The Niche Site Tools Podcast

In today’s Podcast Episode, I bring you a deal on an existing tool you guys know and love and also give you some additional details on a new tool to help you bring in more money as an Amazon affiliate.
I also tell you the full story of how after 4+ years, this Podcast was “rejected” by the Apple Podcasts/iTunes and how to avoid this as an existing or potential new Podcaster.
We also talk about the “Joy of Tidying Up” when it comes to your digital footprint and your existing workspace and websites.
Be on the lookout for some upcoming changes to the look and feel of things going forward on the site and please let me know if you notice any issues.
Also, be aware of a new feature in WordPress 5.1 called Site Health, that will prevent you from installing new plugins if your PHP version is older than the version required for the plugin.
Be sure to listen in to the Podcast for full details!
Links Mentioned on the Show
Long Tail Pro $47 – One time fee special plus FREE bonus 7 Day SEO Bootcamp video training course
AmaLinks Pro – Special introductory pricing on the best Amazon affiliate plugin available; Responsive comparison tables feature coming soon and when it does, the price will be increasing for good.  Grab this special deal while it lasts.  I switched over all my sites to AmaLinks Pro. You can check out my full review with live demos here.

In today’s Podcast episode, I reveal a new resource to enrich your mind and contribute to your success.
Be sure to listen in for full details!
Items Mentioned on The Podcast
Recommended Reading List – You can find this new resource here, at the tab on the top of the site labeled “Books” or by just typing the short link http://nichesitetools.com/books
The list is starting out with 4 must read options and I’ll be adding more as time goes on.  If you have any suggestions for possible future consideration, be sure drop me a comment or email and let me know.
New Amazon Affiliate Tool – I’m currently testing a cool new tool to help Amazon affiliates, similar to EazyAzon, but it is much easier to use with lots of great features not available anywhere else.
For example, here is one of my favorite feature so far, the Product Showcase box…
This super simple to use option pulls in all the relevant data from a product listing on Amazon automatically and you have full control over what is shown and how things appear.
You can display all the reviews for the product right there in the post, which is normally not possible due to Amazon terms of service, but because all of this data is pulled directly from Amazon via their API, everything is fully compliant.
Looking forward to bringing you more details on the product soon, but you can also check it out right away by clicking here.  I think you will really like this one!

In this last Podcast Episode of 2018, I breakdown what the WordPress 5.0 update and the new Gutenberg editor mean for you and answer the question, should you upgrade now?
Be sure to listen in for full details and I wanted to take this time to once again say a heartfelt THANK YOU for being a valued member of the Niche Site Tools community throughout this year and I wish you a very Happy, Healthy and Successful 2019!
Reference posts:
Should You Update to WordPress 5.0?
What is Gutenberg?

For this month’s Podcast episode, I wanted to give you some personal thoughts and words of wisdom for not only your online business, but life in general. Please be sure to listen in for full details and thank you for being a valued member of the community!

In today’s Podcast episode, we talk about the importance of defining, or re-defining, the reason WHY you want to create a successful online business.
In addition, I give you actionable tips to do this week, that can have a profound effect on not only the success of your online business, but in all aspects of your life.
Be sure to listen in for full details!
Items Mentioned on the Show
$47 One-Time Payment Special on Long Tail Pro
The Secret Movie on NetFlix

In today’s Podcast Episode, I answer the question “How often should I promote to my audience?” and I also provide you some brand new tips on what is working best right now, when it comes to affiliate marketing in 2018.
These tips come straight from the free workshops that I sent to everyone on my email list over the past two weeks.
If you’re not on my email list yet, be sure to jump on to find out about these opportunities that are usually only available for a very short time and thus don’t make it to the website in the form of a post or Podcast Episode.
Thanks for being a valued member of the community!

In this Episode of the Podcast, I give you the latest scoop on Google marking non-HTTPS sites as “Not Secure” in the Chrome browser, starting in July of 2018.
In addition, I provide quick actionable tips that you can take in the next few days, that I think will have positive results on your existing website(s)!
Be sure to listen in for full details.
Links and Reference Articles For This Episode
Google Chrome Will Mark Non-HTTPS Sites “Not Secure” in July 2018
How to Easily Switch Your Site to HTTPS For Free
Long Tail Pro $47 One-Time Special
Webhosting Hub Special Pricing (AF)

In this week’s Podcast Episode, we talk about the upcoming new GDPR Regulation.
This new law goes into effect on May 25th, 2018 and it applies to pretty much everyone with a website or anyone collecting email addresses.
There are specific steps you will need to take prior to May 25th, or you could face strict financial penalties and repercussions for non-compliance.
Be sure to listen in for full details and a quick breakdown of what exactly that means for you.
GDPR EU Regulation Reference Links
Official GDPR EU Site
GetResponse GDPR Plan
Official WordPress GDPR Compliance Page
May 5th 2018 Update
The more I’ve been reading about and listening to others breakdown the GDPR law, the more I’m realizing this is really a big deal.
The details below are my personal opinion, please be sure to do your own due diligence and start to take action based on your specific circumstances.
I’ve included links to the new content I’ve consumed since publishing this Podcast episode at the bottom of this section.
A few things I’d like to highlight…

* This law is NOT specific to people operating in the EU, it affects all of us that have websites that might be visited from people in the EU and also anyone that collects email addresses or other personal data.
* This law does not just apply after May 25th, it applies to everyone that is already on your email list that has a location in the EU OR anyone that does not have a location listed.
* The potential monetary penalties for non-compliance are stiff, up to 20Million Euro, or 4% of global annual turnover, depending on severity of the violations.

Those are some key points I don’t think many people are realizing.  If you have a website, you will very likely need to update your privacy policy and understand the details of the new law as it pertains to customers that are arriving at your site from an EU location.
The even bigger issue I see for most of us is that anyone that collects email addresses will have to prove that you received consent to send people emails and you would have to clearly state your full intentions when they subscribed.
It is not enough to provide a lead magnet in exchange for an email address. If you intend to add subscribers to an autoresponder series or send them any additional marketing emails in the future, that must be/have been clear upfront.
And the other sticking point is that this new law applies to not only anyone that is identified as being located in the EU, but if you have anyone on your email list that has no location  (and that is probably a big portion of your list), this applies to all of those folks as well.
Based on the content from the links below, it seems that in order to send anyone in the EU OR anyone without a location an email after May 25th, that you will need to obtain new consent for them to remain on your list and affirm their desire to receive emails after May 25th.
If you do not have verifiable proof that they have consented to receiving additional emails after May 25th, you would have to remove them from your list by May 24th, or be in violation.
If you find this frustrating, you are not alone!  I’ve talked this over with several folks in the community and we’re all in agreement on that.
However, it is not the time to just throw your hands up and do nothing.  Now is the time to check your existing privacy policies and take a look at your email list(s) and put your game plan into effect.

In today’s Podcast Episode, I talk about two main topics…
1) How to quickly increase traffic on any of your existing websites.
2) How to make a full time income in your spare time.
The motivation for these topics came from recent articles that I included in the references section below.
On the Podcast, I provide you with the exact steps that you can follow today to immediately start to increase your traffic and rankings on your existing websites, in addition to providing you the repeatable framework that you can follow to replace your day job income in your spare time.
Below are the links mentioned on the show. Some are affiliate links and if you were to click through and make a purchase, I would receive a commission at no additional cost to you.
Be sure to listen in for full details!
Tools To Find Additional Keywords to Target and Questions to Answer
Long Tail Pro
Market Samurai
Uber Suggest
Answer the Public
Best Tool For Landing Page Creation
Thrive Landing Pages
Fast, Reliable Hosting at a Deep Discount
WebHosting Hub
Cheap Domain Hosting and Free Privacy Protection With New Sign-Ups
NameCheap Domains
References:
Increase Traffic By Updating Web Content
How You Can Make a Full Time Income in Your Spare Time

In today’s Podcast Episode, I provide full details on how things are going to be changing when it comes to future Podcast Episodes, some new things you can expect on the site, new things for email subscribers, etc.
Be sure to listen in for full details and if you have any specific suggestions after listening in, please let me know!
Affiliate links for recommended products mentioned on the Episode…
Thrive Themes and Plugins
GetResponse Email Service Provider

With high profile security incidents becoming more and more prevalent, it is essential for you to take some simple steps to protect yourself from hackers.
In today’s Podcast Episode and post, you will get several simple WordPress security tips from not just myself, but several community members that have either been hacked previously or have taken proactive steps to protect their sites.
Be sure to subscribe and listen to today’s Podcast Episode via one of the links above, for 2 additional bonus tips not mentioned below.
Simple WordPress Security Tips
Always Use Domain Privacy – If you don’t, you’ll not only get inundated with spam from people selling services, but you will also be subject to additional scams, phishing attempts and others trying to trick you into transferring your domains over to them.
For domain registrations, I recommend you keep them separate from your hosting account and I utilize and endorse NameCheap. They are my go-to choice for inexpensive registrations and just as importantly, consistent and inexpensive renewals. They provide free domain privacy when you register a new domain name.
Set Domains For AutoPay – This isn’t necessarily a security tip, but it was a good tip from a community member to avoid losing your important domain assets and prevent yourself from being subject to scammers.
People are always watching for expired domains and they can purchase your domain names if they expire and try to sell them back to you for highly inflated prices. At a minimum, stay on top of your domain renewals and be sure to renew them in advance to avoid being hijacked.
Change Your WordPress Login Account / Password – One thing I always recommend when installing WordPress is to not only make your password unique and highly secure for each of your websites, but also change the default account name from admin to something else.
When hackers attempt brute force login hacks on your website, they will most likely be trying the default admin account, since most people probably do not change it from the default.
Changing the default account is easy to do during the WordPress installation, but a little more difficult after the fact. There are some manual ways to do so, but I’d recommend using a plugin like Username Changer to make things easier. Then when you are done, just uninstall the plugin.
And also, be sure to have different accounts/passwords for each of your websites and do not you not utilize a password that you use for other online accounts.
These days it is becoming more and more common for user names and passwords to end up being released to hackers on the “dark web”.  Some high profile hacks of accounts and passwords include LinkedIn and Yahoo Mail.
When lists like that become public, hackers can attempt to connect your account/passwords with other sites such as financial sites and other assets you might have like websites and online businesses.
For that reason, I highly recommend you have a different username and password for each of your websites and keep them completely different from any other account/password like email, bank accounts, etc.
Always Install a Plugin That Limits Repeat Logins – Brute force login attacks are one of the most common ways people will attempt to hack your website. They will hit the login page of your website over and over, trying known or obvious login/password combinations.
A plugin which limits login attempts can block repeated attempts from the same source, in an effort to prevent login related hacks.
There are lots of different plugins out there that can help with this one.

In this week’s Podcast Episode, I provide full details from a “cease and desist” email that I received this week.
I ended up having to shutdown one of the websites that I talked about on the very popular Episode: How to Rank and Rent or Sell a Website For Profit.
This will be the last Episode for 2017. Expect an all new Episode in mid January, 2018.
I hope you get some time to relax and enjoy and be appreciative for what you have and I hope you and your family have a very safe, happy, healthy and prosperous 2018!!

In today’s Podcast episode, I bring you some brand new deals that weren’t mentioned in my special email that went out to subscribers for Black Friday.
These are some great deals, hot off the presses, many of which will only be live until the end of today.  On the Podcast, I provide a full breakdown as to exactly what each of the deals provide.
This is really the best time to take advantage of these deals and in many cases, lock in the discount for life.
There are affiliate links in this post. If you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.
Cyber Monday – Affiliate Marketing Deals
Long Tail Pro 50% Off Cyber Monday Special – All plans are 50% off. This is my favorite keyword research tool and it is now 100% browser based, no more software to install and maintain on multiple computers.
Monthly normally $37/mo, now $18.50/mo
Yearly normally $297/yr now $148.50/yr
Deal ends Monday, Nov 27th
$100 Off the Proven Amazon Course – This one-time fee includes lifetime access to all existing training courses AND future content for selling and profiting on Amazon. The price goes back to normal next week and increases even further in early 2018, as they add in new content.
One time fee for lifetime access, normally $399, now $299
Deal ends Thurs, Nov 30th
GetResponse Up to 40% Off Email Packages For Life – This deal is limited to the first 1000 new customers. As I’m writing this post, there are only 246 spots remaining. This is a great deal for the company that I recently switched to, for all my email marketing and list building services.
Deal ends after 1000 new customers are reached
50% Off All Amazon Boot Camp Training Programs – These are the step-by-step video training courses from Jessica Larrew of “The Selling Family”. She is a very successful Amazon Seller and she has a bunch of different training programs on just about anything you might need to know to sell on Amazon.
Normally $347, now $173.50
Deal ends Monday the 27th at Midnight PST
NameCheap Up to 99% Off Domain Registrations – That is quite the promise, not quite sure how they will be able to offer domains that low, but this will be a great deal to take advantage of. I always recommend keeping domain names separate from your hosting account and NameCheap is who I utilize for all my domain names.
Deal ends Monday, Nov 27th
WebHosting Hub Hosting Up to 78% off – This one is crazy…My hosting provider is offering their lowest price ever, $1.99/mo for the 2 website plan and $3.99/mo for the unlimited plan. That is 78% off the regular rate and 50% off the special discount that I normally provide. They also provide zero-down-time, free website transfers from most of the other main providers out there. This is an awesome deal, on fast, reliable hosting!
Deal ends this week, exact date/time unknown
Be sure to take advantage of these great deals, while they last.

The holiday season and end of year are fast approaching and there are things you should be focusing on right now, in your online business.
Be sure to listen in to today’s Podcast Episode for full details and thanks for being a valued member of the Niche Site Tools community!

In today’s Podcast Episode, I detail the most popular resources on the site, taken straight from my most recent Google Analytics stats from the past year.
These are some great resources that many folks refer back to quite often. These Posts and Episodes can definitely help get you started and help you achieve success with all of your niche website projects and online adventures.
Here are many of the links mentioned in today’s episode, for reference. Enjoy!
Top Posts / Podcast Episodes
Ultimate WordPress Setup Checklist
Top 10 Things Everyone Should Do After Installing WordPress
Actionable Strategies to Quickly Increase Affiliate Income
Review of the Amazon BootCamp by Jessica Larrew
Niche Keyword Research and SEO Competition Analysis
Tax Tips for Bloggers and Affiliate Marketers
Niche Product Reviews
Case Study: Ranking on Page 1 of Google in 24 hours
How to Rank and Rent or Sell a Website For Profit
NicheSiteTools Podcast Page
How to Leave a Podcast Review in iTunes or Stitcher
Free Affiliate Marketing Training Program
Niche Site Tools Recommended Resources Page
Start Here Page
Cheaper Alternatives to Long Tail Pro
Proven Amazon Course Review and Comparison
Make More Money as an Amazon Affiliate
Amazon, Walmart, Target and Other Affiliate Programs Compared
Review of the Best Email List Providers: GetResponse, AWeber, ConvertKit

Today is Podcast Episode 100!!  Thank you for your support and be sure to listen in!

March 30th, 2021 Update:  You can now get access to all the great Thrive plugins and tools as part of the new Thrive Suite.  Individual Thrive products are no longer sold separately.  Please check out the link for full details.
In this week’s Podcast Episode, I talk about all of the plugins and themes that make up the Thrive Themes Membership.
Currently that includes 9 awesome plugins and 10 responsive, mobile friendly themes all for less then the cost of just 3 of the plugins individually.
The Thrive Themes Membership is only $19 a month, paid annually currently and I just renewed for my second year at that rate myself.
Here is everything the current Thrive Themes Membership includes, the only one missing is the brand new Thrive Apprentice plugin for creating your own free online courses…

They are constantly adding new plugins to the membership and adding features and themes to the package, so I locked in my membership at the current rate, to get access to all new products before any future price increases.
This is a great all-in-one package that includes all the essential plugins and themes that anyone needs to be successful online.
Thrive Themes Membership – Demos and Details
Be sure to listen in to the Podcast Episode for full details!
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The links above are my Thrive Themes affiliate link. I have a Thrive Membership myself and use several Thrive plugins and themes on my sites daily. If you decide to make a purchase, I would receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support in this way.

When you sign-up for web hosting, most companies give you a great introductory rate to get you to sign-up as a new customer.
Unfortunately, like most services these days, the rate can increase significantly after that introductory period is over.
That is something that isn’t talked about an awful lot and it can catch some folks by surprise.
Introductory rates for web hosting for new customers can range from $2.99/mo for 1-2 website plans to $6.99/mo and up for unlimited hosting.
Renewal rates are typically between $8.99-12.99/mo.
Today’s Podcast Episode idea came from an email I received this past week from a listener Debbie.
In that email, she mentioned that her hosting renewal with another company was coming due and she was glad to see I recommended a different company, Webhosting Hub.
How to Save Money on Hosting Renewals
In today’s Episode, I talk about two main options that you have, when it comes to getting a discount on your higher hosting renewal rates.
One is to attempt to negotiate a lower rate with your existing provider, assuming you like your current service and want to remain a customer. Your mileage may vary, depending on whether your provider is willing to try and retain you as a customer.
The other guaranteed option to save money is to switch to a new provider, to receive their new customer introductory discount.
What you’re looking for here is a reputable company that provides a free transfer service to help you transfer over all of your existing website data seamlessly, with zero downtime.
If you are looking to save money on hosting renewals and want to remain with your existing provider, by all means attempt to negotiate a lower rate.
If you don’t have much luck or are at all unhappy with your existing provider, you may consider making a switch.
I always recommend choosing the longest introductory term possible, to lock in the lower rate for the longest time possible.
The hosting provider I have been with for over 5 years is Webhosting Hub.
Through my affiliate link discount, you will always receive the lowest discounted rate currently available.
Their 2 website Spark package is $3.99/mo for 3 years and the Unlimited Nitro package for $5.99/mo for 3 years.  In addition, they offer an excellent free transfer service from any of the other main hosting providers out there, for websites with up to 5GB of data.
That is a great option to have available, as most companies either do not provide such a service or charge a huge fee, BlueHost charges $149 for website transfers as an example.
Transferring websites between hosts can be a complicated and daunting process to get right, especially for non-technical folks.
Webhosting Hub takes that stress and worry off your hands, all you do is submit a transfer request, provide them with the necessary details and they take care of the rest.
They remain in contact with your during the process, providing you with the steps to fully test your website(s) on their system, before making the final cut-over.
When you are satisfied everything is working as planned, you flip the switch and will be up and running on their servers, with zero downtime.
Conclusion
Similar to most other services these days (like cell phone plans, cable tv/internet and satellite radio) web hosting companies charge you a lower introductory rate and then increase those prices come renewal time.
Keep that in mind when you sign-up and make note of when your introductory term will end.

In this week’s Podcast Episode, I address two questions from the Private FB Mastermind group.
One was in regards to whether or not browser bookmarks provide any SEO benefit and the other was in regards to a quick website cleanup tip.
Be sure to listen in to today’s Episode for full details and I also provide an update on rankings for my two websites that I built to rank and sell/rent in the future, as well as an update on my move to our new home this past week.
We should now be back on track for a new Episode every two weeks, so if you have any suggestions for topics you would like to hear for future episodes, please drop me a note or voice mail on SpeakPipe.
Thanks and have an awesome day!

In today’s Podcast Episode I address a question from Warwick, from the Private FB Mastermind group.
Warwick mentioned that he was going to be updating content on several of his sites, for posts created several years ago and he wanted to know if changing the date would negatively affect traffic or rankings.
I address that question fully on the the Podcast, as well as some other things to consider when creating new content as far as putting dates or version numbers in your post URL.
Be sure to listen in for full details!

In today’s Podcast Episode I quickly address my most common question, which is to explain my process for doing keyword research for authority sites.
In addition, I provide a quick update on renting/selling websites targeting local search terms, from Episodes 93 and 94.
I’ve gotten some great feedback via email and from the folks in the Private FB Mastermind group about those last two episodes and many folks are interested in trying out the idea for themselves.
In today’s Episode, I also provide an update on what’s been going on these past few weeks and the schedule of things going forward for the next month or so.
Links mentioned in the show…
My Exact Keyword Research Process w/Long Tail Pro – YouTube Video
Long Tail Pro Discount
How to Choose a Niche Topic w/Market Samurai – Post/YouTube Video
Market Samurai Discount
Be sure to tune in for full details and as always, thanks for being part of the community!
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Some of the links above may be affiliate links.  If you make a purchase, I would receive a commission at no additional cost to you.  Thanks for your support.

In this week’s Podcast Episode I talk about a huge advantage of having your own online business, I provide an SEO tip that you’ve never heard before and also provide some great suggestions for Podcast apps to try, for iOS and Android devices.
Be sure to listen in for full details.
By the way, you may have noticed that I have a new logo and caricature of myself at the top of the site. What do you think?
It was a Fiverr gig that was $25 for a logo and cartoon style “mascot” creation, with up to 4 revisions included free of charge.
It was one of the best deals and experiences that I’ve had on Fiverr. I sent him my existing logo and a picture of myself and a rough idea on what I thought I wanted and he used his creativity to take care of the rest.
I utilized 3 of my 4 free revisions to tweak some colors and he was very responsive every step of the way, with minimal feedback required.
If you’re looking for a new or updated logo and “mascot”, definitely give this very reasonable logo creation gig a try.
Thanks for being a valued member of the community!

In this week’s Podcast episode, I talk about some recent questions from the community in regards to how to actually SUCCEED online.
One specific question was from the Private Facebook Mastermind Group and two related questions were received via email, all centering about how to build a successful online business.
Be sure to listen in for full details and thanks for being a valued member of the community!

In today’s Podcast Episode/post, I talk about how you can increase your WordPress site speed, with minimal effort, for free.
Be sure to listen in to the Podcast, as I will walk you through the steps below, in addition to providing the details behind the recommendations.
I’ve included screenshots of the steps mentioned in the Podcast and links to the tools, for reference below.
As always, before installing any plugins or making changes on your website(s), be sure to take a full offsite backup.
The plugin I recommend for backup and restore is the Updraft Plus WordPress Backup plugin. It is free for normal use and it works great.
I recommend you utilize DropBox as the offsite storage option. If you sign-up for a free DropBox account through my affiliate link, we will both get an additional 500MB of free storage.  Bonus!
In addition, BEFORE you attempt any of the steps below, I recommend you run a quick speed test of your site at GTMetrix.com, or your favorite speed test site.   You can download a full PDF report as a baseline, for later comparison.
Steps For Speeding Up Your WordPress Website
CloudFlare Sign-Up and Config
Sign-up for a free Cloudflare account and then sign-in.
Click the +Add Site button, enter your URL and then “Begin Scan”.

After the scan is complete, click the “Continue Setup” button.

Click “Continue” on the DNS verification screen.

Scroll down and choose the Free Website plan and click “Continue”.

Take note of the DNS servers you will need to change to and click “Continue”.
Note: the DNS servers shown in the image below may differ, be sure to use the ones shown in your own account.

Login to your Domain Name provider and change your existing DNS servers to match the ones referenced in the step above.
I utilize and recommend NameCheap for Domain Registration.
Below is a screenshot showing where you would make those changes on your NameCheap account.  Be sure to click the green “Save” check mark.

At this point, it will take a little bit of time for the changes to propagate throughout the internet.  They mention to allow up to 24 hours, but usually an hour is long enough.
After some time has passed, return to your Cloudflare dashboard and click “Recheck Nameservers”.

Once that is successful, you will see the screenshot below showing that your free CloudFlare account is now fully active.

Now click on the “Speed” tab along the top and within the “Auto Minify” section, click the check boxes for “JavaScript, CSS and HTML”.

Scroll down to the “Rocket Loader Beta” section and select “Automatic”.

Switch over from the “Speed” tab to the “Caching” tab.

Scroll down to the “Always Online” section and turn this On.

That’s it for the options within CloudFlare.  Now we’ll install and enable the Imagify plugin for optimizing and shrinking down images.
Installing and Configuring Imagify
Go to your WordPress Dashboard, select “Plugins” and “Add New” and then type in “Imagify”, select “Install Now” and then click on “Activate”.

After clicking on “Activate”, you’ll see the screen below.

In this week’s Podcast Episode, I talk about some of the different options when it comes to enabling HTTPS for your WordPress website.
Below, I will show you the steps for enabling HTTPS in just a few short steps, for free, utilizing Cloudflare.
Cloudflare utilizes SNI for their free SSL plan. For technical details and to decide if this method is right for you, click here for a full breakdown.
How to Enable HTTPS For Free on WordPress
Sign-up for a free Cloudflare account, by clicking the Sign-Up button in the upper right hand corner of the site.
Click the +Add Site button, enter your website URL and click “Begin Scan”.

Once the scan is complete, click “Continue Setup”.

On the DNS verification screen, scroll to the bottom and click “Continue”.

Choose the free plan and click “Continue”.

Make note of the Cloudflare DNS servers for the next step.

Login to your domain name provider and switch your domain name servers to the ones referenced in the step above.
This is a screenshot showing where to do so if you utilize NameCheap.

At this point it can take up to 24 hours for the changes to take effect, so give it a bit of time.  Usually 1-2 hours is fine.
Return to your Cloudflare dashboard and click “Recheck Nameservers”.

Once that is successful, you will see the following screenshot showing that your status is now active.

Login to your WordPress dashboard and install the Cloudflare Flexible SSL plugin.

Click activate.

You should now be able to access your site by typing your URL into your browser with https at the beginning. Test it and make sure it works.
Assuming all is good, go to your Cloudflare account and click on “Page Rules”.

Click on “Create Page Rule”.

Type in your URL as http://*yoursite.com*, click “Add a Setting” and choose “Always Use HTTPS” from the pull-down menu and click “Save and Deploy”.

Navigate to your website with the regular http URL and it should automatically redirect to the https version for all of your content.
Congratulations!  That wasn’t so bad right?
Quick Note: If you try your site in Internet Explorer and get a message that some of your content is insecure, it is likely an outdated plugin causing the issue. Either disable the outdated plugin or install this one additional plugin and that should fix the issue: Really Simple SSL.
Change Your URL to https in WordPress Dashboard
Go to your WordPress dashboard -> Settings -> General and change your URL to https from http

Add HTTPS URL To Google Search Console and Analytics
Now that your content is properly displaying via HTTPS, you will need to add the new version of your URL to Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
Login to Google Search Console and click on “Add a Property” and input the https version of your site.

Choose one of the verification methods provided and click “Verify”.

You should then receive a message saying your site is verified.

Congrats, only one step to go!
Login to your Google Analytics account and choose the relevant website and click ...

In this week’s Podcast Episode, I answer a question regarding how to properly utilize content from an existing outdated website for a new website, without getting a duplicate content penalty.
In addition, I answer the question as to whether content translated into another language, is considered duplicate content.
We’ll then do a quick year end wrap-up and provide some tips on what to focus on in the new year for success!
Be sure to listen in to this week’s Episode for full details!
Thanks you for being a valued reader/listener/subscriber and all around great person!
For everyone celebrating, I hope you have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Festivus or whatever it is you might be celebrating along with a very Safe, Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

In this week’s Podcast Episode, I provide you with several of the most frequently asked questions on the site, along with links to the related posts that answer those questions.
In addition, I provide a breakdown of my most commonly recommended tools, to help you succeed with your online adventures.
Frequently Asked Questions
Some of the most common questions that I receive are…
How do I pick the right keywords or products to promote?
What is the best theme to use?
Where do I get images from?
What are some alternatives to the Amazon affiliate program?
What is most important for SEO?
What are the best plugins to use for WordPress?
How do I create an email list and automatically send a welcome message?
What plugin should I use for XYZ, ie. email optins, landing pages, amazon affiliate program, etc?
For new folks, the best place to start is the Start Here page, listed along the top of the site for easy reference.
It contains everything you need to know in sequence, from brainstorming topics, keyword research, how to start your blog, an ultimate WordPress checklist, 7 simple SEO tips and how to get backlinks and traffic to your site.
That covers many of the most commonly asked questions all in one place.
The remaining questions are covered in the following popular posts…
Building an Email List For Free
Top 10 Things Everyone Should Do After Installing WordPress
Alternatives to the Amazon Affiliate Program
Essential Tools
As far as tools go, everything that I recommend and utilize is located on my Resources page, also listed at the top of the site.
That is THE place to go if you have any questions about what tools, training, hosting and plugins that I recommend.
I routinely update that page any time I find new tools that I really enjoy, that I know will help you with your website projects. Be sure to check back often.
You can also check out reviews of those tools, on the Product Reviews page.
I will list a few of the tools here, for some of the most common questions I get…
What hosting company do you use and recommend?
Webhosting Hub – Special Discount
What theme should I use?
Thrive Themes
ThemeForest
Elegant Themes
What are the best tools for keyword research?
Long Tail Pro
Market Samurai
What training programs do you recommend?
Free Affiliate Marketing Training
Proven Amazon Course For Selling on Amazon
What plugins do you recommend?

In this week’s Podcast Episode, I talk about a long standing affiliate relationship that I’ve had for the past 5 years and why I’m calling it quits.
I talk about all the reasons that it probably should have been the end a while back and what specifically happened in the last two weeks, to put the nail in the coffin.
I wanted to bring the details to you this week, while it is fresh in my mind, to let you know the types of things you will inevitably run into in affiliate marketing.
In addition, I provide some actionable tips on the types of questions you need to be asking affiliate managers now, preferably BEFORE you put forth any significant effort in your niche site projects.
Be sure to listen in for full details and thanks for being a part of the community!

If you’re a member of my free, Private FB Mastermind Group, you know that my family and I had to evacuate for Hurricane Matthew last week.
That was quite the event, but by pre-planning and having a solid plan in place ahead of time, it was a relatively stress-free process.
I’m happy to report we are safe, didn’t experience any major damage and we’re back in the normal swing of things.
In today’s Podcast episode, I’ll detail the importance of having a disaster plan for not only yourself, your family, pets and your residence, but also for all aspects of your online business.
There will be lots of key takeaways and recommendations that you can and should take action on right away.
Quick Mention

I mentioned at the beginning of the episode that I received an email from Jessica Larrew this week stating that the Amazon Boot Camp v2.0 will be closing it’s doors this Thursday, October 20th, 2016.
This will be the last time you can get in on this self-guided video training course for the remainder of the year.
In 2017, she will be releasing the next version of her program, but she also mentioned that the price will be increasing.
In addition, her Private FB Group for the program, which is staffed by paid moderators and an essential piece of the puzzle, will become separate and you’ll have to purchase that at an additional cost.
So if you are at all interested in the idea of selling products on Amazon for some side, or even full time income, in the new year, you should check out the Amazon Boot Camp v2.0 now, before it closes for good.
Amazon Boot Camp v2.0 – Closes Thursday, Oct 20th, 2016
Conclusion
I just wanted to quickly thank all the folks that reached out in the FB Mastermind group and those that reached out to me directly, to wish us well during the storm.
It means a lot and that sense of community is really what I enjoy most about creating content for you guys.
Hearing that what I’m doing is helping motivate you guys to achieve your goals, really provides that motivation for me to do my best work.
If you have any suggestions for content you would like to see on the site or hear on the Podcast, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or reach out at any time.
Thanks and I hope you have a fantastic and safe two weeks, until the next episode!

In this week’s Podcast Episode, I address a question from email subscriber Brenda, asking whether she should give up on a site she has had since 2002.
It is a great story of past success, some major bumps along the way and right now she’s at a bit of a crossroads.
I walk through her story, give some big picture suggestions and also discuss some ways to help everyone figure out if a website is worth the effort or if it’s maybe time to part ways.
Be sure to listen in for the full breakdown.
Thrive Leads Update

I was pleasantly surprised that in the two weeks since the last episode, my email subscriber rate doubled after switching to Thrive Leads.
I mentioned in last week’s post that I made the switch from several different email opt-in plugins over to Thrive Leads and the results so far are awesome!
Strictly from the two weeks prior, my new subscribers increased 100% from 8 to 16.  I dug a bit deeper and my 2 week average over the last 2 months has been a little less than 10, so even at that rate, the new subscribers increased 60%.
If you’re looking for a single tool that does everything when it comes to email opt-ins, all for just a single one-time fee of $67 for one site or $97 for an unlimited number of sites, I utilize and recommend Thrive Leads.
Constant Profits Club Re-Opening

I first mentioned the Constant Profits Club training program back when it first opened in March and they’re about to open things up once again for a very short time.
This is a very hands on, affiliate marketing training program from Andrew Hansen and Sara Young.  Andrew is the creator of the Forever Affiliate training program that myself and many others went through several years back.
Andrew and Sara have over 16 years combined experience in the affiliate marketing space and they both make an impressive living off of their website projects.
This course is not for everyone.  It is a very in-depth, hands on course, where you have to commit several hours of your time per week, for the first 60 days.  You have to put in the work, to see the results.
However, if you are someone that has struggled with creating your own websites in the past, or you’re wanting to bypass the typical year or so of experimentation that most of us go through, this course might be for you.
They’ve had students go through the program and come out with sites that make over $10,165 per month, in just 12 months time.  Of course those results aren’t typical, but it does show you what is possible.
A unique aspect of this program is that they show you how to make money right away, with one of their students making money 3 hours after starting.
The program will only be opening up for a very short window of time and only for a limited number of participants.  The program will only be open from Sept 29th, 2016 thru Oct 9th, 2016.
They will be running a free webinar this coming Thursday, Sept 29th at 5pm EST to show you what is working right now to make good money in affiliate marketing and of course to show you some success stories and provide more info about the course.
Andrew always gives some great, actionable, free information on all his webinars and I’m sure this will be no exception.
Even if you can’t make the webinar live, sign-up anyway so that you can be notified,

Today’s post and Podcast Episode comes from several recent discussions with community members on how to get started, how to keep going and what it takes to succeed in affiliate marketing.
 
The Podcast Episode will be your best resource, as I go into full detail and provide specific examples along the way, so be sure to listen in.  However, I will also include a very brief summary below, for you to refer back to.
How To Succeed in Affiliate Marketing
The initial step is to brainstorm potential ideas on what interests you and decide on a topic or topics that you think you will be able to continue to create content around over the long haul.
Be thinking in terms of not only what topics interest you, but also how you can help others solve a problem, overcome a pain point, or achieve a particular goal on that topic.

The vast majority of folks fail due to 3 main reasons:

* Lack of effort
* Unrealistic expectations
* Lack of support

If you put in the work over the long term, have realistic expectations and have a group of like minded folks that can help provide support and motivation along the way, you’re well on your way to success.
Our Niche Site Tools Private Facebook Mastermind Group is a great place to network with like minded folks.
It is all about PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it is more important to get the content out there and make things better as you go.
Every time you create a piece of content, think of it as planting a seed that will take time to grow, but it will pay off in the future.

You never know when that breakthrough will take place, but one thing is certain, if you give up along the way, you’ll never know what could have been.  In many cases, a breakthrough is just beyond that barrier in front of you.

Get started, take action today and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised what you can accomplish!

Today’s post/Podcast episode topic comes from a community member Jeff, who recently lost all of the data from his site hosted at BlueHost, even after paying extra each month for them to take backups of his site.
 
I mentioned that as one of the primary drivers for switching my hosting recommendation back over to Webhosting Hub a few weeks back.
In today’s Podcast episode I talk in detail about how you can follow the steps Jeff provided below, to recover your website data, in the event you don’t happen to have a good backup of your website.
Thanks to Jeff for the detailed write-up, here it is….
My Niche Site Went Down and The Backups Were Bad, And It Could Happen to You Too!
You Don’t Have to Be Technical to Handle A Data Loss Situation
If you can do these basic things, you can recover the bulk of your your website, even if your web hosting provider fails and you don’t have backups of your own to turn to.
All you need to be able to do to get most of your website back is:

* Have a basic understanding of WordPress. Enough to create your own posts or install a plugin.
* Be able to search Google for your site by web address.
* Copy and paste text from Google text editor such as Notepad and save the files to your computer or out to the cloud.
* Once you have a working WordPress install, paste the saved content back into WordPress one post or page at a time.

I personally had to go through this process myself not long ago. I want to share my story and the steps I took to recover, in order to help anyone else out who happens to find themselves in a similar position.
The Back Story In a Nutshell
About three months ago, I noticed my primary niche site had some unexpected downtime. I reached out to my hosting provider and found that they had a server failure — stuff happens — four hours later it was back online.
I felt secure in the fact that my hosting provider makes backups of my site and if something should happen I could recover all of my content.
Fast forward to about two weeks ago, when my site went down again. This time it was much worse. My site content, all of my site content, was just gone. I asked my hosting provider to kindly restore my site from backup; they agreed and contacted me an hour later…
The backups were all bad. My site was just gone. I was angry and sad. I’d worked so hard on my new niche site and thought I was safe against this sort of thing. Needless to say, this was an extremely unwelcome reality check.
I Got (Most) Of My Site Back and Here Is How…
Google has some interesting tricks under the hood. One of them is the ability to look for content only on a specific site.
If you Google for site:YourDomain, you’ll get a list of every page Google has ever visited that belongs to your website.
I’ll show you. My niche site is defeatdebtcollectors.com and its main focus — as you might have guessed from the name — is now to get debt collectors off your back and fix your credit.
If I want to see everything Google has for my site, I’d just type this into the Google search box:
site:defeatdebtcollectors.com
The Site’s Down; How Do I Get My Content Back?
If you find yourself in a similar situation, all is not lost. Here is what you do to get the bulk of your content back more or less the same way I did.
Every time Google visits your site, it makes a copy of the page it visits and saves the text and other content in its own database. It has to do this, or searching the Internet would take hours or days instead of a few seconds here or there.
So, for our purposes, Google’s cached copy of your site is the closest thing to a backup you’re ever going to get.

Something that is becoming increasingly problematic lately is Google Analytics Referral Spam.  Referral spam can wreak havoc with your Analytics stats, if left unchecked.
 
Referral spam occurs when your site gets fake referral traffic from spam bots and this fake traffic is recorded in your Google Analytics stats. This is something you need to be aware of, so that you can take steps to filter that traffic out.
The way you can check to see if you are a victim is to login to your Google Analytics account, select your site and scroll down on the left to…
Acquisition -> All Traffic -> Referrals.

If your results look similar to mine above, or you see odd sites that you wouldn’t think people would come from to visit your site, you are probably also being hit by Google Analytics Referral Spam.
The referral traffic page is supposed to show you the sites that people came to your website from, but every single one of those entries in the image above are spam.
The people that run those sites know how to get their URLs to show up in your Google Analytics data.  Their intent can range from deceptive to malicious. In most cases their goal is to get you to visit their website, which is exactly what I did initially.
Based on the majority of the entries, it looked like I was being targeted by law enforcement for some reason, so I clicked over to one of the links and it had to do with the new EU cookie policy.
The site looked legitimate and on the main page it talked about the new EU cookie requirements and they provided some code that you can copy/paste into your own website to be sure you are “compliant”.
Of course, I did NOT do that and right afterwards I searched Google for the different websites in the list and found out it was all spam.
The good news is that from what I read, in most cases, those sites are not actually hitting your website.  They just show up in your stats as if it is legitimate traffic.
However, you can clearly see that they hinder your ability to see your actual traffic and they really skew your numbers.
You definitely want to do what you can to filter that fake traffic out, so that you can get to the real data.
The primary way that I saw recommended most often was to setup filters in Google Analytics.
The way you do that is as follows…
How to Filter Out Google Analytics Referral Spam
The primary sites that were showing up in my stats over the last several months were as follows.
Your specific results will be different, so you’ll need to plug in the sites you see in your own data, but the steps will be the same.
Referral Spam Websites:
monetizationking.net
rank-checker.online
cookie-law-enforcement-hh.xyz
cookie-law-enforcement-hh.xyz
cookie-law-enforcement-ii.xyz
eu-cookie-law-enforcement-7.xyz
cookie-law-enforcement-dd.xyz
cookie-law-enforcement-gg.xyz
law-enforcement-check-three.xyz
law-enforcement-dd.xyz
social-buttons-hh.xyz
fix-website-errors.com
keywords-monitoring-success.com
free-video-tool.com
magicdiet.gq
ownshop.cf
site-auditor.online
First, login to your Google Analytics account and then click on Admin at the top, select your site from the drop down list and then click on All Filters.

Then click the option to Add Filter.

Each individual filter can have a maximum of 255 characters, so I actually needed to create 3 separate ones.  I named them spam bots 1-3.
For Filter Type, choose Custom.  For Filter Field, select Campaign Source.  For filter pattern, type in each URL that shows up in your stats with each one separated by a “|”.
Then towards the bottom, select All Website Data under available views,

In this week’s Podcast Episode, I answer a few questions from the community.
Items Mentioned in the Show
Where can I get images for my blog/website?
Pixabay – Site with mostly free images, just be sure to avoid the “Sponsored Images” along the top to avoid paying.  Thanks Lindsey, for bringing that to our attention in the Private FB Mastermind group.
Canva – Cool site where you can create custom images and graphics. Easy to use and you can create professional looking images with text and effects for $1.
PhotoDune – This is where I go for most of my images, although I admit that after finding out about Pixabay, I will definitely check there first for as long as they remain free.
Through Photodune, I pay $1 per image and don’t have to weed through ads or figure out if it is ok to use them for commercial purposes. Saves me a bunch of time and effort over many of the “free”/hybrid sites, where you have to weed through the fine print.  I value my time and you should as well.
What is domain privacy and it is worth it?
Short answer, yes.  Listen in to this week’s Episode for full details.
NameCheap is who I utilize for all my domains and they offer free domain privacy the first year and it is only $2.88 each year after.  I switched all my domains from GoDaddy to NameCheap, because their prices are consistent for both new domains and renewals.
It is still worthwhile to utilize sites like InfoBarrel and HubPages?
Short answer yes, but mostly just to try out your writing skills and to network with other like minded folks.  They can also be a decent source for backlinks.
Over the long term, your efforts will be best spent setting up your own blog/website, so that you own and have full control over your content.
Some of the links above may be affiliate links.  If you decide to make a purchase, I may receive a commission, at no additional cost to you. I sincerely thank you ahead of time, for any purchases made through my site.

I get this question quite often and it boils down to this…”I’ve installed WordPress, now what?!”
 
First off, if you’ve already taken some action, great, but in case you haven’t, the first step would be to check out my step-by-step guide on how to start a WordPress blog or website.
By following those quick and easy steps, you will be up and running with your very own website running on WordPress, in 10 minutes or less.
Once you have WordPress installed, there are a few key items that everyone should do immediately afterwards.
Be sure to listen into the Podcast Episode for a more detailed breakdown.
Some of the links below may be affiliate links. If you decide to make a purchase, I would receive a commission, at no additional cost to you. If you do make a purchase, I sincerely thank you ahead of time.
Top 10 Things To Do After Installing WordPress
1.) Remove unused plugins, themes and the default WordPress post, page and comment from your WordPress Dashboard.
Most WordPress installations come with a few pre-installed plugins like Hello Dolly, Mojo Marketplace and possibly others. I recommend uninstalling all of them for now.
To do so, click on Plugins on the left hand side and then select deactivate (if any are active) and then you will see an option for delete.

WordPress comes with several themes pre-installed, like Twenty Twelve, Twenty Fourteen and Twenty Fifteen. I recommend deleting all of them except the most recent one, which as of this post would be Twenty Fifteen.

Go to Appearance -> Themes, click each theme and then in the lower right click Delete.
WordPress also comes with some default sample content. To delete that, select Posts -> All Posts then hover your cursor over the post in the main pane and select Trash.
To delete the sample page, select Pages -> All Pages, hover your cursor over the sample page and select Trash.
There is also a sample comment, select Comments on the left hand side, hover over the comment and select Trash.
2.) Edit your Title, Tagline, Timezone and Favicon. The first three settings can be found in the WordPress dashboard under Settings -> General.

There are two ways you can upload a Favicon with most web hosts.
With WordPress 4.3 and above, there is a new way to set the Favicon.  It can be found under Appearance -> Customize -> Site Identity. The file must be at least 512×512 in size and can be any of the normal default image formats like .jpg, .gif or .png.

Most web hosts also allow you to place a 16×16 .ico file in the main directory of your website.  You can go into your cPanel, go to FileManager and upload the file to the main website directory and call it favicon.ico.  You can download free Favicons of this format here.
Once you’ve uploaded your Favicon with one of the methods above, open a private/incognito window in your browser and you should see your new Favicon in the tab of your browser when going to your site.

3.) Change permalink structure. This is a very important step, that I also mentioned in my how to start a blog guide.
A permalink is the URL for content on your website. By default, it will be very ugly and contain a post number, but none of the keywords from your title. This is terrible for SEO.
You want to change the permalink settings so that WordPress automatically takes the main keywords from your title and puts them in the URL for the post or page.
To do this, go into Settings -> Permalinks and choose the option for Post name and hit Save C...

Today’s Podcast Episode topic comes from an email subscriber, Tristan.
In his email, Tristan asked if I could help explain backlinks in regards to regular vs juiced backlinks, page vs site backlinks and current methods for getting backlinks.
This will not be the typical “do guest blog posting” advice for getting backlinks.  In fact, I won’t be mentioning guest posting at all.
I did a bunch of research on the latest techniques and narrowed them down to 15 that I think are the best and most relevant tips, that everyone can take advantage of right away.
I’ll provide a quick list of them here, but be sure to listen to this week’s Episode for full details.
Top 15 Backlinking Tips

* Fully populate social media, forum and comment system profile pages.
* Blog commenting.
* Respond to questions on Quora
* Link to relevant sites.
* Give testimonials.
* Best of blog posts and link roundups.
* HARO, short for help a reporter out.
* Submit your site to website feedback sites.
* Submit your site to blog aggregators.
* Utilize ScoopIt.
* Broken link checking.
* Create and submit Infographics on sharing sites.
* Round-up posts.
* Skyscraper technique.
* Moving Man Method.

Reference Articles
Two great articles that I used for reference are…
QuickSprout – 7 Ways to Get Backlinks That Bring In Traffic
Backlinko – 17 Untapped Backlink Sources
Semrush – What are backlinks?

In this week’s Podcast Episode, I provide my recommendation for a free, step-by-step affiliate marketing training program.
Free Affiliate Marketing Training Program
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been asked several times if I can recommend an inexpensive, step-by-step affiliate marketing training program for beginners.
I posed the question to the folks over on my Private Facebook Mastermind group and reached out to a few subscribers via email and the most recommended option was the free training provided in the Wealthy Affiliate program.
Several folks have utilized the training themselves and one new subscriber recently went through the free training and is in the process of setting up his first website right now.
With a free account, you get lifetime access to the beginner training program.  During the first week, you also get free live support and free 1-on-1 coaching.
I’d definitely recommend being prepared to go through the training course in your first week, that way you can take full advantage of the real time support and coaching programs.
To get access, click on my free training link and provide a valid email address, no credit card required.
After signing in, click the ‘Get Started Here’ green button, as shown here…

That’s all there is to it.
Of course, the folks at Wealthy Affiliate would like you to upgrade your free account to a premium paid account, but you’re under no obligation to do so.
If you really like the extra hand holding and 1-on-1 coaching, along with the advanced training and other benefits provided through the premium upgrade, by all means, take advantage of discounted offer you will receive via email shortly after signing up.
They will provide a discount of only $19 for the first month and $47 for each additional month, for as long as you remain a member.
Here is a full breakdown of what is provided on the free plan, vs the premium plan…

If you’re just looking for a beginner training program and then find yourself ready to venture out on your own, try the free training program and then come on back.
You can then check out my How To Start a Blog guide and you can be up and running, with your own website(s), in 10 minutes or less at a much cheaper rate.
Either way, I definitely recommend you check out the free training and then decide.
I’ll leave you with the closing quote I mentioned on the show, “Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.”
Give it a try, get started today.  You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

In this week’s Podcast episode, I answer a question from a listener Christine.  In that email, she asked what she could do to try and bring in some side income from home.  She is unable to work a traditional 9-5 job in an office setting, due to some residual issues from a car accident 2 years ago.
 
As we speak about often on the site and Podcast, online niche website projects are not get rich quick schemes.  They take time, persistence and dedication.  You will definitely want to setup your own website and get things going, but if you have a more immediate need and desire to get income quicker than 6-9 months, you’ll probably also need to do some out of the box thinking.
That is what I’m hoping to provide for everyone in this week’s Episode and I welcome any other ideas you might have as well.  Please feel free to share any additional ideas you may have in the comments below.
Tools Segment
In this week’s tool segment, I made mention of tomorrow’s free webinar from Andrew Hansen and Sara Young.  They are both highly successful affiliate marketers, making a living through their online adventures.
Andrew is the creator of the Forever Affiliate training course myself and several others went through, a few years back.  They are putting out the free webinar in support of their new affiliate marketing training program.
In the free webinar the will be sharing details of what is working right now, to make good $$ with niche websites in 2016.  I’m particularly interested in the claims that one student made their first income inn less than 3 hours after starting and the screenshots showing one student had income over 10k in the month of December 2015 alone.
You can find out more details on what the webinar will entail in last week’s quick post here.  Don’t wait until the last minute, as his webinars usually fill up.
The webinar will run live at 5pm EST tomorrow, March 8th.  Even if you can’t make that time, be sure to sign-up, as they will usually make the recording available afterwards.  I have no indication that is the case this time however, so it would be best to attend live, if possible.

In this weeks Podcast Episode, I talk about several of the unavoidable frustrations with Affiliate Marketing and give you some actionable advice on how to prepare for and overcome them, when they inevitably occur.
 
This is a super important episode that I will let primarily stand for itself in audio format, as I think you really need to hear it from me directly, to get the most out of it.
Tool of the Week – Market Samurai
Due to the recent pricing model change for Long Tail Pro in the previous few weeks, I was asked by several folks if I could recommend a cheaper alternative.
After some extensive research this week, the best option available by far is Market Samurai.
Much to my surprise, out of the 8 main keyword research tools that I found most mentioned and recommended, the only one that actually had a lower cost was Market Samurai and the great news is that it also the only one with a one time fee for lifetime access and upgrades.
Regular price is $147, but if you go through my link and sign-up for the free trial, no credit card required, you will get an offer to purchase the software for only $97. That is more than 35% off.
That special pricing will only be available for 6 days during your free trial, so be sure to take advantage of that special during that time, to get the best rate.
I mentioned all of the products I looked into and their prices in the Podcast Episode and I will also do a quick separate post in the next week or so, on the topic.
Here are two of my prior, very detailed posts, on how to utilize and get the most out of Market Samurai, complete with specific examples.
How to Choose a Niche Website: Keyword Research
How to Choose a Niche Website: SEO Competition
If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to ask and thanks for being a part of the community!

In this week’s Podcast Episode, I will directly answer some questions from audience members and we will also touch on a new pricing model change for Long Tail Pro.
Items Mentioned on the Show
Audio / Podcasting Equipment
Ellen asked about what equipment that I use to record audio and for the Podcast.  The microphone that I utilize is the [easyazon_link asin=”B004QJOZS4″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”1063939-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]Audio-Technica ATR2100 Microphone[/easyazon_link] and I attach this inexpensive [easyazon_link asin=”B00ACFAULC” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”1063939-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]Wind Screen Pop Filter[/easyazon_link] to the microphone stand that comes with the mic.
This setup is one that has been recommended by many of the big hitters in the Podcasting industry and I have to say it has exceeded all my expectations.  Highly recommended.
Amazon Affiliate Links
Erika and Rashad asked about using Amazon links through the EasyAzon plugin.  Erika asked if the standard 24 hour cookie applies to links created through EasyAzon and the answer is definitely, yes.
Anytime someone clicks on one of your Amazon affiliate links, you would be credited for any purchases that person makes in the next 24 hours, even if they are not the item they originally clicked on.
Rashad asked if someone clicks on one of your Amazon affiliate links created through EasyAzon, if they then add some items to their cart afterwards, would you get commissions on those products for a full 90 days?  The answer there is yes as well.
When you utilize the add-to-cart feature built into EasyAzon, or even if someone clicks your regular links and then adds items to their cart afterwards, either way, you would get commission for any items placed into their cart and purchased for a full 90 days.
EasyAzon allows you to quickly and easily insert Amazon links or call to action buttons, such as the add-to-cart button, in addition to providing you with the ability to get additional income from folks that come to your site from other countries.
Through their link-localization feature, your links would automatically point to products in their country specific Amazon site, where applicable.  In that way, you would also get commissions from those sales, where normally you’d be limited to sales from those folks that are coming from your native country only.
You can grab EasyAzon for the discounted price of $29 through my link and that includes their ultimate Amazon affiliate guide updated for 2015, as well as two premium Amazon style WordPress themes as bonuses.
Domain Forwarding and Masking
This was an interesting question that I received via email from a subscriber, Allen.  He asked if I had any experience utilizing domain forwarding and masking, which allows you to forward a domain name to a different URL, while masking the new destination.
I have forwarded domains from one URL to another when switching domain names, but domain forwarding and masking is a little different.  In this case he was thinking about forwarding a domain name directly to a ClickBank sales page for a particular product.
All indications are that it is not against their terms of service, however, you would not want to do this for Amazon affiliate links.  This would definitely be against their terms of service and it could get your...

In Podcast Episode 66, I talk about some unexpected physical setbacks experienced in these last two weeks and some takeaways.
 
Additionally, I give a preliminary breakdown of some all-in-one email optin tools, that myself and a few others have been evaluating, over the last several weeks.
Items Mentioned on the Show
MailMunch – MailMunch offers a real interesting free version of their all-in-one email optin plugin.  If you’re looking for very quick and easy way to add some optin forms to your website, such as a header bar, scrollbox slider, below post optin or exit intent pop-up, definitely check out the free version they offer.
The primary downside is of course, you are limited in the number of templates available to choose from and all of their paid programs are monthly fees, vs a one time fee.
ThriveLeads – ThriveLeads is the most full featured, all-in-one optin, with a 1 time fee, that we’ve tested so far.  The cost is $67 for 1 website and $97 for an unlimited number of websites.
They are constantly adding in new features and templates and you have full control over how you can modify their existing designs.  You can also modify their templates and save them as new templates.
With the added features, comes a bit of a learning curve, but they offer some excellent and brief tutorial videos and a quick start guide.
So far, this one is in the lead as my choice for a full featured all-in-one tool.  Stay tuned to future episodes, for a full breakdown.
If you’re not yet on my email list, be sure to subscribe so that you know when those new episodes come out.  If you do, you will also get my free Keyword Brainstorming guide, plus my bonus 7 Simple SEO Tips guide as well.
If you happen to know of a great all-in-one optin tool, that is free or has a one time fee, drop a comment below or let us know over in the Private Facebook Mastermind group.  Thanks a bunch!

In our first new Podcast episode of 2016, we talk about tips to focus on now, to get on the right path for success in the New Year.
 
You’ll get some actionable tips that you can tackle right away, along with a story showing a prime example from a community member, on to build trust with your audience.
Links Mentioned on the Show
How to Find Your Most Popular Posts in Google Analytics
How to Start a Blog – 2016 Beginners Guide
New Features For Long Tail Pro Platinum Customers Coming Soon
Dirk’s Christmas Drone Gift Guide

The picture above shows the new working location for the Podcast.  Sometimes a very inexpensive new desk (Amazon Link), only $49 when this post went live, and a change of scenery, can spark some creativity and motivation.
Do you make small changes to your environment to keep things fresh and keep yourself motivated to do your best work?  I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.
Thanks and best wishes for success in 2016 and beyond!

[powerpress http://nstpodcast.s3.amazonaws.com/nst-podcast-057.mp3] In this week’s Podcast episode, I talk about the importance of having the right mindset for success and give specific examples of different things you can try right away, to get in the proper frame of mind.
 
Be sure to listen in and share any related suggestions that you might have for others, either in the comments below or over in our Private FB Mastermind group.
I hope you guys got some great inspiration and motivation from this week’s episode and hope you have a fantastic upcoming two weeks!

In Episode 9 of the Niche Site Tools Podcast, I will compare several of the most current and popular Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) training programs. They include the Amazing Selling Machine, Proven Amazon Course, Amazon Boot Camp and Dewable Premium Access.

By the end of the Podcast, you'll have all the information you need to help decide which course best meets your needs. You can then get started on building that lifestyle business, Selling on Amazon, where you can work from virtually anywhere in the world with a laptop and decent WiFi connection!

In this post, we talk about how to write a product review that ranks/converts and I also highlight the Splash WP theme, for product review sites.

In this week's episode, we discuss easy ways to get traffic and backlinks, with the goal being some quick wins for everyone that listens in and takes some action!

It's a new year, which brings new optimism, new focus and a new private Mastermind group. This group is open to anyone with a goal of achieving success with niche sites, affiliate marketing, passive income or anything to do with online business.

In this episode, we'll identify the most popular posts of the year on the site. I'll also give a full breakdown on what worked and what didn't, in 2014.

In this Podcast episode, I highlight the idea of dream setting. Dream setting is my way more fun and exciting spin on the concept of goal setting, as the ultimate path to success.

In this week's post/Podcast episode, I discuss the recent developments coming out of Google in regards to mobile responsiveness and the upcoming use of the 'mobile friendly' tag in search engine results.

One of the keys to making money selling affiliate products is promoting the right stuff. Check out the 3 main factors to consider when choosing affiliate products.

In Episode 31 of the Podcast, I announce the winner of our giveaway, answer some viewer mail and talk about lots of other exciting happenings. Be sure to check it out!

In Episode 30 of the Niche Site Tools Podcast, I cover a suggestion from my buddy Marcus, to talk about increases in hosting costs after your initial introductory period. I also detail an upcoming giveaway that will go out to all email subscribers next Monday, Nov 3rd.

In this week's Podcast episode, I'm excited to have a guess star, my man Mark Mason (from LateNightIM.com) and his response my question about what things to consider when switching from one WordPress theme to another.

In this week's Podcast episode, I talk about my switch over from Market Samurai to Long Tail Pro for my preferred keyword research tool of choice and discuss the tool of the week, the Peek free website review service.

In this podcast episode, I compare the Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Home Depot affiliate programs.