E Articles Knowledge Informations Tips: 01/13/14

Monday, January 13, 2014

3 Ways To STOP Affiliate Link "Hijackers"

Ezine Information

3 Ways To STOP Affiliate Link "Hijackers"

by: Jim Edwards

(c)2002 Jim Edwards - all right reserved

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Let's face the facts!

Almost everyone online today is looking to make or save a buck any way they can. In the past, most of the people who clicked on your affiliate links used to purchase without a second thought... but, as times get tougher online, it seems a growing number won't!

As money gets tighter and product prices rise, people who know how to manipulate the system will sometimes replace your affiliate ID with theirs and "hijack" your commissions.

Here's an example:

Let's say your affiliate link is www.ebookaboutcats.com/?live-well.

Say the highjacker uses the affiliate ID of captain-hook. What he would do is replace your ID with his, and buy from the URL www.ebookaboutcats.com/?captain-hook.

The bottom line: the hijacker puts your money in his pocket.

In other cases, they can't stand the thought of you "making money off them" so they bypass you by simply chopping off the end of your affiliate link that contains your ID.

Instead of buying from www.ebookaboutcats.com/?live-well, the bypasser will simply "chop off" the affiliate ID at the end and simply buy from the plain URL www.ebookaboutcats.com --without your affiliate ID attached!

Either way, you get cheated out of your rightful commission.

To help you fight these affiliate link hijackers I offer a couple of my best (proven and battle tested) tips, which will at least confuse these "hijackers" and, in many cases, often defeat and disarm them completely.

Side Note: If someone really, really wants to steal your affiliate commission, they will find a way; however, most hijackers are just opportunists who will only act if they see an easy buck.

The first and cheapest way to hide your affiliate links is using a javascript redirect page. This is where you hide your affiliate link in a page on your site using a simple javascript that redirects people to your affiliate link.

It works great not to expose your "naked" affiliate link in your actual email messages and ezine ads, but, once people get redirected to the true affiliate link, many affiliate programs expose the affiliate link along with your ID in the browser address bar.

Here's an example of a redirect script in action. Click => http://www.ebookfire.com/esejs.html

Notice how the link takes you to a page where you can see my affiliate ID, ebookfire, in your web browser's address bar.

Like it or not, someone can replace my ID with theirs and "hijack" the commission... but at least the redirect script keeps them from immediately seeing my "naked" affiliate link (http://hop.clickbank.net/?ebookfire/ebksecrets) when I publish it in my newsletter, email, or on my website.

You can get free redirect scripts just about anywhere you find free javascripts. Here is the script I use http://www.ebookfire.com/jrs.shtml.

A better way to hide your affiliate links is using a zero-frame or "invisible" frame that masks the affiliate link by making it appear you are sending people to a page on your website. In reality, you are actually sending them to your affiliate link.

This is the technique used by those "sub-domain" redirect services that provide you with urls like http://ese.ebookfire.net.

While giving someone a link like that is much better than using a "naked" affiliate link such as http://hop.clickbank.net/?ebookfire/ebksecrets, there is a problem. As soon as someone does a "view >> source" in their web browser they'll see your naked affiliate link plain as day... which instantly blows your cover!

Currently the best way to protect your affiliate commissions from ruthless hijackers is to use a combination of a zero- frame page along with URL encryption. This involves sending someone to URL that looks like a page on your site, but actually pulls in your affiliate link like those "sub- domain" services. However, there's one critical difference...

If someone does a "view >> source" in their browser, you have added protection in that all they will see is a jumble of computer code instead of your naked affiliate link.

Check out this example of a zero-frame with URL encryption in action. Click => http://www.ebookfire.com/ese.html

Side Note: Beware of cloaking scripts that use javascript to mask your affiliate link because they could malfunction in some web browsers.

Here's the bottom line: if you are going to sell through other people's affiliate programs, never send a "naked" affiliate link... you're just asking for people to hijack or bypass you if you do.

If you want to get paid more often through your affiliate links, make sure it's not obvious you're referring people to an affiliate link. If they can't easily see how to hijack or bypass your link, a lot more people who would have taken the money out of your pocket will just go ahead and buy through your link - which is, after all, the whole point! :-)

About the author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...

Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months... without spending a dime on advertising! ==>

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3 Quick and Easy Ways to Generate Story Ideas

Essay Writing Tips

3 Quick and Easy Ways to Generate Story Ideas

by: Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ

There are many ways you can generate ideas you can use for your stories, articles and other creative pieces. Start with the three ways given below:

1. Put Your 5 Senses to Work

A simple but effective way to generate fresh ideas from a single concept, idea or object is to describe or illustrate it using the 5 senses -- sight, smell, touch, taste, sound.

For you to do: Generate 5 specific images or concrete examples (one example for each sense) for the following:

vindication (what's the smell of vindication? how does it taste? how does it sound? what does it look like? how does it feel?)
hesitation
celebration

2. Take Advantage of Your Conflicts

Conflict is a part of life. It's also a source of creativity. You only need to look at yourself and examine your experiences to come up with ideas based on conflicts.

For you to do: What's stopping you from doing something? Who is in the way of you getting what you want? What's stopping you from taking a career leap? Brainstorm for conflicts in your life and come up with at least 15 in your list.

3. It's OK to Call People Names

Generate nicknames or terms that capture the lifestyles, attitudes or characteristics of certain groups of people.

For example, the nicknames I came up for the kind of people I encountered on the bus when I used to commute to work and back were: space-hog, slumper, fidgeter and refined. The terms described how the people on the bus behaved as they sat. [They were useful because I was able to avoid the space-hogs and the fidgeters when choosing a seat. Sitting beside a slumper was all right, since most slumpers kept their slumps within their space ;o)]

For you to do: Generate nicknames or terms for the following groups of people:

cashiers
waiters
teachers
employees
actors

Begin using these 3 simple ways of generating ideas today. Before long, you'll be churning out one idea after another with ease. That's creativity at work!

About The Author

Shery is the developer of creative, motivating and fun e-mail courses for writers. Sign up and take an e-mail course today...free! http://writingbliss.com

This article was posted on July 21, 2004

5 Reasons NOT To Have a Marketing Plan

eMarketing Information

5 Reasons NOT To Have a Marketing Plan

by: Bobette Kyle

Imagine your perfect customers -- the ones that will eagerly buy your products or hire you for premium pay. Imagine being able to bring those perfect customers to you and having them buy your products or services not once, but again and again. That's what an effectively executed marketing plan does. It reaches the people who want what you are offering, convinces them to take action, and keeps them coming back.

Sounds nice, right? So why doesn't every business have a marketing plan? Let's take a look at some of the reasons you may not:

1. "We had a marketing plan once, but it didn't work. It isn't worth the time to put one together."

No marketing plan will work if you do not work the plan. The planning document is there for business managers to use as a strategic reference throughout the year, as programs in the plan are executed and as other opportunities come along. Any marketing plan that is filed away and forgotten as soon as it's written is useless.

2. "So-and-so had a marketing plan and it didn't help his business at all!"

Marketing is a process, not a singular event. A marketing plan is only the first step in that process. It points your business in the right direction by detailing marketing strategies and programs that will move you toward business objectives.

You must execute the programs in your plan so that you can evaluate program success. Rarely does a marketing program work best on the first try. It is up to you to analyze barriers to success, then tweak and tinker until you are getting positive results. If you ignore critical follow-up, most of your marketing programs -- whether you have a marketing plan or not -- will fail or fall short of their potential for success.

3. "Marketing planning is too hard."

Writing a marketing plan doesn't have to be complicated. There are different levels of planning. More intricate marketing planning processes will result in more refined strategies, with better potential for success. But, if you have limited resources, a top-line approach to planning is much better than none at all.

4. "We don't know how to write a marketing plan."

There are numerous books, software, "toolbox" resources, and articles that take you step-by-step through the process of creating a marketing plan. Frankly, not knowing how is an excuse, not a reason, to avoid marketing planning.

5. "My business is too small for a marketing plan."

Sound marketing strategy is critical to small business success, especially new businesses. Statistics vary widely depending on the source, but most reports cite failure rates for small business at 65% -- 90%. Knowing ahead of time how you will compete and how you will be successful in your marketplace can dramatically increase your chances of success.

Your marketing plan is a vital key to small business success. If you do not have a current plan, start one today. Your company's success depends on it.

About the author:
Bobette Kyle has been proprietor at
since 2002. For tips on
how to make the marketing plan process go smoothly, visit
and read "Tips to Help
Calm ‘Marketing Plan Panic.'

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3 Fastest Ways To Get Traffic To Any Website

Email Marketing Information

3 Fastest Ways To Get Traffic To Any Website

by: Jim Edwards

ฉ Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com

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After all the debate over website design, shopping carts
and credit card processors, every website owner eventually
comes to the startling realization that they need one more
thing to survive - website traffic!

Without website traffic it's the same as building an
expensive billboard and, instead of placing it alongside a
busy highway, hiding it in your *basement* where nobody can
see it.

Upon realizing they need traffic, most website owners run
out and start blowing chunks of money and time trying to
get "hits," but they fail to grasp that there are really
only three (3) reliable ways to get traffic to any website.

Method #1 - Buy Traffic
Currently, the fastest way to get traffic to any website
involves using the little classified ads on the right side
of search giant Google's results pages.

Called Google AdWords, the system allows any advertiser to
open an account with a $5 activation fee and start seeing
their ads appear on Google within about 15 minutes.

Advertisers only pay when visitors actually click through
from their ad on Google to their website or affiliate link.

Overture.com also sells traffic by the click, but they make
you wait three to five days to go through their editorial
review process before allowing ads to appear on their
network.

You can also buy advertising on dozens of other pay-per-
click search engines.

They all follow the same basic model of only charging
advertisers for targeted visitors who read an ad based on a
keyword search and decide to click through for more
information.

Log on to www.payperclicksearchengines.com for a list of
over 600 choices ranked by market penetration.

A word to the wise on pay-per-click advertising: Watch your
costs and track and measure everything. Even though you can
get traffic for as little as a penny, you should track your
results by search engine and by individual keyword if you
want maximum success.

Many a company has lost its entire advertising budget
paying only a nickel or a dime per click, but not watching
their conversion rates and pouring money into keywords that
don't convert... while neglecting the keywords that do
bring sales (mainly because they don't know which is
which!).

Method #2 - Borrow Traffic
If you need traffic to a website, then borrow it from
people who already have it... especially people with lists
of loyal subscribers or traffic from search engines,
affiliates, or other steady sources.

"Endorsed Mailings" and "Reciprocal Linking" by other
people represent the two fastest ways to borrow someone
else's traffic.

If they maintain a list of subscribers, convince them to
send an email out to their people telling them why they
should check out your site.

Also, negotiate a prominent link on their web pages to
siphon off targeted visitors who find their website.

Often the best way to persuade someone to do this involves
paying them a commission, agreeing to do a similar mailing,
or providing a link to them on your site (or a combination
of all three).

Imagine how much traffic you could get if someone with a
list of 10,000 loyal subscribers told their people to go
look at your website!

Method #3 Recycle Traffic
The most economical way to get traffic involves turning
one-time visitors into regular, repeat visitors that you
direct to multiple sites over time.

You do this by pulling website visitors into your sphere of
influence by enticing them to sign up for your newsletter,
autoresponder sequence, or "mini-course."

Then you keep in contact with regular articles, special
reports, and recommendations enticing them to visit your
own and other people's websites.

Ultimately, every website owner should orient all of their
marketing efforts towards this end of developing a stream
of recycled traffic, because it costs the least and creates
the best return on time and money invested.

It doesn't matter if you promote your own product, promote
only as an affiliate, or some combination of the two... if
you don't recycle traffic and get more than one hit out of
each visitor, you're making one of the biggest mistakes
anyone can make online.

About the author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
to use free articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website or affiliate links...

Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to
your website for weeks, even months... without spending a
dime on advertising! ==>

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5 Minute Guide to Video Editing for Beginners

Ecommerce Information

5 Minute Guide to Video Editing for Beginners

by: Natalie Aranda

Getting started with video editing is very simple you only need a few items and you can be producing quality movies at home that you will be able to enjoy for many years to come. Maybe even produce a hit Hollywood movie.

The basic items you need are a video capture card, the software to edit, your computer, storage space on your computer and a camcorder, VCR, or you can display your movie on your computer screen.

The process is effortless, all you do is capture the video to you computer using a capture card, then edit your video with video editing software and then download the video that you edited to either tape or burn it to a VCD, CD, or DVD.

Let’s look at your computer first. You will need a minimum of a Pentium II 300 or faster, a minimum of 256 Megs of RAM, but you will get better performance with 512 Megs. You will also desire to have a 30GB drive that is split into 2 separate partitions. This means that you will have a C: and a D:. The C: should be given 10GB and will have all of your software stored there and the D: will be where your audio, video and editing projects are stored. Your graphics card should be a 32 Meg AGP. You can have an 8 or 16 Meg but the quality will not be as good.

Storage is probably the most confusing thing about video editing. Video makers have many choices for storing their digital video files and this is why it can be so confusing.

If you desire creating your own DVD’s then you are going to need lot of storage. The most you can get out of a single sided 4.7 GB DVD is around 2 hours of video. If you are using DV footage you are going to need 13GB per hour of video, this means you will need 26GB of storage and remember you always have extra footage that you need to factor that in as well so you are now up to 39GB of storage space needed. If you are adding other options such as graphics, MPEG2 footage for the DVD and the folder to hold it all then you are now up to 50GB. So, for your 2 hour movie you will need 50GB of space at least.

So, when you begin be sure that you have enough storage on your computer for the type of video that you wish to store.

On to the video capture card and the video editing software. When you first visit the electronics store you will find many manufacturers that create video capture cards. The most popular include
Some of the reputable video capture card manufacturers are: Pinnacle, Matrox, Dazzle, ADS, Canopus, and Digital Origin.

What video capture cards do to put it in simple terms is that these cards use hardware or software compression to digitize your video onto the hard drive on your computer. This way you can edit your video and play it back onto tape or display your movie on your computer screen.

Some times, you can purchase the video capture cards along with the video editing software that you choose. Some of the most popular video capture cards that are packaged with video software include the Pinnacle Pro One which comes with the Adobe Premiere 6 full version, TitleDeko RT, DV Tools 2.0, Hollywood FX, and Impressions DVD. The Dazzle DV NOW AV can be purchased along with the Premiere 6 full version and the DVDit LE.

Having music along with your video can also be accomplished with a MP3 Converter that will allow you to convert your MP3 music into a wav file or the format in which you need for your video. You may also wish to purchase a MP3 Encoder which will allow you to Wav or other formats into a MP3. A CD ripper is another item that you may wish to purchase that will help with converting your CD’s to MP3, WAV, WMA type files.

One other software program that will make you life easier when you begin video editing is a MPEG Encoder which is a very easy to use program that will make converting several formats easy than you can imagine. Many of these MPEG converters will aid in converting DVD, VCD, AVI, MPEG, GIF, Flash, WMV, WMA, WAV, MP3, MP4, M4A, OGG, AAC, 3GP and even more/

So, now all you need to do is to find the best video editing software that you feel comfortable with and off you go. You can find several different video editing software companies that offer their software on a trial basis, this will let you try out the software so you can see if it is the perfect software for you. But, remember with the trial version you will be receiving the video capture card. You will have to purchase it separately.

About the author:
Natalie Aranda is a freelance writer. She's been experimenting Audio & Video Editing with MP3 Converter and MPEG Encoder on many ecommerce websites.

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3 Better Ways To Search Online

Ebook Information

3 Better Ways To Search Online

by: Jim Edwards

(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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Nothing creates a more frustrating online experience than
pulling up your favorite search engine to find something
simple and coming away empty handed after an hour of
searching.

Search engines - those sites that allegedly help you find
what you want online - can cause no end of grief if you
don't know some simple tricks that will vastly improve your
search results.

Suppose you wanted to find information regarding 1954 Ford
truck parts. Most people would search this subject by going
to their favorite search engine and typing in 1954 Ford
truck parts. The search engine would hopefully return
results for sites that matched those keywords.

However, search engines usually also return results
including sites containing only some of the words in your
search. So in this example you would also get sites not
only about 1954 Ford truck parts, but on 1954 Fords, Ford
trucks, truck parts, and trucks.

Virtually everyone knows the frustration of typing keywords
(the topic of your search) into a search engine, clicking
the search button, and then facing the prospect of sorting
through a million pages (literally) to find what you want.

For everyone experiencing search engine frustration, these
suggestions should quickly improve your results.

Tip 1 - To aid you in searching more efficiently, most
search engines allow surfers to perform "Boolean" searches.

This feature narrows the results to only those websites
containing all the words specified, but not necessarily in
the exact order.

Those searching for 1954 Ford truck parts would enter 1954
AND Ford AND truck AND parts into the search box to find
sites containing all of those words.

Tip 2 - Using quotation marks around keyword sets yields
even more specific results.

"1954 Ford truck parts" should produce only those websites
containing this exact phrase somewhere in the website.

Tip 3 - The more specific you get right up front, the
better.

If you want to look for antique car parts for your 1954
Ford truck, start your search with "1954 Ford truck parts"
and work from there.

Don't start with "1954 Ford" because you'll probably just
waste time sorting through everything from cars to
magazines to collector clubs.

It would also help if you searched by the model and any
other specific information.

If refining your searches doesn't get you where you want to
go, several programs exist to help you search more quickly
and effectively.

Copernic (www.copernic.com) examines multiple search
engines then compares each engine's results against the
rest to determine the best sites.

The program then ranks the resulting sites and displays
them for the user. Copernic's free version allows users
unlimited searches for websites.

Web Ferret (www.ferretsoft.com) also offers a free program
that queries multiple search engines and displays the
ranked results in the user's web browser for easy surfing.

With the addition of millions of web pages every week,
continuously honing your search skills represents one of
the smartest investments of time and energy any serious web
surfer can make.

About the author:

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-
author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to
use free articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website or affiliate links...

Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to
your website for weeks, even months... without spending a
dime on advertising! ==>

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3 Internet Home Based Businesses Anyone Can Do

All about eBay

3 Internet Home Based Businesses Anyone Can Do

by: Kent Thompson

Copyright 2010 Kent Thompson

If you’re serious about having a home based business, then you need to prepare. The leading reason for a failing home based business is the lack of preparation people commit after they’ve made a decision to start a home based business.

So what kind of home based business opportunity should you take on? Do you want to have an internet-based home business? Millions have done it, are doing it and are earning good livings doing so.

Here are three different kinds of Internet based business models you can try:

1) Be an online retailer for reputable companies. Your home based internet business can give reviews about all the products and services of these companies. Your customers will browse around your website, and then click on to the link. The link will send the customer to the company’s customer service website, which takes care of processing and shipping their order.

Your home based online business website does the marketing, promoting and advertising aspects for these companies. Your commission comes from the proceeds of the sale. You don’t even have to spend money for expensive e-commerce software.

2) You may not be able to bear the pain of separating from your oldest possessions, but how about auctioning these things off? For a minimal entry fee and closing fee, you can put your prized possessions on auction at Ebay or other spin-offs found on the net. This is a virtually free home based business since you don’t pay for web presence. You’ll get traffic since Ebay receives as many as 4 million visitors a day, and you won’t need to worry about your e-commerce software. Plus your small home based internet business stays open even when you go fishing!

3) Sell information. You can start your home based internet business by writing on a subject that you enjoy or are knowledgeable about. If you can do this, then this small home based internet business is for you. Write your e-book and sell it on sites like Ebay.com, ebookAd.com, or Clickbank.com.

These home based internet business are all simple and easy enough to do. You can earn a living on these ideas if you view this small home based business with passion and commitment.

Just remember these home based internet tip:
Constantly fine-tune your marketing strategy and always test new ad copies to see what brings you the most sales!

About the author:
Find out how you can make $1000 per sale in one of the hottest home based businesses! Check out

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