MLM is one of the best business opportunities for most people for the following reasons:

Affiliate marketing, in the traditional sense, is simply an agreement between a merchant and an affiliate that allows the affiliate to earn commissions by sending traffic to the merchant's website.  As an affiliate, you are generally paid in one of three ways, per click, per lead, or per sale.  The last of the three is usually the best option if you are able to drive targeted traffic to a merchant's site.

Like any home based business endeavour, in order to succeed at affiliate marketing, you need to read, study, and learn as much as possible from all of the various resources presented on this site as well as many other affiliate marketing resource sites found all over the web.

And of course, the single biggest factor in your success will be taking action and implementing what you learn.  Learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others.  Constantly look for ways to improve your sites, and stay on top of industry trends as you can.

One of the keys to being successful in anything you do is having the right mindset and having confidence in yourself.

Most of us are simply not prepared to run our own business.  We have to dig deep to find the inner strength to drive us forward and plough through all of the ups and downs that we are sure to experience along the way.

The resources below won't automatically make you into a successful entrepreneur, but they can most definitely help your mind clear out the obstacles that we tend to put in our own path.

Learning the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or SEM (Search Engine Marketing) techniques can seem like a daunting task when you're new to the world of internet marketing.

The majority of internet traffic is generated by only a handful of search engines.  You will find links to their submission pages below. For now, the most important thing you need to know (if you don't already) is that Google is the current king of the search engines. Acquiring high ranking in Google is currently the best way to build your business on line.

The following links will take you to all of the major search engines where you can submit your url.

Most successful internet marketers have a great follow up system.  And most use a quality auto responder to do their follow up for them automatically.

No matter what internet marketing venue you pursue, follow up can play a vital role in your success. Below are a couple of the best Auto Responders:

Here's A Brief Explanation of Traffic Exchanges

f you have a website and you want to increase the amount of visitors (also known as traffic) to your website, you can sign up for a free account at any of the thousands of traffic exchanges available online or choose one from the list below. Then once you have gone through the registration process, you will be able to add links to the website you want to promote, for example, I promote one of my e-lottery websites on many traffic exchanges and this is the address I use  http://www.lottery-players-wanted.co.uk You would simply add your own link.

Traffic exchanges work on a credit basis, in order for your website to be seen you must first generate credits by viewing the sites of other members. The credits you earn enable your site to be viewed by other members across the system. This increases the number of visitors to all of the websites involved.

Traffic exchanges usually enforce a credit ratio, meaning members earn a certain amount of credits for visiting one member site, and each credit is translated into one page view. Ratios can vary from program to program so before registering for a traffic exchange it is wise to check out their ratio first. A ratio of 1-1 is best, that way you will get your page viewed once for every (1) page you view.

All manual traffic exchanges have specific viewing times of all member pages. These viewing times can range from 10-30 seconds, so whilst surfing the system, every page that is shown to a member will remain in view for 10-30 seconds, you will not be able to proceed to the next site until the specified time has passed. Most traffic exchanges have a toolbar at the top or bottom of the page that has a timer on it so you can see when the timer reaches 0 and it is ok for you to continue on too the next page. This is put in place to make sure each member site is promoted equally and fairly. If you try to go on to the next page before the timer reaches 0 you will be penalized in some way, the penalty varies from exchange to exchange.

To make surfing traffic exchanges a little more interesting, some services offer different ways to surf such as, playing games for credits or listing to radio stations whilst surfing. If you do not want to surf manually for credits you can purchase them, again prices vary. Many traffic exchanges are free to join but also have Pro versions that allow you to generate more credits from referrals. Always thoroughly check out what is available in the Pro version when you first sign-up.

There are many high profile traffic exchanges on the net today. Therefore if you are new to traffic exchange it could be a little troublesome deciding which ones to use

I would suggest using at least five traffic exchanges at a time until you find which ones work best for you. I have personally used each of the exchanges bellow at one time or another and I have had good results from all of them. There is a more extensive list at the bottom of this page.

Here are a few of my favourite one to get you started. All are free to join.

These top traffic exchanges offer you the best surf ratios, timers, services and support. Visit today, you will not be disappointed.

Using traffic exchanges to promote your business can be extremely effective, but as with all Internet marketing methods, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. I myself have wasted a great deal of time going about it incorrectly and consequently I did not gain the full benefit. I even went as far as to say that traffic exchanges did not work. Fortunately soon after, I became a PlugIn Profit Site member and the training that is given with the program soon educated me. I quickly learnt that traffic exchanges are very powerful and could channel a lot of traffic to my websites and blogs.

Even now as I surf my favourite exchanges I still see so many people making the same mistakes I did. I hope to offer straightforward, helpful tips to stop people from wasting their credits on the exchanges.

The first and by far, most common mistake is using SALES pages in traffic exchanges. You know the ones I mean, affiliate pages that contain long-winded text, graphics, images and video. These pages are a waste of the surfer's time. It is not the product or the wording of the page that is the problem; it is a simple matter of loading time ie. your vwd website takes a while to load, so it is not much good for a traffic exchange site. It may not sound very important but it is crucial to your success on traffic exchanges.

All traffic exchanges use timers, which means you normally have between 10 and 30 seconds to grab the interest of the viewer and get them to click through your page. This is not a lot of time; so if you have a long sales page with graphics and images on it, guess what is going to happen? Yep, your time is going to run out and the surfer will move on to the next page without having read a word of your page.

How can this be avoided?

By using squeeze pages, also known as lead capture pages. Squeeze pages are designed to GRAB the attention of the reader and then tell them about your product or service in as few words as possible. These pages are also designed to build your list of subscribers to your newsletter, by placing a sign-up form on the same page.

Here is one of my squeeze/lead capture pages CLICK HERE  As you can see it is short, to-the-point and attention grabbing; and because of the clean concise design, it loads extremely quickly, there by giving me the maximum viewing time in traffic exchanges. If you would like to learn more about growing your list with lead capture pages, then take a look at the Website Data Capture Pages Section.

It is not necessary to know a great deal of html in order to get your own squeeze page. There is a free service called Robert Puddy's Instant Squeeze Page Generator this site allows you to use free templates that you can add your own wording too, you can also add a free eBook to your squeeze page to encourage viewers to join your list.

When your squeeze page is ready, add it to all of your favourite traffic exchanges and if you have created a good clean, right-to-the-point, attention-grabbing page, you will see an increase in hits on your page because more surfers will see it due to its quick loading.

Another common mistake is trying to use pages that contain Adsense ads in traffic exchanges. This is a definite no no and will get your website banned by Google because it is against their term and conditions. It is possible to use other types of contextual ads on traffic exchanges. BetterTextAds for instance are traffic exchange compliant. But it is still best not to use pages with ads on them in traffic exchanges. Use squeeze pages to build your subscriber list instead.

Website Rotators are a must for anyone using more than one traffic exchange to promote their websites. This simple idea will save your hours when you want to change any of the sites you are promoting. So what are website rotators? They are sites that allow you to advertise multiple websites using one single URL.

After you sign up for membership with a traffic exchange the first thing you would normally do, is start adding the URL's of the sites you want to promote. Lets say for example you have registered with 10 traffic exchanges and you have 5 websites to promote. That would mean you have to enter your url's 50 times. It would also mean that when ever you want to edit or delete a url, you have to do it at each of your traffic exchanges, that means 10 sites, 10 sets of editing or deleting, which equals a great deal of time.

Website rotators make adding, editing or deleting your URL's so much quicker and easier. All you need to do is put the URL's of the websites you wish to promote into your rotator, then the rotator gives you 1 single URL to use on your traffic exchanges. This changes the equation dramatically. Now, if you have the same 10 traffic exchanges and the same 5 websites, when you want to make changes, instead of having to go to 10 sites and make 5 changes on each, you will only have to make 1 change on your rotator.

The website rotator will rotate all 5 of your websites using 1single URL.

There are many rotators available online such as FreeRotator, TPM Rotator and Page Swirl to name a few. I use Page Swirl this rotator is a free service with options to upgrade to the paid service if you wish. I like this rotator because there are no pop-up or ads, it is totally transparent so know one will know you are using a rotator and you get up to the minute stats. This rotator is simple to use and most of the changes you wish to make to your URL's can be done in just a few clicks.

When you are adding your rotator URL to the traffic exchanges, remember to check the terms of service, as some traffic exchanges prefer you to use specific rotators or their own rotators and some do not allow you to use rotators at all.

Is it a scam or just a bad business idea?

While I've spent the last few years working as an online entrepreneur, I've seen many businesses that I truly feel weren't intentional scams, although I could be wrong and many hardcore anti-scam folks would probably just call me soft.  In the bitter end, they just seemed to end up as really bad business ideas run by people who may have actually had good intentions.  Nonetheless, the end result is always the same.  These companies fold leaving more people with less money and shattered dreams.

How to avoid scams

The first step to avoiding a scam is really easy.  It's a little oxymoron known as common sense.  Many people, myself included, tend to ignore this built in feature of our psyche when we see some of these too good to be true deals floating around the internet and in our inbox.  But quite often, we should go with our gut instinct about a program.

Typical signs of scams or bad business models are:

Use common sense in both your choice of businesses and how you advertise them.  Promoting a scam may be a small risk for you, but could be the financial ruin of someone you bring in.

Always do your due diligence before committing your time and resources to any business endeavour