How to Make the Most of LinkedIn Groups

Are you a member of a LinkedIn group? Do you spend time networking in LinkedIn groups? LinkedIn groups are great way to build credibility and make new connections that can ultimately help grow your business.


You can join up to 50 LinkedIn groups. However, it’s difficult to gain traction in 50 groups as well as find the time to participate in that many. I recommend that you go ahead and join up to 50 groups, but select 5-10 groups to spend your time on in order to get the most benefit out of your participation.


With over 1.5 million LinkedIn Groups, it can be difficult to find relevant groups and determine which ones might be the best for you to join. It is also important to find groups that are well-managed. Unfortunately there are many LinkedIn groups that are not well-managed and that makes the experience within these groups less than optimal. Not to worry, I’m going to give you some insights on how to find the quality groups.


Below are 5 tips for maximizing your LinkedIn groups experience.
#1) Use LinkedIn Search to Find Relevant Groups to Join


In case you haven’t noticed, LinkedIn search has been significantly enhanced. This includes the ability to search for relevant groups (based on your network) and it also includes the ability to search for discussion topics within open groups!


To start with, search for groups using keywords that would be a natural fit for you based on your geographical location, industry, prospects, alumni, community/charity organizations, hobbies and interests. Try searching LinkedIn Groups with the keywords that actually describe your natural affinities. For example, type in the name of the college you attended to find potential alumni groups that exist on LinkedIn.


You can also take advantage of Boolean search operators for smarter searches on LinkedIn. (I recently discovered this Tip Sheet on Boolean Search from LinkedIn Corporate Solutions). To locate a LinkedIn Group that was in my geographical location and my industry, I searched LinkedIn Groups using the Boolean Search Operator “AND” for the keywords (social media AND Dallas). LinkedIn showed me 25 results of groups based in Dallas AND focused on social media!


Another interesting finding was when I typed the word “hiking” into LinkedIn Group search, I found a group with over 1000 members who share this passion. There is no better way to start relationships than connecting around a common passion or interest!


For each LinkedIn Group that is displayed in search results, you have the option to view members in your network who belong to the group as well as “similar groups”.


You can even reach out to your LinkedIn connections and ask them what they think about the groups that they belong to. This gives you a solid reason to reach out and connect with your network.


LinkedIn group search is extremely powerful for discovering the right groups to join.
#2) Review the “Groups You May Like” Suggestions from LinkedIn


The easiest way to navigate to the “Groups You May Like” feature is through your to navigation menu bar under “Groups”. There you will see these options. (The Groups Directory option is the primary search area for LinkedIn Groups)


When you click on the “Groups You May Like” feature, LinkedIn will list suggested groups for you to check out based on your network connections, profile information, skills and expertise, and existing group memberships. (You may also notice some groups (or subgroups) on this list that you already belong to.
#3) Evaluate the Quality of a LinkedIn Group


How do you know if the LinkedIn group you are interested in joining is going to be a well run, quality group?


In some cases, you may just have to join the group and spend some time there to make that determination. However, here are a few ways to evaluate the group for quality:


Is this LinkedIn Group a Quality Group?


-Who is the group manager, and are they engaged and visible?


-What are the group rules? (hint: if the group rules don’t exist or they are not well written, chances are the group is not well-managed)


-Do a good majority of the discussions involve questions and dialogue?


-Are there lots and lots of promotional links or an abundance of “self-promotion”?


-Are the top influencers in the group credible?


-Is the group manager among the top influencers?


In a well-managed group, you are going to most likely see a manager who is visible throughout the discussions and a strong set of rules.


The quantity of membership and the activity level of a group aren’t always correlated to whether or not the group a quality group. I’ve seen some very large groups that are very well-managed and some very small groups that aren’t managed at all!


Be sure to evaluate the stats of the LinkedIn group you are interested in as well. There you can learn more about member demographics, activity, how long the group has been around, and more.
#4) Consider Joining Corporate Sponsored Groups


There are a number of corporate sponsored groups popping up on LinkedIn. This is where LinkedIn has officially partnered with brands or corporations to help them build robust groups. Within each of these groups, the organization can drive member visits and discussion participation while also controlling the ad display space within the group site.


Examples of these corporate LinkedIn Groups include: Intuit (small business group), Citi (Professional women’s network), Staples (small business network), and Capital One (Business traveler network).


What I love about corporate sponsored groups on LinkedIn is that they are very well-managed. The discussions tend to be in-depth with rich dialogue amongst members. These brands/corporations have a vested interest in making their groups successful, and in every case there are dedicated group managers in place who facilitate the dialogue and keep the groups spam-free.


I have found as a member of several of the groups listed above that the discussion questions submitted weekly (and delivered via email) by these group managers are intriguing and enticing. They make you want to jump right in and give your own insights and opinions!


If you run your own LinkedIn group or you’re thinking about starting one, you could learn some terrific strategies as a member of these corporate sponsored groups.
#5) Adhere to LinkedIn Group Participation Best Practices


In order to make LinkedIn Groups serve as authentic forums for discussions and dialogue, we can all do our part to maintain the integrity of the groups we belong to. This will make the LinkedIn Group experience better for everyone.


Additionally LinkedIn is doing its part by helping group managers fight promotional posts. If you are thinking about posting a discussion that contains the words me, my, or I, don’t count on it showing up. Most likely it will end up under the “promotions” tab where it’s highly unlikely that anyone will see it.


In order to successfully build influence in LinkedIn groups, your best bet is to authentically engage in discussions and contribute value-added insights.


Below are some best practices to remember as you find the right groups to join and start engaging with members:


-don’t just drop into groups and promote your products or services


-don’t auto-post your blog articles into LinkedIn groups (Instead, provide links to reputable sources of information within the context of discussions that can help members. This can include your blog articles if they truly serve that purpose.)


-ask questions and provide thoughtful answers


-contribute to ongoing discussions and new discussions consistently


-share meaningful, helpful, interesting, and reputable content


-send invites to connect with mutual group members only after you’ve spent some time participating in the group (Ideally the best time to send the invitation is when you’ve interacted with members in a discussion!)


I hope that these tips will help you make the most of your LinkedIn groups experience. LinkedIn groups provide an amazing opportunity to position yourself as a thought leader and an influencer. If you lead by example with your participation, others will follow.


Are you spending time in LinkedIn groups? How do you find the right groups to join? What are your thoughts about the value of LinkedIn groups? Leave your comments below.

Make Money Online: 100+ Tools and Resources

Making money online is a dream for many, but the simple fact is that it's often just as tough as making money offline. Due to requests, we've put together a list of the most popular money making methods today, many of them focused on blogging and peer production.


A word of caution: for the sake of completeness, we've included a small number of sites that have been criticized for their ethics. If it sounds too good to be true, it generally is. Commenters are welcome to share their experiences of the various sites.


Get Paid To Write








Weblogs, Inc. - Apply to blog for one of their ninety plus blogs or submit your own topic idea. They will pay you per post that you write and you must meet their minimum post requirements.


PayPerPost - Get paid as much as $500 or more a month writing articles and reviews of their sponsors on your blog.


Blogsvertise - Their advertisers pay you to mention and talk about their websites, products and services in your own blog.


Review Me - After your blog has been accepted in their network, they will pay you $20 to $200 per post that you write.


Smorty - Earn $6 to $100 dollars per post you write on your blog. Amount paid for each post depends on the overall popularity and page rank of your blog.


SponsoredReviews - Write reviews for their advertisers' products and services on your own blog. They charge a 35% transaction fee for their services.


LoudLaunch - Blog about the advertisers campaign releases that meet your interests. They pay once a month.


Blogitive - Get paid weekly via PayPal for posting stories that interest you.


BloggerWave - Select the advertiser opportunities that best suit your blog and write reviews on their products and services.


InBlogAds - Write about websites, products, services and companies on your blog and get paid for it.


BlogToProfit - Make $250 dollars or more by writing new posts on your blog.


Creative Weblogging - Write 7 to 10 posts per week for their network and they will pay you $225 per month.


WordFirm - Make money publishing books as a freelance writer from home.


451 Press - Write for a blog within their network and receive forty percent of all generated revenue.


Digital Journal - Network of bloggers that get paid to report on newsworthy articles through their blogs.


BlogBurner - Sign up for a free blog and get paid for writing new posts. Your commissions are generated through Adsense clicks.


Squidoo - Earn money by writing your new blog, or choose to donate your earnings to charity.


About.com - Become a paid guide writing articles for About.com. Compensation depends on the growth of your page views.


DayTipper - Earn $3 for every short tip you write and get published.


Helium - Earn a share of their advertising revenue by writing articles in their channels.


Dewitts Media - Get paid to write your own blog. This site requires you have a minimum page rank of 3 to sign up.


BOTW Media - Make money writing a blog for their blogging network.


CreamAid - Get paid to submit blog posts in their directory.


BlogFeast - Generate revenue from pre-installed Google Adsense ads when you blog in their network.


Mashable - Mashable hires freelancers and new staff, offering one of the largest platforms for tech bloggers.


Advertising Programs








Google Adsense - Most popular pay-per-click advertising provider. Make anywhere from $0.01 to $5.00 plus per click on site relevant ads.


Text-Link-Ads - Approve or deny the advertiser links that appear on your site. They pay you 50% of the sale price for each text link sold on your website.


BlogAds - The average blogger makes anywhere from $50 to $5000 dollars a month selling blog ads. To participate in this program you will need to get sponsored by someone in their network.


LinkWorth - Here you will find eleven different options to fit your advertising needs. Choose from text based advertisements, sponsored ads and paid blog reviews to name a few.


CrispAds - Access to over six thousand advertisers in their pay-per-click program. You choose the advertisers that suit you best.


Chitika - Offers six types of advertising to fit your needs.


AzoogleAds - Delivers targeted advertisers to their network of publishers to bring you the most profitable solutions.


Vibrant Media - Offers in-text contextual based advertisements.


MediaFed - Place advertisements in your blog's RSS feed to generate additional revenue.


Qumana - Embeds ads directly into your posts. Ads are generated from keywords that you select. Not particularly popular with readers.


PeakClick - Austria based pay-per-click provider. Provides automatic insertion of site targeted ads.


DoubleClick - Offers a full suite of products for publishers that enable you to forecast, sell inventory, serve ads and analyze campaigns online and through other digital channels.


Tribal Fusion - They offer reliable payments, free ad-serving technology, a dedicated account manager and up-to-date, real-time reporting, with a 55% payout. Must go through an approval process.


AdBrite - Approve or reject any ads purchased for your sites. Also gives you the ability to sell ads direct with "Your Ad Here" links.


ThankYouPages - Shows ads based on demographics and relevancy. Majority of traffic must originate from U.S.


Clicksor - Inline text link advertising, underlines words directly in your posts making them clickable advertisements. Once more, we'd say that inline ads are not popular with regular blog readers.


TargetPoint - Contextually and search targeted pay-per-click ads.


IndustryBrains - Place relevant contextual text listings and graphical ads on your site.


BloggingAds - Post one-time ads on your site. Pays via PayPal.


BulletAds - Performance based online advertising network.


AdsMarket - Match your traffic to handpicked advertisers with top-converting products and services.


ROIRocket - Targeted campaigns specific to your marketing needs.


AdKnowledge - Offers complete outsourcing of your advertising management. Runs ads in websites, email and search engine inventory.


Yes Advertising - Payouts for running ads from their sponsors. Also offers a referral program that pays 20% of the referred webmasters earnings.


RevenuePilot - Offers pay-for-performance and pay-per-click advertising for your sites.


SearchFeed - Integrates paid advertisements into your site's search feature.


Bidvertiser - Display text ads on your site and advertisers bid for placement.


Pheedo - Monetize your RSS feeds with this program.


ValueClick media - Generate revenue by displaying ads through banners, pop-unders and rich media. Be warned that pop-unders are unpopular these days.


OneMonkey - Another text based advertising program.


Yahoo Publisher Network - Use the internet giant, Yahoo, to display targeted ads on your site.


Q Ads - Monetize your site by placing ads anywhere you can add a picture.


Affiliate Networks and Programs








Amazon Associates - Link to Amazon's products and services and earn up to 10% of the sale price. Converts well for product-focused sites.


ClickBank - Over 10,000 products to promote with commissions as high as 75%.


Commission Junction - Promote the advertiser's products and services in exchange for a commission on leads or sales.


LinkShare - Pay-for-performance affiliate marketing network. Gives you the ability to use individual product links on your site and generate revenue from sales.


Affiliate Fuel - Serves as a middle man to bring publishers and advertisers together to promote products and services.


LinkConnector - Affiliate marketing network that offers a zero tolerance fraud policy to keep you safe while conducting business.


LeadPile - Affiliate network that allows you to generate and sell trade leads to the highest bidder.


Forex-Affiliate - Affiliate program that allows you to earn commissions from trading Forex (currency exchange) online.


incentAclick - CPA (cost-per-action) affiliate program that guarantees the fastest ROI in the industry.


AdPlosion - Earn revenue by selling leads, clicks and products from their advertisers. Also runs an incentive points program in addition to your commissions.


AffiliateFuture - Another affiliate program that pays you for generating leads, sales and clicks.


ClixGalore - Affiliate network consisting of 7500+ advertisers for you to choose from.


ThinkAction - Affiliate network that claims to have the top payouts and the possibility of earning over $100,000 dollars per month.


RocketProfit - Affiliate network, pays via check after your commissions reach $25 dollars.


CafePress - Earn affiliate commissions by selling your personally branded merchandise.


Avangate - Make money selling popular computer software titles through your site.


Paid Social Media Programs








Dada.net - Social site with a revenue sharing program that pays you for referring friends and driving traffic.


Jyve - Pays you to provide answers, advice and peer support to people in need of some help.


Cruxy - Specializes in social video, but serves as a venue to sell your digital media.


BitWine - Get paid to give advice and answer questions for people, on subjects of your interests and choice.


Ether - Make money answering questions for your peers over the phone. You set your rates and call availability.


UpBlogger - Social network site that pays you based on the amount of visits you receive to your uploaded content.


JustAnswer - Help others solve their problems and earn money for your knowledge.


MetaCafe - Upload your videos and earn money based on the number of views you receive.


ChaCha - Get paid to offer support to members of their community.


AssociatedContent - Earn money by uploading your videos, text, audio and images to their site. Earnings are determined by the exposure you receive from your content.


myLot - Pays you for posting, commenting and using their social network.


KnowBrainers - Another site that pays you to get involved with the community and answer questions. Optionally you can answer questions through the RSS feeds on your own blog.


Everything Else That Pays








Google User Research - Google Pays you money to participate in their user research studies online.


Microsoft Research Panel - Get paid from Microsoft for providing feedback on their products.


Amazon Mechanical Turk - Amazon pays you to complete simple tasks that their computers can't understand. Payments are a matter of cents.


eJury - Earn $5 to $10 dollars per verdict rendered as a mock juror for practice trials.


WorkingSOL - This company pays you to handle technical support for many large companies. You can work from home on the computer or by phone and decide what times you are available.


Appingo - Always looking for experienced copy editors and proof readers. Must submit a resume.


IntelliShop - Pays you to shop at stores in your area and write a review of your experience.


Mahalo Greenhouse - They pay $10 to $15 dollars per site you submit to their directory.


Focus Pointe Global - Get paid to join their focus groups and voice your opinion. Available to teens and adults.


Agloco - Sign up, download their toolbar and get paid to surf the internet. This site has been criticized as a "pyramid scheme", although the founders deny the allegation.


Arise - Make money providing phone, web and email support and sales for 40 plus companies in their network.


CraZoo - Earn money for starting new threads and posting in online forums.


Tutor.com - Get paid to tutor people online.


ForumBoosting.com - Make money posting in forums across the internet.


Share-A-Pic - Earn money by uploading and sharing your pictures on their website.


Opuzz Voice - Earn money by doing voice overs for their clients online.


SlashMySearch - Get paid to search the internet with their search engine.

Secrets of Affiliate Millionaires - 7 Alternative Success Tips in Affiliate Marketing Business

There are many affiliate marketing strategies to help you to generate a million dollar in your affiliate marketing business on the internet. Alternatively, you will discover and learn 7 success secrets of affiliate millionaires in this article. With those secrets, you will become a wealthy affiliate millionaire in the long term, not overnight.

1. Selling Primarily Informative Product Online.

It is obviously that selling informative products online is perfectly fit to the affiliate marketing business. The reasons, why it is perfectly, are: (1) people are always looking for the information online (2) you can offer services along with those informative products online (3) people can download and get those informative products instantly and (4) those informative products are the intellectual properties online.

The only possible drawback for selling the informative products online is that people can look for free information on the internet. To solve this possible drawback, that is why you have to offer your expert services along with those products, if you want to become an affiliate millionaire. With those services, you are so far away from your competitors.

The real secrets of affiliate millionaires are: (1) sell information which can be used to solve other peoples' problem and (2) offer your expert services along with those informative products to help others easier.

2. Stay Focus On The Market.

There is no doubt that there is a lot of information on the internet. With those overwhelm information; it is easier for affiliate marketing entrepreneurs to lose their focus on what they are doing in the affiliate business. Otherwise, there are so many low-value tasks to prevent you from your success in your affiliate marketing business. For example, checking emails, replying customers' emails, performing account works, and performing tax issues are the low-value tasks for your affiliate marketing business. You can absolutely find automated software tools or assistance to handle with those tasks. To become an affiliate millionaire, you have to optimize your time to the highest value tasks for your markets and business. Your time is a money and very valuable for your business. For instance, opening a new line of business, focusing on customer's needs and closing sales are high-value tasks you should do.

The real secrets of affiliate millionaires are: (1) stay focus consistency on what you are planning and doing for your affiliate business (2) maximize your time for the highest value tasks, which generate sales for you, in your affiliate marketing business always (3) get the high-value tasks done always for your business and (4) look for new opportunities in your markets always.

3. Deliver Over Your Customers' Expectation.

Delivering your products or services over your customers' expectation is one of the most significant habits of millionaire. Likewise, if you want to success in affiliate marketing business, you need to deliver your affiliate products along with your services over your customers' expectation. The minimum delivery to your customers is not enough to become an affiliate millionaire. With this habit, you will impress your customers and they will be happier with your delivery.

The real secrets of affiliate millionaires are: (1) deliver over whatever you think your customers' needs (2) delivery over the expectation all the time and (3) think about long term success and relationship with customers if you want to become an affiliate millionaire.

4. Generate Passive Income Through Recurring Affiliate Programs.

Your wealthy in financial in affiliate marketing business, like other business, is based on the passive income. It is an absolutely great idea to generate your passive income for your affiliate marketing business. There are many opportunities to generate recurring passive income from online affiliate programs on the internet. The highest recommendation is to look for great recurring affiliate program online, what you are believe that it can solve other people' problem. With those programs and appropriate affiliate marketing strategies, you will generate a lot of passive income for your affiliate business. It means you will be paid for life if you can refer those programs. In general, you can search those programs in the search engines, like Google. You will discover a thousand of programs.

The real secrets of affiliate millionaires are: (1) look for a valuable recurring informative affiliate programs for your markets and (2) promote those recurring programs with multiple affiliate marketing strategies.

5. Hire Sub-Affiliates Through 2-tier Affiliate Programs.

What if you can generate commission without your action, what's happened? You will live in your dream life! Another secret of affiliate millionaire is to promote 2-tier affiliate program in your market. You will have your own sub-affiliate marketers who are willing to promote the products and you will be paid commission when they can generate sales.

The real secrets of affiliate millionaires are: (1) hire sub-affiliate marketers through multiple marketing strategies (2) support those sub-affiliate marketers with tools, research information, and special reports and (3) keep motivating sub-affiliate marketers.

6. Improve Yourself And Mindset Always.

One of the most valuable assets in your affiliate marketing business is you. You have to improve yourself and mindset always. You have to think and behave like other millionaires do. With those habits and behaviors, you will grow yourself and business exponentially in the future, of course.

The real secrets of affiliate millionaires are: (1) think and behave like other millionaires do and (2) improve yourself and mindset to the positive way, like positive thinking, critical thinking and proactive behavior.

7. Believe Strongly In Yourself, What You Do and What You Will Do.

To become an affiliate millionaire, you must have a faith. You must believe in yourself, what you are doing and what you will do. You have to drive yourself to where you want to go in the future with the strong belief. Without this faith, you will lose your direction for yourself and your business.

The real secrets of affiliate millionaires are: (1) setup a clear vision for your affiliate marketing business (2) believe and respect in what you are doing and what you will do in the future and (3) drive yourself to where you want to go with your strong faith.

Final thoughts, the affiliate marketing business is all about "creativity". You have to combine what you have learned from this article and take it into your action accordingly. With those secrets of affiliate millionaires, your life will be changed forever! Also, you will earn top affiliate commission and success in the affiliate marketing business in the long term, not overnight or short term.

Affiliate Marketing – Top Tips for Newbies!

Affiliate marketing’ seems to be an ever-increasingly used buzz-word. As a thriving and growing industry, being an affiliate is now accessible to everyone – from the full time internet marketing professional to the person wanting an additional part time income.

So what is this affiliate marketing malarkey all about? Well in the context of this article, I’m going to exclusively deal with online affiliates – that is, running a website to promote the products and services of another company so you can earn commission.

You’ve probably heard of, or used, some of the really big affiliates. Here are just a few of the most popular:

Moneysupermarket
GoCompare
MoneySavingExpert
Quidco
MyVoucherCodes
Kayak

These are big players making an absolute fortune every month. However, they have huge advertising and marketing budgets to match. My point is though, that affiliate sites are, for many of us, natural and usual parts of our online purchase flow.

How does affiliate marketing work?
Let’s consider a customer going online to buy a camera. They want a Panasonic camera so they hop on Google and search for ‘Panasonic cameras’. The first hit is the Panasonic site – they click through, browse the range and make a purchase:

Outcome: Customer buys product, manufacturer/retailer makes money.

Now let’s think about an alternative scenario. A customer wants to buy a digital camera but doesn’t know which one. They go on to Google and search for ‘digital camera comparison’. The first hit is for Which.co.uk so they click through and have a browse.

Once they’ve found one they are interested in purchasing, they can select ‘compare prices’ which shows the prices various online retailers are offering. There is a button saying ‘go to store’ next to each. The customer then clicks through and buys the camera.

Outcome: Customer buys product, affiliate site (Which) makes commission, retailer makes money (albeit slightly less due to paying commission).

You might be wondering why a company would pay commission that cuts into their profits. The reason is that they didn’t have to pay anything to market/advertise the product – the affiliate did that. It gives the company more ways of getting to their audience whilst effectively ‘out-sourcing’ the marketing cheaply. Win-win for the company and the affiliate, plus the customer is still happy.

Easy money?

If you could build a time machine (using a Delorean of course), you could go back 5, 10 years and make a fortune from affiliate marketing, very easily. Back in the ‘old days’ you could throw together a site, whack on some banners, and buy some heavily optimised links and you’d coin it. Those days are pretty much over I’m afraid!

Being an effective affiliate today that makes money isn’t easy. It takes knowledge, skill, flexibility and a lot of determination. If you’re someone who gives up easily on things then affiliate marketing isn’t for you!

Affiliate marketing requires a mixture of skills – including sales, marketing, SEO, consumer psychology, content writing, Content Management System knowledge, data analysis, negotiation and accounting. You also need to be passionate about learning, willing to be self-critical and love all things web.

I don’t say the above to put you off being an affiliate – being an affiliate can be financially rewarding and very satisfying. You just need to be dedicated to it and not expect to make your first million in the first month!

Without further ado then, here are my top tips for new affiliates:

1) Find A Niche

The first step of starting out as an affiliate is the most important one – deciding on which product/service you’re going to market! You can be an affiliate for almost anything these days, from cosmetics to cars.

It’s vital not to just jump in and choose a niche without giving it a lot of thought. Many markets are absolutely saturated and will require a huge amount of time and money to rank well in (online gaming and payday loans to name just two). Other niches may be new products that haven’t been tapped into yet and may provide easier pickings.

Remember this though – whatever market you want to get into, there will be others doing the same! Think carefully about what you can bring to the table in terms of content and value to your visitors.

2) Research

One of the mistakes I made in my main affiliate site was not doing enough research before I started building it. I assumed that because I knew loads about online poker, that I knew my target audience. I was wrong! Whilst I did a good job in terms of building content and SEO, I failed to do basic stuff like thorough keyword research.

The outcome was this – I ranked very highly for quite a few terms – however they had low search demand and were ones that don’t convert well. Fail!

Any new web project requires thorough research. I know some affiliates that will spend weeks, if not months, researching and planning before they’ve even installed a CMS. Think of it like redecorating a room; a decent paint-job will need decent preparation – sanding things down, washing walls, masking things up…boring stuff but essential for a good job.

So what should the research involve? For a start, keyword research is vital. This involves brainstorming what you think your most important terms are. You can then use tools such as the Google keyword tool to find out what people are actually searching for.

Don’t just think about the volume of searches though – you also need to think whether a given term will convert into a sale/click-through. Consider the following – ‘free poker’ has 301,000 (broad) matches on Google UK per month., whilst ‘high stakes poker’ has only 12,100. Whilst the latter has far, far less search demand, it shouldn’t take a genius to work out that it stands to make the affiliate more money in commission. The word ‘free’ is usually to be avoided as it indicates the searcher has no intention of spending money (it’s often used as a negative keyword in PPC campaigns).

Also, consider how many sites are competing for a given term – using the examples above, Google UK suggests about 65 million pages for ‘free poker’, whilst ‘only’ three million for ‘high stakes poker’. The more competing pages, the tougher your job is going to be to rank for them!

3) Choosing an Affiliate Company

Once you’ve chosen your niche, you’ll next want some companies to promote/be an affiliate for. Here is another part of the process where it’s worthwhile investing some time into research. Some companies have bad reputations in terms of having predatory terms or late payouts. Do some searching on Google and relevant forums to find out what other people’s experiences are.

Before you sign up, make sure you have read the terms and conditions of the affiliate agreement. Yes this is a boring task but ensure you know what you can and can’t do. This avoids problems months down the line and losing income.

4) Domain Names – Choose Wisely!

Don’t skimp on the domain name; get yourself a nice ‘brandable’ one, either one that hasn’t been registered yet, or is being sold (try sites like www.sedo.com). Avoid ‘spammy’ ones like online-casino-bonus-codes.com. They look naff, they sound naff, and in any case, Google isn’t so keen on ‘exact match’ domains any more. As an example, look at our company – what looks more trustworthy and like a ‘real’ brand – koozai.com or digitalmarketinginsouthamptonandlondon.com?

Trademarks

Be very, very careful about buying a domain with a brand name/trademark in it. The vast majority of affiliate agreements will state this isn’t allowed – essentially to cover the danger of visitors mistakenly perceiving the affiliate site to be an actual part of the real brand.

Certainly within the poker affiliate niche, I’ve known people to get away with doing this for a while (I guess the companies gain income so weren’t too bothered). In contrast though I also know of a person who had a long-established site, making good money, and then out of nowhere had the company he was marketing shut down his site and demand the domain name be handed over.

I personally don’t feel the risk warrants it, and it’s not worth damaging your reputation as an affiliate. Ultimately, buying a keyword-heavy or trademarked domain smacks of being lazy. A skilled affiliate can take a ‘brandable’ name and turn it into a profiting site.

5) Kick-Ass Content

One thing pretty much anyone in the digital/online industry would agree with these days is this – your site needs awesome content. With both consumers and search engines more savvy than ever, now is the time to invest into content which really adds value to your site, is informative for visitors and drives sales.

This means – no generic/copied text; no meaningless drivel written just to appease the search engines. It means well-written, well-researched content that gives the visitor the information they want and need to decide whether to buy. It means striving to be better than your competitors and getting creative about what to have on your site.

6) Build A Brand

Don’t be another bland affiliate site with the same sort of content on it. Get creative, find out what your audience wants, keep up to date with your niche. Is there a new product in your niche? Be the first to review it.

Always ask yourself – what else can I cover in my site that would add more value than what my competitors offer?

A brand is something you build up over time, gaining more and more trust from the online community. It’s a long term investment that can reap huge rewards.

7) Write about something you love

If you’re starting from scratch as an affiliate, the best advice I can give you is, start with a product or service that you’re genuinely passionate about. For me, this was online poker. If you’re writing/blogging/building a site about something you love, it’s a lot easier and a lot more fun. The passion you can bring to the site will be picked up by your visitors and will provide authenticity, helping to boost conversions.

If you’re writing about something you don’t know anything about, it will show! It also makes coming up with content ideas much easier – the geekier you are in your niche, the better!

8) Embrace Social Media

If you’re serious about building and growing your site as a brand, I can’t stress how important it is to fully utilise the power of social media. If you’re not bothering with this, then you’re instantly giving your competitors an edge over you.

Social media should be seen as a natural extension of your site. At the very least, make good use of Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. Don’t expect overnight results from social, this is a ‘slow burner’ but will pay dividends. Invest time into making useful, regular updates that will engage with your visitors and potential visitors.

If you have video content (for example, product reviews are great), get yourself a YouTube channel and promote it. Presentations and PDFs can be promoted on Slideshare and other sites.There are hundreds of social media sites out there – don’t be afraid of using the more niche ones if you think there’s value to be had from them.

Your job can be streamlined to some extent by using tools such as TweetDeck and Hootsuite to schedule your posts in advance.

9) Get Analytical

You must, repeat must, get into the habit of analysing your traffic. Google Analytics is the obvious place to start, but other tools such as GetClicky are good too. Make sure you’ve got relevant goals set up so you can monitor the effectiveness of your site.

Traffic numbers are obviously important, but also check out metrics such as ‘bounce rates’ (how many people click away after one visit), demographics etc.

Don’t skimp on the time you spend using Analytics. You may find data and statistics boring but if you’re going to be lazy with this part of your business, you’re never going to maximise the effectiveness of your site and will continue to ‘leak’ opportunities.

10) Convert, Convert

Your goal isn’t to get traffic – it’s to get traffic and then convert them into sales/leads which you will get commission from. Ask yourself this – would you rather 10,000 visits and 10 sales, or 1000 visits and 20 sales? Don’t get trapped into ‘vanity’ figures of high traffic.

So your aim is to strive to continually improve your conversion rate, getting more and more value from your visitors. Consider doing ‘A/B’ testing where you assess which parts of a webpage can be improved.

It goes without saying but without traffic, your site’s a dead duck. Gaining traffic comes gradually as a result of building up content and back-links. However, what good is traffic if it’s not converting into sales/click-through? Pretty much none!

Here is where another skill an affiliate needs comes into play – Conversion Rate Optimisation. Remember, your goal is to attract visitors, give them the information they want, then get them to click through to the site of the actual company.

A key to this is having effective ‘call to actions’. Essentially you need to make it very clear to the visitor what they should do next. Don’t just have a page of text describing a product. Have a button or link that says ‘buy now’, or similar. Make it stand out. Experiment with button colours, sizes and placements.

11) Embrace Change

Online marketing is changing all the time – consumers are more savvy, SEO is more difficult, and the market as a whole is more and more competitive. You need to be prepared to change not only your site, but your approach, skills and attitude. If you don’t then you’re not going to succeed in the long-term, it’s as simple as that.

Affiliate marketing is not an industry where you can ‘bury your head in the sand’ when things go wrong or when Google changes their algorithm overnight. You must take the emotion out of your business decisions and be ready to embrace change as and when it’s needed (and also anticipating it).

12) Learn From Your Peers

Interact with other people in your niche. Ask and answer questions; be inquisitive and curious and don’t be afraid to take criticism.

Attend events – there are loads of affiliate expos and conferences – these are an excellent way of meeting fellow affiliates, the companies you’re promoting and hear updates on the industry.

If you can get a ‘mentor’ this can be a great way of learning from someone who knows their stuff and has already made a ton of mistakes you can learn from. Some affiliates will effectively offer mentoring in exchange for you using their affiliate-affiliate links (i.e. they get a cut of what you get a cut of!)

Forums are great as they allow you to ask questions – a popular use is to ask for a ‘site review’, where other people can critique your site, from an SEO or user experience point of view. I’ve done this before and it’s hugely beneficial. Getting someone’s objective input on your site can be a real eye-opener!

13) Be Patient – Very Patient

Unless you’ve magically found some massively under-exploited niche, you absolutely must be prepared to work damn hard and wait for results. The money isn’t just going to start rolling in because you have a live website with an affiliate link. I remember the day after I’ve put my first affiliate site live, logging into the PokerStars affiliate site and being surprised to see no commission!

See this as a long-term game – keep working on your site, adding content, building social, building links, and blogging; eventually the results will come. Aim to be the very best and most informative site in your niche and you will succeed because you will attract visitors. You’ll also start building a reputation as an authority in that area which will have the knock-on effect of people mentioning and recommending you online.

14) Outsourcing

There may well come a time where either you can’t physically do all the work yourself, or you don’t have the knowledge. In this case you will need to consider out-sourcing work – be it content, development, SEO or other.

The good news is that within the affiliate industry, there are plenty of people providing freelance work, from small one-off tasks to on-going work. Finding a good person needn’t be difficult, or expensive. A lot of freelancers are recommended using word-of-mouth. If you’re a member of a forum relating to your niche, you can often come across people there. Failing that, there’s plenty of websites where you can request/offer work (such as Elance). I’ve even had some success for small jobs on Fiverr.com.

Once you’ve got someone good that you’ve used, hold on to them! Good content writers are an invaluable asset. Build relationships with the people you buy services from, treat them well and they’ll be more likely to cut you favours (such as completing work at short notice) in the future.

15) Make Loads Of Mistakes

Make mistakes and learn from them! The beauty of this industry is that you can never know everything (anyone that says they do is lying). You will make mistakes – this doesn’t make you a failure as an affiliate marketer – far from it. Learn from them, try something different and move on. If you mess something up don’t beat yourself up about it or give up – persevere, work consistently on your site and you will succeed.

Rather than thinking ‘I really screwed up there’, view everything as results – made a mistake? You still got a result – just not the one you wanted! You must keep a positive attitude and move on. If you’re going to just give up when you get something wrong you’re in the wrong industry.

Summary – Just Do It!

I’m conscious that some of what I’ve written in this post will put some people off – however my intention is to make you have a realistic approach to being an affiliate. I personally love affiliate marketing, for all its faults.

It’s challenging, it’s rewarding and you can learn loads from it! The beauty of it is that anyone can start doing it with minimal investment (a domain name and web hosting is all you need to get going) making it easily accessible. With easy to use, simple Content Management Services like WordPress available free (along with thousands of templates), you can be up and running in hours.

Learn loads, make mistakes, have fun along the way and hopefully make money!

10 Free, Little-known Web Marketing Tools

Fine-tuning your web marketing efforts will likely increase their effectiveness. Here’s a collection of 10 free tools that can help.

Email Subject Line Suggester

MailChimp, the email service provider, provides a tool for suggesting subject lines for your campaigns. While it does require a free account to utilize the tool, the invaluable information you can glean from it makes it worth the effort.


Google Trends

Google Trends not only shows current hot searches, but it allows you to compare products, keywords, or ideas — displaying their popularity in comparison to overall search volume.




Browsershots

Whether you are completely redesigning a website, or simply making tweaks to the checkout process or lead generation forms, knowing how a web page will behave in different browsers is critical. Browsershots will show you screenshots of your web page in different browsers and versions.




AdWords Performance Grader

AdWords Performance Grader by WordStream, a pay-per-click management software creator, analyzes your Google AdWords account from top to bottom, attempting to show you how you stack up against competition in your industry. For the tool to work, you must provide Google account credentials.



Five Second Test

Studies show that people make decisions about a web site in less than 8 seconds. Your first interaction with visitors is critical to converting them to customers. Five Second Test lets you upload a sample of your site, have people view it, and then complete a series of questions about what they saw. To use the free version, you’ll have to return the favor, and answer questions about other websites as well.




Twellow

Twellow aggregates Twitter users and categorizes them by areas of interest. Dig in to their database to find tweeters that are relevant to your business, and follow them.




YouTube Keyword Tool

If you are implementing video into your web marketing, YouTube Keyword Tool can show you what kinds of videos are searched for on that website based on criteria you enter, such as themes and locales. It’s an excellent way to determine what is interesting to people at the moment.




Pingdom Page Load Speed Tool

The page load speed on your website has two primary effects: It can help or hurt your search engine optimization efforts, and, most importantly, it affects the experience your website visitors have. Faster is better. The Pingdom tool gives you a scorecard for your web page performance, and offers some analysis as to why your load speed is what it is.






On Page Search Engine Optimization Analysis

This free tool from SEO Workers, a search engine optimization consultancy, allows you to analyze key pages of your website for elements that are important to ranking well in Google and other search engines. On the report page, embedded YouTube videos explain what you’re looking at, and why it’s important.




Soovle Popular Searches

If you’re looking to understand what people are searching for across multiple search engines, Soovle will take a keyword you enter, and show suggestions for popular, similar searches on the engines of your choosing. You can even download the keyword ideas displayed into a CSV file for later use and analysis.

The Trader in Pajamas SCAM

Have you heard that the amount of money turned over in the forex market is $3 trillion every single day? That’s a whole lot of cash in most people’s minds. And you can get in on this action too. 

It’s easy. Just trade forex with binary options and use the Trader in Pajamas System. Thanks to invaluable insight from former stock broker Keith Anderson, everyone can be a part of this profitable currency trading phenomenon and make significant profits from home. 

You may be wondering, is this a scam?

No way. Keith has become an incredibly wealthy man, and he’s eager to share his secrets with the world about just how simple it is to make this kind of money by being your own boss and working from your own living room. His lifestyle is something everyone should be able to enjoy!

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Keith was called out as a remarkably promising broker, and one of the finest to have immigrated to Wall Street from the U.K. But he left this fantastically stressful job in order to relax, take it easy, and enjoy life a little by working from home. 

You can learn what Keith knows by checking out his Trader in Pajamas System for free: 

Click here to find out more

13 Hot Internet Marketing Trends in 2013

Internet marketing is now a critical piece of just about any company’s marketing mix. There are few marketing options with the speed, efficiency and reach as internet marketing. And so you should take the time to ensure you are focusing sufficiently on your internet marketing to maximize your revenue and growth.    

The year 2013 will prove to be another year in which the array of internet marketing vehicles, tools and techniques will continue to increase. To help you capitalize on the opportunities, here are 13 hot internet marketing trends for 2013 that you should consider when planning your marketing initiatives throughout the year:    

13 Hot Internet Marketing Trends in 2013 

1. Design Matters

Design matters, because design sells. Just look at the success of Apple, Pinterest, Desk.com or Nike. All four websites are stunning, and that’s no coincidence. Apple is the most valuable company of all time. It actually carries very few products, though. It’s the design that powers Apple’s value. Nike is a shoe and apparel company, yet pays just as much attention to the design of its website, videos and ads as much as to anything else. Focus on great design for all of your internet marketing in 2013.

2. Marketing Goes Visual

Similarly, communication through visual means is hot, and only getting hotter. Whether the explosion in infographics, or the dramatic rise in the popularity of Pinterest, or the redesigns of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, we are going through a visual revolution. Start figuring out how to make more of your marketing visual in 2013.

3. Parallax Design

Parallax website design incorporates special scrolling techniques whereby background images on the screen move slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth on the screen. You can see examples at the following websites: Volkswagon Beetle and Activate (be sure to scroll down the page!). If you are planning a website redesign in 2013, consider incorporating elements of parallax design.

4. Mobile Mobile Mobile

Wordwide, there are over 5 billion mobile users and 1.1 billion smartphone subscribers specifically. The iPad was the fastest growing technology product EVER! Wow, if you need further convincing that you should start planning how to connect with your audience via mobile channels for your business, you’re nuts!

5. Video Video Video

More than 4 billion online videos are watched every day. Sixty-eight percent of video watchers share video links. So it’s clear your audience likes video. On top of this, consider that after 72 hours, a typical person can retain about 10% of text that they’ve read, 65% of an image they’ve seen, or 95% of a video they watched. Think that video might be helpful with communicating your message to your audience? Just a bit, huh?!?

6. Cloud-Based Tools

To be uber-efficient with your internet marketing efforts, you should be using cloud-based tools. For email marketing, you might be using MailChimp. For SEO, you might be using SEOmoz. For landing page testing, you might be using Unbounce. For heat map analysis, you might be using CrazyEgg. For website analysis, you might be using BoostSuite. Check out all the unbelievably useful options available to you.

7. The Multi-Screen World

With 86% of mobile internet users actually using their devices while watching TV, and with more than 10,901 Tweets PER SECOND being issued as TV viewers watched Adele win Record of the Year at The Grammy’s, it’s clear that we all live in a multi-screen world. Make sure that your internet marketing accounts for not just desktops, but ALL screens.

8. Social Media Gets Smarter

Facebook has more than 1 billion users, and Twitter has more than 500 million. Social media is an opportunity for your business, but it’s been difficult for many businesses to make sense of it all and to gain solid business value out of it. With a growing number of marketing platforms such as Wildfire by Google and ShortStack, and with more granular social media analytics as provided by tools such asSproutSocial, Followerwonk and PageLever, extracting clear meaning from your social marketing will get easier over time.

9. Retargeting Goes Mainstream

Retargeting is a means of placing your advertisements in front of your audience after they have left your website without converting. What many marketers fail to realize is that retargeting is one of the most effective internet marketing techniques available. If you are already investing in your site and your marketing campaigns for more site traffic, then it typically pays big dividends to remind the people who left your website without a conversion of your value in solving their needs. Your options for retargeting include Google Remarketing, AdRoll, Retargeter and also Bizo (for exceptional B2B retargeting). 

10. Email Remarketing

In lead generation campaigns or retailer email marketing, there are always going to be occurrences of form or cart abandonment. However, it’s a waste to just let the prospect go without reaching out and finding out if you might indeed offer exactly what they want or need. After the abandonment of a registration form or online shopping cart, through email remarketing you can send out an automated email to give your brand another chance at winning the heart and mind of the prospect. According to SeeWhy, 26% of those who abandoned an online shopping cart will return to complete the purchase in the case they receive a remarketing email. 

11. Search, Social & PR Collide

Organic search has been incorporating social signals for some time, and the integration of search and social has accelerated with the introduction of Google+ and the Google Knowledge Graph. With Google’s Panda and Penguin search algorithm updates, it’s become extremely clear that quality and value matter. That means high quality content, combined with sincere, transparent social marketing, combined with targeted PR is going to be a triad that’s hard to beat. 

12. Attribution Measurement

If you run multiple forms of internet marketing, such as paid search, SEO, email marketing, display advertising, and retargeting, then it can be difficult to assess the value of each piece of your marketing puzzle. If someone encounters your brand five times in a given week through the different marketing vehicles, who’s to say how much credit to give to each of the different pieces. That’s where attribution measurement services come in, whether Google, ClearSaleing or VisualIQ.

13. The Hispanic Market

Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment of the US population. And as they represent approximately 25% of new births, expect them to have an impact on your future business. Research points to Hispanics spending more time online than non-Hispanics and being more active online than non-Hispanics. If you have been ignoring the Hispanic market, perhaps 2013 is the time to start providing the market with the attention and customization that it deserves.

10 Ways to Get Traffic for Free

Getting traffic is one of the most important tasks for any web master. What is more, you can't get traffic once and then just reap the benefits. Getting traffic is an ongoing task and you must be constantly doing it, if you want to get traffic and keep it. Here are some of the ways to get traffic for free:

Optimize your site for search engines

Search engines have always been a major way to get traffic for free. That is why you need to do your homework and optimize your site so that it ranks well for the keywords you target. SEO is still the most powerful way to get traffic for free and you really need to invest some time and efforts in the optimization of your site. SEO is not that difficult and if you want to get familiar with it in a nutshell, check our SEO Tutorial. If you are too busy for that, you can start with the 15 Minute SEO article.

Frequently update the contents of your site

If you expected some shocking secrets revealed, you might be a bit disappointed. One of the first steps in getting traffic for free is trivial but vital – get great content and frequently update it. In terms of SEO,content is king. If your content is good and frequently updated you will not only build a loyal audience of recurring visitors, who will often come to see what is new, but search engines will also love your site.

Take advantage of social bookmarking sites

Social bookmarking sites (especially the most popular among them) are another powerful way to get traffic for free. If you want to learn how to do it, check the How to get Traffic from Social Bookmarking sites article, where we have explained what to do if you want to get free traffic from sites such as Digg, Delicious, etc.

Use your Twitter and Facebook accounts

Social networks are also a way to get traffic for free. If you are popular on networks, such as Twitter or Facebook, the traffic you get from there can easily surpass the traffic from Google and the other search engines. It is true that building a large network of targeted followers on Twitter and supporters on Facebook takes a lot of time and effort but generally the result is worth.

Get links with other sites in your niche

Another way to get traffic for free is from other sites in your niche. Getting links with other sites in your niche is also good for SEO, especially if you manage to get links without the famous nofollow attribute. But even if the links are nofollow (i.e. they are useless for SEO), they still help to get traffic to your site. If you manage to put your link in a visible place on a site with high volumes of traffic, you can get thousands of hits from this link alone. If you need list of sites within your niche where you could get backlinks from, check the Backlink Builder tool. However, be careful if you exchange links because linking to bad neighbors can do you a lot of harm.

Use any chance to promote your site for free

Free promotion is always welcome, so don't neglect it. There are many ways to promote your site for free and some of the most popular ones include free classified ads, submissions to directories, inclusion in various listings, etc. It is true that not all free ways to promote your site work well but if you select the right places to promote your site for free, this can also result in tons of traffic.

Create a free product or service

Content drives most traffic when you offer something useful. There are many types of useful content you can create and they largely depend on the niche of your site. You can have articles with tons of advice, or short tips but one of the most powerful ways to get traffic is to create a free product or service. When this product or service gets popular and people start visiting your site, chances are that they will visit the other sections of the site as well.

Use viral content

Free products and services are great for getting free traffic to your site and one of the best varieties in this aspect is viral content. Viral content is called so because it distributes like a virus – i.e. when users like your content, they send it to their friends, post it on various sites, and promote it for free in many different ways. Viral content distributes on its own and your only task is to create it and submit it to a couple of popular sites. After that users pick it and distribute it for you. Viral content can be a hot video or a presentation but it can also be a good old article or an image.

Use offline promotion

Offline promotion is frequently forgotten but it is also a way to get traffic for free. Yes, computers are everywhere and many people spend more time online than offline but still life hasn't moved completely on the Web. Offline promotion is also very powerful and if you know how to use it, this can also bring you many visitors. Some of the traditional offline ways to promote your site include printing its URL on your company's business cards and souvenirs or sticking it on your company vehicles. You can also start selling T-shirts and other merchandise with your logo and this way make your brand more popular.

Include your URL in your signature

URLs in forum signatures are also a way to get traffic for free. There are forums, which get millions of visitors a day and if you are a popular user on such a forum, you can use this to get traffic to your site. When you post on forums and people like your posts, they tend to click the link to your site on your signature to learn more about you. In rare cases you might be able to post a deep link (i.e. a link to an internal page of the site) rather than a link to your homepage and this is also a way to focus attention to a particular page. Unfortunately, deep links are rarely allowed.

Getting traffic for free is a vast topic and it is not possible to list all the ways to do it. However, if you know the most important ways – i.e. the ways we discussed in this article and you apply them properly, it is guaranteed that you will be able to get lots of traffic for free.

The Best Way To Make Money Online Today In 2013

The best way to make money online today in 2013 in my opinion is to be building a list around a particular market and niche within that market. Making money online has come along away since it began some years ago with different strategies. Today in 2013 it is all about leverage. Working smarter, not harder. What exactly do I mean by this? In this example I would like to use affiliate marketing or creating your own product as an example of how you would go about this. One last thing before we begin and that is I want you to understand that despite all the fancy headlines you read there is no fast way to making money online especially if you are completely new. Not to make you upset or anything but to get you in the correct mindset. OK, lets begin.

Like I said, today in 2013 you want to be leveraging your marketing efforts and be building yourself a list. Understand why you are doing this and your conversions increase, you build trust with your subscriber base and you make more backend sales. So first you need to decide on a market and niche to get started with. You can use the Google Planner to research your demand for your market and niche. A market is something like "sports" or "health" or "investing." There are many markets you can get involved in today. Now a niche would be something like and lets use the "health" market as an example somebody looking to cure athletes foot. So your market is the health market and your niche is "how to cure athletes foot." Now what do we do? The second phase for the best way to make money online would be to create and set up a landing page. A landing page which is a squeeze page is simple a 1 page website that offers something of value such as a free ebook or a trial to a membership site. This can be anything but its need to be of value and what you would do is give this away in exchange for their name and email and start building yourself a list. Now part of the conversion process is of course getting people to sign up but more importantly how you can tie a "front end offer" to your funnel that will give you up front sales to help cover your advertising cost and time for your marketing efforts. Understand? Hope so. If not go back through and re-read this. This is hugely important to our success. Understanding what it is you are trying to do. The final stage for the best way to make money online is then to set up an email sequence inside your auto responder that does two things for you and they are build trust and product backend sales for you. It is that simple! It all just takes time to do but for those who put in the effort will be rewarded.

Well as you can see that the best way to make money online today in 2013 is really not that hard. It really isn't. There are many different strategies to make money online and I just covered one of them that's all. My biggest advice for those looking to get started in find yourself a couple of mentors both in the business and on personal development and start to follow both. Below I have a link to my website which goes more into detail how this whole process works and how to get started. Thank you for reading.

I hope you have found what I have told you of value! IM is not an easy game to get started with. If I had to start over I would start with developing the proper mindset first and understanding. Sound simple but so many people don't do it and wonder why they are not succeeding.