Matt Koshko

My one concern is (assuming correct) placing a specific value on clicking an email. Are all emails valued the same in this case? I haven't looked at it myself (yet) but as long as there is a way to decipher clicks you get (to your email ad) between members on CFC vs Credits, it would help distinguish to the advertiser of the particular action - this is important because I'd value CFC actions as less, as an advertiser.

John, There are hundreds and hundreds of options. First thing...have you uncovered what subjects interest you the most? Jumping to new niches could require testing and education; are you willing to invest in such? Earning an income "online" can be a fun, enjoyable process or it can be a pain. How you go about getting there and your attitude will determine that process! Of course, you could also consider traditional Direct Selling business models. They allow you to share products, results, and business opportunities with people using the internet as the main relationship source.

Definitely, it's called "Network Marketing" for a reason!

Going along with the topic and relevancy, are people getting results from generic LFMVM sites or from those which are customized (beyond just a look and feel)? I'd be surprised if results were decent after the first few months of generic sites being live.

I can't imagine buying traffic from Fiverr would be efficient - $5 for traffic sold to the same people over and over? You get what you pay for...and many times you get less than what you pay for, unfortunately.

Exactly, Phyllis. The point of it is for the creator to sell for his own gain, he doesn't care about the degrading of value his tool promotes.

Chances are you "own" a website. If you've been involved in affiliate marketing, internet marketing, network marketing, blogging, eCommerce...or anything in-between, you probably have a website that you control. And, it's more likely you have domains than you do hosting. Be careful where you register your domains. If you're looking to simply save a few dollars by registering your domain through some unknown company, you should reconsider not buying a domain at all. That also goes for registering your domain through these "free" hosting services where you register your domain through them. In many cases the domain you register will not be yours, it's owned by the company. And it's important because if you need or want to move your site to another host, they'll keep your domain hostage. Not good! There are tons of options for domains but I prefer NameCheap or GoDaddy. While neither are perfect, you'll likely have no issues (beyond what's normal in the marketplace) with either. Hosting? Companies like HostGator have many hosting options. Yes, they are technically owned by a much larger company, but so are most hosting companies. Many options do exist such as GVO hosting, Rackspace, Mediatemple, LiquidWeb...and many others. The level of service you need could vary, so selecting a a provider who can grow/scale with you as needed is certainly important. Most importantly? Be SURE you can take your data, files, domains, and everything else with you somewhere else if needed. Saving a few dollars by using a "free" hosting option could end up costing you a lot more in the end.

I agree, Clare. While posting every day may be a challenge for most people, twice a week is a fair and frequency to gain activity. That would be over 100 posts a year - not bad!

There's a lot more you have to consider; What is your messaging? Have you done any split testing? Do you track links? ....and so on. Simple posting doesn't automatically equate to sales.

Maybe I'm a little bias but ListJumper has a free option...in case you haven't tried it.

The book "How to win friend and influence people" is a great foundational read and psychological piece of education. Nice mention!

Yup, I concur with using a self-hosted Wordpress site. It takes a little bit of technical knowledge but there are lots of resources to utilize if you're unable to configure a self-hosted Wordpress installation.

Copy writing is certainly a very important piece to marketing. Are your clients in specific niches? Offline businesses?

I agree with Darren. Without some kind of time requirement or action to earn the credits, it's far too easy for a member of an advertising service to earn the credits with very, very little effort. Some might argue that it's up to the advertiser to grab the attention of the viewer, but if there are nearly zero barriers to earn those credits, the advertiser stands virtually no chance. We already know very few people read an email advertisement in Mailers/List Builders, going straight to the action required to earn credit. It's a delicate balancing act; you have to make it effective for the advertiser and worthwhile to their time & money while also giving value to members (viewers of ads) without making it too easy to earn credit for viewing the ad(s). Yes, not having any restrictions, timers, or barriers will (and there's plenty of evidence to support) play a factor in the effectiveness of the services.

I wouldn't blame you, just be sure to have what kind of sites are banned (making sure the sites fit the mold) in your user terms accessible to everyone

An eCommerce site is usually pretty static (other than adding new or changing products). Having a dynamic blog where content is added each week can only help. In fact, Shopify (an eCommerce solution I know very well) has a blogging component built in to the solution.

Consider your timing smart. The loss experienced by thousands of other bitcoin holders is, obviously, heavy. Millions of dollars in value that will never be returned. Like anything, investing in something that doesn't have a long-standing history certainly has high risk attached. Thankfully you escaped without losing everything!

Advertising in ad exchanges can be a royal pain if you're not creative. It's no mystery as to why advertising the main page of a website rarely, if ever, results in a conversion. If that conversion is authentic, consider it a rare result in this market. Those who've been in this advertising niche will agree creative ads/pages are a necessity. The ads must be simple, direct, short, and engage with a specific call-to-action. What are the nuggets that have helped you and would be wise to know? Share your tips/tricks you use within your exchange advertising results.

Thanks, Paul! Glad you're back and like the layout. Thanks for the feedback! And thank YOU John. We appreciate your support and kind words.

Having a "no refund" policy doesn't stop consumers from getting a refund. Paypal, one of the preferred methods, makes it somewhat easy for consumers to get refunds on non-tangible purchases, whether the refund is appropriate or not. Sellers, such as myself, have been hit with charge-backs/refunds through Paypal multiple times despite our proof that the product/service purchased was provided to the buyer and used by the buyer. Unfortunately with services there is no way for the buyer to return what they used out of our service - why would they be allowed a 100% refund? And usually in these cases the buyer/consumer doesn't bother to contact the seller about their lack of satisfaction. To pay a commission immediately would be opening up problems. Financially it's not logical to pay immediately in the digital product/service market. Of course, if you run an ethical business and don't mislead consumers, you'll have a very small fraction of refunds/charge-backs but to pay a 50% commission on a sale that ends up being refunded? That's very costly.

John, be consistent and confident in what you do. You've mentioned being part of Empower Network - have you reached out to all your contacts? Maybe your message isn't resonating with those with who you connect. If that is the case it might be time to re-work your approach and messaging.

Don, you made some great points. It certainly is dangerous having all of your "eggs" (websites) in one place. What happens when the server goes down? All your sites are now offline. Yes, if you have 1 or 2 websites, it's probably fair to put them in the same place. Beyond that...it might be wise to have two servers to split up 4+ websites to be safe. Redundancy is important, no matter who the hosting provider. And, data backups! If the data or disk crashes, getting the data back could be a nightmare, if at all possible. Think ahead!

There is certainly value in Pinterest but you must be creative. Tagging others in your pins is important as well as using keywords in your descriptions of the pin. What has been your result thus far?

Don, that whole implosion was very unfortunate. Every once in a while I think how my life would be different (better or worse) had it not imploded. We all learned quite a bit from that experience, for sure. Heck, that's how Darren and I met. I'm honored you still remember me from those days - time flies, huh? And thank you for the very kind words, they mean a lot.

Maybe I should have been a bit more specific but I wouldn't really consider Traffic Exchanges in the same boat as SFI, for example. You don't earn commissions off of sales 3 levels deep from a Traffic Exchange, normally anyway.