Wordpress is by far the most powerful blogging platform that there is.  This blog and millions of others are hosted on the Wordpress platform.  Since we want to use our own domain we will want to install Wordpress on our own host.

Today’s post is going to be very short – because I just have one action item for you to take care of.  I thought about writing the entire Wordpress installation out here, or even making a video.  However I really don’t think that I could show you how to install Wordpress better then the creators themselves.

Based on what hosting plan you have – there are several ways to install it.  Personally I install it using Fantastico now that I’ve done it so many times.  I would suggest to you though that you get your hands dirty at least once or twice and installing it manually.  The installation process only takes about five minutes anyway.

You’ll need your hosting account ready, a text editor to make some changes, and an FTP program to transfer the files from your computer to your web host.  I use Filezilla for my FTP needs – it’s a free FTP program that is fairly user friendly.  So go ahead and download Filezilla and then head on over to the Wordpress Installation Manual and get started!

Once you’re done with that you have your task done for the day.  I’d suggest you go back to your keyword research and dig up as many keywords as you can for your niche.  In a few days we’ll start writing content and you’ll want to have plenty of ideas ready.  So if you have time after your blog is installed – try to come up with at least ten posts that you can write.  You can begin writing if you’d like!

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There are quite a few factors that you can take into consideration when choosing your domain name, and the exercise of doing so shouldn’t betaken lightly.  Following this we’ll be talking about the many factors that you need to think about when creating a domain name.

When you do decide on a domain name – I would suggest using Namecheap to register all of your domains!  They offer free private registration and SSL for all domains for their first year.

Brand vs. Keyword Domains

Obviously you have to think about this when you are creating a domain.  Before we think about anything else we need to decide what the long term goal of our blog is.

Have you chosen a niche that you are passionate about?  If you have – then you will want to think about choosing a brandable domain.  When you are blogging about a niche that you are passionate about and plan to blog about for a long time – loyal readers will be the bulk of your readership.

You’ll get traffic from social media marketing, and of course from the search engines.  Even though your domain may not have any keywords in it you will still be able to get search engine traffic by properly optimizing each post.  You’ll have to work a bit harder to rank your site in the search engines without any keywords in your domain.

Going for a brandable domain has more advantages then problems if you plan to create a long term authority site.   A brandbale domain needs to be as short and memorable as possible.  The domain becomes the identity of the blog itself.

The other type of domain that you can choose is one that is based on a keyword that you would like to target.  If you plan to create several smaller blogs then this might be the route you would want to go.  With a keyword based domain you give yourself a much easier chance of ranking high in the search engines.

If you find a keyword that you want to target and you are able to get the exact match dot com of that keyword then that is the easiest way to begin ranking for a domain.

You don’t always have to choose one route or the other.  You could choose a brandable domain that also contains a keyword or two in it.

Your job for today is to come up with ideas for your blog using both brand and keyword domains.  In our next post I’ll go over more factors involved in choosing your final domain name.  Get your creative juices flowing and come up with as many names as you can and write them down. Don’t share your ideas with anyone or they may buy the domain before you do!

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• Other Factors to Consider for Choosing a Domain

Both Katie and I miss our friends and families back up in Ohio so we’re heading back up there and getting a new place. Even though the weather is much nicer down here in Florida!

I haven’t been posting much because I haven’t had a lot to talk about in the affiliate marketing arena. I’ve just been basically running my campaigns, and I haven’t really been doing anything all that exciting to blog about!

I’m thinking about turning this blog into more of a general ramble of my thoughts as opposed to affiliate marketing related only, but I’d like to see what you guys think. I’m not sure how many readers I honestly have anymore, since I rarely post at all. But what would you guys like to see?

Are there any traffic sources you’d like to hear about? General business knowledge? Case studies on specific types of offers? I’ll be glad to post up some case studies if you’d like. I’m just not sure what everyone wants to read about.

If anyone still reads the blog – let me know in the comments what you want to hear about and I’ll be glad to help out.

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When I first started reading, I was instantly hooked to it because he talks about a lot of what I’ve been thinking lately and really hammers the points home. Linchpin reminds me somewhat of Purple Cow – except instead of having a remarkable idea or product – you have to be remarkable in of yourself.

The business world as we knew it is gone, the world of factories and making a living just showing up are gone. In the past all you had to do was go to school, get good grades, work hard, keep your head down and follow orders. Those rules no longer apply, if you want to truly succeed you need to be a linchpin. It’s no longer about just showing up and doing your job – you have to challenge authority and do what you think is best.

You are not a cog in the industrial machine anymore – but the problem is we are still teaching our children to be cogs and there’s no more room for them. Whether you are an employee, or if you are working for yourself the changes are the same. We have to make our own choices, and chart our own path. We have to add value that others do not in order to succeed.

“If all you can do is the task and you’re not in a league of your own at doing the task, you’re not indispensable.”

You can be replaced at any time, by anyone. It’s not enough to be good at what you do anymore, you have to add value that the other thousands of people in your field cannot. What do you offer to your business, or to your industry, that nobody else can? If cuts were being made at your job – why would you be the one that stays?

The book has a lot of solid information in it and is a great book to read a few times. There’s a lot of books in our industry that are great reads and I think this one is up towards the top. If you have a chance, I would highly recommend you go grab it because you certainly won’t regret reading it.

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I’m glad how fortunate we are and my thoughts go out to those that are less fortunate. Remember how fortunate you are and never forget it. Get ready for 2010 in this last week, get your business plans ready and TAKE ACTION in 2010 if you haven’t yet.

Merry Christmas and have a great Holiday season!

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1.) The affiliate manager that is/was an affiliate. They know their stuff and they can help you out with campaigns, targeting, anything really. These kind of affiliate managers also tend to be the networks owner, and not really an affiliate manager but they help affiliates nonetheless. Ryan Eagle of EWA, and Jason Akatiff(Smaxor) of Ads4Dough come to mind here.

2.) The affiliate manager that was never an affiliate, but still tries really hard to get you everything you want. They don’t bug you all day about the new hot offers, but they are ready and willing to pull up offer stats and etc for you IF you ask for it. I like these kind of affiliate managers, there when you want them to be, invisible when you don’t need them.

3.) The affiliate manager that just got out of college, or never went to college and has no real business being in this industry at all. They have no idea what is going on and hardly know what you are talking about when you ask them if you can run X offer on Y traffic source. These types of affiliate managers are far too common nowadays, and I tend to avoid them.

This obviously doesn’t describe every affiliate manager, but it gives a good base. The two extreme ends and one more in the middle. Personally I like the affiliate managers(or network owners) that have been in the industry awhile, and they still run their own internal campaigns. Some people think that there’s a trust issue here though – what if they just steal your traffic sources and run it themselves?

Other’s feel that they don’t need anyone at a network to bounce ideas off of, which is great for you, go do your thing. I talk to Ryan a lot about various campaigns and ask for suggestions from him, even if it’s not a campaign that I am running with him at that moment he’s always there to help. Jason Akatiff(Smaxor) is the same way, always glad to help.

Those are the two that I have dealt with the most which is why I name them, I am sure that there are others who help just as much, so don’t think that I am calling anyone else out. I don’t see any sort of trust issues here, because unless you have been around for a really long time, these two and others in this position know a lot and can really help you. I’m not going to even pretend to know near as much as these two guys.

What do you guys look for in an affiliate manager? Someone who runs their own campaigns very successfully? Someone who can’t spell affiliate manager? Or somewhere in between?

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2.  Set Goals. One of the most important things in this industry is self motivation. There is nobody here to hold your hand, no boss to yell at you for goofing off. The only person that can truly motivate you in any case, is you. Goals are an important part of that process, by setting goals and deadlines for those goals you strive towards them. Different rewards motivate different people. Set your goals so that you can tie in a reward with them that actually motivates you, whatever that may be. Bryn Youngblut recently had a great post about achieving some pretty awesome goals – you can do it too!

3.  Stay Focused. You have to stay focused on what you want to accomplish. You can’t let the new latest and greatest way of making money stop you from what you’re currently doing. Don’t let other people’s opinions about whether it works or not sway you. Make it work, you can market literally any product if you do it right. Anything can be made profitable. Don’t let it get the best of you – tweak it until you force it to profit.

4.  Diversify. I know, this might sound like a contradiction to the last rule. However I don’t see it as one. I always try to keep my top priority 80% of my time, and use that other 20% to work on some side projects, some long term projects that will be consistent for you. You can’t expect one thing to last forever – so have a backup plan too.

5.  Have fun. Often over looked in this industry – you need to have fun each and every day. If this isn’t what you want to do then go find what is. You like the 9-5 work day for a company? Great – go do it. You like the whacky schedules and hard work in the restaurant business, go do it! But if making a living online is what you want to do then you should automatically have fun each and every work day and that’s what matters. We aren’t here to slave away and make a ton of money and do nothing with it. Have fun, do what you want, just get your job done.

6.  Network. I’m surprised I didn’t put this one on here sooner. Network with anyone and everyone you can. Don’t spend all day long on Facebook or Twitter or any other social media but you need to talk to people in the industry. Get to know your affiliate managers, your peers, your advertisers. Get to know everyone, any contact you have may come in handy some day. Whether it be for advice, a new direction, a joint venture or anything else, networking is key!

7.  Protect your wealth. Wealth is not measured in how much money you make, it’s in how much money you keep. I know plenty of people in this world who make way more than they need to yet they throw it all away and live paycheck to paycheck. Spend your money properly – make sure to always leave plenty of money in your business to expand and grow – but at the same time make sure you pay yourself what you deserve. One of the quickest ways to increase the amount of money you keep is by legally cutting down on the taxes you pay. There are several good reads out there about the subject – pick one up because you’ll be amazed how much money you can save and protect each year.

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Networks interfaces should always be changing and updating based on their affiliates needs and Tatto is on top of that.

• New Design for Reporting and Statistics – Reports and Statistics is even faster and more efficient than before. Data view pages can easily be searched and sorted accurately even with multiple pages of data.
• Conversion Tracking Report – This report provides specific lead/sale information, including sub id, tracking info, transaction id, ip address, and payout, allowing you to quickly run sub id reports. While “info” in current tracking links will continue to work, it has been replaced with “aff_sub”.
• Updated Tracking Links – Updated tracking links that are easy to understand. Sub ID tracking has been updated as well as Source name added. Specify a Source name in the tracking url to easily drill-down and analyze performance in reports.
• Offer Tiny URLs –You can shorten your tracking links with our own TinyURL.
• Browser Targeting – The Tatto Affiliate Network now can target offers to users based on their browser.  This will redirect users to receive offers designed for mobile devices including iPhones and thus increase your conversion rates.
• Creative Manager – A valuable feature that quickly generates tracking code with creatives, making it simple for you to include the creative you prefer with the offer-specific tracking url. Also new features to browse and preview creatives.
• Suppression List – Updated suppression lists to better support email marketers.
• Refer a Friend – Enhanced Refer a Friend feature to reward you for introducing friends into our network.
• Improved Stats API – Updated functions and documentation to make working with our stats API even easier.
• Live Support that AIMs affiliate’s Manager
• More offer Categories for navigational ease
• Support tab w/ help and glossary.

All of these changes are definitely for the better and Tatto is just getting started.  They are always on top of making sure their affiliates have everything they need.  I’ll be working more and more with them and will keep you guys updated on what they have going on.  If you guys aren’t already in Tatto Media – you should definitely go sign up now.

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Ryan Eagle, the owner of EWA or Eagle Web Assets, along with his partner Harrison Gervitz are by far the most helpful network owners around.  They truly care about the success of their affiliates and want each and every one to do the best that they can.  Their motivation for this isn’t because of the money that each affiliate brings them, because they do well enough on their internal advertising anyway.

They want everyone to succeed because EWA is a close group of friends, and as friends we like to stick together.  EWA continues to scare other networks and take affiliates from them by simply offering what we all as affiliates want.  We want the highest payouts(which all networks promise, but few truly deliver if you look around), we want the best support from the network we can get, which is what EWA delivers, and we want our leads to track, and we want to be paid.

The wants of an affiliate aren’t really all that much, yet somehow, networks still continue to get it wrong.  While we like all of our fancy referral commissions, and our gifts and gadgets networks send us, those aren’t nearly as important as offers, and support.  EWA puts affiliates first, and themselves second.  They work twenty hour days sometimes to make sure we have the offers that we need.  They are dedicated to getting any offer their affiliates want, and beating the payout on it.

Another thing that I need to highlight – when EWA sends out a mass email – it doesn’t just talk about the top offers and ask us to push this or push that.  EWA actually sends us out offers that they are internally testing – and even writes guides to help us get started on certain traffic sources.  The guide for advertising dating on Facebook that Ryan sent us awhile back helped tons of affiliates make a lot of money.  They truly are there to help their affiliates first, and write their paychecks second.

As I said before, EWA is a close group of friends so acceptance is limited.  However I’m glad to help budding affiliates get in – if you want in – please reach out to me on AIM at KatemiahCoop.  I won’t get you in right away, I want to make sure you fit the mold for an EWA affiliate first, but if you think you have what it takes – hit me up.

I just want to thank EWA publicly for what they’ve done for me as an affiliate, now excuse me while I go pump out some campaigns on their network.

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So I’m offering the first network that lets me know they will send me one – a great advertising opportunity on this blog.  I only have 2 available paid spots and this is your opportunity to nab one of them!

The first network to email or call me to let me know my Kindle is on the way – I will give a full review of the network on my blog – as well as give you a 3 month adspot in my 125×125 section.  Quite a value for you as the blog is growing pretty rapidly!

On a side note, who here has a Kindle and what do you think about it?  It just seems easier than buying books all the time and I like the 3G Wifi and read to me features.  I’m not sure why I haven’t bought one yet – mainly because I’m cheap.  That’s why I want someone else to buy it! =)

So let’s hear it networks – who needs advertising?  Market Leverage – I’m looking at you

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