davepilgrim

I made my first sales back in probably 2003/4 I was a self-employed musician at the time and created a paid membership site full of hints and tips on how musicians could make a full time living busking - it was actually quite a success

An old and very reliable favourite of mine - TrafficG

Well, my two absolute favourites have both been having issues at the moment... Top of my list right now is an old reliable favourite - TrafficG

I LOVE that attitude This whole PayPal shake-up can be a blessing if we approach it as such. Maybe the question we should be asking isn't necessarily which payment processor we should use instead of PayPal, but rather how can we change the way we're working and the products or services we're promoting in order to come in line with PayPal's policies. After all, I suspect PayPal will still be the biggest, most trusted payment processor in the world after this - that world is a hell of a lot bigger than TEs, viral mailers and downline builders and if we want to grow as individuals and as a community maybe we should be looking at developing our whole approach to internet marketing. Just saying...

There are a lot of great pointers in this post that people would do well to think about. Anyone looking to make a genuine income from home that they can actually live off reasonably comfortably should be thinking about options other than just promoting TEs and mailers, etc. Working from home IS feasible - I know because I do it. I don't make a fantastic income (though it IS growing) but it does fall into that $50-$100 a day category. Like many if not most of the genuine people out there, I'm reluctant to give away EXACTLY how I do it because it just doesn't make sense to invite more competition into the arena, but I do genuinely enjoy helping people find their own preferred methods and will happily share what I have found to work and not work. In essence, the trick is to listen to people who ARE successful - work WITH them when you get the chance and learn everything you can... although they might not spoon feed you, you can generally read between the lines and find your own way. Plus... never stop looking for a BETTER way to do what you do and be open to creative ideas.

You don't say what it is you're promoting... are you promoting TEs within TEs or are you using the TEs to get referrals into a different kind of program? If you are promoting other TEs then you need to be using splash pages that really grab surfers by the eyeballs and make them WANT to join the site you're promoting, even before they've seen the main page! If you're promoting a product or MLM opportunity or basically anything that might require the surfer to read about the offer, think it over, maybe spend a little cash, then I'd recommend using a simple squeeze page. Most TE surfers are focused on one thing when they're surfing - generating traffic to whatever it is THEY are promoting. Grabbing their email via a squeeze page means you can let them read about your opportunity or product later when they're not so focused on surfing and might therefore be more responsive. Either way, I would ditch most of those TEs you've joined. Just use and promote the best ones that give you the greatest returns for your surfing time and/or the biggest conversions.

"How to master anything" - by Tony Robbins https://youtu.be/OI_S_JyJhYQ

Yes - people LOVE 'Top 10', '5 Reasons' etc...

I like TEs and banner ads... but I don't usually promote my main affiliate links there. I prefer to think long term and to promote VIRAL programs which will gradually build more traffic to my main squeeze pages or affiliate links.

Leadsleap have had problems with PayPal too - here's a blog post Kenneth released this morning on the issue

Many members of this forum will also be members of Leadsleap so will probably have seen the email sent out by Leadsleap's admin Kenneth this morning. For those who haven't, I've pasted part of it below as it represents the most detailed explanation I've yet seen of what is happening with PayPal at the moment. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................​ What Has Happened?Last Friday, our Paypal account was limited due to violation of Paypal’s AUP (Acceptable Use Policy). I was puzzled because I honestly didn’t think that we’d done anything wrong. I thought they had misunderstood us as an ‘ad pack’ system. I wrote them a long letter explaining why we are not an ‘ad pack’ or matrix or mlm or ponzi system. At the same time, within 24 hours, we replaced our payment system with Payza. I’m glad to see that members continue to upgrade via Payza. Thank you! Thank you! The Paypal AUP department was closed on Saturday and Sunday. We couldn’t do anything on those two days. On Monday, we received an email from them saying that they were looking into our appeal. On Tuesday, our appeal was rejected. They said that our program pays members to read ads. The only way to remove the limit on our Paypal account is to remove Paypal from our system. We did as told. On Thursday morning, the limit was removed. Our account was restored. Can We Win Paypal Back?Yes. Paypal is actually open for discussion. They don’t like the idea that we pay members to view ads. I think they are worried that we may become another ‘Traffic Monsoon’. If we remove the pay-to-click component of our program, i.e. members will earn credits for traffic, not for cash, there is a very high chance that Paypal will approve us again. Will that affect the ad traffic? Definitely. But I believe there are always other ways to encourage members to view ads. Monetary incentive is just one of them. Should we make that move, we will allow members to cash out all their earnings with no minimum requirement, and we will run the system as a traffic exchange system with no pay-to-click component. This is an important decision. I hope to hear your opinion on this. .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Now, from what Kenneth says in this announcement, it does sound like PayPal are being quite reasonable and open - but.... I suggest you also read the full blog post HERE because there are replies there pointing out that other TE/Mailer owners who DON'T pay people to read ads have also been targetted by PayPal, so really, who can say what PayPal will or won't do? The groundswell of opinion is definitely that we need to move to Payza ​

So, there's a rapidly-spreading feeling of unease among internet marketers which could easily turn into panic as the threat looms that PayPal might pull the plug on the VAST MAJORITY of programs on which many of us rely. And the alternatives? Well, Payza is generally seen as the obvious second-best but there's a lot of issues with them. One thing is for sure - if anyone can come up with a viable and realistic alternative to PP they stand to make a lot of money very quickly :-)

We've heard bad things about people's experience with Payza on this forum... as for the other payment processors available - how many people have even heard of them, let alone use them?

Now Marty Petrizza, owner of Guaranteed Mails, Website Traffic Hog, and other well established top-notch sites has reported PayPal will no longer back them... scarier and scarier!

Or you can use the pageswirl.com banner rotator, then simply change whatever image and target url(s) you have in the rotator and it automatically changes the banner across your whole network

In my opinion Dark Hits is one of the best

I mostly use them if I'm promoting a site with a php script in a frame which removes my affiliate link and simply promotes the generic program page. I suspect a lot of people promoting affiliate links in traffic exchanges and the like don't realise that it's not actually their affiliate page which is being displayed and so wonder why they're not getting referrals - you need a splash page (or better still a squeeze page) which will open your affiliate link in a new window.

Another tactic, rather than promoting just one TE and waiting for your referrals to stumble across the downline builder is to promote a high-quality downline builder directly that lets you add all your favourite programs - much more effective in my opinion. One of the very best is Downline Traffic Builder

In my opinion one of the best 100% free traffic-generating programs out there is Downline Traffic Builder

GREAT NEWS... Downline Traffic Builder has now been revamped and is better than ever!!!

...haha... and a great idea for a YouTube video ;-)

From what I'm seeing, people are having MASSIVE success with YouTube... It's not something I've got much experience with personally, but I've been looking into it over recent months and following some of the channels that interest me. There are real people who have literally become multi-millionaires, and countless others making a comfortable living from uploading videos. I don't mean those whose by chance have caught some random eye-popping event on video which has then gone viral... I'm talking about people putting in time every day to produce and upload content within their chosen niche, as well as response videos to others within that niche. The people with real success have produced hundreds of videos, have hundreds of thousands of subscribers and their videos get tens of thousands of views each. We're talking a lot of time and focus put into producing this content, but it seems to be paying off for a lot more people in a big way than traditional IM models. Monetization is chiefly via advertising so your earnings are directly related to number of views, although of course there's scope for promoting ebooks, merchandize, etc. I'm even seeing people doing VERY well financially simply from uploading videos commenting on OTHER videos... It's definitely an avenue worth looking at...

I agree - if we keep this question in mind it will take us a long way. It's all too easy to get caught up in only promoting programs to make a quick buck without looking at the actual quality of content. Of course, in the end it's counterproductive as people see right through this. Focusing on supplying high quality information and tools to help others succeed is vital.

ALL members earn commissions from referrals' upgrades and purchases.

This site continues to get better and better... They have some AWESOME new splash pages, for example THIS ONE