Website Design

Over the past 5 years that I have been working online, web site design and functionality has changed enormously. Check this video out:

When I first contemplated working online I had to learn Dreamweaver or Frontpage. XSitePro or blogs hadn't been invented then! Now, dreamweaver is best left to the geeks among us, Frontpage has gone off somewhere and sulked because it is hardly (if ever) used and XSitePro has become the program of choice for those who absolutely must have a static website...and there is often need for one of these.

The website building tool of choice today is definitely Wordpress blogs. There are of course others like Joomla, Drupal etc...but far and away, wordpress is the king of website tools because you can do so much with it design-wise.

As an affiliate marketer, you will need to know both a WYSIWYG static html platform and a blogging platform. 

How to Write Better Web Copy

I have recently read an article on how people read on the web. It is interesting to note that in the last five years people's web reading method hasn't changed. The only thing that has changed is how the researchers can better view the intensity with which they now read certain areas of a web page. This is very interesting information for anyone who is a web publisher and writes copy for web pages. For affiliate marketers it is essential reading here

Be Aware When you Buy Software

Over the years I have purchased quite a bit of software. Each piece has performed assistance in whatever it was designed to do at the time. What I am finding slowly so slowly is that not many of them continue to work in the way they were originally designed to do.

Some of them no longer work at all because the providers/sellers have gone out of business, others because the software worked so well that it has been 'blackballed' by the search engines as spammy and others because there have been no updates made available for the programs. The products were designed, used, abused by too many people, and the manufacturers simply walked away. Some of them even took their websites down so they couldn't be contacted again.

So whenever you purchase software or 'wonder' programs be very careful who you are buying from and that they are not 'fly-by-nighters' (that is, here today and gone tomorrow) and will end up leaving you high and dry without any support services, back ups or updates.

If you are a software seller, then I think it only fair that you advise buyers that the software does have the potential to have websites deindexed because the software uses could be considered spammy eventually or that there could be too many people who buy the system and with so many people doing the same thing for more traffic or higher rankings or whatever the software is designed to do, it could cause a red-flag with the search engines.

This may inhibit a few buyers short-term from buying but it is more likely to cause those who buy it knowingly to buy your next product again. You will have earned the reputation of an honest operator.

Those pieces of software that I have bought and that have now been closed down have brought me to this conclusion. I have bought other software years ago that is working as well today as it did originally and it has had timely updates over the years.

My suggestion to anyone thinking of buying a piece of software to solve whatever problem you are trying to overcome is to do a good bit of due diligence and make sure the product either has support and updates or how many are going to be sold. In the long run this will save you time, money and a heck-of-a-lot of frustration.

XsitePro Reviews

I am an XsitePro user for both version 1 and the updated version XsitePro2. My reviews will compare both products and the innovative thinking that Paul Smithson has added into the second version.

Both XsitePro1 and XsitePro2 have been created with affiliate marketers in mind. The XsitePro2 (XSP2) version evolved from the ongoing technological changes occurring on the internet and as affiliate marketers became more savvy and proficient. Both XSP1 and XSP2 are WYSIWYG programmes designed for people who don't know or have never learnt any HTML coding language. Now they don't have to as both products are so user friendly and intuitive and once you have done something 'new' once, you realise how easy things really are once you have actually done it once.

The 'doing' is what makes using both XSP1 & XSP2 so easy to learn. When I first got XSP1 I read the first manual before I watched the videos and I think in retrospect that was the wrong way about. What put me off was the thought of 'placeholders' because I had no idea what they meant. And as I was scared of doing something wrong and damaging the programme, I did nothing with it for months. This was a very bad mistake on my part. A huge mistake! Believe me, don't go there.

So one day after paying another AUD$600.00 to a webmaster I had no respect for I decided I was being absolutely dumb. A right royal idjit!

So I bit the bullet, set the lap top beside me and followed the videos, step by step. It wasn't long before I had my first website published and I was as proud as a rat with a gold tooth. It was so easy once I made up my mind I was going to do and actually sat down and started the 'doing'. That's all it needed was to actually do something with it instead of 'playing' and being too scared of breaking something I didn't understand. I soon learnt the value of those placeholders and what they did.

In the end, both XSP1 and XSP2 are so flaming easy to use that these days all I do now is load her up and whip a website out any time I think I have an hour to spare. It's unbelievably easy.

The extra features built into XSP2 make it easier for affiliate marketers who either want to add a new page to their website or who want to link directly to a vendors website. You can do redirects without having to go to a server to do so. You can do straight linking so that if you are submitting articles to directories and you can't link to an affiliate site you can do so through XSP2. It makes life so much easier.

I can't believe just how comfortable I am now with using XSP2. If someone had said to me 18 months ago that I would be good at making my own websites, I would have asked them if I could have had whatever it was they were on! Now I'm offering you the chance to get on what I'm on and loving every minute on my XSitePro2

Affiliate Program Software

Affiliate Program Software is specialised and XSitePro is made and designed for affiliate marketers.

When I first started looking into affiliate marketing programs and software, I got myself into a bit of a lather because everything seemed just so hard! All because of two things basically:

1) I had no technical background whatsoever and it all sounded like double-dutch to me. I understood NOTHING.

2) I am a bit of a stubborn individual and I wanted to believe all those gurus who kept telling me I didn't need a website. This was what I wanted to hear, not what I needed to know.

Consequently, 3 years down-the-track and I finally bit the bullet and decided to learn a software program I'd  had sitting on my hard drive for months.

What a silly little drongo I was!! If only I'd taken the time to actually look and do I would have been soo much better off. Financially, emotionally and stresfully. I'd had the answer to so many of my problems all the time sitting in front of me but I was too stupid to actually try to use it.

So, the day finally came when I bit the bullet and started. Within hours I had my first website published to the net and I had total control over it. I couldn't believe how EASY it really was once I'd made the decision to actually do something.

The reason behind this story? Is to do something ~ take action. Don't procrastinate.

The other thing you need to be aware of too is that if it seems 'hard' today it's more because its new than actually difficult. Just do it and I'll bet you within a week you will hardly think its even unusual. Then you will be ready for your next challenge and with affiliate marketing programs and all the new software coming onto the market, you'll soon be ready for the next challenge.

And that will probably be blogging ~

Affiliate Program Software

I bought a new affiliate program software two days ago called Micro Niche Finder. It is a keyword finder tool that is absolutely 'the cats pajamas'.

Assisting Affiliates Highly Recommends Micro Niche Finder

One of the things I like so much about MNF is it takes the guess work out of the scenario for me with a very simple tool inside called SoC.

What is SoC?

It stand for Strength of Competition. It actually tells me whether to stop (red)  be careful (Yellow) or if it's a good word (green) Just like a traffic light.

No more guesswork, hoping, praying, and wondering, working my fingers to the bone....if it's green it's a "go fer it!" This I understand.

And it does it soo quickly. The words come up and then you use the filters according to the parameters that you decide on. Or have been advised to start with before you work out what works for you in whatever market you have decided to go into.

If it sounds like I'm wrapped....you're right. Like I said at the beginning. This little beauty is "the cats Pajamas"

More on this in the coming days.

Try out Micro Niche Finder Affiliate Programe Software Today!