The Starving Affiliate Monthly Update

As many of you other affiliates know, this is a very busy time of the year for us all.

Between getting ready for Halloween Costumes webpages and setting up Christmas webpages it gets harder and harder to even find the time to create a blog post, but I have managed to sneak one in and here it is.

The Starving Affiliate has been so busy these last few months that he has been neglecting his blog, this is not good and will not happen again.

For the rest of the Holiday season, I will post at least a monthly update as to what is going on with the starving affiliate, after that I will start posting at least weekly.

The Update...

What have I been working on?

Well, between tweaking out the older Holiday Squidoo lenses(and building a few new ones) and also building a new Halloween Headpiece Costume aStore, I have been busy advertising my sites.

You can build the best webpages in the world but if your not advertising, then it won't do you any good.

People have to know that your site exists or they won't be able to visit, so if you are getting like me around this time of year, and building many webpages, make sure that you advertise them.

Till later ... Be Cool...

Try-On A Halloween Costume Online - Before You Buy It!

Cool new feature, Check it out and share it with your friends...
Halloween Headpiece Costume aStore

Affiliate Marketing And Your Blog

As most affiliate marketers know, one of the essentials that you need-to-succeed in any type of marketing is a blog.

You have to have a common place where you and your visitors (potential customers), can interact with each other.

You need a place where you can post information and links about the products that you have decided to promote, and your visitors need a place where they can ask questions and comment about the products.

Although, as you can tell, Blogger is one of my favorite platforms to use, there is a lot to be said about the Wordpress platform.

More people are using Wordpress everyday now, but many are finding that Wordpress is not nearly as easy to use as the Blogger platform.

While Wordpress has many advantages including more features, bells & whistles and plugins, this also makes Wordpress a lot more difficult when trying to setup a really nice blog on it.

I myself have tried setting up a blog on Wordpress and found it to be a lot harder than what I had expected (maybe I'm just a little slow).

But I did run across a great collection of video tutorials for the Wordpress blogmaster that needs some advanced training videos for Wordpress.

I haven't yet bought the videos myself but they are definitely on my list, as I have read some pretty good reviews about them and feel that for 10 different advanced videos, the price can't be beat.

Whether you use Wordpress or Blogger, If your just starting out in affiliate marketing you will definitely need a blog.

I posted a link to these videos below just in case you are interested... Thanks for reading - The Starving Affiliate.

Advanced Wordpress Training - Video Series - $24.95 Changing a header graphic – Video (10:32) Playing with CSS Style Sheets – Video (8:05) Working with Code – Video (9:05) Content Management CMS – Video (6:05) Working with plugins – Video (10:45) Posting with Blogdesk – Video (6:27) Customizing your Login graphic – Video (6:34) RSS uses and stats – Video (7:02) 404 pages Customize your error pages – Video (8:14) Widgets – Video (11:24)

The Starving Affiliate - Still Starving

Well, after much thought about The Starving Affiliate blog, I have noticed how far off track I have let this blog get from the original intentions of The Starving Affiliate blog.

With the intentions of discussing aspects of affiliate marketing online and what life as an affiliate marketer is all about, I have noticed that I have only been blogging to build links and helping my other websites in SEO.

This is not what I originally had in mind for this blog and from this post forward I will only be blogging about the affiliate marketers ups and downs.

Although I will still be putting a few affiliate links in my posts along the way, they will be centered around affiliate marketing tools, books and resources that I sincerely feel will help the newbie to affiliate marketing.

I will also be posting about my current status as an affiliate marketer and some of the bumps and hurdles that I encounter along the way.

Admittedly I am no guru of affiliate marketing myself and still have much to learn, I am hoping to spark some good discussions on this blog with many successful affiliates that may be able to share some of their experiences and insights to the success of their affiliate business with us all.

Also in this post I would like to sincerely apologize to all of my readers and followers if they had reached this blog looking for answers that I did not provide due to my posts being strayed off the intended path.

If this is your first visit here, and you browse through my earlier posts you will notice that I started off trying to help the new affiliate and then I slowly turned these posts into ones that are only helping my own websites.

Again I apologize for this selfishness and will start staying focused on The Starving Affiliate's main goal - Helping The New Affiliate Marketer.
    

Ky Speedway Sprint Cup Race

Are you considering attending the Quaker State 400 Sprint Cup Race at the Ky Speedway next month?

Then take the time to visit my new Squidoo lens "The Quaker State 400 Sprint Cup - Ky Speedway Making History" to find many items that you may be needing when attending this race, including camping equipment, race beads, tickets and even a place to make your predictions about who will win the race.

Find some great deals on Nascar racing items and a lot more...

For quick link to see if this new lens has what you are looking for, just click the link below.

Ky Speedway Sprint Cup  

The Best Brand Of Computer Review Tutorial

Well, the best brand of PC hardware Squidoo lens just got an update, Just added the "The Best Brand Of Computer Review Tutorial"  I think it went pretty good and is a very good indicator of the best brand of computer.

I also believe this lens gives a very good analysis of how to quickly determine the best brand of anything, as this method is truly relying on these 2 things.

1. Majority Of Action - Best Selling

This shows that the majority of people are buying this product, which indicates a good brand.

2. Word Of Mouth - Average Customer Reviews (Actual Users Of The Product)

Word of mouth has been around forever, and knowing that actual people that own the product (instead of marketers or salesman) are letting you know their experiences with the item is valuable information to use when deciding on purchasing a product whether it is a computer or anything else.

With both of these being combined as the basis for analysis, it is a great way to determine fairly accurately which is the Best Brand Of Computer or any other product.

If you haven't had a chance to see the review, or if you are considering buying new computer components, then take a few minutes and visit the http://www.squidoo.com/best_brand_pc_hardware lens now.

3 Tips To Buying A Cheap Computer To Upgrade For Gaming

Here are 3 tips to buying a cheap computer and building it into a gaming system.

1. When shopping for a cheap computer to upgrade to a gaming system, the most important thing to consider is the case. The size of the case is really all that matters in the beginning, because when your done that is the only component of your computer that is still the original.
   
   Having a full tower case is the best way to start as you will have plenty of room to work with when upgrading, plus it will be easier to keep your computer components cool because there will be more area for air flow.
   
   
2. The next piece of computer hardware that you want to focus on is the motherboard, putting your money into a motherboard early on is a great way to get started, but make sure that you use as much of your cheap computer components as you can. If the new motherboard will support the cheap memory then use it until you have the money to upgrade.
   
   If you can get a good motherboard that has onboard video (integrated), then you will be able to use this until you have the money to invest in a good graphics card, it may take a little while depending on your budget, but it will be well worth it. When choosing your motherboard, make sure it supports plenty of memory, has more than 1 PCIe slots and supports the type of processor that you are planning to use.
   
   If the motherboard supports the cheap processor, use it until you can afford a new one, if not you may have to get your motherboard and processor at the same time.
   
   
3. By swapping out computer parts over time, you will have a great gaming computer and you will not have to absorb the cost for it all at once. Just remember that starting with the case and then the motherboard, will set the foundation for your new Gaming System.
   
   Then all you have to think about is upgrading your monitor, keyboard and mouse... :)

Post Office Holidays Webpage - Is Not Closing

"Post Office Holidays Webpage Stays Open"

While many post offices are closing and many postal workers will be looking for a job, The Post Office Holidays webpage will remain open.

The Post Office Holidays webpage is still going to be providing information about when many post offices and banks will be closed for the holidays and also providing links to some of the most used services that the U.S. Postal Service offers.

It is a shame to see that the Postal Service that has been delivering our mail for almost 200 years now, has also had losses for the last four years.

It seems that the even the most solid organization such as our Post Offices are suffering through these hard times. But there is good news too..

It seems that even with the Google Panda Algorithm, many online affiliate marketers are still profiting and many that wasn't before Google's Updates.

With many online merchandisers offering free shipping on a vast amount of products today, the smart affiliates are taking advantage of this by promoting these products and creating a strong call to action to the free shipping.

This is great for the affiliate marketer, and for the merchants that are using the U.S. Postal Service as their primary shipping method, thanks for supporting such a great service.

To see when Post Office Holidays are, and when many banks will be closed, visit the Post Office Holidays webpage and do your part to help our Postal Service through these hard times.

Did The Google Panda Updates Hurt Your Google Rankings?

While the Google Panda updates are helping to clean up the clutter of Google's search results, many good and relevant websites are also taking a beating in search results rankings.

As an example of this, the "How To Assemble A Computer" web page that was previously ranked #2 for the key phrase "How To Assemble A Computer" is set back to the 6th page and eventually beyond that.

Even though this webpage is 100% original content and was visited and enjoyed by many people all around the world, It seems that the "Google Panda" didn't agree.

While I also agree that the updates should be in place to help clean some of the "junk" out of the search results, I still feel that more human input should be included in the ranking of websites and that the Google Panda algorithm should not be completely relied on as an effective way to judge a website.

How about you? Did the Google Panda Updates hurt your Google Rankings?

Leave a comment and express your opinion...




 

Google And The Farmer's Market

This is the story of Google and the Farmer's Market.

Once upon a time there was a great electronic communication device called the Internet, and on this great device  known as the Internet, people connected from all over the world to share their worldly experiences, helpful information, pictures and the original knowledge that each one had obtained from their part of the world.

This was a great thing for all, as people were able to find the information needed to do almost anything from fixing a bicycle's flat tire to finding the best restaurant to eat at in the town that they were going to vacation at.

But, sometimes this information was hard to find, because there was so much information to sort through all of it, and it would take too long to find what the people were searching for, that many people got frustrated.

Then along came a great Service known as Google that performed all of this great sorting for everyone.

Listing the best of what the Internet had to offer to all of the people of the world in a mere fraction of the time it would take them to sort through it alone.

Google was another great thing for all...

Then slowly over a period of time, people started using the Internet to earn money, creating web stores and digital products to sell, and many of these people were making a full time income from the Internet by selling their products or services to the people all over the world.

Some people did not even have items to sell, but was able to make money by helping other people sell their items (just like The Starving Affiliate does).

Google was a great asset for marketers and customers alike, Google would bring good marketers plenty of targeted traffic to their websites, and for the customers, Google could help them find exactly what they were looking for fast and easy.

For almost everyone back then, the Internet was the place to be...

Then one day the Farmers came, and they planted a bad seed in the Internet.

What are the Farmers and what was the bad seed they planted?

Through out history, wherever there is money or items of value, corruption is coming right behind it.
Although money is not the root of all evil as many people believe, greed is.

Now on with the story...

As an affiliate marketer myself, I am always looking for a great way to advertise and sell a product just like the next person, and most everyone knows that Google is the key to the traffic that is needed to be a successful marketer online.

What are the Farmers and seeds though?...

The seeds are the automation tools that are being used online by many "black hat" marketers that enables them to create 100's or even 1000's of unique articles from just one article that they may or may not have actually wrote themselves.

Everything from the automated Tweets, Automated Article Spinners to Professional SEO tactics, It's all of these things together that is ruining the Internet that people once liked surfing on.

This is a very bad thing... read my original article below to see why.

Below are 2 links that will show you what the Internet is coming to, believe it or not I wrote an article that talks about the bad things that article spinners are doing to the Internet and someone has plagiarized it and spun it... Haahaahaa..

Ok, here comes the punch line... The website that plagiarized my article, is an article spinning service...Haaahaahaa...
My original article is here...The Article Spinner And The Scam - Is There A Difference
The plagiarized copy is here...  The Article Spinner And The Scam – Is There A Difference

Back to the story...

What about the Farmers?

The Farmers are the people of the Internet that are looking for a fast dollar no matter how they get it, by either outright taking advantage of customers, automating their processes to cheat the search engine's ranking systems, stealing other people's content and/or all three.

Being an affiliate marketer myself, I have seen many of these things that Google is trying to filter out of the Internet and I completely agree with Google that these Farmers and their seeds needs to go.

Google is a very reputable company that has always delivered fast and accurate results for the people of the world, and when these Farmers start trying to cheat the search engine's rankings (not just Google's), then it's time for a change.

Google (and all other search engines) are doing their best to bring us the most relevant results for whatever we are searching for, and if you are one of the people that is upset because of your new rankings then maybe it's time to re-evaluate your way of doing business online.

Side Note: My rankings have also dropped, on all of my websites, but I know it's for the best and I am working at getting my sites back up to par for Google and my visitors.

With the famous words of Curly Howard... "If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seed"...

In closing I would just like to say that there is a certain irony to technology...

It seems that great advancements in technology years ago is what brought us the Internet.
And the great advancements in tomorrow's technology may just be what takes it away...