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How to get Referrals Part 5 - Advertise

Tip: To get best results and understanding of the how to get referrals series I suggest you read them as I have written them, starting with part 1 and working your way up to part 5 because you will not benefit from certain steps until you have completed the previous ones.
If you already read parts 1 thru 4, click the "read more" button to continue your learning with Part 5 of the How to get Referrals series.

How to get Referrals step 9 - Advertise
"Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read."
Leo Burnett

Great quote about advertising that really sums up this entire series. Many of the things I've already told you involved in getting referrals is about doing everything involved in the quote by the late great Leo Burnett. Don't hype things up, give them the facts, put it in places people are already looking and keep it organized in one location that's worth visiting.

Did you recognize the name of Leo Burnett but not sure why? He's responsible for some of the most well known advertising icons like The Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man, Toucan Sam, Charlie the Tuna, Morris the Cat, Pillsbury Doughboy, the 7up "Spot", and Tony the Tiger.

So when you are doing your advertising for your blog/site, and articles you have written consider who's going to be viewing it, and why they are viewing it. Are they new to the field of earning online, or do they have experience? Are they viewing it because they gain from the view, or are they viewing cause they are interested? If you don't know who and why the ad's are being viewed by then you are wasting your advertisement.

Getting more referrals from your ad's is a compilation of everything you've already learned in the first four parts of this series. Rereading everything is suggested to make sure you write everything on your blog for a purpose.


How to get Referrals Step 10 - Blog or Single Site
Advertising

There are lots of places you can advertise online for free. Some of them have already been discussed. Your blog/site is what you primarily want to promote because you will be consistently updating it, build trust with it, and people will be available to contact you for help.
When to promote a single site instead of your blog is really dependent on where you advertise and why you want to promote the single site.

Reasons to promote a single site instead of your blog/site:
  • A site is having a referral contest.
  • You promote like sites on each other. I.E Promote paid to post forum on another paid to post forum. You know they like to earn that way, so promote alternatives.
  • Doing a referral swap where you help a referral build a line.
  • The site just changed something that will attract new users who may have overlooked the site previously. Like new countries allowed or new payment processor.
Places to advertise for free:
  • Some PTC's allow you to spend money earned on advertising rather then cashing out. After your blog has been going for a while and is producing decent results, spending this easily made money is a great way to get the word out and develop some constant readers. My personal favorite PTC for this is DonkeyMails.
  • Traffic Exchanges are great for getting lots of lower quality traffic for free. Once you have a solid blog to promote, it will generate referrals through TE's. But remember that TE's will produce small amount of referrals compared to number of visitors that visit. But if you promote your blog this way over a month or two, it will produce better results. The more often someone see's your blog with new content being provided then the more likely they are to visit it and sign up under you. It's a Trust thing.
    My personal favorite TE's are these two. Both have great admins and extra prize pages for more credits. First one even has chat and surf feature. HorrorMovieHits, TipTopTraffic.
  • Forums have already been discussed in part 3 of the series.
  • Social Networks also discussed in part 3.
  • Social Bookmarking sites also discussed in part 3.
  • Classified Ad sites like Craigslist.
  • Your profile where ever you go, always fill it out.
  • Chat Rooms
  • Blog Directorys, my favorite is Link Referral
  • Local stores, create a 1 page flier and ask if you can put it on a window or bullentin board.
  • Telephone poles around town, again 1 page flier make sure to put little tabs people can rip off with your blog address.
  • Other blogs of relevance to yours, exchange links to each other. Make sure it's a fair trade though, A-list blogs won't do this with new blogs.
  • Don't be afraid to comment on other people's blogs to advertise as well, but just like forums this should be done with care and should add to the conversation.
  • If you do a bunch of downloading and/or have people directly download from you, add a simple text document to the file with your web link and brief site description.
I promise if you follow the 10 steps here in the series it will translate into referrals for you. If you are having any problems implementing anything or have questions about something. Feel free to contact, I'm willing to help you. You can use the contact me form, contact me through IM, or use the chat box on left to leave a message, or use the chat box on the right to IM with me privately right away.

How to get Referrals Part 4 - Incentives

Tip: To get best results and understanding of the how to get referrals series I suggest you read them as I have written them, starting with part 1 and working your way up to part 5 because you will not benefit from certain steps until you have completed the previous ones.
If you already read parts 1, 2, and 3 click the "read more" button to continue your learning with Part 4 of the How to get Referrals series.


How to get Referrals Step 7 - Incentives

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."
Albert Einstein

This quote really sums up this entire series on how to get referrals. By creating a blog that gives the reader value for visiting, it you will succeed. Sharing your knowledge builds trust, when you have the trust you will have the willingness of other to sign up under you, offering extra value just increases the odds in your favor for long term success.

A sure fire way to get referrals quickly and keeping them active is to offer them some incentives on your blog. By giving up a portion of what you earn because of having them in your down line or giving up a small dollar amount up front you can greatly increase the chances they will sign up under you. But if you have not built the trust, then it's unlikely they will take advantage of the offer.

Important things to consider when deciding if to offer a incentive deal:
  • Is the site stable? If you give them money to be in a scam site you both lose.
  • Will it benefit you enough to do it for just 1 person, and 100 people. Look at both ends of the spectrum.
  • Is the offer worth sharing with their friends? Consider this: Would you sign up under you then tell a friend about the deal, or would you sign up, then offer a better deal to your friend?
  • Is their better offers by more reputable people for the same site(s)? Do your research on possible competition.
  • Will it get people to just sign up and stay active minimum amount of time, or is it a nice long term deal.
  • The larger and longer the site has been in existence, the more you should offer. Stability is a powerful factor.
  • Why should they trust you? Have you given info about the site and helped them?
Types of incentives to offer:
  • 25-75% of what they earn you. So if you earn 10% of what they do, give them 3-8%.
  • 10-30% upfront of what you expect them to earn you in their first month.
  • A few cents or dollars each month they are active.
  • A contest for all your referrals, giving money and/or advertising to the most successful of your referrals in a given time period, or first to reach a given goal.
  • If the site has multiple down line levels, give them something for each new referral they find.
Types of incentives to avoid:
  • Giving more then 80% of what you will get from them being under you. Giving more then 80% does not make it worth your time to keep track of everything and will attract people that will try to scam you by singing up multiple times.
  • By offering a set amount to each person that signs up under you that you will not earn back in the first thirty days you will really short change yourself because not everyone will stay active the given time needed to recuperate your losses.
  • Any deal where a lot of extra is required from both of you, if a site doesn't show how much work each of your referrals does, then you will need screen shots/proof from them. Making the entire process much more involved then needed.
  • Avoid offering deals on sites that will require a lot of work from your referrals w/out any referrals themselves to be able to cash out or see reasonable gains. It does no good to have 50 referrals sign up under you because of the great offer you have, if none of them will have any success and soon quit using the site.
How to get Referrals Step 8 - Swapping

Swapping referrals can be a great way to gain active referrals, if you find the right people or site to do it with. There is two main forms of swapping, and one lesser done way that is only effective once you've become very solid in your own forms of gathering referrals.

The first and most common way is simple one-for-one swaps. You sign up under a site for someone, and they sign up under you. As long as you both stay active then you both benefit. The only downside of doing this, is if you don't do your research on both the sites involved and the person you are doing it with then you are likely to get scammed. If one site requires 20mins of work a day, and the other takes an hour, one of you is likely to quit because they feel it's not fair. So make sure you know what site you are joining, and that the site you want the other person to join are roughly the same in amount of daily work involved and potential earnings. Also make sure to investigate the person you are doing the swap with, do they have a good reputation on the site you found them, do they have a blog, can they show payment proofs and a good explanation of what all is involved in the site they want you to join. A good person will be willing to answer your questions and be available for any additional questions you may have.

The second most common way to do referral swaps is with referral exchange sites. These types of sites usually have 100's of sites available to work with and work on a credit system. When you join a site through the referral site you gain a certain amount of credits which can then use to spend on getting referrals on sites you want to promote. The biggest drawback of these types of sites is that often the referrals you get will not stay active for a long time in your site. But you can say in order to get the credits from you for signing up under you they have to do a certain number of things on the site, like stay active for 7 days or complete X# of things. Just remember to keep it "fair" if you require 1yr of membership, no one will ever sign up. But what's great about these sites is the fact you can find some really great sites to join through them, as the referral exchange sites often check on the sites allowed to be promoted for their paying status. So when you sign up, it's not in vain and that you will be able to cash out from the site.

Finally the least used way is really only available if you have a successful blog or another form of gaining guaranteed referrals. This way also should only be used on sites that have multiple down line levels. What you offer is that when someone signs up under you, you will then help get them a referral or few of their own. Usually by replacing your referral link on your blog with their link or by using credits on a referral exchange site to have someone join under them. When you do this you are increasing the chances your first referral will stay active cause they are earning more and you both will still gain if the site has multiple down line levels.

Recommend places to do referral incentives:
  • Your blog, create a blog entry with specific's of what type of swaps your willing to do. If a site has a referral contest, make a blog entry about it and put a time limit on when people can sign up.
  • Forums, Most forums have a open advertising section and some even have a a section specific for referral exchanges. Post your offer and remember to not ask for to much, and be specific in the sites your willing to join.(make sure to read forum rules to not violate them and get banned)
  • Social Networks, Put the offer on your profile and make sure people have a way to contact you.
  • GetRef , My personal favorite Referral exchange site. Been around for years with over 1,000 sites you can spend your credits on to get credits. Blog entry with more details.

Important things to remember about doing incentive based referral getting:
  • Not all sites allow you to get referrals through the process of offering incentives. Some also only allow some forms of incentives. Traffic exchanges are notorious for banning people for doing this. So always make sure to check the site's Terms and Conditions and the FAQ section. If you can't find any answer contact them asking about which ways are allowed.
  • Make sure to know the countries that are allowed for the sites involved, it does no good to get referrals if they won't get you credit.
  • Always make sure the sites you want involved are worth it, if you will only gain a penny or two from them over weeks, it's probably not worth your time or theirs.
  • Always give the other person a way to contact you, remember that helping is important.
  • Don't allow yourself to become overwhelmed by making things to complicated. Simplicity is best when it comes to incentives for both you and them.
  • Most importantly don't give up to much, stay below 80% if it's a continuing process of giving to them, and below 30 days worth of work to make your money back if a one time payment to them.

As always if you have any suggestions or questions go ahead and contact me or leave a comment.

Part 5 on how to get referrals is titled Advertising and discusses some pros and cons of different methods to advertise.

How to get Referrals Part 3 - Social

Tip: To get best results and understanding of the how to get referrals series I suggest you read them as I have written them, starting with part 1 and working your way up to part 5 because you will not benefit from certain steps until you have completed the previous ones.
If you already read parts 1 and 2, click the "read more" button to continue your learning with Part 3 of the How to get Referrals series.



How to get referrals step 5 - Social

"Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the
small ones."
Phillip Brooks


This is a great quote that directly correlates to being social online, you don't have to have a million dollar idea to share, just a lot of little ideas to sprinkle every where you go.

There are lots of ways to be social online, all of them offer us many things. Perhaps the largest benefit to social marketing for finding referrals is that no matter what way we do it the people reading and interacting with us have a certain amount of interest already.

Think about all the forums you read, why did you sign up to them? Why do you still visit them daily? If you answer those two questions you will understand why the people on the forum are there as well.
With most forums being about a very specific topic, like sports, or finding things to do online worth your time, and my personal favorite are the ones that pay you to post and talk about making money. This gives us a great way to find very specific people that need and are actively looking for help. (You remember how crucial helping people is right?)

It's pretty easy to find forums about any topic you want, and find knowledgeable people on a given topic. This fact alone makes them so bountiful. You need to be one of those experienced people sharing their knowledge on a number of forums. That doesn't mean you have to have 1,000's of posts on each forum to gain peoples trust, but you do need to have more then 2 posts. All forums show post counts of each member, if someone reads your post and finds it helpful, but then see that you only posted a couple times they are not likely to act on your post.

Take a look at this article for a really good guide to forums
, along with a short list of some of the best paid to post forums out there. The article is about paid to post forums, but all the tips directly help increase the effectiveness of all the forums you post on. Make sure to read the final tip in the article for a really good trick to help make forum posting easier on yourself!

Few things to remember about forums:
  • As discussed in part 1 of the series, these are a great way to increase your "brand" online.
  • Utilize your signature to promote your blog/site and any articles you have written.
  • Some forums do not allow your signature to contain referral links, so make sure to read the sig rules of each forum.
  • Always fill out your profile, and write a quality introduction. Both are sure fire ways to increase your trust and a great way to offer help.
  • You don't have to post everyday on all forums, but you should try to post at least several times a week. Consistency is key to build forum presence that translates into trust.
  • Not all forums will be effective for finding referrals.
  • Posting on 10-15 forums at least once a week is recommended. (paid to post are great, but regulars are fine)
Tip: Don't stress yourself out about forums, Find 5-10 to start if you aren't already on any. Post some things, if you get some activity stick with it. After you weed out the good from the bad, if you don't have at least 10 forums. Then find another 5-10 and repeat until you got a solid list of around 15 forums.

How to get Referrals step 6 - Networking


The popularity of Social Networks makes these something you simply should not ignore!
There are some really large Social Networking sites out there we all know of like Myspace,Facebook and Twitter.But there are literally 100's of them. These are some of the greatest free ways to find referrals by sheer numbers alone.

Like a blog or forum, this is another great way to create establish your "brand" and build trust.
Just like your blog though, you want to build peoples trust with content that gives information, but then being available to help.

Taking the time to create a complete profile on 3-5 social sites will take a few hours, but is very much worth your time because it's like having a extra blog on each site that you don't have to regularly update. You can create a profile on all the networks you want, but you want to focus on being really active on about 4. Any more and you will find it difficult to keep up with them, and any less then your missing a large free advertising source.

You can put any number of links about anything you want on your profile. You can build friendships through any number of ways. You have the ability to connect with these people and help them. Each network has groups that are about a specific topic just like a forum, make sure to join the groups about money to share your knowledge and find referrals.

Things to know about social networks:
  • Unlike forums, not everyone on them is looking for knowledge or information, many just want social interaction. So when a person doesn't respond to you, move on.
  • Filling out your profile is crucial, just saying visit my blog will not work. You need to build that trust for them to want to care about your blog.
  • Being at least semi-active is a must, log in no less then couple times a week to approve friend requests and reply to any messages.
  • Be very careful about spamming friend requests or on groups. These sites have lots of spammers already, you don't want to blend in with them and risk getting banned from them.
  • Some are very specific in the region of the world or age groups there members are, so some will not work for finding referrals no matter how hard you try.
  • You do not have to actually have to "be social" on them talking about the latest news or gossip. But you do have to be willing to talk with people about what it is you promote.
Recommended Social Networks to join:
  • Twitter - This one is HUGE, you simply can not ignore this site. It's the 14th most used site worldwide! I won't go into how to use it from the sign up process to get more followers. But here's a few quick tips, you should have it set-up so you send a direct message to everyone that follows you. You should post at least once a day, people pay attention to people that post more often. Not all your posts should be promotional, mix in questions, jokes, and general thoughts. Like all sites, make sure to fill out your profile and link to your blog.
  • FaceBook & Myspace - Easily the two largest Networks out there. Both are great sites and have some highly receptive people that can be your referrals.
  • Mypage5 - One of the larger get paid to Social Networks. You earn a cent or few for everything you do on the site, uploading pics, posting comments, active in the forums, logging in each day, even just rating other peoples profiles and pics. Make sure to upload a picture when you sign up to start off with $5.
  • Wiki Page listing 100's of them. Find Social sites that are primarily region specific that would allow sign ups to the sites you promote.
As always if you have any suggestions or questions go ahead and contact me or leave a comment.

Continue on to Part 4 of the how to get referrals series titled "Incentives"

How to get Referrals Part 2 - Give

Tip: To get best results and understanding of the how to get referrals series I suggest you read them as I have written them, starting with part 1 and working your way up to part 5 because you will not benefit from certain steps until you have completed the previous ones.
Start with part 1 of the How to get Referrals.
If you already read it, click the "read more" button to continue your learning with Part 2 of the How to get Referrals series.


How to get referrals Step 3 - Giving
"You give before you get."
Napoleon Hill - Author of the book "Think and Grow Rich"
(I encourage you to read his bio and found out about this truly remarkable man)

When it comes to earning money online, you will get far less with out giving something.

Imagine giving someone a great site, but only it's name. Will you get anything out of it and are they likely to prosper with site knowing nothing but the sites name?

Now imagine giving someone a great site with your referral link and all the details of the site, how to use it, how much they will earn and outside of money what else the site can give them.
So you have now gained a referral that's going to know how to earn money for themselves and because they have this knowledge you will earn more money. This is what we are doing when we give information, providing a mutually beneficial relationship.

When you fail to do your duties as a person who's already experienced success and pass it along, you are doomed to fail until you learn to give.

So how can you effectively give your info with out it seeming like you are selling or pushing something upon someone?
  • On your blog, when considering what all to say about a site go through your daily routine and explain why it is that you do that, and why you don't do other things on the site.
  • Write about the Pros and Cons, there is no need to hype things up. The truth is always good.
  • Show your payment proofs and prove it has worked for you.
  • If the site is simple, then give the few steps needed.
  • If it's complex, take your time and make it as easy as possible for those to use it.
  • Whenever possible, provide links to blogs of the site so they can see the admins care and keep you updated.
  • Give recently added features to show the site is always being improved.
  • If the site has been around for years, make sure to note it. Everyone likes consistency.
  • On a Article site write the basics with a few extra tips provided about a particular way of earning that will link back to your blog or have referral links directly in it. When someone sees you know that field of earning and get's a overview, they will be interested to join those sites, and most likely as your referral.
    (make sure to fill out your profile on the article site)

How to get Referrals Step 4 - Help
"Always think in terms of what the other person wants."
James Van Fleet - Great Author on the subject of talking and dealing with people.

There is a difference between Giving and Helping. When you take the time to connect with someone and help them, you make an impression for life. When you give info it's your words that make the impression. You want your referrals to know that you are there for their benefit, and not the other way around.

Helping is perhaps the most important thing of all when it comes to getting referrals.

Think about coupons you see in the daily newspaper, they are helping you save money. So you are impressed by the store and as such will go to the store even with out the coupon because you know they are trying to help you. With or with out the coupon, you will buy more then the one item because of the helping factor.

Whenever possible you should make yourself available through any number of means online to connect with a person by helping them. Instant messaging and E-mails being two of the easier and most efficient ways to do so(which is why it's important to provide that info on your blog). By helping someone set-up their account and learn their way through a site, you are likely to gain them as a referral in many sites because they have direct access to you and your knowledge anytime they need it. This is another great example of building trust from step 1 of the series and why it is so important.

Recap of part 2:
  • You must give and help in order to receive. Failure to do both will result in many lost and only one time referrals.
  • Their is tremendous power in truth, always do so.
  • People like numbers like payment proofs and length of site success.
  • Write overview and how to articles for an entire field to broaden your Trust and Help factors.
  • Always make yourself available when asked, taking the time to help one active referral in many sites is better then multiple one time referrals that may quit for any number of reasons at any given time.
  • Remember that the more you give the more you shall receive is not always an overnight thing. Patience and consistency are both powerful virtues.

Recommend sites to write articles on:
  • Squidoo - One of the largest and most friendly article sites out there. Very easy to use with lots of different options to earn money through your articles. Allowing referral links and international members make this a must use. Decent referral program. Slow earner with a $1 minimum payout. But has no waiting period for article publication.
    Example of article I wrote on Squidoo: Guide to game, Dungeons and Treasures

  • Triond - Not as well know as some other article writing sites but this one is bound to make you happy. Low 50 cent payout once a month through paypal. Earnings based off of ad's clicked on your articles combined with page views it's fairly easy to make the minimum payout off one or two articles each month. Allowing referral links make this another favorite for our field.
    Newly added: Connect with me widget that's put on all your articles that links to your Twitter, Blogspot and Facebook pages.
    The only downsides are no referral program and takes 12-24hrs before your article is manually approved for clean content.
    Example of article I wrote on Triond: Guide to Paid to Post Forums.

  • Bukisa - Earnings based off of total site revenue from ads divided by your articles page views. A reasonable $10 minimum makes this a steady residual income with some quality articles. Takes roughly one day for manual approval of your article for clean content. Biggest downside, does NOT allow referral links. So it's best used for generalized overviews of earning fields and very site specific guides to give your referrals.
    Example of article I wrote on Bukisa: Guide to MyLot to get the most out of the site.
Couple of things to know about writing articles. They do not allow you to gain page views to them through the use of Traffic Exchanges or Paid to Click sites. This is false traffic for them, and as such will not get you any extra earnings and can result in a ban from the site. Do not try to cheat the sites through false traffic of any kind, they are a great way to build trust and increase your branding. If someone see's an article and then later it's gone cause you got banned, you instantly lose anything you gained just because you wanted to make a few extra cents from the article.
Post your article on your profiles, Social sites and forums. If your friends got Twitter accounts, ask them for a simple tweet about it with a link.
When possible also have friends submit the article to social bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Delicious. Then you go to the same social bookmark site and give your article a plus rating, by having your friend do this first it will carry more weight then if you did it first.

Doing all this with each article will take only a few minutes and will drastically increase the traffic to your articles over time, and sometimes instantly. The more places you can put it with out spamming the better chance potential referrals will see it and come to you with trust already built.

Part 3 of how to get referrals is titled "Social" has to do with using Social Networks and forums to increase your trust with others and increase the presence of your "brand" to help gain referrals.

How to get Referrals Part 1 - Trust

This is part 1 of 5 in How to Get Referrals.
Getting referrals can be tough for anyone even the most experienced have to try new angles and techniques as old forms of getting referrals produce less results. So in this 5 part series of how to get referrals I will look at different methods I've read up on, experimented with and had success with, so that you can benefit from all the knowledge with out having to do a bunch of searching.

In each part two different steps will be discussed centered around one theme for each part.
This series on how to get referrals will primarily be written assuming you are looking for referrals in your free to join sites and programs, but many of these tactics will be productive in your affiliate sales or online business.
I'm going to assume you are reading this because you already know how important they are.

Tip
: To get best results and understanding of the how to get referrals series I suggest you read them as I have written them, starting with part 1 and working your way up to part 5 because you will not benefit from certain steps until you have completed the previous ones.

How to get Referrals Step 1 - Trust
"Love all, but trust a few. "
William Shakespeare

Truer words could not be spoken when it comes to getting referrals online. We all love to see and read peoples experiences and recommendations, but who do we actually trust?

You need to give people a reason to trust you, the more ways the better. When you are looking to get referrals in your programs you are asking them to give their time and possibly money. You need to do everything you can to make sure that is not in vain or wasted.

Things you HAVE to do in order to build trust:
  • Have a Blog or Website, free sites are easy to make and maintain in your spare time. If you don't have anywhere to promote, how do you expect to get referrals?
  • Somewhere on your site you need to have an "about me" page, or fully complete profile. People want to know who they are dealing with.
  • Ways to contact you, a "contact me" form is the standard in blogs and sites, but having your IM,Twitter and E-mail is also needed. Not everyone likes to use one specific form.
  • Give info about the sites you promote, at the very least this should be minimum payout, payout options, who can join.
Recommended to build trust:
  • Show payment proofs.
  • Share personal experience with the site.
  • Don't sell what you promote, show how it helps.
  • Focus on them, not you.
  • Give quality contest on a regular basis. If it's never changing they have no incentive to come back.
  • Don't overdue advertisements on your site. To many and you look desperate to just make a buck any way possible. Earnings from referrals are greater then advertisement earnings.
I personally recommend using Blogspot.com to create a blog as I feel it's the easiest to pick up and go with and allows for plenty of customization. I can also help you in this process as I'm very knowledgeable in this.
But if you prefer to go with a free website:

Another Key Point in building trust is "Branding". For example "Nike" when you read that word you think the "Nike Swoosh" and "Just Do It". That is clever and proper branding, several different things that people can recognize that all relate to one product.

When it comes to personal branding online this is accomplished by Avatar pictures, User name's and sometimes a slogan. If you use the same unique Avatar picture and name on all the forums, social sites and IM's you use. Then when they come to your blog or site and see it, they know they are dealing with you and have arrived at the right place.

Suggestions for branding:
  • Don't use some picture a lot of people do, I.E Homer Simpson, a cat or the latest movie release poster.
  • Pictures of yourself CAN work, but make sure it is an identifiable close up with no distractions in the back round.
  • If you can include a clever slogan in the pic that is readable do so, but don't force it. The Image is what's important.
  • Use the same User Name Everywhere you go. Do not use numbers! User names with numbers are often treated as uncreative and do little to instill trust. (Think of all the Major company's you can, how many of them have numbers?) If the user name you usually use is taken, A simple trick is to have the first letter appear twice both capitalized. Also make sure to use proper Name grammar, I.E Bill, not bill or biLL.


How to get Referrals Step 2 - Content
Few things can turn readers off like badly written content.Like content that is full of misspelled words and short hand type like "u" instead of you. When people are getting information from you and your site they don't want to be treated like a child, or think they are learning from one.

Lack of informational content is arguably the biggest way to turn your possible referrals off. Have you ever visited a website that is just full of banners? You didn't stick around because they did nothing to build your trust. That site lacked content, now if they had a couple paragraphs or even sentences about the site, then had a banner. You would've been more inclined to stick around to read the info and join the site they were promoting.

Good content is always going to give them something they need to know about the site. Provide helpful tips where you can, if a site has a great section that you check daily mention it. Don't be afraid to give them your full daily routine on the site. If it works for you, it may work for them.

Hyped content that is misleading may get you the initial sign up but it won't get you trust or active referrals. Once they quickly realize it's not what you promised, they will quit using the site and no longer look to you for other sites to join up under you.

Having a referral that signs up to one site because you gave accurate and quality information will get that same referral to join many of your sites. So if the site is only going to make them a few quick bucks, say so. But if the site isn't going to produce results over night, don't say it will.
Tip: Instead of saying the site will make you 100's. Say the site won't make you 10 overnight, but it will make 100's overtime.

After creating the original content, make sure to come back and edit it if something changes. If they just added a new feature come back and put "Newly added: new info etc". You never know when a repeat reader will visit your site and see the new feature and that will make them join. Staying on top of the sites you promote is important.

Recap for better content:
  • Always use spellchecker and reread your stuff. Make sure links work as well. If you have good friends, have them proof read it.
  • Do not use shorthand.
  • Inform them what the site is with minimum payout, payout options, and who can join.
  • Give them something they need to know about the site outside of the basics.
  • Share personal experiences.
  • Do not over hype or lie about the site.
  • Give accurate info and make sure it's current.

I recommend you to create a blog, (or website) and make your first entry or two about who you are and what types of things you do to make money online. Take a look at my about me page for ideas.

If you feel there is any more tips you can add or have questions, please leave a comment or use the contact me form.

Part 2 of How to get referrals is titled "Give" and discusses how to give away info and helpful things to gain referrals.

The Blog Get's a New Look!

I really hope you all enjoy it and will take a minute to answer the two polls in the top left.
For the color Poll these are the Three Options. You choose the color you like best because I'm here to help you and want you to read in comfort.
BLUE
GREEN
YELLOW

I made this Template change for many reasons:
  • This new template should load much faster.
  • It's much better for SEO on the back end.
  • There is a now a Side Bar on both side's so you get more info.
  • Much more Professional look.
  • Most Importantly, I will be able to give you much better blog entry's.
So what's in store for the blog and what will you be learning?
  • Starting Sunday Aug 9th there will be a contest happening for as long as needed. Prizes include Money, Free Advertising on this blog, and your referral link in place of mine for this blog. Everyone will be allowed to win twice, and up to an additional 10 times.
  • While the contest is running I will be releasing a 5 part series on "How To Get Referrals". Each part will cover two different ways.
  • More Free Blog Tools will be shared.
  • An in Depth entry at how to organize your time spent online for maximum use.
  • More Tips to increase your blog traffic.
  • Most Importantly a commitment from me to you that I will be sharing some of the best ways I know to Earn Money Online with no investment.
Thank You for being a reader of Gooziks Blog and hope you will continue to read here and share with your friends.

Please vote on the polls on the top left of the site, tyvm!

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