Everyone tells you that affiliate marketing is the easy way to create a business. They tell you about all the advantages like…

• You don’t need a product
• You don’t need customer support
• You can earn a sizable percentage of the sale
• You don’t carry inventory

All you need to do is drive traffic.  Sounds great doesn’t it?

So why do over 97 percent of affiliates fail?

Some people like to blame the affiliates for being lazy and not taking action.

And while that is true in many cases, the ugly truth of the matter is that affiliates are failing because they are doing what they are told to do.

They are driving traffic to their affiliate site but they are still failing to make any money.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

My good friend Mike Paetzold just released his new audio video course aimed at helping affiliate marketers to be successful.

http://profitableblogsteps.com/?rid=23

It is a 10 module plan to walk you through the affiliate marketing minefield and get you profitable quickly.

This easy to follow series of videos will make sure that you do not step on some of the mines that so often derail most affiliate marketers.

Here is what one of the testers had to say…

“The modules are a stroke of genius. I was able to quickly and easily discover your secrets to putting together quality blogs and making them sell.”

Jay Hines – EasyViralPDFBrander.com

http://profitableblogsteps.com/?rid=23

So stop struggling and get the step by step tutorials that will lead you to success.

Shirley Grant

P.S. As this just launched Mike is giving a discount for action takers but only for the first week Check this out today and save $20 but only until the 9th of June.

http://profitableblogsteps.com/?rid=23

Blogs are popular ways to create an online presence for personal and business reasons. You can build a blog for free and begin posting content right away. But, what good is that content if no one is reading it. Here are ten ideas to bring in the traffic your blog needs to survive.

Of all the successful blogs on the Internet, hundreds more have failed. Running a blog is like running a business website. Unless you are willing to put the time in and treat it seriously, you won’t be blogging long.

That is not to say that the failed bloggers weren’t serious about blogging. Mostly, new bloggers aren’t prepared for the work that goes into creating a successful blog. Just building the blog doesn’t mean that people will necessary come to you. You pursue the audience and give them a reason to see what you have to say.

1. Fresh Content – no one wants to visit a blog day after day and see the same posts. Update your blog content at least twice a week. This will be easier if you write several posts ahead of time and upload them at the appropriate times.

2. Article Marketing – the niche you’ve chosen for your blog is one that interests you. If it is interesting you will spend more time doing it. Create content not only for your blog but also to be submitted to article directories. Use the resource box to advertise your blog so people can find you.

3. Social Networking – these sites are everywhere. Join Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Twitter or a dozen others and make connections. You can join groups of likeminded people who are also bloggers or entrepreneurs.

4. Viral Marketing – this is where you spread the word about your blog. Talk to friends, family and even strangers. Give out business cards that have your blog address on them.

5. Use RSS Feeds – RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” Readers can subscribe to your feed and get email updates when new content is posted. It is an easy way for them to keep up with your blog without spending all day online.

6. Submit Blog to Search Engines – doing this allows your blog to be ranked. Google and Yahoo! are two of the most popular search engines you want to crawl your blog pages. It doesn’t guarantee top ranking, though. You’ll have to do a little more work for that.

7. Joining Forums – as a blogger you are a budding entrepreneur. Right now you are marketing yourself to find traffic and then profit. Become a member of business forums, work at home forums and others to meet new people and share ideas. You can add a link to your blog in the signature line so others can find you.

8. Visit other blogs – show your appreciation to those who visit you by also posting comments on their blogs. It is a kindness that shows others you are not just out to advertise your blog alone. Add links to your blog in your comments.

9. SEO Marketing – whatever you write, use relevant keywords. Keyword density between three and ten percent is good for getting higher page rankings in search engines. Base your keywords on a research you do to find the most popular words used in search engines for your niche.

10. Social Bookmarking – submitting posts to social bookmarking sites allows others who are members of those sites to track you back to your blog.

———————
Is Making Money With Blogs Real?
Simple System Reveals How, Real Proof Here:
==> BloggersPayCheck
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I don’t know about you, but I spend way too much time searching for just the right theme for my blogs, and I end up changing them more often than I should.

On my expeditions to find the right theme, I have found 4 that look great, can be edited to suite most niches.  The themes are listed in no particular order.

Cutline

Out of the box, this theme is very plain, with header images.  It is very easy to change the header image to whatever suites your niche.

You can set it to have 2 or 3 columns, with the sidebars on both sides or on one side.

iNoereN

This is another theme that you can change the look of quite easily.  You can change the header image and the background graphic by overwritting the image.  Simply create an image the same size as the one used in the theme, save it with the same name, and upload.

Flexibility 2

I really like this theme, and I would probably use it on more than one site, but it doesn’t seem to work unless you have installed your blog through Fantastico in your Hosting cpanel.  I tried to use it on a blog that I had installed through ftp, but it didn’t work.  Not sure why.

This one comes with an Options page that you can access through your Blog Dashboard.  From the Options page, you can change all sorts of things, like the colour, layout, header and background images, and a great deal more.

This is the theme that is currently on this blog.

Arthemia

This is a great looking theme.  It is a magazine style theme and takes a bit of getting used to.  I am still in the process of getting my blog looking just right with it.

It may have more features than you want or need, but the website gives you a lot of information on how to set it up and get it running the way you want.

All of these themes are free to use, although there is a couple of them that offer a premium version.  All work with WordPress 2.7.1