Domain Name Registration

If you want to do more with the Internet, you're going to need your own little corner on the Internet. It starts with getting your own domain name. Most people by now have heard of GoDaddy. Here you can register your own domain name for less than $9.99 a year.

TIP! For the novice who doesn't know anything at all about HTML or designing webpages, you can register a domain and forward it to your blog or free webpage.

For example, my corporate website is Broke-Off.com. Sometimes, it's hard to explain to people there is a hyphen in the url. What? What's a hyphen? You mean, like a DASH? To save myself the pain and trouble, I registered BrokeOffInc.com and it forwards automatically to Broke-Off.com. It's so much easier now to tell people to go brokeoffinc.com now.

You can apply the same principle to a blog, a myspace page, or anything! You can forward abc.com and have it land on xyz.com. It's easy! GoDaddy offers all these options for free in your control panel after you have signed up.

HOT TIP! Buy yourblogname.com for $9.99 and forward it to your free BlogSpot Blog. Now you can tell others to just go to yourblogname.com and it will redirect and forward to your blog.

GoDaddy.com also offers web hosting packages at low low prices. Smaller webhosting packages start at less than $5 per month. You save even more when you pay for a year in advance. I'll discuss webhosting and cheap design techniques later in subsequent articles on this blog.

Having your own website allows you to:

Upload and store your own images
Create your own rich, dynamic web pages
Setup your own advertising - extra income!
Your own email address on your own domain
Free tools
Create a discussion forum for a community
Sell products or services
Create secure password driven pages for controlled access
Be more creative
Establish more relationships with other sites to crosslink
Own a more personal, absolute web presence
Backup your own data, peace of mind
100% Total control of your own space

HOT TIP! Don't limit yourself to just one domain name, either. Most people get a MYWEBSITE.COM url. If you have a great domain name that is available, try to snatch up the other remaining domain extenders....such as .ORG,.NAME,.BIZ.,.US and so on. Forward those extender domain names to your primary domain name.

Commission Junction

One my favorite money making vehicles working at home is Commission Junction. It's ironic, that in 2003 I was kicked from CJ because I didn't make any money after a duration of 6 months. I got pissed and was like, "whatever.", right? Yeah, I actually typed that, sorry. So yes, if you don't make any money, they weed out the loafers in their database. Who knew?



Fast forward to 2006. One of my primary sources of online income drops their inhouse affiliate program. Guess who they were outsourcing all affiliate driven sales to? Commission Junction! I try to sign up, but they already have my email on file. I can't login or get my password either. Now what do I do? I called them up and explained that I needed my account reinstated. A week and new application process started all over again, I'm back in.

From the website: "Maximize your revenue opportunities by developing sustainable relationships with top-tier advertisers. Perform and get paid for every sale and lead you generate. For qualifying publishers, take your program to the next level with our industry exclusive solution for top-performers. Join our unparalleled network of publishers and learn more about our commitment to the long-term success of top-performing publishers."

Sign up as a publisher. What you do is you search the marketplace for Advertisers you are interested in. Maybe you want to start a blog about cars. You search for car parts, accessories, auto loans, anything your heart desires - and click "Apply to program". You will have to read some terms and conditions on some advertisers. Most advertisers approve manually and you must wait until you get approved.

Apply to advertisers and place their ads on your blogs, myspace pages, even Google Adwords accounts! Some people have literally made fortunes doing that technique. Google has rules about linking to affiliate driven links sometimes, but you can do redirects on your own webspace for those situations. (I'll discuss that later)

TIP! Look for advertisers that offer leads. Some of the best programs on CJ in my experience are advertisers like GameFly, Service Magic, and PerfectMatch.com. These advertisers will pay you anywhere from $1.50 to $25 just to get someone to type in their email address for a free or trial service! GameFly pays you $6.50 if someone signs up for a free 30 day trial. I know, because that's how I signed up!

By the way, Gamefly actually is a great service if you are into video gaming on your PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 or whatever you play. Personally, I have wasted so much money on a $60 game that turns out sucks because I can't pass the first level. With GameFly you can keep one at a time for just $15/month as long as you like.

HOT TIP! People sometimes can't get a credit card or bank account. If you have a site or offer a product that is only available via credit card, you can recommend your visitors to get a All Access Prepaid VISA card , which is another advertiser that uses CJ.

HOT TIP! People need things repaired on a home. Houses fall apart, it's true! We had to do some repairs and maintenance on our 15 year old house. We had some flooring that needed to be put in, we needed a termite inspector, etc. We found a company called Service Magic. They found us contractors in our local area. We're talking about top notch professionals, too. Certified, guaranteed, insured and bonded companies recommended by only the best. Service Magic is an advertiser in the Commission Junction marketplace. If you know somebody who needs some repairs on their home, send them an email with a link to Service Magic. They pay publishers anywhere from $1.00 to $10.00 per lead. You can apply this logic to anybody that needs something. I'll tell you later how to use some of these tried and true methods using your CJ links on your own webspace and domain.

You have to be creative and use your CJ ads in a way that draws attention and interest. It works, because we get a check sometimes twice a month from Commission Junction in the mailbox.

Getting Started with Google

This is about getting started with some free tools. My primary email is a Google Mail account, which I highly recommend people to use. Signup is free. A lot of the services I am going to review and cover are offered for free by simply logging into your Google Account. Gmail offers outrageous storage space and peace of mind. My last footer message in Gmail read, "You are currently using 797 MB (11%) of your 6981 MB."

For those of you with no webspace or hosting, you can upload your images for free with Google Picasa and start posting on a free BlogSpot account (owned by Google, Inc.). Once you have your presence established on the Internet, you can now put up Google Adsense ads and Adbrite ads that deliver a check right into your bank account or mailbox. Put your ads on your own webspace, your Myspace page, your BlogSpot Blog, or anywhere else you have an account that allows 3rd party links.

I'll discuss later about web hosting and owning your own domain names. Right now, this article is for the novice with no knowledge whatsoever behind HTML or designing a webpage. BlogSpot
offers templates and guides to help you stumble through the painless process of setting up your "Internet Presence" as I prefer to call it.

If you produce or sell a product, you can list it for free at GoogleBase, where your products are listed at Froogle.

TIP: If you notice, none of my linked words in this article are to affiliate driven hotlinks. There is one affiliate driven link I made in this article, and that only pointed to Adbrite. See my tracking number I.D. ? You'll have one too, once you sign up as a Publisher.

Knowledge is Power

If you do a Ebay search for the word, "ebook", there are over 3000 results at any given moment. Information being sold. It's taken me some years and downloads to realize something: the information you obtain is only what you make of it.

It's exactly like the lyrics from "Sunscreen Song" by Baz Lurhman :

"Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than its worth."

You can download and purchase all the ebooks in the world, but 2 facts remain for anybody:

#1. Your results may vary, and #2. You get what you put into it. You have to work hard, show determination, and don't give up. If you don't know something, learn it. Try to get it for free, first.

The real profits sadly come from the authors of the ebooks. You can try all the methods you can from the information inside of it, but the real money maker is passing that information on to others. Inside any ebook you read in Adobe Acrobat Reader contains underlined clickable links for you to signup on. That link, in turn, contains their affiliate tracking I.D.s. If you sign up or buy that product the information is indicating, guess what? - The author just made a commission, sale, lead, or profit...from your click.

If you have information, and others can/would think it to be valuable, you must market it and tell others about it. You must write your own ebook! Slip in all those links and underlined
words. Do anything to advertise and market it. Hypnotize people into buying it or reading it! Get it out there!

Remember, even if your E-book gets downloaded illegally, given to friends and family for free, or passed on to others via email....you're still making money off the amount of residual income being made from the links and tracking IDs embedded from within the ebook as others read and click.

Knowledge is power.

Introduction

First of all, let me introduce myself and who I am. I am a nobody. Just like you, just like everybody else out there who isn't a celebrity or rich mogul. Let me also begin with this right away: I am not a writer. Again I reiterate: I don't write well at all. I used to, back in high school. I can't now because I'm too evolved from the Internet. Texting on my phone has ruined me as well. My grammar and spelling are terrible since I stopped reading books. It's been proven if you read often, you write and spell often. The old saying "if you don't use it you lose it" comes to mind.

I've been working at home successfully since Februrary of 2006 after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I've researched and tried methods while working at my dead end job since Janurary of 2002. I incorporated my own Texas based corporation on October 5, 2005, appropriately named, "Broke Off, Inc.". I'm not rich, but I pay bills.

The purpose of this blog is to teach you a few things I've learned over the years on the Internet. The biggest difference that seperates me from anybody else out there telling you this stuff is simple: free information. Everything I'm going to tell you is from me to you, for free. I'm not asking anything in return, but to give you my knowledge as I've learned it and will continue to learn. Some of the real secrets behind all of this hoopla with affiliate marketing, traffic, hits, search engines and more is sometimes right in front of you. Even though I'm going to give you this information for free, I'm still making money by giving you these tips. How? You'll find out soon enough, trust me.

A lot of you already know these tips and tricks. That's fine. That means I am not trying to reach you as my target audience. For those of you who do not know some of these tips, then I have accomplished my goal. Some of these tips aren't groundbreaking secrets at all.

Finally, my disclaimer: I write only opinions regarding what I have experienced and found out on my own. Your results may vary. I've lost money, I've gained money. Some of these methods didn't work for me personally, but otherwise had made other people completely filthy rich.