What Is Affiliate Marketing?

/

Entrepreneurs and Affiliate Marketing

A great many of us spend time looking for ways to make a little bit more money. Whether it is because our current job doesn’t pay us enough, or because business is our job, the ideal situation for us would be to find a way of making money without actually doing anything. This is impossible, of course. Isn’t it? Well, to some extent it is, but there are ways of setting things up so that you can make money for yourself without ever having to do a great deal. It does require a bit of work up front, and a little bit of knowledge too, however, so it is not the fabled “money for nothing” situation for which many of us would give our eye teeth. It is as close as most of us will get, though.

The practice of affiliate marketing is becoming more and more popular for Internet savvy entrepreneurs who know enough about the vagaries of business to be able to harness the power of the web and make hundreds, even thousands of pounds without needing to do a great deal. It is actually a fairly simple practice, although there is some amount of corkscrew logic involved in getting to the stage where it is up and running, and paying money to you on a regular basis. There is also some amount of caution required, as the Internet is as riddled as any other marketplace with fraudsters and tricksters. Once you are in, though, you may be surprised by how much money you can actually make.

The idea of affiliate marketing is that businesses gain promotion from an individual or another business placing an advertisement for a product or service on their website. The mere placement of an advertisement, however eye-catching, is no guarantee of a profitable affiliation. The website on which it is placed does much of the work for the affiliate. If we say, for example, that the company looking to advertise is one which sells a range of sunglasses, beach towels and other holiday paraphernalia, the person looking to act as an affiliate would be well-served by setting up a travel blog or website. Therefore, visitors to their website will come to read about traveling and holidays, spot the advertisement and potentially click through to buy a parasol (for example).

As long as the affiliate marketer is aware of the way to do things – and this is usually agreed at the point of making an affiliation – they can earn commission from each customer who buys from the merchant’s website after clicking on “their” ad. The success of an affiliate marketing campaign depends on the marketer pre-selling, however subtly, a product which is then advertised on their site. It can be summed up as telling someone that they need something, and telling them where they can get it, without ever making the link explicit. You leave them to make that link themselves.

First Published: June 8, 2009 EntrepreneurJourney.com

The Best Cheapest and Worst Days to Fly

/

Best and Worst Time to Fly

There are various factors that affect plane tickets. If you are flexible to choose when you want to fly, picking some days over others may be beneficial to your wallet.

Worst Time to Fly

Christmas and New Year Season – Those two weeks around Christmas and New Years should be avoided. Peak worst days at this time can be the long weekend or the weekend before holidays.

Spring Break – Though this season can vary based on where you are, in general early March to mid-May can be hectic to fly.

Summer – Summer is a bit tricky. It can be the low season for hot destinations and high season for cold destinations. Long weekends are the worst time to buy tickets. June, July, and August are in general peak time for summer destinations.

Thanksgiving – A couple of days before and after Thanksgiving are the worst time to fly. But the day of Thanksgiving itself offers great discounts if you can fly.

Worst Days to Fly

Fridays and Sundays are the most expensive days to fly.

Best Days to Fly

First Cheapest Days to Fly – Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Second Cheapest Days to Fly – Thursdays and Saturdays.

Best Time to Fly

Fly when most people don’t want to fly due to inconvenience. For example, very early in the morning, overnight flights (red-eyes), lunchtime, and dinnertime.

Last Word

Sometimes no rules will work if you want to take certain flights that only operate once a week or only certain days of the week. Also, if you have several legs of a continuous trip and can’t match the full trip to one of the cheaper days, try to make at least half the leg of the trip fall on the cheaper time frame to save money.

Online Money Making Scams - Fact or Fiction

/

Beware Of Online Money Making Websites

Making one’s way in business is something that requires not only a lot of work on the part of an individual, but some amount of luck too. Starting out as an entrepreneur presents a series of challenges, and it is unsurprising that many businesses fail in their first year. Realistically, if a business is going to fail the that is as likely a time as any. Before you have really found your feet you may come up against some issues that, despite your best will, will prove insurmountable. And what really doesn’t help is the vast amount of supposed “help” that is out there for entrepreneurs, some of which is irrelevant to your own case, some of which is just plain lies.

Among the things that you need to look out for are websites that promise to make your business go through the roof in its first six months just by following some simple advice. While there are websites out there which will be of significant help to any potential entrepreneur, there are just as many – more, in fact – that will be as much use to you as a glass hammer. The latter can be recognized a lot more easily than the former. One thing to look out for is a site which is short on actual relevant detail. These sites are recognizable from the start. Most willhave bright, gaudy graphics, and grab your attention by highlighting seemingly random words and using highly informal language.

The individuals who has set up these website are doing their level best to get as many subscriptions as possible from interested or desperate customers by assaulting their senses and making broad hints while revealing nothing about themselves or their service. The sites have taken little time and cost only a small amount to set up, so from the moment they pick up even a small few subscribers they are already in credit – unlike their customers.

Sometimes you will be offered the chance to hear a talk from a “guru” who can give you the simple secret that guarantees business success. Being a successful entrepreneur is not about simple secrets, and business success is never guaranteed. Always look out for someone who goes out of their way to tell you what they think you want to hear. They may well even give you warnings like the ones in this post – but then they will ask you for money. You cannot buy business success from scratch, and anyone who promises that they can show you how to is simply selling a lie.

The information that will allow you to really build your business and make it profitable is a whole lot more mundane than some big flashy secret that needs to be advertised on a website that looks like it was designed by a room full of drunken chimps. It might even justifiably be called “boring”. The reason is that the people who are furnishing this information do not need to send up fireworks to distract from the holes in their logic – realizing as they do that there is a lot more long term future in giving people a formula that works.

First Published: May 26, 2009 EntrepreneurJourney.com

Mileage Plan 101– Tips, Tricks, and the Basics

/

Alaska Mileage Plan - What You Need to Know

Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan is one of my favourite frequent flyer programs and I use this program to fly Business class across the globe paying very little. It’s no wonder Alaska Airlines and its loyalty program rank at the very top on customer satisfaction year after year.

This Mileage Plan is dynamic in the sense that it’s not part of any 3 alliances; rather it has a pool of partners from all 3 alliances and some non-allied airlines. Here are Alaska Mileage Plan partners:

- Aeromexico

- Air France

- American Airlines

- British Airways

- Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong)

- Delta Air Lines

- Emirates (Dubai)

- Fiji Airways (formerly Air Pacific)

- KLM (Netherlands)

- Korean Air

- LAN (South America)

- PenAir (Alaska)

- Ravn Alaska (formerly Era)

- Qantas (Australia)

Now, let’s look at some basics of Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan frequent flyer program.

Stopover Allowed on One-Way Trip - This is one of the most sought-after features in Mileage Plan rewards. It allows stopover on one leg of the journey or 2 stopovers on a round trip. So you can visit 2 countries instead of one on a one-way trip or 4 countries on a round trip if you use this feature wisely. However, some partners do not allow stopover. Visit alaskaair.com for more info.

No Mix and Match – The Mileage Plan does not allow more than one partner on a one-way flight or on one leg of the trip in a round trip. However, it is allowed to combine with one partner + Alaska Airlines.

Generous Mileage Chart – Unlike other programs, the Alaska Mileage Plan has different redemption charts for different partners and different regions. Usually required miles are a lot less to travel business class compared to other loyalty programs. I will provide some examples below.

Avoiding Fuel Surcharges – Avoid British Airways, as their Mileage Plan collects fuel charges on BA flights, which can be hefty (in the area of $500, for example) on even short flights.

Cancel, Change, and Phone Booking - Alaska allows you to cancel or change within 60 days of departure for a $125 fee and no fee if before 60 days. The phone booking charge is $15 per ticket.

How to Search/Book Flights – You can search and book all partners’ award space on the Alaska website except for Cathay Pacific or LAN. For these, you need to search on partners’ websites such as British Airways, Qantas Airways and then call Alaska to book over the phone. You can learn more on how to search for Alaska award flights by searching more online.

Collecting Alaska Miles – Bank of America and MBNA Canada offer Alaska credit cards with other perks and features. From time to time they will also offer Alaska sales miles on discounts.

Some Alaska Rewards Flights Examples

- Cathay Pacific (CP) to Asia on business class for 50,000 miles with a stopover in Hong Kong

- You can fly to Africa for 50,000 as well with a stopover in Hong Kong on CP. This is real, not a dream.

- CP to Australia or New Zealand with a stopover in Hong Kong for 60,000.

- Qantas business class to Australia or New Zealand for 55,000 miles. Or you can fly to Auckland and have a stopover on Sydney.

- Japan Airlines luxury first class to Asia with a stopover in Tokyo for 70,000 miles.

- Fiji Airways business class to Australia or New Zealand with a stopover in Fiji for 55,000 miles.

- Fly Air France business class for 60,000 miles to Tahiti from LA.

There are so many other possibilities the Alaska mileage plan offers that I find it hard to believe. With proper planning and research, you can see the world in style with Alaska miles.