist of it is that you will be able to follow targeting users and get them to go to your website. I plan on using this idea on this site and if it works then try it with affiliate campaigns. Oh, and yes, I will be sharing with your what I found.

What will I need and Why:

You will need a program that automatically adds followers. You can go one of 2 ways with this… 1) Used a web-based application like Tweepular.com which is free and will follow and unfollow friends. It will allow you to add up to 200 friends at a time which is nice, but won’t let you target who you add. It is just random people. 2) you can buy a program like HummingBird or Tweet Adder. These run anywhere from $50-$200 and will do much more than the web-based models. You will be able to put in keywords and target people who follow those words which is obviously a plus when you want to advertise to people who are interested in what you have to say. PLEASE NOTE: Twitter only allows for 500 people followed per day . I am writing this now knowing that this max number may change by the time you read this post, but just be aware that there is a limit to how many people you can follow in a day. I have definitely made this mistake… twice… OK 4 times. These programs will add the followers to your account automatically and you can set it up for multiple accounts to do it at the same time. At the bottom of the post I will suggest places that MAY have these programs for free…

The next thing you will need is a program that will auto respond to followers. With Twitter you are able to talk to people by typing an “@” sign before their user name ( ex: @bumblogs ). There are programs out there that will pick 4 people and send little messages to them (Tweep.net ). This is good because people pay attention to that sort of thing and if you put a link to something on your blog then they may be more likely to click it and go to your website.

So, that’s just one way you can drive traffic from Twitter to your websites where you have your leads.

I am gonna try it out and let you all know how it goes for me. If I can turn that traffic into conversions and lots of good money. Who knows, it may end up being something profitable and it may get me to My 1st Goal.

THE BUM EXTRA:
TIP:

Twitter

My First Goal : V-Blog #1

As Promised:

BlackHatWorlds Download section (Must Sign Up To view or DL these programs)

Where I got this method:

TwitterProdigy.com: Tweet Adder

TwitterProdigy.com: Mass Twitter Marketing Software

Tweet this Alright?!!?