Is Virtual Juror a Legitimate Job?

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Quick Summary

Rating: 1 out of 5 gavels.

Pros: Might save you a few hours of research.

Cons: The price point to buy a list of URLs is way too high. We’re all for convenience, but come’on.

Our Recommendation: Making money as an online juror sounds interesting, but really, it’s jury duty online. Long hours, poor pay, boring cases. If you want to learn how to build a real, sustainable stream of income from home, click here to check out our top recommendation. It’s free to get started as well and you won’t ever have to pay for a chance at jury duty.

Full Review

This one is new to me, though the concept has been around for some time. It seems to be picking up some steam, though, so I thought we should take a closer look.

What Is a Virtual Juror?

Several sites are advertising a “virtual juror” job, which allegedly pays up to $10 hour. The sites include virtualjuror.com, ejury.com, onlinejury.com, and a couple of others.

These sites claim that attorneys will pay you to review cases, or parts of their cases, so that they can sort of “test drive” their case on people that might be like people that will be on real juries. You review the case under consideration and then answer questions about it in an online format. The site that gave you the case pays you via PayPal.

The Truth

Like many online opportunities, this one has a grain of truth to it. There is at least one site that appears to have a legitimate business model: ejury.com. It costs you nothing to sign up, the terms and conditions are easy to find and clearly stated, and it is as clear as possible about what exactly you will be doing. Even more important, it is clear about your income potential:

“For each verdict rendered, eJurors are paid $5 – $10 depending on the length of the case. The amount to be paid will be shown at the top of each case. You certainly won’t get rich serving as an eJuror, but just one case a week would probably pay for your Internet access.”

The problem with the concept and with ejury.com is that your chances of getting a case are very slim. Few number of cases divided by a large number in the jury pool means don’t count on this to pay your cable bill.

The Dark Side

You knew there was a dark side, didn’t you? This post is credited to alert reader, Erik, who read about ejury.com and went to do some research about the virtual juror concept.

What did he find? A Web site that charges you $97 for access to a list of companies that are paying for such work. This site is virtualjuror.com, and I recommend you stay away. What do you get for your $97?

Within 48 hours [business days only] of Paypals confirmation to Virtual Juror of your payment, you will receive special links that will take you where you will start the application process. Again, there is nothing else to pay for. Should you provide excellent service we believe you will be chosen time and again to review many cases. [Emphasis mine]

No Terms and Conditions and a clearly stated “no refunds” policy. You see, the list of links is an electronic product so they can’t offer refunds.

I won’t be paying the $97 to find out, but I would bet that ejury.com is on the list. In fact, here’s a challenge to you, VirtualJuror.com Internet sharketer dude: pay me $97, show me your list, and if ejury.com isn’t on it, I’ll publish an “I Was Wrong” post. (Oh, and since a blog post is an electronic product, the $97 is non-refundable.)

Stay Away from VirtualJuror.com

So yeah, Erik was right. He said he knows that any site that wants you to pay for a job isn’t legitimate. Virtualjuror.com is not offering you a job. It’s trying to sell you information that is not worth much and freely available elsewhere.

I don’t think virtualjuror.com is setting out to deceive anyone. In fact, it even states in fine print at the bottom of the page:

The websites we send you too have no fees and can be found by anyone, but we save you the hours of research and provide these specials links to you for a one time administration fee.

I have no problem with that: there is value in compiling information and presenting it in a convenient format for people. But $97 is too much for a list of companies that offer such small income potential.

Don’t Get Scammed by These Crafty Work-at-Home Assembly Jobs

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Quick Summary

Rating: 0 out of 10 cans of glitter.

Pros: You might end up with a bunch of cool arts and crafts supplies.

Cons: Most companies are offering to pay you to fulfill work-at-home assembly jobs and then they REQUIRE you buy your materials through them. So, you’ve bought the materials, you’ve done the work, you mail it back and you expect to get paid. Right? WRONG. These companies tend to reject work no matter how closely it matches the sample finished product they send. It’s a deceitful way of selling you craft supplies you don’t need.

Our Recommendation: Avoid work at home assembly jobs. We’ve yet to find one that was worth the hassle. The insane standards they set are nearly impossible to meet and you’ll likely lose out on a bunch of money and even more valuable time. If you want to learn how to build a real, sustainable business from home, click here to check out our top recommendation. It’s free to get started as well and you won’t have to glue anything together.

Full Review

Are you a crafty person who likes making jewelry, magnets, stuffed animals, etc? Have you ever thought about capitalizing on your craft-making skills and making money from your crafts?

Apparently, there are a number on online sites that have done just that. Most of these sites work on the premise that you pay an up-front fee for training to get started with a given craft project. Then, you order and pay for the basic craft materials that will be used to construct your craft item. Once your craft item is finished, you sell it back to the company and receive payment for your finished product.

Work at home craft assembly companies

I found the following example work at home craft assembly sites that offer craft items to making at home and then sell back to the company through so-called “buyback” programs:

DisciplesCross.com: This site offers a training video directly from Pastor John Raymond of New Horizon Christian Fellowship in Slidell, Louisiana for $69.95. The training video also includes a starter kit that makes 25 crosses. Once you’ve watched that video, you can order additional cross-making kits for $25 and up. Each cross that conforms to this program’s quality standards is reimbursed $2.25. “God bless & happy cross making!” (a direct quote from the site)

MagicalGiftDollhouses.com: Also known as New England Crafters, this company offers mostly jewelry making kits. You pay $49.95, plus $9.95 for shipping, per kit. Each kit includes instructions and supplies for making the craft item. When you are finished with your project, you send your items back to the company and are reimbursed for each approved piece. The company then sends you additional craft supplies which you assemble and send back for reimbursement.

TinyDetails.com: With this site, you pay a $55.00 refundable deposit to obtain a starter kit for whichever dollhouse item you choose to make. There are 14 different miniature items currently available. Items that are made to the correct instructional specifications are reimbursed $50-$200.

Sounds simple and easy, right?

Except that it’s not. Each craft assembly site makes sure to state, in one form or another, that the assembled craft pieces must first be approved before they are paid for by the materials issuing company. And those craft items will not be approved unless instructions are followed to the letter. But what if the provided instructions are made unclear to the assembler or the provided materials are so cheap and flimsy that a quality product cannot be made? Here are some testimonials from various work-at-home craft assemblers who tried to make a little side income through work at home craft assembly jobs:

DisciplesCross.com: This company had several negative reviews and unhappy customers were quite vocal with their complaints.

Mary Alice (Houston, TX): “I ordered the Disciple’s Cross Kit several years ago and made the Crosses, and also ordered 1 pre-made Cross already made by them. You know how I know this company is a scam? When I submitted my 10 crosses to be inspected, I sent the ‘perfect’ Disciple Cross they made for inspection, and guess what- they rejected all of them (even the one they made) and said “you have potential”. You can never ever make ‘their’ crosses good enough…do not waste your money.”

Jeff Martis (Central IL): “A friend of mine signed up for this program…His package showed up, and everything was there that was supposed to be there, but the quality of the wire you were supplied was a very inferior grade and tended to break all the time…after two or three days we made 25 crosses while watching [the instructional video]. I did quality control and checked every cross to ensure it met standards. We determined that 3 were sub standard so we reassembled them again, and sent off all of the crosses into the buyback program. 10 days later we got a package back with 23 crosses that had been determined to be “not of the quality needed in order to qualify for the buy back program”.

Graham (Boone USA): “While you are BUYING supplies, they are quick to reply. After telling them I had 400 crosses ready to send to them I got a reply telling me there was a 2 month long wait for turnaround. After that they stopped replying to me, period. The ONLY communications I’ve had from them in a year now are their offers to SELL ME CROSSES!

Nobody will buy the crosses! Not local churches. Not local Christian bookstores. No stores, convenience stores, fund raisers, flea markets – nobody will buy my crosses INCLUDING Pastor John!”

MagicalGiftDollhouses.com: Reviews of New England Crafters/MagicalGiftDollhouses were mixed. While customers did not come outright and call this company a scam, many did state that its craft projects were time-consuming and difficult to do. The company has a high rejection rate and sends back many craft projects marked as unacceptable. Even successful crafters, such as New England Crafters owner Cheska Arnone herself, might make only $12/hour constructing this company’s difficult crafts.

TinyDetails.com: RipoffReport lists at least 22 complaints about TinyDetails, most of which focus on the following issues:

  • The materials the company sends are shoddy and misaligned, so one can never make the high quality products that are demanded.
  • Repeated calls, voice mails and emails are left unanswered.
  • The company rejects its own “perfect” sample craft items after customers send them back and claim those items as their own work.

Work at home craft assembly summary

While not every work at home craft assembly job is a scam, even legitimate craft assembly companies are getting some heat for their slow turnaround times and high product rejection rates. Assembly workers frequently mention that the training videos are either incomplete or falsely illustrate the quickness and ease with which the selected project can be finished. And of course, all craft assembly companies require an up-front training fee, a common sign of an online work at home scam.

Work at home craft assembly jobs are also prone to a second tier of scams: Unscrupulous companies sell lists of purported “genuine” craft assembly sites for a fee to hapless customers. These lists provide names of craft assembly sites that are either out of business or which thrive on subscriber fees more than product buy backs from crafters. Kinya provided a review of one such list site, Assembly-Jobs.com, for readers.

Scam Alert: Is Your College or University a Diploma Mill?

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Recently, a friend of mine who received her bachelor’s degree from Westwood College was shocked to discover that she did not qualify for the master’s degree program at a national university.

The reason? Her bachelor’s degree was considered bogus because Westwood College is not regionally accredited. In fact, Westwood College is only nationally accredited.

Other Westwood alumni have also been surprised to discover that their degrees are considered useless by employers; as a result, some of these alumni have sued Westwood. In January of 2012, the Illinois State Attorney General also filed a lawsuit against Westwood, stating that the school’s (which is actually run by several corporations as a “DBA”) “many misrepresentations or false promises to Illinois students and prospective students constitute violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act”.

What is accreditation?

In order to be considered legitimate, post-secondary schools in the U.S. must be accredited by a government-recognized accreditation agency. The two big accreditation categories are national and regional. National accreditation is currently applied to non-traditional schools such as online or distance learning universities. Regional accreditation, meanwhile, has typically been applied to liberal arts schools that operate in a more traditional sense (e.g., use in-class instruction).

There are six regional accreditation agencies, with each agency covering a given geographic region in the U.S. You can check if your school of choice is accredited by one of these regional agencies by finding out where the school is located and then going to the specific regional agency that would be in charge of that school’s accreditation.

Overall, regional accreditation is much more valuable than national; also, a school that passes regional accreditation will typically have no trouble gaining national accreditation. The reverse is not true. Furthermore, so-called “diploma mill” schools fail to achieve either regional or both regional and national accreditation.

What is a diploma mill?

Westwood College, alongside other institutions such as the University of Northern Washington and Monticello University, is what is popularly termed a “diploma mill” or “degree mill.” According to the FTC, a diploma mill is defined as the following: “a company that offers ‘degrees’ or certificates for a flat fee, requires little course work, if any, and awards degrees based solely on life experience.”

Furthermore, “although many diploma mills claim to be ‘accredited,’ their accreditation is from a bogus, but official-sounding agency that they created.” This fits the bill for my own personal diploma mill of choice, Ashwood University (which actually operates out of Pakistan). I decided to check out Ashwood’s website one night and even chat with one of its customer service representatives. Here’s a synopsis of my chat:

Please wait for a Site Operator to respond!
Info : You are now Chatting with Angelo Parker.
Angelo Parker : How may I help you?
Halina: I’m looking at a degree in biology
Angelo Parker : Sure. How many years of working experience you have in the field?
Halina: I took some high school biology
Angelo Parker : I see.
Angelo Parker : So you want to study or you need a degree based on your experience?
Halina: what courses do you offer? I’m hoping to get a bachelor’s in biology so I can eventually start a Ph.D.
Angelo Parker : Well this is a life experience degree program. We award you the degree on the basis of your working experience and past qualifications. What we do is we take down your life experience and convert them into credit hours.
If these credit hours are equivalent to the credit hours that are required to complete your desired degree then you qualify and we award the degrees accordingly.
Angelo Parker : So there are no courses or classes with us
Halina: OK, but then is this legit for a Ph.D. program at a school like Northwestern?
Halina: I forgot to mention that I did work as a lab tech for a few years. But I don’t have a BS or BA in biology
Angelo Parker : I see. Well now you can get a degree with us in 15 days based on what you already know. The fee for bachelors will be $599
Halina: OK, but will this transfer to Northwestern University?
Angelo Parker : Yes it sure will.
Halina: Do you have any stats about transfer students and how well their degrees transfer to universities like NWU or University of Chicago?
Angelo Parker : Well as the documents are recognized and accredited. You will not be facing any problems getting it accepted
Halina: So, is Ashwood regionally accredited then?
Angelo Parker : Its nationally and internationally accredited
Halina: which national agency?
Angelo Parker : Its mentioned on the website
Angelo Parker : Please check the accreditation tab
Halina: Neither of those agencies are mentioned on Northwestern’s website as recognized. They are asking for regionally accredited agencies like the north central association.
Halina: You said the degree was recognized by Northwestern.
Info : Chat session has been terminated by the site operator.

When I tried to reconnect with Angelo, my chat was terminated immediately. Was it something I said? In any case, if all I need is $599 to get a bachelor’s, why oh why did I spend 4+ years at a community college and then a state school? I really should’ve known better- and apparently my “life experience” bachelor’s degree does transfer to Northwestern University!

Not all schools are as blatantly deceptive as Ashwood University. Westwood is actually nationally accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS), which is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). In contrast, Ashwood is “accredited” by scam accreditation agencies such as the Board of Online Universities Accreditation (BOUA) and the World Online Education Accrediting Commission (WOEAC). These two agencies are not recognized by the U.S. DOE and may as well be imaginary.

Unfortunately Westwood, although nationally accredited, is not regionally accredited by any of the six national accreditation agencies recognized by the U.S. DOE. This means that most post-secondary and regionally accredited schools (e.g., Penn. State) will not recognize a degree from Westwood as legitimate. Furthermore, many employers will also not recognize a degree from a non-regionally accredited school as legitimate.

However, the fact that Westwood is at least nationally accredited means that its students do qualify for and receive federal student loans. This is because the U.S. government only requires that a post-secondary institution be accredited by one U.S. DOE-recognized accreditation agency in order to receive federal funds.

As a result, many Westwood students end up with $60,000+ in student loans by the time they receive their degrees, which is just perfect for the bottom line of a for-profit school like Westwood. Unfortunately for the students, their monetary investment in a Westwood diploma isn’t as worthwhile.

How can you avoid a diploma mill scam?

True institutions of higher learning used to be easy to spot- they were the “classic” brick-and-mortar-and-ivy schools portrayed in such movies as “Back to School”. Nowadays, many colleges and universities are completely online and operate out-of-state or even out-of-the-country. For all you know, these schools could be operating out of a P.O. box or someone’s basement.

However, even the physically present colleges and universities can be scams. After all, it’s not hard to rent a few rooms or even a building, slap a school logo on the doors and call sham classes into session. When a scammer is reaping tens of thousands of dollars per student, even paying several thousand dollars for a physical school is worthwhile in terms of return on investment.

Thus, if you are thinking about signing up with a relatively unknown college or university (i.e., no known alumni and recently founded), first check this school’s accreditation. Then, check the school’s reported accreditation agencies against those posted on the U.S. DOE website and see if they are federally recognized.

Finally, go to the respective regional accreditation agency, such as the North Central Association’s Higher Learning Commission, and input your school of interest. If your school doesn’t pop up, look elsewhere for your educational aspirations.

Beware of schools that claim that you can receive a degree for your life/work experience with little or no class time. A bachelor’s degree that takes just a few months to complete, classes where almost every student gets an “A”, and pressure by school advisors to receive as much financial aid as possible all hint at a diploma mill scam. In short, do your research and utilize your critical thinking skills for more than just class tests and quizzes.

Congratulations, Murphy!

On a happier note, my dog Murphy just received his acceptance letter from Ashwood University. I listed Murphy’s life experience in biology as working in a medical lab (he went to several veterinary appointments with me) and proctology (Murphy excels at butt-sniffing). Here is his congratulatory letter on his upcoming bachelor’s degree in biology:

Congratulations Murphy!
We are pleased to announce that based on your resume and your profile score calculated using the CPAAS® profile evaluation system, the evaluation committee at Ashwood University has finally approved you for Bachelor’s Degree.        You are among the 5% of candidates who qualified under the CPAAS® profile evaluation system.

CPAAS® is globally renowned and patented evaluation system that performs detailed analysis of your resume, online profile, past accomplishments, and professional and educational background through proprietary global libraries and databases.

You can now pay the amount from the link provided below and get your Bachelor’s Degree within 30 days from today. Once you make the payment, you will also be able to access the Alumni Area of Ashwood University and get exclusive privileges and discounts.

Future Ashwood University baccalaureate

I always knew Murphy was smart.

Mobile Apps that Pay You To Submit Your Photos

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You may heard of Flickr and Dreamstime, photo websites that sell your photos and then pay you a commission from them. These sites pride themselves on offering professionally taken photos, and that typically means that you, the photographer, need to own an expensive DSLR-type camera. If you don’t, you’re going to be limited in selling your photos.

Luckily, a new wave of mobile apps have popped up that pay you for your mobile photography. These sites accept and sell mobile photography, for the most part, and share the proceeds with the respective mobile photographers. This is great if the only thing you can call your camera is your iPhone or Android-based smartphone.

Who’s buying these mobile photos? The customers vary, but they might include bloggers who are tired of using obvious stock photography on their posts and want to go with more “real-time” and original photos. Company execs and newspaper columnists are another bunch who might purchase your mobile pictures, especially if those pictures include cool visual effects (more on that later).

So, which mobile apps sell your photos? Here is a good starter list for you to peruse:

Foap

This mobile stock photo site sells open source photos for $10, with the photographer earning $5 per sale. You can sell the same photo as many times as you like, thus earning money on the same photo again and again.

When you sign up with Foap, you are first asked to review and rate five photos on a scale of one to five stars. Then, you are allowed to upload your own photos. Other “foapers” rate your photos, also on a scale of one to five stars. If the average rating of your photo is at least 2.5 stars, that photo gets included in the Foap marketplace.

If you’re not sure which photos to upload, Foap offers Missions and Contests sections that ask for photos of a given theme. The Contests section can be especially lucrative, paying $100 or more to the winning photo.

You can also promote your photos via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, email and other broadcast platforms.

Instagram

This site does NOT pay you (at least not directly) for your photos. Yes, you read that correctly. Instagram is actually a social media platform for sharing photos, not a commercial app. However, there are three reasons why I’m still listing the Instagram app as a place to make money from your photos.

  • Sponsorships– You can make money from your mobile photos if you’re already on Instagram and have a lot of comments, likes or followers there. Companies (which also often have Instagram accounts) are likely to notice your social popularity and sponsor you to take photos of their products/services. This “discovery’ process is not guaranteed, however.
  • Instaprints– This website links to Instagram and enables you to sell your photos as physical prints (e.g., posters, greeting cards, mouse pads). You set your own rate for your photo, then Instaprints adds a flat fee for the physical product (which includes the Instaprints base fee). Upon purchase, Instaprints completes the printing and shipping of the physical image to the buyer. You are paid once a month via Paypal.
  • Twenty20– This site, previously called Instacanvas, also links to Instagram and maintains a gallery of your images, which buyers can peruse and purchase from for online download or for physical printing. Much like Instaprints, Twenty20 also handles the printing and shipping portions of the purchase. Unlike Instaprints, however, you cannot set your own rate. Twenty20 prices your images (a starting range is $2-$7/image) and gives you a 20% cut of each sale. Payments to your Paypal account are made once a month.

Snapwire

This app is a fusion between Foap and Twenty20 in terms of look-and-feel. Unlike the two aforementioned apps, however, Snapwire emphasizes the photographers, not their photos. As such, photographers get center stage here and their portfolios house their images. Snapwire also sets the image pay rate from $5 to $100, with photographers keeping 70% of the sale price.

Buyers can search by photographer and purchase their photos from the portfolios. However, Snapwire focuses more on contests (called Challenges) as a way to pay and reward photographers for their good work. Prize purses typically range from $25-$150, with the winning photos getting heavily promoted and thus having a good chance at making even more money.

This app also assigns point-based levels to photographers, with the scale ranging from Explorer>Shooter>Advanced>Expert>Elite>Pro. As you win Challenges or add more and better photos, you are assigned more points, which helps advance your status (and pay rate).

Stockimo

This app is offered by the biggest stock photo agency in the world, Alamy, and it was also one of the first paying apps to be offered for mobile photos. With Stockimo, you upload your photos and have the content “curated (i.e., rejected or accepted)” to fit the standards of the agency. Then, your content is priced according to the buyer’s usage intent. Example use rates include the following:

Advertisement: $500
Book use: $150
General/online use: $20

If you were an Alamy contributor prior to April 2014, you get 40% of all photo sales. After April 2014, new subscribers receive a 20% share of sales. Also, depending on the type of usage license you pick, your photos can be sold repeatedly.

Make even more money from your mobile photos

Learn to point and shoot.

Selling your mobile photos involves more than just snapping pictures of your dinner and uploading them. To make the really big bucks, you should first learn how to use all of the features on your smartphone camera, including its ISO, cropping/editing features, and (optional) effects. Also, take a basic photography course (such as through Coursera or Udacity) and learn how to compose your shots. While mobile apps don’t require that you have the latest and greatest DSLR on hand, they do require that you know a thing or two about taking pictures.

Tagging your photos is not an option.

If you wish for your mobile photos to be found by customers and companies, make sure you tag them. Excessively. In fact, there are even apps out there, such as TagsforLikes, that will help you create and store tags for social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Akin to SEO, the easier you make it for people to find your photo content, the more likely it’ll be that your photos get viewed and purchased.

Special effects can help you.

Most professional stock photo sites turn away photos that are enhanced with special effects (e.g., stickers). However, mobile photos fit a wide variety of client needs including humor, real-time reporting, personal blogging, etc. Thus, investing a few bucks in a cool filter or photo effect tool like Aviary may actually open you up to new business opportunities.

If you do start enhancing your photos, create a special area for these images and keep them separate from the “normal” ones. This way, your customers won’t be bogged down by crazy purple landscapes or odd thought balloons while looking for basic stock photography. Meanwhile, those customers who are looking for such imagery will know where to go.

Follow (and duplicate) the trends.

Going back to SEO, you should follow what images are trending on your apps and add to that content as much as possible. For example, Foap frequently showcases and sells holiday and seasonal images. Thus, you could start shooting holiday/seasonal photos a few months ahead of time and have this content ready to go for the next upcoming holiday/season.

Likewise, news media networks often need stock photos to go along with a trending story, so keep your eye on the national news and tag your photos with keywords that would fall in line with a reporter’s topic search. In short, don’t keep your photos in a vacuum.

Free Tools and Data Sources that Help You Create Amazing Infographics

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People get tired of reading words all the time, and your website’s or blog’s readers are no different. Luckily, you can reignite reader interest in your content by presenting it in different formats, including those that are visual in nature. Currently, one of the most popular methods for doing so is through the infographic.

The ideal infographic contains just the right mix of appealing visuals and significant data, plus a smattering of humor or wit to break up all the statistics and reporting.

Finally, the infographic should be equipped with a tracking code that credits the source, such as a website or the blogger (i.e., you).

However, unless you are well-versed in Photoshop, it is challenging to quickly and easily represent information in a graphic manner. As a result, many webmasters and bloggers have shied away from generating infographics. Likewise, many webmasters have the needed skills, but they don’t have the time to be sifting through esoteric information sources for statistical data sets.

Luckily, there are many free or free trial tools out there that enable anyone to become a master of infographic design. Likewise, there are many data aggregator sites that present information on one handy platform.

As a result, you can now create all kinds of eye-catching infographics that will amaze your readers and bring traffic to your website or blog. Here are some of the best design tools that will quickly move you towards professional-looking infographics.

7 free online tools that help you create amazing infographics

1. Google Charts

To create pie charts, graphs and tree maps, look no further than Google Charts, a free tool offered in the Google Developers area. This tool also enables you to display your data in real-time and with animations.

google charts

2. Venngage

This site offers a free version of its infographics-generating software that includes several themes, templates, charts, icons and even ready-to-go infographics.

venngage

3. Easel.ly

This tool provides you with templates that you can customize with your own data, images, etc. If you need extra images or items like arrows, shapes, etc., they are available too.

easel

4. Piktochart

Here, you get three free themes that you can customize with your own color palette, fonts, shapes, graphics and images. You can also add your own images. Infographics generated with Piktochart can integrate with Slideshare and Evernote.

piktochart

5.  Infogr.am

This tool provides lots of great graphs, info maps and charts for free that you can customize via the site’s custom Excel spreadsheet. You can also add your own photos and videos. Infographics generated through this site can also be made mobile-responsive.

infogram

6. Visual.ly

Here, you not only get to create infographics for free, but you can also earn money. Visual.ly connects prospective brands and clients with talented infographics designers looking for work. So, if you want to earn money for your infographic-making skills, be sure to post your current work on this site once you’ve completed it, thus creating your own work portfolio.

visually

7. Dipity

With this tool, you can generate infographics that include video and/or audio, provide location or time info, and which integrate with social media platforms to boot. Dipity’s paid version even offers infographic analytics and iPhone apps.

dipity

Finding reliable data sources

Infographics are only as good as the data they showcase. To find the best data without spending endless hours online or in the library, you should visit the following sites:

AIP– The American Institute of Physics publishes studies on employment, pay rates, undergraduate enrollment, etc. in physics and several applied science fields.

CMS.gov– The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services publishes information on its policies, medical and psychiatric health outcomes, insurance providers, and the like.

Data.gov– From agriculture to finance to science and technology, there is all kinds of good, U.S.-based information at this site.

Data Market– This is a good place for finding information on the national economy and healthcare, agriculture and the automotive industry.

FactBrowser– Looking for marketing stats or consumer behavior information? Then look no further than FactBrowser, a site that compiles all manner of data on the latest online technologies and e-commerce trends. Some of this information is even provided as infographics, case studies or forecasts.

Google Public Data– This site publishes some rather large data sets derived from sources such as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, World Bank, World Health Organization, U.S. Census Bureau, etc.

Google Scholar– Use this specialized tool to search on academic information including journal publications, dissertations and theses, as well as research reports published by government agencies and national laboratories.

UNICEF and WHO– World health statistics such as infant mortality rates and HIV infection stats are reported here. Social work and justice statistics are also big foci.

WorldBank– This site provides financial data from all over the world, including national GNPs, debt ratios, etc.

Wunderground– This site provides historical weather information segmented by city or zip code.

Finally…

An infographic must not only be useful, but also pretty. In other words, don’t go stuffing your graphic with endless reams of information, thus making it bore the viewer. Also, viewers do want to see verifiable information, so list your sources at the bottom of the infographic and attribute all direct quotes.

If you don’t find the information you are looking for, consider doing your own research study using a tool like SurveyMonkey and reporting the collected data. You can also survey your email subscribers using a survey tool like MailChimp.

Do you have a data reporting tool or infographics generator that you prefer? Let us know in the comments below.

Why You Should Become a Wikipedia Contributor

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In 2012, Wikipedia came up on the first page for 99% of Google searches, according to the UK-based firm Intelligent Positioning. In over half of those searches, Wikipedia came up as the first search result.

These are some amazing findings, considering that Wikipedia content pages are often Spartan in their provided information, references are iffy or lead to dead links, and much of the information is not verified by primary sources. Web researchers (and high schoolers) are advised to not use Wikipedia as a reference.

And yet, if Wikipedia is so derided, why did Google spend a lot of time and energy creating its Knowledge Graph, which greatly imitates Wikipedia in terms of features and internal links? And why does Google still give search prominence to Wikipedia even today, in 2015, when so many other authoritative and better-referenced sites exist?

5 Reasons why Google still loves Wikipedia

1. Unique, authoritative and in-depth content.

When Wikipedia entries get it right, they really get it right. Much of the content on Wiki is long, in-depth and comes with exemplary references. Furthermore, when links go dead or aren’t correct, a batch of faithful Wiki editors make sure to correct the issue. Both Wiki editors and contributors are encouraged to add references from authoritative sites, not YouTube or private blogs. Wikipedia’s constant harping on what constitutes a good reference versus a so-so one is finally paying off, and much of Wiki’s material is well-researched and referenced.

2. It’s all user-generated.

Search engines love ranking user-generated content above corporate or other types of content. This is why social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, have done so well in the SERPs (search engine results pages). A community of contributors is looked upon as more relevant to a topic than a single blogger or marketer.

3. User-generated content isn’t spammy or promotional.

Wiki users that sign up to contribute to the site cannot post content that is full of spam/affiliate links, promotes a particular product or blog, or otherwise functions to openly act as linkbait for the contributor. Anyone who keeps violating this cardinal Wiki rule is eventually blocked from contributing. Thus, the content actually has value- something that Google loves.

4. Entries are keyword-focused.

Wiki entries are usually centered on one keyword, which results in a strong page and domain. This results in Google and other search engines favoring the Wiki page over a comparable website that might just use the same keyword as a meta tag or only in the page content.

5. There are bucketloads of internal links.

Wiki entries link to other Wiki entries, blanketing the entire site with their page and domain authority. Conversely, links on Wiki that lead to outside pages are nofollow, meaning that the referenced site gets no link love from being listed on Wikipedia (although it does get traffic). As a result, Wikipedia does not “leak” its superior Page Rank to outside sites.

With all these reasons why search engines like Google still favor Wikipedia, you are well advised to contribute to the Wiki. In fact, certain businesses exist solely to create Wikpedia pages for their clients.

Obviously, you can’t use Wikipedia to openly promote your affiliate website or blog, but if you generate a neutral Wiki entry around a particular product or topic, you could list your own website as a handy reference. That reference will not give you any link “juice,” so to speak, but it will result in increased traffic. You could replicate your efforts by eventually creating more Wiki pages related to your initial one and internally linking them. Keep in mind that every new Wiki page must have notability or it won’t be included.

Generating entries on Wikipedia also helps establish you as an authority in your chosen subject matter.

How to become a Wikipedia contributor

Becoming a Wiki contributor is very easy and only requires that you fill out a short form to create your account.

Wiki pic

Your user account, once created, is your community identifier. It will display alongside any Wiki entries and/or edits you make. While you can make changes anonymously, you are better off working within your account, as this helps build your reputation on the site. Any and all Wiki activity you generate is listed on your own Contributions area. You can also practice using the site by going to an area called a sandbox.

Wikipedia recommends that you first start out as an editor before creating and publishing entire pages to the site. That seems reasonable and allows you to gain some practice with the site and how it functions. Likewise, editing other pages successfully helps increase your authority to perform restricted functions like adding images or moving pages to the public sphere.

To a large extent, Wikipedia’s content management system has a WordPress-like feel to it and includes markup language akin to html. When making edits, you should provide a brief explanation of your reason for doing so (e.g., typo). You can then click on the bottom button labeled “Show preview” to view your edit to see if it’s correct. If you are satisfied with your work, just click on the “Save page” button and you’re done.

For example, here is what the edit window of the Wiki entry on Cholesterol looks like:

cholesterol

When you’re ready to create a completely new Wiki entry, the Article Wizard gives you a good tutorial and helps you get started. In a nutshell, though, you need to first search on the topic you want to write about. Assuming that you find no identical or related topic, Wikipedia will invite you create an article for the topic you searched on within its search results page. At that point, you can click on the hyperlinked topic idea and get to work.

For example, here’s a search for the topic ‘Cholesterol is yummy.’ Because there’s no such topic on Wikipedia, an invitation to create one was extended through Wikipedia.

cholesterolisyummy

You may wish to paste in the article content from a separate document you’ve already generated or work on your article within Wikipedia. When you’re done, save your work. Afterwards, whenever you wish to return to your article and work on it some more, you’ll find it in an area marked as Creating User:YourUserAccountName/YourWikiTopic.

Be aware that your referenced sources must be reliable and unbiased. That means you can’t link to a blog or a YouTube video and call it a source. Likewise, primary sources such as research publications and direct quotes are preferred over secondary and less neutral sources such as press releases.

Once you have finished creating your article, you will need to submit it to Wikipedia for review. That process can take a few days or even weeks. Once that process is finished, your page will be moved to the public space. In some cases, Wiki editors may make some changes to your content or topic title. Or your article may be nominated for deletion. This can happen if you have included any promotional links or used images that were copyrighted to someone else.

What have been your own experiences using Wikipedia to create entries? Have you had issues with Wiki editors? Did you find the submission process to be difficult or easy? Please leave your comments below.

Should You Start Text Marketing in 2015?

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I’m a loyal customer of Starbucks, not so much because of the superior coffee served there, but because the company regularly texts me offers that I just can’t resist. These offers are part of My Starbucks Rewards, a loyalty program that rewards repeat customers with freebies and product discounts.

Such text marketing is common for brick-and-mortar merchants like Starbucks; however, affiliate and online marketers don’t typically engage in this type of marketing. That’s a shame because texts, unlike emails, are not yet crowded out by excessive spam. In other words, text messages still have a good chance of being opened and read.

What is text marketing?

Text marketing, which also goes by the names of mobile marketing, or short or multimedia message service (SMS or MMS) marketing, involves marketers sending short text messages to their mobile subscribers and asking them to take a specified action. That specified action might involve downloading a web page or coupon, signing up for a deal, or just subscribing to the mobile list.

With text marketing, marketers typically use a short code number that is five digits to identify themselves. They also pay for unique keywords that mobile device users must input when sending a text message to the marketers. For example, Starbucks might put up a sign in its store with the following announcement:

Want valuable coupons from us? Text COFFEE to 23198.

In this case, COFFEE is the keyword and 23198 is the short code number. A mobile customer who wants to access those coupons would create a text containing the word COFFEE and then send that text to 23198. This would result in the customer receiving a second text with a link to a coupon page. It would also place that customer on the mobile marketing list for future promotions.

Other keywords might also be used by text marketers. For example, you have probably received the following text message at one time or another, and usually included with a text message that advertised a given deal or offer:

To Opt-Out, text STOP to 22155.

Much like with email marketing, marketers pay for text marketing by the number of text messages sent. They also pay per number of keywords used. Marketers favor using several keywords over one or two because separate keywords allow them to segment their audience and/or offers and perform analytics on who opens and acts upon which texts.

How can you use text marketing?

As an affiliate or online marketer, you can also use text marketing to alert your readers about new blog posts, new product reviews or sales, or even send out a coupon or discount notification. Just because you don’t have a physical store or a cash register scanner doesn’t mean you can’t create coupon codes and have your readers use them on your website.

The real challenge with text marketing is how to get your website readers and/or email subscribers to agree to receive mobile messages. Much like with email marketing, you may wish to entice potential subscribers by offering them a special discount or other incentive.  Be sure to notify them of how they may opt-out of your messages too; while the CAN-SPAM Act does not technically apply to text messages, the FCC has covered unwanted text messages under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991.

Also, while in the past SMS messaging was pricey, text messaging platforms have multiplied over the last few years. These days, you can even do SMS marketing for free if you limit the number of messages sent or if you have a small contact list. Here are a few platforms you may wish to investigate and try out in 2015:

SlickText

This mobile marketing platform enables you to get one keyword (called a textword) and send up to 50 texts/month for free to unlimited contacts. With SlickText, you can schedule your text messages, create auto-replies, and also integrate your text messaging with a social media platform like Facebook or your own website. The platform also allows you to track who clicked on your provided link and which texts performed better than others.

slick text

ezTexting

This budget text marketing service currently offers you 500 free texts/month along with one keyword. Incoming messages from your subscribers are not charged. With ezTexting, you can perform a lot of different texting campaigns including Text2Vote, Polls and MMS. You can also post your texts to social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter or your personal website (via widget). Basic reporting and analytics are offered, allowing you to track message delivery and open rates as well as signups.

eztexting

Mozeo

At 3 cents/text and $24.99/first keyword, Mozeo offers a decent deal on text marketing without requiring you to sign a contract. Within this platform, you can access a lot of Mozeo’s features such as Text-2-Win and mobile coupons. The service also includes a handy website plugin that you can install and have your website visitors immediately opt-in for your texts. You can also build and maintain your mobile contact list on Mozeo.

mozeo

Opt It

This service runs $20/month/keyword and 2 cents/text, or $50/month/keyword and unlimited texts. With Opt It, you can easily create mobile contests, coupons and redemption codes, and with or without expiration dates. Text campaigns and contacts are managed from a dedicated Web-based software program, which comes complete with real-time reporting and activity snapshots.

optit

Will you be text marketing in 2015?

With the start of the new year, you may wish to try out text marketing and see if this important yet often overlooked marketing channel can help you grow your contact list. If you do try text marketing in 2015, let us know how it works out for you in the comments below.

Get Crafty with Etsy- and Make Money Too

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Do you have a particular hobby or craft that you enjoy like knitting, candle making or painting? Would you like to make some money from that hobby/activity or at least enough to cover your expenses? Then Etsy may be the place for you.

Since 2005, Etsy has offered an e-commerce platform for artists and craftspeople to offer and sell their goods. The only requirement is that those goods must be personally handmade- i.e., no re-selling is allowed. As opposed to bigger sites like Ebay and Amazon, Etsy offers the following advantages to sellers:

Long listing time: Etsy listings last 4 months as opposed to Ebay’s one week time span. This is important because, as an artist or crafter, you need time to build up your fan base. Likewise, many clients buy a small quantity initially and then, if satisfied with the product, come back for more at a later time.

Lower fees: Etsy charges just 20 cents to create a listing and a 3.5% commission for sold items. This is important because many homemade products cost just a few dollars. In contrast, Amazon’s fees can be pretty steep for sellers who are just starting out. A per item fee of 99 cents is applied to any sold item along with a variable closing fee. Amazon also tacks on a referral fee which, for craft items, could run as high as 15%.

Ebay fees can also be cost-prohibitive; the site waives insertion fees for sellers that are just starting out, but at the close of sale a 9% commission is taken for traditional auction-style listings. Fixed-price listings can result in the seller paying a 50 cent insertion fee and as much as a 13% commission at final sale.

Community: On Etsy, each seller offers a personal and unique set of items that other Etsy sellers and buyers can connect with. There is an opportunity to “admire” (akin to Facebook’s “Like”) a particular Etsy item and to engage the seller in a conversation about his/her items. Furthermore, Etsy offers a Community area where fellow “Etsians” can trade ideas, submit blog posts, participate in events in their geographic areas or post/attend a workshop.

As if this were not enough, Etsy teams such as Handmadeology provide useful tips to fellow Etsians on subjects like item photography, social media marketing and keyword selection.

My personal experience with Etsy

Because of the focused nature of Etsy, it is much easier to sell handmade items here than more populated spots like Ebay or Amazon. I should know: For several years now I have tried to sell handmade jewelry and creams through Ebay and Amazon with limited success. Then, in July of this year, I decided to list some of my homemade deodorants on Etsy.

Almost immediately, I had interested customers writing to me about my products. By September I had sold my first deodorant; by October I had sold my fifth deodorant. I also recently had a “batch” sale of three deodorants in town thanks to an Etsy client referral.

Meanwhile, when I posted these same items through Ebay, no one even viewed my offerings, much less bought them. As a result of my small but growing success in making people less stinky, I am now considering posting a few handmade hand creams and seeing how much interest they generate.

There are some downsides with Etsy too. It does take a while to get your shop to see sufficient traffic; my first product sale didn’t happen until after I’d had my shop up and running for over a month. Part of this has to do with the fact that many merchant Etsy stores look alike and even carry the same (and sometimes plagiarized) content; as a result, they suffer Google search rank penalties.

Also, the site offers limited customization for item listings; storefronts consist of a “sheet” of photos with prices, no more. With Ebay listings, you can do much more in terms of organizing your items and how they are shown in your “store”.

Finally, all Etsy shoppers must register with the site, which can be a hassle if someone just wants to quickly browse through the site on his/her lunch break. This registration requirement may be leading to a shopper “bottleneck”, where many of Etsy’s shoppers are also Etsy sellers.

Alternatives to Etsy

Etsy’s merchant revenues for 2011 were rather impressive, crossing the half billion dollar mark and then some. The company has also expanded into other countries such as France, Germany and Australia. However, there are competitors out there, and some of them don’t even charge for item listings or sales.  These competitors include the following:

eCrater This Craigslist-style site allows you to create an online store for free. There are no fees whatsoever associated with selling on this site.

Bonanza This Etsyish site charges no listing fees, with sellers paying only when their items sell. Listings can be posted indefinitely. A live chat function allows sellers and buyers to talk and even haggle over prices in real-time.

With the economy still in a slump, many crafty folks are turning towards sites like Etsy to earn extra money or even make their hobby into a full-time profession. If you are skilled at making some homemade goods, you may want to give this site a try.

Want Extra Sales? 10 Daily Deals Sites for Affiliate Marketers

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday are fast approaching, and this reality may be causing you to panic as you search in vain for some online deal to display on your affiliate marketing websites. Luckily, there is no shortage of great online deals for affiliate marketers- if you know where to look. The answer to your troubles lies in daily deals sites. Such sites not only offer great deals and deeply discounted items, but they often also work with affiliates.

What are daily deals sites? They are sites that scour the Internet on a daily basis for the best online deals and discounted merchandise and then post these deals on a website and/or app. One example is DealTrunk, which offers heavily discounted brand name merchandise on a daily basis.

So, if you are still looking for that great online deal, here are 10 daily deal sites that will work with you- and give you a nice commission too:

1SaleADay

Each day, this site lists one product that is discounted by up to 90% off at midnight. The items can include electronics, perfume, jewelry, etc. There are also deals for hotel stays and vacation packages. Affiliates earn 3%-7% and get a 14-day referral period.

1saleaday

Gilt

Affiliates of Gilt are paid a 4% commission on every sale. While this may not seem like much, consider that the designer clothing sold through this site can easily cost $1,000 or more. We’re not talking about a $25 pair of shoes here.

Gilt group

Groupon

Through the Groupon Partner Network, you can become an affiliate and make 10% on Groupon and Ideel purchases. Because Groupon offers many different items, you can pick and choose which deals best integrate with your affiliate sites in terms of product theme.

groupon partner network

Living Social

This site offers a hefty 30% affiliate commission on purchases made by new and existing customers, plus $2.50 for every new email subscriber. Affiliates sign up through Commission Junction.

living social

 

nCrowd

If you’re not familiar with nCrowd, it’s a daily deals site that includes U.S.-based Dealfind and Tippr and the Canadian site TeamBuy.ca. Through this company’s affiliate program, you can earn up to 15% from consumer purchases. There are also tiered incentives for volume purchases. Affiliates obtain a 30-day referral period.

nCrowd

 

RetailMeNot

This site offers daily deals typically in the form of coupon codes to all kinds of online retailers. Users of the site can also get rewarded for submitting coupon codes they locate online (and elsewhere). Affiliates receive 50% of net revenue.

retailmenot

 

Teefury

This site posts one new T-shirt every 24 hours for $11. T shirt designs are often one-of-a-kind and may not be resold by the site ever again- although the designer could go to another website and sell the design elsewhere. Affiliates of Teefury sign up through Commission Junction. Although referral information is not listed on the site itself, affiliate forums report that affiliates earn $1 per each T-shirt sold.

teefury

Wayfair

This daily deals site features all kinds of home furnishing deals that are delivered to subscribers once each day by email newsletter. Affiliates with Wayfair can earn 5% commissions and get a generous 45-day referral period. You sign up to the program through ShareASale.

wayfair

 

Woot

Woot was one of the first daily deals sites to hit the Internet, and even today it is still going strong and has offshoots like Kids.Woot, Wine.Woot, Shirt.Woot and Deals.Woot. Affiliates- or minions, as Woot likes to call them- earn 2% on computers and electronics sales, and 4% on everything else (except wine).

woot

Zulily

This site offers upscale childrens’ clothing and accessories at discounted prices. Affiliates earn up to a 10% commission on all sales and receive a 7-day referral period. Sign-up to the program occurs through the ShareASale platform.

Zulily

Are daily deals sites good for affiliate marketers?

Some of the criticism surrounding daily deals ads and text links being posted on affiliate websites is that they distract visitors and redirect them to third party sites. Also, most customers will typically only go through the affiliate link once. After they have signed up with the daily deals site, they will go to that site directly, eschewing the affiliate site and depriving it of any further profits.

Another criticism about daily deals ads is that their profit margin is too low for the amount of disruption they cause to an affiliate site. In the case of Groupon, for example, the site’s profits are divided up between Groupon and the actual retailer providing the deal. So, the affiliate doesn’t really receive the full percentage of the deal.

However, there are some good reasons to include daily deals ads, at least for a limited time. If you coordinate the theme of the daily deal site to match items you are already selling on your site, the additional traffic to the deal could spill over to your own products. Also, because you must typically add in media and text that describes your daily deal ad, you could end up improving your site’s SEO for a particular product.

How to Start Rewards and Loyalty Programs on Your Website

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According to BusinessWeek, nearly 90% of Americans participate in some kind of rewards program. The average household belongs to 22 loyalty programs- even if participation in all these programs is not always active (Colloquy). Furthermore, in a survey conducted by Maritz, 57% of respondents stated that they modify when and where they buy their items in order to maximize the points received from purchases; 46% stated that they modify which brands they purchase in order to maximize points.

Clearly, rewards and loyalty programs work. Indeed, customers who belong to a loyalty program are twice as likely to visit the same merchant and end up spending four times as much money as non-loyalty program customers.

With data such as these, you cannot ignore the potential that loyalty and rewards programs have in terms of growing your business and its revenues. However, if you own just an affiliate or other marketing site, how can you implement loyalty marketing into your online sales?

Install an E-commerce Plugin

To sell online, you will first need to download and install an e-commerce platform plugin to your website or blog. Luckily, there are many e-commerce plugins out there that are not only easy to install but are free.  Four plugins in this category include WooCommerce, WP e-Commerce, iThemes Exchange, MarketPress, Jigoshop and Cart66 Lite.

An e-commerce plugin such as WP e-Commerce enables your site to accomplish several merchandising functions, including using Paypal Payments (standard, Pro or Express) and integrating various payment gateways such as Google Wallet, BluePay, Sagepay, Paystation, and Authorize.net. You also gain access to selling options such as coupons, quantity discounts, catalogs and drag-and-drop shopping.

Integration with Google Analytics and Sitemaps, as well as SSL certificates for shopping security, are other advantages of most e-commerce plugins.

Install a rewards plugin

There are many rewards plugins out there that award points, purchase percentages or other incentives to site visitors who subscribe to the rewards program, like your FB page, follow you on Twitter, refer you to a friend or make a purchase. Here is a list of some of the most popular:

Beans

Although technically in its beta stage, the rather popular Beans plugin works with WooCommerce and enables shoppers to get rewarded for subscribing to the rewards program, taking social actions (e.g., liking your Facebook page), referring fellow shoppers, or making a purchase.

beans

One of the nice features about Beans is that your rewards program can be promoted on the Beans Platform, which means it gets indexed by search engines.

Loyalty Rewards

This plugin costs $89 for one site and operates through WooCommerce. It enables your customers to earn points through purchases and redeem the points later on for coupons or credit. You can set the amount of awarded points per product or purchase total. You can also create reward tiers and manually edit rewards points for any of your customers. The Loyalty Rewards plugin also integrates with Gift Certifictes Pro, so your customers can either be rewarded with gift certificates or buy them for others.

Finally, existing customers can have their past purchases grandfathered into their rewards accounts so that they are not left out of your loyalty marketing plan.

Shopper Rewards

This plugin works with WP e-Commerce and is free to install; the basic version of the plugin, which offers additional features, costs $20.

Shopper Rewards enables customers to take charge of their rewards program and earn points based on the amount purchased, to convert points to coupons, discounts, free products or percentages off, and to view points history. The plugin also integrates with the WP e-Commerce Coupon System.

You can reward current customers by importing their past purchases and assigning them rewards based on those purchases.

The Shopper Rewards Premium plugin, which is on the horizon (though with some delays) is expected to enable shoppers to earn points by completing social actions such as liking your Facebook page or following you on Twitter.

Rewarding Your Affiliates

You can create loyalty programs for your affiliates too- or nudge customers to become your affiliates. The Ambassador plugin, for example, not only tracks shoppers who come to your website via an affiliate’s link, but it also enables those customers to socially share their purchase information with their social network. This optional sharing feature advertises your online store to other potential shoppers.

Ambassador operates through WooCommerce and is available for $49 (for one site).

Affiliate WP is another $49 WooCommerce-based plugin that enables you to track your affiliates and their activities. Furthermore, you can integrate Affiliate WP with other loyalty rewards plugins and provide your affiliates with coupons or discount codes. Such leveraging enables you to increase not only your own sales, but the sales and referrals of your affiliates. 

affiliate wp

Creating Your Own Rewards and Loyalty Programs

You may also consider creating your own loyalty program and tracking subscribers individually. This can be completed by segmenting your email newsletter subscribers into those that have purchased from you and those that have not. From there, you might consider sending unique emails to your current customers with a bonus or bulk purchase offer and inserting specially discounted products into your email. For audience members who are not yet customers, you might consider offering them a freebie or discount if they make a purchase by a given deadline.

While it is more time intensive, email segmentation offers a greater possibility of rewards customization. Doing so also gives your loyalty program less of a cookie-cutter feel to it and directly tunes into shopper sentiment and needs.

I Am Biased for Good Reason. I Have Tried 100s of “Opportunities” Online and I Haven’t Found Anything Remotely Close to What YOU Will Get at WealthyAffiliate.com

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A Comprehensive Wealthy Affiliate Review

Company Name: Wealthy Affiliate
Website URL: www.WealthyAffiliate.com
Founders: Kyle & Carson
Support Rank: 100/100
Community Rank: 98/100
Training Rank: 100/100
Tools Rank: 98/100
Website & Hosting Rank: 98/100
Value Rank: 100/100
Overall Rank: 98/100

An Introduction to Wealthy Affiliate

Wealthy Affiliate is my home for online business. But before I get into my personal views on the program and tell you why it is my #1 (by a considerable amount), let me give you my story.

I have been there, done that…with FAR too many products. If you are like me, you have sifted through more reviews of so-called “opportunities” than you would like others to know…and fallen victim to some of them. We all want to create something meaningful and create a business doing so…but the last thing we want to do is get “scammed” by another scumbag company on the Internet.

I totally get that.

This is why I am personally introducing you to Wealthy Affiliate (WA). Out of all the programs I have reviewed to date, this remains my highest ranked product. In fact, there isn’t a product or service that I have come across that continues to improve their service at the speed that Wealthy Affiliate does… always keeping their members (like myself) in mind.

Wealthy Affiliate was started back in 2005 by two guys by the names of Kyle & Carson. They were both affiliate marketers who had their own successful businesses online before starting WA. They felt they could give back and they were off and running with WA.

Since then (9.5 years later), it has evolved into the highest reviewed and acclaimed platform for creating and growing a business online. I can honestly say that I owe a good deal of my success to the Wealthy Affiliate community and I have been a part of this amazingly helpful and supportive community for close to 6 years now.

That is why I am biased. When I see something that is working for 1,000’s of others and is working for me, I tend to recommend it. In fact, I recommend it to my friends and family members who are looking to create a business online and my wife just left the rat race to start her very own venture online too.

I am very critical of any product or service online so you can best bet, every corner or WA has been explored in my 6 years. If there is a fault I will be sure to tell you. There isn’t….other than the fact that this Internet business stuff is highly addictive and so is the helpful, state of the art community at Wealthy Affiliate.

First, What Can Wealthy Affiliate do for YOU?

I get this question all the time.

“What exactly can Wealthy Affiliate do for me that other programs cannot?”

To be honest, that is a fair question and one I want to really dig into and explain here. Like you, I do my due diligence before investing any time or energy into something (in all aspects of life) and if it is not worth it, I want to know before hand!!!

There is an endless amount of crap out there in the opportunity world, a myriad of scams, and if you are like me, you have likely been slapped in the face by a scam or two (or ten) over the years.

That is one of the main reasons I created this site. To help folks avoid scams and to really show people the door to real opportunity and programs that can help. That happens to be Wealthy Affiliate.

Here are the main differentiating factors that make WA truly different than the REST of the stuff out there.

  1. All inclusive. Everything you need is all in one place…finally. No upsells, no buying crappy ebooks and PDF’s. This is an education platform with all the tools you need to run your business, all the websites/hosting, all the support/mentoring, the training, and community you need to create and grow a business. No more buying “part” of the puzzle.
  2. They care about YOUR success. These dudes care, but not just that, this is probably the most helpful “pay it forward” community I have ever been apart of. It is evident that this sort of passion for helping others starts at the “top” and it will be evident the second you step foot into WA.
  3. They have been in business longer than any of the “other” guys. Something that says a lot about a company is how long they have been in business. WA has been in business since 2005 and continues to grow. I have seen almost every other company in this industry fail with their “churn and burn” products while Wealthy Affiliate continues to not just stay in business, but get better every day.
  4. The community is second to none. You ask for help, you can expect it. There are MANY different ways that you can get help within WA, from the instant live chat, to the question and answer platform, to leaving your questions right within the training lessons. Expert help is there when you need it.
  5. They continually improve their service, for no extra charge and ZERO upsells. Wealthy Affiliate is getting better with each update they make (there have been many major updates this year). I know they have big plans in the year ahead, they are constantly letting the community know about upcoming innovations and improvements that help folks like myself (and you) improve business.
  6. It is very ACTIVE. In fact, on any given day there are thousands of people in the community that are getting help, offering help, and connecting within the members area. This energy is nice to see and makes every day an exciting one!
  7. They make things S-I-M-P-L-E. As soon as you join WA, you are put through their world class training. They have spent years refining their training so that it is easy to understand, even for a newbie…but it covers concepts that are complex in a way that absolutely anyone can accomplish them. That is why ANYONE can create a business online, with the simple and easy to understand training.

    Here’s an example of the easy to follow, actionable steps. Complete these and you’re well on your way to building your business.

  8. They understand technology. Wealthy Affiliate is not just a “website”, it is one of the most sophisticated platforms in the industry. This sophistication is something that I feel makes it much more trustworthy. It is secure and they really do push the envelope with what can be done with technology, making your life easier. In other words, they do the hard stuff and make things that are typically difficult, a breeze. Take building a website as an example!
  9. The Website platform is brilliantly simple, yet very powerful. When I built my very first website, it was an absolute nightmare…but that was before Wealthy Affiliate’s SiteRubix website platform. It is easy peasy to get a professional looking website up and running in minutes, not hours or days. Fully hosted as well which is a huge plus.

And you get to TRY before you BUY. You don’t have to part ways with a single penny to get access to this program. Wealthy Affiliate believes in their product/service so much that they are willing to give you access to a significant amount of it for NOTHING.

The Price of YOUR Success

Wealthy Affiliate is completely FREE to get a Starter account with (you can join here). I am not talking some lame, unsubstantial and useless free account. I am talking REAL training, REAL community access, REAL support directly from uber successful marketers, REAL websites, REAL hosting…you name it. You will actually be building your online business with no strings attached – NO OTHER company in the industry offers this.

Think you can’t build a website? Think again. It’s as easy as filling out this form…

Wealthy Affiliate has a Starter membership which I like to refer to as the “foundation” building membership. It will get you up and running in any niche of your choice (take any passion or interest you want) and set you up for a long and very fruitful career in the online world.

No experience necessary, but if you have experience that is perfectly fine as well. You are going to learn how to build your business in a way that leads to long term success. This is what I like to refer as the PROPER way, and the way I have followed since I became a member back in 2007. Building my business with long term success in mind has helped me create my full time online business (and it is growing with every year).

I don’t want to discredit my degree that I spent $40,000 to get at Penn State University (go Lions!), but I invested 4 years of my life into a degree that to this day I have never used.

My full time income and my livelihood are generated 100% from online income. My house, my vacations, my lifestyle are also generated 100% from my online income.

When I say that you can get access to the community and training platform…along with all of the tools you need to create and grow a business online for FREE, I am not kidding. No catches, no obligations.

What I do want to be clear about are the two levels of membership at Wealthy Affiliate and I just want to explain them both to give you a bit of clarity.

Starter Membership – $0. Zilch, Nadda, Completely FREE.

I always recommend people try before they buy…anything (if you can). You go to the store to try stuff before you buy it all the time, why shouldn’t you be able to do the exact same thing online? You can and that is why the Starter membership is so great.

You can be inside the community a few seconds from now, starting to build your business, hanging out with myself (and even the owners Kyle & Carson) and have access to a ton of goodies without even pulling out your credit card.

These include:

  • Access to Live Chat (instant help)
  • Interactive Getting Started Training
  • Ability to Network with over 230,000 members
  • Over 500 training resources
  • Two WordPress Websites w/ State of the Art Hosting
  • Ability to Ask Questions 24/7/365
  • Personal Access to the Owners
  • You Get to Hang Out With Me (how cool is that lol)

In fact, the free Starter membership alone is better than any other paid program in the industry that I have reviewed (even the ones that cost $1,000’s). I stand behind that and I stand behind the fact that you will fall in love with the community upon getting yourself a free account.

Get Your Free Starter Account Here!

Premium Membership – $47/mth or $359/year

There is a Premium membership as well, but unlike almost every other product in the industry there are ZERO upsells. You are either Starter or Premium, there is no in between and the Premium package includes absolutely everything you need….the “key” to the ENTIRE community.

I literally run several successful businesses from Wealthy Affiliate Premium. So are many, MANY others.

I would compare it to being my virtual office. I get my education there. I get live weekly video classes there. I get my keyword and other business tools there. I get my websites and top of the line hosting there. I get support and mentoring there. I get to network there.

One price. I spend more going to the coffee shop every month than I pay for my annual membership fee at Wealthy Affiliate. The yearly membership works out to be $29 per month…which almost makes me cry when I realize I could have had a 112 year membership at Wealthy Affiliate instead of going to College!

If you want to see the difference between the two memberships in a nice little chart, you can check it out here.

It is totally optional to upgrade and your Starter membership is a “lifetime” membership, it is not a trial. You can upgrade at your own pace and when you are ready to take your business to the next level you may want to consider Premium.

There is a Defined “Recipe” to Creating Success Online…

There truly is a RIGHT way to build a business online and a WRONG way.

I would recommend the right way obviously and that is why I want to recommend that you consider the proven way I have have built a business online as your approach. This recipe is the way 10,000’s of others (if not more) have built inspiring business in the online world and continue to build businesses.

That PROCESS is what you will learn within Wealthy Affiliate and I am going to give you a brief overview of what is really going to be involved in YOU creating a business online. There are really only 4 steps.

The part I like about Wealthy Affiliate that most other companies really miss the mark is that they have simplified this process down to a science. They have a “Getting Started” training course that walks you through the exact steps and gets you taking action on them.

Here is a quick look at the process.

The reality of it is…if you can follow directions, you can build a successful business with any Interest/Passion you may have.

No different that cooking a recipe online, you take the ingredients and you put them together in a specific way and you create yourself a beautiful meal.

Well, Wealthy Affiliate does the exact same thing but with online business. You get the recipe to success, and they provide you with all the utensils and ingredients you need to build a business… not to mention you have access to some of the most successful folks within the online world within the community (that you can ask directly for help). Myself included!

You can take absolutely ANY interest that you may have and turn that into a business.

Perhaps you may not have an interest or a passion, that is OK. You are going to be given help on how to come up with your business idea within Wealthy Affiliate.

So, today, I want to give YOU a personal recipe to success:

  1. Join & Get Your Free Starter Account (again, it’s FREE)
  2. Click the Get Started Here training button. This walks you through everything you need to know.
  3. Set-up Your Account Profile (image/description). This naturally leads to 4x more help with the community.
  4. Take action on the tasks.
  5. Ask ME for help if you EVER feel stuck.

That’s it.

Do these 5 tasks and right before your eyes you are going to be building a business. It’s exciting, it’s fun, and you can build a business to any level of success that you are willing to “work” for. Yes it will take work. Tt took me work, but I have no doubts that within just the first few days at Wealthy Affiliate you will achieve more than you ever thought your were capable of in the online world.

I Am Committed to YOUR Success

The last thing I want you to feel is that you are in on this whole “internet thing” alone. It couldn’t be further from the truth and I am personally committed to helping you achieve success online and to help you if you ever get stuck.

Not a day goes by where I am not interacting within Wealthy Affiliate (including Starter members), giving them suggestions on their websites, networking and building relationships with them, and helping them with the problem areas that we all run into in our journey to success.

So let’s make a friendly little deal right now. I promise to help you and commit to your success if you take action on the tasks that WA gives you and the suggestions that I give you along the way. It is a win/win. I get the opportunity to help folks (which I love to do) and you get to build a successful business online.

To get rolling is SIMPLE. Head over to Wealthy Affiliate and get your account set-up. It literally will take you a minute.

I can’t wait to work with you! And before we meet within WA, one last thing…

My Final Opinion & Recommendations (Rating: 98/100)

I never push people to do something they don’t want to do and I sure as heck am not going to suggest paying money before you try something out first. It goes against my ethics.

That is why I want you to join the completely free Starter membership, it’s $0. You don’t even have to give any credit card details, just fill out your name, email, and username. Then presto, you have access to the most “elite” platform of affiliate marketers and internet marketers in the world. You will sense the unbelievable value and the helpful nature of Wealthy Affiliate as soon as you enter the community.

Upon joining, I will be in touch with you to welcome you to the community within the first hour of you joining and if you EVER have any issues with anything or are ever stuck, I want you to promise me you will get in touch with me.

Join Wealthy Affiliate, it’s $0 (Free)!

A Special Bonus if You Do Go Premium

I just wanted to throw this out there, if within the first 7 days you do decide to go Premium I am going to be offering you a bonus. I will tell you all about it when you get inside the community within my first message I send to you upon creating your free Starter account so keep a look out for that.

You will never know what you have been missing all of these years until you step foot inside of Wealthy Affiliate.

Wealthy Affiliate: The Final Score

Company Name: Wealthy Affiliate
Website URL: www.WealthyAffiliate.com
Founders: Kyle & Carson

Lastly, I want you to drop me ANY questions or feedback that you may have. Also, if you have any personal experiences with Wealthy Affiliate and you want to share them, I would love to hear them below. Simply drop me a comment and I will be sure to get back to you.

Thanks again and I hope to see you on the inside!

-Steve
IveTriedThat.com Founder

How to Get Your Food Product into Grocery Stores and Markets

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In this past Monday’s post, we talked about how to start a work at home catering business. That’s great you if you like to cook and cater events. However, what if you just prefer to cook or bake? In that case, making a food product, and then selling it to area markets and grocery stores, is a better bet. How do you get started?

1. Check your neighborhood zoning laws.

As noted in Monday’s post, many towns and cities are very specific about where commercial activity will be conducted- or not. If you find out that your house or apartment cannot be the site of any commercial activity, don’t fret. You may have a friend or family member who lives in a more permissive neighborhood and can help you out with the cooking or baking of your food product.

Alternately, you may need to rent out a commercial kitchen for your food manufacturing activities. While doing so adds to your start-up costs, keep in mind that using a commercial kitchen is an inevitability for you, at least if you become successful in this line of work.

2. Obtain a food vendor’s license and insurance.

You should get a food vendor’s license from your local or state health authority; doing so enables you to sell your food product at fairs, farmers’ markets and food trucks. Doing so allows you to proceed directly to step #2 without having to worry about renting space in a commercial kitchen or obtaining a food processor license.

You should also enroll in what’s popularly known as a food liability insurance program, or FLIP. This protects you from the financial repercussions of lawsuits should a consumer get sick or otherwise injure himself while eating or dealing with your food product.

3. Test your product on the small market scale.

State-specific cottage food laws allow food product manufacturers to sell certain goods at small market venues like farmers markets without having to go through expensive and time-consuming licensing and kitchen inspections.

This is great news for you because it enables you to test out different food recipes, pricing options, packing colors and sizes, etc., without having to shell out a lot of investment money. You also get to hone your selling skills for the bigger markets down the road.

4. Rent out space in a commercial kitchen.

Once you’ve determined that customers like your food product(s) and that there is enough of a profit to be made from food manufacturing, it’s time to step up your game plan and rent out space in a commercial kitchen. There are probably several commercial kitchens in your area, even if you live in a small town. Consider that churches and community centers often make and serve refreshments or hold food festivals. To do so, they must have commercial kitchens.

Restaurants and bars naturally have commercial kitchens- but these establishments are not always open and thus serving food. You may wish to contact such places to find out if they would rent their kitchens to you.

5. Obtain a food processor license.

A food processor license enables you to sell your food product(s) at grocery stores and large commercial marketplace chains (e.g., Wal-Mart). You can usually obtain such a license from your state agriculture or health department.

To obtain a food processor license, you will need to show that you are generating a food product in a safe and clean manner- thus the reason for first renting out space in a commercial kitchen.

6. Label your product in a USDA/FDA-friendly manner.

You will need to procure packaging for your food product that is functional as well as tamper-proof. Your food will also need to include a label containing a complete list of food ingredients and (optional) nutritional information. Otherwise, no grocery store will be able to accept and sell it. Finally, if you plan to sell any food products that contain meat or dairy, you will also need to follow certain FDA regulations.

You may be able to short circuit your search for appropriate packaging by buying leftover boxes, bags and wrapping directly from restaurant suppliers.

7. File for an LLC and obtain business insurance.

Operating your food manufacturing business as a DBA or sole proprietorship exposes you to a lot of personal financial risk in case there is a food issue that results in a recall or lawsuit. You should highly consider incorporating your business as an LLC, which limits your liability to just your business (as opposed to your total net worth). Alternately, if you have many partners or shareholders, you may consider filing as an S- or C-corporation.

8. Don’t forget about sales tax.

Apply for and obtain a sales tax license from your state department of revenue. You will need to charge a given percentage above the price of your product, then return that money to the state, on a quarterly basis.

9. Study the bigger markets- and then market to them.

Analyze which stores in your neighborhood might have the space and be inclined to sell your food product. Some stores focus heavily on supporting local food vendors, Other stores, like Whole Foods, even help food vendors by offering loans (up to $100,000).

You can approach store managers directly, if the grocer is small enough, but for bigger grocery stores or chains, you will need to locate the corporate buyer. To this end, it’s best if you contract out and work with a food broker who can help you with finding the right contacts and knowing the issues that consumer marketplaces face.

Also, stores will be more likely to try out your product if you offer a marketing deal with them; Whole Foods is well-known for working with vendors who offer coupons or samples to customers. It also doesn’t hurt to create and hand out a food product sell sheet to entice your area store owner.

Should you make and sell your own food product(s)?

Making and selling your own food product through area farmers markets and grocers is a great work-at-home business opportunity. As with all food-related ventures, it is best if you start small and test your product on a small audience before investing a lot of capital and labor. By starting small and working your way into larger and more lucrative markets, you are more likely to be successful.