Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

Article writing is such a wide open field. You can write on just about anything from sports to music to zebras if you like. One of the most fascinating areas to write about is current events. But writing about current events has its pitfalls. In this article, I’m going to go over the pros and cons of writing about stuff in the news. You may or may not want to tackle these after reading this little piece.

As you probably know by now, Michael Jackson just passed away, as of this writing anyway. Now, I could have decided to write a whole bunch of articles on Michael Jackson especially since I grew up listening to him and the Jackson 5. But I have decided against it. I’m going to explain why when I go over the good and bad or current event writing.

Let’s look at the positive aspect of it. It’s current. It’s what people are going to be most interested in. If you think there aren’t millions of people out there today who are clamoring to read just about anything on Michael Jackson today, you’re crazy. Anybody with a Michael Jackson blog is going to have traffic coming out of their ears. Make no mistake about it…Michael Jackson articles WILL be read today.

But what about five years from now when all the hoopla dies down? What’s going to happen to all these articles? Oh sure, there will still be a few people who will look for Michael Jackson articles, but it’s not going to be like the craziness of today. These articles will get very few views down the road.

Now, take an article on article marketing or SEO or something that is not so timely, something that is going to be consistent for a long time. Those articles are going to be read tomorrow as much as they’re going to be read today. Sure, they may not get the initial traffic that then current events articles get, but they’ll get a lot more traffic five years from now.

Yes, you can do well writing about current events, for the short term. But if you want long term traffic, you might want to focus on topics that aren’t so timely.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to write articles that get people’s attention and can earn you up to $200 per article written? Then check out my Complete Article Writing And Marketing Guide that you can find at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html – This is my own book that I wrote from over 30 years of writing experience.

This article actually tackles two problems in one. Generically, it tackles the issue of going it alone in general. I don’t know about you but I wish I had some help when I first started over six years ago. It might not have taken me so long to achieve the success that I have. More specifically, it tackles the issue of affiliate marketing mentorship itself and how it is so different from anything else because of the nature of affiliate marketing. But the question is, do you have a mentor? If not, you might want to consider it. Let me explain why.

There are things involved with affiliate marketing that you really can’t learn on your own, at least not quickly. These are certain quirks about the business that only come with time and experience. One of those things is spotting products that are surefire sellers or surefire losers. As you do this more and more, you almost get a sixth sense for what’s going to sell and what’s going to tank. The sales page itself has a lot to do with it. For that matter, spotting lousy salescopy is something that you develop over time as well.

Another area where a mentor would help is in writing ads. Unless you’re a crackerjack writer to begin with, and even then there are no guarantees, writing ads for affiliate products is different from writing ads for your own products. How so? With your own product, YOU created it. Therefore, you can tell everybody exactly what the product is and what it does and can do it from a personal perspective. However, with an affiliate product, unless you’ve actually used it, what can you honestly say about it? This makes writing ads very tricky. It’s also why I strongly suggest that everybody gets a preview copy so that they CAN write intelligently about it.

Finally, there is the system itself. And make no mistake about it…to be successful as an affiliate marketer, you need some kind of system. A person who has already done this and is doing it successfully HAS a system in place…one that is already successful. All you need to do is have that person teach it to you and plug it into your own marketing efforts. And no, it’s not the same as reading a book on affiliate marketing. What happens when you have a question? The book won’t respond. Trust me on this.

Ultimately, getting a mentor for learning affiliate marketing is going to be your decision to make. Personally, I think it will take months off the learning curve. But, if you’ve got patience and don’t mind waiting, by all means…go it alone.

Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.

A lot of beginning bloggers sit there and stare at their newly created masterpiece and scratch their collective heads wondering what to do next. Do I put this here or there? Do I include this or not? It’s enough to drive you crazy. Well, there is a simple solution to this problem. Design the blog layout in your head first. Then, transferring that design to the actual blog should be a piece of cake…provided you’re using a flexible enough blogging platform. So let’s tackle that first.

In my opinion, you can’t beat WordPress. There are more themes and layouts than you can shake a stick at. It is probably the most flexible piece of content management you’re going to find anywhere. I personally have over a half dozen WordPress blogs. I strongly recommend them if you’re going to have the best chance of transferring your thoughts into reality. But okay, how do we actually execute this process? The following is what I have found to be the best system.

Go out on the Internet and take a look at other blogs in YOUR niche. The reason you want to confine the search to your niche is because you want to see what the topped ranked blogs look like. Trust me, each niche has its own look, especially when you’re talking about the top ranked blogs in the SERPs. Don’t get lazy on this one. It’s going to take some time and effort but it is more than worth it.

After you’ve taken a look at some of the top blogs, get yourself a piece of drawing paper and start outlining your blog on it. Draw a header and whatever columns you think you’re going to need. If you’re planning to have multiple pages such as about me, contact, articles and so on, include them in your outline. If you’re going to use AdSense on the blog, map out where you want the blocks to show up. If you’re going to have an opt in form, map out where you want that to be. Make sure you go over every item that you want to appear on your blog.

After you’ve mapped the whole thing out on paper, only THEN do you go to your admin area and start constructing your blog layout. This way, you’re not groping around in the dark. You know exactly what you want and where you want it. You’ll be surprised how quickly you end up putting your blog together using this system.

There is no need to sit around scratching your head wondering what to do with your blog. Design it in your head first and you’ll have no trouble transforming your thoughts into reality.

To YOUR Success

Steven Wagenheim
CLICK HERE to discover how to put together an authority site that will ultimately bring you in a steady income for years and years to come with very little upkeep

I can’t stress the importance of your article title. If it isn’t captivating enough, people aren’t going to bother reading the article. So how can we get the most out of our article titles, especially if we’re writing a number of articles on one subject? I’ve found that one great way to do this is with what I call combined titles or a main and sub title combined. I’m going to go over this technique in this article. I hope you find it helpful.

If you take a look at the actual title of this article, you will notice that I have used this technique with it. The main title of my article is “Article Writing Tips.” This tells the reader that the article that they’re about to read is going to have something to do with tips on how to write articles. This is obvious enough. But that title alone is very generic. Aside from that, you can only use it one time if you’re submitting articles to directories. What do you do if you want to submit many articles on one subject?

That’s where the sub title comes in. If you take a look at the second part of my title, the one after they hyphen, you’ll see it says, “Getting The Most Out Of Your Titles.” This more specifically tells the potential reader that the tips they’re about to read after to do with the title of their article. This way, they can then decide if this is something regarding article writing that they’re interested in. If you do your research correctly to determine what people ARE interested in when looking for info on article writing, this should never be a problem. I have yet to have an article that wasn’t read by a number of people.

The key to using this technique is simple. Always keep the first part of your title very generic. For example, let’s say you were writing tips on running a home business. You might make the first part of your title, “Home Business Tips.” This tells the reader that the article they’re about to read will have something to do with running a home business. The second part of the title might be something like, “How To Get Organized.” This tells the reader that the tips specifically deal with organization.

Naturally, you will want the main title to include the main keyword phrase that you’re targeting. This will help you get a better search engine placement. If you can combine this with a secondary keyword phrase in the second part of your title, this will get you an even better placement.

By using this technique, you should never have a problem coming up with an effective article title that gets people reading and the search engines loving.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to write articles that get people’s attention and can earn you up to $200 per article written? Then check out my Complete Article Writing And Marketing Guide that you can find at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html – This is my own book that I wrote from over 30 years of writing experience.

One of the biggest complaints I get from Internet marketers is that it takes too long to see whether or not something is going to work or not and they’re just not willing to take the risk of putting money and time into something that might not pan out. My friend…welcome to the real world. I wish I had a crystal ball as well. Unfortunately, none of us do. So we have to take our chances. Having said that, how do we know when our marketing efforts are turning into a cash cow or resulting in a pink elephant? How long do we give it? How much money do we put into it? Good questions. Here are some answers.

For starters, you have to realize something. Everybody’s situation is different. Some people have near unlimited funds and patience to put into their business. I had a friend who said he didn’t need to see a profit for three years so he could wait. Other people are in danger of losing their homes and need money now. So there is no one answer that is going to fit with everybody. You have to look at your own situation and decide what’s best for you.

Having said that, if I were starting all over and money didn’t matter, I’d give my marketing efforts at least a full 30 days before I pulled the plug on things. Why 30 days? Well, there are a lot of variables that go into marketing any product. Let’s start with the sales page. Do you really think you’re going to put together a top notch sales page the first time? Some tweaks are going to be needed and these could take days or even weeks before we see sales coming in on a regular basis.

What about advertising? There are many ways to promote a product online. Unless you’re going to tackle all of them at one (unlikely unless you have tons of time and money) you’re going to have to hit them one at a time. It may, therefore, take a few weeks before you hit on an advertising source that actually begins to work for you. This is especially true if you use article marketing. This is something that usually builds over time.

When I first started marketing online it took me five months to see a profit. Of course I was totally clueless back then. Today, I am quite sure that I can determine if a business model is going to work within 30 days. But as I said, each person is going to have a different situation and has to do what’s best for them.

Just don’t expect miracles overnight.

To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim

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It’s not something you think about very often, but your home work environment is critical to your productivity. I learned this just the other day when my floor lamp went out on me. Suddenly I’m looking at my computer screen and realizing that I’m not seeing it quite as well. After a while, my eyes starting hurting. I eventually had to go out and get a new floor lamp. This wasn’t something I would have thought of until it actually happened.

Everybody has a different setup so I’m going to make this article as generic as possible as far as making sure that you’re set to go. For starters, yes, light is critical when working at the computer. I don’t know how good or bad your eyes are, but let me tell you, work for a while in the dark and you’ll start to feel it…no matter how much of a bat you might be. But lighting is only part of your work environment.

How comfortable is your chair? Have you really thought about it? How much time do you spend in it each day? Let me tell you something. Sit in a hard chair all day and you WILL begin to feel it. Why do you think office chairs are so comfortable? I sit in a very comfortable chair. Heck, I could probably fall asleep in it. Okay, maybe that’s a little too comfortable. But you get the picture. You don’t want to be sitting all day in a rock. You WILL be sore by the end of it.

What about access? I don’t know about you, but I use a lot of things in addition to my computer. I use a printer as well. And for a printer, you need printer paper. Well, is everything you need close by? I don’t know about you, but if I have to add more paper to my printer I don’t want to have to get up and walk to another part of the room to do it. I want to be able to do this all from my comfortable chair. So your business setup is very important. You want to make sure that everything you need is within reaching distance, or at least as close as possible.

It’s not something we tend to think about, but how your work environment is setup can greatly affect your productivity. So take a look around and make sure things are as optimized as they can be.

You just might find that you get more done and make more money in the process.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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This article couldn’t have come at a better time. Maybe there was a reason for what just happened at my favorite forum to happen. And maybe it will serve as a lesson to everybody who attends forums and thinks they can get away with murder. It is simply not so. I offer this article as proof.

I’ve been a member of the Warrior Forum since December of 2006. I have made close to 13,000 posts and have been thanked close to 2,000 times. I’ve always tried to contribute value to the forum. But today, I crossed the line with one of my comments. Let me fill you in on the details.

A thread was started honoring Michael Jackson and his musical accomplishments. I thought it was a nice gesture. Unfortunately, a few forum members decided that they were going to turn the thread into their own personal attack on the man…a man who is now dead and can’t defend himself.

As others, I took offense to this. But I went one step further. I told these people EXACTLY what I thought of them and called them some pretty tasteless names. The end result? I have been temporarily banned from the forum for a period of one week.

Guess what?

I applaud the decision. See, a lot of people think that just because you are a senior member of a forum or somebody who has just been there for a while, that means you can say and do whatever you like. Recent events are proof that this is just not so. I am actually glad that this has happened as MAYBE it will serve as a warning to those who think, just because they’ve been around the block for a while, that they can say and do anything that they like at the forum they are attending. They can’t.

I actually got lucky. A week is nothing next to what it could have been. And make no mistake about it, if I get out of line again after my banning is over, the same thing will happen…or worse. So, the next time you think that you are above the forum rules, please use me as an example and living proof that this is just not so.

For the next seven days, I’m going to reflect on what has happened and hopefully decide to be the kind of forum member that the forum administrator wants us all to be.

But make no mistake about it. Should you decide differently, the same thing can and WILL happen to you.

Believe it or not…the forum rules apply to EVERYBODY.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
If you want to discover the REAL truth about Internet marketing and get some solid tips to take your business to the next level…get my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/realtruth.html and subscribe to my REAL Truth newsletter where you’ll discover more than from all those high priced ebooks combined.

While I agree that there has to be some regulation in this world or we’d all be running around like Bonnie and Clyde, at some point you have to say enough. So what’s the deal with the FTC and Internet marketers? Well, I’m going to report the facts and leave my political opinion out of this. You can make up your own mind as to how good or bad this whole thing is.

Basically, here’s what’s going on. The FTC has finally decided that there is too much fraud, lying, deception and back scratching in the IM industry and they’re going to do something about it…starting with review sites. A review site is one that reviews a particular product or group of products. Let’s face it, most of these review sites are quite biased as they’re trying to make a sale. I don’t have a problem with that as long as the review is honest. But therein lies the problem. How do you know a review is honest?

That’s why the FTC is stepping in. Essentially, what they’re saying is that if you are reviewing a product and are going to be compensated for that review (such as using your affiliate link to send prospects to the site) you have to state in your review that you are being compensated. Otherwise, you are in danger of being in violation of whatever law this is going to be and could get fined or even get your site shut down. Okay, there you have it. Those are the facts.

As I said, I’m going to leave my political opinion out of this. However, I am going to explain exactly what this means to YOU. It means that you’re going to have to abide by the rules. Forget about what everybody is saying that they’re only going after the big guys and the little marketer doesn’t have to worry. Do you REALLY want to take that chance? I know I don’t. I’m going to have to go to all my review sites and clearly state that any links that are affiliate links are indeed affiliate links. And yes, sometimes I will review a product and not use an affiliate link, especially if I think the product is garbage.

It will be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
CLICK HERE to discover how to put together an authority site that will ultimately bring you in a steady income for years and years to come with very little upkeep

If only I could get a joint venture. I’d be a millionaire. Yeah, you hear it all the time from people trying to make a buck online. They think the answer to their problems is to hook up with some big name marketer for a hot joint venture and sell thousands of units of some product. I wish it was that simple. Truth is, joint ventures, while they can be profitable, are not the be all and end all…even if you CAN get one. This article dishes out the REAL truth about joint ventures.

Let’s start out with what’s probably the most important aspect…the success factor. Here’s a reality check for your already overcrowded brain. A joint venture does NOT guarantee success. How do I know? My first JV with a big name marketer got me about a half a dozen sales. My second JV didn’t get me one after the initial launch. All in all, considering how much time we put into it, I’d say it was a huge failure. My third JV did well but my fourth one only did well for about three months. After that, the site died a horrible death.

Bottom line on the success scale. Joint ventures are NO guarantee that you will have a monster hit on your hands.

Okay, let’s move on to the actual working relationship with the person you’re venturing with. I’ve been lucky. Most of my relationships have gone well. However, I have had my share of deadbeats. I’m talking about people who either never get back to you OR…after you’ve done all the hard work getting the product ready, they back out on you. I’ve had that happen to me once and let me tell you…it’s not fun. Truth is, people WILL let you down. Get used to it.

Finally, there is all the legal nonsense. Who owns the rights? If you want to disband, who gets what? I have a product that is absolutely worthless. It’s not selling and my partner won’t let me buy him out. He’s convinced it will still sell. I know that if I had it myself and could just lower the price and sell it through other channels, it would do well. But my hands are tied because I have a partner and legally, I can’t do the things I want to do without his approval. Yeah, the legal stuff will kill you.

So as you can see, a JV is not all it’s cracked up to be. It takes work and a partner who is easy to work with. Today. After learning a lot about this aspect, I do quite well. But it didn’t come overnight. It takes a lot of work.

And a little luck doesn’t hurt either.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to discover an almost foolproof way of getting a joint venture? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/jvs/index.html and find out how I get just about any JV that I want.

I often get asked what the best way to tackle a sales letter is. Truth is, there is no best way. Each sales letter is different. A lot depends on the product itself. For an inexpensive product, a short sales letter can probably do the job quite nicely. For a high end product, a longer sales letter will usually be necessary. It is for those longer sales letters that I suggest you take them in bits and pieces. This article is going to explain why and how to do it.

Let’s start with the why. Usually, when you write a sales letter, you try to map the whole thing out in advance. For most inexpensive products, this can be done quickly and easily. From there, you simply put all the pieces together to form your finished letter. I’ve sometimes knocked off a sales letter in less than two hours for a $27 product. It’s not hard to do.

But what if you’re selling something that goes for $997? In that case, you need to do a lot of pre-selling. Prospects are going to be reluctant to part with that much cash without a whole lot of convincing. If you’ve seen copy for products in that price range, you know that they read like novels. These pages are not written in two hours and certainly not written in one sitting. Your brain would fry trying to get through it. That’s the reason WHY you want to break it up into bits and pieces. The question is, how?

Sales letters read from top down. At least traditional ones do. So what you want to do is start with the very top of the letter…the headline. Work on it until you are absolutely convinced that it’s the best one you can come up with. Don’t think about the first paragraph or the bullet points or anything else. Just concentrate on that headline and work on it until it’s done.

Then, and this is very important, keeping that headline in your mind, think about what you want to write for the first paragraph that will compliment the headline. You don’t want to start off in one area and then go in a completely different direction. You need to keep a feeling of consistency throughout the copy. This is easy to do when you’re writing something in one shot, but not so easy when you’re doing it in bits and pieces because of the time lapse between each section. So, what you want to do…and this is critical…is read everything you’re written BEFORE you begin to write the next section.

What this does is it puts everything fresh in your mind as if you had just written it. The time lapse is no longer a factor.

Doing this, you can start writing your copy on Monday, go back to it in Thursday and not miss a beat.

Try it sometime. You just mind find that writing your sales letter this way makes the whole process go a lot smoother and easier.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to write copy just like the pros? Visit my site at http://www.bcipe.com/ and discover killer copywriting tips that have allowed me to write my own copy for years and earn myself a 6 figure a year income selling my own products.