What happens when you blend quiet desperation, an entrepreneurial spirit and a few bitter surprises?

You might just end up with a winning formula for sweet online success…

Four years ago, I was spending 40+ hours every week in a soul-sucking, mind-numbing, life-wasting job. I would sit in my dingy little office that wasn’t even really an office; in my half-broken chair; doing a bunch of mindless, boring work in exchange for an insultingly tiny so-called salary. I was constantly struggling to pay the bills and keep food in the house. There was never enough money left to do or have anything special – ever!

Every day, in spite of the distress I felt, I reminded myself of my life-long dream of owning my own business. I had many failed offline attempts behind me, I suppose just to keep me feeling trapped in that dead-end pit of despair… but, still I dreamed every minute of my work days about getting out of there and being my own boss. I wanted to use my love of food and my knowledge of health and nutrition to help people to improve their lives while bringing in a reasonable income for my efforts.

And, then life intervened to change everything…

First, my eye-sight which had always been very limited, began to further deteriorate. This led to a surgery that was supposed to improve my vision, but which actually resulted in near-total blindness.

Then, as you may be predicting, my full-time job of more than 11 years was snatched away from me in the blink of an eye. Oh sure, lots of politically correct excuses were thrown around having to do with corporate restructuring and similar nonsense. But, obviously, it was because of my blindness and the refusal of the company to even try to provide reasonable accommodation for me so that I could continue to do my work. You may be thinking how terrible this must have been for me and my family… But, it has turned into one of the biggest blessings of my life…

Once I recovered from the shock of losing my vision and my income, I adjusted to the stress and uncertainty that comes with being unemployed, I began to pick up the pieces and search for ways to survive the personal and financial disaster. It was in this apparent crisis that I found several opportunities for generating income online and was delighted to discover that I could share my passion for natural health and great food and make money at the same time.

A few months after my job ended, I bought a course called Inbox Blueprint (Thank You Anik Singal!) – followed by many other IM products, and thus began my immersion into the world of internet marketing. I was the very definition of newbie and made a ton of mistakes to prove it…

Fast forward a couple of years – and believe it or not, I’m actually making this online marketing thing work for me. It has been anything but easy – there definitely is not a button out there that you can push to start filling buckets with money as it falls from internet heaven (believe me, I looked)… But, I am slowly, steadily, sometimes painfully, and with much help from some very talented sighted people, actually making it happen – and if I can do it, anyone can do it.

The beautiful part is that now I get to write about food and healthy living every day and never ever have to call someone else “boss” again. You can see the fruits of my labor of love at: http://www.naturalhealthwiseblog.com

This is a Guest Post written by Karen Mcray.

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: How Does It Work and How Do You Make Money With It From Home?
There are many ways of making money online, but affiliate marketing is one of the easiest and most lucrative ways there is.

So what exactly is affiliate marketing and why is it such a simple, yet effective, way for absolute beginners to make money online without having to spend too much in either time or money, and, without having to have any previous experience or expertise?

Here’s how Wikipedia defines affiliate marketing:
“Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as ‘retailer’ or ‘brand’), the network (that contains offers for the affiliate to choose from and also takes care of the payments), the publisher (also known as ‘the affiliate’), and the customer.”

Here’s how I like to explain it:
I want you to picture yourself at a gathering in a venue to which lots of folk have been invited, the vast majority of whom you have never met before.
You’re having a great time, meeting and chatting to lots of really interesting people. One women in particular (Jane) tells you that she runs a very successful business selling a brilliant product that helps people with a very specific problem (X). She even explains what makes her product so unique and how it has been proven to turn thousands of people’s lives around.

Now, later on, you are introduced to a guy (John) who, during your conversation, tells you he is very anxious to find a solution to his problem, which happens to be (X) too. He’s tried lots of stuff without success and is now absolutely desperate. But, wait a minute, how lucky is he? Didn’t you talk to somebody earlier who probably has the solution he’s looking for?

So you go on to explain how you had met this women who has this brilliant product that has been proven to help people just like him. You even explain the benefits as she described them to you.
You can see that John is getting excited and, being the helpful person you are, you seek out Jane and introduce John to her. After the introductions are over you excuse yourself and leave them chatting as you continue circulating and enjoying the evening.

Near the end of the evening, Jane comes over to tell you that John is coming into her store tomorrow to have a look at the product and, if he buys, she’s going to send you a 30% commission; so could you give her your address please? And even though you protest that “…there’s really no need, I was glad to help you both…” she’s very insistent, so you give in and give here your details.
Anyway, about a week later, having completely forgotten about the whole episode of course, you are pleasantly surprised to receive a thank you note and check through the post for $90. Jane had followed through on her promise!

Did you see what happened there? How easy was that?
Think about it; all you did was meet a “potential buyer” at a “venue” where you got them excited about a solution to their problem, introduced them to the “vendor” who closed the sale at their “premises” and paid you a commission for the referral.

Nice illustration, I hope you agree, but how does this translate into making money with affiliate marketing from the comfort of your own HOME?
Well, think of it this way…

The “venue” is your website where you’ll promote the benefits of the vendor’s product(s). “Potential buyers” are people with a common interest or problem who you attract to your website. “Vendor’s premises” is the vendor’s website where the actual sale transaction will take place.

That’s really all there is to affiliate marketing:
1. Identify a section of the general population that has a common, but pressing, problem or need (a niche market), e.g. acne, foreclosure.

2. Find a product (physical or digital) that has been proven to solve that problem or meet that need, and already sells well in that particular niche.

3. Sign-up for free as an affiliate for the product through an online affiliate network which brings together product vendors and affiliates.

4. Promote the product on your website which will contain sought-after information about the niche and the product.

5. Attract tons of targeted (i.e. niche) visitors to your website.

6. Get them to click on your unique affiliate link that takes them to the vendor’s website where they can buy the product.

7. Get a commission automatically paid into your bank or PayPal account whenever someone you referred buys the product.

And none of these things is difficult to do: you don’t have to be “techie” or have any specialist knowledge or experience. In fact, once set up properly, nearly everything works on autopilot, so you can make money even as you sleep!

But, you may ask, why would a product vendor pay me a commission for promoting their stuff? Doesn’t that reduce their profits?
Well, yes and no!

Certainly, their profit on the items that are sold off the back of your website would be less than if they sold them themselves. But that’s the point: if you hadn’t put those buyers their way they wouldn’t have made those sales in the first place.

In fact, every sale they make via an affiliate like you is additional income they otherwise wouldn’t have had, plus, they didn’t have to do any marketing for it at all. You took care of that.
And every sale they make from prospects you send to their website means an automatic commission to you. So it’s a win-win situation!
And I say again, it’s not difficult to do; you just have to know the right way to go about it.

So, if you’re just starting out or you’re an affiliate marketer that is struggling, please click here: http://johnsalternow.com where you’ll get FREE step-by-step training on how to start making money online in as little as 48 hours.

This is a Guest Post written by John Salter.

Finally. Your blog article is finished and you’ve placed on your website. But how do you get more visitors and comments on your blog? In this article, you will find 12 tips to get more out of your blog.

1. Check the title of your post: Is it a catchy title that curiosity and invites the reader to read? Titles in the form of a question often do well. Especially when it is combined with the promise of a solution. For example, “Enough of [the problem]? 10 tips to achieve [the solution]. Also be “video” and “Checklist” often provide more clicks.

2. Check the title of your post again: Is there a common search term? Find your topic in the keyword tool from Google, choose appropriate keywords with high search volume and use that word in your title. And in the first paragraph and the “meta-text.”

3. Provide an inviting and representative “meta-text”: This is the text that the search engines for search results. With a well-written meta-text, you can still get ahead of your competitors who do not bother to do this in Google. How to tackle this you can read in this article: “Get you there neatly into Google’s search results?”.

4. Help the hasty reader: Readers on the web scan the text. So make between headings, lists and make the essential words bold. And ends with a clear call to action. What is a logical next step after reading the article?

5. Bring your followers by mail about: Of course, you have a full mailing list with loyal readers who are waiting for your article see before you “send” click a moment the subject of your email. You can of course just use the title of your article, but you do have to be processed in any keyword. Can you change something in the subject line in order to increase the likelihood that the email will open faster?

6. Write a tweet: Usually I use the meta-text of my blog article as a basis and make a short version. A tweet contains fewer characters, there is still a link to the article and perhaps a hashtag.

7. Write a LinkedIn update: Here I usually use the meta-text of the article, including the link to the article on my website.

8. Be a Facebook update: On Facebook, you have the most room to draw attention to your blog article. Still, it usually gives the best results if you remain concise and link sets in the first (visible) paragraph. Always ask for a response and a “find-me-like ‘. Oh yeah, Google+ still take a while? So you yet again earn some extra points for your “PageRank” in Google.

9. Put the title and link in the signature of your email: How many emails you send a week? Quite a lot, I guess so. A good opportunity for that classroom activities can also be used to draw attention to your valuable article, right?

10. Ask if you can have another guest blog writer: You certainly know entrepreneurs who have the same target market as you, but not competitive. Discuss with them once the opportunity to occasionally write an article on each blog and ask them to link to you regularly in their own articles.

11. Post comments on blog posts and social media updates from others on websites of other operators (groups): Facebook pages and groups on LinkedIn and Facebook with lots of activity. Please note that you will remain relevant and valuable.

12. Find people who need your help: Look for the topic of your blog post to Twitter and LinkedIn groups. Maybe your blog article is the answer to a burning question asked there. Genuine assistance is one of the best ways to get more followers…

For more information on Affiliate Marketing and building a Real online business, Go here => http://www.enliwen.com/

This is a Guest Post written by Ravi Kiran.

Most people decide to start an online business the wrong way. They start with a product or an idea, slap up a website and sit back to wait for the hordes of traffic to come in.

They shortsightedly see their business in a one dimensional way and so the business flops.

A successful business is like a 3D puzzle that has all of the pieces put in place from every angle.

Level One: Research

There are several questions you must ask before building your business:

1. What niche are you going into?
2. Is there pain in that niche? Are people desperate for a solution and willing to pull out their wallets.
3. Who exactly is your target audience?
a) Male, Female or Both
b) Age group
c) Income Level
d) Education Level
e) Where do they hang out online
4. What are their main concerns? This can be determined by surveying them and getting the answers straight from them.
5. What products are already on the market to help them?
6. Can you create a better product that is better than what is out there or will you market someone else’s products with a great reputation?
7. How much competition is there in the market?

Level Two: Building the Foundation

1. Create a siloed site around the questions and keywords they use
2. Create a product that solves their problems or get permission to market someone else’s products.
3. Create a sales funnel, including sales letters, upsells and downsells
4. Create an autoresponder with follow up messages and a free report for list building
5. Create you social media accounts – Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, etc….
6. Link your social media accounts to your website
7. Create an IFTT account or syndwire account to syndicate content.
8. Join Forums, groups that these people congregate in and build a relationship before you market to them
9. Form JV alliances, if you are marketing your own product

Level Three: Launch and Market

1. Create Marketing materials for your affiliates and any JV partners
2. Announce your launch, if your own product, on sites like Muncheye
3. Launch
4. Promote on Facebook Twitter, Linked in, Youtube, Forums, etc..
5. Create PPC and Retargeting Campaigns
6. Continue to interact with your target audience, continue building relationships, along with selling your product
That is the basic framework of your 3 Dimensional Business Model. Go through these steps and you will be 90 percent ahead of your competition.

*Want a completely done for you business, where all you have to do is market? Go to:* http://www.AffiliateMentor.org

This is a guest post written by Caterina Christakos.