ok I ready
Thanks again to all of the great response. I saw this thread shortly after it was posted but I did not have time to read it all or reply because I was in Europe getting ready to come back to the US. I had to do more than just pack a bag so it took alot of my time. My wife and I were planning on living 3 months in Europe but we decided to come back. So it took some time to get everything ready to come back. Now I am back and sort of rested so I am hoping we can get some good conversations going.
Let me explain how I got the idea to write this. While in Europe I was reading Warren Buffets biography. From his very beginings he would send letters to the people who invested with him. Now they are famous with tons of information, inspiration, and many of his concerns. He tried to educate people to calm their emotions about business and to be patient making money. Also to show people to make money the safe and honest way. He never went close to the line. If anything seemed to be anywhere close to immoral he stayed away. He proved you can make money the honest way... even more money. He invested mainly in busineses who treated the customer great and who created loyal customers. I liked all of the messages he passed along to his investors/stock holders. He was making a difference and he did it by example. He did not just preach to do something a certain way and you will become successful. He did it himself. So half way through the book I decided I would start doing my own letters to the industry. The first letter would be about my business background. All future letters/articles will be about my concerns in this industry, strategies, my responses to many debates, and more about the ongoings of my business. I looked for a domain. I know it is cheesy but I needed to get attention and the word Millionaire gets attention... it is not like I am trying to be like Don Lupre
I finished the article the day before I was leaving Europe. I was planing to post it when I got back but Marc emailed me about some stuff and I replied back with the link to see what he thought. I guess he liked it so much he wanted to share it with everyone. He emailed me to ask if it was ok to post it. I said sure knowing he would at least be here and be able to speak for me while I was gone. Thanks Marc
I want to be clear about something. I have seen some posts mainly of other boards that I did this just to get affiliates. They are half right. Mainly I did it because of what I just said above. I really would like to see many changes in this industry that will help all of us. But also I am looking for a FEW affiliates... more like partners like I described in my article. My site does not have an open affiliate program. I do not just let anyone become an affiliate because they can send me some traffic. I do not have the time or the resources to have a couple hundred affiliates. The only tools I have for my affiliates now are hosted galleries which are very easy for me to add to the program since I make many galleries for my own advertising. I just change the link codes for the hosted galleries. I have nothing else. No banners, affiliate support staff, nothing. I have a few affiliates who are good at what they do and they don't need me to babysit them. Although I am there for them to help them with their marketing and I do check in to give them advice since I market my site myself and know it best. Not like some affiliate reps trying to tell you how to market their site better when they don't market their own site heavily in the same way their affiliates do. I have time to do this with a few selected affiliates but not hundreds. I want to get some affiliates who really know what they are doing. So of course if I can get the attention of a few I would love to do business with them.
The vast majority of my future business will come from my own advertising. I do not need affiliates but if a profitable partnership works for both parties then why not?
I was hoping to have time to reply to some of the responses here and to those who sent me emails but I have been having trouble replying for about the past 20 minutes. I need to leave now but I should be back in a few hours to talk more.