Living a healthy affiliate lifestyle can be extremely difficult.  In fact, this is something up until recently I’ve really struggled with!  In high school, I was always very athletic and played numerous sports including football and weight lifting.  If you knew me then, you would of said I was a pretty fit guy that was very athletic…

The problem started around 10th grade for me, I started smoking.  I was around 16 years old at the time and had made a friend who smoked (also around age 16) and he convinced me to start smoking as well.  This was the first choice I made that would have a huge impact on my health and how healthy I would be in the coming years.

Even though I had started smoking, I was still very much an active person.  I ran all the time, played sports, etc.  When I graduated high school in 2003, I weighed 175 - 180 pounds and despite smoking was in pretty good health.

This is where the second problem developed.  After I got out of high school I slowly became less and less active.  I quit playing as many sports as I did during high school, I was however working a job that did keep me pretty active which helped to keep the weight off, however, after a couple of years, I slowly gained about 25 pounds and was sitting at 200 pounds…which for a person who is 6′1″ isn’t really that bad in my opinion.

The real problem with my weight began when I got laid off from the steel mill I was working at and started working full time from home doing affiliate marketing.  I gained another 50 pounds putting me at 252 pounds.  It was at this point that I realized I had to change my lifestyle or I would be able to continue living the life I loved much longer.

When I stepped onto that scale and it read 252 pounds, I was shocked!  It seemed like just the other day I was a ripped young man weighing 180 pounds with a six pack.  Now, because of my laziness I had a 2 liter.  It was as if a light bulb turned on and I realized suddenly that I needed to fix this problem.

I had worked hard the last two years to build an income to support my family and allow us to live a life where money was never an issue any longer.  It was a great feeling when I reached that goal, however, I now felt like I wasn’t going to be able to fully enjoy it because I was smoking (always out of breath) and overweight (always out of breath, plus I ached standing for long periods of time or walking long distances).

So what did I do?

I decided to quit smoking and on the same day that I quit smoking I also started on a diet and strict exercise schedule!  In fact, it has now been 1 month since I’ve made the decision to change my lifestyle (I made the decision on July 18th 2008).  I haven’t smoked in a month, neither have I strayed from my diet or exercise schedule.

In the month that I’ve been doing these three things, I’ve lost 10 pounds, can breath after walking a mile :P  and also have tons of more energy.  I feel like I did in high school again in terms of my energy level.

So how does this apply to Affiliate Marketing?

Well, as I said, you can work as hard as you want to create an income that allows you to travel the world, own nice things, etc. but unless you are healthy enough to enjoy it will it matter?

Also, if you can push yourself to quit smoking, or stick to a diet, or exercise regularly, think of the willpower you can build and you’ll be able to use it to help yourself succeed in your business the next time you don’t feel like working because you’re too tired!

Conclusion:

If you currently are a smoker, I encourage you to try to quit, I have tried over 2 dozen times before I’ve finally succeeded.  If you are overweight (even slightly) I encourage you to get on a diet and start exercising.  If there is something in your life that is keeping you from being as healthy as you can, I encourage you to change it!  You only have one life and one body so treat it right!  You’ll be glad you did!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Hey guys, as anyone that has visited in the last 24 hours has seen, Click Consultants went down, as well as 90% of my sites including all of my affiliate sites.  I own 4 dedicated servers, 3 of them are with Spry, and 1 is with LiquidWeb.  Needless to say, the 3 hosted with Spry all went down yesterday at about 3 - 4 PM EST.

So let’s start from the beginning…

About 3 weeks ago, I received an email stating my bill from last month hadn’t been paid and the bill for this month was due.  So, I went to log into my account to see what was up and why I didn’t pay last months bill and I was unable to log in to the billing part.  I was however able to log in to the support part of the site.  So I did what anyone would do.  I called their support number!

I spoke with someone (always get names!) who’s name I didn’t get, that said they would get the login fixed for me and shoot me an email letting me know when it was good to go.

Three days after that phone call (yesterday) my servers would all be terminated due to non-payment… So, I called back in, told the story above and they got everything back up asap and apologized.

So, am I ticked?  I was ticked when I found out the sites were first down…however, I really think it’s both my fault as well as my hosting companies.

I shouldn’t of waited 3 days to hear back from the guy, I should of called back in after 24 hours of not hearing from him, however, he should of did his job and got back to me.  Also, I could of paid via the telephone or something I’m sure, so again I don’t really have an excuse as I (you) should always do whatever to protect your investments/business.

So, I got over it, anyone that has been a member here for any amount of time knows this isn’t normal.  This is the first downtime we’ve had in about 1 year!!!  So I apologize for the downtime, and hopefully it will be another year before we have anymore downtime!

NOTE:  Also, I just wanted to note that all advertisers will receive a day extension on their ad(s).  Thanks.

Popularity: 11% [?]

I was not paid for this review, I actually like the site and I think it is a cool idea and I sincerely encourage you all to check it out and even submit a video for your own blog!

I was introduced to BlogGears by the owner of the site as he approached me and asked me to do a video pitching in 60 - 90 seconds why someone should visit my blog.  I’ve really been getting into video lately, so I thought this would be a great way to let you guys see a new light to Click Consultants.  In this video you’ll get to know me a little better…  I reveal how much I actually make with affiliate marketing per month (the about page of this blog is outdated!), and also I bet you didn’t know I’ve helped several top affiliates get started in this business!

Anyways, so let’s get on to the review…

What exactly is BlogGears?

BlogGears is a website where bloggers submit a video of themselves explaining why someone should visit their blog.  The topic of your blog can be in any niche.  It doesn’t matter as long as it’s a blog!  You can do a comedy style video, or maybe a drama???  The possibilities are as endless as your imagination.

For readers BlogGears is a place to discover new blogs.  You get to hear exactly from the owners of the blog what their blog is about, why you should visit it, and in the process of watching the video you also get to see who is behind the blog!

Another neat feature of BlogGears is that you can vote for your favorite video (vote me up) or you can bury videos you think suck!

Some things I’d like to see:

There are a couple things I’d love to see BlogGears implement on their site.  First off, I think to the right of the main video that loads on the home page (which is a random one) they should also have a smaller embed video of the Most Popular Video and also the Most Recent Video instead of just the links like they have in the right sidebar.

Also, I’d love to see the comment subscribe plugin installed so bloggers could subscribe to comments so they’d get an email when someone commented on their video.’

The last thing I’d change personally is the fact that they have three advertising spots.  One is a 468×60 banner and the other two are 125×125 banners.  The thing that sucks is the 125×125 banner rotate with other ads.  In fact, each 125×125 banner rotates between 5 ads.

I think it would be better to have four 125×125 banners and each one only rotates two ads.  Instead of ten ads that would only give you eight spots but I think it would attract a lot more advertisers to the site.

Some of the Videos I like!

Social Blend

I’m With Joe

My Video!

Make sure you visit my video as well and make sure to give me a thumbs up!

Popularity: 19% [?]

Hey guys, I was going to write a post tonight detailing a very nice trick that can help you recieve an awesome quality score in Adwords, however, I’ve been so swamped this week that instead I thought I’d post a little about what’s been going on.

I am launching a new campaign for a niche workshop we are doing in our paid private forums so I’ve been super busy with that.  Getting it ready to launch, etc.

I’ve also had some problems with some of my ringtones campaigns as azoogleads has recently changed a few of their guidelines for publishers and to be completely honest, I’ve been lazy in getting them changed, so I’ve been under a little fire for that lately…Completely my fault!

Also, I have a new project I’m working on, that I don’t really want to talk about right now as it’s still being worked on and worked out.  It doesn’t have anything to do with my normal type of PPC Affiliate sites.  It will have affiliate offers, but this site will be more of a content site offering a service to users that hopefully will keep them coming back.  I may or may not release more information on this blog once the site is finished, however, I still haven’t quite decided.  I’ll let you all know!

Anyways, It’s been an extremly busy week and an even busier last couple days.  Hopefully I’ll be able to post my trick tomorrow evening or the next by the latest!

Anyone currently working on any projects they’d like to share in the comments?  If so, drop a link in the comments and I’ll check your site out!

Popularity: 22% [?]

Hey guys, as most of my faithful readers have noticed, I try very hard to produce information that will truly benefit you in affiliate marketing.  I’ve written a ton of my content on a more business type style and try to stay away from being too personal as I feel that you guys read this blog to succeed in making money online and I only wish to help!

I’ve written articles on Split Testing Ads, Split Testing Landing Pages, Using PHP to Redirect Affiliate Links, Using .htaccess to Redirect Affiliate Links, etc.

My question is, I would love some input from you guys on what type of content you would like to see published.  Is there a certain topic you would like me to write about?  Would you like to know how to do something that you think is a little technical that I could explain a little better maybe?  Whatever it is that you guys would like to learn, I would love to write about it!

So, in the comments below, let me know what you’d like to see!  Heck, if you would like to see a few more personal posts every now and then, then simply let me know!  As always, to be fair, majority rules!

Popularity: 17% [?]