As I was starting up this blog again the other day, I decided to go to ClickBank and take a look at my account.  I was surprised to see that my account balance had shrunk to $0.00!  After getting over the shock I thought, “This must be like one of those gift cards where they deduct fees off you balance until they have all your money.”  Well, I searched for an answer and found out that ClickBank has something in their accounting policy called “Customer Distribution Requirement,” or CDR.

Here’s a snapshot of my account:

See how my account balance goes from $33.59 to $0.00? In a nutshell, ClickBank deducts fees from your account for inactivity if you haven’t met the CDR.  So what do I do about this?  In my search, I found a free e-book that explains what is going on with my account and how to fix it.  The book is called ClickBank for Newbies.  You can click on this link to download the book.

The book is only 18 pages long, so it is a quick read. In it you will learn:

1. The Basics of ClickBank
2. How to Succeed with ClickBank
3. Why ClickBank Affilliates Fail
4. The Solution, or How to Meet the CDR

Best of all, this information is free!  Just click on this link to go to the download page for ClickBank for Newbies.

This is a time-sensitive offer.  Jimmy D. Brown is “retiring” (IE Removing them from the web and no longer selling them) ALL OF HIS OFFERS on the web. This week, he is selling off the SR Zone reports. These are short, content-filled reports at a low price. They don’t cost much and for a limited time, they will cost even less.

The regular price is $15.  You can get any, or all, of these reports for just $10 each. This offer is good until Friday, February 26th at 10PM.  After that time, all of these reports will NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE  for purchase.

Here is a list of what’s available.

1. Piggyback Launches: 3 Surefire Ways To Get A Steady Stream Of Free Traffic For Any New Product
2. Homepreneur Habits: How To Run A Successful Home Business
3. How To Get Free Traffic To Your Website With Ezine Articles
4. How To Get F.R.E.E. Traffic with PLR Reports
5. 8 Irresistible Ways To Get Super Affiliates To Enlist In Your Sales Army
6. How To Improve Your Information W.R.I.T.I.N.G.
7. The Upsell Report: How To Get Customers To Spend More Money

You can read through a complete description of each report on the SR Zone website.

I *STRONGLY* recommend you grab a copy of “Homepreneur Habits”. It’s a 65-page “operations manual”.  In it, Jimmy takes you “behind the scenes” to look at how he runs his own business, complete with photographs of his home office. He tells you what software programs he uses, tools and equipment he uses and even a schedule of tasks he performs.  At only $10, it’s a no-brainer!  EVERY internet marketer should have a copy!

Once again, this offer will end on Friday, February 26th at 10PM. I urge you to take advantage of this special discount where you can get each report for only $10!

One thing to note. The SR Zone website will still list the price as $15. Don’t worry.  You will only be charged $10 when you checkout.

Also, you can click over to Jimmy’s blog to read all about WHY Jimmy is retiring ALL of his offers.

REMEMBER, you only have a limited time to order any of the small reports that you are interested in.  On February 26th at 10PM the site will be shut down.  No kidding!

Disclaimer: This blog post contains affiliate links that will provide compensation to our company if a purchase is made.

I find it interesting to watch focus groups. Guy Kawasaki moderated a panel discussion for the Revenue Bootcamp called Will anyone pay for anything? This is a group of teens and twenty-somethings and they were asked questions mostly about what they use online, with computers, or cell phones.   While most internet marketers will find it interesting, you really must watch it if you target this age group.

Free was definitely the price point of choice.  Here are a few observations that I recall from watching:

• All members of the panel loved GMail.
• Google is a trusted brand.
• They don’t click on ads unless made to. When clicked, they don’t buy.
• Several had hand-me-down cell phones.
• While all used it, most would not pay for Facebook.
• Not all used Twitter.
• They will pay for online services if their friends are there too and if there aren’t free options.

It is important to note that this was a small focus group and it would be a stretch to apply these conclusions to teens and early twenty-somethings universally.  However, these are important insights. Free and good, will attract them. It is hard to get them to pay beyond that.  I think that Guy got a little frustrated in that he didn’t find much they were willing to pay for!  You remember the lean years as a student, don’t you?

One of the basic problems you will have when starting out with internet marketing is learning what to do. On top of that is the need for a support structure to help you along the way. There are a lot of people on the net promoting “how to” and training products to teach you what to do. Some of these are good and some not so good. You also can’t trust the price tag to tell you what is a gem and what is not.

Many of these products also offer a forum or membership site to help you with support and questions. I have tried several of these and cancelled more memberships than I kept. It seems that so often once the sale is made, there is no more attention paid to you by the “guru” who owns the forum or membership site.

I’m here to tell you that there is a membership forum that is head and shoulders above the rest. It’s Lynn Terry’s SSWT Elite Forum. I stumbled upon Lynn Terry’s blog a little over a year ago and joined her Elite Forum last October. While I believe she would not accept the “guru” title, I’m here to tell you that she is a true expert in Internet Marketing. You can see for yourself by checking out the SSWT Public Forum.

There are several things that set the SSWT Elite Forum apart from the others.

• Lynn is active in the forum.
• Lynn hosts a brainstorming hour every Thursday for Elite members.
• The Elite community is outstanding. There are few internet communities like it!
• Many of the Elite members are experts in their own right. There always seems to be someone online who can address your problem.
• You can discuss your business ideas and challenges “behind closed doors.” The members (and Lynn) are there to help.
• It’s a great place to build your Internet Marketing network.
• Special deals (including many free items) for Elite members.
• The community gives you a built-in review committee to help you improve your projects.
• The price is right – only $27 per month!

I’m a big fan of the SSWT Elite Forum and recommend that you join up. You really don’t have anything to loose and success in Internet Marketing to gain!

Recently, I blogged about several steps I am taking to get focus for my on-line business. I’m eliminating distractions and concentrating on one thing.  The trouble is, I have two (or more) things I am doing and this is causing me to lose focus. I am having great success in eliminating distraction from email. I completed my website update. I got started with affiliate marketing.

There lies the trouble. I only got started, then I stalled. Why did I stall? Of course there are several reasons!

1. I took on a web-redesign project. I am really interesting in doing website upgrades, so that is why I took on the project.  Even that is slow-going – NOT GOOD. This has now become my top priority to finish.
2. I didn’t set aside a definite time to work on affiliate marketing. This will be done, starting with #1 above.
3. Farm-work and my regular job are busy right now.  Both of these will right themselves in due time.

As you can see, I am almost back to navigating some roadblocks, only this time it is not as serious. I believe that website upgrades may be part of my business plan, so this extra project is really worthwhile. I know that I can get back on track, I just need to focus. Lynn Terry posted a great blog about Staying Focused When You Work Online.  There is a lot of good advice in there!