Enkay Blog

Basics of An Idea & Leaderboard Update

Market Leverage Contest Leaderboard Update
First off, let me get to the leaderboard update. This update is as of today of all the contestants that are entered. There are currently 5 contestants with the top 2 contestants running very close to each other. Here is the leaderboard:

1026 - $1,213.70
1024 - $1,017.50
1025 - $25.00
1023 - $13.05
1027 - $12.75
1028 - $0

The contest is running pretty well and if you haven’t entered then please do so by going to the original post or send me an email with your ML Publisher ID and you’ll be added in.

Basics Of An Idea
Today, I wanted to talk about the basics of an idea. I mean think about it, everything that we do as bloggers involves an idea. The idea to start the blog with a current theme, the ideas that we put into developing our posts and even the ideas that we use every day during our work. We’re surrounded by ideas and I wanted to talk about a few key aspects of a good idea, so lets begin.

1) Innovative - As any entrepreneur will tell you, ideas are only successful if they are innovative. This may not really pertain to day-to-day ideas but it certainly can. Innovative ideas are those that not only think outside the box but they also find new and unique ways to accomplish a common task. Example, think about Amazon, they started off as an online book catalog and the reason that it worked was because nobody else had thought about having a bookstore online. Thats innovation. Its creating a new path where one didn’t previously exist.

2) Find A Solution - Good Ideas help find solutions to problems or to situations that may or may not be simple but tend to be a problem. Ex. Think about the clips that you use on bags of potato chips, they’re simple yet without them, the chips could get stale. Good ideas find solutions to problems that you don’t really think are that big of a deal till someone else comes up with the solution. I mean, how many times do you think to yourself, “well, I could have come up with that”. Thats what a good idea is - it finds a solution.

3) Relevant & Feasible - Good ideas for day-to-day use need to be relevant and feasible. They need to be applicable to the job at hand and most importantly they need to be feasible. When I say relevant, I mean that if youre looking for ideas that have to do with cell phones, you cannot come up with ideas that have to do with items similar to cell phones like cordless phones or home phones. Feasible means that the idea you come up with can actually be created. In the sense that, if youre looking at ideas that have to do with traveling, you don’t suggest ideas that involve jetpacks (even though some do exist), its possible but its not necessarily feasible for what youre looking for.

So there you have it. Ideas are part of every day life and it comes in handy with blogging too. I mean everything has an idea behind it. So I hope you liked my list and now you have the leaderboard updated so you guys can have a look at that as well. Sorry for the delay in having it posted. I’m finally back to blogging now that I don’t have school to deal with for the next few weeks. Hope you guys had a great Monday.

Managing Your Time

As many of you know, I have been busy with school for a long time now and I apologize for keeping you waiting but some things just have to be done. It was a hectic past 3 weeks but it has finally come to a close with only a 120 page report due later this week which is well under way. I have done exceptionally well on all my exams (just so you know, I scored over 90% on all of them) and my GMAT exam which is a required exam for an MBA also went very well. Again, I score over 90% on the GMAT as well which is quite a big achievement, the way I see it. I think it was a good birthday present after all!

Since all this has been going on in my life, I decided to talk about how it is that I manage my time. Theres just so many things to do and sometimes I know that I feel that I hope that there were more hours in the day. Lets see if you agree with how I manage my time:

1) To-Do List - Everyone has a cell phone and if you don’t, then all it takes is a pen and paper to create a to-do list. A To-Do list can help you keep track of what needs to be done and when it needs to be done. If you are like me, my cell phone, ipod and my computer are all equipped with a to-do list so that I can make sure to keep track of everything that I need to get done.

2) Calendar - As silly as this sounds, a calendar is really helpful for someone like me who is a student or even a professional who is busy working. I print out blank calendars from the internet, specificially from this website, and then use it as a guide to match what I need to get done by what date. I use it to make sure that my assignments are turned in on time and I know several individuals who use it at work to keep track of project and report deadlines. Its really handy and it sounds really simple but it can really help you out tremendously if you use one.

3) Drive/Motivation - This last point can be controversial if you say that you’ve never been the “driven type” but its actually controllable. I know that I am super motivated to finish whatever I need to do. I dont take no for an answer and try to accomplish all my tasks. This involves being motivated and driven towards accomplishing the goals that you set for yourself. If I have something to do, I set my mind to completing it and I always make it happen.

So hopefully you’ve enjoyed this post. I know that it was short but I wanted to give you guys an update and see what you think about the things that help you manage your time. Keep me posted and Thanks again for all your emails and support. I greatly appreciate it!

Leaderboard & Update

So guys, I know I have been around very little for the past week or two but I’ve had exams and this friday is my GMAT which is an important exam in order to do your MBA. I have been studying the whole last week and will be studying the entire week ahead in order to be well prepared so wish me luck. I’ll be back on board as soon as the exam is over.

For now however, I wanted to give you an update about the contest. So far there have been 4 entries and if you have considered entering then you might want to enter because your chances of winning are quite high. I will be updating the leaderboard every friday or monday and keeping you updated. Here is the leaderboard and if you haven’t entered yet, please do so by clicking here.

1023 $0.00
1024 $0.00
1025 $0.00
1026 $0.00

Since I have been busy with things going on around me, let me ask you how things are with you? I’ve always had slight down weeks where I’m unable to blog as much but my readers have been supportive enough to be around and wait for me to make a return. I am very thankful for that. Let me know how you guys have been and if I haven’t heard from you, this would be a good time to catch up because I look for small distractions during my study time! Anyway, hope you guys have a great week and I apologize again for the delay but I thank you guys for still being around! Have a good one!

Free Advertising Credits

I noticed that some of you were a little skeptical in wanting to enter the contest that I have running so I decided to give you a reason to experiment with affiliate marketing. Yesterday, I mentioned that in order to make money, you have to spend money and because I want to help you out, I’ve put together a list of a few ad networks that are offering free advertising credits for you to try them out.

I have tried out Adwords and Facebook but in this list I’ll also be including the MSN AdCenter and Yahoo Search Marketing as well. This post includes a total of $225 worth of Ad credits for all the major publishing networks out there. Here is a list:

Facebook - $100
To get your $100 Facebook credit, you have to follow a few steps and to help you out, I’ve created a small step-by-step list for you since this one will require you to be familiar with facebook a little. First off, you have to have a facebook account before you are able to do this but here are the steps:

1) Add the VISA Business Network application and complete their registration process
2) Once the registration process is complete, wait for an email
3) The email will include a code such as 1111-2222-3333-4444
4) In Facebook, at the bottom of any page it will say “Advertising”
5) Once you’ve set up your ads click on the Billing tab at the top
6) Then click on “Funding Sources” and select “Enter Coupon Code”
7) Your funds will be added to your account

Google Adwords - $50
Google Adwords, MSN Adcenter and Yahoo Search Marketing as not as complicated as Facebook in order to get your free credit however, Facebook does offer a lot more money to experiment with. Adwords is offering $50 and all you have to do is sign up by clicking on this link. You will be required to pay a $5 activation fee.

MSN AdCenter - $50
MSN AdCenter is also currently offering $50 and all you have to do to receive your free credit is click on this link and complete the sign up process in order to get started. You will be required to pay $5 as an activation charge which is quite common and click here to sign up.

Yahoo Search Marketing - $25
Yahoo offers a much smaller advertising credit compared to the others and I’m not really sure why considering that it does compete with the rest but based on my research, they started off at $200 of free credit and have slowly trickled down to $25. Either way, it is something and can help you get started and all you have to do is click here.

Conclusion
So hopefully this post can help you get started by providing you with quite a bit of free credit so that you don’t have to risk as much money. Be sure to know that some networks will ask you for daily spending limits instead of monthly spending limits so keep monitoring it in order to avoid spending too much of your own money without realizing it. Either way, its not that complicated and if I can do it, then anyone can! Hope you guys have a great weekend!

Making Money with Affiliate Marketing

Before I begin speaking about how you can make money with affiliate marketing I wanted to let you know about the contest. Ive gotten a few entries into the contest so Im going to try to put up a leader board every so often to keep you updated about the contest results. If you haven’t entered the contest yet, go here for more details.

Now lets talk about Affiliate Marketing. Here are a few tips to help you out

1) Finding The Right Marketing - There are many ways you can market the offers that you select to promote. You can use Facebook, Myspace, Google Adwords, etc. among many others. The idea is that some promotional methods may be better than others. You could have a really well established email list that you could use or choose between the advertising mediums I’ve mentioned. Its all about picking the right method.

2) Picking The Right Offers - Some people get caught up in CPA but instead pick the offers that you think will work the best or will sell the best based on the target demographic or your email list. You need to pick offers that will sell the best so, for example, if you are advertising on Facebook you have to realize that the biggest demographic is between ages 16-25 and so you would have to pick offers to sell to that demographic so you would pick offers like student loans over offers for better insurance.

3) Dont Be Skeptical/Afraid - The reason why most people dont really take to affiliate marketing that quickly is because theres a financial input required and some people are not ready to take on that risk. There will be a post tomorrow about how you can get some free credits to try out different publishing networks such as Facebook, Adwords, etc. For those of you who want to give it a try or are unsure of how it works and just want to get some hands on experience then experiment with a small amount of money just to get a feel of things. Its sort of like investing your money, you win some and you can lose some but one you know the formula then all you’ll be doing is winning, so dont be afraid to spend a little.

So hopefully this post gives you a little help regarding affiliate marketing. I’ll have a post tomorrow about different coupons for ad publishing networks so that you can get a head start on your affiliate marketing career. Anyway, hope you guys have a good weekend and I’ll post for you tomorrow!