i7o Media

I’m very excited to announce that i70 Media is officially up and running! There’s so much going on around the web right now.

People are finding that it’s easier than ever to connect with others (from all over the world).

Entrepreneurs are finding that there’s never been a better time to start a business.

Businesses are finding that transparency, and interaction are the keys to thriving on this evolving phenomenon.

10 years from now, media giants don’t exist. This is the day of new media. A democratization of the internet. So many opportunities await, and our hopes are that we’ll be able to teach, learn, and share along the way.

What is i7o Media

We’re a lot of things. Our focus is what we believe to be the ‘hub’ of this new media, and everything that evolves from it. Blogging, social media, startups, WordPress, internet marketing, and SEO to name a few. Here are a few things you can expect to see around here in the coming months:

1. Blog – Our goal is to produce quality content that helps bloggers, entrepreneurs, and businesses succeed online. We also intend to keep you up-to-date with what’s happening on the net. We may talk about new startups, the browser war, what’s going on in the social media world, technology updates, etc.

2. Services – Soon, we’ll be offering a variety of services. Maybe you need a custom blog design? Coding? Writing? Blog promotion? Brand recognition? You’ll find that and more!

3. Tools – We’ll be developing wordpress plugins, and premium wordpress themes among other things.

4. Community – Collaborating with like minded individuals is crucial. Yet few take action. That’s why we plan to make it easier. We’ll also be managing clubs/groups where members will team up to help each other reach the next level.

5. Publisher – That’s right. We’re also in the process of building our own online empire. We have quite a few projects in store, and we’ll be sharing them with you soon!

Now What?

Currently we’re in the process of becoming an LLC. In the meantime, subscribe to our RSS feed and/or follow us on twitter. Be sure to keep an eye on our blog. We’ll be sharing some valuable tips over the next few weeks, and of course, you’ll be the first to find out when a new project is launched!

This is a guest post from Joel Carl. If you’re interested in writing an article for this blog, feel free to use the contact form. You will be linked to appropriately.

We saved the best for last! When it comes to making serious money from your blog – affiliate programs are your cash cow.

Affiliate Marketing In A Nutshell
Affiliate marketing is connecting customers to merchants and taking a commission. A website owner will promote a product on their website and each time a visitor clicks the link to the merchant’s site and buys, the website owner gets a commission.

How do we find products/services to promote?
The best way to find affiliate programs is through affiliate networks such as Commission Junction and Clickbank. You sign up for an account, search the database of products/services, once you find the product you want to promote, you simply add the links or banner to your website.

How is it tracked back to the website owner?
When you sign up for the affiliate program, you will be given a special link which contains your affiliate ID, so it can be tracked back to you.

Types of Affiliate Incomes
Recursive – You may be promoting a monthly service to your customers such as website hosting. Often you will receive a monthly commission for as long as that customer is paying for the service.

For example – You may refer a customer to a hosting company and the customer signs up for a $20/month hosting plan. Each month you receive a $5 commission. Sure $5 is not much money, but imagine if you sign up 100 people during the year. Now you have $500 recursive passive income. You literally do nothing to earn this money, it just keeps coming in!

CPA(cost per action) – With CPA offers, you will get payed only once for refering customers. You can be paid if your customers buy a product, take a free trial, in some cases they only need to enter their email address into a form and you get paid.

I promote a membership product on one of my blogs, each time a customer takes a 7 day trial membership for $1.95, I get paid $30. Not a bad deal at all! The membership site converts enough “trial members” to “full members” that they can afford to pay $30 CPA.

It is always a good idea to know the product well before you start recommending it to your visitors. It needs to be relevant to your blog niche and genuinely useful to your visitors. Don’t promote crap or you will lose visitors.

Right now, I am not promoting affiliate offers on Bizboink. I am focused on building up quality content and a loyal following. If I were to start promoting products, I would promote products such as:

• Hostgator – A website hosting company. They have an affiliate program, it is recursive. I use hostgator myself and they are a fantastic service, so I would have no problem promoting them.

• Wordpress Themes – There are some awesome wordpress templates packages which I could promote. I have bought many of them, so I know which to promote.

• SEO software – I could promote keyword research tools such as Micro Niche Finder. I use this software everyday and it has helped make me alot of money. I would provide video tutorials on how it works and how to get the most from it.

That should give you some ideas on how to promote affiliate programs.

Always Remember
As a blogger you are not here to solely promote products – you’re primary focus is your readers. Focus on providing value and entertainment, if you can do that, you build readers trust and loyalty and when you occasionally promote a product – you will have your readers respect and attention.

This is a guest post from Joel Carl. If you’re interested in writing an article for this blog, feel free to use the contact form. You will be linked to appropriately.

Another option to make money from your blog is to do paid reviews. Basically you get paid to review a company, service or product on your blog.

Here’s how it works

1. Sign Up With reviewme.com
Reviewme.com is a company similar to text-link-ads which we spoke about in Part 1. Once you have joined reviewme, you will be listed on their website. Companies, individuals, webmaster and product owners who are looking for some advertising for their service or product will pay anywhere between $40 and $500 for a review on your website. The cost depends mainly on the exposure your blog will give them. Reviewme will decide the cost.

2. Write and Publish Your Review
Once an order is placed by an advertiser, you will receive notification and given 48 hours to publish a review. Once you publish the review, it will be checked by reviewme and you will be paid at the end of the month.

The best thing about paid reviews is that you can be 100% honest. This is a review…..NOT a plug! There is a huge difference. The advertiser has come to you, so you can be as honest as you like. Remember to always think of your readers first and foremost! If the product or service is crappy, then tell your readers that. If the product is actually pretty good, then go ahead and recommend it to your readers. If the product is good, but has a few issues – tell them that. You get the idea.

Always remember – your reputation and integrity is of upmost importance, you need to build trust in your readers. You can choose which paid reviews you want to accept. If you really don’t want to put your readers through the agony of a crappy product review, then reject the offer.

Here is the annoying part – reviewme.com takes 50% of the payment. Whilst they have generated the advertisers for you, it is a hefty chunk of the profits. Here is what I would do….

3. Also add a Paid Review offer on your “Advertise With Us” Page.
We spoke about the importance of having an advertise with us page in Part 1. If you can generate paid reviews directly, you can make more money and you can charge the advertisers less. make it 75% of what you are worth on reviewme.com

Add this to your “Advertise With Us” page:

Package 3 – Sponsored Review
Cost:
What you receive:
Conditions:
Benefits:

If you are getting decent traffic to your blog, you will no doubt attract paid reviews.