With the Super Bowl taking up most of today, that’s still no reason to miss out on some potential money making ideas for yourself online.

And we’ve got a truly interesting idea for you today.

Almost nine years ago, when I was just getting into the publishing online business, a friend of mine was running (and may still be, we fell out of touch) a highly successful catalog-type business – yes from online!

At the time, I was extremely busy doing other things, although in the back of my brain I knew she was on to something.

So, lucky you! This morning I came across how you can grab yourself a Free copy of Retailers Forum Magazine.

RetailersForum is going digital. Until recently it was only available in its offline form. However, now they plan to each month – on the 1st of each month – release their current free digital version!

What you’ll find are wholesale items like:

o Jewelry
o Apparel
o Gifts
o Novelties
o and more

They are even throwing in “informative business articles.”

RetailersForum offer to you is straightforward and very simple. They are inviting new startups or established businesses who need to find merchandise to read their free magazine!

Let’s face it, with times like they are having options to make money online is without a doubt critical. This company has been around so long that they helped others back during the recession of the 80s and 90s.

RetailForums has been in business since 1981, and it’s definitely worth a little effort on your part to visit that link above (put down the nachos for just two seconds) and see what they can do for your business online and off!

Enjoy!

Telling you video is huge is a bit redundant at this stage, however… video is huge.

The question you need to be asking yourself isn’t “should I be using video,” but “how do I get the most out of putting my videos online.”

That’s where this great sticky tips on videos comes in handy, compliments of Webproworld.

Your videos are found via “clues on the page” where your video file is embedded. The discussion does cover both hosting videos on third party web sites like Viddler and the all-famous YouTube and the pros and cons of self-hosted videos.

Spreading your videos around is also a good thing. We’ve found that while you could host the video yourself, viewing times are greatly “speeded up” for your viewer when they are hosted on sites optimized for video viewing.

In addition, pick your third party hosting sites carefully. For example, should you choose Viddler, you are able to edit the title (use your keyword in the title), provide a (keyword rich) description, and tag it. YouTube is great, but at the moment spots like Viddler top our list. And, search engines pick up your video very quickly!

Here’s a bit more about optimizing your video online, condensed, of what you’ll find when you visit the Webproworld forum link above:

1. Sitemaps …video sitemaps are a recommended way to give Google information about the video content of your site…

2. RSS Feeds …Google loves to crawl RSS feeds of various types, and this includes RSS feeds that focus on video content…

3. Metadata …metadata is the best source for search engines to determine what your video is about…

4. Provide a transcript …embedding a transcript in the video viewing page will provide the search engines with a wealth of content to index…

5. Optimize the video page …where the video is embedded focusing on the key topics of the video. Context seems to be an important factor…

6. Use friendly URLs …provide the search engines with additional clues as to the relevant topics of the video.

7. Be consistent when distributing your video …this will give you more opportunities to show up for your target term…

8. Prepare for the future of video search …By taking these steps now, your videos can remain relevant as search engines improve their scanning and indexing capabilities.

Again, a trip to the forum is in order to fill in the gaps of what I did not include.

Also, the responses to this sticky post on video optimization are worth the read.

Not everyone is prepared to jump on the video bandwagon at the moment, but arming yourself to use this immensely popular form of internet and social media marketing in the future is a sure winner.

Related articles

• Netvibes: The new social media dashboard (vator.tv)
• YouTube Video Alerts For Your Inbox (performancing.com)
• Viewzi Launches Site Search (centernetworks.com)
• Sitemap Submission Made Simple (googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com)

It’s got to be pushing 8 years since I spoke with Armand Morin. I remember at the time (discussing a headline on a website) the one little tip he gave me that was so simple, yet made a world of difference. He said, “Add an s.” Yep, that was it, but think about it.

Put it here.
Puts it here.

Which sounds “easier?”

That said, I decided today we would do a post about Armand’s affiliate program. Since we are currently investigating his Placement Locator, we figured you, too, may be looking for software programs to either use and/or promote. Here’s some information to help you make up your mind if his program is right for you:

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Quick Description
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Generator Software has one of the longest standing affiliate programs on the web and with best selling products that have stood the test of time, it looks to be one of the premiere affiliate programs to join.

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What I Like
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First and foremost, this affiliate program is managed which makes a major difference. That means if you have questions, there is someone there to answer them.

The commissions are great and what’s even better is the retention. They have such a low refund and on average, when a customer buys a product from Generator Software for the first time, that same customer will typically purchase 2-3 more within the next 4 months – all of which you receive back end commissions on!

They also provide weekly training covering a wide range of topics such as generating traffic, PPC marketing, building your list, designing review sites as well as some fundamentals like the basics of building a good affiliate business.

The other major piece worth noting is the fact that it’s a 2-tier affiliate program. That means it’s possible to generate a residual income from people you refer to the affiliate program who then make sales.

Finally, if you like Generator Software products then it’s worth being an affiliate as they provide insights and advanced notice on all new products and releases.

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Things To Watch For
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As with any affiliate program, you still need to take action!

Although the Generator Software team provide lots of prewritten emails, templates and tools (and they add new material all the time), it’s still worth noting that you won’t generate any sales unless you actually use their information.

Furthermore, it’s probably in your best interest to use the pre-written material as a guideline and then tweak it to fit your own personality or writing style.

The last thing to watch for are their rules and regulations.

You can NOT purchase their products through your own affiliate link and it’s important to know that otherwise you could be removed from the affiliate program.

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Conclusion
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The Generator Software affiliate program is definitely one of the best programs to join online and it’s stood the test of time.

With 11+ years under it’s belt, it continues to grow and prove why Generator Software is one of the most recognized brands for online entrepreneurs. The products are rock solid and they sell well which are all good signs for affiliates.

For more information on this program click here.

After making our post for January 3, it was off to my favorite forums. That’s where I found six tools mentioned by Owen that he loved using in 2008.

The one that caught my eye is Zemanta, an add-on to your Firefox browser that automatically recognizes your wordpress and/or blogger blogs. It’s a tool that’s going to help suggest photos, videos, articles, etc., related to what you’re writing about – all done from inside your admin area.

Here’s an example:

Related articles by Zemanta

• Twitter Is Stealing Your Password

What the example above shows is something Zemanta considered “related to” the rest of the information in this post (see below about Twitter).  There are many items to choose from, but I just picked this one – all from inside the admin area of this blog.

After installing (and it’s quick and painless and yes I did read the terms of service first), you’ll end up on the welcome page where you’ll get instructions on “how to get started right away” using this super cool tool!

A big thanks to Owen for sharing this and five other tools (one of which he created himself).

Excellent!

And, for those of you wondering why your WordPress Twitter Updater plugin no longer works, well we don’t currently have the answer to that… However, TwitterBar 1.1 may be your easiest solution.

It’s been available since November 1, 2008, tried and tested. Just be sure you know what you’ve got typed in your address bar before you Twitter it. It can be words, the link of the page you’re on, whatever. So double check first

(The Firefox logo was also pulled in using Zemanta.)

A second alternative to get your feeds posted directly to your Twitter account (though the toolbar above is very cool), is TwitterFeed

TwitterFeed requires you to create an OpenSource id. Just be prepared to validate your signup via email AND be adept at picture recognition – the  process is a tad long while you “guess the picture” during the account creation process.

What TwitterFeed will do is, depending on your setting choices, take a peek at your blog feed and post the last “x” amount you designate at the time interval you ask it to check. While that may sound confusing, it’s not – it’s just a fill in the blanks AFTER you get past the picture recognition thing (it’s very hard to explain but worth the trouble).

So there you have it… multiple ways to get your current posts automatically onto Twitter, plus add some graphic interest to your posts painlessly.  Enjoy!

Now it’s your turn to tell us what you think about this post. So please DO comment!