Free WordPress Themes and Theme Building Tools

Ran across some more free Premium Wordpress Themes yesterday. These are fantastic. Not only can you get 8 great free Wordpress themes here, but if you are into building your own Wordpress themes, there are some tools for Dreamweaver to help you create your own themes.

TAGStention for Dreamweaver

TAGStention is a very good Dreamweaver extension for creating custom WordPress themes and templates. It includes features such as wizards for tags with parameters, support for 90% of the WordPress tags, inserting basic loops, inserting headers, and support for Ultimate TagWarrior.

Dreamweaver extension for WordPress Templates

This Dreamweaver extension adds a toolbar to your menu for inserting commonly used WordPress code snippets. It includes the PHP code objects for Vcard, loop, header, include and others.

There’’s also primers for creating your own Wordpress themes and a blog post on how to create themes in Dreamweaver.

There’’s even a section for free website templates.

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This is a list of US and International Affiliate Networks that you get commission for selling products, rather than generating leads. I”m a member of Commission Junction (CJ), Linkshare (LS), Affiliate Future US, ClickBank, PayDotCom.com, ShareASale (SAS) and MarketHealth, with MarketHealth being my best performing now, but PayDotCom.com the best in the past. Hope you”ll find this list useful when searching for products to promote. If you run an affiliate program that is not listed, leave a comment and I will add it. More information needed to choose the best networks can be found in my newest Dot Com Mogul article: Is the Cookie Monster Eating Your Commissions?

The Largest Affiliate Networks

AMWSO - Affiliate Management Consulting firm lead by Chris Sanderson, manages 20 affiliate programs from leading merchants such as Western Union, Panda Software, Shopster, GoodTimes Entertainment, Gaiam, South Beach Diet and Forzieri.

Commission Junction (CJ) - a ValueClick company, delivers performance-based online marketing solutions. Network access to the USA, UK, Germany and France.

Linkshare (LS) - LinkShare pioneered online affiliate marketing, and today runs one of the largest pay for performance affiliate marketing network on the Internet. Network access to the USA, UK, Canada and Japan.

Microsoft adCenter Affiliate Program - If your site is focused on Internet marketing, search marketing, web development or business you have the opportunity to generate revenue by referring new advertisers to MSN adCenter, via the Microsoft® Affiliate Network.

PartnerCentric - manages 40 top affiliate programs including well known brands like National Geographic, BriteSmile, Medifast, 21st Century Insurance, The Company Store, Lamps Plus, Domestications & Quicken Loans.

Performics - Now owned by DoubleClick, provides performance-based online marketing services and technologies for leading multi-channel marketers. Clients benefit from Performics´ custom approach to affiliate marketing, search engine marketing and lead generation programs.
Read the rest of this entry »

I was reading a blog post the other day from a fellow Entrecarder who disbelieves that you can make money online. Unfortunately, many people like this blogger has come across numerous “make money online” scams and have drawn the conclusion that affiliate marketing as a whole is a scam. Nothing could be further from the truth. I”ve made my living online for about 10 years now and many others do as well. Here’’s a monthly payout for one income stream to show you the kind of money that can be made. How do I do it? I don”t sell scammy little ebooks that tell you how to make thousands in your sleep. I use numerous legitimate income streams and many niche blogs and sites to promote products and get a commission from the sales. In addition, I use other monetizing methods such as Kontera, Chitika, and reviews on my blogs and websites.

There are many ways to make money online and work at home, but it takes a whole lot of hard work, knowledge, patience, and some ”being in the right place at the right time” luck. If you”re unwilling to put in the same kind of time and effort in your online career as you would working for someone else, then you probably won”t be successful and definitely should not quit your day job.

Career blogging is one of the ways to make money online. What does it take to turn blogging into a full-time living? Career bloggers are in high demand. Businesses realize the many benefits of a company blog. These companies are willing to pay you to blog, usually on a contract basis. In addition, there are numerous sites that pay you to host links and ads on your own blog or to provide a review of the site on your blog.

Getting Started as a Career Blogger

First you will need to create your own blog. This will serve as your portfolio or blogging resume. Two popular blog sites are blogger.com and wordpress.com.

Next, decide what you wan to blog about. Since you will be blogging for businesses, you could show off your business-sense in your blog. If you are a marketer, you could blog about sales and marketing. Blog about a topic you are very familiar with or an expert in. If there’’s a particular niche that you want to blog about for hire, show your expertise on the subject in your own blog. Keep your blog updated with fresh content and build your traffic and readership.

Getting Your First Blogging Jobs

Now that you have your blog, you need to get hired. Use your About or Profile on your blog to advertise your availability as a career blogger. You can also Google blogger job or blogging jobs and browse the search results. You”ll likely find dozens of search results for blogging jobs. Other resources for finding blogging jobs are Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com and HotJobs.com. Just submit your resume and contact info to be contacted by companies looking for professional bloggers. In addition, there are many contract blogging jobs posted on freelance boards. I”ve listed many of the most popular below. Read the rest of this entry »

Most know the huge potential for traffic that social networks offer and that they also have other benefits such as building back links, brand or name recognition and increasing your blog or websites” popularity. While many know of the potential of social networking, many also utilize them the wrong way.

A common strategy among social network spammers marketers is to join a network, build a minimal profile (or a fake profile), acquire as many “friends” as possible and then proceed to Twitter, poke, spam the bulletins and walls, and give gifts until they have alienated nearly all of the members and branded themselves as a nuisance, or gotten banned from the network. It’’s just social media spam and it’’s rampant. Using social networks to intentionally manipulate and misrepresent might yield some short-term gain, but will do long-term damage to your brand. Any gains soon disappear as members or the network administrators catch on to your game.

It’’s rare that I get a message from Netscape, StumbleUpon, MyBlogLog, Entrecard and other networks that isn”t a pitch for something without so much as an introduction. This isn”t a very effective way to use social networking sites for the long term benefit of your company or brand. While there are no well defined social networking rules, using common sense will go a long way in using social media to your benefit. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the top ways of monetizing websites is lead generation. Here’’s how it works. Becoming a CPA affiliate is fairly simple. You sign up with numerous CPA Networks, drive traffic to the custom landing pages they provide or make your own landing pages, and get paid whenever a site visitor fills out and submits a form. One of the best ways to drive traffic to your CPA Offers is through PPC program like Adwords or Yahoo.CPA networks are clearinghouses bringing advertisers and publishers together. The advertisers provide custom landing pages and forms, pays the network commission for making it available to affiliates, and affiliates are paid for driving traffic and generating signups.

CPA stands for “cost per action.” The action is the site visitor filling out the form. Compared to traditional affiliate marketing, it is often a much easier and more lucrative way to monetize a website.

Traditional affiliates have a tougher job. They have to get the traffic, presell the product, and send visitors to the vendor through an affiliate link, hoping to generate something like 1% to 5% sales. Conversions are highly dependent on the vendor’’s sales letter and product. If the vendor does a poor job of selling, or has an overpriced or poorly received product, the affiliate has spent a lot of time, and perhaps money, for very little return. Read the rest of this entry »

The latest buzz word in marketing is “Conversation Marketing.” Without ever hearing about conversation marketing until recently, this is the way that I prefer to get a message out about something that I”m endorsing or yes … if you want to hear the dirty word … selling. The phrase that really stood out in my mind was “All marketing is a conversation.”

“The awful truth about marketing is that it broadcasts messages to people who don’t want to listen…. much of business communication is written in contrived and artificial language, supposedly designed to impress, but actually signaling just how impersonal the firm and its professionals are.”

I see so many of the long, hypey big red lettered sales letters and still wonder how that type of marketing can be successful. I know that many “gurus” use them and make money, but in my opinion, you aren”t reaching a large part of the market through this method of communication. Basically, you”re reaching an audience who is looking for a “dream in a box” solution and willing to believe anything that promises that.

To me … and maybe it’’s just me, I find those type of sales letters to be more annoying than persuasive. It’’s packaged marketing, spoken in a fake voice and often uses scare tactics and unfounded promises to reel their customers in. Many marketers see marketing as a one-sided dialogue … nothing more than a propaganda campaign. This type of marketing rarely answers any questions I might have about the product.

The marketer that is able to reach his market in a real voice and engage his audience in a two-way dialogue is the marketer who is going to be able to build trust and relationships that convert into sales. In the offline world of marketing, where you meet your prospective clients, you have a greater opportunity to employ Conversational Marketing. Instead of giving yet another boring presentation, you can have a question and answer session. In a personal one-on-one presentation, you can give your prospects a handout and then instead of launching into a one-way dialogue of your capabilities and contract issues, see if you can engage your prospect in a conversation to determine what his problems and needs are. Read the rest of this entry »

I”m a bit disappointed in the services that are available to help bloggers sell their “real estate.” When I first began blogging, I ran across all the paid review services and applied to them. In the beginning, I was promptly told that my blog did not meet their rigorous quality criteria. Well, now it does and I”ve been accepted into all of them. However, the problem I am now finding is that their advertisers don”t meet my rigorous quality criteria … with my main gripe being … they are cheapos.

Going to PayPerPost to the available opportunities for a blog that hasn”t acquired A-list status yet, I find review after review for $5-$10. The graphic to the left is today’’s “Featured” opportunities. The $35 one requires that your blog be at least a pagerank 5 — ha ha ha —. Are they not aware of the Google slap that stripped some of the top blogs of a lot of their pagerank? And do they think that an A-list blog will review them for $35? Not likely. Quite simply, I”m not going to do an in-depth review of someone else’’s product or website for 5 bucks. That isn”t the way I want to position this blog. I spend a lot of time writing content and a paid review is not exception. My last paid review was 450 words with two graphics and numerous backlinks to pages within the site. It is well written and I had to research the site and company before writing about it. It’’s on another blog I write, but I was paid $25 for it and that is acceptable to me. I can live with that at this time, but if these companies think they”ll get that level of attention for a measly 5 bucks, it won”t be here. You also cannot list more than one blog until you”ve accepted and completed 10 reviews. I”m also limited to 10 reviews per month …. hahahahahahahahahahahah … I seriously doubt that I”ll find ten reviews a month that I”m interested in. Read the rest of this entry »

The secret’’s out!

What would you say if I told you how to get free publicity, targeted traffic and more sales for your online endeavors? It’’s instant, easy and affordable.

How? With well-written articles, distributed to content-hungry web publishers for reprint. Your article’’s “About the Author” box builds your expertise in the field, and builds backlinks to your website.

The viral effect of distrituting your content across cyberspace is unparalleled in the field of internet marketing.

An Adaptive Marketing Plan

The advantage of article marketing is that a marketing campaign can be implemented on the fly. It’’s as simple as writing a new article. And with an unlimited subscription to an article distribution service such as Article Marketer, there is no further cost. Let me repeat that — no further cost to target an entirely new market niche.

By going with the flow of the market, a affiliate is in a better position to exploit these unexpected marketing opportunities. Identify a trend, write an article, and capture that moment of perfect relevance. This kind of “in real time” marketing can enhance your current article marketing plans perfectly. Experts recommend submitting two articles per category per week for the most impact and greatest benefit. Keep a close ear to the heartbeat of popular trends in your specific industry, and be able to spot trends and identify potential changes at a moment’’s notice. My article on Cashing in Google’’s Hot Trends is perfect example of “going with the flow” of market trends.

If you see a new niche for your business, begin a new article marketing campaign. Always keep an open mind when it comes to your article marketing plan. The market can be volatile, constantly changing, and full of surprises. This is what makes affiliate marketing so exciting! And, it’’s what makes article marketing such an efficient, and affordable, way to keep on top of the market.

I just launched a new Article Directory … Article Buzz … specializing in high quality free content for your website, ezine or newsletter.

Writers

WE NEED ARTICLES! Brand new and just opened the doors today.

Share your knowledge and expertise and promote yourself, products or services at the same time. Simply register and then submit your articles. We”ll promote your free articles to all of our Publishers and Webmasters.

Publishers

Do you need quality free content for your ezines and blogs. You”ll find it here. All free articles are reviewed and approved by our Quality Control Editors before you ever see it. You can be sure that the free content and articles you get will meet your high standards of acceptance. All free articles are available in Text or HTML format.

Webmasters

Need good quality free articles to build or add on to your website? No problem at all. We off quality free articles and Free Article RSS Feeds so you can do less work and still provide great free content for your visitors. Visit Article Buzz today.

Freelance Writing

Between the print market, freelance jobs sites, and online market, there are many opportunities for freelance writers to get published and paid for writing.

Writing For Newspapers and Magazines

With millions of people throughout the world buying newspapers every day, the need for fresh content is constant. Your local newspapers are a good place for new freelance writers to get started in writing for newspapers. If you can adhere to fast turnaround times and like writing short, factual articles, writing for newspapers is a good place to start.

Another great print market for writers is magazines. There are many new and established magazines in need of content. Magazines are topic oriented and provide a good opportunity for writers to write on topics they are interested in and to write longer articles that showcase more of your creative writing style.

Get Paid To Write Online

The best source for finding freelance jobs are the freelance job boards and Craigslist.org. There are many freelance sites. Some are larger than others and have more jobs, some have higher fees than others, but most are worth looking into. Elance.com is one of the largest ones with many projects. The fees are higher at Elance.com, but many people are able to make a living from the projects they win on Elance. There are many writing jobs listed on Craigslist.org under the jobs section and also in the gigs section.  Craigslist.org is free to use and does not require membership.

Blogs are a great way to promote your affiliate products.  They do well in search engines because of the constantly refreshing of content as opposed to the staleness of a static site.

Get Paid To Write Articles

Associated Content

Associated Content invites everyone to contribute original video, text, audio and images on any topic to gain exposure and earn cash. AC offers upfront payments for some content submissions as well as a monthly Performance Bonus payment for all of your original content.

WiseOrb

Write articles on any of a vast array of topics, including product reviews, “how to” guides, holiday reviews, essays and much more.

If approved by WiseOrb editors, Wise Orb will publish your article on this site, and pay you according to how popular the article is. You can write about whatever you like, as long as the article adheres to WiseOrb terms and conditions.

Helium

Helium pays for articles based on the value of their contribution. The value of each article is determined by three market drivers:

* How good is the article? Quality matters! Higher-ranked articles will earn more money than lower-ranked articles.

* How many readers are interested in the article’s topic? Some subjects will draw more total views than others.

* How much will advertisers pay to advertise on the subject?  Each subject attracts a different set of advertisers who pay a different amount to be associated with a subject. For example, subjects in the area of personal finance will draw a higher ad rate than subjects like chess.

These three factors are combined to calculate the earnings to each member for each of their articles.

Articles ranked higher by members earn more than lower-ranked articles. Quality counts. Articles ranked in the top five out of 50 articles are read more often than articles ranked lower. They are deemed more valuable to Helium members.

Constant Content

Website that sells original content for your websites, blogs, newsletters, etc. Writers can submit articles on many topics and once approved, it is available for sale. Clients can also request custom articles from writers. You can sell the articles by usage or exclusively to one client. With Constant Content, you are paid for sales, rather than paid by article.

Defense Talk

Get Paid to Write About World Militaries and World Military Weapons. For articles that are accepted, you get paid $25-$35.