I'm Looking for Guest Bloggers

I've decided that the best way for me to keep a steady stream of content added to this blog, is to let others write it for me.

So, I'm looking for articles and tips written by subscribers to my newsletter. I will then post the articles on the blog. PLUS, I'll add them to the article section inside the SBM Marketing Club members area.

This is a great opportunity for you to show off your writing skills, plus create backlinks to your website.

Here's the criteria:

1. Articles must be between 200 and 800 words and cannot contain ANY links in the body of the article. Of course, a resource box will be accepted and any links in your resource box will be made live.

2. Articles can only be on the following topics:

Web 2.0 - this includes blogging, social media, social networking, squidoo, etc.

Article Marketing - includes all aspects of article research, writing, submissions, etc.

Affiliate Marketing - includes all areas of affiliate marketing.

3. Articles must already be free of typographical errors and formatted so that all I'll need to do is copy and paste them.

4. Articles must be original to you. This means that you wrote the article yourself. IF you do use a private label article, it has to have enough editorial changes to make it uniquely your own.

5. If you do not want others to be able to use your articles on their blogs or websites, you MUST specify this in the closing paragraph or copyright section of the article.

To submit an article for consideration, first make sure you're a member of the FREE SBM Marketing Club. Then send the article to contactsbm @ go2sbm.com

I will then contact you and give you an approximate date when it will be published.

When sending your article, PLEASE include "article submission" in the email's subject or it could be deleted.

Sharon McPherson
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Using Blogs As Sources In Articles

Using Blogs As Sources In Articles
by guest blogger, Jan Tallent

Depending on what type of blog that you have, it might be a good idea to advertise your blog using articles.

For example, say you know about jewelry and gemstones and your blog is a place where you post information for people to read about jewelry, submitting an article to a website such as Associated Content can be very instrumental in bringing people to your blog.

A good example would be to talk about the common misconceptions about the colors of gemstones.

You could write about the fact that people assume that gemstones such as emeralds, sapphires and rubies are one set color, but the truth is that those stones come in a variety of colors and hues.

You can then use your blog as a source for your information as long as you have blogged about those gemstones.

The great thing is that some places, like Associated Content, will pay you for the articles that you write.

So, if you sell jewelry on your blog, it's like being paid twice for your knowledge. Of course, this is just an example of the way you can use articles to advertise your blog.

When you are writing an article, be creative. You don't have to be an expert at what you do. If you enjoy writing stories, you can say that posting stories on blogs is a new and different way to share your stories with others.

Then, post your blog link as your source and you have people checking out your blog and your stories.

---------------------------------------------
Jan Tallent is the editor of Rim Digest ezine,
an Internet Marketing Mom & Grandma, and
a Virtual Assistant looking 4 editing jobs
http://www.tallentagency.com


To be a guest blogger, click here for details.

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Quality is Important in Affiliate Marketing

If you're new to affiliate marketing, you may be wondering what constitutes a quality affiliate program and what doesn't. With so many different programs out there, it's sometimes difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff, but if you are considering promoting a particular program, there are a few things you need to consider.

Before you decide to devote your time, energy and resources into marketing an affiliate product make sure the organization behind the product is a quality one.

Does this particular affiliate program provide a quality product that does what the company says it does? Usually, the only way to know for sure is to order the product and try it out yourself. If what the company says about the product matches what the product does, then you can be fairly confident the company is reputable.

There are too many affiliate programs out there that think they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, when actually, what they are the crumbs left on the table. A poor affiliate program says one thing about a product, while the product says something else.

Think of how it annoys you to purchase something that doesn't deliver. It will annoy the people who click through your affiliate link from your website and purchase an inferior product just as much. Remember, your site's reputation is at stake -so make sure the affiliate product or service is of high quality.

The next thing to consider when looking for a quality affiliate program is the commission offered. You'll most likely spend time advertising and distributing articles to promote this product. You will not be paid directly for these marketing efforts and since your income will come from product sales, you'll want your commission to be at least 20% or more.

You need to secure a high enough commission to pay for your time investment in marketing the affiliate product. Writing and submitting articles takes time and effort. So does learning about the product and keeping up-to-date on product enhancements. A fair commission is your only compensation for these efforts.

In addition, the best affiliate programs also offer recurring commissions on sales, which means you'll receive commission when that customer buys again. And if you can hook up with a program that pays you a recurring commission on the sales of any 2nd tier affiliates you recruit, you've just discovered an affiliate marketers dream - passive income.

Another thing to look for when considering a quality affiliate program is the support you receive from the program manager. A quality program provides you with a knowledgeable affiliate manager to help you succeed.

When you are new to affiliate marketing, you need that mentor/trainer who will guide you in your marketing efforts. You also want an affiliate manager who provides resources to help you promote the product better and helps you identify certain niches suitable for your product. They can give you valuable information concerning the product, including updates. This information can then become the content for your article marketing efforts.

Finally, a quality affiliate program pays you on a regular basis without fail for the time and effort spent on marketing their product. Don't wait six months for payment, the best programs pay monthly.

Quality affiliate programs are out there. However, you must take time to find them. Choose a program with the above considerations in mind and you have a better chance to select one of the better programs out there.

Keep the wind behind your sales,
Jim Slader

Jim Slader manages the Affiliate Program at Article Marketer. He provides training and advice to article marketer affiliates. If you're looking for a quality affiliate program with all of the benefits mentioned above and more, check out Article Marketer.

Sharon McPherson
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How I Made Over $300 in 6 Hours Using a CPA Affiliate Network, Squidoo and an Infomercial

Ever notice how circumstances that you originally think are a pain in the butt, can actually turn into an unexpected blessing?

That's exactly what happened to me, when a sleepless night led to me discovering a method that enabled me to make over $300 in 6 Hours using a CPA Affiliate Network, Squidoo and an Infomercial.

While suffering through another bout of frequent insomnia I happened upon a television infomercial that caught my attention because it was advertising a marketing program that I had seen a few days before as a $17 cost per action offer at ROI Rocket.

And that's when the light bulb went off!

Realizing that I could take advantage of the free website traffic the television ads would generate, I immediately implemented the following marketing plan...

1. Research - I needed to be certain that the program I would be promoting was above board, so I did a Google search and checked InfomercialRatings.com to see what folks were saying about it. Satisfied that the company was indeed providing people with what the infomercial claimed they would, I then wrote a short review of the program using the information I had learned from my research.



2. Gathered My Affiliate Link and a few graphics for the program from ROI Rocket.



3. Set Up A Squidoo Lens. Knowing how quickly marketing trends can change I knew I didn't have time to set up a review page on my own website then wait for Google to index it, and not wanting to spend money on an Adsense campaign, I decided to use Squidoo to build my review page after reading that lenses there get indexed by the search engines rather quickly.

Then I went to bed - anxiously anticipating what type of results my little experiment would render.

Imagine my surprise when the next morning I had not only earned over $300 in affiliate commissions, but my Squidoo Lens was ranked #1 on Google for my chosen keywords - which I made sure were included in the title and url of my lens.

And although I did make some commissions out-of-the-blue, I could always tell when there had been another airing of the infomercial because commissions would spike dramatically for a few hours then trail off. The people who were visiting my lens and clicking through my affiliate link were not spending any money, yet I made $17 a pop each time they filled out a form to get free information.

This trend continued for approximately 5 months until the infomercials stopped airing and the company removed the offer from ROI Rocket. I then simply deleted the lens.

Now I'm not going to promise you that you'll make the same money I did, or that your lens will get indexed by Google in under 6 hours, but if you'd like to try this marketing method, here's the steps to take.

1. Check out the latest infomercials and read what people are saying about them at InfomercialRatings.com



2. Sign up for a free affiliate account at ROI Rocket. Search for cost per action or pay per lead offers that are either an exact match or comparable to the infomercial product you have chosen to promote.



3. Open a free account at Squidoo and build a lens for the program you have chosen making sure to use a keyword-rich title and url for the lens. If you're unfamiliar with what Squidoo is or building a lens, I suggest you check out Social Networking on Squidoo written by Squidoo expert, Tiffany Dow.

If you decide to try this for yourself I'd love to know what your results are. You can enter them in the comment box found below.

Resources mentioned in this post:
ROI Rocket
Squidoo
InfomercialRatings.com
Social Networking on Squidoo


Sharon McPherson
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My How, What and Why for Being a Marketer

In the 8 months that I've been involved with social networking there's one very clear revelation that I've discovered...

People are nosey!

And because of it, the way we conduct business on the internet has changed forever - for the better!

No longer is it enough to have just an email address, phone number, and maybe a picture of yourself on your website. Not if you expect to survive in this web 2.0 world we live in.

Folks want to know the person behind the picture - really know them.

Because believe it or not, they are interested in YOU, not just your product or services.

They want to know about your kids, your hobbies, your likes and dislikes.

They want to know where you grew up, what schools you've attended, what kind of car you drive.

But more importantly...

They NEED to know not only about your successes, but also your failures.

They NEED to know that they're not the only one who's struggled, made mistakes, been scammed, and chased their tail to reach the elusive "online dream" we're all reaching for.

So acting upon my recent revelation, this is where the rubber met the road for me.

Getting Real

You see, during the almost 11 yrs I've been reaching for my dream I'm one of those who's struggled, made mistakes, been scammed and chased my tail.

I've been unfocused, jumped on the bandwagons of the "latest and greatest", and wasted more time and money than I care to think about.

And embarrassing as it is to admit, I've changed directions in my business so many times that even the best GPS locator on the market wouldn't be able to keep up.

"Find Your Why And Then Fly"

As a matter of fact, a few months ago I had reached the point of almost admitting that I wasn't cut out for the world of online business and calling it quits.

But through what I feel was a divine intervention it finally happened... I got the "kick in the ass" I needed, in the person of Carrie Wilkerson a.k.a. The Barefoot Executive.

My first introduction to Carrie was through a free video course she offers where she details how she built a huge mailing list from one simple landing page.

And even though I'm old enough to be her Mama, I immediately knew that this little gal from Texas could teach me what I REALLY needed to know about building a successful business.

But most importantly to me, Carrie helped me rediscover my "Why" for being in business.

As she talks about in her free audio tape, What FUELS You? Driven by your WHY!, it can't be about the money. Your "why" has to be something more meaningful than just money.

My why is my husband of 31 years.

Dave just turned 60 years old on January 2nd and the time has come for him to finally retire from the work-force. Most importantly because of his health, but also because now that all of our children are grown - it is time for US! Since the job he's held for the past 20 years has no retirement benefits - it is up to me to provide enough income for us to live comfortably for the remainder of our years.

Getting Back to My Basics

As a result of rediscovering my "Why" something unexpected happened, I also realized my what and how.

I describe my what and how as what I've had the most success doing in my 10+ yrs online and how I achieved that success.

For me, the what is affiliate marketing - the how is through article marketing.

Upon this realization and as the new year approached I knew it was time for me to basically start all over again.

So I'm now in the process of completely redoing my website to reflect my new business model, the FREE SBM Marketing Club, where members will have unlimited access to Article, Affiliate and Web 2.0 marketing tools, resources and information.

Yes, I also said Web 2.0. Because unless you quickly learn how to adapt your business to web 2.0, you'll be left in the dust.

I invite you to join me as we BOTH start a New Year and a New Direction. Be sure to visit this blog often so you'll be the first to know when my site is ready.

And I'd love to learn what your "WHY" is if you'd like to share it by clicking the comment link found below.

Sharon McPherson
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