Louise Venison

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“I’m in. I hope it works.”

Thursday, December 2, 2010 (4:03pm) | General | By: Louise

On some days, I’m not as patient as others. Some days, if I’m already stressed, it only takes a little thing to push me over the edge. The comment I saw on Sweeva today made me want to reach through my computer screen and shake the person who wrote it.

What on earth do you mean by “I hope it works”?

I can think of 2 possibilities.  The first is that it’s a gamble.  It’s a profit share site, or a matrix, or a doubler, or a cycler – whatever you want to call it, but basically a ponzi scheme.  I’ve already said what I think of these kinds of sites.  They always work.  They take money from the people at the bottom – that’s you  – and give it to the people at the top.  That’s probably not what you had in mind, though, when you said, “I hope it works.”

The other possibility is that it’s a real company with a real product that you can sell and earn commissions on.  (There may be some extra multi-level stuff going on, but it’s basically selling for commissions.)  These kinds of sites also work, and can deliver a decent income.  But you have to put in some time and effort – actually, a lot of time and effort – making sure they work.  Hope doesn’t come into it.

Making money online doesn’t happen by magic.  It isn’t about finding the right system, matrix, MLM – whatever – that works.  There are no shortcuts or tricks, no matter what all the over-hyped marketing websites will tell you.  It’s about you finding a good product or service that people want and need, and selling it to them.

Online marketing is a job.  You are your own boss, so it’s potentially more rewarding than working for an employer, but it’s still a job.  Stop gambling with your future and joining programs that you hope will work, and find yourself a real business that you know will deliver results – if you put in the effort.

Stop hoping your online marketing efforts will work, and start making sure they do.

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Easy and free advertising … on a widget

Sunday, November 28, 2010 (8:49pm) | Marketing | By: Louise

I realised today I haven’t posted on this blog in ages.  Life gets in the way sometimes – life and an annoying bout of flu that really dragged me down.

But I do have something to write about today that may interest anyone who is looking for more places to advertise.

A new advertising site has just launched.  It’s called Adzly, and it’s from Logiscape (owners of a few traffic exchanges, and also one of my favourite social networking sites, IMfaceplate).  I signed up a few days ago, and I’ve been experimenting with the different options, and I think it has potential.

It capitalises on the current trend for widgets for everything.  The Adzly widget contains 3 random classified ads belonging to Adzly members, and you can place it on websites, blogs, splash pages … any site that you own where it will get traffic.  Every time your widgets are displayed, you earn credits to show your ads on other members’ widgets.  Since the site is new, the network is currently quite small, but you can imagine the potential for exposure as the network grows.

There are 3 membership options.  Free members receive 2 credits every time one of their widgets is shown, while the 2 upgraded options receive 6 credits.  Every time one of your ads is shown, 2 credits are used, which gives free members an effective 3:1 ad exchange ratio and upgraded members 1:1.  The 2 upgraded options, Plus and Pro, cost $14.95 and $29.95 a month respectively.  Upgraded members can have more ads and widgets on their accounts than the 5 that free members are allowed (although why you would want more than 2 widgets, I’m not quite sure – more on this later), and Pro members also receive 40,000 ad credits a month.  Upgrading also entitles you to earn more commission if your referrals upgrade or buy credits.

I’m testing the service as a free member at the moment.  While I can see the benefits of Pro membership (unlimited ads and the 40,000 monthly credits being the main ones), $29.95 a month is expensive, and I want to make sure it’s justified before making the commitment.


My biggest criticism of Adzly would be that the widget styles are limited to 2 options – horizontal and vertical.  The widgets are a fixed size, with no options for height and width, which limits where they can be displayed.  For example, the vertical widget is too wide to display in the sidebars of this blog, and the horizontal widget is too wide to display in the posts.  (I have added a vertical widget to this post, so you can see what it looks like.)  There are a few colour options to choose from, but this only customises the appearance of the widget and doesn’t make it fit better, hence I certainly couldn’t justify paying for an upgrade for the opportunity to have more than 5 widgets.

Hopefully, Logiscape will address the issue of widget sizes in the near future, and at least provide a wider range of size options if flexible width and height aren’t possible.  This would make the service more attractive to members like myself who are not willing to compromise site layout for the sake of a widget.

Despite my current criticism of the range of options, I think Adzly is an interesting site, with a lot of potential.  If you are looking to increase your advertising, or expand into a new area, it’s definitely worth checking out.

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You’re doing it all wrong

Friday, October 29, 2010 (7:07pm) | Making Money | By: Louise

Before I say any more, I’d like to point out that I did what I’m about to write about for many years.  I wasn’t making any money, but I stuck with it because practically everyone else was doing it, so I thought it must be the way to succeed.  It wasn’t.  It was only when I stopped doing this and started doing it differently that I started to see results.

What am I talking about?  Take a look at the 2 lists below.

List One

  • 2:1 surf ratio for free members
  • 10 second timer
  • daily credit contests
  • frequent “bonus surf” days
  • up to 50% commission

I made this list up.  It’s the kind of thing you might see on a splash page advertising a traffic exchange.

List Two

  • quick start dollars
  • 5 in 7 cash
  • commissions
  • double commissions
  • spillover
  • matching bonuses

I saw this list on a splash page today.  The company being described is a multi-level marketing company with a fantastic product that every computer user needs.

Do you see the difference?  List One has 4 points describing the product and 1 describing the business opportunity.  List Two has 6 points describing the business opportunity and nothing about the product at all.

Most people advertise using the kind of points in List Two.  They talk a lot about the opportunity, and not at all about the product.  They think what you want to know – the only thing you want to know – is how much money you can make with the business.  And since you see other people doing it, you figure this is the right thing to do, so you do the same yourself.  You might have been doing it so long that you don’t even realise you’re doing it any more.

The problem is, it doesn’t work … or if it does work, it only works in the short term.

Building a business takes time.  If you join a business because of the money you can make with it, you’ll probably be disappointed and drop out some time within the first few months.  If you promote a business by telling people how much money they can make, they might join through you – that’s true – but they’ll be very disappointed when they’re not earning that kind of money within a few months … and they’ll probably drop out.  All your time, effort and money is wasted.

Look at List One again, the traffic exchange example.  People join traffic exchanges for the traffic – the product – not the opportunity.  While it’s true that some become inactive, the drop-out rate is much lower than in multi-level marketing, and this is because they’re getting what they joined for.  Many people will join a traffic exchange, upgrade, and keep paying for their upgrade month after month even though they never earn any commissions.  They’re happy to pay for the product because it’s useful to them.

This is what you want for your multi-level marketing business.

Stop falling for the opportunity.  Look at the product and see if it’s something you will use … if it’s something you will be happy to pay for month after month.  And then promote it.  Tell people about the product and how useful it is.  Let them decide if they want it and if it’s something they will continue to use.  You might get less people joining you (or you might get more, depending on your product), but you will find people who want to stay with the business.  And they will tell people about the product because they love it, and more people will join … and so on.

That’s how multi-level marketing works.  That’s how it’s supposed to work.  Once you start promoting the product, that’s how it does work.

So try it.

(And if you’re wondering about the fantastic product from List Two, it’s a complete online backup service.  You can upload all your important files to your secure online vault to keep them safe from fire, flood, virus, hard drive failure, or even that accidental click of the delete button!  I’ve lost all my files to a virus before, so I know exactly how important this product is, and I’m very happy to keep on paying for it.  To find out more, just click here.)

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Totally free VIP upgrade

Monday, October 25, 2010 (12:38pm) | General | By: Louise

I’m going to keep this short and sweet!

A few days ago I posted about APSense, which is the best business/social networking site I have ever come across.  If you want to find out exactly what I wrote and why I think it’s so good, click here to read my review.

Over the weekend, I discovered something even better.  All APSense members (you don’t have to be a new member) can get a free 90-day VIP upgrade with a great little coupon code I found.

To get your own VIP upgrade, just follow the steps below – it’s all free!

  1. Join ListQuik as a free member (you can upgrade if you want to, but it isn’t necessary to get your code).
  2. Log in to your ListQuik account and click on Downline Tools -> ListBuilders.
  3. Scroll down the page until you find the entry for APSense, and the coupon code for your free upgrade.
  4. Join APSense.
  5. Click the upgrade button at APSense, scroll to the bottom of the page and submit the coupon code.

And you’re done.  Enjoy your free upgrade.

(If you are already a member of ListQuik or APSense, there’s no need to join again.  You can just use your existing account.)

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Someone tell me what I’ve been missing

Thursday, October 21, 2010 (8:24pm) | General | By: Louise

Sometimes the world (and particularly the online marketing world) goes round far too fast for me.

Two years ago, I discovered a business networking site that looked quite promising.  It marketed itself as the place for online business people to hang out and – well – network.  I wasn’t into social networking at the time – I had a Facebook account, but didn’t use it – I was too busy working long hours and getting ready to launch my own traffic exchange, so I joined the site and then forgot about it.

I must have come across it again many times over the last 2 years, but I was still totally focused on traffic exchanges, so I didn’t give it the attention it deserved.  It wasn’t until a few days ago when I was surfing Sweeva that a particular site caught my eye.  I must have had some time to spare because I opened the site, managed to recover my old account details, and started doing what I should have done 2 years ago … and checked it out.

That site was APSense.  And I’m very impressed by what I found.

The first thing I noticed was the huge range of features available on APSense.  It’s been cleverly designed to appeal to business people with options to create a personal profile, business centre, RevPages to review and promote products and services, blogs and discussion groups, as well as a huge range of advertising.  Various activities on the network earn points, and these points can be spent on getting other members to view and interact with your pages and external sites.

You can upgrade or stay as a free member.  The benefits of upgrading include a monthly points bonus (plus the ability to earn more points through activity), the option to add more content, and increased commissions when members you referred decide to upgrade themselves.  Personally, I don’t think it’s necessary to upgrade, unless you’re planning to promote heavily to earn commissions.  Free members can participate fully in all areas of the network, with the main restriction being on how many members you can contact, and how many messages you can send a day.  As a free member you are also restricted to adding 30 new RevPages a month, but you would have to be quite a prolific writer to generate more than that.

I’ve spent a lot of time on APSense over the last few days, and I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve found.  A lot of people I know from IMfaceplate are on there (and have been for years while I was too busy!) and I can see it will be a great place to meet new people and share businesses and experiences.

If you haven’t joined APSense yet, I would recommend taking a look.  And if you’re already a member, but you’re not active, head on over there and see what you’re missing.

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We all get paid for doing nothing

Saturday, October 16, 2010 (2:11pm) | General | By: Louise

About 5 years ago, there was a craze sweeping the online marketing community.  It spread so far and so fast, and there was so much money in it, that it soon spilled out of our community into the outside world.  Around water coolers and office desks, in our homes and schools and offices, you could hear “12 Daily Pro” being whispered in stunned disbelief.

Everyone was making money.  Many of us were making more money than we ever dreamed of.  We were getting paid for doing nothing.

For the benefit of those who haven’t been in this industry for as long as I have, I’ll step back a little.

12 Daily Pro was an autosurf program.  You deposited your money, started the autosurf every day to surf 12 sites, and in 12 days, you got back 144% of what you put in.  The maximum spend of $6,000 turned into $8,640 in 12 days.  It launched early in 2005, and by late summer members were confident enough to tell their friends and family about it.  It spread like wildfire.

It wasn’t the only autosurf around at the time.  Programs were springing up everywhere, some successful, some blatant scams that never had any intention of paying.  But 12 Daily Pro was the one that caught everyone’s attention.

Most of us knew it wouldn’t last.  There was something vague on the site about outside investments, and profit being generated from advertising, but still the word “ponzi” showed up occasionally on the forums.  The people who mentioned it were flamed, while the rest of us stuck our heads in the sand and kept depositing our money.

It probably would have run for a few months longer than it did, but the US government shut it down in February 2006.  The era of the autosurf came to an end.  A part of me still misses those days.  It was fun, it was exciting, and the thrill of seeing $8,640 arriving in your payment processor account is hard to beat.

When it ended, I lost the $6,000 I had deposited at the time.  But I’d made a profit overall, so I couldn’t complain.  There were people who lost their life savings.  My father got involved a couple of months before the end.  He tested it with small spends until he was sure it worked, then put in the full $6,000.  That was a week before it stopped paying.  I still wish I could have paid him back the money he lost, but I’d been spending pretty freely, and I didn’t have $6,000 to give him.

The total losses from 12 Daily Pro alone were estimated by members to be in the region of $50 million, and most of this money came from new members who hadn’t made a profit.  They had believed what they read on the website – they would get paid for doing nothing, 144% in 12 days – and they lost everything.

Programs like this are illegal.  If it doesn’t have a product – and a one page report doesn’t count – or if it isn’t a licensed investment company, then it’s a ponzi, and it’s illegal.  But that isn’t my real problem with it.

The problem is that people get hurt.  Those of us who are savvy make sure we get in at the beginning, and get out before it goes wrong.  We know it’s a game, and we know how to play it.  But there are other people – mostly those who are new to online marketing and desperate to make some money – who don’t realise it’s a game.  They believe what they read on the site, they put in their money, and they lose.  They decide online marketing is just a scam, and they tell their friends and family – “Don’t touch this online marketing stuff.  It’s a scam, and they’ll take your money.”

What does this do to our credibility?

I know it’s tempting.  Believe me, I know.  Even now, I look at some of the new sites springing up, and I’m tempted.  Get in early.  Get out before it goes wrong.  Make a quick buck, and move on.

Then I remember the look on my father’s face.

If there’s a market for them, these ponzi sites will keep on appearing.  The only way to stop them is to stop joining them, and stop giving them our money.

Because the truth is, we don’t ALL get paid for doing nothing.  The winners are actually a very small minority.  And the ones who lose are the people the online marketing industry needs the most.

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What is a team exactly?

Saturday, October 9, 2010 (1:53pm) | Making Money | By: Louise

I promote 2 teams on this blog – The L Team and The 10K Team.  They’re very different ways of making money, and people have been asking how 2 such different sites can both be teams.  Here’s my answer.

The L Team is the conventional team build site.  All members promote collectively for whoever is at the top of the rotator and currently receiving referrals in the main program. There are benefits in terms of points and a better position in the rotator for those who work hardest, but the focus of the team is on working together rather than each person focusing on building their own income.

On first glance, The 10K Team doesn’t look like a team at all.  It’s based on a downline builder system, where each person finds their own referrals, and those referrals follow them into each of the paid programs.  Paying members also receive referrals through the team co-op advertising.

Those are the differences, here is the critical similarity.

The most important aspect of a team is the support each member gives to the others.  This is achieved by both sites through having an active forum.  (The 10K Team forum has recently been redesigned and improved, and is just starting to become active again.)  Forums provide a means for more experienced marketers to share their knowledge and skills with the less experienced, and also provide a wonderful networking opportunity.

In the past, I’ve suggested you’re better off working alone and building your brand rather than relying on support from other members of a team, but I overlooked this very important aspect of team sites.  They provide you with the opportunity to learn new marketing techniques and strategies from people who have “been there, done that” (and this is arguably the most crucial aspect of online marketing), plus you get to know lots of new people who will become useful contacts throughout your career, and some may even become good friends.

To me, that’s the definition of a team – a group of people who have come together through similar circumstances, and are helping each other to achieve their goals.

The 10K Team and The L Team are both doing that.

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The L Team nearly 2 week update

Thursday, October 7, 2010 (3:50pm) | Making Money | By: Louise

It’s nearly 2 weeks since The L Team launched, and it has been experiencing phenomenal growth.  Over 300 people have joined in the first 13 days, and we have almost completed layer 2.  I have contributed 24 new members to our team so far, and hope to find lots more people to take part in the future.  Members are already reporting signups (and profits) in the main program, and I think my turn should be coming soon.

I’ve enjoyed the last 2 weeks.  I’ve been sending a lot of traffic to the L Team splash pages, and earning plenty of points in the process.  It really is easy to meet the monthly points requirements, and with a little bit of effort, you can also maintain a good position in the points rankings.  (I’m aiming to stay in the top 10 for the foreseeable future.)

There have been some alterations to the points system since launch, the most notable one being an increase in the number of points you earn for referring a new member.  It was 300, but has been increased to 1,000, which I think is a good idea.  Getting referrals isn’t easy, so it’s nice to see it being well rewarded.  The points for displaying banners have been reduced (it was the same as splash pages, but has been lowered), which I also think is fair.  Banner impressions are easier to earn and cheaper to buy than website views.

The most important thing about the points system, and the tweaks it has been receiving, is that it motivates members to promote and bring in referrals.  The more points you earn, the higher your position in the rotator, and the sooner you receive your referrals in the main program.  This discourages freeloaders who have joined a team build with the idea of letting other people do all the work, and helps to eliminate the old problem of everyone joining but no-one doing any work!

If you’re already a member of the L Team, make sure you spend some time promoting and earning your points.  It’s really easy to get into the top 10 right now, and that will put you in a great position to start earning money quite quickly.

If you haven’t joined the L Team yet, but you want to give it a try, you can join at the link below.

The L Team

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The L Team has launched!

Friday, September 24, 2010 (11:06am) | Making Money | By: Louise

The day has finally arrived.

Today is the real beginning of my big Team Build adventure, and I have to admit to being quite excited about it.

More than a month after I joined as a beta tester, The L Team went into full launch a few hours ago.  (If you’d like to read some of my early thoughts on the L Team, check out my first post about it here.)

John has done a fantastic job getting the site ready for launch.  All the early problems have been fixed (although I have spotted a couple of typos in the new content), the team rotator seems to be working as promised, and there’s a ton of promotion materials to get the word out there, and to earn those all important points.

For anyone like me who is totally new to team builds, the L Team uses a team rotator to share out referrals in the main program.  Your place in the rotator is determined at first by when you signed up (so the quicker you get in, the sooner you can expect to get your first referrals in the program), but – and this is the fun bit – you can also move up the rotator by earning more points.

You earn points by advertising.  Everything you do to promote the L Team can earn you points, from showing splash pages and banners on traffic exchanges, to tweeting or blogging about the site.  Yes, I’ll earn 200 points for writing this post!  Every new member you refer earns you 300 points.

Every member has to average 1000 points a month to stay active and keep their place in the rotator, but I don’t think that will be very hard.  1000 splash page views (for example) is only 33 a day, and I think most people can manage to generate 33 hits a day at a traffic exchange without dying of boredom.  In fact, one of the first TEs the L Team is targetting is Sweeva, and I don’t think anyone could say surfing at Sweeva is boring.

If you’re already into team builds, and you’d like a chance to get in early, I think this one is definitely worth a look.  If you’re like me, and new to this but curious, The L Team looks like a great place to start.

Whatever else happens, I think I’m going to have fun, and making money will be a bonus.

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Getting your priorities right

Sunday, September 12, 2010 (1:11pm) | General | By: Louise

I was going to title this post, When Life Gets In The Way!

The last week has been difficult for me, and has forced me to re-evaluate what my priorities are on a day to day basis.  We picked up the keys to our new house last Monday, and getting internet installed before we move in on Wednesday has been taking up most of my time.

My day is usually divided into two “slots”.

The first is all the essential work to keep my current business running.  It includes daily maintenance of HitsBoosterPro, replying to emails, paying cashout requests, and making sure all my regular advertising is running.

The second part of the day is devoted to developing my business.  This is the part of the day that’s really fun.  I spend as much time as I can writing articles and blog posts, chatting with people on social networking sites, contacting people about possible joint ventures, and working on my newest projects.  Unfortunately, it’s this part of the day that has been sacrificed, hence the lack of posts on this blog over the last week!

Once I’ve got all the essential work done, my days have been spent contacting possible internet providers, sending emails and waiting for calls, driving back and forward to the new house to let people in to make checks.  The good news is, we’ll have internet access on Wednesday.  The bad news … it won’t be very fast or very reliable, and it will be hugely expensive.  We’ll have to wait a bit longer for something that will be affordable in the long term.  But I will be able to keep doing my essential work every day.

The last week has really made me think.

Nowadays, I know exactly what my priorities are.  I make my living online, so I focus first on the business that puts a roof over my head.  Everything else has to come second.

But it wasn’t always like this.  I still remember the days when I was making a few dollars a month in traffic exchange commissions.  I was getting some referrals, a few were upgrading, and I was making “pennies”, as I thought of it.  I checked in on my TEs every day, to see if I’d made any more money, but most of my attention was focused on the latest matrix program promising $1000′s in the next few weeks.  Needless to say, my business wasn’t growing and developing.

It wasn’t until I started to focus on the area of my business that was getting results that I started to see progress.  I won’t pretend it was quick.  Making money from a genuine business doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen … if you focus on it.

There’s my tip for today.  Get your priorities right.

Take a look at your marketing efforts, and see where you’re getting the best results.  Then focus on it.

Be patient, persevere, and success will come.

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