I have been using free Paint.net for some time to create banners and Kompozer to create splash pages. The only problem with Paint.net is that I can’t seem to figure out how to make animated gifs. You know stuff that moves and flashes. Sometimes animated ads can be annoying but often people will click.

I used to have all the major drawing and photo editing programs, but when I updated my computers it would have been costly to upgrade all those old outdated programs. This week I downloaded gimp and it will give me the ability to create my own animated banners or objects to embed on splash pages.

Now all I have to do is learn to use Gimp. It isn’t that different from Paint.net, just more involved with more features. My objective is not to only create some new splash pages and banners for myself but also for my affiliates.

Should you irritate your intended ad audience? I’m not sure, but I do know you need fresh ad copy and graphics. Should you display your picture on splash pages to brand yourself? That is probably a good idea part of the time.

Ad Blindness vs. Ad Irritation is a post from: No Nonsense Online Income

Windows 7 Professional has an XP mode that will enable using XP programs – the home version does not.

I found out t0 my sorrow that when I purchased a new laptop with the Home Premium version of Windows 7.  If you purchase the Windows 7 Professional, you will have the ability to run software that is only compatible with XP.  Something I wish that I had known at the time.  I have copies of outdated 2002 Corel Draw, Photoshop, Illustrator and MS Office.  I don’t miss MS Office but the other programs are useful even though they are not up to today’s standards.

The price for an upgrade appears to have been reduced to $130 at the Microsoft website.  It was at least $50 higher when I checked a few months ago.  I plan to replace an old XP desktop later this year and I will make sure that it has Windows 7 either loaded or I will upgrade.

Buy Window 7 Pro or Not? is a post from: No Nonsense Online Income

If you are simply putting up a blog for search engine traffic, SEO and optimization of your blog may be more important than actual content. However, if you want return readers or to build a list of subscribers, useful, informative, original content is of the utmost importance

Pick a subject you know and share your experiences and knowledge. Even if all you have done is raise a family and watch soaps on TV, you have lots to write about. Every conceivable work, hobby, leisure pursuit or life experience can turn into a blog. Teens can write about school projects, study, dating, zits, gaming or sports.

Don’t fall into the trap of “I don’t know anything and I can’t write well enough”.

• First, even if you don’t have a good subject, you can do some keyword research to find a few fairly popular areas to investigate. By that I mean, start doing some searches and find out what other people are saying about a subject. Then do the research to educate yourself as you can become an expert on nearly any narrow topic.
• Second, if you have something interesting to say, people will overlook minor grammatical errors.

If you are already blogging and you are absolutely stuck there is a handy little program called Article Ideas which works well with XP but is iffy with Vista and Windows 7. Just search around for a no cost download.

Some simple rules to follow:

• Write about what you want to read,
• Give good value to your reader – good content,
• Forget about things you can’t control,
• Write your heart out then do the editing,
• Carry a notebook or ipad wherever you go and when you have an article idea, write it down. I have been in bed preparing to sleep when I had an article idea. When that happens, I get up and write as much as I can before I go back to sleep. If you wait, the idea might be gone.

Blog Article Ideas is a post from: No Nonsense Online Income

1. Try to use the same email address, user name and password to join.

2. Bookmark all your exchanges under one folder for easy access and use your browsers password function to remember the passwords or use a program like Roboform to login. There are some free login programs around. I suggest that you download the free (light version) of Roboform and use the identities feature to join the traffic exchanges.

3. Enter each traffic exchange on a spreadsheet as you join. If you don’t have Excel, download free programs from OpenOffice.org as their Calc program works nearly the same. Some of the information I find useful is as follows:

• Name of exchange
• Referral ID# or name
• Referral link or url
• Login name or number (sometimes different than referral ID# or name)
• Password (you can’t always use the same one)
• Complete member login link or url

4. Use the data sort feature on the spreadsheet sort into alphabetical order once you have joined most of the good exchanges. The entire reason behind the spreadsheet is that many of the exchanges have downline builders and you can enter your program referral ID#’s. It’s a whole lot easier if you have a list.

5. Another use for your spreadsheet is to keep track of where you need to surf. For that I would simply create a more abbreviated spreadsheet with just the name of the exchange and columns for date, credits and notes.   There are services out there that will keep track of all that for you, if you want to pay $10 a month.   Examples of important notes are:

• Weekly surfing specials
• Timer length
• How many pages the exchange allows open – a few allow as many as your browser will handle
• Upgrades and fees
• Upgrade renewal dates

6. Lastly, put all your traffic exchange info in one folder in your documents file. If you are actually promoting traffic exchanges you should put banner info and splash pages into individual sub-folders.

The main thing to remember is that in order to make money by using traffic exchanges, you need to surf so you don’t want to waste time searching for information.

Organize for Effective Traffic Exchange Advertising is a post from: No Nonsense Online Income

With that in mind, you’ll find some information below that will help you make money with affiliate marketing programs on the internet.

1. Google and Overture

Even though the days of free traffic aren’t completely over, they are fading away and nearly gone. You can choose to work hard creating web pages optimized for the  search engines, although it’s very difficult.  Even if you do get a page ranked in the top twenty search returns, you have to watch your back because your competitors are watching.

You can pay for clicks with Google and Overture and you will have traffic but with no assurance that it will convert to sales. In order to do well with PPC (Pay per Click) ads, you need to get expert help or acquire the knowledge to run an advertising campaign. That being said, Google has terminated the PPC accounts of many affiliate marketers.

2. Build Your Own Email List

Sending offers to your very own email list is an ideal way to build freedom and residual income. Instead of sending traffic away then hoping for the best, you should instead develop your own email list of interested buyers. This is probably one of the best advertising techniques available to the affiliate marketer. In order to build a list you will have to offer something of value. Many successful marketers actually have software built to give away. If you have information or expertise in any field, a list can be built with a weekly newsletter. If you can develop authority in an area, your readers will be more apt to purchase relevant products on your recommendation. I have made purchases on that basis myself. However, I have also canceled subscriptions when all I received were emails hawking the latest greatest products.

3. Your Own Affiliate Program

If you knew that each completed form on your site would generate $1 in revenue, would you still be willing to pay someone else $.50 cents to generate that same traffic? Again, there are opportunities for even a fairly inexperienced marketer to launch their own affiliate program. Usually a more substantial investment and time are required to establish an affiliate program. Many people with specialized knowledge can write or outsource the creation e-books to market.

4. Viral Marketing

The most overlooked way of generating traffic is having others generate it for you. There are many advantages to this method, including the fact that others will be getting your traffic for you. One version of viral marketing involves promoting one free program that comprises many programs that could generate revenue or traffic.  Often affiliate programs either pay or deliver traffic credits ten levels deep so if you have active referrals, you can profit in the long term.

When it all comes down to it, everything involves paying for traffic with your time or money. To make more income, you’ll need to test marketing methods and concentrate your efforts only where you get results.

Affiliate Marketing Advice is a post from: No Nonsense Online Income

When I first started using traffic exchanges, I just stayed with a few because I was used to them and felt comfortable surfing.  I did that for quite awhile and guess what, I didn’t get very good results.  Some of the reasons for such the poor results were also:

• Picking the wrong product for a traffic exchange audience
• Not using flash pages
• Slow loading flash pages
• Ho-hum flash pages, unoriginal or not eye catching
• Too much text

One of the biggest factors was surfing with the same folks.  We were all looking at the same old ads.  When I started joining new exchanges with fast loading flash pages, offers that appeal to exchange surfers, I began to see a huge difference in sign ups.

There is a another important factor to consider in traffic exchange advertising, volume.  You have to surf a lot, at least several hours a day if you are going to attract people to your offer.  There are some ads that are really annoying and in volume they are effective because even the most jaded surfer may finally click on them to see what they are offering.  That kind of advertising is based on the same principle as the very irritating “Slapshot TV Commercial”.  People do pay attention to irritating commercials even if they hate them.

Many exchanges have upgrades for minimal amounts that increase your surfing ratio and I have upgraded on a few.  I find that by watching for specials I can get free surf credits so it is not necessary to buy huge amounts of credits.

Why Do I Have to Join All Those Traffic Exchanges? is a post from: No Nonsense Online Income

Another quality of leadership is the ability to develop a relationship with your affiliates. You need to learn about their interests and goals. What products are they willing to promote and how?  If someone does not feel comfortable in a direct sales capacity, they will not succeed. You will need to suggest an alternative affordable sales method that they will use. You will need to know how much time they have available to work and how much money they can budget for their business.  All affiliates need to market their business products so it is vital to know what they bring to the table.  If they have no time or money, perhaps it would be best to direct they away from network marketing.

Communicate often with your affiliates, but don’t pester.  Suggest new advertising methods or useful no cost programs that they can use to help their business.  A big no-no is constant emails begging them to upgrade or sell more. Your communications should always take a helpful tone and ask what they need.

Above all, be honest.  Affiliate and network sales organization often tell only success stories, but the brutal truth is that most network marketers don’t make money. Many just quit because it isn’t as easy as they thought.   Often that supposed easy online business requires more study, skills, money or time than they are willing to commit.  It is important to convey truthful business requirements.

I remember a lazy sponsor that told me the only effective advertising was pay per click without directing me to the training I needed to run a pay per click campaign.  For starters, she was wrong about pay per click and wrong not to direct me to the training I needed.  She could have suggested alternatives that were easier with lower costs that were nearly as effective.  As a leader your job is always to be available, approachable and helpful.   Often you will be your affiliate’s best source of reliable information.

Network Marketing and Leadership is a post from: No Nonsense Online Income

First you have to join many exchanges. VISIT HERE to see my list of the top exchanges with my FREE 8 step system that will work to promote any business.

The list consists of exchanges with many members and active new surfers. That is important because new people are joining these exchanges every day, sometimes by the hundreds. These people are your top potential customers.

Daily Surfing Specials:

Check your email every morning and note any specials. The surfing specials I look for are double credits for surfing, free credits for 100 or 200 pages surfed or prizes. Most exchanges have random prizes and sometimes these are doubled for the day. It makes life a whole lot easier if you use only one email to join all the exchanges.

Concentrate your efforts on the sites with the daily specials. When you start surfing, stay with those sites until you have surfed 100 or 200 pages as often the surfing ratio increases as do the random prizes. You belong to many exchanges, but it is impossible to surf very many in a day so it is important to get the most credits for your time.

Traffic Exchange Upgrades:

When you join any exchange you will be offered one time deals for upgrades, don’t do it. Most of them will offer the upgrades later. It is a good idea to wait until you know which exchange brings the best results.

Ad Tracking:

There are a number of programs that will allow you to track your ads.  Most exchanges will only allow five ads for free members, so you are somewhat limited.  You can get around that by using rotators to add more sites.   If you wish to track individual flash pages or individual traffic sites, it would be better to use single sites rather than rotators.  Ad tracking is useful unless you spend more time tracking than surfing.  It would be better to keep it simple and only have one or two promotions at a time.  Once you find a responsive flash pages and exchanges, you can experiment with more flash pages.

Surf 5 Traffic Exchanges Simultaneously:

The best use of your time is to surf five traffic exchanges at a time.   You will gradually get to know what the prizes and verification pages look like on each traffic exchange.  If an exchange is too easy to surf and does not have verification pages and prizes, it might not be your best alternative.  After all, if it is not necessary for you to pay attention to the pages as you surf, will your potential customers?

Traffic Exchanges – Strategic Surfing is a post from: No Nonsense Online Income

In my view all these  sites are time wasters.  I know people on Facebook that are hooked on the games, spend hours farming for themselves or their friends.  If you are into internet marketing in any form, you don’t have time for games.  Internet marketing is work and if you had a job in an office, you would not be productive if you played computer games all day.  The same holds true for any online or at home business.

My family Facebook account allows me to see what everyone is up to quickly, however it is becoming riddled with all kinds of game offers, virtual hearts and drink offers.  If I don’t check in for a few days I have to page back to see if anything interesting is happening.  That account is becoming less useful and now I wish that we had an account strictly for family news and pictures.  I would prefer that people not post unless they have something original to share.  Sorry this is a bit of a rant.  A true and good use for Facebook would be for contact with your affiliates if you are into network marketing.  However, I use Yahoo Messenger for affiliate contact.

Twitter is horrid.  I am a marketer, so I understand why people have join as I did.  Seriously, if you have a Twitter account over a few hundred people, you can’t possibly spare the time to read all of that twaddle.  Almost worse than marketing tweets are  the automated famous quote tweets.  Again, I simply do not have time to read all those tweets and could care less.  I am not in business to visit, but make money.

I generally lump the social sites together as huge time wasters.  If you are going to write a blog, use Hubpages, Wordpress or Blogger.  Social sites seem to be popular, but I don’t see the profit.  Your time would be better spent writing blogs, articles or on other advertising activities.

What it boils down to in that your time is a precious resource so don’t squander it.  There is nothing wrong with socializing, but it should be kept to a minimum.  In the internet marketing business as in any other your eyes should always be on profits.

Why I Don’t Like Twitter, Facebook and Social Sites is a post from: No Nonsense Online Income

If you have banner or text ads, take note of their placement on the page.  Since the surfers eyes move from left to right, the closer to left side the better.  Another prime location is adjacent to or near the click verification area.

After you have surfed as a free member for awhile, you’ll know where to concentrate your efforts f0r the most credits.  It is a fine balance as even though you might like to use a fast easy exchange, you have to consider that your ads are going to be shown there to0.  If it is too fast without cheating controls, your ads are not going to bring the visitors that you want.

I have discovered that weekends and holidays are prime times for surfing if you can manage it.  Friday, Saturday, Sunday and any holiday often bring all kinds of surfing specials.  Often credits and prizes are doubled.  On those days free traffic exchange  members can earn the same number of credits as upgraded traffic exchange  members.   So it pays to watch your emails for the specials and surf accordingly.

Also some exchanges offer more credits if you surf four or five of them at the same time.  By that I mean open them all up in your browser and go from one to another.

How to Get the Most Credits as a Free Traffic Exchange Member is a post from: No Nonsense Online Income