The Freeist's Blog

Simple = Freedom (in your online business)

David — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:27:46 +0000

Just like regular jobs, running an online business can be full-time job. It can also require your frequent upkeep even after being uber successful. If you constantly need to be maintaining your business to keep it paying you out, are you free from it or imprisoned by it? I think the question is, how automatic, ever-lasting, and easy to maintain can you set up your business to be and still be successful? Well, if you’re an affiliate, like me, you have a chance. If you build a website and sell it to a major company, you also have a chance. But I won’t focus on that, I’ll focus on doing it as an affiliate. Many affiliate marketers develop products and make this business their lives, making millions in the process. Is that the goal? I don’t know. But I do know I don’t want to still have a million calls and emails a day to keep my online reputation and business going. I personally would rather do something that is a little more sustainable; that is, find a system that works WITHOUT building you business into a situation of writing many emails (personal or mass), needing to write more blogs for traffic, needing to conduct webinars, needing to train, needing to make phone calls, or needing to write articles incessantly. So what to do?

There are people on the internet who have constructed elaborate money making systems. Some work, some don’t. I have been lucky enough to find a couple that work. I have listed a few of them in this blog post. But whether they work or not is not the point. The point is, how simple is the system and what does it require you to do? The Renegade System, for example is an amazing system put together by Ann Sieg based on her book, The Renegade Network Marketer. One of the biggest advantages of this system but also one of my biggest obstacles is that when you sell a book and get a lead, you get all their contact information (email, phone, address) and are expected to use that info to bring them into your business (or for selling them another product, I suppose). Those prospects frequently figure out how to do the system themselves, which helps you, and it does have the potential to bring people into Send Out Cards automatically, as well as sell other products for you automatically – but that isn’t the sole purpose of the program. The amount of products you sell via the system or people you bring into SOC is dependent on how much “follow up” you do. It does give you the added choice of suggesting information to your prospects that you believe can help them specifically instead of just giving them whatever the system provides. It’s not incomplete, it’s just for people who want this information to follow up with their prospects in the way they choose. It does its job brilliantly and I’ve made a lot of money from it but it doesn’t give me the form of freedom I desire since I still need to follow up and train almost endlessly.

I recently moved Tissa Godavitarne’s affiliate program to the top spot on my Top 10 Affiliate Programs. The reason I did it is because it’s the most brilliant program I’ve seen since the Renegade. What I love is that ultimately, after you do the proper signing up, which takes a couple hours, all you have to do is drive traffic to one link and the system literally makes the signups for you. I know because it literally signed me up automatically. At the end I was like, “holy shit, it really got me to do everything.” A significant reason that it kicks ass so much is that it provides you 2 links from 2 niches that will ultimately build 7 solid income streams. 1 of those income streams is a simple domain hosting network marketing company that can eventually pay you unlimited levels (Global Domains International – it doesn’t make sense to supply the link because if you become a member, it should definitely be through this Tissa’s affiliate program). The conversion rates are high because it costs nothing to sign up. It costs something to stay in the program but by that time, people realize how well it’s going to work and they stay in because it’s worth it. All you have to do is drive the traffic. And if you can get that automated, then the hardest parts in the process become stat checking and check cashing. Fortunately or unfortunately, due to its easy-to-duplicate nature, this program is spreading like wildfire and when you sign up, you’ll realize why.

There are some marketing methods that I’ve found that are low maintenance – that is the key. Easy and simple also helps. For example, writing a sales letter for a solo ad is not easy or simple. Buying traffic from a pre-determined demographic is easy and simple. If you can figure out PPC, it can sustain itself without maintenance for a while usually but is neither easy nor simple. Posting on forums is free, simple, and easy but also tedious. Usually, the less you pay, the more effort you will need to trade off. So if you want to put in less effort, which is the idea behind the automating, then you can pay for it. You just need to make sure that your cost per conversion is still making you money. So if you find a simple, easy, low maintenance traffic source that will feed links to an affiliate program that automatically feeds you income, then you are free. When buying traffic, checking stats, and setting up commission payments is your job, then you are free.

FYI, Guaranteed Website Visitors is a traffic source that I like to use for either one of these affiliate programs. It sends 74-76% unique visitors who are looking for “business opportunities.”

Classic Covert Corporatism

David — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:47:31 +0000

Anybody paying attention understands that our form of government right now can be best described with the word, Corporatism. Simply put, it’s Big Business with a firm hold on their Big Government. The large companies send lobbyists to write and enact legislation in their favor (companies are frequently accused of writing the legislation), influence the creation of government agencies that serve them, and influence the voting process tremendously (Diebold). The ones that have the tightest, most oppressive hold on the government and thus the people are the bankers. Almost every major position in Obama’s administration is related to some banking interest on Wall St., usually banks such as Goldman, UBS, Citi, BofA, JP Morgan, and of course, the Fed. We can’t seem to shake the grasp of Big Pharma, who influence most of our major health policies (i.e. Medicare prescription drugs, immunizations, etc.). The Big 3 carmakers have crippled our car manufacturing industry by influencing legislation to stifle competition and regular market forces that would have forced them to be better companies or go under, be liquidated and started up again by another company with a better plan – or not, and it repeats. Government (the people) “bails out” these automakers that are destroying the industry because the automakers have lobbyists that go to Washington and pull strings to steal money from taxpayers because they can’t stay in business. There’s no way that a polled 98% of people were in opposition to the first bailout and the stimulus and they both got passed without influence from those who benefitted from those bills. It’s hand outs to the rich. The bailouts are just one example on of mountain of them. We give the rich people handouts all the time through the legislation they enact due to this stranglehold they’ve arranged. Just think about the IRS for example. It is specifically designed to pay the interest on our debt to the Fed, who essentially bought everybody in 1933 through the bankruptcy of the US. The Fed, of course, is owned by international private banking interests not loyal to any country. They already have more money than they can do with, their goal is power. They currently have the power in Washington and all over the world.

I thought about this whole thing because I was walking in the New York Subway and I saw a promotion for NY Subway “Metro Cards.” The ad was offering cash bonuses of $50 if you buy a certain amount of Metro passes with a card from Chase. Sometimes they are blatant but I think this one is a bit covert. Chase is exploiting a government agency to get customers. Yes, the people at MTA probably auctioned and came to a deal with Chase to promote them like any other company would and Chase pays for the advertising. But is it fair and balanced for the government to essentially offer discounts or promotions for their own services if you sign on with certain non-govt. companies? No, of course not, it’s favoritism and market interference. It’s a shame that public transportation “needs” to be public because it sucks anyways. If it was run by a for-profit company, it would have to be better than the trash MTA and Amtrak put together. All one needs to do is look to Japan’s and other countries’ rail systems and you’ll see what’s possible. Ultimately, these government agencies operate like independent companies but they have an operating budget, not an operating incentive and it never produces good results. I don’t think I’ve ever known a government company that I thought was doing a good job. Travel: fail; Post Office: fail; Insurance: fail; Education: fail; Law Enforcement/intelligence: fail – and the list goes on. The fact is, non-govt. companies are the leaders in all these categories and in all industries. Contrary to MSM popular belief, the free market is not what caused our financial problems today. Our problems are from government intervention into the free market, the runaway printing of money by the Treasury and Fed, and the manipulation of interest rates by the Fed. The Fed and the bankers are brilliant though. They’ve done this before, many times. They know how to control populations and they’ve gotten control of the education system on every level. They’ve taught everybody Keynesian economics which perpetuates consumer borrowing and spending by claiming consumerism is what drives an economy, instead of savings and sound money. They’ve taught everybody that the government knows best and if things go wrong, they will intervene, or rather, just when they feel like it. At what point is this fascism? When people hear that, they think of Hitler or Mussolini and object. That’s interesting because there are startling similarities between the US now and those countries then. Read Naomi Wolf, “End of America” and her others. Look around, you’ll see government violations and marker interventions everyday. Right now, we’re short of the openly violent part which many believe is coming (The Pastor proves it’s definitely here on a small scale). So right now, we’re in a state on Non/Semi-Violent Fascism, aka Corporatism.

Right as I was at the end of this and I was watching the Daily Show in the background. Jon Stewart announces that we are buying 65% of GM. He goes on to be outraged at buying such a shitty company. Why do we own this company now? Because the government is suddenly awesome investors or slick carmarkers? It’s utterly insane what kind of Nationalization we are allowing the government to get away with. If we continue to allow the govt. to take a dump on our agreement with them (The Constitution) then we must disband it. We created it, thus we are sovereign to it and it’s actually just a corporation, which is a figment of our imagination and only really exists on paper. It can be dust instantaneously.

Still not listening to Ron Paul, huh?

David — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:20:08 +0000

It’s unbelievable to me that some people are still not listening to Ron Paul on economic policy. I believe this because the public is being brainwashed by the MSM anchors. Time after time, I watch an interview where Dr. Paul blazes through their questions with clarity and eloquence and in the end, the anchor drops some teleprompter line to try to discredit him – “well, that’s one man’s opinion.” These newscasters also love to consult “the experts” In this interview, this woman says 90% of “top economists” say the recession will end this year, citing slightly better job numbers and wall street bull runs. They spew their Keynesian falsehoods and the crowd eats it up because that’s what they learned in their schools. I know they love it because I hear the same old tired slogans the MSM repeats incessantly in every “outside of the Ron Paul circle” conversation I have. Have you heard this one… “We have to spend our way out of this!”? Of course, Ron Paul speaks the truth and let’s her know, nothing has changed. The government is spending more than ever, productivity is at new lows, there is a low confidence in the dollar, the fed funds rate is next to 0%, the debt is still over 11 trillion, we still print money to pay for things we have no money for, and we still have unfunded obligations of over 70 trillion dollars. Peter Schiff pointed out that the April job numbers were actually not better since so many people were hired for the census, an activity that produces nothing and costs us a lot of money – it’s never good for the economy to count people. (I know the census is Constitutional but there should be some provision to postpone it when we are BROKE). To make it worse, there are too many houses on the market (not counting the 400,000 plus repos that are not yet on the market) and the Feds are pushing for Americans to own and build more homes by adding incentives. This is how we got into our current problem! The government encouraged mal-investment in the housing market by offering artificially low interest rates and boutique mortgages to people who shouldn’t have qualified. Now, in an effort to prop up the housing prices, they encourage more buying with a first time home buyer tax credit. We need to let the housing bubble deflate… all the way! Government needs to get their noses out of this problem before they turn the serious problem that they created into a dollar crisis. For the record, I believe that is the intention of the banking elite; to destroy the dollar, bring in a continental currency on their way to a global currency (that is perhaps fully electronic) with the disguise of saving the day. And they are doing a great job. Right now there are only two things that are stopping our dollar from collapsing: the fact that we have convinced China and some other countries that they need to buy our debt so we keep buying their products and that the dollar is the reserve currency of most of the other currencies in the world and a dollar crisis would mean a currency crisis for basically everybody else. Thankfully, the bankers have had the Amero minted for many years to “come to the rescue” when the time is right. A dollar crisis is what Ron Paul has been warning strongly against for at least 1-2 years, and basically since 1971, Bretton Woods. But now he knows it is on our doorstep. He predicted the current housing and financial crisis to a T. You can watch the interview on Morning Joe where they give him credit for that prediction citing a quote from 2003. Actually, Ron Paul has been predicting our current crises from economic meltdown to personal liberties well before youtube existed and you can learn that for yourself if you read some his older books (many of which I was able to find free on the internet in pdf). I loved when in “Freedom Under Siege” he predicted the coming of the National ID (now known as the REAL ID) 20 years before it happened. This time he’s telling us we need to change, NOW, before we have a much bigger problem on our hands. We cant keep doing the same things that have brought this ruin on us. More spending, borrowing/lending, and printing is not going to fix a problem that was created by those very things! Keynesians, get it through your head! College economics is bullshit. It’s total crackpot economics aside from laws of supply and demand. As Peter Schiff says, there isn’t two types of economics, Keynesian and Austrian. Austrian (Mises and company) economics is the ONLY type of economics. Just like there isn’t Chinese vs. American physics. Physics is physics. Keynesian theory is a broken, misused, and abused ideology that allows for less freedom, more government intervention, and faultier monetary principles. It’s based on consumerism, borrowing, and fiat currency where as Austrian economics is based on savings, productivity, and sound money principles. Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results. Why would people listen to the same people that had no idea this recession was coming and said we were in great shape up until the housing bubble collapsed and even after that all the way until the market plunged 50%+? Now people go back to those idiots and call them experts, just like they were before? Stop being ridiculous and ignorant. Start listening to people who explain to you the principles of why this happened and how they predicted it for God sakes. Listen to Peter Schiff, Tom Woods, and of course, our leader in freedom, Ron Paul.

Ultimately, if we are going to get out of this crisis, we must get rid of the Federal Reserve along with their central economic planning and overhaul government to live within the Constitution. We can’t trust the same maniacs to do what they don’t know how to do. This may require a complete revolution of government. For right now, we need to push for the passing of Ron Paul’s HR 1207, the bill to Audit the Fed. Once people see how the bankers are openly looting the country, they will stand up. And when it’s the people vs. the government (and/or banking elite), the people will prevail in this non-violent information revolution! Spread the message. Find me at www.twitter.com/freeist or check out my youtube channel, “The Freeist.”

When are people going to catch on to Obama? Not if, WHEN?

David — Mon, 25 May 2009 08:05:20 +0000

Because it’s not a question of “if.” It is inevitable. It has to be. He’s too fucking obvious with his blatant disrespect of the law, doublespeak, two-facedness, and broken promises. Liberals might go along with his phony socialist programs for a little while but when he comes out in a speech and says, we’re going to continue to detain people without trial, people have to be able to see through that! Right? Do people actually think this is justifiable? I talk to a lot of people about issues like this and frequently it comes down to, “what is the law?” And what usually happens is people say “whatever” or the equivalent right to the face of the law. The governments lawlessness has trickled down into the current of our society. The people have been trained to care about some laws and not about others or not care at about any of them. And it has created a cycle where now, the people are going to let this one slide too. No problem Obama because of course, you made the wrapping on your justification of torture way beautiful when you surrounded it with bows and ribbons of rehearsed slogans and old cliches about American values and the rule of law, which you so blatantly deny continuously. I mean, this guy is a former Constitutional Law professor! It’s impossible that he does not know he is breaking the law over and over again. I got some hope the other day when I saw Rachel Maddow’s wonderful breakdown and critique of Obama’s speech. She’s usually a liberal, socialist blowhard who takes the time to ridicule the most brilliant ideas but in this case, she’s dead on. I wouldn’t say she redeemed herself yet and it makes me a little suspicious, but I give her points for calling out Obama HARD and await her next big swing. Maybe she will notice the fraud of the so-called stimulus, the expedient bill voting/signing, the wall street infested White House, the extension of war, the cover up of torture memos and pictures, the continuation of warrant-less wiretapping, the continuation of DEA raids on CA MMJ dispensaries, his attendance at Bilderberg meetings, and… I could go on for much longer, clearly. We all know that liberals are drunk on the Obama sauce – some so drunk they’ve almost been poisoned. Those who are almost dead won’t help us win this battle. Let them come along last, that’s fine. We don’t need everybody to wake up just yet. But when will those people, who for whatever reason, were teetering on the “is Obama for real or is he a traitor” line admit the truth to themselves? I believe it will be sudden and soon. I can only hope that it comes as a consequence of HR 1207. When the people force the Federal Reserve to tell everybody that they have been pillaging this country’s wealth for almost a century. When Greenspan and Bernanke are hauled to the proverbial gallows (and Obama tries to save them and gets dragged along). When Ron Paul gets his ultimate vindication. When the Freedom Movement finally wins out. If HR 1207 isn’t the key, then it will happen eventually, it is inevitable. Ghandi said, “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.” They have fought us tooth and nail… so we know what is next.

Dennis Kucinich! Why have you not co-sponsored HR 1207?!

David — Sat, 23 May 2009 06:59:30 +0000

And now you’re introducing new legislation? My question is WHY? HR 1207 currently has 179 co-sponsors and that’s before a vote! We only need 218 votes total. Every speech you’ve ever made would lead us all to believe that you’d be one of the first people to sign on to this bill! I mean, a chance to open the books of the Fed! If there’s already so much support for HR 1207, why are you introducing lesser legislation at the height of HR 1207′s growth? The only possible explanation is that you’re a sellout and you’re trying to derail HR 1207. I just can’t think of any other reason you would not support 1207 and then introduce 2424. There are even 25+ dems co-sponsoring. See the list here. I mean, POSSIBLY, just POSSIBLY, you didn’t hear about it? But that’s ridiculous. And it couldn’t possibly be that you don’t agree with Ron Paul on this or have a personal issue with him, we all know you guys are friends (though you disagree on fiscal policy and everyone knows you’re a socialist). But to the congressman who introduced legislation on a monthly basis to hold the higher ups accountable – can you please co-sponsor the legislation that has the best chance of giving us some transparency in our monetary system and finally holding them accountable? Expose the Fed! Support HR 1207!

My Top 10 Affiliate Programs and Why

David — Mon, 18 May 2009 07:20:58 +0000

In my opinion, Affiliate Marketing is the best way to make money on the internet. As affiliates, we drive internet commerce and get paid well… very well. And if you’re smart enough to build a system that brings residuals and operates on its own, then you can set yourself up with a very nice lifestyle (a little financial FREEDOM, perhaps?). I admit, you need to love working on the computer or at the bare minimum, know your way around proficiently to do well at and enjoy AM but I have an inkling that describes most of the people reading this. I got annoyed one day when I went to the internet searching for lists of the best affiliate programs. I wanted people to tell me their favorites and why. But the www was devoid of quality. So after a LOT of time searching for programs and making money with them, I am ready to write my own list and attempt to fill the gap.

When rating an affiliate program, I take a number of things into consideration. My favorites are really the ones that have make me the most money. So the #1 factor is how much money I’ve been able to make with a certain program. I also consider the tier structure. Usually they are 1 or 2 tiered. In my experience, more than that is considered a Network Marketing company (AM and NM are similar in many ways). I prefer 2 tiered programs because it compounds the whole situation when you can add affiliates to make you money… you never know who you’ll wind up sponsoring. The trade off is that the first level payout might be smaller but I take that into consideration. I am going to list some companies that give a good first level commission and have 2 tiers. Obviously conversion rates are important but so is the cost of advertising in the niche. A high conversion with low expense is ideal. The affiliate tools that are provided are quite important. Ease of use of the affiliate backend is important. Timeliness of payment and method is also important. For me direct deposit is obviously the first choice, then paypal, then check. Some programs have caveats and some have enormous hidden benefits.I take all this into consideration… here’s the breakdown (keep in mind, numbering them was really hard):

1) Acme People Search

What a wild system this guy’s got! Carefully calculated, perfectly constructed, it walks you through a process that wipes the competition away. Kudos to the creator, Tissa Godavitarne for coming up with such a impressive system. The progression from sales letter to getting the sign up and making it a turn key system is amazingly seamless and simple. You’ll see what I mean if you sign up (for free). He’s basically allowing you to piggyback his “people search engine” concept and create a copy website for you to make money off of – this becomes of obvious benefit to everybody as you go through it. He also GUARANTEES you $125 in commissions in your first 24 hours and delivers! Of course, you need $200 accumulated to get paid out but it’s still money if you can create the other $75. That’s not a hard thing to do given the amount of ways you can make money with this system. At first, the ways to make money were a bit unclear but once I got it, it went WHAM! and I realized how powerful and turnkey this thing was. I know I sound ridiculous with the old “turnkey” business but you can sign up for free and call me out if you want. You’ll see what I mean when you do it. He’s got some great systems in place for customer retention and incentivizing but none require extra work on your part. Just drive targeted traffic to the landing page and watch the system make the signups for you, literally. Since I’m one who hates being tied to the phone, I love the “phonelessness” of this program. If you do decide to join and get your own search engine, make sure you complete all 3 steps to get the $125 in free commissions (they’re easy and take a couple hours, you’ve just got to do them, ya know?). The only thing I don’t like is the fact that he hands out ridiculous, un-memorizable usernames so I have to have it handy to log in. Other than that, the site is well organized, offers free training, metrics, and walks you literally, step by step through the process. I think it might be impossible not to make money with this system.

You can become an affiliate right away here.

You can view Tissa’s “Proof Board” here.

2) The Renegade Network Marketer by Ann Sieg

I know that this says Network Marketing and people are going to think I’m focusing on Network Marketing instead of Affiliate Marketing, but I’m not. “The Renegade Network Marketer” is a book about NM and there’s an excellent affiliate program and system behind the book. I’ve made A LOT of money with the Renegade System. Here are the reasons: 1) It’s a revolutionary product with excellent insight about Network Marketing. 2) 50% commission payout for first level, 20% on second level. 3) Free access to the Renegade System with purchase of book. 4) Sophisticated back-end that auto-sells products for you, including some of the other top programs I’m going to list. 5) Excellent free give away (“The 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing”) to build your list and automatically pre-sell the customer. 6) Consistent producer – landing page has turned a 2-3% conversion ratio on ebook and 25% on free ebook. 7) Access to the Renegade Professional – an intense course with Ann Sieg and Mike Klinger that will blow up your business. 8) Access to the the Renegade Breakthrough Mentoring Program… only for the very serious money makers who want to work directly with Ann and Mike. What’s also great is you get ONE YEAR FREE of Renegade Pro (a $600 value and currently sold out) when you sign up for RBTM. 9) Easy to use site with tons of free QUALITY information (I learned some pretty mean PPC just from Ann’s free section) and all the ad tools. 10) Direct deposit paid bi-weekly. Ann Sieg is well respected in the industry and writes great books. Because of this, she has her own brand and has created her own advertising niche – this makes it easy to stick out in a sea of network marketing training. If the book and system didn’t make you money, the information would still be worth the $67 asking price. THEN THE KICKER COMES IN: When somebody buys the book, they provide you their name, address, and email and are immediately a willing and informed prospect for any opportunity you want to offer them. People pay ridiculous amount for these types of amazing leads (What is it? $4-25 a lead for somebody who has filled out a survey or opted in? This is somebody who just read a book on NM!) and you’re getting them as a prospect whilst making money selling the book. This is the beauty. Don’t miss out on this one.

Ann only offers the affiliate opportunity to those who have purchased the book.

You can get the Renegade Network Marketer book and System here.

You can get the FREE ebook, “The 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing” here.

You can check out Renegade Professional here,

The Renegade Breakthrough Mentoring Program here,

Mike Klinger’s “How I Build My First List” here,

And Ann Sieg’s “Marketer’s Manifesto” FREE report here

3) Site Build It!

SBI is considered one of the premier website building services on the internet. They help you build it, optimize it, and monetize it with a fairly simple interface. They give you products for free that you would otherwise have to pay for such as hosting, keyword research, and search engine optimization. The product is good so there’s a high conversion rate. I was pleasantly pleased to find people buying through the Renegade System without me even mentioning it once. This happened a lot and the commission is hefty. They pay $75 for the basic one year subscription. There’s also many repeat sales, upsells (offers to build it for you etc.), and the possibility to multiple purchases. Then there’s your 2nd tier which is VERY powerful with the residual income. Once people build a website, they usually want keep it and that costs money (much less than the setup though). They have a ludicrous amount of tools. Seriously. They almost have TOO MANY. The affiliate site can be overwhelming at first and there is so much information that I do not know how anybody could get through all of it. I just pick and choose and now I know my way around. Up until recently they only paid by check, but now they are paying by paypal to confirmed accounts. It is widely considered one of the best affiliate programs on the net and I’m sure they’ll continue to stay ahead of the curve.

You can become an affiliate of SBI! here.

You can learn about the SBI! product here. (I chose the affiliate marketing landing page for you guys)

Network Marketers might want to check out SBI! here.

4) The Second Tier

Russell Brunson is a terrific marketer with terrific products. Want to know how to become a strong affiliate on the web? You should not pass up looking at Russell’s materials. He’s got a wide variety of products with different price ranges (from free to $50 to $1000) to choose from so you can appeal to your niche. He offers free weekly training and an extensive training archive once you sign up as an affiliate (which is free). The affiliate backend is easy to use and understand, has a very nice layout, has all the tools, and keeps metrics. Seems like most of the products pay around a %50 commission and most offer 2 tiers. The reason I love telling you about The Second Tier is because the focus of the site is on learning how to be a strong affiliate and that’s what this is all about. The one thing I don’t like is that he pays only by check. Everything else is a go. You might think there is a catch when you get to the website, like you might have to pay something – but I assure you, it’s free and you won’t be asked for a credit card or paypal.

You can become an affiliate here.

If you’re interested in Russell Brunson’s products, it’s best to find them all in the affiliate backend instead of me listing them all here.

5) Amazon.com

I don’t think this affiliate program needs much explaining. You know their products and their domination of the industry. That’s pretty much a good enough reason to become an affiliate. It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in, there’s a book on Amazon.com that you should be putting a link to on your website. The payouts are kinda small but so are the purchases. Do it enough times and… you get the point. Only issue I have with them is that it’s one tier… oh yea, and the homophobic thing too. But they have great tools such as the ability to make your own store. I had fun with that and stuck all my favorite books up there. Obviously, being an affiliate of Amazon is a must if you have a website or if you are a twitterholic like myself.

You can become an affiliate here.

You can check out my affiliate store with all my favorite books here.

6) Twitter Traffic Machine

Speaking of Twitter, if you’re on it and you want to build your following, Twitter Traffic Machine by Bill Crosby is the way to go. Just look at my stats on twittercounter.com. 8,000 followers in 40 days can’t be wrong. It’s $27 and you get a bunch of video tutorials that guide you step by step through the process. You can consult my recent blog post where I discuss the details of growing your twitter account as fast as possible using TTM and other tricks I’ve found. He teaches you how to use the system to advertise it through Twitter and make money while you’re building your following. Granted, it seems this program is all over Twitter right now but thankfully new people are joining everyday and the sales still file in. With a 40%+ commission, low price, and large unique need, it’s worth being involved in. They pay through Clickbank which is fine with me, especially because I’ve got other CB programs paying out (there are others on this list). I also like the sales page which has a high converting video. I think I would be on here promoting Hummingbird if their price wasn’t almost $200 and didn’t only have software for PCs. TTM is a much better deal, is internet based, and teaches you independence and use of other twitter tools.

It seems as though the only way to become an affiliate is to purchase TTM. You can look at the TTM product here.

7) Guaranteed Website Visitors

I like this website because it is simple and cheap. They have good packages for traffic where you can buy visitors for as low as 1.2 cents each. You can pay a little extra (1.9 cents each) for higher quality traffic. The caveat is that you should only use this service for business opportunities. It might work for other traffic but why try? Just focus using this service for business opportunities and you’ll be sending cheap targeted traffic to your site. Just an example of how this could work with say, The Renegade Network Marketer: I’ve historically had a 2%+ conversion rate on visitors to the sales page. If you could get just a .25% sales success rate on 10,000 visitors (who also get your cookies just by going to the site), then you will sell 25 books which equals $837.5 – a profit of $717.5. You can break even with a .035% sales rate which is 57 times less effective than than my normal 2% success rate using PPC. Even twitter traffic gets much higher conversion rates than that. The affiliate program is good because the service is good and EVERYBODY needs it, especially if your niche is home based business opportunities or something similar. The packages are good and a 30% commission rate is not too shabby, especially if the service works and people come back for more visitors. The conversion rate is also high. What I don’t like is the lack of tools and only one tier. Just a nice one to offer in your arsenal though.

You can become an affiliate here. Just go to the bottom of the page when you get there. You can also learn about the service on this page.

8) Wordtracker

It is almost essential to join up as an affiliate of WT for a couple of reasons. The main one is that it’s by far, the best service of it’s kind (keyword research). If you’re not getting keyword research with your website service (like SBI! offers), then you will need something like this and none of the others come even close. Wordtracker has ultimately made me a lot of money by giving me niche keyword ideas that I would have never thought of and are much cheaper to advertise than the ones I did think of. Another major reason is the fact that they have a two tiers with a monthly service which can be VERY powerful. The monthly subscription price is high, for sure. Which is good if you’re an affiliate (make sure you sign up with them as a “publisher”) but not so good as a buyer. But like I said, ultimately it will make you money in the long run if you use the service, assuming you are doing any keyword based advertising. The tools are amazing and the backend is easy to use. It’s also part of the Renegade System backend. They’ve been around for a while and I have a feeling they’re not going anywhere.

You can become an affiliate here. Go to the “Affiliates” link on the top menu bar when you get there.

You can look at the free trial of the service here.

You can look at their free keyword tool here.

9) pocketsfiller.com

This program is good because of what they promote: “Home Business in a Box.” I like this idea because I believe most people can’t and won’t come up with a good system to make money online. So I like the ones that seem to do MOST (never ALL) of the work for you and automatically make money with very little pioneering on your own part. This is one of those programs. Learn, apply, and receive funds. I like their affiliate program because it’s a 75% payout, a very good price point ($49.95), and a 60 day money back guarantee. That does mean that refunds are possible but it makes it much more attractive to buyers. Refunds just come with the territory sometimes as an affiliate – that’s why it’s important to sell good products. I don’t like that the tools are sparse and they don’t have an affiliate backend. They go through Clickbank which is acceptable. Good business opportunities that offer 75% commission are rare so it’s worth a bit of promoting to see if it’ll work for you like it does for me.

You can check out the program here. Go to the bottom of the page to become an affiliate.

10) Send Out Cards

I know, I know, SOC is not an “affiliate program.” But it’s #10 and I thought I should mention it because it’s a one of a kind service that is useful for everybody and the money making is just so good. It can also easily be seen as an affiliate program. Send Out Cards is a network marketing company that, just like it’s name suggests, sends out greeting (or thanks you, etc.) cards to people. The normal costs of this action are slashed and simplified which helps business owners send physical cards to their prospects and also can automate it for you. The power of sending a physical card to a prospect cannot be overstated. They may not look at the card right away but chances are they will not discard it as junk mail and will probably keep it around for a while, reminding them to look at your opportunity. When you use this tool to help promote your network marketing, affiliate marketing, or home business opportunity it will inherently increase sales and increase customer retention at a very low cost. The compensation structure is also complete madness! It almost seems like they’re giving away too much money. When you sign someone up, you get a huge bonus. When those people sign someone up, you get a bigger bonus. And when your business gets big enough, you can get paid on unlimited levels. It’s also another program available in the Renegade System backend and I have qualified prospects ASKING ME about the company automatically thanks to Ann’s awesome sales letter. The issue I have with SOC is that their user interface could be a little better and easier to use. They have made strides here though and it doesn’t minimize the effectiveness of the product. Also, the entry cost is substantial (close to $400). But as with any NM opportunity, you get something for your money and it turns out to be a really good deal (you get a bunch of cards, convention tickets, free training, etc.). Plus, the potential to make that money back with only a few signups is right there. They also only pay by check (which we know I do not prefer). But even if you don’t want to be part of the income opportunity, you can buy the service for much cheaper which sets you apart immediately when you come off the internet and move into tangible parts. Another great benefit is I am only 2 levels away from Ann Sieg herself and joining will bring you only 3 levels away from her and there will be an opportunity to become part of her “team” for free. Do yourself a favor and learn about SOC.

As in any NM company, you need to buy in to be an affiliate. You can learn about SOC and become an affiliate here.

Thats it! The best ten affiliate programs that I know about. Ultimately, if you learn and implement correctly I think you can make a lot of money with any of the above programs. Many of them offer great, free training so take advantage! I hope you benefitted from and continue to benefit from the information. Feel free to leave me feedback on this blog or on twitter at www.twitter.com/freeist. Much success!

p.s. Build your Twitter following for FREE. It’s fast and easy – all you need it to do is enter your Twitter login and password here.

I was reading Osho…

David — Wed, 13 May 2009 02:52:51 +0000

…and I came across this amazing quote, as often happens with Osho books. His books are actually transcribed from his talks and speeches so it’s a really unique reading experience. Almost as if you can feel the vibration of his presence that much stronger, as if he’s talking to you. If you have not heard of Osho, he is a spiritual mystic, teacher, and leader from India. IMO, he’s controversial in a truthful kind of way, you know? In other words, I think he’s attuned to pissing off the sleeping people. The quote is not controversial, but the context definitely is. I’m going to take his words out of context and talk about just the quote because with Osho, and the nature of the quote, Truth is Truth, regardless of context.

“The soul can grow only in freedom – love gives freedom. And when you give freedom, you are free; that’s what detachment is. If you enforce bondage on the other, you will be imprisoning yourself at the same time. If you bind the other, the other will bind you; if you define the other, the other will define you; if you are trying to possess the other, the other will possess you. “

There’s obviously quite a lot in this quote. Detachment could be spoken about for books and books. In this case, Osho is specifically recognizing the freedom that comes from the detachment from the addicting “need” to control people. Essentially, we need to let other people be free if we also want to be free. If nothing else, how can we expect people to allow us to be free if we cannot allow others to have their freedom? In the political arena, it is all too obvious to see how people try to chain other people down, especially with social issues such as marraige and drugs, where the actions of others are usually of no consequence to the lives of those who wish to restrict. That’s the purity of libertarianism that I love – because I believe the idea/party is based on the principle of allowing freedom for others. Osho adds the point that if you bind somebody, you are actually binding yourself with that attachment. When you become a slave owner, your attachment to that slave is binding you and you cannot be free. When you “own” your spouse, your attachment is keeping you from your freedom. Ultimately, without allowing others to be free, we cannot and will not be free. This Truth is supreme and is a law of Nature. If you liked the words, you can check out more on www.Osho.com.

This is the kind of CRAP that comes out of the Federal Government

David — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:04:58 +0000

If you haven’t seen the video of the Fed Inspector General, Elizabeth Coleman, being questioned about the Federal Reserve Bank/Board by Alan Grayson, you should check it out here. Apparently, this woman knows NOTHING! “It’s still in review. We can’t say until we have information.” “Let me explain our jurisdiction…” Blah blah blah on and on! This woman is such a blowhard! They were all reasonable questions and she couldn’t even come close to answering ONE. I bet she sits at her desk all day picking her crotch and eating Nila wafers. She could probably recite Oprah’s book list more accurately than the list of the Fed’s board members. The point of this is not actually to rag on this woman. The point is two-fold. Why are we paying for this ridiculous government agency that is supposed to inspect the Fed but all the laws prevent us from actually getting any pertinent information? That’s the biggest waste of money I’ve ever heard of. All the people on that council need to be fired immediately. Ultimately, 90% of the government should be fired because they don’t perform their jobs with even baseline adequacy. The other point is that the laws need to be changed. The Fed’s actions MUST be known to everybody. We created them and ultimately, we can control them. And we must demand to know what they are doing, specifically what’s going on with our currency and monetary base. Letting them print money endlessly or at their whim and transfer the money to any party without oversight is extremely dangerous and currently contributing heavily towards ruining our economy. To change the laws, make your Representative and Senator know you support HR 1207, Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Fed. You can learn more at www.campaignforliberty.com That’s Ron Paul’s organization that spawned off his historic Presidential run. The bill already has 124 co-sponsors in the House. Currently there is a bill in the Senate with no co-sponsors. So there a lot of work to be done in the Senate. This is the most important piece of legislation this year and perhaps in history. Once the American People can see the kibosh that the Fed has placed on us, we’re going to be PISSED. I don’t think there will be enough brainwash to overcome the information that will go public. Another possibility is that the law will change and the Fed will still deny us the info. The other day, Ben Bernanke said quite adamantly that he will not allow the government to meddle in fiscal policy. How ridiculous is that?! According to the Chairman of the Fed, the People have no say in monetary policy, which is of course, as Ron Paul pointed out, “the only thing that matters.” If they do in fact refuse, then the likely scenario is that they’ll get away with it. Government violates the law so frequently now that it is unreasonable to assume the most wealthy agency in the world, next to the IMF and World Bank, will not be able to circumvent this little bit of legislation without consequence. Currently, there is a lot of resistance and they will surely fight back. But we MUST push this through, insist on it’s enforcement, and prosecute those who do not comply. If we do that, it might turn out to be, as Alex Jones so aptly put, the “excalibur that finally slays the dragon.”

I am appalled…

David — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:06:16 +0000

…by some recent news. Two events in particular. The first event is involving youtube and Alex Jones/Infowars.com. Just recently, Youtube booted the entire Infowars channel for allegedly violating the Terms of Service Agreement. Apparently, Alex Jones, the owner and operator of Inforwars.com and PrisonPlanet.com, showed a news article from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on his radio show and the paper complained. You can read the article here: You Tube In Egregious Censorship Of Alex Jones Channel Infowars argues that “not a day goes by” that a newspaper article is shown on youtube by major news networks. Of course, this is something not nobody can argue. Even though that is true, his actions can also legitimately be a violation of the TOS for youtube. You are in fact, not allowed to show other’s content. The only obvious explanation is that youtube looked for an excuse to “legitimately” go after Alex Jones and Infowars and found it. Infowars is now trying to draw links between Google and the NWO. I haven’t done the research yet. I honestly don’t care if Google is a corporate member of the CFR. The establishment can easily get rid of a youtube channel if they want. It’s definitely worth it for them. Right now, the establishment’s biggest threat is Alex Jones. He has uncovered the most and has the biggest following. His news is accurate and it makes sense, most of the time. I don’t agree with everything per se, but most – much more than 99% of the other publications. Taking down youtubes that have millions of views collectively and erasing years of work is a clear attack. Luckily, Alex has the resources to be almost as effective with a new way to host his videos. Either way, I consider youtube’s actions a censorship attack and I am deeply saddened by it. It has created some difficult cognitive dissonance. Do I abandon youtube because of my moral dilemma or continue to use their service because I like it so much and use it to make money? I will make my decision later. For right now, I’m sticking with youtube. But SHAME ON YOU!

I’m also appalled to hear of a news story about a 16 year old from Granville County, NC. The family was raided in the middle of the night by Federal Agents and the boy was apprehended allegedly for sending multiple bomb threats. The police searched their house and found nothing. The mother claims people hacked their IP address to make it look like her son did called from their home. It’s two months since the boy was arrested and the mother still has limited access to her son. There’s a gag order on the case. The hearing has been pushed back multiple times. See the story here. What’s the justification for all this? Ah yes, the PATRIOT Act. How unusual! Another case of law enforcement abusing peoples’ rights by “mis-applying” the PATRIOT Act. Only somebody who has not done the research or does not have the ability to comprehend slightly complicated subject matter can think the PA was actually written to stop terrorism. Even a cursory perusal of the document would reveal that it is intended to strip the people, of foreign and domestic nationality, of their rights. The PA is where we got warrant-less wiretapping, the suspension of habeas corpus and illegal detention, “enhanced interrogation techniques” i.e. torture, new federal mandates on financial reporting, and a whole bunch of other bullshit “laws.” They aren’t actually real law because most of them are void based on the fact that they violate the supreme law of the land, the uS Constitution. But the law enforcement and courts are handed down their procedure, so it takes the form of law, whether or not it’s legit. When are we going to stand up and demand that this horrid piece of legislation, which was over 400 pages, read by 0 members of Congress before the vote, and passed only days after 9/11/01 (can you believe, it was actually written WELL BEFORE 9/11?? Weird, huh? Not really…) be thrown in the garbage for good? I guess when things like this happen to us individually, like the woman in the video. Maybe enough empathy for the other people who suffer from horrid violations of the Constitution, fear that it will happen to us, or steadfastness to the ideals (I hope it’s the latter) will do the trick. The Feds are officially out of control. We need to remember that the PEOPLE hold the cards. WE, THE PEOPLE created the government therefore WE are sovereign to IT. The Federal government is a figment of our imaginations and can dissapear at our will! Remember WHO YOU ARE! We must get it in check or abolish it forever. Let’s hope we didn’t sleep too long and that it’s not too late…

Twitter following 101

David — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:36:19 +0000

I said in my last post that I would explain how to build a Twitter following so that’s what I’m going to do. I opened my account on April 6th and today is May 4th. As of this writing, I have 5106 followers and have made 1135 updates. I won’t talk too much about the updates, but they definitely contribute to your following. There’s a couple of “rules” that you need to understand that will help you build your following fast. I am going to speak about them assuming you have a basic understanding as to how twitter works. If you don’t know, you can check out my page and twitter in general and come back (www.twitter.com/freeist). Also, I am ADDING my opinion to this system called Twitter Traffic Machine. It’s $27, a very cheap cost for all the great info you learn – all by videos, which I love. So TTM will set the foundation and the rules will help you understand how it all fits. You can get the program here

1) Most people who follow you do so because they are “auto-following.” I found that for about every 100 people I follow, about 40 will auto-follow me back. About 10 people will come from “organic” following. If you wait for people to organically follow you and you are not famous, you will wait a LONG TIME until you have a substantial following. You can follow 1000 people a day due to restrictions. So if you have a new account and you want to build it as fast as possible, follow 1000 the first day and 1000 the second day. Once you hit 2000 following, twitter will stop you again until you have 2000 followers, then you can add 10% of your following. So it actually grows the slowest, assuming you’re doing everything you can, in between 2000 and 5000 followers or so.

2) Some people talk about a “quality following” instead of a massive one. This is absurd in my opinion. You can only target so much on twitter. The fact is, I get more hits on my links when I have more followers. Right now, most links I put out get anywhere between .5% and 1% click ratio which I am fine with. With 50,000 followers, that means 250-500 clicks per link of free, somewhat targeted traffic… that’s powerful. A targeted following is good and you want to maximize that. But on twitter, it’s about numbers. Even somebody you’re not targeting can do a lot for you when you send out a link, like end up buying stuff or Retweeting your posts.

3) To auto-follow or not to auto-follow, that is the question. I just turned off my auto-follow feature. Why? Because I can only follow so many people to gain new followers and if I’m using my daily allotment to follow people back, then I won’t have enough space to follow new people. Auto-following people helps you retain people, definitely. But for now, it’s about growing and you can grow fast enough to make up for the people who unfollow you just because you don’t follow them back. My theory is that many more people have the auto-follow feature on than have the auto unfollow feature on.

4) When your account slows down after you mass follow, unfollow those who are not following you. It doesn’t make sense to just unfollow randomly because people might unfollow you back. So it makes sense to get your hands on a program that will unfollow those who are not following you. Twitter Karma is good but almost never works and is said to not work if you have over 10,000 followers+following combined. Huitter is very good but they cost $15 a month after 3 tries. The program I use is In Rev TwitIn. You can only unfollow 25 people at a time but it’s free and works if the server is not too busy – so I do it late at night. I might spend an hour unfollowing people and have a big allotment of people I can follow after that. Then my following goes up big time for the next couple of days. Once my following gets huge, I might pay for Huitter if it makes sense. I would like to build my own program so if there are programmers reading this who want to get involved, contact me. I’m interested in doing bulk unfollowing and bulk targeted following.

5) Follow people who are followers of experts in your niche. This is the best way I’ve found to follow a massive amount of people and have them be targeted. Flashtweet says they have a bulk follow tool but hey Flashtweet, it doesn’t work, EVER. I’ve tried it more than a dozen times and it has never worked. I hope it does soon and I will use it for sure. But there are no other bulk follow programs so going to someone else’s followers is the easiest way to target who you follow and do it fast.

6) Be as active as possible. The more you nurse your account, the more it will grow. Follow, unfollow, rinse, repeat. Also, make at least 25 posts a day on information relating to your niche. Additionally, it’s cool to visit twittercounter.com on a daily basis so that you can see your process and see if you need to tweak anything.

7) Make your profile and content as appealing as possible to get the most amount of organic followers. A good way to get organic followers is to post things on hot topics. Then people might see your post and like and follow you.

That’s pretty much the gist of getting from 0 to 5000. If I learn things from 5000 to 10,000, I will post it. Hope this helps. Til my next post… you can catch me microblogging all types of cool shit on www.twitter.com/freeist.