February 2015 ~ ASEDOMAIN

Wednesday, 11 February 2015

How to Discover Your Life Passion

If you could do one thing to transform your life, I would highly recommend it be to find something you’re passionate about, and do it for a living.

Now, this isn’t as easy as it sounds, but it’s well worth the effort. If you dread going to your job, or find yourself constantly lacking motivation, or find what you’re doing dull and repetitive, you need to start looking for a new job. Staying in your current job will not only continue to make you unhappy, but you are not realizing your full potential in life.

Imagine this instead: you get up early, jumping out of bed, excited to go to work. You might put in more hours than the average person, but it doesn’t seem difficult to you, because your work hours just zoom right by. You are often in that state of mind often referred to as “flow,” where you can lose track of the world and time, losing yourself in the task at hand. Work is not work as many people refer to it, but something that is fun and interesting and exciting. It’s not a “job” but a passion.

If you’ve got a job you dislike, or even hate, this will sound like a pipe dream to you. And if you never put in the effort to find what you’re passionate about, you’re right: such a thing will never be possible. But dare to dream, dare to imagine the possibilities, and dare to actually search for what you love, and it is not only a possibility, but a probability.

How can you find what you’re passionate about? Here are some suggestions:

    Is there something you already love doing? Do you have a hobby, or something you loved doing as a child, but never considered it as a possibility? Whether it’s reading comic books, collecting something, making something, creating or building, there is probably a way you could do it for a living. Open a comic book shop, or create a comic book site online. If there’s already something you love doing, you’re ahead of the game. Now you just need to research the possibilities of making money from it.
    What do you spend hours reading about? For myself, when I get passionate about something, I’ll read about it for hours on end. I’ll buy books and magazines. I’ll spend days on the Internet finding out more. There may be a few possibilities here for you … and all of them are possible career paths. Don’t close your mind to these topics. Look into them.
    Brainstorm. Nothing comes to mind right away? Well, get out a sheet of paper, and start writing down ideas. Anything that comes to mind, write it down. Look around your house, on your computer, on your bookshelf, for inspirations, and just write them down. There are no bad ideas at this stage. Write everything down, and evaluate them later.
    Ask around, and surf for possibilities. Ask other people for ideas. See what others have discovered as their passions. Look all over the Internet for ideas. The more possibilities you find, the more likely your chances of finding your true passion.
    Don’t quit your job just yet. If you find your calling, your passion, don’t just turn in your resignation tomorrow. It’s best to stay in your job while you’re researching the possibilities. If you can do your passion as a side job, and build up the income for a few months or a year, that’s even better. It gives you a chance to build up some savings (and if you’re going into business for yourself, you’ll need that cash reserve), while practicing the skills you need. See below for more.
    Give it a try first. It’s best to actually test your new idea before jumping into it as a career. Do it as a hobby or side job at first, so that you can see if it’s really your true calling. You may be passionate about it for a few days, but where the rubber meets the road is whether you’re passionate about it for at least a few months. If you pass this test, you have probably found it.
    Do as much research as possible. Know as much about your passion as possible. If this has been a passion for awhile, you may have already been doing this. At any rate, do even more research. Read every website possible on the topic, and buy the best books available. Find other people, either in your area or on the Internet, who do what you want to do for a living, and quiz them about the profession. How much do they make? What training and education did they need? What skills are necessary? How did they get their start? What recommendations do they have. Often you’ll find that people are more than willing to give advice.
    Practice, and practice, and practice some more. Don’t go into it with amateur skill level. If you want to make money — to be a professional — you need to have professional skills. Get very good at your future career and you will make money at it. Practice for hours on end. If it’s something you love, the practice should be something you want to do.
    Never quit trying. Can’t find your passion at first? Give up after a few days and you’re sure to fail. Keep trying, for months on end if necessary, and you’ll find it eventually. Thought you found your passion but you got tired of it? No problem! Start over again and find a new passion. There may be more than one passion in your lifetime, so explore all the possibilities. Found your passion but haven’t been successful making a living at it? Don’t give up. Keep trying, and try again, until you succeed. Success doesn’t come easy, so giving up early is a sure way to fail. Keep trying, and you’ll get there.

What I’ve outlined here is a lot of work … but it will be the best investment you’ve ever made. Follow your passion, and you will be truly happy and incredibly fulfilled. I wish you the wildest successes of your wildest dreams!

24 IMPORTANT REASONS YOU SHOULD BLOG

24 Key Benefits of Blogging
Different people blog for different reasons. For some, blogging is an excellent means of satisfying their personal ego. Many people blog because they earn a full-time income out of it. There are others who blog for academic benefits. Once you have stepped into the world of blogging, you’ll know how beneficial it can be in a number of ways. I came across a college student who blogged only to prove that he was making the best use of the internet connection his father got him. Funny, isn’t it?

Well, when you ask the majority of bloggers out there for the benefits of blogging opportunities, they could probably give you a long list of benefits blogging has brought them. Let us have a look at the twenty-four most important benefits blogging can bring you – personally, business-wise and academically.

#1. It Refines Your Writing Skills

First and foremost, blogging and blogger outreach offers you the biggest benefit of fine-tuning your writing skills. Once you start blogging, you want to write stuff that people will really want to read. In the process, you develop your own unique style of writing. With more and more practice, you can master the art of writing effectively, attractively and interestingly. So, blogging makes you an accomplished writer, as you can see. And who knows, you could soon plan to publish your first novel!

#2. It Increases Your Knowledge Base

One of the biggest benefits of blogging is that it broadens your knowledge base. If you focus on a niche industry, you continue increasing your knowledge about the industry, how things work in that field of work. Blogging gives you the excellent benefit of establishing yourself as an expert in your chosen niche or area of work.

#3. It Makes You a Better Researcher

Research is the backbone of all blogging. Many people may not like researching initially. But once they start a blog to write for, they find it unavoidable to do some research for writing informative posts that will be liked and shared by a large number of people. In an effort to provide readers with super quality blog posts, you tend to research more and more. Soon, researching becomes a habit for you. And the benefit is that you become a better researcher.

4. You’ll develop an eye for meaningful things.

By necessity, blogging requires a filter. It’s simply not possible to write about every event, every thought, and every happening in your life. Instead, blogging is a never-ending process of choosing to articulate the most meaningful events and the most important thoughts. This process of choice helps you develop an eye for meaningful things. And remember that sometimes the most meaningful things appear in the most mundane—but you’ll see what I mean once you get started.

5. It’ll lead to healthier life habits.

Blogging requires time, devotion, commitment, and discipline. And just to be clear, those are all good things to embrace – they will help you get the most out of your days and life. Blogging will provide opportunity for new life habits to emerge in yours.

6. You’ll meet new people.

Whether it be through comments, e-mails, or social media, you may be surprised at how quickly you meet people on-line. And by meet people, I mean legitimately form relationships that seek to serve one another. The blogging community is friendly, encouraging, and genuinely cheering for you to succeed—the only thing missing is you.

#7. It Earns You Name

As you continue to provide excellent quality posts to your readers, they get to know your better. They start to know about your passions, your likes and dislikes. By writing on topics of your interest, you establish yourself as a master of the subject. Ultimately, expertise brings you name and fame, as the number of your followers (or subscribers) keeps on swelling.

#8. It Connects You with Potential Bloggers

Believe me, blogging has a huge wonderful world of its own. Though you may not be aware of it initially, you soon get to know how blogging connects you with potential bloggers in your niche industry. When you keep on blogging, you get to know about other successful bloggers, get to read their ideas, thoughts and viewpoints.

#9. It Motivates You

Every one of us has times when we feel down in spirits. But as soon as you start to think that there are some passionate readers who really like you and care for you, it gives you a high. Even looking at the good stuff that you have given people to read motivates you. This is really one of the key benefits bloggers can get through blogging.

#10. It Earns You Income

Undoubtedly, blogging is one of those skills that you can turn into a full fledged profession. There are many who are earning a full time income out of it. Some of them have their own industry related blogs while others write for other established bloggers. However, you should be advised that there’s no shortcut to achieve blogging success. A lot of research, time, energy and effort go into making blogging earn you a decent income.

#11. You’ll inspire others.

Blogging not only changes your life, it also changes the life of the reader. And because blogs are free for the audience and open to the public, on many levels, it is an act of giving. It is a selfless act of service to invest your time, energy, and worldview into a piece of writing and then offer it free to anybody who wants to read it. Others will find inspiration in your writing… and that’s a wonderful feeling.

#12. You’ll become more well-rounded in your mindset.

After all, blogging is an exercise in give-and-take. One of the greatest differences between blogging and traditional publishing is the opportunity for readers to offer input. As the blog’s writer, you introduce a topic that you feel is significant and meaningful. You take time to lay out a subject in the minds of your readers and offer your thoughts on the topic. Then, the readers get to respond. And often times, their responses in the comment section challenge us to take a new, fresh look at the very topic we thought was so important in the first place.

#13. It’s free.

Your blog can begin today without spending a single penny now (or ever).
I use WordPress and highly recommend it. With an initial investment of $0, why not give it a shot? Or for just a few dollars/month, you can use your very own domain name.

#14. You’ll become more comfortable being known.

Blogging introduces yourself to the world. It causes you to articulate the life you live and the worldview behind the decisions that you make. Whether you have 1 reader or 10,000, the blogging process opens up your life to those on the outside. It is a good exercise in human-existence to be known by others. Over time, you’ll reveal more and more of yourself to the outside world… and you’ll be excited to find a world that relates to you and enjoys hearing your story.

#15. It’ll serve as a personal journal.

Blogging serves many of the same roles as a personal journey. It trains us to be observant and gives weight to the personal growth that we are experiencing. It trains our minds to track life and articulate the changes we are experiencing. Your blog becomes a digital record of your life that is saved “in the cloud.” As a result, it can never be lost, stolen, or destroyed in a fire.

#16. You’ll become more confident.

Blogging will help you discover more confidence in your life. You will quickly realize that you do live an important life with a unique view and have something to offer others.

#17. You’ll find a platform to recommend.

We all love to recommend something we have found enjoyable or beneficial—whether it be a nice restaurant, a good book, or a new outlook on life. The fullness of joy is not experienced until we have shared that joy with others. A blog provides an opportunity to do that very thing. It provides a platform to share the joy we have experienced and recommend good things we have discovered to others.

#18. It’s quite a rush with every positive comment.

There’s a certain little rush that accompanies the immediate positive feedback that you receive every time a reader posts a comment, shares your writing on Facebook, or tweets it out to their Twitter followers. While walking the fine line between finding encouragement in that feedback and obsessing over it may take some time to get used to, it’s far better to find that line than to never seek it out in the first place.

#19. It is a Low Cost Marketing Device

A well maintained and regularly updated blog happens to be a cheap marketing device. With a quality blog, you can instantly inform your consumers of the recently launched products and services much before you think to promote them through other media channels.

#20 It offers Ease of Web Publishing

Thanks to the availability of easy-to-use blogging software. With an automated blog software, you don’t need a web designer managing the technical aspects. With an easy-to-use blogging software like WordPress (one of the most preferred), you can easily publish posts all by yourself.

#21. It Helps You Manage Your Online Reputation

Today, brands have become worried about managing their reputation online. If you are facing any kind of negative press, you can counter it with the help of a blog.

#22. It Keeps You Ahead of Your Competition

Blogging is a great way to stay ahead of your competitors. In today’s competitive industry, a blog helps you inform your consumers of the way you work, how you differ from others and how your services are way above from your competitors.

#23. It is a Great Tool for Relational Marketing

A blog can prove to be a powerful too for building long-term relationships with your consumers. By posting unbiased and heartfelt articles to your blog, you can earn the much-needed trust from your potential customers to drive business growth.

#24. It is an Excellent Social Media Marketing Device

Popular social media websites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace and social bookmarking websites like StumbleUpon and Digg can give you amazing results with you blog. If a single blog article goes viral on these sites, you can a surge of new site visitors. In addition, the viral content can result in a number of quality inbound links.

Remember, you don’t need to blog as a means to get rich or as a means to gather a huge following. You don’t even need to blog as a means to change the Internet… the change that a blog will cause in your life is reason enough.

73 Quotes On Perfection and Excellence.

“Perfection simply doesn’t exist”, “It is a slow death” – You’ve heard this before, haven’t you? But you’re not going to listen to them, are you? If you’re not among those who compromise and settle for less than perfection, then the following inspiring quotes on “Perfection” and “Excellence” should motivate you to do even better.

I haven’t listed any of those quotes that are against perfection as I believe that you’re here for inspiration and not for distraction.

I’m Not Perfect. Nobody Is Perfect.

Could be. But once again, you don’t want to listen, right?

When I started my search for this post, I came across ample “nobody is perfect” quotes or ones which indicate “I am not perfect” but that’s not what I wanted to share. I agree that those quotes make sense but then they don’t motivate you.

[quote]They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they’d make up their minds. ~ Winston Churchill[/quote]

Just like the above quote which emphasizes that running after perfection may not be a great idea. But let’s not get disoriented and focus on Excellence and Perfection quotes that will motivate us to move forward in life.

First Things First. Let’s Start With Excellence…

Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny. ~ Aristotle
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. ~ Aristotle
We acquire a particular quality by acting in a particular way. ~ Aristotle
No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness. ~ Aristotle
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. ~ Aristotle
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire. ~ Aristotle
Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in excellence; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good in themselves. ~ Aristotle
I’m never pleased with anything, I’m a perfectionist, it’s part of who I am. ~ Michael Jackson
My mother’s wonderful. To me she’s perfection. ~ Michael Jackson
Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly. ~ Plato
Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. ~ Vince Lombardi
I was made to be a perfectionist at everything I did. Everything was more important than what I wanted. ~ Dennis Quaid
If I only had a little humility, I’d be perfect. ~ Ted Turner
The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence. ~ Confucius
The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying. ~ David Ogilvy
It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others. ~ Joseph Addison
I’m chasing perfection. ~ Kobe Bryant
If you’ll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your life. ~ Unknown
Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected. ~ Steve Jobs
We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. ~ Steve Jobs
But I think Steve’s main contribution besides just the pure leadership is his passion for excellence. He’s a perfectionist. Good enough isn’t good enough. And also his creative spirit. You know he really, really wants to do something great. ~ Andy Hertzfeld (about Steve Jobs)
Mediocre men work at their best; men seeking excellence strive to do better. ~ Edwin Louis Cole
Perfection is not just about control. It’s also about letting go. Surprise yourself so you can surprise the audience. ~ Thomas Leroy (Black Swan)
The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. ~ Vince Lombardi
I’m a perfectionist. I’m pretty much insatiable. I feel there’s so many things I can improve on. ~ Serena Williams
Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude. ~ Ralph Marston
Mediocrity will never do. You are capable of something better. ~ Gordon B. Hinckley
If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude. ~ Colin Powell
By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property. ~ Voltaire
Simplicity in character, in manners, in style; in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence. ~ Colin Powell
Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better. ~ Pat Riley
Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. ~ John W. Gardner
If there was nothing wrong in the world there wouldn’t be anything for us to do. ~ George Bernard Shaw
Whoever I am, or whatever I am doing, some kind of excellence is within my reach. ~ John W. Gardner
The perfection of art is to conceal art. ~ Quintilian
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them. ~ John W. Gardner
Anything worth doing, is worth doing right. ~ Hunter S. Thompson
Love is the bond of perfection. ~ John Winthrop
If everything is imperfect in this imperfect world, love is most perfect in its perfect imperfection. ~ Gunnar Björnstrand
We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent. ~ Barack Obama
I’m a perfectionist, and I always think that I can do better what I have done, even if it’s good. ~ Luciano Pavarotti
True love does not come by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. ~ Jason Jordan
Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value. ~ Albert Einstein
The true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man is. ~ Oscar Wilde
Everything is perfect in the universe – even your desire to improve it. ~ Wayne Dyer
Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best. ~ Max Beerbohm
Perfection irritates as well as it attracts, in fiction as in life. ~ Louis Auchincloss
The secret of joy in work is contained in one word – excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it. ~ Pearl S. Buck
I’m a perfectionist. I can’t help it, I get really upset with myself if I fail in the least. ~ Justin Timberlake
I am a man of simple tastes easily satisfied with the best. ~ Winston Churchill
They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they’d make up their minds. ~ Winston Churchill
I’m a perfectionist. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it’s okay if there are flaws here and there. ~ Tyra Banks
Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence – only in constant improvement and constant change. ~ Tom Peters
Perfection is the child of time. ~ Joseph Hall
I’m a perfectionist, so I always feel there’s room for improvement. ~ Ludacris
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time. ~ Voltaire
Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it. ~ William Ellery Channing
Perfection cannot be defined or seen; it can only be found in your heart. ~ Kelly Millar
It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection. ~ Oscar Wilde
If you want people to listen, you have to have a platform to speak from, and that is excellence in what you do. ~ William Pollard
This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections. ~ Saint Augustine
Excellence always sells. ~ Earl Nightingale
Every line is the perfect length if you don’t measure it. ~ Marty Rubin
Perfection has to do with the end product, but excellence has to do with the process. ~ Jerry Moran
Perfection is not a destination; it’s a never-ending process… Enjoy! ~ Jim Bouchard
Style is the perfection of a point of view. ~ Richard Eberhart
If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way. ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
Persistence. Perfection. Patience. Power. Prioritize your passion. It keeps you sane. ~ Criss Jami
I’m a perfectionist, so my bossiness definitely comes out. ~ Emma Watson
As you all know, I’m kind of a perfectionist. ~ Tiger Woods
Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way. ~ Booker T. Washington

Inspirational Quotes & Motivational Quotes for Entrepreneurs

Are you an Entrepreneur? If so I’ve mined the Internet for Best Quotes on Entrepreneurship to inspire and motivate you. I’m sharing 106 of them which I liked the most. Please feel free to leave your valuable comments below and let me know what do you feel about the same!

Famous Quotes on Entrepreneurship

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. – Thomas Edison
The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. – Vidal Sassoon
Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming. – Richard Branson
Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. – Jim Rohn
An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it. – Roy Ash
The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake – you can’t learn anything from being perfect. – Adam Osborne
A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them. – John C. Maxwell
Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves. - E. Joseph Cossman
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. – Albert Einstein
You can’t ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new. – Steve Jobs
Live out of your imagination instead of out of your memory. – Fortune Cookie
Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it. – Maya Angelou
The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said. – Peter F. Drucker
If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough. – Mario Andretti
If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals. – Brian Tracy
The entrepreneur builds an enterprise; the technician builds a job. – Michael Gerber
As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big. – Donald Trump
Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up. – Thomas J. Watson
The link between my experience as an entrepreneur and that of a politician is all in one word: freedom. – Silvio Berlusconi
Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill
A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions. – Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way. – Napoleon Hill
I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. – Bill Cosby
In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. – Bill Cosby
Tell everyone what you want to do and someone will want to help you do it. – W. Clement Stone
Success is not in what you have, but who you are. – Bo Bennet
Failure is not about insecurity. It’s about lack of execution. – Jeffrey Gitomer
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. – Henry Ford
Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness. – Napoleon Hill
Regardless of who you are or what you have been, you can be what you want to be. – W. Clement Stone
Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said. – Jim Rohn
Try not to be a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. – Albert Einstein
The best way to predict the future is to create it. – Peter Drucker
You can do anything you wish to do, have anything you wish to have, be anything you wish to be. – Robert Collier
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. – John C. Maxwell
For every good reason there is to lie, there is a better reason to tell the truth. – Bo Bennett
Entrepreneurship is the last refuge of the trouble making individual. – Natalie Clifford Barney
Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill
I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night. – Henry Ford
You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win. – Zig Ziglar
Every choice you make has an end result. – Zig Ziglar
Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. – Jim Rohn
Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often. – Mark Twain
Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are asking, What’s in it for me? – Brian Tracy
A goal is a dream with a deadline. – Napoleon Hill
Entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art. It is a practice. – Peter Drucker
Tell the world what you intend to do, but first show it. – Napoleon Hill
The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. – Ralph Nader
Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know. – Jim Rohn
Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic. – Dale Carnegie
All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea. – Napoleon Hill
Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit. – Napoleon Hill
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. – Confucius
One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. – Andre Gide
Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it. - Jim Rohn
If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got! – Alan Scott
Vision without action is daydreaming and action without vision is a nightmare. – Anon
Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get. – Dale Carnegie
Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. – Benjamin Franklin
If you want to reach a goal, you must ‘see the reaching’ in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal. – Zig Ziglar
The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch. – Jim Rohn
An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way. – Christopher Morley
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. – Walt Disney
I’d say it’s been my biggest problem all my life.. it’s money. It takes a lot of money to make these dreams come true. – Walt Disney
Try, try, try, and keep on trying is the rule that must be followed to become an expert in anything. – W. Clement Stone
Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together. – Napoleon Hill
Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process. – Jim Rohn
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. – Bill Gates
If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful. – Jeff Bezos
Many great ideas go unexecuted, and many great executioners are without ideas. One without the other is worthless. – Tim Blixseth
I’ve always worked very, very hard, and the harder I worked, the luckier I got. - Alan Bond
Make your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you. – Mark Cuban
Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by action alone. – Thomas Carlyle
You won’t get anything unless you have the vision to imagine it. – John Lennon
Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea. – Jim Rohn
If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough. – Mario Andretti
If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share. – W. Clement Stone
Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success – Henry Ford
Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have – Zig Ziglar
The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same. – Colin R. Davis
Success is how high you bounce after you hit bottom. – General George Patton
If you are going to ask yourself life-changing questions, be sure to do something with the answers. – Bo Bennett
In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. – David Ogilvy
Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. – Zig Ziglar
In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm. In the real world all rests on perseverance. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. – Cicero
Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together. – Napoleon Hill
The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes. – Benjamin Disraeli
Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible. – Marion C. Garretty
I’ve learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success. – Jack Welch
You take on the responsibility for making your dream a reality. – Les Brown
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying. – Michael Jordan
Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be. – Jack Welch
If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete. – Jack Welch
As a rule, we find what we look for; we achieve what we get ready for. – James Cash Penney
Money won’t make you happy… but everybody wants to find out for themselves. – Zig Ziglar
It is always the start that requires the greatest effort. – James Cash Penney
If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary. – Jim Rohn
Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t. – Unknown
You must fall in love with what you do, because being an entrepreneur is a lot of hard work, and overcoming a lot of adversity. From that love will come the dedication that will get you out of bed at 4 a.m. because of a great idea you just had and get you to work till 11 p.m. and not feel tired. – Unknown
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. – Albert Einstein
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. – Albert Schweitzer
Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right. – Henry Ford
What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. – Napoleon Hill
Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration. – Thomas Edison

What Is Affiliate Marketing And How Does It Work?

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Beginners Guide: What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is an internet marketing channel in which advertisers (or companies who offer a product or service) pay publishers on a pay-for-performance basis. So unlike Google AdSense you don’t earn anything for clicks. You’re only paid for results which could be a sale or a lead (user fill a form and complete registration). In Affiliate Marketing as advertisers pays only for results its a win-win situation as they don’t have to shell out large amount of money in Banner Advertising or Pay-Per-Click Networks like Google AdWords, Microsoft adCenter or Yahoo! Search Marketing where the results are not guaranteed.

Affiliate Marketing Definition & Terms

    Affiliate Marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as ‘retailer’ or ‘brand’), the network (that contains offers for the affiliate to choose from and also takes care of the payments), the publisher (also known as ‘the affiliate’), and the customer.

    Source: Wikipedia

Publisher (also known as an Affiliate, Associate, Partner) is an individual who advertise the products and services of a business (advertiser) in exchange for a commission on all qualified clicks/sales/leads. Publishers promotes the advertiser by displaying ads which can be in the form of banner ads (most common), text links (most effective), search box etc. Whenever a qualified lead/sale is generated the advertiser pays the publisher a commission which is often a percentage of the sale amount or can be a fixed amount.
Advertiser (Merchant)

Advertiser (also known as a Brand, Retailer, Merchant) is a company that sells a product or offers a service. They partner with publishers so as to generate more sales and leads. Advertisers prefer affiliates to market their products as they need to pay only for conversions – Clicks (Pay Per Click – PPC), Leads (Pay Per Lead or Action – PPL or PPA), Sales (Pay Per Sale – PPS) etc.

    Pay Per Click (PPC) – In Pay Per Click programs you get paid for all valid clicks that you generate regardless of leads/sales.
    Pay Per Lead (PPL) – In Pay Per Lead programs the advertiser pays you a commission (a fixed amount) for a qualified action which can be a short survey, free trial, install, sign up, online form submission etc. A perfect example of Pay Per Lead programs would be dating websites which usually pays for a free trial.
    Pay Per Sale (PPS) – In Pay Per Sale programs the advertiser pays you a percentage of all qualified sales. The most popular Pay Per Sale affiliate program is Amazon Associates where you can earn up to 15% depending upon the category of products.

Affiliate Network

An Affiliate Network (Commission Junction, ClickBank, Google Affiliate Network etc.) is a hub which connects the Advertisers and Publishers. The affiliate network have the tracking technology, reporting tools and manages the payments. Advertisers may choose an Affiliate Network(s) to manage their affiliate program or may use their own in-house affiliate network/platform.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

You (affiliate) sign up for an advertiser’s affiliate program, so that you get an affiliate link (a special URL which contains the username/id of the affiliate).

Whenever you mention the advertiser on your website you uses the affiliate link.

A customer visit your website and clicks on affiliate link to visit advertiser’s website.

The advertiser drops a cookie to your customer’s computer.

The customer orders something from the advertiser’s website.

As the customer completes the checkout process, the advertiser checks the cookie on his/her computer.

The advertiser finds an affiliate cookie that belongs to you and credits you for the sale.

The advertiser updates the reports to shows all the clicks (traffic) and sales generated from your affiliate link.

Commissions are paid out – usually on a monthly basis – for all the leads/sales referred in the previous month depending upon advertiser’s payment policy.

Top 12 Affiliate Networks & Programs For Affiliate Marketers

So let me introduce you some of the Best Affiliate Networks and Top Affiliate Programs so that you can join them straight away.

List Of Top 12 Best Affiliate Networks & Affiliate Programs

There are tons of Affiliate Networks on the Internet but I am going to feature only the best among them. They offers the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners and have the top paying affiliate programs.

1. Google AdSense

Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a free program that empowers online publishers to earn revenue by displaying relevant ads on a wide variety of online content, including: Site search results, Websites and Mobile webpages and apps.

Alexa Rank: #1

Minimum Payment Amount: $100

Payment Method(s): Check, Direct Deposit, Western Union

Programs Offered: Pay Per Click

Referral Program: No
2. Commission Junction

Commission Junction

Commission Junction (CJ), a ValueClick company, is a leading provider of performance-based marketing solutions. CJ facilitates and supports equitable, lucrative relationships between advertisers and publishers.

Alexa Rank: #303

Minimum Payment Amount: $100 (Check); $50 (Direct Deposit)

Payment Method(s): Check, Direct Deposit

Programs Offered: Pay Per Click, Pay Per Lead, Pay Per Sale

Referral Program: No
3. ClickBank

ClickBank

Founded in 1998, ClickBank is a secure online retail outlet for more than 50,000 digital products and 100,000 active affiliate marketers. It is the most effective and most profitable way to sell information over the Internet. Find tens of thousands of digital products to promote online.

Alexa Rank: #260

Minimum Payment Amount: $10

Payment Method(s): Check

Programs Offered: Pay Per Sale

Referral Program: No; But you can refer vendors (advertisers) and earn 20% of the $49.95 activation charge. Additionally, you earn 5% of ClickBank’s typical markup of each sale that your recruited vendor makes for one year.
4. Google Affiliate Network

Google Affiliate Network

Google Affiliate Network is a free program that makes it easy for website publishers to connect with quality advertisers and get rewarded for driving conversions. To participate in Google Affiliate Network, you must have a valid Google AdSense account. Google Affiliate Network distributes payments via Google AdSense.

Alexa Rank: #1

Minimum Payment Amount: $100

Payment Method(s): Check, Direct Deposit, Western Union

Programs Offered: Pay Per Click, Pay Per Lead, Pay Per Sale

Referral Program: No
5. Amazon Associates

Amazon Associates

Amazon.com Associates is one of the most popular and successful affiliate program on the Internet. You earn advertising fees from all qualifying purchases, not just the products you advertised.

Alexa Rank: #11

Minimum Payment Amount: $100 (Check); $10 (Amazon Gift Certificate, Direct Deposit)

Payment Method(s): Check, Amazon.com Gift Certificate, Direct Deposit

Programs Offered: Pay Per Sale

Referral Program: No
6. LinkShare

LinkShare

LinkShare is a leading provider of full-service online marketing solutions specializing in the areas of Affiliate Marketing, Search Marketing, and Lead Generation. As the online marketing industry continues to evolve at a fast pace, advertisers, publishers and agencies are turning to LinkShare for technology innovation, superior service and most importantly – RESULTS!

Alexa Rank: #603

Minimum Payment Amount: $1

Payment Method(s): Check, Direct Deposit

Programs Offered: Pay Per Lead, Pay Per Sale

Referral Program: Earn $1.50 when you refer new affiliates to LinkShare.
7. ShareASale

ShareASale

There are currently over 2,500 Merchants plugged in to the ShareASale Network. Each of these merchants has a different type of product that they are selling – and each is ready to commission you on that sale if you bring a customer to them.

Alexa Rank: #598

Minimum Payment Amount: $50

Payment Method(s): Check, Direct Deposit

Programs Offered: Pay Per Click, Pay Per Lead, Pay Per Sale

Referral Program: Earn $1 when you refer new affiliates to ShareASale and earn 5% of their future earnings.
8. Neverblue

Neverblue

Neverblue is a performance-based online marketing company that specializes in lead generation and client acquisition. Through the powerful medium of Internet, Neverblue successfully matches advertising clients with solid business leads, registrations and sales.

Alexa Rank: #4,827

Minimum Payment Amount: $25

Payment Method(s): Check, Direct Deposit, PayPal

Programs Offered: Pay Per Lead, Pay Per Sale

Referral Program: Earn 5% of referral’s revenue for the first 6 months.
9. PepperJam

PepperJam

PepperJam, a GSI Media company, is an industry leader in online performance marketing and technology. PepperJam operates a next generation performance marketing network, which provides innovative tools and analytics to optimize the complex performance marketing channel.

Alexa Rank: #33,414

Minimum Payment Amount: $25

Payment Method(s): Check, Direct Deposit, PayPal

Programs Offered: Pay Per Lead, Pay Per Sale
10. LinkConnector

LinkConnector

LinkConnector is an affiliate marketing network helping merchants and affiliates increase online sales and revenue. LinkConnector has introduced exclusive technologies to the market that give our merchants and affiliates a strong advantage.

Alexa Rank: #8,492

Minimum Payment Amount: $100

Payment Method(s): Check, Direct Deposit, PayPal

Programs Offered: Pay Per Click, Pay Per Lead, Pay Per Sale

Referral Program: Earn $2 for referring new affiliates and earn $100 for referring new advertisers to LinkConnector.
BONUS: Automated Affiliate Marketing

With just one sign up get instant access to thousands of advertiser’s affiliate programs. Get paid automatically for links from your site to advertiser websites.

11. VigLink

VigLink

VigLink looks to make it easier to use affiliate programs on your blog or website. Your links can be doing more. Unlock the power of your site’s links through affiliate marketing and earn extra money from your site automatically, transparently and honestly.

Alexa Rank: #5,332

Minimum Payment Amount: No Minimum

Payment Method(s): PayPal

Programs Offered: Pay Per Click, Pay Per Lead, Pay Per Sale

Referral Program: Refer your friends to VigLink – they will give you 30% of their earnings for 1 year!

12. Skimlinks

Skimlinks

With Skimlinks, you can finally tap into the revenue stream you’ve been missing out on. Your community is posting links to merchants and mentioning products they use – previously you couldn’t easily convert these into affiliate links. The Skimlinks technology takes care of this automatically, converting product links and references into affiliate links; and, no matter what your niche, we’ve got the merchants to keep you covered: over 17,000 of them, aggregated through our service.

Alexa Rank: #8,434

Minimum Payment Amount: $10

Payment Method(s): Check, Direct Deposit, PayPal

Programs Offered: Pay Per Click, Pay Per Lead, Pay Per Sale

Referral Program: Refer your friends to Skimlinks – they will give you 12% of their earnings for 1 year!

I hate to write “make money online” blog posts as it creates a sense of expectation. If you are a blogger, an internet marketer, or even a beginner then you already know that it is POSSIBLE to make money online.

What’s interesting is that, there are plenty of ways to make money online — from selling ads, e-books, affiliate marketing, freelance writing, podcasting, consulting, designing, coding, etc.

The idea of this blog post is to highlight some of those online income streams. Please don’t expect overnight success. The thing is, creating an income stream online requires a lot of work, patience, and some money too.

If you are a beginner and is absolutely clueless about where to start then this blog post should help you to kick-start (and that’s the idea too). If you have any trouble with any of these options, leave a comment below or you can email me, and I will do my best to find the best resource to help you.

Make Money Online With Your Website

Do you have a website or a blog? If yes, then selling advertisements is the easiest way to make money online. Since there are tons of ad networks on the Internet, make sure that you choose the best ad network to maximize the revenue.

If you can create your own products then it’s the best way to make money because that way you’re actually building a passive income stream online. You can use your own blog or website to market your products so that people will buy it when they’re convinced.

Advertising networks can be Cost Per Click (CPC), Cost Per Mille (CPM), or Cost Per Action (CPA). A Cost Per Click network pays you each time a user clicks on your ad and the actual amount you’ll get is determined by the advertiser. Now a Cost Per Mille network or simply a Cost Per Impression network pays for every 1,000 page views that you generate. If they pay $1 for every 1,000 page views, then you’ll get $30 if the number of page views a month is 30,000.

Now I’m going to list some of the popular ad networks in each category. If you’re looking for a comprehensive list then check out 24 Google AdSense Alternatives for more CPC and CPM networks.
Cost Per Click (CPC) Ad Networks

    Google AdSense
    Yahoo! Bing Network (powered by Media.net)
    Chitika
    Clicksor
    Infolinks

Cost Per Mille (CPM) Ad Networks

    Advertising.com (by AOL.com)
    Burst Media
    Casale Media
    OpenX
    PulsePoint
    Technorati Media
    Tribal Fusion
    ValueClick Media
    YesAdvertising

In-Image Ad Networks

    GumGum
    Luminate

Pop Under Ad Networks

    InfinityAds

Cost Per Action (CPA) Affiliate Networks

    Commission Junction (CJ)
    LinkShare
    Neverblue
    PeerFly
    ShareASale

Cost Per Sale (CPS) Affiliate Networks

    Amazon Associates
    ClickBank

Sell Ads Directly To Advertisers

You can always sell ads directly when someone wants to buy a banner ad, or text links, or even a sponsored post on your blog. But if you’re not lucky enough then you have to become a part of a bigger network where you can showcase your ad inventory.

    DoubleClick

Automated Affiliate Marketing

You have a website or a blog which is getting good targeted traffic but don’t know how to monetize it? Then you can try the following automated affiliate marketing networks. It converts all the normal links in your website to affiliate links and you make money when clicks result in sales or leads.

So by joining these networks you’ll get access to thousands of affiliate programs without applying individually and you don’t have to manage any affiliate programs or links or anything as they offer a centralized reporting as well.

    Skimlinks
    VigLink
    Cloudswave Affiliate Network — is a white label affiliate program by Cloudswave that lets you promote over 150 business software deals — with a single affiliate account. Here’s a sample store.

In-house Affiliate Programs

If you like a product then obviously you write about it, tweet about it, and tell your friends, right? Now how about getting paid for that? That’s right! If you check the websites of most Internet companies (others too) then you can find their affiliate program.

So, you can use the affiliate links while promoting their products and they’ll pay you for referring new customers to them. They may have their own in-house affiliate program, or one that is managed by an affiliate network, or both.

    eBay Partner Network
    iTunes Affiliate Program

…and much more.

Bloggers: Sell Text Links & Sponsored Posts

If you have a good quality website then advertisers will try their best to buy a text link or a sponsored post from you. But wait, selling text links is against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and they may ban your website from its search results unless the links are rel=”nofollow”.
Sell Text Links

    AdBeans
    Digital Point
    LinkWorth
    TextLinkBrokers
    TNX.net
    WarriorForum

Sell Sponsored Posts

    Blogsvertise
    PayPerPost
    ReviewMe
    SponsoredReviews

Join Ad Networks For Bloggers

    Blogads
    BlogHer (for Women bloggers)
    Content.ad
    Foodie Blogroll (for food blogs)
    PostJoint
    Taboola

Start A Newsletter

If you have loyal traffic, it’s a good idea to start a newsletter so that you can engage with your readers in a more friendly way. And it’s also one of the best way to market your products since people usually don’t buy your product when they first visit your website/blog for the first time.

    MailChimp — design and send email marketing campaigns.

Read: The Email Marketing Handbook — 101+ Resources, Tips, Strategies & Tools

Note: You can start an online newsletter even if you don’t have a popular blog or website. For instance, if you’re able to give expert advice or opinions about a topic, you can start a daily/weekly/monthly newsletter and create a simple blog to build email lists. And you can monetize your newsletter as you grow — by say, offering premium services or promoting a product.
Are You A Freelance Writer?

Content is King on websites. Content is often outsourced so if you have got good writing skills, you can make a living writing online. Here are some content marketplaces where you can sell your content.

    Constant-Content
    ContentBLVD
    Digital Point
    ProBlogger Job Board
    BloggingPro Job Board
    Textbroker
    WriterAccess
    Zerys
    Scripted
    Copify
    CopyPress

Are You A Professional Writer?

If you are a professional writer, you can contribute content to some of the top content provides like Yahoo, AOL, About.com, etc. and get upfront payment.

    About.com
    Break Studios
    Demand Studios

Are You A Graphic/Web Designer?

    99designs
    crowdSPRING
    Design Contest
    Freelancer Contests
    Freelancer Marketplace
    Microlancer
    Visual.ly

Make Money Sharing & Creating Videos

    YouTube Partner Program — Upload videos on YouTube and make money from ads.
    Break — You can earn up to $600 if your Video is featured on Break.com homepage.
    Dailymotion Publisher — Share Dailymotion videos on your website, blog and social profiles and get a share of their advertising revenue.
    Dailymotion Official — Upload videos on Dailymotion to earn advertising revenue. And you earn extra revenue when those videos are shared on your own websites, blogs, social profiles, or any third-party websites.
    Vimeo — Make money sharing videos on Vimeo.

Click Photos? Sell Your Photos & Graphics!

    123RF
    Fotolia
    Getty Images
    iStock Photo
    Shutterstock

Like To Do Micro-jobs?

Now you can offer your micro service online and get paid for it. You post what you’re willing to do for $5 or even $50 and get paid when you deliver the work. It’s that simple!
Micro-jobs Marketplace

    Fiverr
    PeoplePerHour
    Amazon Mechanical Turk
    Digital Point Services

Have A Skill?

Try any of the following freelance marketplaces to find freelance jobs or to sell your service. You can become a virtual assistant, manage the social media profiles of a company/person, design a website, design a logo, offer writing or translation service, develop a software, design a website, develop a web application, etc.
Freelance Marketplace

    Elance
    Freelancer
    Guru
    oDesk

Offer Expert Advice

    Clarity.fm — If you’re an expert in some field and can give expert advice, you can charge advice seeking users by the minute.

Be A Tutor

    Udemy
    Lynda
    Skillshare
    InstaEDU
    TutorVista
    Tutor
    Google Helpouts (invite only)

Be A Tester

    UserTesting.com — UserTesting.com pays you up to $15 per test to evaluate websites’ usability and clarity.
    uTest — uTest compensates testers for approved reports they submit.

Sell, Sell, Sell

Today, online marketplaces are extremely popular and you can sell almost anything online.
Sell E-books

    Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
    iBooks
    Blurb
    ClickBank
    E-junkie
    Lulu
    Scribd

Sell Your Domain Names

    BrandBucket — Sell your brandable domain names.
    GoDaddy Auctions
    Sedo

Sell Your Websites

    Flippa
    WebsiteBroker

Sell Everything Else

    Amazon
    Craigslist
    eBay
    Bonanza
    Etsy — Sell all things handmade, vintage, and supplies.
    Quirky — Got an innovative idea? You can sell it on Quirky and make money.

Create An Online Store

Create an online story by yourself and start selling your own products.

    Shopify
    Square
    3DCart
    Goodsie
    Gumroad

Love Stock Market?

    Robinhood — lets you trade U.S. stocks for free on your iPhone.

BONUS: The Remora Method

The “Remora Method” is a name coined by James Clear of Passive Panda. He explains that there is a fish called “remora” that’s different from other fishes in the ocean.

Most fishes are always in search of food and can be attacked by one of its predators. Remora has a special fin on its back that allows remora to stick itself to large fishes like sharks (known as a host).

The host provides remora with transportation, protection and the food it needs. And in exchange, remora cleans the bacteria and other parasites from the host.

So,

    This mutually beneficial relationship allows the remora to avoid the struggles that most fish deal with on a daily basis. And within the remora’s strategy is a key insight that successful people use to boost their income…

James’ idea is that you can partner with a business (or even an individual) in a similar fashion to earn an extra income. He says: choose a profitable idea, find a business who will need your product or service, partner with that business and share profits.

He also recommends diversification by partnering with more businesses so as to create multiple income streams online (or even offline). You can check out the “Remora Method” to learn more about it.
Conclusion

Of course, there are hundreds of other ways to make money online. But like I have already mentioned, the idea of this blog post is to explore different opportunities so that you can decide where to focus on.

I haven’t included the not so easy ways to make money online like selling your apps or music or movies on iTunes, Google Play Store, Windows Store, Amazon etc.

Almost every blog or website you visit, you can see a sidebar section on the left or right or on both sides of the blog. Sidebar is an important section on any blog or website, so users can have a quick access to blog articles or contents. Its important that you should equally focus on your sidebar contents with your blog contents.

The sidebar gives you a huge opportunity to engage you readers with your blog or website. Your main aim is to keep your visitors digging more on your blog as long as possible. You might be using lots of widget on your blog sidebar, but this would just clutter your sidebar increasing your blog loading time. In this article I will discuss about the 10 essentials and some more optional widgets that you can add on your blog.

The 10 Essentials

1. Search Box- This is the most important widget as it helps users to find articles on your blog simply by entering a keyword. The search box should be placed where it’s easily viewable to the user. The search box can be placed at the top navbar or in the header or in the sidebar just like this blog. This will help the user to get more engaged with your blog.

2. Subscription Widget- This is another must have widget for any blog or any website. The subscription widget will help your readers to get blog updates directly to their inbox. Also do add a RSS feed link where readers can subscribe directly in a feed reader. You can also add your twitter, facebook, or any other SN profile links with the subscribe widget.

3. Recent Post- Some users are a bit lazy to scroll down to find other articles on the blog if the blog is displaying more than 10 articles on the homepage. This widget comes handy on the sidebar displaying the most recent updates on the blog. Also the widget should be placed just after the subscription widget. This is another great idea to keep your readers engaged and get more page views.

4. Popular Post- Display your most viewed or most commented articles on your sidebar. So not just your regular readers but also your new readers get involved with these articles. This will increase your page views but will also help you to get these articles more popular on the web.

5. Recent Comments- This widget will display the most recent comments, on a article by the readers. This will help you to encourage your other readers to engage in conversation with a particular article.

6. Categories/Archive- The category and archive widgets both are different. You can display the category widget if your blog has multiple niches or you can display the archive widget if you blog on a particular niche. The archive widget displays the monthly archives. This is another great way for your readers to dig into old articles.

7. Blog Stats- This is a third party widget which can be installed by adding a code or script to the blog. Popular stats widgets are alexa and sitemeter. If you are a blogger user you can directly add the official stats widget from the page element.

8 Top Commentators- This will show the the top commentators which commented on your blog with highest number of comments. This is a great way to encourage your readers to come back and comment on your blog.

9. Cloud Tags- This will show your blog categories or tags in cloud format. See in this blog sidebar.

10. Advertisements- You can display adsense, BSA, or any other or your own ad slot for sale on your own blog. But make sure that you don’t irritate your readers by displaying too many ads.

11. Facebook Like Box- If your blog or website has a Facebook Fan page, then you can add a Facebook like box to your sidebar, so your readers can quickly like your facebook fan page.

12. Twitter conversation box- You can add a twitter conversation box to your sidebar, which displays your tweets, retweets and replies.

NOTE: Its not necessary that you should add all the widgets listed above.

As I said previously too many widgets can clutter your sidebar to load. It depends on your choice which one you want to add, but make sure that you have those 10 essentials widgets on your sidebar.

34 Most Important WordPress Plugins
I’m categorizing Jetpack as the most essential plugin as there’s no replacement for them. All the other plugins that are listed here have an alternative but there’s no alternative plugin for Jetpack as it features over 25 modules to manage almost all aspects of your blog.

1. Jetpack by WordPress.com

Jetpack is a super-plugin that brings the power of WordPress.com cloud to your self-hosted WordPress. You need a WordPress.com account to enjoy all the features of this plugin. It’s a must-have with over 25 unique features to turbocharge your blog like Free Content Delivery Network (CDN), Analytics, Social Comment System, Contact Form, Mobile Theme, and a ton of other features.

It enables you to connect your self-hosted blog to your WordPress.com account so that you can enjoy almost all the power features normally available to WordPress.com users. Jetpack is a must have plugin for all WordPress blogs and that’s exactly the reason why it’s featured as one of the best plugins of all time. Some of the features of Jetpack include quick stats of your blog, notifications, social sharing, social comment system, comment subscriptions, proof reading, contact form, etc.

Comments

Try a new Comment System or improve the performance of the default WordPress Comment System.

2. Disqus Comment System

Disqus Comment System replaces the default WordPress comment system with a hosted system powered by Disqus.com. It’s the hottest comment system in the blogosphere as it increases the readership of blogs. The problem with WordPress comment system is spam. Period. But Disqus is a hosted platform that features full spam filtering, blacklists and whitelists. Moreover, the commenters are required to login before commenting. So, if you’re using Disqus Comment System then you don’t need any other WordPress comment plugins. That’s why more and more blogs are replacing the WordPress comment system with Disqus.

3. Akismet

Akismet is an essential plugin for any WordPress blog that uses the default comment system by WordPress.org. It checks all the comments and trackbacks using their web service for spam and moves them to your blog’s “Spam” folder. And hey, if your comments are always marked as spam by Akismet when you leave comments on other blogs, then you can use the tip mentioned in this article so that you’ll never miss a backlink.

Add-ons

Apart from Akismet, you can also install SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam or Captcha or Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin. SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam plugin adds a CAPTCHA to your WordPress forms, Captcha protects your blog from spammers by using math logic and the Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin adds a checkbox below your comment forms so that your users will be able to post the comment only if it’s checked.

Alternative(s): Antispam Bee
4. CommentLuv

CommentLuv rewards your readers by placing a link to their latest blog post automatically at the end of their comment. It’s a good way to encourage your readers to leave regular comments and discover new content. It also helps to reduce the bounce rate of your blog as your readers come back to leave another comment.

Web Analytics

See where your visitors are coming from and what they’re doing….
5. Google Analyticator

Google Analyticator adds the required JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics on your blog so you don’t have to edit the template files. It also includes several widgets for showing Google Analytics data on your blog or in your WordPress dashboard. Apart from that, Google Analyticator has the following additional features: Link Tracking, Event Tracking, Site Speed Tracking, Disable Admin Page Visits, etc.

WordPress Optimization

And it’s time to optimize your WordPress blog for a great User Experience.
6. WordPress SEO

WordPress SEO by Yoast is perhaps the only SEO plugin that you’ll ever need. It’s the ultimate plugin for WordPress that allows us to optimize almost all the SEO aspects of our blog.

If you have enabled this plugin then you can eliminate several other plugins like – Google XML Sitemaps, Page Links To, Robots Meta, RSS Footer, Breadcrumbs, and your other Social meta-tag generators and SEO plugins.

Some of the features offered by WordPress SEO plugin are:

    It checks whether a page is search engine optimized or not.
    It enables XML Sitemaps, Breadcrumbs, RSS Optimization.
    It lets you edit your .htaccess and robots.txt file from within WordPress dashboard.
    It allows you to no-follow or no-index pages.
    It allows you to define a canonical URL.
    It allows you to redirect a page to any other page.
    It offers Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ integration.
    It’s multi-site compatible.

…and many other features.

Alternative(s): All In One SEO Pack

You can try All In One SEO Pack if you don’t want all the advanced features offered by the WordPress SEO plugin. I guess most people prefer this plugin over WordPress SEO and that could be the reason why this plugin has over 17 million downloads.

7. W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is the best WordPress plugin to increase the performance of your WordPress blog. It’s designed to increase the page speed of your blog thereby improving the user experience. You can use a tool like YSlow or PageSpeed Insights to compare the performance of your pages before and after installing this plugin.

Alternative(s): WP Super Cache
8. WP-Optimize

WP-Optimize allows you to optimize and clean up your WordPress database without phpMyAdmin.

9. WP Smush.it

WP Smush.it reduces image file sizes and improves the performance your pages by using the Yahoo! Smush.it API within WordPress. It follows the best practices by Yahoo for speeding up your blog.

10. PuSHPress

PuSHPress adds PubSubHubbub support to your WordPress site, with a built in hub. So it will send the updates to your PuSH subscribers directly from WordPress. PubSubHubbub is the new standard by Google to let people and search engines know in real-time when your blog is updated and is a must have plugin to fight content scrapers. You can learn more about PubSubHubbub here.

Alternative(s): PubSubHubbub
11. WPtouch

WPtouch is a mobile plugin that automatically enables a simple and elegant mobile theme for mobile visitors of your blog. It allows you to customize the appearance of your mobile theme without modifying the original code. And yeah, the visitors can always switch to the desktop version in one-click.

12. WordPress Related Posts

WordPress Related Posts by Zemanta generates and shows a list of related posts with optional thumbnails and different styles to your readers. It also shows real-time page views, clicks, and the click-through ratio (CTR) in your WordPress dashboard. You can even customize the related posts that will be shown so as to improve the SEO and user experience.


Add-ons

You can also try Outbrain, a hosted Related Posts plugin, that automatically shows your best content with thumbnails at the end of the pages to send your readers to other interesting content on your blog. As you can see, I’m using both WordPress Related Posts & Outbrain on my blog. Outbrain shows recommended posts at the end of each blog post while Zemanta shows related posts on the sidebar.

Alternative(s): Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP), nrelate Related Content
13. Popular Widget

Popular Widget shows the most commented or most viewed posts with thumbnails in a tabbed widget.

Alternative(s): WordPress Popular Posts, Most And Least Read Posts Widget
Security

Secure your WordPress blog, now!
14. Better WP Security

Better WP Security is one of the most popular WordPress security plugin with over 1.5 million downloads. You can improve the security of your blog in one-click as it will turn on all the basic features of the plugin automatically without activating any features that may interfere with your other plugins or themes or content. What’s more? It also takes regular backup of your database (if it’s enabled by you).

Alternative(s): Wordfence Security
15. Limit Login Attempts

Limit Login Attempts limits the rate of login attempts for each IP address and it’s fully customizable.

Add-ons

You can also try Google Authenticator, an advanced plugin that enables two-factor authentication using the Google Authenticator app for Android/iPhone/Blackberry. If there’s any problem, you can disable the two-step authentication by simply deleting the plugin directory using FTP.
Backup

They say “The most expensive backup is the one you never did!” and it says everything.
16. BackWPup

BackWPup is one of the most popular backup plugin for WordPress with over 1 million downloads. It allows you to backup your complete WordPress installation to an external service like Dropbox, FTP, Amazon S3, Windows Azure, SugarSync, etc. Additional features include: Database Backup, WordPress XML Export, Database Optimization, Database Repair, File Backup, etc.

Alternative(s): WP-DBManager, WordPress Backup To Dropbox
Monetize
17. Ad Injection

Ad Injection allows you to add any ads into the WordPress posts, pages, or sidebar. You can add the ad codes directly, set the types of pages where you want ads to appear and it will inject ads to those pages. The plugin settings also allow you to set ad placement options like: you can show ads only to search engine visitors, block IP addresses, maximum ads per page, etc.
Add-ons

You can also try the new Google Publisher Plugin which is the first official plugin by Google for WordPress. With Google Publisher Plugin, it’s super easy to add AdSense codes anywhere on your blog without adding any codes or modifying the template files. What’s more? You can also verify your blog with Google Webmaster Tools with just one-click.

Alternative(s): AdRotate, AdSense Manager
Social Media

Let your readers follow you or spread the word…
18. Shareaholic

Shareaholic is one of the most popular social sharing plugin for WordPress with over 2 million downloads. You can add attractive social sharing buttons and related posts widget to your posts, pages, or index. You can show the social buttons as a top bar or as classic buttons aligned horizontally. Wait, it also shows social analytics so that you can track the most popular pages, referral information, etc.

Alternative(s): Sociable
19. Digg Digg

Digg Digg is a floating share bar by Buffer that adds all the popular social sharing buttons (Twitter, Facebook, Buffer, Google+, Pinterest, Pocket, etc.) to your blog.

Alternative(s): Slick Social Share Buttons, Sharebar, Scrolling Social Sharebar
20. Simple Social Icons

Simple Social Icons is an awesome plugin to show your social media icons that links to your various social media profiles. You can select the profile, customize icon colors, and can even adjust alignment.

21. Pinterest Pin It Button For Images

Pinterest Pin It Button For Images adds a “Pin It” button over the images so that your users can pin your images to Pinterest in one-click. It’s an essential plugin if your blog has a lot of interesting images. For example, Recipe blogs, Travel blogs, etc.

Newsletters / Lead Generation

Start sending newsletters, show your Call To Action banner, or let your visitors e-mail you…
22. MailPoet Newsletters

MailPoet Newsletters allows you to create newsletters, post notifications, auto-responders and helps you manage all your subscribers. You can easily drop your posts, images, social icons in your newsletters and can even customize fonts and colors.

23. WP Hello Bar

WP Hello Bar adds a horizontal toolbar at the top of your blog. You can show a custom message and a call to action button to your visitors so as to get their immediate attention. Go create your Hello Bar here.

24. Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is the best contact form plugin with over 14 million downloads. It can manage multiple contact forms and you can customize the form the way you want. Contact Form 7 supports AJAX powered submission and you can install this plugin to enable CAPTCHA or can depend upon its in-built spam filtering powered by Akismet.

Create Tables

Want to create a beautiful pricing table or a comparison table in your blog? Try

25. Pricing Table Ready

Pricing Table Ready allows you to create CSS pricing tables or comparison tables in an easy way. You can create and manage the pricing tables from your WordPress dashboard and can show on any page/post. It comes with 5 different styles to choose from.

Alternative(s): Price Table | Pricing Table

26. TablePress

TablePress allows you to create and manage custom tables. It’s different from the pricing tables as it adds valuable functions for your visitors – like sorting column entries, search function, etc. and absolutely no coding skills are required.

Miscellaneous / Random

These are not must-have plugins but you may need them at times. Hence you can definitely give them a try if it sounds interesting.

27. SEO Friendly Images

SEO Friendly Images automatically adds the “ALT” and “TITLE” attributes to your images so that your images will be SEOed and will get more traffic from image search engines.

28. NextGEN Gallery

NextGEN Gallery is the most popular WordPress gallery plugin with over 9 million downloads. It allows you to upload and manage image galleries with powerful features like batch upload, albums, thumbnail creation, sorting, etc.

29. Lightbox Plus ColorBox

Lightbox Plus ColorBox allows users to view larger versions of your images, simple slide shows, videos and content – all in an overlay.

30. Simple URLs

Simple URLs is a complete URL management plugin that allows you create, manage, and even track external links on your blog. It uses custom post types and permanent 301 redirects to avoid performance issues.

31. Redirection

Redirection helps you to manage 301 redirections and track 404 errors. It’s quite useful if you’re changing the directory of your WordPress installation or if you’re migrating to another domain name.

32. Broken Link Checker

Broken Link Checker checks your blog (posts, pages, comments) for broken links and missing images and notifies you via email or on the dashboard if any are found.

33. WP Google Fonts

WP Google Fonts plugin allows you to add fonts from the Google Font Directory to your WordPress theme. Google Fonts is a free font directory by Google.

34. WP-PageNavi

WP-PageNavi adds a better and more advanced paging navigation to your blog.

How to Setup RSS and Email Subscriptions in Feedburner Account? Step by Step Guide!

RSS feeds have became a blogging standard and a lot of professional (and amateur bloggers alike) put their RSS feeds in the hands of Feedburner.

Why? It is quite simple really, it is an amazing service that is free of charge and it would be foolish to back down on such an offer! If you integrate your account with Google Analytics then you will have a great source of information on your readers and their interactions with your feeds.

You can also monetize the feeds and earn some extra income. Not bad huh? Let us go over this is easy step by step guide on how to setup RSS and Email Subscriptions in a Feedburner Account shall we?

Step 1: The basics of Feedburner

The first thing you should do is obviously go to the Feedburner service page and there you should find most of the things you need to get you started. As you can see, you obviously need to have your RSS feed link ready and the system will do the rest of the work.
how to setup an rss feed feedburner

A typical WP site has its feed at www.yoursite.com/feed

So you entered your link, what now? Well, there isn’t too much work to be done for the setup of the Feedburner account itself.

The baby steps
Step 2: Optimizing Your Feedburner Account

After you clicked Next in the previous window, you can choose the option Skip directly to feed management.

It’s here that you will find a lot of tabs and different options. You can explore them for yourself anytime, but right now focus on the Optimize tab. It is here that you want to make sure the following options are active:

    Browser Friendly option
    Smart Feed
    FeedFlare

feeburner-optimize

Browse through the other features that may interest you

The next step is to choose the next tab which is Publicize as you can find some interesting options here as well.

Use Ping Shot to ping your newest posts via your feeds to get them indexed faster and more noticeable. E-mail Subscriptions is another valuable option you can enable and it will allow your visitors to subscribe to your news feed via e-mail.
Setting Up the E-Mail Subscription

Once you click on the option you will get to choose from FeedBurner, FeedBlitz and SendMeRSS email providers and your choice will very well depend on your needs.

Clicking the Activate button will get the service started and you will receive a special code that your can put on your own website/blog.

There are a lot of things you can play around here, including the branding of your messages. Invest some time to explore this options as it has huge potential to score your those major leads and sales.

Step 3: Monetize Your Feed

All the hard work behind this makes little sense if there is no real advantage/profit from it. But as stated previously, there is a lot that you can get out of a Feedburner account.

Aside from reaching a wider audience and getting more followers/ readers you can also monetize your feeds directly. This, however, can only be done via Google AdSense, so if you have an account already, make the most of it! Just go under the Monetize tab and follow the directions.
monetize-feedburner

Make some profit on the side!

So if you aren’t using Feedburner, it is about time you started!

ASEDOMAIN

Wednesday, 11 February 2015

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Top 12 Affiliate Networks & Programs For Affiliate Marketers

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The 10 Must Have Widgets For Your Blog

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Step by Step Guide on How to Setup RSS and Email Subscriptions in Feedburner Account!

ASEDOMAIN

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