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A few days ago, I was reading an article about a woman who went from a $70,000 salary to no income and had to eat at a homeless shelter in order to feed her and her three children. This all happened within the span of a few months.This was heartbreaking.

She was an intelligent and capable woman who just fell on hard times. I felt bad for this family and I also felt bad for my family, too.This is because my family has a mountain of debt, too, and are living paycheck to paycheck. One catastrophe like the above would be really difficult for us, too.

Therefore, I have decided to do something about this. I am going to work smarter, not harder, and will make better financial choices. My family is the most important thing to me and I don’t want them to ever suffer as a result of my past bad choices. Therefore, I have a new plan.

• I will contribute 20% of all income into an emergency slush fund.
• I will use cash or debit cards only.
• I will pay off debt including all credit cards, student loans, car payments, etc.
• I will live below my means and encourage my family to do the same.
• I will make better financial choices and I will NOT look back.

Being at the mercy of bills and living from paycheck to paycheck is definitely not the way that I will continue to live. Won’t you join me?

Guess what? My very first successful affiliate campaign has gone out of business and stole my commissions of $242.77. I am very ticked off because I put a lot of time and energy into promoting their products.The bad thing is that my promotional efforts were doing well. I was so proud of my campaign. I used article marketing to a tee and it seemed to be working quite well as I was making about two to three sales a month.

Since I watch my campaigns like a hawk, I recently realized that my stats stopped being updated as frequently. This was weird. I mean, I was consistently making two to three sales a month, and then nothing.The real kicker was that I never received ANY of the money for my efforts. Apparently Selmedica had a $250.00 threshold and I wasn’t able to reach it in order to request payment.

Well, I was curious about my declining stats so I did a search on Google and realized that none of their affiliates were getting paid the money they were due. The FBI was looking for them and the company had disappeared into the night (with my cash). Affiliates all over the ’net are talking about Selmedica and how they lost thousands of money from this company. I guess I should be glad that it was only $242.77, but that isn’t exactly something to pooh-pooh. As a writer who normally gets $15.00 an article, I would have to write 16 articles to make that much. As an Internet Marketer, I wrote five articles to get my sales.This entire situation has made me realized that working as an affiliate can be risky business. It is extremely important to choose your products carefully and only deal with reputable companies.Here are some tips that may help you avoid this problem in the future:

1. When you promote a company that is not well known, make sure you do a background check. Make sure the company pays their affiliates properly and that there is no hanky-panky going on. Also, periodically do a search to make sure that no one is making complaints about your chosen company.
2. Read the fine print. Make sure you read and understand all the terms. For instance, what are the commission rates? What are the conversion rates for the product? How are affiliate commissions tracked? Are there payment thresholds required in order to receive payments? If so, make sure they are low so you don’t have to wait a long time for your first payment.
3. Choose affiliate programs that have been around a while and that offer great customer support. A toll free number or help desk would be awesome for affiliates!
4. If you notice any problems, then stop promoting the products right away. This will help safeguard you against any problems.
5. Never promote more than one product with a company until they have proven their worthiness. For instance, I promoted about three products for Selmedica instead of just one.

I frequently visit the Warrior Forum because I think it is a great place for Internet Marketers. There are so many knowledgeable and wonderful people over there willing to share their information that it is actually quite mindblowing, to say the least. To be a part of a community that openly provides quality information to people just starting out is invaluable to one’s success in the Internet Marketing business.That said, there is a section over there called the “warrior special offer” section (WSOs), and this is where other warriors post their products and services to other warriors. Let me be honest. You’ll find some great stuff there and some junk. The problem with being a newbie is being able to decipher the gold from the fool’s gold.Just be aware that to more experienced IMers, newbies can be gullible. I mean most of us are looking for “quick cash” and “easy methods of generating money” online. These clever folks know that newbies are their best customers, so they market to us hard.Here are some tips to keep you from being sucker-punched.

1. Don’t fall for the hype. If a claim is so bold that it seems unbelievable, it probably is. Go with your gut instinct. If someone is telling you that they’ll teach you how to make a million dollars from typing with one finger, for only two minutes a day, then you should stay away from that offer because common sense tells you that it won’t work. Internet Marketing is hard work.
2. Don’t believe everyone that posts is smarter than you. Contrary to everything you read, not everyone is a marketing genius. In fact, if they were, would they even have time to crank out 10 or so WSOs a week for $7.00 each? I think not. Although some warriors are making that kind of money, not all of them are. Only take advice from the ones that are.
3. Evaluate the author’s credentials before plopping down your cash. To quickly check, look under their warrior name and see if they have any stars (the more stars they have the better.) Then, review their warrior profiles by clicking on their names. When you do this, you’ll be able to spy on them. Pay special attention to how often they post, types of topics they participate in, their current WSO offers, whether they have a website, etc.
4. Review the entire offer. This means you have to evaluate the offer and the sales letter. For instance, does the author show proof of earnings? Is the process something you can easily replicate? Does the author show examples of the actual process, offer support and upgrades? Be a tough critic.
5. Consider comments from other warriors. Are they positive or negative? Do others believe the WSO is a tremendous value for the money? This will help you gauge whether this WSO is garbage or provides quality information. Only choose those products that offer quality information.
6. Check to see if they offer a satisfaction guarantee. A guarantee means you can get your money back if the product is crap. I always like to purchase WSOs with guarantees. It is just good policy and offers me protection. In fact, I’ve returned a couple of garbage products in the past.

Well, that’s it. If you follow this plan you should be able to avoid junk WSOs and only purchase quality ones that provide you with good information.

I’m convinced now – Internet Marketing is hard work and it takes a lot of time, skill, effort, and determination to reap the benefits. Plus, there are so many aspects of obtaining success. For instance, you have to learn about article marketing, traffic generation, product creation, niche research, and more.Once you think you’ve mastered one skill and start making a bit of money, it changes and you have to develop new techniques.

I sometimes spend eight hours or more in front of my computer. I’m conducting research, writing articles for pay or traffic generation, drafting press releases, getting links, creating reports, visiting forums, etc. A lot of times these activities don’t provide immediate returns. Heck, sometimes they don’t provide any returns. But I keep at it. Why?

Because I truly believe that I will one day be a huge success. In fact, I’m experiencing small successes now. It is those successes that propel me forward.

Sometimes I get discouraged but I never quit. This is because a whopping $1,500 a month doesn’t seem like much now, but don’t judge by appearances.

My income is growing and growing and I truly believe that I will succeed.

Yes, this field is hard work but I will not give up. I love it too much to stop. Not now. Not ever.

Although I only started blogging a few weeks ago, I am confident that this blog is going to be a huge success. Not only am I 100% committed to providing immense value to my readers, I intend to mimic the success of other successful bloggers as well.By doing this, I hope to develop a loyal following and establish a place where other writers-turned-Internet-Marketers can visit and learn from my success.One thing I’ve learned in the past few weeks is that blogging can be fun, but it is also hard work and requires commitment to have a successful blog. In addition, I learned that:

1. You have to be consistent with your blogging efforts. Some professional bloggers blog every single day, whereas others don’t. The key to success is to set your own unique schedule and follow that. For instance, if you can only blog once a week then blog once a week.
2. You have to understand your target. This means you have to understand their wants, needs and desires and creating posts of real value. This will keep your readers coming back for more and more.
3. Consider SEO strategies but write for your human readers. Not only are you blogging so that you can use SEO techniques, but also to allow you to express your own creativity. In essence, with every post, you’re providing “food for your readers as well as the search engines.”  Therefore, you must keep them both fed with keyword rich content that makes sense.
4. Provide outstanding content and perks. There is so much junk on the internet that you must provide quality information that your readers can use. This includes providing readers with special reports and other perks.  No one wants to read a blog with the same rehashed information they can find elsewhere.
5. You must be honest. The best bloggers are the ones who are open and honest. They don’t hold anything back. This is why I consistently share my income and business models with others so that you can see what I’m doing on a monthly basis. Not only to motivate you but to keep me motivated as well.To take a peek at my earnings so far, click here.
6. Be creative. The internet is consistently changing and so is the blogosphere. The days of the static website are out. Therefore, you should consider adding videos and other Web 2.0 techniques to make your blog interactive. Some bloggers even install a forum or hold teleconferences as well. By thinking outside the box, you can keep your readers coming back for more.
7. Stay motivated. Building a solid reputation with your readers takes time. Unfortunately, with all the sites and blogs in the world, you can’t just build a site and hope that your readers will come. Instead you have to actively promote your site and you have to stay motivated. This week I’ve had about 67 visitors, and one person signed up as a subscriber this month. (Thank you Rebecca) Some might see this as failure, I see it as an opportunity and hope to double these numbers next month.
8. You must use traditional and creative marketing methods to drive traffic to your blog. This includes article marketing, forum posting, backlinks, ezine advertisements, etc.
9. Stay focused. Although I plan on meeting my financial goal of six figures within 2 years, I also want to help others achieve their financial goals as well. Therefore, I am committed to providing my readers with the best information available on combining one’s writing and internet marketing skills.
10. Enjoy the process. Last but not least, you have to enjoy the process. This is a learning process for me and I learn and grow more and more every single day. As long as I keep at it, I know that I will succeed in my efforts and I believe that you will, too!