Typically, as a publisher or an affiliate marketer, you probably send traffic to your online offers using a hyperlink like this: Get a free issue of Promo Code Marketing Tactics…or something to that effect.

The goal, obviously, is to get your visitor to click on the link.

You put hyperlinks in your email newsletters, your blogs, social networking sites…basically everywhere. That’s HOW you get visitors to your sites.

But…

There is an alternate, less common, sometimes more effective way to get visitors to your site WITHOUT using a hyperlink.

Consider using a “promo code” to drive visitors to a site of your choice FIRST!.  For example, if I wanted someone to download my free report Promo Code Marketing Tactics, I may send that traffic to THIS blog first to enter the promo code.  Once here they could enter promo code “showme” in the promo code form at the top of my blog to get the report.

Why would I do this?

Well, because I may want them to see my entire blog.  They may see something else that they are interested it.  I may get a new RSS subscriber.  I may make an affiliate sale of something totally unrelated, etc.  It really depends on the content of the site that you are sending your visitor to.

Bottom line, it’s an “out of the box” idea if I don’t say so myself.

With Promo Code Software you can do these types of promotions and drive traffic to your site of choice as well as sending them to your promotion of choice.  It’s like getting two birds with one stone.

Get a lifetime Promo Code Software membership today and start experimenting with

Getting Joint Venture Prospects To Say “YES” To Your Proposal

If you want a potential Joint Venture prospect to say “yes” to promoting YOUR product or service, you’ve gotta make it hard for them to say “no”.

That may sound like a no brainer, but as you probably know, it’s easier said than done.

Making it hard to say “no” does NOT include offering a high or even 100% commission. If you contacted me about sending a promotion about a new line of perfume to my contacts, I’d politely turn you down…even if you offered 100% commissions. Your offer of 100% commissions doesn’t make it hard for me to say no. You see, the commission rate doesn’t mean squat if the product doesn’t make sense.

Now what if you came to me and offered 100% commissions on your newest “marketing product”…hmmm, that’s my niche. My entire customer and prospect list is full of marketers and small business owners.

I can’t tell you how many emails I get that look like this:

“Hey Jason, I noticed your Promo Code Software membership and I think it’s a great idea. Very interesting. Listen, I have a product that would suit your list quite nicely. It will save them a lot of time doing xxxxx. Plus it will help them xxxxxxxxxxx. I think it would be a very nice fit with your members. If you are interested please let me know. I’ll hook you up with xxxxxx per sale. Probably the easiest money you’ll make. Just send out an email”

My answer?

“No Thanks.”

Why?

Because I’m busy. I already have a slew of my own promotions coming up. I have recommendations to make based on my own experience. I don’t have time to look at and study YOUR program. I can’t even finish everything I have planned for today.

Yes, I admit, all I have to do is send out an email to my list. How hard is that? Why on earth don’t I have time to do that for easy 100% commissions on YOUR product? Even if the promotion flops….what do I have to lose anyway? Doesn’t cost me anything to send out an email and it will only take about 2 minutes. How on earth could I be too busy for that?

What am I, some sort of jerk?

No. In fact, I’d LOVE to help.

So allow me to explain WHY I’ll say “no thanks” to something like that:

Nice attempt. I applaud you for it. Thanks for thinking of me but…….

Now I’ve got to contact you. I’ve got to look at your sales page. I’ve got to sign up for your affiliate program. I’ve gotta figure out how to angle your product to make sense to my subscribers, etc, etc.

Look, I get 400 emails a day (that I look at). Your proposal, no matter how fitting it may be, no matter how beneficial it really may be….it represents a lot of work on my end. It distracts me from my own activities for the day and it’s not like I have a loss of products to market…including my own.

You have NOT made it easy for me to say yes just because you are offering 100% commissions and a product that would probably fit with my list. You have failed in making it hard for me to say no.

Even if you have sparked my interest, it’s way to easy for me to put in on the back burner.

Make It Easy For Me To Say “YES”

As you can see, it’s not about the commissions.

It’s a combination of two things.

First, does the product make sense? You need to make it crystal clear to your Joint Venture prospect WHY your product or service would make sense to their contact list. If you don’t want your proposal sent directly to the trash can, you need to articulate the specific benefits of your product in the space of just one paragraph, two at the most. Be short and punchy when explaining what your product is, how it can benefit the customer, and how it can compliment your JV’s value (to their list) by offering & recommending it.

Next…

Make It Brain Dead Simple For Your JV Partner

Now that your potential JV knows what your product is about (in a nut shell) and how it could benefit their list of subscribers, you are still only half way there to even getting their attention…let alone a favorable response.

A sure fire way to get others to promote for you is to prove that it will benefit their list and then to make it brain dead easy for them to promote.

Set up a promo code for your Joint venture partner using Promo Code Software.  That promo code should be placed on your blog or even directly on your sales page.  Using the software, you can easily have the promo code redirect to ANY page you want.  Make a special offer page customized specifically to your potential Joint Ventures list.  Mention your JV’s name or company.  Make the case for why YOUR product is right for them.

After you have this special page set up…

Contact your potential JV partner and tell him/her that you have set up a special campaign especially for their list and that you have a promotion code that they can give to their contacts for that “special deal” or for the bonus, or what every your deal is for them.

More often than not, your prospect (JV prospect) will be impressed with the work you’ve done and will recognize that a promo code is a unique and intriguing thing to send to their list.  It’s different and creates a certain sense of curiosity.  People want to see what the promo code is all about.

Once you create a “template” page for the special offer, it’s really easy to just make simple changes in the text to reflect different JV partners in the offer.  Usually it would be a headline like…

“Special offer for xxxxxx Members”

You just change the xxxxxx to suit who’s list you are promoting to.

The JV partner that you are looking to recruit will never know that it was a snap to put the process together because you used Promo Code Software. 

Joint Ventures are easy if you prepare and set up campaigns for your prospect.  Remember YOUR prospect is the potential JV partner.  Make it relevant, make it easy, and show the potential profitability LAST.

What’s your take?  Please leave a comment

Lately, I’ve been talking a lot about Twitter and how you can harness it’s popularity to help you with your business. Well, I’ve found some videos that really spell it out. In fact, here are 3 videos that I found particularly helpful in explaining what Twitter is and why you should use it as a business owner:

Twitter Tips by Liana Evans of SearchMarketingGurus.com

How To Get Free Targeted Traffic Using Twitter

Expanding Your Twitter Universe

Twitter is an excellent way to attract attention to your marketing sites. A great way to get even more attention in your Twitter posts is to announce a promotion code that ultimately leads to your offers or name squeeze pages.

Today, were going to talk about two methods to increase your Twitter Post’s marketing power.

1. How & Why to use promo codes in your Twitter posts
2. How to automate, pre-load, and schedule your Twitter posts.

Using Promo Codes with Twitter

If you’re a returning reader, you already know that I hammer on the theme that promo codes are NOT just used to offer discounts. Utilize promo codes properly and you can use them to drive interested traffic to just about any site on the web.

If you’re using promo codes in your Twitter posts, it can create a curiosity factor that gets your Twitter readers to take action on your post.

For example, say you want people go to your newly create “best widget” site. Instead of making a Twitter post announcing your launch like this:

Typical Twitter post:

“Hey, I just opened my new site about “best widgets”. Check it out here, yoursite.com “

Better Twitter post:

“Use Promo Code: 4gt56 at yoursite.com to get insider info about “best widgets”

When your Twitter visitor goes to yoursite.com, they are now looking for the promo code form to enter the code so they can get that insider information you promised.

See the psychology here?

People are so bombarded with “click here” links to the point that you really need to get a little more creative in getting people to “click here”.

Twitter is an excellent way to drive traffic back to your site BUT it’s easy to get drowned out in Twitter just like any other medium that you may market in. It’s up to you to come up with some creative ideas to help you stick out from the crowd. Remember, the whole idea is to get people to “click here”.

Adding the curiosity factor by marketing a promo code instead of a “click here” link is just one way to get that extra attention you need in a very noisy market place.

Automating your Twitter posts

If you have a lot of followers on Twitter, I think it’s fair to say that all of them probably don’t go directly to your profile to see all of your posts. More than likely, you posts are only being viewed when they show up on your followers board.

This means a lot of your Twitter posts are going unseen.

The way to make sure your posts are getting the eyeball time by the most amount of your followers is to make several posts throught the day.

You can use Twitter Autoposter to pre-load, schedule and send your posts in the future. This way you can load up a week, a month, or even a years worth of marketing posts ahead of time.

Of course, you need to be careful with how you “market” in Twitter. Get the reputation as a SPAMMER or send too many annoying blatent ads and you will lose followers faster than a Greyhound chasing a rabbit.

What’s the big hoopla over Promo Codes & Coupon Codes?

It’s a common misconception about promo codes. Most people think that they are simple “coupon” codes used for giving a discount on products or services.

But you know what? There really is a big difference…and it can mean a world of difference to your bottom line as a marketer.

Promo Codes, if implemented properly, can fuel a complete marketing campaign while Coupon Codes are only designed to offer a discount within your marketing campaign.

Confused?

Simply put, coupon codes are typically used during checkout after a buying decision has already been made. As a business owner, you may advertise a code that visitors can enter, say…CD130, for example, that gives your customers a 50% discount on what ever it is that you are offering. When your prospect decides to make a purchase…they enter the code CD130 somewhere during the purchase process to receive their discount.

Promo Codes, on the other hand, are designed to direct your visitors to any message or website you wish BEFORE your prospect makes a buying decision. They’re meant to drive web traffic to your sites and special offers during the initial stages of your marketing efforts. By using a promo code to drive traffic to a special offer page, you are getting another shot at peaking your visitors interest and educating them about your offer. It’s not just about price.

Here’s a perfect example of ME using a promo code to generate interest in my own product. If you enter promo code:

showme

Into this promo code form below:

Enter Code

I’ll give you a free report called “Promo Code Marketing Tactics” so you can learn more about how to use promotion codes with your marketing campaigns.

So, go ahead. Enter promo code showme into the form above…won’t cost you a dime.

See what’s happening here?

Am I offering a discount here?

No, but I am offering something of value and I’m giving you a way to pick it up at no charge. If you are interested in learning about promotion code tactics and how it can help you in your marketing campaigns, you’ll probably use the code.

I’m driving traffic (you) to my blog…not directly to my “landing page”. I mean, let’s get really transparent here. Let’s hold nothing back.

It’s obvious. I’m a marketer. I have something to sell. It happens to be my Promo Code Software membership.

Now, I’m not really sure how you landed on my blog. But I do know this: you got here through some sort of “marketing” effort. Whether it was through a Google search, and affiliate promotion, an article I may have written, etc. Fact is, you ARE here and you ARE reading about the differences between a promo code and a coupon code.

If I were to offer you a “discount” on my Promo Code Software membership on this blog post, how effective do you really think it would be?

Probably not very effective at all if I were to guess. See, you probably need some more ideas or reasons that you would even want a membership. Sure, knowing that you have a “coupon code” for a discount is nice…

But…

You Will Only Use A Coupon Code AFTER You Decide That The Product Is Right For YOU…Not Simply Because There May Be A Discounted Price.

However, what I’m doing is offering you a promo code to use to get that information…so you can start to make an informed decision on whether or not you would even want a membership.

I could send you directly to the sales page and have you enter the same promo code. Or, I could direct you to the top of the blog and have you enter the same promo code for the free report. In fact, any promo code I generate works in all my forms on ALL my websites. It same form even works on sites with different domains and different hosting accounts.

So, really, the pitch here (disguised as a lesson) is that you should be using promo codes to DRIVE traffic to your main sites and blogs. TRY THAT using a discount “coupon code”!!

You can offer promo codes in your offline marketing too. Learn more in “Promo Code Marketing Tactics”, just enter the correct promo code and it’s yours.

Get a lot more tips just like this and more.

Till next time…

Well, needless to say, I’m falling in love with Twitter.

It really is an excellent way to make new contacts both professionally AND personally.

Taking a look at the blogsphere…here are a few great tips from others who have blogged about it.

Twitter Tips and Tricks - Twitter is, simply put, a simple way of staying connected. It is a service for co-workers, friends and family to stay connected and communicate by exchanging quick frequent messages. Twitter is a message board that you can update from …

How to Use Twitter - Tips for Bloggers - Homework - take the list of objectives that you’ve come up with and put them somewhere that you’ll see them regularly. Each time you twitter ask yourself - ‘is this Tweet getting me closer to these objectives?’ …

Twitter - My Twitter tips:. If you tweet about a broad variety of topics you’ll get followers of varied interests. Ask questions - crowdsource your followers - they love to help! (today I asked if I should get a kayak or canoe; on another day it …

Be sure to join Twitter & add me to your contacts!

http://twitter.com/jasonanderson

See you there!

Marketing Tools That I Use For My Online Business.

When ever someone asks me about what marketing tools I use, obviously I tell them about Promo Code Software (PCS)

Why wouldn’t I ? I created it for online and traditional off line marketers. The more people use it, the more popular it will become. The more people use it, the more they will understand that PCS is actually a platform that you can run and track online & off line marketing campaigns from…not just offer discount online coupons. So, yeah, of course I’ll toot my own horn.

In order to make things hum though, there are a couple of other tools I use which actually make me more money than my OWN product. Without these tools, I’d literally be broke and out of business.

First and foremost…

It’s my sequential email auto responder. Without an automatic email follow-up system, I’d never even attempt a web based business. I won’t go into great detail about sequential auto responders because I feel that the majority of readers who make it to this blog fully understand what an auto responder is and why it is important to have one. I will, however, talk a little bit about what service I use…and why.

I try to keep things simple. I use Aweber to handle my email marketing. I could choose to host my own email marketing script on my own server to save some money on user fees…but I don’t. I certainly have the “techncal” know-how…and, frankly, that’s exactly why I choose NOT to run

Here’s why:

I want my marketing messages to actually get delivered and Aweber does a great job at maintaining relationships with the various ISP’s to ensure that MY email makes it through the various filters. If I hosted my own email delivery system, I’d have to make sure that I was an expert on deliverability. Since I’m not, I choose to leave that up to the pros at Aweber to make sure that I’m not BLACK LISTED from false SPAM complaints or various other things that can flag my domain and slowly diminish the effectiveness of my email marketing campaigns.

I see a lot of posts on popular marketing forums that I visit discussing the benefits of hosting your own email program. The main point is cost. If you own your own script, you don’t have monthly or annual fees. The other point I see a lot is that some of the marketers say they don’t see ANY difference in their email deliverability. That second point may be true. At the moment, they may not see a decline. At the moment they may not be blacklisted. They may NEVER be blacklisted…but will they ever know? Will they know if they do get some emails blocked? How will they get un-blocked if they do. Well, that’s what they will have to deal with when and if it ever happens.

For me, my marketing messages are way to valuable to have to worry about deliverability. For me, it’s more piece of mind. Plus, the provider I use is constantly improving its services. They are now implementing some very cool tracking features that will allow me to know WHO opens their email messages…and WHAT links they clicked on. This is high quality information. It’s not just about sending out email messages to your subscribers, it’s about what your subscribers do with your messages.

Tracking, deliverablilty, and piece of mind are the reasons I don’t host my own email marketing system. I want to be in the “marketing” business, not the “email maintenance” business. That’s why I use a professional auto responder service. It’s just not worth the time or the headache to try to maintain my own.

Another marketing tool:

Here’s what I use to manage my sales, affiliate program, and digital delivery.

Rapid-Action-Profit (RAP) is what I use for my all-in-one sales and reseller management solution. It other words, this script handles all my sales, runs my affiliate program, and adds my customers to my Aweber auto-responder…100% automatically.

I particularly like the affiliate management feature of this script.

RAP allows me to instantly pay my affiliates.

This means I NEVER have to figure out who to pay, how much to pay them, when to pay them, or anything like that. PLUS, I’m a big believer in “Fast Pay Makes Fast Friends”. Know what I mean?

I’ve been an affiliate for tons of products. Sometimes you have to wait up to 60 days or more before you get paid for affiliate sales that you make today. Preferably, as an affiliate, I like to get paid a little sooner than that. So, from an affiliate point of view…I really like the instant pay feature. From and administrative point of view…I really like not having to worry about paying my affiliates. It really is the best of both worlds.

Also, with RAP, you have SECURE delivery of your digital products. Your download link is protected in several ways. You don’t need to worry about people sharing your download link all over the internet.

Secure digital deliver…

Automated affiliate program with auto pay…

Aweber auto responder integration…

It all adds up to a powerful marketing system that I really enjoy.

Here’s the link to the sales page. I highly recommend that you check it out:

http://www.rapid-action-profit.com

 

What Others Are Saying About Marketing Tools

Taking a look around the net, I found some other interesting articles that you may be interested and related to marketing tools for your businss.  Have a look:

Five ways to start Marketing your Online business today - Content is one of the best marketing tools if not the best marketing tool available to a business owner. Articles can be written and published on your website which in turn will drive traffic to your website as people search for … Your Best Marketing Tools ~ And They’re Free! - I look at all the money I have spent on marketing… custom business cards, stationery to match, custom post cards (that usually end up in file 13), signs on my car and I’ve discovered something about how I get my business. … Building an Opt-In List, Building Relationships - Now, one of the best marketing tools that you can use in your online business is building a list. An opt-in list is the best, most effective and smartest option that you can make to make it big. It is one thing to stay in business and … An Action Step Is Worth A Thousand Words - The best marketing tools in the world are worthless without a plan for how to use them. I can’t follow up on these leads because I don’t have a good sales letter. The quest for the perfect sales letter seems to prevent far too many of … Best Internet Advertising Tools - Internet marketing has its own set of the best marketing tools. If you are not new to the world of Internet advertising, many of these marketing tools are quite familiar to you-search engine optimization special software, … 30 Ways To Promote Your Website On A Shoestring Budget Part 2 - If you sell products (as opposed to services) in your business, one of the best marketing tools you can use is eBay. eBay is a community where individuals and businesses can buy and sell a vast range of new and used items at fair market …

What tools do you use for marketing your business?

Please leave a comment about your favorite marketing tool, method, technique…or about this post in general. in-One

Sales & Reseller

Management Solution

All-in-One

Sales & Reseller

Management Solution

Note: (Another Tip Submitted by one of my readers…NOT exactly related to promo codes and how to market with promo codes…but good enough of a general marketing tip, I decided to approve. Perhaps you could make a comment on how to implement this with Promo Code Marketing)

You can do this in two ways:

1) Set up a sales page and send out an offer to your list about a book, you plan to write. Give them a synops, the final price and the buy-now price.

2) Set up a sales page, write the first chapter, and send out an offer to your list about the book. Tell tham that if they buy chapter 1 at a low price, they get all the other chapters for free. Each time a you put a new chapter online, raise the price until the final price. (This latter method is inspired by Robert Plank).

We’ve had great success using both methods, and in either way, you know for sure if it’s worth writing the book or not.

This post was submitted by Britt Malka.

Microblogs like Twitter are not a fad and they aren’t going to disappear anytime soon. These types of social networking sites are literally growing by the second with no end in site.

When I first heard of Twitter (and saw it), I have to admit…I thought it was pretty useless. Actually, I was more puzzled by it than anything. I didn’t see the point, at least not right away. Well, now I’m completely blown away with how effective it can be.

Problem is, Twitter limits you to 160 character posts. That’s not a lot of room to get your message across. In fact, the last two sentences that you just read contained 109 characters…51 more characters and my post would exceed it’s limit. So as you can see, you can’t really post substantial info on microblogs.

That’s one MAJOR reason using promo codes forms on your blog can be very useful. Make a “tweet”, that’s what they call it on Twitter, and announce a promo code for “whatever”…..it could be for an affiliate program, it could be a review site, the promo code could be used to show a special offer page, anything.

You could upload a promo code form box (like the one on THIS blog above)….drive traffic from Twitter directly to YOUR blog and have them enter the promo code that you announced on twitter.

This is getting REALLY good because now you are driving traffic back to your site or blog where they can see your latests posts, offers, etc, and have them enter the promo code that you advertised on Twitter to direct them to the message that they were trying to get to.

(Just a little promo code software plug) - And another way you can use promo codes without giving a discount.

I’ve also scoured the net for some other handy Twitter tips. Here are few links to some other blogs that give some pretty good tips:

8 Twitter tips from a n00b

… passing boat or catch every fish to live beside it. If your peer group is on Twitter, you miss a lot if you are not there, too. More to come on each tip in the next few days! Technorati Tags: twitter,twitter tips,david murray,ragan.

Twitter tips for new users

I’ve been using Twitter for some time now. It has almost replaced my RSS reader completely and to a degree, my reliance on Google to find stuff. If I want to find out the latest gossip or ask for advice on how to use something new, …

6 Quick Twitter Tips

It allows you to follow conversations on Twitter. Very cool. Want to tweet by phone? Check out http://www.twitterfone.com/; Lots and lots of tips on using Twitter for writers and journalists; More helpful Twitter tips …

TWO Top Twitter Tips for Business

To help businesses understand Twitter, I wrote Ten Top Twitter Tips for Business, building from the Ten “Regular” Twitter Tips also on this blog. But those Ten turned into Twelve, each with detail, and then into Fourteen…way too much …

Top Twitter Tips for Business: #5 & #6

Read Top Ten Twitter Tips and #1 & #2 or #3 & #4 Twitter Tips for Business…and you’ll be up to speed. Two more tips for building conversations, community and mometum on Twitter. 5. One voice only. Choose one person to be in charge of …

How to Use Twitter - Tips for Bloggers

Yesterday I wrote about some of the benefits of using Twitter as a tool to improve your blog. I’ve seen tangible benefits of getting into Twitter over the last month - but it hasn’t been as simple as signing up for a Twitter account and …

Twitter Tips and Tricks

Twitter is, simply put, a simple way of staying connected. It is a service for co-workers, friends and family to stay connected and communicate by exchanging quick frequent messages. Twitter is a message board that you can update from …

So, that’s it for today. I hope you enjoy these tips.

I hope you consider getting your Promo Code Software membership as well so you can implement the method I spoke of above.

Good luck with your marketing efforts.

The 3 Most Common Affiliate Marketing Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

Affiliate marketing is one of the most lucrative ways of making money with a home-based business. Everyone has an equal opportunity to make a profit on the internet. Since affiliate marketing programs are easy to join, implement and pay commissions on a regular basis, more and more people are looking to market other people’s products through the affiliate marketing venue.

However, like other businesses, there are lots of pitfalls associated with affiliate marketing. Committing some of the most common mistakes could cost a person to lose a large portion of their time and profit. That is why it is better to avoid making them from the beginning.

Here are the 3 most common mistakes made by new affiliate marketers.

Mistake #1: Joining the wrong affiliate program.

In a rush to replace a tiresome job, people tend to choose a bandwagon product because they think it is “hot”. They choose a product on the strength of its demand in the marketplace without actually considering if the product is appealing to them.

Research your niche industry to see if a particular type of product is in demand then choose a product that appeals to you. Pick one that you think has value and you can get behind. Promoting something you are interested in is much easier than promoting something just for the sake of making money.

Your feelings of enthusiasm can carry you through times of frustrations and doubt if they occur. Your conviction for the value of a product could come from a number of features such as its ease of use (simplicity), its benefits (improving work or home conditions) or its compensation structure (commission). What is it you like about it?

Mistake #2: Joining too many affiliate programs.

Since affiliate programs are very easy to join, you might be tempted to join multiple programs to try to maximize your earning potential. Though it is important to have multiple sources of income this is always a pitfall for the inexperienced. Concentrating on and mastering one product before adding another can keep your mind clear and you able to reach your financial goals sooner.

The result of dispersing energy on multiple programs can be a lower-than-expected income but through no flaw of the product . The best way to get excellent results is by joining just one program that pays at least a 40% commission for each sale. Then give it your best effort. Promote it enthusiastically. Once it is making a reasonable return you can afford to turn your attention to another product.

Affiliate marketing is fast replacing conventional marketing techniques and promises a strong future. There is no need to rush into several programs at once. A newer, better product will always be just around the corner. In this case, less is certainly more.

Mistake #3: Not using the product that is being promoted.

An affiliate’s main purpose is to convincingly promote a product or service to customers. To achieve this purpose, an affiliate should be able to easily relay the benefits of the product being promoted. Marketing is more believable when it’s coming from personal experience. Becoming a product of the product really pays off.

Research or try out the product before you begin promoting as an affiliate. Your insight and testimonial will help you attract buyers who are looking for something similar and will result in fewer returns. Your customers will feel the sincerity in your promotions and will more likely buy it for themselves.

These are just a few common mistakes to avoid in your affiliate marketing career.

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Learn how to avoid making more costly mistakes by creating your own automated affiliate profit center right away. Get the popular free ebook Automatic Money Machines. Fay Ferris is an internet marketing enthusiast who writes from personal experience to help others reduce their learning curve while building their online business. Visit her site => OnlineMoneyAffiliate.com