Have you ever wondered just how long you have to get someone’s attention and get them to read your blog post? I can tell you that you only have a matter of seconds, just simply from the nature of our microwave society.  We’re so used to hearing sound bytes, short commercials and flashes of information that are delivered to us very quickly that we’re easily distracted and also easily bored.

And if you’re blogging, your readers are probably being bombarded by about 60 million other things when they’re seeing your blog for the first time.  Or even the second time.  Just think about how you spend your days at the computer.  Do you ever have only one window open on your desktop?  How many tabs do you have open in your web browser?  As I’m writing this, I have 6 tabs open (which is actually a small number for me) and 6 programs running on my system right now.

And I’m not alone.

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I decided to start this post with a question that I hear more and more people ask all the time, “Can you really buy web site traffic for cheap?” Most people that have spent any time online creating or learning to create web sites know that one of the most effective ways to get more traffic to your site is to buy it.

If you want to buy web site traffic, you should know that there are literally thousands of sites that you can pay to advertise your site on.  Of course, there’s the 800-pound gorilla in the room know as Google Adwords, which is undoubtedly the king of all online advertising at this point.

The problem with Adwords, and with many other ad networks, is that sometimes the price you pay for each click you get on one of your ads can be ridiculous, depending on your niche.

And unless you’ve got a huge budget to work with, you simply won’t be able to compete with large companies that have a 6- or 7-figure advertising budget.

The good news is this:  there are ways to buy web site traffic cheaply.  You just have to know where to find them.  And once you know where they are, you’ll need to know how to use them properly to get the best return on your investment.

I’ve done paid advertising to get traffic to many of my sites and I can tell you I know of no better way to get an immediate influx of traffic to your site.  You’d have to write a thousand blog posts and get a thousand bookmarks to your page in about an hour to get the kind of response to your site that one paid ad can bring in a matter of minutes.

And that’s the honest truth, I don’t care what Guru A or Guru B is telling you about their latest greatest “free” traffic technique.  They’ve forgotten to tell you how much work it takes to get that “free” traffic.  Because nothing is really free, and we all know that.  We just like to believe that it is.

But where do you find a cheap way to buy web site traffic?  And how will you know how to get the most out of your advertising dollar once you do?

Here’s a link to a free report (and a video!) that my friend Amit Mehta has put together for you.  In it, Amit reveals an amazing source of traffic that almost NO ONE talks about.

Get the report now!

Just go to that link, grab the free report and on the blog behind it – watch “Free Video #2.” It’s called:

“Untapped Traffic Goldmine”

Get it now!

Learn how to leverage this stuff, and then…

GET TO WORK!

I’ve heard a lot of people over the last several months (maybe even the last 2 years) talking about how much of a waste of time Twitter is and how there is nothing productive that can be gained from it.  I’m here to tell you that Twitter is an incredibly powerful tool if you know how to use it, and you use it well.

Let’s just talk about that fact that last night from one “tweet” I received over 600 clicks to a test offer.  All in about 5 minutes. Granted, I’ll give you that the conversion rate was low (around 1%), but I haven’t put a lot of work into this promotion and really just wanted to see what kind of response I could get.

For the time put into it, all of about 60 seconds, I’d consider this a pretty good example of what Twitter can do for you.

Then I stumble across Sponsored Tweets and see how they’re giving everybody a chance to make some money with their Twitter accounts, and another company called Ad.ly that is doing basically the same thing.

Here’s how it works, you sign up with either (or both) of the companies mentioned above.  You set your price for your tweets and then advertisers find you and pay you to tweet about their product and/or service.

Of course, the first major concern that you’re obviously going to have is tweet spam.  If you join these companies, are you going to look like just another goofwad that had joined Twitter to spam a bunch of links and annoy people.  I can tell you this, if that’s how you’re going to choose to use these services, then you will look like a spammer.  And you’ll also get your accounts with them banned pretty quickly.

Both companies require you to be very open and honest about the fact that what you’re tweeting is an ad.  Choose not to do that, and you won’t be making money for very long.

Choose the right path, create and engage in conversations and provide value to the people following you, and you’ll start to see some results.

Now, let’s just be frank and honest about how much money you’re likely to make using either of these services.  For the vast majority of us, it’s probably not going to be enough to pay your mortgage. And if you go into it thinking that it will, you’re just fooling yourself.  Just like another service I’ve been recommending lately that lets you share videos and get paid for it (check out VideoForward to find out more), Sponsored Tweets and Ad.ly are really just going to provide you with some supplemental income at best.

That is, unless you become a power Twitter user overnight and get about a million people to follow you. I’m not trying to convince you to go out and rake in a bunch of new followers or use some spammy software that “guarantees thousands of new followers every day.” What I am encouraging you to do is to take advantage of something that you are already doing and make a little money on the side from it.

Try out both of these services, it can’t hurt.  Then let me know what you think.

I see and hear people every day make the decision to give the whole “make money online” thing a try and they generally start with affiliate marketing.  But, in most cases, they go about affiliate marketing the completely wrong way.  Choosing the best online affiliate programs can be tough, especially when you’re first starting out.  But if you don’t choose the right one to start with, you can be setting yourself up for disaster in the long run.

So, to help all the newbies (and some of the folks that have been around for a while), I’ve put together a short list of 5 things to look for when choosing the best online affiliate programs that will get you the best return on your time and investment, and hopefully get you one step closer to taking control of your own destiny with your online business.

Tip #1 – Choose an affiliate program that pays you recurring commissions. I see way to many people struggle and fight with one affiliate program after another that only pays them one time.  Yes, you may make 500 sales today but next month you have to go out and generate those same 500 sales to keep your cash flowing.  The best online affiliate programs offer recurring commissions which allow you to build upon your past successes and keep growing your business, month after month.

Tip #2 – Choose an affiliate program that offers great training for their products. It’s all well and good that someone wants to pay you 75% commission on their product, but what if they don’t support you with any training?  The best online affiliate programs will offer you tips and strategies to help you sell more of their product.  Wouldn’t you want to give your salespeople all the tools and training possible to sell as much as they could possibly imagine?  Of course you would!

Tip #3 – Choose an affiliate program that gives you the tools to sell. It’s bad enough that most newbie marketers are having to learn every little detail about marketing online, from setting up an autoresponder to installing a website on a remote server.  The best online affiliate programs will offer email copy, articles, keyword lists, banners, and more to help their affiliates get more sales with less effort.

Tip #4 – Choose an affiliate program that provides great value at a great price to buyers. Look, let’s just call it like it is.  Do you really want to promote something just to make a quick buck?  Or would you rather promote something that you’ll be proud to have your name associated with?  The best online affiliate programs don’t just sell well, they create hordes of crazy fans of their products!  Think about how much easier it will be to sell something that has a great reputation!

Tip #5 – Choose and affiliate program with a proven track record. After you’ve been involved in affiliate marketing for a while, you can afford to check out the “new guys” and their new product.  When you’re starting out, stick with the best online affiliate programs.  They will have been around for a long time, possibly having released several updated versions of their product.

Affiliate marketing is by far the fastest way for anyone to start making money online, but you can’t just start promoting anything.  Stick with promoting the best online affiliate programs and, with some effort and hard work, you’ll start to see yourself achieving your dreams and taking control of your destiny.

I’ve given you this list of tips to help you choose the best online affiliate programs, but I’ve got a great suggestion for you that will help you get started on the right path.  Wealthy Affiliate University not only offers what I believe to be the best online affiliate program, but they actually teach you how to become a better affiliate with any affiliate program!

With step-by-step tutorials, a members only forum, and a couple of guys that are in charge that actually care about your success (Kyle & Carson), the only way you can fail with Wealthy Affiliate is if you don’t do exactly what they tell you to do!  If you’re ready to learn and take the right steps, you’ll be achieving success quickly!

–> Click Here to see more of what Wealthy Affiliate University has to offer you!

How long have you been on Twitter?  A month?  Six months?  A year?  Two Years?  Have you really figured out how to use it yet?  I mean, really figured out how to use it?

I know you probably know how to log in to Twitter, follow some people, put up a few little “tweets” and then walk away for the day.  But have you really figured out how to use Twitter to your benefit?

There’s a lot of you out there that think you have.  I know, I see you on Twitter everyday.  I get a number of DMs from you that are all pretty much the same cookie-cutter message, just coming from a different person.

They all generally say pretty much the same thing:

“Want to know how I got x amount of followers in x amount of days?  Follow my NEW system for exploding your Twitter followers and raking in the dough at imreallyjusttryingtogetsomeofyourmoney.com!”

Have you seen those tweets before?

Have you been one of the people sending them?

Don’t feel bad, I’m just as guilty as the next person.  I’ve sent some very similar tweets myself.  And I feel like crap about it.  I really do.  But, I plead ignorance.

See, I just didn’t know any better.  I didn’t know that just sending out a bunch of links to my followers would do me more harm than good.  I didn’t know that I needed to provide a lot more content, really good high-quality content, to my followers if I really wanted to get anything out of my Twitter relationships.

Because, after all, that’s what Twitter is all about.  Building relationships, not just collecting up a bunch of people that you can send self-serving little messages and links to.

Not that you can’t send those self-serving links, but they can’t be your focus.  Your focus has to be something else.

Your focus has to be on providing value.  Being a character.  Being a friend.  Being a trusted, knowledgeable, and devoted friend that people can reach out to and feel comfortable with just saying, “Hey!”

See, there’s a right way and a wrong way to monetize your efforts on Twitter.  And for those of you that are reading this that believe that you shouldn’t try to make money with Twitter or any other social network, I understand your side of the story.  I’m not trying to convince you to my way of thinking.  Please, stick to your guns and don’t let anybody tell you how to run your social networking.

But please don’t hold it against me if I believe you can use Twitter to make a boatload of cash.

But there is a right way and a wrong way of doing it.  Most of us have been stumbling around in the dark for the last several months doing our darndest to figure it out and really doing more harm than good.

Thank God, we’ve finally got some help.

Perry Belcher and Ryan Deiss are hosting this little “social media party” this Wednesday night.  I’m gonna be there.  We’d love if you’d come and join us.

We’re gonna pack this virtual house with 5,000 people.  Yep, 5,000 people.  And if you’re ready to learn how to actually start making some money with Twitter and other social networks, please come be a part.

Oh, yeah, don’t worry about having to pay to get in to the party.  I’ve got that taken care of for you. I’ve got people.

You just register right here for the webinar this Wednesday night, July 22nd, 9 PM Eastern time.  (That’s 6 PM for you folks in dreamy California and 10:30 PM for the fine, friendly folks up in Newfoundland.  Those of you that may be located on the other side of the world, you’ll have to figure it out for yourselves.)

Bring a pad, a pencil, and most importantly, and open mind.  Perry and Ryan are going to change the game this Wednesday night.

I’ll be there watching.  Won’t you?

Here’s the link one more time in case you missed it:

FREE Social Media Webinar with Perry Belcher and Ryan Deiss – Wednesday, July 22nd, 9PM Eastern time.

Hope to see you there.