If you run any kind of online business and you're looking for contacts, traffic etc., you could do worse than join any of the seemingly hundreds of Social Networking sites that are springing up.
There's a new one around that is a little like Facebook, but has a definite slant towards online business - there's even a page where you can post about online opportunities.
It's called ZenZuu. (Who knows how these people think these names up!)
It's definitely in its infancy at the moment, so it's not as active as Facebook. However, ZenZuu share their advertising revenue with its members, so it's worth getting in at the beginning.
You can sign up here.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Fast Content producer - A Review
The sales page for Fast Content Producer announces itself with this headline "Discover How to Build Hundreds of Content Rich, Dynamically Changing, Keyword Covered Web Pages in Mere Minutes ..."
The sales page doesn't give any screen-shots or links to examples of generated pages, so I must admit that I was somewhat skeptical about its claims.
I got myself a copy, and after playing with it for a while, here's what I found.
First of all, I noticed that there was neither any online help nor manual, so I assumed it must be so easy to use that it doesn't need any.
The sales page says that there are 4 simple steps to producing content, and I guess these relate to the 4 tabs on the program's main form.
The first thing to do in step 1 is giving your project a name, which was easy enough. The next was to select a content file (or files). It appears to recognise plain text, Word and RTF formats, so that should be simple enough. But what should it contain? If it's going to generate hundreds of content-rich pages, I'd like to know how it's going to use the content, and how much content I need to provide.
Next, select a template. You can View the available templates and samples of their use in your browser. Not exactly earth-shattering design to the templates, but I'm sure it's possible to make new ones. If only there was a manual to tell you how.
Oh wait! There's a button labelled "Purchase Templates". I guess their other templates are so good, they couldn't give them away. Let's see...
Well that's a disappointment. It opens up Google in my browser.
Ok. Onwards...
Having selected the output location of the generated files, I now enter how many words or characters to include in each page. So I'm assuming my content file has to be so big that it can fill "hundreds of pages" and I'm now telling it the cutoff point for each page.
That's Step 1 completed.
Step 2 is about RSS feeds. You add them to the list, and it rotates them around the pages. Oh, so maybe this is where the real, dynamic content comes from.
Then enter an affiliate ad code (such as Google AdSense). This will be inserted in the ad spot within the template.
Step 3 lets you add a sign-up form and links and navigation menus. At the moment, I can't see how you can add a navigation menu to pages that the program hasn't generated yet. Maybe it means to external pages.
There's a form builder. Not obvious what to enter in each field if you're a bit of a novice - and let's face it - most people who use this type of software are probably not experts.
The HTML editor is not bad though - it does a preview as you type.
Finally, you can add keywords which it will replace with anchor text and affiliate links.
Step 4 - Build you pages.
Enter a headline and sub-heading and specify the page naming convention. All the generated pages are in HTML. Pity. I'm a great fan of PHP - especially when it comes to dynamic content creation.
Build the pages...
The Progress Bar (or is it a list?) doesn't do anything.
Ok it built me 6 pages from my short article. Let's view the results...
Well I guess you have to be more familiar with the structure of the templates to get nice looking pages.
The text from my content file has been split between the pages, cutting off at the number of words I specified, and there are Prev/Next lilnks to follow it through.
The signup form I designed appears on every page. That's a bit of overkill I think.
The top half of each page has my single column of advertisements in it. I guess that's just a bad choice of template.
Thankfully, you can just go back and choose a different template and regenerate the pages.
Summary
Personally, I wouldn't pay the $37 I've seen this program being offered for. It doesn't produce good enough pages without a lot of effort, and there's no way to control what appears on each page - it's simply a continual stream of text that is split over the pages.
I doubt whether a visitor to the site would stay long unless you had some really interesting content. On the other hand, some people just want a program that churns out pages of text, complete with adverts, to get themselves into the search engines and maybe earn them a bit of cash from the AdSense ads.
However you use it - don't just fill them with random text - those search engines are getting smart.
A Final Note
I acquired this software with the source code. As a programmer, I could improve it beyond recognition, including the provision of help and much better previews.
Don't hold your breath - I have too many projects on the go already. But you never know...
The sales page doesn't give any screen-shots or links to examples of generated pages, so I must admit that I was somewhat skeptical about its claims.
I got myself a copy, and after playing with it for a while, here's what I found.
First of all, I noticed that there was neither any online help nor manual, so I assumed it must be so easy to use that it doesn't need any.
The sales page says that there are 4 simple steps to producing content, and I guess these relate to the 4 tabs on the program's main form.
The first thing to do in step 1 is giving your project a name, which was easy enough. The next was to select a content file (or files). It appears to recognise plain text, Word and RTF formats, so that should be simple enough. But what should it contain? If it's going to generate hundreds of content-rich pages, I'd like to know how it's going to use the content, and how much content I need to provide.
Next, select a template. You can View the available templates and samples of their use in your browser. Not exactly earth-shattering design to the templates, but I'm sure it's possible to make new ones. If only there was a manual to tell you how.
Oh wait! There's a button labelled "Purchase Templates". I guess their other templates are so good, they couldn't give them away. Let's see...
Well that's a disappointment. It opens up Google in my browser.
Ok. Onwards...
Having selected the output location of the generated files, I now enter how many words or characters to include in each page. So I'm assuming my content file has to be so big that it can fill "hundreds of pages" and I'm now telling it the cutoff point for each page.
That's Step 1 completed.
Step 2 is about RSS feeds. You add them to the list, and it rotates them around the pages. Oh, so maybe this is where the real, dynamic content comes from.
Then enter an affiliate ad code (such as Google AdSense). This will be inserted in the ad spot within the template.
Step 3 lets you add a sign-up form and links and navigation menus. At the moment, I can't see how you can add a navigation menu to pages that the program hasn't generated yet. Maybe it means to external pages.
There's a form builder. Not obvious what to enter in each field if you're a bit of a novice - and let's face it - most people who use this type of software are probably not experts.
The HTML editor is not bad though - it does a preview as you type.
Finally, you can add keywords which it will replace with anchor text and affiliate links.
Step 4 - Build you pages.
Enter a headline and sub-heading and specify the page naming convention. All the generated pages are in HTML. Pity. I'm a great fan of PHP - especially when it comes to dynamic content creation.
Build the pages...
The Progress Bar (or is it a list?) doesn't do anything.
Ok it built me 6 pages from my short article. Let's view the results...
Well I guess you have to be more familiar with the structure of the templates to get nice looking pages.
The text from my content file has been split between the pages, cutting off at the number of words I specified, and there are Prev/Next lilnks to follow it through.
The signup form I designed appears on every page. That's a bit of overkill I think.
The top half of each page has my single column of advertisements in it. I guess that's just a bad choice of template.
Thankfully, you can just go back and choose a different template and regenerate the pages.
Summary
Personally, I wouldn't pay the $37 I've seen this program being offered for. It doesn't produce good enough pages without a lot of effort, and there's no way to control what appears on each page - it's simply a continual stream of text that is split over the pages.
I doubt whether a visitor to the site would stay long unless you had some really interesting content. On the other hand, some people just want a program that churns out pages of text, complete with adverts, to get themselves into the search engines and maybe earn them a bit of cash from the AdSense ads.
However you use it - don't just fill them with random text - those search engines are getting smart.
A Final Note
I acquired this software with the source code. As a programmer, I could improve it beyond recognition, including the provision of help and much better previews.
Don't hold your breath - I have too many projects on the go already. But you never know...
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
It's Not All About Ebooks and Courses
Many people who are new to online marketing get into it because they want to make some money. They don't know what to sell, so they fall into the easy option of selling ebooks and reports; either directly or as an affiliate through ClickBank etc.
While this is not a bad idea - it can bring in a very nice income if done well - but it's not an ideal situation.
Most successful businesses are run by people who are passionate about the product they are selling. Unless you're a good writer, or an experienced marketer, the chances are that your ebook business isn't going to produce a life-changing income.
So think about your interests and hobbies. Even if it is something you dabble with now and again. Could you earn an income from that?
Take photography as an example. It is something which I really enjoy. I'm not a professional by any means, but I believe that I have an eye for composition, and I have taken some good pictures in the past.
So how do I make money from this hobby? If I take a picture that I'm particularly proud of, I post it at RedBubble. This is a site for photographers and artists. You set up an account, upload your images and set a price for them. Anyone visiting RedBubble can buy prints of your work in various formats ranging from cards to framed prints. RedBubble handle all the order fulfillment. All you have to do is provide the images. It also helps if you publicise your "bubble", but you can use any online and offline marketing techniques for that.
RedBubble have base prices for each product, and the artist/photographer simply specifies a markup on those prices, which is typically 20%, but you can set whatever markup you see fit.
RedBubble will protect your images on the website by applying a watermark. This of course does not appear in the printed products.
I like the service that RedBubble provides so much that I now carry a camera with me wherever I go, just in case I see something worth capturing.
So if you're into photography, why not consider selling your pictures at RedBubble.
While this is not a bad idea - it can bring in a very nice income if done well - but it's not an ideal situation.
Most successful businesses are run by people who are passionate about the product they are selling. Unless you're a good writer, or an experienced marketer, the chances are that your ebook business isn't going to produce a life-changing income.
So think about your interests and hobbies. Even if it is something you dabble with now and again. Could you earn an income from that?
Take photography as an example. It is something which I really enjoy. I'm not a professional by any means, but I believe that I have an eye for composition, and I have taken some good pictures in the past.
So how do I make money from this hobby? If I take a picture that I'm particularly proud of, I post it at RedBubble. This is a site for photographers and artists. You set up an account, upload your images and set a price for them. Anyone visiting RedBubble can buy prints of your work in various formats ranging from cards to framed prints. RedBubble handle all the order fulfillment. All you have to do is provide the images. It also helps if you publicise your "bubble", but you can use any online and offline marketing techniques for that.
RedBubble have base prices for each product, and the artist/photographer simply specifies a markup on those prices, which is typically 20%, but you can set whatever markup you see fit.
RedBubble will protect your images on the website by applying a watermark. This of course does not appear in the printed products.
I like the service that RedBubble provides so much that I now carry a camera with me wherever I go, just in case I see something worth capturing.
So if you're into photography, why not consider selling your pictures at RedBubble.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Article Marketing Works - If You Do It Right
Do you use Article Marketing to promote your business?
It's a very popular way of getting traffic to your site, as well as building up backlinks.
Backlinks are links to your site that get indexed by the search engines. The more relevant links you have to your site, the higher you appear in the search engines results pages.
So what other benefits are there to using articles to market your site? Well, if somebody is starting to get interested in the kind of thing you are selling, they often go to the Internet search engines to find more information about it.
If the search engine takes them to your article, they can read all about the products that you sell, how to use them, what factors to consider when choosing one, etc. If you write well-reasoned articles about your products, without giving them the hard sell, the readers are more likely to consider you an authority on the subject. This is even more likely to happen if you submit a number of related articles on your subject.
So when you include a link to your site in the resource box at the end of the article, the readers are more likely to go to your site.
There are a number of article sites around, but my current favourite is Article Content King. The reason why I like it so much is that for a small fee, you can get your articles syndicated to a blog which very often gets your articles into Google within an hour. But the piece de resistance of the site is that you get to control the ads that are displayed on the pages containing your article - and keep 100% of the profits from displaying those ads.
This means that I can stop my competitors' ads from appearing on the same page as my articles, Display whatever ads I choose (including ads for my own products), or even sell the ad space to other people. Whatever I do with the ads, I stand to make extra money from them.
If you use articles for marketing, or want to start now, you could do a lot worse than go to Article Content King.
It's a very popular way of getting traffic to your site, as well as building up backlinks.
Backlinks are links to your site that get indexed by the search engines. The more relevant links you have to your site, the higher you appear in the search engines results pages.
So what other benefits are there to using articles to market your site? Well, if somebody is starting to get interested in the kind of thing you are selling, they often go to the Internet search engines to find more information about it.
If the search engine takes them to your article, they can read all about the products that you sell, how to use them, what factors to consider when choosing one, etc. If you write well-reasoned articles about your products, without giving them the hard sell, the readers are more likely to consider you an authority on the subject. This is even more likely to happen if you submit a number of related articles on your subject.
So when you include a link to your site in the resource box at the end of the article, the readers are more likely to go to your site.
There are a number of article sites around, but my current favourite is Article Content King. The reason why I like it so much is that for a small fee, you can get your articles syndicated to a blog which very often gets your articles into Google within an hour. But the piece de resistance of the site is that you get to control the ads that are displayed on the pages containing your article - and keep 100% of the profits from displaying those ads.
This means that I can stop my competitors' ads from appearing on the same page as my articles, Display whatever ads I choose (including ads for my own products), or even sell the ad space to other people. Whatever I do with the ads, I stand to make extra money from them.
If you use articles for marketing, or want to start now, you could do a lot worse than go to Article Content King.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Dead Easy Way To Get Started Marketing Online
Ok, it is time to get real here.
Thousands of people just like you are trying to make money with their Internet business.
However, most of them are COMPLETELY missing the point!
You have probably learned about list building, traffic generation, web design, and just about 1000 different ways you can become an "Internet millionaire" in just a few weeks, and yet you have not made your first dollar.
Well, that is about to change.
I found this fantastic opportunity from Matthew Glanfield that gets a new online business started at no cost. Now I have arranged with Matthew to get you into his high-selling affiliate marketing membership FREE of charge!
He is going to show you every step you need to make to do EXACTLY what he has done to
make over $10,000 per month from his one list.
Here is the link:
Affiliate Marketing Formula.
Go and get that membership NOW - trust me, you are going to love it.
Thousands of people just like you are trying to make money with their Internet business.
However, most of them are COMPLETELY missing the point!
You have probably learned about list building, traffic generation, web design, and just about 1000 different ways you can become an "Internet millionaire" in just a few weeks, and yet you have not made your first dollar.
Well, that is about to change.
I found this fantastic opportunity from Matthew Glanfield that gets a new online business started at no cost. Now I have arranged with Matthew to get you into his high-selling affiliate marketing membership FREE of charge!
He is going to show you every step you need to make to do EXACTLY what he has done to
make over $10,000 per month from his one list.
Here is the link:
Affiliate Marketing Formula.
Go and get that membership NOW - trust me, you are going to love it.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Online Profits Fast!
You have dreamed of setting up an online business, but did not know where to start. You have no idea how to make and run a website.
You've heard that "The money is in the list", but you don't have a list, and you don't know how to get one.
You don't have a product to sell.
Help is at hand. Our Free Ebook Of The Month describes a system that is so easy to set up that you'll be amazed. This ebook is valued at $47, but you can get it for absolutely nothing.
Online Profits Fast! tells you exactly how to start selling quality products online without any technical knowledge required, and no money up front. To run this system, you don't actually even need a website!
The inventors of the system handle everything for you. They supply the products, branded with your own IDs, provide the Squeeze Page, provide the Sales Page for a One-Time-Offer (OTO). They even go as far as providing the items to be sold in the OTO. Best of all, all the customers you have are added to your own personal mailing list.
All you need to do is promote your own link. It couldn't be any simpler.
Don't forget! Online Profits Fast is totally free to download.
How fast can you build your list?
You've heard that "The money is in the list", but you don't have a list, and you don't know how to get one.
You don't have a product to sell.
Help is at hand. Our Free Ebook Of The Month describes a system that is so easy to set up that you'll be amazed. This ebook is valued at $47, but you can get it for absolutely nothing.
Online Profits Fast! tells you exactly how to start selling quality products online without any technical knowledge required, and no money up front. To run this system, you don't actually even need a website!
The inventors of the system handle everything for you. They supply the products, branded with your own IDs, provide the Squeeze Page, provide the Sales Page for a One-Time-Offer (OTO). They even go as far as providing the items to be sold in the OTO. Best of all, all the customers you have are added to your own personal mailing list.
All you need to do is promote your own link. It couldn't be any simpler.
Don't forget! Online Profits Fast is totally free to download.
How fast can you build your list?
XSitePro v2.0 Released
On this blog, back in March 2008, I recommended XSitePro as an excellent tool for building slick, professional websites without requiring any knowledge of HTML.
Well XSitePro 2.0 has just beed released and it's got even better.
With 43 major new features and 45 updated ones, you can produce even better websites than before. And it's designed to suit all skill levels from beginner to professional.
With hundreds of new website templates, and 30 styles of slick, graphical menus and buttons, your websites will rival the world's top sites for looks and ease of use.
Other new features include some excellent content proofing tools including thesaurus and Readability Analysis. Along with the in-built SEO analysis, these make for very powerful websites.
And one of the best features as far as I'm concerned is the integration of forms with the most popular AutoResponders. That's something that I've always had difficulty with. Now XSitePro does it all for you.
There's loads of other new stuff - too much to mention here. Why not look at the features list on the XSitePro 2.0 website.
Well XSitePro 2.0 has just beed released and it's got even better.
With 43 major new features and 45 updated ones, you can produce even better websites than before. And it's designed to suit all skill levels from beginner to professional.
With hundreds of new website templates, and 30 styles of slick, graphical menus and buttons, your websites will rival the world's top sites for looks and ease of use.
Other new features include some excellent content proofing tools including thesaurus and Readability Analysis. Along with the in-built SEO analysis, these make for very powerful websites.
And one of the best features as far as I'm concerned is the integration of forms with the most popular AutoResponders. That's something that I've always had difficulty with. Now XSitePro does it all for you.
There's loads of other new stuff - too much to mention here. Why not look at the features list on the XSitePro 2.0 website.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Article Site that Gives You Credit
I've never really been a fan of Social networking sites, but there are one or two which do turn out to be quite useful from an online marketing point of view.
Here's another that I discovered recently.
It's called Qassia.
Qassia is about publishing information, or what they call "Intelligence". The more you publish, and the more popular it becomes, the more credit you earn.
Credit is counted in "Qassia Dollars".
The more Qassia Dollars you have the higher your pages will rank in the search pages.
And you get a backlink to your website for every intel you add - only Qassia gives you unlimited quality backlinks.
Last but not least, Qassia also has the best ad revenue sharing system on the Internet, so in effect you get paid for promoting your website.
The more people join Qassia, the more everyone will benefit, so give Qassia a spin. Signing up takes less than a minute, so you've got nothing to lose - It's FREE. See you around!
Sign up here
Here's another that I discovered recently.
It's called Qassia.
Qassia is about publishing information, or what they call "Intelligence". The more you publish, and the more popular it becomes, the more credit you earn.
Credit is counted in "Qassia Dollars".
The more Qassia Dollars you have the higher your pages will rank in the search pages.
And you get a backlink to your website for every intel you add - only Qassia gives you unlimited quality backlinks.
Last but not least, Qassia also has the best ad revenue sharing system on the Internet, so in effect you get paid for promoting your website.
The more people join Qassia, the more everyone will benefit, so give Qassia a spin. Signing up takes less than a minute, so you've got nothing to lose - It's FREE. See you around!
Sign up here
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
What a Twit(ter)
I have just had my arm twisted to join Twitter.
It looks totally pointless to me, but I am reliably informed that it's a great way of driving traffic to your websites.
I'm not convinced, but I'll give it a try.
I imagine that it's one of those things that I sign up to and then gradually neglect and forget about completely. Like most SN sites (Squidoo excepted), I can't see it having that much long-term appeal.
If you're interested in seeing what I'm up to, follow Phil_Rogers at Twitter.
It looks totally pointless to me, but I am reliably informed that it's a great way of driving traffic to your websites.
I'm not convinced, but I'll give it a try.
I imagine that it's one of those things that I sign up to and then gradually neglect and forget about completely. Like most SN sites (Squidoo excepted), I can't see it having that much long-term appeal.
If you're interested in seeing what I'm up to, follow Phil_Rogers at Twitter.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Social Networking as a marketing Tool
There has been a veritable explosion in the number of Social Networking (SN), or Web 2.0 sites.
People love them or loathe them.
Personally, I don't find them a particularly attractive proposition in terms of being sociable.
However, I do recognise them as providers of a huge audience for marketing.
People search and browse the SN sites for all manner of subjects, and with millions of users, there are bound to be people who are interested in what you have to offer.
So even if you're not really interested in SN sites, it's well worth having some kind of presence in them.
I just created a Squidoo Lens about Article Marketing. It will provide exposure to one of my online projects and bring in links to my various sites.
Top lenses on Squidoo have Google PR of 5/10, so they are very valuable as incoming links.
My Squidoo lens is not a work of art in terms of marketing - it's just a first attempt. But its worth a visit just to see what you can do in just 10 minutes.
Go there, have a look around, read some lenses and then make your own. It's quick, it's easy, and well worth doing.
People love them or loathe them.
Personally, I don't find them a particularly attractive proposition in terms of being sociable.
However, I do recognise them as providers of a huge audience for marketing.
People search and browse the SN sites for all manner of subjects, and with millions of users, there are bound to be people who are interested in what you have to offer.
So even if you're not really interested in SN sites, it's well worth having some kind of presence in them.
I just created a Squidoo Lens about Article Marketing. It will provide exposure to one of my online projects and bring in links to my various sites.
Top lenses on Squidoo have Google PR of 5/10, so they are very valuable as incoming links.
My Squidoo lens is not a work of art in terms of marketing - it's just a first attempt. But its worth a visit just to see what you can do in just 10 minutes.
Go there, have a look around, read some lenses and then make your own. It's quick, it's easy, and well worth doing.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
What To Do With Unused Domains
If buying domains was an Olympic sport, I'd have won a medal over the last few years.
I'd come up with an idea, buy the domain for it, throw a site together and kind of move on to my next crazy idea before it was finished. Basically I lacked focus.
Now, I'm a reformed domain junkie and I've let a few of them expire.
However, I do have a couple of unused ones still lying around because they got automatically renewed. I also have one that I bought recently to use as a sales site for an upcoming product that I have under development.
My product is not ready yet, but I wanted to reserve the domain.
I figured that while the product is still under development, I should put the domain to work, gathering trafic, getting a good Alexa rank, appearing in the search engines etc.
So this is what I have done while the product is still in pre-launch.
I have used some software to create an "Adsense" site. Basically it's an article site based on a selected theme or niche, and amongst the articles, there are Adsense advertisement blocks.
Not just Adsense, actually - I have also created ads using other advertising programs.
In fact, the product under development is a script that generates ads from the ClickBank marketplace. So I have used the script on my site.
So, the article site is themed on the ClickBank niche, and hopefully it will start to draw traffic from the search engines when people start looking for information about Clickbank and related services.
Additionally, it might bring me some income from AdSense and the other advertising programs.
And I have written about it in this Blogger blog because it's one of the fastest ways to get Google to notice a website or domain.
And when my product is ready to launch, I'll add the sales page, but also rework the rest of the site into a more credible article site. At the moment it is simply there to start drawing traffic. As it was generated by software, it's not that organised. It's not bad, but it could be better with a bit of manual rearrangement.
Check it out here.
So if you have an unused domain, get it working for you. Create an Adsense site based on a niche that you'll be using the site for in future.
You have nothing to lose, and you might just earn a bit of money from it.
I'd come up with an idea, buy the domain for it, throw a site together and kind of move on to my next crazy idea before it was finished. Basically I lacked focus.
Now, I'm a reformed domain junkie and I've let a few of them expire.
However, I do have a couple of unused ones still lying around because they got automatically renewed. I also have one that I bought recently to use as a sales site for an upcoming product that I have under development.
My product is not ready yet, but I wanted to reserve the domain.
I figured that while the product is still under development, I should put the domain to work, gathering trafic, getting a good Alexa rank, appearing in the search engines etc.
So this is what I have done while the product is still in pre-launch.
I have used some software to create an "Adsense" site. Basically it's an article site based on a selected theme or niche, and amongst the articles, there are Adsense advertisement blocks.
Not just Adsense, actually - I have also created ads using other advertising programs.
In fact, the product under development is a script that generates ads from the ClickBank marketplace. So I have used the script on my site.
So, the article site is themed on the ClickBank niche, and hopefully it will start to draw traffic from the search engines when people start looking for information about Clickbank and related services.
Additionally, it might bring me some income from AdSense and the other advertising programs.
And I have written about it in this Blogger blog because it's one of the fastest ways to get Google to notice a website or domain.
And when my product is ready to launch, I'll add the sales page, but also rework the rest of the site into a more credible article site. At the moment it is simply there to start drawing traffic. As it was generated by software, it's not that organised. It's not bad, but it could be better with a bit of manual rearrangement.
Check it out here.
So if you have an unused domain, get it working for you. Create an Adsense site based on a niche that you'll be using the site for in future.
You have nothing to lose, and you might just earn a bit of money from it.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Revenue-Sharing Article Site Goes Live
Many people use Article Marketing to promote their online business. It's often touted as an excellent technique, giving the following benefits:
1) Giving exposure to a problem and its solution,
2) Providing links to the author's site to enable people to find it.
3) Providing links to the author's site for SEO purposes.
However, some people have a lot more success than others when it comes to article marketing.
So, have you been disillusioned with the lacklustre results you
get from your articles? I know I was. I read numerous reports and ebooks recommending this technique, but never saw the success that I was promised.
Then I realised that I was looking at only the tip of the iceberg,
There's now a new kind of article marketing that produces the kind of results that I like; money!
Revenue-Sharing Article Marketing enables you to get a LOT more value from your article writing efforts.
A group of us, who were frustrated about what we got from posting an article compared with what the article site owner got from the deal, decided to do something about it.
We like to call it Article Marketing on Steroids!
Take a look at what we came up with. If you are serious about your article marketing, and you want more, I think you will be pleased with what you see.
Heck, you will be excited.
Very excited!
Take a look now
Just go here....
Article Content King
1) Giving exposure to a problem and its solution,
2) Providing links to the author's site to enable people to find it.
3) Providing links to the author's site for SEO purposes.
However, some people have a lot more success than others when it comes to article marketing.
So, have you been disillusioned with the lacklustre results you
get from your articles? I know I was. I read numerous reports and ebooks recommending this technique, but never saw the success that I was promised.
Then I realised that I was looking at only the tip of the iceberg,
There's now a new kind of article marketing that produces the kind of results that I like; money!
Revenue-Sharing Article Marketing enables you to get a LOT more value from your article writing efforts.
A group of us, who were frustrated about what we got from posting an article compared with what the article site owner got from the deal, decided to do something about it.
We like to call it Article Marketing on Steroids!
Take a look at what we came up with. If you are serious about your article marketing, and you want more, I think you will be pleased with what you see.
Heck, you will be excited.
Very excited!
Take a look now
Just go here....
Article Content King
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Online Opportunities
As I've already mentioned, this blog is a record of various things that I am trying in an attempt to make some money online.
It has always been my belief that anyone who starts a career of making money on the Internet shouldn't put all their eggs in one basket. Instead, they should concentrate on setting up, automating and refining an income stream. Then when that is up and running, start work on a second. And then a third and so on.
You shouldn't try and set up a lot of different things at the same time. You'll end up with a whole bunch of unfinished projects, or badly set up sites etc.
I know it's tempting to try every idea that you come across, but believe me, if you put in the effort to set up an income stream properly, it is more likely to pay off and help to fund the next one you set up.
Along with a group of marketers who have become good friends, I shall soon be launching my Revenue-Sharing article site. We've worked hard on setting everything up and think we've got it to a pretty good state. Sure, there will be teething troubles, but we doubt whether there will be anything we can't fix quickly and easily.
Once our launch is under way, I'll be reporting on it here. But the good thing about this idea is that there are opportunities for everyone - not just myself and the others involved in our Joint Venture.
So, I shall be posting details of how you can make money using our system on a new Online Opportunities site, Unmarked Bills.
That site title is just a little joke. There's no criminal activity involved - but we do expect there to be money involved.
I'll be using that site to provide information about other money-making opportunities that I come up with in future, ranging from Viral Products, Software, Affiliate Sales, etc.
It's just being set up at the moment, but do bookmark it and return often.
It has always been my belief that anyone who starts a career of making money on the Internet shouldn't put all their eggs in one basket. Instead, they should concentrate on setting up, automating and refining an income stream. Then when that is up and running, start work on a second. And then a third and so on.
You shouldn't try and set up a lot of different things at the same time. You'll end up with a whole bunch of unfinished projects, or badly set up sites etc.
I know it's tempting to try every idea that you come across, but believe me, if you put in the effort to set up an income stream properly, it is more likely to pay off and help to fund the next one you set up.
Along with a group of marketers who have become good friends, I shall soon be launching my Revenue-Sharing article site. We've worked hard on setting everything up and think we've got it to a pretty good state. Sure, there will be teething troubles, but we doubt whether there will be anything we can't fix quickly and easily.
Once our launch is under way, I'll be reporting on it here. But the good thing about this idea is that there are opportunities for everyone - not just myself and the others involved in our Joint Venture.
So, I shall be posting details of how you can make money using our system on a new Online Opportunities site, Unmarked Bills.
That site title is just a little joke. There's no criminal activity involved - but we do expect there to be money involved.
I'll be using that site to provide information about other money-making opportunities that I come up with in future, ranging from Viral Products, Software, Affiliate Sales, etc.
It's just being set up at the moment, but do bookmark it and return often.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Free Ebook of the Month - Make Money With PLR
One of the best ways to make money online is by creating and selling your own product. Similarly, ebooks are the easiest products to sell because they can be delivered digitally.
The April 2008 Free Ebook of the Month, Make Money With PLR explains how you can create your own ebook without having to actually write it.
The book describes Private Label Rights products and how you can modify
them, change their title and even claim ownership of them.
So if you're struggling to get started making money online, download your free copy of Make Money With PLR now.
The April 2008 Free Ebook of the Month, Make Money With PLR explains how you can create your own ebook without having to actually write it.
The book describes Private Label Rights products and how you can modify
them, change their title and even claim ownership of them.
So if you're struggling to get started making money online, download your free copy of Make Money With PLR now.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Latest venture - a mobile phone content site
I was in two minds whether to post about this one or not. It just seemed too much like a blatant plug, or an excuse to get a backlink.
However, when I first started this blog I said that I would write down everything that I tried to make money on the Internet.
So, my latest venture is SonoLuminus - a ringtone, wallpaper and Java games site for mobile phones.
It's just another possible income stream. It really is a set it and forget it type of website because it uses a mobile content specialist to deliver the goods. I'm just like an affiliate really.
The script that I'm using automatically updates the content from the provider's database, so it doesn't really need much work doing to it. All I need to do is promote it and get it a good position in Google. Probably not a very easy thing to do due to the huge number of mobile content providers out there.
Still, it's worth a try. It costs nothing to set up the account with the service provider, and the script cost me nothing, too.
So if I only make $10 per year, I've covered my costs.
However, when I first started this blog I said that I would write down everything that I tried to make money on the Internet.
So, my latest venture is SonoLuminus - a ringtone, wallpaper and Java games site for mobile phones.
It's just another possible income stream. It really is a set it and forget it type of website because it uses a mobile content specialist to deliver the goods. I'm just like an affiliate really.
The script that I'm using automatically updates the content from the provider's database, so it doesn't really need much work doing to it. All I need to do is promote it and get it a good position in Google. Probably not a very easy thing to do due to the huge number of mobile content providers out there.
Still, it's worth a try. It costs nothing to set up the account with the service provider, and the script cost me nothing, too.
So if I only make $10 per year, I've covered my costs.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Free Website Builder
Hot on the heels of XSitePro, I've discovered another website builder.
This one is completely free. Just go to the website and download it.No technical knowledge required - Just get on with the business of writing your website content.
Get your FREE copy of My Free Website Builder now.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
XSitePro Makes Website Building a Breeze
Years ago I discovered a little program called Claris Homepage. It was great for putting together websites without having to learn HTML. But times change and the Internet has evolved. Software for creating really effective websites is now a lot more complex.
To cater for that complexity, there is DreamWeaver. Fantastic software. Very powerful, but also very expensive. If you create a lot of websites - maybe for a living - you probably can't do without it.
For us mere mortals though, DreamWeaver is way out of our price range (for now), so what other alternatives?
I recently discovered XSitePro. It lets you build websites quickly and easily, just as Claris Homepage did for me years ago.
The thing that impressed me most about XSitePro was that the sites it generated all seemed to follow the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) rules. This means that your site, once up and running should actually stand a chance of appearing in the Google results pages if you promote it properly.
It handles links between pages, and even generates a sitemap page for you. And if you change the site, everything is updated. So it's not just a web designer - it's web site manager.
There are numerous templates to choose from, including those from a growing third-party business. You can change the look and feel of your entire site in seconds, just by choosing a different template.
At less than $200, XSitePro is affordable to most online marketers.
I'm currently rebuilding one of my sites using XSitePro. When it's done I'll write a full review of XSitePro, and illustrate it with my new site.
To cater for that complexity, there is DreamWeaver. Fantastic software. Very powerful, but also very expensive. If you create a lot of websites - maybe for a living - you probably can't do without it.
For us mere mortals though, DreamWeaver is way out of our price range (for now), so what other alternatives?
I recently discovered XSitePro. It lets you build websites quickly and easily, just as Claris Homepage did for me years ago.
The thing that impressed me most about XSitePro was that the sites it generated all seemed to follow the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) rules. This means that your site, once up and running should actually stand a chance of appearing in the Google results pages if you promote it properly.
It handles links between pages, and even generates a sitemap page for you. And if you change the site, everything is updated. So it's not just a web designer - it's web site manager.
There are numerous templates to choose from, including those from a growing third-party business. You can change the look and feel of your entire site in seconds, just by choosing a different template.
At less than $200, XSitePro is affordable to most online marketers.
I'm currently rebuilding one of my sites using XSitePro. When it's done I'll write a full review of XSitePro, and illustrate it with my new site.
Beware ClickBank's Dormant Account Policy
If you're getting into affiliate marketing, one of the most popular places to start is ClickBank. It's easy to use, and well-tried.
But if you're a beginner and not yet very good at marketing, you could lose the money that you have earned so far.
One of my colleagues had earned about $23 in his ClickBank account, but as he wasn't really promoting his links very well, he just didn't get any more sales for quite some time. When finally he went to check his balance, he saw that it had fallen to $16, and there were a number of small ($1 and $5) transactions on the account. He couldn't understand what they were, so I investigated for him.
It turned out that those charges were for a «Dormant account». In ClickBank's world, this means an account that has a positive balance, but no transactions for an extended period of time.
I investigated further and found that the following scale of charges are applied:
$1 if the account is dormant for 90 days
$5 if the account is dormant for 180 days
$15 if the account is dormant for 365 days
ClickBank pays out at 2-weekly intervals, and it is at those times that the charges are levied.
The charges are applied at every payment time.
So if you account has been dormant for 180 days, you will be charged $5. If your account has still been dormant for 180 or more days 2 weeks later, you will be charged $5 again. And again, and again until your account becomes active again, or your balance reaches $0.
My colleague never received any money from ClickBank. His balance didn't reach the payment threshold, so he didn't get sent any money, and his account stayed dormant long enough for his $23 to be completely consumed in charges.
How many other people have suffered this fate?
Perhaps you now understand why I think Click2Sell is a much better alternative.
But if you're a beginner and not yet very good at marketing, you could lose the money that you have earned so far.
One of my colleagues had earned about $23 in his ClickBank account, but as he wasn't really promoting his links very well, he just didn't get any more sales for quite some time. When finally he went to check his balance, he saw that it had fallen to $16, and there were a number of small ($1 and $5) transactions on the account. He couldn't understand what they were, so I investigated for him.
It turned out that those charges were for a «Dormant account». In ClickBank's world, this means an account that has a positive balance, but no transactions for an extended period of time.
I investigated further and found that the following scale of charges are applied:
$1 if the account is dormant for 90 days
$5 if the account is dormant for 180 days
$15 if the account is dormant for 365 days
ClickBank pays out at 2-weekly intervals, and it is at those times that the charges are levied.
The charges are applied at every payment time.
So if you account has been dormant for 180 days, you will be charged $5. If your account has still been dormant for 180 or more days 2 weeks later, you will be charged $5 again. And again, and again until your account becomes active again, or your balance reaches $0.
My colleague never received any money from ClickBank. His balance didn't reach the payment threshold, so he didn't get sent any money, and his account stayed dormant long enough for his $23 to be completely consumed in charges.
How many other people have suffered this fate?
Perhaps you now understand why I think Click2Sell is a much better alternative.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Ebay Changes The Rules About Digital Products
From 31st March, eBay will no longer allow you to sell digital products in auctions.
This means that the only way you will be able to sell digital products using ebay will be as Classified Advertisements.
So what is the impact of this change?
Firstly, Classified Ads are not included in the Feedback system because the sale is actually made outside the eBay environment.
This prevents people from artificially inflating their Feedback score by buying 100 ebooks that cost just a few cents, which is the main reason why eBay have done this.
On the other hand, people who make their living by selling ebooks will no longer accrue points on their Feedback score.
So what are the alternatives?
The obvious solution is to deliver those digital products on a physical CD or DVD.
However, that signals the end to the automated business as the vendor has to duplicate, package and post discs.
The buyer will have to wait for delivery of the product instead of getting an immediate download.
However, is there anything wrong with the vendor sending the buyer a download link to allow them access to it while they are awaiting the physical medium?
One benefit that I can see is that eBay will be cleared of all those trashy 2-cent ebooks that clutter up the listings.
If you're a buyer trying to artifically inflate your Feedback score, there are plenty of tangible goods on offer in eBay for just a few cents. They may not be as quick and as cheap as the ebooks, but you can still build up a decent Feedback score for relatively little outlay.
If you sell ebooks on eBay; the marketplace is changing. Adapt and survive.
This means that the only way you will be able to sell digital products using ebay will be as Classified Advertisements.
So what is the impact of this change?
Firstly, Classified Ads are not included in the Feedback system because the sale is actually made outside the eBay environment.
This prevents people from artificially inflating their Feedback score by buying 100 ebooks that cost just a few cents, which is the main reason why eBay have done this.
On the other hand, people who make their living by selling ebooks will no longer accrue points on their Feedback score.
So what are the alternatives?
The obvious solution is to deliver those digital products on a physical CD or DVD.
However, that signals the end to the automated business as the vendor has to duplicate, package and post discs.
The buyer will have to wait for delivery of the product instead of getting an immediate download.
However, is there anything wrong with the vendor sending the buyer a download link to allow them access to it while they are awaiting the physical medium?
One benefit that I can see is that eBay will be cleared of all those trashy 2-cent ebooks that clutter up the listings.
If you're a buyer trying to artifically inflate your Feedback score, there are plenty of tangible goods on offer in eBay for just a few cents. They may not be as quick and as cheap as the ebooks, but you can still build up a decent Feedback score for relatively little outlay.
If you sell ebooks on eBay; the marketplace is changing. Adapt and survive.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Good news from Click2Sell
I've been in discussion with Click2Sell and they're quite excited about having a script created to produce AdSense-style ads for Click2Sell products.
So, they are working on creating and publishing their marketplace data so that my script can use it.
So hot on the heels of CBIntuition will be C2SIntuition.
Or maybe even a combined script that uses both databases.
Sign up for Click2Sell.
So, they are working on creating and publishing their marketplace data so that my script can use it.
So hot on the heels of CBIntuition will be C2SIntuition.
Or maybe even a combined script that uses both databases.
Sign up for Click2Sell.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Click2Sell script coming soon (I hope!)
Having created a script (CBIntuition) that generates AdSense-style ad blocks using the ClickBank marketplace, there is no real reason why it couldn't be done for Click2Sell as well.
The only stumbling block is with the Click2Sell data. ClickBank provide a useful XML file that contains all the details of the products in the ClickBank marketplace.
This allows the CBIntuition script to get access to all the required details of the product and generate the necessary affiliate links.
At present, Click2Sell don't seem to provide a similar file. But as soon as one becomes available, I'll be ready to create a script to use it.
The only stumbling block is with the Click2Sell data. ClickBank provide a useful XML file that contains all the details of the products in the ClickBank marketplace.
This allows the CBIntuition script to get access to all the required details of the product and generate the necessary affiliate links.
At present, Click2Sell don't seem to provide a similar file. But as soon as one becomes available, I'll be ready to create a script to use it.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
PHP Wizard has some excellent scripts
If you're ever on the lookout for PHP scripts that are written by a professional programmer, for online marketers, that don't cost the earth, you could do a lot worse than to visit www.robertplank.com.
Robert is an absolute wizard at writing PHP scripts that do the job simply without any complicated installation procedures or setup.
He also knows a thing or two about online marketing. He's very modest about it, but he could put a lot of "professional" internet marketers to shame.
Robert's scripts are very often sold on a "nickel sale" principle; They start off at an extremely low price (very often just $0.05) and the price goes up by 5 cents after each sale. So it pays to be on his mailing lists so that you hear about his new releases as soon as possible.
His website also has some free scripts to offer, so it's worth checking out anyway.
www.robertplank.com
Robert is an absolute wizard at writing PHP scripts that do the job simply without any complicated installation procedures or setup.
He also knows a thing or two about online marketing. He's very modest about it, but he could put a lot of "professional" internet marketers to shame.
Robert's scripts are very often sold on a "nickel sale" principle; They start off at an extremely low price (very often just $0.05) and the price goes up by 5 cents after each sale. So it pays to be on his mailing lists so that you hear about his new releases as soon as possible.
His website also has some free scripts to offer, so it's worth checking out anyway.
www.robertplank.com
Great new alternative to ClickBank
To the affiliate marketer, ClickBank is a real boon. Just sign up to get a free account and you can start selling any one of the 6000 or so (and rising) products currently being sold through the ClickBank marketplace.
One of my major gripes with ClickBank though, is that they pay out the money using cheques (checks). This costs ClickBank money, and it costs me money. It's also a very slow process.
A great new alternative for vendors and affiliate marketers alike is Click2Sell.
They do everything that ClickBank does, and then some.
The greatest part for me is that they will pay revenue directly into my PayPal account.
A very useful difference is that they are not limited to digital products as ClickBank are. Anyone selling anything, whether it's a digital product, a service or a physical product can do it via Click2Sell.
At Click2Sell, affiliate marketing network it costs you nothing:
There's also a great feature about Click2Sell that means you can make money without selling anything!
There are nearly 500 products to choose from (at time of writing), and the number is growing every day.
One of my major gripes with ClickBank though, is that they pay out the money using cheques (checks). This costs ClickBank money, and it costs me money. It's also a very slow process.
A great new alternative for vendors and affiliate marketers alike is Click2Sell.
They do everything that ClickBank does, and then some.
The greatest part for me is that they will pay revenue directly into my PayPal account.
A very useful difference is that they are not limited to digital products as ClickBank are. Anyone selling anything, whether it's a digital product, a service or a physical product can do it via Click2Sell.
At Click2Sell, affiliate marketing network it costs you nothing:
- to join;
- to add an unlimited number of products to sell or promote;
- to place a product on the Marketplace;
- to get help, consultations and support;
- to use advanced tracking tools;
There's also a great feature about Click2Sell that means you can make money without selling anything!
There are nearly 500 products to choose from (at time of writing), and the number is growing every day.
Revenue Sharing
One of the upcoming stars in the online marketing world is Revenue Sharing, and I am getting involved with it right from the beginning.
How does it work?
Well, you've seen all those Ads by Google and various other advertising blocks on websites. They all earn money for the site owner.
But what if the site is an article site? Much of the content is contributed by other people. They get links back to their own site on every article they submit, so it's a fair exchange. This becomes even more important as the article site gains ground and earns itself a high Google PageRank.
The problem is that there are so many article sites out there, which one do you choose? Some colleagues and I have come up with a solution to that dilemma.
We share the revenue earned from ads placed on our site with the authors.
Every time their article is viewed, the ads displayed alongside it belong to the author; not to the site owner. So if that author writes popular articles, they'll get more views and therefore, more ad exposure.
We will be charging a small fee for each post that the author makes, but that money will be used to promote the website, and bring the articles more traffic.
Furthermore, authors will be offered the ability to automatically generate and send a newsletter based on their own articles to their subscribers. So it doesn't just bring in advertising revenue; it builds a list as well.
We'll be launching very soon.
I'll keep you posted...
How does it work?
Well, you've seen all those Ads by Google and various other advertising blocks on websites. They all earn money for the site owner.
But what if the site is an article site? Much of the content is contributed by other people. They get links back to their own site on every article they submit, so it's a fair exchange. This becomes even more important as the article site gains ground and earns itself a high Google PageRank.
The problem is that there are so many article sites out there, which one do you choose? Some colleagues and I have come up with a solution to that dilemma.
We share the revenue earned from ads placed on our site with the authors.
Every time their article is viewed, the ads displayed alongside it belong to the author; not to the site owner. So if that author writes popular articles, they'll get more views and therefore, more ad exposure.
We will be charging a small fee for each post that the author makes, but that money will be used to promote the website, and bring the articles more traffic.
Furthermore, authors will be offered the ability to automatically generate and send a newsletter based on their own articles to their subscribers. So it doesn't just bring in advertising revenue; it builds a list as well.
We'll be launching very soon.
I'll keep you posted...
Thursday, March 13, 2008
A new year - a new start
A few days ago I mentioned that my blog is now 1 year old. My original plan was to log everything that I do in an attempt to make money online.
That never happened somehow - I kind of drifted away in various different directions.
Then I got involved with a group of like-minded people and I was a bit reluctant to write about what I was doing.
This year is going to be different. Starting from today, I shall be logging everything that I am doing, and report back on progress.
So, here's what I'm currently working on:
I'm a computer programmer, so I'm concentrating on writing software to sell.
A while back, I acquired the PLR and source code to a program for creating software.
It was a sort of Make Your Own Software (MYOS) clone.
At the time I didn't rate it very highly and didn't recognise its value.
This week, one of my colleagues and friends mentioned that he also had the same PLR and source for the same product. He also said that he had actually made some money from software that he had created with it, and that he would like to get it customised with his own label and start selling it.
This piqued my interest somewhat, so now I am improving and developing that software and we shall be marketing it together. It will be called SimpleSoftwareMaker.
Earnings:
I've rest the counter, so as from today, my total earnings are:
$0.00 (£0.00)
That never happened somehow - I kind of drifted away in various different directions.
Then I got involved with a group of like-minded people and I was a bit reluctant to write about what I was doing.
This year is going to be different. Starting from today, I shall be logging everything that I am doing, and report back on progress.
So, here's what I'm currently working on:
I'm a computer programmer, so I'm concentrating on writing software to sell.
A while back, I acquired the PLR and source code to a program for creating software.
It was a sort of Make Your Own Software (MYOS) clone.
At the time I didn't rate it very highly and didn't recognise its value.
This week, one of my colleagues and friends mentioned that he also had the same PLR and source for the same product. He also said that he had actually made some money from software that he had created with it, and that he would like to get it customised with his own label and start selling it.
This piqued my interest somewhat, so now I am improving and developing that software and we shall be marketing it together. It will be called SimpleSoftwareMaker.
Earnings:
I've rest the counter, so as from today, my total earnings are:
$0.00 (£0.00)
Guru or screw-you?
There are a number of high-flying online marketers who just don't seem to fail.
They create a new ebook, script, video, course etc., set a high price on it, and people flock in droves to buy them - usually without ever seeing the product first.
They get caught up in the hype of the "guru". If that guy wrote it, it must be absolute dynamite - must buy it.
Personally I've never been caught in the hype of the high-priced products, and I've never bought them. I couldn't actually afford them in the first place, but more importantly, are they really worth $997 to me?
If I walked into a book store and found a book and/or set of DVDs priced at $997, there's no way that I would buy it. Yet, many people go online, read the sales pages and part with their cash without even being able to browse what's in it.
I can't help thinking that the $997 might be better spent paying a professional to create a new product to sell, or on advertising an existing product.
Given the age-old statistic that more than 95% of would-be online marketers never make any money, how many of the people who buy those $997 products ever recover that money?
I suspect that the "gurus" are exploiting their perceived status and are just trying it on. "Let's see how much we can screw out of the punters this time!"
What amuses me most about many of these high-priced items is that a few months down the line, somebody else writes a $27 ebook or even posts on a blog, with a comprehensive summary of what the hype is all about.
Copycat scripts appear for $7, and you find that you can set yourself up with effectively the same things as the $997 package, for about $50. Ok, it's 6 months later, but it still works.
And sometimes it turns out to be something that marketers have been doing for years, and the "guru" has just discovered it and given it a fancy name.
Cynic? Maybe. Envious of these rich marketers who are making money hand-over-fist? Of course. I'd love to be in a similar position, financially. But I don't think I'd treat my position as a licence to print money.
They create a new ebook, script, video, course etc., set a high price on it, and people flock in droves to buy them - usually without ever seeing the product first.
They get caught up in the hype of the "guru". If that guy wrote it, it must be absolute dynamite - must buy it.
Personally I've never been caught in the hype of the high-priced products, and I've never bought them. I couldn't actually afford them in the first place, but more importantly, are they really worth $997 to me?
If I walked into a book store and found a book and/or set of DVDs priced at $997, there's no way that I would buy it. Yet, many people go online, read the sales pages and part with their cash without even being able to browse what's in it.
I can't help thinking that the $997 might be better spent paying a professional to create a new product to sell, or on advertising an existing product.
Given the age-old statistic that more than 95% of would-be online marketers never make any money, how many of the people who buy those $997 products ever recover that money?
I suspect that the "gurus" are exploiting their perceived status and are just trying it on. "Let's see how much we can screw out of the punters this time!"
What amuses me most about many of these high-priced items is that a few months down the line, somebody else writes a $27 ebook or even posts on a blog, with a comprehensive summary of what the hype is all about.
Copycat scripts appear for $7, and you find that you can set yourself up with effectively the same things as the $997 package, for about $50. Ok, it's 6 months later, but it still works.
And sometimes it turns out to be something that marketers have been doing for years, and the "guru" has just discovered it and given it a fancy name.
Cynic? Maybe. Envious of these rich marketers who are making money hand-over-fist? Of course. I'd love to be in a similar position, financially. But I don't think I'd treat my position as a licence to print money.
Monday, March 10, 2008
One Year On
This blog is now one year old.
It started out as a log of my attempts to make money on the Internet, although it did change focus from time to time.
Well one year on, where am I in terms of making money? My grand plan was to have earned the equivalent of half the amount I earn from my day job. So how did I do?
Not even close!
I sold an ebook for $30 (£15).
I made $20.25 (£10.12) on Google AdSense.
I earned $20 (£10) on "buy me a beer" donations on a forum.
Total for the year: $70.25 (£35.12)
That doesn't even cover the costs of buying domains and hosting them.
The problem was that I really had no idea where I was going with it. Sure, I'd bought and read all those ebooks about making money online, but they all seem to have one or two things in common.
The first is that they don't tell you the whole story. You get part of the way down the line, and then realise that there's something missing.
The second is that they all assume that you either have a large mailing list, that you can easily create a large mailing list, or that people are just going to come to your site like magic.
Since then, I have met up with some like-minded people and we're working on an excellent project that should get us all earning some money together.
It doesn't come without some hard work, but we know that it's going to be worth it in the end.
In that time I have also written a number of programs and scripts which I plan to sell. I am currently working on a script for which I have several customers waiting in the wings, which is all good news. It confirms that I must be on the right lines with my ideas.
So, although I haven't made much money over the past year, I just know that this coming year is going to be huge. It may have taken me a long time to get there, but it will be sure worth it.
If you're struggling to make money online, all I can say is keep at it. It can be done, and this year, I'm going to prove it. Big time.
It started out as a log of my attempts to make money on the Internet, although it did change focus from time to time.
Well one year on, where am I in terms of making money? My grand plan was to have earned the equivalent of half the amount I earn from my day job. So how did I do?
Not even close!
I sold an ebook for $30 (£15).
I made $20.25 (£10.12) on Google AdSense.
I earned $20 (£10) on "buy me a beer" donations on a forum.
Total for the year: $70.25 (£35.12)
That doesn't even cover the costs of buying domains and hosting them.
The problem was that I really had no idea where I was going with it. Sure, I'd bought and read all those ebooks about making money online, but they all seem to have one or two things in common.
The first is that they don't tell you the whole story. You get part of the way down the line, and then realise that there's something missing.
The second is that they all assume that you either have a large mailing list, that you can easily create a large mailing list, or that people are just going to come to your site like magic.
Since then, I have met up with some like-minded people and we're working on an excellent project that should get us all earning some money together.
It doesn't come without some hard work, but we know that it's going to be worth it in the end.
In that time I have also written a number of programs and scripts which I plan to sell. I am currently working on a script for which I have several customers waiting in the wings, which is all good news. It confirms that I must be on the right lines with my ideas.
So, although I haven't made much money over the past year, I just know that this coming year is going to be huge. It may have taken me a long time to get there, but it will be sure worth it.
If you're struggling to make money online, all I can say is keep at it. It can be done, and this year, I'm going to prove it. Big time.
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Ethical Marketing - Telling the truth
A group of online marketers to which I belong are into Ethical Marketing.
Ethical Marketing is basically about being honest and truthful about what you are doing. We despise the buzz and hype that you often get from the so-called "gurus" of Internet Marketing.
We've all been there chasing the dream - we buy the latest ebook or video package in the hope that it is the magic bullet that finally gets us earning money on the Internet. Of course, that magic bullet doesn't exist. The gurus give you a lot of information, but there's always something missing, or you need something that they don't provide, so you can't put their plan into action.
Most of us in the group can see through the hype. We know the tricks that marketers play with words to get people to buy. We also know the clever scripting techniques that can tell the potential buyer how many of that "limited edition" product remain.
And this is where the subject of my post comes from. If you're going to set up a limited edition offer - tell the truth. If the first 100 copies of your product are available at half the regular price, then don't sell 500 copies, or all the copies, at the lower price.
I came across one example of that today. The copy read that "We're only going to allow 50 people to gain access to this information. Once those 50 copies are sold, this page will disappear forever".
Just above the "Buy now" button, the copy read "Copies remaining", and under that, a large, flashing 4.
Just to see how true this was, I bought a copy of that ebook. (There's an 8-week money-back guarantee, so if it's rubbish, I'll get my money back)
I just returned to that sales page, and guess what? You got it! It still said that there were 4 copies remaining.
I suspect that will remain true tomorrow, next week, and even next month when he's sold his thousandth copy.
Be honest with your customers. You'll get found out eventually, and you completely lose their trust and respect for you.
Ethical Marketing is basically about being honest and truthful about what you are doing. We despise the buzz and hype that you often get from the so-called "gurus" of Internet Marketing.
We've all been there chasing the dream - we buy the latest ebook or video package in the hope that it is the magic bullet that finally gets us earning money on the Internet. Of course, that magic bullet doesn't exist. The gurus give you a lot of information, but there's always something missing, or you need something that they don't provide, so you can't put their plan into action.
Most of us in the group can see through the hype. We know the tricks that marketers play with words to get people to buy. We also know the clever scripting techniques that can tell the potential buyer how many of that "limited edition" product remain.
And this is where the subject of my post comes from. If you're going to set up a limited edition offer - tell the truth. If the first 100 copies of your product are available at half the regular price, then don't sell 500 copies, or all the copies, at the lower price.
I came across one example of that today. The copy read that "We're only going to allow 50 people to gain access to this information. Once those 50 copies are sold, this page will disappear forever".
Just above the "Buy now" button, the copy read "Copies remaining", and under that, a large, flashing 4.
Just to see how true this was, I bought a copy of that ebook. (There's an 8-week money-back guarantee, so if it's rubbish, I'll get my money back)
I just returned to that sales page, and guess what? You got it! It still said that there were 4 copies remaining.
I suspect that will remain true tomorrow, next week, and even next month when he's sold his thousandth copy.
Be honest with your customers. You'll get found out eventually, and you completely lose their trust and respect for you.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Free Ebook of the Month - Discover Cagora
Ric Raftis' brand new guide to Cagora is our new Free Ebook of the Month.
If you want to get yourself a free copy, just click the image shown at the top of the page, or click here.
The book guides you step-by-step through getting started with Cagora, why it can pay to join Cagora, and generally how to make the most of your free membership there.
So what is Cagora?
Cagora is a new Social and Community Networking platform. Cagora has several distinct differences to the other sites you may be familiar with.
First of all, Cagora is divided up into Worlds of Interest such as Rockclimbing, Ultralights and Patchwork Quilting and then Local Worlds such as Houston, Texas or Sydney, Australia. People can join as many or as few of these worlds as they wish but the result is they are forming Communities.
Secondly, unlike the vast majority of Social Networking sites, Cagora shares it's income with ALL of its members.
That's got to be worth signing up to, hasn't it?
Sign up for Cagora.
Get the free guide.
If you want to get yourself a free copy, just click the image shown at the top of the page, or click here.
The book guides you step-by-step through getting started with Cagora, why it can pay to join Cagora, and generally how to make the most of your free membership there.
So what is Cagora?
Cagora is a new Social and Community Networking platform. Cagora has several distinct differences to the other sites you may be familiar with.
First of all, Cagora is divided up into Worlds of Interest such as Rockclimbing, Ultralights and Patchwork Quilting and then Local Worlds such as Houston, Texas or Sydney, Australia. People can join as many or as few of these worlds as they wish but the result is they are forming Communities.
Secondly, unlike the vast majority of Social Networking sites, Cagora shares it's income with ALL of its members.
That's got to be worth signing up to, hasn't it?
Sign up for Cagora.
Get the free guide.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Why the Earn $14,000 per month schemes don't work
By far, the easiest way of making sales is to build and maintain a mailing list. Once you have people in your list, they are a captive audience, and if you've built your list (or lists) properly, you know exactly what these people want.
If you search the net for opportunities to make money online, you can find a plethora of ebooks and videos showing you how to make your own products, modify PLR (Private Label Rights) products or find products to sell in affiliate programs etc.
These opportunites promise untold riches - $14000 in one month, $1000 a day etc. They are very attractive to the the newbies.
But when it comes to selling them, the information gets a bit thin on the ground. Suddenly, that online marketing opportunity which is ideal for newbies, isn't so ideal.
The reason the program worked for the author of the ebook (assuming he's being honest about the amount of money he has made), is that the author already had a large mailing list.
He writes an ebook about how he made $12000 in his first month, but he doesn't tell you that he already has a mailing list of 50,000 people, and a veritable army of affiliate resellers each with their own large lists.
It's true that if you follow the advice in the ebook you can make that sort of money, but only if you can get your message across to thousands upon thousands of people.
Without a mailing list, you're foundering on the rocks. You simply can't get the exposure for your product that the high-flying marketers can.
However, having said that, mailing lists are not the only way of marketing, and over the next week or so, I'll be covering alternative methods of marketing which will not only help you sell your product, but will start to build your list at the same time.
If you search the net for opportunities to make money online, you can find a plethora of ebooks and videos showing you how to make your own products, modify PLR (Private Label Rights) products or find products to sell in affiliate programs etc.
These opportunites promise untold riches - $14000 in one month, $1000 a day etc. They are very attractive to the the newbies.
But when it comes to selling them, the information gets a bit thin on the ground. Suddenly, that online marketing opportunity which is ideal for newbies, isn't so ideal.
The reason the program worked for the author of the ebook (assuming he's being honest about the amount of money he has made), is that the author already had a large mailing list.
He writes an ebook about how he made $12000 in his first month, but he doesn't tell you that he already has a mailing list of 50,000 people, and a veritable army of affiliate resellers each with their own large lists.
It's true that if you follow the advice in the ebook you can make that sort of money, but only if you can get your message across to thousands upon thousands of people.
Without a mailing list, you're foundering on the rocks. You simply can't get the exposure for your product that the high-flying marketers can.
However, having said that, mailing lists are not the only way of marketing, and over the next week or so, I'll be covering alternative methods of marketing which will not only help you sell your product, but will start to build your list at the same time.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Free offer - blogging course
I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you get it for free if you post about it on your blog.
It covers:
- The best blogging techniques.
- How to get traffic to your blog.
- How to turn your blog into money.
I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.
By the way, that's a cunning marketing method, isn't it? I'll bet we see a lot more of that kind of thing in future.
Free guide to Cagora, the latest social networking site
Cagora is a new social-networking site based around communities. Each community can represent a geographical region, or a special interest.
For example, in Cagora I belong to the Bournemouth, UK community, but I also belong to the an Internet Marketing community.
In total, there are in excess of 20,000 different communities for you to join and meet like-minded people.
It's a great place to start finding contacts or customers for your online business.
With that many communities, when I joined I found I had difficulty finding my way around. But now I've found an excellent, FREE, ebook guide to Cagora, called "Discover Cagora - Social & Community Networking".
You can download it FREE from Here.
For example, in Cagora I belong to the Bournemouth, UK community, but I also belong to the an Internet Marketing community.
In total, there are in excess of 20,000 different communities for you to join and meet like-minded people.
It's a great place to start finding contacts or customers for your online business.
With that many communities, when I joined I found I had difficulty finding my way around. But now I've found an excellent, FREE, ebook guide to Cagora, called "Discover Cagora - Social & Community Networking".
You can download it FREE from Here.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Getting Started in an Online Business- Part 1.
This is the first post in a series about running your own online business. We aim to cover all aspects of running a successful website.
In this post, I'm going to cover Hosting.
Hosting is basically where you put your website.
Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) might supply you with some webspace on which you can put a website. This is usually part of the deal for having the account, so you don't pay extra for it.
Sadly, most free webspaces come with a lot of restrictions, which apart from the most simple of sales pages, do not lend themselves to the use of eCommerce.
And if your site becomes very popular, you will soon fall foul of the ISP's bandwidth limits and your site will either become temporarily unavailable, or you'll find a huge addition to your ISP's monthly bill.
For any serious website used for Online Marketing and eCommerce, you'll need an independent host. These are specialist companies that provide hosting services for commercial websites.
They are not very expensive - typically $10 per month - sometimes even less. However, the cheaper ones might not provide such a good service or support.
For most online marketing sites, you will need PHP and CRON services provided by your host. This lets you run scripts that will automate your business. After all, we don't want to work for a living, do we?
Don't worry if you don't know what PHP and CRON are. You don't need to know just yet. Just make sure that you have them.
Personally, I use HostGator for my hosting. Since I've been with them (more than one year now), I've never had a site become unavailable. Their support is very good and they even have online chat style support. Furthermore, for just $7.95 per month I can host unlimited domains (subject to the available disk space).
I also use a couple of other hosts, but they are actually HostGator resellers, which suggests to me that they can't be that bad!
There are many other hosting services. Google will find them for you.
Once you have your host, you will need to set up the Domain Name Servers for your domain.
But I'll cover domains in another post.
In this post, I'm going to cover Hosting.
Hosting is basically where you put your website.
Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) might supply you with some webspace on which you can put a website. This is usually part of the deal for having the account, so you don't pay extra for it.
Sadly, most free webspaces come with a lot of restrictions, which apart from the most simple of sales pages, do not lend themselves to the use of eCommerce.
And if your site becomes very popular, you will soon fall foul of the ISP's bandwidth limits and your site will either become temporarily unavailable, or you'll find a huge addition to your ISP's monthly bill.
For any serious website used for Online Marketing and eCommerce, you'll need an independent host. These are specialist companies that provide hosting services for commercial websites.
They are not very expensive - typically $10 per month - sometimes even less. However, the cheaper ones might not provide such a good service or support.
For most online marketing sites, you will need PHP and CRON services provided by your host. This lets you run scripts that will automate your business. After all, we don't want to work for a living, do we?
Don't worry if you don't know what PHP and CRON are. You don't need to know just yet. Just make sure that you have them.
Personally, I use HostGator for my hosting. Since I've been with them (more than one year now), I've never had a site become unavailable. Their support is very good and they even have online chat style support. Furthermore, for just $7.95 per month I can host unlimited domains (subject to the available disk space).
I also use a couple of other hosts, but they are actually HostGator resellers, which suggests to me that they can't be that bad!
There are many other hosting services. Google will find them for you.
Once you have your host, you will need to set up the Domain Name Servers for your domain.
But I'll cover domains in another post.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Idiot's Guide To Running a Website
I'm planning to cover a whole raft of topics on this blog, including HTML, Web Hosting, AutoResponders, PHP etc. Basically anything that you need to get an online business up and running.
I hope to cover them in a logical sequence that the beginner can follow.
With a lot of luck and a following wind, I'll start tomorrow with an overview of what running an online business entails.
Stay tuned...
I hope to cover them in a logical sequence that the beginner can follow.
With a lot of luck and a following wind, I'll start tomorrow with an overview of what running an online business entails.
Stay tuned...
Friday, February 15, 2008
New blog is online...
My Computing and Technology blog software has been installed in its new domain.
It still needs a bit of tweaking, and some content adding, so it's not quite ready to go yet.
I'll be using a number of plug-ins, which all need to be configured, and the raw theme that I'm using is a little dull, so that will be getting a lick of digital paint.
This blog will remain here and will revert back to its original topic of online marketing, from which it has deviated somewhat.
It started out as a log of my efforts to make money online. Most of those attempts have been fairly fruitless so far because I was kind of like the blind being led by no-one.
In the meantime, I've met some great guys along the way and have a much better idea of what to do to get started with a viable, online business.
So, whether you're into technology or making money online, or both, keep coming back here, and/or visit my new blog at Phil's Techno Talk.
It still needs a bit of tweaking, and some content adding, so it's not quite ready to go yet.
I'll be using a number of plug-ins, which all need to be configured, and the raw theme that I'm using is a little dull, so that will be getting a lick of digital paint.
This blog will remain here and will revert back to its original topic of online marketing, from which it has deviated somewhat.
It started out as a log of my efforts to make money online. Most of those attempts have been fairly fruitless so far because I was kind of like the blind being led by no-one.
In the meantime, I've met some great guys along the way and have a much better idea of what to do to get started with a viable, online business.
So, whether you're into technology or making money online, or both, keep coming back here, and/or visit my new blog at Phil's Techno Talk.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Article Site security warning
This is very important. Not one of our usual topics, but you really must take heed.
I am sorry to be the bringer of bad news, I am not a scare monger, this is very real! At the beginning of the year, Article-Content-King was hacked, the hackers got all the way to server Admin, but luckily I was also in there too when they were trying to do damage and we managed to lock them out before they could, but still it took a few more days to completely secure the script files.
I was not so lucky with my other server. I had the same script installed several times on that server, and I wasn't there when they were doing the damage. I lost EVERYTHING ON THE SERVER not just the accounts that were "hackable".
Through the security hole in this script, every account on the server was lost. The hackers got all the way into server admin created themselves a user. They had the ability to do what ever they wanted and they wanted to destroy the server. I have absolutely no clue why I would be attacked in this way. I think it is just because they managed to get in and took it as far as they could.
Your site (every domain you own) could be at risk from this even if you have secured your script with the patch and even if you do not have the script installed at all. If you have any domains on shared hosting they are at risk. If there is a chance that another user of the same server has an unsafe installation of this script set up, your domains are at risk.
Lets look at what this script is and how it has been marketed in the 3 years since it was first made available. (or is it 4). This script is not really sold to people who want an article directory, it is mainly sold to Internet marketers looking for an easy passive income site. I managed to buy it for $1 on e-bay 2 weeks ago when I first looked at making the patch for the untouched files. People are still reselling it now at least 3 years on.
There is no telling how many people have installed this script over the years and completely forgotten about it. I don't know about you, but I tend to install all the scripts I get in PLR packages to test them out. I don't use them all and I don't (or didn't) always delete them if I decide not to use them.
Out of the "500" who originally bought this script as part of sourcecodegold mine, how many have this script installed somewhere and forgotten about it. How many others have done so since? How can you be sure you are safe if someone else on the same server as you hasn't secured their script? If server admin is compromised then every account is at risk, no matter how secure.
As Online Marketers we all tend to see the same hosting offers, this makes the chance of someone having an insecure script set up somewhere on a shared hosting account even greater! But there is no telling how far and wide this script could be installed, nor is there any real way of you finding out if you are sharing a server with a insecure site.
This is the reality in any case, and one of the main reasons why I do not use shared hosting, but when you know it can happen and do not do anything about it, you do everyone a disservice.
I am really not trying to cause a panic here, but the threat is very real!
We need to get word out about the SecureArticleBeach membership site to everyone who may have this script installed and get them to download the free patch. You won't really be safe until everyone has.
Please post this message on your blog and let your subscribers and customers know. Even people who have never even heard of this script could be at risk.
Respectfully
Dan Blackburn
Please post this message on your blog, the fix is simple and available FREE from http://www.SecureArticleBeach.com
Article Source: http://www.article-content-king.com
Article-Content-King Beat The Hackers! (Almost)
I am sorry to be the bringer of bad news, I am not a scare monger, this is very real! At the beginning of the year, Article-Content-King was hacked, the hackers got all the way to server Admin, but luckily I was also in there too when they were trying to do damage and we managed to lock them out before they could, but still it took a few more days to completely secure the script files.
I was not so lucky with my other server. I had the same script installed several times on that server, and I wasn't there when they were doing the damage. I lost EVERYTHING ON THE SERVER not just the accounts that were "hackable".
This security hole could be more serious than you think! Please read and act accordingly.
Through the security hole in this script, every account on the server was lost. The hackers got all the way into server admin created themselves a user. They had the ability to do what ever they wanted and they wanted to destroy the server. I have absolutely no clue why I would be attacked in this way. I think it is just because they managed to get in and took it as far as they could.
Your site (every domain you own) could be at risk from this even if you have secured your script with the patch and even if you do not have the script installed at all. If you have any domains on shared hosting they are at risk. If there is a chance that another user of the same server has an unsafe installation of this script set up, your domains are at risk.
Lets look at what this script is and how it has been marketed in the 3 years since it was first made available. (or is it 4). This script is not really sold to people who want an article directory, it is mainly sold to Internet marketers looking for an easy passive income site. I managed to buy it for $1 on e-bay 2 weeks ago when I first looked at making the patch for the untouched files. People are still reselling it now at least 3 years on.
There is no telling how many people have installed this script over the years and completely forgotten about it. I don't know about you, but I tend to install all the scripts I get in PLR packages to test them out. I don't use them all and I don't (or didn't) always delete them if I decide not to use them.
Out of the "500" who originally bought this script as part of sourcecodegold mine, how many have this script installed somewhere and forgotten about it. How many others have done so since? How can you be sure you are safe if someone else on the same server as you hasn't secured their script? If server admin is compromised then every account is at risk, no matter how secure.
As Online Marketers we all tend to see the same hosting offers, this makes the chance of someone having an insecure script set up somewhere on a shared hosting account even greater! But there is no telling how far and wide this script could be installed, nor is there any real way of you finding out if you are sharing a server with a insecure site.
This is the reality in any case, and one of the main reasons why I do not use shared hosting, but when you know it can happen and do not do anything about it, you do everyone a disservice.
I am really not trying to cause a panic here, but the threat is very real!
We need to get word out about the SecureArticleBeach membership site to everyone who may have this script installed and get them to download the free patch. You won't really be safe until everyone has.
Please post this message on your blog and let your subscribers and customers know. Even people who have never even heard of this script could be at risk.
Respectfully
Dan Blackburn
Please post this message on your blog, the fix is simple and available FREE from http://www.SecureArticleBeach.com
Article Source: http://www.article-content-king.com
New blog coming soon
I am currently working on setting up a new blog, similar to this one, but with a whole lot more.
I shall be inviting authors in the same field to contribute articles, and as an added incentive, the Google AdSense adverts on the pages that include their articles will use the author's AdSense ID. This means that the authors will not only enjoy links to their sites from their resource boxes, but may also benefit from a boost to their income stream from Google AdSense.
To implement these changes, I'm going to have to move from this free Blogger account to a hosted blog.
The new blog will be in the Computing category, so it will cover much more than this blog. This blog will remain, but its emphasis will be on computing and online marketing.
I'll let you know when the new blog is up and running.
I shall be inviting authors in the same field to contribute articles, and as an added incentive, the Google AdSense adverts on the pages that include their articles will use the author's AdSense ID. This means that the authors will not only enjoy links to their sites from their resource boxes, but may also benefit from a boost to their income stream from Google AdSense.
To implement these changes, I'm going to have to move from this free Blogger account to a hosted blog.
The new blog will be in the Computing category, so it will cover much more than this blog. This blog will remain, but its emphasis will be on computing and online marketing.
I'll let you know when the new blog is up and running.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Free ebook of the month
There's a new feature on my blog starting today; Free eBook of the Month.
These are simply there for the taking.
If I come up with more freebies, it might change to Free eBook of the Week.
You'll find it at the top of the right-hand column.
This month, it's Google Adwords Made Easy. It contains some simple strategies for improving your success with AdWords. So many people dive into the AdWords pool only to find that they end up spending more money than they earn. This ebook shows you how to avoid the sharks and piranhas once you've dipped your toe in.
It's a ZIPped file to reduce download time. You should know how to handle ZIP files by now.
These are simply there for the taking.
If I come up with more freebies, it might change to Free eBook of the Week.
You'll find it at the top of the right-hand column.
This month, it's Google Adwords Made Easy. It contains some simple strategies for improving your success with AdWords. So many people dive into the AdWords pool only to find that they end up spending more money than they earn. This ebook shows you how to avoid the sharks and piranhas once you've dipped your toe in.
It's a ZIPped file to reduce download time. You should know how to handle ZIP files by now.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
More on the free cloaking tool
I just discovered a third, even quicker way of setting up a cloaked affiliate link, so I'll be adding it to QuickLink shortly.
It's not far from completion now. We're putting the finishing touches to the online help (no expense spared on this project), and testing a new way of branding the software so that you can redistribute it to your own customers, complete with your own dynamic advertising stream built in.
It's not far from completion now. We're putting the finishing touches to the online help (no expense spared on this project), and testing a new way of branding the software so that you can redistribute it to your own customers, complete with your own dynamic advertising stream built in.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
eBay Tips The FeedBack Balance
eBay has decided that from May 2008, Sellers will not be able to leave negative or neutral feedback about buyers.
However, the reverse is not true. Buyers will still be able to leave negative or neutral comments about sellers.
This is somewhat unfair. I've been on both sides of eBay transactions, and it's not always the seller who is at fault. There are some complete idiots who go around ebay bidding on things they never plan to buy. When they win, they don't pay and they refuse to contact you.
Others don't read the auction details properly and end up disappointed when the product is not what they expected.
The only recourse is to take the matter directly to eBay for arbitration. They say that they will remove people who do not comply. So negative feedback has turned into eviction from the system. Ok, these people may be idiots, but that's a bit harsh. Whatever happened to rehabilitation of offenders?
eBay say that many buyers would not leave negative comments for fear that sellers would retaliate.
I guess this is true for some sellers, but we shouldn't all be tarred with the same brush.
However, the reverse is not true. Buyers will still be able to leave negative or neutral comments about sellers.
This is somewhat unfair. I've been on both sides of eBay transactions, and it's not always the seller who is at fault. There are some complete idiots who go around ebay bidding on things they never plan to buy. When they win, they don't pay and they refuse to contact you.
Others don't read the auction details properly and end up disappointed when the product is not what they expected.
The only recourse is to take the matter directly to eBay for arbitration. They say that they will remove people who do not comply. So negative feedback has turned into eviction from the system. Ok, these people may be idiots, but that's a bit harsh. Whatever happened to rehabilitation of offenders?
eBay say that many buyers would not leave negative comments for fear that sellers would retaliate.
I guess this is true for some sellers, but we shouldn't all be tarred with the same brush.
Viral Marketing Links That Never Expire
Have you ever acquired an ebook or a software program that's maybe a couple of years old and found that half of the links in it simply don't work?
Basically what's happened is that the vendor has squeezed every cent out of that product and it's not selling any more. Consequently, the vendor has abandoned whatever the links point to and moved onto something else.
That's ok for the vendor - he's made his money and is now making money from something else.
It's not so good for the poor customer who obtains the product from one of the many downline resellers a couple of years later.
Now what if you could market a product that contains hyperlinks that never expire?
If you move onto something else, the hyperlinks change to point to something else.
The product becomes dynamic - every time it runs or is viewed, the ads could be different. Even if it's 2, 3, 5 or 10 years down the line, the ads could point to fresh new material.
It can be done, and I'm working on two ways that can make it happen. The first is in software products, and the latest is in ebooks.
I'm not going to reveal how it's done here - I believe there's a valuable ebook to be written on the subject. I'll be writing that ebook over the next few weeks, as well as producing some example programs and ebooks.
In fact, the ebook that reveals how it's done is likely to be the very first ebook with dynamic advertisements.
Stay tuned to find out more...
Basically what's happened is that the vendor has squeezed every cent out of that product and it's not selling any more. Consequently, the vendor has abandoned whatever the links point to and moved onto something else.
That's ok for the vendor - he's made his money and is now making money from something else.
It's not so good for the poor customer who obtains the product from one of the many downline resellers a couple of years later.
There's a better way
Now what if you could market a product that contains hyperlinks that never expire?
If you move onto something else, the hyperlinks change to point to something else.
The product becomes dynamic - every time it runs or is viewed, the ads could be different. Even if it's 2, 3, 5 or 10 years down the line, the ads could point to fresh new material.
It can be done, and I'm working on two ways that can make it happen. The first is in software products, and the latest is in ebooks.
I'm not going to reveal how it's done here - I believe there's a valuable ebook to be written on the subject. I'll be writing that ebook over the next few weeks, as well as producing some example programs and ebooks.
In fact, the ebook that reveals how it's done is likely to be the very first ebook with dynamic advertisements.
Stay tuned to find out more...
Monday, February 04, 2008
Should Microsoft take over Yahoo?
On the BBC News website, they posed the question "Will Yahoo benefit from a takeover by Microsoft?".
Is that really the point?
Surely it should be "Will the users benefit from....".
Of course Yahoo will benefit - or at least the owners will. They'll end up with a big, fat wad of money.
Will Microsoft benefit? Of course. Along with Yahoo, they've been struggling to gain market share of the Search Engine Business - totally peeved by Google's dominance.
Will the users benefit? Maybe. Maybe not. Those who dislike Microsoft will start to migrate - probably to Google. Those who use Microsoft's search engine already will initially benefit from a larger database and get improved results.
Those who Google almost exclusively (myself included) will probably not notice any difference and will continue to Google.
I can't see Google losing any of their share of the market, and there's a distinct possibility that they will gain from it.
Will the bosses of Google have any sleepless nights? Probably, but not too many. They're already objecting to the possible takeover. But anyone in a strong position will protect their territory.
Of course there is always the possibility that they are objecting so that the whole process gets drawn out over a few years and Yahoo or Microsoft pull out of the deal.
Will it affect online marketing? Not very much. It might swing SEO a little towards Yahoo and MSN Search, but otherwise it won't make much difference. After all, the bottom line is that online marketers don't care which search engine you came from as long as you buy something!
Is that really the point?
Surely it should be "Will the users benefit from....".
Of course Yahoo will benefit - or at least the owners will. They'll end up with a big, fat wad of money.
Will Microsoft benefit? Of course. Along with Yahoo, they've been struggling to gain market share of the Search Engine Business - totally peeved by Google's dominance.
Will the users benefit? Maybe. Maybe not. Those who dislike Microsoft will start to migrate - probably to Google. Those who use Microsoft's search engine already will initially benefit from a larger database and get improved results.
Those who Google almost exclusively (myself included) will probably not notice any difference and will continue to Google.
I can't see Google losing any of their share of the market, and there's a distinct possibility that they will gain from it.
Will the bosses of Google have any sleepless nights? Probably, but not too many. They're already objecting to the possible takeover. But anyone in a strong position will protect their territory.
Of course there is always the possibility that they are objecting so that the whole process gets drawn out over a few years and Yahoo or Microsoft pull out of the deal.
Will it affect online marketing? Not very much. It might swing SEO a little towards Yahoo and MSN Search, but otherwise it won't make much difference. After all, the bottom line is that online marketers don't care which search engine you came from as long as you buy something!
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Free link-cloaking utility coming soon
After one of my online marketing buddies had a few problems creating a cloaked link for an affiliate program he was in, I decided that it might be useful to write a small program to create them automatically.
So within the space of a couple of lunch-breaks at work, I put together QuickCloak.
Basically, you enter your affiliate link, add a few optional details about your web site/domain, and click the Cloak button.
QuickCloak then instantly generates two different cloaked link redirectors.
The first is a PHP one. This is useful to anyone who has PHP available on their website hosting service. But if you don't, there's no need to worry because QuickCloak also creates an HTML version.
Either way, you simply promote a link that looks as if it's part of your website. There's nothing to give it away as being an affiliate link. This gives your customers the confidence that what they are buying is one of your own products, and it also stops theives from stealing your commission by replacing your affiliate link with theirs.
You will be able to obtain a free copy of QuickCloak simply by signing up for my newsletter.
Expected release date: This week. Keep checking back!
So within the space of a couple of lunch-breaks at work, I put together QuickCloak.
Basically, you enter your affiliate link, add a few optional details about your web site/domain, and click the Cloak button.
QuickCloak then instantly generates two different cloaked link redirectors.
The first is a PHP one. This is useful to anyone who has PHP available on their website hosting service. But if you don't, there's no need to worry because QuickCloak also creates an HTML version.
Either way, you simply promote a link that looks as if it's part of your website. There's nothing to give it away as being an affiliate link. This gives your customers the confidence that what they are buying is one of your own products, and it also stops theives from stealing your commission by replacing your affiliate link with theirs.
You will be able to obtain a free copy of QuickCloak simply by signing up for my newsletter.
Expected release date: This week. Keep checking back!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Security Warning
One of the most popular scripts for running an article site is Article Beach.
If you are an Article Beach site owner, ** YOUR SITE COULD BE HACKED AT ANY MINUTE! **.
And not just hacked! Your entire server could be destroyed!
Your website and entire server are at risk from this extremely DANGEROUS security vulnerability.
It happened to a good friend of mine and he lost 20 clients hosting accounts, all his own websites, and the hackers used his domain to send 2 million spam emails.
There is now a FREE security patch for Article Beach which will plug the security gap.
If you've applied security patches before, don't think for one minute that you're safe. So had my friend and his server still got hacked.
His expert PHP programmer has now fixed the problems and they are pleased to be able to release this FREE upgrade for you, so you can secure your site.
You need to install this patch now to protect your own site and the the sites belonging to anyone else who use the same host.
To get the patch, go to Secure Article Beach.
If you are an Article Beach site owner, ** YOUR SITE COULD BE HACKED AT ANY MINUTE! **.
And not just hacked! Your entire server could be destroyed!
Your website and entire server are at risk from this extremely DANGEROUS security vulnerability.
It happened to a good friend of mine and he lost 20 clients hosting accounts, all his own websites, and the hackers used his domain to send 2 million spam emails.
There is now a FREE security patch for Article Beach which will plug the security gap.
If you've applied security patches before, don't think for one minute that you're safe. So had my friend and his server still got hacked.
His expert PHP programmer has now fixed the problems and they are pleased to be able to release this FREE upgrade for you, so you can secure your site.
You need to install this patch now to protect your own site and the the sites belonging to anyone else who use the same host.
To get the patch, go to Secure Article Beach.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Review: Page Translator
I recently came across a program called Page Translator.
Its purpose is to translate web pages into other languages using Google's translation facilities.
I thought this was going to be a great way of increasing the reach of my websites until I installed it.
I ran the installer and installed it in the default folder.
When I ran the program, it took a few seconds to start and then produced two error messages - the first saying that it couldn't find a file which was clearly there.
(As a programmer I could see from the error message that the program was not looking for the file correctly)
The second error message was completely blank. Very useful.
The main program's user interface was completely blank except for a menu that contained nothing useful (About, Tell a friend, Exit). So I wasn't actually able to do anything with it.
The About box revealed that the program was from 2004, so I went to the originator's website to download the latest version. That turned out to be the same one, so it behaved in exactly the same way.
So Page Translator found itself uninstalled from my system almost as quickly as it had been installed.
Such a pity. The demo in the sales website looked good. This program had the potential to be a real winner if only the programmer had taken a little more care and tested it properly.
The program was originally sold for anywhere between $14.95 and $29.95, but is now free. I'm not surprised.
Rating: 0/10
Verdict: Avoid at all costs.
Its purpose is to translate web pages into other languages using Google's translation facilities.
I thought this was going to be a great way of increasing the reach of my websites until I installed it.
I ran the installer and installed it in the default folder.
When I ran the program, it took a few seconds to start and then produced two error messages - the first saying that it couldn't find a file which was clearly there.
(As a programmer I could see from the error message that the program was not looking for the file correctly)
The second error message was completely blank. Very useful.
The main program's user interface was completely blank except for a menu that contained nothing useful (About, Tell a friend, Exit). So I wasn't actually able to do anything with it.
The About box revealed that the program was from 2004, so I went to the originator's website to download the latest version. That turned out to be the same one, so it behaved in exactly the same way.
So Page Translator found itself uninstalled from my system almost as quickly as it had been installed.
Such a pity. The demo in the sales website looked good. This program had the potential to be a real winner if only the programmer had taken a little more care and tested it properly.
The program was originally sold for anywhere between $14.95 and $29.95, but is now free. I'm not surprised.
Rating: 0/10
Verdict: Avoid at all costs.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
metaGenius hits the net
People who run an online business but have yet to learn HTML are probably losing out in the search engine optimization (SEO) stakes unless they get a third party to do it for them.
There are several SEO tools out there, but many are quite expensive. That's not so good for the novice webmaster who is working to a limited budget.
One of the many optimization methods is the use of Meta tags in the head section of web pages. The average online business owner probably hasn't even heard of Meta tags, and definitely wouldn't know how to add them to his web pages.
Enter metaGenius. MetaGenius is a new, low-cost program that uses a wizard-style interface to prompt for information. It then turns that information into Meta tags and adds them to the selected web page.
No need to learn about Meta tags - no need to learn HTML. metaGenius does it all for you.
Find metaGenius at Dryice Computing.
There are several SEO tools out there, but many are quite expensive. That's not so good for the novice webmaster who is working to a limited budget.
One of the many optimization methods is the use of Meta tags in the head section of web pages. The average online business owner probably hasn't even heard of Meta tags, and definitely wouldn't know how to add them to his web pages.
Enter metaGenius. MetaGenius is a new, low-cost program that uses a wizard-style interface to prompt for information. It then turns that information into Meta tags and adds them to the selected web page.
No need to learn about Meta tags - no need to learn HTML. metaGenius does it all for you.
Find metaGenius at Dryice Computing.
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