Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

It's fair to say that when I get onto SFI and TripleClicks to perform my daily, weekly, and monthly actions, it generally takes about an hour--two if there are new Ask SC questions to answer. The rest of of my time will vary depend on what else I have going on in my life. I mention most of the products and TripleClicks itself in the process of my day because I frequently meet people who will enjoy aspects that I do. I also know that this will also generate commissions for me, which is the bulk of my income. I personally don't have a great number of affiliates, which means that I don't have to spend a great deal of time on them (although of course I train them and show them some of the things I do).

I do spend a great deal of my time promoting away from the computer--putting up fliers, giving out gift cards, and so on, but for the most part, I make that incidental to what I'm doing during the day. I find that I enjoy this more when I take this type of leisurely pace... and it also makes me look and feel all the more free and abundant, which nets me that much more interest.
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It's fair to say that when I get onto SFI and TripleClicks to perform my daily, weekly, and monthly actions, it generally takes about an hour--two if there are new Ask SC questions to answer. The rest of of my time will vary depend on what else I have going on in my life. I mention most of the products and TripleClicks itself in the process of my day because I frequently meet people who will enjoy aspects that I do. I also know that this will also generate commissions for me, which is the bulk
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

Quite frankly, I'm not fond of either advertising or buying PSAs because neither one of those stars from a place of CONNECTION. The most effective team-building comes from direct social engagement with your affiliate, and that means that I show people what I do and where I do it. That may be slower, but it provides a better *commitment* rate out of those who sign up, and by "commitment rate," I mean those who take the time and effort to commit to being an active and working PSA. Of the two, I prefer advertising, though, because to some extent, when you advertise, you can at least qualify your leads, making sure that those who you target to sign up have some real desire to make money and build a business instead of just bringing in people who could have ended up joining SFI based on some bounty-per-signup process and who were never interested of working in the first place.
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Quite frankly, I'm not fond of either advertising or buying PSAs because neither one of those stars from a place of CONNECTION. The most effective team-building comes from direct social engagement with your affiliate, and that means that I show people what I do and where I do it. That may be slower, but it provides a better *commitment* rate out of those who sign up, and by "commitment rate," I mean those who take the time and effort to commit to being an active and working PSA. Of the
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

The easiest way to tell if your PSAs and CSAs are serious about building their businesses is to check their VP Ledgers and monitor how many points they are earning. If they are active every day, they are at least somewhat serious; if you see jumps in their VP levels from sales and commissions, you definitely know they're on the right track. These are the people, of course, that you will be encouraging most because they are the ones that are effectively building your business as well.

It's going to take self-motivation to keep an affiliate active, so my advice is generally going to be to take him or her through the first day myself, in person, on Skype, or even via GoToMeeting. The last of these actually allows you to walk an affiliate through his or her various processes and teach them how to use SFI, TripeClicks, or various places where they can promote their Gateway Links. This can be a massive multiplier of effort toward keeping an affiliate active.
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The easiest way to tell if your PSAs and CSAs are serious about building their businesses is to check their VP Ledgers and monitor how many points they are earning. If they are active every day, they are at least somewhat serious; if you see jumps in their VP levels from sales and commissions, you definitely know they're on the right track. These are the people, of course, that you will be encouraging most because they are the ones that are effectively building your business as well.

It's
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

If you're new to SFI and new to marketing, you can always talk with your sponsor, co-sponsor, and a2a affiliates to give you the answers you need. There are also some good videos and training sites you can find through Google. Do note that some of these may be out-of-date in one way or another--watch for references to IAHBE (If I recall correctly, that stands for the International Association for Home Business Entrepreneurs.), for example, which has been discontinued, and if it's listed, it's going to give you (and thus your PSA) outdated tips. You can also guide your PSA to do similar things, or to access the forums, which are also good sources for ideas and information.
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If you're new to SFI and new to marketing, you can always talk with your sponsor, co-sponsor, and a2a affiliates to give you the answers you need. There are also some good videos and training sites you can find through Google. Do note that some of these may be out-of-date in one way or another--watch for references to IAHBE (If I recall correctly, that stands for the International Association for Home Business Entrepreneurs.), for example, which has been discontinued, and if it's listed, it's going
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

If you're looking for a specific, quantified answer, I'd suggest giving each person a year and a day, because by the end of that year, they will have likely either opted out or decided to be active. Of course, if you have many such affiliates, making many individual efforts can take up a great deal of time. By that point, you may want to use mass-mailings, as can be done using your Genealogy tool.

Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

Basically, you can think of the Executive Pool like this:

Every affiliate of EA status and up is valuable as we all work to promote TripleClicks, so SFI rewards us by taking a portion from the Commission Volume on each and every sale and that becomes the Executive Pool. For each VersaPoint you earn yourself or earn from your own EA2s through VP Matching, you get a share of the of the pool. Those of us who are Fast Track members get an extra 10% bonus to that. It's basically a "thank you bonus" for those of us who bring business to TripleClicks, whether through our own shopping or through promotion.
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Basically, you can think of the Executive Pool like this:

Every affiliate of EA status and up is valuable as we all work to promote TripleClicks, so SFI rewards us by taking a portion from the Commission Volume on each and every sale and that becomes the Executive Pool. For each VersaPoint you earn yourself or earn from your own EA2s through VP Matching, you get a share of the of the pool. Those of us who are Fast Track members get an extra 10% bonus to that. It's basically a "thank
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

From my point of view, the only use we get out of MRP comes from us spending them, so it's more a question of what strategy we use *when* we spend them. As I see it, there are two major strategies:

1) The Big Ticket: This is where you hoard and save the MRP to use them to buy something you really want or need. You can invest in gold or silver products, pick up just about anything you can find. This strategy is about investment, either in material or in yourself and your business.

2) The Free Ride: Using your MRP for a bunch of smaller items, particularly digital downloads, lets you pick up a bunch of products at minimal cost. This can be a great way to study up on ways to grow your business. Additionally, as an added advantage, this means you get to review more products at 25 Action VP each.

Which path you choose is likely going to be based on where you are in your life and what you feel you need. I tend to alternate between the two, as time allows.
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From my point of view, the only use we get out of MRP comes from us spending them, so it's more a question of what strategy we use *when* we spend them. As I see it, there are two major strategies:

1) The Big Ticket: This is where you hoard and save the MRP to use them to buy something you really want or need. You can invest in gold or silver products, pick up just about anything you can find. This strategy is about investment, either in material or in yourself and your business.

2)
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

From studying the way other people have used ads, especially free ones, on other sites, there's are two truths that seem obvious to me that are apparently not obvious to others:

1) Text ads work best when they fit well contextually with the site where they're used. For example, if I'm posting an ad on a science fiction blog (I love science fiction, and I like to have affiliates I can not only bond with over this, but know have great imagination, which is PRICELESS in something that requires long-term vision like SFI.), I need an ad that will speak to the audience: "Looking for a new opportunity? SFI is the launchpad that will help you conquer cyberspace!"

2) Posting ads on sites dedicated to ad-posting puts your needle in a very large haystack, which means that finding ways to make your ad stand out is *critical* to it being visible. Without that, you might as well have an add that says "Blah blah blah words words SFI. And so on." (Now it might be that this is silly enough to actually work... I haven't tried it yet!)

My best text ads are ones that take advantage of Fact 1, and what works for me will not necessarily work for you. Put your ads in places where your peer group hangs out, and target them directly. One option is to put a link as an ad in your e-mail signature. and join your local Freecycle groups. Not only can you get perfectly good merchandise for free (I've gotten COMPUTERS this way), but you will also find people who need this opportunity. Freecycle groups have lots of stay-at-home moms, for example, and you can attract them easily with something like

"Create your own job in the privacy of your own home. I'll show you how."

Know your niche, and you will win.
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From studying the way other people have used ads, especially free ones, on other sites, there's are two truths that seem obvious to me that are apparently not obvious to others:

1) Text ads work best when they fit well contextually with the site where they're used. For example, if I'm posting an ad on a science fiction blog (I love science fiction, and I like to have affiliates I can not only bond with over this, but know have great imagination, which is PRICELESS in something that requires
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

Getting listed is the easiest part because all you have to do is use an autosubmitter program that sends information about your website(s) to all the major search engines. "Search Engine Optimization" is frequently more about picking as many relevant keywords and making sure that these are SEEN as relevant.

You also want to arrange to have as many high-ranking links to your website as possible. That is, sites that get linked to by CNN, for example, will generally get higher rankings than sites linked to by a bunch of "Free For All" links pages. Some of the easier high-rank places to drop links are your social networks like Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit, and so on. You tend to be better off having a direct domain, (as in "www.thisisasillydomainname.com" over subdomains like "www.thisisasillierdomainname.wix.com" because those free hosting sites tend to host a fair number of more dubious sites. This can affect your ranking, so it's worth buying a domain name. There are a few "free domain" services out there--like "dot.tk"--but I don't know if or how they affect your search rankings.

In general, I also suggest looking at "Google Analytics" as a tool for analyzing your website--there are too many tools available to list in a simple SC answer, but if you search YouTube for videos on Google Analytics, you'll learn everything you need to know here.

That covers your basic submission and ranking factors. "SEO" will continue to be a big buzzword, but as the search engine optimization companies figure out the ranking rules that Google and the other big boys use (and then use them to "cheat" by getting even poor sites better rankings), those search companies change the rules in order to try to get better quality indexing again. It's a technological arms race, and a lot of companies that claim to do SEO these days either don't keep up or don't really care about more than taking their clients' money. Ask your sponsors and his/her sponsors, and of course, your a2a affiliate network who they trust or got bitten by.
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Getting listed is the easiest part because all you have to do is use an autosubmitter program that sends information about your website(s) to all the major search engines. "Search Engine Optimization" is frequently more about picking as many relevant keywords and making sure that these are SEEN as relevant.

You also want to arrange to have as many high-ranking links to your website as possible. That is, sites that get linked to by CNN, for example, will generally get higher
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

When starting out in SFI, the most important action is to learn about SFI and TripleClicks, and it's entirely possible to do each of those because each will teach you something about reaching your goals as an affiliate. In fact, it's even possible to invest in enough advertising to earn 1500 VersaPoints or more. My own first purchase, if I recall correctly, was a 1500VP package of TCredits, and I used them to learn about every element of the site, from auctions to games to listings. Then again, I also understood how to write my own ad copy and how to promote my gateway links on my own.

More important than either type of purchase is learning how to promote, and your strategy will depend entirely on what aspects of SFI and TripleClicks make the most sense to you. There is no bad way to do this, as long as you use your purchases as a learning experience.
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When starting out in SFI, the most important action is to learn about SFI and TripleClicks, and it's entirely possible to do each of those because each will teach you something about reaching your goals as an affiliate. In fact, it's even possible to invest in enough advertising to earn 1500 VersaPoints or more. My own first purchase, if I recall correctly, was a 1500VP package of TCredits, and I used them to learn about every element of the site, from auctions to games to listings. Then again,
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