Barbara Ling, Your Maverick Virtual Coach » eBay Affiliate Program

3 Critical Items for Building Your Business in the Recession

Barbara — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:54:24 +0000

NOTE – I wrote this post over half a year ago…and I’m thrilled that I actually put my plan back then into action! How have the past 6 months….changed YOU? — Barbara Ling

Morning all,

You know, I’ve come to the conclusion….I really hate selling.

I can do it, mind you, I can write superb books about it, I can design copy that makes the angels sing….but personally speaking, I just hate selling. It’s my shyness, I expect.

This is probably why back in 2006, I developed the Rich Hermit book series – it outlines exactly how to build portal sites, network with affiliate programs and the like. Raising 4 kids, 12 Twitter Budgies, 2 Mooses and a husband just really doesn’t give me lots of hours to spend with customers as well!

So. Over the weekend, I’ve been thinking about where to focus my energies and I’ve come up with several ideas:

1.) Virtual Coach

I’ve had the domain now ever since I started making money online, and recently built the free Income Fitness Forums too! If there’s one thing about which I know….it’s how to teach anything to anyone.

2.) Recession Proof Niches

Fact is, no matter how lousy the economy is, people will always still want to:

Eat OR diet
Lose weight
Have better sex
Feel good about themselves
Go to the doctor
Make money
Get one up on their competitors

Out of the above, I’m a master at:

Eating/dieting (lost 50+ pounds and kept it over, wrote a book about it as well)
Great sex (The Sensuous Woman could have been written by me)
Make money (Mastered Adsense, affiliate programs, selling on eBay, etc.)
Feel good about oneself (and wow, did I earn every bit of knowledge there through the school of hard knocks!).

True, I’m also a master at finding people to hire online (ie, Internet recruiting) but chances are, that’s NOT the most logical industry in which to specialize right now!

So I’m looking at one of the 4 above, which brings me to the next point.

To make money in such niches, there are at least 3 things you NEED, including:

1.) Your own autoresponder (so you can build up a list – pet peeve following, btw – if you do NOT have your own autoresponder, you’re simply not serious about making a business online. It’s like swimming in the Atlantic Ocean – if you do not have at the very least a life-preserver, or a boat, or a yacht, or a … you’re shark bait, plain and simple). I’ve been using aWeber myself now for almost 8 years; it’s an excellent service.

2.) Affiliate products (so you can market related items to your visitors). You can use Clickbank items, e-Junkie products, Amazon products, eBay items…..tons of good stuff indeed.

3.) Your own domain name (this is just common sense folks. And if you scour about on the Internet for coupon discounts, you can get domains from GoDaddy at $7.45).

That’s the bare minimum for creating an online business. With your own autoresponder, you can run a:

Newsletter
eClass
7 Day Followup
Contest
Reminder Service

You can even invest in Instant Niche eMails to help you devise 52 weeks of solid content and put your newsletter on autopilot if you choose!

For me, the fact is…I have realized that my shyness really does inhibit a lot of money-making potential for me….so I’m going to focus on creating businesses that become destination sites themselves. And of course, I’ll share all the goodies I find here as well.

What about you? What’s your ideas for making your current business recession-proof?

Enjoy,

Barbara

Post from: Barbara Ling. Thank you for your time! If you've already subscribed to my feed, please download your FREE copy of 24 Hour eBook Digital Product Creation at http://www.barbaraling.com/Ace/24HoursLite.zip - I think you'll find it most useful indeed. -- Barbara

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Painfully simple affiliate marketing tip from a Ninja Rubber Ducky

Barbara — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:36:53 +0000

Morning!

I’ll bet right now, this very instant, you’re pondering on the following critical life-changing question:

"If a moose fought my cellphone, who would win?"

I can understand you being driven batty by curiousity, which is why I’m here to tell you the answer – The Moose. The cellphone would end up having approximately 17 (yes I counted) teeth marks in its casing. Alas, the cellphone no longer works either but let me tell you – it makes for a great conversation piece at the karate dojo!

But I digress.

Today I’d like to talk to you about a very simple affiliate marketing tip on ninja rubber duckies. You know, the things like:

What a cute little display of rubber duckies! Go ahead, click on one and see what happens. Yep, you’re brought to eBay where you can invest in your very own ninja rubber ducky yourself!

And guess what…if you register on eBay, I get a commission. And if you buy, I get a commission too!

In other words, I’ve monetized this page for, and I quote, a theme about Ninja Rubber Duckies.

Let me now ask you – If one can make money off of Ninja Rubber Duckys, don’t you think…one can make money off of just about anything, like your own particular niche?

Enter the eBay Affiliate Program!

The eBay affiliate program (Click HERE to join!), lets you add all sorts of nifty neat coolio targeted niche goodies to your site. Heck, the smart phones you see on the right hand sidebar towards the bottom is powered by eBay as well!

eBay itself offers lots of tools for affiliate marketing, including:

Editor kits for

Golf carts

Golf clubs to go into the golf cart:

Ferraris to drive you and your golf cart and golf clubs to the golf course:

A house on a golf course in which to park the Ferrari in which you are toting along your golf cart and golf clubs:

GPS to find the garage sale that has the Home Ferrari Care Kits so you don’t get lost from your home on the golf course where your Ferrari is currently parked while it’s not shuttling your golf cart and golf clubs from mansion to mansion:

Are you beginning to see the power here?

Quite frankly, eBay is one of the BEST affiliate programs out there….and it allows you to monetize ANYTHING. Anything, anything, ANYTHING.

Consider monetizing your site with it today….you can join the eBay Affiliate Program HERE.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – speaking about affiliate programs, have you seen:

Ads By CbproAds

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17 BEGINNERS Affiliate marketing primers and ideas

Barbara — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:49:58 +0000

Morning!

With the economy continuing on its imitation of free-falling skydiving sans any noticable parachute, I’m finding more and more people are tentatively dipping their toes into affiliate marketing. But because it’s a relatively new thing for them, they find themeslves inundated with confusion regarding all of the choices available.

But not to fear! I’ve been doing affiliate marketing since 1998 (both as an affiliate and also as a product developer) and have it down to a fine art indeed. The following are some resources I think you’ll find to be rather helpful to you as you wend your way thru the jungles of this new and profitable beastie.

First off, what really IS affiliate marketing? At its most basic, it’s quite simple –

Someone offers a product (the vendor)
You say to yourself, Jeepers! My visitors would probably be interested in such a thing! Yippie!
You find the vendor’s affiliate program, sign up, and receive an affiliate link.
You (otherwise known as "The affiliate") add your affiliate link to your website or to your blog or … you get the idea. Perhaps the link includes a square button like what you see to the right (that’s for my Job Seeker’s Power Advantage Resume/Portfolio site – it’s a 2-tier career employment affiliate program. You can see the affiliate tutorial for it over at this link here.)
You take steps to drive your visitors to proactively click on the link. Ways people do this include writing a review of a product, writing a blog about the topic the product solves and the like.

That’s affiliate marketing in a nutshell.

Now, like teeny tiny mustard seeds grow into huge bleeping towering trees, that nutshell can blossom into venues you can hardly imagine! For example, some vendors (does Amazon.com ring a bell?) have beeyons and beeyons of products which allow you to market virtually anything and everything….and other vendors provide you with the tools to build an entire store within 5 minutes that focus on specific niches. For example, check out my Exercise Store like so:

Notice all those cool tabs that have targeted niche products? That store was built using AOM – an incredible Amazon affiliate tool that everyone should use (there are two versions, free and paid – I myself use the paid as I always want all the commissions I generate…driven to me. ).

But wait! There’s more! You can ALSO (you knew there’d be something like this, right?) build entire sites about niches!

Consider my site ExerGamingNews.com .

I built that when I was in my DDR kick! Not only can you find DDR jokes and news, you can also find, oh, hmmmm…DDR clubs! Look very closely to the right hand side, however – you’ll see targeted niche products (in this case, offered by eBay) proudly march down the side. And of course, I’m an affiliate of eBay as well….should anyone buy any of those auctions, I get the commission.

So! With that as a nutshell, how can you learn affiliate marketing?

First off, you can check out my ebook Beginners Make Money Cookbook over at my Rich Hermit series. But don’t buy it there – I offer readers like you a complimentary copy HERE! (Just scroll down until you see the Complimentary Download image). Besides completely demystifying how to make money online, I also have a chapter or two about affiliate marketing as well.

Next, you can check out some nifty affiliate marketing forums like:

And then don’t forget about great affiliate marketing blogs like:

Affiliate marketing, while it does take time to know the ropes, can really be a true boon to helping you bring in more and more income and beef up your bottom line. And with the economy smooshing itself as it currently is doing…that can only be a Very Good Thing Indeed.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

ps – speaking about affiliate marketing, have you seen:

How to set up your own Affiliate Marketing On CD

~~EARN MONEY W AFFILIATE MARKETING PPC AND SOCIAL WEBSITE FOR SALE RESELL RIGHTS

THE EXPERT GUIDE TO AFFILIATE MARKETING (CD)

A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing: Quick Referen

3 Steps to Fast Profits – Affiliate Marketing, internet marketing, anthony morri

Create Profitable Affiliate Marketing Blogs Videos CD

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Your Home Theater News.com domain for sale!

Barbara — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:07:53 +0000

Well, I’m just about ready to start selling some of my 1,000+ domains!

Up first for your viewing pleasure is

Your Home Theater News.com

I bought this domain back in 2005 and built a custom home theater store with it. However, as home theater really isn’t a passion of mine, and the best way to make money online is to, ahem, follow your passions, I’ve decided to put it up for sale so someone else can really make it shine.

There are many things about it which will intrigue you!

One, the domain name itself – it has Your and News: the first word causes readers to associate it with themselves, and the second word brings to mind current events/cutting edge technologies.

It’s a great domain name for Home Theater vendors, someone who wants to blog about the current Home Theater research news and more!

Monetization-wise, you’ll see on the site that I include a sample store based off of Amazon.com. The power behind this store is AOM – it’s only $97 and allows you to build on as many domains as you’d like! And because a single HDTV sale commission goes for between $30 to $60 or so, recouping that cost isn’t difficult at all.

What else? Well, you can use community builders like Elgg or PHPFox to build a community for Home theater enthusiasts, or Content Farmer to autoblog news items, or…really, the possibilities are unlimited.

With that, I invite you to visit

YourHomeTheaterNews.com

and see if it meets your domain needs! Please do feel free to let your fellow home theater enthusiasts know about it as well.

And if you’re looking for sample home theater blogs and/or forums, check out:

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

ps – speaking about home theater goodies, have you seen:

HOME THEATER LASER DISC FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF WIDESCREEN EDITION

Frisby 2 Aux 5.1 DVD TV PC PS3 Surround Sound Home Theater Audio Speakers System

SONY HOME THEATER RECEIVER 600 WATT RECEIVER & CAMBRIDGE 6 SPEAKER SYSTEM

Sony HT-CT150 Home Theater System HTCT150 IF YOU USE BUY IT NOW FREE SHIPPING!!!

6ft HDMI 1.4 cable 2160P for Sony LED HDTV Home Theater

Home Theater Demo DVD Disc – 5.1 Surround Sound – NEW – Demonstration Movies CES

SONY BDV-T58 1000W 5.1 CHANNEL 1080P WIFI 3D BLU-RAY & DVD HOME THEATER SYSTEM

Onkyo Integra RC-690M Home theater remote control

iLive IT818B 5.1 HOME THEATER SOUND BAR W DVD & iPOD DOCK STUDIO SERIES

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Make money with high gas prices – 109+ Resources and Ideas

Barbara — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:30:18 +0000

Morning!

Unless you’re a fossilized clam, or perhaps have been quick-frozen in marshmallow carbonite, you’re probably aware that gas prices (especially in the USA) have increased a weeeee bit …

kinda sorta like an avalanche offers a weee bit of snow or a hurricane bestows a weee bit of raindrops or yours truly drinks a weee bit of coffee or …

and have risen faster than a rollercoaster ascends the skies (but, alas, hasn’t dropped off and leveled as quickly either).

And while it truly would be peachy-neat to ignore this fact of life, reality remains. It’s freakin’ expensive to fill up a MommyMobile ($67 for my Dodge Caravan over the weekend)!! Of course, this means that less driving will be done, alternative driving options will be uncovered, and a new lifestyle will be embraced with all the passion of a parent comforting a bodily-fluid-encrusted sick child (it has to be done, but wow, it’s amazing how truly icky being smeared with said bodily fluids can be).

Right?

Well then, if dems de fax, all that remains is for you to say to yourself:

Jeepers Self, I can make money with all these high gas prices!

And here’s how.

Before you begin

Get ready for tons of research. ‘Matter of fact, brew up 3 extra pots of coffee or tea. You’ll need it.

Step 1.) Ask yourself, am I a master of portal building?

If the answer is yes, you’ll want to build a portal site that deals with high gas prices solutions. IE, perhaps something about mopeds or scooters (costs less to fill up), a guide to local attractions so parents don’t have to drive to Nebraska to amuse the kids, a site about mass transportation, etc.

NicheQuake is an excellent resource to assist you in this.

Step 2.) Ask yourself, do I want to write daily about beating high gas prices?

If so, you’ll want to build a profitable blog. My guide, No Hype, Only Results – 21 Days to a More Profitable Blog, would be useful there.

Step 3.) Ask yourself, about what topic relating to high gas prices would interest me?

I’ve found that actually wanting to learn more about something helps me create far superior content in my sites.

Need some content topics regarding high gas prices? How ’bout:

How to keep your car tuned to increase your gas mileage
How to choose a gas-conscious car
All about electric cars
All about smart cars
All about hybrid cars
Staycations
How to save money at the pump
Fuel banks
How to find effective carpools
How to maximize your driving habits
How to choose a moped/scooter
Best ways to earn gas cash back
Bus riding tips
Master hypermilling
How to amuse kids without roadtrips

Step 4.) Once you’ve chosen your topic, build your site and prepare for monetization.

I always like including links for eBay and Amazon related products on all my make money sites. But if you don’t want to hand-build pages, you can always take advantage of resources like:

Those three resources take the pain out of site building….and help you jump-start the creation of a money-making niche website. For example, if you blog about increasing your car’s mileage, you can include links to car maintance products and mauals….if you build a site about scooters, you can include links for the most popular electric scooter brands today.

Finally, you can:

Step 5.) Write your own ‘Beat High Gas Prices’ tutorial and package it as an ebook.

After you’ve built your site or started blogging, chances are, the research you’ve done will give you enough material to write and package your money and time-saving tips into an ebook. And if you sign up at Clickbank or eJunkie, you can then build a huge list of affiliate individuals who will market your book for you in return for a commission share. I’m in the process of doing that meself (but with Camp Ling and everything else on my plate, it’s taking a weeeee bit longer than I had anticipated).

See?

High gas prices are a fact of life today. Why not make money from it as well?

And of course, today’s tip wouldn’t be a Barbara Ling posting unless I gave you some rather neat resources to jumpstart your research! Visit the following links and see what ideas they spark for your own Make Money with High Gas Prices endeavors:

Hope you find them useful!

Oh, and to walk the walk I talk, interested in scooters or mopeds? Lookie at the bargains Amazon.com has to offer you!

Amazon.com Widgets

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

#BEGIN highlights of this blog writing post:

Beginners Make money with high gas prices tips: Try to think in terms of Solutions. ie, Save Money With High Gas Prices (turn that into frugal living), Staycations For Profit, etc.

Intermediate and/or Advanced Make money with high gas prices tips: Build a whole portal/blog that embeds your affiliate links with style and grace.

#END highlights of this blog writing post

Like this post? Please feel free to tell your friends and Digg It – I very much appreciate your time!

ps – and if you’d like to regale yourself with eBay goodies, lookie at:

Vtg 1977 Gulf Oil Petroleum Company Gas Certificate Award Signed Plaque 15×12

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Battling soul-searing agonizing angst – eBay affiliate cutover from Commission Junction CJ

Barbara — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:54:59 +0000

Over the weekend, eBay officially cut over their affiliate program from Commission Junction to the eBay Partner Network.

And here is my heartfelt reaction:

Am I the only eBay power affiliate who has seen her commission drop like a lead balloon?

Like an airborne mule after gravity takes effect? Like a 73 ton jackhammer visiting the Titanic?

I’ve proactively contacted the eBay Partner Network and will see what answers I receive – the traffic being sent is the same, yet the commissions now remember stark utter pain. I’m entirely positive I cut over the majority of my 100s of sites to the new commission program; hopefully this is just a growing pains glitch.

I’ll keep y’all posted…

UPDATE – The eBay Partner Network responded with:

Thank you for contacting us regarding the drop in your revenue since eBay switched from Commission Junction.

We want to let you know exactly what we have been doing to address your posts and what some of our preliminary findings are.

First, we are tracking revenue events per click (eg. bids per click, commissions per click, revenue per winning bid, etc) vs. our historic averages on CJ. So far they all look either consistent or higher than our averages on CJ pre-migration (at a summary level across all affiliates). The one metric that is tracking a bit lower is ACRUs / click (this stat is about 15% lower than pre-migration). Although we’ll continue to monitor this closely, we expected this as we would expect some level of ramp-up in commissions as ACRUs have a 30 day window and we saw on CJ that registrations can take up to a few weeks to confirm and bid, etc. What this also means is that even if you were to delete all your links today, you would still receive commissions from us for customers you would have sent in the past 15 days, up until their 30 day cookies expired.

Second, although we can’t check all our affiliates’ links manually as there are millions of pages from thousands of affiliates with eBay links on them, we have been spot-checking individual links from several of you who have shared theirs on these boards and contacted you directly where we could. We have also called many of our top affiliates personally and although we are investigating an issue or two here or there, most have not reported any problems with their tracking. The primary issue we have seen to date is errors in the way that some of the new links have been implemented on affiliates’ websites. We have tried our best to capture these, along with tips on how to resolve them, in a new blog post here: http://www.ebaypartnernetworkblog.com/english/common-mistakes-when-building-new-links/ . The best way to avoid these issues is to as often as possible use the tools provided by eBay Partner Network to re-generate new HTML links, and then copy and paste those links directly into your sites.

As you know, although eBay Partner Network is a new proprietary in-house platform of eBay, our tracking is actually built and managed by the same third party (Mediaplex, a division of ValueClick), as we had with CJ. The platform and tracking have been rigorously alpha and beta tested with Mediaplex as well as the large external consulting firm that helped us develop eBay Partner Network. However, in response to the feedback on the boards, we have been working with both of these firms to re-verify that there are no issues. We are still early in this new investigation.

One issue that has come up is that bot clicks are currently not filtered out by the eBay Partner Network tracking system. This does not have any effect on revenue events or commissions, but could inflate the click counts you see in eBay Partner Network. When a website or a paid search campaign changes their links, the bots and crawlers that index those sites will sometimes click on those links as they re-index the sites to determine their rankings. The issue is even more pronounced for paid search campaigns, where we believe search engines will test most/all links to see if they are valid by clicking on them. Because of the way our tracking is currently constructed, those bot clicks will be shown as normal clicks, which could have the effect of inflating the click count vs. the actual commissions.

Other than this, no other system-wide issues have been uncovered by our investigations to date. We will continue to investigate thoroughly and follow up on your concerns. Tracking is a critical part of our program and we’re committed to making sure it is working 100% correctly – we can only be successful if you’re successful.

Barbara Ling

ps – this calls for some major coffee application:

Disney MICKEY GOURMET Coffee Mug Mod Red Green Stripe

6 Income Sources-Very Popular Gourmet Coffee Tea Website 4Sale-MUST SEE!

BEST GOURMET COFFEE ESPRESSO WHOLE BEAN PREMIUM FRESH ROASTED JAVAXOTIC 12oz

GOURMET COFFEE

Top Shelf Coffee Sacramento Kings Decaffeinated Ground Gourmet Coffee – 2 Pack

LA Clippers Decaffeinated Ground Gourmet Coffee – 2 Pack

San Antonio Spurs Decaffeinated Ground Gourmet Coffee – 2 Pack

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21 Days to a more profitable blog – Day 11! Craft a post about niche lust

Barbara — Fri, 30 May 2008 10:34:47 +0000

21 Days to a More Profitable Blog Tutorial > Day 11! Craft a post about niche lust

(Morning! I’ve been up since freakin’ 1am! Wheee! NO, NOT WHEEE….I wanna sleep! WAH!!!!!

Oh well, these things happen – if you can’t sleep, might as well blog. )

Good morning intrepid soul! I’ve been up now since, oh golly gee, 1am? and finally gave up trying to sleep next to my warm cozy husband and figured I might as well be productive.

How has life been treating you? Yesterday was great here in the Ling Household – my youngest child insisted on sparring at karate and my oh my, is he getting better and better! It used to be, he’d stand there and get knocked down faster than a toddler scarfs down an ice cream cone, but now he’s actively fighting back. Whoo hoo! Still has lots of ways to go, mind you, but the spirit is definitely there.

And for me…after giving up sleep as The Impossible Dream, I checked my feedreader, commented at Dream Day, When Family and Friends Don’t Understand ProBlogging, and am now starting the day. Wheee!

Of course, that brings me to:

Today is Day 11 of my series, 21 Days To A More Profitable Blog!

And for today, I’d like to talk about…

LUST! PURE UNADULTERATED LUST! Mua ha ha!

You know what ‘lust’ is, right? ‘course you do – it’s the emotion that suffuses your very being when you spy…..Blue Mountain coffee that is residing ELSEWHERE than in your coffee cup! The horror!

Or perhaps, it’s the teeth-gnashing agony you experience when you gaze upon a Gold Plated iPhone only to realize….it’s not yours.

I know, I know, it’s a difficult emotion through which to work…but hey, that’s the joy of being a grownup. Right?

Seriously speaking though….think now on your particular blogging niche. I’ll bet there are items that inspire the most passionate lust within your readers! For example, if you blog about trumpets, a gold-plated Monette trumpet (which retails for about 10K) is something guaranteed to catch and hold undying attention.

Weird Al says it best! Even if it’s not the most expensive doohickey available, the nostalgia factor alone….well, words don’t do it justice. Watch below:

Back to lust! And if you’re blogging about, oh, hmmm, Hollywood gossip, celebrity mansions would certain rate right up there as something lust-inspiring too!

What’s that? You blog about telephone insulators instead? Talk about Twiggs insulators or a 22K insulator found in New England….and you’ll have your readers sitting on the edge of their chairs, dreaming of their own future Big Hunt and Find.

What’s really cool about lustful niche objects is that you can craft a blog post about them, and then incorporate eBay affiliate goodies for similar items that are available today! Folks visit your page, read about the goodies, get all hot and bothered and then realize OMIGOSH I CAN BID ON SOMETHING LIKE THAT RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!

Gotta love impulse buying!

And here’s how to do it.

Before You Begin – Go to eBay and search for your niche.

Let’s say that you blog about, oh gee, vinyl records (you know, those things that are round but NOT CDs and have cute little etches in the them? Things that were developed by Thomas Edison? Quarter-inch thick records? Thingees like:

Search for

vinyl record

and then sort by

Highest First

Look at what’s returned….are any of the auctions lust-worthy? I confess, I know next to nothing about records (except they’re round and they’re NOT CDs and they have cute little etches in them and…) but if you are experienced within the niche, you probably can tell what items would be of interest to your audience.

Click on the item about which you want to write, highlight the URL, and press C (that copies the URL to your computer memory).

Now that you have something tangible, get thee hence to

Step 1 – Log in to your eBay Partner Network account and select Tools | Link Generator

First select Custom URL. Then you will highlight the Custom URL field and press V (thus pasting in the auction url) like so:

Make sure you click on the Campaign Name field to select a campaign. Next, when you click on Generate Link, you’ll be provided with the affiliate code you can use. Copy and paste that to a notepad file so it’s at your fingertips for later.

Speaking of later, move now to:

Step 2 – Write a blog post about the item.

It’s really not difficult to do at all – I just did one this morning for my Insane Luxury series. You can see it at Insane Luxury – 17K 1954 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top Guitar – click on the picture of the guitar and see to where it goes.

You can either focus your blog post about the item specifically as I did, or simply write up a story about similiar goodies in your niche.

When it comes time to monetize your blog post, add the direct affiliate link you saved in Step 1. I generally will entice people to click on the link by adding compelling text like (see MORE here! or you KNOW you want to click etc.).

The thing is, though, the auction in question will end sooner or later…and you really don’t want to have dead links on your site. To round out your lustful blog post, close with:

Step 3 – Add an Editor Kit to the bottom.

I wrote a lot about this over at Make money with the eBay Affiliate Program – Part 1 – Unlearn What You Have Learned. Instead of using the text links, you’ll use the Editor Kit , select a size that works for you, and copy/paste that into your post. Revisit 21 Days to a more profitable blog – Day 8! Add eBay to your sidebar for complete hand-holding.

NOTE! When you paste the Editor Kit code in your blog, you MUST switch the view to SOURCE or HTML. It will NOT work if you fail to do this.

And voila…you’re done. You’ve blogged about something that would be of wonderful, targeted niche lustfulness for your readers…and chances are, they’ll click off your site to learn more about it (human nature and curiousity being what it is).

Nice, eh?

And that brings me to:

In closing

In today’s lesson, you learned how to find an eBay auction item about which you can craft a monetized blog post.

And of course (you really didn’t think I’d close a post without this now, did you?) an opportunity now arises!

(remember, there’s no such things as problems in real life – just misunderstood opportunities)…..

HOMEWORK - That’ s eBay…what about Amazon?

Can you think of a way to add Amazon like the above?

Thus, until tomorrow! (and don’t forget, if you think any of your friends would benefit from these tutorials, please do share them! They’ll thank you for it…guaranteed).

Enjoy,

Barbara

#BEGIN highlights of this blog writing post:

Beginners make money blogging tips: Search on eBay for a lust-generating niche auction item, and craft a blog post about it.

Intermediate and/or Advanced make money blogging tips: Add the Editor Kit to round out your post.

#END highlights of this blog writing post

Like this post? Please feel free to tell your friends and Digg It – I very much appreciate your time!

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48-Hour Affiliate Action Plan

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1984 Rochester Red Wings Program: Orioles AAA Affiliate

HEALTHY EATING AFFILIATE TURNKEY WEBSITE FOR SALE

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21 Days to a more profitable blog – Day 7! Get SMART with affiliate programs

Barbara — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:58:44 +0000

21 Days to a More Profitable Blog Tutorial > Day 7! Get SMART with affiliate programs

(Morning! I am THRILLED to announce I actually slept for (get this!) more than 5 hours…in a row! YES! She CAN do this! It IS a miracle! Life IS joyous!

Got any coffee you could spare?)

Why hello again, so glad you could stop by! How are you doing? Over here in LingLand, I’m pleased to realize that I’ve finally recovered from my massive martial arts training during the weekend; I’m actually more flexible than a frozen iceberg! Yay! But wow, that workout was truly good stuff.

And regarding Avenahar, I posted a memorial about him for my kids over at the Rainbow Bridge. Kids are handling it well; I’m very pleased.

And with that update, lets’ jump to:

Today is Day 7 of my series, 21 Days To A More Profitable Blog!

And for today, I’d like to talk about…

Makeup and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

Do you know what MMA is? In a nutshell, it’s two people (generally guys) who face off against each other and use a combo of Jiu-jitsu, karate, boxing, muay thai, etc., to subdue the other. And if you throw in a cage, it can become quite a bloody confrontation!

It’s NOT for the timid or the weak or the frightened or the girly-girl…it’s a great sport, mind you, but it requires courage, bravery and an incredible ability to take command control.

Now…with that mental picture in mind, let me ask you:

Do you think MMA readers would be thrilled to buy makeup?

Okay, okay, stop laughing. Seriously though! Let’s say an MMA reader came to an MMA blog that incorporated affiliate programs. What would make them want to go CLICK! and then BUY! ?

Martial arts gear? Check.
Martial arts t-shirts? Check.
Makeup? Opposite of check!

In other words, makeup is so NOT an interest, it would not appeal to the targeted visitors. Right?

‘course right!

Which brings me to the following (oh heck, where is he? Ahem…hang on, let me call him

YooHoo! Clue Herder! We neeeeeeed you!

It’s time to buy the following clue:

Smart bloggers will always use affiliate programs that address the desires of their niche and audience!

It makes sense, doesn’t it?

Sure, you might read how some of the other probloggers besides you use Adsense here and Chikita there and the ever popular "glue your reader’s fingers to the BUY NOW button" over there….

But the truth of the matter is, you need to address your own specific situation FIRST before deciding what affiliate programs to add.

And here’s how!

Before You Begin – What would sell best in your niche?

This is actually pretty simple to determine. Just visit eBay and search for

niche

ie,

Look thru what’s returned. On the left hand side, you’ll see a categories list – you can get a further breakdown of what products are available for what sectors and the like. It’s very educational indeed!

Next, go to Amazon.com and do the same thing. Find out what products are offered in your niche. You can even select the option "Best Selling" to get a better handle on what are the most popular items in which customers are interested.

Next, jump to:

Step 1 – Make certain you’ve signed up for Amazon and eBay and Clickbank

Ideally, you had done this yesterday….but if not, sign up for

Amazon

and

eBay

and

Clickbank

now. While you’re at it, sign up for as well. I myself don’t use it very much, but other probloggers swear by it.

Next,

Step 2 – Familarize yourself with how to add affiliate programs to your blog.

Here’s the instructions for eBay, and here’s the instructions for Amazon, and here’s the instructions for Clickbank. I want you to *really* read this information to see what a wealth of goodies awaits you! I generally use the following for my blogs:

eBay Editor Kit
eBay Flexible Text Link
Amazon Product Search
Amazon Text Link

There’s lots others, however – carousels, RSS feeds, DIY stores and the like. It’s up to you to explore them yourself and see how the links are generated…because you’re going to be adding those links to your own blog posts or wordpress templates.

NOTE! If you don’t want to do the above manuallly, you can consider Build a Niche Store – it makes it extremely easy to incorporate eBay affiliates via many different methods on your site.

You’re going to be busy for at least an hour with reading up on the eBay and Amazon and Clickbank tools, so I’ll close this lesson now and oh heck, I can’t do that! I still need Step 3! Okay, here goes….

And finally, for my last step in Day 7 of 21 Days to a More Profitable Blog, I’d like to suggest that you gleefully:

Step 3 – Get up to speed about affiliate programs.

There’s lots of great sites out there that will help you flatten your learning curve! Consider:

Remember…you must ALWAYS keep in mind your visitor’s wants…more than their needs. People buy to satisfy "wants" first and foremost; keep that in mind, and your affiliate commissions can’t help but increase.

Nice, eh?

And that brings me to:

In closing

In today’s lesson, you found where you can uncover instructions for adding eBay and Amazon and Clickbank products to your blog. You then ideally spent an hour on those instructions because we’re going to be using them during the next three days.

And of course (you were waiting for this, right?) an opportunity now arises!

(remember, there’s no such things as problems in real life – just misunderstood opportunities)…..

HOMEWORK - Now that you know how to get affiliate code…how will you embed it in your blog template?

Do NOT be scared to learn how to do this! Heck, my pre-teen went bananas teaching herself how to modify her own WordPress template – you can see that discussion over at Middleschooler Hacks Personal WordPress Theme, Makes Money Online. When YOU can tweak your own template….vistas open for you that you could never image.

You CAN do this…you simply have to give yourself permission to learn.

Your homework tonight is to read the 3 following articles:

Then:

View your own theme via your dashboard, click on Presentation | Theme Editor and view your sidebar.php. Don’t do anything to it! Just check it out and see if you can determine what bits of code handle what aspects of your own sidebar (ie,on my sidebar, I have code that displays Popular Confessions, Latest Articles, etc. In most cases, such things would appear in your sidebar.php surrounded by

or

(headers listings)). Don’t be nervous – this will become second nature soon soon soon.

Nice, eh?

Thus, until tomorrow! (and don’t forget, if you think any of your friends would benefit from these tutorials, please do share them! They’ll thank you for it…guaranteed).

Enjoy,

Barbara

#BEGIN highlights of this blog writing post:

Beginners profitable blogging tips: Make certain you sign up for your eBay and Amazon and Clickbank affiliate links.

Intermediate and/or Advanced profitable blogging tips: Give yourself permission to learn how to hack you own WordPress themes – you’d be surprised at what you’ll be able to achieve.

#END highlights of this blog writing post

Like this post? Please feel free to tell your friends and Digg It – I very much appreciate your time!

Post from: Barbara Ling. Thank you for your time! If you've already subscribed to my feed, please download your FREE copy of 24 Hour eBook Digital Product Creation at http://www.barbaraling.com/Ace/24HoursLite.zip - I think you'll find it most useful indeed. -- Barbara

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21 Days to a more profitable blog – Day 9! Add Amazon to your WordPress blog sidebar

Better Related Posts Plugin

Make Money with the eBay Affiliate Program – Part 2 – You can buy NEW too!

Barbara — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:36:45 +0000

Morning!

The sun is shining (forgive me for my second blatant lie; it’s more grey than politicians’ promises ), the birdies are mooing (always true; TwitterBudgies are known for their tweeting as well as parallel-universing), the cows are pondering why they can’t give coffee, only milk, and it’s time to wonder:

Oh Universe, if the Energizer Bunny is ever arrested, will he ultimately be charged with battery?

How can you even SLEEP when such questions are unanswered????

But I digress.

Let’s talk money!

No, let’s talk about making money!

No, let’s talk about making money with the (insert dramatic drumroll here!) eBay affiliate program!

A couple of days ago, I wrote Part 1 of making money with the eBay affiliate program. I revealed how must unlearn what you’ve learned (gotta love Yoda!) and open your mind to all the goodies it offers.

Today, I’d like to talk to you about what people sell on eBay. Now, true, hold on there, I see your thoughts! If you’re not yet familiar with the wonders of eBay, you’re thinking:

"Ummmm…..used stuff, right?"

and while yes, you can certainly clear out your garage and closet and under your children’s beds and your clothing hanger (ie, the Soloflex you bought on a whim)…did you ALSO know that you can buy brand NEW items as well?

And that means….

Your visitors who might turn their noses up at a, say, used PDA, might go bananas at snagging a deal on a NIB (new in box) PDA.

Consider used PDAs:

and now consider New PDAs!

The way to track down new items for your eBay affiliate advertising is simple – just tack on common eBay abbreviations like so:

new (okay, that’s a word, not an abbreviation)

NIB (new in box)

NWT (new with tags)

BNWT (brand new with tag)

Auth (authentic)

FS (factory sealed)

MIMT (mint in mint box)

MIMP (mint in mint package)

MIP (mint in package)

NIP (new in package)

NW (never worn)

Thus, the SECOND thing you have to do to make money with the eBay affiliate program is

Fine-tune your delivery of what your audience craves

Some readers will only consider new, others, like yours truly, live for bargains (I snagged meself a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gi for around $21 – they normally cost $70 and above). You know your audience best!

Hope you liked this article – you’ll adore Part III! Be sure you subscribe to my feed so you don’t miss it when it’s revealed.

Enjoy,

Barbara

#BEGIN highlights of this blog writing post:

Beginners make money with the eBay affiliate program tips: You can offer both used AND new items on your blog via the eBay Editor kit.

Intermediate and/or Advanced eBay affiliate program tips: You can probably get even more precise than that – consider niching your items according to date (if they’re collectibles), genre, etc.

#END highlights of this blog writing post

Like this post? Please feel free to tell your friends and Digg It – I very much appreciate your time!

ps – speaking about the eBay affiliate program

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Middleschooler Hacks Personal WordPress Theme, Makes Money Online

Barbara — Sun, 18 May 2008 11:44:22 +0000

Morning!

Today I want to ask you a simple question….one that has been fretting scholars and entrepreneurs alike since the creation of dehydrated water. And it’s this!

Have you ever wanted to add affiliate programs to your WordPress theme….but the idea of touching code was so scary you’d prefer to use a denuded toothbrush to scour up the elephant pen at the zoo?

Well?

If so, I’m here to tell you that if you simply give yourself permission to tackle the above…

you’ll see that doing it is as simple as copying and pasting in a notepad text file.

Bold I am, I know, to make such a statement! But I know it’s true – I walked my middleschooler throught it yesterday.

The settings were very basic – I had her go to her domain control panel, open up her theme’s sidebar file, find a spot to add her new idea, and then copy/paste it in.

It was so cool! I was in my office, she was in her’s, and the following is our conversation via gtalk. Enjoy!

—————————-

Kid: hello

Kid is online.

Mom: close the guest room door please and turn down your music too, please

Kid: my music isn’t on. that’s DDR

Mom: scary Log into your domain control panel
then browse to domains/SupercoolSite.com/wp-content/themes

NOTE – her domain is NOT SuperCoolSite.com . That’s just a placeholder.

Kid: okay
im there

Mom: see that SAVE directory? don’t touch it. It’s your backup. Remember, every time you hack a theme, you should make a backup copy of the theme directory. now, doubleclick on WORDTHEME-5

Kid: …i dont see it

Mom: okay single click
what’s your URL?

Kid: …./domains/SuperCoolSite.com

Mom: notice how it’s not the one I told you.
you need to go deeper -look at the original url

Kid: you said to go to domains, SuperCoolSite

Mom: …/domains/SuperCoolSite.com/wp-content/themes

Kid: im there

Mom: Idjutness, thy name is daughter

Kid: but before, you said to go to domains/SuperCoolSite!
>_<

Mom: dearie, thou needeth to browseth to the themeth directoryeth

Kid: okay, im just going to click on the WORDTHEME-5 button

Mom: ams yous theres?

Kid: yes, i ams

Mom: scrolldown untill you see sidebar.php

Kid: do i click it?

Mom: copy it a file named sidebar.sav . Always make backups of files before you change them!
figure out how to do that.

Kid: ummmm…. okay… im trying.
okay

Mom: copied it?

Kid: yes

Mom: great! now open another browser window and go to your blog. You should always have two windows open when changing your theme so you don’t have to switch around.

Kid: okay
edit theme?

Mom: click ‘edit’ on your sidebar.php

Kid: okay
i just finished my cheescake, if i get food poisoning, im blaming you

Mom: see those

s?

Kid: um…. no?

Mom: did you click on edit on sidebar.php

Kid: WAIT
NOW I SEE IT
:3 they say "Feed On" and "Latest Posts" and

Mom: Lets say you want another thingee on your sidebar under Feed On. with me so far?

Kid: yeah

Mom: The following is important.
I need coffee.
but besides that….

Kid: i need Mc Donakds
Donalds

Mom: to add something, you need to have

and
balance. Every

needs a

to close it.

Kid: like algebra?

Mom: no, more like nested loops.

Kid: oh

Mom: So!

Copy

Feed on

Posts RSS

Comments RSS

Paste it right above that last

,
save the file, then reload your blog.

Kid: is something supposed to happen?

Mom: it did. look closely at your reloaded blog
you’ll see you have two Feed On

Kid: oh yeah

Mom: see, you have made your first edit!

Kid: ….yay?

Mom: this calls for coffee to celebrate.

Kid: WHAT ABOUT THE HAMBURGER AND COW JUICE GOODNESS

Mom: Now, go back to sidebar.php and change the secondFeed on to "Hello"
ie,

Hello

Kid: oooh
i got it
go me!
it’s mah birthday, i’m a ninja, it’s mah birthday

Mom: hee hee
Now, do the following:
REPLACE
the second

Posts RSS

Comments RSS

with

Don’t you?

Kid: oh yeah!

Mom: But wait!

Kid: THERE’S MORE

Mom: Why isn’t there a cute little arrow next to it?

Kid: because we took away the script that put it there

Mom: Nope…because the cute little arrow shows up only for list items.

Kid: Oh.

Mom: So put a

before the Well, don’t you?
and tack on a

after it
then reload

Kid: Oh! So

stands for list.

Mom: yep, list item

Kid: OMG YAY

Mom: tell me when you’re done….

Kid: im done

Mom: see cute little arrow now?

Kid: yes
it’s arrow-y

Mom: now click on the /domains/SuperCoolSite.com/wp-content/themes/WORDTHEME-5 at the bottom on the page for a sec
and open the file style.css

Kid: okay

Mom: copy that whole file to a notepad file on your computer and then go back to sidebar.php

Kid: okay …

Mom: hang on…
look at this file
http://www.SuperCoolSite.com/wp-content/themes/WORDTHEME-5/img/bullet.jpg
just click on it
see the cute little arrow?

Kid: yeah
its a bullet point

Mom: in your style.css, search for
bullet.jpg
find it?

Kid: in my style.css?

Mom: in the notepad page you just pasted

Kid: yeah
i cant find it

Mom: search for it, it’s there
in notepad,do Find| bullet.jpg

Kid: …oh

Mom: see it?

Kid: yes

Mom: okay! Look a bit above you’ll see
#main .sidecol li li

Kid: yeah

Mom: this section tells your blog how to display items in the sidebar. ie, list-style-image
that’s how you change the defaults.

Kid: okay

Mom: http://www.SuperCoolSite.com/wp-content/themes/WORDTHEME-5/img/bullets.gif is another list item for a different section of your blog.
can you tell me where they would appear?
Pouring coffee, back in a minute

Kid: wait, so the bullets in style.css are different from the bullets on http://www.SuperCoolSite.com/wp-content/themes/WORDTHEME-5/img/bullets.gi?

Mom: no, they’re both used but in different areas on your blog.
where is the bullets.gif used?
you tell me.

Kid: well, there’s the sidebar

Mom: look in your style.css
or the notepadthingee.

Kid: in my notepadthingee, that’s the only place where bullet.jpg comes up

Mom: Idjut wonderfulness, i didn’t say bullet.jpg
i said bullets.gif

Kid: …that doesn’t appear at all

Mom: search UP
Edit | Find | bullets.gif

Kid: right
i found it

Mom: okay, what’s the label above it that starts with #

Kid: just a sec, sneezing

Mom: Don’t implode.

Kid: I already told you

Mom: no you didn’t
you found where it is
you didn’t TELL ME what it is.
what’s above it that starts wtih #?

Kid: #content ul li

Mom: YES! And that means, any content (ie post) you make that has a list will use that button instead of the one you see on the sidebar.

Kid: no, before i meant i already implode
imploded
ooooooh

Mom: this is how people can get little neat changes in their blogs in different sections.
you set up the section via CSS and then wrap the text with it (well, wordpress does the wrapping….)
Ready to get back to into your sidebar.php?

Kid: sure

Mom: go back to sidebar.php
tell me when yo’ure there

Kid: i’m there

Mom: Dark chocolate in the coffee isn’t half as good as English Toffee, btw.

Kid: that’s very nice

Mom: Okay, so now you know why you have that cute little arrow in front of

Well, don’t you

So! what YOU need to do now is
search online for
wordpress feedburner email plugin

Kid: http://www.google.com/search?q=wordpress+feedburner+email+plugin

Mom: search for a plugin that lets you add an email form for me to sign up to your site via feedburner

Kid: …english?
i heard that sigh

Mom: You know, you should really do better grammar. anywhos, you’re familiar with plugins, right?
commentluv

Kid: kind of
yeah

Mom: the thingees you activated…

Kid: yes

Mom: you want to add a
Subscribe via email
with a text field.

Kid: okay

Mom: so you’re looking for that to see if anyone built it. But! Can you think of another way to find the answer?

Kid: ask you?

Mom: ummmm gno

Kid: but it works
sometimes

Mom: Do math (ie logical thinking). What are you trying to achieve?

Kid: the finding of a plugin that let’s viewers to subscribe via email, with the cute widdle text field

Mom: or in other words, letting people subscribe to your feed via email. Right?

Kid: no duh

Mom: what’s the name of the service yo’ure currently using?

Kid: gmail or actually, gtalk

Mom: ahem.
FOR YOUR SITE!!!
Well golly mom, I think it’s called Feedburner, right?

Kid: yeah what she said

Mom: Log onto your feedburner account and tell me when you’re there.

Kid: okay
im at the home page

Mom: did you sign in?

Kid: yes\
they remembered me

Mom: upper right hand side – see that ‘Help’?

Kid: dont make me click it

Mom: Heehee!
Click in. On what do you think you should search?

Kid: email siubscription?

Mom: try that and tell me if it meets your needs
(Mom said, chuckling evilly because Mom knows you’re going to go batty in about 3 minutes)

Kid: ummm… it came up with a lot of things that aren’t plugins

Mom: yep. think it could still be useful?

Kid: ….yes?

Mom: See, when you’re hacking your site, you have to keep a completely open mind. Sometimes you’ll use a plugin,sometimes you’ll find you just have to (insert dramatic music HERE)….
copy and paste some code in your sidebar.php

Kid: alrighty

Mom: Do you see the link for FeedBurner Help Center – FeedBurner Email Overview and FAQ

Kid: yeah, its at the top

Mom: Click on it.
What’s the page you end up at?
I’m sorry
At what page do you end up?

Kid: http://www.google.com/support/feedburner/bin/answer.py?answer=81423

Mom: you clicked on the wrong link.

Kid: …oh

Mom: Look again. FeedBurner Help Center – FeedBurner Email Overview and FAQ

Kid: OOOOH now i see it

Mom: The light dawns

Kid: its an FAQ thingy

Mom: now where do you end?

Kid: http://www.google.com/support/feedburner/bin/answer.py?answer=78982

Mom: Yes! She CAN follow directions!

Kid: and the light dawned about 11 hours ago at around 6, i’d say

Mom: We’re talking valedictorian here

Kid: what does that mean?

Mom: Read that page and tell me what you should do next.
dont make me have to die an agonizing death because you don’t know the word ‘valedictorian’

Kid: …i dont
and i install Feedburner Email?

Mom: that might be a wise choice….
did you see:

From within the Publicize tab of the application, publishers activate the service with a simple click, then paste code into their blogging template or website. See what this looks like on a blog or built right into your BrowserFriendly page. A daily digest containing new content from the feeds is delivered to subscribers who have opted in to receive this content. View sample email.

Kid: yea

Mom: click on the link See what this looks like on a blog

Kid: oooh
pwetty

Mom: Master Keet is eyeing my thumb.

Kid: he wants to chomp on it.

Mom: Is that the thingee for which you are searching?

Kid: yes it is

Mom: no, he just wants to peel away the skin on my poor fingernail

Kid: lol

Mom: IDJUT TWITTERBUDGIE!
Bit me again

Kid: i laugh in your general direction

Mom: Hee hee!
So what do you think your next step is?

Kid: ask you what to do next?

Mom: Pretend Mom is currently comatose from telling Sensei Matt and Sensei Ryan and Sensei Casy and….to ‘Bring it on!’

Kid: or go to the site and copy the code

Mom: copy what code?

Kid: ….nevermind

Mom: That ‘nevermind’ had better be because you found it.
Open a new browser to your feedburner account.

Kid: okay

Mom: Clickee on your feedy

Kid: …what?

Mom: Click on your feed name.

Kid: okay

Mom: I cannot believe I’m still awake….

Kid: i found it

Mom: Anywhos, the FAQ page tells you on what page you’ll find the Email thingee to activate.
What tab is it?

Kid: publiciae publicize

Mom: Neat! Do that now.

Kid: okay
and then i click on email subscriptions

Mom: Do you see something so shrouded in mystery that oh, you found it.

Kid: lol

Mom: Click on it and tell me…
which code do you use?

Kid: there’s no code
not on the page i see

Mom: Whats your URL?

Kid: http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailsyndication?divToShow=subscriptionMgmt&id=XXXXXXXXXXX

Mom: The good news is you’re on the right page.

Kid: bad news?

Mom: The bad news is your eyes are obviously closed.

Kid: i was born blind
im a mouse

Mom:

Copy and paste the following code into any web page. Your subscription form will be automatically inserted each time the page is loaded. From there, readers can subscribe to receive daily email with your newest content.

Kid: its not on there

Mom: You DO know I will just HAVE to make a blog posting out of this conversation.
It’s not there.

Kid: OOOOOOH
i have to click on activate
i so knew that

Mom: Mom always has a method to her madness.

Kid: so i copy and paste that into my sidebar.php?

Mom: That might be a wise choice…..
Here’s what you do first.
First, copy/paste it to a new notepad file

Kid: okay

Mom: so you don’t have to bounce between browser and browser and have a backup copy
do that yet?

Kid: yes

Mom: go back to sidebar.php

Kid: im there

Mom: Where do you think you should paste the code? Hint – you’ll be overwriting something.

Kid: where the i like cheese thingy is?

Mom: Be specific And try it.

Kid: omg yay i dids it

Mom: hang on, your brother is crying, must comfort.
Did it work?

Kid: yes i am happy

Mom: I’ll subscribe and see what happens.
and voila, you have just hacked your first wordpress theme to make it the way YOU want.

Kid: awesome

Mom: That’s me kid.

Kid: it’s in the right category, though, right? it belongs under Feed On?

Mom: It belongs wherever you want to put it. You can redesign your whole layout any way you want

Kid: but it makes sense if its under feed on, right?

Mom: Sure! But I’d probably change to
Enter your email address:
to something more spiffy

Kid: okay
ill do that

Mom:

Don’t miss an update! Subscribe below!

or something like that.
Now, go to your plugin list and activate Admin Theme Preview
If you don’t want to do live hacking, you can make a backup copy of your theme and use the Admin Theme preview to check out how new code displays

Kid: activated

Mom: Okay, go to designs
See the link Theme Preview?

Kid: yeeeeeees

Mom: Activate the first WORDPRESS-5 you see
(methinks that’s the SAVE

Kid: yeah its the old one

Mom: You can now hack the sidebar.php in that one and test to your heart’s content without messing up what everyone else sees.

Kid: cooooooool

Mom: This means you can upload plugins, try new designs…
and remember, you need to sign up for the eBay affiliate program so you can start monetizing.

Kid: awesometastictastical

Mom: That is how the majority of the world describes your mom.

Kid: very funny

Mom: The truth often is.

And that was our conversation yesterday. I checked her site today and indeed, she added more tweakies to her sidebar and tried out other plugins as well.

Remember! This is a middle-school kid who doesn’t do any programming.

But because she gives herself permission to tackle anything new….she was able to approach the above with no fear at all and be successful to boot.

You can do the same thing! Just make a backup copy and a testing copy of your WordPress theme, use Admin Preview to start viewing your testing copy, and hack away. You’ll be able to view the changes online while the rest of the world still sees your current theme!

Once you’re satisifed with your new layout, you can then activate your new theme and enjoy.

Ain’t life grand?

Enjoy,

Barbara

#BEGIN highlights of this blog writing post:

Beginners blogging tips: Don’t be afraid to learn how to change your theme code. Always make certain you have a backup so you can restore.

Intermediate and/or Advanced blogging tips: You can add eBay or Amazon.com affiliate code to your sidebars very easily by the above.

#END highlights of this blog writing post

Like this post? Please feel free to Digg It – I very much appreciate your time!

ps – speaking about wordpress:

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