An odd thing happened today. I got tracked down by a fellow Irishman today who wanted to ask me some questions on my affiliate marketing business. For those of you who don’t know me that’s what I do to put bread on the table here

Anyway this guy had put quite a bit of effort into tracking me down and getting in touch with me to ask me some questions about what I did. Now I have zero problem with this – especially because he wasn’t looking for a handout; just some advice and to see if the concept of making money is actually real. 15 minutes later he was relieved to find out it wasn’t all hocus pocus and that you can make a full-time income from working online.

The point I’m getting at here is that we can forget just how much we know about a subject and how much that knowledge can help others – even in 15 short minutes. I didn’t change that guys life but I heard more hope in his voice at the end of our chat. That was more payment than others have given me for hours of my time!

Never discount what you know – it will always be of value to somebody else.  And give without hesitation and expect nothing in return. You will be rewarded in more ways than one.

As you may or may not know my actual business that I run from home has to do with affiliate marketing. If you’ve never heard of affiliate marketing that’s ok. Basically I sell stuff on behalf of other companies through websites that I build and promote. I never handle any products – I just “arrange” the sale and get paid a commission for that. The commission is between say 5% and 10% per sale.

A really, really critical part of running an online business is having great web hosting. Why? Because folks if your web host is offline your websites are offline and you’re not making money. It’s a very simple equation but something that people overlook all the time when they’re setting up their first website.

What most people want is the cheapest web hosting possible. Mistake! With web hosting if you pay peanuts you get monkeys – a cheap web host will normally cause you more problems and cost you more money than you ever could have imagined. Trust me there’s nothing more frustrating than looking for technical support that just doesn’t exist. Tick tock – every hour of downtime is costing you money. Bad mojo!

So who do I use? Well I have a few web hosts that I use but the one that consistently keeps me smiling in terms of features, support and uptime (the opposite of downtime and a hugely important shopping factor!) is Hostgator.

Hostgator have served me very well over the last several years and are currently top of my lists of web hosts that I use (and I have several web hosting accounts).

So what do I like about Hostgator?

Fast hosting

Great set of features
(including the Fantastico package of applications.)

Very well priced

Everything from beginner hosting to dedicated servers.

Great support

Very little downtime

So if you’re looking for a great, easy-to-use and reliable webhost then I can put my hand on my heart here and recommend Hostgator!

The current global recession is seen as a sign of doom and gloom by far too many people.

Yes a recession is generally bad news for the economy of any country. That being said if you look at any recession in history one things seems consistent – after any recession comes a great amount of prosperity. Vast in some cases. At the end of this recession you’ll see a new generation of millionaires and billionaires. That’s just how it goes. Swings and roundabouts so to speak. An economy can’t stay in a permanent nosedive – it will eventually improve.

So what does this mean if you want to start your own business? Be prepared mentally and financially. Don’t take silly risks and don’t take chances with your finances. Be practical about the fact that a recession makes starting a business that bit tougher.

The good news is that any business that can thrive during a recession will also thrive during booming economics. You’ll also notice that the world doesn’t stop turning during a recession. Business continues on. Another way of looking at it is this – a recession will “kill off” all the businesses that weren’t in good shape in the first place. Financially “unhealthy” businesses and banks will go under – the only thing keeping them afloat was an overinflated global economy.

I’ll leave you with the words of wisdom a friend gave me when I doubted working for myself. He said “What’s the worst that can happen if it doesn’t all work out? That’s right you’ll just have to get a job again. No big deal”.

It’s a refreshing way of looking at fear no?

Hyphenated or dashed domains have long been the favourite of Internet and affiliate marketers. Why? Simply because it allowed them to pack the domain full of the primary keywords for their market. When this all began it was used responsibly by sensible marketers. They saw the benefit of including maybe one keyword in their domain. The search engines didn’t complain and everyone was basically happy.

Then the spammers got hold of it and have now abused it to such an extent that search engines like Google and Yahoo are now beginning to filter hyphenated domains from their search results. This is a case of cause and effect but the funny thing now is that the search engine spammers are whining because of this yet they caused the exact problem they’re now complaining about. The irony eh?

Read the full article here.

This is just a quick shout out for a good friend of mine. His name is Colin McDougall and he’s just launched an exclusive members only club for aspiring and existing internet marketers who want to turn the Internet upside down and shake all that spare cash out of its pockets. Is there still money to be made online? Some folk will snigger and say “Buddy those days have come and gone”. Yet others will sell you some hokey excuse for an online business that will go out of fashion in 6 months and probably never make you a dime. There are plenty of conmen out there waiting to part you from your hard earned dollars.

How is Colin different? Well he talks the talk, walks the walk and makes a crazy amount of money online doing so. Here’s the other thing you need to know about this guy – he’s just an ordinary Joe. He’s just a guy who had an idea to create an online business and did it. He’s just like YOU. No different.

Wouldn’t you love to know more about how this guy makes some seriously sick money online? Well now for the first time ever you can have access to this guys successful mind in a way that was never possible before. You can learn how to avoid all the mistakes he’s made in learning how to run a truly successful online business.

If you’ve ever, ever been interested in having your own affiliate marketing business then I can’t recommend Colins club highly enough. Why? Because using his methods I have a website that ranks #2 out of 400,000,000 (400 million) other websites in Google – that didn’t happen by accident and is proving to be very profitable for me.

If you’re tired of all the scams and half promises then sign up with Colins club and learn how to build a profitable online business starting today. He takes you step-by-step through each part of the process and is there to help you along personally.

Click here to sign up for The Fly On The Wall Club.