TechnologyInsanity.com

I’m not sure why I haven’t played with this already, but awhile ago I didn’t have much cash, so I never picked one up. I had a generic linksys router. Guess what? It crashed all the time if I put it under any type of load at all. The best wireless encryption on it was WEP, which I know first hand how easy that is to crack. I wouldn’t really think anyone around here would know how to do it, but you never know because I live here, and I know how to do it

DD-WRT is pretty easy to install, I’ve had to do much more in the past to get a modified firmware up and running. Mine came pre-flashed though, it was pretty cheap on eBay, so I don’t have first hand experience, but in the past I’ve had to solder certain points and jtag the device in order to flash it. I’ve also used telnet in the past to flash, so the steps for this router seem all too familiar.

Anyway, just from playing with this router I love it. So many things I can tweak and mess with. Mostly, what I’ve done so far is setup WPA2 for my wireless encryption, MAC block, QoS, and virtual AP’s.

WPA2 is the best encryption out there right now, so I’m happy with it, I’m also blocking by MAC addresses, so only known devices can connect. QoS (Quality of Service) is rather interesting because I can set priority to certain connections, so if one program is hogging bandwidth, I’m still able to surf the web at full speed.

Virtual AP’s is another interesting feature, it makes it so I can setup different AP’s that have different types of access. For instance, one could have the internet only, the LAN only, or both LAN and internet. This could be useful for a bunch of different things.

I can also adjust the wireless mW so that can help cover more area, but after a certain point you’re going to want to get a better antenna if you need longer distance.

So far, that’s all I’ve played with, but there’s many, many more features I may or may not use in the future.

Uptime on this router is awesome, it stays up for weeks.

Statistics are also pretty interesting, I can monitor all my bandwidth, how much bandwidth other devices on the network are using, overall internet bandwidth consumed, and LAN bandwidth.

Overall, I’m pretty impressed with this router, and if you don’t have a dd-wrt capable router what are you waiting for? It’s worth every penny.

Lots of people seem to think this lifestyle is easy going, well it’s not. Let’s just clear that up right now. All sorts of stuff goes wrong all the time. If you think you can just sit around on the beach and make money without lifting a finger, it doesn’t work that way.

Affiliate Marketing in a nutshell: Test, Test, Test, Analyze, Analyze, Analyze, Test, Test, Test, Analyze, Analyze… That’s really all there is to it, I mean in simplified terms. Of course this comes more into play for ppc/paid traffic type stuff, which is basically all I do. SEO/EMAIL is basically the same thing, but maybe a little different. I’ve done SEO in the past, but email is on my list of things to learn.

I work with a couple different people, adnetworks, affiliate managers, and some other people that help with design etc on my landers. I have to keep track of my funds on a daily basis, and analyze campaigns currently running, daily. More work pops up when I start a new vertical, this is an entire new project and requires lots and lots of work, tweaking, and money to bring money back.

The longer you’ve been working with this stuff, the better you get at it, period. It takes experience. No eBook, guru, or whatever is going to give you a handout, and even if they do once that dries up will you be able to get something new going on?

Affiliate marketing isn’t for everyone, just as being a doctor isn’t for everyone. Personally, I enjoy it though, something new to work with everyday.

This post reminds me that I need to get my affiliate marketing blog up and running.. I shouldn’t post this on my tech site