We Moved!

We Moved To A New Location!

Hello Everyone.  Just a very quick post to let you know that you can find all future blog posts as part of my website at Rjs@Home.

More specifically, you can get directly to the blog page by clicking the banner below...

Hope to see you there.

To your success,

Bob Swetz

Don't Be Stingy With Your Ad Site Credits

Save Some Credits for Your Referrals

A good advertising site will allow you to transfer credits to your referrals or downline. I highly recommend taking advantage of this opportunity.  Of course, this typically only makes sense for sites where you have purchased an upgrade.

On traffic exchanges it is easy to save credits to transfer to your new referrals.  I do this by "auto-assigning" less than 100% of my credits, so I am always sure to have some left over when I get a new referral.  Not so easy on mailers, but it can be done if you are careful with how you use your mailing credits.  Honestly though, I am more likely to transfer on TE sites than Safelist sites.

Don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting that you transfer a ton of credits. In my opinion even 250 is a generous amount to transfer to a new referral.  

Why would you do this, you ask?

Here are a few of my reasons...

• Most sites do not provide you with the email addresses of new referrals
• Transferring credits gives you an opportunity to send a short message to introduce yourself as their sponsor and open the lines of communication
• It lets your downline know you are serious about the site and that their new sponsor is a real person and not just some link they clicked
• It gives you the opportunity to offer assistance
• It helps your new referral to get off to a good start

If you are not taking advantage of this feature of your sites, I recommend you consider it.  If the sites you are joining don't offer it, perhaps try to find a few that do, like ConversionSurf or Traffic Delivers.

To Your Success,

Bob Swetz

Rjs@Home

Make Sure to Enjoy Some of Your Profits

I'm Finally Making Money What Should I Do?

In a previous Post "Keeping Your Online Biz Financially Afloat" I wrote about the proper use of budgeting your income vs. expenses to make sure your business survives and grows.  If you have not yet experienced a profit in your business where your income is exceeding your expenses, make sure to keep that article handy and refer to it so you stay on track.

Once you are "in profit" and your income is more than your expenses consistently each month, it's time to enjoy a little bit of your success.  After all, we are in business to make money for a reason right?  Each of us has a different reason, so I won't even try to guess what they all might be. No matter what that reason might be, I recommend taking a portion of your profits and rewarding yourself.

One method that you may want to consider is dividing your profits into percentages.  So for example, you may take a percentage each month as a reward, a percentage to use for your needs or goals, a percentage for savings and the remainder for reinvesting in your business.

Please make no mistake that I am not suggesting you take all of the profits out of your business.  You need to keep money in your business to keep it going strong and headed in the right direction.  Only you can know what these percentages might be.  Having a good mentor to help you "run the numbers" would be extremely beneficial.  Or, feel free to start a discussion on this blog post.  I'd love to hear from you.

To Your Success,

Bob Swetz
Rjs@Home

A Great Place to List Your Home Biz for Free

Spotlight on US Biz Find

In my opinion, Affiliate Marketing is not always about sharing a link to grab the next commission, which is why I am starting a new series on free, quality ad sites that I work with.

My first spotlight is on US Biz Find.  They offer free and paid listings on their website so all of us affiliate marketers out there can gain exposure for our sites and home businesses.  After all, that is what it is all about, gaining exposure for what we offer.  I have found these folks are quality people with a quality product.  Again, there are no commissions here, no affiliate links, just a great place to list and advertise your business.

Here is what they have to offer:

Memberships:
Premium Membership : $60/year all features enabled (top of category, home page, featured flag)

Promo membership
Free : users have to renew every 30 days, enhancements are free.  Users must have US Biz Find banner/badge on site for length of time their ad is under this listing type.  Users can create a free account then notate while creating account they are interested in the promo membership.  Users must also give reason why they want the promo membership upon registration.  We'll send them the materials needed and once their listing is active, we'll enable enhancements free of charge.

Listings:
Free : Users have to renew every 30 days.  enhancements are extra $5/month for Home page, $1 for Featured flag, and $1 for top of category.

Click the banner below to list your business today!

Anyone who would like to be considered for a spotlight blog article, please email me at rjscommerce@gmail.com with your information.  You must be offering a free service (paid options are ok, but there must be quality free options as well.) Also, free does not mean a free book that leads to a joining a paid program.

Happy Easter to all.

To your success,

Bob Swetz

Rjs@Home

Treat Your List With Respect

This Could Be a Dangerous Blog Article For Me

Every time I enter a new blog post, I email my list of subscribers to let them know there is a new post out there.  Now I must say, most of these subscribers came from sources other than my blog. However, I feel that with my blog I am mostly trying to offer useful and informative information and not jamming sales copy down people's throats with every post.  Because of this, I feel fortunate that most folks have been receptive to receiving my "Blog Post Update" emails.  Of course, with each email, the recipient has the option to Unsubscribe, and I do get a couple of those from time to time.

Occasionally I do send an "offer" to my list when something exciting or timely comes along, but I do this very sparingly out of respect for the people on my list.  After all, they did not subscribe to advertisement from me that said they would receive offers ever day. 

We must be careful to treat our "List" with respect.  The people on our list have busy lives just like we do.  Also, there are written (Spamming) rules and even unwritten rules out there in this business that dictate that we do not blatantly send emails to our list for things they did not request.

I suppose I could go on and on.

The moral of the story is this...

If you are one of those marketers out there who are sending new offers to your email list on a daily basis for things they never even asked for, it's time to take a break and give them a break.

Treat your list members with the same respect you want to be treated with.

To your success,

Bob Swetz
Rjs@Home

P.S. For those of you on my list.  If you feel I am overstepping my bounds with my emails, PLEASE feel free to let me know, I would appreciate the feedback.

Making Your Email Ads Attractive

Make Sure Your Emails Look Good!

The content of your Safelist Emails is extremely important.  I would say that is something we can all agree on.  However, from the looks of the thousands of emails I get from Safelists, I am not so sure if folks realize the appearance of their emails is equally important.

We have one brief moment to get someone to click on our ads.  The attractiveness of those ads is an important component in determining whether or not we are going to get that all important click.

Since we don't need to talk about content, it will be easy for me to give a couple examples of what I'm talking about.  Tell me, which email below is more appealing to you?  Believe it or not, even if only in your subconscious mind, the visual appeal will have a substantial impact in triggering what your brain will do next.  Click or Delete.

Email A

Hello Everyone
I Have A Million Dollars to Give Away
If You Would Just Click My Ad

Email B

Hello Everyone,

I Have A Million Dollars to Give Away
If You Would Just Click My Ad

I know this is a simple illustration, but hopefully it gets my point across. The first email is difficult to read and tends to confuse the mind.  In some cases people will even get annoyed or angry looking at this email and delete it immediately.  The second email however, is very pleasing to look at and makes the reader feel confident in the message, thus making the chances of clicking on it much greater.  Make sense?  If you disagree, I would love to hear your comments.

To Your Success,

Bob Swetz

Rjs@Home

Always Check Out Your Member's Area Carefully

Hey, There's Promo Codes In Here!

Nearly every ad site or program you join has a Members Area. Many even have a home page or a page that says something like Start Here!

It is very important to check out your member's area carefully.  This may take you a little time, but guess what?  There is valuable information in there.

Carefully studying the member's area is important for a few reasons:

• You will learn about the site or program and how it works
• You will learn how to make money (very important)
• You will pick up all your affiliate tools here
• Links
• Banners
• Sample ads
• etc.
• You may find bonuses and promo codes or special offers!

As I was reading through my member's area at ConversionSurf I found a page called "OTO Bonuses." On this page I found promo codes for somewhere around 10,000 credits for sites I was already a member of.  These credits are worth a lot of money! Had I not taken the time to look around, I would have never found them.

Hope this helps you get off to a great start this week!

To your success,

Bob Swetz

Rjs@Home