Affiliate Marketing Tips from Super Affiliate Zac Johnson

My Blog Readers have Earned Over ONE MILLION with Neverblue

Over the past decade I've had the task of working with many different affiliate networks. Some thrived, died, went out of business and a few also went on to be acquired and become parts of larger companies. One of the few successful and very … Read More

Breakdown of a Profitable Facebook Ads Campaign

With the latest backlash of articles coming up on TechCrunch about deceptive and scammy ways to make money on Facebook, I wanted to provide you with a full breakdown on how to create a successful CPA Facebook ads campaign. Step and step details on a … Read More

Create Killer Landing Pages – Free Template

I get questions all the time about landing pages and what are the best ways to create them. Instead of writing a post on what you should focus on, I will simply take an existing ad campaign from MarketLeverage, and made a real landing page out of. … Read More

Insider Secrets to a Making a Million Dollar Web Site!

A few days ago I released my first post on "How I Made $860,538.38 PROFIT in 4 Months!", along with the picture of my $306,373.24 check. Due to the massive exposure and questions generated from the post, I thought I'd bring you the second … Read More

How I Made $860,538.38 PROFIT in 4 Months!

First off, I would like to make it clear that this post is NOT to impress you, but to impress upon you what's possible! This is a quick review on how I went from one of my worst years of making money online to my best year, and all it took was one … Read More

Thesis Theme and Hooks Reference Guide

I’ve had the Thesis Theme for around a year now, and have used it several times for creating mini blog sites. Right out of the box, it’s a pretty awesome theme, but what I didn’t realize til recently is it’s potential is limitless.

Normally I would create a mini site, throw in some content, load up the Thesis theme and let the site index into Google. This works fine, but after some research, I realized how much I was missing out on by not utilizing the true power of Thesis. I knew there was a lot of customization options available, but I wasn’t sure how to use them. Thesis isn’t like other wordpress themes. If you ever opened one of the source files, you’ll know what I mean. I’m used to manually editing the wordpress source files to get what I want done. When you open the source files for the Thesis theme, you are pretty much dead in the water for customization, as it wasn’t created for this type source code work. It was meant for much more.

Once I started doing some research on how to customize Thesis, it was starting to make sense. Instead of changing source codes, you are supposed to use “hooks“. “Hooks” were created for Thesis and once you get the hang of it, it actually makes things a lot easier. It’s just a matter of not being lost in the woods and knowing where to go to easily learn about Thesis and Hooks… which is why I wrote this post.

Open the Thesis index.php file and all you see is one line of code.

To best explain what “Hooks” are and how much more effective and time saving they are versus manually editing source code, do check out the video below. A simple plugin makes the process just a few clicks away.

- Thesis Open Hook Plugin for WordPress (Must Have for Thesis)

- Thesis Tutorial : Hooks for Dummies

- Thesis Hooks : A Visual Reference

- How to Customize Your Site Intelligently with Hooks

- How to Customize Like a Pro with Theme Hooks

Now that you have a good understanding how Thesis Hooks work, you should be able to start playing around with the Thesis design and making it look how you want. Before I got into playing with the Hooks, I went to google and searched around for “Thesis Themes“. You are limited in some areas, but with some time, you can have a site that looks nothing like the “out of the box” theme. Thesis is already a very popular wordpress theme, but there is a huge lack of resources for Thesis Themes (free and paid) and even Thesis designers at that. For anyone who specializes in Thesis or design, this would be a huge opportunity to generate some money.

MobileOrchard and GreenYourDecor have done amazing jobs with their Thesis themes.

The screenshots above are two sites that truly display what is possible with Thesis theme. Another excellent example is CopyBlogger.

As a last resource, I wanted to leave you with a set of excellent articles on how you can make a killer blog design using Thesis and Hooks.

- 8 Thesis theme design tips to make your blog better
- 10 Uncommonly Gorgeous Thesis Themes
- The Definitive List of Thesis Theme Tutorials

If you already have Thesis, hopefully some of these resources will further improve your use of the plugin theme. For those of you that haven’t given Thesis a try, I find it’s well worth the $87 for a personal license, or $164 for unlimited use on the developer’s license. Remember, I was actually quite happy with the Thesis theme even before I started using Hooks and made the most out of it. It’s worth trying out and best of all, if you don’t like it, you have 30 days to get a full refund.

Visit the Thesis Theme web site.

05 January, 2010 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Web Developement

Top New Year’s Resolutions 2010

Halloween is long gone and many have cashed in on the massive spending on candy, decorations and costumes. Christmas has now passed as well, the biggest of all holiday spending! BILLIONS of dollars were spent… did you cash in on any of it? The fourth quarter of 2009 was loaded with opportunities to make money, and we’re about to start the cycle all over again. It’s now time for New Years 2010. With New Years, comes resolutions… when everyone loves to reinvent themselves and try to better their lives. Usually this is done by spending a ton of money on crap people never end up using!

Here are some of the Top New Year’s Resolutions you can make some serious coin on in the new year.

Weight Loss / Self Improvement
This year was like no other for weight loss offers. From Acai, to flogs, to rebills to “Obeying Only One Rule“… weight loss offers and classic banner ads have been everywhere. Just because the FTC, Oprah and state attorney generals are starting to take action, don’t expect to see a huge slowdown on these advertisements. Rebills will live on and marketers will continually find a way to make money and market these offers. Why? Because people love the concept and dream of a weight loss miracle pill. With that being said… like every year, weight loss is one of the best niches to be in for money. Whether you are pushing rebills, or well known brands like P90X or GNC, there is plenty of money to be made for all by pushing weigh loss.

Spend More Time with Family
Realistically, there is only one way to spend more time with your family… and that’s by minimizing your work load. For most people, this is nearly impossible. “Make Money at Home” and “Excel Your Career” programs have always done well online. Much like the weight loss niche, many of these offers come in the form of rebills. Two examples of targeting this market is with rebill / work from home offers, or offering the viewer to excel at their current job. There are many high paying college offers for further education in nursing, criminal justice etc. (College continuation programs have proven to do very well with Facebook Ads, with proper targeting.)

Quit Smoking
When “quit smoking” comes to mind, you really only think of two ways… quitting cold turkey, or with a product like nicorette gum. The rebills have started to take over the smoking market too. The “e-cigarette” is a non-smoking cigarette alternative that is gaining a lot of attention. No matter how you try to make money in this niche, every day there are millions of smokers that want to quit and go online to search out their best solution.

Get Out of Debt
This one is easy, and right now it applies to more people than ever. “Cash Advance” and “Debt Consolidation” offers have always been a big hit online for marketers. Unfortunately the Cash Advance offers usually screws over the customer in the end, which is why they can pay out such a large commission on an easy sign up process. For those looking for more legitimate and trusted offers/companies, many financial programs like Geico and Quicken offer affiliate programs. Just do a general search on Google for “get out of debt” to see companies and ad copies are being used for this high target keyword.

Learn Something New
A lot of offers can fall into this category, but what I think of first, is learning a new language. The most popular brand out there for learning a new language is easily Rosetta Stone. Their affiliate program pays 15% commission through Commission Junction. “Learning Something New” can easily include how to make money online, blogging, career/college offers… so there is a lot to choose from.

Here are a few fun resolution facts to think about as well:

- 45% of people make one or more resolution.
- Those who set resolutions are 10X more likely to attain a goal vs. those who don’t.
- 75% keep their resolve past the first week.
- 46% keep their resolve past the first six months.

Even if your marketing efforts don’t fall into any of the following, you have a whole new year to work with… and who knows what 2010 will hold for the rest of us! Here’s to making more money then ever in the new year!

28 December, 2009 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Make Money

Goodbye Wolf

I still can’t believe I’m actually writing this, but my best friend and the sweetest dog in the world, Wolf has just passed away. Seems like just yesterday she came slowly walking into my office room at my parents house after my dad bought her as a present for my mom. Now, the unthinkable has happened and what seems to be out of no where. It still doesn’t seem real.

What started out as an ordinary checkup, turned into a nightmare and miracle at the same time. A little over two weeks ago Wolf had a checkup, which included a blood test. The results came back and said she needed immediate attention to check her blood levels. Wolf was rushed to the emergency hospital and ended up staying a few days. Her blood levels were of great concern. Levels that should have been above 150,000, were below 20,000. The hardest part through all of this, was that on the outside Wolf was perfect as ever and seemed like nothing was wrong. Wolf would stay in the hospital for a few days, where we would visit her every night, and even brought up Timber (her best friend and sister) to see her one time. All of Wolf’s levels finally came back (above 50,000) and it was like a christmas miracle, Wolf was coming home! We never would have known about Wolf’s troubles inside her body if we didn’t happen to have that recent checkup and blood test.

The whole time she was at the hospital, she was always top priority and on our minds. It was great to have Wolf back home again, especially in time for the holidays. Yesterday my parents noticed Wolf just wasn’t acting right and brought her back up to the emergency animal hospital. All of the best doctors were in and Wolf got the care she needed. The latest report this morning was that her bone marrow test went well, she was eating and actually howling a bit.

It wasn’t til around noon when my parents called to give me the news that Wolf had passed. Completely unexpected, but always a horrible possibility in my mind. The doctors called my parents and said she was having trouble breathing, not acting normal at all and just wanted to confirm any “non resuscitate” terms we had. A few minutes later and the doctor called again, this time with the sad news that Wolf had passed. It may have been cancer, the blood levels, all of the medicine, but we did everything would could to give Wolf the best care and treatment possible. In the end, it was all just too much on Wolf, and now she is in peace.

Wolf, you will be missed by everyone!
July 24, 1999 – December 24, 2009

Appreciate EVERYTHING this holiday.

I will leave you with a few pictures of Wolf.

24 December, 2009 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Zac's Life

Facebook Ads and Banner Blindness

This is a guest post by Jonathan Volk who runs an internet marketing blog where he teaches the techniques he has used to generate millions of dollars per year online.

How often do you see ads just like this one on your facebook? I know I see these ads over and over among others so often.

What is Banner Blindness?

Banner blindness on facebook ads is when an ad such as the one above is just ignored simply due to the fact that it has been seen so many times before by the same demographic.

Ads that once worked amazingly well (as I’m sure this ad did – although I never personally ran it) loses it’s effectiveness all together.

Banner blindness can set in rather fast on Facebook. I’ve seen ads move from profitable to unprofitable in a single day by not implementing the correct protocols (featured below). This happens especially fast when targeting smaller numbers of people.

Overcoming Banner Blindness

Overcoming this banner blindness is a huge struggle as a facebook advertiser, specially when you’re generating high volume ads.

To overcome Banner blindness, my team has tried numerous techniques. Here are a couple techniques that can help you to overcome this banner blindness and increase your facebook ads profitability.

Put a border around the image ad – In Photoshop you can easily add a red border around your currently high converting image to create a bit more attention to an ad losing it’s effectiveness.
Try changing the headline to something 100% different. Often, changing the headline to something completely different can have a good effect on your ad conversions.
Always run more than one ad variation. If you run more variations of ads, your ads lose effectiveness slower. Even if one ad is less profitable, it’s worth running to keep your higher profiting ad running for longer.
Of course, switch out the image. Easiest and simplest trick in the book, but it works.

By using some of these techniques, you should be able to overcome banner blindness to some extent.

For more information on creating successful facebook campaigns you can check out some of these articles: