Is There an Affiliate กFree Lunchก Program?

Is There an Affiliate กFree Lunchก Program?

by: Glenn Beach

กEverything worthwhile has a cost… Whenever you think you are getting something for nothing, look again—someone, somewhere, somehow is paying for it. Behind every free lunch there is a hidden cost to be accounted for.ก Edwin G. Dolan

If you, or any of your business prospects, believe that time is money, then yes, the ‘there Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunchก principle DOES apply to your internet business. What you can’t invest in money, you will have to invest in time. You will have to be able to put the axe to the grind for more hours per day or week, and you will have to wait for more weeks and months before your ship comes in. Those are the facts.

If you are able to think outside the box (and few internet entrepreneurs CAN’t!) then the principle can be stretched a little. Are you balking at spending a few pennies a day to boost your sales? Do some research comparing what your marketing program offers and what the same services cost on the open market. Compare what information your program offers and what you can learn elsewhere. For example:

find some online business forums and search these topics: free advertising, phone followup techniques, sample followup letters, sample phone scripts.

investigate your and other affiliate marketing programs for all the above plus services and tools such as: prospect notification, contact manager, online forum, billing and revenue collection, gateway website, company resource center, free sales and marketing tools, affiliate training courses, successful team support, commission or compensation schedule. In other words, look at EVERYTHING that the program will give you for free.

research what you would have to pay for any or all of the above tools, hints, and services.

How does your affiliate program measure up? What do you get for free and therefore, what do you save? How much can you afford to invest based on these savings?

If you absolutely HAVE NO MONEY to invest, thatกs one thing. If you have a kneejerk reaction to investing in something that กsays itกs freeก, think again. What other business in the WORLD besides one on the internet can you begin for NOTHING? How many pennies a day can you AFFORD to invest in your business, maybe not now but as soon as possible?

If you have nothing, you can start and run a business. You will have to pay for it, however, with time. Free ads need to be worked every day. Free ads drop out of sight as new ads follow. You need to study your product till you know it inside and out, so all prospective affiliates can be led, encouraged, taught how they too can succeed. Since the name of the game is visibility amongst the billions of offers on the internet, you can’t afford to waste a single hardwon prospect.

Without any money to invest in advertising, this will be a long slow process. You will have to determine how YOU can best achieve sales and attract affiliates, because each personกs skills, style and dislikes are different.

You need to be internet savvy because all the information you require to succeed is out there, you just have to know how to find it. Study, seek your own answers, and know where and how to ask questions. You will win the game with patience and persistence.

About The Author

Glenn Beach is a proud member of Work at Home Team.

He is a selfemployed subcontractor and home entrepreneur at:

http://www.workathomebusinessopportunitycanada.com

email: [email protected]

This article was posted on March 06, 2004

by Glenn Beach

Been Burned, Scammed, Taken for a Ride…

Been Burned, Scammed, Taken for a Ride…

by: Rachel Gawith

BEEN BURNT, SCAMMED, TAKEN FOR A RIDE……..
Well don’t worry, we have all been there. I doubt there is a single network marketer or homeworker out there who hasn’t at some point in their career fallen for an envelope stuffing scheme, been talked into selling potions and pills, tried chain letters etc. But the important thing is to learn from your mistakes and take something from every experience.
My first venture into working from home came when I answered an advert in a local paper which stated I could be earning £2000 a week part time, all I had to do was call. So I did and ended up trailing along to a meeting about how much money one could make from selling herbal diet supplements and how easy it all was. So I signed up and paid the £200 for the starter pack. Full of enthusiasm I started my 68 year old gran off on the diet. Well the first week she lost a few pounds and all was going well. I paid out another £100 to have a load of leaflets printed and spent hours putting these on car windscreens. By the second week, gran had given up on the diet as the stuff ‘tasted funny’ and she was bored with a milkshake three times a day!
Then I decided to try selling the products via the internet. It was a slow process but I taught myself html coding and built my first website. Then came the hard task of trying to market my site and get people to visit it. This is when I discovered that you could apparently make thousands very easily and with no effort online, simply by signing up for a website and placing a few free classifieds. So I joined every ‘next big thing’, every site promoting untold riches, only to find that the program disappeared after a few weeks, along with my money. But along the way I learnt what I should look for in an online business, the best ways to market online and my web design skills improved drastically. At times I became very disillusioned and felt like giving up when yet another program folded, or sponsor failed to get in touch and offer support but I learned valuable lessons. And after one such online opportunity disappeared and having convinced a number of people to join me in this, I thought enough was enough and started my own online program. Even that involved a steep learning curve, the site had to be revamped numerous times, parts of the program changed but I put the knowledge I gained from being a ‘newbie’ into building a good stable program. People need support, they want to see proper products and a realistic and achievable pay plan.
So don’t give up, from every bad experience you will learn something, be it a new skill, what to avoid next time, what advertising works or doesn’t and so on…Like life home based business, especially on the internet, is a learning experience which you must embrace.
© 2004 Rachel Gawith

About The Author

Rachel runs her own online business at http://www.earnmoneyhere.com as well as publishing a weekly newsletter at http://www.freedailycash.com Other opportunities can be seen at http://www.computerincome.net You’ll also find a vast array of free tools there to help you market any business effectively online and you can post your classified ad free for 7 days.

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 03, 2004

by Rachel Gawith

Affiliate Program Basics

Affiliate Program Basics

by: Albert Hallado

Affiliate Program is a ground floor opportunity. All you have to do is send visitors to your affiliate web site by placing a textlink or banner on your website and receive a commission on each sale, without the complication and expense of selling anything yourself.

Instead, you earn a commission for producing a ransaction. Affiliate programs, also known as Referral Programs, Associate Programs, Profit Sharing Programs or Reseller programs, give affiliates the ability to create an online business selling thousands products and services.

One of the first affiliate programs was run by the mega bookstore, Amazon.com. They still have the largest base of affiliates on the net although they may not be the best affiliate program for many! with over 600,000 web sites being affiliated.

Affiliate programs are generally offered by sites selling goods or services, although some affiliate programs reward other types of transaction such as getting a visitor to sign up for a free newsletter, or a download.

Some affiliate programs pay per lead rather than per sale, in other words, you bring them a prospective customer and they pay a fixed กfinderกs feeก for the chance to market to that customer.

This is a typical arrangement for affiliate programs in the insurance, real estate and credit card industries, for example:

Types of Affiliate Programs

Pay per sale: If you refer a visitor to the online merchantกs site and if visitor makes a purchase you get a percentage of the sale as commission.

Pay per lead: You get paid a onetime fee for generating a lead for the merchant. Usually you get paid $2$5 if the visitor you referred fills out an application.

Pay per click: You get paid for every visitor you send to the online merchant regardless of any sale or purchase. Usually companies pay $0.05 $0.15 per click.

TwoTier: You get commission on direct sales you generate and also you get commission on sales generated by affiliates you recruited. Usually companies pay 25% commission for direct sales and 5% for sales generated by your affiliates.

Bounty: You get a onetime finderกs fee payment for the visitor you referred. You will not get commission on any future purchases that customer makes.

When you join an affiliate program, you will be given a specially formatted URL (Links) that you should use to link to the affiliate providerกs site.

This will enable the affiliate provider to monitor traffic to your site and pay according to the type of affiliate program.

The Benefit of an Affiliate Program

Is that you just need to drive traffic to your affiliate site. Write a few articles and provide a few links.

You don’t need to find or deal with brokers, wholesalers, inventory, process orders, shipping & handling, customer service, tech support, handle returns, warranties, employees, etc

An affiliate doesn’t even have to be present, your site will keep earning money while you’re sick, on vacation, or just doing something else.

Another advantage of being an affiliate, is that you do it from almost anywhere in the world..

How The System Works?

Many affiliate programs pay a commission based on a percentage of the revenue generated by purchases made by visitors coming from your website.

For example; if you’re participating in an affiliate program that offers a 25% commission and you

send a visitor who purchases US$100 worth of products, youกve just earned US$25 in commissions.

The commission rate itself can vary from 20% up to 50%+ in the case of intangible products such as eBooks or website subscriptions.

Affiliate programs vary widely in terms of overall quality, reliability, commission , statistics, the amount of help that the merchant site offers in marketing the products or services it sells, and so on.

By thoroughly understanding an affiliate program, youกll minimize the risk of not getting paid and maximize your potential earnings.

About The Author

Albert Hallado

Owner of netbizreview.com (Guide To Internet Based Business)Albert is known for interviewing online business experts and Helping Entrepreneurs Doing Business On The Internet

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 04, 2004

by Albert Hallado

Earn Money From Your WebSite With Affiliate Links

Earn Money From Your WebSite With Affiliate Links

by: Knut Holt

If you have a website with some traffic, you can make money by having links to merchantsก online shops on your site.If someone goes through your links into the shop of the merchant, and buys something, you earn commission from the sale, between 5% and 40% depending on type of merchant. Some merchants also pay for each click or each lead. A lead is a new visitor to the shop that asks for more information or prize offers.

People or companies having these links on their websites, are called affiliates, and the links are called affiliate links. The administrative infrastructure by the merchant that the affiliate register into, in order to get the linking code, is called an affiliate program.

To register into an affiliate program is usually free, and through the program you get freely all you need to make the linking code, to monitor the traffic through your links, and to see what commission you have earned.

An affiliate program is not a MLM program, since the affiliates only earn from sales, leads or clicks.

However, in many programs you can recruit other affiliates and earn some commission from the sales made by the recruited affiliates too.

There are also common networks operated by thirdpart companies where several merchants use a common software and administrative infrastructure to recruit affiliates and monitor the traffic from affiliates. These are called affiliate networks. Both the merchants and potetial affilliates register into the network, and the affiliates can find links to the online shops of hundreds of merchants to use at their website. Examples of affiliate networks are Commission Junction and Clixgalore.

From my experience, the best affiliate programs are for merchants selling althernative health items or items for erotic improvements. I also have good experience with programs in the fields skincare, cosmetics and hobby.

What will work best for you, will however depend upon the kind of traffic you have, and the interests of people visiting your site.

About The Author

Submitted by Knut Holt

http://www.panteraconsulting.com/salg2.htm

http://www.abicana.com/affiliatenetworks.htm

Knut Holt is an international internet marketer with a focus on health items.

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 07

by Knut Holt

Become An Affiliate Champion: 10 Tips

Become An Affiliate Champion: 10 Tips

by: Henry Ochoa

Affiliates programs are one of the easiest ways to make money in the internet. Small fortunes have been made for smart people who have taken advantage of this powerful marketing technique.

This tips intend to help you on your way to become a highearning affiliate champion, use it as a guideline to your success. Feel free to contact me if you need further information.

First thing first: Target your market. If you try to sell everything to everyone, you will sell nothing.

Choose the right program. Everyday you would find hundreds of new กgetrichquickก programs on the net. Avoid them! Before joining any program, do some research. Trust only programs that have been consistently paying their affiliates

Join one program at a time, stick to it. Avoid distractions joining several programs at the same time. Stay focused on the best program chosen.

Promote, promote, promote!. I cant empathize enough. Promotion is the lifeblood of your programกs success. Focus on marketing and nothing else. One easy way to promote is by joining a traffic exchange program, like traffic swarm.

Write your own classifieds ads, headlines, text links. BE CREATIVE. How many times have you seen the same old add given for an affiliate program! Stay away from the crowd.

Create a content website with a review of your affiliate program. Don’t try to sell the program, instead, give your visitors the best review you can write of the program. Make a bulleted list of benefits YOU have found on that program.

Refer to your programกs web site with a TEXT LINK. Avoid using banners. People tend to look banners as a sales pitch and doesn’t like it. People in your site are looking for information, not to buy. So give them some information. Make them want more information, then give them your text link.

Compile your own mailing list. Offer your visitor a freebie, a newsletter, a free ebook, a report… In exchange, ask for their contact info. The key here is to get their address.

Follow up with this list. Contact them at least once a week. Build trust. Make them know you and trust you.

Track your advertising results and make corrections as necessary. If the program is good, you can profit from it. Do whatever it needs to be done to achieve you goals.

About The Author

=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$

Henry Ochoa is the owner of Super Affiliate Master Pages. The website devoted to give you Free ebooks, articles and expert advice to make YOU profit from your online business. Click here to gain advantage now http://www.freewebs.com/1dream

=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$

This article was posted on July 08, 2003

by Henry Ochoa

11 Awesome Ways To Explode Your Affiliate Commissi

11 Awesome Ways To Explode Your Affiliate Commission

by: Kusuma Widjaja

1. Start your own affiliate program directory. Join a large number of affiliate programs that go with the theme of your web site and list them all in a directory format on your web site. Then just advertise your free affiliate program directory. You will earn commissions and gain subaffiliates. Plus you could start an affiliaterelated ezine too.

2. Do not drive all your visitors directly to affiliate website, instead send your visitors to your optin page mechanism first before going to your main affiliate website. That way, you can make followup later on and build your own lists so that you can offer another related products or services another day. You can build a massive list in minimum time at http://www.whycity.net/coregistrationservices.html

3. Sell to the people who join your affiliate program. They are more likely to buy your products because they are interested in selling them for the commission. Itกs important to train and support your affiliates so they will know you will be there to help them. Tell them itกs good to write ads about their personal experiences with your product so that it will persuade customers to buy.

4. Participate on web discussion boards. Post your comments, answer other peopleกs questions, and ask your own questions. Include your affiliate text link under each message you post. If they read your message and like it, they may click to see what else you have to offer them.

5. Recruit lots of subaffiliates and make it easy for your them to make sales. Give them proven ads to use, make it easy for prospects to order, provide helpful affiliate statistics, notification of sales, lifetime income, residual income, add their commission by giving part of your commission to them, provide a good tracking system and professional training just like at http://www.whycity.net/nitroknowledge.html, http://www.whycity.net/myaffiliatecenter.html and http://www.whycity.net/nitrowebcasts.html

6. Persuade ezine publishers or webmasters to run your ad for free. Just allow them to join your affiliate program and earn commission on the sales. You could also offer them a freebie, such as the product you’re selling for free, an advertisement in your ezine in return, etc. It also helps to compliment the publishers as well as praising their ezines.

7. Use Online Referral Strategies at http://www.whycity.net/instantreferralsystems.html to get lots of order yourself or subaffiliates order. Referral system can also be a good way to increase your affiliate commissions if you can give incentives to motivate people to refer and tap deep into peopleกs network of friends, family, and associates. They don’t just stop at the occasional, oneoff referral.

8. Write your own affiliate program ads. If all the other affiliates use the same ads you do, that does not give you an edge over your competition. Use a different ad to give yourself an advantage over all the other affiliates. Learn how you can Create Powerful Offers so irresistible for prospects until they buy from you at http://www.whycity.net/powerfuloffers.html

9. Give free email consultations or services to your customers who buy or will buy the product or services through your affiliate link. When you email them back your advice include a small ad or distribute branded affiliates viral marketing tools to use like ebooks or articles for the affiliate products your are selling. Just include your ad somewhere inside them.

10. Email targeted ezines and ask them to do a joint venture with you. Ask them to run your ad and in exchange they would get a percentage of the profits. You would just have to get them to join your affiliate program to be your subaffiliates. To give them better incentive, you could offer them a higher commission than the rest of your normal affiliates by giving part of your affiliate commissions for 2 years.

11. Tell your customers if they refer four customers to your affiliate web site, they will receive a full rebate of their purchase price, cut from your own commission. This will turn one sale into three sales. You could also offer them other things in return for referrals like free ebooks, free software, coupons, discounts, etc.

Finally! Everything you need to make a whole lot more than $100,000 a year with affiliate programs.

http://www.whycity.net/affiliatebootcamp.html

About The Author

Kusuma Widjaja is President of Yahoo Cyber Technology, CV., based in Surabaya. He has over 2 years experience in Internet Marketing Arena, Custom Web Site Design and Graphic Design Services. For more information go to http://www.whycity.net or you can reach us at +628315838474.

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 20

by Kusuma Widjaja

The One Simple Trick That Can Double Your Adsense

The One Simple Trick That Can Double Your Adsense Revenue

by: Brad Bahr

Iกve been working with Googleกs Adsense program for a while now. If you’re not already in the program, why not take a look at it now at https://www.google.com/adsense. I really like Adsense. It makes me money and itกs easy to work with. Just some simple copy & paste into your webpage and you’re done. Right?

Wrong! You can do it that way if you want. Who knows? Maybe youกll get lucky and get a lot of clicks. But if you’re really serious about making a lot of money with the program, you’re going to have to tweak it a little.

Iกve invested quite a bit of time experimenting with the program. When I first signed up, I got some clicks and made a tiny bit of money. That wasn’t good enough. I knew there must be a way to get more of my visitors to click on the ads.

Google has a strict policy about not pointing to the ads in any way or asking people to click on them, so there were two things I couldn’t do. What else was there?

Then I remembered reading an article once that discussed the psychological impact of colors on the human mind. I started researching everything I could find on the subject.

After a lot of reading, many tests and periods of watching my clicks go up and down, I found the one color combination that seemed to work the best.

Testing previously done at supermarkets had revealed that the same product could pull more sales from just changing the colors of the label. What were these colors? Red and yellow! The combination of these two colors has an immediate impact on the person who sees them. They make your eyes stop and focus. They pull your eyes right to that part of the page. They grab your attention! Iกm not sure exactly why the combination of red and yellow does this, but it does. On one of my sites, I changed my Adsense ads to a bright red border and a yellow background with black text and URL.

My click through rate more than doubled with just that one simple change. Thatกs what worked on my site. Your siteกs color scheme may work better with a slightly different color combination. Try lots of different color variations. Make a change in the morning and let it ride for the whole day. The next morning, try a different set of colors. Change the border, background, text. Change everything you can. Most importantly, keep detailed records of the color scheme you used, click ratio and revenue generated.

After youกve done all the experimenting you want to, go back to the most profitable one and let it run for a week or so and see how it does. Iกm always trying different colors even after my run of good clicks with red and yellow. There are a lot of color combinations to choose from. You never know when youกll find just the right one.

(c) Brad Bahr All Rights reserved

http://www.nononsenseinternetmarketing.com

About The Author

Brad Bahr is the author of the NEW eBook: กHow to ‘reallyก Make Money on the Internetก. Itกs filled with no nonsense, practical information. To get your FREE copy of the book, go to ==> http://www.nononsenseinternetmarketing.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 19, 2004

by Brad Bahr

One In A Million Make Your Site Stand Out

One In A Million Make Your Site Stand Out

by: Steven Ng

First of all, I would like to congratulate all of you for taking interest in the world of internet business!

The idea of doing business over the internet is growing year by year, and is currently the second most popular form of consumer business in the United States, after network marketing.

Now back to the article. กOne in a millionก. What do I mean by that? Well, for those of you who have dabbled in internet businesses such as affiliate programs and network marketing businesses, you would know that these programs generally provide an entire website for you to market their program.

Thatกs great isn’t it? Your very own website to promote the business, and it also tracks your referrals and commission!

For example, the popular program $1.67 A Day provides all subscribers with their own website, which looks like this:

http://akuma.167aday.com/

You Are Not Alone

The only problem is, every single person who signs up for $1.67 A Day gets the same webpage, the only thing different is that each person has their own name at the bottom of the page.

That means, even though you have your own webpage, it is not unique. There are thousands out there with the same webpage as you.

Some of you might be saying that itกs ok. That you can still promote your own webpage by emailing everybody (be careful that you don’t spam!).

However, the problem surfaces when you start considering search engines and directories, such as:

www.google.com

www.yahoo.com

www.msn.com

www.askjeevevs.com

Letกs face it: the vast majority of website visitors find the website via search engines. Certain rare cases get visitors via word of mouth or brand name or via offline advertising. But the numbers still indicate that search engines still provide the most traffic.

And if you have thousands of other websites that look exactly the same as yours, you’re definitely not going to do very well in the search engines. Most search engines look for how much value a webpage can provide to a search user. If your page is one of thousands that look the same, it doesn’t have much value.

As a side note, Google changed their search engine algorithm in November 2003, and a lot of commercial and affiliate websites appear to get hit the hardest. It is now harder for these sites to rank well in Google.

Stand Out From The Crowd

a) Domains

So what you have to do, is be different from the rest of the affiliates. The first step is to get your own domain. Your domain is basically your internet address.

Consider the following two URLs:

http://www.amazon.com/affiliates/cgibin/id?123456

and

http://www.buybooksonline.com/

The second URL looks much better, doesn’t it? Other than the fact that itกs shorter and easier to read, it has other advantages going for it.

Looking at the first URL, a smart shopper will immediately know that you are an affiliate, and instead of visiting your site, he might himself sign up as an affiliate, and buy the products via his own affiliate site, earning the commission himself. Thatกs one less sale for you.

Also, search engines love the second URL. The URL indicates that it might not be an affiliate program, and might have something original to benefit internet surfers. Generally, unique domains will rank higher than affiliate URLs, because of the perceived value of the uniqueness.

In addition, note that the second URL has a domain that contains great keywords that surfers will key into search engines. Domains with keywords in them tend to do better in the search engine rankings as well.

A great place to get your own domain is at Namecheap. You can visit them at:

http://www.onlinebizhelp.com/namecheap.html

b) Do Something Else

Now that you have your own domain, what do you do with it?

Marketing research has shown again and again that having a website that just sells a product doesn’t do as well as websites that provide valueadded service. Visitors will immediately know that you’re trying to get them to buy something, and theyกll immediately leave.

Note: Most internet surfers search the internet looking for information, not to buy stuff!

Having said that, you can change the angle of your website by offering information. Create a website to help the visitor by providing information that they want, and then sell the affiliate program or network marketing product on the side.

For example, you can create a website that teaches visitors how to cook Italian dishes; how to prepare Italian salads; how to take care of their utensils.

This will make the visitors more at home and will get them to trust you. Once you have their trust, you can ask them to subscribe to your moneyearner, a great program that collects a recipe directory, like:

http://www.recipeswap.com/members/akuma6

Isn’t that easy? The key is to get visitors to trust you by providing them the information they want, then follow up with your affiliate program.

About The Author

Steven is the webmaster of http://www.onlinebizhelp.com/ Your Guide To Internet Business. He has successfully participated in a number of affiliate programs and opportunities, and have listed the best of them on his website. Check them out!

[email protected]

This article was posted on May 08, 2004

by Steven Ng

All about the new SCMAD Certification Exam

All about the new SCMAD Certification Exam

by: Whizlabs Software

Introduction

The mobile market is envisioned as the next technological wave by leading industry experts. With approximately 150 million mobile phones – roughly 3 times the user base as that of desktop computers – it might well be the case. Due to the fragmented nature of the mobile market, with various manufacturers competing to get their share of the pie, Java is once again poised to be the best programming language for the mobile market with its Write Once, Run Anywhere technology.

The specifications around the Java for Wireless Technology initiative have been proposed and backed by most of the leading mobile phone manufacturers (Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Siemens, TMobile, to name a few) and hence, one can expect device support and continued innovation.

The Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) offers a highly optimized virtual machine which can be used to run Java applications on devices ranging from resource constrained devices like smart cards, pagers, and mobile phones to high end devices like handheld computers and settop boxes.

Keeping the limitations of the mobile devices – both in size and in memory – in mind, the Java Community Process has developed a series of standards constructed in a modular fashion to ensure that various features are standardized while keeping the architecture at an abstract level.

While the J2ME itself includes a lot of other features and is also not limited to mobile phones, the certification concentrates on the developer’s ability to create and install programs for mobile devices, such as cell phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).

You might want to consider taking this exam

If you are already into writing J2ME applications for mobile devices and want to be recognized for your skills.

If you are a developer who has already written a few programs for wireless devices, the preparation will give you indepth knowledge of various concepts.

If you are a seasoned J2SE/J2EE developer and want to start writing highly optimized Java applications for mobile devices, this certification is a jumpstart for achieving the same.

If you do not have too much of an idea about technologies like Wireless Programming or Game Programming, preparing for this certification will be a great incentive to get a foothold in this technology.

If you want to learn and master the cuttingedge technologies that are round the corner.

This article will provide a basic understanding of the scope of the certification and will also give details about the certification along with the useful resources to get started.

What you need to know?

The Sun Certified Mobile Application Developer (SCMAD) tests the developer’s knowledge in the following five specifications.

Java Technology for the Wireless Industry (JTWI 1.0) JSR185

Connected, Limited, Device Configuration (CLDC 1.0/1.1) JSR030/JSR139

Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP 2.0) JSR118

Wireless Messaging API (WMA 1.1) JSR120

Mobile Media API (MMAPI 1.1) JSR135

Exam Information

Prerequisites

You should have passed the Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) – any version – to appear for this exam.

Objectives

Details of the certification objectives can be found at the Sun website. The major objectives are

JTWI (JSR 185) and Overview / JTWIcompliant Wireless Applications

CLDC 1.0/1.1

Security (both CLDC and MIDP)

Networking

Application Model/ Delivery/Lifecycle/Provisioning

MIDP Persistent Storage

Push Registry

MIDP UI API

MIDP Game API

Media using MIDP 2.0 and the Mobile Media API 1.1 (MMAPI)

Wireless Messaging API 1.1 (WMA)

Passing Score & Time

The exam consists of 68 questions, and the pass percentage is 55%. The time allotted for the exam is 150 minutes. The fee for the exam is $150 for U.S. candidates and might vary for other countries. Please visit the Sun certification website for more details.

What you need to do?

This exam might be slightly tougher than the other exams since the technology is fairly new and the community support is limited.

Since the API set is relatively small, you can cover the topics quickly. On an average, it should take you around a week to cover each topic if you are familiar with Java and have written or attempted to write a few programs using J2ME. If you are new to wireless programming, you might want to allocate around 23 months (2 hours a day at least) for preparation.

To prepare for the exam, it we recommend that you do the following:

Download the Java Wireless Toolkit (2.0 or above).

If you have a J2ME enabled cell phone, download the toolkit from that vendor. For example, Nokia and Sony provide free toolkits and emulators that will help you program in those devices.

Download the PDF versions of the specifications mentioned above.

The best way to get an idea about wireless programming is to actually write some programs and deploy them to a cell phone. This will go a long way in your preparation, since the creation and delivery of wireless applications is quite different from that of the standard or enterprise applications. You should develop at least one program for each specification to get a feel of the API. Some of the programs you might want to develop are

A program that takes a name and prints out “Hello ” (tests the UI API)

A simple game or a drawing, like the traditional Paddleball game or various geometric shapes moving in the screen (tests the Game API)

A program to read an image off a website and display it on the phone (tests networking)

A ‘signed’ Hello World! Application (tests security)

A program that plays a simple tune (tests MMAPI)

A program that displays a text message (tests WMA)

A program that calculates tip for various predefined scenarios (tests RMS)

To understand the concepts of J2ME programming, you can read the official J2ME tutorial, which is very comprehensive. Some useful books are also listed in the resources section.

Most of the questions will be codebased and hence, it is very important that you understand how the code is structured for various specifications.

You might want to consider purchasing the SCMAD exam simulator by Whizlabs, which contains numerous questions of varying difficulty levels spread across five mock exams and a quiz and also lots of useful tips for the exam.

Assuming that you have Whizlabs SCMAD Exam Simulator, {available at http://www.whizlabs.com/articles/scmadarticle.html} you can use the table below as a starting point for developing your preparation timeline.

Week Objective Notes

0 Diagnostic Exam Gives you a feel of what to expect

1 CLDC 1.0/1.1 Basics of the VM and its requirements

2 Application Lifecycle/Provisioning Basics of MIPD and its requirements

34 MIDP UI API Develop and deploy Program 1 after this

5 Networking Develop and deploy Program 3 after this

6 MIDP Persistent Storage Develop and deploy Program 7 after this

78 MIDP Game API Develop and deploy Program 2 after this

9 MMAPI Develop and deploy Program 5 after this

10 WMA Develop and deploy Program 6 after this

11 Push Registry Small, but complicated, and is related to WMA

11 Security Helps in packaging applications securely

12 JTWI Gives an understanding of how the technologies are tied together

12 Mock Exams Test your preparation. Revise weaker sections.

Finally, you can take some mock exams to prepare yourself from a certification standpoint.

Tips and pitfalls

Understand the conceptual difference between a J2ME configuration (like CLDC) and a J2ME profile (like MIDP).

Memorize the software and hardware requirements of the various specifications.

Memorize the class hierarchies of important APIs like Generic Connection Framework, High level and low level UI API, Media classes of MIDP 2.0 and MMAPI 1.1.

The exam tests the understanding of the features and differences between low level and highlevel API for UI programming. So, learn them well.

Understand that differences between the media support of MIDP 2.0 and the MMAPI 1.1.

Apart from the knowledge of writing proper J2ME code, the exam also tests the ability to write valid Java Application Descriptor (JAD) and manifest files that are used to markup the deployment details of an application. So, practice writing the descriptors well and deploy the application in the toolkit to understand the behavior of various deployment tags.

Remember that the exam is a vendor neutral exam. So, you can safely ignore learning the vendor APIs (like the APIs provided by Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and so on).

The best reading material for this exam is the specification document. So, allot enough time to go through these documents and learn the concepts and API well.

Make sure what you read is relevant to the exam objectives. A common pitfall is reading and spending time on things that you may not require for the exam.

As mentioned earlier, try to develop a practical example for each concept as this will help in a better understanding of the concepts.

Conclusion

With a huge customer base and vast popularity, wireless devices are here to stay. As the wireless technology improves and as the next generation devices come into the market with increased bandwidth, the demand for interactive and featurerich wireless applications will greatly increase. Having a knowhow of wireless programming will give you a competitive edge and will prepare you for the future.

Resources

J2ME tutorial by Sun Microsystems, Inc.

SCMAD.com provides a comprehensive list of preparatory resources for the certification exam.

Exam notes by Sathya Srinivasan, to get you started on the certification

Forums

Whizlabs SCMAD Certification Forum

SCMAD trail at JavaRanch (You might also want to visit the J2MEtrail)

Books

Wireless Java: Developing with J2ME by Jonathan Knudsen

Wireless J2ME Platform Programming by Vartan Piroumian

J2ME: The Complete Reference by James Keogh

Enterprise J2ME: Developing Mobile Java Applications by Michael Juntao Yuan

Exam Simulators

There are many ways to prepare for certification exams, one of them being through the use of exam simulators. With these you cannot just identify your weak areas, but also get a feel of the test environment.

Whizlabs has launched worlds’ firstever SCMAD (J2ME Certification) exam simulator {available at http://www.whizlabs.com/articles/scmadarticle.html}that ensures your success in the exam with its highquality mock tests and quick revision tips for the exam.

About The Author

Whizlabs (www.whizlabs.com), an ISO Certified company, is a leading provider of IT skill assessment and certification exam preparation tools. Whizlabsก suite of offerings include กIT Certification Exam simulators and Instructorled, Online Trainingsก for various exams by Sun, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, BEA, Cisco, and other leading IT vendors and กIT skill Assessment Management Solutionก for Corporations, Training Institutes, and Universities.

In its first 3 years of inception Whizlabs has helped 300,000 software professionals in realizing their dream of acquiring IT Certifications of their interest.

Whizlabs offerings have fuelled the career growth of IT professionals working in 321 Fortune 500 companies spread in 118 countries across the globe.

The author can be contacted at [email protected]

*First Published at Whizlabs’ site.

This article was posted on August 03, 2004

by Whizlabs Software

How To Increase Your Website Traffic With Zero Cos

How To Increase Your Website Traffic With Zero Cost

by: Nas Romli

How to increase your website traffic with zero costก. Itกs a bold statement don’t you think. But, believe me itกs true. You can increase your traffic by 1000% with no cost involved if you do it the right way. Continue reading if you want to know how.

Iกve outlined 5 ways to reach your target. But, please keep in mind that these are not the only ways that you can do to increase your traffic. There are hundreds of techniques to increase traffic. But these one are the proven one. Iกve used it personally. More importantly, these techniques can get you FREE traffic. You’re money is saved in your pocket. Letกs go to the first one.

Technique #1: Linking strategy

Linking strategy is the easiest way to get free traffic. When I say ‘the easiest wayก it does not mean that you can ask everybody to link to your site and do nothing after that. Compared to other techniques that youกll discover, this one will take less time to do.

Hereกs how to do it. First select the site in your niche market. Be selective. Choose one that has a high traffic. Usually a high traffic site is pretty stingy to put link to your site. So, the key here is to be persistent. Ask them how many visitors do they received per month and if they could link to your site. If they don’t answer your request, email them the second time.

Be persistent. If they don’t want to link to your site, ask them to trade link instead (reciprocal link). This is the last resort you want to have.

Word of warning: Don’t crowd your site with too many links. Only accept link trading if itกs really worth it.

Technique #2: Offer Free eBooks or articles

Youกll fall in love with this technique if you see what it can do to your site. This technique can create an excellentกViral marketingก effect. It can multiply the no of visitors to your site in a matter of days.

This most important thing about this technique is that to offer something that is really useful to your visitor. So useful that they can only get that information from you!

You need to the กwantsก in your need market. What problems do they encounter? Solve these problems and you have a killer articles or ebook that you can give away for free. Remember, don’t sell it. Give it away for free. If you feel really reluctant to give your article or ebook for free, you can give your visitors a partial of it. But, make sure itกs really useful. Don’t forget to put your name and your contact information in this article or ebook. Usually, if you write an article, you need to include your resource box at the very bottom of your article.

The most important task in this technique is to offer a reprint right to your visitors. What this mean is that your visitors can publish your articles or ebook to anyone in any medium; email, Ezine, website or anything. But please state your condition: Include your contact information or resource box. This will create viral effect to your visitors.

Before I forgot, there is one particular ebook compiler that is good in doing this kind of task. The name of this ebook compiler is กEbook Edit Proก. With this compiler, you can offer your visitors a customizable ebook. This is a great incentive for them to distribute your article or ebook since they can put their name and information in it. If you like to know more about the excellent compiler, please visit:

http://www.ebookedit.com/

Technique #3: Classified Ad

This is the most time consuming technique compared to all 5. While it is time consuming, it is really worth it.

Tips This technique should be used together with the above technique. Let me explain:

First, you need to write an ebook or article that you can give it away for free. Then, you need have an autoresponder. If you don’t have an autoresponder (your hosting company should provide this service for free), you can get one for free. Just type กfree autoresponderก in your search engine and youกll get hundred of sites that provided free autoresponder. If you’re searching for excellent autoresponder, Iกd like to suggest these autoresponder:

http://www.getresponse.com Most online marketers used this service. You pay monthly to them for providing service. The most important feature is that you can personalize your autoresponder with your visitor’s name. They also provide a free service. The only catch is that there will be an ad in your email.

http://www.aweber.com One of the first companies to provide autoresponder service. Try to visit their site if you want to learn more. Basically, it offers the same kind of service as getresponse.com.

http://www.autoresponseplus.com You only need to pay onetime fees for this service since the software will be installed on your server. Itกs great in you don’t want to pay high monthly fees. The only drawback for Autoresponseplus is that you need to have a little bit skill on how to install cgi (Common Gateway Interface) on your server.

Enough talking. Letกs continue.

After you have your own autoresponder, place your free article in this autoresponder. Now, you need to advertise your autoresponder address in the classified ad website. Don’t put your email address but your autoresponder address. The best part with this technique is that you can capture you visitor’s email. You can contact them again and again if you have any offer in the future.

Technique #4: Deliver informational pack Ezine/newsletter

People surf the net to look for information. Out of 100, only 3 people surf the net to buy something. But others are doing some research or try to find something informational.

With this keep in mind, you can attract people to come to your site if you can deliver them timely information. By producing timely information, you glued these visitors to your site preventing them from going elsewhere. This can be done by giving them free newsletter or Ezine.

This is not an easy task because there is abundance of free information on the net. You need to give them something different from these กfreeก stuff. Try to provide something unique in your Ezine. For example, if you’re publishing music Ezine, try to make a deal with music label so that you can give special price to your subscriber. Make sure your subscriber cannot get this of kind if deal in other place. If you can create this unique proposition, you’re already on top of the world. Your Ezine will spread like fire. More people will come to your site to subscribe your unique newsletter.

Technique #5: Offer affiliate program

This is the greatest FREE traffic generator technique out there. With this technique both parties win; you and your affiliate program participant. You get more traffic and sales, they get more money from referral commission.

This topic is really a large topic. I can write a whole ebook about how to create a successful affiliate program. But, Iกll discuss the basic thing about affiliate program in here.

Basically, to create an effective affiliate program, you need to create an interest for your visitorกs to join your affiliate program. You can do this by giving them high referral fees and marketing tools for them to use. Above all, you need to make them easy to promote your product or service. Don’t make them do all the hard work. It is your job.

The next thing you need to do is to motivate them to spread the word about you. Contact them in a timely manner. Don’t forget them after theyกve joined your program. Make them feel special. In fact, they are special since they are the one who will do the promotion and advertising.

A well designed affiliate program can increase your website traffic and sales by unimaginable amount. But again, you need to devote all you effort in this technique if you want to have a successful affiliate program. Don’t do it half way. Even if youกve to work 18 hours a day to create your own affiliate program, itกs really worth it in the future. The payoff is going to be thousand times your initial effort.

All of these techniques are free. You don’t have to spend a dime on them. Try it on your site. Iกve tried all these techniques. And they work!

About The Author

Nas Romli runs a site that help people to start their own home based business within 24 hours.Many have benefited from this service.Drop by at his site for more information about this amazing service: http://www.cashflowsecret.net

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 21, 2005

by Nas Romli

IT Inhouse support: Microsoft Great Plains and CR

IT Inhouse support: Microsoft Great Plains and CRM

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Business Solutions is promoting Microsoft Great Plains and MS CRM combination for US and International markets. Microsoft Great Plains as ERP and Microsoft CRM as Client Relation Management system is very robust combination and could serve midsize to large corporation as Business System. Being VP IT or IT Director you need to foresee the positions to have in your IT department to do internal MS Great Plains and MS CRM support.

Let us give you the directions, based on our research and consulting practice.

1. Microsoft SQL Server Specialist – we specially do not name this position as MS SQL DBA, because both Great Plains and MS CRM are not very complex from the database administration side, they do not use indexes optimization, referential integrity, probably do not require complex transaction log backup/recovery scenarios. On the other hand this position requires Great Plains and Microsoft CRM tables structure analysis and some primary Great Plains data fixing skills via SQL queries, described in MBS Customer source techknowledge database. The best candidate should have some accounting background to be able to address ongoing issues to MBS technical support.

2. Network Administrator with good Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory skills. Microsoft CRM uses all the newest Microsoft technologies, and Exchange is a workhorse here. In order to install and upgrade MS CRM this guy needs to understand the underlaying Microsoft technology. In the best case she/he should know Exchange security structure and probably program Exchange handlers, due to the fact that CRM/Exchange connector is not a perfect tool yet.

3. C# or VB.Net programmer with excellent SQL Skills– if you are midsize or large company you should have this position you will need web publishing and MS CRM customization and its support. Currently Microsoft CRM SDK has C# examples so C# programmer would be the best fit, it may have more VB code in the future, so the C# VB balance maybe restored.

4. Crystal Reports Designer/Programmer Crystal Reports is the best tool available on the market to address both Great Plains and MS CRM reporting needs. This position maybe merged with one of the above.

These people should be probably crosstrained in both Great Plains, Microsoft CRM, Crystal Reports, SQL and C# programming, so you do not depend on the unique skills of one person. In our opinion, which is based on our long term consulting practice these skills will allow you to keep the cost of IT support reasonably low and avoid paying high consulting price to your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner.

Happy hiring and training! But in any case you need to select Microsoft Business Solutions Partner/Var/Reseller to be your official representative. This is how MBS has its channel working it assures that Microsoft Business Solutions products are properly implemented. If you want us to be your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner give us a call 16309615918 or 18665280577! [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains implementation and customization company, serving clients in Chicago, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Denver, Minneapolis, UK, Canada, Australia, Europe, Russia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 14

by Andrew Karasev

Top 5 Tips for Frustrated Affiliate Program Market

Top 5 Tips for Frustrated Affiliate Program Marketers

by: Isaiah Hull

Do you go through affiliate programs like most people go through pairs of socks? Many Internet marketers do. In fact, 97% of all Internet marketers never make a single cent advertising opportunities on the Internet. They jump from one opportunity to the next and never see results. If you want to break free from this cycle of failure if you want to earn a living off of your Internet venturescontinue reading. I will tell you exactly how you can earn money from any legitimate affiliate program.

In order to get the most information from what I am about to explain to you, you must accept that these methods are not intended to be กsecrets.ก These are scientificallyproven, bestpractice methods that all top marketers use. If you want results, you will have to do and continue to do the following five things:

1. Know your product. Do not advertise for a product or affiliate program that you are not currently using. I cannot even count the amount of affiliate programs and product offers I have rejected immediately from people who know very little about what they are actually promoting. If you want to make money selling a product or service, you have to use it, understand it, and be able to convince your prospects that they should own it. If you yourself do not believe in it because you have not even tried itthen you will have a hard time convincing anyone else it is worthwhile.

2. Know your field. You must continually become more knowledgeable about the market in which you are selling your product or service. For instance, I try to read at least 50 pages on Internet marketing each day to complement the marketing I do. This keeps me learning about my field. The best part about this is that you can do it without spending any money at all. The Internet is loaded with free content sites where you can find free ebooks and special reports on any subject. The Internet is also loaded with affiliate program promoters who are outselling you. Use google to find these sites and then reverse engineer thempick apart the source code, page setup, and content layout to find out how you can become more like your competition who is outselling you.

3. Focus your efforts and limit your innovation. As much as กlimiting your innovationก may go against your business instincts, it is an absolute must with a limited marketing budget. Figure out what works for you scientifically by measuring your advertising results. When you find something that works, stick with it. If you are getting traffic from reciprocal links, continue to build them. If you are getting constant signups from your newsletter, improve your newsletter and order more leads. Do not stray far from your original plan. Preset the amount of innovative ideas you want to try out each night, but center your marketing efforts around getting better results from methods that have already worked for you.

4. Spend money wisely. The Internet is loaded with scams and bad information. It is really easy to be tricked into blowing money on กget rich quickก schemes and information that you can find in free resources. I personally have spent thousands of dollars needlessly. But do not get me wrong; I am not saying there are no legitimate affiliate promotion services or information products out there: I am saying that the vast majority of them do not work as well as they say they do. So hold onto your cash. When you find a product that multiple people have personally recommended to you, then consider buying it. Otherwise, conserve your cash for purchasing services or products that will produce hard, definite results, such as email leads for your newsletter or phone leads you can contact personally to promote your program.

5. Remember that your success is dependent on your choices and your work alone. If you get upset about not becoming successful with a specific affiliate program, do not blame the programblame yourself. Do a thorough analysis of what you could be doing better and how you could be making quantitative progress every single day. There are people who do not pay any money at all for promotional services and yet are still able to make a living just from using free tools on the Internet. If they can do it, there is no reason at all why you cannot. Joining a marketing group or forum in your field will help you realize this reality. Seeing and talking to people who are succeeding in your field will remind you that it is entirely possible to make money online without having a million dollars to begin with.

While there are some กsecretsก to getting more signups and site visitors, the bigger part of affiliate program marketing is following a sound business plan. If you keep the five concepts I have listed above central to your marketing campaign, you will not fail. But, if you continue to market sporadicallyswitching from product to product and method to methodyou will never break out of that 97% who never make money.

Copyright 2004 Isaiah Hull

About The Author

Isaiah Hull publishes Home Business Tips, a fresh and informative newsletter that focuses on building successful internet businesses and promoting affiliate programs. Stop by http://www.workathomerightnow.net or send a blank email to mailto:workathomerightnow.com to receive a yearกs subscription for free.

This article was posted on September 26, 2004

by Isaiah Hull