I’ve broken it down into 5 ways you can use to help in your decision to choose an affiliate marketing program to add another income stream to your website or web based business. I also provide these tips to business owners looking to get into affiliate marketing to promote their products and services to understand what will attract and what drives away affiliate marketers from bad affiliate marketing programs.

1. Lots of Negative Feedback about the Product or Service – I’ve found from personal experience that negative feedback on products or services you promote can either help to boost sales because it’s what everyone is talking about or drive away sales because people don’t trust the product or service being promoted. I suggest doing some research about the company and their track record to narrow down your selection in products and services that you want to promote through affiliate marketing.
2. Poor responses from the Affiliate Marketing Manager – When you are serious about an affiliate marketing program I’ve contacted the affiliate marketing manager to get a feel for what the business is about, what their best selling products are and a wide range of other questions. If you can’t get a hold of the affiliate marketing manager in a reasonable amount of time, move on. Don’t waste your time trying to get in touch with someone that doesn’t want to talk to you. There are plenty of great affiliate marketing programs with great affiliate marketing managers. Go and find them and do business with them solely.
3. Low Commission Rates on Small Ticket Products and Services – It’s got to be worth your efforts as an affiliate marketing promoting a product or service so if you are getting 15% of a $9.99 sale it just might not be worth your time to promote it. You’ve got to be able to make decent money and with a lot of affiliate marketing programs returning higher commission rates on larger ticket products and services it just makes sense to avoid the small ones unless you know how you can make money with it.
4. Products that don’t relate to the audience – If you are promoting an affiliate marketing program for mortgages and your website is about knitting and crafts it doesn’t make sense to try to promote products that aren’t related to the content that you website serve’s up to people. Chances are that if they came to your site for the latest knitting tips they would love to buy the best Swedish knitting needles and not a five year fixed term mortgage.
5. Payout amount is too high or unattainable – Some affiliate marketing programs only allow you to get a payout when the amount owing is greater than a few hundred dollars. If you earn $10 a sale and your minimum payout is $200 you’ve got to understand that to get your money earned you better have a high conversion rate to see that money faster. Otherwise you run the risk of getting frustrated and not promoting their products and services because it’s too hard to reach that level. It’s interesting because it’s been my experience that the best affiliate marketing programs don’t have a minimum payout in place. You simply promote, get sales and earn commissions. End of story. So be cautious about this point especially.

Regardless of which affiliate marketing program you might choose remember to choose wisely because as I’ve said a few times in this article, there are plenty to choose from today all with their differences and some are better than others.

Most of the people in the free world use Facebook today. It’s great to connect with friends and aqcuintances, like a whole bunch of things, look at what your friends like and now you can go back in time using Timeline. Some people out there have taken the leap and are using Timeline on Facebook.  The real question when it comes to using Timeline is to whether or not to activate it on your Facebook profile.  With certain new sources in the media and web hinting that Timeline will soon be mandatory pretty soon it may not matter whether or not you want Timeline.  For the purposes of this article I wanted to talk about some of the potiential issues that this change may cause you and some of the features that Timeline boasts to those who choose to use it.

Gotchas

Once you upgrade you can’t go back – I don’t know why software companies do this but once you enable a feature, you might check it out, decide that you don’t like it and want to turn it off.  Once you get Timeline on facebook you are given 7 days to make changes to your profile page before they become live to everyone else including setting up the feel and feel of your Facebook profile and the security that you want to have on your profile.  The thing is once you make the change its not possible to go back to the old profile view of your Facebook profile page which is definitely off putting to say the least.  Just remember this when you are clicking the “Get Timeline” green button on Facebook.

Soon Facebook will make changing to Timeline the “defacto” standard for all users but for the time being its your choice as to use it or not use it.

Nice to knows

• Preview Your Timeline – One of the best things that you can do in my opinion is to preview timeline before adding it to your Facebook profile for the simple reason of having time to play with your Facebook profile before the changes are visible to everyone.
• Create a Cover for your Facebook Page – When you add Timeline to your Facebook account you are given the ability to add a cover to your Facebook profile page.  Its definitely a neat option to customize the look of your Facebook page making it instantly unique and memorable for your friends, colleagues and other people that know you or happen by your site.
• Highlight your Stories and Photos – If you are a traditional Facebook user this might not even appeal to you.  Now on the other hand if you love new technology and a new way of representing yourself on Facebook.   Its a really interesting concept because it allows you to customize a lot of how people experience your Facebook profile.

How Can I Setup Facebook Timeline?

The first thing you want to do in order use Facebook Timeline is to simply click the “Get Timeline” button on the Facebook Timeline page.  Once you do this you can go to your Facebook profile and see what it looks like and what you will also see are options to now setup the “Cover”, privacy settings on pretty much everything from pictures to likes and things about you.  By default it seems to be set to display to friends.

When you are finished making changes to your Facebook Profile now using Timeline simply click on the “Publish Now” button and your Facebook Profile will now be using Timeline.

I hope you are ready to check out some useless CSS3 patterns.  With the raise of HTML5 and CSS3 it was only a matter of time before someone created some design options for designers and web enthusiasts and that is exactly what eCSSpert has put together.  One of the projects that they’ve created is Useless CSS3 Patterns, a site that in my opinion is the exact opposite in that its very useful both as source of inspiration and a teaching tool for people looking to learn a little more about CSS3 and how to apply it.  The most interesting part is that when you select a design pattern you have the option to check it out in an editor right in the web browser which is not only cool but also useful!  Check it out today! 

 My first glance at HootSuite

Having a look at any piece of software today usually leaves me thinking “That’s it” but that wasn’t the case looking at HootSuite.  First of all, its free to try which I like.  There is nothing worse then a wanting to try something that promises to be great but asks that you part with a credit card charge.

The interface is easy enough to use and within a few minutes you should be flying, adding Facebook profiles and pages, LinkedIn accounts and twitter profiles like no one’s business.  There are some really interesting features including the fact that you can schedule communications to go out to your social media profiles on a specific date and time, you can also integrate with Google Analytics and Facebook Insights for analytics data collection all in one place.

Now, that we’ve talked about a few of the features and a little about what HootSuite can do I think its time to get into some of the features of this product to understand them better and learn how you can use them for your business.

Scheduling Posts on Social Media Networks

Scheduling posts on social media networks is not something that you can’t do with any social media network like LinkedIn or Facebook today.  This is definitely a feature that a small business owner or social media marketing professional could use to setup posts for the week or month and manage their online marketing with respect to social media.  As you can see below there is what the scheduling feature in HootSuite looks and feels like…

After you’ve created your scheduled post now you’ve got to find it which can seem a little daunting but if you go to the left side menu and hover over the “Publisher” section this is where you will find your scheduled posts just like I’ve shown you below…

Lastly, you should see the scheduled post appear on your choosen social media outlet of choice.  In my case, I tested using my Facebook page and the scheduled post appears just as advertised as you can see in the follow screenshot.

This might just be one of the biggest selling features of using HootSuite and you can even schedule in bulk.  There are a number of other features that HootSuite offers including Report Builder, Assignments, Team Members and more so check out HootSuite and I hope you enjoyed learning more about scheduling your posts to social media sites using HootSuite.

Let’s dive into how you can first of all create custom post types and taxonomies so that you can use them in your site and also how you can embed them once you’ve created them.  Sit back and enjoy the screenshots.  Once you’ve done the hard work of installing the plugin (and by the way its not hard at all)  the next thing to do is to find it and configure it.  Most plugins that you install create their own heading in your WordPress backend dashboard however Custom Press doesn’t.  It creates the sections for Post Type and Taxonomies under the “Appearance” section for your theme as you can see below.

Step 1: Creating a Custom Post Type

Creating a custom post type is not that hard using Custom Press.  Click on the “Post Type” option and you will be taken to a page like this…

From here enter the name using a standard naming convention, the plural and singular label of the post type and a description about the post type and click “Save“.  What you will notice after saving your custom post type is that you will have an option in your left side navigation menu representing your newly created custom post type just like what you see below.

When you click the “Add New” option from the menu you’ll be brought to a page that looks a lot like the standard post and page post types with a few exceptions including the fact that the name is related to the customer post type that you created.

Step 2: Creating Taxonomies

Taxonomies are important for creating your custom post types in that they outline the categorization of your custom post types.  For example, if you create your custom post type called “Books” using Taxonomies you can outline genres, price points, authors and languages using a taxonomy structure.  The best way to think of taxonomies is to think of it like a category, something I am sure we are all familiar with and use it that way.  Let’s have a look at setting up taxonomies.

As you can see above all you need to do is set the taxonomy name, singular and plural labels and select the post type you want to apply it to whether its a standard post type like a page or post or a custom post type like we talked about previously.

Once you’ve saved your taxonomies you can start to use them in your post types to build out your hierarchy.  Lastly I wanted to show you just how to embed these custom post types and taxonomies into your WordPress website.

Step 3: Embedding your custom post types and taxonomies into themes and plugins

The real magic behind using Custom Press is the fact that you can take the post types and taxonomies and start to include them into your website.  In order to embed the post type or taxonomy you’ve created into your website in any custom manner you need to hover it first.

When you click “Embed Code” you’ll notice that it generates code which you can then embed into the functions.php file of your WordPress theme.

Now that I’ve  shown you how you can customize WordPress using custom post types and taxonomies I urge you to check out the Custom Press plugin to customize your WordPress website.

The best Christmas gift I ever received was a Contra Smith typewriter when I was a kid.  Coming downstairs on Christmas morning and seeing it by the chimney left me speechless.  My younger kid brother, Ryan, I am sure didn’t get it but to me this was the best gift I could ever receive at Christmas.  Keep in mind guys and girls, this was before the internet, before I had my own computer and before I even knew what blogging was.  I was a pretty creative kid always interested in creating art, design, creative writing (I was a terrible speller when I was a child and had to really work at it) and other various ventures.

I was shy and awkward as a pre-teen and writing was one outlet that I used and receiving that typewriter was amazing.  I would spend nights typing away on the keys, listening to music and creating writing.  It was magical.  Okay, I admit it I was what people call a “Nerd” and these days I don’t mind that but at the time I did.  Getting this typewriter was amazing as a kid and even though these days I do all my work from a laptop it taught me how to type, how to edit what I write and how to write creatively.  What was the best Christmas gift that you’ve ever received?

Happy New Years to Everyone out there and see you in 2012!

Luc Arnold

Permission Sets are “permissive” by nature meaning that you cannot use them to lock down users but rather open up the functionality of Salesforce to users.  Its quite common that administrators have requests that come in to open up permissions for a specific user.  In the past this was only accomplished by creating a custom profile which was time consuming and hard to manage.  I can imagine that there are a a lot of companies with this currently in place today but no longer do you need to do this.

In order to find the permission set functionality go to Setup | Manage Users | Permission Sets as you can see below…

When you click to create a new permission set you’ll notice that you need to give it a label name, API name, description (optional), and the user license type that this permission set should be created for specifically.

Lastly you need to set the permission, hence the name “Permission Set” using the “Object and Field Permissions” option.

Once you are finished the last thing that you need to do is assign users to your newly created permission set by going to the individual user record under the “Permission Set Assignments” related list and selecting the permission set you want to assign to the user and you are all done!

• Being able to pick up and drop off kids – One of the best things about people that are younger and able to work from home is being able to pick up and drop off the kids and have some more time to spend with them while being able to work.
• Saving time on a long commute – Commuting is a very time intensive activity that can be stressful and difficult.  It can also affect your mood.
• Saving money on commuting related costs – Commuting is expensive in general with the cost of insurance, maintenance on your car and gas prices this increases the further you are from the office and for some people working from home is a big perk because of this one point alone.

I am sure that there are more reasons and definitely feel free to post them below but the core reason being working from home is that it makes life easier and what most people don’t realize is that it can actually become more difficult because schedules, motivations and reasons that once seemed so bright have now faded.  I also want to talk about some tips to keep you motivated, scheduled and relaxed with your choice about working at home.

Staying motivated

It can be hard to stay motivated by the day to day routines that exist in most workplaces today for even the best employees and working at home for some people may find it too difficult to keep that momentum without the physical presence of other employees.  Working with other people provides the ability to have other people relate to your circumstances, to de-stress when talking about a difficult situation and some people just function better being around others.

The first decision you need to make is “can I motivate myself in the difficult situations and stresses of work?” and be completely honest with yourself when you answer this because you will have to life with this decision.  If you still answer “Yes!” then you might be a good candidate for working from home.

Have a schedule

Work is seductive in that if you don’t know how much work you are going to do on a daily basis you run the risk of over working yourself.  If you go to work every day then chances are you commute to and from work.  So there are a few hours that you normally schedule to decompress and come down from the stresses of work however when you work from home there is little to no decompression time and chances are if you’ve had a bad day you are going to want to discuss it with someone.  In essence you are bringing stress into your house to your spouse, partner and kids.  I know that when I finish work at home, my wife sometimes listens to me rant a little bit however would it be different if I commuted to and from work?  It probably would.

Another important point is to make sure you stop for lunch and breaks or if you can schedule lunch with a friend this is a healthier approach to balancing work and life.

If you find yourself stressed out working from home then try to get out and go for a walk, hit the gym or do something to get you out of your routine day and shake off some of the stress.

Lastly, defining a start time and a finish time to work is important because much like when you go to work you know when you start in the morning and when you finish at night.  One of the biggest things that most people lack is the ability to “turn it off” when the day is over.  What normally happens is that people work longer trying to fit in more work until they could become burnt out by their work commitments.

If you are one of the lucky people that are able to make the choice to work at home then this can definitely be rewarding but you have to make sure that you set boundaries, turn off the smart phone and disconnect at the end of the day.

Naturally with most releases its important to test before upgrading to a new version of WordPress or integrating new code and plugins into WordPress.  Let’s have a look at some of the big features included in this release…

• Drag and Drop Uploader
• New Toolbar
• Tumblr Importer
• Improved co-editing support
• Pointer Tips for new release features
• New Editor API
• Improved Dashboard experience for users on iPad and other tablet PCs

Now out of that list let’s have a closer look at some of these features including the drag and drop uploader and Pointer Tips…

Using pointer tips in the new WordPress 3.3 makes it easier for people to understand how to use WordPress.  I do like the hover over navigation menus that are currently available however this is not really a “game changing” move in my opinion, its just nice to have.  The next thing that I want highlight is the Drag and Drop Uploader which is pretty cool in terms of a feature of the 3.3 release of WordPress and it makes it easier to add multiple images in a few simply drag and drop actions  as you can see below…

As you can see the drag and drop interface above is fairly easy to understand and use.  You do however still have the option to use the “browser uploader” as you can see if you just don’t like the drag and drop functionality.

Next to use the drag and drop functionality you open the directory on your PC with the files you want to move and simply drag them over and you are done.

Once you’ve finished dropping the files from your computer into WordPress you can then edit properties of the files you’ve uploaded using the Drag and Drop Uploader functionality.  Most of the 3.3 release of WordPress is UI-based which is a smart move as more and more people are choosing it to run their websites its good to see that their is a focus on improved usability.

With Google Analytics new user interface its now possible to select a number of default segments called “Advanced Segments” which include a number of excellent pre-existing segment options like paid search traffic, non-paid search traffic, visits with conversions, visits with transactions and many more.  Have a look at how you can find this below…

… The great thing about working with advanced segments is that you can apply more then one to a date range of web analytics data and extract meaningful insights into what is happening on your website.