Tissa Godavitarne, Acme People Search, affiliate programs, affiliate website

Starting this month the Super Sponsor reward at the Acme People Search support forum will be increased from a potential of $133.85 a month to $233.85!  Of course with this increased payout comes greater exceptions.  Tissa now expects members to “create a reasonable number of topics containing original, relevant and substantive information intended to help affiliates succeed with their Acme People Search businesses.”

This really isn’t a big deal, but some members took issue with it.  Gone are the days when just adding a bunch of posts at the forum like “Hey, great post!” will qualify you to become a Super Sponsor.  Now you will be required to actually add valuable content.    If you are serious about making money at affiliate marketing then you should be learning something new every day.  Just share what you learn, keep a positive attitude and continue to help others.  If you follow the forum mantra of  “Give. Get. Grow.” you’ll pocket up to $233.85 a month.  What other business pays so many members (currently 57 Super Sponsors) to help other members succeed?  If you find another one, please let me know.

For more information about becoming a Super Sponsor read this post at the forum.

Here’s a screenshot of my last Super Sponsor payment for $133.85.  I haven’t totaled what I earned for 2009, but I was one of the original Super Sponsors back when the forum started in June and I’ve collected a payment every month since then.

Hey, I’d be at the forum anyways - I’ll take the free money!

Congratulations to Super Sponsor Mike Oyama for winning last night’s Acme People Search contest.  For Mike’s effort and lightning fast fingers he’ll receive a new ASUS Eee PC valued at $358.89.  You can read more about the contest on this thread at the forum.

This is just one more reason to sign up for Acme People Search.  There will be many more contests in the future with even bigger prizes.  Knowing how Tissa runs the program you don’t want to miss out!  I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a jaw-dropper for a prize at some point.

Well, once again I’ve fallen behind updating my blog,  but at least this time I have a good excuse.  There have been so many changes to the program recently that it’s been difficult to keep up.  Here’s a quick recap of what has happened this past week.

1) Tissa launched the support forum at http://www.acme-people-search-forum.com and the response has been incredible.  This was a much needed addition.  There’s a wonderful community of members who are very eager to help new members along.  If you ever need any help just drop on by and your questions will be immediately answered.

2) Host Gator has been officially added!  I can’t begin to express how excited I am about this addition.  Host Gator provides excellent web hosting and support for a very affordable price and they have an affiliate program that is just awesome!

3) Tissa added a new switch so members now have control over the automatic over-writes to their people search engine.  If you have HTML knowledge you can now customize your people search engine and turn off over-writes.  If you click on “FTP Updates” in your back office you will see the on/off radio buttons.  I’ll be sharing some tips very soon on how to customize your people search engine to help with search engine optimization and those dreaded Google slaps.

4) More big news! Tissa annouced that in the future he will be adding recurring commissions to his referral program!  The details haven’t been released so I don’t know how the money will work yet, but bet on this program becoming even more profitable!  This feature should also motivate successful members to spend even more time helping their new members along so everyone should benefit.  The details haven’t been released, but hopefully within a month or so we’ll have a better idea what Tissa has planned.

5) The GDI Matrix is still in the works as Tissa continues to test it out.  If you have noticed Tissa has dropped off the GDI Weekly Leaderboard the past two weeks so it is working.  The official release date should be coming shortly.

Also, many members are offering their suggestions for new features on the forum.  That’s it for now!

Peoplesearchbuilder.com was setup on April 22nd, however, I’m ashamed to admit that after my opening welcome message I didn’t enter my first post until May 18th.  I’ve been posting more regularly recently, but I’m behind schedule.  By this point I was expecting to have a lot more valuable information available for my visitors.  Frankly, I’ve been pretty lazy!  However, despite my laziness I’ve actually been getting a good flow of daily visitors.  So, how am I getting traffic to my site?

Peoplesearchbuilder.com Traffic

Simple.  I’ve been building backlinks.  If you are not familiar with the term, backlinks are just incoming links to a website.  The number of backlinks directed to your website is one indication of the importance of your site.  Think of search engines as popularity contests and each backlink is a thumbs up or a vote of confidence for your site.

So, how do you get these votes when your website is brand new and you’re the new kid on the block?  Easy.  You go around and vote for yourself!  Alright, I know that doesn’t sound very good so let me explain.

One very effective method to build backlinks is by blog commenting.  If you have ever left a comment on a blog, like this one, you know you can leave your name, e-mail and website.  This allows you to do the following:

1) Create Backlinks Using Select Keywords- You can enter any name you want so you can target specific keywords and link them to your URL.  Let’s say I wanted to target the key phrase “Instant Free People Search.”  I could enter that as my name and then link it to my people search engine URL www.people-search-diretory.net.

2)  Generate Traffic - If you leave valuable comments behind others will read them and might follow the link to your website.  You want to leave comments, questions or compliments that you actually put some thought into.  Many blog owners will have to approve your first comment before it will be displayed so spend a few moments reading the blog post so you can leave an intelligent comment.

3) Increased Popularity - If you return frequently to a blog you’ll become known and your popularity will increase among other blog readers.  By building good online relationships and trust you’ll be rewarded in the long-term.  This is another reason why you should leave thoughtful posts behind.  Also, the blog owner will appreciate you because nobody wants to be the owner of a lifeless blog.

Finding Blogs With Related Content

In order to build backlinks you need to find blogs that are related to your website.  In my case, this blog deals with Tissa Godavitarne’s program and affiliate marketing so I obviously wouldn’t leave comments on a  gardening blog.  The search engines will give less importance to backlinks if they are left on unrelated websites so you need to build themed backlinks by matching similar content to your website.

Finding blogs with similar content can be very tedious if you are doing a manual search plus it’s next to impossible to keep them all organized in lists.  To create organized lists of related blogs in a matter of minutes I recommend a software title called Fast Blog Finder.  The software is very simple to use and you’ll notice the results within days.  It comes in two varieties:  free and paid ($49).  The free version is limited to 50 search results and doesn’t include some of the features like list building and data backup.

To begin using the software just type in a related keyword and then begin your search.  For this blog I created lists by searching for keywords such as Tissa Godavitarne,  Acme People Search, affiliate marketing, affiliate programs, Internet marketing, etc.  I let the software run for a few minutes to build up a long list of relevant blogs.  Next I sorted the lists by “do follow” and “no follow” links.  In the past spammers have abused blog commenting so many blog owners have implemented a “no follow” link tag.  So although you won’t create a backlink on many blogs you can still build traffic to your site so leave those thoughtful comments that I talked about before.  I target all the “do follow” blogs first and then move on to the “no follow” blogs sorted by page rank and then work my way through each list.

Another nice feature that Fast Blog Finder offers is the ability to record the date you left a blog comment so you can keep track of which blogs you still need to visit or remind yourself when it’s appropriate to return to leave another comment.

Here’s a screenshot:

Before you start building backlinks check how many backlink you currently have.  Both Yahoo! Site Explorer and SEOPro.com.au offer free link checking tools.

Link building can be a real pain, but this software makes the job a lot easier.  Yes, it’s still tedious, but if you want to cash some checks you have to do some work!  Try to make it a habit of spending 15-30 minutes a day and before long you’ll have hundreds or even thousands of backlinks to your website and you’ll start to see a nice flow of traffic.  A great way to get started with this program is to start building backlinks to your people search engine.  The people search market is very competitive so if you want to generate free traffic you will to do a lot of work.  Creating backlinks through blog commenting is a great way to start.

Also, visit Fast Blog Finder’s website and read some of the blog posts there for a lot of other great link building strategies.

If you have never left a comment on a blog before you can start right now.  Please feel free to leave a comment about this post and tell me what you think.

One of the most common questions new members to Acme People Search ask after getting their people search engine setup is, “Alright, now what?”  Well, now you start learning how to advertise on the Internet!  This is the point where many throw their hands up and quit because the learning process requires a lot of time and effort.  Learning how to effectively market online isn’t that challenging, but if you aren’t fully committed to learning you will fail.  Many people have this misguided notion that once they jump through a few hoops and get their website up and running that the money will start rolling in.  Wrong!  If you aren’t prepared to put in the time required to learn then save your money and quit now.  This is not a get-rich-quick-scheme.  This is a legitimate business that requires your full dedication.

Alright, now that I got that lecture out of the way, let me break down Internet marketing methods into some general categories.  You will need to pick a category or two to start focusing your attention on based on your knowledge, budget and comfort level.  Keep in mind that each category takes time to master so don’t bite off more than you can chew in the beginning.

Internet marketing generally refers to the following online marketing methods:

• Article marketing
• E-mail marketing
• Blog marketing
• Ezine marketing
• Pay-per-click advertising
• Forum advertising
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Social media marketing
• Classifieds marketing
• Web banner marketing
• Mobile marketing

I’ll forgo giving a brief description of each marketing method for now.  Most are self-explanatory and I’ll be going into specifics in later posts.  As this blog evolves I want to focus more on very detailed actionable steps that Acme People Search members can take to actually make money.  We’ll leave the theory and generalizations to the “experts” and “gurus.”

If you’ve attended a Friday afternoon Webinar you know that at some point a tone deaf Tissa will spontaneously belt out some lyrics that relate to the topic at hand.  Yesterday, it was the Beatles “Can’t Buy Me Love.”  Previous songs have included Pink Floyd’s “Money” and Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5.”  The latter being probably the worst rendition of a song I’ve ever heard by someone who isn’t three sheets to the wind.  It was so bad Tissa actually felt the need to apologize on his Twitter page.

Perversely, attendance at the Friday afternoon Webinars has actually increased.  It’s a sad commentary on how some people find pleasure in witnessing others fail, but that’s a topic beyond the scope of this blog so we won’t go there.

Fortunately, Tissa now knows he’s expected to sing every Friday so he has all week to prepare.  For next week’s performance I’m suggesting the Little River Band’s “Help Is On Its Way.”  Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the song, however, the song title is very appropriate with where things are with Tissa’s program at the moment.

As many current members are well aware, the number of new members joining has absolutely exploded in the last few months.  New members bring new support questions and Tissa and his office assistant, Trish, have been so buried that members are left waiting days to receive assistance.  Also, a lot of new members who don’t have much experience with Internet marketing are floundering with no clear direction on how to effectively promote their people search engine or the program.  At a certain point members will just quit if support doesn’t become available.  This hurts both the new member and the referring member.  It goes without saying that these problems must be addressed immediately.

Tissa has taken full responsibility for these issues and has vowed to correct them.  Of course he can’t be fully blamed for being unable to predict just how successful his program would become.  However,  he must now prove to his members that he’s capable of implementing the necessary changes to handle what has become a very large community, and these new solutions must happen post haste.

Here is what I understand to be in the works (don’t hold me to any of this!):

1) A new affiliate manger has been hired and will soon be en route to DC to meet with Tissa.  I’ve actually exchanged e-mails with this individual and I can say it was a very good selection.  This person is one of the early members of Tissa’s program and has had great success promoting the people search engine.  If you don’t think those $1.10 MyLife leads can add up you will once you see this person’s numbers.

2) A new forum should be unveiled very shortly.  According to Tissa’s Twitter page he’s working on it this weekend.  I expect the forum will be structured more as a knowledge-base than your typical free-for-all forum.  In all likelihood, new members will submit questions and successful members will answers them.  The answered questions will then be made available to the entire community.

3) More people will be hired to help with support.  If you have had success with the program and would be interested in this opportunity then submit your resume via a support ticket.

4) Limited phone support may be added soon.

5) New video tutorials will soon be created.

6) Host Gator will soon be added as a supported web host (sorry, I just can’t resist when the opportunity presents itself!).

In the meantime, if you or your referrals have questions make sure to attend the live Webinars where you can speak with Tissa directly and get immediate answers.  If you have any suggestions on how to make the program better let him know and don’t be afraid to share your views.  The more people who become involved the better this program will be for all of us.

Also, subscribe to my RSS feed in the top right-hand corner if you wish to receive an e-mail notification every time I update my blog.  I’ll be posting on a more regular basis from now on with more tips to help new members along.

And most importantly, if you are struggling, hang in there.  I have a feeling big things are in the works!

Of course one of the first questions new members ask is how much money can they make with Tissa Godavitarne’s affiliate program.  Probably the greatest feature of Tissa’s program is how it’s monetized in so many different ways.  With the recent announcement of the addition of Host Gator, there are now eight different income streams.  Now I can’t guarantee you how much money you will make, but I can show you the eight different ways you can make money promoting both your people search engine and Tissa’s program.  Here’s a earnings chart that shows each income stream.

Great news!  Yesterday during the late afternoon Webinar with Tissa, it was officially confirmed that Host Gator will now be added as a supported web host joining GDI and Lunar Pages.  For those who are new and don’t understand the significance of this addition let me explain the benefits.

First, Host Gator offers very generous commissions.  They pay up to $125 per sign-up.  Lunar Pages pays up to $110, but you have to send 80 referrals each month to reach that level.  Host Gator only requires 21 referrals each month to reach the top commission level.  Here’s how the commissions work:

• 1-5 a month - $50 per sign-up
• 6- 10 a month - $75 per sign-up
• 11-20 a month - $100 per sign-up
• 21+ a month - $125 per sign-up

Example:  If you send 21 referrals in any one month you will earn $125 x 21 = $2,625.  Not too shabby!

Second, unlike Lunar Pages that requires your referrals to pay at least one year in advance, Host Gator offers their plans on a month-to-month basis.  This makes it much more affordable for some people to join and you’ll see an increase in your Step 2 completions.

Third, unlike GDI which can’t hold a candle to Host Gator’s incredible commissions, Host Gator offers unlimited domain hosting, sub-domains, disk space, bandwidth and e-mail accounts.  Not to mention instant backups, traffic stats, free scripts, Fantastico, a $25 Google Adwords voucher, and much more.  Quick note about Fantastico:  This allows you with one click of your mouse to install a script without any programming knowledge.  If you want to setup a WordPress blog you can have one up and running in literally minutes.  And as many as you want!

Any drawbacks?  The only one I can think of is Host Gator doesn’t pay you your commissions until your referrals hit the the 60 day mark with their accounts in good standing.  I don’t see this as much of a problem since Host Gator offers a great service, it’s dirt cheap (less than $10 a month), and even if  a member decides that Acme People Search isn’t for them they still have unlimited web hosting to promote their other affiliate programs.

I should note that you need to become a Super Affiliate to promote Host Gator (Lunar Pages also has the same requirement).  To become a Super Affiliate you need to sign up for an annual subscription to Wealthy Affiliate through Tissa’s link.  Wealthy Affiliate isn’t cheap at $359.88 per year, and Tissa does a make a very nice commission of $175 when you sign up through him.  However, I can personally vouch for Wealthy Affiliate’s service.  It’s a superb training and support community for Internet marketers.  I’ve been a member for a year and couldn’t be more pleased with the resources they provide.  I’ll write a full review at some point describing everything that they offer.  If you are just starting out I highly recommend you make this investment in your education.  It will pay off in the end.  Heck, a few Host Gator referrals and you have it covered.

Oh, and one last thing.  I hate to pat myself on the back, but I do need to take credit for getting Host Gator added to Tissa’s program.  I originally suggested it during a Webinar and continued to pester Tissa until he finally cracked. [Thank you to those who joined my effort!]  So when you start getting checks for thousands of dollars from Host Gator keep me in mind!

Tissa  just released a new video on YouTube giving a quick introduction to his program and explaining how it works.  Add this video to your landing pages to increase conversions if you are promoting the program in addition to your people search engine.