Different Priorities

My plans to blog on here on a daily basis went completely to pot.  I'm not going to offer any feeble excuses - I just kept forgetting, or didn't have anything interesting to write about.
Having signed up with an online marketing coaching program (see previous post), that, and other commitments have had to take priority.  Part of the course involves setting up a blog and posting to it daily, so it kind of took the place of this one.
I am expecting the next installment of the course any minute now, but I suspect that I have already completed the tasks on it as I have been able to predict what is coming next.
I believe this installment will be about "monetizing" the blog with things like Google AdSense and maybe Clickbank products, which I have already done.

In the meantime, I have just released the latest version of Squeeze-U-Lator, which will now let you wrap ZIP files.

Does Google PageRank Mean Anything?

I once read that Google PageRank was fairly meaningless and had no bearing on a site's position in the search results.  This came from Google itself.
A lot of online marketers and so-called SEO experts swear that it makes all the difference, especially when you have incoming links from high PR sites.

The question is, does it really have an effect?  After all, the "Page" part of the name doesn't refer to web pages; it was named after Larry Page.

Furthermore, PageRank is only one factor in determining the position of a page in the search engine results page (SERP Rank).  It is said that there are over 200 factors involved in calculating SERP Rank, so can PageRank have that much of an effect?

One of my blogs managed to reach Google PR3, and I was really pleased with that.  But in the last couple of rounds of PR changes it fell to PR2 and now to PR1.
The strange thing is during that period and the few months before, I spent a lot of time ensuring that the blog had fresh, original content that was of value.  Basically doing what Google recommend that you do.
And since its PR dropped to 1, it has had an increase in traffic from Google of around 68%.

So I'm still not convinced that PageRank makes a difference.  And to be honest, if I'm getting 68% more traffic, I don't really care what its PageRank is.

Aghh! The Frustration!

Well I tried to find the time to do what I planned to do last night, but then I remembered that I needed to rearrange a lot of furniture to make up a room for some students who will be staying with us for a few weeks.
I got so involved with that, i completely forgot about a phone call I was to receive from John Thornhill at 8 o'clock.
And speaking of John Thornhill, I registered with his coaching course a week ago, so I am avidly awaiting the second of the 16 installments.  Having said that, I kind of know what's involved in week 2, and I thnik I've probably done all the tasks already.
The coaching program has a forum, to which I contributed some posts yesterday, to help others who are struggling somewhat.  I always like to help others that way, because they might be able to help me with something in return some time.

Traffic to my main site has increased and continues to remain at that higher level.  As a result, I have seen a lot more hops on my Clickbank account as more people view products that I have linked to.  Actual sales remain about the same, but this higher level of activity is surely going to bring in better results eventually.
What I need to do is identify some better products to promote, and I am considering writing some software to help me identify hot products in the Clickbank and Click2Sell marketplaces.
I see that as not only a useful tool for myself, but a product that other people might be interested in owning.

Back on Track!

Ah! I remembered to post on this blog today - that's 2 days in a row.  It's because I decided to get myself organised, and set up a routine.  However, it's easy to break a routine, so there's no telling how long this will last.

What have I done today?
 As I tend to write this blog at lunch time, I'm using "today" to mean "in the last 24 hours".

I planned to get my software product modifications done, but failed.  I was just too tired.  That's the problem with having a day-job as well as an online business.  The Day-job gets in the way.

I wrote a review of a product being sold on Clickbank and published it on one of my blogs - one that deals specifically with Clickbank and other affiliate marketing.

By the way, since I started posting at least once a week to that blog, traffic has increased by 2.5 times.  In fact today I got the same amount of traffic that I was getting before, but in the first 2 hours of the day.

I had another two ideas for software products.  I made quick notes of them, but really need to write down full specifications for them.

I thought of an excellent marketing strategy for one of my associates.  He has developed some software aimed at musicians, including a free demo version.  I suggested that he approaches some of the music magazines and offer his software for inclusion on the cover disc that comes free with the magazine.
The software has been "Squeezulated", so that it needs Registration.  This means that anyone who wants to run the software will have to sign up to his mailing list.  I wouldn't mind getting a large number of the readership of a magazine subscribing to my mailing lists.  That's what I would call laser-targeted sign-ups.

What Am I Planning To Do Today?
Hopefully, I'll be able to get my software product finished and issued.

I also plan to write some specifications for the software products that I thought of yesterday.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and men...

So much for the idea of keeping a daily blog of how I'm doing in my online business.  Failed after the first day.
This is mainly due to family pressure - I hardly got the chance to sit down at my PC over the weekend, so I didn't really have much to write about.
I see this as a good thing though - I enjoy the time with my family - I just wish I had more of it (time, that is!).

This is the beginning of Day 6, but as it's only just started, we'll call it my Day 5 report.
As I said, very little happened over the weekend (Days 2 and 3), except for a small AdSense income - about enough to buy a large cup of coffee.  I have actually reduced my use of AdSense over the past year as the amount you get paid is quite poor, so I see anything that I get as a bit of a bonus nowadays.

On Day 4 (Monday), I spent quite a lot of time viewing videos and reading ebooks about various online marketing techniques.  Most of them were items that I'd acquired some time ago, but never got around to studying.  Some, I had read or viewed before, but reading them or watching them again several months later has been beneficial.  It's easy to miss something the first time around - especially in a video.

On Day 5 (Yesterday), I registered a new domain, www.philrogersonline.com, which I shall be using as part of the course I registered on last week (see previous post).
The course tutor has not revealed what we will be doing with the domain, although he has hinted that it will be a blog (yet another to maintain!).  Whenever I register a domain, even when I'm not ready to use it yet, I usually install Wordpress on it and make a post on it.  That way, it gets pinged to the blog directories and starts to get indexed by Google etc a lot more quickly.  This new domain has been no exception and it now contains a simple WP blog.

I have noticed that traffic from the search ehngines to one of my sites, CB Intuition, has increased considerably (at least 50%) since I started posting new content on it at least once a week.  It just goes to show that keeping your site fresh with new content really does have a positive effect.  The site appears at #20 in Google for the simple keyword Clickbank, which I'm quite pleased with.  It ranks higher for combinations of other keywords plus Clickbank.

What am I Planning to Do Today?
My top priority is to finish a couple of changes to my software, Squeeze-u-lator, and release the latest version.

Have I made any money today (in the last few days)?
Yes.  I had some clicks on AdSense.

A Month in the Online Life of Phil Rogers - Day 1

A new month and a new plan.  Let's hope I can keep it up!

I have decided to go back to the original idea of blogging (web logging) and keep a daily log of everything I do online for the month of July 2011.  If I can get into the habit of posting, and maintain the momentum, I might even keep it going into August, September etc.

So here we are on Day 1.

What have I done today?
I started this series on this blog.
I signed up for a 16-week course on Online Marketing.  It starts off for absolute beginners, so the week 1 material is really quite trivial for me.  It's quite good to be reminded of the basics though.
I read one of the hundreds of ebooks that has been gathering virtual dust on my hard drive.

What am I planning to do today?
I have a few software projects on the go.  There's one which I need to improve slightly and release before we do a big marketing push on it.  I reckon that's going to take up a couple of evenings work.

Have I made any money today?
Not yet, but we're only half way through the day.

Progress, Development and Targets

I can't believe how quickly the time flies. I had good intentions of keeping this blog regularly posted, but those plans seem to have fallen by the wayside.
Anyway, what has happened since the last update?

Progress
I've released another update to our software product, Squeeze-U-Lator, and there's a couple more changes in the pipeline. All our customers get free upgrades when these new features are added, which I'm hoping will give me a good reputation.

Along with Squeeze-U-Lator, we recommend a 3rd-party product, MYOS (Make Your Own Software), for which we earn a decent affiliate commission on sales. The two products complement each other very well, so it makes sense to promote them together. Both my colleague and I have made at least one sale of MYOS each, which is a nice bonus to our mainstream product sales.

I've noticed a sharp fall in AdSense income over the past few months, but an increase in Clickbank sales, so I now know which one I'm going to concentrate on.

Development
Having said that we've made a couple of sales of MYOS, I feel that it could be a lot more. The problem as I see it is the MYOS sales page. It's really quite off-putting in places, especially when it smugly asks you whether you "qualify to be an owner of MYOS" as if you have to be granted permisssion to buy it. The software itself is not exactly difficult to use, so you don't have to be some kind of rocket-scientist to own it.

So as a software developer, I worked out how MYOS works - again it's not rocket science. I am now nearing the completion of my own version which actually has some better features. I wrote the bulk of the program in 2 days which shows just how simple it is. MYOS is quite a few years old and now has new owners. I suspect that it will never be developed and improved, but my version will, and as on previous products, we'll offer free upgrades.

We plan to launch this product at a price at least 25% cheaper than MYOS, because I think that MYOS is somewhat over-priced.

Targets
My objectives in lfe change with whatever is going on around me, and my targets for earning money online change with my current financial situation.
Like many people, I have several debts, and my ability to repay those debts quickly has been diminished by rising prices and a non-rising salary. If my debts were cleared, the amount of extra money in my pocket every month (because I wouldn't have to make any more payments) would be considerable.

My primary target now is to clear all my debts as soon as possible using money earned online.
My secondary target is to consistently earn enough money online to replace the salary of my day-job, which will then give me the option to quit. The key word there is "consistently". It's no good making $30,000 once and not being able to continue to make money afterwards.

I figure that once I have cleared my debts and then earning an average of $150 (£100) per day, I'll be in a position to quit my day job and concentrate on my online business. That in turn should increase my income, and I'll finally be free.

I now keep a chart on the wall over my desk that shows my current average earnings and my target average earnings. It will be such a pleasure to see those two ines finally meet.

Learn From What Other People Do

Some years ago I acquired the software source code with Private Label Rights for a program that would let you create your own simple software applications which you could then sell or give away as you pleased.  At the time, I was quite naive when it came to online marketing and I thought that I had struck gold.  There was already a popular program on the market, called Make Your Own Software, but to me it was quite expensive and lacked certain features that I would have liked.  Now, not only did I have the source code for a competing product, but I could modify, extend  and improve it to make it better than any other versions of it out there.  After all I did understand that other people would have also obtained the source code too, so it was my intention to add features that their versions wouldn't have.

As it turned out, the program was written in an early version of Microsoft's Visual Basic.  That wasn't really a problem - it's not a language I was familiar with, but it shouldn't take a professional software developer a long time to get to grips with it.

As I got into the code, something dawned on me.  I discovered that I had been supplied with only part of the source code.  You see the program worked like this:  There was the "application generator", and a "runtime" - a previously made "empty" application.  Basically, the application generator took all the information that you entered and embedded it in a copy of the runtime to produce the final program.

What I discovered was that the source code for the runtime program had not been supplied.  This meant that I could not change anything about the way the generated applications worked.  My dream of making a super-improved version of the program were dashed, and I left the source code to gather virtual dust on my hard disk.

About a year later, I decided to see if I could write my own version of an application generator from scratch.  It turned out to be a lot more difficult than I thought because I had no idea how to embed data into another program, so instead of wasting more time on it, I abandoned the idea.

Some years later, a friend told me that he had the source code to an application generator program and wondered if I could make some changes for him.  Sadly, it was the same one that I had, and he too had not been supplied with all the source code.

That same friend had some other source code for a different application that he had had written for him a few years previously, and we decided to work on that.  It was written in Delphi, which is my programming language of choice, so I was quite happy to be involved with this project.  The software, written by somebody else was complete, but my friend wanted to make some changes to it.  As it happens, it has changed beyond recognition now as we have developed the concept.

Incredibly, even though this was not an application generator, this program also worked by having a "generator" and a "runtime" and worked in exactly the same way as the application generator programs work - it embedded data into an existing program.  The difference is that this time I had all the source code that I needed.

I put 2 and 2 together and realised that I could use exactly the same techniques used by this program to make an application generator.  Within a couple of days I had developed a small test program and proved that it would work.  So now I am well on my way to creating my own software product that I can extend and improve to include features not available in any of its competitors.  And it's all thanks to learning from what somebody else had done before me.

Progress Report - Payment from Clickbank

Since my last progress report, I've been busy putting the finishing touches to the latest release of my software, and unfortunately, neglecting any marketing activities.
This has had the expected effect - sales and income have dropped.

The only significant item has been that Clickbank have posted me another cheque for commissions earned.  What is strange about this though is that I have my payment threshold set to $50, and they have sent a cheque for $44.75.  It would appear that the sending of cheques is triggered by the balance passing the threshold, even though they hold back a percentage of your payment to cover refunds etc.  Consequently, the amount they send can end up less than the threshold.
As my bank account is in UK Pounds and the cheques are sent in US Dollars, I get charged to pay it in, thus reducing the value of my earnings.
There are two solutions to this problem.  The first is to increase the payment threshold so that each cheque is for a larger amount, and the fee for paying it in is a relatively smaller proportion of the total.  The second is to elect to be paid by direct transfer into your bank account.  Payments are made in your own currency, so there is no fee to convert them.
This second option has the further benefit that you don't have to make that trip to the bank to pay it in - it happens electronically.  There are some criteria that you have to meet to choose this option.  First of all, you have to have received 2 paper cheques within a 12-week period, and secondly, you have to be in an eligible country.
If you are not in an eligible country, it may be possible for the payment to be "wired" to your bank.

I'm a relative beginner as a Clickbank affiliate and I don't make a huge number of sales.  I haven't received 2 paper cheques within 12 weeks, so I can't choose direct payments.  I keep the payment threshold low because if I go through a lean period with no sales, my account will be considered "dormant" and Clickbank will start charging handling fees, thus eating into my commission.  By keeping the threshold low, I can get paid after just a few sales, and minimise the amount remaining in the account that could taken by Clickbank as dormant account handling fees.  When I have improved my marketing techniques and start making a lot of sales on a regular basis, I shall increase the payment threshold and select direct payments.

Going For The Big Guns

It's the end of April already.  My last post was some two-and-a-half months ago.  I really don't know where the time has gone!
Of course, if I stop to think about it, I know I've been busy.

The latest version of my software, Squeeze-U-Lator, has been updated again and we're about to start a big promotional push on it.  We're trying to get some of the big guns in the Internet Marketing niche on board.  There is another product, Make Your Own Software (MYOS), that goes hand-in-hand with Squeeze-U-Lator, making a very powerful list-building toolset.  We are promoting MYOS alongside Squeeze-U-Lator.  We're pretty sure that the owner of MYOS will see the potential and start promoting our product too.

Setting up a Joint Venture (JV) with other marketers is an excellent way of building a list and improving sales.  However, getting the marketer to agree to a JV is not easy if they are one of the big guns and you're just starting out.  But when two products complement each other as ours do, there's a great chance that the marketer will agree to promote your product if you promote theirs.
There's an additional benefit to doing this - especially with one of the big name marketers.  Most of the big names know each other.  They have met at seminars, or worked on JVs together.  If you can get just one of them on board with your product, he's very likely to tell his friends and acquaintances about it, and they may well join in too.

After all, if your product is a potential good seller and you pay a decent commission, which marketer would turn it down?

Once you are "in" with one or more big marketers, you have a really good chance of becoming one of the big guys yourself, especially if you consistently produce good, sellable products.

So there's a good tip if you're trying to decide what product to create.  Look at what other marketers are selling and come up with something that complements it.  Ask the marketers whether they would be interested in promoting your product alongside theirs.  Any marketer worth his salt will jump at the chance as long as you can  demonstrate that your product complements their product, is of merchantable quality and you are willing to pay a decent commission.

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

I first got into the idea of making money online several years ago. At that time, I had no idea what to do, what to sell, or how to do it.

One of the schemes that I tried included selling ebooks. I remember signing up at a site that sold ebooks that you could customise with your own name and appearance. I guess it was effectively a single site to which you could apply your own theme, and your own sub-domain simply redirected to that site, passing in theme details.

I didn't make a single cent from that site, because I had no idea how to promote it.

One thing I remember from that site though, was that it also sold Clickbank products, and it was at that time that I first registered with Clickbank. In fact my Clickbank nickname was generated for me by that site, so every time I log in to Clickbank, I am reminded of it.

That site has long since passed into oblivion, but I still have my Clickbank account, and have always been interested in the possibilities of affiliate marketing.

I sold a few Clickbank products, but never actually received any money from Clickbank. This was due to Clickbank's accounting policies which I never managed to satisfy. Frustrated, I lost interest in Clickbank for a year or two, and by the time I came back to it, I discovered that my account was now empty because Clickbank applies charges to "dormant" accounts - that is accounts that show no activity for an extended period.

Since then, I made a few more sales, and finally passed all the criteria of the accounting polices. Last month I received my first payment from them. What a great relief to get past that stage.

My efforts are not concentrated on promoting Clickbank products at the moment, but I do have a few affiliate links running. I'm now getting a few sales per week from ads that I put on my sites ages ago, which looks promising. I don't get a huge amount of traffic to those sites, which makes it even better. The good thing is that just one sale per month is enough to stop the account going dormant, so my accrued earnings are a lot safer than before.

As it happens, the level of sales that I am currently getting (even with no real promotional effort on my part) mean that I will pass the $100 payment threshold every 6 weeks. Sure, it's not much, but I'm not doing anything to promote it. $100 every 6 weeks is equivalent to $866 per year, for doing almost nothing.
Think how much better I could do if I spent 30 minutes or so every day actively promoting my links?

Oh, and by the way, these are results after Google dropped most of my sites from the search engine results following a hack on my host server. They are only now beginning to recover from that.

2011 Is Going To Be My Year!

And so another 2 months pass without any posts on this blog. Too busy doing other things, and to be honest, this blog is bottom of the list of things for me to do.
There just aren't enough hours in the day that I can call my own.

Anyway, as it's the beginning of a new month, here's a progress report. I really believe that 2011 is going to be the year that I start to make some real money from the Internet.

My friend Dan and I made a nice amount of money each during November/December last year, selling a software product that I have written. So that we could handle any requested refunds (there weren't any!), we didn't take the money until late December. A nice bonus on the run-up to Christmas.

I spent most of January working on new features for version 2.1 of the software, which has now also undergone a name change.
The new version goes on sale tomorrow (2nd February 2011). We have a lot more Affiliates (or JV Partners) lined up this time, so we're hoping for a lot more sales.

We have also reduced the affiliate commission from 75% to 50%, which should also increase our income. We still think that's a great deal for affiliates, though.

We've also increased the price slightly. It was really under-priced before, but we were just starting out with a new product, so we decided to keep the price low. Now that the product has moved on and provides more automated features, we think we can justify the price increase.

Mistakes Made
When we released our software in November, we made some mistakes. This time, we're being a lot smarter about it.

• The release date was just before Thanksgiving, so the response was lower than it might have been. This time, we're releasing it during a flat time when people are looking for ways to make money online.
• We didn't recruit enough affiliates. This time we have many more than last time.
• A BIG mistake was that we had no up-sell. That's one of those special one-time offers you present after making a sale. By making the offer one-time, it coerces the customer into purchasing while they have the chance for fear of losing out.
  An advantage of the up-sell is that you don't have to pay commissions on it. This time, we have a great up-sell, limited to just 50 copies, which will bring in an additional $2,500 each (to Dan and me).
• Follow-up was pretty poor on our part. Having built a list of customers, we haven't exploited that list at all. In fact, we haven't really sent out anything except news of bug-fixes and the forthcoming new version of the software.

Income
January was pretty quiet after our initial sales in December.

AdSense income has maintained a good average, but nothing outstanding.

I finally received my first payment from Clickbank! Until now I had not satisfied the CDR (Customer Distribution Requirements), which I have mentioned before on this blog. Finally, I got past that stumbling block and having also passed the payment threshold, I was sent a payment of $142.19.
Again, not huge, but it all adds up.

Receiving that first payment lifts a big psychological barrier. It's frustrating waiting to get past the CDR, but now that it has happened and I see real money in my bank account, I am spurred on to make more. So hopefully I'll be seeing payments on a regular basis. Clickbank pay every 2 weeks as long as you have exceeded the payment threshold, and my aim is to ramp up my Clickbank sales so that I receive a payment every 2 weeks without fail. Getting a cash injection mid-month will be fantastic. (I still have a day-job and will continue to do so until my online activities regularly bring in considerably more than my salary)

Residual Income
On the back of sales of our software product, I managed to make an affiliate sale of Aweber, the autoresponder. They pay 30%, and on a basic account that costs $19 per month, that's a payment to me of $5.70 every month. That may not sound like much, but the commission continues to be paid all the time that the buyer remains a customer of Aweber. Again, it's not going to make me rich, but think of it this way...
If I manage to sign up about 550 customers, the amount I would earn in commissions would be equivalent to the average UK salary. That's not bad for doing nothing except making that initial sale to each of those customers.

Plans
After release of version 2.1 of our software, development doesn't stop. I'm already working on version 3.0, which is going to have loads of great new features that will make it into a complete solution for product creation, marketing and list-building.

I also have several ideas for new software products to follow this one.

A Final Word
It may seem strange that I talk about my software without mentioning it by name or trying to sell it from this site.

Well the whole point of this site is to discuss online marketing - how I am going about it, and what results I am getting. It isn't about the products that I'm selling. It's all new ground for me, so I see it as a learning process. Until I have established a set of procedures for product creation and marketing, and proved that they work, I don't consider myself to be a true online marketer.

Once I feel that I have "made it" in this field, the nature of this blog might change, but the emphasis will still remain on techniques rather than products.

And actually, there is a link to the home page of my product on this page.