A Look at Affiliate Marketing And Following Your Passion

When it comes to making money online Affiliate Marketing is probably one of the easiest and fastest methods. If you are not familiar with the term you might think of it as being a sales associate.

What you do is join an affiliate program for a product or service that you enjoy. You want to choose a program that is similar or in line with your passion. Be sure and choose a few good products that you would be proud to tell the world about. It is always good to have personal experience with the products you are promoting too.

What does all this have to do with following your passion or selling art online, you ask? Affiliate Marketing can be an essential tool to use for your success when following your passion.

Let's take a look at a way you could use this method to increase your art and photography income. I am a nature and flower photographer. So when looking for a match in affiliate programs I want to find products that are similar to my digital art and yet not in direct competition.

Sample of Using Affiliate Marketing With Art Selling

Sally Stoneking Buy From Art.com

This Blue Wildflower Photograph was taken while on a walk at Herrick Lake in Illisnois. Using photo editing software I've added a water color effect to the image.

This print is available in 10X8 or 20X16. Don't forget to check out the framing option as well. You can have your print framed and mounted and it will arrive at your chosen destination ready to hang. The Blue Wildflower is one of my best sellers. Visit here to Buy artwork by Sally A Stoneking at Art.com

This is a good example of a way to use an affiliate program. I have artwork posted with art.com available for sale. I am also an affiliate of art.com. So this increases the income that I receive for each item I have listed with them.

This article is about giving you a method of enhancing your Photography or Art Selling online. So in that respect I want to recommend to you a product that would help you to increase your chances of success.

I have been a member of the 5Pillar Affiliate program since before I started Nature And Flower Pictures. And so I can, with total confidence, recommend this program for anyone starting out in an online business of any kind.

It is totally free to join the 5Pillar Club, (be aware of any affiliate program that charges to join). When you sign up for this program you will become a member of my team. The 5Pillar Club is the only program I have found that offers every tool you could need to become successful.

This Affiliate Masters Course is just one of the tools you might use to get your affiliate marketing business off to a raving success. In it you will be guided step by step to a successful online affiliate business or incorporate the advice into your own business.

To get your copy of this free course simply click on the image and the book will open in a new window. If you prefer reading offline then right click and choose "save target as" or for Mac users "save link to".

And finally I would like to share with you an example of how one member used affiliate marketing to create her online business. Visit A Better Family Business to see how Michedolene has decided to present her favorite products for business success. I love the way she has kept it in the family.

Nature Landscape Photography Near And Far

One of my favorite topics is nature landscape photography. Taking photographs of nature's landscapes can be very fulfilling and inspiring.

You never have to worry about running out of material. Why you can't even go outside in the space of an hour and capture the same image. Why is that, you ask? The very fact that planet earth is in constant motion and therefore the light changes every second.

Light is key to every photo you take. Now sometimes you may think the picture looks the same but if you had a way to place the images over each other you would see the subtlest of differences.

Nature Landscape Photography From Australia

I did a search on Youtube for landscape photography, looking for something to share with you today. Since you can see my landscape pictures any time I decided to share with you a video from down under. Now being in Chicago, I guess that is about as far away as you can get in the picture world.



I've always wanted to visit Australia and someday that wish may come true. But for now I will settle for having friends there and watching this gorgeous video. Check out the Koala bears. Aren't they the cutest things?

Landscape Photography - Life in Illinois

When I stared this post I wasn't quite sure where I wanted to go with it. If you follow me at all you know I love walks in the park and taking nature and flower pictures to share on my main site.

As the title of this post indicates you can view landscape photography from near and far. Well you have seen the far, at least for me. How would you like to see a touch of life in Northern Illinois?



I know this video is authentic and all mine right down to the music. Isn't modern technology wonderful?

I hope you enjoyed my picks for cool videos.

I invite you to share a your landscape videos with my readers.

Have a wonderful day,

Sally

What is Your Passion? What do you do to relax and refresh?

I recently read this "passion question" on a site promoting the best online business around. I can remember a time when answering that question would send me running to hide.



It made me question what I like to do to re-group myself. And I realized this is the thing I do when my brain just wants to rest and recover. But you see, there are lots of things that I can do to rest. And I am one of those people who can find joy in just about any task.

Being one of those people who can make it fun to just do whatever I am doing can have a downside to it, though. I often run the risk of going beyond the point of exhaustion. Or simply coming to a phase of flittering around my computer from place to place not landing in any one spot.

Is this time when my soul is asking for some down time? It makes me wonder. I just returned from a visit with family. I spent ten hours on the road to get to my mom's for her birthday. It was a surprise and came in the middle of a big project I have been collaborating on.

So there really wasn't a lot of rest with family even though we all had a great time. I got to see my newest grandchild and mom was ecstatic and screamed with delight when I walked into her room. Her delight made the whole trip priceless.

When you live hundreds of miles from home these visits really mean a lot. And since my step father passed last year I felt it was important to spend time with mom who is feeling pretty alone these days.

The only down side is I had to make the trip back home and jump right into the demands of my online business. Most of the time I love this business because it is fairly stress free but there are times when deadlines must be met and promises kept. This was one of those times.

So today I find myself depleted and kind of feeling like I am wasting time. Reading this question made me realize that there is one thing I am drawn to in times like this.

So this is the perfect time to ask myself this question. What is it that I am wanting to do right now?

There is one activity that calls when my brain is exhausted and my body at the end of its rope. And that activity is digital art or photo editing.


When I take a photograph and put it in my favorite photo editing software, I can spend hours in the creative process. At the end of the day I have produced a work of art that sometimes surprises even me. Like this picture of an ancient shaman dancing over these boats at the Lake. The art is actually a compilation of two photographs taken in two different states and about five years apart. (reprints are available at my online gallery) And the best part is I feel refreshed and ready to get back into the other details of my business.

And an even better benefit to this passion is I have created a product while I was virtually resting. Here is where the fun comes in. That response is perfect because each of us has a passion for something and we don't all necessarily share the same passion.

So I have to ask you. What is it that you do that you find yourself lost in the moment? What do you do that leaves you feeling refreshed and good about yourself? How would you like to make that your lifes work? I know a few people who turned their passion into a successful online business. And if we can do it, you can too!

How Filters Determine What We See in Photography And in Life

Everyone knows the difference filters make in photography. Ansel Adams used filters in the 1920's to create marvelous effects with his scenes of American wilderness. Today I would like to get you thinking about filters in a different way.

What filters do we use to view the world we live in? Is our walk through life and our environment determined by the filters we choose? A lot of my life I have felt as if the Universe handed me those things that I need on a need to have basis. Perhaps, though, it was the filters I used to create the life experience I was having.

Looking at Life Through a New Filter

Once a friend and I were on a drive in the country. He was showing me around his town. I was new to the area and curious about everything around me. We were driving on an old country road with nothing but wheat fields for miles around.

And so it surprised me when I saw a building in the high grass with a sign on it that read "Property of AT&T". I asked, "What is AT&T doing way out here?"

My friends response surprised me almost as much as seeing the building. He said, "There's no AT&T building out here."

I didn't want to argue so I simply said, "I may have been mistaken. I thought I saw a sign that read 'Property of AT&T'". And we continued on our tour of the wheat fields of Kansas.

A week later my friend came to me and said, "How did you see that building? I have lived here for thirty years and never saw that building before you asked about it."

I could only think about how people have said they were born and raised in NY and have never seen the Statue of Liberty. Perhaps its a case of becoming too familiar with our environment. Do we tend to take our environment for granted? Sometimes it takes a visitor to point them out the things we see everyday without really seeing them.

The year I started Nature And Flower Pictures I was walking in the park thinking it would be nice to see a butterfly or two. I was wanting to start a butterfly pictures section but there just didn't seem to be any anywhere.

The very next day after I received multiple samples of butterfly pictures from my sisters. And as if that weren't enough of an answer to my request, on my next walk they were everywhere. The park seemed to be filled with the beautiful fluttering wings of butterflies.

Another time I set my sites on finding a good photo opportunity for capturing the Great Blue Heron that frequent the rivers and lakes each spring and summer. The very first summer I saw them I was thinking of getting better shots. And every time I walk near water I scan the rivers and lakes for these beautiful birds.

Now every spring and summer I am rewarded with crane photo opportunities. And each year they seem to move closer and closer as if on cue. I used to only see them across the river or high in the trees. Now I get so excited when they are on my side of the lake or river.

My most recent encounter with filters though was just yesterday. I was on my way to Wal-Mart to pick up a new printer I had ordered on line. This was a new experience for me. I had ordered it using the option of "site to store" that they offer.

My daughters have exchanged gifts in this way on more than one occasion so I knew it was something that can be done with ease. But I simply had not taken advantage of this process till now.

So as I made way I wondered where I would pick the printer up. I said to my friend, "I'll just check at customer service where you take returns. They will know where I need to go, if that is not where you pick up orders."

On entering the store my eyes went instantly to the sign at the top of the entry. It read, "If you're here to pick up an order see us at the back of the store."

Now I've been in this same store and even returned an item or two more times than I can remember, but I have never seen that sign before. And if that wasn't enough, on my arrival at the back of the store was another big sign that read, "Site to Store pick up here."

The location was near the rest rooms in this particular store and I have been there before as well but never noticed the sign. I mentioned this to my friend and he said, "You just didn't have that experience in your filter system."

And right he is. So I have to ask, "What filters are you using to create your reality today?" It would seem that filters aren't just for cameras, although they certainly do come in handy when you want to enhance your photographic art.

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Mabel Katz and Dr Hew Len will be speaking at 6:00 p.m. eastern time today, Tuesday, January 13th. If you miss today's call you will be able to listen to the recording for 48 hours for free.

What Labels do You Use to Describe Yourself?

Do you notice how we like to label ourselves and our world. For instance do you call yourself an Artist, Digital Artist, Photographer, Coach or any of the multitude of names that you might choose from?

We do like to label ourselves, our children, our friends, our pets. And on some level we are aware that those labels really do not identify the real person. Labels are good to organize and place things in a certain perspective.

But what happens when we become bound by those labels? Or better yet, what if we never knew those labels at all?

I'd like to tell a story about a child that some would give the label of ADD or even Dyslexic perhaps.

At a very early age he could not be contained. He had an energy that most would say was out of control. And yet he also had a charming smile and loved to make you laugh.

He was the class clown. And labeled by his teachers as a very unruly and disruptive student.

He was enrolled in many schools and found it difficult to sit in his seat for any length of time. He was a very nervous child.

He was full of a scattered energy, an energy always trying to get out. A child of our day would be prescribed medicine to "calm him down". Once this labeled child is forced to conform to proper society all is quiet again.

But what would happen if those labels were not given to this child? What if instead he was taken out of public school at the age of 12? What would happen if this child had a loving, devoted parent who went out of their way to educate him from home?

What would happen if he was allowed to learn at his own pace? A pace that would in some ways prove to out perform the education system?

What if this devoted parent took out a loan to buy him a piano. And what if he took to that piano with heart and soul. That piano might just act as a harness for the hyperactive energy asking only to be expressed.

What if that child were bought a season pass to the Wold’s Fair where he could visit every day?

What worlds would open up to a child aloud to live without labels? He would still have all the energy but given free rain to explore his world as much as his imagination could handle.

What if these loving and devoted parents took him to Yosemite National Park where the wilderness grabbed his soul and took it to heights many of us would never feel? What if he is given a camera and freedom to roam.

He would take that camera and run with all his energy capturing every spectacular scene that little magic box would hold.

The questions in this post can all be answered by the label we call Ansel Adams, the man who changed photography forever. Ansel Adams was this child lucky enough to be born before these labels. And the world is blessed to have known him. Buy artwork by Ansel Adams at Art.com