Why I Like NetProfitsToday Affiliate Forum

Posted on June 24th, 2008

Of all the Affiliate discussion forums I have visited and participated in, few have the sense of community like NetProfitsToday.com. Operated by Rosalind Garner, author of The super Affiliate Handbook, beginner and veteran marketers come reach out to each other: veterans guiding newcomers; beginners giving veterans fresh ideas; each person having experience in various areas.

Along with the discussion forums, Rosalind writes helpful articles on her Affiliate marketing blog. Many times those articles support the current discussions. Putting the articles into the blog allows Rosalind to expand on each topic more than the discussion forum would allow. Once the article is posted, a comment is made in the forum that links to the article for an in-depth review.

Sure there are much larger forums where tens of thousands of people gather daily. That may be good for experienced marketers, but for beginners it is frustrating to see the conversations move so fast that they are tough to follow. Those are places where ridicule is second nature to some, with disregard to how that welcomes beginners to the community.

NetProfitsToday.com is much more laid back, friendly and sensitive to how criticism is handed out. When someone asks for ideas on choosing a niche market, various members join in with their ideas to help the asker along. Website reviews are honest, detailed and most of all, helpful. By the end of the conversation, everyone involved knows that someone was helped that day.

There are all types of people from many walks of life in multiple countries. However, most of them though are from USA or Canada. To help with forum growth, recent additions to the moderator team were chosen based primarily on their level of participation, interaction with others and knowledge level in various areas.

The invitations to help moderate were not previously announced. Instead, the new moderators were made surprise offers after being watched for extended periods of time. Each one was both delighted and surprised with the offer. Apparently, only two people knew about the selection process: Rosalind and her long-time moderator, Bradley.

With the moderator team in place, NetProfitsToday.com is poised for growth to reach out to even more Affiliate marketers. I am proud to be a member of that team.

Visit today at http://NetProfitsToday.com

Jim Hutchinson

Tags: affiliate marketing, discussion forums
Filed under Discussion Forums | 1 Comment »

What is Podcasting and Why Should You Care?

Posted on April 28th, 2008

Previously we learned some Tips For Writing Articles, Recommended Plugins Your WordPress blog and Audio Books. Those Audio Books can be loaded onto an MP3 player, which is pretty much what an iPod does.

But the iPod does more than just play MP3 files. It can connect to the Internet to get more music and audio files, such as those you can record your blog articles in. You are keeping up with your blog and writing articles, right?

So you have the articles posted weekly and should be getting some traffic from them. Now you want to expand into more markets to reach a larger audience. Have you thought about how much more people are listening than reading?

A recent study has shown that an increasing number of people are downloading audio files and listening to them instead of reading the vast amount of information online. You will still be getting people to read your blog, but recording your articles and making them available online will broaden your audience.

That is known as podcasting. The term was coined when the iPod became popular. When you write an article, you can also record it and have the MP3 player shown above or below the article, so that your visitors have a choice: They can listen to it online, or download it to their iPod or other MP3 player and take it with them.

If your articles are generating interest, then your visitors will want to keep up with what you are writing about by taking you with them.

There is a plugin for WordPress called podPress. It has a whole host of options to personalize your podcast player. You can get a link to the plugin from the Blogging Secrets page on Affiliate Referral Sources. Download and install it, then go through the options.

Along with that, you will need a program to record the MP3 files. I use and recommend Audacity. It is easy to use and make smaller MP3 files than other recorders do.

Get Audacity at SourceForge.net

Once you write the article and record it, look below the editing box in WordPress for the MP3 upload button. Upload your file and when you publish the article, the recording will be there too.

Start broadening your reach with your visitors and do not worry about how you sound. People just want to hear a friendly voice. It will keep them coming back for more.

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Jim Hutchinson
Affiliate Referral Sources
A Division of Website Managers, LLC

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Copyright © 2008 Website Managers, LLC. You may reprint this article providing that this copyright notice and resource links all remain intact.

Tags: Audacity, Audio Books, iPod, MP3, podcasting, podPress
Filed under Marketing | No Comments »