Ideas bubble forth and before you know it, you are working on several ideas but not really sure of the outcome of any of them and ultimately spread yourself to thin.

With all of the GOLD Rush Hype style methods and products on the web, many people get sucked into the crusade of finding that one easy method that will make them rich in a few weeks.

Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet or magic pill that exists to create a fortune overnight.  However, the people who spend their time working on one strategy and making it a success are the ones that ultimately earn a sizable income leaving the dream hunters behind.

So, Which Business Model Should You Choose?

This is by far the hardest decision for many, and often people don’t make a decision and drift from idea to idea.

The most important thing is to pick one strategy and work on just that strategy and see it through until you make it work.

It won’t happen over-night and it won’t happen if you give up.

If you work on any of the strategies below with an open mind, with dedication and a desire to be successful then you will be able to make a sizable online income.

As always learning from someone who knows what they are doing (be it through networking or through a paid course) will significantly speed up the time it takes for you to be successful at any of these strategies.

3 Effective CPA Marketing Strategies with Great Potential

1.) Pay Per Click “PPC” to Cost Per Action “CPA”

This involves brokering Pay Per Click Traffic (Adwords, YSM, Microsft Adcenter etc.) to CPA Offers and other affiliate programs with the intent in earning more from commissions that you spend on your ads.

Estimated Cost to Setup: $1000 – $4000 (PPC software, PPC courses and lost Ad-spend)

Time Frame: approx. 2-6 months before seeing any Return On Investment “ROI” as there is a steep learning curve. For newbies, expect a longer time frame to hit a profit and a larger potential net-loss to start with. Budget and expect the worst case scenario and not the best.

Pros: Extremely lucrative with potential for a 5 figure monthly income in the first year.

Cons: The downside with this strategy is that it is unsustainable.  Successful campaigns often die for a variety of reasons and as a result you need to constantly check your statistics to ensure all your campaigns are making money.

Negative ROI “Return On Investment” when starting and testing campaigns.

Very difficult to outsource this strategy without giving away your strategies, niches and successful keywords.

2.) Article\Web 2.0 Marketing, Blogging & Affiliate Marketing

The safer low cost strategy is starting out with article marketing mixing in Squidoo and other web 2.0 properties to promote your own blog and affiliate products (CPA Offers, Click Bank, eBay etc.).

Ultimately, you should work on building up a really useful ‘product focused’ niche blog that provides true value to its readers.

This blog will create long term sustainability to your income and open up new revenue streams.

Look to add value to the reader and not just fill your site with crappy filler content and poorly written articles.

Additionally you should work on other promotion techniques (there are so many available) as this will greatly expand your business as you can get more traffic – and traffic is key.

Cost to Setup: $10-$20 (domain name & hosting).

Time Frame: Results can be seen in first 1-2 months but are usually quite modest.

Pros: If you work on this daily creating several articles each day and promoting them wisely reaching $100 a day over a few months is realistic. If you grow your blog to dominate its niche potential is higher but it’s a lot of work and results are slow and gradual.

Despite the long term effort required, this the best of the 3 strategies due to it being sustainable and very easy to outsource 90% of tasks making it very easy to semi-automate once the site is established.

You can literally create a $100/day profitable blog and outsource 90% of the tasks so you only need to spend 2 hours a week on the site dealing with freelance staff. That’s like $700/hr once you are set-up which is why I love this strategy.

Cons: Can take some months to build momentum to start seeing a decent ROI, but once past that you will never look back.

3.) PLR eBooks & Membership Site

This is where you get lots of Private Label Rights “PLR” eBooks on a certain niche and setting up a niche membership site where you give access to all these eBooks.

Promote your membership site in relevant niche forums and groups (like Yahoo Groups) using a signature link and making interesting posts (not blatant advertising) and possibly do some article marketing as above.

Use of a mailing list with an auto responder is also important to help close the sale and drive additional sales.

Cost to Setup: $100-$800 (Buying PLR eBooks, Membership Script, Email Auto responder, Domain, Hosting).

Pros: Once you have your membership site and an auto responder series setup (about 2-12 weeks work for newbie) if you work extremely hard every day to promote your membership site to a targeted audience reaching a 4 figure ($xxxx) monthly income within a few weeks of launch is realistic – with experience you can rinse and repeat this method and get even better results.

Using a recurring membership structure will help with long term revenue.

Cons: Finding quality PLR eBooks can be extremely difficult. There’s lots of PLR out there but most of them are awful quality. Additionally, continuous work is needed to sustain income. Even with recurring memberships people usually cancel so your income will depreciate unless you continue with promotion or launch a new sites.

While some work can be outsourced, it is difficult to outsource some of it meaning it is hard to automate this business model in its entirity.

This blog will outline the What, Who, and How of CPA marketing.

What is CPA marketing?

Cost Per Action “CPA” aka Pay Per Action or “PPA” is an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for a specified action such as a form submission i.e. zip code submit, email address submit, etc. or the successful sale of products linked to online advertisements.

Advertisers seeking direct response methods consider “CPA” the optimal way to buy online advertising.  Using this method advertisers only pays if CPA marketer sends a customer to their offer and a valid email, zip code is captured, or someone signs up for a free trial or free product depending on the product or service being marketed.

Who benefits from CPA marketing?

Advertiser benefits:  The advertiser upon CPA marketers campaign success gets high volume targeted quality leads that they in turn communicate with to complete their objective of sales, brand awareness, demographic profiling, etc.

CPA Marketer benefits:  Instead of getting paid to make a sale, you get paid for simply attracting visitors and getting quality information.  The advertiser in turn is responsible for completing their objecting whether it be closing a sale, increasing brand awareness, demographic profiling, etc.

How can you take advantage of this opportunity?

The ONLY way to participate is by applying to join the CPA networks.  They have tons of CPA offers from all kinds of companies, in all kinds of niches. This CPA marketing is not only for blogs. You can put them on regular websites, build landing pages for specific offers, email you opt-in list, and so on. There are all kinds of offers that fit into any kind of online marketing. We have put links to some quality CPA site below.Remember these CPA sites don’t just allow anyone to advertise their offers. You need to convince them you are worthy. Fill out the application and have a phone conversation with them. Let them know you are going to make them and you money. It might seem like a hassle, but it is worth the extra money you will be making, and it is part of their quality control because of the top advertisers they have. For those of you that are new to making money online this provides a great opportunity.

Step 1.) If you are new to CPA marketing, do a little research on how the industry works.

Step 2.) Consider having a website if you don’t already which all applications request.  This shows your seriousness to your business and adds credibility.

Step 3.) Research and complete applications for various CPA networks and or brokers.

Step 4.) Contact the CPA networks affiliate manager to introduce yourself and follow up on your recently submited application.

Step 5.) Upon successful CPA network approval, research best offers of interest.

Step 6.) Promote offers

IMPORTANT: We urge you to join multiple CPA networks. Many networks resell traffic so, be sure to compare CPA offers across networks to get the very highest payouts.

Here are links to some great CPA sites. They are not in any specific order. You will want to sign up for as many as you can because different ones have different offers.

CPA Networks

MaxBounty is one of my favorite CPA Ad Networks. Their affiliate managers are friendly and helpful — offers are diverse including paid surveys, gambling, finance and more. They do have some offers that allow incentives. Join now!

XY7 featured in the Top Affiliate Challenge internet TV show and has many offers suitable for email publishers. Join now!

Never Blue Ads are making friends fast amongst CPA affiliates. A usable interface makes them stand out. Join now!

New! Copeac – a contraction of ‘Communicate Perform Achieve’ – is another popular choice for CPA affiliates. Join now!

FluxAds has many “freebie offers” including some that cater to MySpace related sites. Friendly and helpful affiliate managers. Join now!

Canadian Sponsors is a Canada-based CPA Network offering many of the usual CPA offers to another English-speaking market. Why not give Canada a try? Join now!

Hydra Network promise to beat any payout for the same campaign, as well as offering their Hydra Rewards program. Join now!

Rocket Profit is one of the few CPA networks which is NASDAQ-listed.
Join now!

Azoogle is another solid CPA Network with a diverse selection of offers for publishers to promote. Freebies, Ringtones, Finance, and much more, with a decent custom interface.Join now!

Primary Ads is powered by Kowabunga’s affiliate platform, instead of Directtrack.
Join now!

ClixGalore has their own proprietary plaform plus plenty of unique offers you won’t on any other CPA network. Join now!

These networks don’t pay a second tier, so we can’t include them in our rankings. But we think they’re well worth a look regardless.

Pepperjam Network call their CPA Network ‘next generation affiliate marketing’. The interface and reporting puts most other CPA networks to shame. Join now!

Poker CPA Networks

Many poker affiliate programs offer CPA offers. Here are some of the best known poker affiliate programs with CPA offers.

NEW! 888.com’s affiliate network uffiliates covers 888.com, 888ladies.com, Pacific Poker & more.
Join now!

NEW! Full Tilt Poker’s affiliate network offers monthly reporting
Join now!

NEW! PKR.com offers a unique 3D poker cardroom, with a generous CPA offer for affiliates to match.
Join now!

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NEW! Cake Poker is on the Cake AFfiliates network.
Join now!

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NEW! Tower Affiliates’ poker CPA program is certified by Casino Affiliate Programs .
Join now!

NEW! Chipleader is the poker affiliate network for Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker. Also certified by Casino Affiliate Programs .
Join now!

NEW! Carbon Poker is on the PFC Affiliates poker network.
Join now!

Dating CPA Networks

Networks with multiple CPA or Cost Per Sale offers in the dating niche.

FriendFinder’s CPA network covers dozens of niche sites, including Adult Friend Finder, Gay Friend Finder & many more dating niches. Join now!

EasyDate’s dating affiliate network offers a choice of CPA or percentage deals. Join now!

Great job by Kathy Dempsey at http://themwordblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/what-marketing-really-means.html

This blog is titled The M Word, so I’m going to jump right in by defining what that M Word really means.

Some of you might be surprised to learn that you haven’t been using it correctly. Even some people who write and speak about marketing don’t seem to understand the difference between a number of similar words. So leave it to a professional editor to bring the differences to light!

Here’s the official (per the marketing business) definition of marketing, along with other related words so you can understand the differences:

• Marketing is taking steps to move goods from producers to consumers. It’s determining what people want, delivering it, and then periodically updating that whole process.
• Public Relations is a planned, long-term communication program (via various media) that has a goal of convincing the public to have good will toward something. It’s helping people to think well of an organization, product, or concept.
• Publicity is sending a message via official channels such as news releases, newsletters, press conferences, etc.
• Promotion is furthering the growth or development of something. It’s not just aiming toward good will; it’s encouraging people to use it by telling people how it would benefit them.
• Advertising is calling attention to something through paid announcements.
• Branding is establishing a strong link between a company and its logo/typeface/picture or name/phrase. Its aim is to make people immediately associate the company with the graphics or words it uses. Branding helps build loyalty.
• Advocacy is getting people who have good opinions of your organization to speak to others on its behalf; to convince other people of its value.

So basically, all the other words/actions fall under “marketing.” In true marketing, you start by asking targeted groups of users (or potential users)exactly what they do and do not want from you. From there, you design & deliver the product or service, publicize it, then follow up with people in your target market to see if you’ve got it right. Then you need to study their responses and evaluate your service, change it accordingly, and re-release. Rinse. Repeat.

True marketing works because you’re not guessing what services people want; you’re asking them directly. So you know that people will want and use what you offer. What a concept!!

By ~Kathy Dempsey

The GOLD Rush, an end to the simple life and birth of the New American Dream

An accidental discovery near the obscure American River would forever change a young nation and re-define the American Dream. The simple life would no longer be enough. In its place would come a new kind of lifestyle: entrepreneurial, wide-open, free. The new American dream: to get rich; to make a fortune–quickly.

Instant wealth was here for the taking. All across America, young men made the decision to go to California.

Every city, every hamlet would send its brightest, its strongest, to California–and eagerly await their triumphant return home. They came from Europe, Asia, and South America in search of instant riches.

It was one of the greatest adventures the world had ever seen.

In the early 1840s, California was a distant outpost that only a handful of Americans had seen. The sleepy port that would become San Francisco had just a few hundred residents.

John Sutter was one of the wealthiest people in the region–an affable Swiss immigrant who came to California in 1839, intent on building his own private empire. Sutter soon built a fort, amassed 12,000 head of cattle, and took on hundreds of workers. However, his most prolific crop was debt. He owed money to creditors as far away as Russia. But Sutter was a man with a dream; a dream of a vast agricultural domain that he would control.

By the mid 1840s, more and more Americans were trickling into California by wagon and ship. Sutter welcomed the newcomers–he saw them as subjects for his self-styled kingdom. But Sutter had no idea that the trickle would become a flood–a deluge of humanity that would destroy his dream.

Sutter’s undoing began 50 miles northeast of his fort on the American River. In late 1847, James Marshall and about 20 men were sent to the river by Sutter to build a sawmill–to provide lumber for Sutter’s growing ranch. The sawmill was nearly complete when a glint of something caught Marshall’s eye. It was January 24th, 1848.

Quote from James Marshall

“I reached my hand down and picked it up; it made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold. The piece was about half the size and shape of a pea. Then I saw another.”

After making the greatest find in the history of the West, Marshall and the other workers went back to work. But they kept stumbling upon more gold.

Still in disbelief, Marshall took samples back to Sutter’s Fort. Sutter and Marshall tested the shiny metal as best they could–a tattered encyclopedia gave them clues. It was gold, they concluded–but neither man was happy about it. Sutter was building an agricultural fiefdom–he didn’t want the competition that gold-seekers might bring. And Marshall had a sawmill to build–gold hunters would just get in his way. So they made a pact to keep the discovery a secret.

But it wasn’t long before stories of gold filtered into the surrounding countryside. Yet there was no race to the American River. The news of Marshall’s gold was just another fantastic tale–too unlikely to be believed.

The gold rush needed a booster, and Sam Brannan was the man. A San Francisco merchant, Brannan was a skilled craftsman of HYPE. Eventually, the gold rush would make him the richest person in California–but Sam Brannan never mined for gold.
He had a different scheme–a plan he set into motion by running through the streets of San Francisco shouting about Marshall’s discovery. As proof, Brannan held up a bottle of gold dust. It was a masterstroke that would spark the rush for gold–and make Brannan rich.

Brannan keenly understood the laws of supply and demand. His wild run through San Francisco came just after he had purchased every pick axe, pan and shovel in the region. A metal pan that sold for twenty cents a few days earlier, was now available from Brannan for fifteen dollars. In just nine weeks he made thirty-six thousand dollars.

Sam Brennan the king of the wheeling and dealing who pulled the trigger on the gold rush was expanding his sphere of influence–and earning unheard of profits. While miners talked of gold, Brannan shrewdly bought up carpet tacks– every tack in California. By cornering the market, he could extort huge profits, a technique he executed flawlessly–over and over.

But Brannan was only the first in a long line of entrepreneurs who made their fortunes without digging for gold.

In 1853–according to legend–a man stitched a pair of pants out of canvas; sturdy pants that later became popular with the miners–very popular. His name: Levi Strauss.
But during the gold rush, Strauss was best known for his prosperous dry good business. It wasn’t until 1872 that he added a critical innovation to canvas pants, the metal rivet–a breakthrough that would change the course of American fashion.

Levi Strauss

This New York butcher decided one day to walk to California. Eventually, he opened a meat market in Placerville–and later took his profits to Milwaukee, where he set up a meat processing plant. His name was Phillip Armour, and the Armour meat packing company became one of the nation’s largest.

Phillip Armour

Armour’s neighbor in Placerville, was an enterprising wheelbarrow maker who dreamed of bigger things. After saving every dime for six years, he left California for his home in Indiana. There, he plowed his profits into the family wagon-making business. The man’s name was John Studebaker–and the family enterprise would go on to build covered wagons for the Oregon-bound pioneers, and later–automobiles.

John Studebaker

Two businessmen also looked west and saw opportunity. Sensing the unsettled atmosphere in California–they offered what many miners desperately wanted: stability. The offered secure, honest banking, transportation, even mail delivery. They were Henry Wells and William Fargo. Their company, Wells Fargo, became a giant in the banking industry.

Henry Wells and William Fargo

The most famous celebrity of the gold rush era came to California as a complete unknown and took a job writing for the San Francisco Call. It wasn’t long until his fanciful story about a frog jumping contest in nearby Calaveras County thrust him into the national spotlight. His name: Samuel Clemens–Mark Twain.
Clemens boss at the Call was also destined to become a best-selling author, Brett Harte. Unlike Clemens, Harte wrote almost exclusively about western characters–colorful stories about miners, bandits, and gamblers. His tale of an orphaned baby adopted by a group of rough miners would make him famous and rich.

Samuel Clemens–Mark TwainFor every famous success, there were a thousand smaller stories of people who used their wits, not their shovels– to find a fortune. Creative entrepreneurs were everywhere–looking for a new angle–a new way to make money, more money.In 1848 and early 49, everyone was making money–but the party didn’t last forever. For most miners, it didn’t last very long at all.

Well partner, today we are in the middle of a modern day Online GOLD Rush.  Just as in the 1800′s, HYPE and misdirection was the planned scheme of the famous GOLD Rush that took the world by storm and left many of that generation with empty promises and broken dreams.

Folks, pay attention so you don’t lose your loot to these modern day GOLD Rush hype men that sell tools and services ONLY to pad their pockets!

In the coming weeks we will be providing a “WANTED” list of these Online and Offline HYPE Men and companies.

Watch your billfolds hombre’s.

Settle down and take a load off while you discover the Real McCoy on Prospecting, Lead Generation and finding CPA GOLD out there in them hills.

More on those topics later, let me share a little bit about who I am.

I am the new sheriff in town!  I am known around these parts as “Mac” short for McNulty.

These days, everyone has GOLD FEVER, trying to strike “GOLD” whether they are using MLM, Affiliate Marketing, Mentoring, Coaching, etc.  Most are being left with only dead end directions, rehashed tools, empty promises, and a hand full of FOOLS Gold only to be left looking for the next GOLD MINE.  Well partner, I am here to clean up this town and shed some truth on today’s WILD WILD WEST GOLD RUSH.  I will share a little history on the past GOLD Rushes, expose the present GOLD Rush, so you can create a better future.

It’s about time someone stood up to these so called GURU Bandits and exposed them for wolves in sheep’s clothing they really are!

It might get a little bumpy as we go, so hold on for the ride.

Let’s get started.

Ye Ha!