We’re already half way through the year - how have you done on achieving the goals you set in January? I’ve found that it’s a good idea to go back and review them on a regular basis. In fact, they should be in your mind constantly. It can be very easy to get side-tracked. I think the key is to focus on less, not more, and to pursue that with an obsessive determination. It’s not easy and, of course, you learn a lot from not achieving straight away what you had planned. Having said that, you only really fail if you stop trying - there’s always a way you just have to believe it’s possible and change what you do until you reach your goal. So, what were your goals for this year, and how close are you to achieving them?

Millions of business owners rely on affiliate programs to help increase their sales and in turn their profits. If are the owner of an online business, especially one that sells a particular product or service, you may be able to benefit from the use of an affiliate program. If properly implemented, they are a great way to increase your business’s revenue without having to do a large amount of extra work  The first step in getting started is to find an affiliate tracking software.

An affiliate tracking software?  If you have never heard of this product before, you may be wondering exactly what it is.  Affiliate tracking software is the actual program behind your own affiliate program. If you start your own affiliate program, you will be relying on your banners and links to help increase your websites traffic and its sales.  These banners will be placed on the websites of your affiliates. With affiliate programs, each time that one of those links is used to generate a sale, the website owner, webmaster, or website publisher, whoever you are partnering with, will receive compensation for their part in the sale. 

To be able to compensate your affiliates, you will need to have a way to determine if, when, and who helped you generate a sale. This can only be done with affiliate tracking software. Therefore, if you are interested in starting your own affiliate program, you must have affiliate tracking software. When it comes to affiliate tracking software, you will have a number of different options.  Two of those options include purchasing your own affiliate tracking software program or using someone else’s.

If you use someone else’s affiliate tracking software program, you will most likely end up doing business with an affiliate networking company. These companies not only provide you with tracking software, but they also help to track the sales of your affiliates, and even pay them. The payment feature is unique because it is not offered on most software programs that you have to buy on your own. With software programs that you buy on your own, the software should calculate how much you owe each of your affiliates, but you are required to take care of the rest.  Depending on what your business is and how busy you are, you may not have time for this.

Having to pay your own affiliates may seem like a disadvantage to buying your own affiliate tracking software; however, it doesn’t necessarily have to be. Even though you are still required to send out your own payments, you will generally find that this process is easy to do. That is because most affiliate tracking software programs are designed to automatically calculate the amount of money each of your affiliates make. Whether you choose to pay your affiliates on a weekly or monthly basis, you should be able to find out, right away, how much money you have to pay them.  If you are paying them with a check, you can simply write the check and move on to something else.

A potential disadvantage to purchasing your own software can actually turn into an advantage. That disadvantage is customer service support.  A large number of affiliate tracking software programs do not come with customer support.  Almost all will come with a detailed user guide, but customer service support is not guaranteed.  Despite the fact not all software programs offer customer support, there are even more that do. This means that if you want to have access to customer service support, you just need to find affiliate tracking software that has the support included.  If free customer service support is included, it should be outlined in the software description or software features section.

The above mentioned advantages and disadvantages are important when determining whether or not you should purchase your own affiliate tracking software or do business with an affiliate networking company. Whichever decision you make, you should be well on your way to seeing an increase in profits. The affiliate tracking software program you choose will not have a direct impact on how much money you make, but it will have an impact on how easily your affiliate program flows.

A recent report from the The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals warned that UK pet owners could be responsible for a worrying epidemic of over-sized animals, ranging from dogs and cats to hamsters, gerbils, rats, rabbits and budgies. Much of the problem is down to over feeding and lack of exercise, with one in four dog owners admitting that they never exercise their pets. This has led Richard Branson’s Virgin Active to launch the UK’s first pet only gym.

Virgin Active has given five tips to help you check your pet’s obesity rating:

1.    Check with your vet what your pet’s weight should be.

2.    If your animal won’t stay on the scales, weigh yourself holding your pet and then deduct your own weight.

3.    If you can’t feel your pet’s ribs then it is likely to be overweight.

4.    A reluctance to exercise and breathlessness are signs that your pet may be too fat.

5.    Look at your dog from above. You should be able to see some indentation behind the rib cage, depicting an hourglass shape. If you can’t your pet is overweight.

Need to plan a journey in Great Britain? Do you need to find the quickest, easiest or cheapest route? Or perhaps you want the green option, comparing CO2 emissions for different types of transport?

If you do, then try the Journey Planner on the Directgov website. This will provide you with:

·         various routes and modes of transport, with respective journey times

·         a joined-up travel plan, e.g. with connections between trains and buses

·         ticket prices - with links to websites where you can buy them

·         CO2 estimates for your journey

·         live travel information

·         park and ride information.

The Journey Planner can be found here

Those of you who wish to take control of your business on the Internet with automated tasks need a functional and easy to use automatic email response system. An automatic email response system will take care of any emails you receive, and automatically deliver a response to potential clients 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

You can set up your autoresponder program on your own computer or server without any problems. Using your own program is the way to go, especially if you want to avoid paying a monthly fee to companies that charge for the same services. There are several companies out there that offer autoresponder services, although they can get expensive over time.

If you decide to use your own email autoresponder program, you can save a lot of money and a lot of time. These programs will streamline your business, freeing up your (more…)

Throughout the Internet, autoresponders make for an excellent promotional tool. Although the technical name is an autoresponder, other known names include auto email, mailbot, and email responder. An autoresponder is a great way to save time, as it responds to any message with an automatic response.

Autoresponders can vary from messages that go through email to scripts that are programed to run on servers. All types of autoresponders work the same, as they will automatically send a message out when a message is received. Depending on the message they receive, they will send out the correct return message. This can be determined by the script or the email address.

Although they are great for promotional reasons, they are also widely abused all across the Internet. Autoresponders are great to use for your daily tasks, as they will basically do all of the work for you. On (more…)

Consultants come in every field, and there are often so many, how do you choose? Also – what about that arm and a leg they charge?? Well, in spite of the expense and confusion, I happen to think consultants are an excellent asset, in general. I know they can be very expensive, but when you get a good one, they can add astronomical value to your business. That’s part of the reason I train people how to start up their own business – it’s an invaluable tool to have someone there to bring in advice and wisdom. This week I had my first mentoring session with Fraser Hay (if you’ll remember, I won his coaching package at a networking event), and let me tell you – it was great!! I’ve been in my industry for 20 years, and running my own company for a few of those years now, and it’s amazing the things a fresh perspective will add to your business. Right now I’ve got homework to do before our next session, which is great. Homework means I am growing and improving as a business owner, manager and person. But I’m interested in hearing some other perspectives, for better or for worse – care to share any stories??

Well last week saw another training workshop success! As you know I run courses on training people how to set up and run their own Virtual Assistant business, and one of my greatest passions is seeing people succeed and achieve their dreams. This time round, one of my staff also came along to the course and was able to take away a lot of useful information. Also, one of my business associates Marc P Summers did an afternoon session on how to maximise your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), which was very informative and enlightening. Have you attended any events recently which you found helpful??