Tricia Meyer

Affiliate Marketer, Blogger, and Consultant

My New Affiliate Marketer “Must Have” Accessory

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Xebect Tri-Screen 2

I don’t often review products on this site, preferring to keep it focused mainly on affiliate marketing. But when a friend reached out to me on LinkedIn about a product she is working with, I knew immediately it would be right at the intersection of writing about affiliate marketing and actually DOING affiliate marketing!

(Disclosure: I was sent a Tri-Screen 2 for free to review. In addition, this post contains my affiliate links to earn commissions on the product. The review and experience with the product are 100% my own!)

Affiliate Marketing on the Road

The last 3 posts I have written on this site have been on the road. I’ve always said that one of the best things about being an affiliate marketer is being able to do it from anywhere. Now that I am an empty nester, I am REALLY taking advantage of that! In fact, today I am working from my happiest of happy places– Disney!

Less Productive On Laptop?

When I am at home, I have three screens. I always keep the same things in the same order. I’m almost always using at least two screens at once to copy and paste things… compare things… watch a video while multitasking. When I am on the road, my productivity drops significantly because my one laptop screen is not enough and I waste time switching tabs and it’s hard to make things big enough to see two things at once when I am writing posts or creating images.

In the past I would just avoid doing a lot of tasks while working from my laptop because I knew I wouldn’t be efficient at them. But as of this week, I am officially as productive when traveling as I am at home!

For a limited time take $75 off the Xebec Tri-Screen 2!

Setting Up 2 Extra Screens

When Blagica reached out to me about reviewing the Xebec Tri-Screen 2 and joining their affiliate program, I immediately jumped at the opportunity because I wanted so badly to find a product that would work for me. I’ve borrowed my husband’s portable second screen before and it was a step up from one screen, but it was also weird because it didn’t line up exactly with my laptop and it was at a weird angle.

When the Tri-Screen 2 arrived, I was at first a little bit overwhelmed by the number of cables. The tricky thing about a product like this is that for it to work for everyone (and it does), they have to plan for a lot of contingencies–what type of laptop do you have? how many ports and what kind? are they your only charging ports? So it comes with a lot of different cables!

I practiced setting up the screens at home before taking them on the road because I wanted to make sure I had everything I needed. Sitting at the dining room table, I was able to quickly open up the screens themselves and slip them around my laptop to the perfect position.

When it came time to connect everything, I followed the instructions carefully and did have to experiment a bit to figure out the best cable setup for my laptop, including watching the helpful online videos they provide.

For me, I ended up using an HDMI port plus two usb-c ports. This was the best way to set mine up and not have to worry about charging my laptop at the same time. But your setup may be completely different.

Xebec Tri-Screen 2 Is a Travel Dream!

Within a week of receiving my screens, it was time to travel for the first time. While the Tri-Screen 2 is light enough (2 pounds) to fit in your laptop bag or backpack, I elected on this trip to put it back in its travel box along with the exact cables for my laptop and put it in my suitcase. I think most people would just carry it in their travel bag, but I was traveling on this trip with a cute Disney purse rather than an actual laptop bag.

When I arrived in Disney to set everything up, it was the evening of Cyber Monday and I had so much to do online. I was able to unpack and connect all of the cables in about 2 minutes, adjust my screen and sound settings, and start work within 5 minutes. Everyone knows that as an affiliate marketer, you run a LOT of reports the Tuesday after Black Friday to see how everything went. Having 3 screens instead of 1 laptop screen probably cut my work in half.

The screens are obviously smaller than my main laptop screen, and I also adjust the display so that the font sizes are a bit bigger on those screens because my eyes aren’t getting any younger. But even with both of those things, I am able to see enough on the screens and they are lined up at just the right height so that I can quickly glance between screens seemlessly (the cursor also seemlessly moves across them!).

For a limited time take $75 off the Xebec Tri-Screen 2!

Having 3 Screens Is a Game Changer

I’ll never go on a trip of more than a few days without my extra screens again. It’s one thing to just get light things done on your laptop like checking email. It’s something else entirely to actually be working with reports and doing full content creation while also monitoring Slack and email and socials. If you or anyone you know works on a laptop like that and doesn’t already have extra screens, I wholeheartedly recommend the Xebec Tri-Screen 2. Consider it as a gift for someone else, or maybe just for yourself!

Xebec Tri-Screen 2 Review Basics

  • Weighs only 2 pounds
  • Works with any laptop
  • Can stay attached to your laptop while you close and transport it
  • Superb written and video instructions (even for someone like me)
  • Use one the road or even at home when not in your office
  • Makes a great gift because anyone can use it
  • Shipping takes about 2 days

Visit Xebec today and check out their other accessories as well!

Check Out OptinMonster and Enter to Win It for a Year

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OptinMonster Contest

I don’t tend to run a lot of contests on this site, but when a company I use myself approaches me to give away their product, I jump on it!

It’s been almost 3 years since I wrote the post “Why You Need to Get OptinMonster Today.” Since that time, I have continued to use it myself on all of my sites. It’s one of the few paid tools that I use to grow my blogging and affiliate businesses.

Thanks to OptinMonster, THREE lucky winners will be getting a year of it for FREE! Plus, everyone who enters will get a special surprise after the contest ends.

Even though my post above gives more specifics on why I use OptinMonster, I want to break it down very simply:

You need to build your lists.

How many times have you freaked out when your Google ranking dropped for a keyword that you relied on for traffic? How many times has Facebook changed its algorithm so that your fans are not seeing your posts as much and you lost money? Although there is nothing wrong with building your site and your social to get all of that “free” traffic, you can’t ever rely on another site to sustain your own.

Because of that, you need to build your following and build your email lists. According to Statista.com, 85% of people check email at least once a day. That’s higher than visit any social media platform. As of 2017, there were 3.7 billion global email users, and that number is expected to grow to 4.1 billion by 2021. People still read email.

The best way to grow your email list is to get people who are reading your posts to sign up for it. It’s the only way to guarantee that they are really interested in your content. What good does it do to buy or trick people into signing up for your list when you are likely paying for every email you send and those people may not even really be interested?

OptinMonster helps you target the people who are visiting your site in ways that are most likely to get them to sign up for your list. There are so many customizable options including the timing of when people will be asked to sign up and where the sign up boxes show up.

Check out OptinMonster for yourself and enter below to win one of three 12-month subscriptions. Thanks to OptinMonster for sponsoring this terrific opportunity!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Using PicMonkey to Create Halloween Graphics

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A few months ago I wrote about how PicMonkey Solved My Graphics Problems. In that post I talked about my new obsession with PicMonkey. I showed in that post how I could make graphics using the Collage tool mainly. Little did I know just how much I would love the Design Tool!

In the past I have mainly used Fiverr to get quick basic graphics to use for holidays. Or I created them myself in Photoshop and they were passable but clearly not professional. When I saw that PicMonkey had added Halloween specific tools, I decided to give them a chance.

Using the Halloween Design Editor

After I click on the Design Editor, the first thing that I do is set the dimensions for my image. This is under “Basic Edits” (the symbol that looks like a crop tool) and then “Resize.” As I mentioned in my other post, I use 560×292 1120×584 for images that I want to use in blog posts and appear nicely on Facebook or Google+. I also experimented with some standard banner sizes to use in my sidebars. Essentially you can make the images any size you want.

I then went down to the bottom of the Design Editor sidebar and chose the cute little pumpkin and then the theme “Trick or Treat.”

(There are other themes that will create really cool Halloween images as well including Zombies, Witches, Vampires, and Demons).

After you pick the theme, you can choose from Halloween Overlays, Frames, and Text. The Frames look like they are meant to sit on top of other images, but I actually used a Frame as the basis for my contest image below:

Next I tried using some of the labels:

That was really basic but only took 30 seconds. You could make just about any kind of button with it.

This was using the Grim Garlands and Classic Creepies

The one took about I made at the top of this post took about 2 minutes and used some of the Vampire theme (especially the Night Frights Textures). This one is just a quick modification of that image:

All of mine were done without bothering to watch any of their tutorials. I’m sure if I took the time to watch any of their tutorials, I could do even cooler stuff. They even have a whole series of Halloween blog posts to help you get creative.

Some of the themes, overlays, texts, etc. are free and some of them are part of their Royale package. At $4.99 for a month, it is definitely worth the upgrade!

If you are like me and just need simple graphics but need them frequently enough that you need to learn to make them yourself or spend a fortune, I wholeheartedly recommend giving PicMonkey a try. And I look forward to dazzling you with my increased PicMonkey knowledge over time.

How to Build a Treadmill Desk

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Treadmill Desk ReviewI get a lot of questions about my treadmill desk and how it works. All of the treadmill desks that I looked at were pretty expensive, and I didn’t know if I would really even use one. So my husband and I decided that we would try to build one using an older treadmill that we didn’t feel comfortable running on anymore.

In the first picture you can see the basic setup. We basically drilled 2 shelf brackets ($7 each at Home Depot) into the top of the treadmill and placed a wireless keyboard mouse on top of a plain wood shelf ($10-$20 at Home Depot depending on the size and type). You could use a SurfShelf if you didn’t want to try to make one yourself. We already had a television in the “exercise room” (unfinished basement), so we just plugged one of our laptop docking stations into it. I simply take my laptop from the docking station in my office to the docking station in the basement to keep working. If you don’t have any of the above already, you can always go the TrekDesk route for about $500 (available from Amazon).
[Read more…]

My Actual Pajama Jeans Review

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Pajama Jeans Review
Pajama Jeans

Groupon Alert! Here’s the link to the Pajama Jeans deal on Groupon!!

Since I first mentioned Pajama Jeans back on January 3, I have been getting a lot of questions (and teasing!). From Shawn and Lisa talking about them on the Affiliate Thing podcast to the Sunshine Rewards members asking for a review to my Bunco friends all wanting me to wear them last night, everyone has been asking me what I think about them. The sad part is that it is February 17 and they just arrived!

I was starting to get really angry with the Pajama Jeans and I hadn’t even tried them on yet. I know they said that it would take 4-6 weeks for them to arrive, but I had friends who had already gotten theirs. Apparently my size was on backorder. When they finally shipped on February 5, I was so excited. The bad news was that they shipped them via pony or something because shipping took almost 2 weeks.

When I saw the mail lady putting a big yellow package into the mailbox today, I immediately ran out and grabbed it. When I saw that it was, indeed, my Pajama Jeans, I ripped them open to try them on. My first impression was that they definitely looked like denim but felt thinner and stretchier. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they feel like my fluffy flannel pajamas though.

Without getting too personal, I had to try on a few different pair of underwear with them before I found a pair that worked. I didn’t want you to be able to see lines, and the Pajama Jeans sit low enough that I had to go with low ride undies so you wouldn’t see them when I bend over.

The picture above is the best I could do with my webcam and the timer on Daily Booth. Not the best quality but you can see that they really do look like jeans. I already had on a long-sleeved gray shirt today, so that is what I am wearing with them. I’m going to wear them to lunch with my friends and see if any of them notice. I’ll let you know what they say.

All in all, do I like the Pajama Jeans? Yeah, I do. They are comfy enough that I could do a light workout in them but also look better than any of my stretchy black workout pants. The sizing is perfect, and I went by what they said on the site. Were they pricey? At almost $50 including shipping and handling, they are definitely more than what I would usually spend for pants to wear around the house or run errands in. We’ll see how they wash up.

Want to learn more? Check out my article about Pajama Jeans on Good Morning America.

Let the crazy comments begin. 🙂