MLM Forums
Focus on This For Local Marketing
If you’re running a small business, and you are marketing to the local community, there are four things you should consider. I’ve listed them in the order of importance. # 1 – Reputation What people think about you and your business is important. Actually, it’s very important. In a local community, reputation is everything. Hence, customer service […] Related posts:The Dean and Marketing How Cool Is Word Of Mouth Marketing Really? Glitch Turned Into Powerful Marketing [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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The Genius
You think you’ve got an awesome idea, well the chances that your idea is not just yours is fairly big. I don’t know how many times I have thought about something unique, something so special that I was sure that not a single person in the whole world would have had anything close to the […] Related posts:I Thought I Hated McDonalds Look Inside Your Tribe Solving Marketing Frustration [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Just Ask
There are several important words in marketing, and I believe that the two most important words are free and because. There are one more thing that many don’t understand. It’s actually just as powerful. Just ask. If you ask you have a lot better chance of getting what you want. Sure. The result depends on how you ask. […] Related posts:How Creativity is Born Twitter Twiends and Twhores [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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I would really like this feature on Facebook
One of the reasons why I haven’t been using Facebook as much as I probably should have, is that it’s fairly difficult to filter the information I want people to see. I’m using filters on information that I am viewing, on Facebook and Email. The way I do it on Facebook is that I create lists […] Related posts:Using The Facebook Profile Box Hide Profile Updates From Your Facebook Friends The Real Value Of Facebook Places? [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Smoking Can Seriously Damage Your Health
One of the hardest things for ad agencies are probably to create advertisements for serious issues, especially things that kill you. As a marketer, you want people to listen to you, you want them to understand how serious the issue really is. For instance, I wrote about how to stop people from killing themselves (an […] Related posts:How To Stop People From Killing Themselves Paying Your Facebook Ads Using PayPal One Example of How To Use Facebook Advertising [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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A Blog Post Is Haunting Me
It’s been two years, and I haven’t even noticed it among all the other blog posts. I don’t even remember writing it. Some blog posts are just that, thoughts written just because I had an urge. I probably had an immediate urge to say it, and I wanted to let you know what was on […] Related posts:Delete Your Blog Posts The Heaven and Hell of Blogging How I Read Hundreds of Blog Posts a Day [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Distraction Free Writing
I’ll use Ommwriter to write my next blog posts. Actually, I’m using it to write this one, and it’s the first time I’m using Ommwriter. The reason is simple. It’s awesome. The background is perfect, it comes with an image of two trees and I believe it’s snow on the ground. It comes with sound, when […] Related posts:Shh! I’m Concentrating Deadlines and the Hideout [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Target and Attention
Marketing can be both effective. Advertisement on the Internet are becoming more powerful. No doubt about it. I know that I’m an easy target. But whenever I see an advertisement that either sells whatever I’m looking for (even though I’m not looking for it at the moment I’m seeing the advertisement) or involves the city I’m in, […] Related posts:One Example of How To Use Facebook Advertising Using Facebook Ads For Local Marketing [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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The Real Value Of Facebook Places?
If you haven’t already seen this video, take a look at it, it’s a promotion for Facebook Places (only available in the US at the moment). Facebook places is a way to tell your Facebook friends where you are (and it’s a way to tell them what your favorite spots are – I think). But you […] Related posts:I would really like this feature on Facebook Using The Facebook Profile Box Facebook Search Engine Optimization [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Two Funny Heineken Commercials
The people behind Heineken beer have created some really cool marketing campaigns (or at least they’ve hired some people to do just that). I have added two of the best Heineken commercials I’ve seen, and the reason I’ve added both, is that they’re related. The first one shows us how time stops when Heineken beer […] Related posts:Funny Pepsi Commercial Smoking Can Seriously Damage Your Health Why Blogging Can Make You Sad [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Funny Pepsi Commercial
As of today, I’m introducing something new to my blog. I have decided that every weekend I’ll add humor to my blog, but don’t be alarmed. I’m not going to be writing jokes, everything is still going to be related to marketing. What I’ll be doing, starting right now, is adding the most funny commercials […] Related posts:Two Funny Heineken Commercials The Effects of Coca-Cola Milk Marketing [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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How To Use Discussion Forums
I have been participating in various discussion forums for a fairly long time, all of the forums are within the Internet marketing niche and I’m still active. Two reasons why I’m still a member There are two reasons why I joined and they are still the reasons why I continue to be an active member. First, when […] Related posts:Are Discussion Forums A Waste of Time? Paid Traffic From Yahoo Answers Running Contests To Generate Traffic [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Are Discussion Forums A Waste of Time?
Let me just tell you this, that when it comes to discussion forums people usually say that they’re either a waste of time or the exact oposite, they’re awesome for connecting and networking with other people. What do you think, are discussion forums just a waste of time? When you’re using a discussion forum you can get […] Related posts:How To Use Discussion Forums Running Contests To Generate Traffic Negative is More Powerful [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Solving Marketing Frustration
Sure, it happens to all of us. We get frustrated. Business, marketing, it can be difficult. I’ve talked to a lot of people who are not making as much money as they thought they would, they’re not getting as much attention as they’d like, and they’re not making money as fast as they were hoping […] Related posts:Look Inside Your Tribe Why I Really Suck at Affiliate Marketing The Dean and Marketing [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Facebook Search Engine Optimization
Few people understands the importance of doing search engine optimization (SEO) on their Facebook profile. The better you rank within Facebook, the more friends will follow you, and the more people will visit your profile. It’s that simple. Let me tell you why it’s important and what you should be doing. Don’t Think Google Facebook is very important […] Related posts:How To Create Your Own Facebook Domain How to find Facebook Pages ID Using The Facebook Profile Box [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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My iPhone is Officially Dead
You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s officially dead, that’s how I feel about my iPhone right now. My iPhone is not working, all that’s showing is this screen. That’s what’s been showing for the past two days or so. The story behind the dead iPhone is this. I was in Copenhagen (Denmark) this saturday. It started […] Related posts:How to Use Your iPhone For Business It’s Never Too Late To Tweet If You Ever Get Lost [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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The 3 Marketing Tricks At PopUp Domination
As I’m writing this, I’m still using the AWeber lightbox in order to get people to sign up for my newsletter. I have tested various techniques in order to capture the attention of my readers without annoying them, and the AWeber lightbox is the one that I find the most effective (and just a little […] Related posts:The Unemployed Millionaire Marketing Trick Why I Really Suck at Affiliate Marketing A Crazy Idea From The Marketing Director [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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I Thought I Hated McDonalds
I almost never do this, never. It seems that I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I’m not. I’ve been to McDonalds, and not just one time, but two times in two days. The problem is that I kind of hate McDonalds, yes McDonalds sucks – almost. There’s always a reason The reason I almost never show myself […] Related posts:The Gut Feeling How To Promote Your Local Business Using Twitter So You Want Your Own Online Business [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Profitable Affiliate Marketing: 9 Ways to Grow Your Passive Income
Online entrepreneurs can boost their income through the use of affiliate marketing. By accepting incentives from merchants, manufacturers, and service providers to promote their products, affiliate marketers set out to encourage customers to buy affiliate products by clicking links they provide. On the surface, affiliate marketing sounds easy, but with hundreds of thousands of affiliates […] Related posts:5 Ways to Identify that Your Website is a Mess Why I Really Suck at Affiliate Marketing Using Affiliate Marketing To Recruit New Students To College [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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My Daughter Vanishes From Sight
Yesterday. On a remote island, south-west of Norway. “Please, please, please. Let me have the red blanket. I’m gonna play with it outside. I promise it won’t get dirty. I promise. Please, please, please.” She won’t stop. “Let me have a blanket. The red one. Please, please, please. Yes, I’m gonna play with it outside, but I promise […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Tips for Creating a Perfect Business Website
This is a guest post from Ben Johnson. If you want to guest post on this blog, please contact me. First of all, what do you think a perfect business website is? Well, to me, if your business website takes your financial worries away, then it’s a perfect business website. This way you don’t have to […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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He Was Grasping For Air
Ten minutes past. I was late, it was raining. I walked faster than usual, via a shortcut through the woods while listening to the song Billionaire By Travie McCoy. I was soaked, cold and hungry. Just as I was listening to the chorus for the 10th time or so, the “Oh every time I close my […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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How To Interrupt Blog Visitors
I have read Permission Marketing by Seth Godin a number of times. It’s an excellent book, and it reveals strategies regarding how to promote and sell anything. We need permission and we need to build trust. Now, what’s really interesting about the book, is that we also need to interrupt in order to receive permission. […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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I’m Losing It
I can’t keep up. My thoughts are everywhere. My schedule is lost, my tasks are gone. I can’t remember what I’m suppose to be doing. I’m at my desk at work, I’m at home in the kitchen, I’m everywhere, and nowhere. I’m doing everything, and I’m doing nothing. I’m so incredibly hot… and dizzy. I’m losing my […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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How to find Facebook Pages ID
I have been looking everywhere to find the Facebook Pages id for Blog Buddy. The reason I was looking was because I wanted a like box for my Facebook Page in the right sidebar. We need to add the id of the Facebook Page we want to promote in order to create a box like that. I […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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The Best Internet Marketing Newsletters
I’m really enjoying myself today. It’s that time of the year in Norway, where everything is just close to perfect. It’s all quite, and wow, the weather is just awesome. When I look up, I can’t see any clouds, just a bright blue sky and it’s as sunny as it gets. It’s not as hot as […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Join Our Blog Community
As people, we all need help, or at least, we all need a way to share information. It’s time to realize that we need Blog Buddy. In order to understand that you’re doing the right thing, or in order to understand that you’re actually fairly successful, you need to compare yourself to other people, or at […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Try This Before You Trash It
Some days are different. Some days are not. Yesterday was a little of both. Too many things to do, at the same time, it was nothing more left to do. My mind was drifting away at the various tasks. As a man, I felt a sudden urge to relax. Um. I was going to take a bath, fill […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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5 Ways to Identify that Your Website is a Mess
This is a guest post from Ben Johnson. If you want to guest post on this blog, please contact me. You may have your website already up and running, but you may not be making any sales. I tell you, this is not something new in the online business world. A lot of online business owners […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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How I Read Hundreds of Blog Posts a Day
I subscribe to a lot of blogs, I’m not sure how many, but whenever I log in to my Google Reader I have hundreds of new blog posts to read. Earlier, it took me a while, it took me several days to go through the list of blog posts. And when I thought I was finished, […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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How I Successfully Filter Email
I receive a lot of email, hundreds of emails, every single day. Some of the email I receive are personal, but a lot of the email I receive are from various lists, from people sending me all sorts of marketing advice and offers, and of course, spam. Actually, I think that probably 30 – 40% […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Milk Marketing
To me, milk is sort of boring. I drink it once in a while, and when I do, I’m not that happy about it. It’s not anything similar to what I feel like when I’m drinking Coca-Cola. You won’t see a big smile on my face after I finish a glass of milk, but you might see […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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The Fake Deer
Sometimes when I’m out walking, weird things happen. Weird things happen when I’m not ready, and sometimes they make me look at the world in a different way. I was out walking yesterday. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and I didn’t hear a thing other than the brand new Seether album. The sound […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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The Sound of Marketing
This morning, at 7 a.m., a loud intense noise reminded me of the importance of marketing. I live close to my neighbors, only a small yard is between our houses. This morning I didn’t hear the sound of birds. I didn’t hear people talking, or dogs barking. The sound reminded me of a chainsaw. Then, when I […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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He Told Me That I Was Spamming
I recently got a negative review on StumbleUpon. This from a guy I know nothing about, a guy who probably won’t cross my path ever again. The review made me think, and it made me realize that negative reviews are important, probably even more important than positive reviews. When a person I don’t know are saying things […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Using The Facebook Profile Box
I don’t have to tell you why you should be using Facebook as part of your marketing mix. We’re all using it, some more than others, and the effects by using it can be awesome. Today, I’ll give you an interesting marketing advice. You should consider using the Facebook profile box application. The Facebook profile box app […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Deadlines and the Hideout
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. This quote from Douglas Adams on a whiteboard is the first thing I see as I walk inside. I close the door. The desk is made of oak, the color is dark brown, it has to be. It’s heavy, solid and huge, a lot […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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They Are Influencing Your Work
It really helps to understand who you are working for. Yesterday, I was out walking. It was a long walk. The sun was shining, it was a beautiful day. I felt like being outside for a while, just to enjoy nature and listen to the birds. I had an amazing time, all by myself. While walking I […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Get Noticed and Be Heard on Social Media
Article by Ben Johnson. Social Media provides small businesses with new and fruitful opportunities. They can use the power of social media to market new products and services, build brand identity, create awareness about their business, remain in constant contact with their existing clients and establish connections with potential buyers. Even though such powerful opportunities exist, […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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I'm in Love With A Fairy tale
It's not what you think. But keep reading. Words. To me, it should be all about the words. But sometimes, it's hard to write, and it's even harder to publish what I've written. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Mysteries of the Bathroom Solved
It's dark, not outside, but in the room where I'm currently located. Once again, I'm listening to music. This time it's the sound of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. I'm not sure why, but listening to their songs Face Down and Your Guardian Angel makes me think of the bathroom mysteries. I know two people, they're very different. On the other hand, they're not. Whenever I'm at the bathroom I know who's been there. If it smells of flowers, or if I can see a flower bucket, I don't have to guess. I know who. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Why I Really Suck at Affiliate Marketing
I'm listening to the awesome music of Nomy, a Swedish artist I discovered about a week ago. While listening to the song Cocaine, I realize that I really suck at affiliate marketing. I have tried close to everything when it comes to affiliate marketing, and I really suck at it. It's not that I haven't been earning money, because I have. It's not that I can't sell, because I believe I can. There are two reasons why I suck. #1 - Passion –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Why Your Backlinks Should Be Relevant
Long term Internet marketing is always about creating backlinks. Backlinks will provide direct traffic to your websites (by people clicking on the links) and you'll get indirect traffic via search engines. Let me explain. Backlinks are important for ranking in search engines. The more backlinks, the higher you'll be ranked in the search engines. But even more important than the number of backlinks are how relevant your backlinks are. Think of your backlinks like your Curriculumn Vitae (CV) when you're applying for a job. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Paying Your Facebook Ads Using PayPal
I read the news on February 18, that Facebook had partnered with PayPal. The partnership will eventually lead to Facebook accepting PayPal as an option when we are purchasing advertisement on Facebook. This is great news. I'm using PayPal for almost everything I do online, except for my AWeber membership. I know that PayPal isn't the cheapest alternative, but to me, it's fast, easy and a secure method to pay for my online adventures. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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One Example of How To Use Facebook Advertising
It's easy to target your audience when you're advertising using Facebook Pay Per Click (PPC). You should always show the advertisements only to people in a specific geographic area. It could be one country or several, it all depends on your product or if you'd like the ad copy to be specific to the area. On the other hand, if your product or service is only available in the United States, there are no reason why you should be displaying your advertisement to people in other parts of the world. Now. Let me show you an example of a generic advertisement that works. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Will You Join Me During Earth Hour?
Darkness. It's not that I'm afraid of the dark, but I feel more alive and content during daylight. Interesting. I love action, suspense and darkness. As long as it doesn't involve me. I prefer watching it in movies and reading about it in books. But. I go for complete darkness one hour a year. Well, almost. Except for the candles. It's for Earth Hour, 8.30 pm, Saturday 27 March. That's about the only time I show that I take responsibility for our future. What about you, will you go for complete darkness? –> [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Using Facebook Ads For Local Marketing
I've just created a new marketing campaign to recruit students to our college. The marketing campaign is on Facebook, and we're using Facebook ads. Take a look at some of the posts I have written about Facebook. It's been a while since our last Facebook marketing campaign, and a lot has changed. Now, we can target our ads to be shown only to people living in a certain country. For instance, we could target only people living in the United States. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Shh! I'm Concentrating
I'm writing. At the moment, that's all I want to be doing. It makes me happy. I'm not doing anything else. Just writing. I'm calm, I'm focused. It's probably the first time in a very long time. My thoughts are always somewhere else. When I'm writing, I'm thinking of something else, not just the words and the sentences. When I'm listening to music, sometimes I think that I'm on the stage, being the artist, performing for thousands of people. Other times, I'm at work, at my desk, doing the daily work routine. It's hard to stay focused, it's hard to concentrate. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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The Best Magazine in the World
Today. The sun is shining. And finally, it arrived. While eating breakfast, my family was staring at me, but I didn't see them, I just sensed it. I was too focused, reading the best magazine in the world. I'm reading every single page thoroughly, sometimes I read every single page more than one time. I enjoy every single word. I love the layout. The pictures are awesome; they make me laugh, they make me warm and they make me feel good about myself, and sometimes they make me feel really sad. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Best Cover Story Wins 3,000 Dollars
I just received this, and I thought you'd be interested. The blogger that writes the best cover story about the launch of ArticleMe.com will win $3,000 in the ArticleMe launch contest. This week ArticleMe.com which is a content marketplace for writers to sell article content for websites and publications launched with an offer to award $3,000 to the blogger who writes the best cover story about the site’s opening. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Improving Your Online Reputation: Step by Step
Karan Singhal is a professional search engine optimizer who operates Trafficke Website Solutions, a SEO company you can trust. Trafficke specializes in SEO consultations and reputation management. The latter will be covered in today's post. A good online reputation is one of the most important stepping stones to success. This holds true for both blogs and internet businesses. Today, I will teach you how to effectively market your website by improving your online reputation. When a blogger reviews your website, you feel inclined to read what they have to say. You click through to the blog,… [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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How To Get Noticed On Chat Roulette
Funny, and entertaining. That's the key to success. If you're looking for fame, you could get it by using Chat Roulette. It could be the "perfect" way to market yourself. But for most people, it's just an interesting and kind of weird service. At least that's what it is to me 
Chat roulette is a website that connects you to a random stranger via video chat. You don't know who you'll be connected to, that's the interesting part. The important part, if you're looking to get noticed, is to have a plan. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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How I Am Tracking The Clicks On My Links
Tracking is important. Testing is important. I have detailed statistics when it comes to the traffic to my websites, related to who are visiting and the traffic sources. I also look at how much time they spend on my websites, and the top contents. I use Google Analytics for my webstatistics. It's free, powerful and fairly easy to use. I also track clicks to outgoing links on my websites. I use Google Analytics for this as well. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Negative is More Powerful
It seems to me, that whatever topic, or whatever happens in life, negative is always more powerful. The reason I'm saying this, is that negative thoughts seems to get more attention, and have more impact than positive thoughts. This happens in life in general, and in media, and to me as well. Let me give you a recent example. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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The Effects of Coca-Cola
I simply love Coca-Cola. Drinking it, makes me feel alive, and it makes me feel that I'm doing something I shouldn't. It's exciting. At times, I drink more Coca-Cola than water. I'm not proud of this fact, but it's more or less a confession. It's probably because sometimes I even think about Coca-Cola when drinking water. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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The Effects of Coca-Cola
I simply love Coca-Cola. Drinking it, makes me feel alive, and it makes me feel that I'm doing something I shouldn't. It's exciting. At times, I drink more Coca-Cola than water. I'm not proud of this fact, but it's more or less a confession. It's probably because sometimes I even think about Coca-Cola when drinking water. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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I Have Been Involved In Drive-By Shooting
I have been marketing online for a few years. I have been reading and studying. I have bought a lot of e-books, software, and various products. Some good, and some really awful. Untill now, I have been involved in drive by shooting. Don't get me wrong. I'm using it as a metaphor. How I imagine drive by shooting feels like when you're holding the gun. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Google Hates Me
A few minutes ago, showering, I was thinking about whether it's possible that Google, a major corporation with more than 20.000 employees can possibly hate me? By the way. It was an awesome shower, relaxing, but the thoughts, well, they were interesting. What did I ever do to upset Google? Ouch. I remember. I sold Text Link Ads for a few years. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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My Biggest Blogging Mistakes
I have been blogging for a while, and I have created several blogs. I'm fairly satisfied with my resaults, but when I think back and think of what I should have done different, there are three things that I consider to be my biggest mistakes as a blogger. First. Passion –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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I Almost Forgot To Tell You The News
Exciting News. I almost forgot to tell you. I've launched my new blog about Twitter, it's called Twitter Virtue, and so far everything is going great. The blog is all about Twitter. How to use Twitter, and more or less, how to use Twitter for marketing purposes. Visit Twitter Virtue … and tell me what you think. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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A Fool and His Money is One Big Party
Late at night. I watch my inbox. It's packed with emails, close to 200, all waiting for me. As I glanse at the list, it's easy to understand what it's all about. We all want to to be stars. Some want the fame, the glory and the wealth, others just want the money. We read about it in newspapers, watch it on TV, and it's all over the Internet. We want to become rich, quick and dirty. It's not about work, being creative, and take the path not travelled. It's about finding the quickest and easiest solution. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Creative Advertising Using Online Games
I have realized that I'm getting older. I'm not using the word old about myself, hopefully I never will. But I'm getting older, and I'm not familiar with all the stuff that I used to know a lot about. Games. I used to love playing games. I probably still do, but I hardly ever play. This is probably why I was really surprised when I read the following post at a discussion forum: –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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The Cat And The Loud Cry
It's early in the morning, about 5 am. I'm freezing. I see the porch still covered with snow. I hear sounds, in the snow, nearby, then, scratching. I'm at the kitchen. I look outside, it's the cat. This time he's by the window. It comes as no surprise, since he's here every single day. Outside, never inside. He's looking for food. I'm feeding him. Every single day. This has been going on for 6 months. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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How to add your site to Bing
You've probably noticed that Bing, Microsoft's new search engine, was launched last year. Since then, I've received increased traffic from search engines. Bing is closing in on Google, but Google is still lonely at the top. I'm not sure how much help Bing will be for me during 2010, but my guess is that it will increase even more. The reason for this, is that I have added my site to the Bing search engine. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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How To Stop People From Killing Themselves
I've been watching how the government in Norway are trying to get people to quit smoking. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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The Touch Of His Magic Hands
I look for passion everywhere. If I can't find it, I feel miserable. Everything I do has to have a meaning. If I don't understand the whys and the hows, I feel devastated. It's a constant struggle. I'm not alone. There are people like me everywhere, we're on the same quest. My job. It's all about the money isn't it? If not, it wouldn't be a job? Dreams. They never become real? If they did, they wouldn't be dreams? It's me, thinking, while walking. It's cold. I'm freezing. It's dark, and the streets are covered with snow. Finally, I reach the doorbell. I hear footsteps. –> read… [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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The Most Inspiring Ebook I Have Ever Read
It's dark outside, still cold and the streets covered with snow. The kids are finally sleeping, it's all quite. It's time. It's time to explore the new electronic books that I've stored on my hard drive. It's time to open Skim, start reading and take notes, while listening to the amazing Swedish band Johnossi. I love listening to music while reading. That's what I'm currentlly doing. My head phones keeps everthing out. It's me, my thoughts, the music and the ebooks. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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How I Became A World Class Designer in 10 Minutes
I have something interesting to share with. About a week ago, I tested Yahoo! Answers, and I'm still receiving a few visitors a day from the test. I also tested running a contest, and it worked great at the time of the contest. Now, as I'm writing this, I'm not receiving traffic from the contest, but hopefully some of the visitors are still with me. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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A YouTube Marketing Trick
Tomorrow, I'll be leaving for Gothenburg and a concert with Depeche Mode. I'm very excited, and because I'm really looking forward to the concert, I've been looking at videos of Depeche Mode on YouTube. Like this one; Just Can't Get Enough. But before you watch it, be ready to answer this question. Do you see the YouTube marketing trick? (you have to wait 15 seconds in order to see it). –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Reward Twitter Followers By Offering Exclusive Deals
One of the best ways to get noticed on Twitter, to get new followers, and to use Twitter for business, is to reward your followers for reading your tweets. You should offer them exclusive deals that they won't get anywhere else, that will give them an incentive to keep reading. You should provide them with the regular discounts. Once in a while, they'll get 10% or 20% off. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Paid Traffic From Yahoo Answers
I decided to test Yahoo! Answers two days ago. What happened was an interesting story. But first. What is Yahoo! Answers? It's a knowledge-sharing community with more than 90 million members. Anyone can ask questions and answer them on any topic. With more than 90 million members and a lot more readers, I've been thinking about how much traffic questions and answers could generate. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Running Contests To Generate Traffic
I have never tried running a contest before, so yesterday's contest was a new experience for me. I didn't do it because I was looking for extra traffic, but that's exactly what happened. Let me start from the beginning. Since I switched to Drupal, due to my week of misery, I have been looking for a new design. I had already ordered the design, and it was ready for Wordpress, but I didn't receive the version for Drupal. –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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The Secret Behind ReTweets
The reason I ReTweet several times a day is that I want to provide value for my followers and I want to lend people a helping hand. I always read what I am going to share, this way I know that it's high quality. I also know my audience, I know what they find interesting. And I try to keep the ReTweet short and in a way that they'll understand. My experience with this kind of ReTweeting is that the more value I share and the more help I provide, the more followers I get and the more people listen to what I have to say. How to ReTweet –> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Why Using Google Analytics Is Important For Your Business
In order to be successful, you need to constantly:
- refine and optimize your online marketing strategy
- refine and optimize your site navigation
- refine and optimize your content
Think of Google analytics as a thermometer for your website, it helps you check and monitor your online health. Without it, or a similar web analytics system, it's close to impossible to understand your visitors and why your visitors are leaving your website after viewing only one page.
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Clickbank Pirate Traffic Training
Clickbank Pirate is a fully automated sales system for Clickbank products. I've written the following posts in order to highlight some of its features:
The Clickbank Pirate Navigation The Clickbank Pirate Affiliate Toolbox
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How To Use Tweetie for Twitter Search
I’ve been using Tweetie for a while, and to me, it's the best Twitter client. It might not be just as powerful as TweetDeck and a few others, but it's very easy to use, it's beautiful and it's powerful enough (although it lacks the support of Twitter lists).
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A SEO Company You Can Trust
I’ve been thinking of contacting a SEO company for a while, especially after all that happened to my blog. You might remember that I experienced the heaven and hell of blogging, everything happened to me during the first week of December.
In other words, all my meta tags, keywords, descriptions, everything I had done to my Wordpress blog when it comes to SEO was lost in December (I was lucky, my content is still the same and the backlinks are still there).
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Innovative advertising campaign for the Super Bowl
This year, Doritos presents the “Crash the Super Bowl” contest, incorporating user generated videos and shelling out $5 million in prize money. Out of 4,000 entries, 6 finalists have been selected and the winning contestant’s video will air during the Super Bowl.
The 6 finalists’ videos are available for you to download and share.
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How to setup and install google analytics in 5 minutes
How to setup your google analytics account in 5 minutes
Let me start by saying this; you should use Google Analytics. If you haven't already, sign up today. It's one of the most powerful tools for any Internet marketer, it's completely free, and it's fairly easy to use. You can set up your account in just a few minutes.
Let me take you through the process.
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So You Want Your Own Online Business
A lot of people are asking me about how they can earn money online.
To me, it seems that most people are using two criterias for their online adventure.
It should be:
* Cheap or completely free
* Little work or no work at all
Whenever I see criterias like this, I have to ask myself if this is even possible?
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Using Affiliate Marketing To Recruit New Students To College
If you're not familiar with affiliate marketing, let me just give you a short introduction before I try to answer the question.
Affiliate marketing is a cost per action (CPA) system where you refer people to a product or a service, and if they do a certain action, usually buy something, affiliates earn money.
For instance, you can write a review on a blog about a software you really enjoy, and if a person buys it from your link, you'll earn commission, usually between 25% to 75% of the price of the product.
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A sudden brilliant creative timely idea
I enjoy reading, sometimes I enjoy it more than anything. At times, when I read, I hear nothing, and I see only the text in the book I'm holding.
The noise, kids playing, whatever's happening - nothing. Just me and the story I'm reading.
Well, not really, at least not anymore. It's hard to find the time to read, and it's almost impossible to read during all that's happening. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Do you have kids? They're a lot of fun, but wow, the noise they're making. It's still in my head hours after they're asleep.
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A sudden brilliant creative timely idea
I enjoy reading, sometimes I enjoy it more than anything. At times, when I read, I hear nothing, and I see only the text in the book I'm holding.
The noise, kids playing, whatever's happening - nothing. Just me and the story I'm reading.
Well, not really, at least not anymore. It's hard to find the time to read, and it's almost impossible to read during all that's happening. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Do you have kids? They're a lot of fun, but wow, the noise they're making. It's still in my head hours after they're asleep.
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The Monthly Content of Clickbank Pirate
As a member of Clickbank Pirate you get a new sales system every month. The sales systems help members to sell top Internet marketing products as Clickbank affiliates.
So far, members of Clickbank Pirate have received six sales systems (new members get access to all of them):
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The Monthly Content of Clickbank Pirate
As a member of Clickbank Pirate you get a new sales system every month. The sales systems help members to sell top Internet marketing products as Clickbank affiliates.
So far, members of Clickbank Pirate have received six sales systems (new members get access to all of them):
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The Clickbank Pirate Affiliate Toolbox
Yesterday, I told you about The Clickbank Pirate Navigation, I've also written a review.
A short recap. Clickbank Pirate is a 100% automated sales system for Clickbank products, and this makes it a very interesting system for people involved in Internet marketing.
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The Clickbank Pirate Navigation
I wrote a review of Clickbank Pirate about two weeks ago. I think that this system by Soren Jordansen and Cindy Battye is very interesting, and in a series of articles I'll highlight why.
During the next days, I will at least write three more articles about Clickbank Pirate. As of now, I think that they'll be:
The Clickbank Pirate Affiliate Toolbox
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How To Earn Money Using Twitter
A lot of people are talking about earning money from Twitter. It seems that many are earning money from Twitter, but most of us are not. Today, I'll tell you what I believe works. I have found a few interesting articles on the topic as well, you'll find links at the bottom.
Twitter is all about …
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How To Earn Money Using Twitter
A lot of people are talking about earning money from Twitter. It seems that many are earning money from Twitter, but most of us are not. Today, I'll tell you what I believe works. I have found a few interesting articles on the topic as well, you'll find links at the bottom.
Twitter is all about …
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The Last Day of 2009
As I'm writing this, on the last day of 2009, I'm thinking that there are two articles that most people expect on this New Years Eve. It's either best of 2009 articles or predictions for 2010 articles.
I’ll provide you with something different.
A summary of my 2009, without using words.
Here’s a picture of me, a picture that says more than any words. If you look at me in this picture, you can tell a lot about what happened to me during 2009.
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How To Use RSS For Twitter Search
One of the most interesting features of Twitter is the search. By searching, we get access to tweets about specific topics. Although I usually use the search in the different Twitter applications I use, like Tweetie and TweetAdder, I think it's important to understand that you can do the same in Twitter without using other applications.
Use RSS
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The Biggest Change For 2010
I should probably add, the biggest change for 2010 so far. There are a few days left of 2009, and I have no idea what will happen next year, other than that it will be a very interesting and extraordinary year for me. I have many plans that I'll tell you more about later.
I’m usually not very into the whole New Year's resolutions thing, but lately, not sure if it's because I'm getting older, I've felt an urge to add a few resolutions.
Anyway.
What I'm up to now is not really about New Year's resolutions though.
Text Link Ads
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Why A Professional Design Is Important For Your Blog
As I'm writing this I have been using a free template on my blog for about a month. The reason for this is that I have switched from Wordpress to Drupal. The design I had was created for Wordpress.
I had to switch to Drupal without warning, and without doing any planning. I experienced the heaven and hell of blogging, all within the first week of December.
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Wordpress vs Drupal - 7 things I miss about Wordpress
As you probably have noticed, at least if you are a regular reader of mine, I had to migrate from WordPress to Drupal about a month ago.
Here are two blog posts explaining the situation:
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Everything You Need To Know About TweetAdder
I have been using TweetAdder for a while. It's an amazing software that lets me automate my Twitter account, and save a lot of time.
I’ve described how I have used TweetAdder in the past, but I think it's the right time to tell you exactly how I am using it today, because I'm only using a fraction of the features.
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How Creativity is Born
It’s amazing how little creativity some people have, and at the same time it's amazing what others manage to create.
First.
Creativity is important no matter what you do in life, and no matter what line of work you're involved in. It can always be done in a different way, a better way, something you never thought of.
Second.
I think creativity is best illustrated by giving people an assignment that they're not used to, an assignment that they haven't got the slightest idea how to manage.
Third.
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Does it make you happy?
When I woke up this morning, after finishing reading Crush it! by Gary Vaynerchuk, I wanted to ask this question to whatever I was doing:
Does it make me happy?
The reason for this question, is that I really believe what Gary Vaynerchuk preaches, that you should cash in on your passion. It sounds perfect to be able to work with your passion.
But.
What exactly is your passion?
That’s a difficult question to answer.
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How To Use Twitter in Education
Twitter is an awesome tool for communication, especially when it comes people with shared interests. Hence, Twitter is a very interesting tool to use in education, where people have common understanding and a common goal; to learn specific topics.
A teacher could use four different approaches when it comes to the use of Twitter in education:
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Students Recruiting Students By Blogging
Is it possible to recruit students to a college by blogging? I think it is, at least if the people blogging are current students.
I’ve been thinking about launching a student blogging project for the past three years. So far, it's still just a few ideas somewhere in my mind.
I know there are many student blogging projects as parts of their education, but that's not what I'm talking about.
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Oh No, Not Again
I’m one of the worst technical guys on the planet. There's been so many problems with my blog lately, I almost quit blogging.
About an hour ago, I bought Phantom Link Cloaker 2.0, a brand new and very easy to install link cloaker - at least that's what the sales page says.
It comes with our super easy install wizard and all the tutorial videos and manuals.
Guess what.
I can't install it. I am having problems with the license. Everything seems to be perfect, except that I can't get the license to work.
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How to Recruit the Best Students
There are a number of reasons why universities and colleges try to recruit the best students or the most talented students.
My concern is not why, but how to recruit them.
There are many techniques that works when it comes to get students to enroll, but there are at least four techniques that I believe to work when it comes to recruiting the best students.
The best students have more options than the ordinary students, and I believe that talented people are more critical and that they use more logical reasoning when they decide where to enroll.
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Making the foreign language internet pay
The web is immediately international. And it’s on tap 24/7 to hundreds of millions of people, the vast majority of whom would prefer to conduct their web business in their own language. English speakers have a tendency to think everyone speaks English but while many foreigners do, research has shown web users are more than five times more likely to buy from a website with content in their own language. Importantly, three quarters of the Earth’s population speak no English at all.
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Why legacy is important in marketing
Legacy is an important part of any marketing strategy. Legacy is anything handed down from the past. The past of a business, a specific company, a product or a person. It could be anything from the past.
The past is important in order to understand the present and the future.
The local bakery
It’s been here for more than 76 years. Three months ago they closed their doors. The owner was sick, he couldn't work anymore. I've talked to many of their customers, they were sad. They loved their local bakery.
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The Invisible Man and His Passion
I’m at the semi final of Swedish Idol. Me and ten thousand kids. They're loud; screaming, yelling, shouting names.
I don't know why I'm here or how I got here. I'm not drunk and it's not my bachelor party. It's live TV, we're the audience.
The guy on stage are looking for a man to entertain during the commercial break. As I'm looking up, he is standing next to me, with a grin and a microphone in his right hand.
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If You Ever Get Lost
I was out walking. It was raining and I was in a hurry. My wife, my daughter and my son, they were at swimming practice.
I decided to take a shortcut, through the woods.
That’s when I discovered it.
A sign, on a tree, next to the river. It was the name of our college, and an arrow. Showing me the direction to the college.
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Tiger Woods - The Crash and The Mistresses
A while ago I wrote a post about the glitch, which Electronic Arts turned into really powerful marketing. Tiger Woods was the star of the game and of the YouTube movie.
Now. I'm not a fan of golf, Tiger Woods or celebrity gossip. But it's kind of hard not to notice the news about the crash and the alleged mistresses. Put that aside for a moment, because I have no idea what the truth of the story is, and I don't really care either.
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What Did I learn From Blogging Hell?
I’m happy to be back online, everything is going quite well. I'm using Drupal instead of WordPress, I've lost all my comments, and I'm currently using a default theme - but to be honest with you, I'm happy.
The important part, what really matters to me, is that I'm writing again.
I’ve received a few comments about the move to Drupal and about what happened with my host. I'm still a little confused, but let me tell you about the conversation.
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The Heaven and Hell of Blogging
Monday morning, five days ago, I had to call in sick. As soon as I got out of bed at 5.30 a.m., I realized that I should get back in bed and stay there. I did. I slept another two hours, got up, and did the necessary stuff to let the people at work know that I was staying home.
Ahem.
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The Sales Funnel Explained
Everything you do, when it comes to marketing, should start with a sales funnel. What I'm saying is that you should create your sales funnel before you start promoting your product.
The sales funnel is more or less a visualization of the actual sales process.
What is a sales funnel?
The reason it's called a funnel, is that, like any funnel, a lot comes in at the top, and very little comes out at the bottom.
When it comes to sales, we are talking about people/customers.
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It's Never Too Late To Tweet
I had very little time. I was suppose to meet a friend in less than ten minutes, and it was at least a fifteen minute walk - if walking fast.
The reason I was late, was due to a problem with my wife's iMac. It wouldn't start. The only thing that happened after she pushed the power button was a white screen.
I did a quick search on Google, and discovered the name "white screen of death". It seemed fairly common, although I couldn't find a solution. I have to give credit to Google, I had very little time.
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Front End Sales and Back End Sales Explained
I have always been fascinated by how Internet marketers promote their products, and how they earn their money. Well, always might not be entirely true. The story I'm about to tell you is about three years old. To me, everything that seems as always is always.
One of the first words or I should probably say concepts in Internet marketing, that I read about, and didn't quite understand, was front end sales and back end sales.
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How to Use Twitter to Get More Traffic to Your Articles
This article is presented by guest author Jimmy Boyd:
When you write articles in virtually any niche, it goes without saying that you are certainly hoping to get traffic from the search engines. But just like sending an email to your list to get more traffic to your articles, you should also Tweet the article in Twitter for extra traffic.
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Glitch Turned Into Powerful Marketing
It’s time to bring to the surface, once again, a wonderful marketing story. It's a story with two sides. One is true, the other is not. I still don't know which one is true. Either way, it ended up as really powerful marketing.
Let me first tell you the story, how it has been told to me, and what most people think happened.
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How To Create A Twitter List
There are at least three reasons why you should use Twitter lists.
1) Twitter lists are a great way to organize your followers
2) Twitter lists are a great way to recommend followers
3) Twitter lists are a great way to measuring influence
I’ll give you an example of how to create a list called blogging. It will be a list of interesting people tweeting about blogging.
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My Four Keys To Stop Procrastination
In order to be productive, and stop procrastination, I have developed four keys to success. They refer to all my writing, not just blogging. 1. I will never check my email after 6 pm 2. I will never check my stats after 6 pm 3. I will never read blogs or news (any website at all) after 6 pm 4. After 6 pm, the only thing I'll do, is planning and writing The reason 6 pm is the time of day when my four keys to success begins, is that this is when the quality time with my kids starts.
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Why I Gave Money To A Beggar
I have a quite interesting story to tell you, it's about a beggar and the city of Gothenburg.
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Celebrating The Masters of Design
I’ve just received an interesting tip from David McGregor about Fast Company's annual Masters of Design issue.
As I was reading his email, I realized that I rarely write about design.
That’s not because I think that design is not part of the marketing process, or that design is not as important as all the other parts of the process. Design is actually very important.
Design is in fact so important, that my blog is being redesigning as I'm writing this.
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A Crazy Idea From The Marketing Director
About a week ago, the news about a falling meteor that created a 27 feet wide crater in Latvia was spread across the world. It was in all the major newspapers, all the TV channels, and of course, on every major social media site. The phenomenon was named Splatvia.
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The Potato Chips Marketing Story
My favorite snack is potato chips, no doubt about it. It’s saturday, and it’s the perfect day for a post about a very interesting potato chips marketing story.
Most brands selling potato chips in Norway are famous, multi-national corporations, huge companies with lots of workers.
Ask yourself, what would you do in order to get a piece of the potato chips market, when you know that you are up against this kind of competition?
The answer is what a Norwegian company, Sørlandscips, have done. They are using Seth Godin’s Small is the new big, in order to attract attention and sell potato chips.
One of their now famous slogans is; Norway’s smallest potato chips factory.
This is how they market their factory on their website.
It really looks like the smallest factory.
They have created a brand that people remember, it’s about quality, awesome potato chips, made from hand picked potatoes by people at a very small factory in Norway.
What they did with their marketing was try to stand out from the crowd, by being very different than their competition. Their competitors are large, impersonal companies, where everything is created by huge machines. Sørlandschips is small, they really care about every potato, they hand pick them, everything is created with love.
When you visit their website, a man from the factory welcomes you. It’s about being personal.
It’s about marketing and creating a strong brand. Sørlandschips is doing it by using humor and clever story telling.
Most important, their potato chips are awesome. Their products and their marketing are both really impressive.
Guess what. I just finished eating one of their bags of potato chips.
Visit My Top Internet Marketing Resources Today.
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The iPhone Effect
Let me tell you the truth about contests. If you do it right, it might be the cheapest and most effective marketing you can buy.
We’ve been using contests on the website of our college for the past three years. We’ve been giving away various products from Apple, worth apx $5000 in total per year. This year, we’ve been giving away six iPhones. One iPhone each month, starting January and ending in June.
The reason we’ve been doing this, and the reason we will still be doing this the next years, is that the results are awesome.
First.
If you ask the right questions, you can use the answers to something interesting. We have questions like, what’s the most important thing for you when you are going to apply to a college or a university? Doing research like this is worth a lot of money to any college. Usually, when we have contests like this, we collect the answers from thousands of people. So far, more than 2200 people have answered.
Second.
The answers will affect our marketing, but that’s not all. We are also sending a newsletter each month to every single person on this list. We are updating them with the latest winner, and interesting information from our college. This information should have some effect. This way, they might still remember us when it’s time to apply to college.
Third.
Our latest winner is a great example that this kind of marketing works. I am contacting each winner personally. I call them, email them, and finally send them a handwritten letter along with the iPhone.
I asked this guy if he had any plans for the future. Like many people his age, senior at high school, he wasn’t really sure. He was thinking about applying to college, but he didn’t know which one. Now, I have been in contact with him several times. He is very interested in computer science, he is a road racing cyclist, and he would like to study a year in another European country.
Our college has an awesome computer science department, and we offer all sorts of studies abroad. I have told him this, and the road racing cyclist team in our city is fairly awesome too. We seem to have everything he is looking for.
Now, I don’t know if he will be applying to our college, but I know what got him interested.
The iPhone Effect.
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Five Important Aspects of Online Branding
Branding your business online is similar, but on the other hand, it’s also different from typical marketing strategies.
You’ll have to make a unique approach to this method of promoting your business brand. And yet, the benefits of using web tools in making your brand distinct includes the ability to maximize your business efforts and expanding the reach of your business. After all, it only makes sense to extend your branding efforts to the internet given the fact that most people nowadays use the internet as their source of daily information.
There are five important aspects to remember in order to develop a strong business brand online.
Your domain
You must be able to produce a sense of identity for your website and provide a glimpse into your company even before they get the opportunity to see what your website is really about. Your domain is important, both in order for people to remember it, but also as a way to tell them something about you and your products.
Your keywords
Keywords are essential to help search engines connect you to the proper audience. Use keywords that are related to your website, so that it can be easily detected when people run a search on the internet. Try to be creative in coming up with keywords to use, especially those queries not directly related but associated to your business.
Your website
This is where you get to showcase your company’s vision and your offer of quality products or services. Therefore, create a website that speaks for your brand. There are several ways to do that, which includes the content, style, design, and color. You must also incorporate your company logo in the design of the website, to enhance the level of trust and confidence on the consumers to your website. A website is just another form of marketing strategy and its objective is to communicate your company’s message.
Your blog
Your blog is where you tell the story of your company and your products. It’s basically where you focus on producing quality content. This will help establish your company’s brand as an authority and develop trust in the market.
Your social profile
There are several social networking sites online such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. When you join any one of these social sites, always include your company signature or brand representative such as a logo. This will help visitors to easily remember your company.
Visit My Top Internet Marketing Resources Today.
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My Gut Feeling Says Start Another Blog
When should you start a blog, and if you have multiple blogs, when is the time to start another one?
It’s fairly difficult to answer the questions above, and I am the first to admit that I have no clue what I am doing, other than listening to my gut feeling. If I feel like starting a blog, well, I will start it, no matter what people are telling me.
Don’t get me wrong, I listen to advice, I always do.
One advice that I have listened to, several times actually, is that I shouldn’t start another blog before the one I already have is popular.
I am not sure what people will tell you if you ask them to put a carachteristic on me, but I think that some would say that I am fairly unpremeditated. I like to do things the way that suits me, and many times I act on my gut feeling, and it happens fast. If I feel like starting another blog, it can happen within the hour. The blog will be up and running in matter of minutes.
I am not sure if this is a good thing or not. Well, sometimes it should be considered a strength, other times, it might be considered a weakness. It all depends.
Now, I have this gut feeling, fairly late on a saturday in March. My wife and kids are watching TV, we’ve just finished eating a late dinner, and I have hidden myself in the office, listenting to old Erasure songs.
Let me tell you about it.
I have a domain, I really like it, but I don’t use it for anything. It’s about to expire. The reason I haven’t used it for anything, is because I had a gut feeling, and I was impulsive. I wanted to write an ebook about marketing mistakes, and why most people fail at Internet marketing, but I ended up with an interesting sales page and no ebook. I got started, but I lost interest, or I should probably say that I had too many other projects, because that’s the real reason.
Now, I am thinking about creating a blog, and using it for the same reason; writing about marketing mistakes. It would be a blog about mistakes, nothing more and nothing less. I already own the domain, and it would focus my blog posts. This blog (slymarketing) would be about ways to do successful marketing and some interesting thoughts, while the other one would be about failure and things you never should do.
Right now, this thought sounds very interesting to me.
It’s not really that hard to build a kick-ass blog.
The problem is time, I barely have the time to write posts on my two blogs. Adding a third blog won’t help me get more time. I guess I have to work a lot smarter, and it’s tempting to see if I can.
And, I think that adding another blog means that I will get less content for my blogs. Today, I am writing about everything related to marketing, and I am posting it to slymarketing (the blog you are reading this very minute). Adding another blog related to marketing is not going to help when it comes to creating content, or maybe it will (it will help me be more focused)?
And, I have to hire a designer. I want a cool blog design, and a professional designer will cost hundreds of dollars. But, it’s not really about the money.
I think that time is of the essence, as well as content. Adding another blog might destroy what I have created, but on the other hand, adding another blog might be the wisest thing I have done in a long time.
It’s hard to decide.
But, right now, I want another blog. And, it will be marketingflop.com, all about marketing mistakes LOL.
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Relax Alarm is My First Paid iPhone Application
I have been using my iPhone for a few months without download and testing many of the applications found in the app store. But things are changing.
Earlier today, I bought my first iPhone application.
The application I bought was Relax Alarm, formerly known as Tranquil Alarm, and basically it’s an alarm clock for the iPhone.
The iPhone comes with a clock and an alarm, but I wanted something amazing. I wanted a lot of different sounds to choose from.
When the alarm is waking me up at 0500 am, I want it to be as gentle as possible. Therefore, I am picky when it comes to sounds.
I have tested Relax Alarm, and I am satisfied. It does close to everything I was hoping that it would do, and the sounds are perfect. Tomorrow, I’ll be waking up to birds and the breeze somewhere in the mountains.
There are only one thing I don’t like, but I guess I can’t blame the people behind this application for this.
The alarm is still working if I turn the iPhone into “sleep” mode, by pressing the button on the top edge. That’s perfect, but if my phone is in “sleep” mode, it’s really hard to turn the alarm off. There is no single button to turn it off then. So, basically, the Relax Alarm application need to be active, and the digital clock needs to be showing when I am going to use the alarm.
That’s ok, but it will use a lot of power, and I am not sure if this is such a good idea when it comes to the screen. The numbers of the clock will be showing constantly for up to eight hours.
I’ll be testing it, probably with the power connected, and I’ll write another update in a few weeks.
So far, I am very satisfied with Relax Alarm.
Take a closer look at Relax Alarm in the App Store.
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Ready Made Review Sites March Update
I was really excited when I first joined Ready Made Review Sites. Everything about this system seemed close to perfect. Anthony Hull and Jason Gazaway had done a amazing job. I joined, and my hopes were high, this system would be wonderful as an automatic affiliate marketing product.
A few weeks later, I became a little sceptical.
I joined Ready Made Review Sites in order to stop focusing on ways to earn money, and concentrate on how to get traffic and write better content for my blogs. Like I said, the system seems close to perfect.
The reason I ended up to be more sceptical after a few weeks, was because I talked to several members, and none of them had made any sales. I hadn’t made any sales (I never did much about the PPC campaign, it was promoted using my blog). I have checked my stats, and the website received no less than 20 unique visitors a day. That’s not a lot, but during a month, I think that that kind of traffic should at least make one sale. I wasn’t sure why such an incredible system didn’t make any sales.
… and I still don’t understand.
Yesterday, I received the March update from Ready Made Review Sites and I am still as amazed by how it looks, and how it seems to work.
The March update is SEO Product Reviews. A website with reviews about three top SEO products, videos, articles, and an autoresponder (seven messages). It looks very professional.
Last month, the first month, all members received Blogging Product Reviews. And that’s why I was so excited about the system. Everything above was included.
My question still remains, why are members not making sales? Some are probably earning money, but the ones I have talked to are still not earning a dime (me included). The system seems to be perfect.
Two reasons why the February system did not work:
There are many people promoting exactly the same website. I am not sure how many though, but I think that people who sees the same sales page all over, might end up being sceptical.
The products are great, but kind of old? I have bought a few of the products myself, and they are plain awesome. The problem though, is that they have been available for a few monhts. This might be the reason why few people are buying?
I don’t think it’s anything wrong with the system, other than that it should be a way to customize the sales pages and include brand new products (but the products are new enough, and amazing, so I guess that’s not really a problem).
Two reasons why the March update is better:
We received the source file for the header (PSD). Now, all members can easily customize “everything”.
We have also received the video files (mp4), and we are now able to submit them to all the video sharing sites (this should generate traffic).
I am thinking that March is a lot better than February, what about you?
This is the sales page of Ready Made Review Sites
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Why You Should Be Branding Your Business
This is the first post of a series of posts about branding. The reason I am writing about it, is because branding a business is an essential step that any business owner need to take. And, at the moment, I am thinking about how our college should be branding ourselves - because I really don’t think that we have a strong brand.
Branding - a definition
When I write about a brand, I am basically writing about a name or a logo that represents your company or business, but it can also be a slogan and the design scheme associated with your product or service. The brand will be used in marketing campaigns, and it will be used when printing out your business cards and when referring to your company. A brand is who you are, what you do, and how you do it.
There are several reasons why you should think about branding your business. They are all related to your business goals.
Creating Business Identity
Branding is about creating a purple cow. You need to be different, there are probably already other similar businesses to yours. Therefore, you need to create a brand for your business that will differentiate you from your competitors.
People should be able to remember your business. Distinction is a vital part of every business venture and when people find that you have something unique to offer that lets you stand out from the crowd.
Once you have created your brand, you need to look into delivering quality products.
Marketing your brand
A brand is a way for people to easily remember who you are, and a way for them to recognize your top quality products.
Take the time to let people know who you are, what you do, and how you do it. It’s about communicating your vision through your brand. It’s about creating awareness of the products and services you are promoting.
When people hear or see your brand, they should think of your products and your reputation.
Your brand is your identity.
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The Mini Site Formula Review
I have just finished viewing all the videos included in a fairly new Internet marketing course called The Mini Site Formula, the creator is well-known marketer Joel Peterson. The course is fairly expensive at $97, but if what Joel Peterson has written on his sales page is right, well, $97 is nothing to worry about.
Let me first give you an overview of the contents:
The Mini Site Formula contains five video modules.
Module 1: How to make massive profits with tiny websites (7 videos)
Module 2: The quick and easy way to build your mini-sites (6 videos)
Module 3: The guts of your mini-site (4 videos)
Module 4: Promoting your mini-sites (9 videos)
Module 5: Scaling for massive growth and profits (5 videos)
What are mini sites?
Mini sites are wordpress blogs, one blog for each niche. What you should do, according to Joel, is create hundreds or thousands of sites. It’s easy to earn a few bucks a day from one mini site, and if you have hundreds of them, you’ll be earning hundreds of dollars a day. The more mini sites you have, the more money you’ll be earning.
So, the course is really about how to create hundreds or thousands of blogs packed with content and affiliate links.
The tutorials
Joel Peterson has created many tutorials about how to get started. This course is even for the complete newbie. For instance, module 2, is all about how to set up your wordpress blog. There was nothing new for me to learn during this module, I ended up watching all the six videos anyway.
How to earn money from the mini sites
There are especially two ways to earn money from all the various mini sites. The first one is through eBay, the second one is by using Datafeedr. If you combine the two, you’ll have access to thousands of products, through all the major affiliate networks. And every time someone buys a product from one of your mini sites, you’ll be earning commission.
How to get traffic to the mini sites
Now, I have been explained in details about how to install and configure the mini sites. I have learned the details about how to find “the perfect” products to sell. The only problem that remains, is how to get traffic to the mini sites.
I should have guessed it.
Joel Peterson goes into details about why videos are the ultimate traffic machines. He also explains how to create your own videos and which tool to use in order to submit your videos to all the top video sites in just a few minutes. He also shows the results of what happened after only 24 hours.
The Mini Site Formula is also about other traffic methods, like link building, article marketing and pay per click. They are all explained, but not in as much details as video marketing.
Lots of resources
During the videos, he talks about a lot of different software and websites. I was really happy to see that he had added all the links to the resources section of the course. This way it was a lot easier to find everything after I finished watching the videos.
The conclusion
I really enjoyed this course, and I have learned a lot from it. First of all, I never thought that a mini site actually was a regular blog. I have also got a glimpse at several interesting software that will certainly help me reduce the time when it comes to my blogging.
Actually, I think that I am really impressed by this course. Everything about it was very professional, the design, the videos, the resources. Everything.
The problem though, I love writing, and I have never been a video guy (except when it comes to watching videos).
I am also a sucker for manual labor, and control. I currently have only two blogs, and I am a little stressed, because I can hardly keep up the writing. But I will most certainly be doing some of the stuff Joel Peterson showed me during his 28 videos that took me several hours of watching. And hopefully I’ll still feel I have control.
I highly recommend that you take a closer look at The Mini Site Formula.
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Are We Allowed To Spam?
Spam if applied to email, means that you are not allowed to send unsolicited bulk email. Unsolicited means that the recipient has not granted permission, bulk means that the message is sent as part of a large collection of messages.
But, what about offline marketing?
I am not sure how this works in other countries, but in Norway (and my guess is that it’s similar in both Sweden and Denmark), we can buy addresses to all sorts of companies. We can send them letters or whatever we like to send them, as long as it’s offline (snail mail).
My question is; are we allowed to spam, as long as it’s offline?
Or maybe the definition of spam only applies when it’s on the Internet?
Tags: Spam, Email, Norway, Offline+marketing
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Marketing with Social Websites
Millions of people are using websites like facebook and twitter every single day. New social websites are appearing every week (at least that’s what it seems like). I have talked to many people that are getting huge amounts of traffic from twitter alone.
It seems that social marketing was one of the best ways to market any product or service during 2008, and it seems like it might be one of the best ways so far this year. I am talking about emphasizing relationships using social websites like Facebook and Twitter in order to interact with potential customers.
But, for people like you and me, should we really be spending our time trying to figure out how to get traffic from social websites?
In order to answer this, I will ask you five questions.
How important are backlinks?
There are many advantages when it comes to marketing on social websites. One of the major benefits is all the backlinks you get. If you are not familiar with backlinks; they are links that are anywhere on the Internet and lead back to your site. The more backlinks you have the higher you’ll rank with the search engines. You will get traffic from each link directly from the social website, but you will also get more traffic from ranking higher with the search engines.
Backlinks are time consuming, but are they worth the effort?
Is blogging really the King?
Blogging is a great way to get more traffic to your site. I am receiving more than 700 unique visitors a day. And that’s only from writing. I don’t have time to market my blog, or do seo related stuff. Search engines love blogs and people enjoy reading blogs.
But in order to get traffic to your blog, you need to be a fairly decent writer. If you are not, should you still go with blogging in order to market your products?
Should you create your own videos?
YouTube is wildly popular on the Internet and it’s getting even more popular as I am writing this. People love to watch videos and people love to get a look into other people’s lives. YouTube allows people to do both.
To be honest with you, even the worst looking videos get traffic. Just create any kind of video and place a link back to your site at the end of the video - that’s how easy you can get traffic from YouTube. But I would probably never create my own video, that’s because if I do, I want it to be close to perfect. In other words, I would probably never finish the video.
Would you want to add a crappy video to YouTube?
Why use Twitter and Squidoo?
Twitter and Squidoo are just two of many social websites that allows you to have a page and to interact with other users. Twitter is more simplistic than Squidoo. Both are easy to set up.
It’s easy to use twitter, it’s an ongoing process though, you should do it on a daily basis. While Squidoo is more like a set and forget website. Twitter is different, your followers will interact with you seconds after your tweets. It’s a fairly easy tool when it comes to creating a network, while Squidoo ranks very well with the search engines.
Twitter and Squidoo are not necessarily time consuming, but I have heard that they are very addictive. Watch out.
Do you need to bookmark?
Every time I upload any type of social website content, people tell me that I need to bookmark it using a social bookmarking site. It will help me rank better with the search engines because I will have more backlinks leading to my site.
I agree, it sound like the perfect thing to do. But as most of the stuff described above, it’s time consuming. You can’t just bookmark your content, and wait for the search engines to start sending you visitors. If you want success with bookmarking, you should be active, interact with other users and bookmark many websites, not just your own.
Conclusion: Marketing with social websites are time consuming. Marketing is time consuming. Therefore, you need to focus on what you are good at. If you enjoy social websites, stick with a few, don’t do them all. Why not Twitter and Squidoo?
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Marketing By Sharing Personal Details
Russell Brunson and Matt Bacak are just two examples of well-known marketers, who are earning a fairly nice income online. They are also living proof of something I thought would never happen, at least that’s what my teachers told me a few years ago.
Let me tell you about an interesting development when it comes to visibility on the Internet. You might not think about it, it probably depends on how old you are, because when I became familiar with the Internet, and especially during the early years of my online presence, this was a big issue.
I am talking about sharing personal details.
A few years ago, when I first started teaching teachers about how to use content management systems to publish content on the Internet, I was asked that the names of the authors of the content should be hidden.
Many of the teachers didn’t want any personal information visible on the Internet, because if it was visible, people could take advantage of the information. It was sort of like identity theft. If someone read their names, if they found some of their personal information, they were afraid of what they would do with the information.
The same applied to images. They didn’t want any pictures on the Internet, because pictures could be manipulated. And pictures could be downloaded and who knows where the pictures could end up?
The same goes for many of my earlier teachers. Internet was all about information, but when it comes to personal information, it should never be published. Hide everything about you.
The trend today, seems to be exactly the opposite.
More and more people are using social media sites, like twitter and facebook, sharing personal details that they wouldn’t have shared with their best friends a few years ago. The development is going fast.
As I mentioned, Internet marketers are also using this technique. It seems that the more personal information they share, the more people will trust them. The more people that trust, the more people will buy. Trust is important, I remember this from reading the famous book by Francis Fukuyama.
Russell Brunson and Matt Bacak, just two of many examples, are sharing pictures of their family and personal details, with all their followers on twitter and facebook.They are publishing stuff about their birthdays, Matt Bacak’s mom even published a message about her son, who knows what else they are sharing. It’s all in the name of earning money. It’s a marketing strategy, and it’s working.
Looking back at my experiences in life, I always end up thinking - “I guess I am getting old fast”.
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How To Find Out If Someone Copied Your Website
It seems that a lot of people are copying content in order to sell whatever they are selling. Content is king, especially when it comes to Search Engines. The more content, and the more relevant content (to your keywords), the more traffic you’ll receive. That’s usually how it works.
A lot of people have stated that you’ll get penalized by Google if you publish duplicate content, but other people have stated that you’ll get ranked fairly well for duplicate content. I am not sure what’s true when it comes to publishing duplicate content, but according to Google, there are some penalties that are related to having the same content as another website.
What’s more important to me, is that I want to publish my own content, and I want people to give me credit if they use “my words” or “my thoughts”.
I am not one of those guys that spend a lot of time trying to find people who have been copying my content. But, it’s actually not that time consuming.
The way you can find out if people are copying your website and your content, is by using Copyscape. Just type your website address and hit enter, a few seconds later, you’ll see the results.
There are probably several similar tools to Copyscape, like Plagiarism Checker, but I only use Copyscape. It’s fast and free, and so far, it works great.
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How To Find Your Internet Marketing Writer
It’s hard to keep writing really good content every single day. Many people have experienced this and therefore, they are outsourcing their writing.
Why Should You Hire A Writer?
There are many reasons why you should consider to hire an Internet marketing writer.
Think of it this way, your business can only grow if you can keep up the pace and quality of your work. If you hire a writer, it will free up your time, and you can use your time to be creative, doing what you do best.
Let me give you an example.
I just hired one of the most popular talkshow hosts in Norway to visit our college. Everything is set, and it will happen in just two days. So far, I haven’t talked to the talkshow host, I have just talked to his manager. The talkshow host is never involved when it comes to stuff like this, all he is involved with is producing great content.
If he had to talk to all the people that wanted him to do a show, he would never have time to do anything about the content. This is why he hired a manager to do this.
Think like the talkshow host.
Hiring a good writer is not expensive.
If you outsource parts of your writing, you can spend more time commenting on blogs, builing links, finding partners, marketing your blog and finding new ways to promote your products.
My First Experience With Outsourcing
I read a very interesting book a while ago, it was The 4-Hour Workweek, a book about outsourcing your life by Tim Ferriss. After reading this book, I decided that I had to do something in order to get more things done, and save a lot of time doing it.
Since then, I have outsourced webdesign and writing.
When you get a little experienced at Internet marketing, you will eventually want to outsource some of your work. I think that outsourcing your writing might be the best way to start. The reason for this, is that it’s very easy to find writers, and they are fairly cheap. But if you are a strong writer, you might want to outsource some of your other work.
I just said that it’s very easy to find writers, it is, but it’s not as easy to find good writers.
Discussion Forums
Many people are looking for writers at sites like Elance and Rentacoder. You can find really cheap writers there, but usually, this is not where you find the best writers.
During my experience as an Internet marketer, I find the best people at Internet marketing discussion forums. Many of these writers are Internet marketers looking for an extra income.
The two best discussion forums I use:
- Digital Point Forums
- The Warrior Forum
If you use those two forums, you’ll certainly find really good writers.
You Need Samples
You’ll not have a hard time to find writers if you use the discussion forums above. But, before you hire one, you should ask for samples. Personally, I would ask for two samples.
I always check for spelling, grammar, punctuation, but more interesting to me, is the writer’s style. I find it very important to be a voice that I can compare myself with.
The samples you get is most likely the top work, therefore, if you find any mistakes, you should probably go with other writers.
All Communication Is Important
Don’t just read the samples, pay attention to all communication with the writer. You want to carefully read all the emails that the writer sends to you. Look at the language, the grammar. Take a closer look at the writer’s forum posts to see if they are full of errors. Be sure that the writer has no, or at least very few, errors in any of the communications.
Personally, I think that you should use discussion forums to find your writers, then, ask for samples of their work, and finally, pay close attention to all their communication, both emails and posts. But, there are also important things to remember when it comes to outsourcing your writing. You can even concentrate on a specific country, I have been very satisfied with outsourcing content development to India.
Writing Your Own Articles
If you’d rather write your own articles but are concerned about the time it takes, you can try a piece of software that a lot of people are recommending. It’s an easy to use software that will help you to write quality articles fast, it’s Instant Article Wizard by Jonathan Leger.
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Hannah Montana Just Made Me Realize
About a week ago, I ordered a new Nintendo Wii game for my daughter. It was Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour. I received it yesterday, and my daughter was very excited. She is playing the game as I am writing this. If you are looking for an awesome game for your 5 year old daughter, you might want to give Hannah Montana a try.
Looking at the receipt, it made me realize that offline marketing should be more like online marketing.
Here’s the receipt.
I have created an arrow, and with red letters I have written “Should be customers who bought… did also buy ….”.
Let me explain why.
Go to Amazon, and look up Twitter Power by Joel Comm. Just below the information about the book, you’ll get the headline “Customers who bought this item also bought”. And you’ll get several very interesting offers that are similar to the one you just bought (or in this case, just had a peek at). It’s very easy to get tempted when you see books with a similar topic.
When you look at the receipt I received from buying Hannah Montana, you can see all sorts of titles.
First of all, all the titles they recommend are DVD’s. Why do they think I am interested in movies, when I bought a Nintendo Wii game?
Second, the titles seems to be random. I bought a Hannah Montana game, they should think that I most likely interested in movies for kids more than adults. They suggest that I buy Twilight, James Bond and Saw V (among others).
They should make an effort to relate the suggested products to what I did buy. It should either be similar games, or Hannah Montana cd’s or movies.
I am not sure how difficult it would be to create a specific paper receipt for each buyer, related to the products she actually bought. But if they did create receipt like that, I bet that they would earn a lot more money.
I am not sure how Amazon are doing it, but have you seen any paper receipts like that?
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How To Reach Thousands of People on Twitter
The best way to get lots of people to follow you on twitter, is to create a viral marketing campaign. Lot’s of people are doing it. Their campaign are somewhat similar, from giving a way stuff to random followers, competitions, to giving away free software or ebooks to all followers that helps spread a message.
Let me give you a really fresh example. I think this viral marketing campaign was launched earlier today.
MacHeist TweetBlast
MacHeist is giving away DEVONthink to all followers that completes the following.
1. Follow MacHeist on twitter
2. Tweet this: @MacHeist Yeah, I’ll take a free copy of DEVONthink! http://macheist.com/tweetblast/ #MacHeist #free
3. Watch for a direct message from MacHeist, including instructions of how to download DEVONthink.
So far, this type of viral marketing campaign is by far the best way to spread your message, and get a massive amount of followers on twitter.
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How To Find Your Internet Marketing Niche
Every single day, I find at least twenty emails in my inbox, from well-known marketers that are raking in lots of cash from their Internet marketing efforts. They are using various techniques, from affiliate marketing to membership sites. It’s not hard to find successful marketers, people that are earning a living online. On the other hand, the failure rate when it comes to Internet marketing is very high. It’s been estimated to be more than 95%. I see at least two reasons why most people fail.
They should have a blueprint and they should find an awesome Internet marketing niche.
If you are not familiar with niche markets, I have looked it up for you. According to wikipedia, a business that focuses on a niche market is addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers. A niche market may be thought of as a narrowly defined group of potential customers.
Any market that’s not addressed by mainstream providers can be considered a niche market.
Include All Three
Your main concern when it comes to finding your Internet marketing niche, should include three things (and it needs to include all three):
1. Any niche you have a great interest in, and
2. A popular niche, and
3. A niche that doesn’t have a lot of competition
Your Niche Should Be About Passion
Personally, I find that the part about passion is the most important one of the three. If you are not really that interested, you will most likely have to push yourself hard to work. Everything related to your work will be difficult. On the other hand, if you are passionate about your niche, you will probably feel like you aren’t even working. You will enjoy just about everything that you do. And you will get more work done and produce high quality work.
Your Niche Should Be Popular
You can’t just jump into a niche that close to nobody cares about. Let me give you an example. You could be passionate about making vases out of dried worms. If that’s your passion, you will probably have a lot of fun blogging about this topic and to make products to show people how to make their own dried worm vases. However, odds are that nobody else will care too much about this so the business will most likely fail.
Instead, a niche has to be something that others are interested in. Such niches usually fall into a category of making money, love, happiness, or self improvement. If a niche falls in one of these categories (or more than one) then you probably have a winner.
Your Niche Should Have Little or No Competition
You might think that competition is bad, but it really isn’t. Think about it this way. If there is a lot of competition then you know there’s a market for the niche. Just come-up with something a little unique or be prepared to work harder and smarter than the next guy.
It really is quite easy to find your Internet marketing niche. You simply have to consider your own interests, what others want and need, and then find your competition.
In order to find popular niches and niches without hardly any competition, I have been using Micro Niche Finder. It’s all about extensive keyword research, the fast and easy way.
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How To Write Amazing Sales Copy Headlines
I am the first to admit that it’s hard to write good sales copy. You have to think about every word you are using, because not only should your sales copy look good, be easy to read, but it needs to be high converting as well.
It’s really all about the sales
When you are writing a sales copy, you need to think about the main goal, and the main concern of why you are writing. It’s all about the sales. All you need to think about when writing, is how to convert each reader into a customer. It’s not all about writing perfect english, even though spelling mistakes can hurt your business.
Why the headline is important
An amazing sales letter always begin with an amazing headline. The headline should capture the potential customer and get her to continue to read. Without the headline, you will have a difficult time to get people to continue reading. It usually starts with the headline, and many times, this is where it all ends as well.
There Are No Magic Formulas
Unfortunately, I haven’t found a magic formula that will automatically turn every headline into an amazing headline. The reason that there are no magic formulas, is that every product or service is different and needs a different type of sales pitch. But there are a few main goals you need to focus on when writing your headline.
Urgency is Effective
Every headline you write should include a certain degree of urgency. In other words, you want to tell your reader that she needs to buy what you are selling as soon as possible. If you don’t create urgency in your headline, you need to make it urgent for them to read the rest of the sales copy.
You Should Be Very Specific
The more specific you can be with your headline the more people you’ll hook. For example, don’t just write that your product will help them earn money. Write that they will earn $900 within the first 2 weeks. Don’t just tell them that reading your e-book will save them time; tell them it will help them save 2 hours every single day.
You should Make It Unique
You need the headline to stand out from the crowd, it needs to be more amazing than all the other ads that your potential customer is being bombarded with. You either need to find a unique selling point or you need to find a unique way to present that selling point.
You Should Make it Useful
There’s got to be something in it for them. No one will read it unless they think that you are presenting something useful. Make sure you tell the reader why they should keep reading or why they should buy your product. Put a great hook in your headline or include a great benefit. One of the best techniques is to take the best benefit of a product and work that into a headline.
Never Forget AIDA
When it comes to writing amazing sales copy, you should always think of AIDA. It’s a formula for writing your sales copy in general, but you can use it for headlines as well.
A - Attention
I - Interest
D - Detail
A - Action
Let me explain AIDA using just one sentence; Always use a headline that demands attention, make your potential customer curious, include powerful details about your product and a call for action.
Brian Clark of Copyblogger has written one of the best blog posts about how to write headlines that work. He discusses eight time-tested headline categories that compel action and rake in sales, some of the headline examples he discusses uses AIDA.
You should always consider to use keywords, hot trends and superlatives in your headlines.
One of my favorite headline techniques is to use testimonials to create trust. You should use the testimonial technique to add proof to your headline, proof that your product really works. Add a testimonial from a few of your customers, and turn it into a headline. If it’s authentic, it becomes a powerful headline.
If you want to take your copy writing skills to the next level, you could read Words That Sell, a very popular book. Or, you can take a look at a very interesting service that “promises” you Advertising Headline Templates That Make You Rich. I don’t have any experience with it, but it looks exciting enough.
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The Adwords Manifesto Review
I have just finished reading The Adwords Manifesto, and I thought I’d provide you with an honest review. I received access to it during the weekend, and I was really eager to finish it in a day or two. But, it was way more complex and too many pages, and my weekend was way more busy than I thought it would be. So, the reading and the writing, took me a few extra days.
The Reason
The reason I wanted access to The Adwords Manifesto, was because of my work as a marketer for a college in Norway. Google Adwords is becoming a big part of how colleges and universities are trying to grab attention and attract new students. A lot of our competitors were using Google AdWords during 2008, and even more of them are using it this year.
I have tried Google Adwords as an affiliate marketer a while ago. The campaign was miserable and I failed bigtime. I paid a lot for every click, and I ended up with very few sales. I am also testing a Google Adwords campaign at the moment, this is for my Blogging Product Reviews. You guessed it, I am also doing a fairly lousy job at this campaign as well.
To be honest with you, I have always sucked when it comes to Google AdWords.
The content of The Adwords Manifesto
When you buy The Adwords Manifesto, you get access to an ebook (in pdf-format) with 162 pages of tips related to Google Adwords. If you become a platinum member, you will also get access to two Internet marketing video courses. The first course is Lightning Fast PPC Profits and includes 19 videos. The other Internet marketing course is The Fusion Reaction Forum Traffic and it includes 8 videos.
I am a platinum member, but I have only watched the first video of Lightning Fast PPC Profits. All I can say is that this video was of really high quality and that I am really looking forward to view them all.
Confessions of an Adwords Secret Agent
One of the subtitles of the book is “Play the Adwords Game and Win!”. After reading 162 pages of interesting tips, I feel that I understand what the game is all about, and that I can master it, but only if I am willing to spend time and money to do so.
Let me quote a very interesting passage from page 73.
“Be prepared to pay between $75 and $150 initially. If you do not have the money to spend, don’t get involved. Because when you put in say $200 and don’t get results, you are blowing that money and wasting it. Count the cost before you get involved in any Adwords campaign. As any businessman will tell you, PPC is all about the money. The more you have to spend, the better your ad will show and the more traffic you will get.”
When I created my previous campaigns, I thought that I could buy clicks for next to nothing, and that I would spend $20 on a campaign and earn a massive amount of money. Well, I have learned my lesson the hard way. I have experienced only loss when it comes to my Google Adwords campaigns, but I have only lost a few hundred dollars. No big deal, the only problem was that I didn’t learn anything from losing the money, only that I shouldn’t copy my previous campaigns.
Reading this book made me realize how complex “The Google Adwords Game” really is. If you are looking for a quick set and forget system, you will only end up wasting your money if you are going to try AdWords without having any background knowledge.
The contents
I am not sure if it’s possible to write a more detailed ebook about Google AdWords. The Adwords Manifesto is packed with tips and tricks. The table of contents reveals a lot:
Chapter 1 - Keyword research - getting ready for your campaign
Chapter 2 - Building your campaign
Chapter 3 - Creating quality landing pages
Chapter 4 - Writing effective search ads - the rules have changed
Chapter 5 - Bidding basics - what to do when a campaign isn’t working
Chapter 6 - Dealing with low ctr - how to tweak your ad
Chapter 7 - Campaign pruning
Chapter 8 - The content network - placement ads
Chapter 9 - Campaign optimization - tweaking your campaign
Chapter 10 - Banner ad creation - banner ads that work
Chapter 11 - How to make the sale - creating sales copy that work
Chapter 12 - Setting up your system - steps and elements involved
Chapter 13 - Adwords editor - managing your campaign online
Chapter 14 - Alternative ads - moving beyond ppc
I have learned a lot from reading it, and I will most likely use it to look up certain techniques if I am going to use Google AdWords in the future. The book was fairly easy to read and understand, but in order to use it when it comes to creating a successful AdWords campaign, I’d need to read each chapter (at least) one more time.
A few tips
I had never heard about, or read about the Google Adwords editor before reading The Adwords Manifesto. This editor is built solely for you to keep track of your campaigns and in order for you to optimize them. You can do it offline on your computer.
It looks really powerful and it’s completely free. You can download it at http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwordseditor/
I have never thought about starting my Adwords campaign with keyword research, even before creating the landing page. I have always created the landing page first, then I’d be writing an advertisement, and finally, I would be looking for some relevant keywords. According to the book, it’s the other way around.
The book is packed with real examples of campaigns, and I find it easier to learn from examples.
I didn’t know that I should create a different ad group and ad for each of my top 5 keyword phrases. When creating an advertisement, relevance is what it’s all about.
I have never realized that by using Google Adwords you can also make ads visible on TV, Radio or on print ads.
The Problem with The Adwords Manifesto
As I stated at the beginning of this blog post; I am looking for a way to attract more students to the college where I work in Norway. I find that The Adwords Manifesto is more or less exclusively for people trying to earn money from selling various products or services on the Internet. It’s not really that much help for people with a different agenda.
Should you buy it?
Yes, it’s a really masterpiece. If you are going to read only one book about Google AdWords this year, then, I recommend that you read The Adwords Manifesto.
Take a closer look at the official website of The Adwords Manifesto.
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How to Create Facebook Events
As I wrote a few days ago, Facebook Events is a very powerful and free (viral) marketing tool. Today, I will tell you all about how to create Facebook events.
First, go to your events page by clicking on the events icon on your right. The language of my Facebook settings is Norwegian, sorry about that.
After you have clicked on the events icon, you’ll see all of your events. Now, click the create an event button.
Clicking the events button will display the following image.
You’ll need to fill out most of the fields on this page. Some of them are required, and some are not.
Here are some of the most important ones.
Event name: This is the name of your event.
Tagline: This is a sentence that describes your event.
Network: This is where you pick the network, or make it a global event.
Event type: Select the appropriate category
Description: This is where you describe the event.
Start time and end time: This is when your event will start and when it will end.
Location: This is the location of your event.
Finally, click the create event button.
If you enjoyed this short tutorial, please add me as a friend on Facebook.
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Why You Should Use Facebook Events
Facebook events is another great free way to promote yourself and your company. So far, I have written in details about how you should use Facebook groups and why Facebook groups are important. Today I will focus on how to use Facebook events, and why it’s important that you start using it today.
You can use it to promote almost anything, it only needs to be something related to a specific date and a location. It doesn’t have to be a traditional event though. You can use it to promote a product launch, or you can use it to promote an existing product by offering a certain days of discount, you can use it to promote a gathering, or your corporate milestones (for instance, your company will be 10 years old on a certain date - tell people about it). An event can be almost anything.
When it comes to location, it doesn’t have to be a specific location. Don’t think that it has to be a standard location like a building. You could create an event, like Earth Hour (which my college will be attending on the 28 of March), where the location is “everywhere”. You just have to turn off the lights for one hour between 8.30 and 9.30 pm whereever you are.
It’s fairly easy to be creative when it comes to Facebook events. You can even use it to promote yourself. For instance, 100 days of diet. Set a specific date for when you should have lost 30 pounds. The location will be “whereever”. By using your diet as an event, all your friends can follow your progress.
All Facebook events will include by default, a wall, discussion board, links, photos, and videos. You can remove them, if you don’t like them included. But by having them, it’s a lot easier to communicate with people attending your event.
why use Facebook events?
The best thing about Facebook events, other than the fact that it’s free to use, is that they are very easy to use for marketing purposes. You can invite all your friends to join the event, just by the push of a button. If you add more admins to your event, they can invite all their friends as well. And you can add new friends whenever you feel like it. This only takes a few seconds, and your event will be read by hundreds or even thousands of people.
If you add the event to your profile, it will be added to the newsfeed of all of your friends (well, most of your friends, some might have added a few restrictions in their newsfeed). By adding the event to your profile, a lot of people will see it.
Facebook events is an easy way to manage a guest list, and an easy way to get an overview regarding how many people will show up at your event. It could be a birthday party, a concert, or whatever you’d like to promote. By using it, you’ll know how many to expect.
It’s very easy to spread the word and it’s very easy to communicate with the members of the event. This is the power of networking (the same goes for Facebook groups).
You can send messages to all the members of your event, even though you might have more than 1,500 members. If you have more than 1,500 member of a Facebook group, you can’t send a message to all of them (at least that’s what I have read). But Facebook events and Facebook pages (more on this topic later) have no restrictions when it comes to sending messages to all members. I am not sure about the limits anymore, because it seems that the people at Facebook have raised the limits of group messages.
You can also use the wall, the discussion board, links, add videos and photos, in order to communicate with people attending your event.
How I have used Facebook events
I have used, or I should probably say we have used, Facebook events to spread the word about events and happenings at the college. Whenever we have a major happening, we create it as an event.
Sometimes, we even create events for things happening outside the college. We use Facebook events for happenings with our co-workers. If we are going to invite co-workers to a party, we use Facebook events in order to spread the word, and in order to keep track of how many people are going to attend the party.
The problem with Facebook events
A lot of people are using Facebook, but not everybody. So, in order to reach 100% of the people you want to target, you might need to use Facebook and something else. For instance, when we use Facebook events to invite our co-workers to a party, we have to use regular email as well.
If you just want to reach your closest friends, then Facebook events might be enough. But, before you decide what to do, ask yourself two questions; who am I targetting with this event? Are all my targets using Facebook?
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How To Use Twitter on Facebook For Your Business
I have been using Facebook for a while, but ever since most of my regular friends (my offline friends) joined, I have had a challenge to find a way to use Facebook for marketing purposes. I don’t want to combine friends and business (business with pleasure), and therefore, I have not been using its full potential. Lately though, I have been using twitter as a way to communicate and update my business friends on Facebook, without my regular friends noticing.
Let me tell you how I am doing it.
What I was looking for was a way to update Facebook with business related stuff, stuff that my regular friends can’t see. This way I could still use Facebook for other things than to just communicate with my regular friends.
It was easier than I thought.
I just created a new friends list on Facebook. I call my list twitter, and I added people related to my business to this list (and I keep adding new business relations to this list).
The reason I called my list twitter, was because people on this list will see my tweets.
I added the twitter application to my Facebook profile, I tweaked it so it would show all my tweets on my Facebook status. Finally, I gave my new friends list access to the twitter application, and only this list of friends. After I did this, the only people that will see my twitter updates are my business relations.
It was easy to set up, and now most of my business relations on Facebook is automated.
Follow me on twitter and add me as a friend on Facebook.
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Review of Simpleology by Mark Joyner
I have just finished reading simpleology by Mark Joyner. It’s a book about “the simple science of getting what you want”, that’s the subtitle and one of the reasons why I bought it, along with Mark Joyner being the author.
Mark Joyner is a very successful author and marketer among other things, and when I read that Dr. Joe Vitale had said that simpleology is “shocking! Explosive! It’s dynamic for your brain!” and Vincent James said that “… when you are ready to succeed right now, this is the book you read first. No question”. You can probably understand why I was so excited when I was about to start reading.
The book is different. It’s divided into four “books”; the asylum, the invisible walls, disposable reality and simpleology. I think that the first three “books” more or less describes why you and me are stuck where we are right now, and during the first 200 pages, we understand the details about why it’s so difficult to get what we want. The last thirty pages describes exactly what we need to do.
I had a hard time stop reading. It might be because the book was like a novel. I read about Dave, a fictional character the author used in order to explain what we are up against (like the asylum and the invisible walls). I also enjoyed the cartoon drawings throughout the book, they are both funny and straight to the point.
Now, Mark Joyner did a great job explaining why most of us are not successful, and his solution is brilliant and fairly easy to adopt. He has developed the five laws of simpleology; the law of straight lines, the law of clear vision, the law of focused attention, the law of focused energy and the inescapability of action/reaction.
The five laws of simpleology is not so much different from another book I read a while ago called Getting Things Done by David Allen. Both books are brilliant, the authors gives a clear message when it comes to what we need to do in order to become successful (get things done), and their messages are not so different. Their methods to help us understand are different. That’s why I recommend that you read both books.
If you are unlike me, then, you will probably download the hidden surprises described during the first and last pages of the book. When you buy the book you will get access to a “multimedia learning experience and some life-changing software”. The tools will help you master the information inside the book, but you can also apply them to your daily life.
I highly recommend that you read Simpleology
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How to attract students from China and India
I have just been contacted by our computer science department, and they are looking for a way to attract students from India and China to our college in Norway. They didn’t say why they wanted to focus on those two countries, and not some other countries in Asia or any other country for that matter. But I guess the reason might be that both India and China are huge countries with an amazing amount of people, and both countries are among the top countries in the world when it comes to research and development within the area of computer science.
Attracting students from those two countries all the way to Norway will probably be a boost to our computer science department. Personally, I think that students from India and/or China will have a tremendous effect on both current students and teachers.
Now, the question I am currently working on, is how to attract students from Inda and China to Norway and our computer science department.
I have found five possible ways to market our computer courses:
AdWords (narrowing it to only showing the ads in India and China) Baidu (using Pay Per Click) Facebook (target China and India) Craigslist Websites and discussion forums
There are probably many similar websites to India Education, but so far I haven’t found any.
I think AdWords might work, a lot of people use Google, and I think we can use english in order to attract the students. They have to understand english in order to study at our college anyway. I am not so sure about Baidu, it seems that close to everything is in chinese, and I am not sure if we should translate a website into chinese or a Pay Per Click campaign into chinese. I have to do some more research when it comes to this search engine, because if a lot of people are using it, it might be worth the time and the cost.
I also find Facebook interesting. I am not sure if many people in India and China are using Facebook. I have read in several blogs that Facebook has been blocked for people in China. But hopefully, this only happened a few times in the past.
I am more sceptical to Craigslist. I have heard that for the United States, Craigslist is close to perfect when it comes to specific topics (like buying and selling used stuff). But when it comes to India and China, I am not sure if people are using it at all, and if they are using it, how likely is it that we will find our students on Craigslist?
Finally, I think that finding websites and discussion forums related to education in China and India would be awesome. So far, I have only located two. That’s India Education and Transit Abroad. I am not sure how good they are.
At the moment, I am not sure what we are going to do. All I know is that I will keep you updated.
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Everything I know About Facebook
I haven’t really thought about it before, but I have been blogging for a while. I discovered this obvious fact today, that’s because I am writing a sort of a recap of all my Facebook posts. When I decided to do so, I never thought that I would find that many posts. Actually, I found a lot more posts than I thought I’d find. I can’t put links to them all in this one post. If I did, this post would either take me forever to write, or it would be just packed with links.
I have just read most of my old Facebook posts, and some of them are fairly interesting, others are clearly at the start of my “Facebook career”. I have even created some Facebook banners, and they are fairly popular. You download my free Facebook banners and add them to your blog or website.
This is a recap of my old Facebook posts, some of them might not be that old though. Some of the links might be sorted by date, some by topic. To start it all, I found a post about what sort of profile picture you should be using in order to gain traffic, will an image like this have any effect on your marketing?
Facebook Groups
I have written several posts about why Facebook Groups are important, posts like how to find and create Facebook groups, the power of groups on Facebook and Marketing using Facebook groups. So far, I find Facebook groups to be one of the most interesting aspects of Facebook, but I’ll be describing soon why I find Facebook pages to be just as interesting. So far, I have only written one post about Facebook pages and it’s called Top 10 reasons to use Facebook pages.
Publishing a newsletter using Facebook
Did you know that you can use Facebook to publish your newsletter? It’s not hard, you just have to know how to create friends lists on Facebook. When you have created your friends lists, you send the newsletter or your updates to the list of friends with an interest in the topic you are writing about.
Videos
I have published a few videos about Facebook. Well, that’s not entirely true. I have grabbed the videos from YouTube and embedded them on my blog. But nonetheless, the videos are interesting and I urge you to take a closer look at them. Video of Facebook marketing with events, video of Facebook for business communication and finally a Video of how to use Facebook social ads.
Facebook marketing campaign
You might already know that I have tested a paid Facebook marketing campaign. It was about a year ago, and I was fairly satisfied. I started out writing about testing a Facebook marketing campaign, then I explained what I did before the Facebook marketing campaign, and I wrote a general post about Facebook advertising explained. After 5 days of the marketing campaign I published my thoughts on Facebook advertising day 5. I found click-through-rate at Facebook so interesting, and I wrote a post about it called Facebook Pay Per Click and CTR. I had an incredible amount of views, but I had a very low click-through-rate. But was that a problem or not?
Using Facebook for political purposes
It’s interesting to see how people and organizations are using Facebook, and it’s fascinating to see who’s on Facebook. For instance, I wrote a post about how the prime minister of Norway should be using Facebook, and I posted some thoughts about Ron Paul and the marketing campaign. It’s not really political, but I asked a question whether we should add a video of our college president on Facebook or not. We ended up doing it, and I think it was a success, but I am not really sure.
Other interesting posts about Facebook
Most of my posts about Facebook has been about Internet marketing, posts like:
Will voting on Facebook Social Ads help you?
Would you like your own Facebook?
Using Facebook for your own web conference?
Using Facebook poking to advertise
The Facebook poke and marketing
Facebook banner ads are hard to find
Facebook twitter marketing and a friend
How to use Facebook status for marketing purposes
Random posts about Facebook
I have also posted some random stuff, not just related to Internet marketing.
Will Facebook launch a paid membership option?
Posting links in your status updates at Facebook or twitter
I guess that’s about everything I have posted about Facebook so far.
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Ready Made Review Sites and Search Engine Traffic
As I told you a few days ago, I have paid for a seven day trial of Ready Made Review Sites. My first impression of Ready Made Review Sites is that it’s close to awesome. Today, I am writing a follow up. I have a few more thoughts, and I have been having a closer look at my first review site from Ready Made Review Sites.
This is the website I received for February: Blogging Product Reviews
This is the sales page of Ready Made Review Sites.
The Reviews
This months reviews contains three incredible popular ebooks about blogging. Blogging to the bank 3 by Rob Benwell, Super Affiliate Blogger by Gobala Krishnan, and John Yeo’s Blogger’s Paycheck. Nothing to say about the products, they are plain awesome all three of them. What I like about the reviews are the details and that they are straight to the point. To me, the reviews are perfect. Not too long, and not sort, and they seems to be sort of unbiased (even though nothing is unbiased).
The webdesign
The webdesign is colorful and really professional. The first time I visited the review page, I was really impressed by the delightful design, and that it was so easy to read and find what I was looking for. To me, the design is perfect for a review page.
The copywriting
Everything written seems easy to understand, even for a Norwegian. They have used plain english. Nothing fancy, as I said, straight to the point.
The videos
The videos are professional, no doubt about that. Each of the videos are about 7 minutes long. The only thing I don’t like, is that sometimes, the guys voice on the video stops, a few seconds later he keeps on talking. It looks and sounds like they did quite a bit of editing. It might be because of my slow Internet connection though.
It’s optimized for search engines
I never thought that I would get any visitors from Google directly to my review site, even though the sales page said that the review page is optimized for search engines. I added a title, a description and a few keywords. I didn’t do any research regarding the keywords, but I added keywords related to the products on my review page.
My blogging product review page hasn’t received a lot of visitors from search engines so far, but the same day I published the website, I received 12 visitors from Google. I haven’t done anything other than added a few keywords. I was very surprised, and I am looking forward to see what will happen during the next days.
It has an integrated affiliate cloaker script
One of the problems when you sell products from ClickBank is the hop link. It’s very easy to change the id, and steal the commission. I usually cloak all my clickbank links, from the Ready Made Review Sites, all my links to the products are automatically cloaked. It seems to work, although I had one problem with the link from one of the videos.
The autoresonder messages
Along with the review page, I received seven prewritten emails related to the products and the review page. They are well-written, and I especially like the content. The link back to the review page is at the bottom of each email, it doesn’t seem that you are sending the email only to sell and earn a profit. All the emails are packed with tips and good content.
The articles
At the bottom (in the footer) of the review page, there is a link to articles related to the topic of the month. There are 10 professional written articles, and the headlines for February are:
How Anyone Can Cash In With Their Own Blog Why Blogs Are An Easy Way To Attract New Customers How To Choose The Best Blogging Platform For Your Site Blogging Has Changed - Have You Made These Changes? 5 Ways To Cash In With Your Blog How To Choose A Niche Topic To Blog About How To Choose Top Converting Affiliate Programs For Your Blog How To Write Compelling Blog Posts That Get Attention Using Free Blog Themes To Spice Up Your Blog Design How To Get More People Commenting On Your Blog
You can read all the articles at Blogging Product Reviews.
Will I continue as a member of Ready Made Review Sites?
Yes, I think so. I think I am going to try it for at least two months. But I will let you know for sure in a couple of days or so.
So far, I haven’t made any sales based on the review page, but it’s only been two days.
Tags: Ready+Made+Review+Sites, Jason+Gazaway, Anthony+Hull
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How To Be Successful Selling Pizza
Yesterday, I ordered take away pizza from a restaurant. It’s been a while since I’ve been there. The only reason I decided to order from this restaurant yesterday, was because they currently have a discount on their pizzas. The cut the price by 50%. It was a bargain, and I was hungry.
As I walked inside the restaurant, really hungry and ready for my pizza, I started feeling sad. I looked around, there was no people inside, only the two people working there. They didn’t look happy. They didn’t say much, it looked like they tried to smile as I paid for my pizza. It was weird. This place should have been crowded with people, It was cheap pizza.
This story got me thinking. How can anyone be successful selling pizza?
I can use the town where I live as an example. We have about 28,000 inhabitants, and probably about 10 pizza restaurants.
In order to be successful selling pizza, the restaurants have to have either the best waiters, the best tasting pizzas, or the cheapest pizza. If they have a combination of all three, then they’ll have a guarantee for success.
The problem with the restaurant I visited yesterday was that their pizza tasted good, but it’s not the best I have tasted. There are at least four restaurants that makes better pizzas. The waiters are probably ok. I have never heard anything bad about them, and I have never heard anything good about them. Therfore, I am guessing that they are mediocre. The price of the pizzas are exactly the same as the price of the pizzas at most of the other restaurants.
Why then, should I order the pizza from this restaurant? I can’t do it just because I feel sorry for them.
The problem is, it’s close to impossible to be successful by being mediocre.
If I owned a pizza restaurant, I would try my best to be different. I would try everything to make the best pizzas, because this is the only real guarantee for success. If you are the best, people will turn up and order your pizza, even though it might cost more than the other 9 pizza restaurants.
They could turn the interior of the restaurants into something really cool and different. This way, they would stand out and end up with new customers. The problem still remains, when people order pizza, they want the best tasting pizza. Some of the other factors are really helpful though, because if the pizzas are great at this restaurant (like the fourth best pizza place in our town), they have to do something to make up for it. If the price is the same, if the waiters are just ok, and the interior of the restaurant is ok, why should people order their pizzas?
There are no reasons, and that’s why I ended up being kind of sad when I ate the pizza yesterday.
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Easy Way To Follow People on Twitter
The easiest way to add new followers to twitter is to follow other members. Most people you follow will follow you back. Let me walk you through how you can follow many people in just a few seconds.
Log in to your twitter account.
Click on “find people” in the menu at the top.
Click on “suggested users”
Now, click on “select all” and “follow”.
This way, you’ll be following many people in just a few seconds of your time.
Finally, follow me on twitter.
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My First Impression of Ready Made Review Sites
I have just become a trial member of Ready Made Review Sites, and I have decided to test it for 7 days. If I really like it, and think that it’s something I should continue using, then, I will not cancel my membership. On the other hand, if I think Ready Made Review Sites is not for me, then, I will cancel the membership before a week from today.
It took me about 2 minutes to decide to test this new service from Anthony Hull and Jason Gazaway. You’ll understand why, when you read everything that’s included in the membership.
First, let me explain what this membership is all about.
Well, you probably understand most of it by reading the title (and the domain name). When you become a member, you get access to ready made review sites. The review site each month is containing the top ClickBank products in the Internet marketing niche.
Monthly “Plug-n-Play” Internet Marketing Affiliate Review Site
Top 3 ClickBank affiliate products 3 professional written product reviews Professional designed review site Optimized for search engines Integrated affiliate cloaker script
Plug-n-Play Clickbank Top 20 Page
Each review site also includes a page listing of the top 20 ClickBank Internet marketing products.
10 Professionally Written Marketing Articles Each Month
Every month, as a member, you’ll receive 10 articles related to the review site’s Internet marketing topic
7 emails autoresponder series each month
It’s “automatic” for members of aWeber and GetResponse. I just entered a few details into the website, and everything was ready. Well, I had to copy and paste the emails into aWeber.
5 Pay Per Click (PPC) ads and comprehensive keywords list every month
You can use the keywords and the ads to advertise with Google Adwords, Yahoo Publisher Network and MSN Search Engine. I am not sure if I am going to try Pay Per Click advertising. It’s been a while, but I believe that PPC is probably the best way to advertise the review sites.
List of Topic Related Blogs
Inside the membership area, you get a list of top ranked blogs that you can post comments on in order to get more traffic and backlinks. The blogs are all related to the topic of the month.
Affiliate marketing traning
You will also get affiliate marketing training each month. I haven’t looked at this one yet, even though I saw all the links inside the membership area.
It looks powerful
By now, you probably understand why I was so eager to test this new service.
About 5 minutes after I signed up, I installed my first Internet marketing review site. It was very easy, it’s almost impossible to do anything wrong. Actually, all it takes is four steps:
1. Download the affiliate review site
2. Add your ClickBank affiliate ID and a few other variables
3. Upload your affiliate review website to your hosting account
4. Use their marketing material to marketing their website.ß
The reason I had to try it
The reason I just had to try it, is because I really liked the webdesign of the review website. And when I took a closer look at it, the copywriting seems to be really good as well. I also found the video reviews to be very interesting. My 7-day trial includes video reviews of each product.
Ready Made Review Sites is one of the most interesting Internet marketing services I have seen in quite some time. Everything about it seems to be professional. The autoresponder messages are great, and you don’t have to do much tweaking. This is something a complete newbie can manage.
There are only two problems?
The only problems I see so far, is that the service is fairly expensive. I am not saying that it’s expensive when it comes to everything you get for the monthly price, but if you consider that you are only using this system to earn profit, then you’ll have to earn more than the monthly price of minimum $39 (without videos) and $49 with video reviews included. And if you are going to use Pay Per Click advertising, you have to add this to your monthly costs as well. It doesn sound hard to earn a profit from this, but you have to take the price and advertising in consideration when you buy it.
The other problem I see is that if too many people become members and start advertising the same review sites, it will be hard to make sales. I am not sure if this will become a problem though, the market is huge, and not that many people will be active with this membership. According to the sales page, only 250 members will be allowed. So, I guess this won’t become a problem.
Considering what you receive each month, it seems that Ready Made Review Sites is a bargain.
Take a look at my first Ready Made Review Site: Blogging Product Reviews
This is the sales page of Ready Made Review Sites.
You could say that it’s a problem that the reviews are not really your own. This month, I know that all three products are plain awesome. That’s Blogging to the bank, Super Affiliate Blogger, and Blogger’s Paycheck. But I have no idea what will happen next month.
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The Black Prius can Teach you about Marketing
What car a person drives tells you something about their personality, it tells you something about their world view. Every car tells a story, and this story becomes part of the (story of the) person that drives it. It’s not really all about the color anymore (my mom wanted a red car, and that’s what she bought).
An interesting example is that Miley Cyrus traded the Porsche her Mom bought her for her 16 th birthday for a Black Prius.
These cars tells two different stories, one tells the story of fast, cool, expensive, power etc.. The other tells the story of sophisticated, smart, environment, future etc..
By switching cars, Miley Cyrus is also telling us a different story about who she is, or who she is becoming. I am not saying that you know everything about a person from the car she drives. What I am saying is that people will tell themselves a story from the car she drives.
Most people don’t know her, and when they see her in a Porche, the image will tell them a story, when they see her in a Black Prius, that story will be completely different. What’s important, is that the story really matters to the public.
… and of course, it matters to Toyota.
Tags: Porche, Black+Prius, Toyota+Prius, Miley+Cyrus
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No More Members Allowed
During my years of marketing, I have witnessed many very profitable services vanish from the face of the Internet. I have witnessed many scams, and I have seen interesting services come and go. The most interesting part though, is not all the scams, because there are too many of them, and I don’t think that there are problems related to recognizing them anymore. I think that the most interesting part is to become a member of something very profitable or something very knowledgeable, especially when they decide to close the doors for new members.
I have found a few services way too late, sometimes only a few weeks or even a few days after they decided not to allow any new members. That’s really frustrating, especially when you hear about the service from trusted sources.
Then, you have to join their mailing list, and wait for the doors to open. Sometimes they open up after a few months, sometimes they never do. I don’t like the waiting lists. But sometimes that’s the only way you’ll be able to join the most profitable Internet marketing services.
The reason I am writing about this today, is because I have just received the news that Become A Blogger Premium are closing its doors this Friday. No new members will be allowed. It’s only four and seven hours left as I am writing this.
It makes me a little sad. I have been a member since the day Gideon and Yaro launched it, and I am really impressed of the videos and tutorials. I am not sure if it’s possible to create better videos, because they are really packed with information and they are really easy to follow.
I have read many books about blogging, and I have read Blogging to the Bank 2 and 3. I have even been a member of Yaro’s Blog Mastermind. But I have to say that Become a Blogger Premium is different, yes, it’s even better than Blog Mastermind. To me, it’s obvious why it’s so much better. It’s because it’s all about videos. All the content are presented by videos instead of text, images or just audio. When it comes to learning, nothing beats video.
The reason it makes me a little sad that they decided to close the doors for new members, is because I remember like it was yesterday, how it feels to not be able to join a service that you really need to join or a service you have heard so many positive things about.
I am not sure why they decided not to allow any new members, but it might be because they want their membership to be for only 1000 people. The more people that knows the “secrets”, the less of a secret the blogging strategies will be, or something like that. At the moment, they have 850 members. I am only guessing when it comes to the reason for closing the doors though. I could send an email to Yaro or Gideon and ask them for the reason, but that’s really not important to me. What’s important is that I am a member and will be for the months a head.
If you have been thinking about learning how to become a professional blogger, how to earn an income from writing a blog (using no more than 2 - 3 hours a day), then you should really take a closer look at Become a Blogger Premium today. And be sure to decide if you want to join before this Friday.
Become a Blogger Premium closes it’s doors to new members.
PS. if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post them as comments.
Tags: Blogging+to+the+bank, Become+a+blogger+premium, Yaro+Starak, Gideon+Shalwick
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Why Facebook Groups Are Important
A few days ago, I told you how to use Facebook groups, I told you how to find interesting groups and how to create your own groups. Now, it’s time to explain why Facebook groups are important when it comes to marketing. I’ll also try to explain the difference between Facebook groups and pages.
The single most important reason why you should create your own groups, is that you will have control of the conversation. You can send emails to all the members (some say it’s a limit of sending emails to 1,200 members, but I am not really sure).
Facebook groups are all about building a community, it’s a place where you discuss a certain topic. It’s a two way conversation, and it’s all about content. Facebook pages are not a discussion, it’s more like a monolog. When you create a Facebook group, you can expect a fair amount of viral marketing. The reason for the viral marketing, is because of the element of discussion. When people are involved at Facebook, “everything” they do can or will be posted to their profile, and in the end, it will also be posted in the newsfeed of every single one of their friends (if they haven’t turned this feature off).
Let me give you an example.
Every time one of your friends uploads a photo or a video to one of their groups, you’ll be able to view it in your news feed. This way, you’ll also be able to see which group your friend is a member of. I am not sure if this happens to everything you post in the groups you are a member of, or if you have to be specific regarding what you want to post in your profile and what should be posted in your friends newsfeeds.
With Facebook groups you have access to the following sections:
- Recent news
- Photos
- Videos
- Posted items
- Discussion board
- Members
- The wall
The discussion board is probably what makes a group so interesting. If you are selling something, this is where people will be discussing it. Members can post back and fourth, and this is a very important part of how your group becomes viral. Along with this, on every group, you’ll see an invite people to join link. You can invite one friend, a few friends or whole friend lists.
You can also share your thoughts regarding everything you read inside the groups with other people. Just click on the share button, add your thoughts, and send it. This button is a powerful marketing tool.
The single biggest difference between Facebook groups and pages is the two way communication. A Facebook page is more focused on a brand or a person than Facebook groups are (groups are more about topics). And you can add Facebook applications to pages, but you can’t add them to groups.
Facebook groups are all about networking and discussions.
When people join a group due to the fact that they are very interested in the topic, a lot can happen. A recent example from Norway are the Grandiosa frozen pizza groups. This is the most popular frozen pizza in Norway, and one of the ingredients is red peppers. For the past months, a lot of people joined groups on Facebook with topics like “no to red peppers on Grandiosa”. Inside the groups, there are a lot of discussions about why there shouldn’t be red peppers on the pizza. Guess what, even though just a few thousand people joined (the most popular group contains about 2700 people) the company producing the pizza will create a new Grandiosa pizza without red peppers. This is because of the pressure from the groups on Facebook.
Groups can help your product and your business become a lot more popular. If you listen to people with the same interest, you’ll be educated, and like the pizza story from above, you can shape your product in order for it to become even more p0pular.
Facebook pages has built in viral marketing as well, but, I’ll write about that and why Facebook pages are important in a few days.
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Keeping Track of My Thoughts With TaskPaper
I have to admit, I have a really hard time to remember my to-do lists, all my ideas and whatever I am up to on a daily basis. I tend to forget really important stuff, things I have even promised to do. Therefore, I have been testing various methods for keeping track of “everything”.
I have been using various software, and iCal was probably the closest I came to a software that I was satisfied with. I tried pen and paper, but it didn’t take me more than a week before I forgot where I had put the notepad, and sometimes I wrote on different notepads. I thought I had tested close to everything, untill I found TaskPaper.
This software, unfortunately for many, is a Mac only software. It’s created by Jesse Grosjean, the guy behind WriteRoom, my favorite wordprocessor. And because I think WriteRoom is awesome, I had to give TaskPaper a try. As I wrote earlier, TaskPaper is a free trial. Therfore, I had nothing to lose by using it for the 15-days. Now, when my testperiod is over, I just have to get my hands on it.
It’s just as awesome as WriteRoom, and I think that I have finally found a software to help me keep track. The reason I think it’s awesome, is because of its speed and flexibility. I have several Macs, the oldest one is a PowerBook G4, with TaskPaper, it’s no problem at all. I have many projects in my head, with TaskPaper I just customize the tags, and evertyhing is stored and easy to find.
I found the very detailed video about how to use TaskPaper (click on “Play Screencast”) to be everything I needed to get started, and the real reason why I just had to try it and now buy it.
I have been wondering though, should I only use one file at TaskPaper for all my projects? Should I combine all my thoughts/tasks/to-do lists that I have for work, for everything at home (like shopping lists), for all the new posts that I will be writing about at my blog, or whatever I am up to in one single file, or should I keep everything separate? So far, I have been using just one file, and I think that’s what I should be doing. Because using one file makes it easier to search and it makes it easier to add new tasks and it makes it easier to find whatever I am looking for really fast. I have so many thoughts in my head at the same time, and my thoughts are sort of related to everything, not just about work when I am working. Using just one file at TaskPaper makes it a lot easier to manage, because that’s how my mind is working. Multiple projects in a single file (mind).
There are only two features I would like to see added to TaskPaper. I would like option for iCal syncing, many of my tasks has a time or date added to them. If TaskPaper could sync with iCal, I could get everything with a specific time (could add an iCal tag or a time and date tag for tasks/projects that should sync) available in iCal. That would be awesome and very helpful. The next feature I am missing, is not actually a feature, but a new software. It would be awesome to be able to use TaskPaper on my iPhone, and to be able to edit my to-do lists on both my iPhone and my computers (using iDisk/MobileMe).
If you are looking for a software to help you with your to-do lists and keep track of everything that’s on your mind, I have no doubt that TaskPaper is the perfect software for you.
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How To Find and Create Facebook Groups
Today, I’ll be describing (short) why you should be using Facebook groups and how you can find interesting groups, and how to create your own group on Facebook.
First of all, it’s a very easy way to do marketing with Facebook groups, it’s completely free, and it’s marketing gone viral. That’s three really powerful reasons why you should start using Facebook groups today.
The only reason why groups become popular, and they can go from zero members to thousands in a few hours, is content. Your group needs to be something special, and in order to become popular, well, like I just said, it’s all about content marketing. Without good reliable content, you can almost forget about creating a buzz.
A Facebook group is where you create a community, this is where you connect with people and a place where you communicate with people about a specific topic. It’s a discussion, a two-way conversation, unlike Facebook pages (I will write about Facebook pages in a few days and explain this with more details). With Facebook groups, you can send emails to the members of your group, this way it becomes powerful targeted marketing.
How to find Facebook groups
Just click on “Groups” in the right sidebar just below your applications. When you do, you’ll see the most recent groups that your friends have joined, and you’ll see the recently updated groups that you have joined.
You can also search for groups by name, and browse groups by category. You should have no problem finding groups on Facebook.
Now, when you have found an interesting group. Just click on the image of the group, or the name, and you’ll end up “inside” the group. There you’ll see a detailed description of the group, and everything that’s going on, like discussions, photos, or whatever.
When you are inside, and you find the content interesting, it’s time to join the group.
Just click on the link below the group image “join this group”, and few seconds later, you will be a member.
How to create your own group
After you have clicked on groups, as described below the first image at the top, you’ll see the icon to the right, just at the top of the “your recently updated groups”.
After you click it, you will have to describe your new group with more details.
There are two important things to notice when you are creating your new group. The group name is important and the description of your group is very important. Those two, can be the reason why you’ll go from zero to hero, when it comes to Facebook groups. Even though you have the perfect name, and the perfect description, it’s still content that will be the major issue if your group will become popular or not.
When selecting group type, you have ten categories to choose between:
Business Common interest Entertainment & arts Geography Internet & technology Just for fun Music Organizations Sports & recreation Student groups
You have to choose the right category for your group, because this is how people will find your group when browsing.
This is how you find groups and how to create your own groups. In a few days or so, I will write a more detailed post about why and how you should be using Facebook groups for marketing purposes.
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The Power of Groups on Facebook
I have explained how you can (and should) create friends lists on Facebook. Tomorrow, I’ll be writing an amazing post (well, sort of) about why you should be using groups on Facebook, and how you should be using them. But, today, I will let you know about an interesting post from Tim Linden (the owner of StartXchange).
He has written a post about traffic exchanges on Facebook, and he explains that he created the Traffic Exchanges group, there are already 38 members of the group, 19 of them are traffic exchange owners.
I thought I’d let you know about this one before I’ll explain “the real power of groups at Facebook” in my next post.
The most interesting part of the Traffic Exchange group (or any group on Facebook) is that it’s free viral marketing. Just look at the numbers, today, when I read Tim’s post, it has 38 members. Tim has even updated it from 34 members (I wonder how many times he is going to be updating it), and tomorrow, my guess is that it has doubled the amount of members.
Darn, I just visited the group, and it already has 139 members.
Tags: Facebook+groups, Facebook, Tim+Linden, Traffic+Exchanges
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Interesting Gas Station
At the moment, I am at a cabin in Skeikampen (Norway) with six of my friends. We are here in order to ski, relax, and have a lot of fun. So far, we are having a great time.
While driving here, we pulled over at the most famous gas station in Norway. It’s called Espa, and it’s located next to nothing. It’s at a place where I thought no gas station would be able to profit. But the owner of this gas station has understood how important a purple cow really is.
The purple cow of this particular gas station is their bakery.
This gas station sells, according to their signs, the best buns/rolls in the world. I doubt that this is a fact, but we pulled over and I bought the buns, and they were awesome. The signs are all over the store, and they are everywhere outside (next to the road) so every person driving past can see them. They say things like “the King of buns”, “The best buns in the world” and “We are going to sell 1,9 million buns in 2009″. They can write stuff like that, because they have statistics of every bun they sell.
At the store yesterday, I saw a large sign saying that they have sold 52,000 buns during the first three weeks of 2009. It’s amazing to see how many people that bought buns while I was in the store. It looked like everybody was at the gas station to buy buns, and not because they needed gas.
People from all over the country are pulling over because of the buns, and while there, they buy gas and all sorts of stuff. The media are in love with this gas station, they get free advertising from from newspapers and tv channels. It’s because they are different, they do stuff that no other gas station are doing. And they are earning a lot of money doing it.
I guess that tomorrow, while driving back home, we will be pulling over at the same gas station and all seven guys (me included) will be buying the buns all over again. And while there, we’ll probably fill gas and buy some candy, a coca-cola and lots of other stuff.
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The Power of Examples in Internet Marketing
One of the most powerful strategies when it comes to Internet marketing (and all sorts of marketing actually), is using examples. It’s so powerful, that it’s part of the extended marketing mix. It’s about physical evidence,
Unlike a product, a service cannot be experienced before it is delivered, which makes it intangible. This, therefore, means that potential customers could perceive greater risk when deciding whether to use a service. To reduce the feeling of risk, thus improving the chance for success, it is often vital to offer potential customers the chance to see what a service would be like. This is done by providing physical evidence, such as case studies, testimonials or demonstrations.
Just a few hours ago, I received an email about a new interesting service called Mike Mazella’s Resell Rights Wholesaler.
The website looks awesome, the sales letter looks great, the service seems to be very interesting (they are offering various products with resell rights every month) and the price seems to be cheap.
But, they are missing one thing. The power of examples.
Why would I pay the monthly fee of $9.95 without one example of what I am going to receive after I have paid for the first month?
They are providing us with a lot of information, like what sort of products you can expect in your membership:
Software to help you with your Internet marketing business, niche marketing, or computing in general Ebooks covering every Internet marketing topic imaginable Professional marketing graphics Video tutorials, covering the full range of Internet marketing topics Master resale rights Private label rights
It seems you’ll get a lot in your membership, but why not just provide one (or a few) examples of products you will be receiving? This way, you’ll know the standard of the products.
As a member you’ll be able to download 25 to 30 products each month, that’s a lot and it’s cheap when you think about the monthly price of only $9.95. But I don’t consider it cheap when I have no clue when it comes to the products I’ll be receiving (only information about what sort of product is included).
Always use the power of examples and physical evidence in your marketing strategy.
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How To Create Friends Lists on Facebook
One of the most powerful marketing techniques when you use Facebook is when you use friends lists. Think of it like a newsletter. You can group your friends related to their interests. When you have, you can send each group of friends emails related to what you think they’ll enjoy. This is a very easy way to get the word out.
Let me give you an example, and then explain how you can create friends lists on Facebook.
If you are anything like me, you’ll have at least 200 friends, it’s fairly easy to get a lot more friends though. Then, try to think about what you’ll want to communicate to them, do you have several topics? One topic could be sports, another topic could be marketing, a third topic could be friends from high school, a fourth topic could be food, a fifth topic could be party, a sixth topic could be money. I could go on and on, but by now, I think you understand where I am going.
Every time you want to send an email related to sports, you send it only to the people in your sports group, every time you want to tell someone about a very interesting technique about earning money, you send the email only to the people on your money list. When you are ready to party, you send an email to your party list. This way, you will only reach people that are interested in your topic, and most likely, you’ll not be accused of spamming.
This is a very powerful way of using Facebook to promote your interests.
It’s fairly easy to organize your friends into lists. I have even added some images for you.
First, click the “make a new list” button on the left of the friends tab (I am not sure if it’s always on the left, because I think that I have seen it on the right as well), and enter the name of your new list.
Now, it’s time to add your friends to your new list. You can just type their first names and they will start to appear, then, when you see their names in the box, just hit enter or click on it.
You can edit your list of friends anytime. Go back to your lists, click on edit next to the list you’d like to edit, and add new friends, or delete friends that you want to remove from the list.
It’s easy, and a very powerful way to use Facebook to promote your interests.
Now, if you enjoyed this article, it’s probably time to ask you to add me as a friend on facebook 
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Review of Click Here To Order By Joel Comm
I have just finished reading Click Here To Order: Stories of the world’s most successful Internet marketing entrepreneurs. The author is well-known marketer Joel Comm. I was going to finish it in just three days, reading a few hours a day, but that didn’t happen. I had too many other projects on my mind. The book was very easy to read though, and I really enjoyed reading it.
The book was fascinating. That was mostly due to the stories of the world’s most successful Internet marketers, and the fact that each of the stories began before they started their businesses. Joel Comm explained what each entrepreneur did before, why they started their business, and how they started it. He also explains why they became successful.
The stories in the book includes famous Internet marketers like: John Reese, Matt Bacak, Mark Joyner, Mike Filsaime, Rich Schefren, Yanik Silver, Ken McCarthy, Marlon Sanders, Declan Dunn, David Garfinkel, Terry Dean and Jason Potash.
First and foremost, the book is inspiring. You can read stories that most struggling Internet marketers can relate to. Some of the now famous ones have also struggled really hard, like Ladan Lashkari from Iran. She is only 20 years old, or at least she was at the time Click Here To Order was published. Living in Iran, she didn’t have access to things most of us takes for granted. Like a credit card, a PayPal account, a bank account that accepts wire transfers, able to cash USD checks, and travel around the world. So, it’s just amazing that she is so successful today.
I also find the story of Willy Crawford amazing. It sort of started when he was six years old, living with two younger brothers on a tobacco farm, and mostly raised by his 65-year-old grandma. The story is about how he learned cooperation, and how he learned to cook. And how cooking become the start of his online adventure.
You might not learn many new strategies and techniques by reading this book, but if you are looking for a book that will inspire you, I recommend that you read Click here to order by Joel Comm.
If you are an Internet marketer, you just have to read it. Like me, you probably know most of the names in the book, but you just know them by reputation. Now, you can read the real stories behind the Internet marketing millionaires… and most of the stories are really fascinating.
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Yes Man and Incredimail
A few days before Christmas, I watched the new Jim Carrey movie called Yes Man. I had to watch it, because I thought that the book was probably one of the funniest books I have ever read. Now, it was time for Jim Carrey, not my favorite actor, but I always end up having a few laughs when watching his movies.
I enjoyed Yes Man the movie as well, not as much as the book, but enough to recommend it. What surprised me though was that I saw him use IncrediMail when checking email at his office. It was really easy to see that it was IncrediMail, it was like it was meant to be visible.
The Yes Man could have used any email client, so why go with the fairly unknown IncrediMail?
I thought about this after the movie ended, and I have three answers:
1. IncrediMail is different, it’s sort of a creative email. They use a lot of sounds and animations, and some people find it to be really cool. I figured that it might be part of the plot, maybe he used Microsoft Outlook untill he received an offer to download Incredimail, and of course, he couldn’t say no. IncrediMail is then the email client for Yes people.
2. IncrediMail is product placement. The company paid for their email client to be used in the movie. I find this hard to believe though, because this is a major studio movie from Hollywood, and it’s probably very expensive to do product placements. To my knowledge, Incredimail does not have that many followers and the company doesn’t have a lot of money to spend on advertisments. But what do I know, maybe they have?
3. What’s more likely is that some of the guys on the set, maybe even Danny Wallace (the author), are using Incredimail and love it. They wanted it to be featured, because they want more people to start using it.
I tested IncrediMail a few years ago, I liked it, but in the end, it was to annoying. I wanted something plain and simply, yet powerful. I am using the Apple Mail client. Go watch the movie, and see if you’ll spot Incredimail.
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How The Pros Are Using Twitter
First, before you start reading, I urge you to follow me on twitter.
I have been more active on twitter lately, and I am actually enjoying it. Twitter was sort of a new web 2.0 experiment that I just didn’t understand, that’s untill I watched the cool video from Perry Belcher. He explained what twitter and other web 2.0 sites are all about, and it made sense. Twitter is like a party, and when you are at a party, there are certain things you need to understand.
You want to be popular, the more popular you are, the more people will listen to what you have to say. The more people that listen to you, the more people will be interested in what you are eventually “selling”. But you are selling in a different way, you are selling your blog. That’s really the only thing you are doing with twitter. Everything you earn money from, you should keep it at your blog or your website, then, when people ask what you do, or want to know more about you, send them to your blog.
Now, let me explain how the pros are using twitter.
Personality
Your personality is really important. You need to be you, you need to tell all your followers at twitter that you are a vegetarian or that you are against Israel, or what ever you want to tell. It’s about being personal, and it’s about being true to what you are all about.
Have fun
Again, think of twitter like a party. You are there to have as much fun as possible. You want to talk to new people, you want to talk about new topics. You want to be part of the conversation that they are having, you want to be funny, and give your followers something entertaining, something to laugh at.
Provide value
You need to provide something of value, great content, that people really appreciate. It can be links to very interesting blog posts, resources that you enjoy. If you are selling something, give your followers a discount or a free trial.
Example of good tweets used by the pros
Resources: various really helpful resources related to your niche, in your own words, or just provide them with a link.
Links: links to other websites with good, funny, helpful and entertaining content.
Support messages: tell your followers that you like what they are doing, if they are sad, post some comforting words, if they have done a mistake, tell them something they’d like to hear.
Comments: comment their tweets, even if they are not asking questions, reply to their tweets.
Questions: Ask questions to your followers, it could be about anything. It will most likely start a conversation.
Respond to questions: if someone asks a question, send them a reply with your answer.
Retweet: Spread the word. If one of your followers has posted an awesome tweet, retweet it. Send his post (include his @username) to your followers, this way, a lot more people will read what he has to say.
How to discover something of value?
If you want to be like a pro, but you don’t think you can post something of value, then, take a look at the following websites:
Tons of amazing stuff is linked to every single day. I bet you can find some really cool stuff, and just add them to your tweets, your followers will be glad you did.
Two twitter accounts?
Some people think it’s really powerful to use two different twitter accounts. One that you use as your “real” account, the other one is only used to get valuable stuff to tweet about. With your second twitter account, you only follow very well-known people in your niche, people that will post lots of awesome stuff. When you get something useful, use it on your other twitter account.
Never sell on twitter
Finally, no selling. Don’t use twitter as a way to do affiliate marketing. If you do, people will ignore your tweets, and quickly stop reading whatever you have on your mind.
Visit My Top Internet Marketing Resources Today.
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I Am Using an AutoResponder The Right Way
Sometimes you need to be testing many things in order to be successful, and this time I have something to show you. It’s about the blog I started a while ago called Protein High Foods, it’s a blog that I thought would be easy to fill with valuable content, but it hasn’t been that easy. It’s suppose to be a blog about protein and my life as a vegetarian. I thought my (healthy and food related) life was rather interesting, but that was before I created my blog.
Now, I realize that I have very little to write about, and that I suck as a chef. I hardly make any interesting food, and I am not as creative as I thought I’d be. I was really hoping that creating a blog about it, would be an inspiration and would help me to be more creative, like forcing me to do something about my health and what I eat.
So far, nothing has happened. Well, other than me joining a health club.
But the good thing, is that the blog drives good traffic. I have received a lot more traffic during the first month to Protein High Foods than I have received to any other website of mine during the same amount of time. I guess that I can state that this blog could be fairly valuable.
It can be valuable, if I could just find a way to monetize it (I am still banned from AdSense). So far, I have added a few banners, and a few affiliate programs without any help. I even tried Kontera, but even though their ads had a few clicks every single day, I was earning just cents a day.
Finally, I thought I’d use aWeber, the best autoresponder, to something useful on that blog. Instead of just using it to send out a newsletter, on a topic that I rarely find the time and the passion (so far) to write anything of value, I have added a sales pitch to it.
As you can see at Protein High Foods, I am using aWeber to promote a brand new eBook called Go Green Be Rich! It’s a very interesting eBook about how you can save about $500 a month by helping the environment. The reason I picked this eBook, was because I thought that people that are looking for articles related to health, vegetarianism and protein, also might be fairly occupied with saving the environment. And I guess, most people like to save $500 a month.
All I have done was to add the image from the eBooks affiliate site, and I have added eight pre-written emails also from the affiliate site. It took me no more than 10 minutes, and now, everything is automated. All I have to do, is try to write a few articles a week and publish them at the blog, and aWeber will do the rest.
This is what an autoresponder is all about. Use it in order to automate the process of selling, but you can also use it in order to publish your newsletter. That’s what I do here on this blog, nothing is automated, I do everything myself. That’s because I am not using it to sell anything, I am using it to publish tips about Internet marketing.
Do you see the difference?
When I have a passion about something, I use the autoresponder manually to broadcast a newsletter. When I don’t really have a passion (at least when it comes to writing about it), I use the automated version of the autoresponder in order to sell. Making it as easy as possible to earn profit, that’s what I am aiming for, and it’s working.
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I Have Tested Article Marketing Automation
I was rather curious about a service called Article Marketing Automation. I have heard some really good things about it, and therefore, I decided to give it a try.
Article Marketing Automation has two types of memberships (at least to my knowledge). One is free, for people just out to use the articles in the database, and one that will cost you a monthly fee for submitting your own articles to the database.
As I am writing this, I can’t remember the monthly fee (but I think it was $47).
I have just tried the free version, the one where I received free articles to post to my blogs.
I had my first doubts about the service as I tried to sign up. I couldn’t find the price anywhere on their website, and I couldn’t find any of the membership options. I think I might have read some of the sales copy and it said something about the two options, or some of my contacts told me. I am not sure, but I think that I just signed up without paying, and then I got the free version (but I am not sure that’s how I did it).
As soon as I got access to the website, it was all very easy to set up. I added my blog url, my username and password, added the categories and a few keywords that my articles need in order to filter them. And that was it, I guess it didn’t take me more than 10 minutes (maybe less).
Now, a few times a week I receive articles in my inbox from Article Marketing Automation. They have information about how “unique” they are, I get the whole article on e-mail, so I can read it and either reject it or approve it. If I approve it (just one click), the article will be posted automatically on to my blog. I find this fascinating, and it really works. Well, except for the categories and the tags. Not sure if that’s my fault. Because now, the articles I approve will be added to all my categories and not just one.
In the end, I have to log in and do some editing in order for everything to be ok. So, it’s not completely automated, but almost. One click to approve, and then just a few minutes editing.
What I don’t like so far, is all the spelling mistakes and the bad grammar. And it seems that the authors don’t write for other blogs, so the articles I have received so far, they have been very impersonal. But, they are free and not bad at all.
So, that’s the free option. And if you join other categories that I have, you might even have a lot better experience than I have had so far. For free, I think this is awesome.
The paid option is very interesting if you are looking to drive traffic through article marketing. After you have written your article, you use the service to submit your article to the database. You can add some codes in order for the system to add different synonyms and rewrite/spin some of your article (the free subscribers will get the % of how much the article was rewritten from the original in their email along with the article). I would guess that you will have to use 15 - 20 minutes extra on each article that you submit to the database in order to get a “perfect” article.
Once you add it the database, all members can use this article for their blogs/websites, and they can’t do any editing to the content (other than spelling mistakes/grammar). All your links will be in all the various articles, and this way, your article will be spread all across the Internet.
It sounds like an interesting way to do article marketing. It all depends on how many users they have, and how many blogs is in their system. So far, I have not seen any results from people using the paid membership.
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Finally I Understand What Twitter Is All About
Not only twitter, but I think I understand what social media is all about. I am the first to admit that it took me a while, it was I time when I thought I was the only one that didn’t understand why I should be using twitter (and many of the other services).
But, today, on the first day of 2009, it’s different.
I need to think of the whole social media race; youtube, facebook, twitter, myspace, digg, reddit, stumbleupon as a big party. And I need to be a likeable person, I need to socialize.
But, what if I am not really a social person, what then? Do you need to be in order to be successful using social media like facebook and twitter?
Well, it’s actually the name of the game, it’s social media. I finally understand what twitter is all about thanks to Perry Belcher.
Now, join me on facebook and follow me on twitter, it’s time to party!
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How To Track Your Internet Marketing Activity
The absolute most important thing you do when it comes to Internet marketing, is to track your Internet marketing activity. The reason is simple. It takes the guessing away, and turns Internet marketing into science. Well, I am not so sure about the science part, even though a lot of people have been comparing Internet marketing to science (probably because I am a political scientist).
The reason people say science, is because it’s all about is testing, testing and testing. Even though you find an Internet marketing strategy you prefer above all the others, you will never stop the testing. Because your Intenret marketing activity can always improve. I am not saying advertising, because I am actually not just talking about the regular banner ads, or any ads for that matter. You can use tracking to improve your writing, and to improve your forum signature (or whatever you want people to click on), therefore I have used Internet marketing activity in my headline.
And today, I thought that I give you an example of how I am tracking and testing my discussion forum signatures.
If you haven’t joined the discussion forums at Digital Point, I urge you to do it now. It’s just plain awesome, it’s free and you’ll learn a lot. And if you contribute, you can get a lot of extra traffic from your signature.
I am using my signature for a week, at the end of the week, I take a look at the statistics and I will do some major or minor changes. It all depends on how many people clicked on my link. I change the words, the length of the signature, the colors. Actually, I change everything from time to time.
I am tracking my signature with HitsConnect, and I have been for many months now. This is the best tracking system I have used. I find it cheap, and it’s really easy to use. That’s all I really need.
With HitsConnect, I track all my advertising, and each and every advertisement will get a unique tracking url (it’s short and a lot easier to use than the regular affiliate url). Every single day, I can see the stats on how many clicks my link got, and I can see the total hits. But not only that, I can also view more detailed statistics.
I believe that the parameters are my most important tool. Whenever I use HitsConnect to track a marketing campaign, I will get a url like this one: http://www.trker.com/go/12345 (the number can be anything). After this unique number, you can put whatever you prefer in order to track the specific ads.
For instance. If I am promoting aWeber (the autoresponder I use to send out my newsletter) at several websites and using my signature in the discussion forums, I can use one campaign at HitsConnect. All I do is this, I add a few extra parameters at the end of my tracking url. Something like http://www.trker.com/go/12345/signature or http://www.trker.com/go/12345/banner. I can use as many parameters as I prefer. At the image above, I used the size of the banners as my parameters (250 equals 250 x 250 px).
This way, I understand what works for me and what doesn’t work at all.
It’s important to understand that Internet marketing is not about guessing, and it’s not about your thoughts about what works. I try to be really creative, but I always track my creativity… that’s the only way I can figure out if the campaign was a success or not.
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The Best Marketing is the Free Trial
I have no doubt about it, if the product or the service is of high quality, then, the best marketing is the free trial.
This way, people can test the product/service for free and if they like it, then they end up buying it.
I have been using an awesome word processor called WriteRoom for a while, and yesterday, I downloaded another awesome software called TaskPaper. Both software was developed by Jesse Grosjean of Hog Bay Software. He is offering a free trial of the complete software, no sign up needed. If you like it, and I really did, you end up buying it.
This is fairly common when it comes to software, but not as common when it comes to other products and services.
For instance, I have just joined a health club. I had to join it for 12 months to get the discount. The health club is brand new, it hasn’t even opened yet, so no other people (except the ones working there) have been inside. What I would have preferred was that they offered a two-week free trial, and after this trial, offered a discount (the same one I just signed up for) for the next 12 months. Only then, will they know for sure if their members are really satisfied from the moment they join the health club.
Sometimes when you visit the local grocery store, you get free samples of various food. If you like the samples, you might end up buying.
Too many companies think that they are using the power of free trial marketing, when all they are really doing is applying the money back guarantee. This is not by far as effective. With the money back guarantee, the customers have to pay, and if they don’t enjoy the product or the service, they can ask for their money. Few people will want to tell the company that their product or service sucks, and that they’d like to get a refund.
Customers like to have the money back guarantee opportunity, it works from a marketing perspective. People think that they will ask for a refund. What they end up doing instead is canceling the service or stop using the product without asking for a refund.
One of my local video stores offers a guarantee, if people don’t like the movie they rented, they can get another one for free. They have had this guarantee for several years, but I have never heard of someone who have used it though. I have watched a lot of “bad” movies, and I should probably have told the people in the store, but I always think it’s my own fault. Why did I rent the latest Steven Seagal movie, when I could have just checked the reviews at the Internet Movie Database?
In the end, it’s all about the quality of the products and services. If the quality is superb, use the free trial. It’s the most powerful marketing technique.
Visit My Top Internet Marketing Resources Today.
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Viral Marketing At Christmas
I have just visited the Christmas tree at MacHeist, and they have some really nice gifts for their visitors. I have downloaded two of them, I could have downloaded them all, but I really didn’t need more than two. Actually, I didn’t need any of them, but I thought, why not?
As I was about to leave, I noticed that there was two gifts that didn’t have exactly the same nice colors as the others.
When I moved my cursor on top of them, I saw a pop up window that said “refer a friend to get me!”. I find this interesting, viral marketing at Christmas.
It could be that MacHeist is giving away to crappy gifts for people who refer their friends, or maybe they are hiding the best gifts, you’ll never know until you refer a friend.
Great viral marketing from MacHeist.
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How a Car Mechanic Turned Me Into A Really Happy Customer
I have had a few problems with our car lately, and monday was the day I drove it to the car dealership. They had to fix some stuff that I really don’t remember the name of. I am one of those guys that when it comes to cars, the only thing I understand is how to fill gas, I contact the dealership for everything else. I am not proud of it, but that’s how it is, and that’s how it will always be.
When I was about to drive to the dealership, I discovered that our car was really dirty. I hadn’t washed it for months, I guess I just didn’t notice, well, I noticed a few minutes before I was going to let someone else take a look at it.
I didn’t really have time to wash the car, so I just drove it to the dealership and gave the keys to the car mechanic.
Now, I didn’t expect anything other than that the car mechanic would repair the actual damage. So, I was rather surprised when I returned to get my car and saw that it had been washed. It was shining, it was like it was a brand new car.
I didn’t pay for it, it was all part of their service.
Now, that’s what I call great marketing.
Tags: car+mechanic, car+dealership, happy+customer, marketing
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The Bush Shoe Thrower And Marketing
Sometimes a business will get lucky, very lucky. Sometimes it’s all due to accident, yes, sometimes a product can become very popular due to something the company are not in control of at all. Let me give you an example. I guess you have heard of the now famous shoe thrower, this one incident has made a Turkish shoemaker really popular. 
Last sunday, Iraqi journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi threw his shoe at George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad. This happening has been all over the news, all across the world. The journalist is now in prison, he has been tortured and he might be sentenced to as much as 15 years (the trial will be December 31st). Ramazan Baydan, owner of the Istanbul-based Baydan Shoe Company, which makes the now famous “Bush Shoe” has been swamped with orders from across the world.
So many orders, that they are hiring an extra staff of 100 people.
Incidents like this one will have shoemakers all across the world think, why didn’t Muntazar al-Zaidi use our shoes instead of a pair of Baydan Shoes? Well, it’s coincidence, or maybe not. If you’re creating an already popular brand, it’s more likely that it will be used by people, by shoe throwers and others. But at the same time, it’s more likely that it will be worn by people that will have a negative impact on your sales as well (think about it, what if this guy was a terrorist and not a shoe thrower). It’s all about accidental branding. Some people are really lucky, and some people are not.
But, this episode with the Bush Shoe will soon be forgotten. If Bayden Shoes are not quality shoes, they will soon have to fire the 100 people, it’s about using this incident for all that it’s worth, and keep up the level of service and quality.
What if you use a Guerilla Marketing strategy, and provide a guy with your shoes in order to throw them at Bush? It sounds like a really interesting strategy at the moment, but that’s only because we know that it had a positive impact on the company, and we wouldn’t have known this before the incident. And the thrower is in jail and tortured (so I guess it’s not something you should consider).
Speaking of accidental branding, a while ago, I wrote a short review about an interesting book that I recommend that you read.
Visit My Top Internet Marketing Resources Today.
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You Need To Watch Out For Your Ads
You might think that you can just advertise using banners on some of the top blogs and that’s it. At the end of the month, you’ll receive a nice commission without doing hardly any work at all. That might be true, but you should really watch out for your ads.
I’ll give you an example.
If you visit one the hottest blogs around, ProBlogger by Darren Rowse, you can see nine banners. One 468 x 60 at the top, and eight 125 x 125 banners in the right sidebar. This blog receives a lot of visitors each day, and I bet that if you advertise on ProBlogger, you will get many clicks no matter what you are advertising.
But, you need to watch out for your ads, because sometimes your landing page might not be ok and if it’s not, it doesn’t really matter how many clicks you get.
If you visit ProBlogger and click the “links” banners, you will end up with an error. This is happening as I am writing this. I clicked the advertisement from “links” a few days ago as well, and the same thing happened.
I am not sure why this error occurs (all you see is a blank page with the text “the given language () does not exist).
I really hope that the person paying for the advertisement will get some sort of discount, because running an advertisement on ProBlogger is not cheap, and that’s because it’s a very powerful blog to be advertising on, but then your landing page have to work.
I have been looking to find out about the error, and it seems that “links” is identical to Text Link Ads. When I tried to put their affiliate code (I am an affiliate, but I haven’t been advertising) on my blog, I received the same error. So, apparently, this problem is with the company and not at ProBlogger.
The moral of the story is that you need to watch out for your ads in order to fix the problem the moment it occurs. Because if you do, you might not loose that much money, or you might earn more money. Either way, don’t ever think that everything is alright and just wait for your commissions to arrive at the end of the month.
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Healthspan Christmas Copywriting
A few days ago, I received an interesting offer from my pals at Healthspan. If you’re not familiar with Healthspan, it’s the place on the web where I shop all my vitamins. Their customer service is awesome, their prices are great, and their vitamins are perfect for me (they have a category for vegetarians).
The subject of the email I received was: £5 OFF - Happy Christmas from Healthspan
As I opened the email, I found the real offer was £5 off when you spend £20.
I find this interesting.
They are using the best part of their offer in the subject, they reveal the necessary information in order for me to open up the email.
If I had seen the £5 off when you spend £20, I don’t think that I would have opened the email.
To me, this is great copywriting.
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My Short Stop At The IKEA Restroom
A few days ago, my wife and I took a trip to IKEA. We were just going to have a look at a bed for our daughter, because we were already in Gothenburg. But at the same time, we ended up shopping all sorts of stuff. We always do that when we visit IKEA, I guess that’s what everybody ends up doing.
After we paid for our stuff, I had to go to the restroom. When entering, I discovered something interesting. Basically, the IKEA restroom is like any other restroom, it’s clean and neat and it has all the features we need. Nothing more, nothing less. Well, except for people with babies.
You can probably see what I am talking about. Isn’t that cool?
What’s great about it, is that it’s an IKEA product. You can buy the exact product inside the warehouse.
They are using their products inside the restroom, and I think I have actually seen some other products of IKEA inside the restaurant as well. By using their product inside the warhouse, people can experience them before they decide to buy them.
That’s great marketing.
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No Plot No Problem Review
I have just finished reading a very interesting book with the title “No Plot? No Problem! A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide To Writing A Novel In 30 Days”. The author is Chris Baty, who is also the founder of National Novel Writing Month.
The reason I bought the book might be kind of obvious. I want to write a novel in 30 days. I have been sort of writing a little now and then for a long time, and it doesn’t really go anywhere. My plot changes, the characters changes, and everything is just one big mess. Actually, I have started writing about 10 books, because when everything changes, I am thinking that I am starting a completely different book, therefore, I have switched to a new notebook and a new file on my Mac. And like before, everything changes in after a few new weeks.
I am tired of this, and that’s why I bought the book by Chris Baty. I was hoping that it would help me solve some of my concerns, and help me find a way to just write and stop thinking about all the other stuff regarding the story.
That’s exactly what it did. I am so excited at the moment, and I just want to stop working and start writing. I want to tell my wife that I will stay in my office for 30 days (this is not an advice of Chris Baty) and just write. This book was brilliant for inspiration, everything just seem so easy and I still believe it is easy to write a book. It’s not easy to write a great book, or to get the book published. I believe it’s easy to write a 50,000 pages book about one of my stories.
And that’s what I am going to do.
No Plot? No Problem! has a lot of great advice and it has some awesome details about what you should be doing each of the four weeks (remember, it’s about writing your book in 30 days). It seems that weeks two will be the most challenging week, because that’s when you start questioning your plot (if you have one) and your characters. This is probably the part where I have created a new book instead of just continue to write. But after reading No Plot? No Problem! I strongly believe that this won’t be a problem anymore.
What you need to understand, is that your book won’t be finished in 30 days. Your first draft will be finished, but most likely, you will need to rewrite your book. The process of rewriting might take a year. What’s important is that you have finished the story, and that’s what makes you proud… and least that’s what will make me proud. I believe that the process of rewriting will just be a lot of fun.
If you are looking for a book that’s straight to the point about how to write a novel, or any store for that matter, I suggest you buy No Plot? No Problem! It’s only 176 pages and you’ll be finished reading it in a few days (or just one if you are a fast reader). But even though you have finished reading it, you will keep it by your side, because most likely, you’ll keep reading some of the pages over and over again.
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Definition of Affiliate Marketing
I thought I’d let you know a few words about affiliate marketing, and I will also give you a definition of affiliate marketing.
Let me start out with defining affiliate marketing:
Affiliate marketing is actually a way to make money by “working” for others. It’s like a partnership between a salesperson (you) on the Internet and a business (on the Internet). Every time the sales person gets another person to perform a specific action (usually buy something, but it could also be something like filling out a survey or just clicking on an advertisement) then the business pays that salesperson a specific amount of money.
My point is; another person have to take some sort of action because of you in order for you to earn money. The type of action depends on the affiliate program.
As far as I know, Amazon.com, was the first site on the Web to use affiliate marketing. Amazon created a system that allowed “associates” to join a program and then try to sell Amazon’s products to other people on the Internet. As an affiliate of Amazon, you will only earn money when people you refer to their website will buy something.
Now there are too many affiliate programs to count all of them. Actually, way too many… it’s impossible to keep track of them all.
There are thousands upon thousands of programs. Usually, to find out which sites have an affiliate program, all you have to do is scroll down to the bottom of the home page and look at where there are pages listed. One of the page links at the bottom will probably read something like “Affiliates” or “Become an Associate.” This is for that site’s affiliate program. If you click on it then you’ll be taken to a page that tells you all about the affiliate marketing program that the site offers.
You will need to sign-up with the site in order to become an affiliate. After you sign-up you’ll be able to begin marketing the site or individual products/services from the site. You’ll be given a unique URL that you’ll tell people to click on in order to buy a product or visit a site. When they person uses that URL then the site will know you sent them there and you’ll get credit for that.
Depending on the site and the affiliate marketing program that you join, you might make as little as 3% commission on the sale of a product or you could make as much as 75% commission. In fact, there are some Internet Marketers who let their affiliates keep all the profits (100% commission!) whenever a sale is made.
There are many different tactics and strategies that are used by affiliates. These tactics include buying pop-up ads on sites, writing articles, creating social networking pages, creating storefronts, and many other practices. Some people make thousands of dollars a day with affiliate marketing while others make just a few dollars a month. But if you know what you’re doing and you work really hard at it then you will make a decent amount of money.
The basics of affiliate marketing are that you find a site that accepts affiliates, sign-up with that affiliate program, market for the site, and then make money when you get people to perform the action that the site wants people to do (usually involves buying something). Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money and it is relatively easy to do.
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Definition of Benchmarking
I have a goal. This week will be benchmarking week for me. I am going to do some research every single day, in order to find out a lot more about benchmarking. I have some knowledge about the term, but all I really know can be said in a few sentences, something like:
“Benchmarking is the process of comparing the cost, time or quality of what one organization does against what another organization does. The result is often a business case for making changes in order to make improvements.”
I borrowed this definition from Wikipedia.
The point is that your organization want to find a way to improve its performance, in order to reduce costs, time or increase the quality (of its products or services).
Benchmarking can be a one-time event, or as I would think would be a lot better, an event done every second year or so. This way, it’s a lot easier to compare the new results with the old results, and find out how “healthy” your organization is compared to its health from the past.
Usually, as far as I know, benchmarking is done by individual companies. But, it can also be done by a group of companies. I think that this might be happening when a chain of car dealerships (Volvo) are comparing themselves each year, and every single year they provide us with a winner… hence, the “best” Volvo dealership in the country. But I am not sure that this is really benchmarking or something else.
What I have learned so far, is that benchmarking should be done by comparing one organization with another “identical” organization. You can’t compare within your own organization, even though you have similar functions at different levels in your organization. But I guess that you can compare your own organization if you have different factories in different cities or countries and they are identical. Because, I believe that this is really what benchmarking is all about?
Or at least, the benchmarking is done inside the same brand… not between competing brands or businesses?
From this, can we do benchmarking in the Traffic Exchange industry? By comparing each Traffic Exchange? Just a thought..
Anyway, this has been my first day of reading about benchmarking and the topic of tommorrow will be about the process and the methodologies.
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How To Get Noticed On A Bulletin Board
Have you ever tried to post a note on a free bulletin board at your local grocery store? If you haven’t, you might want to try it. A lot of people are looking at them every single day, and it’s usually completely free to post them.
But, there is one problem though.
Usually, there can be close to a hundred notes on a bulletin board, some of them selling used bikes, some selling Playstation or Xbox, some asking to rent an apartment, and some would like to announce a concert at the local church. There are all sorts of notes, and all sorts of people reading them.
How do you get noticed on a bulletin board like that?
I have just been to Gothenburg, and the image above is from an ICA super market.
The Wall
You should consider the color of the background wall before you design your own note. If the wall is plain white, you should consider using red, blue, green or any other color as the color of your paper. Then, write your text with a white font.
The other notes
You should do some research when it comes to the other notes. Come back two or three times, and see if the notes on the bulletin board looks similar or if you can’t really see a pattern. Sometimes, you can see a few very cool notes that stands out from the crowd. Other times, you might find that all the notes are almost identical. White paper with black text.
If this bulletin board almost only have the “ordinary” notes, white paper with black text, you should really go for something completely different. If almost all of the notes are really cool, with lots of color. Then, you might be better off with the plain white paper with black text note.
The audience
Where is your bulletin board located? If it’s located at your local grocery store, you need to start thinking about who shops at this store. If it’s all sorts of people, well, then you can put all sorts of notes on the board. If most customers have kids, that could be something you should target with your advertisement. If you know that most people shopping there have little money to spend, you might want to target that. What I am saying is that, you should think about who your audience will be, and target this audience.
Bullies
You should always look out for bullies, people that will tear down your note, or put their note on top of yours. If you see that this have been done to other notes, you should probably come back in a few days and see if your note still is up, and everything is ok.
Now, it’s time to hit the local grocery store with your note..
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The Concert
I am currently in Gothenburg with my wife. We have just been to a concert with the famous Swedish singer Peter Jöback. It was a Christmas concert and it was awesome. Actually, it was probably one of the best concerts I have ever been to. I am saying this, even though I am not a huge fan of this kind of music. Everything was perfect, the sound was excellent, the crowd was excellent, and Peter Jöback did a perfect performance.
Everything Peter Jöback did was perfect, his singing was outstanding and his talking between the songs was perfect. He told us really interesting stories, sometimes sad and sometimes funny. The concert had everything. As I was sitting there, looking at Peter Jöback, listening and feeling impressed, a thought hit me.
Actually, two thoughts.
When a person is really unique, and has a really excellent performance, no matter what topic. He really doesn’t need the marketing. He is the marketing. He only needs to decide when and where to have the concert, and it will be sold out, even though there are no marketing what so ever.
The same happens to some authors. As soon as they have written a new book, it reaches the best seller list. And it happens to a lot of people, in a lot of different niches.
The second thought was related to how to become truly great.
The reason why Peter Jöback is a truly great artist, and the reason why this concert was excellent, is focus. When a person spend close to 100% of his energy to focus on one thing, he will eventually become outstanding. The reason why some people will always be mediocre, is that most of us tend to focus only a very small portion of our energy and time on many topics.
My advice to you.
Find what you enjoy the most, find what you are really good at, focus more of your time and energy on this. That’s how Peter Jöback become a truly great artist, and this is how you can become a truly great marketer (or whatever you want to become).
If you by any chance understand Swedish, you can read a review from the concert.
Listen to his songs on MySpace.
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Who do you really need to persuade?
When you are selling, sometimes you need not only persuade the person you are selling to, but you need to persuade her parents, sister and friends.
Many times, when a person is about to buy a new product or a service, or maybe even attend a university (like the college where I work), that person seeks advice from people she trusts.
The problem is that we never know who seeks advice, and we never know when people seeks advice.
Some people might talk to their friends before buying a new book. Some people might ask their dad before they are going to apply for a university, some people might ask their sister when she is going to buy a new dress. Many people might never ask at all.
The only way we can be sure that our marketing works, is if we can persuade them all.
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How To Track Your Blog Comments
One of the best ways to get free traffic to your website or blog, is to join a conversation on another blog. Leave comments, and people will come to your websites. And the more useful comments you write, the more people will visit. But in order to get even more traffic and authority in the blogosphere, you need to follow up your comments.
You should never just leave a comment, and not go back and answer any questions you might get. That’s not only rude, but you will loose some credibility.
In order to know when someone asks you a question, or leave a new comment in the same conversation as you have joined, you need to track your comments.
I have been tracking my comments for a while, actually, I wrote that you should use co.mments back in February 2007. But lately, I have been lazy… and I admit that I actually forgot about co.mments. Once again, I started to track all my comments, but I didn’t remember how to check if any new comments arrived at the conversations that I was tracking.
Finally, I found a video that explained it to me. You need to see this one if you want to understand how to track your blog comments, it’s really easy, and it’s free.
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Squeeze Pages or Splash Pages
I have just finished creating a squeeze page, and I would really appreciate your feedback. Is it a good squeeze page or not? You’ll get the link at the bottom.
Let me first tell you a few words about the difference between squeeze pages and splash pages, and why we use them.
First off, squeeze pages are really just a single page without any navigation. It’s like an advertisement, but instead of using a link to the sales page, you are using a subscription form. The goal with a squeeze page is to build a list, and that’s “the only” reason why you are using one.
A splash page is almost the same, it’s a single page, but instead of using a subscription form, you are using a link to a sales page or to your website. A splash page is like a preview of what to expect, it’s like show off. You give the visitors the best of what you have to offer on one single page.
A squeeze page and a splash page is almost the same, and you use them for almost the same purpose. You want to get people’s attention. You want them to stop, stare, and read/view what you are offering. With a regular website, there are too many links, images, banners and information. Your visitors chose what to read, and you never know if they chose what you think is the most important. They might leave your website without ever looking at your advertisment or without subscribing to your newsletter.
Before you decide whether or not you should use a squeeze page or a splash page, you need to think about what your goal is. Are you looking for a way to build a list, and then send them a newsletter or advertisements via email? Or are you trying to get people’s attention and try to pre-sell them a product or a service without having to send them e-mail?
Now, let me give you an example of a squeeze page. It took me just a few minutes to create it, and I want your feedback. Because if this is a sort of squeeze page that you think could work, then you can create it too in just a few minutes, and it’s completely free.
Ok, this is the squeeze page I am talking about. Remember, this is just an example.
All I did was use a template I downloaded for one of the many marketing courses I have bought during the past months. I replaced the video with one I found at YouTube (it’s the really cool AXE advertisement), and I added words of my own.
Don’t think too much about the words, this was created in a few minutes, and I guess that I could have picked a different video and I could have spent some time thinking about better words to use.
My point is really this:
If videos work for your squeeze pages, they are really easy to find, and free to use, just embed them from YouTube. Then, just add a few lines of text and a subscription form, and you are read to get subscribers to your newsletter.
So, what do you think (please leave a comment)?
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Marketing Using Facebook Groups
Facebook is one of the most popular social media sites, and if you use it right, you can get a lot of extra traffic from it.
I have just watched the brand new video from Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick, the guys behind Become a Blogger. The video is about how to research Facebook to find profitable topics. To be more specific, it’s about how to use Facebook groups to do the research, and this way, how to find all the most profiable topics.
I have known about Facebook groups for a while, but I have actually never tried it when it comes to marketing. It’s a long time since I joined a group, and I have never created my own groups. After watching the video, I understand how powerful this is.
The best of all, it’s free, and I don’t think that many people or businesses are using this as a marketing strategy just yet.
Take a look at the video from the guys behind Become a Blogger.
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Why First Impressions Are The Most Important
I have just finished reading All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin, it was really interesting, so interesting that in fact it’s the book of the month for December. I thought I’d give you a few more thoughts about the book, and why I found it to be worth reading.
Seth Godin explains why first impressions are really important, and the short story is that it’s because “almost every important buying decision is made instantaneously. These snap decisions affect everything we do, and we’ll bend over backward to defend them later.”
Let me give you a few examples from my life.
I was told by a close friend that I should watch the TV show called Entourage, that this was just up my alley, it was perfect for me. I started to watch it, I saw the first episode, and I thought it was really boring. I watched the second episode, and I guess it was ok, but far from perfect. The first impression was that this show was not worth my time at all. I would have stopped watching, but because I was told by a guy that knows me, that this show was something I would really find entertaining, I didn’t stop watching. And, today, I just love Entourage. It’s probably the TV show that I find the most entertaining of them all.
Let me tell you about my uncle.
He would probably have bought a really expensive Volvo if it wasn’t for the first impression. He doesn’t like the owner of the Volvo store. Today, he drives a BMW instead. He won’t go back to the store, just because he has the impression that he doesn’t like the owner, and he will never pay that guy any money.
People decide about a sales person or a business in just a matter of seconds, and we never know when this is going to occur. The thing is, the first impression might not be the first encounter. The first time my uncle visited the Volvo store, he might have had a great time, but it might not be a time he remembered. The next time, he might have heard the owner say something he didn’t like, and this is the time he remembered as his first impression of the store (the owner of the store).
Because we never know when the first impression will be, or what will be important during the first impression, it’s very important that we are authentic. We don’t know if it’s the sign of the store, the carpets, the coffee machine, or the people working in the store that will be part of the first impression.
If we relate this to a website, the first impression might be the design, or how the author writes, or that it’s too many advertisements in the sidebar. My first impressions are usually related to the design. If I visit a website with a poor design, I usually don’t care to even read past the headline. Because, to me, poor design means that the people behind the website hasn’t invested enough time or money in order to make it professional. Why should their content be any better than the design?
We never know what causes the first impression, all we know is that the first impression affects everything they do, and that it’s really hard to prove them wrong after they have created their story about us (just relate it to my uncle).
Say, you could have a really cool design, perfect navigation, really awesome articles, but too many banners. Some people might find too many banners really annoying, and this might be their first impression. They just don’t see all the other really cool things about your website. The only thing they remember are all the banners, and they think that all you are is a sales person in disguise.
Everything matters, that’s why authenticity matters.
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All Marketers Are Liars is the Book of the Month
I have just finished reading the book from famous author Seth Godin, it’s called All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World.
The book was just plain awesome, and that’s why it’s the book of the month for December.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I bought this book, that’s all because of the title. I guess I thought that it would be a book about examples of how marketers lie. But it’s actually something completely different.
It’s about storytelling.
I was lying to you when I named this book. Marketers aren’t liars. They are just storytellers. It’s the consumers who are liars. As consumers, we lie to ourselves every day. We lie to ourselves about what we wear, where we live, how we vote and what we do at work. Successful marketers are just the providers of stories that consumers choose to believe.
It’s about worldview.
People don’t want to change their worldview. They like it, they embrace it and they want it to be reinforced.
It’s about frames.
Frames are the words and images and interactions that reinforce a bias someone is already feeling.
When you tell stories that are framed to get past a person’s biases, and give the speaker the chance to tell the story, you need to know how.
For instance, there are many words that you need to think about depending who you talk to. Nightclub might seem like not so nice place to some people, if you use party space instead, the person might get a completely different view. If you are presenting your maid as a room attendant, it sounds a lot more interesting.
It’s all about wants, most people really don’t need stuff anyway.
Does it really matter that the $80,000 Porsche Cayenne and the $36,000 VW Touareg are virtually the same vehicle, made in the same factory?
Or why am I going to buy the brand new Macbook, even though it’s not measurably faster than the one I am going to replace?
The reason the consumers are the real liars, is that we all know (at least most of us) that our lives won’t change much if we buy new pair of Puma sneakers. We just tell ourselves the story about why they would be perfect for us.
The book is really entertaining, and by reading it, I have learned a lot, certainly about storytelling.
Every consumer has a worldview that affects the product you want to sell. That worldview alters the way they interpret everything you say and do. Fram your story in terms of that worldview, and it will be heard.
I consider this book to be some what interesting for everybody. If you are not a marketer, you can read it in order to understand what’s going on, what marketers are trying to do. This way, you’ll think twice the next time you see an advertisement for Coca Cola Zero, or a brand new healthy snack.
If you are a marketer, I think that this book might be vital for your survival in the business. It helps you understand your real audience, and it helps you shape your marketing.
All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World.
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Turning Your Quiz Into Viral Marketing
We have just launched a quiz at the website of our college. There are three easy questions, and each month for six months, we give away one iPhone to a really lucky person. A few months ago, I thought about how to turn the quiz into a viral marketing campaign, and I wanted to try it so badly, but it all stopped the day before we launched the quiz.
The reason I didn’t go through with it, was that I wasn’t confident enough about how to do it.
I know about several scripts that I could have used, like viral friend generator, instant affiliate generator and viral inviter, but I didn’t use any of them. As I just said, I wasn’t really sure if this would have just destroyed the quiz or if it would have been a huge success. I thought it could have gone either way, and I wasn’t ready for failure.
But I am still thinking, why didn’t we go for it?
The reason I wanted to try viral marketing, is that it can be really powerful, and it’s usally completely free. Well, except for the times you need to buy a script. The scripts are usually fairly cheap though, so that’s not really a problem. When you use the Internet, it’s completely free to share information, like sending the link to the quiz to your friends. The more times the link is shared, the more people will enter the quiz, and the more people will visit our website.
What we wanted was a really good reason for people to tell their friends about our quiz. Now, people won’t tell anybody, because the more people they tell, the less likely it is that they will win an iPhone themselves.
But, if we had an affiliate competition going, where the person who have sent the link to our quiz to most people and got most people to answer the quiz also won an iPhone, I think we would get more people overall to answer the quiz.
We need an incentive for people to share the information about the quiz, and not an incentive for people not to share.
But I am still thinking, why didn’t we go for it?
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Advertising on Receipts or Tickets
Yesterday, I watched James Bond, Quantum of Solace and the new Nicolas Cage movie, Bangkok Dangerous at a movie theatre. I really enjoyed Quantum of Solace, Bangkok Dangerous was ok, but as I got back home and emptied my pockets, I found the receipts.
At the back of the receipts they had advertisements.
You see the front of the receipts to the left, and the back of the receipts to the right.
I remember one time when I visited the US, I think it was about 10 years ago at Santa Clara. A friend of mine and me rented a movie at a video store, at the back of the receipt we saw an offer for a free Big Mac at McDonald’s and I think it was a cheap car wash as well.
This advertisement in the US about 10 years ago seemed to be a big success, because my friend, who is an american, did know about it, and that was why he always rented the movies at this one place. He knew that he would get a free Big Mac.
My question is really this; why aren’t more businesses doing this?
Think about it, every time you get a receipt at the hair dresser, you’d get a free shampoo. You can get related companies to sponsor.
If you buy a dvd at a dvd store, at the back of the receipt, you can get an offer from another company selling TV’s and DVD players.
You can also use the back of the receipts to advertise for your own company. You already know that the person with the receipt have bought something from you. Show them your appreciation, by giving them 50% of something, or even a free product in your store.
I am not sure, because it’s a long time since I have been in the US, but my guess is that this is fairly common… but not in Norway, at least not yet.
Tags: Movie+Theatre, Tickets, Receipts, Advertising
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The Best iPhone Application
Finally, I found the iPhone application that I have been looking for. So far, it’s the best free iPhone application. You might not agree with me, but this one is a life saver. It’s called iPhone Discover, and it lets you transfer files from your iPhone to another iPhone, or from an iPhone to a computer using WiFi networks.
It took me about 20 seconds from I installed it and to I was up and running. My first file was transfered in just a couple of minutes. It was really easy, and it was just perfect.
I installed it while I was at a friends apartment about an hour ago. Within a few minutes I was using his iMac to transfer files to my iPhone. The discover application gave me the ip-address, after I typed it and submitted it using Safari, I entered a really neat interface (check out the image above) on his iMac.
I got full control over the files I wanted to transfer from his iMac to my iPhone, and on the files on my iPhone to his iMac.
I am not sure if it’s possible to make it any easier than this. So far, this is the best iPhone application (for me).
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The Pizza Delivery Guy
Yesterday, I spent most of the day in Oslo. It was mostly work, I was at a fairly long business meeting. I guess it was ok, even though I don’t care much for meetings. When I attend a meeting, I usually don’t get much work done. And usually, when I am attending a meeting, I don’t focus on what’s happening during the meeting. I think about everthing else. That’s why I want every meeting to be as short as possible.
That’s really all you need to know about the trip to Oslo.
I got home about eight o’clock, it was dark, and it was cold. I was only wearing a rain coat, because it usually rains, but not that day.
As I was about to walk home from the train station, a car pulled up next to me, and the driver asked me if I was on my way home and if I wanted a ride?
This was the local pizza delivery guy. He was about to deliver pizza not far away from my house.
I was thrilled and I said yes.
This is probably the best marketing a pizza restaurant can get. It didn’t cost them any money, and I’ll tell all my family, friends and colleagues about this. Soon, this story will be all over town, it will be like viral marketing.
I am not sure if the pizza guy had given much thought about this, and the effect it can have on their restaurant. The reason he asked me if I wanted a ride home, was probably because I have been at the restaurant a lot, and he had delivered pizza to my house more times than to most people in town.
He was just being friendly, but most times, being friendly will have a major positive impact on your business.
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Knowledge Empowers
I have just discovered Blog Media Publishing, a directory of educational blogs. At the moment, the directory has 9 topics, which includes:
AskMyChef HowToMonkey RepairingHome EverydayGuide NewzTracker TravelMore AskMedQuestions HowToRepairWindows RepairingCar
What struck me the first time I visited Blog Media Publishing was the cool design, the colors, and especially the logos for each blog.
Now, that I have visited all of the blogs, and read the topics, I find the most interesting one to be News Tracker. This one keeps track of “everything” in the world. It crawls 6000 news and blog sources. The key feature is related news stories as well as related tags in order to explore more news on the topic of your choice.
It’s always updated, that’s really the beauty. But what I found to be very interesting was the search option. The topics of News Tracker is general; world, business, politics, sports and technology. But if I want news on a specific niche, I can just use the search box.
If I want the latest news on the Apple iPhone, I just type it in the search box and click search. I get all the latest updates, and News Tracker is fast.
What I would like on their next update is a way to see how many news stories they present on the topic, just like all the major search engines present their results.
And I am really looking forward to when I can subscribe to their RSS feed on each search. Think about how cool it will be when I can search for Apple iPhone (or whatever) and subscribe to the rss feed. This way I’ll always be updated on the topic, 6000 news and blog sources feeding me every second of the day.
I happen to know that they are going to add this feature sometime very soon.
Tags: blog+media, knowledge, education, directory
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The Greenest Notebooks
I really enjoyed the Get-a-Mac ads, they were funny. I also enjoy the brand new ad as well, but this time it’s for the world’s greenest family of notebooks:
It’s important to focus on why you are different. And if you are the best in the world on something, then, that’s something you need to be proud of and need to show in your ads.
Especially when it comes to the environment.
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How Reliable Are Phone Surveys?
Yesterday, I received a phone call from a telemarketer. It sounded like a fairly young girl. It was the third time she had called me this week. I had been busy the two times before, so even though I was eating dinner, I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to be nice to her, I knew that she was only doing her job. People can be rude when they understand that a telemarketer just called them. I didn’t want to be that guy.
She was not trying to sell me anything, that was a relief.
It usually takes me less than a minute to say no (in a nice way), when someone tries to sell me someting over the phone. I never buy from telemarketers, I am not saying that I never will, but so far, I can’t remember a single time when I have bought something from a person who presented the product while talking to me on the phone. It’s just that it’s really hard to convince me to buy just by talking to me on the phone, it’s so impersonal.
She was calling from the largest telemarketing company in Norway and she told me that she wanted me to answer a survey. She just needed 10 minutes, all she wanted was some answers. I find phone surveys rather interesting. By answering, I try to guess who paid for them. It keeps me entertained during the conversation.
What I find most interesting about phone surveys are the fact that media and campanies trust them. How’s that possible?
I had to answer about 40 questions, it might have been less, but it seemed like even more. It took a lot more than 10 minutes for me to answer the questions, probably closer to 20 minutes. I had to answer questions about what kind of TV commercials I recognized from the past months, and even though I probably had some time to think, I couldn’t think straight. This girl was waiting for my answer, and my kids were loud and ready for me to quit the conversation, they wanted me to finish dinner and play. Therefore, I couldn’t really think of any commercial I had watched lately, and the same happened when she asked about radio. I couldn’t figure out if I had heard any of the commercials the past months. I guess I probably had.
I was finished with stage 1. Yes, I felt like a winner.
And I was ready for stage 2.
What was the first two words that came to my mind when I thought about competition?
That was a tricky one.
I answered sports and money, and it was true, that was the first two words that came to my mind. Not sure if she had expected this, but that was all that I could tell her.
Now, did I find competition to be a healthy part of society? Did I find competition healthy when it comes to schools, businesses, industry in general, supermarkets, farmers?
Was I suppose to answer all this without having the time to think? Ok, I probably still had time to think, I just couldn’t. This girl was waiting, my kids were still waiting, a lot louder now. And me, I just wanted to finish.
A few minutes later, it was time for me to answer some statements. I guessed this had to be stage 3. Did I agree or disagree with the following…
I answered fast. I was probably the fastest guy ever to answer her survey. I wanted her to say; wow, you’re probably the fastest guy I have ever talked to. I wanted her to laugh.
Finally, it was all over.
She didn’t tell me that she thought I was fast, she didn’t laugh. All she did was ask me if I would please answer another survey.
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A Funny Name is a Great Name
Don’t ever underestimate the power of a great name. Usually, a great name is a short name, a name you’d remember the very second you see it for the first time. But a funny name is also a great name.
The easiest way to create a funny name is to find a name that everybody already knows, and change a word or two in order to relate it to your business.
For instance, the latest Internet Marketing Resource:
or some other really funny names from “ordinary” businesses in the US:
Wok N Roll (Chinese restaurant)
Citizen Canine (Dog Kennel)
Bead It (Bead store)
Hard Wok Cafe (Chinese Take Away)
It can’t be that hard to create a funny name?
But I guess sometimes you’d have to check with the franchise to see if you are doing something legal or not. For instance, what if you called your burger store “Burger Prince” like from the Shrek movie. Do you think Burger King would allow it?
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Dane Cook Burger King Video
Dane Cook did an awesome stand up comedy performance about his first job at Burger King. You can watch the video below:
(I couldn’t get the live performance to play on my blog, but you can try to watch it on YouTube)
This is free marketing for Burger King, even though Dane Cook is making fun of the burger company. He is getting the attention of a lot of people, currently, more than 2 million views at YouTube.
Consider yourself lucky if a popular stand up comedian talks about your company during his show.
Tags: Dane+Cook, Burger+King, YouTube, Humor
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How a College Should Communicate with Their Students
We are having a major challenge at our college. I am not sure if our staff feel it’s a challenge at all, but that’s how I feel about it.
Let me give you a few examples:
If we have a major announcement that all our students need to know right away, we send them an e-mail with the announcement. The problem is that a lot of people are not reading their college e-mail, that’s because they have registrered their Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo Mail with their teacher. So, it seems that there might be good communication between the teacher and their students, but not between the administration and the students (because we don’t have the right email address for all the students).
Website
We use our website for announcements as well, but a lot of our students are not visiting the websites on a daily basis, and might not get important messages before it might be too late.
Blackboard
We use Blackboard as our learning management system (lms), and some teachers use it to send announcement to their students. Not all teachers use an lms, and some might even use other systems, other than Blackboard. Because of this, we can’t possibly send announcements to all our students through Blackboard, some students will receive them, but not everybody.
Mobile phone / SMS
I guess that we could send important announcements straight to their mobile phones using sms. But this is fairly expensive, and just one department is using this service.
The traditional letter
The president of our college has been sending a traditional letter to all our students. If we could wait for the important announcement to arrive at the houses/apartments of our students, then I guess we could send it as a traditional letter. But this is very expensive too, and actually we don’t know exactly where our students live at the moment. Some get their mail at the houses of their parents, and some receive their mail at the place where they live during the semester.
The conclusion
We should have a communication strategy, a single method in order to communicate with our students. All our students should understand that important announcements will be published on the website, or be sent to their email at their college address and not to their hotmail accounts. They need to know exactly how to get the information, and we need to know that they understand. So, when the administration will send something, they already know before they send it, that close to 100% of our students will receive the information.
We need a single method, not several.
I am not sure how other universities or colleges are communicating with their students, how they publish important announcements, but my guess is that they all need to have a single place where all students visit/read announcements. If not, how can they possibly know that students read the information?
When I think about it, email might be the best way to communicate with our students. We just need to enforce the use of our local email system and provide all the services that our students are looking for. Maybe an easy way for them to forward their hotmail, gmail, or yahoo mail to their college email (or the other way around).
I believe that if we provide the best software to our students, they will use them, and only this way, will we have “full” control of our communication with the students.
Full control of communication is one of the most important aspects of marketing.
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EventBox is Helping me to get organized
I have just installed a software called EventBox. And even though I haven’t used it more than a few days, I find it really interesting and helpful.
It’s helping me to finally get organized when it comes to web 2.0 sites.
Lately, I haven’t really been active at Twitter or Facebook, and that’s because, I tend to forget, and I need one application for each, or I need to log in on each website to post my messages.
This is what EventBox is helping me with. With EventBox, I only need one application for everthing. I have added Twitter and Facebook, and my RSS subscriptions, and I feel like I have full control of everything at the moment.
If you are interested, you can add other features to EventBox as well; Flickr, Pownce, Reddit and Digg. And I bet that there will be a lot of other new features really soon.
It was really easy to install it, I am not sure, but it took me probably no more than three minutes to install and add Facebook, Twitter and a few rss subscriptions to EventBox.
Instead of using 6 different application, you can use EventBox and get everything done with just one application.
There are only two problem so far. EventBox is only for Mac (not really a problem for me, because I mostly use my iMac anyway). And EventBox is not exactly free. You can download a free 30-day trial (I think it’s a 30-day trail) from their website, but if you still want to use it after this period, you’d have to pay $15 (it will soon be $20).
You can read more about EventBox and download/buy it at The Cosmic Machine.
Technorati Tags:
Facebook, EventBox, Twitter
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Dear Mr Know-it-all
What’s the right thing to say and do when you meet mr. Know-it-all? Should you just smile and nod every single time?
Is that your only purpose, or should you disagree and discuss, even though you already know that you can’t possibly change his mind?
It all depends.
Do you want to get noticed?
Do you want to be succesful?
Do you want to be a star?
If you do, never just smile and nod your head.
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Why people are not commenting on my blog
I have quite a few visitors at slymarketing, at least 700 unique every single day, and this number is increasing. Even though I have a fair amount of visitors, very few leave a comment. I find it a little weird, but at the same time, it might not be that weird, because I am not leaving many comments on other blogs myself.
I receive about one comment a day, except for spam comments (I receive a lot of those).
I really appreciate feedback, any kind of feedback. So, not receiving comments is sort of a problem for me. But on the other hand, I receive a lof of feedback on e-mail. People could have just added their thoughts as a comments, but instead they are sending me e-mails, that’s great, because to me, the feedback is what’s most important.
I have been thinking, how do I get more people to comment?
The reason I want the comments instead of e-mail, is that it’s easier to go back and read the comments (actually, it’s a lot easier to go back and find them). It’s sort of like an archive, with e-mail, it’s almost impossible to find them after a few months, if they haven’t specified the subject or I remember their names.
In some of my posts I have asked questions, like in the post about the president of our college and the video on facebook. I should probably have said that I’d like you to add a comment if you have any thoughts on this, because when I ask a general question, some people sends me an e-mail automatically, maybe because they think that’s what I am asking them to do?
If I am specific about what I want, I might get it.
It’s of course important that it’s really easy to leave a comment, I am not using any captcha or registration, because I believe that this would just make less people interested in leaving a comment (well, not many are doing it now, so I guess it wouldn’t have made much difference).
There are also several interesting plugins for WordPress that are supposed to be helping to get readers to comment, and I haven’t been using any one of them:
CommentLuv
This plugin will display the commentator’s latest post, and I have just installed it.
Lucia’s Linky Love
If you use this one, you can set the required number of comments someone has to make in order to make all of their links “do follow” links
WPMagnet
This plugin will cost you $40, but it might be worth it. If you use it, you can reward commentators for every x amount of comments they make. They’ll get an e-mail when they have made an x amount of comments with a gift of your choice (x equals whatever you want it to be).
Top Commentators Widget
This plugin will reward the top commentators by adding their link to the sidebar of your blog. I have seen this one on many blogs, and I really understand why it’s popular.
Multi Author Comment Notification
By adding this plugin, people commenting on your blog can get notified when someone leaves a new comment, this way they can easy follow all the comments and go back and leave new comments.
The only plugin I have installed so far is CommentLuv, and I installed it yesterday. I am now thinking about testing the other ones.
Technorati Tags:
Marketing, WordPress, Blog commenting, WordPress Plugins
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A Video of Our College President on Facebook
If you have been reading my blog for a while, most likely, you have read about the letter from the president of the college where I work. She has been writing a letter to all our students, and it has been sent to each student. It’s the old fashion way, using paper. And as far as I know, our students really appreciate it. That’s because the letter is kind of personal.
Now, we are about to do some changes.
Even though the letter is a success, it’s rather expensive and we are thinking about doing something that is better for the environment. Think about it, we are sending the letter to apx. 4000 students, we are using one sheet of paper and an envelope, and we have to pay for stamps for each of the 4000 envelopes.
I have received the new letter, and I have been thinking about a new and interesting approach.
What if we publish the letter on our website, along with a picture of our President. At the bottom of the letter, we will put a link to our group at facebook and tell the readers that they can watch a video where our President is speaking to all the students (well, she is actually reading the letter).
By doing this, we’ll be testing a new approach to the old letter. It won’t be as personal, but it has a better chance of going viral and this way, it won’t just be a letter to our own students, but a way of marketing our college to new students.
What do you think, is this something that we should try?
Technorati Tags:
College, President, Letter, Marketing, Facebook
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An Easy Way To Build An Email List
I have been thinking about what seems to be one of the easiest ways to build an email list, and I think it has to be by using Private Label Rights (PLR) products. Let me explain:
You can buy PLR products close to everywhere, some of the products are awesome and some are close to crappy. All you need to do is find a product that you think is awesome, buy it, and add your name to it as the creator/author. That’s the beauty of PLR.
What you do next is edit the title (you could also edit some of the text, if it’s an ebook/report) and add a new cover.
You do that by hiring a designer to create the graphics for you. It shouldn’t cost you more than $50, and you can find a lot of really creative designers at elance.
When you have added your name as the author, edited the title (this way it looks unique), and added an awesome new cover for it, you should give it away for free to people who subscribe to your newsletter (or signs up to your email list). If you have a cool title and a fancy cover, people will want it. And of course, the content needs to be great as well, but as I told you, there are a lot of really good PLR content.
Finally, if you want to earn money from your PLR ebook (or software), you could sell it using the $7 dollar script
For instance, a PLR ebook about Facebook marketing sold using the $7 dollar script, you’ll earn $7 every time someone buys the book from you. But that’s not the power of the script, each person can promote your PLR ebook and earn 100% commission, this way, a lot of people will hopefully promote the ebook (as long as they enjoyed it and think they can earn money by promoting it). As long as it’s 100% commission on each sale, you won’t earn a dime from the sales directly, but on the back end… this is where you can earn the money or build your list.
When people buy your Facebook marketing ebook for $7 from “a stranger”, they will be redirected to the download page. The download page is your page, and on this page you can sort of do exactly what you want as long as the buyers can download their ebook. You can offer them another ebook on a similar topic, like an advanced Facebook marketing ebook that will cost them $19.95 (you already know that they are interested in Facebook marketing, because they just bought the Facebook marketing ebook), you can present them with a One Time Offer or you can promote your newsletter (by giving away something really cool for free).
This is probably the easiest way to build an email list; just find a great PLR product (that’s not hard at all), edit the title, get some new cool graphics (at least a new cover), give it away to people for subscribing to your email list, or sell it using the $7 dollar script.
If you are interested, I can always give you some great PLR resources…
Tags: email+list,+public+label+rights,+plr,+ebooks,+elance,
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Why Being Offline Makes You More Creative
I am still having major problems with my broadband connection. I have been without any connection to the Internet from my computers at home for about 4 days, and it will be many days before I’ll be back online.
Today, being offline is sort of a struggle. I am not used to being offline, usually I spend most of the day online, both at work and at home.
Actually, now that I am offline (using BlogJet to write my posts) I am more focused. I am not thinking about everything I used to think about when using my computer, like checking e-mail, facebook, browsing, reading news, rss, and so on.
Think about it, there used to be so many things to do offline with your computer. Today, I can hardly think about anything, except for writing.
It’s a new experience, and it’s a new feeling. First, it felt like an impossible thing to do, I didn’t really understand how to get through the day being offline, now I only see that positive effects of being offline.
Easier to stay focused Less information makes you think Only your own ideas
Yes, it’s a lot easier to stay focused, because I am no longer browsing looking for information. Lack of information makes you think, the only information I have available is my own. I have to come up with my own ideas, and can no longer borrow ideas.
It’s actually a blessing to be offline during the weekend. It helps me remember the past, the time when I got my first computer with a black and white screen. It was huge, and it did cost me a fortune. It even helps me remember my first game consol, it was a vic 20 and I think I was about 10 years old, a few years later I bought a commodore 64, and finally an Amiga 500 at the age of 16.
It was a great time, I had an awesome youth, and I spent it all offline.
But, if I had a choice, I would probably prefer to be online though 
Tags: creativity, broadband, offline, commodore
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Learning to Blog The Easy Way
I am a little excited at the moment, and the reason is that I have just received information that Yaro Starak (the guy behind the Blog Mastermind course) and Gideon Shalwick (an guy with amazing skills when it comes to making videos) will launch a brand new video membership site.
It’s called Become A Blogger Premium and it will be 100% video training to teach people how to build a successful blog.
From what I have read, it will go live on December 1 st, but you can already watch 10 free videos from the course.
I have seen them, and the videos are just plain awesome, no wonder why I am excited.
I was a member of Blog Mastermind and I know for sure that Yaro Starak is over-delivering, and from what I have heard, Gideon Shalwick is doing exactly the same. When these guys team up, I can’t possibly think of anything other than major success.
I am going to sign up as a member on December 1 st, and I will tell you all about the course as soon as I have more information.
Untill then, take a look at the 10 free videos from Become A Blogger Premium.
Tags: Yaro+Starak, Gideon+Shalwick, Become+a+blogger
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Time Management When You Have Kids
It’s very important to focus on time management when you have kids. It’s very important to focus on your tasks, because if you don’t, then most of the time, it will be close to impossible to get anything done.
Whenever I try to work at home when my kids are awake, this is what usually happens to me (this is my office by the way).
I have even bought myself a chalkboard in order to get more organized. The reason I bought it was so I could write down my thoughts and ideas, and this way I could just take a look at the chalkboard before writing any of my new blog posts.
This is how my chalkboard usually looks.
This is why time management is important to me, along with anger management (LOL). Whenever my kids are awake, I try to have as much fun as possible with them. When they sleep, I try to get as much work done as possible.
I try to stay as focused as I can, and therefore, when I work, I get a lot more done than I used to, and I work a lot faster than I used to.
Tags: time+managment, kids, focus
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Turning a quiz into a viral campaign
First of all, I am using my iPhone to write this post. And thank you Apple for the iPhone, because my broadband connection has been down for close to 36 hours and I really need to get some work done while I am waiting.
I wanted to tell you what I have been up to lately.
Starting December 1st, we are launching a quiz at our college. We are giving away one iPhone each month for six months.
This quiz alone will probably get us a lot of extra traffic. But I am looking for a way to turn it viral.
I have been thinking about giving away an iPhone to the person referring most people to the quiz, and I have also thought about using a software like viralinviter.com, but I am not sure.
I want to give people an incentive to refer friends to the quiz. And I am still thinking, do you have any suggestions by the way?
Once people take the quiz we’ll send them a newsletter once a month for six months. The newsletter will be related to the activities at the college and our new courses.
We are doing all this to attract new students to our college. And I think that this is a fairly cheap and effective way to do it.
Do you have any thoughts on this strategy?
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How To Find The Best Keywords For Your Blogs
In order to find the best keywords for your website or your blog, there are quite a few services you can use. Some are free, but the best ones will cost you money. Just to mention a few of the most popular ones; wordtracker, keyword elite, and keyword spy.
I am not using any of the above, I am using Micro Niche Finder, and that’s the one I recommend. Because that’s the one I have been using for a while, and that’s the one I am most familiar with.
At the moment, I am using it to find some really hot keywords to use as metatags for my blog (yes, the blog you are currently reading).
The great thing about Micro Niche Finder is that it’s incredible easy to use, and it only takes a few minutes to find great keywords in any niche.
I have only been using Micro Niche Finder for my two blogs, but I guess that some of the real power of this software is using it for Pay Per Click marketing. Because it’s easy to find niches with a lot of searches and very little competition.
I really should be using Micro Niche Finder to research for all my upcoming blog posts as well. It would take me a few extra minutes, but I think that I would get a lot more visitors from search engines.
Take a closer look at Micro Niche Finder.
The only negative thing I can find regarding this software is that you can only use it on a PC running windows, this is not compatible with Mac.
Tags: Micro+Niche+Finder, Keywords, Search+Engine+Optimization
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The Power of Twitter
I am still a real amateur when it comes to twitter, but sometimes I get lucky.
Now, I understand some of the real power of twitter. If you express your thoughts about something specific, it can bring you a lot of traffic.
When I wrote the post where I asked the question, should I buy Canon Ixus 970 IS, I never thought that twitter would help me bring more visitors. You can find out why at Crowdstorm UK.
At the moment, I am exploring twitter, and trying to figure out at least one goal and how I can use twitter to achieve it.
Follow me on twitter to be the first to know everything.
Tags: twitter, canon+ixus+970, internet+marketing
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A Cool Review of Blogging To The Bank 3
Blogging to the bank is a blueprint from a blogging millionaire. The guy behind it is Rob Benwell, a quite ordinary bloke from the UK. Well, almost. He is only 24 years old, and he has been blogging since he was 20 years old, and making more than a million dollars.
I guess he is not like most people in their twenties.
When Blogging to the bank 2 was released some time ago, I was very close to buy it. But instead of buying it, I ended up joining the Blog Mastermind course by Yaro Starak. At the time I thought, why buy the ebook when everything is covered in the blogging course?
Today, several months later, after I finished the Blog Mastermind course, I just had to buy the latest version of Blogging to the bank. The reason I had to buy it, was that I have been very curious about the content, and it was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be.
Now, after I just finished reading the Blogging to the bank 3 ebook, I am not really impressed. Actually, I am a little dissapointed. I thought the ebook would provide some new information, something that would take me to the next level as a blogger. But it didn’t provide me with any new information at all.
It is a well-written e-book, and it provides probably everything you need in order to be successful as a blogger, but I felt like it was a book for beginners. Because the ebook is only 58 pages, and it covers everything from domains, hosting, creating your blog and advanced SEO techniques. It covers sort of everything, but just a few pages on each topic.
So, I was kind of looking for more information on the advanced topics of blogging, like link building, web 2.0 strategies and content. All the topics are covered, but it’s more like an introduction to them.
In fact, I did learn one thing, and I was a little surprised by it, Rob Benwell is outsourcing his content. Way more than I thought, but the reason for that is kind of obvious. If you are running many blogs, more than 10 (and I am not sure how many he has), you can’t write content for them all every single day. At least not if you want the content to creative and interesting to your readers.
The really neat thing about Blogging to the Bank 3, is that Rob Benwell has included a lot of great examples on each topic. For instance, when he talks about article marketing, he even includes a free software on how to submit your articles to various directories.
And when you buy the ebook, you get some extra bonuses as well.
Ready Made Blogs PowerPoint Slides Article Assistance Blog Announcer Pro Black Hat Blogging Techniques White Hat Blogging Techniques Blogging to the bank 2.0
All in all, Blogging to the bank 3 is not bad at all, it’s just that I thought I would be reading more about advanced blogging techniques.
I had a cool review in mind when I started writing, but I guess I ended up with just a regular one, but next time…
Tags: Blogging+to+the+bank, Rob+Benwell, Blueprint, Millionaire
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How To Profit From Barack Obama
I am just wondering, now that Barack Obama is the next President of the United States, how many new books will be published about him during the next weeks/monhts?
Why will people be writing them, is it all in order to earn money? Because we all know that they will sell, no matter how bad they might be. A new President is always a big hit.
A few months before the election, I had never heard of this guy. A few minutes after the election, I received a marketing campaign from Barnes and Nobles with a 40% discount on books about the 44 th president of the United States.
If you do a search for Barack Obama at Barnes and Nobles or do the same search at Amazon, you’ll see that there are quite a few books that you can pre-order already.
I guess that sometimes we just do what the market tells us to do, because that’s what makes us a huge profit.
Tags: Barack+Obama, President+of+the+United+States
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Why I Joined bloggerunited
About a week ago, I joined a brand new service called bloggerunited. To be brief, it’s a free service for bloggers to grab attention, and to grab attention is actually really easy. All you need to do is login.
Every time you login, your latest post is shown at the top of the page untill another member logs in. This is just awesome. An easier way to get traffic is hard to find.
It’s not all about grabbing attention though. It’s much like MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog, it’s a way to do some networking with fellow bloggers.
There are a lot of interesting new features to bloggerunited; you can post your status, share links, share videos, discuss whatever, add comments to the status of other members, just to mention a few.
I have to confess, I have not been adding new friends, not like I have been doing at MyBlogLog or BlogCatalog. Well, When I think about it, I haven’t been really active at BlogCatalog either. I probably should, because this is a great way to get traffic to my blogs.
The reason I find bloggerunited to be very interesting is:
It’s brand new, not many people have joined, and you can be one of the first to explore it and grab all the benefits of being first. The owner/creator seems to be really talented and very eager for success. You can help make it just the way you want it, because the creator listens and are looking for your input. I really like the design and the navigation. And finally, the get on top every time you login is an awesome feature
I recommend that you give it a try, and I am really looking forward to be part of the future of bloggerunited.
Tags: bloggerunited, blogcatalog, mybloglog, blogging
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A Review of The Videos at Get More Buyers
Finally, I have watched all the videos from the marketing course by Michael Rasmussen called Get More Buyers. Well, as I am writing this, I haven’t watched more then the first one, that’s apx. 16 minutes of more than 1 hour. But at the end of this post, I have watched them all.
The reason I am writing the beginning of this post first, is that I want share my expectations just before I start watching the rest of the videos.
This might sound fairly stupid, but I expect to learn at least 5 new and important things when it comes to Internet business (like get more buyers), but the reason I bought the course is also that I expect to learn at least one very important thing when it comes to how to attract new students to our college.
So, did the get more buyers videos live up to my expectations?
The video consists of 10 really useful strategies to get more buyers. I believe that all of the 10 are very powerful, and not that difficult to manage. I was a little worried at first, that all of the strategies were very time consuming and difficult for a person without the technical skills.
But they are not.
The 10 strategies are:
Low-Cost Products Run A WSO Price Increase Sales Upsells And OTOs Affiliate Promo Bonuses Thank You Page Promo Contribute To An OTO Contribute To a Product Holiday Promos Cross Promotion
I had actually heard of all the strategies before I bought the Get More Buyers course, so this wasn’t as much as a surprise as I was hoping it to be. What I really liked about the videos are the very detailed explanation and all the very detailed examples. They made the videos really worth viewing even though I knew about all the strategies.
Take a closer look at Get More Buyers.
When it comes to learning a way to attract more students to our college, I am not really sure if this course was valuable or not. But, I think that I can use cross promotion.
Think about this for a minute:
What if our college could help another college with cross promotion (our two colleges are offering completely different courses so we are really not in any competition). It might help both colleges to get a lot more attention, and this might in the end help both colleges attract more students.
The colleges could offer a common quiz, where the winners will receive a very nice prize, and every participant will receive information about the courses from both colleges. Because two or more colleges are involved, they can probably offer a much more expensive prize, and this way, get a lot more attention and participants.
In the end, the videos from the Get More Buyers course did not live up to my expectations, because I didn’t really learn anything new. But on the other hand, I now have access to 10 very powerful strategies that I only knew about before, but had no place to read about. And this time, I have a very detailed explanation and very detailed examples on how to use them all.
So, I am actually very pleased with the all the videos, even though they didn’t quite live up to my expectations.
Take a closer look at Get More Buyers.
Tags: Michael+Rasmussen, Get+More+Buyers, Affiliate+Marketing, College
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One Day You Will Be Famous
One of the most interesting features of the world today, is how easy it is to discover talent.
Today, you don’t need to be with a huge record company, a tv company, or any business at all… you only need a webcam, talent, and guts, lots of guts.
I wonder, is it really about marketing, or is it all about talent?
Tags: YouTube, Jason+Mraz, Ukulele, Talent
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Review of Making Your Buyers List Pay Off
I have just read the bonus report from Michael Rasmussen’s Get More Buyers course, and it’s called Making Your Buyers List Pay Off: Relationship Building Strategies.
This report is all about why you should build a relationship to the people on your list, and how to build it, in order to profit the most from your list. And I must say, I was really impressed by this rather short report.
It’s 29 pages, and it covers three strategies on building a relationship to the people on your list.
The first one is the value bomb strategy. This is about providing enough value to your list, that they will keep wanting more from you. You’ll provide them with free stuff and great discounts. And once in a while, you’ll be sending various promotions to them, maybe a few times a month.
The second one is the feedback strategy. This is about asking the people on your list for feedback on something like your blog posts or doing surveys. This will keep them involved, and you should interact and help them if they have any questions.
The third one is the AMEX strategy. This is about giving the people on your list exclusive access to some benefits. This way, they’ll understand the real value of being on your list. You need to continue to provide them with exclusive access to something in order for them to keep being loyal.
The reason I found this report very valuable was that it was straight to the point, three strategies that works, and tons of examples of what you should do within each strategy.
Considering this report was a bonus, I am really looking forward to watch the rest of the videos from the course later today. I’ll keep you informed.
Take a closer look at Get More Buyers
Tags: Michael+Rasmussen, Get+More+Buyers, Relationship+building
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First Thoughts on Get More Buyers
I bought the Internet Marketing course from Michael Rasmussen called Get More Buyers, I did that 2 days ago. Yesterday was the day I was going to be reading everything and watching the videos.
That didn’t happen.
I was too busy buying a new car, and I ended up not buying it. But, yesterday wasn’t a total waste of time. I might buy a new car today, and I actually had the time to watch some of the videos. It’s more like one long video with many chapters though.
From this video, I learned a valuable lesson. A lesson I probably should have known a long time ago, considering that I have been blogging for a while, and been part of the Internet Marketing community for several years – but I am not really involved much in affiliate marketing, that’s probably why.
Michael Rasmussen taught me that in order to get more buyers, I have to build several lists. At the moment I have one “large” list of people, and this is people who reads my newsletter (see that top of my blog for subscription). They are all receiving this free of charge, and I almost never send any promotional stuff to them. So, close to 100% are free subscribers that I never earn any money from.
According to Michael Rasmussen, I should of course promote either my own products or other affiliate products to my list. When people buy, I should create a new list with those people (remove them from the list of that never buys). And I should really have several lists, one for the people that are only interested in the free stuff, and one for people interested in the cheap stuff, and one for people interested in more expensive stuff and so on.
It looks to me that the lists are based upon the price tag, this way you’ll know what you should be sending to your list. If you want to promote a personal coaching program with the price tag of $3,995 this is something you should be sending to the list of people who have bought something expensive earlier. Because if you keep on sending the same promotional stuff to your one list, people will be unsubscribing… and that’s not something you’d like.
If you build several lists, that’s a way to target your customers. You know who they are and what they want.
It sounds like a very interesting marketing technique, and it sounds like it works. And all this just by watching the first 16 minutes.
Take a closer look at Get More Buyers.
Tags: Michael+Rasmussen, Get+More+Buyers, Affiliate+Marketing
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I Have Just Bought Get More Buyers
I told you that I was going to by the latest product from Michael Rasmussen called Get More Buyers, and now I have bought it.
Before I tell you my first impression of Get More Buyers, I want to tell you about the One Time Offer.
I am not sure why I get surprised every single time I see a One Time Offer, but I do get surprised. Every single time I buy an Internet Marketing related product, I get a One Time Offer. So, it shouldn’t really be a surprise. But I guess, that’s one of the reasons why a One Time Offer is so powerful, and that’s why so many people end up buying it. That, and of course, because you’ll only get the offer this one time.
The One Time Offer from Michael Rasmussen is related to his course. If you invest $57 extra, you’ll get two videos explaining a “powerful” list building technique.
I did not buy the One Time Offer, so, I really don’t know how powerful it is, and I can’t tell you if it’s worth the extra $57 or not. But I was really close to buying it, but, I realized that I didn’t need another listbuilding technique, even though this one might be more powerful than all the others.
Now, to the product I just bought.
It consists of 3 steps really.
1. A free month of autoresponder service (including 30 pre-written promotion templates).
2. The video course
3. The fast action bonus (I received it as I ordered the course before 4 November, not sure what happens after this).
The free month of autoresponder service
This service looks identical to AWeber. The only difference is the name. My guess is that Michael Rasmussen has his version of AWeber, but with all the powers of AWeber included and the AWeber support team. Therefore, one month free, is a great offer. And you get 30 pre-written e-mails as well.
The Get More Buyers video course
This is many videos and one report (pdf). The videos seems to be a bit more than one hour in total, and hopefully it will teach me everything about how to get more buyers. The report is an impressive 144 pages battle plan of “How to stuff your buyer list full to the brim”.
The fast action bonus
This is a 32 pages pdf report on relationship building strategies.
So far, I haven’t had the time to read or view any of the real content. But tomorrow, I’ll give you my honest review of the Get More Buyers course and I’ll tell you if I think it’s worth $77.
Take a closer look at Get More Buyers
Tags: Michael+Rasmussen, Get+More+Buyers, List+Building
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Juggling Elephants is the Book of the Month
As you may recall, I am going to be presenting one book each month as the book of the month. This will be a book that I find very interesting, and that I recommend you read.
The first book I have awarded as The Book of the Month is Juggling Elephants: An Easier Way to Get Your Big, Most Important Things Done – Now!
The authors of the book are Jones Loflin and Todd Musig.
From the title, you probably already understand what this book is about. It’s about time management, but in a different way.
Juggling Elephant is a story about how to understand the importance of time management if you compare your life to a circus. It might sound weird, but it’s really not.
Think about it.
A circus has a ringmaster, life has a ringmaster, that’s you. The ringmaster need to know and understand everything that’s going on. He or she is in control of the three rings of the circus, and should understand all the acts that needs to be in each ring. The ringmaster has the greatest impact on the success of the circus.
The ringmaster cannot be in all three rings at once.
The ringmaster always reviews the next act before bringing it into the ring.
The key to the success of the circus is having quality acts in all three rings.
There are three rings to remember, and the rings in your life are:
Work Relationships You
Remember, you cannot be in all three rings at once. If you are at work, you should just be at work, and only concentrate and focus on your work. And the same goes for your relationships. Focus on your family and/or friends when you are with them, and you need to be with them. All three rings are important.
Many people seem to forget about themselves. They spend 12 hours a day at work, a few hours with their family and friends, and never ever think about what they really appreciate for themselves (exercise, read books, watch movies, work in the garden etc.).
You can apply all the interesting advice from the book, like adding only quality acts in your rings, and that the relationship between the ringmaster and the performers affects the success of the circus and that every member is important and has to be fully engaged on the right acts to make the team successful.
If you try to be in all three rings at once, and you don’t focus on just quality acts, you will end up trying to juggle elephants…
The result of juggling elephants is that no one, including you, is thrilled with the performance.
You should always ask yourself, does this act belong in my circus and when should this act appear?
Juggling Elephants is a great book that forces you to think. It’s only 131 pages and you’ll finish it in one day, even if you are a slow reader, because this book teaches a very important lesson. A lesson so important that you simply can’t put the book to rest before you finish reading it, and even then, you end up thinking about it and discussing it.
Tags: time+management, juggling+elephants, circus, jones+loflin, todd+musig
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Download StumbleUpon Toolbar for Opera
I am using various browsers, and one of my favorite browsers is Opera. It’s lightning fast, secure and it has tons of features.
A few days ago, I install the StumbleUpon toolbar. I am using StumbleUpon at a daily basis, but I have only been using it on Firefox. And the toolbar has been working great, but as I have been using Opera more lately, I thought I’d better install the toolbar for Opera as well.
The StumbleUpon toolbar for Opera is called Opera Stumbler and you can download it at operastumbler.com
At first, this toolbar is very different from the toolbar for Firefox. So far, I haven’t seen any icons. For Firefox, it’s almost all about nice small icons on the toolbar. I like that a lot, the StumbleUpon toolbar for Opera is more like a regular menu.
It’s not that the StumbleUpon Toolbar for Firefox is better or easier to understand or something like that, it’s only that it’s different. And because I have been using the StumbleUpon toolbar for Firefox, I have to adjust to get used to the toolbar for Opera.
That being said, it’s very easy to use. You have all the familiar words in the toolbar, Stumble!, Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, Leave Comments and so on. Even though I like small icons, the toolbar for Opera works great.
Tags: StumbleUpon, StumbleUpon+Toolbar, StumbleUpon+Opera, Firefox
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Halloween at MSN, Yahoo and YouTube
I guess you understand that Halloween is a big thing when huge companies edit their logos in order to celebrate it.
I discovered earlier today that MSN, Yahoo and YouTube have made the proper changes. I am just wondering, why are they doing it?
Is it just in order to celebrate? Because Halloween is a big thing in the US, and many other countries as well, even in Norway (among the kids).
Is it marketing? Because people notice, and people like it, and many think it’s funny.
Finally, where is the Halloween logo from Google? They did it at Christmas, why not for Halloween?
Guess what, I discovered just as I published that Google Norway has changed their logo, but not Google.com, interesting.
Tags: Halloween, YouTube, Google, MSN, Yahoo
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One Way To Loose Readers
I visited an interesting blog just a few minutes ago. It was a blog about Internet Marketing, and I was going to leave a comment about Blogging to the Bank 3. I spent some time writing the comment, and I was really eager to submit it, because it was a fairly good comment.
But as I was about to hit submit, I saw that I had to figure out a security code in order for my comment to get approved. I have seen this many times before, usually it works, but sometimes it doesn’t work exactly as planned.
Now, how am I going to figure out the security code?
Adding more might not be such a good idea all the time, sometimes more means less. If you add new widgets, new plugins, and security codes, more stuff can go wrong. The more you add, the less readers you might end up with.
You don’t want frustrated readers. Frustrated readers won’t come back.
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How To Sell A Car
When a guy like myself walks up to a car dealership, I wonder what the sales people are thinking. Are they just thinking, here’s another guy buying another car, or do they see me as someone else, someone they will have a hard time selling to, or maybe they have an impression regarding what type of car that suites me?
Yesterday was a day when I walked up to a car dealership.
It’s been five years since the last time I looked at a car and thought; that’s a car I’d like to drive. I don’t particularly enjoy driving a car, therefore, I don’t fancy cars that much.
To me, a car is just something I need, with two kids, and a wife commuting, it would be way too difficult to manage our daily routines without a car. And of course, that’s why we need to switch cars once in a while, because we need a car we can trust to manage our daily routines. For instance, it needs to start every single morning.
With that in mind, how should a person sell me a car?
Many times, a sale starts with the first words of a conversation, how the sales person welcomes me, and how he starts off. If he is the cool guy, thinking of me as his friend, and that I have the same interest in cars as he has, then he probably won’t be able to sell me a car. I have experienced guys like this, more often in car dealerships than in other shops.
I am not sure why that is, but maybe it’s because many guys think of cars as a guy thing and that all guys love cars? Maybe it’s why I have never encountered a woman selling cars?
My advice to the person selling me a car, would be to start off by asking what I believe is important in a new car. As soon as I finish with my fairly limited list (it’s all about security and a low price, and of course it needs to start every single day), he can tell me about the cars he prefers when it comes to what I am looking for.
It’s fairly easy isn’t it?
At the moment, we are test driving a Toyota Avensis.
Tags: car+dealership, cars, conversation, women
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Should You Buy Get More Buyers?
I have been following the development of the brand new course from Michael Rasmussen called Get More Buyers for a while. I watched the preview video about a month ago, and from that moment, I was sort of hooked.
Michael Rasmussen is a famous Internet Marketer, ever since he launched the Email Promos Exposed, I have been following his new products, his blog and been listening to what he has to say. It’s been an interesting journey and today, Get More Buyers launched.
I am not sure if this is Michael Rasmussen’s best product, but to me, this is his most interesting product, and I’ll tell you how:
Everybody can build a list, not a huge list, but a list of people more or less interested in your topic. And this is what all the well-known Internet marketers tell you to do. You need a list, and you need to promote your products to this list. That’s how you earn money online, and it’s the easiest way to do it.
What Michael Rasmussen is stressing is that your list doesn’t need to be huge at all, actually, it doesn’t need to be more than a handful of people, as long as they buy. That’s what’s important, how to get people to buy.
If you think about it, it doesn’t really matter how many people are on your list, if they are not buying from you. If they are not buying, it’s actually a problem if you’ve got this big list, because most likely you’ll be getting a lot of replies from the e-mails you send out. And in the end, you will be working more instead of earning more.
The course will walk you through his top ten strategies for adding swarms of red hot buyers onto your list. And, what I really like, is that Get More Buyers is a video course. You’ll even get his battle plan;
A step-by-step action plan for each of the Get More Buyers strategies Fully illustrated instructions for each plan
And if you buy it before November 4 th, you’ll get some extra bonus relationship building strategies:
Two list building lessons nearly everyone misses His ”secret weapon” strategy for sticking his list to him like glue A simple strategy for building huge buzz with your list members The real secret to keeping buyers spending money for years
Now, from what I have just written, you probably understand that I find this brand new course from Michael Rasmussen to be very interesting. And you’re right, I find it to be the most interesting course at the moment, but having said that, I haven’t bought the course myself yet. But I will, and as soon as I have done that and viewed the videos and read the strategies, I’ll share my thoughts with you.
Untill then, visit Michael Rasmussen’s Get More Buyers for more information.
Tags: Get+More+Buyers, Michael+Rasmussen, ClickBank
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A Few Interesting Observations
I have installed StoreStacker, my own online shop, and as I wrote a few weeks ago, it was very easy to install and configure.
I have big plans to do something about my online shop, I have been thinking of hiring a designer to create a cool and unique design, and I have been thinking of various ways to promote it. But, so far I haven’t done a thing.
The reason for this is partly due to StoreStacker and partly my fault. First off, StoreStacker was so easy to set up, everything worked in just a few minutes, therefore, I actually just forgot about the whole store. I installed it, configured it, and was very happy with that, two days after, I forgot that I had even installed it.
And of course, I don’t have much time to actually do new things. Because there are so many things happening, I tend to forget a few “unimportant” things once in a while.
I am not saying that StoreStacker is unimportant, I am actually trying to say the opposite. Because my online marketing shop almost runs itself. After I installed it, I think it was the day after, I did a search using Google and guess what came in top ten on the term Internet Marketing Shop? My StoreStacker shop is at the moment number 2, with 17 million results!
I have not done anything other than write the headline for the shop, I haven’t done anything related to SEO, well, other than create the headline and a subheadline. Now, the shop practically runs itself. The only thing I am not so sure about, and I have to ask the people at StoreStacker this question, is what happens with my content when new stuff is added to YouTube or ClickBank? Will I have to be updating StoreStacker once in a while as well, or will everything related to my keywords be automatically updated once a day or so from YouTube, ClickBank and Amazon?
If this is the case, StoreStacker is probably the best thing that has happened to affiliate marketing in years. It feels like a set up and forget software, and the only reason you can forget about it, is that it’s so extremely powerful.
Anyway, I’ll keep you updated about the features of StoreStacker as soon as I get some more information.
Tags: StoreStacker, Internet+Marketing+Shop, Affiliate+Marketing, ClickBank
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Funny Marketing Mistake
I discovered one really funny marketing mistake while I was in Riga (Latvia). I wasn’t the one that noticed it, it was one of my colleagues. All my colleagues thought it was funny, and I agree, it was funny.
While walking downtown in Riga, looking at the buildings, all the people, and of course, all the various shops, a car drove by with a huge sign, like a billboard at the back. I had never seen anything like it before, I had never seen such a huge sign at the back of a car. Instead of a trailer, the car had a huge and colorful sign.
Now, this was a little surpising to me. At first, I thought that the guy driving around downtown in Riga with the huge billboard at the back of his car, didn’t promote anything. I actually thought that it was his trailer, that he was on his way home or something. Untill, I saw what was on his sign.
It was a big advertisement for Nissan. I can’t remember what it said, but it was a huge picture of the latest car from Nissan. It was really cool, and a lot of people saw it, especially my colleagues.
I found this way of advertising to be really interesting. There are a lot of people walking around, and a lot of people driving. This specific advertisement was something we noticed, and probably a lot of other people noticed it as well. It’s something you don’t see that often, at least not in Norway.
I wish I had taken a picture of it.
The funny part is that the car that was driving around with the huge Nissan billboard was an old and crappy Ford Mondeo.
First, all my colleagues noticed the billboard, but only about 20 seconds later, they started commenting the Ford Mondeo. If you are driving around advertising for Nissan, you should probably drive a Nissan, and not a competing brand.
This is one of the most important rules to remember; if you are selling something, you should always use what you are selling, and not a competing brand. People will ask you, why are you not using your own brand, if you are not using it, why should I buy it?
I’ll give you an example. I am promoting AWeber as the best autoresponder, what if you noticed that for my newsletter, I was using GetResponse? Would you have signed up for an AWeber account with me as your sponsor?
Tags: Nissan, Marketing+mistake, Ford, aweber
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Introducing Book of the Month
I am reading several books every single month. Well, that might not surprise you, but what I thought would be interesting for you, is what kind of book I recommend that you read each month. I have called it Book of the month.
Since I am reading several books, sometimes as many as 10, but usually 2, and many of them are related to Internet marketing, I would think that you should be interested in my thoughts. At least, I would be interested if someone offered to recommend one book each month.
Now, I will be posting the first book of the month in November, not sure of the date yet, but probably during the first week. And of course, I’ll try to write a decent argument related to why this is the book of the month.
What I am not so sure about yet, is if I should only include Internet Marketing books, or all sorts of books, or just a few categories of books. That’s really a hard question to answer.
My blog is first and foremost related to Internet Marketing, but on the other hand, I like it to be personal. I like to share my thoughts, ideas and taste, with you as my reader. I have done so many times in the past, like when I recommended books like The Last Lecture, Yes Man, and Lord of the Barnyard.
What I am thinking at the moment is that most of my other interests should be posted at Protein High Foods, my lifestyle blog, and that Book of the Month should be all about Internet Marketing / Internet / Blogging / Marketing related or at least fairly related to the topic of Marketing. But, as I just told you, I am not really sure yet, and I have at least a week to decide what to do.
I have even paid a designer to create three very cool banners for the Book of the Month project, this way, a lot more of my readers (people just stopping by to read one post) will see it and might get interested.
Tags: book+of+the+month, Internet+Marketing, books
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Few Words About WordPress For iPhone
I have been writing a few posts on my new iPhone, and at the time I ordered it, and the weeks before that, I thought I’d be using it a lot to write posts using the WordPress application. Right now, I am not so sure anywmore.
As you might have already read, I have been away to Riga (Latvia) during this week. And I received my iPhone just a few hours before I left, this way, the only thing I really had the time to do, was to charge it and to replace the sim card. And replacing the sim card was really hard to figure out, I can thank YouTube for the help.
I was really looking forward to four days in Riga with a brand new iPhone. I installed the WordPress application as soon as I found a wifi network (I was lucky, it was free wifi at the hotel), it was easy to install. Way easier than I had imagined.
I am not sure how long it took me to install it and get ready to start writing, but I believe it took me no longer than 5 minutes. And I am no wizard, especially when it comes to the iPhone.
You probably saw my first post using the iPhone. It was a very short one, and I was a little confused or I should probably say frustrated. Because I was frustrated. But I guess that I can’t really blame the WordPress application for this.
I had never tried the iPhone before I bought it, I had never even tried the touch system on a mobile phone. So, when I started using the WordPress application, it was really hard to write. I missed the keys, and every single word I typed was misspelled. I spent a very long time to write just a few words.
Now, I have been using the iPhone for four days and I am getting better at typing, and at the moment, it’s not really that hard. I guess it’s all about experience and using it, and the more you use it, the better you get at using it (sounds rather obvious doesn’t it?).
I am way more positive when it comes to writing blog posts with my iPhone now than I was four days ago, but I will probably never use it for this unless I am without a computer. Because it can’t replace my laptop, it’s still too hard to type.
The interesting part is that I carry my iPhone sort of everywhere I go, my laptop is hardly anywhere I go. That’s why I think using an iPhone with a WordPress application should result in a lot more posts.
Tags: iPhone, WordPress, Apple, Blogging, YouTube
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Airport Shops and Local Currency
At the moment, I am at the airport in Riga (Latvia) waiting for a plane to take me back to Norway. As soon as I arrived at the bench were I am currently sitting, I was thinking about the money I just spent. It wasn’t a lot, it was in fact probably not more than $5 and I spent them on something to drink, two chocolate bars and some candy for my kids.
Owning a store at an airport like this one in Latvia should be great, because when tourists like myself leave, they just have to spend all their money on something (more or less useful). In Latvia, they use a currency called Latis, and you can only use it while in Latvia (I think). When I leave, the money becomes worthless to me. I can’t spend the $5 on anything outside Latvia, therefore, I had to find something to buy or give it to charity (but not this time). Of course, I could save the money for my next travel to Latvia, but I guess it will be a while before I return.
It’s interesting to watch all the tourists while they are figuring out what to buy and how to spend their money before leaving. Some buy extra coffee, even though one should have been more than enough. Some buy extra beer, and some buy candy like me.
I am thinking that owning a store at this airport can’t have much to do with creativity, because it seems that all the tourists here have money they have to spend before they leave. I guess that this is just like tourists feel while leaving Norway – how do I get rid of the extra cash before I get back home?
Would you rather own a store where you know that people will buy just because they have to spend money (because the money is worthless everywhere else) or would you want to be competing with all the other stores and create your own Purple Cow in order to survive?
I believe that it would be more fun and interesting to have to be creative for your business to stay alive. But of course, owning a business that literally runs itself would ok as well (LOL).
Tags: Latvia, Riga, Business, Airport, Currency
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A Computer Makes Me Less Creative
If you’ve been reading my blog posts lately, you might have noticed that I am testing my brand new iPhone and that I’ve been considering buying a Macbook or a Macbook Air.
At the moment, I am not sure what I’ll end up doing. I might buy it, or I might not.
What I’ve discovered, should make me think twice before I buy a new laptop. The times I am using a computer, are the times I am less creative.
I am a writer and a thinker, and I have realized that I do a better job at both without a computer.
Phase one for me is usually when I do the thinking and when I write my notes. That’s when I capture all my ideas and when I structure them.
Phase two is when I type the draft using a computer. I do a spellcheck and I add a few extra sentences and that’s when I do the proofreading.
Phase three is when I publish what I have been writing or launch my thoughts/ideas.
I only need a computer for phase two and three, and that’s not the creative phases.
My advice to myself has been to avoid the computer phase one, because this is the creative phase, and using a computer just makes me less creative (this means that my work suffers).
The problem still remains, I want the Macbook Air. but I really don’t need it. Actually, I really don’t need a new laptop at all. I just cover phase one using pen and paper, and then turn to my desktop computer during the next two phases.
But I have also been thinking that, owning the coolest laptop in the world might help me be more creative?
Tags: Macbook+Air, Apple, Mac, Laptop
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Sometimes a Product Sells itselft
I am still in Riga (Latvia), and yesterday some of my colleagues and I went to a Mexican restaurant. The restaurant was ok, but that’s not the reason why I am writing this.
While we were talking and waiting for our drinks to arrive at the table, I looked over to a table not too far away. There was a woman in her fifties (probably), working with her Macbook Air while she was drinking something and waiting for her food.
It looked awesome, and I am not talking about the woman at all (I am not sure if I even noticed how she looked).
The Macbook Air is a very cool computer and the design has to be the coolest design for a laptop ever. So, when this woman was working, people notice. At least I did, and my colleagues were also commenting on it and they are not people even the slightest interested in computers.
The design of the Macbook Air is something people of all ages notice, because it’s unbelieavably thin and the aluminum case is perfect for it. And I noticed while she was working that the Apple logo was very easy to spot on the back, I am not sure if it’s any bigger than on the other laptops, but it was so bright and shiny.
Sometimes a product sells itself, it’s enough that a few people buys the Macbook Air and start using it in public.
This is a computer you should buy if you want people to notice you, if you want to be left alone at a restaurant, then you should not consider buying it (LOL).
So, what I am really saying here, is that sometimes, putting the marketing in the product should be considered. Because then, and maybe only then, the product will sell itself (after a few people have already bought it or some people have used it and started writing reviews).
I am not just talking about design, even though design is very easy to notice. I am talking about being remarkable in some way, just like the Purple Cow Seth Godin is writing about. If you are remarkable (in any way positive), people will spread the word, and you don’t have to do all the marketing efforts (because it’s already inside the product).
Just think about the iPhone for a second. It’s really not about the design, because I can probably tell you at least 10 other phones that are better looking. But it’s about the way you use the phone, and how cool the phone is, and of course it’s about all the applications. The camera is not anything to talk about. I have tested it, and my old phone took way better pictures - but that’s not why I bought it.
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First post using iphone
Finally, I received my iPhone today. It’s ecactly as cool as I was hoping it would be.
Now, I am trying to figure out how it works before I travel to Latvia in a few hours.
This is my first post and it seems to be working out ok, the only problem is that it’s really hard to get used to typing.
I’ll let you know how the trip turns out, every will be updated from my grand new iphone.
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Free Affiliate Link Cloaker
Most people involved with affiliate marketing are using an affiliate link cloaker.
This is a piece of software that hides and protects your affiliate links.
Instead of showing the affiliate identity, you are showing a URL to your own website.
This looks way cooler than a long and sometimes ugly URL, especially the ones you get when you promote products from Amazon.
There are many different link cloakers, from software that you install on your computer, to scripts you have to install on your server. Most of them are not free, but I have discovered one that I have been testing for about a day (started yesterday).
This one is called GC Affiliate Cloaker and it’s a free affiliate link cloaker for windows.
I have installed it on Windows Vista and eventhough I am receiving an error every time I start the software, I can still use it and it works just as good as the paid ones I have tested.
Download GC Affiliate Cloaker (you need to add your name and e-mail adress).
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The New Rich and The 4 Hour Workweek
I have just finished reading The 4 Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. At first, I wasn’t sure why I bought it, but I think it was because of all the interesting reviews, and because of the 4-hour workweek homepage. It was too many positive reviews, and the homepage was too darn creative for me to just sit back and not buy it.
But to be honest with you, the title was a little too much for me (at first) and that’s probably why I was skeptical. Working 4 hours a week, it seems way too little, even for the hot shots.
I like the way Timothy Ferris writes, I like his style. He is using quotes from famous authors at the beginning of every chapter, like this one from Mark Twain:
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
All the quotes makes you stop and think, before you actually start reading the chapter.
The book is different, it made me think about the way I do things and the way I live my life. Not the way The Last Lecture made me feel though.
I am not sure if I’ll be joining the new rich or travel across the globe with a Macbook Air on my lap. Don’t get me wrong, the book is really not about this, but if you have this dream, this book is definitely for you.
The book is really about how to achieve your dreams, by being different - by escaping the 9 to 5 life. And there are tons of tips regarding what to do.
For instance, I have tested one already. It might sound like an easy task, but I can assure you that it was not.
In order to become more effective and get more things done, I followed the advice about checking (and answering) e-mail at specific times starting with only two times a day, at 12 am and 2 pm and ending up doing it maybe just once every two days (that’s my goal).
It was really hard, because the first thing I wanted to do when I woke up in the morning (prior to reading this book) was to check my e-mail.
By the way, Timothy Ferris checks his e-mail once a week.
I am not sure if I’ll ever get to that point, but I can see why this is a good idea.
If you are in any doubt at all, The 4-hour workweek is a book I really recommend that you read.
Like me, your only goal might be to learn a few “techniques” about how to get more things done spending less time doing them.
That’s ok, because this book is all about those things as well.
PS. at the moment I am only reading my newspapers once a week. I collect them all every single day, and on sundays, I’ll read them all. I haven’t actually tested it yet, this sunday will be the first time.
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The Pizza Dilemma
Yesterday, my family and I decided to go out to a pizza restaurant and eat dinner. The pizza place belongs to a rather large chain of restaurants called Dolly Dimples (I think that they only have restaurants in Norway, but I am not sure).
Finally, we arrived.
This place is like McDonalds, except for the food. They have a great playroom for the kids. That’s the main reason why we go there, even though the food is awesome. Our kids need something to do while we are waiting for the food, and especially after we have eaten. That seems to be the only way that my wife and I can relax during dinner.
To install a playroom was a really wise decision, because this is the only restaurant in our town with a great playroom. So, they actually don’t have any competition. Therefore, a lot of families end up at Dolly Dimples (and don’t forget, the food is awesome).
Now, what I found to be the pizza dilemma, was the weekly offer.
Monday to Thursday, you can order two large pizzas, and pay 299 Nkr (remember, I am in Norway, it’s expensive). That’s fairly cheap for this place. On the sign is said that it was only two different pizzas, number 1 and 10, that was included in this offer. I thought that this had to be a mistake, because the two pizzas that I wanted to order was way cheaper than the two included in the offer.
If they included my order in this offer, I would have saved a few bucks, that’s all. But if I ordered the weekly offer, I would have paid the same amount for a much more expensive pizza. Therefore, I thought that they guys and the restaurant would see my point and give me the discount.
They didn’t.
I didn’t really spend time to argue, I don’t do that… especially not when I am around my family and we are out to have a good time.
I don’t think much about saving money, I am more interested in the principles of marketing and why this chain of restaurants are using an offer like this.
The only thing I can come up with is that it’s convenient for them, they have probably premade the pizzas, so they’ll have a lot more of number 1 and 10 ready for people ordering this weekly offer. Or they sell less pizzas of number 1 and 10, and this is a way to get more people to try them. Or maybe, this is just a way to get people into the restaurant… they see the offer and end up ordering something else, much more expensive.
I really don’t know.
But, I find this marketing as sort of negative marketing (not sure what I should call it really). They should have had a similar offer where you could pick any two pizzas and pay the same price (299). This would have been a lot easier for the customers, and I bet that a lot more people would be interested and I don’t think that Dolly Dimples would suffer at all. Because the number 1 and 10 on their menu are two of the most expensive pizzas anyway.
Make it easy and make your customers happy, that’s my advice anyway.
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Combining The Things You Love
I am not one of those guys that believe you should do one ting at a time, neither do I believe that everything has its place and time.
I believe that if you love something, you should be able to do what you love in combination. I don’t believe that the combination will make each thing less lovable.
For instance, at the moment, I am taking a really hot bubble bath while eating potato chips. And I am feeling great.
Sometimes, I think that combining the things you love can help you be more creative.
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I Am Now Testing StoreStacker
My guess is that I am going to be writing many posts about StoreStacker, the affiliate niche store builder. The reason is simple, I have just installed it and I have been sort of blown away by how cool this software is.
StoreStacker is a way to build your own affiliate store. It was very easy to install, you need to know about how to transfer files via FTP and you need to setup a MySQL database. That’s all really, in about 2 minutes you’ll have your own online store, on your own domain. But without anything to sell.
The setup of the store was easy as well, I didn’t even read the instructions, and I didn’t watch any of the videos (there are plenty tutorials). And I manage to do it fast.
At the moment, I have six main categories with several subcategories, and thousands of listings. I have my own affiliate products from ClickBank, and I have a lot of books from Amazon, and I have a lot of cool videos from YouTube about all sorts of Internet marketing tips.
And as I was just about to go to bed, I discovered something else. I can fetch the rss feeds from whoever, and put it in the store. For instance, I have added some really great blogs to the categori of Search Engine Optimization Articles. All the content is automated, I just get the headlines and a few sentences though, but this is a great way to categorize them all.
To me, StoreStacker looks like the perfect solution for an affiliate marketer. You can take a look at the store I did setup in about 20 minutes or less. I used one of the many free templates, and remember, I haven’t read a single instruction (other than watch the video regarding how to install it).
So, I guess I will be spending more time with StoreStacker and I might even get my own template. Because this is something I believe in, it feels cool to have my own store.
(Remember, I am not promoting my store just yet)
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How To Get Higher Clickthrough Rates
I have been testing various techniques to get higher clickthrough rates for my newsletter, meaning “how do I get more subscribers to actually open the newsletter and read it?”
The newsletter is about Internet Marketing, and all my subscribers should be interested in the topic, because that’s why they all subscribed in the first place.
My newsletter is free, and without any “hidden” offers, I am only giving away Internet Marketing Tips. So, I am thinking that it should be interesting to all my subscribers (100% of them) to open every single edition to read what I am up to this week.
But, I am only getting about 15% of them to click.
I tried to use a headline like “Internet Marketing Tips newsletter #1″ and a title like “How to find the perfect Internet marketing writer”. The second one being related to one of the topics inside the newsletter.
So far, I have found the second one to get the most clicks. But it all depens on the topic, if it’s an interesting enough topic, a lot of people will be clicking.
I was hoping that it would be way easier to get people to click, but I guess that it might take time to convince my subscribers to start reading the newsletter. My first edition did only have 7% ctr (clickthrough rates), the one I wrote this friday have 15% so far.
I guess I am improving.
But is it all about content?
If my subscribers find the content to be really useful, they will read every single edition?
If they haven’t read it before, they will someday, if I just get the subject to be interesting enough for them (and I will).
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Paradise
At the moment, I have spent apx. 10 hours at Liseberg, an amusment park in Sweden. I have been carrying huge stuffed animals, and the largest chocolate bar I have seen. And I have been carrying them for a very long time, while watching people running back and forth, screaming and laughing.
This is what we do when we want our kids to have a great time, away from kindergarten and all the daily chores at home.
Now, when it’s all over, I asked them what they want to do tomorrow. Both of them say that they want to go back to Liseberg - the place they never wanted to leave in the first place.
This is what I thought paradise was like when I was a child.
And I understand why this is what paradise is like for my kids, about thirty years later.
They haven’t been told no all day, it’s been yes every time they have asked a question. They have been on all the cool rides all day long, they have eaten a month consumption of candy in one day, and they have stayed up three hours longer than they usually do. Well, they are still not sleeping, so they have actually been inside the amusement park way longer than they usually are awake.
I am laying on the bed in the hotel room, looking at my kids, while they are chanting some words I don’t quite understand. They are smiling, having a wonderful time, probably going to be awake for a few more hours. And I am thinking, this is what paradise is like as an adult.
To me, paradise is not a place, but a state of mind.
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Sometimes a Sign is Just a Sign
Should a sign be a written message, or should it be something you understand the moment you see it?
I guess it all depends. If you have spent enough money on advertising and if you are the only provider in the country (a government-granted monopoly), you don’t need to explain anything really.
Sometimes a sign is just a sign, and sometimes that’s enough.
But sometimes, a sign needs to be a lot more than just a sign. Sometimes, a sign needs to be a statement.
image: sandcastlematt
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Too Much Sugar
Yesterday, I made pancakes and they tasted really good. I am not kidding, they were a huge success. I am not sure why, but I guess I was lucky.
My son, about 2 years old, wanted some sugar on one of his pancakes. And while my back was turned to him, he poured some sugar, and this was the result:
This got me thinking.
Even though sugar is really really good, and my kids love it, when you get too much of it, it’s really not that interesting anymore.
I think that the same applies to Internet Marketing.
When you get an offer with too many products involved (a bundle), I am not as interested as if I get 2 or 3 very interesting products. It usually makes me think that if there are too many products, that’s because they are too crappy to sell as single products (or 2 or 3).
Or if you get an offer that sounds way too good (sort of irresistible), you get sceptcial.
Sometimes too much of something can destroy the actual offer.
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Another Product I Just Had To Buy
Not sure what’s happening to me, but I have bought two products in two days. Maybe a new record for me, well, none of them where expensive, especially the one I just bought.
I got it for $0.30, and maybe the cheapest and most powerful product I have ever bought?
The price is going up a nickel every time someone purchases. So, at the moment I have no idea what the price is.
The reason I bought it was not just because of the price. It’s a powerful product, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the information.
The product was created by Jordan Hall, and I have bought products from him earlier, and I have been more than happy with the results.
So, I don’t expect less from products like:
Info Product Creation Strategies Maximum Conversion Rate Tactics IMTriggers Volume 1 - Scarcity & Urgency Ebook Dirty Copywriting Secrets Proven Traffic Tactics Mailing List Profits
Not only all this, but a powerful bonus as well: I.M. Confidential Newsletter
I am really looking forward to the bonus, the newsletter. The only “problem” with that one is that you get it for free if you act today, but that’s only the first edition. After that, you need to pay the monthly $9.95 - but I am sure it’s worth it. And if not, I can just cancel it before they bill me for the next edition (in 30 days).
Now, if you want to get your hands on Confidential Marketing Techniques… you should hurry before the price becomes too high. I am not sure when it stops, maybe it stops when people stop buying it? And even though this is a very interesting product, people will eventually stop buying it..
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100% Commission is Always Interesting
I usually buy products if they offer 100% commission, and the reason is simple. I always end up getting my money back. It’s really just one sale, and you get the product for free. Usually, I sell 3-4 of them without any effort at all. But that’s not the only reason why I buy products that offers 100% commission.
I buy them first and foremost because of information. If the product looks interesting, I buy it, because of the information it provides. And of course, it’s always helpful to know that I will earn money from the product as well.
So, when I saw the latest product from Robert Puddy called How To Write Your Own Lead-Pulling Squeeze Pages, I bought it without even thinking twice.
The price is only $7.
Let me go through quickly what I received (and why I thought it was interesting in the first place).
The main product is the report “How To Rite Your Own Lead-Pulling Squeeze Pages”. It’s 15 pages and it’s all you really need to know about squeeze pages.
Fast action bonus is the e-book “How To Get Rich Building A Lazy Downline” and “Marketing Tips Volume #1″. I have been looking briefly at them both, and they seem to be interesting as well.
What I really enjoyed was all the squeeze pages and the templates. They are professionally made, and all you need to do is add the autoresponder code and you can start to use them. You even got the free e-book to give away to people who signs up.
Visit the sales page of How To Write Your Own Lead-Pulling SqueezePages.
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Can I give this product away?
I just bought an interesting e-book, and I would like to give it away for free to the subscribers of my newsletter. But when I read the licence, I wasn’t sure if I could give it away or not.
Just look at this:
PUBLICATION DATE: 8/1/07
LEGAL RIGHTS NOTICE
YOU HAVE MASTER RESELL RIGHTS TO USE THIS PRODUCT AS DETAILED BELOW.
Your Rights (in force for 1 year after publication date):
You CANNOT give it away.
You CANNOT sell it on auction sites.
You CANNOT offer as a free bonus UNLESS purchase of $27 or HIGHER is required to get it.
You CAN sell it in the following ways:
- product itself (WITHOUT resale rights) for $17 or HIGHER
- product packaged with other products for $27 or HIGHER total price
- product with MASTER RESELL RIGHTS for $27 or HIGHER
- product with PRIVATE LABEL RIGHTS for $47 or HIGHER
- included in a PAID membership site with $17 per month or HIGHER fee
- product edited completely and your name put on it for $17 or HIGHER
As you can see, it says that my rights is in force for 1 year after publication date. And the publication date is January 8th 2007, more than 1 year ago.
So, does this mean that I can give away the product?
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No More Google Ads inside YouTube Videos
I have just been watching a video on YouTube about how to make pizza dough. I wasn’t looking for anything to write about at all, and I wasn’t thinking about marketing. Actually, all I was thinking about was “how to make the best pizza dough”.
But then, after watching one of the videos for about 30 seconds or so, I saw an advertisement inside the video. It sort of popped up from nowhere, just as I was concentrated on the making of the pizza dough.
It wasn’t just one ad, every thirty seconds or so a new advertisement appeared. They were all Google Ads, and it was the first time I had ever seen Google Ads inside YouTube videos.
I wasn’t impressed at all, it was just distracting.
I have a link to the pizza dough video at the bottom of this post, this way you can see the Google Ads and tell me if you think they are distracting or if you like them (or whatever you think about them).
Now, what I think was even more interesting is that usually Google Ads are very targetted. If I am reading a website about Pizza dough, usually, all the ads from Google Ads are related to pizza (dough) or at least about similar food.
The ads from this pizza dough video was not really targeted at all, well, maybe two or three of them.
One of the advertisment tried to set me up with some sexy girls.
Another advertisement told me how to lose my fat belly (I don’t consider this related to pizza, even though some people that eat pizza might need to lose some weight).
Another advertisement was very interesting, it was telling me about how I can become a millionaire. Wow, that’s something, and I was only looking for the perfect pizza dough.
Here’s the pizza dough video, look at the bottom of the video for the advertisements (well, you can’t really miss them).
I have a dream, that I won’t be seeing advertisement inside YouTube videos in the future, because I don’t think it’s a good idea at all. I realize that sometimes it’s all about the money, and that an even bigger profit is probably the only reason why Google launched this option.
I am not sure how this works with Google Adwords. If there is an option where advertisers can decide if they want their ads to show inside videos or not? I am not going to try it (even though it might be something you should be doing if you are an advertiser).
Please Google, no more Advertisements inside YouTube videos. It’s just too darn distracting.
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MobileMe and Their Sign Up Process
I am buying an iPhone sometime soon (probably next week), and after I made this decision, I have also been doing some research when it comes to MobileMe (the new .mac). It seems to be a very interesting service, especially for people with an iPhone (but it seems to work with a pc and outlook as well).
Anyway. What I found to be interesting related to Internet marketing, was what happened when I tried to sign up for the 60-day free trial.
If I am going to test MobileMe, I have to add my credit card information. This makes me wonder, will it gain more paying members to this service, or is it because they want to reduce all the people that just want to test it without ever upgrading to the paid version?
Is it a marketing technique from Apple?
They have obviously given this a lot of thought, and when they force people to add their credit card information, they will exclude a lot of people from testing their software.
It would be interesting to know why.
I have experienced this before, I think it was with SpamArrest. I had the same thoughts back then. Now, I have been a paid member of SpamArrest for a few years.
My thoughts on the sign up process, is that it seems that they only want people that are willing to pay to become members in the first place, and not people that just want the test. On the other hand, they would probably get a lot more members if they didn’t force people to add their credit card information. In the end, if the product is as good as they claim, most people would probably upgrade anyway.
Or maybe it’s because of all the people that might forget to cancel their accounts after the 60 days? If they forget, they’ll probably have to pay for another month. But I doubt that this is the reason why Apple requires all the testers to add their credit card information.
I’ll do some more research before I decide to test MobileMe, and it has nothing to do with adding my credit card information (LOL).
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The Story of the Cold Caller
A few hours ago, I picked up my phone, it was a fairly young person asking me if I was Jens. I said yes, even though I wanted to say no and just hang up. I knew what he was up to, and I only had five minutes before I had to go.
He was friendly, way too friendly. He asked me if I had kids, and again, I felt like telling him the truth. Two young kids, a 2 year old boy and a 5 year old daughter.
Oh good, he sounded relieved.
He asked if they enjoy to watch movies on dvd, I said yes.
Now, it was obvious what he was going to ask next. He was going to offer me a subscription for a monthly dvd aimed at my kids.
I thought, this is not going to happen, he had already spent 3 minutes trying to become my friend. And now, it was my turn. I wanted to have fun for the next two minutes. I wasn’t going to become a subscriber anyway.
He asked me if my kids had watched Madagaskar, Finding Nemo and Barnyard. I told him that they had and that they watch a lot of movies, even though they are both in kindergarten.
Oh, but what about the Shrek triology he said?
They have watched all three of them. As I told you, they watch a lot of movies.
Wow, the only offer I have left is the Bee movie, have they watched that one?
I told him that they watched it about a month ago, and that they really enjoyed it.
I could hear that he was becoming frustrated, he was running out of offers.
Finally, he asked me if I enjoy watching movies. I told him that I watch even more movies than my kids.
He tested me, and asked me if I had watched any of the Varg Veum movies (fairly new and famous Norwegian movies). I told him the only answer he’d expect at this time of the conversation; I have watched them all.
I could picture him smiling, and thinking that I was the hardest catch of the day.
Cold calling isn’t suppose to be easy. I want to have fun, and with cold callers, it’s easy to have a blast, at least for a few minutes.
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New Edition of Internet Marketing Newsletter
At the moment, I am writing the new Internet Marketing Newsletter. Tomorrow all my subscribers will be receiving a new edition.
It will contain one article “Five Tips To Succeed With Internet Marketing”, one audio “Increase Your Sales With Multi-Media” and one video “Brandable Report Creation”.
Everything is completely free and there are no ads or links to anything you can buy - nothing but Internet Marketing tips.
If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter, you can do it at the top of the blog.
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Interview With Sheena Lane
This is my first interview, and it’s with Sheena Lane, she is a Passion Parties Independent Consultant. She helps women liberate themselves from the workplace to the bedroom, promoting intimacy and monogomous relationships.
Here are my five quick questions and her answers:
1) How and when did your online business get started?
I started my business 8 months ago after hosting Passion Parties for 4 years.
2) Do you currently work exclusively online?
No, I also do home parties for women, similar to Tupperware parties, but with lotions, potions and things that go buzz in the night.
3) How many hours per day do you spend on your business?
Maybe 1 hr, and that’s mostly on marketing and follow-up emails. Its a very easy business to run.
4) How do you do most of your advertising?
Our corporate office does most of the advertising for us, we promote our individual business ourselves but the tough stuff is already done.
5) What would be the biggest tip you could give to my readers?
I suggest giving your bedroom life a makeover by adding some lotions and simple games to make your relationship even better out of the bedroom.
Thanks to Sheena, you’ll get $10 discount if you shop for $30 or more, just add the code “Awesome”.
If you are interested in shopping, just go to Naughty Shop At Home.
Contact Sheena if you’d like more information about her business:
Sheena Lane
Passion Parties® Independent Consultant
Phone (707) 208-0817
Email: passionbysheena@yahoo.com
If you’d like to participate in this series of interviews, please contact me.
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Is iPhone a Bloggers Best Friend?
I am about to buy a new mobile phone, it’s going to happen sometime during the month of October.
At the moment, I am not sure which mobile phone I should buy. There are so many phones, and there are new ones arriving in the stores as I am writing this. But one mobile phone has been more interesting than all the others, and that’s of course the iPhone.
I am using an iMac at home and an iMac at work, and I am listening to music with my iPod. I am not sure if I will ever let go of Apple, because it seems that I am buying more and more products from them, and I am becoming more and more impressed.
The iPhone is currently at the top of my “wish list”, and the reason for this is not just the design. I think the design is awesome, but the real reason I have sort of “fallen in love” with the iPhone is all the applications - especially the wordpress application.
If I buy the iPhone, I can blog from anywhere. And I promise you, I will.
I have never tested the phone or blogging using a mobile phone, but it looks easy (LOL). There are probably many mobile phones I can use for blogging, but I am not sure if there are any with a wordpress application like the one for iPhone.
Do you know about any similar applications, or any mobile phones that I should consider buying, or should I just buy the iPhone?
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Short Interviews Coming Soon
I have decided that I’ll be doing short interviews with more or less interesting people. It will be people who are involved with Internet marketing. They will be presenting what they do, why they do it and they’ll be giving a short advice about what they think you should be doing.
I will post the first interview sometime tomorrow.
If you want exposure, you can read the interview tomorrow, and just answer the same questions and send them to me in an e-mail. I’ll post them as soon as I have the time.
Now, the questions I’ll be using for the interview are not my idea really. I am using some of the questions that Tim Linden (owner of StartXchange) are using for his interviews with Traffic Exchange owners.
I like his interviews, and especially the short answers… it makes them fast to read, and it’s always straight to the point.
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Sponsor a Trash Can For Your Business
Trash cans are important, we need them in order to keep our streets clean. What if your business could profit from it?
Many trash cans are just plain, without any stickers or any messages at all.
If you see a trash can in a restaurant or outside a gas station, why not ask the owner if you can sponsor the trash can?
I guess you could just put stickers on trash cans all over the city, but then, people might think of you as just littering and destroying their trash cans. This won’t benefit your business at all.
Pick a few, with very good locations, and ask the owners if you can be their sponsors. If you do, my guess is that you won’t have much competition, and the price might not be that high.
If you can’t find trash cans to sponsor, maybe you could ask the people in charge of the trash cans in your city. Ask them if you can sponsor a few, it will be a nice gesture for the city (keeping the streets clean) and you’ll get extra marketing for your business.
What do you think, is it a good idea to sponsor trash cans?
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I Love AWeber Badges
I have just discovered that my favorite e-mail marketing tool added some new affiliate badges.
They are all awesome, and from today, I will start using them on my blog.
As always, it’s important to help your affiliates with their marketing efforts. And adding banners and badges is probably one of the easiest way to help out… easy, but very powerful.
Next, I really hope that AWeber will create some new banners. The old ones have been around for ages. They are probably tested and they probably work rather well, but I’d like some new designs.
I really like the badges, the only problem I see, is that maybe you can’t use them to promote AWeber on other websites than your own?
The reason I am asking is that the badges are saying “I love AWeber”, and if they are located at other websites, the owner might not love AWeber… and might not want his or her visitors to think it’s his/her opinion.
I guess this is not a problem really, because who doesn’t love AWeber (LOL).
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Let Me Tell You About The Last Lecture
As I told you yesterday, I read two books while on vacation. The first one was Yes Man, and it was hilarious. The second was The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, and it was the exact opposite. It was close to perfect, but it was a rather sad story.
It was about Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. He was going to give “the last lecture” and the book is about this lecture, and his view on life.
The book is sad, but it’s also a beautiful book and sometimes even a little funny.
The last lecture is a book everybody should read, because it’s a book about dreams and it really makes you think. If I had to choose one word to describe the book, then I think it would be “inspiration”.
The last lecture is not a book you forget a month or two after you read it, I believe that this book will be somewhere in my mind for a very long time. It made me realize how trivial life can be, and what to do about it.
And it even includes a very good marketing tip on page 165, it’s called “the $100,000 salt and pepper shaker”.
It’s the story about when Randy Pausch was twelve years old and his sister was fourteen. They went to Disney World with their parents. Randy and his sister wanted to thank their parents by pooling their allowances and buying them a salt and pepper shaker. They paid $10 for the saker, and where heading up the street for their parents when it slipped through Randy’s hands. It broke, they both were in tears when an adult suggested they should walk back to the store and ask for another one.
They did, and the people in the store gave them another shaker and said it was their fault (not Randy and his sister) because they hadn’t wrapped the original shaker well enough.
When their parents heard the story, it increased their appreciation of Disney World. And because of this, his parents made visits to Disney World an integral part of their volunteer work. They spent moren than $100,000 on tickets, food and souvenirs.
Marketing should be integrated in the product and the people working in the store, if it is, this is what can happen.
The Last Lecture is an awesome book, and I highly recommend that you read it.
The officially site of the book is located at www.thelastlecture.com and you can actually watch Randy Pausch’s last lecture on YouTube. It’s called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” and has been watched more than 7 million times.
Is this one of the most inspiring books I have ever read?
I am not quite sure, but it might be.
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You Should Read Yes Man
One little word can change your life.
While on vacation, I read two books, one of them a very funny one. I am not sure if Yes Man, the book I am referring to, is as funny as Join Me or not. But if it’s not as funny, then it’s a really close call. Because Yes Man is a hilarious book, and I really recommend that you read it.
Both books, Join Me and Yes Man, is written by Danny Wallace. And I remember that when I read Join Me, I had some of the same thoughts as I got when reading Yes Man. Did all this stuff really happen to him?
So, what is it all about?
You probably guessed it already. It’s about Danny Wallace, a quite normal guy, with a rather dull life. One day something happens to him. I am not going to reveal anything though, but he starts to say yes to everything… and this will be going on for several months.
Of course, saying yes to everything, every opportunity, a lot will happen. And of course, this is why the book is hilarious.
On the other hand, the book has some really good points. We should all say yes more, we should always have a yes ready, but we can and sometimes we should, turn a yes to a no.
There is especially one paragraph of the book that I think is worth remembering.
It’s funny writing a diary. We assume that all the experiences are our own. That we’re unique, and they’re unique to us. But every thought we’ve ever had, everything we’ve ever said, every time we’ve surprised ourselves with a new experience or idea, every memory we’ve made, every story we’ve heard or told or been part of… it’s already happened before.
If you rather wait for the movie, then you actually won’t have to wait that long. It will be showing in a theatre near you sometime soon, and Jim Carrey will be playing Danny Wallace.
But I recommend that you read the book first, and then go watch the movie.
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I Recommend Louis Zante Beach
I am back home from a wonderful vacation, it’s been two weeks of sun and fun. I didn’t once think about work, and actually I wasn’t online at all during the two weeks. I didn’t even bring my mobile phone, I was completely offline.
And I highly recommend it.
My family and I visited the island of Zakynthos in Greece and we stayed at Louis Zante Beach. It’s an all inclusive hotel, where we got all our meals, drinks and ice cream included in our ticket. It was perfect for our kids, and of course, it was perfect for me (and my wife).
We ate probably way too much, because the food was nothing but incredible.
The water was spectacular, and I even got to dive (actually it was snorkling) with a giant turtle. I guess I was really lucky, because in September they are hard to spot - but they are usually around in July and August though.
The day we left, I even got a glimpse of some baby turtles on the beach. The eggs had just been hatched and the turtles were on their way to the sea. It was a sight I will never forget. (If you are a fan of turtles like I am, I highly recommend that you support the work of Archelon).
Our kids had a really good time. They did what kids their age do, sleep, eat (ice cream) and swim. They wanted to swim in the pool, and that’s what they did for about 10 hours a day (LOL).
Anyway.
I highly recommend Louis Zante Beach if you want to go to Greece and Zakynthos. We are actually talking about going back next year, if we do, it will probably be in May. Nothing wrong with September, because the weather was nice and it was not crowded with tourists. But next year our daughter will start her first year of elementary school, and obviously, we don’t want her to miss the first weeks of school.
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Fight Piracy With Marketing
It’s fairly obvious that people who are downloading music and movies illegally are fans, and should be treated as fans (not as enemies).
Most people are only downloading music (or movies) from their favorite artists.
So, think of it as a marketing challenge.
How should you promote something that people could get for free?
You should of course make it remarkable (like Seth Godin and his Purple Cow).
Create cd-covers that are so cool, that people just got to have them (maybe they even need to collect them).
Create a free prize inside; every 100th buyer will win a ticket tor their next concert or put some extra hidden features on the cd (like Bon Jovi did a few years ago).
Make the quality of the sound so much better on the cd (not sure if this is possible though).
Create hidden features (footage from concerts) that will be too hard to find unless you buy the music.
Create a booklet that comes with the cd, where all the fans can read the untold story of the band.
Publish press releases (and put it on the cover of the cd) that 10 cents of every Dollar (from the sales of the cd) will be donated to a specific charity project.
The problem with fighting piracy, is that most people don’t feel sorry for the artists or the record companies (or the companies making movies for that matter) if their sales are dropping. Because most of the popular artists got more than enough money, and that’s all we ever hear about in the media, so why should we care that much about stopping piracy?
Yes, I know , it’s the new artists - the ones without the cash. But the problem is still the same, every new artist with a breatkthrough will get rich (we have enough examples of this even from the small country of Norway).
I believe that the only way that the music business and the movie business can fight piracy is to start treating every person who are downloading illegally as fans not as enemies. Treat them like kings and queens, that’s what they deserve and only then will they start buying cd’s and dvd’s.
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I Have Just Read Hits Clicks and Misses
A few weeks ago, I bought the book called “Hits, Clicks and Misses: The Traffic Exchange Experience” by Jon Olson.
The reason I bought it was because I wanted to learn more about the traffic exchange industry, and how to become successful using traffic exchanges for my marketing. I have tested traffic exchanges on and off for several years, but I have never been really successful.
I am not sure if I really get it, I think I understand, and sometimes I get great results, and a few months later, it seems that I did everything wrong. And yes, I know it’s all about testing, and that what works changes from time to time.
Anyway.
I have been reading “Hits, Clicks and Misses” and I think it’s a very interesting book. It’s 155 pages, and it’s not hard to read it in one day (I spent two days).
You’ll get a lot of information about the industry, from one of the top guys (I am not sure, but I think Jon Olson might be #1 when it comes to Traffic Exchanges – he is the Traffic Exchange Guy).
You’ll get information about the beginning of the traffic exchange industry, and how it has developed. You’ll get information about all the various features (probably not all, because new features are probably being added as I write this), you’ll get the 7 steps to traffic exchange success and you’ll learn the anatomy of a killer splash page.
I am not sure if there are anything worth learning about the traffic exchange industry that Jon Olson didn’t include in his book. It’s a great book, and if you want to learn more about this industry, then I do recommend that you grab a copy.
Now, the only thing I didn’t like about this book was the layout.
It was sort of boring, looked too much like a newsletter (with 155 pages) and it didn’t even have any keywords or list of contents.
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Download Free Cool twitter Banners
Do you want to attract more followers on twitter? Well, if you are, you can download the brand new twitter banners right here. They are not official, I paid the best designer I know to create them for me. Now, I am giving them away for free.
This is exactly the same as I did with the facebook banners.
All I ask of you is, if you want to share the banners, please link to this post.
Just right click on the image and press save target as…
Enjoy!
125 x 125 px
250 x 250 px
468 x 60 px
120 x 160 px
If you are interested, follow me on twitter…
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Hello Greece - Goodbye Norway
Tomorrow, my family and I will be travelling to Greece for a two week vacation. We are going to an island, one where we have never been before, it’s the island of Zakynthos. From the pictures I have seen, it looks amazing.
And from the weather forecast, it seems that we are going to have a great time.
At the moment, it’s cold and it’s raining in Norway, and I can’t wait to get out of here.
There will hopefully be two weeks of fun in the sun, two weeks of me just relaxing (well, I have two kids though) - I won’t be working or blogging. But on the other hand, you will see a few posts during this period. I have written some that will be published while I am gone.
So, when you read my next posts, be sure to think of me on the beach with a big grin…
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I Want To Be Like Mike
I was watching the brand new video from Mike Filsaime today, about his new course called Traffic Fusion. I think it will be launching on September 16th. But anyway, this post has nothing to do with Traffic Fusion really.
I probably don’t want to be like Mike (don’t get me wrong, probably nothing wrong with him), but I sure want an office like his (this is the first five seconds or so from the video):
Well, I want his 3 Apple Cinema Display’s and his MacBook Pro.
They would make my office look way cooler than today.
But if I was Mike (only for a few minutes) I would probably have tried to hide all the cords, they seem to be all over the place (LOL).
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How To Use Headlines for your Newsletter
When you write a newsletter like I am doing, obviously, you want as many people as possible to open it and read the content.
The first thing you need to think about is the headline. The newsletter is being delivered by e-mail, so there are really only two things that people look at once your e-mail is in their inbox.
It’s the name of the sender and it’s the headline (subject) of your e-mail.
The name of the sender is probably just as important, but I haven’t been testing it, I have only been using my own name, and that’s really it. I guess I could have written “slymarketing” or something completely different in order to brand my blog or what I do (Internet marketing tips), but I am going with my name (at least for now) - it makes it a little more personal.
When it comes to the headline, there are several things you can do.
First, you can write the name of the newsletter (Internet Marketing Tips) and add the date or the number of the issue, like “Internet Marketing Tips #1 - September 2008″.
Second, you can use an interesting part of this particular issue. For instance, if this issue (or part of it) is about “How to Improve Search Engine Ranking with Google”, you could use this as the title of your e-mail.
Third, you can use whatever comes to your mind to attract your subscribers. You can be creative and just write something like “discover the ‘lost’ Internet Marketing files”.
I have tried various techniques to get attention, and at the moment, I am actually really not sure what to do.
I think that using the “Internet Marketing Tips” technique might be a good one if people are really waiting for your newsletter and if your newsletter has some kind of reputation. But if not, you might want to consider using a title related to this particular issue. If they find the headline interesting, most likely they’ll find your newsletter interesting as well.
If you go with the third option, you might get people to read your newsletter, but if your newsletter is not awesome, you might scare them away. Your headline might not be related to your content, and this might get some people upset and unsubscribe. But sometimes it might be worth a chance, because it’s all about testing.
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Small is the New Big
I have contacted Seth Godin and asked him if we can use “Small is the New Big” as the slogan for next years marketing campaign for our college, and guess what?
Seth Godin told me it was ok!
I’ll tell you why I think we should be using it.
It’s perfect for us.
Because we are fairly small, our students are having a blast. It’s easier to make friends, it’s easier to talk to professors, it’s easier to get guidance and counseling. Everything seems to be easier.
Because we are fairly small, it’s easier to become personal. Students are friends with teachers, teachers are friends with students. We are all helping each other. We can do that, because we are small.
We have a lot more flexibility than big colleges and universities. It’s fairly easy to turn everything around and put all our money at a completely different marketing campaign, if we wanted to.
It’s not like we have to spend six months to decide what we are going to do next year, we can adjust pretty easy.
Small is the New Big is a great slogan, it makes being creative easy, just look at the cover of Seth’s book.
… and we are going to design T-shirts for our students, and think of all the amazing stuff we can do with a slogan like that on the T-shirts.
But as Seth Godin, I believe that… Small is the new big only when the person running the small thinks big.
I am not sure if we are ready, but we better be!
[Link]
The Brand New Internet Marketing Newsletter
You might have already noticed that I am writing an Internet marketing newsletter. Well, I haven’t been exactly proud of the contents. That’s because I really haven’t had a goal, I have only been sending various tips related to Internet marketing techniques and especially when it comes to various interesting new systems that my subscribers could sign up for.
Most of the systems did cost money, and I would earn a few extra bucks in commission from the sales.
That’s all about to end.
Starting tomorrow, I will send out my first edition of the brand new Internet marketing newsletter. It will be all about free Internet marketing tips, and free resources… it will contain videos and audio. It will be all about teaching my subscribers how to be successful with Internet marketing.
There will be no more links to new systems or new e-books, it will only be hands on stuff you’ll learn from instead of a link to a system that you can buy (or sign up for).
Once in a while, all my subscribers will be able to download e-books and software. Everything will be free (of course), and there will be no more signing up for stuff (because they have already done that) or paying for stuff (I will still write reviews about interesting new e-books/books and systems on this blog though).
I am not sure if I am going to be posting the first edition of the brand new Internet marketing newsletter on this blog as well, I’ll have to decide tomorrow.
Anyways.
The edition tomorrow will have the following content:
- Article: “How to Improve Search Engine Ranking with Google”
- Audio: “Internet Marketing Myths”
- Video: “Getting Started with Video Marketing and what You Need”
- Video: “How to Upload Your Video(s) to Multiple Sites”
I will be sending it to my subscribers once a week.
If you didn’t already notice, you can sign up for the newsletter at the top of this blog.
[Link]
Review Page Secrets and Commission Blueprint
This is part of a series of posts about an Internet marketing course called Commission Blueprint. Be sure to read the other posts as well (this list will be updated as soon as I publish new posts):
How Commission Blueprint is using proof to increase sales I just bought Commission Blueprint Commission Blueprint and Opt-in Page Secrets Commission Blueprint and Pre-Sell Page Secrets
I have just finished reading the third (and final) report from Commission Blueprint called “Review Page Secrets”. This report was 14 pages, and I finished reading it in about 15 minutes. It was fairly easy to read, but I guess that I will be looking at it again (and again) if I am going to actually create a review page of my own.
It was an interesting first sentence of this report:
Sadly, the days where you could set up a simple AdWords campaign and make a vast amount of money by simply direct linking to the sales page of a product are all but gone.
This is what I have been doing, every single time I tried using AdWords, no wonder why I didn’t get any results to talk about.
“Review Page Secrets” report is all about how to create an effective review page with real life examples that we can learn from.
A review page is about positioning yourself as an expert by comparing a number of products that the prospect may be interested in, and of course, you end up telling them that they should buy one of the products (the best one / the one that pays you the most commission).
The reason you do this, is because people will think of you as an expert / authority, and people are more likely to obey an expert.
Now, I am not allowed to reveal all the details about the report, but I’ll tell you this:
The most interesting part of the report is all the “live” examples and how Steven Clayton & Tim Godfrey (the guys behind the course) points out what exactly to do (because of all the testing they have done).
They provide 12 points on what to do, and they have put each point in an image of a “live” review page. When you buy the Commission Blueprint course you can download and start using this template for your campaign as well.
It all looks fairly easy to implement.
Remember, always use a photo of a person who looks confident, experienced, trust worthy and most importantly realistic (it can be a picture of yourself, or not). Provide testimonials as it helps create a sense of trust in what you are saying, and write the review page as you would write a story (it’s all about story telling).
Another interesting fact, what you really should do, is combining a Pre-Sell Page with a Review Page (not sure what this combination should be called …).
[Link]
Commission Blueprint and Pre-Sell Page Secrets
I am writing a series of posts about an Internet marketing course called Commission Blueprint. Be sure to read the other posts as well (this list will be updated as soon as I publish new posts):
How Commission Blueprint is using proof to increase sales I just bought Commission Blueprint Commission Blueprint and Opt-in Page Secrets Review Page Secrets and Commission Blueprint
Today, I have read my second manual/report from Commission Blueprint. The first one was Opt-in Page Secrets, the one today is called Pre-Sell Page Secrets.
Opt-in pages are all about capturing e-mail addresses, building a list of buyers while you sell them the actual product.
With pre-sell pages you warm the prospect up to a product by using social proof and make them more receptive to its sales page than if they were to find it directly. Social proof is fairly the same as testimonials, people recommending this product instead of other similar products. And you warm the prospects up by using a story telling technique.
I have read about how to write the story, what it should be like, and which words to use in order to make the sales.
I have been reading a detailed description of the “perfect” layout (and I have received a link to download it as well). How to recommend the product, how to explain about my experiences with the product.
It was also very interesting to learn that I have to use a photo on the pre-sale page, but that it doesn’t have to be a photo of me. I can (and probably should) use a stock free photo of someone else.
I have read about how to use banners and links, and how to do split testing of the pre-sales page. In fact, it seems to cover everything that comes to my mind when I think of pre-sell pages. It even covered how to be marketing a page on AdWords by bidding under the brand names of other popular products in the same niche.
And finally, a tutorial about how to use affiliate links (like how to cloak them).
This pre-sell page report from Commission Blueprint was very interesting, and I have learned a lot. The only question that comes to my mind after reading it is, how can I write the pre-sell page without any experience with the product or any people giving me testimonials?
They didn’t answer this, but it might be included in one of the videos from the course.
[Link]
Commission Blueprint and Opt-In Page Secrets
This is part of a series of posts that I am writing related to Commission Blueprint. Be sure to read the other posts as well (this list will be updated as soon as I publish new posts):
How Commission Blueprint is using proof to increase sales I just bought Commission Blueprint Commission Blueprint and Pre-Sell Page Secrets Review Page Secrets and Commission Blueprint
I have just read my first report (from the Commission Blueprint course), and it was called Opt-In Page Secrets. It was a pdf document of 20 pages, and I guess you understand what it was all about. Yes, that’s right. It was all about how to create the perfect opt-in page.
But first, what is Commission Blueprint all about? I don’t think that I have answered this question, and that’s probably because I wasn’t really sure before I read the velcome pages (after I logged in).
In as few words as possible.
Commission Blueprint is a really focused (affiliate) marketing strategy on how to become really successful using ClickBank and Google AdWords.
It seems that everything Steven Clayton & Tim Godfrey (the guys behind the course) teaches us is related to affiliate marketing combining ClickBank and Google AdWords. But on the other hand, I have only read the welcome pages and the first report… (I’ll let you know all about it soon).
So, what did I think about Opt-In Page Secrets?
I really really enjoyed every part of it. I have read many reports and ebooks about how to create opt-in pages and how to build lists, but this one was straight to the point. I believe that you actually get everything you need to know in only 20 pages.
There were a few things that I haven’t thought about before (it might be just me); only ever build an email list in a buyer hungry market that has plenty of products to promote on the back end. It sounds fairly obvious, but I hadn’t thought about that one.
They talk about all the important parts, like the headline, creating a sense of urgency, trust and credibility, believability, direct instruction and they even give opt-in page examples with very clear graphics. And I believe that we’ll get the templates as well (but I’ll get to them in a later post).
As a member I got the script to use to create the todays date on the opt-in page. This is what most successful marketers use to always show todays date (very powerful), and I got the over-sized opt-in button (also very powerful). And they teach you exactly how to put your autoresponder code in your opt-in template.
I am asking myself if Commission Blueprint is for newbies or if it’s for people who knows most of the basics of affiliate marketing? At the moment, I am really not sure. But the first report got it all, so you really don’t need to know anything about affiliate marketing to understand what opt-in pages is all about, and at the same time, you’ll get all the powerful stuff.
[Link]
I Just Bought Commission Blueprint
This is part of a series of posts that I am writing related to Commission Blueprint. Be sure to read the other posts as well (this list will be updated as soon as I publish new posts):
How Commission Blueprint is using proof to increase sales Commission Blueprint and Opt-in Page Secrets Commission Blueprint and Pre-Sell Page Secrets Review Page Secrets and Commission Blueprint
I have been thinking about whether I should buy Commission Blueprint or not, it’s been going on for a few days. This morning, just a few minutes ago, I decided to buy it.
The reason is not that I am going to try to become a millionaire using AdWords, or start making money as an affiliate. Well, I a might test the system. But the main reason I bought it was that I want to learn Pay Per Click advertising, and I want to learn from the best.
The reason I want to learn is basically because we might be using AdWords to promote our college (well, we did a few years ago, but with no success), and of course, if I find the course to be really good, I will probably find some cool ClickBank products to market.
So, what I will do, is that I will start viewing all the videos and reading all the tutorials. And I will write a series of posts related to Commission Blueprint. This way, you will get a look at what it’s all about and I can hopefully teach you something as well as I will learn more by teaching you (did that make any sense at all?).
Anyway, I just bought it and I received access the “vault” of information from Commission Blueprint. I glansed at it and it seems that I will need quite some time to actually read/view everything, because there are a lot of information.
I’ll tell you more about it soon, probably later today.
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Create A Cool E-mail Signature
It’s been few years ago since I first discovered the marketing effect of a great forum signature. If you do it right, you can drive a lot of traffic to your websites from your signature. Now, I am thinking, the same applies to your e-mail signature.
If you create a cool e-mail signature, I’ll bet that you can drive a lot of traffic from it.
I have just created a new one, do you like it?
If you like it, you can learn how to create it for Apple Mail (or you can download the template, modify it and add it to your own e-mail client).
[Link]
Should I Buy Canon Ixus 970 IS?
I have been looking for a digital camera for a while, and because I haven’t been able to find which camera to buy, I am sort of in a hurry. In just over a week, I am travelling to Greece for a two week vacation. I want a compact (lightweight) digital camera for this trip.
So, what should I be looking for?
There are so many cameras to choose from. It’s always the price (the cheaper the better), image quality should be good, it should be lightweight, it should have a nice design, battery quality should be better than ok, and it should be fairly easy to use.
I have been looking closely at Canon Ixus 970 IS, and this digital camera looks really good. The reviews I have read are also impressive. The price might be a little higher than most other cameras I have been looking at, but it might be worth it?
I am still looking around, and still haven’t decided just yet, but I think that this is my favorite at the moment.
Do you have any other suggestions?
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A Major Marketing Challenge
When trying to create a marketing strategy for a large organization like the college where I work, you need to think about a lot more than marketing.
Let me give you a quick example.
I have about 450 colleagues, and when creating the marketing strategy, some of us gather to do some brainstorming and discuss possible approaches. Yesterday, six of us had a chat about a new catalogue.
We have one goal with this catalogue, and that’s to get people to visit our websites, because our websites are really the main catalogue. This is where all the juicy information is, and this is where they should go if they want to find all our courses.
Our catalogue has really just been a flyer, and a listing of our courses and our url.
This year, I wanted to do something different. It’s not going to be a revolution, I am just thinking that it would be interesting to put a focus on maybe 5 or 6 courses. The list of all the courses will still be there (not going to change that).
My thought is this; if we focus on 5 or 6 courses where we have had too few students over the past years, and few applications, we might do something about the trend. I am not saying that this is a great idea, but I think it might be worth a shot.
The major marketing challenge is to convince people that this is what we should do. Because some of the people I was discussing this with were more concerned about our colleagues (the other 444) and what they would think, other than what actually works as marketing to attract new students.
If we focus on 5 or 6 courses (and don’t forget that the list of all our courses will still be there), our colleagues would probably start asking questions like; like, why the courses that they are teaching are not in focus. And this again would eventually lead to a lot of discussions.
I can understand that some people at our team are asking questions, but should we really be that concerned about all our colleagues, shouldn’t we forget about them and just think about how to attract students?
Or is it important to keep our (450) colleagues satisfied, or should the results of the marketing campaign speak for itself?
[Link]
How Commission Blueprint is using Proof to Increase Sales
This is part of a series of posts that I am writing related to Commission Blueprint. Be sure to read the other posts as well (this list will be updated as soon as I publish new posts):
I Just Bought Commission Blueprint Commission Blueprint and Opt-In Page Secrets Commission Blueprint and Pre-Sell Page Secrets Review Page Secrets and Commission Blueprint
I am the first one to admit that this new release of a product/system called Commission Blueprint looks very interesting. It seems to be all about how to make a massive amount of money from marketing various ClickBank products. And it’s not about how to market products related to Internet marketing, it’s about marketing any product.
I am not here to discuss the product/system or if it’s any good or not, because I really don’t know (at this time) - but I can tell you that Commission Blueprint is probably the hottest ClickBank product right now, because all the major Internet marketers are promoting it.
The reason why I am writing about it today, is because I want to share how this product/system is gaining its trust, and why so many people want to buy it (right now). I believe it’s because of all the proof.
The guys behind it, Steven Clayton & Tim Godfrey, did earn $6,513 in 24 hours using this exact method, they earned $109,151 in 30 days, and $153,426 in 6 weeks. This sounds incredible, and it looks amazing, no wonder why people want to grab a copy.
Steve Clayton and Tim Godfrey uses screenshots of their ClickBank accounts as evidence of how munch money they have been earning using this system. From the image above, you can see exactly what they are showing on their sales page.
Proof like this will make all “normal” Internet marketing guys want to take a closer look.
Just take a look at the ClickBank statement above, they earned the incredible amount of $526,422.83 so far in 2008. That’s amazing!
With amounts like that, people are usually stunned, or they cry out scam! The interesting part with Commission Blueprint, is that why should they use an amount this high, if they didn’t have evidence? They could have used a much lower amount, and people would most likely buy it anyway.
They are also providing detailed statitistics of their website traffic for June of 2008. It’s not really a lot of traffic, but they are giving us another proof, that with this much traffic, they earned an incredible income.
What’s this telling us?
Once again, they are giving us evidence that “each of their sites generates up to 600,000 visitors per year… and every single one of them wants to buy!”
Proof if a very powerful marketing strategy, and combined with testimonials (another set of evidence that it works) it makes Commission Blueprint to a really hot product/system.
[Link]
Top 10 Reasons To Use Facebook Pages
If you haven’t created your Facebook Page(s) yet, I suggest you do it now. Facebook Pages is a powerful way to create viral marketing and gather a huge database of fans. And it might not be that hard to do it.
I believe that the more content you bring to your Facebook Page, the more fans will join you - but before you create it, remember that all the content you bring (at least most of it) should be relevant to your Page. It’s like a niche, if we create a Facebook Page about our College, we should only bring content related to our College and our students/staff. If we start adding content about the olympics or whatever, a lot of people will remove their status as fans.
If you want to create your Facebook Page, I suggest you just get started (it’s easy - you don’t need a tutorial really).
A Facebook Page is your way to connect and communicate with your customers/fans. If you do it right, you can use a Facebook Page to communicate with your customers the exact way they are communicating with their friends and family. That’s why it’s so powerful.
Now, let me tell you the top 10 reasons to use Facebook Pages:
1. You can send updates to all of your fans
It’s like sending a broadcast from AWeber. If you have something to say, you can send the message to all of your fans. I don’t think that there is any limit for how long the message can be, or how often you can send it (but please correct me if I am mistaken).
2. You can have an unlimited number of fans
You probably know that there are more than 70 million members of Facebook, if your customers spread the word, you might see a lot of new fans. A regular user can only have 5,000 friends (at least that’s what I have read).
3. Your Facebook Page is visible to the entire world
If you create a Facebook Page with “the right” name and you add some great content, search engines might actually bring it a lot of traffic. Because a Facebook Page is visible to the entire world. People don’t have to be logged in to Facebook, they don’t have to be a member of Facebook to view your page. But they have to be a member to be able to add themselves as a fan.
4. You can add events to your Facebook Page
Let me give you an example. The college where I work, we have a Facebook Page with quite a few fans. They will receive all the information we send to them, but when we add an event to the Facebook Page, they can spread the word to their friends (people that are not fans of our Facebook Page) and this way we’ll have a viral marketing campaign for the event.
5. You can add a blog to your Facebook Page
It’s has many of the same features as a blog, but it’s called Notes. Every time you have something to say, like highlight something that happened at our college, this is a great way to share it with our fans. It’s like writing your thought on something (yes, it’s like blogging).
6. You can add videos to your Facebook Page
Videos can be awesome, and they have a huge marketing effect if you use them right. We can add videos about how it’s like at our college, this way all our fans will see it. We can add videos of events, so all our fans can share them - and it becomes viral marketing.
7. You can use a discussion forum on your Facebook Page
I think it’s called a discussion board, the spot where all your fans can share their views about your business or your upcoming events. This is a great way to give feedback to our students.
8. You can add a wall to your Facebook Page
If you have used Facebook, you probably know what the wall is about. It’s where people add messages, usually to your profile, but it’s also available for your Pages. All the messages on the wall are visible to every person who visits your Page. It’s sort of like comments on a blog post, but this comment is to the Facebook Page and not a single event/post.
9. You can add reviews to your Facebook Page
This can be used to write reviews of everything related to your Facebook Page. For instance, our students (fans) could use it to review our staff (maybe not a good idea), or they could use it to review our food, books they have read, or what ever comes to their mind. The only limit is their imagination.
10. You can add hundreds (thousands) of applications
There are so many cool applications for Facebook, and new ones are added every single day (at least it seems that way). It’s only a matter of time before you’ll find a brand new really interesting application that you’ll find useful. Just use the search bar in your left sidebar to find applications.
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Helping Seinfeld With His Advertising Campaign For Microsoft
I guess that being paid $10 million for the advertising campaign and appearing with the chairman Bill Gates might be the sole reason why Seinfeld is joining forces with Microsoft, but maybe not.
It might not be the money, and certainly not the fame (even though Seinfeld might be less famous now than 10 years ago). I believe that his reason might be all related to creativity and the opportunity a huge advertisign campaign brings.
Seinfeld is a comedian, and he is a creative person. He is one of the best people in the business, and now he has the chance to work with some of the best people in marketing. The advertising campaign will most likely be really cool, and people will be talking about it for months.
But what is he going to promote?
My first thought was that he can’t be hired to promote something like “start using Microsoft Windows”, because way too many people are already using it. But according to Washington Post, that’s exactly what he’ll be doing, and it’s all because of Apple.
The next question is how?
The first thing that comes to my mind, is the “Get a Mac” ads. But hopefully they will do something completely different, because trying to do the same thing, that would be just plain stupid.
The funny thing is, if you look at most of the Seinfeld episodes, you’ll see a Mac on his desk in the corner. Maybe that’s what they’ll be focusing on in the advertising campaign, that Seinfeld finally switched from his old Mac to a PC, and started using Microsoft Vista?
My tips to a creative and cool campaign
I would go with Truth or dare, Jerry Seinfeld vs Bill Gates.
Jerry Seinfeld asks Bill Gates, truth or dare. When Bill Gates says truth, Jerry Seinfeld should ask “stupid” questions related to Windows Vista, questions that will make Bill Gates laugh at loud (really loud) - this will turn Bill Gates into more of an “ordinary” guy.
When Bill Gates says dare, Jerry Seinfeld should dare him to use a Mac and make him do something that Bill Gates can’t figure out (something funny) - something that’s really easy to do on Windows.
Think about this, when Bill Gates can’t figure out how to do it (he is one of the most respected men on our planet), then who can (LOL)?
A lot of people might be sceptical, but think about it. Some of the brightest minds in marketing are joining forces with Jerry Seinfeld, and Bill Gates is also involved, and Microsoft are going to spend about $300 million on the advertising campaign; the results will most likely be fantastic.
[Link]
How To Get Fans On StumbleUpon
The reason why many people use StumbleUpon is the fact that you can get a lot of traffic from it, that is, if you use it right.
And when I say that you need to be using it the right way, it means that you need to be networking. You need to be social. You need to get a lot of fans.
I believe that you need to be doing four things in order to get your fans:
1. Stumble (thumbs up or down) on many sites
2. Write reviews about sites you like (or the ones you don’t like)
3. Add a cool picture (to represent yourself)
4. Create a cool and creative profile
Stumble as many websites as possible
StumbleUpon is about discovering new websites. It’s probably the easiest tool to find websites you like. I am discovering at least 30 new really cool websites every single day, all because I use the StumbleUpon toolbar (and that’s why I highly recommend it). If you don’t like the website, you just click on the thumbs down. This way, you will receive more websites of your choice the next time you decide to use StumbleUpon.
The more times you stumble websites, the higher the chances are that people will visit your profile, and the higher the chances are that they will start following you (and what you do) on StumbleUpon. They will eventually become your fans (by adding you as a friend).
Write reviews
If you decide to stumble a website, you should also write a review. Write as many reviews as possible, and remember to be honest. Tell people why you stumbled the website, or why you clicked on “thumbs down”. If you do this, more people will see your opinion, and eventually more people will visit your profile (and become your fan).
Add a cool picture
Every member of StumbleUpon can add a picture in their profile. The reason you need to do this, is because your picture will be on all of your reviews, and attached to all of the websites you have stumbled.
Usually, people add a picture of themselves, but a lof of creative people have realized that you can get a lot more attention if you add a very cool picture of something or someone else. Some people add pictures of celebrities (beautiful women), some people add pictures of cool cartoons. It’s all about getting attention. The more attention you get, the more people will visit your profile, and the more people will eventually become your fans.
Write a cool and creative profile
When people visit your profile, you want it to be different. There are more than 5 million members at StumbleUpon, you need make your profile better and way cooler than the rest. It needs to stand out from the crowd, you should want them to want to become your fan. If it’s dull, most likely they will turn around and start stumbling websites again. Try to make an impression.
I believe this will help you make a lot of fans …
… but in the end.
Having said all this, I must also tell you, that I haven’t added a cool picture or written a cool and creative profile myself. The reason for this is; I also believe that if you add the same picture of yourself all over the Internet (like MyBlogLog, Facebook and Digg), you are branding yourself and people will remember you (that’s powerful marketing). And if you write the truth in your profile, in your own words, people will eventually believe in you.
The only problem is, that it takes a lot more time to get your fans this way.
[Link]
Marketing By Designing a University Diploma
When you study at a university or a college, hopefully, you’ll end up receiving a diploma. Most colleges and universities in Norway issues a standard diploma. There are really no big differences, other than the name of the college or university and a logo.
What if a college (like ours) decided to change, and hire a designer, and create something remarkable?
What if the Bachelor Diploma was stunning, it was something spectacular, something that people would really notice and say “wow, this is the coolest diploma I have ever seen”?
I am thinking that this could be an interesting marketing strategy.
There are little, if any, competition. All the other colleges and universities don’t consider this as marketing (at least it seems that way).
It’s fairly cheap, it’s usually just one piece of paper.
We could:
… make them look really old, like papyrus (the ancient documents rolled up into scrolls).
… make them really big (but that might be just weird).
… make them really colorful
The reason I think it would be interesting and a way to get a lot of attention is the fact that our students would probably be more excited if they received a cool and different diploma (more excited than when they receive the standard diploma).
If they are more excited, it means that it’s more likely that they spread the word about their diplomas.
And when our students apply for jobs, they always attach their diplomas. The people looking through all the applications would also notice our remarkable diplomas, and most likely they would start to think of us as champions (and they might even spread the word).
What do you think, would creating new creative diplomas be worth it as part of a marketing strategy… or should we just go with standard diplomas?
[Link]
I Am Thinking Viddler
We have had a discussion for a long time, it seems like way more than a few months, about what we should do about videos at the college where I work. I am talking about how we should embed videos on our website, and what software to use, where we should upload the videos and stuff like that.
Usually, we host everything ourselves. But if we are going to do it when it comes to videos, I guess we should buy a software, maybe a YouTube clone, to be able to organize all our videos in the future. And because the people that will be uploading the videos not necessarily are very technical (when it comes to embedding videos), we should make it as easy and smooth as possible.
We are using Macs, and creating the videos are easy (at least, we are managing to create rather cool ones).
The problem still remains, how are we going to get the videos on to our website without making a mess?
And of course, how can we make it as easy and smooth as possible for the creators of the videos. They should be able to manage everything themselves, without me having to help them.
The reason for the big discussion is also because we are thinking about the future, what will happen when we have hundreds of videos, and we’d like to find them all and organize them? We need to keep them someplace where they are “safe”.
I am thinking Viddler, but my guess is that my colleagues are thinking something completely different.
Why Viddler?
- It’s not YouTube
- It’s easy to use
- It’s easy to share
- It’s easy to embed
- It’s easy to organize
- I think it’s free (it is isn’t it?)
Why not Viddler?
- It’s not our server (downtime)
- Is it safe (well, we will have backups)?
It’s time to take a stand, and hopefully end this discussion…
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Avoid Really Bad PowerPoint
You should consider PowerPoint presentations as part of your marketing, and keep in mind that there’s nothing more frustrating than having to attend a really bad PowerPoint presentation.
I am working at a college, and I have seen my share of bad PowerPoint presentations, and most likely, I will be seing them in the future as well.
But here are some advice (and hopefully some of my colleagues are reading this as well).
If you do a bad one, people will most likely not consider you as the champion you are. A really bad one can destroy your reputation, and it can hurt your sales (if you are trying to get a contract through your presentation) and it might not help your projects at all.
A really good PowerPoint presentation can do wonders for you. If you are looking for a way to get people to understand your point of view, then there’s nothing better than PowerPoint (I am not kidding).
Think of it as marketing, either of your projects, your business or yourself (or whatever you are up to). If you do it right, things will go your way… people will understand, and they will think of you as a champion.
You need to be emotional. If you don’t use emotion, your audience won’t care.
If you want to be really professional (I am not), then you make yourself cue cards, have them in your hand. The words you use in your presentation should reinforce the cue cards, and should not be identical. Create a written document that you can leave behind, people love this. If you tell them about this in the start of your presenation, they don’t have to take notes and they can keep track of what you are saying.
Now, here are a few tips on what to avoid. This is actually more important than what you should remember to do.
Never use more than six words on a slide.
Never use cheesy images
Never use really cool transitions
Never use sound effects that are part of PowerPoint
Never hand out printouts of your slides
The reason why you should never hand out printouts of your slides, is because they really don’t work that well without you. Remember, you should never use more than six words on a slide. This might sometimes make it hard for people to understand the true meaning without you (the champion).
I have seen people using cool transitions in their presenations, and the transitions are cool. That’s the problem, because it takes away the focus on the content, and the content is what should be important.
I remember one guy that had his mobile phone connected to his Mac (via bluetooth), he was changing his slides by touching his mobile phone. This was about two years ago (or maybe more), and that was the first time I had seen something like this, it was really cool and I was amazed. But guess what? I didn’t notice a word he was saying and his presentation was crap (but it was cool).
The reason you are using PowerPoint is because you are trying to communicate with your audience. Never stand next to it and read from the slides, it’s incredibly boring and most people can actually read themselves.
There are probably enough PowerPoint mistakes to write a blog about it, but I believe that if you follow the guidelines above and focus on emotions, you are doing something right.
I got the idea for this post by reading Seth Godin’s Free Prize Inside, and the bullets are from his post Really Bad PowerPoint. What’s important though is that I think that it’s very easy to relate, because most people have experienced really bad PowerPoint presentations - and we know why they were bad.
It’s time to do something about it
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Download Free Facebook Banners
If you are looking for free really cool Facebook banners, then you have come to the right blog. I have paid the best designer to create some facebook banners, and I received them today. The designer is Linda at Visual Impact.
I wanted them to be plain, with the facebook colors, and with one message only “join me on facebook”. The banners ended up just the way I was hoping for.
And now, if you like them, you can download them for free and start using them on your website. If you decide to spread the word, please link to this post and tell people to download the banners from my blog.
I hope you like the banners and that you can use them to add some extra friends, and by the way, join me on facebook.
Here they are (just right click and “save image as”):
250 x 250 px
120 x 600 px
468 x 60 px
125 x 125 px
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Will Voting On Facebook Social Ads Help You?
Have you noticed the two thumbs on the Facebook social ads lately? They have been put there in order for you to vote on the ads. Click on “thumbs up” if you like the advertisement, or click on the “thumbs down” if you don’t like it (looks kind of like the thumbs at StumbleUpon)
When you click, you will receive a pop-up with several options. For instance, if you decide to click on the thumbs down, they’ll ask you why you didn’t like the ad, was it because it was: misleading, offensive, pornographic, uninteresting, irrelevant, repetitive or any other reason?
But will voting on advertisements help you?
If you decide to vote with thumbs down on advertisements you don’t like, what will happen?
You might not see this particular advertisement again, other people like you might not see it again (I am just guessing, but I think it will be related to which groups you are a member of). You might not see related advertisements again. If you decide to vote thumbs up, you might see more advertisements like the ones you voted on.
If you decide to vote, you will get more targeted advertisements. Advertisements that might actually make you buy or join something. Is that necessarily a good thing? Well, for Facebook it is.
And as soon as you vote “thumbs down” on one of the advertisements, it will get replaced by another (not related) advertisement. So, it’s all about getting targeted advertisements to you as fast as possible.
But what does this mean for advertisers on Facebook?
It means either that advertisers with poorly targeted advertisements or “bad” advertisements will have to pay a lot more for their advertisements to be shown. Or they may actually never get their advertisements shown or be banned from Facebook entirely.
Voting on advertisements sounds like a good idea, but I just don’t think of it as something people will be doing. Because think about it, why should we? One reason I don’t want to be participating (helping Facebook), is because I am not allowed to vote on many of the big companies that are advertising on Facebook.
Just take a look at the large banners, they don’t have any thumbs up or down do they?
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Should You Be Working When Nobody Else Is?
A few weeks during the year, it seems like the whole country is set to pause. Nothing is happening, all the stores are closed, and we’re supposed to be with our families doing nothing but cozy stuff.
This is how it has been (at least in Norway) for centuries, or so it seems.
What if you decided not to do what everybody else was going to do, what if you did what Seth Godin suggested, and…
“What if you and your team went against type? What if you spend the two weeks while your competition (and the forces for the status quo) are snoozing–and turn it into a completed project?”
It would be interesting.
The only problem is that I don’t really know if most people would be that creative or get as much done as if it was a regular week. Because, in the back of their minds, they are thinking about all the people (like their colleagues) spending the next week or two with their families or their friends, doing stuff that they normally can’t do (relaxing).
So, by going agains type, you might actually not get much done or would you?
It might all depend on how much you think of your work as a competition. If you are looking to crush your enemies, and you are just looking for a way to get a head, then this could be a great opportunity. But if you are working for a college (like I am), and 99,9% of my colleagues are on holiday somewhere, and it really doesn’t matter if I am working or not (sad, but true), then I think my mind would probably be somewhere else and not at work.
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A Software To Help Your Creativity
I have just bought a software called WriteRoom after I have been testing it for free for 30 days.
What is WriteRoom all about?
It’s a software for writing only, and it’s nothing like MS Word or other fancy word processors, or even most text editors. It’s all about distraction free writing. Actually, it’s rather hard to imagine what it’s about if you haven’t tried it yourself.
Before I tried it, I didn’t think a software like this existed. Now, it’s only me and my text, and I am not thinking about all the other distractions on the screen (like e-mail, surfing, chatting and Facebook or whatever else that usually comes to my mind when I see all the various icons).
What can it help you do?
Actually, it’s nothing more than notepad. Well, it might have a few extra features, but think of it as your text, not about the features it might have. Because the features, except for one, is not why you want to try (and buy) this software.
The secret is the distraction free writing. And the programmer behind WriteRoom (yes, one guy developed this amazing software, his name is Jesse Grosjean by the way), accomplished this by making it posible to do full screen writing.
A black screen with green text (you can chose the colors yourself - but I highly recommend using the standard options), is all you get. At first glanse it might look a little pre-historic, like what you’d expect from DOS (an operative system before Windows). But when you try it for a few minutes, or a few seconds in my case, I expect you to be amazed.
Will it really help you be more creative?
Because think about it, when you write, it’s not about the features really, it’s all about the text and the words you use. And there’s no better way to be able to focus on your words other than using a software like WriteRoom.
I believe that using this software will help boost my creativity to a whole new level. Now, I feel less stress, and I am watching the text more closely. In a way it’s more comfortable to write, and I am looking forward to get started (or continue) writing.
Now, there is only one problem with WriteRoom and that’s the fact that it only works for Mac. There is no version for windows, and I am not sure if there ever will be.
But I have found one similar software for Windows, and that’s the JDarkRoom. It’s completely free and it seems to have some of the same features as WriteRoom.
Take a look at WriteRoom today, and tell me what you think - will it help you be more creative?
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Do We Really Need HitsConnect?
I am not sure how many months I have been thinking about testing HitsConnect. I am not sure how many months I have been thinking about why I would need a paid service to track my ads. I know that it’s been a while, and probably way more than a year. So it might not come as a surprise, but during the month of August, I am a paid member and I am using HitsConnect for the very first time.
I think that the reason why it took me so long before I tried it, was that I have always thought that HitsConnect should be used to track ads at Traffic Exchanges and not ”regular” ads. Now, I see that this is not really how HitsConnect works, even though the majority of its members are using it for Traffic Exchanges, and the owner and creator of HitsConnect is Robert Puddy, who is also the owner and creator of Advertising KnowHow (one of the top Traffic Exchanges).
What is HitsConnect?
It’s a system to track your advertisements, it’s a system that will help you find out if your advertisements works or not. They do this buy tracking how many times people click on each of your advertisements, and it tracks from which websites people click on your advertisements.
This way, it’s easy to see if people are clicking on your advertisements (banners or text links, or splash pages or whatever type of ads you have). You’ll learn exactly how many times your links have been clicked on. It’s easy to see if your advertisement works, and it’s easy to see if where you are advertising works. It’s not always your ads that are bad, sometimes it’s the e-zine, safelist or website.
It’s easy to do split testing. You just create to very similar ads, and track which of the ads that will get the most clicks. When you find the best of the two ads, you stick with the best one, and then you’ll create another one and keep testing. It’s all about testing to find better ads and better ways to advertise.
So far, I have been doing some testing. I have only been testing it on traffic exchanges so far though, but I have seen the potential. It’s really easy to use the system, and it works. You get detailed statistics on every click, and if you join as a partner (like I did), you can actually have the tracking code as part of your own url (you just have to host a php file on your webhost, and include it in your tracking url). Next, I will start testing to track how many clicks my banners (on this blog) are getting.
In the end, the probably most interesting part of the HitsConnect system is the way you can measure how much money you are earning from your advertising. You can add the cost of the advertisement, and you can add the cost of the product you are selling, and HitsConnect will calculate your profits (or loss) for you. It took me some time to figure out how this was done, but it was really simple actually. You just put a tracking code on your thank you page as well. The thank you page is only shown if a person has bought your product, or signed up for your newsletter or whatever action you wanted them to take. If a person ends up at your thank you page, it means success.
I am not sure if I’ll be using HitsConnect for months, but that’s because I am more into blogging than selling stuff on the Internet. But for people involved with affiliate marketing, and trying to sell (their own) stuff on the Internet through various ads, I really do recommend HitsConnect.
If this sounds interesting, you can actually start testing HitsConnect today for free (30-day free trial), but if you think you’ll need this system, then you should join as a partner today and get the much lower monthly price. That’s what I did.
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How The Prime Minister of Norway Should Be Using Facebook
I read a post earlier today about Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister of Norway. He had apparently just created a page on Facebook in order to promote himself and the labour party before the next elections.
He is not the first politician to create a page on Facebook, because they have been using Facebook to target young voters for a few years. He is the first prime minister in Norway to create one, but that’s because Facebook hasn’t been around that long.
Why has Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister of Norway created a page on Facebook? Is it just because he is targeting young voters?
It might be, but that’s not my concern. I want to give you a few tips on what he should be doing when it comes to marketing himself and the labour party on Facebook.
He should get personal
He should write comments, he should be answering questions. He could be adding pictures and tagging members of the party. He should create events, and be the moderator. If members of Facebook (and the media) discovered his personal involvement, it would have a huge viral effect and people would soon start to spread the word.
He should add twitter
It’s all about being personal, and by using twitter and combining it with Facebook. People would really get involved to be able to get updated on what our prime minister are doing. That would actually be really cool, if he would add tweets while he was attending conferences and he was bored. He would soon become a hero among the kids.
He should ask questions
A prime minister, and politicians in general, all they seem to do is answer questions from the public or asking other politicians questions. They never seem to be asking the general public or the voters any questions. Facebook is the perfect place to start a conversation. He should be asking people all sorts of questions; it’s less time consuming than doing it any other way, and it’s completely free.
He should write short
I am not sure if I have ever seen a politician answer any question with just a few sentences, it would be really cool if the prime minister of Norway could do just that. Start using the web how it should be used, and just write short posts, this way it would be a lot easier for ordinary people to respond.
He should join causes
I am not going to mention them all, but there are many causes you can join on Facebook. Everything from “save Darfur” to “Stop Global Warming” to “Down With Bush”, and several really weird ones. Now, the prime minister should start joining causes he believes in, and start supporting them. By doing that, people will find out what kind of guy he really is, and if he supports the same stuff as they are doing. It’s a lot easier to understand the causes on Facebook than reading articles in newspapers about what the prime minister is supporting.
He should create groups and/or become active in groups
There are many groups related to political questions in Norway. If he joined them, and took an active part of the conversation, he would soon get more attention and more followers. Not many politicians are doing this, probably not a single one from the government.
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How To Get The Local Newspaper To Write Your Story
Sometimes I just don’t get the people working at the local newspapers. After a great event, I seem to always end up with questions like; why do the newspapers exist and what are their missions? Because I would think that they must have a goal, some sort of plan for what they are doing. Or maybe not?
I am trying to figure it out, but I just don’t get it.
Remember the grand opening I talked about yesterday? It was probably the biggest story in our county this particular day. I am not saying that it’s a really big story, but there are usually nothing exciting happening anyway… that’s why.
But guess what? The largest of the local newspapers in our county, they didn’t publish a single word about the event.
From the image above (yes, it’s written in Norwegian), you can see that all this newspaper seems to care about is local sports (aka football/soccer). They also had a few stories of some interest for people living in this particular town, but I can’t remember the topics (I guess they didn’t really catch my attention).
So what am I really trying to say?
At the moment, I have not a single clue regarding how to get the local newspaper to write our story. Well, I have one suggestion… and that’s our press releases. They have to be very detailed and specific about this particular town. In the press release, why should focus on questions like why should the press come to our event, and why is it a very interesting event for people living in this specific town?
The problem so far, is that we have written a general press release, and sent this one standard press release to all the newspapers in the county. Next time, I think we’ll need to write one press release to each newspaper. That might be a lot more helpful, and it actually might get the local newspaper to write our story.
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The Grand Opening
Yesterday, we had our grand opening at the college. I am calling it the grand opening, because it’s probably the most important day of the year for our (any) college. It’s the day where all the new students are being registered as students, and it’s their first glimpse at our college from the inside.
I think that this might be our first attempt to create a Purple Cow.
Do you see the fortress below?
I think you do. This is where we had our grand opening this year. By the way, It was during the summer and not the winter as the picture is showing.
Usually, the grand opening is nothing out of the ordinary. To be frankly, they have been rather boring.
Untill this year, all new students (about 1,500) have been gathering in the gym, sweating and listening to several speeches and some local artists. I am hoping not too many of my colleagues are reading this.
The reason why we have been doing “the boring stuff” for years, is because we haven’t thought of it as marketing.
This year we did what we should have been doing a long time ago. We are trying to create a Purple Cow, we are trying to become remarkable.
We created a show for our new students. We did it at the fortress, with a celebrity host and a really cool and famous rock band. I think our new students had a really good time, and I think that they have a different view of our college now. Our college is way cooler than they thought (hopefully).
The problem with this way of creating a Purple Cow, is that it can become a very expensive lesson. It’s hard to create a better show next year without using more money. And several other colleges (our competitors) are trying to do the same, and some of them will create better shows eventually (maybe some already did this year).
Now, actually, I really don’t think that this can be called a Purple Cow, and the reason for this is that it’s really not related to our college and it’s probably not a way to attract students. Students won’t be attracted to something that has nothing to do with education or life as a student.
The grand opening might just be a gimmick, but at the same time, it will help spread the word of our college as a cool place to start, don’t you think?
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Quest for the Purple Cow
Sometimes I think that the job I have is an almost impossible job. Because I am about to market a college, and attract more students. Hmm, that almost sounds like a very interesting job (ok, it really is an interesting job, but I have a few obstacles).
I’ll be brief about the problem; there are a lot of people who have strong opinions about marketing. The college is using a very small amount of money dedicated to marketing, and the way the college have been marketing itself in the past is the traditional way - like all other colleges and universities in Norway.
All colleges and universities in Norway act the same, pay for the same kind of advertising, and in sum; they are almost all the same. It doesn’t really matter if you attend one college instead of another one. There are usually not any prestige involved, or there are no way to say that you will have a better chances to get a really good job if you attend one college instead of the others. We are all the same (or at least almost the same) when it comes to education.
Now, how should you go about marketing something where there are a lot of competition and there are very hard to stand out from the crowd?
I am calling it ”the quest for the Purple Cow”, and I am going to tell you why. But first, I need to give you a quick definition of a Purple Cow (according to the one by Seth Godin in his book Free Prize Inside):
A Purple Cow is a product or service that’s remarkable. ”Remarkable” simply means that a customer is willing to make a remark about it. If you can create remarkable products, people will talk about them. If that happens, the word will spread and your sales will grow. That explains the success of most every fast-growing company of the last ten years.
Seth Godin is suggesting that we should put marketing in the creation of every product. And that’s actually something I have been thinking about for a while, a long time before I have read any book from Seth Godin.
I think our education is way to similar to the ones offered by all other colleges and universities in Norway. I am not going to be going into details here, but on (almost) all areas, colleges and universities in Norway are almost exactly the same.
I am thinking that making a purple cow might be really hard or it might actually be kind of easy.
Just by doing some name changes, we could end up attracting more students. We have the same study programmes as most other colleges, but if we make new cool names for them, we could end up with more people spreading the word (just a thought).
There are a lot of innovative stuff we could do, that people at our college wouldn’t think of as marketing, but in the end, it would help us attract way more students - so it really is marketing.
The problem is how?
Should I start thinking of creating one Purple Cow for the college, or should I create one Purple Cow for each department, or maybe one Purple Cow for each study programme?
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I Am About To Buy The Traffic Hybrid System
First, I am about to go to bed. I am really tired, it’s been a long day at work and I have been working my tail off the whole week. I am really excited about this weekend, I have no plans other than relax, and hopefully we’ll be camping again.
Now, I found something interesting a few minutes ago. This is a marketing system called “The Traffic Hybrid System”. I don’t know much about it, other than what I have been reading at their sales page. I haven’t received any notifications about it, and I haven’t read any reviews.
So, I really don’t know much about it.
The Traffic Hybrid System is interesting to me, because they caught my attention with the design. It looks like a design I have seen before, not sure where I have seen it, but I know that I have seen it somewhere. And they caught my attention by mentioning Seth Godin’s book “The Purple Cow”, that’s because I am reading it at the moment. A very interesting book, and I’ll get back to that one later.
They guys behind The Traffic Hybrid System caught my attention, and I like that. I am not sure if they are remarkable or not, but the only way to figure that out, is to buy their product, read it and test it.
Of course, I am not just interesting because of the design and because of them mentioning Seth Godin’s purple cow… that just caught my attention.
What really got me interesting was their explanation of what Traffic Hybrid System is all about, it’s an explanation using one sentence, and one sentence might be enough:
… this system is about having other people posting on forums in your industry promoting your products (or products you are an affiliate for)
It’s a system where they combine the virtues of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click advertising. And when I read this, I realized that I don’t have a clue about what they are talking about.
… so that’s what really got me interesting.
If you are interested, this is my affiliate link to The Traffic Hybrid System, but remember; I haven’t got a clue if this system works or not. Well, not yet anyway.
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Why You Should Read Lord of the Barnyard
I have been reading Lord of the Barnyard during my vacation. It’s a book by Tristan Egolf, it was his debut as an author, and it’s about a very interesting character called John Kaltenbrunner.
I am not going to write a full review, because this blog is not about reviews when it comes to novels. But sometimes I just have to do an exception, and that usually happens when I read great novels. I just have to let you know about them - because hopefully you’ll enjoy them too. So, instead of the full review, I am going to write some of my thoughts regarding Lord of the Barnyard.
The reason I enjoyed it was because of John Kaltenbrunner. He was a character that both got me laughing, and at times he made me a little worried. And sometimes he even reminded me of myself, and sometimes he reminded me of a few of my friends from my childhood. John Kaltenbrunner is a guy it’s easy to like and I just wanted to know more about what he was up to. The story could probably have continued forever… and if it did, I would still be reading.
John is a young farmboy, and at the age of 9 his only wish is to be left alone and tend his farm. The world outside his farm doesn’t really exist. That’s the story really, but as you might suspect, a lot of stuff happens to this boy. Throughout the book we follow his journey from his farm to the barnyard. A great story.
If you want to read some reviews, you can read one at New York Magazine, Rambles and Access My Library. You can read reviews and buy the book from Amazon.
I found the book to be a rather tragic story at times, but it was so interesting, and I was just waiting for John Kaltenbrunner to strike back at society. Now, that’s all I am telling.
I have just discovered Tristan Egolf and his world, and earlier today, I discovered that he committed suicied in 2005. There will be no more books. Such a great author and young man, it’s a sad story.
I will buy the two books I haven’t read, Kornwolf and Skirt and the fiddle. Sometime in the future, I will tell you all about them.
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Marketing By Giving Away Free Stuff To Students
We want to attract more students to our college, and at the moment we are doing something different. Well, a lot of colleges and universities are already doing it, but I think that this is our first time. We are giving away free stuff to our students.
We have created a headware, very similar to the original Buff. We just received 2600 of them from China today.
They have our logo, and they have “our” color as well. This way it will be fairly easy to recognize our college when people see the headware.
… but why are we giving it away for free?
I believe that it’s actually one of the cheapest ways to promote almost anything, well, especially when it comes to a big company (like our college).
Not only is it cheap, but it’s really good marketing as well. That is, if the headware, or what you are giving away, is something people will really appreciate.
Think about it.
If close to 2600 people will be wearing our headware all across the country. A lot of people will most likely see them, and maybe comment on them, and remember the name of our college.
The more people that will see our name, the more people will remember us.
The cost of the headware is fairly the same as a one-day advertisement in a national newspaper. The headware might last for several years, and will most likely be spread all over the country. The one-day advertisement will most likely just last for a few days (in the minds of people).
The coolest part is that we have two different designs, and both of them have been designed by our students (2 students actually).
I think that by giving away free stuff to our students, not only will our students wear them (or give them away to friends or members of their families), but they will appreciate it. They might feel a little better about their college… and would like to help spread the word about how they feel about living here and getting their education.
Hopefully, this is not the last time we are giving away stuff for free - I believe that this is going to happen once a year from now on.
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The Perfect Vacation
Just look at this magnificent view. This is the first thing I saw every morning for 3 weeks. 
If you are wondering if I am still on vacation, I can announce that today, I am officially back from camping with my family. And from the title of this post, you can probably imagine that I am fairly satisfied with the three-week camping trip.
If you have kids, I urge you to buy a tent or a trailer tent (like we did). And try it for a vacation somewhere close to the sea. A spot where there are not too many people, but enough kids for your kids to have a wonderful time.
This is how our trailer tent looks like. You can also view a few images at another blog post I wrote while still on vacation (I was back home for a few hours).
Why was it the perfect vacation?
There are at least five reasons why I think that this was the perfect vacation for me and my family.
1. The weather was awesome
We’ve been away for 3 weeks, and it’s been raining just 2 days. And that’s pretty incredible, because we are in Norway (and it seems to be raining every other day). It was fairly windy, but mostlyit was a nice breeze and 25 degrees celcius. Just perfect.
2. Our kids had a great time
We have two kids, a girl 4 years old and a boy who is 2 years old. They have been outside playing for 3 weeks, hardly any problems at all. No fighting over toys, no tv, nothing they could fight about. They have met a lot of new friends, they have been playing in the forrest, in the water and they have been smiling the whole time (well, almost…).
3. It was a cheap vacation
It’s always a good thing when you have a great time and you don’t have to pay a lot of money for it. It makes the whole vacation even better. I consider it a cheap vacation, even though we bought the camp-let during June (and it was brand new).
4. No electricity
I just love having no electricity. I didn’t listen to the radio, I didn’t watch any TV, I had no access to any computer or the Internet, and my mobile phone battery didn’t last for the whole 3 weeks. I was offline, a place where all I did was relax.
5. All the friendly people
I haven’t been camping for more than 25 years, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I am sure that there are a lot of different people, depending where you go camping. Some nice, some not so nice. But all the people I met during our 3 weeks were all really friendly.
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How To Get Noticed At MyBlogLog
There are four things you need to do in order to get noticed at MyBlogLog, and when you get noticed, you will receive traffic to your blog or website. I’ll try to be brief.
First, you need to add new contacts. The easiest way to do this is by clicking on members, and add the newest members of MyBlogLog. They are “always” online, and they don’t have many friends. Therefore, they will instantly notice you and most likely they will add you as their contact right away. They might even visit your blog/website within a few minutes.
Just click on their avatar, then click on “Add to my contacts”. That’s all, now they are your contacts and they will receive an e-mail that you have added them as your contact.
Second, you should join communities. The easiest way to do this is by joining new communities. Just click on communities (in the top menu) and then on new communities. You’ll see the two newest communities, click on the images. Then finally, click on join community. You’ll see your image after you have successfully joined the community.
Third, you should leave a comment on user’s profiles and on their website community profile. When you leave a message, they will receive an e-mail or they will receive a notification on their MyBlogLog profile. This way, they will notice you. But remember to leave an interesting comment, and not just a “Hello there” comment (you know what I mean).
Fourth, when you receive comments (and you should receive some after you have posted your comments all over the place), be sure to respond to them promptly and thank them for their message. When you do, people will start to recognize you as a professional MyBlogLog user, one that interacts with other users and one that they should read more about (next step is reading your profile, be sure to add some interesting information).
If you are not using MyBlogLog, I urge you to join and start using it. This is a very interesting social community and if you use it right, it will drive massive traffic to your blogs or websites.
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Blog Mastermind and How To Attract Affiliates
Finally, Blog Mastermind is open to the public once again. I joined Blog Mastermind a while ago, and I was really satisfied with the course. It’s an easy way to learn how to blog and how to earn money from blogging.
The guy behind the course is Yaro Starak, he is a well-known blogger, and he is earning 5-figures from his blogging. If you decide to join, you will learn everything there is to learn about blogging in general (including all sorts of topics), how to drive massive traffic to your blog and how to monetize your blog.
The reason I am writing this post about Blog Mastermind today, is not because of the re-launch, it’s because of what Yaro Starak is doing to attract affiliates (an affiliate is a person promoting Blog Mastermind).
The more affiliates he attracts, the more people will promote his course, and the more money he will earn from his course. That’s why he is doing it, and that’s why he is spending a lot of money to attract new affiliates.
Yaro Starak is giving away 10 prices to the top 10 affiliates of his Blog Mastermind course. The first price is really something, it’s the Apple Macbook Air (see the image above).
The prices are:
1st - Apple Macbook Air
2nd - Asus Eee PC
3rd - Sony PSP
4th - iPod Nano
5th - Nintendo DS
6th - Snowball Mic by Blue
7th - Creative VADO
8th - Altec Lansing VS4121BLK Speakers and Sub Woofer
9th - iPod Shuffle
10th - Frank’s Hot Sauce
Yaro is really attracting new affiliates with this free prices technique. It’s an incentive that will “force” (in a good way) a lot of people to promote is Blog Mastermind course, and because a lot of people will promote it, Yaro will make more than enough money to be paying for the 10 prices.
So far, I think that having a contest among the top affiliates is the best way to attract new affiliates.
If you want to know more about how to sign up as an affiliate or how to join Blog Mastermind, you can read all about it at BlogMastermind.com
If you have any questions regarding the course, you can ask me and I will give you my honest opinion.
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A Magnificent View
Hey there. I am back home from the camping trip, just for a few hours though, until we have washed some of our clothes and until we are ready for the next two weeks of our vacation.
So far, everything has been close to perfect. I am not sure if I should use the word “perfect”, but I am so incredibly satisfied. Our kids are really enjoying themselves, my wife is having a blast and I am in paradise.
Just look at this view, it’s the view I am seeing every single day.
We have apx. 1 hour drive from our home to the spot we are camping at. So, it’s really no hazzle to drive back home to wash clothes and to take a shower. We can drive back home whenever we need to, or whenever we feel like it.
We are really close to the sea, we are close to the forrest, and I feel like I am really part of nature
It’s exactly the kind of vacation I like, this is how I relax - I like it slow.
… and I think I have a tan, but you probably can’t see it (LOL)
I have been reading a lot while on vacation. I have just finished Lee Child’s Persuader (I have just ordered all of his books, well, the ones I haven’t already read) and I am currently reading Teach Yourself Copywriting by J. Jonathan Gabay. I will write a review of the book after my vacation.
I just thought you’d like to know about my vacation so far. Now, I would really appreciate it if you’d tell me about your vacation.
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List of servers I am Pinging
Like most bloggers, I am also sending pings everytime I publish a post. Earlier, I visited pingoat and pingomatic to submit my url, but not anymore. Now, I am not doing anything really. And that’s what’s great about this kind of marketing.
I have added a list of ping-services to my wordpress installation, and everything is done automatically from now on. It’s quite amazing actually.
I am not sure if it works better than the time when I submitted my urls to pingoat and pingomatic, but I am receiving traffic and I am not doing anything. That’s what counts for me, and that’s why I am not spending time looking for a new way to ping.
Just a few words about pinging.
The reason I am writing this post, is due to the fact that I have just upgraded my blog to the latest version of Wordpress (version 2.5.1). At the moment I am looking everywhere for errors, and that’s when I discovered all the various places I am pinging when I publish new posts.
If you are not familiar with pings, then you should take a look at this post from lula.
Now, let me just give you all the links I am using. This is exactly how it looks in my blog settings. I don’t know if all of the links works or not, I just got them from a discussion forum (but I can’t remember which one):
http://rpc.twingly.com/
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/
Leave a comment if you have something to add to the list, or if you think that I should remove a few of the links.
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Yes - I did it
I told you that I was going to be upgrading slymarketing to the latest wordpress version due to security issues. I was sort of expecting a lot of problems due my experience from the last upgrade (to version 2.3.3).
Guess what?
I did the upgrade in minutes, and I am so proud of myself.
Everything seems to be ok. The theme is working, all the plugins seems to be fine, and I am still looking for errors. I am expecting them to be somewhere, but so far, I haven’t found any.
Now, I’ll have time to tell you about a brand new affiliate report. I haven’t read it, and I am not sure if I am going to buy it… well, due to reasons that I told you about earlier today. I just don’t have the time.
But, I have received information from several people that this report is really good. One guy even said that this is the “coolest affiliate report ever”. I don’t know about that, but you can take a look at:
It’s written by Chris Rempel (aka The Lazy Marketer).
Take a look at his headline, no wonder why so many people are talking about this report (LOL):
Here’s Why Complete Idiots Can Make Fortunes Online While Genuinely Smart, Hard-Working People End Up Making Chump-Change…
The price of the report is currently $9.95 until July 16 th.
Tags: chris+rempel, affiliate+marketing, wordpress+upgrade
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Something New is Happening
I have been thinking about the future of slymarketing (this blog) for a while, and today, walking to work, I think I discovered the path that I am going to follow. But first, a few words about this weekend.
I have also been thinking about upgrading my blog from wordpress 2.3.3 to the latest version which is 2.5.1. The last time I did an upgrade, I had to work for several hours, due to some technical issues I didn’t quite understand. And this is why I have been thinking about the upgrade for so long. I have been considering the pro’s and the con’s for the upgrade, and right now I think that the security issue is probably why I am going to do the upgrade. It will hopefully happen tomorrow (saturday), depending on the weather of course. If it’s hot and sunny, then I’ll probably be at the beach. But hopefully, I’ll get started doing the upgrade before my family wakes up and I’ll be finished by breakfast (LOL).
I’m also going to be on vacation for about 3 weeks, and depending on the weather, I am not sure if there will be much blogging from me. We are going camping. It’s not that far away from our house, but we’ll have no electricity for 3 weeks and if the weather is ok, then I’ll probably not be home or anywhere close to electricity during the three weeks.
Now, to the important part of this post.
I have given this a lot of thought, but I haven’t really made my decision just yet, even though I am really close to one.
I have just been sort of promoted (not really a promotion though) to head of marketing at the college where I work. When I say head of marketing, it’s more like that I am going to be the guy that will be co-ordinating all the marketing, a person who will develop new ideas and talk to people at the college about them before we launch them. It’s complicated, but that’s my point of writing this.
I think that I should concentrate my blog (yes, this one) to reflect my thoughts when it comes to the work I will be doing at the college. It will still be about marketing, yes, it will be all about marketing. But it will be related to promoting the college and thoughts about marketing in general, and not so much about “work from home” or affiliate programs and affiliate marketing. And yes, it will still be almost 100% about Internet marketing.
The number 1 reason for me thinking about the new focus, is that I don’t have much time on my hands. With this new marketing job, I will have to spend a lot more time doing that, and much less time doing everything else. Or maybe I just have to spend a lot more time doing everything, I really don’t know yet. I will be sort of starting this marketing thing from August 4th, that’s my first day at work after my 3 week vacation.
I guess that I have a few weeks to sort out my thoughts.
At the moment I am thinking that this blog will be a lot more fun to read if I can share my ideas about how I am going to market the college; what works and the stories of all the failures. At the same time, I will give you advice about new marketing ideas… at the same time I will spend less time writing about stuff that the rest of the blogosphere are writing about.
If I do this, slymarketing might get a fairly unique touch, don’t you think?
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I Am Now Testing TE Blaster
I have been testing traffic exchanges for years. I have been on and off, but in my opinion they are cheap ways of getting targeted traffic. You can even say that they are free ways of getting targeted traffic, because most traffic exchanges are free.
You can either spend time surfing the exchanges to drive traffic to your websites, or you can upgrade and spend less time surfing. When you upgrade you will get extra credits and more people will see your websites because of the credits.
Now, I have been testing a system called TE Blaster (Traffic Exchange Blaster). It’s really simple. I pay $29.95 a month, and I get 3000 visitors a month from various manual traffic exchanges sent to my websites. I can add up to three websites.
The great thing about TE Blaster is that I can view the statistics of all the manual traffic exchanges that sends visitors to my websites.
But in the end, it’s still just like you are surfing manual traffic exchanges, except that you are not surfing.
So, you’ll have to be careful regarding what kind of websites you send your visitors to. Because you should know that all members of the manual traffic exchanges (all the people that will be visiting your websites) already have their own Internet marketing business. They are using traffic exchanges to promote it… therefore, you need to think; how can I attract a person already involved with an Internet business to sign up for my offer, or to bookmark my website (sign up for my rss feed)?
You need to be crystal clear when it comes to your goal with the (traffic exchange) marketing campaign. Because you are getting really targeted traffic, you know their interests, you just need to focus on how to convert them from 10 second visitors (because that’s usually how long they have to stay on your website according to the various traffic exchanges) to buyers or recurring visitors.
I really don’t have the answer to this just yet, but I will let you know as soon as I have.
Tags: te+blaster, traffic+exchanges, targeted+traffic
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Is This The Ultimate Exit Popup?
I have been testing various ways to grab my visitors attention, from the lightbox popover from AWeber, to various Exit Popovers. They do work, but the problem is that I find them annoying.
If I find them annoying, I think my visitors will also find them annoying. If they find them annoying, they won’t be coming back.
I have been thinking; what’s most important to me, that people sign up for my newsletter or that people read my blog? Usually I have answered both, because that’s what I am really looking for. But that’s really hard to accomplish. If people are very interested in what I am writing, they will be coming back or at least subscribe to my rss feeds, and some day many of them will subscribe to the newsletter. But when the focus is on the writing, many won’t subscribe to the newsletter the first time around.
Anyway.
I have found another piece of software that I wanted to talk to you about. It’s one called The Ultimate Exit Popup, and it seems to be a little different than the other stuff I have been testing.
You can take a look at the sales page over at ultimateexitpopup.com.
It’s a popup that cannot be blocked (at least that’s what the sales page says, and I didn’t manage to block it). The difference between this one and the other ones I have tried is that this only shows when your visitors click on something, or are actually leaving your website.
The other exit popovers have been triggered by the movement of the mouse. So if the users mouse moved outside the active window, the popover would appear. This could happen several times during one session. Sometimes people just move the mouse so they can read the text without having the cursor right above it. That’s why I found it really annoying, because it happened to me several times as well.
But looking at what Ultimate Exit Popup can do, I am still thinking that this is annoying. It might be way more powerful, but still annoying.
I am not sure of all the settings, you might be able to use cookies and you might be able to use the settings so the popup won’t appear more than one time for each visitor (I don’t really know). My problem with it is that it will appear without the user knowing it, and without the users consent. They didn’t ask for it to happen, and when they don’t ask for it, they might find it annoying.
If they find it annoying, I will still have the same problem as I described earlier. They just won’t be coming back.
I can see why Ultimate Exit Popup might be a very powerful software for sales pages. But I don’t think that it should be used on a blog or a website where you want people to be coming back.
But maybe on the sales page of Why We Suck At Internet Marketing?
Tags: ultimate+exit+popup, aweber, popover, exit+popover
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I Just Love This Commercial
Maybe it’s because I am a fan of Depeche Mode, or maybe it’s just because I think great music is a great way to grab attention and keep people focused and interested.
Music is art.
Usually, if you listen to a great song, you relate it to something. You listen to it, and you become involved with the song. If you do it right, you really don’t have to do much other than play the song and the product will sort of “sell itself”.
Enjoy the Silence is perfect. It’s an awesome song, and by using ordinary people to sing the song, like you and me, it’s a lot easier for people watching to relate to the music and to the lyrics.
I think that this is one of the most enjoyable commercials I have ever watched. It’s just so pleasant to watch, and the commercial really makes me relax. And it’s probably a commercial I can watch over and over without ever getting tired of it.
Well, it’s sort of like it’s not really a commercial… hmm, it makes me wonder; maybe it’s not a good commercial anyway, just a really good video?
Take a look at it below, it’s the Sony Ericsson commercial for their mobile phone W890:
Tags: sony+ericsson, enjoy+the+silence, depeche+mode, commercial
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Should You Buy Google Nemesis?
Not sure if you have noticed, but Chris McNeeny from Day Job Killer and Google Assassin (and other very successful systems) has just launched Google Nemesis. I have already received tons of e-mail promotions about it, even though it just launched.
Should you buy Google Nemesis (not an affiliate link)?
The price is (right now) $67 a month, and it’s all about how to be successful promoting and selling ClickBank products.
From the video on the sales page, it seems that Chris is earning enough money with his systems, and he is saying that he will give you all the secrets. So, why not?
I found a great review video of the Google Nemesis, and even though this is made from a guy who probably made it because he is looking for increased sales, he seems to do a detailed review.
Watch the video, and at the end, the review-guy will tell you about a bonus that you’ll get if you buy Google Nemesis from his affiliate link. It might be worth it if you want the system.
Tags: google+nemesis, day+job+killer, clickbank, Chris+McNeeny
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Why Seven Nation Army Should Fascinate You
You might have heard of The White Stripes before, or you might not have heard of them. It really doesn’t matter. This band consists of only two people, Jack White and Meg White, and they play awesome music. You might like their music, or you might not like their music, it really doesn’t matter either.
My point today is that they have manage something that very few people or bands every get to experience. I am not sure if it’s a coincidence or if it has to do with brilliant marketing or if it’s because of the fascinating song called Seven Nation Army. I really don’t know.
What happened is that Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes was chanted along every stadium and every game during Euro 2008 (the European Soccer Championship this summer). Just take a look at the video below from YouTube, and you’ll hear the song all over the stadium. It was the unofficial EURO 2008 Anthem.
How did it happen?
You can hear the song in the background at the stadium, so was it planned from the beginning, if it was, who planned it? Was it the marketing people at UEFA, or did the managers of The White Stripes have anything to do with it (I doubt it), or was it all just a coincidence?
Maybe it happened the other way around. People started chanting the song, and after a few games, the people at the stadiums decided that they should start playing the song. That sounds very unlikely to me.
Either way, the seven nation army was a huge success.
Tags: white+stripes, seven+nation+army, euro+2008, soccer
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Is Viral Inviter Really That Good?
I have been looking at the brand new script called Viral Inviter, and I have been looking at all the e-mails I have received regarding the script. They are all saying the same; that viral inviter is the “Web 2.0 tell-a-friend script”.
Sort of like the Viral Friend Generator by Mike Filsaime, but a lot more powerful.
First, take a look at the Viral Friend Generator video (just below), and you’ll see how it works. Then take a look at the video of Viral Inviter, and you can see the difference fairly easy.
Viral Friend Generator:
Viral Inviter:
So, which of the scripts do you think is the most powerful one?
Well, Viral Inviter seems to be really powerful, but I think it’s all up to you (the user). Because, with Viral inviter, your visitors can invite (send messages to everybody in their address books with just a few clicks), but why would they do something like that?
You need to give them an incentive. They won’t tell their whole address book about your website, just because they think your website is a good one (that won’t happen). You need to give them something.
Say, if you give them a free gift worth $97, if they refer 5 new visitors to your website. Then something might happen.
I’ll give you an example:
Dustin Struckman, the owner/creator of Affiliate Silver Bullet just re-launched the system on July 4 th. He started using Viral Inviter, and said that if you invite 10 friends, you’ll get the membership for free. This was a fairly powerful promotion. His servers crashed a few hours later because of all the traffic.
So, by using Viral Inviter the right way, you can obviously drive a lot of traffic to any website – as long as you give your visitors an incentive to tell their friends about it.
Tags: viral+friend+generator, viral+inviter, viral+marketing, mike+filsaime, norman+freeman
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No Milk Today
The Norwegian giant Tine, has a commercial on TV and movie theatres that they call No Milk Today. They are playing the song by Herman’s Hermits and showing funny situations where people stumble, and where they just don’t manage to keep walking or even stand still.
The commercial is funny, and people will notice it, Tine have made a point, but what kind of point did the really make and why?
If you don’t drink milk, what then? Will you not be able to stand, will there be all sort of negative things happening to you?
There are enough people that are actually saying the opposite, that milk is bad for you:
I am not going to argue that milk is either good or bad for your health, I just wanted to focus on the commercial from Tine. The commercial got all the right ingredients, but they are sending a negative message, they are sort of trying to scare people from not drinking milk… but they are doing it in a funny way.
A great commercial. Look at it below and tell me what you think:
Tags: tine, milk, dairy, funny+commercial
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Using Twitter to Attract Visitors to Your Blog
I have been using Twitter for a while, but I haven’t really been as fascinated as the rest of the world (or at least so it seems). To me, Twitter has just been a cool tool that I sort of used for a few weeks, until I found myself asking; what’s the point?
I am still asking that questions, but now, I have at least found a way to attract visitors to my blog using Twitter. It works, and it’s completely free.
I have signed up at twitterfeed, and I added the feeds to my blogs. That took me about 20 seconds. Yes, that’s actually it.
What twitterfeed does, is that it displays your blog posts at Twitter. Every time you publish a new post, all your followers will get the message. They’ll see your title, a short description and a link to the post. It’s all 100% automated.
This is not cheating, even though it sort of feels like it. This is more like a new way of posting messages to your “friends”. You do it from your blog instead of using your mobile phone, instant message client, web browser or e-mail.
You are letting them know what you are doing, you are staying connected with your “friends”, family and co-workers, and that’s the whole point about Twitter or am I still missing something?
But remember, Twitter is not just about one-way communication. You should still look at other people’s messages and be active, that’s the only real way to get massive traffic from Twitter.
But just to let you know, twitterfeed really works.
Follow me on Twitter, and I will follow you 
Tags: twitter, twitterfeed, internet+marketing
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Why Am I Not Thinking Straight
I have been writing on my e-book a while, the one I have titled “Why We Suck At Internet Marketing”. It all started out really well, I have written many pages, and I am looking forward to get it published on the Internet. And I am looking forward to get some reactions from readers.
But at the same time, I find myself doing all sorts of stuff, everything but writing the e-book.
OK, I have been writing posts on my two blogs; the one you are reading right now, and my brand new one called Protein High Foods. I really enjoy writing, so I don’t really have a problem with that. Other than that I get less time to write on the e-book and finish it.
I have also spent many hours lately to figure out how to publish the e-book once it’s finished.
I just upgraded my RapidWeaver to version 4.0. It’s a very cool software for Mac, and I paid for the upgrade because I am going to use it to publish my e-book. The e-book will be published as a “regular” website.
Now, I didn’t think that upgrading RapidWeaver would cause me another problem, but it did. Lately, I have been thinking more about the design of the website/e-book than writing it.
So, what I am trying to tell you, is that I still don’t know when I’ll finish it… but I am going to continue writing sometime soon (I promise).
Tags: marketing+mistakes, rapidweaver, ebook+publishing
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We Are All Talking About John Reese
I have received tons of e-mails about the new marketing package from John Reese called Traffic Secrets 2.0. I have watched the preview videos, and they are awesome.
The first one is different, kind of weird to start with, at least the first 13 seconds. The first 2 minutes and 43 seconds is really just an introduction to the Traffic Secrets 2.0 package. But at exactly 2 minutes and 43 seconds, John says the following words:
So that’s what traffic secrets 2.0 is all about. If you are interested in the course, I’ll have more details about it to share with you soon. Let’s forget about it for now. Now I want to teach you an incredible valuable strategy that you can use today to grow your business on the Internet. It’s incredible powerful and one you should play close attention to.
And his right, you should really watch the 16 minutes long video. Because most of it is very valuable.
You can watch the video at Traffic Secrets 2.0.
Now, if you wonder what the course is all about, you can watch a review video I found at YouTube. Jeff Mills is the guy behind it, and he does a really good job at presenting the contents.
I have signed up at Traffic Secrets 2.0 and I have just received the 2 nd video called “Owning more of the Internet” – but I haven’t watched it yet.
Tags: john+reese, traffic+secrets+2.0, internet+marketing
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Affiliate Silver Bullet is Ready For Relaunch
Today is the day, at least where I live, when Affiliate Silver Bullet is going to re-launch. On July 4 th Affiliate Silver Bullet will upgrade to version 3.0, and we’ll see some interesting changes.
First of all, the system is completely free this time. That’s if you host your own bullets, the price is $17 a month, if you want Affiliate Silver Bullet to host everything for you.
But the free membership is limited, and I am not sure how many days it will last. Affiliate Silver Bullet opens up to the public on July 4 th, and Dustin Struckman wrote that the free memberships will at least be during launch day and probably a couple more days.
You can join Affiliate Silver Bullet now and get on the waiting list, if they haven’t launched it just yet (only hours left before they do as I am writing this).
But why would you want to join Affiliate Silver Bullet?
Here’s what I got when I upgraded to version 3, remember it’s free this time:
30 silver bullets, and each silver bullet package includes:
Squeeze Video Squeeze Page with Graphics Mini-site Template Mini-site Content 5-part Email Series
A silver bullet is really one of the top ClickBank products, where you get a custom made (only for members of Affiliate Silver Bullet) squeeze video to grab people’s attention and get them to sign up for a professionally written 5–part e-mail series.
You also get content, keywords, and mini-sites where you can use AdSense to earn money.
I have never used anything other than the squeeze pages and the videos and the 5–part e-mail series. I am more than happy with this, and I really don’t need anything else.
But maybe you do?
Sign up for version 3.0 of Affiliate Silver Bullet and start using the new system for free. Actually, I haven’t seen the new system just yet, because I am living in Norway and even though it’s July 4 th here, it’s not July 4 th where it counts 
Tags: affiliate+silver+bullet, dustin+struckman, viral+video, internet+marketing
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The Pink Panther 2 Marketing Trick
I have just seen the brand new Pink Panther 2 trailer, the director Harald Zwart is by the way Norwegian (but that doesn’t have anything to do with why I am writing this). You’ll be able to watch the teaser at the bottom of this post.
Steve Martin is still the actor playing Inspector Closeau. He did a decent job in Pink Panther 1, but to me, it’s impossible to play Inspector Closeau better than Peter Sellers.
Anyways.
The new Pink Panther 2 trailer doesn’t show anything from the new Pink Panther 2 movie. Usually, all movie trailers are just previews of the new movie. A trailer usually consist of footage from the new movie and a weird voice (the preview guy) giving us some clues about what we are waiting for.
But the trailer for Pink Panther 2 is actually a teaser, where we can see Inspector Closeau trying to buy tickets to a sold out movie. He is talking with his weird French/English accent and he is funny. The only difference is, it’s not from the movie.
My question is; The Pink Panther 2 teaser contains nothing from the movie, but does it really need to show us anything from the movie? As long as Inspector Closeau is doing something, we already know what the new Pink Panther 2 movie will be about, it’s about Inspector Closeau being funny with his French/English accent. Do we really care what the plot of the movie will be?
This is the teaser:
Personally, I find it more interesting to watch a teaser of Inspector Closeau when he is doing stuff not related to the movie. I am not saying that it’s more funny, but it’s different and grabs my attention a lot easier than if I watched a regular trailer starring the preview guy with the weird voice. To me, all previews are fairly the same.
But what do you think?
Tags: pink+panther+2, inspector+closeau, harald+zwart, steve+martin
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Xtreme Achievement was Launched Today
I have been receiving many e-mails from Devon Brown regarding his brand new Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) system called Xtreme Achievement.
Finally, they launched it today.
I am not really sure what it’s about, but the sales page looks promising, even though it contains all the hype you see on other similiar sales pages:
No Sponsoring Required For Earnings! Fast Start Commissions Paid Weekly! The 1st and ONLY Fully Integrated Automated Sales and Prospecting System! $74,000+/Month Income Potential Learn Wealth And Achievement Strategies From the world’s Foremost Experts! Simple - Low Cost Start Up!
I always find cool videos fascinating, they sort of handles the sign up process for you.
Now, it’s going to be interesting to find out more about the system. How is it possible to earn money without sponsoring? I have heard it before, and I can’t really understand how that’s possible.
Anyway.
It’s brand new and it looks really promising, it’s Xtreme Achievement.
Tags: devon+brown, xtreme+achievement, mlm, marketing
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Creating My Ebook With Rapid Weaver
I have been thinking about which software I should use in order to create my e-book. I am still not sure, but I am almost sure. I think that I should use Rapid Weaver to create the e-book in html. Just like a regular website.
I have been looking at several other software titles, and I have been thinking about just creating the e-book using pdf (I have Adobe Acrobat installed). That would be the easiest way, but at the same time, I want it to look good and I want it to be easy to access and read.
The e-book software titles I have been looking at are:
Ebook Maker Desktop Author eBook Compiler eBook Edit Pro eBook Pro eBookGold eBook Creator
I don’t have any experience with any of the titles above, I have just been looking at their sales pages and reading reviews. Some look really good and some just doesn’t look that good.
The reason I am thinking about Rapid Weaver, is that I have version 3.6 already, and an upgrade to 4.0 is not that expensive. I really like the software, and I really like the templates. It’s the perfect match.
If I use Rapid Weaver, there will be no problem at all to read the e-book. Everybody will get access and 100% can read it using their favorite web browser (like Firefox 3.0 or the brand new Opera 9.5). On the other hand, it might become too easy to copy the contents and google might index it (well, that’s not really a problem).
It’s not an easy decision to make, but at the moment I am sticking with Rapid Weaver…
Tags: rapid+weaver, opera+9.5, firefox+3.0, ebook+software
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Missing the Emotional Component
I am not sure if I am going to be writing a lot about the emotional component or not in the e-book that I am currently writing. But it’s a very important fact, that you always need an emotional component when it comes to marketing. If you are missing it, you’ll be making a mistake.
In order to attract visitors and buyers, you need to get inside their heads and their hearts. You need to convince them that you are offering something they want, they might not know that they want it, but your job is to convince them that they want it, even though that they don’t really need it.
If I had something to sell, like a physical product. I would make a profile of the ideal customer. I would describe to myself who the person is; their gender, education, socio-economic level, interests, problems and more.
As soon as you know the ideal customer, you also know what triggers them. How you can attract them, get their attention, and get inside their heads and hearts.
One of the easiest examples to come up with is probably weight loss. You could be selling the general weight loss product, a product that will work for everybody and if you are like most businesses, you will just tell “everybody” that your product works in general (it’s the best).
Now, what I would have done is that I would have targeted a group of people, I would make it a niche. For instance, I would target middle age women (they probably don’t need to loose more weight than the general population, but stay with me). If I knew that I was going to target middle age women, I would also know their profile.
What do you know about middle age women, about their concerns and how to make them happy? Just think about it for a second.
I am not going to tell you everything I know about middle age women, in fact, I am not going to tell you anything at all. You can probably figure that out yourself.
My point is, that you can make a profile of your ideal customer (the middle age women) and you start with questions related to their emotions. How can you attract middle age women to buy your weight loss product?
The reason I focused on middle age women in my example is because they have money. Many people have money, but you know for a fact that this group of people have money and they spend money on products that will make them more beautiful.
Make what you do a niche and don’t miss the emotional component. If you miss the emotional component, it will be a marketing mistake that you’ll regret.
Technorati tags: emotions, profile, marketing, ideal+customer
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I Have Just Launched My New Blog
It took more time than I would have guessed, but now my brand new blog is up and running. I have even published a few posts.
The new blog is very different from slymarketing, it’s called Protein High Foods, and it’s mostly about proteins.
But I will also be writing about health and vegetarianism and everything that comes to my mind, like I usually do.
The reason I picked the domain Protein High Foods, is because I did a lot of research using Micro Niche Finder. And the keywords have a lot of traffic, and close to no competition. It’s going to be very interesting to see what will happen to the traffic in a few weeks.
I didn’t just pick a random topic and found keywords using Micro Niche Finder based on the random topic. I picked this topic because I am a vegetarian and because I am interested in learning a lot more about it.
I learn a lot more about things when I blog about them. Therefore, I create new blogs when I want to learn more about new topics.
This time it’s health, vegetarianism, food and of course, protein high foods.
Technorati tags: protein+high+foods, health, vegetarianism, micro+niche+finder
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Would You Like Your Own Facebook?
You can actually have your own Facebook, MySpace or whatever social community you’d like. Actually, you can buy clones of every script there is, and today I am going to present one to you.
I am not sure if it’s the best web 2.0 script, but I can assure you that it’s very interesting.
It’s called Social Niche Builder and the price is only $17
It’s probably one of the cheapest web 2.0 scripts I have seen. And according to the sales page:
You CAN Create UNLIMITED Niche Social Networking Sites & Generate UNLIMITED Traffic Using This Pre-Made, Snap In Place Social Networking System
It might be very easy to launch a social website with Social Niche Builder, and it might be very cheap. But in order to drive massive traffic to it, you probably should do some research first. It’s not like you can just create a Facebook clone and expect that hundreds or thousands of people will find it and join in a matter of days.
That’s not how it works.
But right now, I am not going to bore you with a lesson on how to attract visitors, I am merely presenting Social Niche Builder.
Technorati tags: social+niche+builder, facebook, myspace, web+2.0
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The Conduit Method
Is this the easiest, simplest and most effective affiliate strategy that exists? Well, I have no clue, but that’s a pretty bold statement from Chris Rempel (aka The Lazy Marketer).
He is talking about The Conduit Method, a method that I haven’t heard of before today.
It might be something great, you have to decide that for yourself.
It’s fairly cheap, you have to pay $14.95 to get access.
Visit VIP Confessions – The Conduit Method.
Tags: vip+confessions, conduit+method, lazy+marketer, chris+rempel
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Interesting Stories of Undercover Marketing
I am sort of fascinated by the world of undercover marketing or stealth marketing (it’s even called secret marketing or hidden marketing).
This is where you really don’t know or understand that you are being targeted for a marketing campaign.
When you look at a poster with the traditional advertisement (the beautiful woman next to the nice red shiny car), you know that they are trying to pursuade you into buying the product. You just know that that’s what they are trying to do.
But what happens when some tourists comes up to you and asks you to take a picture of them and they hand you a brand new mobile phone with a 12 Megapixel camera, and it’s actually the coolest mobile phone you have ever seen?
My guess is that you take the picture and you look at the mobile phone, and you might ask them about the mobile phone, and then you just can’t stop thinking about the mobile phone.
What happens next is that you ask a few friends of yours if they have seen the latest mobile phone from Nokia, and when they say that they haven’t, you do a search on the Internet and then you find it.
You tell your friends that you found it, and they look at it, they might tell other people about it and so on.
That’s interesting, because it was really fake tourists that approached you, and their whole goal was for you (being perfect for their campaign because you are a young male) to become fascinated by the new mobile phone from Nokia. And they wanted you to spread the word.
But you didn’t know that.
My point is; it might be very effective marketing, but marketers should never lie or deceive, and I believe that stealth marketing is just like deception. They are not lying, they are just not telling the whole story.
It seems that 60 minutes had a very interesting report on this a while ago, I wish I had seen it. You can read the story and several examples of undercover/stealth marketing at CBS News.
Trust me, you should read the whole article.
Tags: undercover+marketing, 60+minutes, stealth+marketing
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The Wedding Excuse
I have just received an interesting excuse to earn money, or should I say an interesting approach to Internet marketing?
It’s in fact a great way to earn money online, and I believe it’s an Internet marketing approach that people will enjoy.
Michelle is getting married, and she needs cash for her wedding. That’s what it’s all about.
In order to earn money for her wedding, she is offering 160+ products for $39. Some of the products looks interesting, and you should probably take a look at the sales page.
The short story; Michelle was hospitalized a while ago, then recovering offline she didn’t make a lot of money. Now, after she recoverd she received the hospital bill, she paid it, then her boyfriend of 12 years proposed, then the letter from the IRS, now…
What it comes down to is; she needs money.
Read her story and help save Michelle’s wedding package.
Tags: wedding, internet+marketing, sales+page
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Just Received a Copy of Flipology
I have become a Joint Venture (JV) partner of Flipology, and during the next days, I will be studying everything there is regarding this system.
I have received a review copy of Flipology from Robin Porter (Thank you). The core training manual is 149 pages, so I guess I’ll need a few days to read it.
At the moment, I have no clue what it is, other than what I have read at the sales page, and of course from watching the video.
According to the sales page (and the video) I’ll learn:
How To Leverage Your Profits The Simple Wealth Building Strategy The Hugely Profitable Business Model The Massive Rising Internet Trend The Anonymous Fortune Builder Strategy Recession Proof Your Online Earnings
Interesting.
This is the sales page for Flipology.
I’ll give you more information about it sometime soon.
Tags: joint+venture, flipology, Robin+Porter
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My Commission From Affiliate Silver Bullet Arrived Finally
I told you that I was waiting for my commission from Affiliate Silver Bullet to be paid. The reason was that Dustin Struckman stopped charging the monthly fees, and at that moment he was also restructuring the system.
I was a little sceptical to the whole restructuring thing, and I was thinking about my commission and that I might never see it (even though they have paid me three times earlier).
Earlier today, I received a message from PayPal saying that I have received my commission.
That’s awesome.
Now, I am just waiting for the re-launch of Affiliate Silver Bullet. On July 4 th, Dustin Struckman and his team will be launching version 3 of Affiliate Silver Bullet.
He has promised that it will be a lot better than the previous two versions, and I believe him.
But why three versions in just a few monhts, didn’t Affiliate Silver Bullet launch in January (or was it February)?
Not sure what this means, but I guess that Dustin Struckman is doing what it takes to become successful, and it seems that he understands that for him to become successful, he needs his “students” to become successful as well.
It might be worth waiting for July 4 th.
Visit Dustin Struckman’s Internet Marketing Genius Newsletter.
Tags: dustin+struckman, affiliate+silver+bullet, paypal, affiliate+marketing
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Is Optin Accelerator Absolutely Insane?
A fairly experienced Internet marketer told me that optin accelerator is absolutely insane. It’s a brand new system to explode your list.
I just had to take a look, and it seems like it’s an impressive system that Matt Haslem has created.
It looks easy and it looks like it can work, just take a look at the video on the Optin Accelerator sales page.
It’s like “tell-a-friend” script just way more advanced. Instead of typing the e-mail addresses of your friends, you can import all of your address books from gmail, yahoo and hotmail (and probably several other services).
I guess that this will be really helpful.
The price is not that high, at the moment the system will cost you $147 (you’ll get life time upgrades included).
The sales page is long (it seems that they always are), so I am just skipping most of the words and I am looking at the videos and Matt Haslem tells us that The Optin Accelerator system will:
Turn opt-in pages into viral list building machines on steroids Generate instant referrals that multiplied exponentially Give sites the viral power of such systems as myspace & facebook Send 400% more people to your sales page
and a lot more…
Take a look at The Optin Accelerator.
Tags: viral+marketing, optin+accelerator, matt+haslem
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Should You Test Renegade Affiliates Monthly?
Today I discovered a new system, well, it was new to me. I am not sure if it’s been around for a few months or not. The system is run by John Hostler, I am not sure who this guy is, but his picture looks good and the sales page looks really good.
Now, what I am about to tell you here, is the story of something I have seen before and something that I have been really interested in (I am still fairly interested in this).
Do you remember Affiliate Silver Bullet?
At the moment Affiliate Silver Bullet is closed to new members due to the upgrade to version 3. I am very eager, and I am waiting to see what will happen to ASB. I received an e-mail from Dustin Struckman (the guy behind ASB) yesterday, where he told me that it will be re-launching on July 4.
Now, back to Renegade Affiliates Monthly.
To me, this system seems a lot like Affiliate Silver Bullet.
John Hostler and his team picks top ClickBank products, and will create a brand new sales page, a video optin page, and autoresponder messages etc.. in order to help you gain more sales and for you to grow your list.
They might do it a little different than Dustin Struckman and his team, but in the end, it seems like mostly the same system.
Renegade Affiliates Monthly seems to be worth a try, and at the moment, you can test it for one day for only $1. This way, you can see what it’s all about before you decide to pay the $37 month.
Visit Renegade Affiliates Monthly.
Tags: renegade+affiliates+monthly, affiliate+silver+bullet, john+hostler
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How To Target Your AdWords Ads To Specific Sites
I actually didn’t know this, but you can use Google AdWords to buy advertisement on specific websites.
Let’s say that you want to advertise on Digital Point Webmaster Forum, and you didn’t want to spend money on any other website. Just this single website.
Then you need to do this in your Google AdWords account:
Now, I bet you are waiting for my explanation. As I was about to write it I found that Google had their own, and why copy it? It’s kind of hard to do it better than Google 
Take a look at Google and how to use Google AdWords for site-targeting advertising.
This was news to me, and very interesting news indeed.
Tags: google+adwords, webmaster+forum, adwords, google
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Add A Signature To Attract More Visitors
I have just added a free handwritten signature to all my posts at the discussion forums. I think that this will get me more attention, because I haven’t seen any other signature like mine.
It’s not really that cool, but it looks good:
And the best of all, it’s completely free.
If you want your own, you can get it at MyLiveSignature, it’s an Online Personal Signature Maker.
You can use it for your website/blog as well.
Tags: signature, discussion+forums, blog, my+live+signature
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Pictures From The Camping Trip
I am back from our first camping trip with our brand new Camp-Let (a trailer tent). It was fairly windy yesterday, but it was sunny and the temperature was ok.
Below is an image of the front of our Camp-Let, at the time it was almost up… we had to take it all down, and then up again, because we made a simple mistake to begin with.
Now, almost up, our kids had a great time inside, while my wife is trying to get control over the situation (and of course, I am in the background doing nothing).
I really enjoy the space inside, it’s a lot bigger than I thought. It even has a fairly big kitchen. We didn’t use it, but we might next weekend.
This is what it looks like inside, when my kids and I are in one of the beedrooms playing. It’s not huge, but it’s big enough for our family.
I am really looking forward to spending time in our Camp-Let this summer, and I think that my kids are even more eager than myself to get back inside.
Tags: camping+trip, camper, camp-let, trailer+tent
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Never Do An Interview Like This
A few months ago, I thought I do a series of interviews with interesting people, all related to Internet marketing. So, I wrote the questions and I sent them to about 10 people, and I was hoping to at least get a few answers that I could publish.
I got a few replies, and they said that they were going to answer in a few days or so.
Now, a few months later, I haven’t received any of the interviews and I think I know why.
My interview technique was a little demanding. I think the questions were really good, but maybe too good, and it would have taken a lot of time to answer them and you need to do some serious thinking before you answer.
The people I tried to interview are all successful, and they don’t have much time. So, what I should have done is to give them three or four straight forward questions.
Now, let me give you my interview (the one you never should copy):
First, the basics:
Name:
Age:
Occupation:
City/country:
Website(s):
Now, the interview:
The past
Can you please give a brief overview of the first time you started doing something related to online business or Internet marketing? What year was it, how old were you, what were your thoughts about life, money, marketing and business?
Why
Please explain why you got involved with online business and Internet marketing? Did something happen that led you to this kind of work?
How
Can you please write a short explanation regarding how you started out with your business and how you came to the place (in life/work) you are today? Is it one or a few specific decisions that had more impact than others? Are there any marketing tacticts that you have personally applied that where more successful than others? The reason for why you are where you are today (why you are successful).
Another try
If you can do it all over again, would you do anything different? This is about both life in general and your work.
The future
Are you satisfied with your life and your business? What are your thoughts about the future in general? What about your future, where will you be and what will you be doing in 10 years from now?
I wasn’t thinking that each person had to answer all the questions, I was just helping them out with a few extra questions underneath each main question.
Anyways. I am the first one to admit that my interview was fairly demanding.
Tags: interview, business, marketing, money
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Our First Trip With Our New Camp-Let
We have just bought ourselves a new Camp-Let, and today we’re going to use it for the very first time. I am very excited, because I have no idea how this experience is going to be.
We have to kids, 2 and 4 years old, and they have never slept “outside” before. I can’t even remember the last time I slept in a tent, and I have never been inside a Camp-Let
I’ll give you an update tomorrow evening, because this is a one-night trip, just so we can test it and see how our kids feel about this whole thing.
I might even post a few pictures 
The Camp-Let is a trailer tent, and it looks very easy to set up, at least when the sales man did it. It took him about 5 minutes, I’ll bet that we’re going to use an hour or so.
The weather is not exactly in our favor today. It’s fairly windy, but it’s not raining, at least not so far.
Tomorrow, I’ll be a brand new person, I’ll be a camper…
Tags: camp-let, camping, camper, tent, trailer
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Your Traffic Questions
Do you want to ask questions to the experts regarding how to drive traffic to your website?
Now’s your chance. But first, listen to the webcast from “Ask Howie Your Traffic Questions”, it’s 90 minutes and 312 questions, all answered.
You’ll get it for free (you don’t even need to register).
And now’s the time to ask your question for the next Traffic Tornado Workshop.
The replay is available, you can stream it or download the mp3.
Tags: traffic+questions, traffic+tornado, marketing, traffic
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Ebook Business In A Box
I have been receiving a few messages about the brand new system from Ewen Chia called Ebook Business In A Box. As always, the sales page looks stunning and the system seems to be something you just got to have if you want to earn money online.
Visit the sales page of Ebook Business In A Box
According to the sales page it’s a plug-and-play system where you’ll get 10 automatic income streams.
I really don’t know what this is all about, other than from what I have read at the sales page. To me it seems to be a system where you brand your affiliate links inside the Ebook called “Ebook Money Machine”. And you get the advertising toolkit, with graphics, keywords and sales letter.
It looks interesting (as always), but I don’t know how interesting it really is before I read “Ebook Money Machine”.
According to the sales page, Ebook Business In A Box is very limited…
Hmm, that makes me wonder, how limited is very limited?
Tags: ewen+chia, affiliate+marketing, Ebook+business+in+a+box
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Finally Some Viral Marketing
I bought a viral marketing script a few days ago, I installed it yesterday, and today I have started using it.
It’s called Instant Affiliate Generator and I think it’s awesome. Well, I am not 100% sure that it works, maybe like 99%.
I just have to find the perfect gift.
The script is really easy to understand and it was really easy to install.
You use it to give a bonus to people who refers unique visitors to your website. You can tell the script how many unique visitors each person have to refer in order to get the gift. I am using 5 unique visitors at the moment.
The gift I am using is Exit Prophet. A software that will help you grab the attention of your visitors when they try to leave your website. I think that this is a great gift, but I also think that I need an even better one in order to get a lot of people to become affiliates.
Take a look at how I am using Instant Affiliate Generator.
I’ll give you the stats in a few weeks.
Tags: viral+marketing, instant+affiliate+generator, attention
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Awesome Link Effects
Not sure if awesome link effects will have any impact on your sales or your traffic, but the link effects are awesome.
It might in fact keep your visitors longer on your website, because the links open up in a popover windows. But that’s like opening up a link in a new window (or maybe not).
Anyways.
Take a look at Awesome Link Effects, it’s only $5.
Tags: awesome+link+effects, internet+marketing, internet+traffic
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Will a Video Sales Letter Boost Your Sales?
Maybe it will help your sales if you could tell your visitors in person why they should buy your products?
But in order to do so, you need a professional video and not a crappy one.
I don’t think video where I am suppose to be the star is something that I will test, but I am the first to admit that it looks really cool and that it can be really helpful.
Just look at Video Sales Letter and Easy Video Sales and you’ll understand what I am talking about.
Tags: video, internet+marketing, video+sales+letter, easy+video+sales
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An Audio Message Can Boost Your Sales
And of course, if you get someone to create a professional audio message for you, I bet that it can boost your sales even more.
I am the first one to admit that audio on a website can be really annoying, but at the same time, if you do it right, audio can a real attention grabber and it can be the reason why your visitors end up buying instead of leaving your website.
I am also the first one to admit that it’s really hard to create a good audio message. You might not have the right voice, I know that my voice sounds terrible when I record it. You might now speak the language that well. I am from Norway, and English is not my preferred language (but almost all of my buyers are from the US).
And of course, you might not have the right equipment.
But what if you can get help with all of the above, do you think that it can boost your sales?
If you do, and you’d like to give it a try, then you should head on over to Audio Dave. It sounds like an interesting service, and the price is not that bad either.
Tags: audio, sales, internet+marketing
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Using a Stripe to Advertise
Sometimes a stripe can get you all the attention you need. What if you can start using one at the top of your website, do you think that people will notice it and that it will increase your sales?
Introducing Stripe Ad for Wordpress
It looks a lot less annoying than other ads. I hardly saw it, but I did see it.
Tags: wordpress, advertise, stripe+ads, marketing
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Why Are They Giving Away Stuff For Free?
What does people like Mike Filsaime, Keith Wellman and Michael Rasmussen have in common?
Well, they probably have a lot in common, but I am thinking about one thing in particular today.
They have all launched really interesting products that they are giving away for free.
Michael Rasmussen is giving away Mini-Site Profits Exposed
Mike Filsaime is giving away The 7 Figure Secrets
Keith Wellman is giving away Autopilot Sales Formula
But why?
Because they are building their lists…
Tags: mini-site+profits+exposed, 7+figure+secrets, autopilot+sales+formula
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Buying is Not always Easy
I was just about to buy a viral marketing software when I received an interesting error from PayDotCom.
I was so ready, I clicked the buy now button and the “temporary error” appeared.
I tried it yesterday, and I tried it today. The same error.
Buying is not always easy.
Tags: paydotcom, viral+marketing, internet+marketing
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Joining The Internet Marketing Inner Circle?
I am thinking, should I join The Internet Marketing Inner Circle or maybe Internet Entrepreneur Club?
I really enjoy learning, and I want more stuff to read, I want more people to share their views with me and especially, I want more people to share their ideas and marketing “secrets”.
Both The Internet Marketing Inner Circle and Internet Entrepreneur Club seems like very interesting membership sites, and they are both run by two professional marketers (Willie Crawford and Derek Gehl).
When it comes to the price, The Internet Marketing Inner Circle is cheaper with $37 a month, Internet Entrepreneur Club is $97 a month.
I guess it’s time to decide, should I join one of them or maybe none at all, and just focus on writing that Why We Suck… book (I am still doing a lot of stuff that I shouldn’t be doing).
Tags: derek+gehl, willie+crawford, entrepreneur, internet+marketing
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Online Profit Workshop
I am barely awake, so I really don’t know much about this brand new website.
I know that the guy behind it is Howie Schwartz, and he has been doing more than alright the past years.
At the moment it’s only 15 hours left to join his Online Profit Workshop (at the current price), and if you do, you’ll get
a paint by numbers system for selecting your niches that eliminates the guess work and tells you where the money is… in less than 24 hours!
Sounds interesting.
Take a look at the video at the sales page and you’ll probably be tempted to join Howie.
I don’t know the price though.
Tags: howie+schwartz, online+profit+workshop
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No Commissions For You My Friend
When I talked to support at Affiliate Silver Bullet about a week ago, it reminded me of an old episode of Seinfeld. Do you remember the Soup Nazi?
I am not sure why, because the episode and the message from the support at Affiliate Silver Bullet wasn’t really that similar. All they said was that I would get my commission, but they just didn’t know when.
I was a little puzzled at first, because a lot of strange things has happened at Affiliate Silver Bullet lately. They have upgraded the system to a new version, and now it’s closed to new members and current members don’t have to pay the monthly fees anymore.
At the moment we are all waiting for an even newer version, and because of this, we have to wait for our commissions to be paid as well.
Who knows when I will receive my commission, and I am still waiting for my support ticket to be answered.
I am a little concerned that the guy answering it will be the soup nazi saying “No commission for you”.
Tags: soup+nazi, seinfeld, affiliate+silver+bullet
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Eric Holmlund and How to start an Online Business
I have been watching the new video series from Eric Holmlund about how to start an online business.
They are awesome, and I really recommend that you keep following what he is doing.
He is starting from the beginning, and everybody can follow it, even though you have no clue about Internet marketing and e-business.
There will be apx. 120 lessons, and he will show us how to build an online business from A to Z.
Now, I have watched the two first lessons, and they are great:
Eric’s Tips Lesson # 1 Eric’s Tips Lesson # 2
Eric Holmlund is posting all the lessons on his blog, so just keep visiting his blog or subscribe to his feed for the rest of the lessons.
Tags: online+business, internet+marketing, eric+holmlund, home+business
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The Right Tools for Writing Articles
I have written a few articles, and I have posted them to eZinearticles.com. I have received a few extra visitors from them, but not much really.
Now, I have been concentrating writing my e-book and stopped doing other stuff (other than writing posts to my blog).
But today I found something that got me thinking; is article writing (article marketing) a lot easier when you have a software to help you with it?
I don’t know, but it sure seems like it from the sales page of Jonathan Leger.
He writes that you can create high quality articles on virtually any subject within minutes.
How can that be true?
There are a lot of subjects where I would have no clue what to write about. For instance, if I had to write an article about poker or gambling, without doing any research, I wouldn’t know where to begin.
Tags: article+marketing, internet+marketing, jonathan+leger
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Take a look at the frontpage of Opera
I discovered something interesting when I downloaded the brand new version of “the fastest browser on earth”.
Opera got a new frontpage, dedicated to the new version of the browser.
Take a look at it at www.opera.com
Isn’t this cool and effective?
It’s like a huge advertisement on their own website.
You might know that I am working at a college, and I have been thinking. The last couple of months before the deadline of the applications to our courses, what if our frontpage was all dedicated to new students and the applications (our courses and how to apply)?
Would that be effective or just annoying?
Take a look at Opera to see what I am talking about.
Tags: opera, college, browser, application, courses
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You should try Opera 9.5
I am at the train from Oslo to Halden, and I just read that the new version of Opera, the fastest browswer on earth, has been released.
So, what I am doing at the moment, is testing Opera 9.5 while I am at the train (LOL)
I have tested the beta version for a few days, and it is fast, and the final version is fast (or maybe faster, I don’t know).
I am not only using it because Opera is a Norwegian company, but that’s probably why I downloaded it and started testing it a while ago.
Anyways.
To me, it seems that Opera has all the features of Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. Earlier, the only problem (a fairly big problem) was that a lof of the websites I visited with Opera didn’t show correctly.
I have read somewhere that this isn’t Opera’s fault, because they are following every standard there is, they even aced the acid 3 test
I am not sure if this has changed or not, but so far, I haven’t found any problems.
Therefore.
If you are using Internet Explorer or Firefox (or Safari), then test the new version of Opera and tell me what you think.
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Let me tell you what I just bought
I received an offer that I just couldn’t resist. It was really just an e-book about how to build a “massive opt-in list with JV giveaways”, but when I looked closely, I found it to be way more interesting than “just another e-book”.
The e-book is written by Derrick Van Dyke, and it’s about how to build your list (as I just mention). But the reason I bought the e-book is because of the resale rights and the integrated affiliate system.
You just need to change a few things in the script, it takes about 2 minutes for a newbie, and you get to earn 100% of the sales and you can earn commission from various programs mentioned in the e-book as well (for instance AWeber and Getresponse).
And finally, you are not only learning how to build your opt-in list, you are actually building your optin list if you promote this e-book (only if you buy the resale rights).
I have just had time for a brief look at the e-book, and it seems to be ok. It looks like an e-book about how to make money and build an opt-in list from selling the e-book (just like many e-books, but the clue is the resale rights).
I don’t think that I would have bought the e-book without the resale rights, I have too many similar e-books.
I’ll review it soon.
Untill then, check out what I just bought; Derrick Van Dyke’s Giveaway Secrets.
Tags: Derrick+Van+Dyke, Giveaway, internet+marketing, affiliate+marketing
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Is it a Marketing Mistake to Be Second In?
I just read an interesting blog post at Nick Inglis Web & Marketing Group with the title First In Wins.
The question he is asking is this: is it a marketing mistake to be second in?
I’ll try to explain it.
If you’re the first to grab a position in a consumer’s mind, it is very difficult to be pushed out of that position. When you are the second company to do it (or the third, fourth or whatever), shouldn’t you try to be unique instead?
Should you always try to be different when you know that there are at least one of your competitiors that are marketing themselves in a certain way (the way you wanted to in the first place), for instance:
There are about 100 dentists who are advertising in radio, print and television that say that they are gentle and that they are family friendly. You know who I remember? The guy who has sedation dentistry. Why? He was the first one to advertise it. Now if anyone else advertises that they have sedation dentistry, my mind will think of the person who advertised it first.
I think that I do agree, but on the other hand, you can always improve when it comes to marketing. You can do it better, and if you think you can, then it might be worth your while to try it. And it’s not always that, even though you know that you are second in, most consumers might not know that you are.
So, in my mind, second in is not always a marketing mistake. But you should be aware that the competition is harder if you are not first in.
Tags: marketing+mistake, dentist+marketing, consumer
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Marketing Mistake - The Power of Focus
One of the mistakes I have made right from the start, and one that I keep making over and over again, is that I tend to lose focus.
There are so many hurdles, so much stuff that I want to look at, read and listen to.
I am receiving hundreds of e-mails every single day, even though I have filters, it’s easy to get stuck reading e-mail instead of doing what’s important.
It’s hard to stay in focus, and keep going in the right direction.
For instance, right now I should be focusing only on finishing my e-book “Why We Suck at Internet Marketing” instead I am all over the Internet looking at new affiliate programs and Internet marketing tips.
So believe me when I say that it’s a big marketing mistake to lose your focus, because you really need to focus on your goal if you are ever going to make it.
Sometimes you need help focusing, at least I do. I haven’t read this book myself, but I will probably order it sometime soon (just read the reviews).
Now, how am I going to get back on track. At the moment I am writing two sentences a day, and I starting to worry that I am never going to finish the e-book.
Tags: focus, ebook, marketing+mistake, internet+marketing
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I Just Cancelled ListHero
I have been testing the $1 trial at ListHero for a few weeks, I think it’s apx. three weeks. I have been rather mixed when it comes to what I think about this system.
What I believe is that it works, you still need to test your advertisements to find the ones that works best, but you can build a great list using ListHero, that’s my honest opinion. But I don’t believe that you can do it fast.
Here are some of the posts I’ve written the past weeks:
I am now testing ListHero The problem with ListHero The ListHero affiliate opportunity Affiliate Training Videos at ListHero I have removed the ListHero Exit Grabber
And now, I have cancelled ListHero all together.
The reason is that I think it was too expensive, I’d have to pay apx. $150 for the upgraded version. In the long run, it might be worth it, but it was slow getting new sign ups, and I think that there are too much competition from the members at ListHero.
If you are an upgraded member, you don’t really need to use the Exit Grabber on your website, because you get a lot of points for being an upgraded member. If you are a free member, you need to show the Exit Grabber on your website in order to earn points.
I think that it would be a lot better if you could be alone with your advertisements on the Exit Grabber of fellow members, but I realize that this would be close to impossible. It would mean a lot more traffic and unique visitors to the sites, and even now, when we have about 6 (I think it was six, or maybe it was four?) different advertisements on each Exit Grabber, I was hardly losing any points.
So, to me Exit Grabber was too expensive and I don’t think being a free member would benefit me at all. It would mean that I had to be showing the Exit Grabber (with all the different advertisements) each time my visitors left my blog.
But ListHero works, and who knows, it might work for you.
Tags: listhero, listbuilding, exit+grabber, internet+marketing
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Internet Marketing Mistake - Listbuilding
One of the earliest Internet marketing mistakes I did, was not building a list. I even remember that I started focusing on building a list, but quit and lost my list of about 200 people, only to find myself building a list from scratch.
I am writing an e-book about Why we suck at Internet Marketing, and it’s all about the mistakes we make and how to avoid making them.
So, build your list and keep building it.
It doesn’t matter which business you’re in as long as you are involved with Internet marketing, you should focus on listbuilding.
There are many ways to use your list, I am not telling you what’s wrong or right (at least not yet) when it comes to using your list. I am just telling you that you should always build your list, because your list is also your relationship to people with similar interests. And your relationship is your business.
I am using AWeber to keep in touch with my list, I have done that for a long time; I just wish I had done it since day 1.
Tags: aweber, listbuilding, marketing+mistakes, internet+marketing
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Sometimes You Can Get Too Much Traffic (Tools)
It’s kinda obvious that you want to pay as little as possible and get as many tools as possible. That’s how it has always been. You go to the store and you want to buy milk, of course you want the biggest milk carton for as little money as possible. That’s how we are.
But for me, sometimes, I get too much.
Especially when it comes to candy, soda, and of course Internet marketing.
Sometimes you view a sales page and you think, wow, look at all the stuff I get if I join this new program or if I buy this e-book. Sometimes, you should ask yourself; do I really have the time to read all that stuff or use it?
I am not saying anything bad about this next system at all, but look at all the stuff you get when you sign up at Stealth Traffic Tools.
I am not signing up, because this Internet marketing system is only designed for windows – and I am mostly using my Mac, even though I am actually writing this post on my brand new Dell computer 
Tags: stealth+traffic+tools, internet+marketing, dell, mac
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Why I am not buying The 7 Figure Secrets
I have been bombarded with e-mails lately, most of the e-mails seems to be related to the latest release from Mike Filsaime. It’s called The 7 Figure Secrets, and it looks really interesting.
This is not a sales letter, and I am not an affiliate, and I am actually not going to buy it. Even though it looks interesting and it’s cheap. I have to admit that it’s cheap, because it is, it seems that you only need to pay for shipping.
The reason I am not buying is first of all, because I don’t have time for another e-book or another Internet marketing system or more information. At the moment, the weather is just too darn nice, and my kids are having a great time outdoors, and of course, I am writing that book of mine.
Another reason that I am not buying, and you might find that to be odd, but the reason is that I have to use my credit card to buy the product. If I could have paid using PayPal, then I would have probably bought it. It might just be me, but I don’t like to use my credit card that often, I like using PayPal.
So, every time I am asked to use my credit card to by a new Internet marketing product, then, I stop, read, and think things through a lot more than if I have to use PayPal.
It might be because I don’t really consider PayPal to be real money, I don’t know 
Anyways, I found something interesting.
I bet that Erica and Jeff Combs are happy about the domain name from Mike Filsaime. They are using http://7figuresecrets.com almost the same as http://the7figuresecrets.com, the only difference is the; I guess that they might get a lot of extra traffic.
I am not sure when they started 7 Figure Secrets, but it was probably way before Mike Filsaime. In other words, a really good choice for a domain.
Tags: mike+filsaime, jeff+combs, 7+figure+secrets
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Chet Holmes With An Interesting Marketing Twist
Chet Holmes is the author behind The Ultimate Sales Machine, and at the moment he is doing something interesting. He is using his marketing skills to help promote his daughter Amanda Holmes. She is a great singer, and as any father would do, he wants to help her any way he can.
Now, Chet Holmes is a professional marketer, and that’s the way he is helping her.
Just take a look at Chet and Amanda Holmes, and you’ll see why “everybody’s talking about” Chet and Amanda.
Chet Holmes is using his book to promote his daughters career, and because this is a fairly new approach to Internet marketing, I bet that both Chet and Amanda will benefit from this.
I wish I had a dad like that when I was launching my… well, that was probably the problem, I never had any skills that I could launch. I played basketball for a few years, but even if my dad would have been Michael Jordan, I would probably never have played for anything but the local team.
Anyways.
Amanda Holmes is a great singer, and Chet Holmes is a great marketer, together they are a great team and I am looking forward to see Amanda Holmes at the billboard music charts.
The only problem is; people might say that it was all thanks to dad. All singers needs someone to help with the marketing, it shouldn’t be any different when your dad is a famous marketer.
You should check out Chat and Amanda Holmes, even if you don’t care much about music, because there are some great examples of how you should promote anything online.
What do you think about Amanda Holmes, is she going to make it?
Tags: amanda+holmes, chet+holmes, internet+marketing, ultimate+sales+machine
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Earning Money From Crappy Advertising Methods
I just received an e-mail about how a guy is making $3,300 a month from “the crappiest, down-right cheapest advertising methods known to mankind”.
I thought this was a funny way to write an e-mail, and to advertise an e-book.
I had to take a closer look at the sales page, and found that the methods descibed in the e-book was how to be successful at Internet marketing (and earn money from it) by using methods like:
FFA Sites Safelists Message boards Traffic Exchanges
I have been using FFA sites and safelists a while back, traffic exchanges has been fairly interesting, but it’s been months since I was really active. I am still using message boards, but probably not the way this guy is talking about.
I have no idea how good this product is, but I just had to share it with you, because it really stood out from the crowd. It was different, and it was funny.
… and at the moment it’s cheap.
Take a look at Crappy Advertising and find out if you think it’s as funny as I thought.
Tags: Steven+Wagenheim, internet+marketing, safelists, traffic+exchanges, ffa+sites
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A Few Thoughts on Affiliate Evolution
Russell Brunson has released Affiliate Evolution, and according to many of his affiliates; the system is awesome and the price is only $10. But you need to hurry.
At midnight the price will increase to $97… that’s why we are all supposed to buy it right now.
I haven’t bought it, and I am not going to buy it, and therefore I don’t know anything about the content.
But I know that Russell Brunson is a man with great ambitions and a man that has delivered great content before. My guess is that the content is great.
But what about the price?
The sales page at affiliateevolution.com says that price is not $997, but $10. When I clicked on “click here to grab your copy…” the price is still $10, but if you look at the pre-checked option at the bottom, you can see that you can upgrade and it will cost you an extra $29.97 ($39.97 for me, because I live in Norway).
Remember, the option is pre-checked.
I think that this is a great way to promote the “print journal and DVD of the month” (and the other stuff you’’ get if you upgrade). You’ll get it for free for the first month, and after that you will have to pay $39.97 a month. This is the technique that Matt Bacak and Mike Filsaime should have used when they promoted their “newsletters” without letting people know that they signed up for it (well, they did write it on the sales page).
If you want to grab your copy of Affiliate Evolution before the price goes up to $97, you need to do it before midnight at affiliateevolution.com
Tags: russell+brunson, affiliate+evolution, matt+bacak, mike+filsaime
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I am reading Internet Riches
I received Internet Riches by Scott Fox about a week ago. I started reading it on sunday, and as I am writing this, I am on page 58.
So far, I am impressed by Scott Fox.
The reason that I have only read 57 pages, is not because the book is boring or that it’s hard to understand what Scott Fox is talking about. The reason is that the weather in Norway has been awesome lately, it’s been so hot and sunny, and I have only been outside doing whatever you do when it’s sunny. And of course, my kids are killing me (not literally). They are all over me, and I hardly get ten minutes a day to read anything.
Now, I thought I’d give you a clue about Internet Riches and why you should consider buying it. I will probably give you a full review later on, but I’ll give you a few of my thoughts so far.
The book is not about Internet marketing per se, but it’s more a book about how to become an Internet millionaire or at least how to earn a lot of money using the Internet.
It’s a book that you can (and should) read if you are just starting out and you are an entrepreneur looking for a way to become successful with your own e-business. Yes, the book seems to be perfect for people like that.
I especially enjoyed the examples from very successful people like:
Genevieve, a recent college graduate, has built a nation-wide company by simply creating a website that matches parents and babysitters (Sittercity.com)
and
how 26–year-old Drew grew his hobby of posting funny articles and links online into a profitable website with more worldwide traffic (and advertising revenues) than many major names (FARK.com)
Scott Fox explains in detail why the Internet revolution is not over, and why it won’t be over for years to come. He explains why it’s actually an advantage to be a small business online (lower costs means higher profits).
He provides such great examples, just look for Internet Millionaire Secret and you’ll read about the people he has interviewed throughout the book and some of their secrets to success.
Anyways.
I am not going into details here, but I will be as soon as I finishe reading the book.
You can get some more information over at ScottFox.com, you can even buy the book from his home page.
Tags: internet+riches, scott+fox, sittercity, fark
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I Have Removed The ListHero Exit Grabber
I found the ListHero Exit Grabber rather annoying, too much information and options to join several newsletter. It might be effective, my advertisement is converting at a rate of 0.64% (not very good). I might change my advertisement, just to see if I can make it better.
The reason why I removed the ListHero Exit Grabber from my blog, was not just that I found it annoying, but it was because I really don’t need to have it installed.
The reason you need the Exit Grabber from ListHero, is that you earn points every time someone sees it on your website/blog. And you can use the points to show your advertisement on other websites (that are using the Exit Grabber).
The reason why I don’t need more points is that I joined the $1 trial, and as an upgraded member, I have received 150 000 points. Even though my advertisement have been shown more than 1 000 times, I now have more than 160 000 points left (10 000 more than when I started).
And of course, when you read stuff like:
For as long as you remain subscribed you will also be receiving 150,000 new ListHero points each and every month which equals 15,000 exposures of your newsletter advertisement within your category.
Why would I need to show the ListHero Exit Grabber when I receive that many extra points each month?
Tags: listhero, listbuilding, exit+grabber, popover
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I Just Discovered This ClickBank Secret
I discovered a real ClickBank secret earlier today. It was a new “system” that makes it a lot easier to earn money from ClickBank without hardly any effort at all.
The system is great for foreigners like myself, because it contains 180 prewritten messages to promote various top products from ClickBank. All you need to do is copy and paste, and foreigners knows how to copy and paste (LOL).
I have bought it and I have taken a closer look at the messages (not all 180 though).
They seems to be professionally written and to me, this deal looks like a bargain.
And, I also received the ClickBank Survival Guide (the e-book), don’t know how good it is, because I haven’t read it yet.
I paid only $27 for the whole ClickBank Profit Pack, and I am going to start using it sometime during this week.
Take a look at ClickBank Profit Pack and tell me what you think, don’t you think it’s a great deal for $27?
Tags: clickbank, affiliate+marketing, internet+marketing
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Free is almost never the best option
You might know about my e-book by now, the one called “Why We Suck At Internet Marketing”. You can find it at marketingflop.com, but no need to rush over just yet. The e-book is still being developed as I am writing this. I am twisting and turning my head, and new content are added every single day.
I have decided that I am going to share some of my views, that might or might not become part of the e-book. If I will be adding the content to the e-book, it won’t be in the e-book the way that I am writing it here. I am using one way of writing in this blog, and a completely different way of writing in the e-book. But some of the topics might be similar, at least, they will be about Internet marketing mistakes. That’s all I know at the moment.
Now, what I believe to be a marketing mistake is thinking that free is the way to start out marketing your product. Remember; free is almost never the best option.
You should have a budget, it doesn’t need to be a whole lot. You just need to realize that, maybe investing money in a more efficient tool could really help your marketing.
I am not saying that free should not be an option, I am actually saying the opposite, that paying for something should be considered an option.
I have talked to a lot of people, and (it seems that) most of them are trying to promote whatever they are promoting by using free methods of advertising. They are spending many hours a day with their free methods of advertising, instead of considering to pay for tools or marketing methods that might help them do what they are trying to accomplish in a more efficient way.
Let me give you an example of a very easy way to promote your business:
Contact a graphical designer (there are a lot of really good ones), and pay for a banner to be made. It might not cost you more than $30 (it all depends on the size and who you contact). Now, you have yourself a unique and professional banner, find a blog with content similar to your company, ask the owner if you could advertise using the banner you just bought. It might cost you about $50 a month or more (depending on the traffic to the blog).
Now, using a banner advertisement can really help your business. If you have the right banner and using the right blog, you’ll get a lot of clickthroughs to your website. This will save you a lot of time…
Take a look at my brand new sales page at marketingflop.com and read all about the various marketing mistakes.
Tags: marketing+mistakes, free+marketing, free+internet+marketing
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My Sales Page is Ready, Please Review
Finally, the sales page of my e-book “Why We Suck At Internet Marketing” is ready. I have been waiting for this, I’ve been like a kid in the candy store. Hardly standing still for a second.
Waiting and waiting.
The funny thing is, my e-book is not finished.
But still, I have been waiting and waiting for the design of my sales page.
Now, it’s here at the domain www.marketingflop.com and it’s ready for you to enroll. Everything is ready, well, except for the copywriting.
I guess I will have to spend a few extra hours writing, or maybe hire a copywriter. It’s not easy to get the words right for a sales page.
I have launched the sales page, but the only way I am promoting it at the moment (at least untill I have been doing some adjustments to the text) is using a few blog posts and some banners from this blog.
I am writing the e-book as we speak, I am not sure when I have something to show you, but my guess is that it won’t be too far into the future. So, if you want it, just enroll at www.marketingflop.com and you’ll be receiving it for free once I am ready.
But please, before I launch this sales page, can you give me your honest opinion? Do you like it, or do you think I need to do some changes?
Tags: marketing+mistakes, copywriting, sales+page, review
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What is this all about?
Sometimes I get a little surprised from reading some of the e-mails I receive. Most of them, probably about 95% or so, are trying to sell me something, and I know that.
That’s why it’s not easy to surprise me.
But when professional Internet marketers sends me e-mail with a subject like this one:
You Just Earned $123 In Commissions
and when I open it up and find that the first sentence in the body is
No… actually not quite.
I am surprised.
To me, I find e-mails like this to be rather stupid. But the problem is that most people will open up the e-mail, because they believe that they have earned the $123, and when they read that they haven’t, well, a lot of people will still read the rest of the e-mail.
Why?
Because most of us are easy victims.
Just tell us what we want to hear, or send us an e-mail regarding what we want to read, and we will read it.
We like to read that we have been earning money (even though we know that we haven’t promoted any product or earned any commission).
It’s weird, but it works… and that’s the beauty of copywriting.
Tags: copywriting, commissions, surprise, affiliate+marketing
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The Value of Opinion and Perspective
First, let me tell you what I like most about blogging; it’s that I am writing exactly what I prefer to write about. I am not forced to do anything; I do what I like, when I like to do it.
I am blogging because I like to give people the context, and I like to do it in two ways: I like to give people my opinion, and I like to give them a perspective.
Let me tell you why it’s valuable, and why you should consider opinion and perspective to be part of your blogging strategy or even your company’s marketing strategy.
Opinion is important because you are telling people what you believe about news or hot topics. Opinion is important because you are important, and people are interested to know what your opinion is. It’s important, because providing people with your opinion, you are also telling people what to believe.
Perspective is important because you are asking the question "what does this mean?" You are taking what is being said about a topic and using it to ask different questions.
Let me give you an interesting example.
I am working at a college in Norway, and we are trying to promote the college in order to get more students. We can create a great marketing campaign, and the results can be staggering. From the marketing campaign, we have received 1000 new students (just a wild number). The total number of new students to our college are apx. 1500 a year.
The marketing campaign was a big success, but what if we analyze it and find that close to 100% of the new students came from the same (small) town and we ask questions like; would that have any effect on our teachers, on the other students, on the city where our college is located?
This is just a far-fetched example, but it’s a way of putting things in perspective. The marketing team at the college is celebrating, but if they put the marketing campaign in a perspective; was it really a success or not?
Asking new questions can make you stand out from the crowd, it can help make what you are doing different, you can finally be unique… and that’s exatly what you want to become.
Tags: blogging opinion perspective college marketing campaign
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Short Review of Windows Live Writer
I have just bought myself a new computer, a Dell Inspiron 530S and this is my first blog post using it. I am very satisfied with the computer, but the fan makes too much noise. I am not sure if I should do some adjustments in the bios or download speedfan or what I should do about it. At the moment, it’s too much noise for me.
Anyways.
A brand new pc, a new start, and why not try a brand new software to write my blog posts as well?
Now, I am testing Windows Live Writer, a free software to publish articles to my blog. I have been using Blogjet for a while, but I have installed it on my laptop, and since I only have 1 license, I will have to uninstall it on my laptop or try and see if Windows Live Writer will do the job just as good.
The reason that I want to use a software like BlogJet or Windows Live Writer to write my blog posts, is because I feel more creative this way. It’s a lot more comfortable to write when I use BlogJet, and now Windows Live Writer.
So far, what do I think about Windows Live Writer?
Pros:
The design looks really good, I enjoy using it. It’s really easy to use and it was easy to install. It discovered my blog settings in just seconds. It has preview (something BlogJet don’t have) Windows Live Writer can post my drafts to my blog A lot of really useful plugins It’s free.
Cons:
So far, I can’t find any (but remember, this is my first post)
I was thinking of uploading some screenshots, but why bother, a lot of people have done that already: Paul Stamatiou, InsideMicrosoft, JohnTP and LiveSide.
One of the really cool things about Windows Live Writer is all the various plugins. I have already found a few that I most likely will use:
Social Bookmarking Tags Technorati plugin Insert YouTube or Google Video Flickr plugin
If you want to watch a video of Windows Live Writer, you should watch this one from YouTube and/or this video.
I am really satisfied with Windows Live Writer, and this won’t be my last post using it. Hopefully everything looks just as good on my blog as it does inside the software.
Tags: blogjet windows live writer dell
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Eric Rockefeller Destroyed My Life
Today, I am going to focus on copywriting and on what some believe to be great copywriting; what I believe to be false information and misleading.
… but the person behind my example did probably get a lot of attention and he probably got a lot of sales as well. For all that I know, it might have made him rich.
But in my mind, this is not how it should be done.
From my title, you probably understand that I am talking about the latest marketing system/report from Eric Rockefeller called Affiliate Conspiracy. The title of my blog post is the actual title of the e-mail that I received.
This is the e-mail (I have deleted the names):
Hey ___,
Eric absolutely destroyed me. I lost MY JOB, I
lost my CAR and my relationship with my Wife &
son will never ever be the same again…all thanks
to this man called Eric Rockefeller and his
“The Affiliate Conspiracy”…
I lost my job because I dumped my job - I truly
have the confidence to work from home and make a
good living from applying the techniques of the
‘Clickbank Cash Cows’
I lost my car because I know I’ll have enough
cash to upgrade to a brand new shiny one in about
3 months time (at the rate I’m going!)
He absolutely destroyed my $0.00 Clickbank accounts
and filled them with long thick blue bars that I’ll
never get tired of seeing!
My relationship with my wife and young ___
will never be the same because I’m spending much
more time with him and my wife
Thank you ___
First, I don’t believe that you can use the word destroyed in a context like the one above. Destroy is all negative to me, and if you have only received benefits from something, you can’t really say that it destroyed anything, can you?
Second, the person did not lose his car. When you lose something, it’s either taken away from you (like stolen) or actually lost (forgot it somewhere) or somebody took it from you (because you didn’t pay the bank loan). If you chose to buy another car, you can’t say that the older car was lost, or can you?
Third, the guy did not lose his job either. He stated that he dumped his job. That’s not the same as losing a job?
Finally, he writes that his relationship with his wife and son will never be the same, and that might in fact be true.
Is this good copywriting?
Tags: eric+rockefeller, copywriting, affiliate+conspiracy
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I Have The Ticking Clock Syndrome
Have you heard of the Ticking Clock Syndrome?
I got it, just in case you are wondering. I hope it’s not contagious, because I really don’t want you to get it.
Let me give you a short explanation.
I am here to learn about Internet Marketing, I am here to get more traffic, and I am here to earn a few extra bucks. Mostly, I am here to learn. I want everything to go really fast, and I want everybody that I JV with or have a conversation with to be awake when I am awake, and be ready to talk when I am ready.
I want everybody that are doing a job for me, to be doing the job fast and be ready when I think that they should be ready.
But guess what?
It doesn’t work. And (sometimes) it’s really annoying.
I realize that have the ticking clock syndrome.
Instead of doing things slowly, and making sure that everything is perfect before I release something (or before I publish my posts), I just do it. I want results, and I want them now.
I know, and I have realized that this is not a healthy syndrome (I guess most syndromes are not healthy). This is not a cry for help, and I am not going to see someone in order to help me with my problems, because I think that when you know about the Ticking Clock Syndrome (and because this is not really related to my health), it’s something I can deal with myself.
I am now going to stay more focused on my blog posts, and I am going to stay more focused on my work (especially the e-book I am writing) and I am going to let the people that are doing a great job designing my new blog and designing the e-book, get some peace and quite, and just finish the work when it suits them.
I am going to do something about my Ticking Clock Syndrome, at least for the remains of the week.
Tags: ticking+clock+syndrome, internet+marketing, syndromes
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Affiliate Training Videos at ListHero
I have been reading up on ListHero, how to use it to increase my list, and how it’s possible to promote ListHero to earn money as an affiliate. Even though I think it’s harder to increase my list than when I first join the $1 trial, due to the fact that you are competing with the other members, I understand now that ListHero is useful.
I am not sure how useful it is if you are using it as a free member, because then you don’t get as many exposure points and you won’t be able to stand out from the crowd with bold text and red colour.
I have been looking at the affiliate opportunity at ListHero, and I must say that they have a lot of great promotional stuff in their backoffice. They offer all sorts of banners, text links, video, Ezine ads, articles, blog post and signatures.
And finally, they offer affiliate training videos. Awesome videos for anybody involved with affiliate marketing. Just look at the titles:
1. Welcome to the affiliate training series
2. Can you make money today?
3. How to use an affiliate redirect
4. Use our content…
5. How to write a product review
6. Forums for fun and profit
7. Simple keyword research for affiliates
8. Affiliate income from articles
9. Submit articles for cash
10. Create your own blog
11. A real affiliate business?
12. Add video to your blog
13. How to create your own videos
14. Upload your video
15. How to use web 2.0
16. Create your own product
17. Give your product away
18. 3 ways to sell your product
19. How to advertise off the internet
20. Create a special deal
21. Final affiliate lesson
Even though you are not involved with ListHero, I recommend that you take a look at all the videos you get for free when you join ListHero. I have only had time to watch a few, but soon… I will finish them all.
Tags: listhero, affiliate+marketing, training+videos, listbuilding
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Affiliate Silver Bullet Will Soon Be Free
I have just received the news from Dustin Struckman, the owner of Affiliate Siliver Bullet. From June1 st, Affiliate Silver Bullet will be completely free to join. Today, and every month since I joined, we have had to pay $37 a month to be a member.
No More Monthly Fees!
The reason why Affiliate Silver Bullet is going to be completely free is:
It’s taking me longer to get all of you making money than I expected and I don’t want you to keep paying monthly fees in the mean time. The system is working and people are already making money . . . but there are A LOT of you and it’s going to take me a little longer to get you all in profit.
I like what I am reading, and I am looking forward to see yet another new version of Affiliate Silver Bullet.
For me personally, the newest version did not work at all. The original version was by far the best one, and the reason why I joined.
But what will happen next, and when will it happen?
So, I’m not going to charge you any more monthly fees until I’ve made you a profit on what you’ve already paid. This way I can take the time to build this business correctly, which means:
1. Developing quality leads through long-term success strategies
2. Building the foundation of a relationship with these leads (content, content, and content)
3. Effectively selling to them through more content and pre-selling techniques
Each one of these steps takes time and cannot be rushed, so I don’t want to rush them. So now I can take more time to do things correctly and you don’t have to worry about it because you won’t be paying monthly fees.
Of course, I’m working as quickly as I can, but again, there are a lot of you and it’s going to take a little while for me to get you all in profit…
I guess this means that sometime in the future, we will be charged a monthly fee, but only when Dustin Struckman and his team has helped “all” his members to profit.
Hopefully this won’t take too long, and hopefully the new membership fee won’t be more than the $37.
Anyways, I am looking forward to the change and I really hope that we’ll get access to more bullets.
Currently, Affiliate Silver Bullet are not accepting any new members, but if you want to get notified when they relaunch, you should sign up at www.affiliatesilverbullet.com
Tags: dustin+struckman, affiliate+silver+bullet, affiliate+marketing
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The ListHero Affiliate Opportunity
I joined the $1 trial at ListHero a few days ago, and soon after I joined, I realized that there are problems using ListHero to build your list. But on the other hand, I know that your list can get rather big with this system.
My list is increasing, slowly, but it’s increasing thanks to ListHero.
Today, I am going to tell you about the opportunitty to make money as an affiliate of ListHero.
This is the only text I have found on the ListHero website regarding how much money you can earn as an affiliate:
Here’s what happens when you promote ListHero…
Every sale you make can earn you anywhere from $18.50 each month to a one-time $73.50. Just 5 sales a month could potentially earn you $367.50.
Every referral and sale you make ALSO gets your ListHero ad seen on even more websites for free! Put your listbuilding on virtual autopilot as you earn exposure points from the people you refer (even if they don’t upgrade their membership).
To me, this looks like you will only earn money if you manage to refer ListHero personally to other people, and that you won’t earn any money from sub-affiliiates at all.
…but when I look inside the backoffice at ListHero, I can see an image of six levels, where at the moment I have affiliates on the first level. So, does this mean that I can get sub-affiliates to promote ListHero and I will earn money from their promotions?
I have been searching for an answer and I found one (at the ListHero blog), it says that:
Will I earn commissions on multiple levels?
No sorry, because we use PayPal.com to accept payments and pay all our affiliates their terms of use forbid payment on multiple levels, we only offer an affiliate payment on level 1 of 50%.
Finally, I think that I understand the levels in the ListHero backoffice. It’s there becaues I can earn exposure points on six levels:
Will I earn newsletter exposure points by promoting ListHero?
Absolutely! it’s only when you promote ListHero that you really begin to benefit in the biggest way possible. We’ve set up ListHero so it awards points to you for every affiliate you refer 6 levels deep.
So for every person you refer you get 10 points added to your newsletter exposure credits. Then if the person you refer in turn refers someone else you then get 8 points and so on down 6 levels.
Here’s how many points you’ll earn on each level:
Level 1: 10 points
Level 2: 8 points
Level 3: 6 points
Level 4: 4 points
Level 5: 2 points
Level 6: 1 point
So you can see that whilst you only get 10 points on your leave (level 1) it’s when the people you refer start referring others that you really start to see your newsletter exposure points increase. This is where you begin to experience the powerful list building leverage ListHero awards you.
Now, the answer is; you can only earn commission if you personally refer ListHero and people you have referred to ListHero end up buying. But you will earn exposure points on six levels, this way it will be easier to build your list. The more people you refer, the more exposure you will get, even though the people you refer might not buy, as long as they continue to use ListHero and refer ListHero to other people.
Tags: ListHero, listbuilding, commission, affiliate+marketing
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Twitter and What Should You Tweet About?
Yesterday, I bought two very cheap and interesting e-books. One of the e-books was about Twitter, sort of a starters guide. And I really need a starters guide. I have been registered at Twitter for a long time, but I haven’t really used it and that’s because I am not sure how to use it and why bother using it.
Some famous and successful people are using Twitter; like Darren Rowse and Robert Scoble. The reason I bought the e-book is because I have heard a lot of cool things about Twitter, and that Twitter can be a really effective marketing tool, and in fact maybe even more interesting than your blog.
But, my story remains; how should I be using Twitter?
I am not the kind of guy to just Tweet (I think it’s called tweet) about anything, for instance, “I am not brushing my teeth”, even though I can see that a lot of people might find that interesting.
So, what should I really be tweeting about?
I guess that it all depends on what you want to accomplish. If you are just following your friends on Twitter and they are following you, then it might be ok to tweet about you brushing your teeth. If you are using Twitter in order to be romantic, or maybe propose to your girlfriend, you might want to really be thinking about what you are tweeting about.
I am using Twitter as a marketing tool, as a way to communicate with people that are interested in Internet marketing. And a way for me to give some thoughts, tips and opinions when it comes to Internet marketing. I guess there are many reasons why I should be using Twitter, but so far, the Internet marketing reason is what I find the most interesting.
So, here it comes, examples of what I think you (and me) should tweet about (if you are using it as a marketing tool):
If you are reading a book, share it with your followers: “Reading: Gravitational Marketing” Websites you have visited: “I just visited affiliateconspiracy.com. Interesting” Interesting people you are talking to: “Just talked to Tim Linden about his startxchange” Products you are reviewing: “I have just reviewed ListHero 2.0, check it out” Things to get feedback on: “Have you done this marketing mistake?” Ask people to contribute with guest posts at your blog. Share articles you are voting on using Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and so on. Updates for your affiliates; latest news about your business. Reward your followers, give them something for free or special discounts
Twitter is all about microblogging; telling people what you are doing with just 140 characters. It’s very easy, but at the same time it can be very time consuming. To do it right, you might have to think about what you are going to be writing about more than actually writing the tweets.
At the moment, I am not adding tweets more than 2–3 times a day. I will be doing more research about how to use Twitter, and how to make it work as a marketing tool.
Even though I find Twitter to be very interesting, I guess that in the end, if I am not careful, I could end up a Twitter addict and stop using Twitter entirely.
Tags: twitter, tweet, darren+rowse, robert+scoble, microblogging
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How To Grab Traffic From Twitter and MyBlogLog
I have just bought two powerful e-books; twitter for twits: unleashing the power of Twitter and MyBlogLog Traffic Secrets.
I haven’t had the time to read them just yet, but I will do it tomorrow.
And I will do a full review of both of them.
Now, you can grab both the e-books for an incredible low price.
Only $3.95 for both!
Buy twitter for Twits: unleashing the power of Twitter and MyBlogLog Traffic Secrets.
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The Problem With ListHero
I joined ListHero yesterday, and now, I have been able to study it and test it (at least for a few hours).
ListHero is a very interesting system, and I do believe that you can use it to build a list. But as I have been testing it today, I can also see a major problem with ListHero.
You are competing with a lot of other people for the attention.
This is how ListHero works (a very simple version):
You join, you create your own advertisement and you add your autoresponder (like AWeber) to your account. Then finally, you add the code for the exit popover to your website.
Everytime the ListHero exit popover is shown to one of your visitors, you will get points (not sure how many, or if it depends on if you are a free user or upgraded). The points will be used to show your advertisement on the exit popover on the websites of other members.
You need to stand out from the crowd in order to get new subscribers, because the exit popover will show 5 advertisements (subscription forms), and the visitor can choose to subscribe to as few or as many of them as he or she wants.
The problem is not only that you need to stand out from the crowd in order to get more subscribers, but I believe that when visitors can subscribe to more than one “newsletter”, your new subscriber will not be as ready for you as if the subscriber joined your newsletter from your own website.
I think that the chances are that subscribers via ListHero will subscribe to more than one newsletter, because ListHero makes it easy to do so – and there are many interesting advertisements.
So, when people subscribe to more than one newsletter, they will also receive more than one newsletter. You will get more competition and less attention from this. This means that you need to be a good copywriter to convince your new ListHero subscribers to buy from you.
You might want to consider this before you join ListHero; that even though you might get more subscribers from using it, the new subscribers are not just your regular subscribers. They are most likely subscribers of many other competing lists as well. But on the other hand, aren’t most people already subscribers of many different newsletters/lists?
Tags: listhero, listbuilding, tellman+knudson
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I Am Now Testing ListHero
I signed up yesterday for the 30–days $1 trial at ListHero. I have been curious about this system for a while, and yesterday I received an e-mail from Tellman Knudson (the man behind ListHero), regarding the brand new version of ListHero, version 2.0 had been released.
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I realize that I wrote that I am testing the $1 trial. You can also use ListHero for free, but I wanted to test the upgraded version. So far, I can’t really write a review. I haven’t done anything other than sign up and paid the dollar, and then added all my information and added the ListHero code to my blog (you can see an exit popover as soon as you try to leave).
What I can say about ListHero is that it was really easy to sign up and get everything ready, and finally let the system do all the work. It was seven steps in total, and you couldn’t do step 2 before you had finished with step one (and so on).
I am going to be testing it for apx. 30 days, and if it works, then I will probably be using it after the 30 days, if not, I will cancel my subscription.
I will let you know more about ListHero, as soon as I have some stats and as soon as I have some more information about how it works.
Tags: listhero, tellman+knudson, listbuilding
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Most Interesting Marketing System of Week 20
The most interesting marketing system of weeks 20 was a difficult one to pick. I have ended up with three very interesting systems, and since I haven’t tried any of them, I guess I just have to pick one 
But first, here are the three most interesting marketing systems of week 20
Traffic Tycoons Viral Marketing Crash Course Turbo Big Bang
To be honest with you, I find Turbo Big Bang the most interesting (the man behind it is John Delavera, and you get a lot of very interesting stuff; including software and cd), but the price is very high and that’s the only reason why I would probably go with Traffic Tycoons instead – if was going to buy one of them.
Tags: traffic+tycoons, turbo+big+bang, viral+marketing
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Get More Subscribers With Raffle Site Script
I am not a fan of raffles in the offline world, I am usually not anywhere close to being part of any raffle, unless my kids really demands it.
But I can see that a lot of people like it. It’s sort of entertaining, and people like to be able to think that they can win. It doesn’t matter what the prices are, as long as they are able to win. Well, of course, the better the prices are, the more people will be part of the raffle.
Now, you can use raffles on your own website. You can use them to build your list.
Check out The Raffle Site Script
It seems that you can get a lot of options, and that you give away almost anything to the winners (digital products with a direct download url, or physical products).
The price seems to be ok as well, it’s only $19.95 for the personal license, but you can also buy the private lable rights after you have bought the script, just add $9.97)
The sales page tells us that with The Raffle Site Script we can build our list on autopilot. I am not sure, but people do love raffles and maybe the raffle site script can be really helpful?
I have never used it, but I like the options and I find it interesting.
Check out The Raffle Site Script
Tags: raffle+site+script, internet+marketing, listbuilding
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Using YouTube To Generate Free Leads
I have been watching a lot of videos on YouTube today, they were all related to Internet marketing. Watching them all sort of made me think that; how difficult can it be to record a video and upload it to YouTube?
I don’t think that it’s diffucult at all (well, it all depends on the quality of the video of course), but if you are going to be recording and uploading vidoes to YouTube, you should probably ask yourself another question as well; how difficult is it to get free leads from your YouTube videos?
It might not be that difficult. Just take a look at the video below:
I am not sure if the guy behind the video is getting any attention or any free leads from this video, but he is using some of the right tags and he has branded the video with his website address and his phone number, and he is telling the world how easy it is to work from home (or work from anywhere you’d like).
So, he is doing a lot of the recommended stuff right when it comes to marketing, and it looks fairly easy to record the video.
What if you do something like this once a week, would it help you get free leads to your business?
Tags: youtube, free+leads, video, internet+marketing
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A First Look At The E-book Design
I am writing an e-book about why people fail at Internet marketing, what kind of mistakes they do (I have done a lot of mistakes myself) and what you should avoid.
Now, the cover/box is ready.
What do you think?
I am not ready to launch the e-book yet, and the sales page design is not ready. But I don’t think it will be that long before I have something to show you.
If you want to contribute to the e-book, with your own opinions of why people fail at Internet marketing and/or what kind of mistakes people do and what to avoid, then please contact me.
Tags: Internet+Marketing+Mistakes, e-book+design, internet+marketing
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Using Injustice To Promote Your Products
Using examples of injustice can be the most powerful way to promote your products or at least it can be the most powerful way to get attention. This is how you can get inside people’s minds, and this is how you can get them emotional about your products.
Injustice is the opposition to justice.
In order to use Injustice to promote your products, you need to know how to use injustice to get people to become emotional.
For instance, how do you react to the fact that the USA holds detainees in Guantanamo Bay without charge?
Well, some people might be furious, some will think that it’s wrong (but not do anything about it) and many people just don’t care.
Why do we react so differently?
I believe that it’s because the injustice is not personalized. If we get the story about an individual, with a face and a name, someone that we can relate to, then close to everybody will react emotionally to the injustice.
Let me give you another example.
The really tragic story about Sean Bell that was shot by cops after his bachelor party.
Close to 100% will probably have strong emotional reactions to this story.
Do you see the difference?
The two examples above are kind of extreme, but it’s just a way for me to prove my point.
Now, how can you benefit from using injustice as a way to promote your products?
Find a way that your product can help prevent injustice, tell your prospects the story of a victim (an individual with a face, a name and a story), and how this person could have experienced justice if he or she had bought your product or service.
Or, if you are promoting a work from home opportunity. You could always give examples of injustice jobs with very low wages, and tell your prospects about how they could change all that.
If you are promoting insurance; you could use an example of greedy insurance companies and tell the world what you would have done.
If you experience personal injustice, you might get a lot of helpful comments from your readers. And that’s because nobody likes injustice.
This is all just an example of how you can use powerful emotions to promote your products or services, and injustice might be the most powerful emotional trigger.
Tags: injustice, insurance, guantanamo, sean+bell
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Seven Simple Steps To?
I have just read the free e-book from Scott Fox; Seven Simple Steps To Stimulate Your Success Online.
The e-book is short, only 22 pages, with big letters and a nice design. It didn’t take me more than 15 minutes to finish it, or maybe even less.
It’s definitively interesting.
You don’t have to sign up for it, just download it and start reading.
I really appreciate a direct download.
Now, what did I think about the content?
To me, this free e-book is really just a way for Scott Fox to promote his “best seller” book Internet Riches: The Simple Money-Making Secrets Of Online Millionaires.
Why am I saying that?
There is one picture of Internet Riches on every single page, and there are many quotes and references to it, and a direct link to the sales page at Amazon.
That being said; the seven simple steps… provides valuable information. A lot of interesting statistics and encouragement about why you should start your online business, or why you should continue with your online business.
You can still become really wealthy online, the gold rush is far from over.
Did you know that by the year 2012, online media buys are expected to double. Today, the advertising industry overall spends less than 10% of its budget online.
Scott Fox’s seven simple steps… didn’t provide me with any new and creative steps to stimulate my business, but I found it to be really interesting and it did give bonus tips like using eBay to test the demand for products.
In my opinion, you should download this free e-book today and start reading:
Scott Fox’s Seven Simple Steps To Stimulate Your Success Online
Tags: scott+fox, internet+riches, internet+marketing, online+marketing
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Jason James Presents His Firesale
I have just received information about the firesale from Jason James. If you are looking for a lot of great Internet marketing products and you don’t want to pay hardly anything, then you might want to take a closer look at his firesale.
Jason James Presents… One Crazy Firesale!
I have been looking at the sales page and how he is presenting it. I must admit that I really don’t understand why he is saying that the reason for the firesale is due to his moving expenses (he moved from Massachussets to Virginia Beach a few years ago) and the expenses for the house.
I thought Jason James was raking in millions of dollars from Internet marketing?
(maybe not millions)
Anyways.
The firesale is only available for 7 days, and there are some really cool products that you can get your hands on.
Jason James Presents… One Crazy Firesale!
It looks like a really good deal.
Tags: jason+james, firesale, internet+marketing
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Copywriting Tips for Beginners
I am not a good copywriter. I am reading and I am practicing and someday I might be whole lot better than I am today.
My quest to be a better copywriter usually starts at YouTube. There are so many educational videos on any topic, and copywriting is no exception.
Today, I am going to present to you a video from Ted Nicholas regarding Copywriting tips for beginners.
It’s really interesting, and it’s only 4 minutes and 29 seconds of your time. You will learn some of the most interesting words that you should be using when you are writing.
The words are: yes, love, only, sale and free.
Tags: copywriting, youtube, ted+nicholas
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Someone Should Create This Firefox Add-on
If I would hire someone to create a Firefox add-on, I would create something that I think almost all Internet marketers would want.
When I think about it, I just can’t believe that nobody has created this add-on for Firefox yet. I have been looking everywhere, well, I have only been looking at the Firefox add-on page, but that’s where everything is (so it’s almost like I have been looking everywhere).
What I am talking about is a Firefox add-on that will help you cloak links. I would want a free add-on, that will cloak my links with just a few clicks.
I am not sure, but I don’t think that it can’t be that hard to create, and think about how many people that would download it and use it.
I am talking about a software like Ninja Link Cloaker (that would probably be hard, but it doesn’t have to have all the features).
If you could create something like that, or get a programmer to create one for you; my guess is that you could get thousands of people on your optin-list (if they have to submit their e-mail address in order to download the add-on) or if you could somehow use the add-on to promote yourself and your blog/business, my guess is that your name would be on most Internet marketers lips within a few days.
I am a firm believer in giving away really cool stuff for free in order to gain trust.
And trust is what marketing is all about…
If you are loooking for a programmer, like if you are thinking about creating this Firefox Add-on (or something else), you could hire a freelancer at any of these sites:
ScriptLance Get a Freelancer Guru.com RentACoder Freelancer Store
The only problem I can see with creating an add-on like the link cloaker for Firefox is that it has to be compatible with new releases like Firefox 3 (coming soon).
Tags: firefox, firefox+add-on, url+cloaking, firefox+3
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Will PowerEffects Have Any Effect On Your Sales Page?
You have the regular sales pages; some are very long, but they all contain text and images. To make them even more interesting, more and more sales pages got audio and video. Now, if you start using PowerEffects, you can grab even more attention with your text. To me, this is different.
This is like animated gifs, and from what I can see, it looks rather cool.
I am sure that if you start using PowerEffects, you will grab more attention with your text (and images), but I am not sure if it will convert more of your prospects into buyers or not.
Who knows, maybe PowerEffects is something that can help you?
It’s cheap, and you can get the Master Resale Rights as well.
Tags: power+effects, internet+marketing, sales+page, animated+gifs
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Most Interesting Marketing System of Week 19
The past week was an interesting week. I recieved a lot of new Internet marketing stuff and I have five really interesting Internet marketing systems to tell you about, and one of them I find more interesting than the others. One of the “systems” is actually a new Internet marketing book.
Here are the five most interesting marketing systems of week 19:
Slackerprofits Street Smart Internet marketing Dave’s Online Videos WP Traffic Lead Generation Video’s II
I am not an affiliate of any of the above, and so far, I haven’t tried any of them either. I am thinking about buying the Street Smart Internet Marketing book, and I will probably buy it somtime soon.
Slackerprofits is more of a system to earn money than an Internet marketing system, but I had to give you the link (it looks interesting). WP Traffic looks great if you have a blog and you are using wordpress, if not, you might want to consider starting one. Dave’s Online Videos looks awesome, it’s a lot of videos on how to promote and how to use various Internet marketing techniques and how to earn money online. The guy behind it is Dave Guindon. Mark Vurnum has released something similiar, but it’s a video series about how to get leads, it’t Lead Generation Video’s II.
All five of them looks really interesting, but my favorite for the past week is Dave’s Online Videos. The price is cheap and the topics looks really interesting.
Remember, I haven’t tried any of the products and I haven’t seen any of the videos, I have only viewed the sales pages.
Don’t take my advice, decide yourself.
Tags: dave+guindon, mark+vurnum, street+smart+internet+marketing
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Jay White and his Autoresponder Copy Made Easy
If you are looking for a course on how to write killer e-mails; e-mails that people will open, e-mails that people will read and e-mails that will make people click or even better, e-mails that will make people buy. Then, you should sign up for the Autoresponder Copy Made Easy course by Jay White.
It’s completely free.
I just signed up myself, so I don’t really know how good it is. But from what I have heard, it’s a really comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to write killer e-mails.
It’s a four-part video series, and the guy behind it, Jay White, is a real professional copywriter.
Are you going to do what I just did and sign up for Autoresponder Copy Made Easy?
Tags: autoresponder, copywriting, jay+white, copy+writing
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Attracting New Customers Through The Internet
I am reading Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers all over again. It’s a very inspiring book, and today, I am going to use the chapter “Attraction Through The Internet” as an example of what you can do in order to attract new customers using the Internet as your tool.
Image by farshad5475
The chaper includes many ways that you should consider when using attraction through the Internet:
Pay Per Click Web Site Optimization E-zines Online Articles Blogs Podcasts Online Forums, Chat Rooms, and Comments Video Posting Sites Personal Networking Sites
In this post, I am just going to focus on two of the above, and that’s how you should be using blogs to attract customers and how you should gain attraction by advertising in E-Zines. And I am going to tell you what the authors of Gravitational Marketing are saying that you should be doing. The reason for just focusing on two of the attraction techniques, is that I can’t possibly do all of them in one post. I’ll do more of them later on.
Blogs
When you are writing content for your blog, remember that you should provide a mix of three things:
1. One-third should be personal content
2. One-third should be technical content
3. One-third should be emotional content
Your blog is really a relationship builder, and you are holding the microphone and you are the one telling the stories. You should use your blog to build relationships with potential customers and with current customers. Yes, it’s really that easy. Just focus on building relationships and stick to the “one-third rule”.
E-Zines
An E-Zine is an online or e-mail newsletter. You can either create your own E-Zine for your niche or you can find a popular E-Zine for your niche and advertise in it.
You can buy advertising as a link in the E-Zine, a listing, banners, or sometimes you can buy article space.
E-Zines are great when it comes to finding targetted prospects, because the E-Zines are sent to groups of people by specific topics.
Take a look at this directory of general Internet marketing E-Zines
If you want to create your own E-Zine, I recommend that you use AWeber.
Maybe it’s all about followers?
With a blog you want to attract your own followers, people who trust you and people who want to keep reading what you are writing. When you are advertising in an E-Zine, you are reaching out to the followers of other people. You are trying to convince them to start following you.
Tags: gravitational+marketing, attracting+customers, internet+marketing
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Be Creative and Get Traffic From Google Image Search
You can drive a lot of traffic to your website or blog if you start using images and if you start optimizing your images for Google Image Search.
A lot of people are using Google Image Search and you can get a lot of free traffic if you just start doing some minor changes.
There are many ways to get traffic from Google Image Search; you could insert keywords into your Alt text and name your images with descriptive titles and of course you could use relevant text around your images.
I am going to concentrate on five creative ways. The reason that I am only focusing on five techniques, is that I believe that you probably already know the basic ways to get traffic to your images; like inserting keywords into your Alt text, and if you don’t know, you can always find a great article about how to get traffic from Google Image Search.
My first creative way to drive traffic to your website using Google Image Search is to use images about really hot topics. My best example is probably about Britney Spears. She is still a really hot topic, but a few months back, she was probably the hottest topic in the world. You didn’t need to write a blog post about Britney Spears, but you could have used her as an example and used an image of her in your blog post, and finally, you could have used an Alt text with a really hot keyword about Britney Spears.
My second creative way is using Google Image Labeler. If you haven’t heard of Google Image Labeler, I will do a short introduction for you (well, I have borrowed the introduction from Google):
You’ll be randomly paired with a partner who’s online and using the feature. Over a two-minute period, you and your partner will:
View the same set of images. Provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see. Receive points when your label matches your partner’s label. The number of points will depend on how specific your label is. See more images until time runs out.
After time expires, you can explore the images you’ve seen and the websites where those images were found. And we’ll show you the points you’ve earned throughout the session.
My third creative way is to include more than one keyword in your image title. It’s easy, just use hyphen in the name. For instance, if I wanted to use an image of google image search, I would have at least used the name google-image-search.jpg, but I could have also put another important keyword in there, maybe google-image-search-traffic.jpg?
My fourth creative way is to create an image site map. Create a page where you link to all your images. Site maps are great for SEO in general, maybe they are just as great when it comes to images?
My fifth creative way to drive traffic to your website using Google Image Search is to use images from topics/categories with few images, but many searches. Just do a search using Google Image Search and see if you can find a lot of images for your keywords, if you can’t, then great. You won’t have much competition then. You might have to guess when it comes to the amount of people who are actually searching for images with your keywords, because I don’t really know how to find out how many searches people do for images. Anyways. You are looking for keywords or categories with very few images, but with a lot of searches.
Finally.
Even though it might not help you at Google Image Search, you should always think about the best way to present your images. Remember that small images loads faster and unusual images are always the most interesting.
Tags: google+images, search+engines, keywords, google+image+search
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Interesting Popover
You have probably noticed that I am using a popover myself, and that’s because it’s a great way to grab attention and in my case, to get people to subscribe to my “Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter”. I am using the lightbox popover script from AWeber.
Anyway. I have found an example of another interesting way to use a popover. I am not sure where I found it, but I had to take a screen capture just so I could show you the example.
Usually, people are using a popover in order to get people to sign up for something (like a newsletter) or to get people to click on an interesting offer (just one offer).
This popover, actually it’s an exit popover (only shows when people are trying to leave the website), gives you three options.
It tries to cover every reason why a person was visiting the website in the first place; and when the person is leaving, this popover asks the question which option is the best for the prospect:
1. I’d like to discover how to easily make serious money with affiliate programs using powerful underground techniques
2. I’d like to learn some truly advanced Internet marketing tactics
3. I’d like to learn how to make “autopilot income” using the Internet
Depending on the option you choose, you will be sent to an affiliate program (one for each option).
I am not sure if this is a great way to use a popover or not.
But I am sure that I think it’s a creative way to use it and I do like it 
Tags: popover, internet+marketing, aweber, affiliate+programs
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Using the Publicity Wheel to boost your traffic and exposure
This is a guest post by Mark Schumann, the developer of The Publicity Wheel.
The Publicity Wheel is a new web service that can provide a large boost in traffic and exposure for any website. The concept works by featuring one website (per category) at a time through banner/text links on participating members’ sites. Unlike a traditional banner/link exchange program there are no impression figures or ratios to worry about, and by having your website promoted by hundreds of other websites on a permanent basis for several days, the benefits can be huge. Instead of impressions and ratios, The Publicity Wheel works through a kind of ticketing system known as “publicity points”. This is explained in further detail below.
Getting Started
After creating an account and selecting a category that best suits your site, it is recommended that you upload your own banner images in sizes of 125×125, 200×200 and 468×60 pixels. These will be used when your site is featured and displayed on members’ sites. If you don’t upload any banner images, generic “Publicity Wheel” banners will be used instead, but still forward all clicks to your site.
The next step is to begin earning publicity points so that you have a greater chance of being featured at the next “spin”. Each point earned is effectively one ticket (or chance) at winning the next spin, so the more you have the better your chances. If you don’t win, you don’t lose your tickets, so you have a greater chance of winning as you accumulate points over time. Winners’ points are also reset to zero to allow lower-traffic sites increase their chances over time.
Ensure you are logged in, and open up the Earn Publicity Points tab to select the category of websites you would like to promote on your own site (generally the same as yours). Choose the most appropriate banner or text link, and copy the code into the section of your site to have it displayed.
That’s basically it! Each time one of your visitors clicks on these banners/links, you will earn a number of publicity points, which are then used to select the winner of the next spin.
The Publicity Wheel is not for everyone, but it does provide a more unique and enjoyable method for promoting your website.
Tags: publicity+wheel, mark+schumann, traffic, exposure
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Popover Marketing Mistake
You might already know that I am writing an e-book about marketing mistakes and why people fail at Internet marketing. Today, I thought I’d start out with a series of posts about some of the mistakes. Some are minor mistakes and some should be considered as big (or even huge) mistakes.
Let’s start out with the popover marketing mistake.
You can probably see what’s wrong with this image. Check out the size of the popover. It hardly reveals anything, and it’s impossible to scroll and see the information. Even though this popover should show some really cool information and maybe even an offer most people can’t resist, not a single person will ever notice… because they can’t read the text (and they can only see part of the images).
The first lesson (and one of the most important lessons) is to always check your marketing (not once, but at least twice) before you publish it, and make sure everything is alright. Test it in different browsers (at least Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera), use different resolutions on your screen, this way most people will be able to view your advertisement.
Remember, even Gurus are making these mistakes 
Tags: marketing+mistakes, internet+marketing, popover
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Most Interesting Marketing System of Week 18
I almost forgot about the most interesting marketing system from the past week. I have been really busy, and I haven’t noticed that many new and interesting systems. But of course, I have one that I think stands out from the crowd.
It’s the Ever Profits Toolbar
It seems to be a very interesting viral marketing tool.
All you need to do is to install a toolbar (like the Google Toolbar or any other toolbar for that matter), and the system will do everything from there on.
According to their website, you will get:
The Internet Marketing Tactics, SEO Secrets, Unexposed Keywords & Niches, Automatic Content Tools, Spy on AdWords and Much More, On The Fly
This is of course a much easier way than receiving tons of e-mail.
The Ever Profits Toolbar is completely free, and you can even sign up as an affiliate and earn money marketing it.
What I find to be most interesting with this Internet marketing toolbar is how you can use it to do really advanced research. Just take a look at the video below, and you’ll understand what I am talking about.
The only problem I find with the Ever Profits Toolbar is that it’s currently only available for Internet Explorer. I am not using Internet Explorer, and I won’t start using it, no matter how powerful this toolbar is.
The Firefox version will be released soon, and then, only then, I will install it and start the testing 
Tags: ever+profits+toolbar, toolbar, internet+marketing
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Trackboost and Utility Poster by Jack Humphrey
You have probably heard of Jack Humphrey as he is one of the real gurus of Internet marketing. Now, I have just received information about his new software called Utility Poster and the upgraded version called Trackboost.
First, take a look at this video from YouTube where Jack Humphrey explains the features:
As far as I know, the price for the lite version, Utility Poster will be $67 and the price for Trackboost will be $197, you can read more about them and buy them at trackboost.com
According to the e-mail I received from Jack Humphrey:
It creates FAST, relevant posts. It pings the people you link to. It gets you some of the BEST LINKAGE to be had on the web.
It tracks those links so you know how many people link back
to each post you make. (Trackbacks)
It allows you to retroactively get trackbacks for posts
you’ve already made but didn’t have the time to go
searching for trackbacks by hand.
Has a built-in ping list to notify all the ping sites that
your older posts have been updated to bring the search
engine spiders back to re-index your posts.
Utility Poster does much of the above but DOESN’T include
trackback link tracking and doesn’t actively ping people
you link to.
It makes finding and posting the best, most recent blog
posts in your niche easy as pie and will save you TONS OF
TIME over doing the same thing by hand.
You’ll become a more PROLIFIC, regular writer because of it
which means more content. And that means more traffic and
more search engine rankings for more keywords.
It seems to be a very interesting software (or two versions of an interesting software) that can really help you promote your blog. As I am writing this it’s 12 hours untill they will launch, so I really don’t know if they will be worth $67 or $197.
Take a look at Trackboost and tell me what you think.
Tags: jack+humphrey, trackboost, utility+poster, internet+marketing
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The Problem With Most Affiliate Products
I guess that the problem with most affiliate products, including Affiliate Silver Bullet, the product that I have been promoting using this blog, is that they don’t help you drive traffic.
Most affiliate products that I have been involved with, in fact, I think all affiliate products that I have been involved with did not help me at all driving real traffic (unique visitors). Many products/services helped me understand more or less what I was doing online. But they didn’t really help me promote their products.
Some helped me using Google Adwords, some helped me realize how to become a better blogger and some helped me understand SEO (at least help me get a better understanding than I did have when I started blogging).
But none did help me drive traffic straight to my blog or my product.
I realize now that I probably should have started all over, because I am about to mess up my message to you, but I’ll continue and try to be more specific.
What I am talking about is that most products or services talk about how to drive traffic and how to promote, but they don’t do it for you. Usually you end up buying a product or a service and you need to know how to get people to read your messages and how to market the product to the masses.
It’s exactly the same with Affiliate Silver Bullet. If you don’t know how to promote, then you have no future using Affiliate Silver Bullet. Well, their new system is kind of different and the owner and creator, Dustin Stuckman have told us that he will also be promoting Affiliate Silver Bullet (and the Internet Marketing Genius Newsletter) and he will be providing us (the members) with the leads. This way, when someone buys something from his e-mails (sales messages), we will earn the commissions.
So far, I have not received any new leads from him. I am not judging him or Affiliate Silver Bullet, it’s only been about a month since the launch of the new and upgraded system (the Internet Marketing Genius Newsletter).
I am waiting, and I am very interested to see if in fact we will receive any free leads from the system. If we will, then I am really going to be impressed, it will be my first time ever…
I am not sure if you can expect to join a service or buy a product and have the company do all the marketing for you, or even help you with some of the marketing. But sometimes they do promise you stuff, and sometimes you might in fact get more than you were hoping for when you joined.
Tags: affiliate+silver+bullet, internet+marketing+genius, dustin+struckman
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Promote Your Affiliate Links at StumbleUpon
This is more a question than a suggestion of something you really should do. The reason for the question is that I actually don’t know if this is legal or not. Well, it’s not breaking any laws (the cops won’t be after you), you might just be breaking the rules over at StumbleUpon.
Anyways, I don’t want to break any rules, and that’s why I am asking you about this.
I am not sure if it’s possible to earn any money by doing this, but I am sure that you can get a lot of extra (free) traffic to your affiliate sites.
What I am trying to say is this; can you/should you vote on your own affiliate sites and help them get many stumbles? A lot of people at StumbleUpon will see the sites, and the sites will have your affiliate links (and if they order, you will earn commission).
This is sort of like stumbling your own blog posts, but instead you are stumbling your affiliate programs.
The reason I am saying that I am not sure if you will earn any money by doing this, is that (in general) people coming to your websites from StumbleUpon are not converting that well, and I am not sure how happy they’ll be looking at a sales page
You will have to test this, in order to find out what works.
I have never tried this myself, and that’s because somehow I think applying this technique might be breaking the rules at StumbleUpon. I haven’t read the TOS (for a long time), but if many people start using this marketing technique, StumbleUpon will just end up being like any traffic exchange.
… and that’s why I think it might be breaking their rules.
Tags: stumble+upon, social+networks, affiliate+marketing
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A short review of my trip to Valencia in Spain
Image by: JrGMontero
I have just arrived home after four days in the city of Valencia in Spain. It was an awesome trip, everything was perfect, well, almost everything. My wallet was stolen after about 30 minutes. It happened while I was on the metro (subway) heading from the airport towards the hotel. It took a few seconds, and I didn’t even notice it, before just after it had happened. The metro was really crowded, and I noticed one guy that was standing really close to me, it had to have been him (I can’t remember his face, he was wearing a blue hat and sunglasses, that’s really all I remember). When I got off at the stop, I noticed that my bag was open, and my wallet was gone.
That was my first impression of Valencia, I didn’t see any of the palm trees, I didn’t see any of the incredible architecture, I just saw the open bag and that my wallet was missing.
Other than that, the trip to Valencia was extraordinary.
The weather was perfect, it was apx. 24 degrees Celsius. I was wearing a t-shirt and a short every single day and every single night.
The scenery was beautiful. The architecture was incredible, the beach was awesome, the people are very very friendly (even though it was difficult to communicate using English, I ended up using sign language and some Spanish words).
There are a lot of nice shops in Valencia, I ended up in a few, but mostly I stayed outside while my wife did the shopping 
I am almost finished, I just have to mention the food, because the food was more than perfect. I was in heaven; not because the food in general is perfect in Valencia. But because I found La Lluna during the first day of our visit.
La Lluna is a vegetarian restaurant, and for me, it was like a trip to heaven. I have never tasted food like this before, everything I tried was just marvelous. It’s the best food I have ever tasted (I am a vegetarian, but my wife is not). My wife tried the lasagna, and she said it was the best lasagna she has ever tasted. I tasted it as well, and it was the best ever.
If you ever go to Valencia, you should definitely try La Lluna, try it even if you are not a vegetarian. It’s hard to find this restaurant, but I promise you that you will not regret it. We ended up walking for about an hour, just to find this restaurant. And I will probably never forget our visits and the food.
In sum, it was a perfect holiday and it won’t be the last time we’ll be visiting Valencia. It’s just perfect.
Tags: spain, valencia, restaurant, vegetarian, food
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Learn How To Do Anything Using SuTree
I have just joined SuTree, actually, I have just joined SuTree as an expert on online marketing. I don’t feel like an expert at the field of online marketing, but when someone asks me if I’d like to be title an expert, well, it would be rude to say no 
Take a look at my profile at SuTree (you need to be logged in to view it)
What is SuTree?
Instead of providing you with my own definition of what SuTree is, I will use the one from TechCrunch, SuTree is
a video aggregation service where users can add and categorize instructional videos from across the web, providing a directory of video that would often be buried under the weight of competing content on sites such as YouTube and MetaCafe
So, it’s a web 2.0 site, where users can communicate and upload videos and of course view the “how to” videos. It seems to be a great place to learn all kinds of stuff, not only things related to Internet marketing.
Why did I join SuTree?
I joined because I believe that SuTree is a very interesting site, and that I can help SuTree with content.
It’s actually fairly easy. If you find cool “how to” videos at YouTube or anywhere on the Internet, you can just provide the link and some description to SuTree and the video will be your contribution to the SuTree community.
And more than 33,000 videos have been indexed by SuTree as I am writing this.
Why instructional videos?
I think that instructional videos are very important; it’s probably the easiest way to learn anything online. I have tried reading long and detailed e-books, and I have tried listening to audios, but nothing comes close to video.
SuTree will (soon) have all the instructional videos you are looking for, and this alone will be something most people will appreciate. And of course, when you add features like Blackboard (like the Facebook wall), where other members can send you messages, SuTree seems to be a lot more interesting than similar services like Scouta (videos) and iLike (music).
It’s important to me that SuTree is all about instructional videos and not a service that will include all sorts of videos. And it’s important that they have editors (the members) that will help me (and all the other members) find the best instructional videos on each topic.
Let me give you an example
As I told you earlier, I haven’t been using SuTree for more than a few days. Well, today was actually the first day when I had the time to watch a few videos, and I published a comment as well.
I just found an interesting video about how to write a great email subject, and this is an example of videos you can find at SuTree.
Remember, it’s completely free to join SuTree.
The widget
If you look at my sidebar (on the right side of my blog), and scroll down at the bottom. There you’ll see that I have added a widget from SuTree. It will show interesting videos related to Online marketing. This is just a way to get more people interested in SuTree.
It’s time
If you find instructional videos interesting, then it’s time to join SuTree and then add me as your friend.
Tags: SuTree, online+marketing, internet+marketing, instructional+videos
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Why is Mike Filsaime giving away his software?
I thought that this was too good to be true, yes, that was my first thought when I heard that Mike Filsaime was giving away four of his bestselling software (PowerLink Generator, ProTrack Manager, ViralFriend Generator and ButterflyMarketing Manuscript).
Guess what?
It’s too good to be true.
My second thought was that if Mike Filsaime is giving away his software, he is doing it to build a much larger list.
But when I visited his sales page and tried to sign up for a free copy of ButterflyMarketing Manuscript, I saw that he was doing exactly the same as Matt Bacak did. And I think that Matt did a huge mistake and I think that Mike is doing one right now.
When you choose one of the four products, you will end up at a page that, if you read it closely, tells you to:
Please send me this added bonus absolutely free! ($97 Value) Mike, please send me a complimentary copy of your “Best Damn Newsletter” for free. I Pay Nothing Today! - Just S&H. I know that this newsletter holds some of your best kept secrets that I can use to make hundreds, or even thousands of dollars every month. I also know that, while there are no guarantees, just one of your nuggets can impact my business by thousands, maybe even millions of dollars, if I apply what I learn from it. And I know I can learn several each month over and above just One!
I know others pay $97 each month to get your newsletter, and I am happy to get this months copy for free. I understand that you will give me a huge 80% discount for life on this as long as I continue to stay on your newsletter. Please bill me the discount price of only $29.95 (free S&H) each month starting in 30 days from today. I understand that is newsletter is over $77 off your normal price.
You’ll need to enter your credit card information, and you need to sign up for his newsletter and pay for shipping and handling $29.95 today, you’ll receive a free copy of his newsletter, but if you don’t cancel it, you will receive it in the mail each month and you’ll have to pay $29.95 each month.
I am not saying that it’s not worth it. His newsletter might be the best, I have no idea. I just don’t like this kind of marketing. It looks like everything is free, and when you are just about to download his software, you realize that it’s not free. Well, the software might still be free, but you will have to pay for something completely different. Something you didn’t know a thing about when reading the sales letter.
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you where to visit and get your “free” software.
Just visit Get My Sofware Free and remember to read the last page.
One thing that I find to be really cool is the popover video starring Mike Filsaime, if you don’t want his “free” product, you should at least take a look at his video. It would be cool to have one just like that.
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Only 3 Reasons Why you should build a list?
I have been thinking about listbuilding lately, and that’s probably because of all the hype, and I don’t mean hype in a negative way, regarding Tellman Knudson and Shawn Casey’s listbuilding coaching program.
Is the money in the list?
Some say that they money is not in the list, but in your relationship to your list.
Anyways.
I have been thinking; are there really only 3 reasons why you should build your own list?
1) You build your list in order to tell your readers about your new stuff. If you are creating your own products, like Caroline Middlebrook and her StumbleRush, you want to tell your visitors about what you are up to. You want to give them some extra information, if you do that, it will be a lot easier to launch new products.
2) You build your list in order to earn money from selling products or services. This is what most people are doing, they are sending out e-mails to their list with information about new products, affiliate products.
3) You build your list in order to build relationships. You want to get to know people with similar interests as your own. You want them as part of your network, you want to learn from them, and you want to teach them what you know.
4) You you build your list as a combination of 1, 2 or all of the three reasons above. (I don’t consider this one to be on its own, because it’s just a combination of the three above).
The reason why you are building a list is very important in order to understand how you should communicate with the people on your list. How often you should be sending e-mails to them, how you should be writing your e-mails, and what about the content?
It all depends on what you are aiming at.
For instance; I am combining all the three reasons above. I am providing my list with free reports on how to “write articles, blog, linkbuilding, ppc” and more. Each of the reports contains of 5 e-mails, I have an affiliate link at the bottom of each e-mail. I am sending out the reports every 10 days, the e-mails are then sent out each day for five days and then it’s 10 days until they receive the next report.
I am sending out my “Internet Marketing Tips” newsletter every friday. Friday is the day when I tell people on my list what I have been up to the past week, and provide them with a really good Internet Marketing article.
I am combining the two methods in order to keep people interested, and to keep good content coming their way, and if they want to read more about the topic, they can buy the affiliate product that I am linking to at the bottom. I am not really promoting a product, I am only providing information about a topic, the product link is only for people who are really interested in exploring the topic further.
I used to be sending out an e-mail now and then in order to promote certain affiliate programs, but I don’t do that anymore. To me it’s about building a relationship and to provide them with “what I know” and of course telling them about programs/systems that I believe to work (and it would be great if I could earn a few bucks extra doing this).
Now, you might have heard that I am writing my first e-book. It’s great to have a list when I am going to launch it, and when I need some feedback (I will also be using my blog to post questions when I need feedback).
I know that I probably could earn a lot more money by using my list, but that’s not really who I am. I am not only promoting affiliate products, but I believe that I am promoting myself. And when I am promoting myself, I need to do what I think is right. Too many e-mails containing too much hype, that’s not something I bellieve in (I am not saying that most people are doing this, but many are).
I don’t think there is one right reason for building a list. I think that it all depends on what you think is right. Are you only doing this because of the money, or are you doing it to build relationships (I am not talking about dating), or maybe you are thinking about creating your own products sometime in the future? Any reason will do, you just need to think about what you are doing and why you are doing it.
If you are only out to make money, I think it’s ok to send out more e-mails with affiliate links, if you are building a list for the future, you might not want to send that many e-mails. A lot of people might be unsubscribing if they consider what they are receiving to be junk and only affiliate links.
What do you think, are there more than 3 reasons why you should build a list?
… and why are you building a list?
Tags: listbuilding, optin+list, internet+marketing, caroline+middlebrook
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Print it and Keep it Visible at All Times
Image by unsure shot
If you want attention to your product and if you want people to understand how important your product really is, you should use a marketing strategy where you tell your prospects that they should, after they have bought your product, “print it, read it immediately and then keep it visible at all times”.
You need to tell them this in your sales letter.
You can even use this marketing strategy for your sales letter. If you do, this strategy will tell your prospects that your sales letter is important enough to actually print out and read. Unlike most sales letters, where people just read a few sentences at the top and then scroll down to the bottom to look at the price.
Mention that your prospects will learn many valuable strategies (or whatever your product is about) from the sales letter, and that they should keep it posted on their desk, place it on their bookshelf or keep it locked in their safe, or maybe keep it on their keyboard when they are not using their computer (this way it will be the first thing they will see when they are going to use their computer).
Grab attention and tell your prospects that your product is very important, in fact it’s so important that they should print it, read it immediately and keep it visible at all times.
Tags: marketing+strategy, internet+marketing, prospects, sales+letter
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Most Interesting Marketing System Week 17
The past week has been fairly short for me when it comes to Internet marketing and spending time with my computer. I have been on a vacation to Valencia in Spain, and I got back yesterday. But, I have nearly finished going through my inbox and I have been taking a few notes about the new marketing systems that I discovered the past week.
So, here it comes.
The past week was not as interesting as week 16 and week 15. I have only found a few new and interesting marketing systems that I would spend my money on, well, if I had more time on my hands.
What I am saying is this, I have no clue how good the systems are and I am not going to buy them, because I have not a minute to spare. So, you should really just take a look at the sales pages, google for some reviews and buy the system if you find it interesting enough. Don’t trust me, because I really don’t know.
The one that got my attention right away was Google Magic Formula; I think it was the cool design and the fact that:
Million dollar a year underground marketers reveal the… $40,734 a month autopilot secret that kills Google and stuffs FOUR figures into our Clickbank accounts every single day.
Autopilot is a very interesting word for most marketers, and of course, the secret of killing Google is also very compelling.
Do you know about any other new Internet Marketing systems, please contact me if you do.
Tags: internet+marketing, google+magic+formula, google, clickbank
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Beta Testers Marketing Strategy
Image by: Tim Dorr
I have had 5 lucky people who have been quietly testing my brand new Internet Marketing system, and they have each grown their lists by an extra 1500 people a week.
No, I am just kidding. The above is just an example of how you can use the Beta testers marketing strategy.
If you have your own product, you could test it on a few people first (you would probably do that anyway) and then you could use the results as a way to motivate your prospects into buying the product.
Use the results of the beta testing, and tell your prospects that you have had a limited number of beta testers or personal contacts that have been using your product for X amount of days, and for the first time you will be revealing the results.
Since your product has only been tested by your beta testers, and this is the first time it’s released to the public, people will most likely enjoy it. People like to be first, and if you tell them that they are among the first people to get their hands on the product, a lot of people will act fast.
You can combine the information about the beta testing with a limited amount of copies available for sale.
Tags: marketing+strategy, internet+marketing, beta+testing, motivate+prospects
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Interesting IM Buzz Blowout Sale
I have just received information about this brand new Internet Marketing Buzz Blowout Sale. I am not sure if I am going to buy it or not, but before I decide what to do, you should have a look at it.
The guys behind it are Calvin Woon & Jonathan Teng and they have launched a very interesting sale indeed.
There are so many hot products to a very low price.
The price is $37 if you buy it today, if you wait it will end at $67 on May 1 st, and after May 1 st or after they have sold 500 copies (depending on which comes first), the offer will be closed forever.
I am thinking that I have to decide today or tomorrow, while the price is at its lowest. But $67 is also very cheap if you think about what you will get.
Anyways, take a look at their long sales page at IM Buzz Blowout and please tell me what you think. Are you going to buy it or not?
Tags: im+buzz+blowout, calvin+woon, jonathan+teng, internet+marketing, buzz
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Reality as the Internet Marketing strategy
Reality TV is incredibly popular these days, not only in Europe or the US, but it seems to be popular all across the globe. I am not saying that you should use The Bachelor or American Idol as a marketing strategy, but that you should learn something from what people are occupied with and what people are looking for; we all want some excitement.
Image by leunix
All the reality shows have one thing in common; you (the audience) are watching stuff as they happen. It’s sort of tv in real time, even though most reality tv shows are not in real time. They are just produced that way (well, most of what happens is probably in real time though).
Watching tv shows as they are updated in real time are exciting to people. If you use the same strategy for your marketing, you can discover something interesting. More and more people might enjoy visiting your websites, and more people will buy your products and/or services.
What I am talking about is having a marketing strategy where you use the words “it’s updated in real time”, because this tells your prospects that something related to your product or service shows live stats.
For instance, if you are only going to sell 500 copies of your product. Provide real time stats where people will see how many products you have sold so far. This way, your prospects will visit your website to have a look at how the sales are going, and many might want to buy because they are looking at the stats and are afraid that they will be missing out.
Reality stats can be a very good technique to persuade people to purchase your product or make them take some other action.
You don’t have to show how many copies you have left to sell, you can also use the reality effect on almost anything.
How many people have bought your product so far, how many people are currently visiting your website, how much have you earned from your sales so far or the results of your affiliate contest. Just use your imagination.
As long as the results are in real time, people will stop by more often. Most people are looking for a little excitement, and if you provide just a few real time stats on your website, it might be enough to make your website sticky and a real traffic magnet.
Tags: reality+tv, statistics, internet+marketing, affiliate+marketing
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I am saying Yes to Gravitational Marketing
Finally, I have had the time to read the brand new book called Gravitational Marketing by Jimmy Vee, Travis Miller and Joel Bauer. It’s been on my desk for a few weeks now, and I have been sort of looking at it thinking; I have to get started this very minute. The book was so, how should I put it? I guess appealing might be the right word to use.
Once I got started, I finished it in two days. I am not a fast reader, actually I am more like a slow reader. But this book was so interesting, I could hardly put it down. I felt like this book was the first that came to mind when I woke up in the morning, it was the first thing that came to mind when I got back from work, and the evening was spent reading the book instead of doing my chores – and yes, my wife was really happy about that 
I almost forgot, the book has a subtitle; The Science of Attracting Customers. Now, you probably understand what it’s all about – because Gravitational Marketing is not something you hear about every day, am I right? Well, it’s different, I can say that. Its goal is to tell you what you should do in order to attract customers in any business, and that’s exactly what they are doing.
I must admit that I was a little sceptical at first, especially after reading stuff like:
Wouldn’t it be great if you could just sit there on your duff while customers came to you – with no need for cold calling, prospecting, hard-selling, or flat-out begging for business? Too bad it doesn’t work that way in the real world. Or does it?
Gravitational marketing is all about standing out from the crowd, and how to make the crowd come to you, well, only about 1/3 of the crowd, because 1/3 is really all that you ever need.
People don’t like to be sold, we all know that. What gravitational marketing teaches you is how to get people to come to you to buy instead. They are actually the ones wanting something from you, not the other way around.
I believe that what they are writing actually works.
What you need to do is become the person your customers revolve around, you need to positions yourself as an expert in your field. And that’s exactly what these guys will teach you. And it doesn’t look that hard to become an expert.
What’s so great about the book is that it goes into details on everything. I just said that you need to become an expert in your field, well, they have a chapter with the title “how do you become an expert?”
For instance, you can:
write a book write articles write a newsletter speak host a seminar
The book is packed with information, all sorts of information. Like why do people buy, how to create irresistible attraction, how to measure marketing effectiveness and how to manage attraction through personal effort.
It’s actually hard to do a review, because there are so many wonderful things to say. There are so many interesting ideas, I am having a difficult time to find a few examples that should stand out from the book.
Of course, I like that part where they describe how and why you always should use free information as bait. This will always attract your customers. You can give away free reports, e-books, white papers and how-to guides.
Even though gravitational marketing might sound like an advanced thing to read and even harder to actually do, I say that you should read the book even if you are completely new to Internet marketing. The authors explains everyting into detail. Even if you haven’t experienced all there is to Internet marketing, I recommend that you read this book.
I really like the layout of the book as well, not only do they have all the usual text and examples, but they are giving out tips from their experience in cool boxes “from the trenches”, and they are giving away expert resources and bonuses as well. It seems that you can find their bonuses and expert resources on their website, but you need to read the book to find the urls.
Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller have their own blog and website; I recommend that you pay them a visit and follow their conversation. I know that you can learn a lot from them, and after reading this book I am now subscribing to their rss feed.
There is just one thing about this book that I don’t get, and that’s something they wrote in the preface. “Several years ago, we left the comfort and security of our high-paying jobs to strike out on our own and try to make it as entrepreneurs. We started our first company with $200”.
How on earth is it possible to have high-paying jobs and start out their first company with only $200? I could have started out with way more than that when I was 16, and I didn’t have a high-paying job
Anyways, I recommend that you buy Gravitational Marketing: The Science Of Attracting Customers today.
Tags: gravitational+marketing, book+review, jimmy+vee, travis+miller, joel+bauer
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I have changed my Internet Marketing Newsletter
I decided to change my Internet Marketing Newsletter, the one called Internet Marketing Tips. It happened last night.
It’s always been difficult to know what kind of topics to write about and how often I should send the e-mails, and in which format I should send them.
Some people like to receive e-mails, the newsletter, every single day, while others just want one e-mail a month. I guess it all depends on the content. If they are receiving top quality content, I bet that most people would like to receive the newsletter as often as possible. It’s not that easy to get top notch content for free.
I have been sending reports, a five series report on a given subject. The reports have been about all sorts of topics, all related to Internet Marketing of course, and I have been linking to an affiliate program at the bottom of every report.
Each part of the report have been sent out automatically every single day, once the report has been finished, it’s been 10 days before a new report has been sent out. I think that this is still ok, because the quality of the reports are really good, and even though I have the affiliate links at the bottom, I think my readers enjoy the content.
Every single friday I have been sending out an e-mail to all my readers about last weeks blog posts. This way they don’t have to visit my blog to find out what I have been writing about. This is what I have stopped doing.
Next friday, all my readers will receive some really good Internet Marketing tips instead. This will happen every single friday from now on. They will still receive the five part reports, but also the exclusive Internet Marketing Tips each friday.
I think that changing my newsletter to include the friday Internet Marketing Tips, will complement my reports. The reports are kind of general and related to various hot topics. The Internet Marketing Tips will be more specific and related to one topic each friday.
I am using html for the reports, the e-mail that my readers will receive is in plain text with a link to the report. The Internet Marketing Tips e-mails will be in plain text, and all the content will be included in the e-mail. This way I am doing both, I am doing the html (but as a separate page) and I am doing the plain text. I am not using html e-mails, because I think too many people will still have problems reading them.
It will be very interesting to read the reactions of my readers, will they enjoy the change or not? I guess I will know next friday.
If you want to subscribe to Internet Marketing Tips, please sign up using the form at the top of this blog (it says Internet Marketing Tips, you can’t miss it).
Tags: Internet+Marketing, Internet+Marketing+Newsletter
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Today is my birthday
April 22 is my birthday and today I decided to do something I haven’t done before, and I think I am going to be doing this on April 22 every single year from now on.
What I decided to do is to take the whole day off. I am not going to do anything that I don’t really want to do. I am not going to be at work, I am not going to do any chores, I am going to be out in the sun (it’s actually sunny today) and I am going to have fun.
Actually, I am going to be out in the sun writing on my new e-book. It’s relaxing and I think that I am really going to enjoy it.
It’s actually sunny in Norway, and it’s my birthday, and I am outside, it’s going to be the perfect day.
By the way, I am not telling you my age 
PS. Facebook has been good to me, I have received a lot of nice comments today from many of my friends. Not all of the comments have been posted on Facebook, but I know that the reason they have called me already or sent me a text message or an e-mail, is because of Facebook 
Tags: birthday, april, ebook, sun, norway
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The Most Interesting Marketing System Week 16
The past week was almost like the week before when it comes to new interesting marketing systems. I have received a lot of e-mails about new systems, and I have actually five systems that I have been keeping an eye on.
Three of these systems are not just Internet marketing systems, they are more like “work from home” systems, where the sales pages are hyped, well, all of the sales pages are fairly hyped though.
The five systems I am talking about are:
Matt Bacak Retires! M.O.L.B Wealth Formula Traffic Kahuna Wholesale Traffic System Ewen Chia’s Working From Home
I don’t really know much about any of the systems, other than all the hype from their sales pages and all the promotional e-mails I have received. I have not joined any of them, and I haven’t been paying that much attention to their sales pages.
What I find most fascinating is probably the Wholesale Traffic System, if you look closely at the video and the text on the sales page you will understand why:
So, when I heard about a guy (a non-guru selling to niche markets) who GOT PAID $1.2 MILLION to build a list of over 40,000 rabid buyers in less than 9 months, well… needless to say it caught my attention.
The Wholesale Traffic System is about Self-Liquidating Offers (something I have never heard of before). And when you sign up for the free report, you can download a 25 pages where they will explain it to you. I don’t know much about what will happen next, after you have signed up for the free report, but my guess is that you will receive an offer in a short while.
All the five new Internet marketing systems (or maybe I should call them Internet marketing and Affiliate marketing systems) seems to be very interesting indeed, and the one from Ewen Chia is actually not released as I am writing this, but it will be later today.
Traffic Kahuna received a lot of attention especially on monday and tuesday last week, now I can see that their doors are closed. So, I guessed you missed it if you are reading this and you really wanted to join.
I think The Wholesale Traffic System is the most interesting one, do you agree or do you prefer another system?
Tags: Internet+marketing, traffic+kahuna, ewen+chia, wholesale+traffic+system, matt+bacak
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A very interesting YouTube script
I have been looking for a YouTube script like this for a long time, I didn’t actually know about before I saw it in action. It was perfect for my blog, and I think that it would have helped me gain way more traffic, it would have made my blog a sticky traffic magnet.
The script I am talking about is one from PHPGator, and it’s called YouTube Keyword script. What it does is that it shows YouTube videos on your blog or website related to the keywords you use. It always shows the latest videos from YouTube, so it will always be interesting for your visitors to come back and view the videos.
For instance, I would have made a page for videos, and I would have made many subpages with videos for each category; all related to Internet marketing. I would have had one category for listbuilding, one for search engine optimization, one for pay per click, one for affiliate marketing and so on. You probably get my point.
With this YouTube keyword script, you can choose how many videos you want to display on your page, and for the specific keywords you want the videos to be related. You can have as many pages as you’d like.
I think that the script is very cheap, only $14.95 and I actually bought it without hesitating at all. The whole process took me probably about 3 minutes, from the time I discovered the script and to I had it at my computer 
The only problem was that I couldn’t use it on my server, my host wouldn’t let me. I am not saying that my host sucks, and that I am mad at them, I know way too little about scripts and servers and Internet security to even raise my voice. I just had to say ok, and tell this to PHPGator. I was rather sad, but hey, that’s how it works. I don’t own the server, and I have to play by their rules.
What’s great about this story is that PHPGator reimbursed me, I received all my money back. Now, they have many other interesting scripts as well, and who knows, maybe my host will let me use one of them
Tags: youtube, phpgator, php, videos, keywords, server
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The Most Interesting Marketing System Week 17
The past week was almost like the week before when it comes to new interesting marketing systems. I have received a lot of e-mails about new systems, and I have actually five systems that I have been keeping an eye on.
Three of these systems are not just Internet marketing systems, they are more like “work from home” systems, where the sales pages are hyped, well, all of the sales pages are fairly hyped though.
The five systems I am talking about are:
Matt Bacak Retires! M.O.L.B Wealth Formula Traffic Kahuna Wholesale Traffic System Ewen Chia’s Working From Home
I don’t really know much about any of the systems, other than all the hype from their sales pages and all the promotional e-mails I have received. I have not joined any of them, and I haven’t been paying that much attention to their sales pages.
What I find most fascinating is probably the Wholesale Traffic System, if you look closely at the video and the text on the sales page you will understand why:
So, when I heard about a guy (a non-guru selling to niche markets) who GOT PAID $1.2 MILLION to build a list of over 40,000 rabid buyers in less than 9 months, well… needless to say it caught my attention.
The Wholesale Traffic System is about Self-Liquidating Offers (something I have never heard of before). And when you sign up for the free report, you can download a 25 pages where they will explain it to you. I don’t know much about what will happen next, after you have signed up for the free report, but my guess is that you will receive an offer in a short while.
All the five new Internet marketing systems (or maybe I should call them Internet marketing and Affiliate marketing systems) seems to be very interesting indeed, and the one from Ewen Chia is actually not released as I am writing this, but it will be later today.
Traffic Kahuna received a lot of attention especially on monday and tuesday last week, now I can see that their doors are closed. So, I guessed you missed it if you are reading this and you really wanted to join.
I think The Wholesale Traffic System is the most interesting one, do you agree or do you prefer another system?
Tags: Internet+marketing, traffic+kahuna, ewen+chia, wholesale+traffic+system, matt+bacak
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Finally The Affiliate Silver Bullet Blog
I have been waiting for Dustin Struckman, the creator and owner of Affiliate Silver Bullet, to create a blog. I was very eager to point out this problem just a few weeks after I joined Affiliate Silver Bullet.
I think it’s very important to have a blog, where the owner, or the support staff, can use it to communicate with all the members. Aweber is doing a great job at this, and not only are they telling their members about everything they are planning to do with Aweber, but they are also helping them with Internet marketing. Of course, everything is related to how they should be using Aweber to become successful.
Anyway, Dustin Struckman published his first post at the Affiliate Silver Bullet blog about two weeks ago. I just discovered it a few days ago, and I have already left several comments along with many other members.
One of the latest posts is some great news, and it’s shows how important this blog actually is for Affiliate Silver Bullet (and for any business). This is what Dustin is writing:
Gifts for You & Your Subscribers
I want to give a great gift to our subscribers when they sign up for the Internet Marketing Genius newsletter. I’ve been racking my brain because it has to be GREAT! I’m thinking a graphics package, a software product, some kind of tools or resource. It could be something I buy the give-away rights to or something I developed from scratch. I’ll also give it to all active ASB members when it’s ready, so please let me know if you have any great ideas for what it could be by posting in the comments below.
Thanks for your help!
This is how all members of all affiliate programs / online businesses should be communicating with the owner of the company.
I am very impressed with this step for Affiliate Silver Bullet and the Internet Marketing Genius newsletter. I am really looking forward to the gift; he said it, it’s going to be great 
Sign up for the Internet Marketing Genius Newsletter
The Free Guided Tour of Affiliate Silver Bullet
Tags: dustin+struckman, affiliate+silver+bullet, internet+marketing+genius, newsletter
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Should You Buy Blog Comments?
You can use a service called CommentHunt to buy blog comments, it’s rather cheap, you only pay $19.99 for 100 comments on quality blogs, or $44.99 for 250 comments and $83.99 for 500 comments.
I am not sure how good the comments that you pay for really are, but they say that
CommentHunt.com has hired a group of experts who efficiently explore a list of blogs from a database program that we have developed for picking out relevant blogs in your niche. Further process involves reading through blog posts and leaving a logical comment that is valid for the blog post they read before. By doing this, their comments are always highly relevant and they won’t get deleted by the blogger/moderator. Therefore your backlink is found permanently there on the targeted blog and provides you more authority and influence in the search engine rankings.
At CommentHunt, We have a team experts who are highly trained in copywriting and effective communication. As a result, they obviously are fluent in spoken English and write blog comments very well. Their comments are always rational and don’t get removed by the blogger or moderator.
I believe that they are experts and that they comments are logical and they might even be perfect, but is this marketing trick really something different than spam?
You are paying a company to leave comments for you, and with a link back to your website. If they use your name, then I would characterize it as illegal, but if they are only using your website address, then it’s probably legal, and according to CommentHunt:
… Buying Blog Comments is 100% ethical and NOT spam! When you buy blog comments from us, we always provide you premium blog comments. Our experts don’t continuously leave silly and spammy stuff like “Good Blog, please visit my site”.. BuyComment.com’s blog comments are always logically relevant with the blog post that we are commenting on. They purely appear like completely natural comments written by someone just reading the blog post. Even you wont be able to distinguish our blog comments separately form others. In spite of this, most of the bloggers/moderators always love free comments to keep their web content fresh and their community alive.
I am not sure if I think it’s 100% ethical, but maybe. It looks like the experts over at CommentHunt will do research, and will read the posts and publish the comments, and they will provide the comments with the link to your website. So, it’s not that they are really telling the world (blogosphere) that you left the comment, they are just providing a link from the post to your website (at least I think that this is what’s happening).
I haven’t talked to anybody that have been using this marketing technique, so I am not sure if it actually works or not. But what I do know, is that leaving good and relevant comments on blogs do help for your traffic, and $19.95 for 100 quality comments, that sounds cheap to me.
What do you think? Should you be using a service like the one from CommentHunt?
Tags: comment+hunt, blog+comments, spam, internet+marketing, blogging
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Just released Traffic Bundle Firesale
If you are looking for good products that can help you bring lots of traffic and help you earn money as well, then you should take a look at the Traffic Bundle Firesale.
I discovered it yesterday, and if you want it, you should buy it today or tomorrow. That’s because it’s a firesale and the price will be higher on the 21 st of April.
The guy behind it is Barry Richardson, and he is providing some really interesting products. 17 products that all are regarding how to get more traffic to your website(s).
Just look at what you get for the $14.97 (if you buy it today or tomorrow):
Product 1: 750 Traffic Tactics Volume 1
Product 2: 750 Traffic Tactics Volume 2
Product 3: 750 Traffic Tactics Volume 3
Product 4: 750 Traffic Tactics Volume 4
Product 5: 750 Traffic Tactics Volume 5
Product 6: 750 Traffic Tactics Volume 6
Product 7: Traffic Hybrid System
Product 8: Traffic Generation Principles - Video Series
Product 9: Secret Traffic Code + 4 Bonus Videos
Product 10: Backlink Factory
Product 11: Traffic Mayhem
Product 12: Vital Viral - 18 Explosive Tactics
Product 13: Viral HTML
Product 14: Viral FTP
Product 15: Viral Zip
Product 16: Real World Traffic Strategies
Product 17: Traffic 2.0
It’s a great offer, and by the way, I am not an affiliate.
Tags: traffic+bundle+firesale, firesale, barry+richardson, internet+marketing, backlinks
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Virtual Smart Agent is Really Annoying
Sometimes very good marketing software can also be very annoying, and I find virtual smart agent to be really annoying.
I know for a fact that it works, and I understand why so many people have bought it when it launched just a short while ago.
The problem is that when you see it on almost every single sales page, and I have to do the two or three extra clicks on every single sales page I visit, just so I can exit the page, well, then it does something to me. I am probably exaggerating a lilttle, but it feels like I am seeing this piece of software all over the place.
If you don’t know about Virtual Smart Agent; I will give you a brief introduction. I realize that it won’t do this piece of software justice, but I will give it a try, just so you can have some information before you decide to visit the sales page and get this annoying little thing popping up as you leave (or try to leave).
And by the way, I am not an affiliate 
Virtual Smart Agent is a software that will pop up as you are trying to leave the website. It will be acting like a sales agent trying to chat with you and ask you all sorts of questions, just so you won’t leave the website and this virutal sales person will continue chat with you in order to convince you to buy whatever the website is offering. Everything this sales agent does and writes is fully automated. The owner will have to teach the software (the virtual sales agent) what to say and how to do the conversation. I am not sure if there are many predefined conversations, and if you really don’t have to do anything other than add a script to your website or not. I guess the Virtual Smart Agent sales page might answer that for you.
The only reason I find it annoying is that I know it’s virtual agent and not a real person, and I seem to be meeting this virtual agent on every single sales page I visit. They just keep popping up.
I understand how it can increase your online sales by 40%, but why did so many people have to buy it 
Tags: virtual+smart+agent, Dave+Guindon, internet+marketing
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World Famous Rock Band Hiding Their New Album
I just heard the news, that a world famous rock band is hiding their new album. Not that they haven’t told the public about the release, but they are hiding behind a different name. Just wait a second, and I will tell you which rock band I am talking about.
What I am more interested in is why they are doing it, and now, just a few days before release, they are telling the world that they are the band behind this new release. Is it all just a marketing trick?
The name of the new band is Foxboro Hot Tubs; they are about to release their first album, but the guys behind it are none other than Green Day. I am not sure if this is like a famous author using a psydonym? But usually, if a famous author uses a psydonym, it’s because he or she is writing a completely different story or in a different genre, and they don’t want their readers to know that he or she wrote the story. They want unbiased readers/reviews.
When a world famous rock band releases an album using an alias, I am thinking that it’s sort of difficult to hide behind it. And when they are going public with the real name of the band (well, the real name is still Foxboro Hot Tubs) before they have released the album, I am thinking that they did this because they want more attention to their new release or that they just want some feedback on their new songs before the public knew that it was Green Day that was really behind it.
My guess is that they did it because of the opportunity to get some quality feedback from music fans all over the world that didn’t give the feedback based on that it was world famous Green Day releasing the new songs. (Foxboro Hot Tubs have released six songs on their home page).
But I am only guessing.
Would this be something for a brand new release from an Internet marketing guru? This way, people will tell you their honest opinions about the system and only buying it if they really like the sales letter and the system, other than if it was some hot shot that made it.
What do you think?
Tags: green+day, foxboro+hot+tubs, psydonym, internet+marketing
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Thoughts about Harris Fellman and his 4 Minute Money
I have been reading so much stuff about 4 Minute Money, the latest Internet marketing system from Harris Fellman and his co-author Brian Koz, so, I just thought I’d share some of it with you.
What’s sort of funny is that all the e-mails I have received have been from people promoting it, and they all say that it’s a really awesome system, and that I can’t miss out, it’s sort of perfect. And I must admit 4 Minute Money, that would be great, if 4 Minutes is all it takes, then here I am, ready for my new marketing system.
On the other hand, I have been chatting with a few friends and I have been hanging around at various discussion forums, and they are all very sceptical. None of them really believe that it’s possible to earn money using Internet marketing in 4 minutes.
I must say that I agree. I have never found a method that could make me money in only 4 minutes, but we need to remember that this is Harris Fellman we are talking about. He has become sort of a celebrity in Internet marketing at rocket speed. He is one of the most creative guys in Internet marketing. If someone can come up with techniques to help you make money in only 4 minutes, well, I think he is the guy.
I am still sceptical though.
What I have for you today is the introduction to 4 Minute Money, it’s a completely free report, 30 pages that will take you inside what you really get if you decide to join up.
File Attachment: 4minute.pdf (330 KB)
Now, you can sit back and relax and read the 30–pages and see for yourself what this new Internet marketing system is all about. What I find amazing is that I first thought that this was only an e-book describing different 4 minute techniques, but it’s way more than that. You will actually get many top notch “scripts” when you join, just look at this list:
XConversions Keyword Tracker Yahoo Answers Alert (along with Video) Classifieds Watcher (Video) Link Cloaker (Video) Versus Keyword Generator (Video) Coupon Keyword Generator E-mail Form Creator with Stuffer Coupon Finder Coupon Link Pop-Up Cookie Cloaker/Stuffer Blogger SEO Tool Gmail Auto Reply Checker
You will have to see for yourself what the system really includes, because it’s a lot more than you probably can imagine.
According to the sales page, this is what you will discover if you buy 4 Minute Money:
How to have even the most sophisticated projects created for you… for free How to use robot like automation to bring in autopilot income (believe me, it’s not what you think) How to be an internet middleman… and rake in profits while other people do all the work How to make ridiculous profits… without ever asking anyone to pay you a single penny How to use “unconventional” traffic tactics to steal traffic from the search engines… even if you hate SEO! A series of step-by-step videos that explain in detail exactly how to get started… there’s even hope for non-techies! But we didn’t stop there.
I really like the sales page, the graphics are awesome (no wonder, they are using the guys at Graphic Maverics) and the copywriting is really something to be proud of.
Back to the disucussion forums; I mentioned that everybody was sceptical and didn’t believe in the 4 Minute Money system. Some, said some really nasty stuff and some considered it as scam. Now, Brian Koz (the co-author) have just replied, and he said some really interesting stuff:
Just a quick note here. I actually am the co-author of 4 Minute Money — the methods in it are ones that I personally used to get started in making money online. The scripts that come in the membership site are truly some of the most amazing you’ll see out there.
Some of the comments here seem a bit silly, as the guide was JUST RELEASED TODAY so it is fresh.
Don’t think you can make money in four minutes? THAT’S a lie. There are so many legit ways of making money online, and not all of them have to take weeks to months to implement. Instead of investing all of your time and money into the next big thing, focus on several methods that are proven to work, make logical sense, and don’t take a ton of time or money to do — that’s the basis of 4 Minute Money.
Will some take more than 4 minutes? Sure. Just like some people I know take a half hour to type up a single paragraph — others get it done in a minute or two.
I stand behind the product because it’s truly the very methods that got me started that I still use today. I didn’t need a bunch of JV’s, huge mailing lists, etc. to be successful online — nor do you.
If you try it out, feel free to contact me and I’ll be happy to assist you. If not, make sure you don’t just assume that everything is the same old crap. This was created to be new and fresh and to break away from the same old stuff you get taught every day by others.
Take care,
Brian
P.S. To the guy who said the guide was “shit,” I find his words hard to believe. He mentioned that BEFORE the guide was even available to the public. If he shows me proof that he actually bought it before (impossible), I’ll give him $50 to put his words to the test.
I think what Brian wrote says it all.
I am not sure if I am going to join or not. The price is rather high, maybe not if you think about all the stuff you get, but it’s not something you just buy because you are a little curious. And I still have the problem with time, as I have two major projects at the moment.
Download the free “sneak peak” of 4 Minute Money
What do you think of 4 Minute Money, is it possible to make money in just 4 minutes?
Tags: harris+fellman, brian+koz, 4+minute+money, internet+marketing
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Freakin cool tool and awesome traffic man
I am still sober and nothing’s wrong, really. My headline just sort of popped out, but at the same time, it’s meant to make you curious about the Internet marketing tool I am testing right now.
I bet you have heard of it, and I bet you might have tried it as well. I have tried it for quite some time, and I have received a lot of traffic from it as well, but at the same time, I have had my ups and downs. Right now, I am not receiving hardly any traffic at all from…
StumbleUpon (if you are already using SU, you are welcome to add me as your friend)
Yes, the famous web 2.0 site, where you vote / stumble the websites of other members and their favorite websites/posts, and you interact with other members as well. It’s a freakin cool tool that can bring you awesome traffic. You just need to know how to use it.
I didn’t know how to use it, I was more or less stumblin’ my own posts, and that didn’t work for long. You need to know that there is a ratio, somewhere deep inside StumbleUpon. You need to stumble a lot more websites owned by other people than the number of times you stumble your own website(s).
I have no idea about the actual ratio, I didn’t count. And I have read so many different numbers, so I am not going to guess.
Right now, I am just receiving a blank page everytime I try to stumble my own posts. I have read somewhere that my lack of knowledge can even hurt my traffic from StumbleUpon when my visitors stumble my blogposts.
Too bad, but I am happy anyway, because I read somewhere that it’s not permanent.
And as soon as Caroline Middlebrook will release her StumbleRush, the very interesting course about how to use StumbleUpon (it’s completely free), I hope that it will be the last time I ever see my blank page at StumbleUpon and that I will be back with high traffic again.
Tags: stumbleupon, web+2.0, stumblerush, caroline+middlebrook, stumble
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I will tell you why they are leaving
You have your website and you are looking for people to buy something from it before they leave. You might be using your website to promote clickbank products, or you might be an affiliate of any company really, the fact is that every website (even yours) has a lot more shoppers than buyers.
I thought that you might want to know some of the top reasons why your visitors don’t always become customers, and some suggestions for how you can improve your webiste.
Ease of use. Shopper’s don’t spend time trying to navigate a confusing website, a website that’s too difficult to use , or one that requires too many clicks to complete a transaction. Business owners can encourage shoppers to finalize sales by simplifying the process. Buttons, especially “add to cart” and “proceed to checkout”, are best displayed prominently, preferably above the fold. Changing quantities, colors, and adding and removing items or changing shipping method should be easy to accomplish. Check-out instructions should be clear and simple. Customers appreciate the efficiency and respect for their time that a smooth purchase experience provides.
Functionality. Websites that don’t work the way they should will not only lose sales, but discourage future visits from potential customers. It may be worth the investment to hire a knowledgeable webmaster to design and maintain the storefront and shopping cart. A smooth-running website not only increases sales, but will also help the business owner to focus on other activities that can ultimately lead to more traffic and more conversions.
Availability of information. Is an item in stock? How soon will it ship? What is the cost? What shipping and payment methods are available? Consumers are more likely to complete a sale when they are provided with sufficient information to answer all their questions about a product or service. Providing a FAQ page (frequently asked questions) is one way to provide answers. A convenient link to detailed information about specific products also helps. Many websites also include a contact form or live-help telephone number for customers with additional questions.
Credibility and security. Your website is really the only way to get your customer to trust you. Some ways to do this include:
providing a physical address, telephone number, and email address displaying the VeriSign or other certification authority logo clearly communicating the website’s privacy policy publishing an “About Us” page that explains the company or business owner’s background, objectives and accomplishments
Multiple payment methods. Businesses that accept multiple forms of payment show significantly higher sales. Accepting credit cards, whether by setting up a merchant account or by using a third-party service such as PayPal, is crucial. The benefit of using PayPal is that it also allows customers to pay by direct transfer from their checking accounts, providing yet another option.
If you put yourself in your customer’s shoes, you will develop insight and be positioned to make positive changes that can lead to higher conversions, increased revenues, and greater profits.
So, what do you think?
Tags: clickbank, buyers, business, affiliate+marketing, paypal
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Matt Bacak Retires and You Will Have to Pay Him $1
I just heard the news, Matt Bacak is about to retire and doing that he is releasing his brand new Internet Marketing system. Well, it’s more like he is releasing it to the public. His seminar is not brand new, because his been doing them for a while, but if you don’t know about them, they are suppose to be among the best.
You will get access to his $5500 Internet Marketing seminar for $1.
Now, according to his sales page, you will get:
Total access to his $5,500 seminar. Access to his quarterly customer appreciation seminars. A Free issue of the Internet Marketing DIRT Print Newsletter. The Magnetic List Machine Direct mail/direct response vendor list His recommended affiliate programs (in all kinds of markets). and a lot more….
Do you want to pay Matt his $1?
I am not an affiliate, so I am not earning any commissions for telling you about this. And I am not sure if I will join up and pay him his $1, even though I know I probably should, because learning directly from Matt Bacak is a really big opportunity. But I don’t have much time, and that’s because I am about to launch a new blog and I am writing my first e-book, so I guess I have to wait and see if this offer is still available when I get more time.
I just hate buying stuff and having to just let them stay at my desk or in my computer waiting for me to have the time.
Do you want to pay Matt his $1?
I have actually heard that the $1 will go to charity.
Tags: matt+bacak, Internet+marketing, seminar, direct+mail, affiliate+programs
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What I suggest you do
I have been receiving a lot of questions about Affiliate Silver Bullet lately, and especially about their new version. I am actually not sure if I like the new version or not, I am still thinking about it.
My advice to you, if you are thinking about joining Affiliate Silver Bullet (ASB), is to join the new version as a free member first. Stay as a free member for a couple of weeks, maybe even three weeks, and then decide whether you think this version of ASB will help you earn money or not.
So, how do you become a free member of Affiliate Silver Bullet?
Well, you can pay as a regular member and then ask for a refund if you don’t like the system. They have the 30–day full money back guarantee, and it works, you will get your money back. But that’s not what I have in mind.
I would like you to join the IMGeni.us blog of the owner of ASB, that’s Dustin Struckman, because the new version of ASB is all about his Internet Marketing blog.
If you join his newsletter on the IMGeni.us blog, you will see how you are going to make money with the new version. The new version is all about sending traffic to the IMGeni.us blog and Dustin Struckman does everything from there on. You will not have to do anything at all. It’s 110 % automated, like it or not.
If you become a free subscriber of his newsletter and you will receive a few offers during the 2/3 weeks. If you don’t like the way he writes or his offers or for whatever reason you don’t like it, then my advice to you is not to join Affiliate Silver Bullet. If you do like it, and you think that the sales letters from Dustin Struckman can help you make a lot of cash, then you might want to consider joining.
Even though there is a new version of Affiliate Silver Bullet, you will still have access to all the bullets and the “old” system. So there is really two ways to earn money, with the old system and the new system. So far, I think I like the old version better, but I hope Dustin proves me wrong.
Subscribe to the Internet Marketing Newsletter at IMGeni.us
Tags: affiliate+silver+bullet, dustin+struckman, affiliate+marketing
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The Most Interesting Marketing System of Week 16
I had a few interesting thoughts during the weekend, and one of them was to start a new series of posts called “The Most Interesting Marketing System”. I am going to be posting each monday, about the most interesting marketing system that I have discovered (or someone discovered for me) during the past week.
It doesn’t have to be a marketing system that I have joined or tried or even one that I am going to be earning commissions from.
It will just be a marketing system that I have read about, heard a lot of good things about, or viewed some instructional videos about. I will let you know why I find it the most interesting marketing system of the week.
… and, it doesn’t have to be launching during that week, what matters to me, is that I have discovered it (or someone else discovered it and told me about it) during that week.
The reason I am going to do this series of posts is that there are so many new marketing systems launching every single week, and it must be very hard to chose which system to buy or join, because we can’t buy them all.
I am not sure if you should consider this to be a guide or not, but it’s really just my personal opinion about what marketing system I found to be most interesting during the past week.
So, let’s get started with my first “The Most Interesting Marketing System Of The Week” post.
During week 16, the past week, I have received a lot of information about new systems and I have to pick one that stands out from the crowd. It’s a tough one, but my pick for the past week is:
The reason is simple. It’s a six week marketing course and the guys behind it are celebrities in the Internet Marketing world; Dr. Mike and Howie Schwartz.
What you will learn during the six weeks (in their own words):
Week One: You Need to Generate Cash Quickly — What do you do?
Week Two: Discovering lucrative niches that are untapped and unexploited.
Week Three: List Building done on the fly - and on the cheap!
Week Four: Income Strategies: Adsense… CPA’s… Affiliate Programs… It ALL WORKS!
Week Five: Black Hat Strategies for TRAFFIC… Web 2.0 properties that nobody knows about…
Week Six: Going offline to hit pay-dirt online!
To me this looks interesting, and being able to learn from Dr. Mike and Howie Schwartz is always interesting. And that’s why The Black Box Bootcamp is the most interesting marketing system of week 16.
I have not joined it and I am not earning commission, I just find it very interesting.
Tags: Internet+Marketing, Black+box+bootcamp, dr+mike, howie+schwartz
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Using Facebook For Your Own Web Conference
Is it possible to use Facebook, the free and very popular social network, for your own online conference? If you think about it, maybe Facebook is the ultimate web conference? Let me try to explain.
But first, what is a web conference really?
The Internet has brought forth some very useful innovations for small business owners. It provides many ways to make communication quicker and easier between the businessperson and clients, prospects, or partners. One of these useful innovations is web conferencing.
Web conferencing is a way for people to communicate and collaborate from their computers. There is no travel necessary, and planning is much easier than it would be for a face-to-face meeting. A web conference is convenient for all parties involved, because there is no need to extensively rearrange your schedule to attend.
Web conferences usually include some form of online communication, such as a chat room or instant messaging, utilizing either text or voice. They may also incorporate video, in which case it would be considered a video conference. It’s also possible to coordinate the online meeting with a conference call. This is good for participants who may not have a microphone or a fast, reliable connection to participate in voice chat.
What purposes can web conferencing serve?
Web conferences can work well for a variety of meeting types. Some companies hold online expos with multiple presenters that are relevant to their target markets. Others use web conferencing to get service providers together to collaborate on projects. They are also handy for employee or contractor training when the employees or contractors are not in close physical proximity.
Communication with prospective customers or partners is another application that is well suited to web conferencing. Presentations can be held online through chat sessions, and points illustrated through a website or slideshow. You can also use video, either live or recorded, to present products or ideas.
What about those who can’t attend?
Even though web conferences are less expensive and more convenient to attend than those held at a physical location, there may be some people who can’t attend. But this group doesn’t have to be completely out of the loop. You can offer information from the conference for download.
Audio files from phone calls, video from the conference, and chat or instant message transcripts can be posted to your website for download. Those who weren’t there won’t get the opportunity to ask questions in a group setting, but they can benefit from the information that is there. If you’re charging for admittance to the conference or going for an air of exclusivity, however, it may be best not to post transcripts, audio or video.
Web conferencing has come a long way in a few short years, and it will undergo more changes as time goes on. But it is already becoming quite popular among business owners. Web conferencing can allow you to take your business to a global level without leaving your office.
So, how can Facebook be the ultimate tool for web conferences?
First of all, Facebook is extremely popular. Most people I know are using it, and most people who are involved in Internet Marketing and some sort of online business are using it. So, if we could use Facebook for web conferences, they wouldn’t need to download anything new, they would already be familiar with the community and the tools they are going to use.
As I wrote in an earlier post, Facebook has launched their own real-time chat client. I am not sure if more than two people can use it to communicate, but if it’s anything like MSN, and hopefully it is, a group of people can use it for a web conference.
You can easily use Facebook to invite people to an event, like if you are going to hold a web conference. This way, it will be easy to communicate about everything regarding the event (the web conference) before it will actually happen, you can send mass messages to all the people who have accepted the invitation.
Now, when it’s time to hold the web conference, would it be possible to use pages at Facebook? Well, I am not really sure. Pages is almost like interactive communicate. You could use it for all the relevant information regarding the web conference, publish links, video, audio or what ever type of information you want to share. You could then communiate almost in real-time with your members using your pages wall. They can use the mini-feed, and while your web conference is live, your members can write posts on their blogs and it will show at the conference page at Facebook if you just import them using the mini feed.
Facebook is indeed a very interesting choice when it comes to web conferences, I have never tried it, and I am not sure if anybody have tried it so far. But I know that it can be used and that it probably will be used sometime really soon.
Is Facebook the ultimate tool for web conferences?
Tags: facebook, web+conference, communication, chat, social+networks
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Will A Gift Make You Subscribe?
I have been subscribing to Time Magazine for a while, but a few months ago I decided not to subscribe anymore. I still enjoy Time, but I just haven’t got the time to read all the magazines. I receive one each week, and it’s packed with information. I always end up putting them on my desk, and now I have probably 20 magazines just waiting to be read.
So, I decided not to subscribe anymore, and a few weeks after my decisison, all the interesting stuff started to happen to me.
I have received many “new” offers, and they are all supposed to give me higher discounts, and they all say they are limited and that I have to hurry or I have to pay the regular price.
A few days ago I received another interesting offer from Time Magazine, it was one of those with massive discounts and they even gave me a free personal organiser if I continued my subscription on a yearly basis (or more).
Sounds cool, but will a gift make me subscribe?
Tags: time+magazine, gifts, subscription, personal+organiser
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Should Your Really Be Using Comment Kahuna?
I have just been looking at the video over at Comment Kahuna, and I must say that I am impressed with the software.
What it does is that it helps you find the top ranking (PR) blogs in whatever category or keyword niche you like. It searches the Internet, I am not sure, but I think it uses Google. And you can fill in your comments for the keywords first and save them, and then you find all the top blogs and it takes a few seconds on each blog to leave your comment.
This is a great way to build backlinks from blogs with high page rank, something you really should want because this will get you higher in the search engines and it will get you more traffic.
But, I am not going to be using Comment Kahuna, and I will tell you why.
With this software, you will most likely be publishing general comments, it seems that the software is based upon you writing the comments before you find the blogs and then you just click the button to leave the same comment on many blogs, if this is going to work and not be considered as spam, you need to leave general comments.
I don’t like general comments. I like my comments to be helpful, even though I realize that they might not be all the time. I leave comments that I think will be encouraging the writer to write more like the post I just left a comment on, or that the writer will learn something from my comment. With a general comment, I won’t be able to do that, at least not in the same way as I am doing at the moment.
With Comment Kahuna, I would probably be leaving identical comments on many blogs. That’s not who I am. I like to be different, and I like to read the story and leave a comment related to the story. I am not going to spread identical comments all over the blogosphere.
And finally, I like to follow up all my comments. What if the author of the post will reply to my comment? With Comment Kahuna, I will never see the reply. Most likely I will not be coming back to the blogs I am leaving comments on. I will never be able to follow up on the comments and I will not be enjoying the conversation.
Today, I am using co.mments to track all my comments and to help me be in the conversation. Hopefully, Comment Kahuna will add a feature like this in their next version, if they do, I will probably review my decision to not use it.
With Comment Kahuna I would only be leaving comments for the sake of traffic, but that being said, I believe that you can get a lot of traffic by using Comment Kahuna 
Tags: comment+kahuna, co.mments, blogosphere, backlinks, internet+marketing
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Now You Can Use Facebook Chat
This week you can start chatting using Facebook. From before, you could communicate with your friends by sending messages to their inbox, and by poking them and by posting messages on their walls. None of these services are in real-time.
I think it’s very interesting to have the possibility to chat using Facebook instead of MSN or AIM or whatever other service I have been using earlier. I am still using MSN on a daily basis, and sometimes I am using Google Talk (maybe once a month or so).
A lot of people seems to be losing interest in Facebook, but they are still one of the largest social networks and they are still growing, with more than 70 million active users as I am writing this.
I am not sure if the real-time chat is live yet or not. According to their blog it should be working sometime during this week, but according to some of their users, the chat application is not working yet.
I think that this might be the real-time chat application we are waiting for.
But What do I expect from the Facebook Chat and why should I start using it?
The programmers at Facebook are top notch, and I expect the new application to be among the best chat softwares around. I am not expecting that it will have the coolest features around, that might be because I don’t really care about cool features. I want it to be the best at what I want it to do, I want to be able to chat with my contacts at Facebook and I want it to be able to send attachments, that’s probably all I really want.
Many of my friends are not using chat software, but many of them are members of Facebook. This way, it will be possible to get them to start using chat as a way to communicate. They don’t have to register for a new service, they just need to do the one-click-install.
Another reason that I think that the new chat application is very interesting is that it can be used for marketing purposes and not only to be communicating with your friends.
I have a problem with Facebook; many of my real friends are members and I have some contact with them using it (not much though), and many people with similar interests as mine are my friends on Facebook. If I start to use Facebook purely as a way to market my business, I would also be showing all my friends what I am doing, and I really don’t want my real friends to be part of my marketing lifestyle (if I can call it that).
So, to me Facebook is a two-faced-monster (well, maybe not a monster, but it sounded cool). On the one side, it’s all my real friends doing whatever friends are doing, on the other hand I have people interested in marketing.
With this new real-time chat, I think it might be easier to communicate with all the people who are interested in marketing, and I might be using Facebook more as a way to get people to visit my blog and to share my views on marketing.
By the way, I am accepted all my visitors to my blog as friends on Facebook. Just visit my profile and add me as a friend, and if you like what I am writing, please leave a comment, but that’s optional of course.
Tags: facebook, chat, marketing, google+talk, social+networks
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Cool New Features in Micro Niche Finder version 3
If you don’t know about Micro Niche Finder, you should read my thoughts the day I bought the software. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll discover if you start using it. I have been using it almost every single day since I bought it.
Now, this is not really a sales letter, I am writing because the new version of Micro Niche Finder will be released soon (maybe as soon as next week). I know that I have told you that earlier, but hopefully this time it’s true. The reason I think it’s true this time, is because I have now downloaded the new version myself. I got access to it just a few hours ago.
Check out this video of Micro Niche Finder version 3
I have discovered a few new exciting things I’d like to tell you about. You can see them demonstrated in the video, but I will tell you about them anyway.
You have two new buttons, one for hot trends and one for brainstorm. Hot trends searches google for the hottest trends, and you can find out what are the hottest trends and why. This will give you an idea about what is really hot right now. If you click on brainstorm, you will just get a lot of keywords and keyphrases. You can just keep on clicking and you will get new keywords and keyphrases every time you click. This button is very helpful if you need new ideas.
Check out this video of Micro Niche Finder version 3
The import and export functions is also a lot better in the new version of Micro Niche Finder.
If you like, you can also change to a completely different Google database. You can find keywords for the Norwegian database or the UK database, this will help you get different keywords than if you just did a search at the US database.
There might be other new functions at the new version of Micro Niche Finder, but I have only watched the video and tested the new version for about 30 minutes. Anyways, James Jones has done a great job and I really like his free upgrade for life policy.
Tags: niche+micro+finder, james+jones, niche+marketing, software
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Only Two Ways To Track A Newspaper Advertisment?
A lot of companies are still using advertisments in newspapers for content and products that can only be purchased online.
I find it interesting, and for all that I know it might work very well for certain types of products and services.
But how do you track visitors that comes to your website from reading the advertisement in the newspaper?
It’s very important to track visitors, especially for advertisment campaigns. Or how can you know if a campaign is successful or not?
For online advertisements it’s rather easy to track who’s visiting your website after clicking on the advertisements. Most of the time, if you use a large website or a network for your advertisements, they will even track it for you and provide detailed reports. If you have to do it yourself, you could use a tracking software and combine it with Google Analytics (or any other web statistics).
But how do you track newspaper advertisements?
It’s not as easy, but it can be done and it’s really not that difficult. But as far as I can think of, at least right here, right now, I can only come up with two ways to track visitors from newspaper advertisements.
First, you can give out a discount code or a unique code in the newspaper advertisement. When they visit your website, they will have to type in that code in order to get a discount. This way, you will know that they have read the advertisment and that this was the reason they visited your website and bought your product.
Second, you could use a different landing page for the url in the newspaper advertisement. All your visitors to this landing page have to have come from reading the newspaper advertisement, because you haven’t promoted the landing page anywhere else. You can use different domain names to make it easier to remember and easier to type the url.
There are probably other ways to track newspaper advertisments, but do you know any other ways?
Tags: newspaper, advertisement, track, statistics
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Look out for Stumpedia
Thanks to Sergey at TechWeb Media I am looking at and testing the first human powered social search engine. And I really like what I have seen so far from Stumpedia.
It’s a search engine, but instead of the spider from Google, Yahoo or any of the other major search engines, this is powered by people, like you and me. We can all submit sites and recommend sites for specific keywords and phrases, and like web 2.0 sites (digg, reddit, propeller), we can rank the websites at Stumpedia.
I guess this means that instead of like Google uses their pagerank and all sorts of algorithms to give you the spot in their serp (search engine rank page), Stumpedia trust people to rank the sites.
But is that all there is to it?
I am not sure.
You have to sign up in order to submit links to Stumpedia, and you need to sign up in order to vote on websites. Only members will get access, non-members can use it as a search engine, that’s all.
I have been testing Stumpedia for searching, and for some keywords there are not much information. For instance, I searched for Facebook and I received one website, I searched for protein and it didn’t come up with anything.
At this very moment, Stumpedia has 3,127 links, 593 members and over 3,500 search terms.
Even though Stumpedia is not that big yet, it has the potential of becoming a major player among the search engines – the only question remains, do you trust your friends to vote for the most relevant websites?
We need to trust the community at Stumpedia to come up with the top websites, and that it won’t become just another web 2.0 site packed with spammers and golddiggers out to get their own websites to the top.
Personally, I think that the biggest problem for Stumpedia is how to sget the relevant and important websites with great content to the top, instead of entertaining websites with cool and funny content.
I can give you an example.
If you do a search for George Bush, you will get three results. The one at the top is a funny YouTube video, and the next two are facts about George Bush sr and jr at wikipedia. If you compare this to the identical search in Google, the top two are the pages from wikipedia, and the YouTube video is at number 8.
What happens when people starts to submit more funny videos of George Bush? There are a lot of funny videos about this guy, and suddenly, the facts and the important information regarding the President of the United States of America is nowhere to be found.
I am just guessing here, and I hope I am not right.
I will continue to use Stumpedia to see how well it develops, you never know what will happen, but one thing’s for sure – Look out for Stumpedia.
Tags: search+engines, stumbpedia, web+2.0, george+bush
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Solutions to the Problem with Online Teleconferences
If you are thinking about using online teleconferences for your business, a great marketing tool by the way, you should really think about long-distance charges before you begin.
The online conference call has become a big deal among businesses and Internet marketers, and for good reason. It can be used for many purposes, and it offers almost as much functionality as you would have at a live event - without the travel. It is also much less expensive than a regular conference.
Think about your customers and what some of their biggest concerns are, usually one of their concerns are related to money. At least if you are in the business of Internet narketing.
Think about the price of long-distance calls for a second.
This can be prohibitive not only to the company, but also to those who call in. It is a valid concern, because many would-be callers may be hesitant to participate because they fear that their phone bills will skyrocket.
Fortunately, there are several possible solutions to this problem.
Here are some options to consider:
Use voice chat. This saves both the presenter and the participants money, because there is no need to make a phone call. The audio is transmitted over the Internet connection. Many online conferencing programs come with audio chat, so you don’t incur any extra costs when you use it.
There are some drawbacks to this approach, however. Participants will need a microphone and speakers to participate fully, and there is no guarantee that every participant will have those. Users with slow Internet connections may also have trouble listening and being heard.
Use Skype. Skype is a program that is free to download, and it has a voice chat client. If your conferencing software doesn’t have voice chat, Skype will provide a way for you and your callers to communicate with one another. The same drawbacks that apply to the voice chat component of online conferencing software apply here.
Get VoIP. VoIP is a good option if you want to use a phone line but are concerned about your own long distance costs. VoIP providers can afford to offer free long distance because they transmit voices in a way similar to that of an Internet connection. If you prefer traditional long-distance, many long-distance providers are now offering unlimited long-distance for a flat monthly rate.
Offer a toll-free number for your callers to use. There are affordable conferencing options that allow you to offer your callers a toll-free number to use. A quick online search will bring up some options. Keep in mind, however, that such services often put a limit on the number of callers that can participate, or charge extra for more than a specified number of callers.
I am actually not sure how the toll-free number works for people outside your country. To me, the toll-free number is something that I have only experienced in the US. Would it apply to me as I am living in Norway?
Long-distance charges shouldn’t be an obstacle to having a successful online conference. There are lots of options out there to reduce your costs, as well as costs to those who call in. By using these options, you can allocate your budget toward other aspects of the conference and give more callers the opportunity to participate.
Tags: skype, voip, teleconferences, conferences, toll+free+number, voice+chat
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Will the lightbox feature help me get more subscribers?
I have been wanting a lightbox popover for quite some time, and I actually thought about buying a scipt a while ago, just so I could test it.
The reason I want to test it, is that I think the lightbox effect is very cool and it will get a lot of attention to your subscription form.
Now, finally, AWeber has integrated the lightbox effect. I don’t have to buy it, and I have already started to test it.
To be honest with you, I started about 5 minutes ago 
(it took me about two minutes to think of the content I am using for the popover, and it took me 15 seconds to write it – I will have to rewrite it tomorrow)
What do you think, will the lightbox feature help me get more subscribers?
The popover will only show once for every visitor, so if you have just seen it, you will never see it again (unless I am testing again, and I ted to do that quite often).
Tags: aweber, listbuilding, popover, lightbox+effect, newsletter
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Should You Consider The Switch?
If you have ever considered using a similar name as someone famous, and you didn’t do it, well, you might want to reconsider it.
If you have a business, and you want people to notice you, you could use a name that they already know. Well, you can almost use a name that they already know. Using the exact same name or close to identical name as a famous person or a company (or stealing their logo), that’s illegal. But you can probably find a way to do, it’s not that hard, if you really want to, you’ll find a way.
Misspelled domain names is business for a lot of people.
Anyway, the reason I am writing this post is that I just read a funny story in a Norwegian newspaper about a huge mistake (sorry, it’s in only in Norwegian).
A music festival in Norway thought they had booked Earth, Wind & Fire, and they had, well, almost. The band they booked was really Earth, Wind & Fire Experience with Al McCay & his Allstars.
That’s an honest mistake.
I don’t think that I will suggest that you make the switch to a new name for yourself or your business, because I really don’t think you will benefit from people thinking about someone else when they are contacting you.
You never know, but some of them might actually get rather upset 
Tags: earth+wind+fire, misspelled+domain, amusing, music
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Encourage business by using discounts
If you are in the store or at the supermarket, and if you are like me, you are looking for the discounts - you are looking for the red price or the yellow price or whatever code they might have. We all want to save a few bucks when possible.
Now, this has also become more and more available on the Internet as well. If you are running your own website, you could use discounts in order to earn more money and get more satisfied customers.
What I am saying is; you can use discounts as a way of promoting your business.
Here are five reasons that creating discount can benefit your business:
Bring in new customers. When a consumer is ready to buy and knows of multiple sources for the product, price is often the deciding factor. Consumers are attracted to a good deal. Offering a discount code to new customers provides an added reason to shop at a particular website over all other options.
Encourage repeat business. Satisfied customers will be more likely to shop again when they are reminded to do so, and given a compelling reason to return. A special discount code can be sent via email at specific intervals as a thank-you for past purchases and to encourage repeat business.
Increase order size. Time-limited offers create a sense of urgency and give customers a reason to buy more than they originally intended. Discount codes can be offered for a percentage off the purchase price of a second item, for example, or for free shipping on orders totaling a specific amount.
Tracking. Gathering data on customer trends is imperative for every etailer. Issuing separate discount codes for different mailings, website promotions and affiliate partners, for instance, provides important information on where customers come from and which marketing campaigns are most effective. This data can then be used to make decisions about future marketing programs.
Control inventory flow. Physical stores manage inventory flow by marking down items they want to move. Online storefronts can use discount codes for the same purpose. The discount can be offered across the board, or used to bring in new customers with an interest in that particular product category, or sent to previous customers who bought similar products.
There are several ways discounts can be applied. Etailers generally offer a set dollar amount off the normal price of a product, a percentage off the price of a single item, a discount on the order total, or free shipping on orders that exceed a minimum dollar amount.
Discount offers can be extended through a number of vehicles. They can be posted on the landing page of the storefront. They can be emailed to select past or potential customers. They can be introduced on the order summary page to encourage the customer to add items to the shopping cart. Or they can be listed at sites such as currentcodes.com or dealhunting.com.
Many etailers determine the effectiveness of their marketing strategies by tracking the use of discount codes. The information can help businesses achieve the highest possible ROI and sales at the best available rates.
Now it’s your turn. How can you offer your customers discounts on your product in order to promote your business?
Tags: discount, etailer, customer, internet+marketing
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Use A Yahoo Voice Account For Your Business
Remember, a few days ago I wrote a post about Skype and free pc to phone calling. Well, Skype is not a way to call for free from your computer to a regular telephone. You can use Skype for the call, but you will have to pay rather low rates.
Now, I am going to write about Yahoo voice. It’s similar to Skype, but also a little different.
Yahoo voice is a low cost alternative to phone communication. A yahoo voice account enables users to make calls to landlines and mobile phones from their PC. Yahoo offers several options including a phone out account which gives users the ability to call from their computer and a phone in account which gives users the ability to receive calls at their PC. Yahoo messenger also gives users the ability to send and receive text messages.
As I did with the post about Skype, I will give you instructions on how to set up a yahoo voice account.
Step 1. Visit http://voice.yahoo.com. You’ll see a menu that gives you an option of choosing phone out, phone in and how much you want to purchase. Yahoo Voice is a prepaid service. You can choose between $10 or $25. Before you can sign up for a yahoo voice account you’ll need to become a yahoo member. At the top of the page you’ll see a sign up button. Click on it and it’ll take you to a basic account set up page that requires your name, email, and password setup. Once you’ve completed that step, you can signup for Yahoo Voice.
Step 2. Here’s how to sign up for the Phone Out option:
In the main Messenger window, click the Phone Out button below your name. The Subscribe to Yahoo! Voice window will open. Select a prepaid amount, then click the Sign Up button.
Step 3. The Yahoo! Voice Phone Out web page will open and you’ll be prompted to pay for your credit towards your Phone Out service. Once you’re finished paying for your credit, you’ll see your Phone Out balance displayed below your name. This amount will update after each call made.
Step 4. Select your preferences including your country and click the OK button to close the window.
Step 5. Now you can begin making calls!
Tags: skype, yahoo+voice, communication, mobile+phone
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How To Get People To Open Verification Emails
I have been kind of struggling for a while regarding how to get people to actually open up my verification emails and verifying their subscriptions.
Ok, I should probably be more specific and less cryptic.
I have a newsletter, or more like many interesting reports, that I am sending to people using my autoresponder. AWeber is the system I am using, if you are interested. The newsletter is called Internet Marketing Tips, and you can join it at the top of my blog.
Anyway.
If you want to receive “Internet Marketing Tips” you need to verify your subscription, by opening up an e-mail from me and then clicking a link inside the e-mail. This is done to reduce spam, and so that nobody can sign you up for a newsletter you don’t want.
It’s two-step-process. You sign up using your name and your e-mail address. A few minutes later, you receive an e-mail where you are told to verify that you want to sign up for the newsletter, and that the e-mail address you used to sign up is actually yours.
I have been looking at the stats in AWeber for a while and I see that a lot of people have signed up for “Internet Marketing Tips”, and many are verifying their e-mail addresses, but a lot of people are not doing that.
I am thinking. Why are so many people not verifying their subscription? Is it because they are not receiving my e-mails, maybe many people will only get them in their spam folders? Or maybe it’s because a lot of people changed their mind, and don’t want the reports? Or is my message, the headline and the rest of the e-mail I am sending out to verify their subscription not good enough?
I am thinking that it might be the headline. Most people interested in Internet Marketing are on many lists, and they receive a lot of e-mails every single day. If the headline is not appealing, then they just won’t open up the e-mail and they won’t verify the subscription.
The e-mail from AWeber is being sent automatically, and it might take a few minutes after the visitor hit the subscription button. A few minutes after they have hit the button, they might be all over the Internet doing something completely different. They might have forgotten all about “Internet Marketing Tips” and when they receive an uninteresting headline, they just hit delete.
So, what I have decided to do is to do some testing. I am trying various headlines, each headline for a week at a time. This way, I can which one gets the most verifications. Right now, I am using the standard one from AWeber, as I think this one is a headline many people are familiar with and one that will get most people’s attention.
The headline is this:
RESPONSE REQUIRED: Confirm your request for information from {!listname}@ aweber.com
What do you think, are you having success with a different headline?
Tags: aweber, listbuilding, autoresponder, e-mail, headline
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I am writing an e-book and I need your help
I am excited, I am all set to write my first e-book. If you read my post yesterday, you already know about my latest project. It will take a while, but I have started writing, and the graphics for the website and the ecover and banners and so on will be ready in less than 14 days.
Wow.
Now, I need your help with the content.
I am writing about Internet Marketing failure, and the e-book is all about failure, it will be nothing related to the stories of success. I need sad stories, stories about people who have struggled to make it, people who have spent hours after hours every single day trying to find the perfect business, and people who have spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars on their quest for success… and they ended up with hardly anything at all.
OK, if you think that you have failed (so far), but you don’t have the really sad story. I still need your help. I want as many people as possible to fill out the interview form, that would make my job so much easier.
And by the way, the e-book will be completely free.
Now, I am going to try to explain the questions in the interview form.
1. Name: write your first name or both your first name and surname. It’s your choice. You don’t even have to use your real name, but this will be the name I will use in the book.
2. Email: this is how I will contact you if I need more information
3. Website: this is the website where people can read more about who you are and what you do (please don’t use an affiliate link)
4. Country: this is the country where you live (if you were born somewhere else, you could include that one as well)
5. Age: how old you are
6. How do you define failure: Failure is a very difficult word to define, I think that it’s very individual. Failure for you might be something completely different than failure for one of the top gurus of Internet Marketing. Tell me what you believe failure is to you (when it comes to Internet Marketing).
7. Did you have a goal: The question is really; “did you have any goals when you started with Internet Marketing?” If you had a goal or several goals, you can answer yes. If not, answer no. By goals, I mean something like, “I am looking to earn a profit in 6 months” or maybe a more specific goal, “I am going to have 1000 unique visitors a day after 6 months of Internet Marketing”.
8. What was your goal: If you had a goal, please tell me about it. If you didn’t have one, you don’t need to answer this question. I am not saying that it’s wrong not to have a goal, but it’s easier to say that you failed if you had a goal. This way you can measure failure easier.
9. Why do you think you failed: I want a short story, or maybe just some keywords. It’s all up to you. Tell me what happened, what did you do? What did you focus on when it comes to Internet Marketing. Do you know why you failed? Sometimes it’s really difficult to say what the reason was, so I am really just looking for “what did you do?” Tell me how you spent your money or how you spent your days, what exactly did you do on your computer…
10. Are you successful today: You might have failed in the past, but did you continue anyway, and do you consider yourself successful at Internet Marketing today? You only need to answer yes or no.
11. Comments: If you have any comments on the project, please do write. I would really enjoy suggestions, and thoughts about the e-book. And if you think I should add more questions to the interview, please tell me. If you think some of the questions needs to be deleted, please tell me.
I really want some feedback, don’t be shy… let me know what you think.
Tags: ebook, internet+marketing, failure, interview, e-book, author
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Are You Looking For Free PC To Phone Calling?
Think about what kind of benefits it would have for your business if you could have access to free PC to phone calling. Most of the time when you are calling other people regarding your business, you are probably online. If you could have the free pc to phone calling, you would not have to pay anything for calls, not even long distance or international calls.
It would be awesome.
I have been looking for a free PC to phone calling for a while, but I have ended up with systems where both parties have to be online at the same time. But on the other hand, I actually don’t need to be calling other people on their phones. I operate in the online world exclusively.
Anyway.
In a series of posts, I will be focusing on how to register for famous communication systems like Skype, Yahoo Voice, and Vonage. Systems that will give you free communication alternatives, or very low rates for long distance phone calls.
What I think is important, is that you use at least one instant messaging system or VoIP. Internet marketing is about communication, and you need to use great software, in order to reach out to likeminded people.
Today I will be talking about Skype. I will give you a brief introduction and instructions about how you can register with Skype.
What is Skype?
Skype is a piece of software that enables people from all around the world to communicate with each other for free via their computer. Skype to Skype calls are free however it isn’t all that you can use Skype for. Skype enables you to make inexpensive long distance phone calls, send text messages, video conference, forward phone calls and much more.
Skype is also a viable business tool, enabling free internal phone calls, text messages from your computer, and inexpensive calls to land lines and cell phones. Whether you own a business or would like to use it in your personal life, setting up a Skype Account is easy to do.
Here’s how:
Step 1: Visit www.skype.com and download the software onto your computer. There’s a big DOWNLOAD button so you can’t miss it.
Step 2. A window will open on your computer. Save the file SkypeSetup.exe. on your computer.
Step 3. Once the download is complete, open the Skype setup application. The setup wizard will launch guiding you through choices and settings for your computer.
Step 4. Your next step is to Start Skype.
Step 5. You’ll now be asked to create your account. It’ll ask for your name, Skype name, and password. It’ll then ask for an email address and location information.
Step 6. You’re now able to make Skype calls. You can also take a peek at their getting started guide which will walk you through making a test call and your first phone call. With Skype you can also import contacts from Hotmail, Yahoo, Outlook and more.
Skype can be the one stop communication solution for busy people who are tired of spending so much money on phone bills and text messages and using Skype is easy to do.
So, are you using Skype or planning to use Skype?
Tags: voip, skype, phone+calls, instant+message
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Why We Suck At Internet Marketing
I am about to write an e-book, and I would like your help. That is, only if you are not successful. I want to write the stories of 30 people who (so far) have failed at Internet Marketing.
My project title is “why we suck at Internet marketing” and it’s more for fun than the real title. Well, for all that I know, it might in fact become the real title. I have to decide later on.
Anyway.
The e-book will be interviews with 30 people (from all across the globe) who have failed at Internet marketing. They have spent hours and maybe hundreds or thousands of dollars, without earning a profit.
I want to know what they have done, I want to know their story.
I want the 30 people to write apx. 10 pages about themselves and what they have done in order to fail.
I want the e-book to be about failure, it won’t be anything about success.
Why is it all about failure?
Because we can learn a lot from failure, we can learn what we shouldn’t be doing and we can learn what caused the failure. If we understand failure, we might understand success.
The e-book will be completely free, and each of the 30 people will be promoted and they will get links to their blogs / websites or even affiliate programs.
This is my first post about the project, and I am hoping to reach out to find a few people that want to participate. It won’t be a lot of work, I just need the 10 pages from you. I am not in a hurry, but I would like to know soon if you want to participate.
Are you still failing at Internet marketing, this will be completely free and I can promise you that you will get a lot of exposure and the e-book will be promoting you – and promoting you is what it’s all about, that’s how you become successful at Internet marketing.
So, if this project sounds interesting and you want to participate, please contact me as soon as possible, send an e-mail to jens(at)slymarketing.com or leave a comment at this post.
Tags: ebook, internet+marketing, failure, interviews
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Time Sensitive Private Label Rights Special
I almost bought this private label rights package from Edmund Loh yesterday, I guess I am still thinking about whether I should buy it or not. But I have to hurry, there are only 300 licenses to be sold.
The price is cheap and if I buy it I will get 750 private label right articles about Internet marketing.
I can use the articles to:
create my own information product and I will be the author mass-produce short viral reports edit and submit reprint rights articles to article directories for back link exposure compile content to publish a book offline add more content to my blog create unique bonuses for my current line of products that I am selling design or complement my newsletter with written material create my very own unique package with a personal twist
There are so many things that we can do with private label right articles, and when it comes from Edmund Loh, you know that the articles are exceptionally good.
I guess I’d better think fast and you should also think fast, becaues if you want to buy it, you have to be one of the 300 first customers.
Visit Edmund Loh’s Private Label Rights Special – 750 Traffic Tactics
Tags: private+label+rights, traffic+tactics, edmund+loh, viral+reports
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Adsense Easy Money or GadgetSpots
A lot of people are making easy money using AdSense, I am not by the way. I am not using AdSense at all, because I was banned. I was not tricking Google AdSense, but I was kicked out anyway. I still don’t know why, and I have actually stopped thinking about it. I have moved on, even though I keep writing posts like this once in a while.
Anyway.
I was contacted by one of my readers, Todd, about a week ago. He mentioned a system that I had never heard of before. He asked me to take a look at it, and this is my brief look and my thoughts regarding GadgetSpots.
All the links to GadgetSpots will be Todd’s affiliate link. That’s my way of saying thank you to Todd for sending me new and interesting tips.
GadgetSpots is similar to Google AdSense. When I say similar, the only resemblance I can see is how the advertisements look. They look almost identical to Google AdSense, or at least the way Google AdSense used to look. Everything else at GadgetSpots looks to be different.
There are two very interesting things about GadgetSpots; Your advertisements will be shown across the network of websites / blogs, this way you’ll get traffic from a lot of different people. You can also earn money at GadgetSpots. If people sign up as a paid member, you will earn $6 each month on first level and $3 on the second level.
It seems to be an easy to use advertisement network, and it seems to be one that works. You display Google AdSense like ads on your website, and your ads will be displayed across the GadgetSpots network. If someone join as a paid member, you will earn money on two levels. Yes, it sounds easy.
But how is the traffic distributed among the members?
This is the tricky part for me. I can see that free members get 25% distribution across the network and paid members get 75%. But when they say that
For example assume there are 100 subscribed members and 1000 free members. For every 1,000,000 ad displays. Each subscribed member would receive (1000,000*0.75)/100=7,500 ad displays. Each free member would receive (1000,000*0.25)/1000=250 ad displays.
I guess it still sounds rather uncomplicated, but when they answer the question “Do I earn extra ad impressions for each display I make from my gadgets?” with
No, the GadgetSpots Network does not operate as a conventional trraffic exchange. Each member must display a gadget on their website. Once their gadget starts to display ads, their own ads are live on the network. Free Members share 25% of ad impressions and Subscribed Members share 75% of ad displays. It’s that simple.
When I read this, I was a little worried about the system. What if I decide to “hide” the gadgets on a website that no one hardly ever visits, will I still get the 75% or 25% share of ad displays?
If this is the case, what is the incentive for members to actually show the gadgets instead of hiding them? You could just be “hiding” them and become a “free rider”, you would get your share of ad dispays anyway.
If you are interested in testing GadgetSpots, please sign up using Todd’s affiliate link.
Tags: adsense, gadgetspots, internet+marketing, affiliate+programs
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Internet Marketing Genius
I am not sure if I should call this a brand new system or not, anyway, at this very moment the all new Affiliate Silver Bullet version 2 is here and ready to be promoted and used by all its members.
Just click here to visit the new landing page
As I wrote in the post about six hours ago or so, the new version of Affiliate Silver Bullet is even more automated than the last version. I am actually not sure how that’s possible, but all you have to do is to send traffic to the new landing page, and that’s it.
Dustin Struckman will even provide all members with promotion tools and tips on how to promote Affiliate Silver Bullet. It seems that we can all sit back and relax – well, I guess it’s not going to be that easy, even if I think the new system looks really good.
There is still one thing that I am not sure about regarding the new system, and that’s what I am going to do regarding to the old system. Should I still use the old affiliate links as well, or should I just use the new affiliate link?
Will all the people signing up to this affiliate link (the new one) receive the same information that people signing up to this affiliate link (the old one) will recieive?
I am not sure, but according to the new backoffice, it sounds that I should be promoting both versions of Affiliate Silver Bullet:
In this section you will find tools and training to use in marketing both ASB and IMGeni.us. Remember that your ASB referrals pay you 50% recurring commissions, so with just 2 active referrals your membership is free! And IMGeni.us referrals pay lifetime commissions on all sales made through both the “Internet Marketing Genius” newsletter and IMGeni.us blog. So you’ll want to promote both as much as possible.
I guess I should be rotating my urls and promoting both the landing pages.
I am a little excited today, it’s going to be very interesting to see what will happen to the new version of Affiliate Silver Bullet. If you want more information about it, you can read the information I received from Dustin Struckman yesterday, and by the way, he is the owner and creator of the system.
Tags: affiliate+silver+bullet, dustin+struckman, landing+page, internet+marketing, affiliate+marketing
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New Amazing Plan from Affiliate Silver Bullet
I have just received the news from Dustin Struckman; Affiliate Siilver Bullet will be completely different starting tomorrow.
You probably remember that as a member you would get 10 very cool landing pages (bullets) each month, with 5 professionally written e-mail follow ups. This will all change, and I think for the better, even though I was very satisfied with the “old” Affiliate Silver Bullet system.
Just look at the new features, and tell me what you think (this is the text I received from Dustin Struckman, the owner and creator of Affiliate Silver Bullet):
Dear Affiliate Silver Bullet Member,
After careful consideration and review of the feedback I’ve received from you, I’ve decided to completely redesign The Affiliate Silver Bullet System. I know you’re going to be extremely excited about thes changes, so read on…
First, let me assure you that any marketing you already have in place will not be affected by these changes - the existing system will continue to function exactly the same way. But a majority of the feedback we’ve been receiving is that most of you don’t know how to do the marketing in the first place. And that’s one of the reasons for these changes.
A lot of you have also told us that you’re confused about uploading, downloading, commissions, payments and even just the basics of how the system works. These are the other reasons for the changes I’m about to share with you.
The New ASB System is 110% Automated and 100% Easier to use. Here’s the skinny:
1. NEW Feature: Focus & Followup - Instead of trying to build 10 new lists every month, we will focus on one “power list”. This is the “Internet Marketing Genius” newsletter, and we will create and provide all the content for you subscribers at no charge to you, as part of your membership.
Benefits: This will allow us to produce a ton of great content for your subscribers and build a real relationship with them, by giving them ongoing, free, high-quality content. We’re going to be creating videos, tutorials and guru interviews on the IMGeni.us blog in addition to the regular newsletter content. Developing this relationship is what’s going to drive the sales of products we recommend.
It will also allow us to marketing multiple products to the same subscriber. So instead of having just 5 changes to sell them only 1 product, you’ll have a virtually unlimited number of changes to sell them multiple products. It takes time, effort and money to get someone on your list, and once they’re on it you want to maximize the return for your efforts.
So we’ll be building good will by delivering great free content and training, and then promoting multiple products to your subscribers over a long period of time. This way, if they aren’t interested in the first product, they may be interested in the second, third, forth and so on.
This strategy will be much more effective in producing long-term results for you!
2. NEW Feature: Free Leads - We’re going to take a portion of our monthly revenues and invest it into advertising *for you* to build your list!
Benefit: Because we can invest larger dollar amounts we’ll be able to leverage what’s known as “economies of scale” to get much more advertising per dollar than you could on your own. By doing this we can send a lot of traffic to the Squeeze Pages and share the leads generated with you.
Of course you are encouraged to promote the newsletter yourself, but you will get subscribers coded to you even if you do nothing at all to promote the system on your own! And as long as you remain an active member, all sales made to these free leads will be credited to you.
We will be doing ALL the work and you will be receiving all the benefit! We’re pretty excited about this new plan and hope you are, too. 
3. NEW Feature: Global Testing - We will constantly test the Squeeze Pages, mini-sites, emails, etc to maximize conversion for you.
Benefits: By focusing on just one list, we can test all aspects of the campaigns and make sure all your efforts and investments are producing the best possible results for you. Ultimately this means more money to you for the same effort.
4. NEW Feature: Universal Commissions - In the new system we will be able to sell products from any network or independent affiliate program.
Benefits: You will no longer be limited to ClickBank products. Instead we can sell any product available Online. This will give us the freedom to seek out the best products and services to offer to your subscribers. We can even participate in one-time special promotions and launches, which pay commissions of up to $1,000! The result is more and bigger commissions for you.
In addition, you no longer need a ClickBank account or any affiliation with the product we will sell. Instead you’ll get a single universal commission payment from us each month - deposited directly into your PayPal account. We’ll track everything for you and make sure you get credit for all sales from your referrals, as well as from the free leads we generate for you. It’s totally automated and hands-free for you.
You’ll be able see complete stats on everything at any time including: clicks, subscribers, sales and commissions - all from right inside the Affiliate Silver Bullet Members Area.
5. NEW Feature: Marketing Tools - We will be providing you with more and more marketing tools each month.
Benefits: Without the need to produce 10 new Silver Bullets each month, we can focus on developing a comprehensive set of marketing tools and training for you. This way if you want to promote you will build your list even faster! And with the tools we’ll be creating, you will know exactly how to do it. This training will be worth more than your entire monthly membership!
So, what do you think about the new Affiliate Silver Bullet starting tomorrow?
Tags: dustin+struckman, affiliate+silver+bullet, marketing+tools, internet+marketing
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Turning One Into A Million - Butterfly Reports
Yesterday, I decided to join and test the brand new membership site of Mike Filsaime and Rod Beckwith called Butterfly Reports. I haven’t actually had time to do much testing, I actually haven’t had time to read the first report yet.
And from what I can see, the system is all about giving away free brandable reports. It’s so called viral reports. You give them away, other people will give them away, and when people read them and buy from the links included in the reports, you will earn the money.
You will earn money from affiliate links to Butterfly Reports, and you will earn money to Clickbank products and to PayDotCom products. Basically, you brand every report with your name, your website url, your website name, your Butterfly Reports affiliate id, your Clickbank id and your PayDotCom id.
Then, download the report; one each month for free members and four reports each month for paying members (gold members).
I have downloaded the first report, and it’s called Turning One Into A Million: Putting The Butterfly Effect Into Practice. It’s written by Cory Fritsch and it got some information by Fabio Marciano. The report has 37 pages and it looks interesting from the table of contents.
I am actually writing this post today just to give you the report. Now you can read the 37 pages and think about whether you like Butterfly Reports or not, and from what I can see, you might even learn one or two things from the Internet Marketing report as well.
Remember, all the links included in the report are my affiliate links. The report is branded by the Butterfly Reports system.
File Attachment: OneIntoAMillion.pdf (136 KB)
Tags: butterfly+reports, mike+filsaime, rod+beckwith, cory+fritsch, fabio+marciano
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7 Hot Full Master Resale Rights Videos
I thought I’d give you a heads up regarding a brand new full master resale rights package that I just received. It’s 7 videos of things you (or at least I) really want to learn about Internet Marketing and some other stuff.
Just check out the following titles:
Blogging Made Easy With Wordpress cPanel Basics Videos Mini-Site Made Easy With FrontPage e-Book Mastery Videos List Building Basics Videos Install Scripts Videos - Version 2 Internet Marketing Basics Videos - Version 2
You get full master resale rights, which means that you can sell them and earn 100% commission. And of course, you can learn all the above as well.
For more information visit 7 Hot Full Master Resale Rights Videos.
Tags: master+resale+rights, video, wordpress, cpanel, list+building
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My First Affiliate Silver Bullet Commission
I have waited a while, but I guess I didn’t wait forever, because today I received my first Affiliate Silver Bullet commission. I have known about the date for more than two monhts now, but it seems that payday would never come.
The reason why it took a long time to get my first commission is that they have a 30–day full refund, and all affiliates will have to wait an extra 30–days for their commissions. So, the commissions I received today, is the money I earned during February. It took an extra month before I received it. So, on 1 st of May, I will receive the commissions for March and so on.
They are doing it this way, so if someone you referred will cancel their membership with Affiliate Silver Bullet during their first month and get reimbursed, you will lose the commission as an affiliate.
I think this is a great thing. Because this way, you don’t need to pay anything extra to Affiliate Silver Bullet, and you won’t get less commission the next month, because you haven’t received the commission for the cancelled members. You just need to wait the extra 30–days, so you know that everything is in order when you receive your commissions.
They paid me using PayPal, and they paid me exactly on time. Well, when I think about it, it was not exactly on time, it was a few hours late… they should have paid me on April 1 st. But who cares.
I am going into my fourth month as a member of Affiliate Silver Bullet, and I am still as satisfied as when I joined them. The system is almost too easy to use, but I have to hand it to Dustin Struckman, his system really works.
The only not-very-positive thing I can say about them so far, is that I want more information in the backoffice. I have had many questions that I had to ask support about, and I have received all the answers, but they would have made it so much easier if they only had a blog or a discussion forum or something where they had more information available about the system.
And of course, I would like banners to promote the system, on the other hand, the system is all about amazing landing pages… but it would be nice with a few banners.
Why is Affiliate Silver Bullet such a great system?
Well, just take a look at the landing pages… and that’s really the secret to success, along with professional written e-mails to follow up with your prospects to close the sales, and everything is automated.
Landing pages for January Landing pages for February Landing pages for March
Tags: commissions, affiliate+silver+bullet, paypal, Dustin+Struckman
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Always Use The Green Order Button
Would you go for anything but green?
Have you ever thought about what color your order buttons should be?
I must be honest with you, I have not been thinking that much about it, until I watched a video about how to make the “perfect” sales page and how to convert prospects to customers.
Your order button should always be green, because to most people (or to everybody) the color green means go. We use the color green at traffic lights, and green means go. We probably use the color green to many things, and we “always” think it’s safe when we see that color.
It’s probably the easiest way to promote your order button, use the green color and you are safe. Always use the green order button, because we associate green with “safe” and go, and that’s exactly what we want our prospects to do… we want them to become customers.
… and that’s more likely to happen if they see a green order button.
Tags: order+button, graphics, safe, prospects, customers
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Butterfly Reports by Mike Filsaime and Rod Beckwith
I received a few e-mails about this brand new system yesterday, and because I saw the name of Mike Filsaime, I just had to check it out. If you don’t know who he is, he is probably the most famous Internet marketer within the “the now rather large” niche of viral marketing. He is the man behind the butterfly manuscript.
But now, it’s time for Butterfly Reports.
I have just joined as a gold member, I paid for the $1 month trial, but I am actually thinking that I made mistake. I didn’t get the one time offer, if I did, I would have received one year for only $197, that’s $17 a month. Now, I will have to pay $29 if I chose to continue after my first month.
What’s Butterfly Reports all about?
I have only had a brief look in the members area, and from what I can see, as a member you will get free awesome reports to give away. I have only had a brief look at the first report, and it seems to be a very interesting one.
You brand the reports with your clickbank and your paydotcom affiliate links, and your Butterfly Reports affiliate link, and all you need to do is give the report away. If the visitors to your blog or the people on your list will read the report and buy something by clicking on some of the links, you will earn the commissions.
You hardly have to do anything, you only need to brand the report (it takes about 10 seconds), download the report and start giving it away.
From what I have read, if you join Butterfly Reports for free, you will get 1 new report each month, if you join as a gold member, you will get 4 new reports each month. You will also get access to a lot of resources and I think I read somewhere that you can upload your own reports (if you have written some) to the Butterfly Reports marketplace as well.
Well, you can read all about the brand new Butterlfy Reports system and find out more why Mike Filsaime is such a famous Internet marketer.
Tags: butterfly+reports, viral+marketing, mike+filsaime, Rod+Beckwith, clickbank, paydotcom
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Have you tried Reverse Psychology in your marketing Strategy?
Reverse psychology is interesting, and sometimes it’s really effective.
What you do is you tell your prospects something like “if you want to buy this product only due to the fact that it will increase your traffic buy at least 150%, then don’t buy it” or just fill in the blank “if you want to buy this product because it [blank], then don’t buy it”. This is reverse psychology, or child psychology, it works because nobody likes being told what we can and cannot do.
Image by AngeNose
What you do with the reverse psychology is that you tell your prospects one of the benefits of your product, and you tell them not to buy it even though your product has this benefit. Just don’t make it too obvious.
If you say something like, “this product will guarantee an extra income of at least $150.000 a year, but if that’s the only reason why you want to buy the product, then don’t” .
You know that this is too obvious, this is because we all want an extra income of $150.000 a year, and who cares if that’s the only benefit of your product or who cares if your product has more benefits than this?
You need to be more subtle, but at the same time you need to convince them that the benefit is really good, but not too good to be true.
If you are selling an Internet Marketing product that will certainly increase the traffic to any website by at least 1000 new visitors each month (this is just an example), then you tell your prospects that if this is the only reason why they want your product, then they shouldn’t buy it.
You could tell them that you have spent hundreds of hours making the product (if that’s true), and that you want them to enjoy all the other benefits of the product instead of just this one. Even though you know that this benefit is what most people are looking for and that this benefit is why you made the product in the first place.
You should repeat the benefit and explain why this is a really good benefit of your product, but at the same time you say that they shouldn’t buy the product. You can even tell them that it’s an insult if they buy it just for this benefit alone. Your hundreds of hours of creating the product was to help them…. not just helping them with the extra 1000 visitors (if you know what I mean).
Even if you use reverse psychology, you will be able to list all the benefits of your product and you will be able to tell your prospects why they should buy your product, you will just do it in a different way.
Have you tried it?
Tags: reverse+psychology, marketing+strategy, income, traffic
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Are You More Creative When You Relax?
The reason I am asking you this question is that I have noticed with myself that I am probably more creative both when I am really relaxed and when I am really stressed out. I find that interesting, because they are really the opposites… and both gets me going.
I find myself the least creative when I am in my natural state, when I am just working or doing what I usually do. Just surfing the web, reading e-mails or sitting down at my desk to do a few tasks. I usually get my tasks done, but I am not as creative as I should be.
But when I want or need to be more creative, I do something that I find really relaxing instead. One of the most relaxing things I do, is to take a hot bath. I get into the bath tub, and I find myself out of this world. It’s almost like I am flying and that I am somewhere else… doing something completely different.
I always have creative thoughts when I am in the bath tub, the only problem is that I usually don’t have a pen and paper with me and I tend to forget some of my creative thoughts as soon as I am about to start writing them down.
So, to be sure not to forget any of your creative thoughts, you might want to bring a pen and paper when you are relaxed (if you are creative when you are relaxed).
The great thing about knowing when you are the most creative, is that if you need to be creative, you just do what helps you to be creative. That’s why you’ll find me in the bath tub many times each week, or you’ll find me out walking for at least an hour in the forrest. It makes me relax and it makes me creative.
On the other hand, if I have too much work and especially when I think to myself that I can’t possibly get all the tasks done in time, well, then I tend to become a lot more creative than usual. It’s probably my way of solving the “problems”. I have to think fast and different. And usually when I have too many tasks and I am stressed out, I usually manage to get a head.
I never plan to have too many tasks, it just happens, but I always plan to take the really hot bath with all the nice bubbles. My advice is, think about what makes you more creative, and start doing it more often.
My question to you is; are you more creative when you are really relaxed?
Tags: creative, relax, bath, thoughts
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Creating A New Blog and Chosing a WordPress Web Host
I am about to create a new blog, it’s going to be interesting. I have used Micro Niche Finder to find a niche with apx. 32,000 searches a month for “my” keyword and close to zero competition. The best of all; I am very interested in the topic.
Now, before I create my blog and start writing, I have to chose a webhost for my new wordpress blog.
I am still not sure which web host to chose. There are so many things that matters when chosing a web host, it has to be reasonable, but it’s actually more important that it has hardly no downtime at all, and that the support is great.
So far, I am thinking about Host Gator, it seems that they are getting great reviews and that they have a really affordable hosting plan. And they got the cpanel and fantastico de luxe where I can have my one click installation of wordpress. I can also pay for my web hosting using PayPal.
I am still considering a few other alternative web hosts, I have read great reviews about them as well, and they are:
Site Ground Bluehost Dreamhost Host Monster StartLogic
But so far, Host Gator is my first choice and it’s based on many of the reviews at various discussion forums and the following sites:
FindMyHost Web Host Directory Top14WebHosts TopHosts Hosting-Review WebHostingStuff WebhostMagazine HostReview RateMyHost HostCritique WHReviews HostingAssured
I haven’t signed up at any yet, and I am still reading reviews. I would really be interested in hearing any of your thoughts when it comes to chosing a web host for a wordpress blog.
Are you using any of the web hosting services above?
Tags: hostgator, web+host, wordpress, bluehost, startlogic, siteground, hostmonster
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Live Update On How Many Products You Have Left To Sell
I have another marketing strategy for you today. It’s one where you have a real time counter at your sales page regarding how many copies of your product you have left to sell. What you tell your prospects is that you have only a certain number of products left to sell, and if they want to buy one, they should hurry.
Image by Compound Eye
You should tell your prospects somewhere at the top of your sales page, that they have to scroll down to the bottom and see how many copies you have left to sell. If you do, your prospects will most likely become curious and scroll down to see the number instead of just leaving right away.
Something may catch their eye that wouldn’t have before and persuade them to buy. If your sales page is any good, with some interesting testimonials, and with videos of your product and some good images, your prospects should become even more interested when they scroll down to take a look at how many copies of your product is left.
If you want the real time update, you can probably buy the script somewhere, or you can probably hire someone to make it for you, this way everything will be automated. You just set the number of products you want to sell, and your sales page will always stay updated in real time on how many is left. Or you can do it the hard way and update the sales page manually, I guess that could work as well… but then the number will not be as accurate as with a script.
Tags: marketing+strategies, sales+page, script, real+time+counter
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Fast Food Giants Target Kids with Marketing
It might not be news to you, because it happens all the time. Fast food giants like McDonald’s are targetting kids with their marketing in order to keep them coming and eating their food.
They are giving away balloons, they have big playgrounds and they are giving away all sorts of toys with their happy meals. Nothing new, they have been doing it for years.
What I think is a little disturbing is that they have also tried to advertise on elementary school report cards. McDonald’s gave away free food to kids in elemenary schools as a reward for good grades. You can say that it’s for a good cause, and maybe even the kids would do extra home work to get their Big Macs, but hey, where’s the moral of this?
It’s ok with obesity and unhealthy kids, as long as they have a good education?
McDonald’s are not alone, Pizza Hut has been targetting kids with their reading incentive program for a while as well. My question is; how can Seminole County district allow stuff like this?
I know that it’s probably all about the money, but it has to be a better way to earn some extra cash. It’s a good thing that McDonald’s decided to stop advertising on the report cards. But they would probably never have stopped if it wasn’t for one parent, Susan Pagan, who complained about it to an activist organization, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.
It’s really something when one parent can stop a fast food giant from trying to exploit her kids.
Tags: fast+food, pizza+hut, mcdonalds, elementary+school
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Sometimes Wordpress Makes Me Really Frustrated
I have been using Wordpress for a long time, and it’s an awesome system. I am very satisfied with it, but sometimes it makes me really frustrated as well.
A few times I have had a problem with the blank page syndrom. I have been getting it on several versions of Wordpress. First, I realized that I got the blank page because of some of my plugins. I deactivated all my plugins, and then, everything was back to normal. After that, I had to active one plugin at a time, just to see which one caused the problem.
Today, I am experiencing the same problem. After my latest post this morning, all I get is a blank page. This time it’s not the plugins, because I have been deactivating and activiting all morning (or so it seems).
So far, I have no clue what the problem is… and it’s really frustrating.
I have been searching Google looking for an answer, but so for, I haven’t found anything.
I am not ready to be frustrated on a friday 
update:A friend helped me for about four hours tonight, and now everything seems to be ok. I have no idea what he did, but I really appreciate it. It seems that all my problems was due to my host upgraded to a new version of php
Tags: wordpress, blank+page, wordpress+plugins
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How To Get Media Interested In Your Company
It might not be as hard as you might think to get media interested in your company. What you do is that you make an unexpected approach to something famous. Either you comment something famous and make an unexpected approach with your comment, or you make an unexpected suggestion. Media just loves the unexpected.
For instance, Dr Pepper did just that a few days ago. They told the media that they will give a free can of Dr Pepper to “everyone in America” (excluding ex-Guns members Slash and Buckethead) if “Guns N’ Roses will release their long awaited album Chinese Democracy” anytime during the calendar year 2008.
But is this press release just Dr Pepper tired of waiting for Chinese Democracy or is it all about marketing? I know that they have stated an undying fondness for Guns N’ Roses, but I am not so sure…
What I am sure about is that the news has traveled all across the Internet and back. Dr Pepper really got some attention from their press release, and all this attention without spending a dime. Well, they probably did spend a few bucks on the press release and the marketing campaign… because this has to be a marketing campaign by Ketchum the PR Agency of Dr Pepper.
This is the official press release.
The thing about this marketing trick from Dr Pepper (yes, I am calling it a marketing trick), is that they will get a lot of attention in the media, and we all know that there won’t be a Chinese Democracy this year (I really hope that I am wrong), and we also know that Axl Rose and the rest of guys of Guns N’ Roses won’t release it because they want everone in America to have a free Dr Pepper. This is art we are talking about, and usually people involved in any kind of art won’t listen to anybody but themselves when it comes to the creative process and when to finish a project. We all know that right?
So, in my opinion this is a marketing trick and a great one. The reason it’s great is because it involves a great band (one of the most famous bands in the world, even though just Axl Rose is left from the original members), and it involves something a lot of people have been waiting on (forever), and it involves the unexpected.
Who would have expected that everyone in America would get a free can of Dr Pepper if Guns N’ Roses will release Chinese Democracy during 2008? This is why all sorts of media will write about this press release. Even Axl Rose commented it on their official site.
It’s a great move by Ketchum and Dr Pepper, it’s probably as much marketing a company could get for “free”. But would this kind of marketing help a rather unknown company?
We all know about Dr Pepper, they are huge. What if the same press release came from a completely unknown and local company somewhere in the US. Would media be all over it and would Axl Rose comment it? I am not so sure.
The reason I am not so sure, is that it would probably be a lot easier to spot the marketing trick. First of all, it will be very expensive to give away a free can to everyone in America, not all companies can afford that. And a large company as Dr Pepper is a company most people trust.
How everyone in America will get their free can of Dr Pepper, well, that will be interesting… but I really doubt that it will ever happen (but again, I really really hope that I am wrong… I am looking forward to Chinese Democracy). But I guess Dr Pepper have accomplished more than they could ever dream about when it comes to this marketing campaign, even Norwegian newspapers have written about it.
An interesting approach to marketing and a lesson on how to write a press release. Do the unexpected and surprise everybody, including the media. Your offer can’t be too good to be true, but almost…
Tags: dr+pepper, guns+n+roses, media, press+release, Ketchum
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Why Buy Product Launch Formula 2?
The most talked about product the past month or so is probably Product Launch Formula 2 by Jeff Walker. I am not sure how many e-mails I have received, and how many blog posts I have read about Product Launch Formula, but it’s amazing to see how many people are looking forward to the launch later today.
First I thought I should describe why you should consider buying Product Launch Formula 2, but then I found a few great videos on YouTube and it’s a lot better for you to watch the videos than read what I would have written.
Ok, this is the first video and it’s an interesting 10–minutes interview with Jon Walker, and he is Jeff Walker’s brother and business partner.
Now, here’s a video by Jeff Walker himself where he introduces Product Launch Formula 2.
From all the offers and bonuses I have looked at I think that I find the one from Eric Holmlund the best one. He will actually create a new product for you if you order Product Launch Formula from his site (use his affiliate link). If you are interested in both Product Launch Formula and your own product made by a professional, then you should order it from Eric Holmlund.
But I can also recommend that you take a look at two other offers, and that’s the one from Willie Crawford and Yaro Starak. Willie will let you have a solo mailing to 120,000 people if you buy Product Launch Formula from him. Yaro will give you an mp3 player, the iRiver S10 with all 27 Blog Mastermind audio lessons stored on it ready to listen to, delivered to your door. I have been a member of Blog Mastermind and I know how good this course is, it’s really good.
Now, if you are interested in buying Product Launch Formula 2 by Jeff Walker, you got some interesting offers to consider.
Tags: jeff+walker, product+launch+formula, jon+walker, Eric+Holmlund, Yaro+Starak, Willie+Crawford
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More Affiliate Marketing Secrets
I have been looking at various affiliate marketing campaigns of many professional marketers, and I have seen two things that all of them seems to have in common.
And I thought I’d share both of them with you today.
Notifications Bonuses
First of all, every time they are launching a major marketing campaign, they are giving their list some clues and some hints a few weeks before they will tell them the name and the details of the product.
This is a way to get people curious, and it’s a way to get people pumped up and ready for more information. And when they release the product, people are really ready for it, because they have been waiting for it for weeks already.
The second thing that all professional marketers seems to have in common are bonuses. Every time they launch their major marketing campaign, they are not just selling the product, but they are giving away huge bonuses to people buying the product from them.
This is a great way to both get attention, and to “make” people buy their product. A lot of the time they will give away products that are worth way more then the product they are selling. This makes it sort of easy for people to decide if they are going to buy or not.
The big bonuses makes more people buy, but on the other hand the single biggest problem with major marketing campaigns for a new affiliate product is that many professional marketers will promote the same product to a lot of the same people. And because of this, they have to give away bonuses (like similar products) to be able to attract people to buy from them.
I probably should promote Affiliate Silver Bullet and Micro Niche Finder by offering bonuses, but I have nothing to offer 
Tags: affiliate+marketing, marketing+campaigns, bonuses, affiliate
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Is iContentRobot cheating Google?
I have received a lot of e-mails about a new software called iContentRobot. This software is supposed to be incredibly easy to use and it’s also suppose to be the average guy’s dream to unlimited free traffic.
I must say that it looks to be an easy way to create content. You can see for yourself from the videos below:
It looks really easy, and it won’t be duplicated content, but is it still cheating?
Or will Google allow this?
I am always a little sceptical when it comes to automated processes.
What do you think?
Visit iContentRobot for more information.
Tags: google, icontentrobot, free+traffic, duplicated+content
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Why Not A Creative Marketing Campaign For Safari?
I find it very interesting that Apple is sort of forcing the Safari browser on windows users, I am talking about people using their iPod / iTunes on windows. If they have installed the latest update of iTunes on windows, Safari is included in the download.
I am not sure if Apple is trying to gain a bigger share of the browser market by doing this, or if they are thinking of it as a way to promote their Safari browser to people who have never tried it or what they are thinking – maybe it’s just a way to say that Safari is the default browser for iTunes and it’s the best compatible browser?
I can understand why Apple want more people to use their browser, because only about 2% are currently using Safari.
But is distributing safari for windows via iTunes the way to go? Well, I don’t think so.
The main problem is that a lot of people will download Safari without knowing it, or without wanting it. And, if people don’t want your product, you should not “force” them to get it. It won’t make them like the product more.
There have been a lot of talk about the controversy, and most people I have talked to or most websites I have visited, they all agree that this is not what Apple should be doing. But at the same time, it’s smart business.
If they are trying to get more than their 2% share of the market, this might be what they need to do. They need more people to test it, they need more people to find out how good the browser really is, and they need people using windows to start using Safari. If this is a smart move by Apple, this could mean trouble for Firefox. I don’t believe that Safari will make users of Internet Explorer switch. If some people will make the switch I think it would be people already using Firefox or Opera, I guess I think that people still using Internet Explorer just doesn’t know how to switch to a different browser 
So, why doesn’t apple make a very cool marketing campaign to promote Safari instead of using the backdoor into windows?
I guess it might be all about the money. It’s a lot cheaper, it’s actually free, to distribute Safari this way. And a lot more people will probably install Safari on their computers because of this update of iTunes.
But what about all the negative press? Could it hurt Apple?
I think not. Apple is still one of the coolest companies on earth, if not the coolest. I think that it’s more likely that people installing Safari might actually like the browser, but I am not sure if Safari will get more than 2% share of the market by pushing Safari on windows users. But it’s an interesting way to ”promote” the browser.
The only thing that I am pretty sure of is that if anybody can get away with doing something like this, it’s Apple. Apple is adored by so many people, and “the whole world” trusts Apple, and a lot of people find Apple to be one of the most innovative companies and the coolest company and so on, and because of this, Apple will most likely not have a problem with this iTunes update.
But again, why not make a very cool advertisement campaign (like the Get a Mac commercials)?
I would have preferred to see some new cool Safari ads. I can imagine a safari marketing campaign like the Axe effect, instead of the chicks going wild because of the smell of Axe, both men, women and kids would go bananas over the cool Safari browser, and they will get sucked into the computer and literally surf the waves of the Internet.
What I am saying is, there are so many creative people at Apple and Apple have some of the coolest and funniest ads, why not continue being creative to get a bigger market share than doing it the easy way. The easy way is not the Apple way of doing business.
Tags: safari, firefox, apple, browsers, windows
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The Interesting Show Stopper Software
I have just been looking at a brand new software called Show Stopper, it’s a software a lot like the ones you can use when you display One Time Offers. But it’s a little different.
This piece of software will help you show any page just once. Just like their sales page. When you visit the sales page the first time, you will get the cheap offer of buying the software for only $14.97, the next time you visit the same page (or if you refresh the page) you will have to buy it for $29.97.
I am not sure how they do it. I tried to delete all my cookies and visit the sales page to see what happened, but I still got the $29.97. I then deleted “everything” from Firefox, and there shouldn’t have been any trace back to this sales page from my computer, but I still got the $29.97 offer.
I am not good at this at all, so I am not sure how this software operates. It might use the ip-address, or something else. What is interesting is that it really works. Ordinary people, like myself, can’t see the page more than one time. So, the offer will be a one time offer, but it doesn’t need to be the regular upsell page.
You can now use any sales page, and tell your prospects that they will only get the price on the page one time, the next time they visit the page, they will have to pay 50% more.
The reason to use Show Stopper is to sort of make your prospects decide right then if they want to buy your product or not. If they understand that they will get a great price, they might decide a lot faster than if they think that the price will be the same for months. And if they think that, they will most likely not buy your product at all.
If you are interested, visit Show Stopper and read alll about it today, and remember don’t refresh the sales page. If you do, the price will become a lot more expensive.
Tags: show+stopper, one+time+offers, sales+page
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Awesome Graphical Opt-In Box Templates
Sometimes you need a little help in order to get people to sign up for your newsletter. It doesn’t matter how well-written your newsletter is, or how interesting your newsletter is, it really doesn’t matter what topic you are writing about either, as long as nobody subscribes to it.
If you are like me, you are not the graphical expert. You can’t design the really cool websites or the attractive landing pages. You just can’t, and I am not going to spent months to learn me how to become the expert either. Because I really don’t think I have it in me.
On the other hand, you really don’t need to be an expert when you can buy attractive graphical designs really cheap. I have just bought them myself, and I am very satisfied. Just take a look at Instant Squeeze Templates and tell me what you think.
I haven’t tested any of them yet, but I have taken a closer look, and it seems to be very easy to edit the html. The only thing you need to do is to edit the text and enter your autoresponder code.
The bonus you get when you buy Instant Squeeze Templates is also something you should consider. You get a lot of extra graphic and you get two very interesting e-books, and the price…. well, it’s very cheap.
You could use the templates on your website, or you could use them on traffic exchanges or somewhere else where you can display a landing page or the optin form.
Tags: templates, squeeze+page, landing+page, listbuilding, leads
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The Two Sales Letters Marketing Strategy
Tell your prospects that your product is so good that you in fact have written two different sales letters. Your prospects will have a choice which of the sales letters they want to read, or they can read both of them.
Image by Swirlyarts
The reason why you have written two different sales letters is because one of the letters may persuade them to buy more than the other. You have two completely different letters, one better than the other, it all depends on who reads it.
The best thing about this marketing strategy is that it’s like you’re giving your prospects an option on how they want to be persuaded. If they don’t like one of the letters, they can read the other one and it might actually persuade them into buying. If you only had one sales letter, they might not have bought your product.
Now, you only need a way to tell your prospects why you have two sales letters instead of just one. I think that the best reason is that your product is so good, and there are so many words that can describe your product, and there are so many reasons why people should buy your product; you just had to write (at least) two sales letters to be able to fit all your thoughts about your product.
Tags: marketing+strategy, sales+letter, prospects
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Book Review of Accidental Branding
I have been reading a few chapters of Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands by David Vinjamuri and I thought I’d share some of my opinions with you.
From what I have read, the book seems to be different and I like different. The book is about how eight entrepreneurs accidentally built amazing brands:
Every story here starts with something unexpected happening, whether it is a cyclist realizing he can’t eat his sixth consecutive energy bar because it just doesn’t taste good (Gary Erickson of Clif Bar), a mother trying and failing to find videos with classical music, foreign language, and poetry for her baby (Julie Clark of Baby Einstein), or a hitchhiker getting picked up on the side of a road in Maine by a beekeeper who shares her values (Roxanne Quimby of Burt’s Bees).
Thanks to pure luck, these eight entrepreneurs, built amazing brands, and I believe that their stories should be read by all of us. Because there are a lot to learn from their stories.
Would these very successful accidental entrepreneurs have become as successful if it wasn’t for pure luck and very good timing?
Many of the entrepreneurs did not graduate from college, they did not have rich backers and they managed to live hand-to-mouth. And they probably would have become successful even without the pure luck, but maybe not as successful if it wasn’t for the accidental part.
The reason why all the entrepreneurs probably would have become succesful even if they didn’t experience the luck and accidental part, is due to the fact that they all have one thing in common. Every single person David Vinamuri interviewed for his book is a perfectionist. And it’s the attention to details that makes all these brands authentic and so powerful.
Before I read this book, I didn’t think that accidents could be part of branding at all. I never thought of pure luck, but it all seems so natural when you read the stories and I end up thinking; of course, accidental branding happens all the time.
David Vinamuri defines an accidental brand through three tests:
1. An individual who is not trained in marketing must create the brand.
2. This individual must experience the problem that the brand solves.
3. The individual must control the brand for at least 10 years.
Now, buy the book and read all the amazing stories on how these very successful entrepreneurs (like John Peterman and Craig Newark) built their brands.
Tags: accidental+branding, David+Vinamuri, Craig+Newark, John+Peterman
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How To Create Instant Dime Sales
You might remember the post I wrote about the only way is up marketing strategy. Now, I have a great example for you on how to create your own sale where the price of your product will increase every time someone buys your product.
It’s probably a lot easier to do this than you can imagine.
What you do is you buy the software called Instant Dime Sale Creator by Joel Holtzman.
At the moment, the software is really cheap. But do you know what, the price increases a dime every time someone buys it. So, you’d better act fast if you want the low price of $23.14.
I have not tested Instant Dime Sale Creator myself.
Tags: instant+dime+sale+creator, marketing+strategy, Joel+Holtzman
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Is HubPages The Only Squidoo Alternative?
I have written a short story on how to make money with Squidoo, and I have written about how you could use Squidoo to market your university. Today, Squidoo is probably the most popular service of its kind.
I have been searching for alternatives to Squidoo, but the only real alternative I could find was HubPages. To me, it looks very similar to Squidoo, it’s almost identical.
… but what is really an alterantive to Squidoo?
If you are only looking for a free alternative to post your thoughts and opinions online, then, there are hundreds of free blog services. If you are looking for a way to earn money from your opinions, then you could probably find a few services as well.
The most interesting new alternatives that I have found so far are (in no particular order):
Pagerank10 Zimbio Mahalo Oondi Spongefish Gather LaunchTags Tumblr
I am only listing alternatives that are new to me, and that I find to be a little different than the blogger / wordpress.com / Yahoo! 360 services.
Do you know about any new services that should be added to the list?
Tags: zimbio, mahalo, oondi, squidoo, hubpages, tumblr
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The Refund Marketing Strategy
If you tell your visitors that you have only had 2 refunds out of 1000 orders, your visitors will most likely think that people who purchase your product are happy with it. If you have a 30–day unconditional guarantee (full refund), and if very few people have asked for a refund, you should tell the world about it.
Image by fboosman
A lot of digital products, like products you can buy from ClickBank, they have a 30–day full guarantee. A lot similar to the one provided by Affiliate Silver Bullet. Just look at the bottom of the page:
Gain access to the Affiliate Silver Bullet System right now, and put it to the test for the next 30 days. If you don’t see a huge profit jump by then, you can cancel at any time during your first 30 days, and get every cent of your money back. After that you can cancel at any time and never pay another penny! No hassles and no questions asked.
If very few people have asked for a refund, you should use it as a marketing strategy to tell the world about it. It means that your buyers are very satisfied with your product. And the more people who are satisfied with your product, the more people will probably buy it. It’s a lot like word-of-mouth marketing. Most people love to read reviews about products, and most people would like to hear from people who have already bought the product, just so they can be sure that it works before they spend money on it.
If very few people have asked for a refund, you can tell the world why they asked for the refund. If the refund reasons are not directly related to your product’s performance, then you have nothing to lose by telling. For example, you can write that “one guy really liked my product but needed to ask for a refund because of financial hardship that came up”.
The refund marketing strategy is very easy to use. Tell the world about the few people who have asked for a refund, and why so few people have asked for it.
Tags: refund, guarantee, affiliate+silver+bullet, clickbank, marketing+strategy
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Squidoo might not be all about Money
Yesterday I wrote a short introduction to making money with Squidoo, and it’s really not that hard to make money. All you need to do is set up a lens, then start linking to some of your affiliate programs. If you are lucky, search engines will help you get visitors and they will end up buying from your affiliate links. Well, it might not be as easy as I describe, but I think you get my point. It’s all about the niche and the quality of the lens.
Now, Squidoo is not all about the money. I know that there are a lot of people using Squidoo, just because it’s free, and it might bring them to the top of Google and it might help them earn money from their various affiliate programs.
But Squidoo is also a way to promote your good causes, like your favorite city or your favorite basket ball team, or your favorite tv show, or helping prevent breast cancer.
So, you could be using Squidoo just because it’s free and an alternative to start blogging. It’s a way to say your opinion on something, and it’s a way to show people what you like to write about and it’s also a way to help promote a good cause.
You might know that I work at a university by now.
What if I wanted to promote the university where I work, should I use Squidoo to do it?
Some people think that Squidoo is the way to go in order to promote a university:
Madurai Kamaraj University University of Phoenix Portland State University Arizona State University University of Florida Western Michigan University
It’s a very easy way to promote it, you hardly need to write a thing, you can just make a lens and start linking to pieces at YouTube and Flickr and stories from other blogs about the university or what ever you like.
It’s easy to turn the lens of your university into a lens full of valuable content. If you do, this might get your lens to rank well in the search engines. If you use your lens to collect content from the most popular places on the Internet with content about your university, you will turn your lens into a summary of why your university is the greatest. If you can make that summary, then Squidoo might be of great help when it comes to marketing.
Just take a look at this lens for Michigan State University.
How hard is it to make a great lens?
Add all the top videos from YouTube, add the top images from Flickr, add links and images to the university store, add some news from the university blog, and add some links to official pages at the university and finally, just write a short text about the history of the university and why you think that the university is awesome, and that’s it.
You got yourself a really valuable summary of why your university is awesome and a free way to market your university.
Tags: squidoo, social+networks, university, marketing
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A short introduction to Making Money with Squidoo
What’s great about Squidoo is that you can set up a page (lense) for free on any topic you like. It’s very easy, any you don’t have to know hardly anything about how to make your own homepage or blogging to start using Squidoo. When you have your own lens, you are known as a lensmaster.
Your lens ranks great at the Search Engines
One of the most important thing when it comes to using Squidoo to set up your own lens, is that it usually ranks great at the Search Engines. If you do everything right, you will probably get some traffic to your lens without hardly doing any work.
If you are looking for information about how to sign up for Squidoo and how to create a lens, then you should take a look at their Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
How to Make Money with Squidoo
A lot of people are using Squidoo in order to make money, and there are two ways to earn money with Squidoo:
Splitting of revenue; when your visitors buys from clicking on your links (using the integrated Squidoo affiliate system), or by clicking on your Google AdSense ads, Squidoo splits the revenue with all the lensmasters. Affiliate products; you can link from your lens to affiliate products or other websites where you can earn money.
Now, I will just give you a few hints on how you should use Squidoo to start earning money. Don’t think about the splitting of revenue, because most people use this to donate money to charities instead of actually earning money.
Remember to be unique
First, before you start creating your lens, you need to find a unique (or rather unique) topic. Because Squidoo is a system with a lot of lenses (and so is the rest of the Internet), you want to create something that’s not there already. I am using Micro Niche Finder to find hot niches, you can use this software, or you can find it any other way.
Let me give you an example.
I am promoting Affiliate Silver Bullet, and I could be using Squidoo in order to promote the system. If I was one of the first people to promote it, I don’t think that it would be a big problem, but today, I would have to compete with many other lensmasters in order to stand out from the crowd. Just check out all the other lenses about Affiliate Silver Bullet.
Be creative, find a niche, and start monetizing it. But be unique, or find keywords that are unique.
When you set up a lens, use the keyword phrase as the url. If your keyword phrase is “affiliate silver bullet”, you should use www.squidoo.com/affiliate-silver-bullet. If your keyword phrase is already used, then just add a new word at the beginning or at the end. For instance, you can add the word review at the end, and it would be a great keyword phrase.
How to set up your lens
Use your keyword phrase as the title of your lens.
Use a variation of your keyword phrase as the introduction title.
Write a short introduction about your lens.
Use at least 3 modules in your lens. Read all about the different modules at http://www.squidoo.com/module
Link to affiliate programs, using eBay, Amazon, or any other affiliate program.
Your keyword phrase and your introduction are probably the two most important parts when it comes to ranking well at the Search Engines.
Learn from the best
Just take a look at some of the best lenses, and find out why they are good. Do what they did, but in your own way. Just visit the frontpage at Squidoo and click on any of the featured lenses. There are at least two reasons why they are featured; they are (rather) unique and they all contain interesting information.
Tags: squidoo, affiliate+silver+bullet, micro+niche+finder, amazon, ebay
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The Only Way is Up Marketing Strategy
Every time someone buys my ultracool Internet Marketing product, the price will go up by a quarter (of a dollar). The sooner you buy it, the cheaper you will get it.
Image by EricGjerde
Well, this is just an example of an interesting marketing strategy. I don’t have my own ultracool marketing product, it’s just a way for me to prove my point.
This marketing strategy tells your prospects that the sooner they order, the cheaper the price will be for them. This is a way to sell a lot of products fast (like a firesale), if that’s what you are looking for. Because when people realize that they won’t get the product cheaper than right now, they will, if the like your product, buy it as soon as possible.
Instead of just saying that your product will go up by a quarter every single time someone buys your product, you can also say that it will stop at a maximum price. This way, your prospects will understand how much your product is really worth, and that they are really getting a bargain if they will buy it right now.
Another way to use this marketing strategy is to have the price go up every hour, instead of every time someone buys your product. This way, if very few people will buy your product, the price will keep increase, and it will look as if a lot of people are buying your product.
If you are a little scared of having too few people buying your product, I would probably use the “price will go up every hour” strategy.
Tags: marketing+strategy, firesale, internet+marketing, prospects
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Yooba is the Creative Internet Marketing Alternative
I signed up at Yooba as soon as I heard the news. They are launching their Internet marketing service sometime during spring 2008, and now is the time to register for the beta.
Just look at their first teaser…
You might not understand what the Yooba concept is all about from that video, but hey, it’s really cool. From their second teaser, you might get a few extra clues…
I still don’t know that much about their services other than what I have read at their homepage and their blog.
Their service is “an all-inclusive platform for our digital marketing experience. They provide the hosting and database solutions, ready-to-use applications for producing content, and present the tools for evalution”.
It all sounds good to me, and I am really excited about the first look at their beta version. I have no doubt in my mind that this is a really creative company, and from what I have seen so far, I recommend that you register yourself at Yooba to be able to start using this new digital marketing solution.
Tags: yooba, video, youtube, Internet+marketing, communication
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The Even if You Hate Marketing Strategy
It’s always difficult to persuade people to like something that they really hate. For instance, I know a lot of people who hate certain types of food, and I am not sure if I could convince them to eat it, even if my life depended upon it. The same with me, I am a vegetarian, and would never eat meat. But, even if you hate something, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make money from it.
Image by Qatari Mother
This strategy is an all about the money strategy. It tells your prospects that you are offering them resale rights to some niche products that they can make a lot of money from, even if they don’t care much about the topics. Yes, even if they in fact hate the topics.
For instance, even if you hate changing your car oil, you can still make money selling an ebook about “how to change your car oil”.
You are telling your prospects that they should open up their eyes and expand their business by easily moving into different niches, niches where they don’t have to do much work. Everything has already been done for them.
I’ll give you two examples, I don’t hate them, but I don’t have much experience with them at all. But that doesn’t mean I can’t make money from them.
I could start selling an ebook about how to make your own wodden archery bow or I could start selling an ebook about how to stop hiccups. I have hardly any experience on either of the topics, but hey, it’s not that hard to sell ebooks (it’s a lot harder to write them).
This marketing strategy is more a way to convince your prospects to broaden their perspectives and their business, and to sell niche products, products where they might have no experience at all on topics they might even hate.
Tags: marketing+strategy, hate, prospects, hiccups, wooden+bow, ebook
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Grow your business by Outsourcing your projects
If you want to become successful doing business online, you need to be creative and you need to be smart. I am just one man, and one man can only do so much. I am doing the blog thing here, and that’s more than enough for me.
On one hand, it’s how much time it takes to write, design or whatever I want to do, on the other hand one man can only have so much knowledge regarding design, programming, search engine optimization or any other job I might want to do.
Therefore, if I would like to get things done, I usually outsource my projects. I have used several different “companies” to help me with design and programming, some of them have been really good and some of them have been rather cheap as well.
The thing is, if you are operating on your own or you have a rather small company, you should consider outsourcing many of your projects. Usually, if you do it right, they will be done faster, cheaper and the results will even be a lot better.
The reason is simple; it’s all about time and knowledge. You get experts to do the job for you, and you can consentrate on your core-competence.
Now, let me tell you about a company that can do it all for you. I have never hired them myself, but I have just discovered them. I might use them sometime soon.
Their name is Mazibo
I must admit that I don’t know a lot about the company. Well, other than what I have read from their website. It seems that they can offer close to everything regarding software development, graphic design and search engine optimization.
I am not so sure if they can offer copywriting, but they might.
They have a very easy process of how to hire someone from Mazibo to work on your project, and you can pay using your PayPal account.
So, what kind of competence can you hire from Mazibo?
From what I have read, you can find excellent employees qualified to do all sorts of projects in any of the following topics:
Visual Designer Web designer Brochure designer Icon and Logo designer Flash Design Programmers HTML/CSS developer PHP programmer .NET programmer Flash/ActionScript Suppport staff Email and chat support Voice and phone support Data entry processing SEO/link building resources
You can hire them by the hour or by the month.
Why would I consider using Mazibo in the future, instead of all the other “companies” that I have been involved with earlier?
I think it’s very important that I start to use a company that can offer “everything”, this way I know that I can use them no matter what kind of projects I am coming up with and no matter what kind of graphical designs I am looking for, and I would know for sure that I can trust the company.
I have a few thoughts about a project I would like to start on, but I guess I have to rethink them again, and then do some more thinking before I will contact Mazibo for a quote.
Tags: mazibo, outsource, programming, graphical+design
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The VIP Marketing Strategy
I hope you are already doing this, if not, you should treat you loyal prospects as VIPs (very important person). You should give them discounts, you should provide them with news that very few other people will get and you should provide them with all sorts of goodies, because your loyal prospects will hang around longer.
Image by Samuel Stroube
It’s rather easy to use this marketing strategy. Just think about it, what would you really appreciate to get from a person much like yourself?
Give them
Discounts on products Free products Interesting information
If you have a list of loyal prospects, you can just send them an email and you can start the email with ”I want to give my loyal prospects a discount…”
You can do this before every launch of a new product. If a person have bought one of your other products, then this person will automatically get a discount on every new product that you will release.
You can create a buying frenzy by limiting the number of days the discount will be available.
It’s a great way to build loyalty. Your customers will hang around longer if you give them some special VIP treatment once in a while.
It’s important that they know and feel that they are treated as VIPs. Because if they do, they won’t unsubscribe to your lists, and they will stick around in order to be a part of your gang.
Who are your loyal prospects?
It’s all up to you to define them.
You could say that all the people on your list (if you have an optin list, the people receiving your newsletter) are your loyal prospects.
… or you could say that only people that have been with you for a long time (at least 1 year) should be considered loyal.
… or you could say that only buyers of your products should be considered loyal and treated as VIPs.
This VIP marketing strategy is a lot like Word of Mouth Marketing. If your loyal prospects feel honored by the way you treat them, they will most likely tell other people about it. This way, you will get more fans and more sales.
Tags: vip, marketing+strategy, loyal+prospects, discount
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How to use Niche Marketing on the Internet
I have been researching niche marketing for a while, but I have never actually tried it. I have been looking at Niche Marketing on the Internet and to find a software or a marketing technique that would help me.
Today, I bought a software for niche marketing, a software that I have been thinking about buying for a long time. The reason I bought Micro Niche Finder today was because of an e-mail the owner and creator, James Jones, sent me yesterday.
Micro Niche Finder, the best niche discovery software that I have ever seen, is about to be upgraded to version 3. This will happen sometime next week. I have just viewed a video with a preview of the new features, and I was blown away. The reason I didn’t wait until next week or to when version 3 has been released, is because the price will also be upgraded.
The price for Micro Niche Finder is $67 today, but as soon as version 3 is released the price will be $97. I knew a few weeks ago that I was going to buy Micro Niche Finder, but I wanted to wait until I had read a few of the ebooks I recently bought. But now, the ebooks will have to wait, I had to take action before the new price (if you are thinking about buying it, it comes with free lifetime upgrades).
The most impressive thing about Micro Niche Finder is how it turns discovering new niches on the Internet into something everybody can do in just a matter of minutes. I have already found some really hot markets, and some impressive keywords, with hardly any competition.
I am not only planning to do affiliate marketing in various niches, but I am starting out with Micro Niche Finder to use it to improve my blog and to get better keywords for it, and I am also going to use it to researching topics that I am going to blog about.
I am not going to search for keywords and then create a blog based on the best keywords I can find, I am going to do the opposite. I will first create the topic of the blog post in my head, then I will use Micro Niche Finder to research the relevant keywords for the blog post, and use it to find the keywords with hardly no competition and a lot of searches.
If this sounds interesting, you should sign up and take a look at the free videos today. This software is very powerful. I have found one video, you can take a look at that one before you decide to sign up and view/read the rest of the features.
Enjoy! (remember, this is version 2)
Tags: niche+marketing, micro+niche+finder, james+jones
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How Rosalind Gardner uses Blog Broadcasts
I have recently started to use the method of Blog Broadcasts in AWeber. What I do is this; I send an automated message to the subscribers of my newsletter every single friday. This message has some standard text and it says something like, it’s finally friday and here are my blog posts from the last seven days.
Everything is automated and all the messages from my blog are displayed with the headline and an excerpt. If my readers want to read the whole blog post, they have to click on the link.
I have had some moderate success with this, and I was rather satisfied with this method, until I started to think about how Rosalind Gardner uses Blog Broadcast. If you are not familiar with Rosalind Gardner, I strongly suggest that you take a closer look at her blog; NetProfits Today. She is an affiliate marketing expert and her blog is just amazing.
Now, what she is doing different, is that she writes an article that she sends to all her subscribers. The article is more like a story, and she uses all her latest blog posts (at least her most interesting blog posts from the past week or so) as links in her story.
This makes it a lot more interesting to read. My automated blog broadcast is not interesting at all, it just lists all my latest blog posts. And I bet you can get an overview in about 1 minute, or maybe even less.
If my readers can’t find an interesting headline, they won’t click on the blog post. With Rosalind Gardners articles, I find myself reading the whole thing, and I find myself clicking on several of her links (and I do that every single time).
I guess I should stop and think about how I should send my blog broadcasts for a moment. Should I do it like Rosalind Gardner or should I just keep them automated? My readers might actually prefer the automated part, because I might never be able to write stories like Rosalind Gardner, and my readers might never read my whole story and therefore they might never click on any of my latest blog posts.
… but with the automated blog broadcasts, they will get an easy overview and that might be more than enough for most of them.
Well, I am still thinking.
Tags: aweber, rosalind+gardner, affiliate+marketing, blog+broadcast, newsletter
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An Example of Blog Scraping
I have been witnessing Blog Scraping on my blog for a while. The easiest way to spot it is when you see incoming links from your wordpress dashboard and you visit the websites that are linking to you and you find your blog post, but with a completely different name as the author.
From the image above, you can see three different examples of blog scraping, where someone has published excerpts from my blog posts and used different names as the author.
The first one is supposed to be published by glossarist, the second one is supposed to be published by unknown, and the third one is supposed to be published by Shawn Collins. Well, the real author is me.
If they are using Blog Scraping and copying my content, why can’t they at least use my real name? It would all look a lot more legit if they did. The only problem might be that their blog scraping software can’t save the name of the author (I really don’t know the answer, but I am guessing that’s it).
What is Blog Scraping?
From what I have read at Wikipedia, blog scraping is
the process where automated software scans hundreds of thousands of blogs per day, searching for and copying content.
Why are they copying the content and publishing it?
Well, I think that it might have to do with two things: trackbacks and search engines. Usually when people link back to a blog post, they get trackbacks and as a results they might receive traffic from the original blog post. And sometimes search engines might pick up their content (even though it’s not their content) and they may get a few extra hits to their websites.
Is blog scraping all bad?
They are copying your content, but is it all bad? At least they are linking back to your blog post.
The only problem with the link back to your blog post is that you will never get any traffic from the link, and the blog that are linking to it doesn’t have any authority at all. So, the link is not worth much when it comes to traffic. But like any other blog, you can receive visitors from blogs that have copied your content.
At first Blog Scraping seems like a rather harmless thing, but when organized and large websites starts doing it, then we might have to start worrying and thinking about a way to fight it.
Tags: blog+scraping, spam, backlinks, wordpress
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The Mystery Expert Marketing Strategy
A few days ago I descibed how you can use The Riddle as a Marketing Strategy, today I am using more of the same tactic, but instead of a riddle, I am introducing the mystery expert.
Image by cianc
This strategy tells your prospects that you’re not revealing a guru’s name, a guru who is somehow related to your product or presentation. He or she may have contributed to your product, endorsed your product or helped present (a teleseminar guest) your product.
One way to use this marketing strategy is when you are telling your prospects about your product, you could use 2 to 3 blanks for the name of the expert _____ _____ and then list all their credentials. I think that most people will be curious about who this expert could be. What do you think?
If your mystery expert is really famous, you could tell your prospects that they have heard of him or her. If your expert is new on the scene, you could tell them that he or she is brand new to the (the name of your niche) world or they work behind the scenes.
You should reveal as much information about the mystery expert as possible, but you should always leave your prospects guessing. If they are guessing, they are curious, and when they are curious, they are more likely to buy your product.
Tags: marketing+strategies, expert, prospects, mystery
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Grabbing Attention with Floating Action Button
I have been taking a look at the brand new Floating Action Button script from John Merrick and Soren Jordansen. At first, it looks convincing and very interesting. And they got all the testimonials to prove that it works as well, but would I have installed this script if I had a sales page?
This is their preview video of how the Floating Action Button Script works:
The script is cheap, at the moment the price is only $7 (launch special) and it’s probably worth every penny of the $7. As you can see from the video above, there are many options and you can use the script for a lot of different things (order buttons and optin forms).
It seems that you can use it for whatever you want to use it for – but remember, the button is all about getting attention from your prospects. The only thing that I am a little “worried” about is how this script is regarding cookies and how it would it could be used on a blog.
For instance, if it’s not possible to use cookies and only show it to new visitors to your blog, your regular visitors might become upset when they see it every time that they visit your blog.
I guess that I have to see for myself, I have just bought the Floating Action Button Script for $7, and now I will start to test it. I will let you know as soon as I have it up and running.
Update: I am now testing the script, and you can probably see it float next to my posts. It took me about 5 minutes, it was fast and easy. I couldn’t find a way to use cookies, that’s the only “problem” I have experienced so far.
I am not sure if I find it annoying, or if I think it’s amazing. What do you think?
Another update: I have just removed the script from my blog. I think that the script is amazing and I think that you can have great results by using it, but I don’t think that you (or I for that matter) should be using it on a blog. It takes to focus away from the content, and I don’t want that. I am still going to be using Floating Action Button, but not on my blog.
Tags: floating+action+button, john+merrick, soran+jordansen, script
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Easy Way to Get New Stumbles at StumbleUpon
I have been using StumbleUpon a while, but I haven’t been as active as I probably should have been in order to generate massive traffic from their service. I get a stumble now and then, and I get new fans now and then, and I am fairly satisfied with what I have achieved so far.
But I discovered something interesting a few days ago, and this is a new way to get more stumbles, which means more traffic, from StumbleUpon.
I should probably have published some screen shots, in order for you to understand what I am trying to explain here, but because I am writing this right now and I have only about 10 minutes to finish it, well, the screenshots have to be published sometimes later.
Now, this technique to get stumbles is for people who have installed the StumbleUpon toolbar. Once in a while, at least for the past week, I have received a number next to the logo and Stumble! (at the far left of the toolbar).
When I click on the number (or Stumble!) I will be redirected to a website and I will receive a message from one of my “friends” at StumbleUpon. Usually, this message is something like; please stumble this post.
When you receive “private” messages like that, I always stumble them. And I think that most people will do the same, at least if they receive as few messages as I have recieved. So, sending “private” messages to your “friends” at StumbleUpon is a way to get new stumbles.
It’s very easy.
Just go to the post of your choice. Click on send to in the StumbleUpon toolbar, find the person who you want to send it to, and then write a message.
I am not sure how many times you can do this and when it will be considered as spam. I have only done this a few times, and it seems to work. Instead of stumbling your own posts, you might want to try this.
Tags: stumbleupon, friends, stumble, messages, traffic, toolbar
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Video of Facebook Marketing with Events
This video is on how to send mass messages with Facebook. All you need to do is create an event, get people to join the event and start sending them messages.
I am not saying that you should be sending spam to all your members, but be sure to keep your messages related to your event.
Now, here is the video on how to create an event on Facebook and how to send messages to all the members:
This is of course very interesting if you are thinking about using Facebook for marketing purposes. I am going to give you an example of how the college where I work probably should use Facebook and how we should use it to promote an event.
Earlier today I attended a meeting about “open day”. This is an event we had on February 26, everybody could come and take a closer look at our college and ask questions.
Now, during this meeting we agreed upon having “open day” next year at 10th of March.
I could create an event at Facebook and start updating Facebook with all the information we have available for this event. I could send the invitation to all my friends, all my colleagues could send an invitation to join the event to all their friends and so on.
Then, I could start sending mass messages to all the members of the “Open day” event and keep them updated at what’s happening and all the various activities.
I think it’s a very interesting and free marketing technique, it’s also sort of a viral marketing technique. It’s very easy to spread the word.
Tags: facebook, video, events, mass+messages, spam
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Affiliate Silver Bullets for March
Just when I thought that the landing pages at Affiliate Silver Bullet couldn’t become any better.
Last night (for me anyway), Dustin Struckman and his team released the affiliate programs (bullets) for March.
I have been talking about how awesome I think that their landing pages for January and February is, but now… I am not sure if it can get any better than this.
Affiliate Silver Bullets for January Affiliate Silver Bullets for February
The landing pages at Affiliate Silver Bullet for the month of March is:
Duvet Dollars Thirty Minute Backlinks Automated Cash Formula Project Quick Cash Outsource and Delegate Forex Trading Machine Earn 592 Three Pillars Help Desk Web 2.0 Stampede CB Affiliate Revenue
I know that all these affiliate programs are at the top of ClickBank and that they are all highly recommended. I have not tested any of them myself, but the reason why I think that Affiliate Silver Bullet is a great system, is that they deliver awesome landing pages, great e-mail series and for top products.
Tags: affiliate+silver+bullet, clickbank, landing+pages, dustin+struckman
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Using The Riddle as a Marketing Strategy
What do Internet marketing experts Seth Godin, Joel Comm, Andrew Fox, and John Reese all have in common?
Image by PSD
Well, I have no idea, other than that they are all Internet marketing experts and they are all men. I am only using them to prove a point about an interesting marketing strategy.
Do you remember The Da Vinci code by Dan Brown? Well, if you do, you probably also remember how most people love codes, mysteries and riddles.
If I had a product, I could have started with the riddle above and told you that all those respected men bought my product, and that this is what they have in common. I bet you would have been really impressed by that wouldn’t you? You might even have bought the product just so you could have something in common with the credible experts?
Because what it often comes down to, is that when people we respect have bought something, we think that what they bought has to be good, and therefore we would also like to buy it. We want to know what they know, we want to be successful like they are.
You get it?
It’s always a good thing to get your visitors to start thinking. Use the riddle as a marketing strategy, and you will have your visitors curious or inquisitive. It doesn’t have to be four Internet marketing experts, and the answer doesn’t have to be that they have all bought your product. It can be almost anything. But make the answer to be something positive about your product.
If you don’t reveal the answer at the very beginning of your e-mail or sales page, your prospects might start researching the topic, or asking questions. They will become involved and want to know more about your product or service. You might want to have them send the answer to you, and you might want to reveal the answer only to people who can figure it out.
I remember a riddle not long ago, I think it was about three months ago. It was a mathematical riddle, and it seemed to be rather easy to figure out. The problems was that it was actually really hard, it just looked easy. In order to find out if you had the right answer, you would have to unlock an excel file where the answer was the password. Many of my friends couldn’t put their heads to rest before they had finished the riddle.
I think that the way to use a riddle on your prospects is to let them think and let them become active… and let them find out how incredibly impressive your product is. Let them find out this by solving the riddle or at least by thinking… don’t just give them a long sales letter.
Tags: seth+godin, john+reese, joel+comm, andrew+fox, marketing+strategy, riddle
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BlogJet is Worth Every Penny
As you may recall, I have been testing BlogJet for 30 days now. Today, I had to buy it or stop using it. I decided to buy it, it cost me close to $48, but to me it was worth every penny.
The reason I bought it was simple. My blogging experience is a lot better when I use it. It’s a lot more fun to write, and I think that my posts looks better when I use Blogjet. It sorts of inspires me to write, and I also think that it helps me become a little more creative than if I just use the regular WordPress editor.
Now, I did find two things about BlogJet that I didn’t actually like that much. The first one, might be something that it’s close to impossible to do something about. I really don’t know, because I am not all that technical. But I would like a way to view a preview of my posts, how they look in my blog design, before I decide to publish the posts.
BlogJet is a desktop blogging software, and that’s why I am not sure how hard it is to actually make a preview with your own blog design. Anyway, it would be great to have it.
The other problem, if I can call it a problem, with BlogJet is that after about a week or so, my antivirus software found a trojan and moved it to quarantine. I couldn’t use BlogJet after this, so I had to contact support and ask them about it.
The guy at support told me that it was no problem at all, and that they had told the antivirus company about it. I trust them, and don’t see any reason why they would have a trojan in their popular blog software. What I had to do was to tell the antivirus software to not look inside the BlogJet folder for virus and trojans. Now, everything works great.
If you are thinking about testing BlogJet, you should take a look at the video below. It displays many of the options. And you can always ask me questions about the software. I am using it with my wordpress blog, and it works great.
Tags: BlogJet, WordPress, YouTube, Offline+Blogging
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Affiliate Silver Bullets for March
Just when I thought that the landing pages at Affiliate Silver Bullet couldn’t become any better.
Last night (for me anyway), Dustin Struckman and his team released the affiliate programs (bullets) for March.
I have been talking about how awesome I think that their landing pages for January and February is, but now… I am not sure if it can get any better than this.
Affiliate Silver Bullets for January Affiliate Silver Bullets for February
The landing pages at Affiliate Silver Bullet for the month of March is:
(so far they have only uploaded five, I guess I am a little too fast when it comes to publishing this post… but I just couldn’t wait. There will be ten bullets for the month of March, and I will update this post as soon as they have been released)
Duvet Dollars Thirty Minute Backlinks Automated Cash Formula Project Quick Cash Outsource and Delegate
I know that all these affiliate programs are at the top of ClickBank and that they are all highly recommended. I have not tested any of them myself, but the reason why I think that Affiliate Silver Bullet is a great system, is that they deliver awesome landing pages, great e-mail series and for top products.
Tags: affiliate+silver+bullet, clickbank, landing+pages, dustin+struckman
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Review of EmptySpaceAds
Today I discovered a very interesting marketing tool, it’s completely free and you can use it to promote whatever you prefer and you can even use ShoppingAds which includes ads from eBay.
The company I am talking about is EmptySpaceAds. Their slogan is “turning empty space into cash”, something that got my attention and made me curious.
You can just join EmptySpaceAds and two minutes later you will have setup your first ads. Then, you just need to upload their code onto your website and that’s it. You can preview the ads on their website, so you don’t have to upload anything before you are satisfied.
What’s really interesting is that you and your visitors won’t see any of the ads before their mouse cursor is touching the empty spaces on your website. The very second that the mouse cursor touches the empty space, the ads will appear.
I think that this is great.
You can have extra ads on your website, because they won’t show when your visitors are looking at your content or your “visible” ads. They are not interfering with anything on your website.
When your visitor (without knowing it) moves their mouse cursor to the empty spaces on your website, your EmptySpaceAds will appear. This way, your visitors will see them. There is no way that they won’t see them. When the ads appear, they are almost like a pop up (but a lot cooler). They can even explode when you close the ads (a rather funny feature).
The only thing that I am not so sure about when it comes to EmptySpaceAds is how many of your visitors that will actually see your ads.
To see the ads, they will have to move the cursor of your mouse to the empty space. Your visitor will not know that your ads are there, and the only reason that they will move the mouse cursos to the empty space is random (or at least I think it’s random).
… or maybe it’s how we react when we visit websites and we want to read the contents? We automatically put the mouse cursor away from the text and onto the empty space?
Anyway, you should visit EmptySpaceAds today and look at their demo. If you have tested it already or if you have any thoughts regarding this, please let me know.
Tags: emptyspaceads, ebay, shoppingads, cash
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Hand in Logo Imprinted Items - This Pays Back!
If you would like to expand your business and reach the goals that may
seem to be unattainable at the very beginning, you are to schedule a plan of development.
This will definitely organize your activities targeted at gainging more and more customers and subscriptions to your services. What else can help you to promote your business to new heights?
Of course, promotional items and corporate gifts! Products that actually have nothing to do with your business though they are handy and cheap - why not to take advantage of them?
Taking part in various exhibitions and trade shows gives you a limited boost in expanding your company’s flow. Meanwhile this is a great opportunity to get more of them - hand in different promo items like promo magnets or imprinted logo calendars (with your company logo on them) to all the visitors and by doing this you prolong a huge traffic flow to your website and increase a possility in orders from it.
There’s no denying that advertising constitutes 50 percent of success in business that is why there is no way you are to deny all related issues that can be taken benefits of!
Article contributed exclusively to Slymarketing.com by Anthony Entine, writer for Clayton Kendall promotional gifts and corporate gifts company, provider of finest custom imprinted promo items and trade show gifts since 1984!
Tags: gifts, corporate+gifts, promotional+gifts, Clayton+Kendall
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Video: Facebook for Business Communication
Can you use Facebook as an effective communication tool for your business?
The answer is yes, and now you can watch how by viewing the video below:
I have actually been thinking about setting up a page at Facebook for the college I am working. This way of communicating with students is completely free, and it might be a great way to promote the college as well.
Before I decide what to do, I will be doing some searching and “research” into the field of Facebook pages and communication, and how we could be using it. I can see that a lot of American universities have a page on Facebook, and maybe it’s time for Norwegian universities and colleges to start as well?
Tags: Facebook, Business+communication, Social+networks, Video
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Marketing Strategies - Time Challenge
I challenged 10 top Internet Marketers to earn more money than me advertising Affiliate Silver Bullet in 48 hours, would you like to see the results and know the exact strategy I used to win it all?
Image: Animatrix by Dioboss
Well, I didn’t do any of this, it was just to prove my point about this marketing strategy.
No matter what topic you are involved in, you can use this strategy. You can challenge a number of experts in your topic and tell your readers what happened when you challenged them to do something in a certain amount of minutes/hours/days or months.
This strategy will make your readers become very curious and they will just love to know the exact strategies these experts used to get the benefit that your readers would like to get their hands on quickly.
You could compile the results of your challenge and document how the experts did it in an information product format. You could sell it or use it as a bonus for a related product.
As I said above, this is a technique that you can use on any topic. I related it to Internet Marketing, but you could use it on health related issues, environmental issues, food related issues or any issue at all. Just use your imagination.
Instead of just using regular text and images, you could use video to record the challenge, or you could use audio (make a podcast).
Since I am writing about Internet Marketing, I have a few tips on time challenges that you could try:
Challenge 5 Internet Marketing experts on who will be ranked highest with a certain keyword in 48 hours Challenge yourself or a few Internernet Marketing experts to end up at the frontpage of Digg in 1 week Challenge yourself to earn your first $1,000 in 30 days Challenge 10 Internet Marketing experts on who can build the largest optin list in 30 days Challenge 20 Internet Marketing experts on a copy writing challenge. How to turn words into magic in just 2 hours. Tags: Marketing+strategies, Time+challenge, Affiliate+Silver+Bullet
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Video: How to use Facebook Social Ads
I am still using Facebook Social Ads, and I am still very satisfied with the results. Not much new to say about the results, other than what I have already said.
In short; Facebook Social Ads works when you target people for a college marketing campaign. Because that’s what I have been doing. If it works in other types of marketing campaigns, well, I am not sure. It might depend on what kind of groups you target on Facebook and what you are trying to accomplish.
Now; if you are looking to create your own Facebook marketing campaign, I suggest that you view the video below first. It explains the whole process.
Tags: Facebook, Social+Ads, Video, marketing+campaign, College
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Marketing Strategies - Old but New
Image: Old and busted. New hotness. By Siebuhr.
The old but new marketing strategy is really about how to make an interesting sale, a way to give discount on your products, and a way to persuade people to buy your old products.
This marketing strategy is really “hot” when it comes to physical products. I bet you see it every time you enter a store. They are selling older physical products that have not sold out for a lower than normal price.
In order to sell physical products using the old but new strategy, you can tell your customers that the products consists of returned products that were only used once, or products that fell off the shelves and which might have small scratches or dents, or products that didn’t sell out for whatever reason you might think of.
You should guarantee that they will all work like new. If you do that, it would be a lot easier to sell them.
When it comes to virtual products, like information products, how can you apply this marketing strategy?
From what I have seen, there are three ways most Internet marketers are using this marketing strategy:
They are joining partners for giveaways They are bundling with other products They are providing old products as a bonus
If you have one or several “old” products, you can join partners and give them away. This way you either earn money from a backoffer or you can build a larger e-mail list.
If you have more than one “old” product, you can bundle the products and sell them to a reduced price alltogether.
When you launch a new product, you can use “old” products as a free bonus for your customers. This might help to persuade your visitors to buy your new product.
Can you think of any other creative ways to sell your “old” products?
Tags: marketing+strategy, virtual+products, giveaway, backoffer
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Cheerios Can Help Your Creativity
Did you know that a bowl of honey nut Cheerios can turn your creativity on? Or that the Cheerios box, with all the colors and images can make you start to think about cool things?
Image: I Love Cheerios by Her Royal Jilliness’
I am not sure about the Cheerios nutrtion, and I am actually not sure about who invented Cheerios, but I know this; they are doing a great job when it comes to marketing.
You might think that I need to take a deep dive into the history of Cheerios and to write about how they have been marketing Cheerios for the past 50 years or so, but I really don’t.
I am only talking about my own experience, and why I think that I can learn something from them. Maybe not by eating Cheerios, but by visiting their website.
Think of it, what is Cheerios really?
It’s something you eat. You eat it for breakfast or any other meal, basically, food is all it is. Now, how do you turn something like Cheerios into something “larger” than food?
Well, they are telling their visitors that Cheerios is for everybody. Not just kids.
Cheerios is for parents, kids, families and adults… hmmm, but what about teenagers?
They are using their site to tell us the stories of people who love cheerios and why they love it. They are showing pictures of cute kids with Cheerios cereal in their hair, on their face and everywhere… they are showing families, and sharing stories of people who with some sort of love for their product.
They are doing what Apple have been doing for years. They are turning the focus away from their product and over to the people who are using their product. They are saying stuff like Diana from Houston:
My heart attack changed my life in many ways. Healthier habits became a priority. I believe that women are good at sharing with other women. And I?ve found that sharing my experience with other women has helped many friends seek better, healthier lifestyles, too.
She is not saying anything about Cheerios. Did Cheerios help her life become better, is it because of Cheerios that she has a healthier lifestyle?
What about Lynn from Morgan, saying:
Healthy living to me means a balanced diet that fuels a regular routine of physical exercise of indoor and outdoor activities, a job, socializing, and sleep, which is supported by a strong spiritual and family relationships. It doesn’t sound easy, but it something I live by!
I guess healthy living means she is eating Cheerios, even though it doesn’t say that anywhere.
Smiling faces and healthy people helps a lot when it comes to selling a product.
Now, forget about all the eating part and the healthy part of Cheerios for a second.
What can you do with a box of Cheerios, you get 10 minutes and you are not going to eat it. Be creative…
I have five things that you could do:
Turn the Cheerios into words on your table, write the name of your wife (she would love that in the morning) Put one Cheerio inside each of your ears (just because you haven’t done it before) Put the Cheerios on the toilet seat, draw a heart for your loved ones to see Use Cheerios to make a trail from the bedroom to where you are at, see if someone will notice it and smile Use Cheerios to build a tower, how tall do you think you can build it?
What do you think, do you have any alternatives?
Tags: Cheerios, Creativity, Marketing, Food
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Affiliate Silver Bullet and Commissions
Since Affiliate Silver Bullet launched not long ago, it was in early January, I have been wondering when they will be paying commissions to all their affiliates? I have been looking around on their Frequently Asked Questions, but I haven’t found any answers.
So, I decided to take the matter into my own hands.
I contacted support and asked them.
This is the answer I received:
We pay commissions on the first of the month, with a 30 day lag (due to the guaranteed refund), via PayPal on all commissions totaling $50 or more.
Fair enough.
Tags: Affiliate+Silver+Bullet, PayPal, Commissions
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Marketing Strategies - Time after Time
This is my first post for my brand new category of Marketing strategies. I am starting this series of posts because I have a few thoughts regarding how to use creative ways to convince / persuade people to buy your products and services.
I have named today’s strategy Time after Time.
Tell people that instead of spending years making the same mistakes, spend a specific amount of time (minutes/hours/days/weeks) with you and become successful.
Well, don’t just tell them that they will be successful in a certain amount of time with you, tell them exactly what they will learn as well.
Image: The Clock by Zergin
For instance, tell them that they will learn how to write killer headlines in 7 days (because your course is a seven day course). If you are promoting an e-book about Digg or StumbleUpon, read the e-book yourself, find out how much time you spent and say something like:
Don’t spend months making the same mistakes using Digg, I will teach you everything you need to know about Digg in only 35 minutes!
This strategy tells your prospects that they will save time if they purchase your help, advice, instructions or consulting to gain their desired benefit.
You know that they are making the same mistakes over and over again, because they are visiting your website / salespage. Would most people visit your website if they already knew everything that you are selling?
You can provide your help, advice, instructions or consulting in person, via the phone, or via a video webcast. What’s important is that people will jump at the chance to shed months or even years of frustration.
Tags: Time, Marketing+strategies, Copywriting
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Creative Commons Flickr and Bloggers
I have never actually been looking at the Creative Commons licence before, but today I had a few extra minutes without any plans and I decided to read it, and it’s all because I have a purpose.
I have never been using images from Flickr before, but I have been looking at Flickr for a long time now. I want to start using images to supplement my blogposts, a nice image makes a blog post a lot cooler.
But I have a problem.
If I find some nice images with the Creative Common licence, can I just download them and use them on my blog without writing anything about who owns the image and where I downloaded it?
… or can I download the image, use it on my blogpost and write the name of the owner and give a link back to his or her Flickr profile?
… or do I have to ask the person before I can use the image?
Well, as I am writing this, I haven’t read the Creative Commons licence. But I would think that I should ask for permission before I start using the images. And I probably should do that even though the creative common licence might say that it’s legal to do something else.
Now, what have I discovered reading about Creative Commons?
There are four important things that you need to learn:
Attribution Noncommercial No derivate works Share alike
Attribution is, according to Flickr, that you are allowed to copy, distribute, display and perform copyrighted work, and derivative work based upon it, but only if you give them credit.
Noncommercial means that you can copy, distribute, display, and perform the work of others, and derivate works based upon it, but only for noncommercial purposes.
No derivate works means that you can do everything I just wrote but only verbatim copies of their work, not derivate works based upon it.
Share alike means that you can distribute derivate works, but only under the licence identical to the licence that governs their work.
What does all this mean to a blogger like myself?
All I want to do is to show the images on my blog, I am not going to share it in any other way and I am not going to perform anything when it comes to resize, crop or whatever.
I believe that the only problem related to using images from Flickr with a Creative Commons license on my blog is related to the Noncommercial part.
I am earning money from my blog, but I am not writing because I am trying to earn money, and my blog was not created because I want to earn money. My blog was created because I want to learn more about Internet marketing.
But does this mean that my blog is a commercial blog or not? I don’t have a company, but I am earning money… it’s a tricky question.
Anyway, I think that I end up with the same answer as before I started reading about Creative Commons. If you want to use an image from Flickr, you should contact the owner of the image and get his or her permission before you use it.
The only problem with getting a permission before you use an image, is that you will have to expect to wait a few days. I believe that most people will be thrilled to be told that their images are really cool and that you would like to use them on your blog.
What do you think? Is this the way Creative Commons work for bloggers?
Tags: Flickr, Creative+Commons, Images, Blogging
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BlogRush Works - But Not The Way You Think
I signed up with BlogRush at the time when John Reese launched it, at first I didn’t think much about it. It was just a widget in my sidebar showing more or less interesting posts on similiar topics. But now, I think of it as a way of getting traffic… targetted traffic.
Many bloggers have been removing BlogRush lately, and they have various reasons why they are doing it. On the other hand, some bloggers have experienced better results after they have installed a WordPress plugin for BlogRush.
I am still using BlogRush and even though the traffic from this widget could be a lot better, and I could have a much larger downline, I find it to be rather fascinating.
The traditionaly way
There are several ways to increase your traffic using BlogRush. You can write better headlines, if you write shorter and attention grabbing headlines, people will notice them. And you can use the filters, this way you can control which of your posts that will appear on other blogs. These two ways are probably the most common ways to increase your traffic using BlogRush, but I have another one that I find sort of amusing.
A lot of bloggers are more or less addicted to checking their blog stats. Some even update their stats every hour or so, just too see where their visitors are coming from. Yes, I have been there and done that, and I still find myself checking my stats way more than I should.
This works
And this is why it actually works to click on the headlines of your own BlogRush widget. Because when you click on a headline and you enter the blog (to read the post), the owner of that blog will see that you have referred a visitor to his blog. By seeing this, the owner might actually take a look at your blog, and if he finds it interesting, he will read some of your posts and even subscribe to your RSS feed.
… all this happens because most bloggers are looking at their stats way more often than they really should. I am one of them 
Tags: blogrush, webstats, headlines, wordpress
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What I dislike about Affiliate Silver Bullet
I have now been a member of Affiliate Silver Bullet for apx. 7 weeks, and I have some experience with the system.
First of all, I really enjoy being a member and I find it fascinating and all the landing pages (bullets) for January and February are awesome, no doubt about it. The system is powerful, and I think it’s close to perfect when it comes to monetizing a blog with an affiliate program.
… but at the same time, there is at least one thing about Affiliate Silver Bullet that I dislike. Well, maybe dislike is a strong word, but at the moment I think it sort of covers my feelings.
So far, the only thing I really don’t like about Affiliate Silver Bullet is lack of information. Their website covers some information, but way too little information for me. They should probably have a discussion forum or something, a better FAQ or just a website with a lot more information.
Their support was great the first few weeks, but lately they have been kind of slow.
I hope that they realilze that if they had more information in their backoffice, I wouldn’t have to contact support that often.
The only thing I really don’t like is their lack of information, and they haven’t paid me my first commission yet, and I don’t know when they will pay me. Because there is no information about this on their website (as far as I can see).
Tags: affiliate+silver+bullet, support, information
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Creative and Free Text Links Exchange
As you probably already know, reciprocal links are very useful when it comes to search engines and traffic. The more reciprocal links you have, the better your ranking on the search engines will be. The more reciprocal links you have, the more traffic you will get from the other sites linking to your site.
That’s the short story, and it’s very close to the truth.
Now, there is a creative and free way to do a link exchange with other bloggers using WordPress. This is a way that works, instead of the traditional way – you probably know all about the traditional way.
In order to make this creative and free link exchange work, you need to use the aLinks plugin for wordpress.
This plugin is a way to turn words or phrases into links on all your posts. You can decide that one of your words, like I am using the word AWeber, should turn into a link whenever you write the word in one of your posts. And as you can see, that just happened to my word.
When you add a word or phrase to aLinks, it will turn that word into a link on all your posts. It will turn the word of your choice on all the posts from the past and on all your posts in the future into links. It’s a very powerful tool.
Now, instead of just turning some words or phrases into affiliate links, you should be a little more creative. Do a link exchange instead. Ask people with blogs with the same or similar topic as yours to use aLinks and exchange text links.
If your blog is quite similar in popularity, you can exchange one text link on your blog with one text link on the other blog. If your blog has less traffic, you can give three text links and receive one text link on the other blog. It’s all up to you how you decide to exchange text links.
The difference with this kind of link exchange, is that it works. You pick the keywords that are related to your blog and you will get targeted traffic from your link partners.
I am ready to do a text link exchange with you, are you ready? Please contact me if you are.
Tags: text+links, link+exchange, reciprocal+links
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Install SEO WordPress - The Videos
If you are looking for video tutorials on how to install WordPress, how to optimize WordPress and how to install plugins and a lot more, then you should take a look at Install SEO WordPress.
You get many videos that will teach you everything you need to know about how to install it and a step by step approach on how to manage it exactly the way you should.
There is no secret that if you want more traffic to your blog, you need to tweak it and do some SEO stuff. Most people will have a problem doing this, because they don’t know about all the settings and they don’t know where to find the right plugins - because there are many different SEO plugins.
If you want more traffic to your blog, and you don’t know how to tweak your settings, and you don’t know about the best SEO plugins for WordPress, then you should take a look at the step by step videos at Install SEO WordPress.
It’s rather cheap, the price is only $7 and you get Master Resell Rights to the video course.
Tags: wordpress, seo, video+tutorial, plugins
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Successful Buzz Marketing by Dean Hunt
I recently stumbled upon a different kind of blog, it was the blog of Dean Hunt. A man I didn’t know anything about before my visit to his blog.
I ended up subscribing to his RSS feed and downloaded his report The Web Traffic Orgasm (because the title fascinated me). Now, I understand that Dean Hunt is someone to watch and listen to when it comes to Buzz Marketing.
But first.
What is Buzz Marketing?
Buzz Marketing is about creating content that will be linked to and discussed.
What is Viral Marketing?
Viral Marketing is the art of creating a message that people will spread for you.
Buzz Marketing and Viral Marketing are not identical but the terms are related.
The Web Traffic Orgasm is a case study by Dean Hunt, and if you want to know more about Buzz Marketing, then I really recommend that you read this free report. I am not going to reveal much, because you should download and read The Web Traffic Orgasm yourself, but I am going to point out a few interesting things.
Dean Hunt is successful, he is providing us with proof. Proof about how much he is earning, and proof about how many visits he is receiving because of his buzz marketing campaigns.
He is writing about some of the tricks he is using, 9 tricks that makes a rather normal boring article into a cool buzzworthy article, and it doesn’t look that difficult.
He is also writing about the long-term effects of Buzz and Viral Marketing, and he explains one of the questions that I have been thinking about for some time:
Does Buzz Marketing campaigns bring just worthless traffic?
The answer is “of course not”, and you should really read The Web Traffic Orgasm if you want to know why.
Tags: Buzz+Marketing, Dean+Hunt, Viral+Marketing, Web+Traffic
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You can never be too creative
There are many ways to be creative, and there are many reasons why you should be creative.
If you are creative, people will listen to you, they will rely on you to come up with new interesting ideas and ways to market online. They will keep visiting your blog, and they will end up as followers.
I believe that you are creative, we all are. But sometimes you need a push in order to think different, and you need to look at different places for inspiration.
Take a look at the video below, it’s different and it might help you to “think outside of the box”:
When you get inspired, you come up with creative ads. And creative ads are different than the mainstream ads, they will make you stop eating your popcorn if you are at the movie theatre. They will get your attention, no matter how pretty the girl next to you are. The problem is that so few ads are creative - that’s why we end up eating popcorn while talking with our friends or making out with our girlfriends before the movie starts.
What would you be doing if you saw some of these ads below at the movie theatre? Would you have noticed them, or would you still be looking the other way with your mouth full of popcorn?
I believe that you can never be too creative.
Tags: Creative, Video, Attention, Inspiration
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Crush your competition with StumbleUpon
I have been thinking about how StumbleUpon works, and I have an idea about how you can use it in order to “destroy” your competition or someone you just don’t like. I am not recommending that you do it, but I just want to let you know that I am a little worried.
What I am talking about is a way to prevent people from getting traffic from StumbleUpon (SU), especially people who usually get a lot of traffic from SU. If my idea works, well, then I am a little worried. I hope nobody will use it this way, and I really hope it won’t work the way I am describing it.
The only reason I am writing this, is to make a point and to try to stop it. If it’s this easy to prevent people from getting traffic from StumbleUpon, then SU should really do something about it and do it fast. Millions are using SU, and if what I am desribing works, then I am probably not the first one who have thought about it.
Ok, now it’s time to reveal my thoughts. Actually, I can reveal everything with a simple question:
What happens if you are the first person to vote for a post / website and you use the wrong category at StumbleUpon?
For instance, I am using Comment Sniper, and I am at the post of my competition as the first person after he published it. Now, I add his post to StumbleUpon, but instead of adding it to the best category available (a category that matches his content), I add it to the opposite. I add the post related to Internet Marketing to the category of Alcholic Drinks (I just picked a random category for this example).
I would think that by adding this post to a completely different category, it will not produce a lot of traffic from StumbleUpon. It seems to be that the first person who adds a post / website to StumbleUpon is the person who defines “everything”. Everybody that comes later on and wants to vote for the post / website, can only vote, they can’t change the category.
The reason I discovered this, is that I accidentally added one of my own posts to the wrong category. I discovered this, and I wanted to edit it, but so far I don’t know how.
If the blog that you are adding to the wrong category is a very popular one, this might not have such a huge impact, because a lot of people might still be voting on it by visiting the blog (but not from inside of StumbleUpon). For other not very popular blogs, this kind of behavior can have a tremendous effect.
I hope that I am not right when it comes to this can of abuse of StumbleUpon.
Tags: StumbleUpon, Abuse, Internet+Marketing, Traffic
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What I think about Search Engine Optimization
I am really not that interested in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), well, don’t get me wrong. I am very interested in traffic from search engines, but I have not been studying SEO at all. I know a few things, but that’s about all.
The reason why I have not studying Search Engine Optimization is that I have thought that it’s too time consuming and a very difficult task. And if I am going to be good at SEO I would have to work really hard at it, something I don’t have the time to do at the moment.
… but when it comes to Search Engine Optimization, I have a few things that I am aware of. I try to be strategic about them and I believe that they are very important and not that hard to understand.
One problem regarding SEO is that search engines are always trying to change, they are very dynamic, and they are always trying to “catch” cheaters. To be among the best, you need to keep reading, keeping studying, because you never know when a new update at Google, Yahoo, MSN or AOL will come.
Now, to me, Search Engine Optimization is all about getting my site on the first few choices of a search engine result page, as a result of the keywords punched in. And of course, the keywords should be relevant to my content.
I am writing about Internet marketing and stuff related to that topic. It wouldn’t be that great for me to get to the top at Google for the keyword Opera singer. Well, I would probably get a lot of traffic, but my visitors from that keyword would probably be interested in reading more about Opera singers than Internet marketing. So, they would be at my site for 1 minute or less, and probably never come back.
Search Engines are a great way to get targeted traffic, and that’s the kind of traffic I really want. But it’s not that easy. A few years ago, it looked like all you needed to do was write the same keyword over and over again in the meta tags. If you did that enough times, you would get ranked in the top 10 (it wasn’t really that easy.. but to me it looked that way).
Search engines do not go through each and every site carefully and then put them up on the web. You might think that, but they don’t. They have algorithms which are programmed to rank pages according to the text relevance. If you have a flawed design or irrelevant coding then your site might appear for a totally different keyword or would appear at the bottom of the result page.
There are four things that are important to me when it comes to Search Engine Optimization:
On-Page Optimization Off-Page Optimization Reciprocal Linking
On-Page Optimization
This includes Keywords, link structures, text, images and other visible and invisible features. I believe that keywords are the most important feature on On-Page Optimization (I think that I read that somewhere). Keywords should be used in title, description and header tags, but should never be overused as this would result in keyword spamming. As I wrote earlier, the content should be in absolute relevance with the keywords, if not, you might get hits on the wrong keywords.
Off-Page Optimization
It’s all about the incoming links to your site. You would want it to be coming from relevant and high ranking websites on the same topics as yours. The more incoming links from high ranking sites matching your content, the higher ranking your website will have on the search engines.
Reciprocal Linking
This is a difficult word for a Norwegian like myself. The word reciprocal means complementary. It means that you exchange links with other webmasters with similar content as your website. This can prove to be very productive provided the quality of your content is relevant. Quality content is of uppermost priority in Search Engine Optimization.
I am trying to use all the three “techniques” when it comes to SEO. But it would probably help a lot to know which one of the three “techniques” that would give me the higher rankings. Because now, I almost never do anything regarding On-Page Optimization, because this is the difficult part, and I hardly ever do the reciprocal linking either. Well, when I come to think about it, it’s been a while since I done any off-page optimization as well.
… but it might all change once I buy and have the time to start using SEO Equalizer. I have still not decided what to do, but I guess I have to buy that software or something similar if I am going to get more traffic from Google and the other major search engines.
Tags: Google, Yahoo, SEO, Search+Engines
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Using Instant SlideUp to grab attention
I am currently using an exit popover to grab attention and to get my visitors to sign up for my newsletter. It’s rather effective, and I have doubled or maybe even tripled the number of subscribers since I started using it. But today I discovered something that might be even more effective, it’s called Instant SlideUp and it’s a little different than the popover.
You can see how it works over at Dirk’s Crazy Week Deals. Take a look at the bottom of the page, it takes a few seconds before it appears. What do you think? Would you have seen it if I hadn’t told you about it?
I think that Instant SlideUp looks great and that it might be worth the $67 investment, and if you really would like a cool design, they can make you a custom design for $67.
It’s not as annoying as a popover, and it did grab my attention right away.
Tags: instant+slideup, Dirk+Wagner, attention, popover
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New Interesting Viral Marketing Software
I have just had a sneak peak at a brand new Viral Marketing Software called Instant Affiliate Generator by Gary McCaffrey. The software looks very interesting and it’s cheap.
The reason that I find this viral marketing software interesting, is because I haven’t seen anything like it before, and it seems that it’s very easy to install and very easy to use, and that the software can be used by anyone. You don’t really need any technical skills (at least so it seems).
… and of course, I believe that this piece of software really works.
Now, what is Instant Affiliate Generator all about?
It helps you generate free visitors, it sort of makes every visitor to your website one of your affiliates, even though you don’t have your own affiliate product.
What it helps you do is this:
You have to provide a gift or something for free, or something to a reduced price to people who refer other people to your website. You can tell Instant Affiliate Generator that you want everybody that refers 5 people or more to your website or page to get access to a certain product or service. If they don’t refer 5 people (unique visitors), they won’t get access.
You just copy and paste the code to your website / page and they will get an overview of how many they have to refer, starting at 0% ending at 100%.
You probably understand by now why this is a very powerful tool.
You can use it on as many pages as you like, and you can probably use it in many different ways. The most important part of it being that your visitors will want to link to your website in order to refer people and get access to whatever you are offering.
It looks very easy and it looks very powerful.
Now, I have been thinking about buying Instant Affiliate Generator myself, but so far I have been thinking about how I could be using it.
Since I am running a WordPress blog and I would like to integrate it on my blog, I am not sure if it have to turn up on all my pages or not. It looks like the script will have to be placed in the header and if it does, all my visitors would have to see it. I am not sure if this will be such a good idea or not, but I might have to buy it just so I can test how powerful it really is.
…. but what should you offer your visitors in return for their referrals? That seems to be the only question left.
Tags: Instant+Affiliate+Generator, Gary+McCAffrey, Viral+Marketing
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Is this the ultimate SEO Tool?
I have been looking at this brand new Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tool since the day it launched. This is probably the first time I have read the whole sales page of a product.
The reason why I have been so interested in SEO Equalizer from the beginning is probably beacuse the man behind it is Jeff Alderson, and I know that he usually overdelivers when it comes to his products. He is the man behind software like: Press Equalizer, Traffic Equalizer and AdWord Analyzer.
His reputation is one thing, but I think that SEO Equalizer sounds cheap. And of course, the software got so many interesting features that I would like to test at my blog.
I haven’t bought it yet, I am still thinking about it… but I guess I should probably just do it. The only reason why I haven’t bought it yet, is that I have bought so many e-books lately, and I just haven’t had time to read them all and use some of the software I have just bought.
Sometimes it seems that I am only buying stuff all the time, and that I never have the time to actually use them.
I discovered a few days ago that Affiliate Silver Bullet (ASB) has a landing page for SEO Equalizer. ASB provides five follow up messages that will explain the SEO Equalizer system. A great way to promote the software, but I am not actually trying to promote it, I am more trying to convince myself into buying it (or not).
Well, I am still not sure, but here are a few features that I like to use at SEO Equalizer:
Keyword analysis that helps optimize my pages for certain keywords(keyword density) - just enter the URL to analyze and the keyword It will keep me out of trouble by allowing me to check whether or not my blog is pointing to a site that is banned by Google It helps me track my search engine position for various keywords and phrases
… and there are so many other interesting features, just take a look at the sales page and you will see why I am finding this SEO Equalizer so interesting.
I guess I just have to buy it now… I might have managed to convince myself this time
Tags: jeff+alderson, seo+equalizer, seo, software
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Do you need One Time Offer Templates?
Most successful Internet marketers are earning money from One Time Offers. I have already written several posts about this marketing technique, about the One Time Offer at Affiliate Silver Bullet and how you can earn money with One Time Offers.
Today I discovered a new interesting offer regarding One Time Offers. If you want to use your own One Time Offers, you need them to be very tempting, and there are a lot of things to consider when you are setting up the offers.
One of the most important thing is to grab the attention of your visitor. The easiest way to do that is by using a very cool design. And that’s what I discovered today.
You can buy a package of many very cool One Time Offer templates from Garrie Wilson. I think that they are cheap and that they will work. But remember that you have to put some very cool offers inside the template. It’s very important to have a cool template, but nobody will buy your One Time Offer if they don’t like what you are offering. But it’s a great way to grab their attention.
Visit One Time Offer Templates by Garrie Wilson
Tags: Templates, One+Time+Offers, Carrie+Wilson
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How to find customers that will give you money
I am thinking about the Internet marketing part, instead of just promoting your website to the general public, you need to find a way to find the customers that have their credit card ready, and are just looking for the buy now button at your website.
It’s all about where to concentrate your efforts. And I do it the following way:
First of all, you need to bring targeted traffic to your website.
Second, you need to increase your conversion rate.
Third, well, there is no third.
Targeted traffic, is what you get if you use specific keywords in your blog posts. Like I am getting targeted traffic to my posts about Affiliate Silver Bullet. I am receiving a lot of traffic every single day from people who are searching Google for this spesific system… and because I am showing them all an affiliate link to Affiliate Silver Bullet, I am doing both number 1 (targeted traffic) and number two (making it very easy for them to sign up or buy).
Most people who are looking for Targeted traffic are using Pay Per Click, like Google AdWords. This is a great way to get targeted traffic, but as soon as you get the traffic, you need to have a great landing page. You need a landing page that grabs their attention, one that makes them so curious they just want to sign up or buy whatever product you are selling.
It doesn’t really help you that much if you have a plan for the targeted traffic, but not the landing page. You need both in order to become successful.
… and I believe that’s the two most important things when it comes to finding customers that will give you money. If you go into the details, you will of course need some great follow up messages as well, and the right procedures for your customers to give you the money. But I will do the details in post later on.
What do you think, are these two elements the most important parts of how to find customers that will give you money?
Tags: money, pay+per+click, conversion, targeted+traffic
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Why People Spend Their Money Online
I have been thinking about this question a lot, and I am not sure if I have the answer yet, but I will give you my opinion.
I don’t believe that most people are using the Internet to buy something because it’s easy or convenient. They are not buying because the store is open 24 hours a day and they can sit in their underwear and buy whatever they are looking for.
I don’t believe that most people buy online because they love the product, how the product look or the design of the product.
I don’t believe that most people buy online becaues of the low price or the selection of products. You can find anything online.
Now, I am not saying that nobody will buy something online because of this. I am only saying that I think that this applies to most people.
I believe that most people spend money online because they have a desire. They spend money online because they want something. I am not saying that they spend money online because they need something, because there are a destinction between need and want.
I need to stop eating as much pizza as I am currently eating (yes, it’s true), but I just don’t want to. I don’t need to buy a new e-book about Internet Marketing (because I really don’t have the time to read another one, I have about 5 waiting for me to be read), but I want to buy it.
I believe that your job as an Internet marketer is to convince your visitor that her desire will be filled if she buys your product.
Why do you think people buy products online?
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Affiliate Silver Bullet and their Support
I just had to write this post, and I must say that I waited as long as I could, I didn’t really want to write it. But I guess that sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
The reason I didn’t want to write it, is that Affiliate Silver Bullet has been such a great system from day 1 since I joined it. I have had no complaints what so ever, I have been excited about how powerful the system seems to be, and nothing has changed that. Not even today.
… but there is one thing that I am not that satisfied with, and that’s the support.
It might be my own fault, because I have been sending them many questions already. Most the questions have been regarding new features and not about things that they would have to fix. I have always received an answer within 24 hours, everything has been great (actually more than great).
Until now.
I sent two questions to support at Affiliate Silver Bullet and I haven’t received an answer for either of them. The first one was at the 5th of February and the second one was sent at the 7th of February. They used to answer my questions in less than 24 hours, now it’s been a week. I am not sure what’s happening, but hopefully they have some explanation why they haven’t answered.
I am really looking for feedback on their support, because their system has been awesome so far, and when their support fails, I believe that their whole system fails.
I will try another attempt at contacting them, and I will keep you updated.
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A Great Lie can also be Great Marketing
I discovered a different kind of blog yesterday. Sometimes when I visit a new blog, I stop and stare, and I find myself thinking about what I am actually staring at. This doesn’t happen often, usually I understand what the blog is all about in a few seconds, then I move on or I find it interesting and start to read some of the posts, and maybe I end up subscribing to the RSS feed.
Now, the blog I discovered yesterday was the blog that I stopped and stared at, but I kept staring for a few minutes (it felt like several minutes). I wasn’t sure if the guy behind the blog was kidding, or what it was all about. Then I had to read some of the posts, and I had to read about the blog and the contact information and more.
He had a way with words that took me by surprise and I just wanted to read more.
I am not sure if the blog is any good, if I can learn something from it or not. But I liked his sense of humor. To me, this guy is hilarious. It’s obvious that he is kidding, and that’s why I just wanted to keep reading. I am not talking about his posts, but the blog and general information. I haven’t read enough posts to know if he is this way all the time or not.
We can all learn something from this blog. I believe that a great lie can also be great marketing.
If you take a look at the sidebar at DeanHunt.com, you can see that he got more subscribers through FeedBurner than most of the professional bloggers I know of, and if you want him to review your blog, well, you might want to think again.
I am not sure if I am calling him a lier or not, because it’s obvious that the FeedBurner badge is false. A lier or not, I think what he is doing is great marketing, and he is getting a lot of visitors this way. His Alexa stats is at the moment 91,921, obviously he is doing something right.
By providing the incredible FeedBurner stats and the interesting review me badge, he got my attention. I stopped, I stared and I am now subscribing to his RSS Feed.
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Web Traffic is it Science or Voodoo?
I bet you have heard this one before, but even so, I will try to explain one of the biggest misunderstandings of Internet marketing. The reason I am calling it one of the biggest misunderstandings, is that it seems that most people don’t act like web traffic is a science, they are behaving like web traffic involves tricks, magic or even voodoo.
Let me explain.
Most of the cool programs or systems that you can buy that involves Internet marketing and a way to drive traffic to your website(s), they are trying to convince you that they will reveal some secret formula. But there are no real secrets and there’s no magic to it.
It’s all about science, and you need to test and evaluate, you need to
Find out who your visitors are Find out what they want Find out how to communicate with them and sell to them
That’s the science part.
Let me give you an example.
If you are selling a weight loss product, you should really use Google Analytics or some other statistical tool to find stats about your visitors. Where are they from, what pages on your website are they visiting, and so on. You need to find out why they are visiting your website. Are they only visiting it because you wrote a post on your blog about a certain product, or are there any other reasons why they are visiting? If they are just visiting a few of your pages, well, that’s the pages you might want to focus on.
Many well-known marketers asks the visitors questions regarding what they are looking for and why they are visiting their website. Maybe you should do that too?
If you do that, you will know for sure what they are looking for. Are there anything they need or want? Many well-known marketers use Google AdWords to find answers to some of their questions. Sounds interesting?
If you have found out who your visitors are, and you know what they want, now it’s time to find out how to communicate with them and how to tell them about your products and how to get them to buy them. You could just ask them, or you could test various services and find out what will be the most effective way.
The science is about testing. And if you test, track and evaluate, you will know what works, and when you know what works, you will become successful.
That’s the only way!
I use the word Voodoo, many others have used it before me. The reason we all use it when we try to explain the science part of web traffic is to relate it to medicine.
… and it’s an interesting comparison.
If you get sick, would you visit a medical doctor with 8 years of medical school or would you go for a witch doctor? I am not saying anything bad about the witch doctor, he might cure you, what do I know? But my guess is that you would do what most people would do in a situation like that. You would visit the medical doctor and you would get the advice and the proven treatment in order to become well and healthy again.
It’s the same with web traffic. You can’t just do something without testing. How would you know if it works if you have no statistical proof or if you are not tracking anything? What if you started a Pay Per Click campaign and you were using two different search engines, Yahoo and Google? If you didn’t use a tracker or a statistical tool like Google Analytics, how could you say which campaign was the best one? The same goes with everything else.
Remember
Test Track Evaluate
An example for you:
I am tracking the clicks on all my banners at this blog. I know which banners that are producing the best results and I know which size that are the best, and I know where to place my banners to get the best results. I am not doing anything random here, I am only doing things that I know works or I am testing new ways to get better results, but I am testing and I am tracking the results.
I am all for science when it comes to Internet marketing.
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Four Types of Web Traffic
I have been thinking about how many types of web traffic there really are, and why it’s important to think about the different types.
The reason that it’s very important to stop and think about the different types for a moment is because your website will be viewed very differently depending on why each of your visitors are visiting your website.
When I think about it, there are really just four types of web traffic:
1. A person finds your website because she is looking for a way to fulfill her desire (what she want/need). She has her credit card ready, just waiting to buy whatever product or service you are offering, she knows about the product before she visited you website, she is looking for the product / service and now she just want to buy it.
If you don’t offer any product or service for sale, then she is looking for the information that you provide. She is very eager to get it and you are provided it to her.
For this person you would just have to provide a very easy way to buy the product. She is just looking for a buy now button and a way to download the product without any hazzle at all. If she can’t find the button without any struggle, you might lose a customer.
2. A person finds your website because she is looking for a way to fulfill her desire what she want/need). But instead of having her credit card ready, she is looking for alternatives. She knows that there are many people or companies that are provided the same products or alternative products, now she is evaluating the different options before she decides to buy one of them.
The same applies if you are only providing information and not a product for sale. She might want to look at alternative answers to the same question. Your website provides some information, and after she has looked at your answer, she will look at other related websites for more information.
For this person you need to explain why your product is what she needs, you need to explain why your product is better than other similar or alternative products.
3. A person finds your website because she is looking for a way to fulfill her desire, but she doesn’t really know how to fulfill her desire. She knows about the desire, but she can’t really explain how to fulfill it and she doesn’t know about the solution.
For instance, she is looking for a way to lose weight. She knows that this is what she wants, but she just doesn’t know how to. She has tried many different ways earlier, but none of them had any effect on her. In this case your job would be to explain your product and how it would have an effect on her and exactly what she would do with your product to lose weight.
For this person you would have to first grab her attention, you need to explain the product, and provide detailed information about the product.
4. A person finds your website by a mistake. She might be looking for something completely diferent. She is not really looking for anything that you are providing.
For this person you need to be very specific about what your website is all about, what kinds of products you sell. This way, you are not wasting her time (and money). If you do it right, she will understand very fast what your website is all about and if she finds a need for your product sometime in the future, she will hopefully remember your website and come back and buy it.
…. or of course, you could try to convince her, that your product is something she would need (even though she has never heard of it before), no matter if she came to your website by mistake or not.
You should remember that a person that comes to your website by mistake is your toughest customer, and she will most of the time not buy anything from you and she will probably not come back to your website ever again. But think about it for a minute, how can you try to convince such a person of either buying your product or coming back to your website?
Now, should you focus on providing information on your website to each of these four types of “people” or should you really focus on just one of them or more than one?
Tags: web+traffic, attention, content, visitors
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Marketing Apple by Steve M. Chazin
I have just downloaded and read the free e-book by Steve M. Chazin with the name Marketing Apple: 5 Secrets of the World’s Best Marketing Machine.
Steve M. Chazin is former Apple Marketing Executive and Consumer Marketing Expert, and he was part of the team that brought us the iMac. My expectations were rather high when I downloaded the e-book.
I first mentioned his e-book in the post I wrote about The New Rules of Viral Marketing.
This e-book of his is only 8 pages, it’s completely free and you don’t even have to register to download it. Just visit his website Marketing Apple and start your download.
This is by far the best 8 page e-book I have read.
Not that I have read that many e-books with 8 pages, but after reading this one, I wish there are more people writing like Steve M. Chazin. He didn’t need more than 8 pages to get to his point, why should he use more?
The marketing secrets from Apple are not really secrets. They are not hidden and they are not something people at Apple never talk about in public. They are actually kind of obvious, but the problem is that we don’t think about them if we don’t get someone to present them to us.
Now, I am not going to tell you the five secrets, because I want you to read the e-book yourself. The interesting part of the five secrets is that I believe that they can be applied to any business, no matter if you are involved in a large Apple style organization or you are on your own and working from home. The same principles of marketing should be considered.
Visit Marketing Apple and download the e-book by Steve M. Chazin today.
Tags: apple, steve+m.+chazin, imac, marketing+apple
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This is my office
I guess you can learn a lot about a person by looking at his office. But, I am not sure if you can learn that much about me though. Because sometimes my office is very neat and clean, sometimes it’s filthy and there are books and paper all over the place.
I decided to take a picture of my office, as it looks right now, without cleaning it and without moving anything in order to get a better picture. This is how it looks this very minute.
I took many pictures, but because my office is really more like a closet, it was really hard to get a good one. The image above was the best I could do.
I got the idea of the image from Tim at his blog, when he recently posted a picture of his new office. His office looks a lot bigger and a lot cleaner (at least at the moment). But I am not envious, not at all 
It seems that you get a whole different view when you post a picture of it. Now, I see why I should go upstairs and start cleaning my office instead of writing a blog post from the living room.
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ContactThem and their Marketing Trick
Early this morning, I received an e-mail that I thought was a little too good to be true kind of e-mail. This is how the e-mail looked (more or less):
Hi,
We’ve seen your website at (the url) and we love it!
We see that your traffic rank is (the number)
and your link popularity is (the number)
Also, we see that you are online since (Online since).
With that kind of traffic, we will pay you up to $4,800/month to advertise our links on your website.
If you’re interested, read our terms from this page:
(the url)
I was a little curious about what this offer was all about, because to me this looked like spam and nothing I would consider to earn money from. But I clicked the link and visited their website and this is the website.
It looks like an interesting system with the name of ContactThem and the man behind it is a well-known marketer with the name of Stephan Ducharme.
Is it a lot like Affiliate Elite by Brad Callen? and just a new way of finding affiliates and advertising your affiliate network, and now they are using the system to advertise their system?
I have one problem with this. They are sending out their offer to a lot of people like myself, and they are saying that they can pay us up to $4,800 and that’s true if we do the job ourselves. From the e-mail it looks like they want to advertise on the website.
… but if you read the text at the bottom of their page, this is what it says:
These figures of earnings are examples to help you understand the earning potential - You can make more or less. There are no guarantees of income. *You are NOT paid per click, per impressions or for the period of time our banner is exposed on your website; you are paid per sale generated. You receive a sales commission when members join our paid membership upon your referral or your sub-affiliates’. Recurring monthly commissions are subject to members’ renewals. By default, 2 levels of commissions are paid; to access levels 3 to 10, you need to meet each level qualifications. Please take time to consult the qualifications for each level inside the affiliate area that explains everything in details.
It looks like just another offer to advertise another affiliate program, or what do you think? If this isn’t spam, then what is?
It seems that the e-mail is being sent by a person working at The ContactThem Network and they have not provided any information of how they found my e-mail, and there are no unsubscribe link at the bottom.
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Using AWeber to send Blog Broadcasts
I decided earlier today that I am now going to use AWeber to send Blog Broadcasts to the people subscribed to my newsletter.
What this means is that they are receiving the newsletter about once a week, and now they will also be receiving a summary of a week of all the posts I have published. This way, they don’t have to visit my blog or subscribe to my RSS, unless they want to read the blog post as soon as I have published it.
I spent just a few minutes to set up the Blog Broadcast, and it will be sent automatically every friday at 6 AM. This way, my subscribers will have it before they wake up. Not sure if this is smart or not, but at the moment I think that it looks like the right choice. I like to have something to read when I wake up in the morning.
I wasn’t really sure how to use the RSS codes that AWeber provides, but just a few minutes after sending them a support request I received the answer. It was not hard at all.
Just look at this description of how to set up a Blog broadcast and this description regarding what kind of variables you can use in the messages.
I could have used 1 out of 50 templates, but I am sending a plain text message. I am not really familiar with sending html e-mail yet, it’s because I am not sure how many people who will be able to view it, and if they will be caught by spam filters or not. I will test the first blog broadcast using plain text, and I will have to review it after that.
I am also using click tracking to see how many of my subscribers that will click on the links to my messages. It sounds like a great thing to do, this way I can find out how many people who are interested in reading my posts (and maybe even which posts they like).
I guess it’s going to be an interesting friday.
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I have tried VideoWebWizard
Yesterday, I received a request from one of my colleagues that we should make a video of a lecture. He had recorded it using a camcorder and the quality was good enough, but now he wanted it on the Internet.
He wanted the students to view it on the website, so called streaming. I thought for a few minutes about how we could do this the easy way and the cheapest way. I didn’t have much time to do it, and I think that if this works out ok, then we will probably produce a lot more videos in the future.
I did what I thought was the best, I searched the web for reviews of various software related to my task.
The one I found to be the most interesting was VideoWebWizard. The price was ok, and the reviews I read was also ok. I bought it and within a few minutes I had produced my first streaming video.
I am very satisfied with the results, and it can’t be done any easier than this. I had to click my mouse about five times before the video was finished, and the only thing that took more than a minue was converting the video from its original format to the format I am going to use on the website.
VideoWebWizard did the job, and I highly recommend it if you are thinking about producing video for your websites. But if you are looking for a software to help you capture or edit video, then you will have to look somewhere else. Because VideoWebWizard is only for putting already edited video on your websites.
I could have showed you the results, but it’s a 45 minute lecture in Norwegian, and that would probably not be of any interest to you. What can be of interest is that I have also bought the Master Resale Rights to the software. If you want the rights yourself, please contact me.
Tags: video, video+web+wizard, streaming, software
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Will this Marketing help Obama win?
There’s a lot going on in the presidential election in the US at the moment. Especially when it comes to super tuesday.
I wrote a short post about Ron Paul and his marketing campaign and now I see that Barack Obama got something similar.
All the candidates have supporters all over the country, but some of them got more creative fans / supporters than the others. Just take a look at the videos I discovered at YouTube supporting Obama. Will they help him during the election?
This is funny, but will his dancing save him?
… or what do you think of the Obama girl returning?
This is what viral marketing is all about.
I especially like the super Obama girl.
Tags: president, Barack+Obama, Obama+girl, election, usa
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The One Time Offer at Affiliate Silver Bullet
When I joined Affiliate Silver Bullet in january, I received a one time offer just after I paid my first month. I read it, and I don’t really think that I understood what it was all about, because I turned it down.
I have written short post a while ago, about why One Time Offers and Internet Marketing triggers are very useful.
One big problem with one time offers at brand new systems like Affiliate Silver Bullet is that if you don’t know how good the system is, you don’t want to spend the extra money to buy the one time offer.
I didn’t buy it, because I didn’t know anything about the system and because I didn’t really understand what it was all about.
The price of the One Time Offer is $97. Too much to just buy if you are not going to use Affiliate Silver Bullet for a while and have big confidence in the system.
Now, I think that I understand what the One Time Offer was all about and I am going to try to explain it.
You pay $97 to get commission from the downline of all non-active members in your downline. I guess that sounds a little confusing, but let me explain with an example.
You earn commission from all active members that you have personally referred. One of the people that you have personally referred have a downline of 400 people testing the Affiliate Silver Bullet for free, they have not upgraded. The person you referred will quit after one month. Now, if you have bought the One Time Offer, the 400 people in the downline of the person who just quit will now be your downline. Every person that upgrades in this downline will earn you commission. If you don’t buy the One Time Offer, you will only earn money from people you personally refer.
Now, this is why I think the One Time Offer might be such a great deal. Think of it this way; you will have several downlines of people that are not active at Affiliate Silver Bullet. When they upgrade you will earn the commission and not the person who referred them, because that person is not active.
Did this make sense at all?
Hopefully I have understood what it is all about, because when I joined I didn’t have much time and I just read it one time and decided not to buy it. Maybe I did a huge mistake or maybe not, even if I did, I didn’t want to pay $97 for something I didn’t know anything about.
The bullets for January The bullets for February Tags: Affiliate+Silver+Bullet, Commission, One+Time+Offer, Internet+Marketing
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Pay Per Play Audio Ads are Not for Me
It seems that Pay Per Play Media is the latest advertising buzz on the Internet. I have been receiving many requests to join and I have been receiving information about it for months, and all the information is about the same. This advertising / money making opportunity is going to be huge.
I think that the biggest problem with this advertising is that most people will find it annoying.
If you are going to earn money from it, you will have to place a short code on your website. This code will make audio advertisements play for about 5 seconds immediately as they visit your website. They can’t turn it off, it just starts playing.
I have been subscribed to the Pay Per Play blog for sometime now, and they say that there are huge demand for their service and that there are many major corporations just waiting to play their audio ads on your website.
…and this is why so many bloggers especially have signed up and have implemented the code. It seems to be a very interesting way to earn money as a blogger. You don’t really have to do anything other than blog, and everytime someone visits your blog, you will earn cash because of the audio they have to listen to.
I did sign up when I first heard about Pay Per Play, but that was because it was free and I wanted to know more about it. Today, I have a different opinion.
Even though I enjoy new and creative ways to advertise and earn money online, I don’t enjoy ways that I find annoying as a website visitor myself. If I stumbled upon a website that started to play an audio advertisement as soon as I started looking at it, I would either turn off my speakers or just leave the website. I don’t think that I would like it at all, even though I haven’t actually heard any of the ads from Pay Per Play yet.
In a way, I don’t like automatic audio or video on the Internet at all. To me, it seems that the Internet is the only place where I can decide what to do without have things pushed at me, and a place not so filled with noise (if you know what I mean). Advertisements are popping up at both TV and the radio almost before I have the chance to watch or listen to whatever I was going to watch and listen to.
The Internet is different, let’s keep it that way. I am saying no to Pay Per Play.
Another interesting approach to Pay Per Play. What if you made a landing page and put the code on it, and then started using the landing page at traffic exchanges, would you still get paid or is this not allowed?
Tags: audio, advertise, pay+per+play, traffic+exchange
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Great Example of Long Tail Marketing
If you are familiar with the Long Tail by Chris Anderson, then I have an interesting example for you. This is the story of how one Swedish guy is trying to use the long tail to his advantage and how the long tail can work for you.
Let me give you a very short definition of the long tail as I found it using Wikipedia:
products that are in low demand or have low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough
Now, let me give you the example of the Swedish guy. I found the story at the January edition of the Swedish magazine Internet World.
His name is Fredrik Hammarqvist and he is the man behind Grand Shoes, an online store selling shoes for people with large feet (sizes 47–52, probably size 13 and above US).
There are probably thousands of websites where you can buy shoes online, but only a very few where you can buy shoes from size 13 and above. There are even hard to get nice shoes at regular (offline) shoe stores if you have size 13 or more.
The point is this; almost any shoe store offer shoes for people with “normal” size feet, and it would be rather hard to compete online and maybe offline if Fredrik Hammarqvist wanted to sell ordinary size shoes.
But when he applies long tail marketing which says something like; shoes in low demand, will not have priority at other shoe stores, because there are not enough space to fit shoes that are in low demand and if they have large size shoes they probably don’t have that many brands and nice looking shoes and so on (because they are really a shoe store for all the rest of us).
Now, when he is only focusing on the few percentages of Swedes with size 13 and above, he can offer many brands and cool looking shoes. He did his research and there are (hopefully) enough people with size 13 and above for him to make a nice profit. The idea is great and it seems that he knows how to promote himself and his store.
One of the first things he did after he launched the website was to write a letter to all the basketball teams in Sweden, it was about 400. He did it to promote his store, and because he knew that a lot of basketball players have big size feet (I agree, that was a smart move). And he is also using Google AdWords every month.
I like the idea of his store, and I really think that the long tail marketing thing will work, especially if there are enough people that will buy shoes online. I was a little sceptical at first, because I have never bought any shoes online, and I can’t really imagine bying shoes online either. But on the other hand, if I couldn’t get shoes anywhere else, I would probably buy some at Grand Shoes.
I can relate it to me being a vegetarian. That’s not really about long tail marketing (anymore), but in Norway it’s really difficult to find good vegetarian food anywhere. That’s why I have been searching everywhere online to find quality products, and the only places I can find them are online, because I am not going to travel anywhere far to buy the products (and that would probably be too expensive as well).
If you are in need for something, you will buy it where ever you can find it. And I bet a lot of Swedish people are really happy to have heard of Grand Shoes. But when I visited the website, I can’t see if he is offering shoes for people outside Sweden. I can’t find any other languages than Swedish, but I guess he is probably offering his shoes to people in Scandinavia as well, because it would be weird if he didn’t.
Tags: grand+shoes, sweden, long+tail, fredrik+hammarqvist
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I am now Testing BlogJet
I have just installed a new software called BlogJet. It’s a desktop publishing software, and I discovered it at CenterNetworks.
I have never tried a software like this before, but after reading this post by Darren Rowse, I thought I would give it a try. If he is using one, I should probably test one as well.
I am also using a Mac, just like Darren, but most of the time, I use a laptop PC. That’s why I thought BlogJet was more interesting than Ecto.
This is my third post using it (my first using an image), and I thought it was time to write a short review.
I enjoy logging in to my WordPress account and use the default editor to blog, and that’s probably why I haven’t thought about trying a different way to blog, until a few days ago when I read Darren’s post.
My first impression of BlogJet is rather interesting. I have nothing but very positive things to say. The installation was very fast and easy, I was up and blogging after just a few minutes after I downloaded it.
The interface is very nice, it’s clean and I can find everything I need at first glance. And I can’t describe how much I like the ctrl+s saving (it’s just like MS Word). It feels great to have the backup on my harddrive, not sure why, but it feels great.
I am currently using the 30–day free trial, and I think that I will be testing it for the whole period.
Even though BlogJet gives me a whole new experience as a blogger, I am not really sure if I should buy it. The price is not that high, it costs $46.49 (not sure why the weird price tag, I thought it was going to cost me $39.95… but maybe it’s because I live in Norway?), and it seems to be a lot more fun to blog when using BlogJet. But do I really need it?
I will let you know what I think about it after I have been using it for one more week or so, and I will let you know if I am buying it or not. It’s a little expensive for an application I really don’t need don’t you think?
I can imagine that BlogJet is a very interesting application for people with more than one blog and for people that are travelling a lot or for some reason spend a lot of time offline with their computers.
What I think is missing though, is a way to preview the posts (before y ou publish them). I haven’t found this option yet, it might be somewhere, but I haven’t found it. Having an option like this would have made BlogJet even better.
So far, that’s the only thing I have missed since I started using BlogJet. I already feel like I would really miss it, if I uninstalled it… what does that tell you? The people over at CodingRobots can be really proud of their product.
I will let you know my decision whether I am going to buy it or not in a week or so.
Tags: BlogJet, Ecto, Wordpress
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Why using synonyms are important?
You want to be different, because you want people to notice you. If they don’t notice you, then you won’t sell anything or you won’t get readers to your blog or your sales letter. They won’t open your e-mails.
But how can you be different?
Think about this for a moment.
You are going to send an e-mail to your list. You want people to open it and click on the link inside. You are going to present a very interesting Internet marketing application to them, a product that you truly recommend.
How do you write your e-mail and get people to open it and then click the link inside?
To stand out from all the other e-mails in their inbox, you need an interesting headline.
You are thinking about this headline at first:
[firstname] this is an effective application
or maybe
[firstname] this is a powerhouse application
[firstname] this is an impressive application
[firstname] this is a cogent application
[firstname] this is a puissant application
I have to admit that I would probably click on all the above, but it would be more likely for me to click the cogent application and the puissant application. But that’s probably because I am not that articulate or fluent when it comes to English. I would click just to try to understand what the e-mail was all about.
What I am trying to say is that if you use other words than people on your list are used to reading every single day, your e-mail will stand out from the crowd. Use a service like dictionary.com and find synonyms of the words you were going to use.
It might be worth the extra time.
I am not saying that my example above is a great one, but you probably do get my point.
Tags: Synonyms, Sales, Attention, Dictionary
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Affiliate Silver Bullets for February
I thought that I had to wait until February 12th to receive my bullets, but when I logged in earlier today, I found all ten of them lined up and waiting for me.
As you can read from some of my other posts regarding Affiliate Silver Bullet, I think that this is a very interesting system.
You pay $37 each month and you get incredible landing pages for top Internet marketing systems. Everything is automated except for the traffic part. Just submit your ClickBank id and start driving traffic to the landing pages, the system will do the rest.
Here are the landing pages for February, and they look even better than the last time (if that’s possible):
Google Snatch 15k in 7 days Google Assassin Operation Affiliate Storm Affiliate Explosion Adsense Big Social Bookmarking Guide SEO Equalizer Press Equalizer Viral Marketing Manuscript
If you are interested in what kind of bullets they offered in January, just take a look at the post I published at Day 2 of testing Affiliate Silver Bullet.
In January, I decided to download all the bullets and host them myself. About a week later, Dustin Struckman and his team at Affiliate Silver Bullet launched another option. Now, all the bullets can also be hosted by them. And since I am not using AWeber with the bullets, I will let Affiliate Silver Bullet host them for me this time.
Now, I am only waiting for the Pay Per Click tools that support told me they will be providing to all their members, and of course, it would be great to have some banners to promote the system as well.
Tags: Affiliate+Silver+Bullet, ClickBank, google, adsense, seo
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The New Rules of Viral Marketing
I have just been reading an e-book with an interesting name, The New Rules of Viral Marketing by David Meerman Scott.
First, just a few words of David Meerman Scott. I had no clue who this guy was the day I accidentially stumbled upon his website. It looked awesome, and I saw the free e-book and I thought, why not?
Now, I have read the e-book and a little background information about who this guy really is. Now I am glad I happened to land on this spot on the web.
David Meerman Scott is an author with his own blog, and he has a way with words that makes me want to read more. The topics he is writing about are very interesting and he keeps them interesting all the way through. He is the man behind now quite famous book The New Rules of Marketing & PR.
Now, why is The New Rules of Viral Marketing interesting and why should you read it?
I find four things to be important:
It’s completely free and no registration necessary It takes on details about how to spread ideas for free It gives great advice from successful people It shows us how a cool e-book should be designed
… and there are many more reasons why you should download it and start reading it today.
I didn’t know about the The Wizarding World of Harry Potter before I read this e-book. And it was just fascinating to read how Universal Orlando Resort launched their marketing campaign by telling only seven people, and the results were incredible. Apx. 350 million around the world eventually heard the news about the new Harry Potter theme park. That’s amazing viral marketing.
Another interesting idea is launching a blog and giving a way a free e-book in order to advance your career. The e-book describes how Steve Chazin did this with his e-book, Marketing Apple: 5 Secrets of the World’s Best Marketing Machine. By the way, you should download this e-book as well.
If you have written an e-book yourself, you just have to read The New Rules of Viral Marketing. And that’s because it actually tells you how to help your e-book get shared via word-of-mouse. The same goes if you have made a video that you are proud of. David Meerman Scott gives away 9 tips on how to use YouTube for viral marketing.
I find two things to remember, maybe not the two most important things though, but they are important. Nothing is guaranteed to go viral. You can spend a lot of money or hire the best Internet marketers, but there are no guarantees on viralness. Above all, have fun!
Tags: viral+marketing, david+meerman+scott, apple
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Do you have a strategy for commenting?
One of the best free marketing strategies for people who blog, or for anybody promoting anything online for that matter, is to comment posts by other bloggers. This way you will leave your “signature” and lots of people will see your name and a link to your website.
But do you have a strategy for commenting?
A lot of of people, like myself, will just use their name when commenting. Other people will use nicknames, and some will use their website url and some will use the name of their company.
This is an image I have made from some of the names that have been commenting on a very interesting post at copyblogger.
There are at least five ways to leave your name when you comment:
Just write your name Use a nickname Use the name of your company Use your website url Use both your name and your website url (or variations of this)
I am not sure which one I prefer when it comes to promoting my blog. If I use my name, people will notice it and maybe won’t think about my blog at all. If I use a nickname, it might look cool, but not professional. If I use my website url, people might notice it and maybe visit my blog more often, but I am not sure if it looks professional.
Maybe a combination is the best way to do it?
Jens | slymarketing.com
How do you usually leave your name, and what do you think about it?
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Frank Kern and his Mass Control
Today is the day nearly everyone in the world of Internet marketing have been talking about. Today is the day when Frank Kern is launching his Mass Control site. This is probably one of the biggest launches since I don’t know when. Maybe since the launch of the SMARTS coaching program by stompernet… Everyone is talking about it, all the top marketers have their bonuses ready, and now it’s just a matter of a few hours before we all can join.
Well, I am not joining.
I probably should, because I have seen some of the videos and they are great, awesome and incredibly cool.
But why am I not joining?
It’s because I don’t have the time for another program, for many new great videos to watch, for new audio lessons and more. It doesn’t matter how good a program is, I just don’t have the time. I am using all my time on Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind and Social Powerlinking and a lot of other Internet marketing tutorials.
… and when everybody are talking about something, and they are all so excited, I get a little laid back. Let them have it, I will wait and see what happens and I always get the information. Probably too late to use it in a very effective way, but the important part for me is learning. I don’t really care if I am the first person on earth to learn something as long as I learn it.
But I probably should join Frank Kern on his quest to teach us Mass Control, because what I have seen so far has been awesome.
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Using Facebook Poking to Advertise
As I wrote earlier, a Facebook poke can mean anything, and now I am thinking about why not use Facebook poking to advertise?
You can use it to advertise yourself, maybe in order to get a date, to get new friends, to promote your ideas, your business or whatever you would like to promote.
You can poke all kinds of people, from your family and friends to people you don’t know at all. It’s easy, it’s free and it works. But you don’t know if they will actually visit your profile or if they will just remove your poke. If they get too many pokes (from other people than you), they might remove their pokes without visiting your profile.
If you want to start poking a lot of people, you might want to know that you can run into problems with Facebook. I am not sure if they will temporarily stop your account or just block your poking.
Instead of poking hundreds of people, I would be more interested in finding people with similar interests and start poking them. If you get people with similar interests to visit your profile, you will have a better chance of them visiting your website or joining your business.
You need to put what you want to advertise inside your profile, becaues it’s in your profile that you do the advertising when it comes to poking. You should build a Facebook profile that you can be proud of. Tell your story and keep it updated, use it to advertise yourself and your “business”
You need:
A cool picture Your website url Your sex, because people want to know Your relationship status, because people want to know Your hometown, because it’s always interesting Some funny and creative information regarding “About me” Your interests, because a similar interest is appealing
You can add a lot more to your profile and you probably should, but I think that this is what you need to have in order for people to find you interesting. If they find you interesting, they might also find what you do interesting.
There are a few problems related to using poking to advertise. First of all, it’s related to spam. If you just start poking all kinds of people that you don’t know, it would be considered as spam. There are auto poking scripts that you can use to poke people, I am not sure if this is a problem or not, but I guess it’s more a problem for people receiving pokes all the time. And remember, if you start poking around, eventually some of the people you poke might actually punish you
By the way, I have not updated my profile and I have not been poking at all (well, almost not at all) - but I guess it could work, or what do you think?
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New Feature for Traffic Exchanges
I have been surfing a few traffic exchanges for some time now, even though it’s been a while since I have been active, I have thought about an interesting feature that I would like to see.
A Traffic Exchange is a great way to drive free traffic to your websites. A standard traffic exchange is a way to show people your advertisements. The more advertisements you see, the more people will see your advertisements. Usually, you get points for viewing other advertisments, and you use the points to get other people to view your advertisments. You can show people a splash page, banners or text links.
Usually, this is all there is to it.
The traffic exchanges I recommend using are also the ones I am using:
StartXchange I Love Hits TS 25 Traffic -Splash Traffic Swarm
I am always (well, it’s been a while) testing new traffic exchanges, the list of traffic exchanges I recommend might be different in a few months from now, but at the moment I am suring the five above.
Now, to the feature I would like to see.
I have been told that you should never use a general splash page at traffic exchanges, this is because a lot of people are using them. And the more people who are using the same splash pages, the more people will have seen yours, and the less likely it will be that they click on yours. To me, that sounds reasonable.
So, I would like to see a feature like the website that Technorati founder David Sifry just launched. Well, it’s not related to Technorati really, it’s a brand new website called Web Hot or Not?
I am not saying that this service is a great one, but it’s an interesting one. I have tested it, and I have found some really cool sites this way, but I would have wanted various categories. Now, it seems that I am looking at all sorts of websites, and many which are not that interesting to me.
If a traffic exchange had the same feature for splash pages, members could rate them and we would get a lot of interesting feedback. The problem today with traffic exchanges is that you really don’t know if your splash page is any good before you test it for a while. You either spend a lot of time surfing or you spend money buying credits. This is really the only way of knowing how good the splash page is.
If members of a traffic exchange would get points for rating other splash pages, and they would also get points for leaving comments, it would be a great feedback for each member. It would also be a way for members of a Traffic Exchange to start communicating a little more. Most traffic exchanges got forums, but this feature would be something different.
I am not sure, maybe some traffic exchanges have something similar, but I haven’t seen anything like it.
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I am now using an Exit Popover
Yesterday, I decided to try something different to help me get more subscribers to my Internet marketing newsletter. I am not a big fan of Popovers, but I know that they work. They grabs your attention and if they are used right, they will also get people to sign up.
I installed an Exit Popover, because I think that a script like that will not hurt my blog. I think that if I would use a regular popover, my visitors might get a little annoyed when something just pops up in their faces.
An Exit Popover will just pop up (or pop over) when my visitors are trying to leave my blog. It will not be showing if they click on a link, just if they try to click on the back button or tries to write another url.
You can try it and tell me what you think. As far as I know, it works on all browsers. I am using cookies, and it will only be showing two times during a session.
I have just installed it, so I don’t have any results yet.
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Wordpress htaccess and 404 error
I have just bought a Cloak and Tracker software, I have tested it, and it works great. This is actually the first Cloak and Tracker software that I have found that works great for both Windows and Mac. You don’t have to use a MySQL database, you just click on a few buttons and everything is close to automatic.
Anyway, I have experienced a few problems, but they are not related to the software. They are related to my lack of knowledge when it comes to Wordpress and servers and many other things as well.
I have two options when I use the software. I can go with the standard options, and get a url like likes?cloaktrack after the domain name. Or I could go for the advanced option, where I could get a url like domain.com/likes/name/. It looks a lot better with the advanced option.
So, I tried to make the advanced option to work. I just had to add a line to my .htaccess file and the line was the following:
ErrorDocument 404 /likes/index.php
I did that, and guess what? Nothing happened. My links were just redirected to my standard 404 error page. I then found out that wordpress had a different 404 error page, the 404.php file.
I am not sure what to do next. What does the line ErrorDocument 404 /likes/index.php really mean? Will every single page not found error be redirected to /go/index.php or is it only error pages inside the /go folder?
Anyway, I don’t understand how to edit my .htaccess file in order to get the advanced settings of the Cloak and Tracker software to work. I guess it’s no big deal, but I just don’t get it.
It seems that it doesn’t matter how I edit my .htaccess file when it comes to ErrorDocument, because the 404.php file is the only one that works. I am not sure if I can let this problem go unresolved, I tried Google and nothing yet, I have tried the Wordpress support forums, and nothing yet.
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How an Error can bring you More Subscribers
If you look at your web-stats, you will probably see that a lot of people are visiting your domain, but they are on a page that for some reason are not there anymore.
Maybe you have deleted it, maybe they have written a wrong url, maybe someone put the wrong url to your website. There can be a lot of various reasons why they are visiting a page that are not there anymore.
The problem is, that a standard 404 Error page, will only say something like Not Found. It will only tell the visitor that the page you are visiting is not there (anymore). It will not help the visitor to find the page or related content. It won’t actually do anything other than tell the visitor that the page is Not Found.
What I have done today, is to make a brand new 404 Error page. This page will try to make people subscribe to my newsletter, instead of just going away. Earlier I had a custom 404 Error page that sent visitors back to my blog, but today I decided to try something else.
Take a look at my new 404 Error page and tell me what you think. Would you subscribe to my newsletter if you visited my new 404 Error page?
Anyway, it will be interesting to see if the new error page will bring any new subscribers to my newsletter.
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Should you start using Mashable?
I have been reading a brand new report from the social powerlinking course, the report is about a very interesting social media site called Mashable.com.
According to the report, Mashable was launched in 2005 by Pete Cashmore, who started blogging about the trend of mashups.
A mashup is a website or application that combines content from multiple sources into a single, integrated experience for the user.
The report tells the story of how Pete Cashmore launched the site and how he is now earning a living from Mashable, and it goes in debth on how by using MashCodes, you can add instant viral marketing tools to your sites and how you should be using Mashable to gain traffic.
You can submit a story to Mashable, but it’s quite different than the other social news sites, the only way to submit a story is by emailing it to them (use mashable@gmail.com). It sounds a little weird to me that this is how they receive stories, but I guess it works. And why the gmail address?
I think that one of the most interesting features of Mashable is the grid. This is a place where you will find clickable icons leading to many other social media sites. If you click on one of the icons, you will find a lot of other members of Mashable that are also members of the social media site you just clicked on.
The grid sounds like a great feature for social networking. Where you will find friends across the world of web 2.0.
Another interesting feature is the marketplace. Where you can buy, sell or trade things related to web 2.0. My guess is that if you are interested in getting a new application developed for Facebook, you can place an advertisement at Mashable and hopefully you will be contacted by people interested in developing it for you.
… and of course it’s the Mashtracker, a feed page which tracks interesting social news stories.
Anyway, the report is great and I should probably join Mashable and start testing the community. It looks like it can be a great way to get more traffic and more friends with the same interests.
But since you should be active and vote on interesting stories and news, and find new friends and write comments, I am not sure how many sites like Mashable, Facebook, MySpace etc. that one person can manage at a time without having to spend too many hours a day online.
Mashable is definitely a place you should join if you are interested in web 2.0, but I am not sure how easy it is to drive traffic from Mashable to your websites.
Do you have any experience with Mashable?
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The Facebook Poke and Marketing
I have been poked by all kinds of people. Some of my friends pokes me, some people I don’t know pokes me, and I have a few relatives that have been poking me lately… but why are they all poking me?
When I asked my friends and relatives why they had poked me, they said something like “everybody is doing it, and it seemed like a fun thing to do”. When I asked them what a Facebook poke really is, none of them had an answer. We are all poking, but we have no idea what it is?
A poke is a way to interact with your friends on Facebook. When we created the poke, we thought it would be cool to have a feature without any specific purpose. People interpret the poke in many different ways, and we encourage you to come up with your own meanings.
No wonder why nobody knew the meaning behind the poke. When the people behind Facebook encourage their users to come up with their own meanings of the poking, how can we know why they are all poking?
I actually have no clue why they are poking me, and when I ask them about it, they don’t have a clue themselves. I guess poking might just be a way to get attention. It’s a lot like marketing, but this time, you are marketing yourself. In order to get attention, and for someone to take a look at the product (the product being yourself), you need to get attention, you need to get people to watch the product. You can do this by poking them.
And poking can lead to a lot of things, because now you know that nobody really knows why you are poking them, other than that you are not alone. But if you find someone you fancy, you should poke her… don’t let her look the other way, because then somebody else will be poking her.
To me, poking is either about having fun (doing it for no reason other than having fun) or about flirting, just so you can say that it was love at first poke. Are there really any other interpretations? I can’t come up with more than two.
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Spontaneous Creativity
This is a story on how I tried to boost my creativity by being spontaneous, it started several years ago, probably more than 10 years ago. It was back in the days when I was a student.
I spent most of my days reading books and writing papers. I got up in the morning, at apx. the same time every single day. I ate apx. the same breakfast, I read the same newspaper (well, a new edition every day), I walked to the bus stop at apx. the same time every single day, and so on…
I think you get my point. My life was routine, it was nothing exciting happening. I was reading, I was writing, and sometimes during the weekends I went to a party or out to a restaurant or whatever. The weekends were not that routine, at least not compared to the rest of the week.
One day when I was on the bus, barely awake, looking outside sort of wandering into my own world, I got an idea.
Why not just get off at the next stop? Even though it was nowhere near the University. Why not just get off and walk the last part? It would be something I had never done before, it would be something exciting. I would see places, houses, people and a part of town that I hadn’t seen before. Well, I had seen it, but just from inside the bus.
I did it. I got off and started walking.
That day was a day that I will never forget. It was a day of spontaneous creativity.
You might think that it sounds weird, but by getting off the bus at that place and then walking to the University did something to me. My thoughts was all over the place, I got so many interesting ideas and it helped me a lot during the studies.
I still do it.
… but only once in a while, because it has to be an act of pure spontaneous behavior.
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Affiliate Silver Bullet is not all automated
I have been a member at Affiliate Silver Bullet for a little more than two weeks now. I am still very interested in what they have to offer, and I really like the system. To understand why, you should probably read my other posts about; Affiliate Silver Bullet - I just have to test it, Affiliate Silver Bullet Day 1, Affiliate Silver Bullet Day 2, Free test drive at Affiliate Silver Bullet and Affiliate Silver Bullet hosting.
Close to everything about the system is fully automated, you only need to drive traffic to the landing pages. But one thing that I would like to be automated is information about commission.
Don’t get me wrong. I receive instant fully automated messages when someone signs up for Affiliate Silver Bullet and I have earned commission from the sales. But when someone first signs up and then decides to cancel, I will not receive any commission and I did not receive any information.
I had to contact support and ask why I suddenly had less commission than the day before.
It’s a fact that people signs up for a lot of programs and then decides to cancel their accounts and ask for a refund. Nothing is wrong with that. I would just want an automated message when this happens.
Another interesting fact. People do get refunds at Affiliate Silver Bullet, it took the guy less than 24 hours to get his money back.
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The Naked Blogger
I am not sure how I came up with the idea, but I think it’s an interesting one and I might even try it sometime soon. I think that this idea might help me become more creative.
Let’s blog naked
You might think that this sounds weird, and it probably is.
But let me try to explain my thoughts.
If you blog naked, you will probably become a little anxious. If you live alone, it might not be such a big thing, but if you are not alone it will probably be different. I guess that you don’t want other people to see that you are sitting in front of the computer while you are naked. It both sounds and looks a little weird.
… and because you are a little anxious, you might feel a little stressed and while you are working under some kind of tension, I think that you might be more productive as well.
If you blog naked, and I assume that you don’t do that all the time, it will feel unnatural and different. Because the situation is different, the results will probably be different, the results will be original.
If you are naked, you might get a different perspective on things. I am not saying that you might think of sex and nudity and that this will help you be more creative, but you might get thoughts that are different.
To try and write naked would probably be a great thing for authors / bloggers with the famous writer’s block.
If you have no clue of what to write about, being naked in front of your computer might help.
If you have problems coming up with creative content, I would try and sit naked in front of your computer.
You remember the naked chef, now it’s time for the naked blogger… (but remember, I am not saying that you should tell anyone that you are naked or that you should post pictures of yourself while blogging).
What do you think, would it be to weird or would it work?
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The Most Amazing Deal of 2008?
Lately, I have been receiving a lot of questions about buying James Jackson’s Marketing Course Blowout. Many of the e-mails I have received about the course got the subject line “The Most Amazing Deal of 2008″.
It’s interesting to see how it could be the most amazing deal of 2008 when we are only in January. Maybe they think that this is the best deal so far? Or maybe it’s just a marketing trick?
Anyway, the marketing course blow out seems to be an interesting deal and it might be a great one. The price is $97 and you get a lot of stuff. It will probably keep you occupied for weeks.
According to the sales page:
Act Fast And Steal This Entire War Chest Of 18 Powerful Courses, Seminars, And Workshops From The Worlds Top Marketing Masters That Unlock The Strategies That Have Generated Over Fifty Million Dollars In Sales And Discover How To Build Your Own Million Dollar Empires Online!
I just thought you’d like to know about James Jackson’s Marketing Course Blowout. A lot of people seems to like it, at least they enjoy promoting it.
I am not an affiliate and I haven’t bought it.
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Internet Marketing and Plagiarism
Yesterday I was attending a seminar with Jude Carroll about plagiarism. She was talking about how and why students at colleges and universities are plagiarizing.
This excellent seminar got me thinking.
Her definition of plagiarism was the following (it was really KU Leuven, 2007):
Plagiarism is any identical or lightly altered use of someone else’s work (ideas, texts, structures, images, plans etc) without adequate reference to the source
What do you think about Private Label Rights (PLR) and plagiarism, and what about Master Resell Rights?
I am not really sure, but with Master Resell Rights, are you selling someone elses work as your own? Or are you just selling someone elses work, and you got the reference to the creator / author?
When it comes to PLR, I think it seems rather obvious that it’s plagiarism. Because it doesn’t matter if the person behind the original articles sells it, earns money from it and agrees that the whole world can use the articles. If you use any identical or lightly altered versions of someone else’s work it’s plagiarism.
It’s a good thing that we are not attending a university
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Why you should be using Comment Sniper
Comment Sniper is interesting, and I will tell you two reasons why you should download it today and start using it immediately.
First, a short introduction about what Comment Sniper is.
It’s a software that will let you subscribe to blogs using RSS (or any website that uses RSS). In one way it’s a lot like a feed reader. But in most ways it’s not like a feed reader, because you are not using Comment Sniper to read blogs.
Comment Sniper is all about getting attention as soon as the most important blogs on your reading list have been updated. You get an instant message when they update, this way you can be the first person to actually visit the blog and leave a comment.
That’s my first point. The most popular blogs in any niche receives hundreds of comments on each post. If you are the first person to comment on the posts, and you leave an interesting comment, you will also be more likely to receive extra visitors from that comment. But if you leave the 58th comment, not that many people will read it and not that many people will visit your site based upon your comment. With Comment Sniper you are more likely to leave the first comment.
My second point is that you can use Comment Sniper to be the first person to submit new posts from the most popular blogs in your niche to the various Web 2.0 sites. Most of the posts at the most famous blogs in your niche will get a lot of votes at StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg and Propeller. If you are the first person to submit the stories, a lot of people will vote on them and a lot of people will recognize you and your profile. In the end, a lot of people will know who you are and visit your blog / website. It’s a great way to build your reputation in the communities as a person with good taste when it comes to great content.
Comment Sniper is free and you can start using it today.
I installed it on my laptop using Windows Vista and that didn’t work at all. Try another version of Windows or please give me some feedback if you are able to run it using Vista.
Remember, if this piece of software becomes popular in your niche, it will lose its effect entirely… that’s why it’s important to be one of the first to start using it.
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Ron Paul and the Marketing Campaign
A few days ago I published the story about Jonathan Bostrom’s latest e-book, Presidential Marketing: 6 invaluable marketing lessons from a 2008 presidential candidate.
Today, I finally had the time to read it. It was a short e-book, only 22 pages, but it took me several days to get started. This was not Jonathan’s fault, and had nothing to do with my lack of knowledge regarding who Ron Paul is, because this was an interesting e-book.
It tells the story about how one little known presidential candidate can create a huge marketing campaign with little effort. Jonathan describes why he thinks that this was possible, and how Ron Paul was able to get nearly $20 million in fundraising. Fundraising that was not part of his official marketing strategy. He describes the Money Bomb event of November 5th, a fundraising event with 36,672 unique donors.
Jonathan tells us the story about a man that has really been unlike any other candidate to ever run for the presidency of the United States.
His campaigns have been at many web 2.0 sites, like YouTube, Facebook and Meetup. It’s been on cars, on an airship (The Blimp) in music and many gatherings.
The really interesting part is that Ron Paul and his marketers are not the people behind this. They are letting the supporters raise the money and generate the excitement.
Let Jonathan Bostrom take you on a journey into Ron Paul’s viral marketing campaign to become the next President of the United States of America.
Read his thoughts and download his free e-book (you don’t have to sign up or anything): Presidential Marketing.
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Hot Marketing Deals
I just came across a new interesting site minutes ago. The name of the site is HotMarketingDeals.com and it seems to be all about providing the visitors with, well you guessed it, hot marketing deals.
At first glance I was a little confused.
In the title tag it says 100% FREE PRODUCTS, but the first thing I see on the page is Check out these hot deals and none of the deals are free.
Nevertheless, the site is interesting and some of the deals might also be very interesting.
I will give you more information later on. I might try some of the deals.
Visit HotMarketingDeals.com
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HubPages 10658 FREE Visitors in 6 Days
I joined HubPages a while ago, and I thought it was a clever thing to do. I decided to try HubPages instead of Squidoo, and I did get a few extra visitors by doing it.
But then I just stopped, I lost interest and nothing happened. I know that I should have continued, because I think that I know how to become more successful at HubPages.
There are so many ways to drive traffic to my sites, and I just can’t do everything. But now I am thinking that my decision was wrong.
This is because I just received information about a new e-book that reveals how David Bullock brought in 10,658 free visitors in 6 days from using HubPages. I haven’t read the ebook myself, but I guess that this proves me wrong. I should have continued with my experiment at HubPages, well, it’s still time to start over again.
Visit HubBluePrint by David Bullock and read how he did it.
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Affiliate Silver Bullet Hosting
As I wrote in an earlier post, Affiliate Silver Bullet was launched on January 2 and it’s only been a little more than two weeks. So far, I think this system really got potential to become something huge.
You can read my other posts about my experience with Affiliate Silver Bullet so far:
Affiliate Silver Bullet - I just have to test it Affiliate Silver Bullet Day 1 Affiliate Silver Bullet Day 2 Free Test Drive of Affiliate Silver Bullet
Since I started testing Affiliate Silver Bullet (about a week ago), I have sent several e-mails to support in order to suggest new features and to solve my unzip problem. The problem was solved in about 24 hours, and some of the new features that I have requested are being implemented.
The most interesting feature is to be able to see the statistics on how many people signs up for the free test drive and for the various landing pages. I received an e-mail from Dustin Struckman (the owner) about this yesterday, but I am not sure when it will be implemented (he wrote that we will get it sometime soon).
One feature that all members received two days ago, is also a very important one. Now, we don’t have to host the bullets (the landing pages) on our own servers. We can still host them if we like, and we can use AWeber to follow up with all the people who signs up, or Affiliate Silver Bullet will do everything for us. We just promote the links to the landing pages and everything else is fully automated.
And finally, we have received new (additional) urls to the landing pages of all the bullets (ClickBank affiliate programs), and that’s because we need a specific url for Google AdWords campaigns. The new urls we have received are all compatible with the Google AdWords system and we won’t get a penalty by Google if we use them.
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Internet Marketers and Time Travel
Yesterday I had an interesting thought.
What would I have done if I could have travelled to the future and then back again? Do you remember the movie, actually it was a triology, Back to the future starring Michael J. Fox? If you do, you probably understand what I am talking about, well, even if you don’t remember the movies, you probably understand what I am talking about.
My thoughts were surrounded by the same options that I would guess most people would have on their mind on a journey like that.
But first, should I go back in time or should I go to the future?
I am really not sure.
If I had just one time travel and I could sort of predict the future, should I just find the lotto numbers and come back home and play the lotto?
That’s probably the number one option for most people thinking about time travel, and probably the easiest way to become rich.
Or maybe it would be to see what I have become sometime in the future? That would be interesting too or maybe it would spoil all the fun of living? Would it be that interesting to someday wake up and actually know what to expect of the future?
If I could go back in time, I would probably find a problem and try to fix it. At the moment, I am not sure what sort of problem I would fix, but there are probably a lot of things I could have done different myself and a lot of things I could try to fix to make the world a better place to live.
If I had the choice of one time travel, I am not sure which year I would have chosen. It would be hard to pick one, and it would be hard to find out what I wanted to do.
I am actually not sure if I would have wanted to go on a time travel even if I could. I am not sure if I would want to know anything about the future, even if it could mean less trouble or more money. I am not sure if I would go back in time and fix some of the things I regret doing. Messing up is a part of life, and I do learn from my mistakes.
Towards the end of the time travel thoughts of the evening, some new interesting thoughts appeared.
Are Internet marketers different when it comes to time travelling thoughts? Do you think that an Internet marketing professional or maybe even an Internet marketing amateur would have done anything different than a “normal” person if he could time travel?
Maybe an Internet marketer would have tried to solve some Internet marketing problems or think of a brand new way to advertise on the Internet or some kind of amazing new product, instead of just play the lotto or go back in time and fix some personal problems.
It would be interesting to know. Would an Internet marketer think about Internet marketing even on his journey back in time or sometime in the future, or would his thoughts be somewhere else?
Interesting or not, they are still my thoughts.
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Presidential Marketing - Viral marketing goes political
My friend Jonathan Bostrom just published something very interesting. It’s a 100% free e-book about viral marketing in the US presidential campaign.
According to Jonathan
One unlikely candidate in this year’s election has had an astounding rise in support, thanks to viral marketing. Not only have his supporters broken fundraising records (without help from the campaign!), but they have gone to some real extremes to get the word out. In fact, the official campaign doesn’t even do that much anymore.
Seeing this as a great example of viral marketing, I have created a very high quality ebook that tells a bit about the staggering support for this candidate – and then delves into six fundamental marketing lessons to learn from the story. I think you and your readers will really find this interesting and helpful.
You don’t have to sign up or anything, just download the free e-book at jonathanbostrom.com.
I haven’t had the time to read it myself yet, but I can assure you that I will. And as soon as I have read it, I will publish my review.
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Corey Delaney and his genius party marketing
This 16 year old kid from Australia might be a genius. Corey Delaney was home alone, he invited a few friends over and decided to throw a party. Well, the party got out of hand and more than 500 people showed up and the neighborhood was kind of destroyd
Now, this is not why I think he might be a genius.
The reason I am thinking this is for what he has done after the media showed up. Remember he is 16 years old and probably not very experienced with journalists and the media in general.
Take a look at this interview, he is not just cool, he knows how to do the best of the situation and by now he is famous, on his way to become a superstar and he will earn a lot of money throwing parties in the future:
But is his name Corey Delaney or Corey Worthington?
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Free Test Drive of Affiliate Silver Bullet
This is my fourth day as a member of Affiliate Silver Bullet, and by now I have some new and interesting thoughts regarding the system.
Affiliate Silver Bullet is designed for you to earn money, and it’s designed for the people behind the system to earn money. It’s really that simple.
The landing pages are awesome, you can watch them at this post. No doubt about that.
I signed up for the free test drive and training as well, and have received it once a day for the last four days. The e-mails that I have received from Dustin Struckman are rather long, but they are packed with information. They are well-written and they sound / look very professional.
It seems to be a great way to follow up on people who are interested in the system. I am not sure how the e-mails for the other landing pages look, but if they are as well-written as the ones I am receiving for the test drive, I think that Affiliate Silver Bullet might really help you earn money.
But, I am still sceptical that members can’t see how many people that are signing up from their landing pages. They have no control of their leads if they are not using AWeber, and setting up AWeber with the landing pages are a little technical.
Anyway, what I wanted to say is that I really like what I have seen so far from the free test drive.
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How to Get your Name to the Top of Google
I have just been attending a conference. Eirik Newth a rather famous Norwegian blogger had an excellent lecture about web 2.0 and education.
When he was asked about his contact information, he just referred to Google. He is usually number 1 if you search for his first name Eirik. If you remember his first name and you use Google, that was enough to find his contact information.
Wouldn’t it be awesome to do the same with your name?
I guess he has an advantage with a rather uncommon name, well, it’s rather common in Norway, but it’s not common internationally. If you use Google and search for Eirik, you’ll get 2.3 million results.
If I do the same with Jens (my name) I get 36.5 million results. It seems to be really hard to reach the top 10, especially if you see that Jens Lehman the famous German football goalkeeper is at number 2 and that the prime minister of Norway is Jens Stoltenberg.
Anyway, I am going to try.
I started about 10 minutes ago. My first step was to edit my about page. Instead of just having the title, About me and slymarketing, the new title is: About Jens P. Berget and slymarketing.
I should probably also edit the url, now it’s /about, I guess it would be a lot better if I use /jens
I will wait and see what happens to my google rankings first.
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Do you still use Safelists to Advertise?
I remember that I tested safelists to promote various products, but that was a few years ago. The reason I was testing this kind of marketing, was because it was cheap and I could reach a lot of people with my ads.
I soon came to realize that most members of the safelists didn’t actually receive the ads, they just sent ads and never actually read any of the ads being sent out.
But that was a few years ago.
How does advertising using safelists work today?
I know that a few really popular safelists are still active. They are based on credits. You need credits in order to send out your ads to the members, and you need to pay or read in order to get credits.
Here are a few that used to be good, and they might still be as far as I know:
GotSafelist AdTactics Mad Vlad BusinessWorldList AdSolutiononLine Global Safelist Tutorials4Newbies
A Safelist is really just a network of people who have decided to exchange ads. But in order for a safelist to be successful, most of the members actually have to read the ads as well. With a credit based safelist this is usually the case.
I haven’t used safelists for years, and I am not sure if they work or not.
If you are interested to learn more about how to promote your products using safelists, you can probably learn a lot from Ultimate Safelist Survival Guide by Michael Cobb and Soren Jordansen (I haven’t read it myself).
Are you still using safelists to advertise?
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Affiliate Silver Bullet Day 2
As you may have noticed from my previous post about Affiliate Silver Bullet, I have been a little sceptical even though I was very excited about this brand new Internet marketing system.
Today I have more information about the system, and I have received a lot of feedback from support.
First things first.
Support at Affiliate Silver Bullet works. They contacted me about 24 hours after I sent them the request. The woman that sent me the answer was very polite, and she answered to of my questions in a great way. I have just sent them a new question, but that’s just about a feature I would like them to add in the future.
Now, I have downloaded all the ten bullets for January. If you don’t recall my post yesterday, a bullet is a top affiliate program that you can promote. Affiliate Silver Bullet has done everything for you, you only need to download it, unzip it, and upload it to your server. That’s it.
I had some problems with the unzipping, but now everything is alright. I am not sure what the problem was, because I tried several tools to unzip them all, but I ended up with an error each time. I am not sure if the problem was that I downloaded and tried to unzip them using software in Windows Vista and Mac OSX, because when I tried Windows XP, everything was suddenly ok.
The woman at support had no problem unzipping, so I guess the problem is solved.
I am stunned by the cool landing pages that comes with Affiliate Silver Bullet, just take a look at the ten bullets for January:
Web 2.0 Secrets Revealed Membership Site Secrets Unlimited Traffic Tactics Steal Your Way to Millions Secret Affiliate Formula Internet Money Making System Butterfly Marketing Effect Google AdWords $160k Monthly Program Yourself for Success Secrets of Email Optin Lists
The system seems to be as easy as it can be. The only thing that worries me a little, is that you have no control at all. You just keep sending traffic to the landing pages and the system will do the rest for you. But how do you know that the system works? Ok, you will see that you get traffic if you track your urls, and you will understand that it works if you get paid commission, but you will never see if anybody signs up in any of the forms.
You won’t know for sure if the company are doing what they tell you that they are doing. They can steal your commission for all that you know (but I don’t believe that they will do that). The system is fully automated, and when it’s automated, you will always find weaknesses like this.
I have contacted support about it, because I want to see how many people signs up for the test drive of Affiliate Silver Bullet and how many people signs up for the various landing pages. I would also like to see the dates when they sign up, and I would like to see the messages that they receive.
Maybe it’s just me, but I like to be in control.
You can be in full control if you decide to use AWeber, but I think that using it will take a lot of your time, but it might be worth it?
I am still testing, and I a lot more positive today than I was yesterday.
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Affiliate Silver Bullet Day 1
As you may remember, I just had to join Affiliate Silver Bullet yesterday. Now, close to 24 hours later, I have a few thoughts about the program.
It’s too early to say whether it’s a really good system or not, but I will tell you what I have on my mind.
The system seems to be incredibly easy to setup, but it might be too easy? I am not really sure.
As soon as I joined and signed in for the first time, the only thing I did was to update my personal information and my clickbank username. Then I visited to only thing I could find of any interesting, and that was the bullets.
What is a bullet?
Each month, Affiliate Silver Bullet will provide 10 top products from ClickBank that members can sell / promote without doing hardly any work. At least that’s what they say. You just find the program / bullet among the 10, or you can promote all of the 10 each month, or how many you’d like. The Affiliate Silver Bullet system will do the rest for you.
The only thing you need to do is to unzip each bullet, and upload it to your server, and then start driving traffic to the landing page. The system will do the rest for you.
Do you need your own homepage?
I am actually not sure, but I don’t think you do. I will try to find more information about this tomorrow.
My first problem
I downloaded one bullet, I tried to unzip it, but I received an error. It said something like corrupted header. So, I downloaded another bullet, tried to unzip it, and I received the same error. Now I have tried to unzip all 10 bullets without any success.
My first support request
Just after I had tried to unzip all the bullets with three different unzipping tools without any luck, I decided to contact support. It’s about 24 hours later, and I have not received any feedback. I am not sure if all members of Affiliate Silver Bullet got the same problems, maybe it’s just me? Hopefully I will soon get the answer from support.
What I would like to see
I have been looking everywhere to see any stats regarding how many people are signing up for the free test drive. But so far, I haven’t found anything other than the stats for how many clicks my affiliate links got. I would want to see if people are signing up for the test drive, it would be interesting to see their names and the date for when they signed up, and maybe some information about what kind of messages they are receiving.
You can use AWeber
The Affiliate Silver Bullet system can do everything for you (except for sending you traffic), or you can upload all the follow up emails to your AWeber account. This way, your leads will not be lost if you decide to quit Affiliate Silver Bullet.
I have decided to test the system without using my AWeber account.
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Affiliate Silver Bullet - I just Have to Test it
Yes, I just have to test Affiliate Silver Bullet. Yesterday, I was this close to sending an email to the company and asking them for free access in order to review the program. But today I changed my mind.
I just have to test it myself, without any restrictions, without any limitations when it comes to time. I need it the way it’s suppose to work.
I paid for the first month, and I did it only about 5 minutes ago. Obviously, this post won’t be a review of Affiliate Silver Bullet by famous Internet marketer Dustin Struckman. No, but you will read my review sometime soon. I just need a few days with unrestricted access, and then you’ll get it.
Why did I just have to test it?
First of all, I have received many emails from top Internet marketers about the system. They have told me that it’s something I really should be involved with, and that this is something really exciting.
Second, Affililate Silver Bullet launched their system on January 2nd 2008. That’s not many days ago. It’s always exciting to be one of the first to test something.
Third, the man behind the system is sort of famous. I have heard a lot of good things about him, as far as I know, he is not a scammer.
Fourth, the system seems to be almost 100% automated. I know, there are no such thing, but I was curious… maybe we’ll experience it in early 2008?
Fifth, the system was cheap. If I get all that I think I get for only $37 a month, then it’s no big deal at all.
I guess it’s time to start studying the system, maybe it’s not what I thought at all.
Visit my new cool free test drive of the Affiliate Silver Bullet system, and you’ll understand what I am talking about.
I have no clue whether it’s any good, but you have to admit that it looks kind of cool.
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Facebook Pay Per Click and CTR
This is part of a series of posts about my experience with Facebook Advertising, be sure to read the following posts:
Before the Facebook Marketing Campaign Facebook Advertising Explained Facebook Advertising Day 5 Facebook banners are hard to find
I am very satisfied with my Facebook advertising campaign. At the time I am writing this, I have 1819 clicks and the average cost per click is $0.47. But my click through rate (CTR) is very low, it’s only 0.07. But does the CTR have any value at all on PPC campaigns, and especially when it comes to Facebook?
What is CTR?
Click Through Rate or CTR means click-throughs per hundred ad impressions, expressed as a percentage. It’s important to understand that this statistic is only the immediate response for the advertisement and not the overall response. People might see the advertisement and read the text and the url, and wait until later on and then type in the url and visit your site. That sort of visits does not count, even though the only reason they visited your site was because of your advertisement.
A low CTR means that your advertisement might not be as good as you thought or relevant to the people that you have exposed it to. But it can also mean that it’s not visible enough. When it comes to Facebook, small ads might not be that visible. I have studied the advertisements at Facebook, and what I really see are all the big skyscraper banners. I tend to forget or not look at the small ones. But that might be just me?
Why is CTR important at all?
You are only paying for the clicks, why would you care how many people “saw” your advertisment without clicking it? Does it really matter at all?
Well, if you experience a low CTR like I am doing, you might want to consider editing your advertisement. How it looks, like the image you are using, and the text you are using. What is the message you are trying to send? You might also want to take a look at the keywords you are using, the words your are bidding on.
The difference between my PPC campaign and many of the other campaigns, like the ones you use Google AdWords for, is that I am not using any keywords. I am only targetting Norwegians between 15 and 30 years of age that are using Facebook.
I can’t do anything with my keywords, because I have none. I could do something about the advertisement, but why should I? I have more than enough clicks and the people that are clicking are answering the questionnaire.
I think that I would probably only do something with my advertisements with low CTR if not enough people were clicking. But when you got 2698932 impressions (almost 2.7 million) and 1819 clicks, what’s the point of improving the advertisement?
If you consider a regular Google AdWords kind of campaign, there are many things you should consider doing in order to improve your CTR. For instance, remember that the long tail can actually kill your campaign and you might want to create multiple landing pages in order to test your campaign, and you should consider using various tools to help your campaign.
I have considered all of this, but how would that help my Facebook campaign? I got the impressions, I got the clicks, but a low CTR… I can’t see that it matters. Do you think that it matters?
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Digg is Important even if you Hate it
Many have stated that they are losing interest in Digg, mainly because of some self-appointed censors who buries Digg stories they find ideologically unappealing or because Digg buries the posts internally, or maybe even the Digg bury brigade is really an automatic feature?
Sometimes it’s not easy to understand why Digg is behaving like that, but maybe that’s the fun of being a part of a community like Digg?
Anyway, if I have any problems at all with Digg, it’s probably more related to the amount of similar services. Let me just mention a few that I am using:
StumbleUpon Reddit Sphinn BiggitUp MarkTD PlugIM del.icio.us MyBlogLog BlogCatalog
I could have listed many more, but you probably get my point. They are not the same as Digg, none really are, but they are similiar and they will drive traffic to your site if you use them right.
Even though you might not like Digg, or maybe you have too many other similar services that you are using instead, there are at least one reason why you should submit your posts to Digg.
Search engines loves Digg.
Just look at the post I wrote yesterday. The title is “How to use Britney Spears“. I did submit it to Digg yesterday, and I was hoping for a little help and some votes. But do you know what?
So far not one single person have voted on it, but if you use Google and search for how to use britney, you’ll find it at number 3, from a search result of 32.2 million results (see image below). That’s amazing.
I haven’t found a direct link to my blog post among the results at Google, at least not so far. Maybe it just takes a little longer for Google to add it. Even if I will get the link, Digg gets indexed a lot faster and I think that I get ranked a lot better when I submit my stories to Digg.
Eventually, even if my story gets zero diggs and / or gets buried a few minutes after I have submitted it, I still get love from the search engines.
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How to use Britney Spears
You have probably read all there is to read about Britney Spears. I am not a fan of gossip, and I am not usually reading stories like what I am presenting to you today, but I just felt an urge to do it.
This story is in Norwegian, and it’s from the most read Norwegian newspaper. The headline goes like this: “The stars best friend is dead”.
It’s a picture of Britney Spears with another person and the word best friend and dead. I thought that her best friend was dead, and I felt really sorry for her. Because she’s been thru hell lately, and now her best friend is dead. Wow.
But the guy who died was Johnny Grant, and he was not her best friend. He was actually the man responsible for unveiling of new stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. So, that’s the reason why they used the headline “The stars best friend…”.
But why did they put a picture of him and Britney Spears and not some other celebrity?
Well, I can think of a reason or two.
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Facebook Banner Ads are Hard to Find
This is part of a series of posts about my experience with Facebook Advertising, be sure to read the following posts:
Before the Facebook Marketing Campaign Facebook Advertising Explained Facebook Advertising Day 5
It seems like I started the Facebook Advertising campaign a long time ago, but to your information it’s not been that long. The campaign started on December 21st, and today it’s January 9th, well, I was going to tell you how many days it’s been, but I guess you can figure out that for yourself.
The campaign is still doing great. 1625 clicks at the moment, and I am paying on average $0.46 per click. I am not really sure, but to me that’s not bad at all. Most of the people clicking the advertisement are also answering the questionnaire / attending the competition where they can win an iPod touch and / or an iMac.
But I have been thinking about one thing the last couple of days, and it was really something that bothered me a little on the day I launched the Facebook marketing campaign.
How can I advertise using skyscraper banners, like 120 x 600 pixels (or maybe a little smaller)? I have seen many other companies using them, but where do I find the option?
I have been clicking everywhere on my quest to find it, or so it seems. I can only find the smaller ad units. The one that I currently using. Where I can add headlines, the body text and an image that will be somewhere inside the advertisement (along with the text).
I thought that I would give the big banner ads a try, but now I just can’t find out how to add them to the campaign. How silly is that? I guess that I am looking all the wrong places.
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How to Personalize your Autoresponder Messages
I am not sure if you have noticed, but I have a few new banners at my blog. They are all saying something like “what is the most important question?”
If you click on one of them, you will end up at this page. You will be able to send your most important question to me, and I will do my best and try to answer it. Most likely, I will write a post at my blog, if I have too many questions or the question is not relevant for my blog, I will send you an email with my answer.
Today I am trying to answer a question from Chris. His question is:
“How to add a person’s name on a pre-written autoresponder message”
I am using AWeber as my autoresponder, and my answer will be based on this. If you are using another service, you can add a comment with the code for this service. I am not sure which autoresponder Chris is using, it might be the one I am using or it can be any of the other top autoresponders. I am not sure, but I think that all the autoresponders got different codes for making the emails personal. Be sure to check yours for the right codes, because there are nothing as embarrasing in Internet marketing as sending out an email with the wrong personalization codes.
Anyway, the first thing you need to do regardless of which service you are using, is to get the names of your subscribers. Without this data, you won’t stand a chance of personalizing your prewritten messages. You need to publish some kind of form where people need to sign up with their firstname and e-mail address. I am not going to explain how you make a subscription form, but if you really want to know, please just send me the question and I will do another post about that. Just look at the top of my blog, and you will se an example of a subscription form.
What you do in order to personalize your prewritten messages, is that you click on the message that you want to send to your list of people, then you just find all the personalization codes. It’s located just above the editor (see the image below):
Just find the code you need, and click it. The code will be inserted into the editor.
The personalization code that I use the most is {!firstname_fix}. This will display the firstname of each of your recipients. For instance, if I would send an e-mail to myself, it would say in the beginning something like Hi {!firstname_fix}. In the email that I would recieve, it would say Hi Jens. It’s as simple as that.
This is powerful, because this short code will make the email look very personal. You can add this code anywhere you like in the contents. But as you see from the image above, there are many other codes you can use as well.
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A marketing strategy for discotheques
I live in a small town in Norway. It’s a town without much to do, but when it comes to marketing, I have found one interesting thing during the past weeks.
We have two nightclubs or discotheques, places where people go to in order to have fun and to dance.
What’s interesting with one of the discos, is that they are testing a new marketing strategy. They are using a coherent beam of light straight up at the sky. Close to every person living in the town can see it at the sky, going back and forth.
This “lasershow” will appear every night when the discotheque is open, and people will be reminded when they look at the sky.
I am not sure if they attract more people by doing this, but it sure is an interesting way to advertise that they are open.
I always remember it when I see the light, but I never end up going…
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eWriterPro - should you buy it?
Yesterday, I received an e-mail from a friend telling me about this new software called eWriterPro. He basicly tried to sell it to me, and I decided to read every word of what he had to say about it.
I found his words to be very intriguing, and guess what? I ended up buying eWriterPro.
Now, a day later, I have a few words about this software myself. But I am not going to spend as much time as my friend to write a lengthy sales letter.
eWriterPro is a professional ebook creator. Nothing more and nothing less. It works, I have tested it. You can write your content, and with a few clicks, you got yourself an ebook. It was easy, I didn’t have to read any manual at all, it took me about 3 minutes to understand what it was all about.
I really liked the way you organize your ebooks and articles inside eWriterPro. It was very easy to find everything you have ever written (if you used eWriterPro to write it).
The reason I bought it was, well, first of all it was the intriguing sales letter, but it was also due to three very interesting facts:
It was incredibly cheap I got the master resale rights, and so do you I need the software (at least sometime in the future)
If you are interested, you can grab yourself the master resale rights to eWriterPro. If you have any comments about the software, please share them.
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Using Holidays as an Excuse for a Sale
Companies all across the globe are using holidays as an excuse for a sale. It’s Halloween sale and it’s 50% off or it’s Valentine’s day and it’s 40% off. Just find a holiday and you got yourself an excuse for a sale.
The same applies for Internet marketing. A lot of professional marketers are using holidays as an excuse for a sale. This way they will earn a lot more money, because their products are very cheap at that particular date.
It’s rather easy to start a sale like this. You could use Google AdWords and target a country, like people in the United States, Canada or Australia. Find a holiday, there are many of them. Start a sale at a date close to the holiday. For instance, you can start a Columbus Day sale for people in the United States close to October 13th, you can start a Flag Day sale close to February 15 for people living in Canada or Australia Day sale close to January 26 for people living in Australia.
Well, you might not have to target people in any of the countries I just mentioned, because we all love a sale and any excuse for a sale will do.
There are at least three reasons why you should use holidays as an excuse for a sale:
Everybody loves holidays Everybody expects sales during holidays Everybody got more time for shopping during holidays
There will not be any negative thoughts regarding a sale during a holiday, because we expect a sale. But how should you use a holiday in order explain why you are having a sale, or is it enough just to say Flag Day sale?
I am not really sure, but you can probably use excuses like:
You are living in the US and tomorrow it’s Columbus Day, you are happy and you are having a sale Since most of your readers live in Australia, you thought that you would have a sale on Australia Day to celebrate your readers on August 15th it’s the funniest name of a holiday you know, it’s The Falling Asleep of the Virgin day in Greece, and that’s why you are having a sale
If you are looking for an excuse for a sale, just take a look at the lists below of holidays that you can use during 2008 in the United States, Canada and Australia:
Holidays and Observances in the United States
Jan 1 New Year’s Day Jan 21 Martin Luther King Day Feb 14 Valentine’s Day Feb 18 Presidents’ Day Mar 23 Easter Sunday May 26 Memorial Day Jul 4 Independence Day Sep 1 Labour Day Oct 13 Columbus Day Oct 31 Halloween Nov 4 Election Day Nov 11 Veterans Day Nov 27 Thanksgiving Day Dec 25 Christmas Day
Holidays and Observances in Canada
Jan 1 New Year’s Day Feb 14 Valentine’s Day Feb 15 Flag Day Feb 18 Family Day (ON, AB, SK) Mar 10 Commonwealth Day Mar 17 St. Patrick’s Day Mar 21 Good Friday (Most regions) Mar 24 Easter Monday May 19 Victoria Day (Many regions) Jul 1 Canada Day Aug 4 Civic/Provincial day (Many regions) Sep 1 Labour Day Oct 13 Thanksgiving Day (Many regions) Oct 31 Halloween Nov 11 Remembrance Day (Many regions) Dec 25 Christmas Dec 26 Boxing Day (Many regions)
Holidays and Observances in Australia
1 Jan New Year’s Day 26 Jan Australia Day 3 Mar Labour Day (WA) 10 Mar Eight Hours Day (Tas) 10 Mar Labour Day (Vic) 21 Mar Good Friday 22 Mar Easter Saturday 24 Mar Easter Monday 25 Apr Anzac Day 5 May May Day (NT) 5 May Labour Day (Qld) 9 Jun Queen’s Birthday (Most regions) 29 Sep Queen’s Birthday (WA) 6 Oct Labour Day (SA, ACT, NSW) 25 Dec Christmas Day 26 Dec Boxing Day
If you want holidays from other countries, just visit timeanddate.com and chose your country.
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Buying and selling links with TNX
I signed up with a new interesting company a few days ago. This is a company dedicated to links, that is, helping you to buy links on other websites as a way for you to promote your website or your business, and helping you to sell links on your website in order for you to earn money. It might sound like just another ad broker, because they are not alone. But I think that there is something different about TNX.
I am not really sure what it is, but my first thoughts after I signed up, was that this whole process of buying and selling links looked so incredibly easy. I have tested several other companies in the same industry earlier, and I had to spend some time to actually understand how it worked. Well, that might be why I think TNX looks so easy, but they provide a very specific and detailed guide. You only need to complete four steps in order to sell links on your website, and you only need to complete three steps in order to buy links.
But first, as soon as I joined TNX, I stopped and thought about an important question… and that was:
What’s important to me when it comes to using an ad broker?
I have three answers to that question. First, it needs to be very easy to sign up. If it’s complicated and I have to read a lot of various texts in order to understand how it works, well, then I will just cancel before I even get started. Second, there need to be a lot of members and a lot of options to chose from. This way, there will be rather easy to sell links and it will be rather easy to buy links from different websites. Third, I don’t want any problem with the major search engines (especially with Google). I have read somewhere that if you sell links on your website, Google might punish you… I am not sure if that’s right or not, but I wouldn’t want that to happen.
I have been looking at TNX and they seem to be doing rather well regarding my question. It’s very easy to sign up and to both sell and buy links, as I stated above. They have many members already, 39 001 as I am writing this. When it comes to Google and the other major search engines, the links from TNX are no different from regular links (so I guess you can’t get punished for that?).
Another thing that I was very curious about before joining, was if it was possible to use TNX combined with other similar services (ad brokers), and I got my question answered at the help pages:
Yes, you can combine TNX ads with any other advertising sponsor. Your visitors will see TNX ads as direct links (usually subject oriented) to other sites. Even if some context advertising system does not allow combining ads with similar systems, you would still be able to add our code to your pages, because TNX is not context oriented and nobody can stop you from placing a direct link to another site. The HTML code of our ads is not different from a regular link.
I just realized that there are at least one more thing that I find interesting with TNX and it might be a little different from other text link brokers. It’s the fact that you can sell links on as many or as few pages as you like. And it sounds like that you can earn more money with TNX, since they only charge 12.5% commissions on each transaction, that’s rather low compared to other similar companies. But if you do the job yourself, you don’t have to pay any commission, but then again, you might have problems finding customers.
Instead of real money, TNX are using points. Everytime you sell text links, you will get paid in points. You can sell the points in order to receive real cash, you can convert the points into backlinks (advertisements for your website) or you can give them to another member.
I have a warning for you, but this got nothing to do with TNX really. Even though you might not be at risk with the search engines when it comes to selling text links on your website, you should really be careful if you are going to buy a lot of backlinks to your website. Because if you decide to buy a lot of them, thousands, Google will notice and it’s a little weird that you got yourself thousands of backlinks in a few hours, days, or even weeks… I am not sure how Google will react though.
The affiliate program at TNX is something you really should check out. They give you 13.3% commissions on each customer that you provide, that’s from all the TNX-points that are generated by their websites. In addition, you will receive 5% of all payments, made by referred advertiser. Sounds like a good deal to me.
This was a paid review for TNX. I have been under no pressure at all, everything written in this post has been my own words and I like to think that everything I have written is true and will still be true when you read it.
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New Harry Potter book a Marketing Trick?
I read yesterday, on New Years Eve, that JK Rowling hints that she might write another book about the young wizard Harry Potter. I am not sure what to think about this information.
Well, at first I am kind of jumping up and down, looking forward to read yet another great book. But at the same time as I am jumping of joy, I find myself standing in midair, thinking about why JK Rowling is revealing this information.
To me, this is almost as when she told that Dumbledore is gay.
I have nothing against hints, and I would love to read another Harry Potter book, but why is she revealing this information now? Is it really just a marketing trick, so we won’t forget Harry Potter? Or maybe Neil Strauss did the interview after he released his book The Game (LOL)?
I am not sure if it might be a marketing trick or not, and I like to think that authors are not good marketers, but some of them really are. I like to believe that everything the authors tell us will be straight from their hearts and minds, it’s all about the story and what they believe they have to write in order to complete the story.
Is this the case of JK Rowling and Harry Potter?
Well, I don’t believe that Harry Potter will need more fans than he already got, and the timing is not that good to reveal another Harry Potter secret. The seventh book was just released a few months ago, it would have been a lot clever to release this information in six months or so (or maybe even later).
Today, most people are still reading Harry Potter and most people won’t forget him or JK Rowling for a long time. Well, I don’t believe that we will ever forget any of them. So, this information from JK Rowling about the hints of a new Harry Potter book are to me just her telling us what’s on her mind.
Or maybe I am wrong, maybe this is great marketing from a great author?
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Promoting your site with Outgoing Links
I have been thinking about testing a script like this for a while, and now it’s finally the time. I am talking about a script that when people click on your outgoing links will get a narrow framebar at the top, even though they are at the website you linked to.
This way, your visitors will still have the name of your site at the top and an easy way to get back to your website, just click on the name of your site on the right side of the frame.
Let me give you an example of how it works. Just click on the link below, this is the link to where you can download the script for free. Just click at products - free downloads - php scripts - CJ Linkout after you have clicked on the link:
Do you see the frame at the top, and do you like it or do you find it annoying?
Do you think that you will get more traffic if you use a script like this?
I am giving it a try, I like it and I think that maybe it will work and I don’t find it annoying at least not so far. But I have a few thoughts, something that I might have to do myself or something the people behind the script could do in order to make it even better.
First, when you use the script to link to a long url, the url at the top frame doesn’t look that good, maybe they always should be using just the domain name and not the entire url? Click this cj-design link to get to where you can download the script.
Now, what I might want to do instead, that’s instead of showing the link to the site you have just entered. I would want to show an advertisement at the top left. It would be interesting to use it as a link to one of my affiliate programs instead.
Well, that’s just a thought, but I am not sure if it would work. If you like the script, you can download it at CJ Design for free.
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The President and the Marketing Letter
This is a story about how the President of a college, the college where I currently work, in Norway are doing an interesting piece of marketing. I am helping her with the marketing campaign, and the great thing about it, is that people don’t think of it as a marketing campaign… but it is (at least to me it is).
I am writing President, even though I probably should have written Rector, because Rector is the title we use in Norway. But I am writing mostly for people in the US (according to my statistics), and “most U.S. colleges use the titles ‘president‘ for the chief executive of the college and ‘chairman of the board of trustees’ for the head of the body that legally “owns” the college.”
Now, back to the story.
The President of the college writes a personal letter, yes, it’s not an e-mail, it’s on paper. The letter is sent two times a year, one in each semester, to all active students at the college. One letter is being sent in late November or early December, and the content is first and foremost about the exams and that she (the President) wishes every student good luck and that she hopes that the student will get great results on the exams. Finally, the President wishes a merry Christmas and a happy new year.
The other letter is sent in late May or early June, and it’s about the exams as well. Finally, the President wishes every single student a great holiday. The letter is always on one page, and it contains the elements of exams, happy holidays and something else that she think is important to include at the time when the letter is sent. It’s all up to the President to write the content with her own words.
Why is it very powerful marketing?
It’s personal It’s different She cares
Every single letter starts with Dear John (the first name of the recipient) . This shows the student that this letter is from the President to that particular student and not some mass produced letter that they should just throw away. They probably understand that they are not the only person receiving this letter, but because of the personal words and the president’s signature (I have scanned the handwritten signature and attached it to the letter), I think that they will feel that the letter is addressed to them personally and that they won’t think of all the other students that might be receiving the letter.
The letter is sent to their personal address, not on campus. They will receive it along with the rest of their traditional mail. For many students, this means that their parents might be the ones receiving the letter. This way, it stands out from the rest of the information they receive. They will (hopefully) open up every letter from their college, and when they open this one, they’ll understand that they should read every single word of it.
The letter shows every single student that the President really cares about them. She really hope that the single student will get great results on his or her exams, and she really does hope that they will have great holidays, every single one of the students.
This letter tells every student that the President hope to see them next semester… so, hopefully most students will not attend another college, or leave this college before they are all finished with their studies. It’s a great way to promote the college to current students. I am not sure about the results, if less people have quit the college after the President started sending out the letter… but hopefully this kind of marketing works.
[Link]
Facebook Advertising Day 5
This is part of a series of posts about my experience with Facebook Advertising, be sure to read the following posts:
Before the Facebook Marketing Campaign Facebook Advertising Explained
I launched my first ever Facebook marketing campaign on friday, and today it’s been five days - five days of interesting thoughts and five days of interesting results.
The campaign might be a little different than what you are used to. It’s for a Norwegian college, and I am trying to get people to enter a free competition by clicking the advertisement at Facebook.
By using Facebook and targetting Norwegians between 15 and 30 years of age, I think we will get a lot of people to our website, people who are actually interested in the college and what the college has to offer.
I have also included a Facebook icon at the bottom of the competition, with the words “Share this on Facebook”.
The strategy behind this is that some people, hopefully many, will visit the website by clicking on the Facebook advertisement, and they will not only enter the competition, but they will share it with their friends.
And you know what? I think that this is actually happening, well, at least to some extent.
I haven’t had a detailed look at the statistics yet, but I can see that a lot of people are clicking at the advertisement at Facebook and that we are receiving other visitors from Facebook other than from the advertisement.
The average CPC (cost per click) is $0.39 and that’s not too bad. I am not sure how much I paid using Google AdWords, because it’s been a while, but at the time I used it for a Norwegian audience, I think it was rather expensive.
I have had 642 clicks on the advertisements at Facebook (I am running three at the moment) and most of the people clicking the ads have entered the competition.
Well, who wouldn’t enter it? It’s three short questions and you can win an iMac and an iPod touch.
[Link]
Kick off your 2008 marketing campaign
There are not many days left of 2007, and if you are going to try something new in early January of 2008, then I might have something for you.
I have never tried it before, so I am not sure how good this is, other than that I have been told that the results they provide are good. You might want to trust that information and try it.
It’s called SoloAdCoop and you buy shares in marketing campaigns, and it’s all about sending solo ads by using different services. It seems that all you need to do is pay for one of the coops and write your ad, and SoloAdCoop will do the rest.
Their service have been tested by TrafficTesters and they say that it works.
The price seems to be low, and their service seems interesting. They have 100 shares available per coop each month, last day to buy the shares for the next coop is December 31.
If you try it, please tell me about your experience with SoloAdCoop.
[Link]
What all Rock Stars should do
A few weeks ago, I was at a concert in Gothenburg. It was a Christmas concert, where all songs were related to Christmas. It was a great concert, and especially the choir from South Africa was outstanding. And seeing them perform reminded me of something, it reminded me of something I think every musician should do, especially the stars of rock and roll.
The reason I say this about the rock stars, is because I have been to a lot of concerts and I do understand one thing that gets the crowd all fired up, and it’s not hard to do, but it’s important. The kids from South Africa did it, and the crowd at the concert started chanting. It was almost, just for a moment, as if I was at a rock concert. Well, almost.
What one of the kids in the choir did was this. Just when he was about to start singing his first song, he moved the microphone to his mouth and he looked at the audience and said “Tjena”. This means Hi in Swedish.
This one word got the crowd all fired up.
Everytime I experience that a rock star (I am usually at rock concerts) learns a few words of Norwegian or Swedish, and tells them to the crowd, everybody seems so impressed. It never fails, and sometimes it seems that it doesn’t matter how bad the concert is, as long as they say a few words using the right language (the native language of the crowd).
This is probably the easiest way to promote yourself if you are a musician playing a concert in another country. Rock star or not, it gets the crowd all fired up every single time.
[Link]
Crazy frog and Ding a dang dong
A rather weird title today, but that’s how the song goes, ding a dang dong it’s the crazy frog song (well, I guess not, but it was close).
My point is; you can promote yourself and / or your business by making funny videos and submitting them to video directories like YouTube. It can be really easy, you just need a great idea and some cool kids.
This video has been watched 6,829,939 times, that’s close to 7 million times!
All there is to it is one song, and two “crazy” kids dancing and doing all sorts of gestures to the song. I am not sure if the guy behind the camera did any editing at all, because it all looks so real.
Find two kids in your neighborhood, invite them home, put on some music and press record on your camera. Sometimes that’s all there is to it.
Or, if you don’t want to be the guy to invite the kids, you can find a very popular video at YouTube and try to make an identical copy of it, but in your own way. You should impersonate the people in the video.
This way, you know that your video will be famous as well.
This video has been watched 1,362,777 times, that’s more than 1,3 million times! And it’s nothign original, it’s actually almost an identical copy of another video.
A video like this will be perfect for a viral marketing campaign. People love to share funny videos.
Find a very popular video, try to copy it and be sure to put your URL somewhere in the video or in your profile and you will be all set for success.
[Link]
Facebook Advertising Explained
Finally, my Facebook advertising campaign is running. It happened yesterday, about 28 hours ago or so. It was a little frustrating at first, but I will share that information with you in another post in a few days from now.
Remember, before starting any advertising campaign, I would do what I did before my first Facebook campaign. Be sure to install Google Analytics and use their tag linking tool, it’s a great way to understand how well your advertising campaigns are doing. I wrote about that two days ago, I called it Before the Facebook marketing campaign; not a good title - but the post will help you understand what you should be doing before launching your campaign.
Now, let me tell you what I did to launch my Facebook advertising campaign.
It was like six steps, and I will try go walk you through them.
First, you need to find out how to get to the advertisers area at Facebook. I was logged in when I clicked it, but you don’t have to be. I am not sure if you have to be a member of Facebook to be able to advertise or not, but I was logged in and this is how I found it.
Just scroll to the bottom of your page and click on advertisers. As soon as you have done that, you will arrive at a new page where you will have to click on get started, well, this is the easy way - there might be other ways for more experienced people to get started, but this is what I did.
Now, it’s time to type the destination url, the one you want people to visit. This is your landing page, where hundreds or thousands of people will come during your marketing campaign.
So far it’s been really easy, I don’t believe that you can do anything wrong. But from here on, it’s all up to you how good your marketing campaign will be. But don’t be alarmed, it’s not hard to launch it, just three more steps to go.
You need to tell Facebook what kind of people you want to show your ads to. You need to filter your ad. You could show your advertisement to every member of Facebook, but that would include people below the age of 18, people from all over the world, people that hardly understand a word of english. Instead, you could be showing your ads to people only in Canada, or with certain interests (like computers) and people who are married or with certain political views.
You want to target your ads, you want them to reach people that would be interested in what you have to offer. So, spend a little time to figure out how to filter your ads. I will be writing more about that later.
Now, after you have filtered your ad, it’s time to actually write your advertisment.
It’s not easy to write an advertisement. You want people to notice it, and you want them to click on it, but you only want people who are very interested in what you have to offer. Because there’s not in your interest to have people clicking your ad if they are not interested, it will only cost you money and you will get nothing in return.
Oh, I almost forgot.
You can also include an image in your advertisment. If you upload an image, it will be in your advertisement along with your headline and the rest of your text. The text you write in the body of your advertisement will be visible just below the image.
Finally, it’s time to decide how much money you are willing to spend per click and how much money you can spend a day.
You will get an estimate from Facebook, and you can decide to go with that estimate or you can do what you’d like. You can pay per click or you can pay per view, it’s all up to you.
Soon, I will let you know how my advetising campaign is doing. I will also be telling you everything you need to know about what I did that you should not do, and of course, I will tell you everything that I think you should do. But it’s important that you learn from my mistakes, and I do make mistakes
[Link]
Web 2.0 and Social Power Linking
This is just a short update on what I have been up to the last couple of days. I should have launched my Facebook marketing campaign by now, but as usual, I have to wait just a little more before everything is in order.
The reason for the waiting is because I have been up to so many other things lately, and now I am sharing the most exciting news with with you.
I have joined a brand new Internet marketing system, a system by the well-known, in fact he is a really famous Internet marketer, and his name is Jack Humphrey. You might remember the Authority Black Book, he is the author.
Now, he just launched something called Social Power Linking, a course dedicated to teach you everything you ever need to know about social websites (web 2.0) and how to drive massive traffic from them to your own sites.
I have only been a member for two days, so I can’t say that I am an expert yet, and I can’t say that the course is the best I have ever seen. Part of the reason for this is that there are so much information in the members area. I am spending the weekend looking at many of the reports, and I am going to be communicating with the other members using the forums, and I might even join the buzz group (members helping members).
What I am really looking for is to read the following reports; Social Power Linking 60-Day Jump Start Plan, Reciprocal Linking Lives Again and The Web Orgasm Case Study. Still there are so many videos, audios and reports that I am not sure if I can make it before the end of the year.
You might say that I am a little excited, but that’s because I am. To me, this is what Internet marketing is all about, finding a course that provides you with the latest marketing tactics, so I don’t I have to spend days or weeks surfing the web looking for new and creative ways to promote. Web 2.0 is such a great way to drive traffic to any site, and now I think that I found what I have been looking for.
Take a look at Social Power Linking by Jack Humphrey, I am a member and an affiliate and I think that I will be for a long time.
[Link]
Before the Facebook Marketing Campaign
I wrote yesterday that today was the day for my very first Facebook marketing campaign, and that was the plan until I couldn’t find the time to actually do it. Now, I am telling you that tomorrow will be the day.
I did something else today, something related to the marketing campaign and something very important.
In fact it’s so important that I need to tell you to start with this before you start with any Internet marketing campaign, this is not only related to Facebook.
Do you have any idea what I am talking about?
I am talking about statistics and spending time to set up tracking for your marketing campaign. I am all set for tomorrow, and I am using Google Analytics and their campaign tracking. They use something called link tagging which is a way to identify your marketing campaigns.
I am not going to use a lot of words explaining how to install Google Analytics, I am not going to write about how to use Google Analytics in general or how to integrate Google Analytics with WordPress, but I am going to tell you a few things regarding the most important things to remember when you are tracking a marketing campaign.
First, you need to know the basics. There are five elements that you need to understand in a Google Analytics link, you don’t need to use all the five elements, but I think that you need to know about them.
The link you are going to use will be very long, but that’s because all the elements are included in the link. This is an example of a link that I could be using (but I am not using it, it’s only an example):
http://www.slymarketing.com/?utm_source=facebook&
utm_medium=banner&utm_term=church&utm_content=christmas&
utm_campaign=white-christmas
Yes, it’s long and you might get a little confused when you see it for the first time. But take a deep breath and now let’s continue to look at the elements.
Your destination url is everything before the ? utm_source=is where my campaign is at (Facebook) utm_medium=is my marketing material (banner) utm_term=is the keyword that you have paid for (church) utm_content=this is to differentiate the various ads (christmas) utm_campaign=my slogan for the campaign (white christmas)
And you can see that you have to start with the ? and use the & between all the elements, but don’t think that you would have to remember all this, because you don’t.
Google have something they call the URL Builder, and it helps you build this long url, and they will explain it all to you.
But why is using link tagging so important for your marketing campaigns?
I have two answers for you:
To do split testing and differentiate ads To easier see the big picture and all the stats you need
Let’s say that I want to use two different ads on Facebook and both the ads will have the same destination URL. If I don’t use the Google Analytics link tagging, I can see that Facebook is the referring URL, but I can’t see which ad they clicked on. So, if I want to test which one of the ads performs best for me, I have to use link tagging and use different words at utm_content=.
If you want to see a detailed report regarding your campaign and the referral url, you should use link tagging. Now, the only thing you need to do is to click on campaign in the left menu and then click on your campaign, and you will get all the information you need. It’s very easy to do once you set up the campaign, and that’s really not hard either, at least not if you use the URL Builder.
[Link]
Testing a Facebook Marketing campaign
Tomorrow will be an exciting day for me, it will be the day when I start testing Facebook marketing campaign.
I have used Facebook to communicate with people and to receive funny posts, chain letters and a lot of other stuff that I never ever read. I have also used Facebook to keep in touch with people, people that I care about.
Tomorrow, I will be advertising using Facebook. It will be a new experience in Internet marketing for me, and hopefully it will be a good experience. Something that I can share with you and something that I can recommend doing.
I will be targetting people in Norway between the age of 16 and 30, and according to the numbers I have received from Facebook, it will be about 721,000 people. I doubt that all of them are active Facebook users, many might have stopped using Facebook, many might have more than one account. In other words, I have no idea how many people that might be seeing my ads.
Anyway, I will share my experience with you. I will let you know as soon as I have any information about the campaign. I think that it will be a pay per click campaign, I have to admit that I have forgotten all about it. Hopefully it won’t take that long to understand what to do.
I have been using Google AdWords, maybe it’s similar.
[Link]
Testing a Facebook Marketing campaign
Tomorrow will be an exciting day for me, it will be the day when I start testing Facebook marketing campaign.
I have used Facebook to communicate with people and to receive funny posts, chain letters and a lot of other stuff that I never ever read. I have also used Facebook to keep in touch with people, people that I care about.
Tomorrow, I will be advertising using Facebook. It will be a new experience in Internet marketing for me, and hopefully it will be a good experience. Something that I can share with you and something that I can recommend doing.
I will be targetting people in Norway between the age of 16 and 30, and according to the numbers I have received from Facebook, it will be about 721,000 people. I doubt that all of them are active Facebook users, many might have stopped using Facebook, many might have more than one account. In other words, I have no idea how many people that might be seeing my ads.
Anyway, I will share my experience with you. I will let you know as soon as I have any information about the campaign. I think that it will be a pay per click campaign, I have to admit that I have forgotten all about it. Hopefully it won’t take that long to understand what to do.
I have been using Google AdWords, maybe it’s similar.
[Link]
Testing a Facebook Marketing campaign
Tomorrow will be an exciting day for me, it will be the day when I start testing Facebook marketing campaign.
I have used Facebook to communicate with people and to receive funny posts, chain letters and a lot of other stuff that I never ever read. I have also used Facebook to keep in touch with people, people that I care about.
Tomorrow, I will be advertising using Facebook. It will be a new experience in Internet marketing for me, and hopefully it will be a good experience. Something that I can share with you and something that I can recommend doing.
I will be targetting people in Norway between the age of 16 and 30, and according to the numbers I have received from Facebook, it will be about 721,000 people. I doubt that all of them are active Facebook users, many might have stopped using Facebook, many might have more than one account. In other words, I have no idea how many people that might be seeing my ads.
Anyway, I will share my experience with you. I will let you know as soon as I have any information about the campaign. I think that it will be a pay per click campaign, I have to admit that I have forgotten all about it. Hopefully it won’t take that long to understand what to do.
I have been using Google AdWords, maybe it’s similar.
[Link]
Testing a Facebook Marketing campaign
Tomorrow will be an exciting day for me, it will be the day when I start testing Facebook marketing campaign.
I have used Facebook to communicate with people and to receive funny posts, chain letters and a lot of other stuff that I never ever read. I have also used Facebook to keep in touch with people, people that I care about.
Tomorrow, I will be advertising using Facebook. It will be a new experience in Internet marketing for me, and hopefully it will be a good experience. Something that I can share with you and something that I can recommend doing.
I will be targetting people in Norway between the age of 16 and 30, and according to the numbers I have received from Facebook, it will be about 721,000 people. I doubt that all of them are active Facebook users, many might have stopped using Facebook, many might have more than one account. In other words, I have no idea how many people that might be seeing my ads.
Anyway, I will share my experience with you. I will let you know as soon as I have any information about the campaign. I think that it will be a pay per click campaign, I have to admit that I have forgotten all about it. Hopefully it won’t take that long to understand what to do.
I have been using Google AdWords, maybe it’s similar.
[Link]
Testing a Facebook Marketing campaign
Tomorrow will be an exciting day for me, it will be the day when I start testing Facebook marketing campaign.
I have used Facebook to communicate with people and to receive funny posts, chain letters and a lot of other stuff that I never ever read. I have also used Facebook to keep in touch with people, people that I care about.
Tomorrow, I will be advertising using Facebook. It will be a new experience in Internet marketing for me, and hopefully it will be a good experience. Something that I can share with you and something that I can recommend doing.
I will be targetting people in Norway between the age of 16 and 30, and according to the numbers I have received from Facebook, it will be about 721,000 people. I doubt that all of them are active Facebook users, many might have stopped using Facebook, many might have more than one account. In other words, I have no idea how many people that might be seeing my ads.
Anyway, I will share my experience with you. I will let you know as soon as I have any information about the campaign. I think that it will be a pay per click campaign, I have to admit that I have forgotten all about it. Hopefully it won’t take that long to understand what to do.
I have been using Google AdWords, maybe it’s similar.
[Link]
Testing a Facebook Marketing campaign
Tomorrow will be an exciting day for me, it will be the day when I start testing Facebook marketing campaign.
I have used Facebook to communicate with people and to receive funny posts, chain letters and a lot of other stuff that I never ever read. I have also used Facebook to keep in touch with people, people that I care about.
Tomorrow, I will be advertising using Facebook. It will be a new experience in Internet marketing for me, and hopefully it will be a good experience. Something that I can share with you and something that I can recommend doing.
I will be targetting people in Norway between the age of 16 and 30, and according to the numbers I have received from Facebook, it will be about 721,000 people. I doubt that all of them are active Facebook users, many might have stopped using Facebook, many might have more than one account. In other words, I have no idea how many people that might be seeing my ads.
Anyway, I will share my experience with you. I will let you know as soon as I have any information about the campaign. I think that it will be a pay per click campaign, I have to admit that I have forgotten all about it. Hopefully it won’t take that long to understand what to do.
I have been using Google AdWords, maybe it’s similar.
[Link]
Testing a Facebook Marketing campaign
Tomorrow will be an exciting day for me, it will be the day when I start testing Facebook marketing campaign.
I have used Facebook to communicate with people and to receive funny posts, chain letters and a lot of other stuff that I never ever read. I have also used Facebook to keep in touch with people, people that I care about.
Tomorrow, I will be advertising using Facebook. It will be a new experience in Internet marketing for me, and hopefully it will be a good experience. Something that I can share with you and something that I can recommend doing.
I will be targetting people in Norway between the age of 16 and 30, and according to the numbers I have received from Facebook, it will be about 721,000 people. I doubt that all of them are active Facebook users, many might have stopped using Facebook, many might have more than one account. In other words, I have no idea how many people that might be seeing my ads.
Anyway, I will share my experience with you. I will let you know as soon as I have any information about the campaign. I think that it will be a pay per click campaign, I have to admit that I have forgotten all about it. Hopefully it won’t take that long to understand what to do.
I have been using Google AdWords, maybe it’s similar.
[Link]
Testing a Facebook Marketing campaign
Tomorrow will be an exciting day for me, it will be the day when I start testing Facebook marketing campaign.
I have used Facebook to communicate with people and to receive funny posts, chain letters and a lot of other stuff that I never ever read. I have also used Facebook to keep in touch with people, people that I care about.
Tomorrow, I will be advertising using Facebook. It will be a new experience in Internet marketing for me, and hopefully it will be a good experience. Something that I can share with you and something that I can recommend doing.
I will be targetting people in Norway between the age of 16 and 30, and according to the numbers I have received from Facebook, it will be about 721,000 people. I doubt that all of them are active Facebook users, many might have stopped using Facebook, many might have more than one account. In other words, I have no idea how many people that might be seeing my ads.
Anyway, I will share my experience with you. I will let you know as soon as I have any information about the campaign. I think that it will be a pay per click campaign, I have to admit that I have forgotten all about it. Hopefully it won’t take that long to understand what to do.
I have been using Google AdWords, maybe it’s similar.
[Link]
My Viral Spiral just launched
This is interesting. My Viral Spiral just launched earlier today, and from what I have been told this is something all Internet marketers should have a closer look at.
I am not really sure what it’s all about, but according to their website it’s a powerful tool.
Within minutes, you can have in your hands the most powerful online wealth-creation software of the decade.
The man behind this system is Tim Brocklehurst, an experienced marketer and you can tell that he is using an interesting marketing technique that a lot of marketers are using when you try to leave the website. Just try it and see what happens.
As you try to leave, you can see a peel away ad in the left corner. It grabs your attention. Tim (and his people) have also started the marketing of My Viral Spiral using YouTube, just take a look at the video below (it might be a bit slow, due to all the people trying to watch it at the moment):
I am not saying that you should join My Viral Spiral or that it’s the viral tool of the decade, because I have no idea. I am only saying that this brand new system is being promoted by a lot of people and that it’s very interesting and that you should have a closer look at it. I am not sure what I am going to do, but I joined as an affiliate and I will read all there is to read and see all the videos and then, I will decide what to do.
[Link]
Marilyn Manson Christmas and Creativity
What does Marilyn Manson got to do with Christmas you might ask? Well, I am not really sure if he has anything to do with Christmas really. Well, other than the fact that I almost went to the concert in Gothenburg (he is playing there as I am writing this) and it’s only a week until Christmas Eve.
I was this close to go (you probably can’t see the fingers I am holding up); you just have to take my word for it. I really wanted to go. Not because I enjoy the music that much nor because I think he is a cool guy or anything (well, I admit that some of the songs are kind of cool). The reason I wanted to go is because I have heard so much about this musician, about all the controversy, and I wanted to enter his world just for a couple of hours…. to get inspiration, to see what it was all about and maybe become a little more creative.
I believe that by doing things you normally wouldn’t do, you will get new ideas and new thoughts and you will become a little more successful at what you do. To me, Marilyn Manson represents that. I think that he is a really creative guy, he is very successful and he is doing stuff that not many other people are doing, well, he is singing and he is entertaining… but he is doing it in a different way.
Would Christmas be a good time to enter his world? Why not, I don’t get the chance that often.
But it was too expensive for me, I would have had to stay two extra nights at a hotel and pay for the train ticket to get home and the ticket for the concert and food and so on. I guess I have to do something else in order to get inspiration and to become a little more creative.
My thoughts still remains… do things you normally wouldn’t do, and I think that you will get inspiration. To me, Marilyn Manson is the perfect example.
[Link]
What to do when you meet a Celebrity
I have been to Gothenburg (Sweden) for a few days. I was there with my wife doing some christmas shopping. The weekend was great, everything was exactly as I hoped it would be. And we actually did buy most of the christmas gifts, just a few left and a week left to buy them.
As I walked by myself, while my wife was in a shop that I didn’t care that much about, I stumbled upon a familiar face. It was a guy that I had seen before, but at first I wasn’t sure where. But then, a few seconds later, I remembered.
I had seen him on a popular TV show. Wow, I was standing next to a celebrity. And then everything stopped, time stopped, I stopped being myself, people stopped walking, all the noise and all the talking was gone, it was like everything stopped, it was surreal.
I guess that it was just me, because nothing really stopped, nothing really happened. I didn’t know what to do, well, that’s what happened. In my world everything stopped for a few seconds, seconds that at the time felt like hours. I was just standing there, with a small grin on my face.
Should I say hello or just nod my head and keep walking, eventhough I don’t know the guy?
I did what I thought was best for him and probably the best for me as well.
I did not speak and I did not nod, I looked away and kept walking. As soon as I had passed him, I stopped, I turned and looked at him from behind (where he couldn’t see me).
I was there on the corner looking at all the people who stopped and talked to him, they did what I thought I should have done. But I kept thinking that I did the right thing. It looked like he had a hard time doing the shopping or whatever he was supposed to be doing. I had a hard time shopping, because of all the people, I couldn’t even imagine how hard it would be to shop for this guy.
I got a question for you. What should you do if you meet a celebrity?
I am not sure if I did the right thing, because it’s kind of hard to think when you are standing there, right in front of one.
I bet that it all depends on who you meet. The guy I met is a celebrity in Norway and Sweden, and it was not that difficult to just keep on walking. I am not sure what would have happened if I met Brad Pitt or George Clooney or some other Hollywood celebrity. It would probably be a lot harder to do whatever I was suppose to be doing.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the trip to Gothenburg and I enjoyed looking at the celebrity from a distance, trying to imagine how hard it would be shopping for christmas if people actually recognized my face.
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MyBlogLog and easy Marketing
Maybe you remember the short post I did a while ago about the 10 seconds marketing technique at MyBlogLog? It was, and still is, an easy way to promote your blog / business with hardly any effort at all. But today I have an even easier and more effective way to promote your blog / business using MyBlogLog. Maybe not easier than using a really hot girl as your avatar, but this is more my kind of marketing.
Just log in to your MyBlogLog account. Start clicking on the images of some people. You can find them everywhere, you just can’t miss them.
When you have clicked on an image of a MyBlogLog member, you will access that members homepage at MyBlogLog. You will see the latest public messages to the right (look at the image above).
What you want to do now is to click on one of the images, then click on another image and then click on another image. They don’t have to be located at the same MyBlogLog homepage, but they need to be public messages at MyBlogLog.
As soon as you have clicked on one of the images, the person who wrote the public message will see that you have visited his or her homepage at MyBlogLog. And now, they will most likely be interested to view your homepage at MyBlogLog or to contact you.
The reason you should target people who have written public messages is that they are usually very active members at MyBlogLog. They will be more likely to visit your homepage, read about you and even contact you. By using a few seconds of your time, just one click on each person, you will probably get more new visitors.
My guess is that you will get at least one visitor to your MyBlogLog profile for no more than 10 seconds of your time. But if you want the visitor to click go from your MyBlogLog profile to your blog, for that you need to create an interesting profile.
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Facebook Twitter Marketing and a Friend
A few days ago, I think it was on sunday, I was outside somewhere with my family. The sun was shining, it was rather cold, but the sun was shining. We were all gathered at a cabin in the woods, along with probably more than one hundred people. We were all there on a mission, we were looking for santa (santa claus to be correct).
That’s the guy with all the candy, at least that’s what my kids think, well, until Christmas and they find out that he left them all sorts of cool presents. Then he is the guy with the presents.
Anyway, I was standing there, cold and alone, along with a hundred people looking at santa sharing his candy with the kids.
Then, a guy comes up to me, a guy I hardly recognized. But I know now that I went to High School with him. He came up to me and asked me a question he wanted to ask me for a long time. He said that he just had to ask me one thing, something that’s been on his mind for a long time and something that he told himself to ask me the next time he met me.
Today was the day.
The question was rather interesting and somewhat amusing. He was wondering what Twittering was and why it always said that I was twittering in my Facebook profile. He had never heard about Twitter and Twittering before, and he thought that I had made it all up, and that I was just being funny or that it was some sort of computer jargon that he didn’t quite understand. Or like he said, are you telling me that you are doing what the birds are doing (but he really didn’t understand)?
I told him about Twitter and that you can update your facebook status by using an application that sort of syncronizes your Twitter status with your Facebook status. He left without saying goodbye, about 10 seconds later.
I am not telling you this because it’s an experience of old friendship or a cold december day with my family and santa. It’s more a way of telling you that I think using Facebook status updates might be very useful if you want to be marketing yourself, your business or what you are up to. If you manage to be different, your Facebook friends will notice it and they will tell you about it and they will ask you questions.
This guy that I met in the woods, he is not the first one. I have talked to a lot of people who have been asking me all sorts of questions, regarding stuff I have posted only as a Facebook status update.
Now it’s your turn. Be different, let them notice you.
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When and Where are you Creative?
I am always more creative when I am alone, usually with the door closed and while I am listening to music. The music is usually pretty loud, and I am listening to rock or some other fast pace genre. I am not as creative when I am using the computer, I like pen and paper.
I am more creative after 8 pm and before 8 am. I am more creative a few hours before I go to bed and a few hours around breakfast. I should never work more than 45 minutes without a break, I should probably never work more than 30 minutes without a break. If I do, I am not that creative.
I am actually the least creative when I am at work. 8 am to 4 pm is my least productive hours.
If you know this about yourself, it’s a lot easier to know when to work, where to work and for how long you should work.
When and where are you creative? Do you listen to music while thinking and working, or do you need to be with other people in order to get things done?
We are all different.
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Nobel Peace Price and marketing
Later today, the winners of the Nobel Peace Price, Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will receive the price at a ceremony in Oslo.
A few minutes ago, I opened a Norwegian newspaper while eating breakfast, and I saw two huge advertisements for Norwegian companies telling the world (or at least Norwegians) that they congratulate the winners of the Nobel Peace Price and a few other more or less interesting statements regarding the climatic changes.
To me, this is just a marketing trick, a way to promote a company in the light of a very popular “event”. I am not saying that it shouldn’t be legal, I am only saying that they are sort of using the event / ceremony to promote something that really got nothing to do with this peace price (other than that the companies with the ads are saying that they are very concerned about the climatic changes and that they are really doing something about it).
Maybe this is how we all should promote our websites and businesses?
In that case, why don’t we start by using big banners on our blogs saying something like:
We support the fight against poverty, please buy our products.
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How to Market anything during Christmas
Christmas, a time when you can get more traffic to your website, or a time when people are so focused on Christmas that they don’t have much time for anything else?
Well, I am not really sure.
I guess that some people might not have time for anything other than their families and to shop for presents and everything else that they do for Christmas.
Anyway, even though a lot of people don’t have time for a lot of extra stuff during Christmas, there are certain things you can do in order to market yourself, your website or your products during this time of the year.
First, what time of the year do you consider Christmas to be?
Most people might say December 24 or 25, but I am now writing about the time when people start to focus a lot of their thoughts and energy on Christmas. I would think that it starts around December 1st (do you agree?).
From December 1st, what can you do to market anything online or offline?
I think that there are at least three different things you can do.
Most people consider Christmas to be a good thing, most of us are looking forward to Christmas (time off from work, time with your family, great food and you will hopefully get some very nice gifts). Therefore, most of us think about Christmas way ahead of time, like from December 1st or so.
I haven’t looked recently, but my guess is that most of the major search engines have increased searches for Christmas related stuff; like santa claus, jesus and Christmas as a secular holiday
From the time of December 1st and to December 26 or so, maybe even a few more days, I would do three things different in order to market whatever.
Give Christmas more attention in your marketing material or on your blog / website.
1. Talk about christmas
2. Give a gift (bonus)
3. Be a helper (and talk about it)
If you talk or write more about Christmas, people will listen to you. As I wrote above, most of us are looking forward to Christmas time and we are thinking about it whether we like it or not. The moment we hear or read anything about Christmas, it will get a little extra attention. Finding out interesting facts about Christmas could be something to focus on. Maybe telling the story of how your Christmas was 10 years ago in a completely different country or at least telling a story that people will be interested to hear; what kind of Christmas gifts should a creative Internet marketer wish for?
You could give a gift to your visitors, because it’s Christmas time and they have all helped you and now it’s finally your turn to help them. Give a gift that will get people to talk about you and your company or you and your website. If the gift is something people will appreciate, they will probably tell other people about it, maybe some will even write a short review on their blog.
Finally, Christmas time is also about helping people. Not just about giving gifts and talking about history (nothing wrong with that though). Help people, provide them with something that they will really appreciate. You can do this offline, and then tell people the story online. By giving your readers the story about how you helped someone during Christmas, you might get a lot more “friendly” readers, they might consider you more as a friend than as someone somewhere writing about something they are interested in.
Tell your visitors to donate to charity, maybe to UNICEF or something, tell them how much you donated, and tell your visitors to tell their visitors to donate and so on. This could be viral thing, and if they like the thought, they will appreciate that you told them.
At Christmas time a lot of the information are about Christmas, remember to integrate some of the information in your marketing.
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10 Friends Web 2.0 Marketing strategy
It’s time to reveal a web 2.0 strategy that I have been thinking about for a few days. It’s completely free and I think that it can help bring you a lot more subscribers and a huge amount of traffic. It’s very easy to do (everybody can do it) and you can probably start and get results in less than a day.
I have named it the 10 friends Web 2.0 Marketing strategy. I guess the name could have been a lot shorter and probably a lot cooler, but it’s what I came up with and it sort of describes what you need to do.
The first thing you need to do is get 10 friends. They need to be online and they should all be focusing to get more traffic to their websites. They can be very different from you, and they can be writing about completely different topics from you, but they should be joining you as a friend with the same goal in mind.
Why 10 friends and not 20? I picked 10, because it’s not that difficult to get 10 friends (because they are not really your friends, only people that you know because they are using the Internet to promote their website and so are you). The more people that join you, the better, you can get a lot more than 10, but I think that 10 friends will be enough.
Now, you and your friends should vote on each others posts using the major web 2.0 sites, like StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Propeller, and share each others post on Facebook and a few other major social networks.
When you do this, your posts will get a boost and will likely get a lot of traffic because of the 10 people who will vote and submit your posts. A lot of people will see your posts, and if they are any good, they will be voting on them as well.
The more people who will join you and help you vote and submit, the better for your marketing.
But remember, you and your friends need to help each other. You need to vote on the posts of all your friends and they need to vote on your posts. If everybody helps out, you will all benefit. This is completely free and it works.
You can keep track on new posts within the group of friends by using a forum, or you can do this by simply sending emails to each other every time you or someone in the group will publish a new post.
I don’t think that voting for the same blog / website every single day might be such a good idea (some people publish new stories every single day, sometimes more than one post a day). If you do vote every single day for a site, the people behind the web 2.0 sites might not like it. I am not sure why, but that’s just a guess.
I am also thinking that all your friends are people with great content, and that you only vote for interesting posts that other people might enjoy as well.
As far as I know, using this marketing strategy is completely legal at all the major web 2.0 sites. But I do suggest that you use all the sites regularly and vote on everything that you like, not just your friends. The more often you use the web 2.0 sites, the better your marketing experience will be.
What do you think, could this be something worth testing?
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Video - Get More Traffic To Your Blog
I have just received another very interesting lesson from Yaro Starak, the man and the mind behind Blog Mastermind.
Since he is closing down Blog Mastermind for new members on monday December 10, he is giving us all some very interesting marketing material to show the world.
The video I am referring to is regarding How To Get More Traffic To Your Blog. It’s almost 19 minutes long and very informative. I bet you can learn a lot from it.
If you haven’t read the free lesson that I wrote about a few days ago, I recommend that you do it after you have watched the video.
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Next Big Internet Marketing Technique
I have already seen it on at least three major releases during the past days, and I think that this is an Internet marketing technique that we will be experiencing more and more in the weeks or months ahead.
You might not know what I am talking about, maybe you haven’t seen anything different. I am a little annoyed at this new development, and I really do hope that not too many people will be using it, even though I understand that it can really make a difference when it comes to sales.
Still don’t know what I am talking about?
Well, I haven’t actually revealed anything, have I?
I will give you two examples:
If you visit the latest from Ewen Chia, his Super Affiliates Inner Circle Marketing Club and then visit the latest from Joel Comm, his Secret Classroom. Now, try to leave the sites.
Do you see what is happening? A new window opens up, well, actually two new windows opens up. Both Ewen and Joel are trying to make you stay at their sites, and they are doing it by opening up windows where you can chat with a sales agent just when you are about to leave.
This sales agent will offer you a huge discount and a one time offer, at least that’s what the messages are saying. I haven’t stayed to actually chat with any of them.
This is an annoying feature, but I understand why they are using it. My guess is that they will make a lot more sales by implementing this technique.
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Share your Google Analytics reports
I have been using Google Analytics for a while now, but recently I discovered that it is possible to share your statistical reports with other people. This can be interesting if you are running a website with more than one author or more than one webmaster.
It’s really easy to share your Google Analytics reports. Just do the following:
As soon as you log in, click on access manager. Look at the image above, I have highlighted the words where you should click.
Now, click add user. I have highlighted these words as well.
Finally, you should write the email address of the person you would like to have access to your Google Analytics reports. This person must have a valid gmail address.
And you should then add the domain that you would like the person to see the reports to. You can add as many domains as you like.
If you don’t do anything with the access type, and keep it restricted to view reports only, the person you are giving access to will not be able to do anthing but view the reports.
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Free lesson at Blog Mastermind
A few minutes ago, I received an email from Yaro Starak. He is the mastermind behind a blog mentoring program, where he will personally show you how to make thousands of dollars each month from blogging.
I am a member, and even though I am not earning that much, I am proud to say that I have been learning a lot from Yaro the past months. His Blog Mastermind program is a great way to learn how to blog and how to earn money from blogging. It teaches everything related to blogging, and as a member you will interact with students from all over the world.
What is so special about today?
The email I just received from Yaro told me that I could send you lesson 11 (yes, the complete lesson) for free. You can just visit the page and view a video from Yaro and then read the complete lesson regarding Marketing Through Conversations.
Even though you might not want to join Blog Mastermind, you should take a look at the lesson.
From what I have heard, Yaro is closing Blog Mastermind for new members this monday December 10th, only six days from now.
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The BOA Method sales page is Annoying
I have just visited one of the most talked about blueprints the last week or so, only to find the sales page to be incredibly annoying.
The blueprint might be something you should consider buying, it will cost you $77, and it might help you as it did with the former dairy goat farmer
“Discover How A Former Dairy-Goat Farmer Went From Flat Broke—Losing Money On Everything He Tried—To Making $28,097.45 On The Internet In Just 3 Months Using Only A ‘Blog’ And Free Traffic Strategies”
My problem with The BOA Method sales page is that after about ten seconds after arrivign, I received a big sign that said “WAIT!” coming straight at me.
They are also using peel away ads in the left corner to grab my attention. It seems that Mike Antoni (the guy behind the BOA method) want me to click on the peel away ad and he would like me to leave the sales page to visit the other sales page with the discount.
It might be a smart thing to do, but incredibly annoying. When I think about it, they might be using Exit Grabber… but I think that I did receive the “WAIT!” sign several times without trying to move the mouse anywhere near the top of the page. Maybe it’s something to do with my browser (I am using Firefox)?
Visit The BOA Method and see for yourself.
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The Most interesting Emails today
As I opened my inbox earlier today, I realized that I had received about fifteen emails regarding two new interesting Internet marketing systems. That is, fifteen regarding Torrential Traffic Tactics and fifteen regarding Super Affiliates Inner Circle Membership Club.
I am not sure why I think that the most interesting emails I received today are about those two systems.
Maybe it’s because I received so many emails about them, maybe it’s because most of the emails where almost identical, maybe it’s because some professional marketers offered big bonuses if I bought using their affiliate links.
… or maybe it’s because I didn’t receive that many interesting emails today.
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Google PageRank Unexplained
I thought about writing a post about Google Pagerank, and I thought about doing it the easy way. Something like “Google Pagerank for dummies”, but as I was about to start writing I started to think;
why should I write about PageRank?
I bet thousands have already done it, and probably a lot better than I can ever write and explain it.
Now, here I am, still not sure whether I should have written the Google Pagerank for dummies or not. Well, I am sort of writing a post about it right now, but not the way I thought I would.
Sometimes, the reason I write a post, is actually to learn more about a certain topic. This Pagerank topic, was supposed to be a learning topic for me.
At one time, a while ago, I was very interested in looking at all sorts of results regarding how well my blog was ranking. I was spending time looking at Technorati, Alexa and Google Pagerank (and many others). I wanted better results on a daily basis, and sometimes I checked the stats every hour or so.
That was before I understood that they didn’t change that often.
Today, I am not using hardly any resources to check my stats. I know that I probably should, but with so little time to do what I really enjoy in life, I just have to stay away from stuff like that.
When I look back at the time when Google Pagerank actually mattered to me, I think that I would have explained Pagerank using just a few words, something like
PageRank is a numeric value that represents, according to Google, how important a page is on the web.
Ok, I must admit that I did borrow most of the words from WebWorkshop, but I think I would have used most of the words myself, they just beat me to it.
If you are interesting, like I used to be, you could be reading all sorts of more or less interesting articles explaining how to increase your Pagerank and how pagerank is calculated. You can even look to Google for the answer to Google PageRank explained, or why not read what a professional blogger wrote more than two years ago about the topic?
I am back at the beginning. Why have thousands of people tried to explain Google PageRank when Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page have already explained it?
Maybe the founding fathers didn’t do a good enough job explaining it
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The funniest book I have read this year
I must admit, I haven’t read that many funny books this year. The last one that I truly remember laughing out loud while reading, must be Join Me by Danny Wallace.
But the one I am reading now (I am almost finished), it got to be the most inspiring and funny book I have read in years, at least since Join Me.
There is nothing more bonding than successfully picking up girls together. It is the basis for a great friendship. Because afterward, when the girls are gone, you can finally give each other the high-five that you’ve been holding back since you met them. It is the sweetest high-five in the world. It’s not just the sound of skin hitting skin; it’s the sound of brotherhood.
You might think that I did, but I didn’t. I didn’t buy the book or started to read it because I wanted to become irresistible to women. I bought it because I had heard that you can learn a lot about yourself, how to approach people and how to promote (anything) by reading about the life of the world’s number one pickup artist.
It was an interesting journey, to read about “the adventures of an everyday man who transforms himself from a shy, awkward writer into the quick-witted, smooth-talking Style, a character irresistible to women.”
I recommend that you read The Game by Neil Strauss, it’s more about marketing than you would have guessed… and it will make you laugh.
It might be a book you should consider reading during christmas?
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Creative Marketing Forces you to Think
I think that some of the best marketing, are advertisements that kind of forces you to think about something else. You are not quite sure what they are marketing; not until right at the end.
It makes you think, and sometimes it makes you laugh…
(check out this video)
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The #1 Super Affiliate?
I have just received information about a brand new system, it will be launching on December 1st. The guy behind it is well known for most people interested in Internet marketing, his name is Ewen Chia.
But did you know that Ewen Chia is the #1 super affiliate?
I knew he was good, but that he was the best… well, I didn’t know that. Maybe it’s just a marketing trick, I really don’t know. The statement on the sales page is rather bold, don’t you agree?
Without a doubt Ewen Chia is the #1 Super Affiliate for everyone I know, and if he isn’t it’s only because he’s not promoting their products.
It’s interesting to see that the name of his new system is Ewen Chia’s Super Affiliates, and it’s (according to the sales page) the easiest way to make a fortune from other people’s products.
I signed up to see what it’s all about, well, I haven’t paid anything… I just downloaded the free report and I am now waiting for December 1st.
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links for 2007-11-28
Promoting your Business at the Local Pizzeria (tags: pizza, business, promote, food, advertise, blogging,)
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Promoting your Business at the Local Pizzeria
I must admit, I love pizza, it’s my favorite food. I can probably eat pizza every single day of the week. Today, I have eaten pizza for the third day in a row. I might eat something else tomorrow though, just so you won’t think I am weird (well, I am kind of weird when it comes to pizza).
Earlier today, I was at the local pizzeria and while I was waiting for my pizza, I looked at the menu. It was in big shiny letters on the wall. It was very easy to read the names of the various pizzas and the toppings.
Then it struck me…
Why not ask the owner of the local pizzeria to add your business name as the name for one of the pizzas? It can be a new pizza, or they can change the name of one of the pizzas on the menu.
I am not suggesting that they change the name of one of the original pizzas, like Pizza Romana and Pizza Capricciosa. But I would rather change the name of one of the local pizzas, or maybe add a new one (even suggest the toppings yourself).
I think that this could be a great idea, some of the local pizzerias are very popular. All sorts of people are visiting and it might not be that expensive either.
Think about this Tim, what about the StartXchange pizza, or Mikael, what about the IslamCrunch pizza
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Vote for this on StumbleUpon
In order to get more traffic from web 2.0 sites like StumbleUpon, you might want to tell your readers exactly what you want them to do.
Most of the time, people won’t vote for your articles, not because they don’t like them, but because they forget, and because they don’t think about voting (or submitting to various directories).
I have been viewing various discussions from readers on several Norwegian newspapers over a short period of time, and in many posts (way too many) are the authors telling people to vote for the post if they agree with their statements. Most of the posts seems to end up with the same sentence; click on “vote” if you agree with me.
And posts where the authors are telling people to vote, always end up having many votes. And the more votes they have, the more people will read them.
So, I will give it a shot; vote for this post on StumbleUpon if you agree with me that you should put sentences like that inside your posts
My advice is that you should be straightforward, tell your readers what to do. As long as it’s free and it only takes a few seconds, I think that most people will do it.
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Words that “Forces” You to Buy
Sometimes a few words, a sentence on a website, can make the big difference whether you will buy a product or not.
No matter how good the sales page is, a few words can be the big difference.
I will give you one example, and you will find this example on almost all the good sales pages, most professional online marketers are using similar words.
I got one problem with it, and I will tell you in a minute.
Click on the sales page for Ewen Chia’s Autopilot Profits. Now, take a look at the sentence just below his signature:
PS. Get in NOW before the price skyrockets to $97.00 soon!
The price for the product is only $27 if you act now, but it will skyrocket to $97 soon. If the reader is in doubt whether to buy it or not, he or she will think fast. A price increase from $27 to $97 is a lot.
Ewen Chia will, by adding this sentence, make people decide fast. It’s all about pshychology and how our minds work. We are all looking for bargains, we want the products cheap as possible. As soon as we see something with a low price, compared to the original price, our minds start acting faster than usual.
Showing your readers that the price is a lot lower than it should be, by using words like; your Total Investment Is Just A Measly $1,997.00 $797.00, $297.00, $97.00, $27 For Everything! will transform your reader from a regular visitor to a buyer.
But as I said, I have a problem with this kind of marketing and the use of Internet marketing triggers. The problem is not using them per se, but as with Ewen Chia’s Autopilot Profits, the price will skyrocket to $97 soon! Well, it has been monhts and the price is still $27, when is soon or will the price always be $27?
I think that a lot of people using the words that sell, are only using them because they sell. They have no intention of increasing the price or removing the offer, at least not anytime soon. I am not saying that Ewen Chia is not going to do something about this one, but I have looked at it for months now, and I think it was a good example.
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The best way to promote AWeber
A service that I have been fond of for a long time is AWeber, a brilliant company offering unlimited autoresponders, follow ups and newsletters. You can be a member and use their service, or you can be an affiliate and earn money by promoting their service, and of course you can be both.
If you want to promote AWeber, what would be the best way to promote it?
Banners? Reviews? Articles? Test drive?
By advertising AWeber with the use of banners, either on your blog or on other sites, people will only view the AWeber sales page after they click on it. And if they have never heard of AWeber before clicking, do you think that you will get a sale? I am not so sure. The AWeber site is a really good site, but usually people will have to think before they buy. Maybe they will read most of the information on the site, and then come back tomorrow, or maybe not. But as soon as they click on your banner, it`s not up to you anymore.
If you write a review of the AWeber service and your are honest about it, people might find it very helpful and trust your judgement. If they do, and you are a good writer, it might be a lot easier for your to get new buyers. But writing a review might not get you a lot of traffic and it might not be a really good advertisement if you have a blog without visitors. You might have to promote your review in order to get it read.
You could write an article or several articles about various features of AWeber. You could write an article about how AWeber uses RSS/XML and HTML web archives to publish sent newsletters on your website automatically. And Automatic newsletter creation from RSS/XML feeds using their exclusive Feed Broadcaster technology. As long as you publish the articles to good directories, you might get a lot of new readers and maybe some buyers as well.
But I really think that promoting the test drive would be the best way to promote AWeber. The test drive is actually just an html subscription form, where you get people to sign up their name and email address in order to see AWeber in action, if they sign up they will receive a free demonstration of AWeber. This will be professionally written e-mails from AWeber with sales messages. After you get people to sign up for this demonstration, you won’t have to do anything at all. AWeber will take it from there.
The reason I think the AWeber test drive would be the best way to promote the AWeber affiliate program is that it uses the strength of AWeber. AWeber is all about sending emails automatically, and how to follow up with your customers and how to send newsletters and how fast and reliable their service is. There is no better way to understand this than to actually test it yourself. After 3 to 4 emails, my guess would be that most people would be so impressed that if they need this kind of service, they would go for AWeber.
You can try the test drive by submitting your name and e-mail address at the bottom of this page. All affiliates of AWeber will get their own subscription forms to promote the test drive. This way, their affiliate ids will be on all the links that AWeber sends in their messages.
There are many ways to promote affiliate programs, but I think that you should always look at the strength of every program in order to find the perfect way to promote it. I think the strength of AWeber is their remarkable service, and there is no better way to show this to the world than to use their test drive.
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How to promote anything on Thanksgiving
Today is a special day, it’s Thanksgiving and according to wikipedia:
Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a traditional North American holiday to give thanks for the things that one has at the conclusion of the harvest season. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada.
And as any other day, Internet marketers all across the globe are using it to earn money. Most of them are doing it the easy way, and I am going to tell you exactly how to do it the easy way on Thanksgiving.
1. Give something for free to your readers or subscribers (a gift)
2. Make them sign up with their name and email to receive it
3. Before they receive the gift, show them a one time offer
Everybody are looking for a gift on Thanksgiving, you provide a gift and a thank you for whatever you are thankful of, and people will want the gift as an appreciation. You are a cool guy for giving the gift and hopefully the gift is something worth downloading.
By “forcing” people to submit their name and email in order to get the gift, you will build a list that you can use to sell to in the future. By providing a one time offer, you can earn money from your free gift. Even though you might not earn any money from the one time offer, you will hopefully build a list from giving the free gift.
I have seen this “marketing trick” many times today, and I have received a lot of various offers. The only offer I did respond to was the Operation Black Box from Sean Wu, it was just too good to not join. It was completely free as the others, but it had so many cool things, I just could leave it alone.
And by the way, happy Thanksgiving!
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Why X Factor Traffic confuses me
A few weeks ago, I bought something called X Factor Traffic, from the guys behind Nitro Marketing. That’s two marketing professionals, Kevin Wilke and Matt Gill, or so I thought. Now I think that Dearl Miller is the guy behind X Factor Traffic, but really isn’t the guy behind X Factor Traffic actually Willie Crawford?
Anyway, I bought X Factor Traffic at October 31st at the same day that I received the e-mail with the following subject:
FINAL-NOTICE: Last Chance to Get X Factor Traffic…
I decided to pay the $27 for it (a one time payment) and read about the 10 Years of Web Traffic Testing Results and got my hands on the list of the Top 10 Free Traffic Tactics of all time.
I paid and I got the list over at X Factor Traffic just a few hours before it closed.
X Factor Traffic is really a report, and it`s an interesting one. Not a lot of detailed information, but it got the list and I did learn a few interesting techniques from it. But the reason why I am a little confused is not just about the authors or creator or the guys behind the report, but in fact this:
X Factor Traffic is closed, you can’t buy it anymore, but you can sign up for future Trafficology releases and you can get the preview of the list. But you can’t buy it anymore, October 31st was the deadline… or so I thought.
I keep receiving e-mails a couple of times a week, and I have been since November 1st. They all contain an offer to buy X Factor Traffic through something they call the Xbackdoor. This is probably another list they have, where I am one of the subscribers. Because why else would they be promoting a product that I have already bought?
Today I received another e-mail with the same offer, to buy X Factor Traffic for $27 (the same price I had to pay) and with the following text:
X-Factor is currently closed to the public while we package it up to be sold next month in a $300 package. However, you can still get in on the RIDICULOUS launch price of only $27 if you are one of the next 32 people who get in on this - OR before midnight November 30th, 2007…
I am wondering; what sort of marketing trick is this really? I understand that they are using scarcity as a way for people on this list to decide fast. But are they actually lying to me? I thought the doors closed on October 31st, but now they seemed to have opened them again.
The e-mail I received from them at October 31st had the following text inside:
PS: Get the top 10 totally free traffic tactics of all time before October 31st at midnight Pacific time, because after that, they are gone forever
Well, it’s not gone forever….
I like the product, but I don’t think that I like the way they are promoting it.
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Learn from Indiana Jones and become better at Internet Marketing
Have you seen the movies starring Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones? If not, you should watch all three of them (soon to be four) as soon as you have the time. They are very entertaining movies, but they can also teach you something about Internet marketing. At least I think that they can.
Be prepared for everything Be cool, be very cool Act like you know what you are doing Have a niche and be the best Always have a backup (weapon)
Be prepared for everything
Indiana Jones is always somewhere doing something extraordinary, and when he least expects it, something dangerous happens. Well, not always dangerous, but he always seems to be getting a surprise of some kind, everywhere he ends up going. He never seems to know what is exactly going to happen, but he always seems to be prepared. He is prepared for the worst and for the best.
By being prepared, you will not be too disappointed when your marketing fails completely or too happy when you have success. Think about what you will do if your campaigns fails before it fails, this way you have a plan on how you can turn failure into success. Think about what you will do if you have a big success, what will you do next?
Be cool, be very cool
Indiana Jones is always very smooth, he looks good and he has a way with words, just think about this quote for a while:
You want to talk to God? Let’s go see him together, I’ve got nothing better to do (Raiders of the Lost Ark)
To be successful with Internet marketing, you should be cool as well. Read the sales letter / sales pages of some of the hottest selling clickbank products, and you will see how cool the people behind the products are. They are always writing stuff like:
You are standing right in front of a vast, limitless mountain of commission checks - only you can’t see them, and you never will…
Sounds cool enough for you? If you are cool, people will always listen to you.
Act like you know what you are doing
Indiana Jones might seems to always be winning, and he is always on top of the situation. He should have died many times in each movie, but you know what? He acts like he knows what he is doing, or at least most of the time. By doing this acting, people around him are confident and they trust him. He never shows his weakness, if he did, his enemies would be all over him and he would never have survived (well, I know it`s just a movie… but you know what I am talking about).
It`s important for an Internet marketer to never show weakness. If you tell what you are not good at, people will remember this instead of what you are good at. They will lose faith in you, and you might have a hard time to build a relationship with people who are interested in your products and your knowledge. Never show weakness, only talk about what you are good at… don`t lie, just keep your mouth shut when it comes things you have little or no knowledge about.
I’m allowing you to tag along. So why don’t you give your mouth a rest. Okay doll? (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom)
Have a niche and be the best
Indiana Jones is a world famous professor of archaeology, because he is one of the best, he always get exciting information and he is attending exciting missions.
As an Internet marketer, you should focus on your strengths and the topic(s) you are most interested in, and focus on learning even more. You should aim at being one of the best at what you do, and by doing that, you will sooner or later get a lot of followers and people who will come to you for advice.
Always have a backup (weapon)
No matter what sort of trouble Indiana Jones is in, when he has tried everything and failed, he grabs his “secret” weapon (the whip).
When you are promoting something and it`s not going exactly like you planned, you should have a backup. A solution that you can try in order to turn the situation all around. For instance, you are promoting a product as an affiliate marketer. You are promoting it using Google AdWords, because you think Google AdWords is the best way to promote it. Soon you realize that Google AdWords suck, and you can`t make any sales using it. Instead of sticking with AdWords, why not try advertising it on blogs using FeedBurner… it might turn your failure into success?
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Everybody is talking about Google Assassin
Did you know that the guys behind the the fastest selling ebook in Clickbank history, the Day Job Killer, a few hours ago launched something new?
If you are not familiar with the Day Job Killer, it sold over 7,000 copies upon its release in February.
I have received tons of offers already to buy Google Assassin, and that`s only minutes after the launch. Actually, I received tons of offers before the launch, regarding some video about Google Assassin, and that I just had to watch it and that this was going to be huge. I am not sure how huge it`s going to be, but that`s probably because I have not tested the product myself and I have not even bought the Day Job Killer (am I the only one?).
So, what`s all the buzz about?
one of my “beta testers” used my covert techniques to generate $470, in his first 7 days…
sounds interesting, and
a self-confessed Adwords no-hoper used my step-by-step, “covert” blueprints to bank his first $1,000 check with ClickBank.
I am impressed, and
a 28 year-old man from Ohio used my “Google war-chest” to pump out a consistent $500/month without dropping a cent on Adwords ever again. His secret? My $45,000 custom Google software told him exactly which products to promote…
From this and all the other testimonials on their sales page, the Google Assassin seems to be very interesting.
All the professional Internet marketers seems to be going nuts about it, so why not?
I am not buying, but maybe I should?
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Unstoppable Peak Performance Review
I bought the e-book by Aurelius Tjin yesterday, Unstoppable Peak Performance is the title. It`s about “How to focus, earn more and work less while enjoying more of life”. No wonder I just had to buy it.
I told you yesterday that I was going to write a review as soon as I finished reading it, and I finished reading it about 5 minutes ago. I am not wasting my time here, I am doing the review while I still remember the contents.
Why did I buy it?
It was cheap, the price is only $7 and I can earn 100% by selling it, one sale and the e-book wouldn`t cost me anything. Actually I have already profited from it.
The title was interesting; focus, earn more, work less, enjoy life. The perfect combination of words.
The sales page was professional. If the e-book was of poor quality, why spend so much money or time on making a professional sales page? It could be just a marketing trick, but it looked like the real deal.
I want more focus. I am a guy that loves to read, and loves new ideas, and continues to do everything all at once. I can stay focused for a few days, maybe a week, and suddenly something else grabs my attention.
What did I expect?
I thought that I would receive an e-book with lots of dots on how to stay focused, what to do and when to do it. But instead, I got 59 pages of interesting thoughts from Aurelius Tjin about how to build momentum, how to overcome information and idea overload and creating and perpetuating vision and much more.
The e-book is especially for two kinds of people. I think it`s for people who are just beginning their Internet marketing business and Internet marketing career, and I think it`s for people like me, a person who have been around for a while, but never seems to stay focused on the important parts and never seems to make it really big.
The author tells the story about identifying your strong points, and how to conduct an analysis of the business of successful people and how to start chunking information.
I really believe in the power of chunking, something I have never tried before. If you are not familiar with the term, it`s about how you should`t bite off more information than you can chew at one time. For instance, work shorter intervals, maybe 20-30 minutes at a time and then take a 5 minute break. This way you will get a lot more done.
Did I enjoy it and did I learn something from it?
Yes, it didn`t take me many minutes to read the 59 pages and I enjoyed every page. I know this might sound like a sales letter, but it`s really not. The reason I enjoyed it was because I wanted to get more information about how I should be thinking to get more done and how I should be thinking in order to drive my business / writing to a new level.
I got some new ideas and I got a model to use when it comes to people who are successful. Now I can find out how they are doing it and what I should be looking for. That`s important to me.
Don`t buy this e-book if you are only looking for
a way to get rich quick a business model an Internet marketing system
Because this book is more about thoughts on how to overcome obstacles. Think about it; you probably own everything you need already, but why aren`t you successful?
That`s the question Aurelius Tjin is trying to answer with Unstoppable Peak Performance. To me it was worth the $7 investment.
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How to focus and earn more money
I just bought a new e-book, even though I said to myself that I should wait at least a week before I bought another one. But something told me that this one was a little special. Tomorrow I will print the e-book, yes I do print them, and read it before I go to sleep. The day after, I will do a review.
Why did I find this one to be special?
Well, I think it was because it was about a topic that I find interesting.
How to overcome idea & information overload How to build unstoppable momentum How to resystemize you business so you can put it into overdrive How to leverage your business so that you don’t work 14 hours a day How to tackle project after project like there’s no tomorrow
I find it hard to focus, and that`s probably because there are so many things going on. Not just at work, but home with my family and on the Internet. It`s so much information everywhere, I am happy if this e-book can help me just a little bit.
And for $7 it was not a big investment for me. Take a look at Unstoppable Peak Performance and tell me what you think about it.
I will write the review tomorrow, or as soon as I have the time to read it.
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Should you always compare the price?
When you are promoting your business, should you always tell people what you can buy for the same amount of money, as from joining your business?
I think that you might want to do that, especially if the price is not too high. For instance, I have just received information about a product that cost $7 (a one time fee).
In the sales letter it says something like, would you rather buy a medium sliced pizza ($9.95)?
This puts the offer in perspective, what can you get for the same price?
Some tell you the price per day. For instance if the business costs $29.95 a month, they say that for only $.99 a day you can join a great business opportunity. This makes it sound so much cheaper than the $29.95 a month, doesn`t it?
Anyway, I think it might be something to consider. Use the price and compare it to something else, like the pizza example above or the price to watch a movie or something people can relate to.
If you do this, the actual price of becoming a member of your business might not sound that high.
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Advertising and Earning Money with Croc-Ads
I received information about this new business and advertising opportunity yesterday. You can earn money by referring other people to it, and you can advertise your business.
So far, I am not sure what I think about it. I haven`t tested it myself, I have just been looking at the site, reading about their offer.
You can get a free membership (croc hunter) or a paid membership (croc wrestler).
You might want to try the free opportunity at Croc-Ads. Please send me your comments if you have tried it.
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Coca-Cola - all flavor or all Marketing?
A few thoughts for you…
Why is Coca-Cola having many different variants of Coca-Cola? Is it because we, the consumers want different tastes, or is it because by producing new tastes they might get other groups of people hooked on their soda?
Is it all a marketing trick?
Well, let`s take a brief discussion.
I am sure that some of the various brands might taste a little different, like Cherry coke, the one with vanilla and many others. Even some of the light products might taste a little different. I am really not sure. I have tasted a few various light products, and I can’t tell the difference between Coca-Cola Light (Diet Coke) and Coca-Cola Zero, but I can see the different labels and I can see that the commercials are different… they are targetting men with coke zero.
But why introduce Coke zero, when they have a similar one already on the market? Is it really just a marketing trick, using Coke Zero to get more men to drink their soda?
From what I have read, the only real difference between the two might be the sweetener or maybe it’s something with the flavor as well?
Why are we buying Coca-Cola, is it because of the flavor, is it because it’s healthier than other similar brands, is it because it’s cheaper, or is it a combination of the two?
I think it might be a marketing trick after all.
Coca-Cola is Coca-Cola trying to adapt to the market. If most people are thinking more about being thin, then Coca-Cola comes up with a new drink that will taste the same (or almost the same) and with no calories. If people want another color, they will produce another color, but the same great taste. If they are loosing the battle to Pepsi, they have to be creative and think of something else. There will be another coca-cola, but what will be next?
Coca-Cola 3 (the one with Omega 3) Coca-Cola smart (your brain needs it) Coca-Cola green (color and health benefits from green tea) Coca-Cola ice (the really cold one)
Did you know that there are local variations of Coca-Cola, and that Coca-Cola Light is the same as Diet Coke, but for the europeen market? Why use a different name, maybe light is better than diet in Europe?
Who would have guessed that I really enjoy my coca-cola? I prefer the zero, the one for men…
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How giving away iCon will help your Marketing
Are you familiar with the book iCon, about Steve Jobs and The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business 
I am not sure how I stumbled upon the competition, but I visited the blog, I subscribed to it, I commented and I won the book.
I am not the winning type, and at first I thought it was a joke. I can probably count the fingers on my left hand to find out how many times I have won something in my life, but soon I guess I might have to start counting the fingers on my right hand as well.
Anyway, what Robert Mirabito at spindigg.com did with his competition was great marketing for his blog, and I think that he should continue doing it. One book each month, that is if he can afford it. Buying a book and doing the competition does not cost a lot, and it doesn`t take that much time either. People like myself will visit his blog over and over again because of this, and I bet he will get a lot of links back to his blog as well (just look at what I am doing here).
The books he should be offering as a prize should all be related to the topic of his blog. This way, all his readers will be interested in continue to read his blog and continue to try to win the prizes. Receiving a physical prize in the mail is a lot better than winning a digital product online. I am still smiling when I look at iCon.
But I guess it’s time to start reading it and stop smiling. Thank’s Robert, I really appreciate it and keep the interesting stories at SpinDigg coming.
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Promoting yourself as a window cleaner or convicted felon
I must say that I am a little amused about the way some people promote their products. It probably works, because they are earning a lot of money doing it (or at least so it seems), but to me it’s nothing more than amusing.
I am referring to people who are using a low status occupation to convince us that if he, the window cleaner can make it big, then we all can do it if we just use their system. I am not even sure if this guy was a window cleaner or not (I am not saying that he didn’t clean windows), I think that some will just use this as a markting trick…
What about using the fact that you are a convicted felon? Will this in fact be something positive when it comes to online marketing? It seems to be, why else will an Internet millionaire use it on his sales page?
What about using the fact that you once were a homeless guy and you are now an Internet millionaire? Would you think that, if this guy can do it, so can I?
It’s interesting how the human mind works.
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Co-Oplists is The latest Internet Marketing Buzz
It started about 30 minutes ago, and it will probably continue throughout the night (at least for me, living in Norway). The brand new system from Internet marketing experts Robert Puddy, Pat Lovell and Brian “Koz” Kosobucki has launched, and affiliates all around the world have started to promote it.
A system from hot shots like the three guys above should be interesting to everybody involved in Internet marketing. I have been looking at the sales page and I can see several benefits from joining:
An email list of at least 2400 prospects who opt-in specifically for your list… Guaranteed! All of the software tools you need to manage and run your email lists… Your own report on your list’s topic… it’s yours to do whatever you would like. Steady stream of fresh-targeted prospects in front of your sales messages… A completely automated system…. just start using Co-Op Lists right now! Super-Fresh new leads added monthly Get 15,000 solo ad exposures to your list the first year selling or promoting whatever you want …and a lot more
All the dots above are from the sales page, and you must remember that I have not tested the system and I am not an affiliate.
What I am a little interesting in is the automated part. Is this one of the first systems that can actually automate the sales process 100% for you (or at least close to 100%)? They provide you with all the tools and they provide you with the fresh leads, they even provide you with the report… hmmm, this sounds tempting.
I am not sure, but when the guys above provide you with the four important “ingredients” to online success, I think that you better listen up:
You choose a niche from their list (Internet Marketing, Health and Beauty and Shopping) You get a Top-Quality Written Report You get the Email Software They Send Traffic To Your Site
Well, for $29.95 a month, this seems to be a bargain… at least if it works as good as it sounds.
Visit Co-OpLists.com today and take a closer look at what I am talking about.
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Will Facebook launch a paid membership option?
Today I saw a sponsored poll at Facebook. The question was this:
Would you pay $3.99 a month to have no ads on Facebook?
Is this a way for Facebook to see if they can start charging for a new kind of membership? Like a professional one, where you pay to get rid of all the ads?
I took the poll and the results was so far 94% no and only 5% yes (1% missing?).
Even though only 5% want to pay for a professional membership at Facebook, Facebook might want to try it. There are probably many reasons to why they want to charge for a new kind of ad free membership, but I have at least thought of two important reasons:
Regular members won’t notice anything different Only a few percent members will be a lot of money
I am a free member at Facebook and I always will be, but even though they start charging money for a new kind of membership, I won’t notice anything different to my account. Everything will be just the same as it is today. Facebook will not be risking anything by charging for this new membership.
Only a few percent of Facebook users will pay, but what if only 100.000 members will pay? They have more than 50 million members as of November 2007 and if only 100.000 members will pay, Facebook will be earning $399.000 a month, and that’s from only 100.000 members. I guess that Facebook can be earning more than $1 million a month just by giving their members the option of not viewing ads. What if 5% of their members will pay for this membership, wow… that would be a lot of money!
The question is; will Facebook earn more money by charging members for this new account or by giving advertisers the opportunity to advertise to them?
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What is Google Payload?
I have just received a heads up about a new “system” that will be launching tomorrow. It`s called Google Payload, and it`s about to reveal some traffic secrets (haven`t we heard that one before?).
I have no clue what this is all about, but they have published a video, and it looks interesting. I might have to visit Google Payload tomorrow and read more about it.
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Who controls Google?
I am just wondering; would it be illegal if Google provided biased search results?
Let me give you an example.
Some of the top people at Google would like the democrats to win the presidential election in the United States. To help the democrats, they offer some undercover marketing. Every time someone used Google to search for republican or something related to the party, they would get negative information regarding the republicans. And every time someone searched for democrats or something related to the party, they would get very positive information.
Do you get the picture?
Who controls Google?
Can Google have any impact regarding the presidential election, even if they tried? And what if they did try, would anybody suspect it, or would they get caught?
Well, even if they wanted, I guess it would be kind of hard for them to do anyway. They got more than ten thousand employees around the world. A few people could probably not stage something like that. But sometimes you might stop and think, do you remember the google miserable failure search?
And there have been several so called Political Google bombs, but what if they were not bombs, but directed from Google headquarters? This is not a conspiracy theory, I am just asking, what if?
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Creating Viral e-books and Viral reports
It might not sound like an easy thing to do, but it might not be as hard as you first thought. Creating a viral e-book or a viral report can bring you massive traffic and it can be completely free.
First, you do the following:
Find a problem Write a short report or an e-book on how to solve the problem Resell the short report and give anyone who buys it permission to resell it and earn 100% commission
You might want to buy a script in order to resell the report or e-book and still get the traffic. The script should track who is authorized to sell your ebook or report and requires their customers to download it from your site. This way you will get a lot of new visitors to your site (because other people are working to send you visitors).
I have heard a lot of good things about the script you get included if you buy the $7 Secrets E-book. Just install the script and start promoting your report or e-book, soon you might be receiving many new visitors coming to your site to download your report or e-book. Now, you are in control.
You know why they come, and you know what they are interested in (the topic you have written about). You should use this information to sell them something. Offer them something related as soon as they have downloaded the e-book or report. Or you could just give them a bonus for free if they registered their name and e-mail, this way you will capture their contact information.
If you have used $7 Secrets E-book script yourself, please tell me what you think of it.
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The story of Patrick Moberg and the girl of his dreams
I thought I should give you an interesting story today, a story that you can learn a lot from. Most people might think of it as a true love story, but today I am going to tell you about the true marketing aspect of the story.
This is the story of Patrick Moberg, a rather ordinary web designer living in New York. He was ordinary, rather unknown (at least from what I have heard) until about a week ago. I think it was last sunday, when Patrick got a glimpse of a beautiful girl at the subway in New York. As I would imagine, the subway in New York was really crowded, and he did not get the chance to talk to her, even though he really wanted to… I am not sure if it was the crowd of people that stopped him, or if he just didn`t have the curage to do it, but anyway, he didn`t talk to her.
As soon as she was gone, he decided that he just had to meet her, and now the story get`s really interesting.
Patrick drew a picture of the girl, describing her and himself and he included his phone number (probably e-mail address as well), the time and date of the incident and so on. He asked for help to find her.
At first I thought that he plastered the drawing all over New York, but from what I understand now, he dedicated a web site to find her www.nygirlofmydreams.com.
… and from what I have read, it worked. He is going to meet the girl of his dreams, and maybe they have already met. I am not sure, but what will happen next? I don`t know, and I really don`t care. The reason I don`t care is that he is going to meet her, and that was what it was all about. Now, the rest is up to him. She might like him, she might not, who knows, maybe he doesn`t even like her?
The interesting part, if you think of the story as a tale of successful marketing, we need to ask the question, “Why did so many people help him and why did the media all over the world like this story and why did they publish it?”
Did Patrick Moberg do anything different, or is this the typical romantic Hollywood kind of story that we just need, and is this the reason why we just have to help him out?
In my mind, it`s all about emotions, emotions and emotions. We are all very aware of things related to the feelings of joy, sorrow, fear, hate, love, etc. As long as the marketing campaign relates directly to feelings, people are more likely to help out and to buy or join or what ever you want them to do.
The media knows this, and that`s why stories like this appear every day in the news. I am not saying stories exatly like this, but stories that we love to read, stories that we feel joy about when we read them, stories that we fear or even hate, as long as a person can relate the story to our feelings, we will do all kinds of stuff.
Think of it this way; two people come to talk to you about a new multi-level marketing scheme. One was a 20 year old really cool dude with a grin on his face, telling you that he had earned $100.000 from it, this opportunity was a once in the life time deal, and now it was your turn. The other person was a 18 year old orphan, telling you the sad story about how his parents died and how he never got an education and now he was hoping to earn money from a new very interesting company. He was really hoping that you would join in, because this was something he really believed would change his life for the better. Do you think you would join number 1 or number 2?
I hope you get my point, even though the examples might not be as good as I hope they would be. But that`s what happens when I write the post on a saturday evening, when I probably should be doing something completely different.
Anyway, I really admire Patrick Moberg for what he did and I hope that the girl of his dreams still is the girl of his dreams and that they will go all the way, nothing beats a happy ending.
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How to Trick Members into Staying
Several companies are using an interesting marketing technique to trick their members into not cancelling their membership. I have talked to a few members of the companies I am referring to (I will not mention any names of companies that are using this technique) and all of them said that they don’t think of this technique as a way to trick them into staying. This just shows how good this tecnhique really is.
You be the judge, is this a trick or not?
What the companies are doing is giving you a name depending on how long you have been a member. If you have been a member for five years, you might be a silver member, if you have been a member for ten years, you might be a gold member. You don`t get any benefits from it at all, you just get the name (remember, you are a gold member).
I think that what the companies are doing is using a marketing technique that applies to our emotions. We all want to be someone special, and by receiving a special name, we think of us as special members of the company. If I received status as a gold member, I think it would be harder to cancel my membership, a gold member would never cancel his membership.
If I received a letter from the company telling me that I just received status as a gold member, I would probably think that I have achieved something. I would think of myself as a proud member, but is this something to be proud of or is it just a marketing trick to keep you from leaving the company?
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Writing Articles for your Marketing campaigns
I think that this marketing technique is used by most successful Internet marketers, at least they did it before they become famous. Once famous, they really don`t need to do much other than create a buzz in the blogosphere. The marketing technique I am trying to describe is nothing new, but it works great and you will receive a huge amount of traffic if you do it right.
Most people will do some research before they buy anything online, they are looking for answers; about a product, about a business or about a solution to a problem. People are using the Internet for information, that`s a fact. What you should do is provide information on a problem that your product or service will solve.
Writing an article about a problem is a great way to get massive exposure, and you should do it this way:
Describe the problem Show an example of why the reader will suffer Describe why your product or service is the perfect solution Tell the reader to visit your website and buy the product
Everything you do, and especially when it comes to writing articles, should be of top quality. You might attract readers with poor quality articles, but if they get dissapointed, they will probably not read any more of what you publish in the future and they will not likely stick around for your products (or blog posts).
If you don`t like writing or if you just don`t have the time, or you just can`t figure out how to write a good quality article, you could hire a ghost writer. There are several sites where you can get one, and they might not be that expensive:
Elance Get a Freelancer Right Copywriter Rent A Ghost Writer SEO Writer
Once you have finished writing your article, or your ghost writer finished wirting it, you need to publish it. You want as many people as possible to read it. Instead of publishing it on your blog or some website, you should submit it to various directories:
EzineTrendz Isnare Ezine articles The Phantom Writers Submit Your Article Article Blotter E-articles
There are hundreds of different directories, and my advice is that you try to find some on your own as well. You can submit your articles manually to them, or you can use an article submission software. By using an article submission software, the software will submit your articles for you. This will save you a lot of time, and you will probably find many directories that you would not have found on your own. It might be a very profitable investment.
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Viral Video Fever with Charles Trippy
Is this the future?
… or maybe it`s not the future, maybe it`s now?
I am talking about viral videos. If you are like me, you watch at least a few every single day, some good, some not so good. But you do watch them.
If you are looking for a way to promote whatever you are promoting by using viral videos, and maybe publishing them on YouTube or someplace else, then you might want to take a look at the viral video fever with Charles Trippy.
I had never heard of the guy until I received information earlier today, but from what I understand now, he is quite famous.
Are you ready to be a video whore?
If you are, take a look at Viral Video Fever today. Who knows, maybe you will learn something from it.
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Personal or Not Personal - that’s the question
Yesterday, I got a phone call from a sales person at some company, I just can’t remember why he called or from what company. But that’s besides the point anyway. That guy talked fast, he was focused on his goal, and that goal was trying to get me hooked on whatever he was selling. He wanted me to buy it, but he failed, and that was because he did something that I just don’t like… I am not sure if I hate it or just don’t like it. Anyway, I don’t think any sales person will make a sale talking to me if he or she will do what this guy did.
You might be thinking that the guy did something really bad, or that he offended me or something, but he didn’t.
The only thing he did was mention my name in every other sentence. He talked to me, he tried to make the conversation all about me, and he used my first name. He said stuff like, when you go out with your friends Jens, what do you think about [blank] and Jens, when you read a good book what do you rather do, [blank] or [blank]? He said my name every 10 seconds or so, like he was trying to be my friend.
I thought about it after the conversation, why would he use my name at all? I can understand that we use names when we use impersonal marketing, like when we use e-mail or an autoresponder, or when we advertise using flyers or whatever. The more personal you get when you use impersonal marketing techniques, the better I think the marketing effect will be.
…but when you are using very personal marketing techniques, like when you are talking to a person on the phone or when you are talking to a person face to face, I would never ever use a the name of the person during the conversation. Well, you could start out with the name, or maybe mention it once or twice, but not often, like what a lof of sales people seems to be doing.
The guy that called me yesterday was not the first one, I have been talking to a lot of different men and women, all of them using the same conversational technique. I just can’t understand why, but maybe it actually works and I am the only weird person out there?
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Affiliate Elite - It`s that time of the month again
It`s the buzz, yes, it`s that time of the month again. I have been receiving e-mails all day from both famous and not so famous Internet marketers. They are all promoting the same new piece of software, it`s time for Affiliate Elite, the brand new software from Brad Callen.
I have watched the videos and I have been aware of Affiliate Elite for about a month, but I didn`t expect to receive as many emails about it as I did today. But I guess it`s that time of the month again.
I am saying this because it seems to be once every month, that some awesome new program is being released and almost every well-known Internet marketer will start promoting it. Nothing negative about that, but it`s just an interesting thing that I have noticed…
After reviewing all the offers I have been sent, I think that the one from Michael Rasmussen might be the most interesting one. If you buy Affiliate Elite from him you will get some interesting bonuses. But you need to hurry, only 16 bonuses available as I am writing this.
Visit Affiliate Elite (without any bonuses)
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The most important book you have read
I just thought that I should ask you this question, because the answer would be very interesting for all of us.
What is the most important book or ebook that you have read lately?
By important, I am talking about the book or ebook that you think has given you most advice and helped you the most on your path to riches or to Internet marketing success. I am looking for the one book that you would recommend to everybody, if I was just going to buy one book, which one should I buy?
And of course, the book or ebook should be about Internet marketing or on how to be successful with affiliate marketing or on how to earn money online or someting similar. If you are like me, you have probably read a lot of books, but hopefully you can say that one of them was a lot better than all the others. I am looking for that one.
From a lot of people, I have heard that a famous book, audio book and I think ebook as well, has made the most impact. This is the one by Napoleon Hill, it’s Think and Grow Rich. It’s from 1937, and it still is a favorite among a lot of people. A book published a long time before Internet or before most of us were even born.
I have not read it myself, but I am thinking that maybe I should.
The most important book that I have read regarding the topic I am writing about is probably Blog Marketing by Jeremy Wright. But this is just on top of my head, if I spend some time thinking, I might come up with another one.
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Advertising Using Facebook Pay Per Click
I discovered earlier today, that it’s possible to start advertising using Facebook Flyers Pro, a brand new pay per click service. I should have discovered it a little sooner, because I have been spending more and more time on Facebook lately, but I guess that a few days after a professional blogger is not that bad.
The reason why using the Facebook pay per click service might be a really good idea is that it’s brand new, it’s very targeted and I bet that you and I can get very cheap deals if we start using it this very minute. Google AdWords still work and it’s probably still one of the best ways to advertise online, but it has become a lot more expensive than it used to be. The more people are using it, the more competition for the best keywords and the more it will cost using it to advertise.
I haven’t tried the Facebook flyers pro yet, but as soon as I read the news, I went straight to my boss. If you didn’t know this about me yet, I work at a college in Norway and I think that using Facebook for a marketing campaign would be a great thing for us. I will know this wednesday if I will get the money to start a campaign.
The campaign will be targeted to Norwegian users only, and as far as I can see from the Facebook stats, there are more than 900,000 Norwegian users. And I bet that the group that uses Facebook are exactly the right age for college advertisements.
I don’t know about your country, but in Norway Facebook (add me as a friend) has become very popular, especially in the ages from 15-35 (from what i have read somewhere). And this is why I targeted pay per click campaign would be perfect for the college where I work. But again, I am not sure how the pay per click system at Facebook works. I guess that the auction part is for specific countries and networks, or maybe many other combinations as well?
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Should you be using Viral URL?
A few minutes ago, I discovered an interesting new system called Viral Url. It`s a system where you can cloak and track your urls, and you can build a downline and earn an income from doing it, and you can send e-mails to your downline and promote whatever you are selling.
Viral Url seems to be a marketing tool and a way to earn an income online. But should you sign up and start using it?
I am not really sure. I have just signed up myself, and the reason I did it is because it`s brand new (as far as I know) and it was free. I am still reading about what they got to offer and I am still a little confused about whether the system is all good or not.
The only problem I see, is that when you use Viral Url to cloak your affiliate urls and use it to promote something, all your affiliate sites will get a Viral url bar at the bottom (I think it`s at the bottom). If somebody click on it and signs up, they will be in your downline and you can earn money from them and that`s a good thing. But what if a bar at the bottom takes the whole focus away from what you are trying to sell in the first place?
Viral Url might be a great thing, but when you use it to cloak and track your affiliate urls, you might only be promoting Viral Url and not what you are suppose to be promoting, if you know what I mean. I am not sure that this is the case, but I am still not sure…
Anyway, Viral Url seems to be a very interesting system… but I still need to think about whether if it`s as interesting as I first thought.
Be sure to visit Viral Url and make up your own mind.
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Internet Marketing as a competition
Lately, I have been thinking about how I feel about Internet marketing and how I think other people feel about it. And I think that what your thoughts are about Internet marketing in general will define what you do online.
Do you think of Internet marketing as a competition?
If you do, you might look at other people as your enemies or your competitors. You won`t share any of your thoughts or any of your new marketing ideas. If they become successful, it means that you won`t (or something like that).
If you think of Internet marketing as a competition, it means that you won`t help other people unless you will gain something from it. You will help them if you earn money, or if they will join your list or something that will help your achieve your goals.
If you look at Internet marketing as a competition, you might look at all other Internet marketers with suspicion. You might think that the reason why they are sending you emails or why they are promoting something, are not because they are trying to help other people or because their products are really good, but because they are there only for the money and to be better at Internet marketing than you. They are trying to be better at it than you will ever be.
If you look at Internet marketing as a competition, you will never (or not very often) vote for posts, like this one, at StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit or any other social bookmarking community. If you share it, the author will receive more traffic, and this way the author might receive more traffic than you.
Do you think of Internet marketing as a competition?
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What is an Autoresponder?
In this article I will try to give you a definition of what an autoresponder is, how it works and why you should use one. I will also try to give examples of the best ways to use an autoresponder and some thoughts on what kind of people that should use one. Is it only to be used if you have a business online, or should you consider buying one even if you have no intention of earning money online?
The definition of an autoresponder is something like this; it`s a software that automates the task of sending e-mails to a list of people. Yes, it`s really that easy. I could probably write a more complex definition, but I think it`s important to focus on the true value of the software.
3 ways to use an autoresponder
prewritten messages broadcasts rss feeds
With prewritten messages, you can write messages and have them sent out automatically whenever you’d like. For instance, I have heard somewhere that it takes (average) seven e-mails to make a sale. If you have ten e-mails sent to your list every fourth day, you will have a good chance of making a lot more sales. You just have to write the e-mails, and as soon as you are finished, you can start marketing your “report”.
Most good autoresponder software got a feature to send broadcast to your list. What you do is write a message and send it directly to all the people on your list. It’s sort of like an ordinary e-mail, but the difference is that you can personalize it. This is a feature a lot of Internet marketers use, as they got new products to offer.
With a feature like an rss feed broadcast, you send your latest blog posts to your list of people. As soon as you have published a post, all the people on your list can get an e-mail with the title of the post and a few sentences with information about the post and a link to read the rest of the post. This is a great way to market your blog to people that might not read your blog on a daily basis.
3 reasons why you should use an autoresponder
You want an audience Automate your sales process Personal contact through e-mail
Even though you might not be trying to sell something, there can be other reasons why you would like to have a large audience. If you are an author like Lee Child, you could want your readers to sign up for a newsletter or to just sign up so you can keep in touch with them about upcoming books and information regarding your thoughts and ideas. If you use an autoresponder for this, you will have all your e-mail contacts (your audience) in one place.
If you are selling something, using an autoresponder will make the sales process a lot easier. You can write as many messages as you’d like, and you can tell the system exactly when each message should be sent to the people on your list. This way, as soon as you have a new person inside your autoresponder, the rest of the sales process is automated. All the e-mails you have written about your product or your service will be sent automatically to the person, and you can be anywhere in the offline world.
One great feature with an autoresponder is that you can personalize each e-mail. This is a way to communicate on a whole new level. Usually, if you send e-mail to a list of people, you can’t write personal e-mails using each persons name, because everybody on the list will receive exactly the same email. But with an autoresponder, you can send a different email to each person. Well, the content is almost identical to each person, but you can small parts of information that you can personalize. You can add the first and the last names of people inside each email. Instead of receiving an e-mail with just the words Hi or Hello, I will receive an e-mail with Hi Jens or Hello Jens. This makes a huge difference.
I don’t believe that you need to sell something in order to use an autoresponder. You can be an author wanting to have personal contact with the readers, and especially if you have a large group of readers. Or if you are a SEO of a large company, you might want to use an autoresponder for internal communication. This way you get more personal with your colleagues. Or maybe if you are preselling something, like if you are working at a university and you’d like to be communicating with people that might be interested in attending the university, but they are not really sure, they would like some more information about the various courses first. By using an autoresponder, you can be sending them all the various information automatically.
Examples of autoresponders you can use
Aweber (I am using this one) GetResponse EmailAces iContact 1ShoppingCart
There are many ways to use an autoresponder, some creative and some rather standard, like the ways I described today. There might be a lof of different reasons why you should start using an autoresponder as well, but I am just describing three reasons that are rather obvious. You could start using either one of the five top autoresponders listed above, or you could start using AWeber because that’s the one I have been using for years.
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Posting links in your status updates at Facebook or Twitter
I just thought I’d give you a short advice when it comes to posting links in your status update at Facebook or Twitter. I see that a lot of people are doing this, and in order for your friends to actually see them, I recommend that you use a service that will make your long url a lot shorter.
One service that I recommend for this is TinyURL, it’s completely free and your friends will see 100% of your url instead of just some parts of it.
This way it’s a lot easier for them to copy it and you can use the extra space to write a description about where they will be going if they decide to click the link.
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Why Twitter and Facebook are important for your marketing and for your knowledge
I am at a hotel in Sweden, and I am currently in my room, looking outside at the sun. It’s a fantastic view, and I am thrilled to be here. Anyway, what I thought about earlier today, was my experience with Twitter and Facebook (so far) and why I think that they are both important for my marketing and for my knowledge in general.
Let me give you a short update from the last 24 hours or so, this is two stories according to Twitter and Facebook.
Yesterday, I received information from a friend at Facebook about the earthquake somewhere close to San Francisco. I received the information before any newspaper or any newsservice online. I received it, because he experienced it and updated his status at Facebook as it happened, and I was logged in at that moment. This might not be very important, but it shows how fast you will get the news if you use the right tools and if you have the right friends.
Still yesterday, I received information from a friend at Twitter about new interesting updates at Bloglines. This again, shows me how easy it is to get interesting news if you use interesting tools and have interesting friends.
I could start posting links to my business (if I had one), or I could start posting interesting news that was happening to me (if something did in fact happen). This way, people will get more interested in me and be more likely to visit my blog and find out more about me.
Both Twitter and Facebook are really interesting, but what will happen when you have 1,000 “friends”? Will you only have time to publish your own status updates and news, or will you take a quick look at a few of the updates from some of your friends? The more friends you got at both Twitter and Facebook, the more people might see what you publish. I can see that some rather famous people got a huge network, and it would be interesting to know what they are doing. Just publishing or in fact reading as well?
One thing that I would like to see in the future at both Twitter and Facebook or any other social community on the Internet is an automatic friends system. A way for the community to help you find new friends, a way for the system to suggest new friends for you. A lot like MyBlogLog, but instead of blogs/communities it would be friends.
You could set a few topics that you are interested in, and if other people have similar interests, Twitter or Facebook will send you a notification about the person and suggest that you connect as friends. This would be interesting, but it could also be sort of annoying. I would guess it would be great if this feature could be turned both on and off. On second thought, it might sound a lot like a dating service…
The reason I thought about this new feature is that marketing and using Twitter and Facebook are all about expanding your network and communicating with your network. The easier it is to expand your network the better, and the easier it is to actually expand it to include interesting people, the better for you and for them.
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IM Triggers - scarcity and urgency
I thought you should know about a brand new product that might boost your sales. I am not kidding about this one. This is a product that I have been waiting for, because I know for a fact that this kind of marketing works. You see it all over the Internet, all the experts uses it. It’s all about scarcity and urgency.
The product I am referring to is IM Triggers (Internet Marketing Triggers).
Why does it work so well?
It works because they are using emotions and psychology to boost their sales. Think about it; if you get the message that you have two minutes to decide if you want to buy a product or not, if you wait more than the two minutes, the product will be gone forever. What are you going to do? And, what if you get the message that the product will only be available to the first 100 people, will you wait a few days before you decide?
The more urgency and scarcity, the easier it is to sell a product… well, that’s how I feel about it. When you get the ticking clock or you see that only a few people can buy the product, you will start to think about the product in a completely different way. You start to think about the product as a lot better than what it probably is.
I am not sure why, but scarcity and urgency does something to me and I usually end up buying the product.
Now, you can learn all about the triggers and you can even get some of the scripts. I have just bought it myself, and I haven’t had time to read it yet and to be honest, I haven’t had time to look at the contents. But I have been looking for a product like this for a long time, so when I found it, I just had to buy it. Hopefully it’s just as good as I was hoping for.
Take a look at IM Triggers today.
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What is The Death of Google AdWords?
I have just received information about the brand new report from Simon Leung. It`s called The Death of Google AdWords, and according to the sales page:
Google is Digging Its Own Grave as We Speak - And if You Don’t Get the Right Story Right Now Before It’s Too Late, Your Business WILL Get Buried With It.
I guess this will only apply if you are using Google AdWords as a way to promote whatever you are selling? Or maybe it`s something that you should even take a look at if you are using other pay per click methods as well?
The sales page got testimonials from a lot of people and Simon Leung is a rather famous person when it comes to Internet marketing and escpecially when it comes to AdWords. This “controversial” report might be something that you should consider, especially if you are involved with AdWords.
The price today is only $2 and that`s probably the cheapest report I have ever seen. But is it any good?
Well, I have no clue, because I haven`t bought it yet. But for only $2, I might buy it just because it`s so cheap. The problem is when will I have the time to read it?
Visit The Death of Google AdWords.
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What is Automated Cash Formula?
As soon as I read the email and then the sales page of Automated Cash Formula, I started to think about what this new online business was all about. I am still not quite sure if I understand it, and I am still not sure if it sounds too good to be true. Everytime someone uses the word automated, I automatically think that it might be a scam. Because I don’t believe that anything can be truly automated when it comes to earning money or generating traffic.
What’s Automated Cash Formula all about?
The man behind the system is Dave Gale, and he used to be a window cleaner. I am not sure if this is information we really need to know, but I guess that being a window cleaner and now earning a lot of money is someting that ordinary people can relate to. If a window cleaner can do it, so can I (isn’t that right?).
At the beginning of his sales page, he writes that:
How To Totally Eliminate The Hard Work To Making Money Online & How YOU Can Easily Copy His ‘Lazy’ $5,327.81 Pure Profit From A Couple Of Hours Easy ‘Set Up’ As Many Times As You Like…
So, it seems to be all about copying a system and sit back and relax and wait for the money to start coming. Sounds good to me.
What makes me sceptical is the following:
…That Can Make You Hundreds Of Dollars A Day, Everyday, On Auto-Pilot For Months - If Not Years To Come……Using The Internet Without A Website, Selling Any Products Or Doing Any Marketing Whatsoever - Even If You’re Currently Flat Out Broke With No Time Or Energy To Spare” NO - This does NOT involve: Affiliate Marketing, Pay Per Click, Ezine Ads, Free Ads, Spam, Search Engine Optimization, Blogs, Ebay, Gambling, Direct Mail, MLM or any advertising or marketing whatsoever…
The system does not involve any advertising or marketing whatsoever!
Finally, I understood that I don’t have a clue what this system is about. Maybe it’s too good to be true, but maybe it’s not. You would have to be the judge on that yourself.
Be sure to check Automated Cash Formula and tell me your verdict.
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Ten greatest robberies of all time
Last night, I was thinking that Internet marketing sometimes feels a lot like a robbery. I have felt that I have been robbed a few times, and you might have felt this way yourself. At least after I have read a rather perfect sales page or an e-mail from one of the so called gurus, right that very minute, I felt that I just had to buy what they where offering. And especially because what they offered me was only available for 24 hours or so. I felt that they talked directly to me, and that the product they offered, was only offered to me and not to thousands of people.
But what happened after I realized what I just bought?
It was some crappy e-book, telling me stuff that I already knew. The author had just hired a really good copywriter who tricked me into buying it, along with some Internet marketing hotshot and his email. I remember a few times, when I just had to take a deep breath and try to relax after one of those robberies. But a robbery isn’t all bad, I have learned a lot from them all. Well, I haven’t been robbed that many times, even though it might sound like it.
I think that I know when to spot one, without actually seeing the product. I know some of the names behind some of the not-so-good products, and I know that I won’t buy from them again. And I know some of the techniques they use, especially the limited offer one, and I am not going to be in such a hurry to buy the product this time.
… but when I say that I have felt like being robbed a few times, it’s nothing compared to the greatest robberies of all time. I find it very interesting to read about how creative people make their living, today I suggest that you read the stories about the ten greatest robberies of all time. This might help if you have felt that you have been robbed a few times, then the amounts you lost might feel like nothing compared to what you will read today.
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Has Mike Filsaime gone stark raving mad?
Today, actually the last hour or so, I have received a lot of e-mails with the same subject. Yes, it`s the subject you see in my title “Has Mike Filsaime gone stark reving mad?” The reason for this title is that Val Burnett & Vincent Bryant are launching a Firesale today.
A lot of experienced Internet marketers have donated products to this firesale, and Mike Filsaime donated a copy of the Butterfly Marketing Manuscript, Power Link Generator AND Viral Friend Generator. This is a lot of value to one Firesale, and that`s why they have been using the title.
Well, the reason they have been using the title is probably because it`s a prewritten email, that all affiliates of the firesale can use if they want to.
So, has Mike Filsaime gone stark raving mad?
No, he has not. He is probably earning a lot of money from this.
But is the firesale any good?
Yes, it seems to be a lot of value for only $47.
I don`t think that I am going to buy it, but I might have a second look and who knows, maybe I will change my mind?
Take a look at Fight For Your Rights Firesale.
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I am finally Twittering
Today I had a few minutes extra, minutes that I didn`t know what to do with. So, instead of just surfing around and looking for news of some sorts, I decided to sign up for Twitter.
I have heard many interesting things about Twitter, but I have never used it before today.
My first thoughts from using Twitter for about 10 minutes, is that this community is awesome. I have set up my mobile phone, and I have tested it as well. It worked, even though I have to send an sms message from Norway to another country (not sure where +44 is), and I am not sure how much that will cost me, but it worked and it was a lot of fun.
follow berget at http://twitter.com
So far, I have only used Twitter to update my status and tell my friends and the rest of the online world what I am doing. The best part of Twitter (so far) is that by using it, I can also update my Facebook status.
When I am outside and something happens, I can send a text message from my mobile phone and update both Twitter and Facebook, and maybe MyBlogLog as well?
Anyway, I will be testing Twitter from now on and I will keep you updated. If you would like to be my friend at Twitter, I am ready, and while you are at it, you can add me as a friend on Facebook as well.
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How to use kids at Halloween to Promote your Business
As you might know already, Halloween is approaching and all the stuff related to Halloween as well. At first I thought that I should explain what Halloween is all about, but then I realized that this is a rather complex thing to do. Instead you should visit Wikipedia and read all about the history of Halloween, they do it a lot better than me.
Today, I thought that I would share a few ideas about how you can use this interesting day to promote your business or blog or whatever you are promoting. My ideas are not related to a particular business, you can probably use it on almost anything, but I am actually not sure if it`s such a good idea to use it at all.
Well, the reason why it`s not such a good idea is that it involves kids. Kids of all ages are using the days around Halloween to go trick-or-treating. They are walking from house to house in costumes, asking for treats such as candy.
If you are looking for a creative way to promote something, you can do at least three things:
Advertise on their costumes Pay the kids to leave a flyer Put a note in their bags along with the candy
You could talk to your own kids or the kids next door, and tell them that you want to advertise on their costumes. You will pay them with a lot of candy, or maybe cash. They are walking around the neighborhood with their customes and talking to a lot of people. This way people will see your name or logo, but it might be dark outside, so you`d better use a very light color if you want them to be sure to see it.
You could pay the kids to give out a flyer or something to the people that opens the door. But be sure that the kids will leave the flyer after they have received the candy, or else they might not get any candy at all. I think that people receiving flyers from kids wearing Halloween costumes might become a little upset (but maybe not).
An even more interesting approach is to just stay at home, like most people on Halloween and give out candy to all the kids that comes to your house. When you put the candy in their bag, you also put a flyer or a note or something along with the candy. So when they come home and open their bag to see all their candy, they will see the flyer and it should say something like “please give this to your mom or dad”. This way, the kids won`t just throw it away. They will give it to their parents and they will see your offer or whatever you are advertising. Well, their parents might get a little upset when they see that you have been using their kids to deliver an ad, but you did give them candy so why not…
As I wrote earlier, I am not saying that you should do any of the above, but I just came up with the idea as we are closing in on Halloween. And it would be interesting to see if one of them would work, but I am not using kids in my marketing.
Have a great Halloween!
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How to get Free Copywriting
I bet you are interested in free copywriting, a professional written sales letter to promote your business. We all are, and now we can get it for free at the great site of Jonathan Bostrom. But if you want it, you need to hurry, there are only 4 days left of the offer and I am not sure when he will be offering this service again.
You can get it at FreeCopywriter.com (and remember to contact him as soon as you can, because of the limited time)
I have not used the free copywriting service, because I am no need for one at this moment. But I just read a free article that Jonathan wrote about the three vital rules of free. And I must say that it never accured to me that using various free stuff to promote something that is not free can be a really profitable way to go.
I especially like the example from the food court, an example we all can relate to. I highly recommend that you read his free article today, it`s only 3 pages long and it will take you no more than 5 minutes.
Internal tags: copywriting jonathan bostrom sales letter
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Imagine there’s no Heaven
I just listened to it for the 1000th time, and today I thought that I share one of the best song lyrics ever with you. It`s from the song Imagine by John Lennon.
Don`t think about the song, don`t think about the music, don`t compare it, just don`t think about anything at all… just read the text.
Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
But think about how many songs are written, and how few you really get to read or hear. Sometimes it doesn`t matter how beautiful the songs are, sometimes it`s all about marketing. Think about all the crap you hear on a daily basis, why do they get played, because people love them or because of smart marketers?
Anyway, John Lennon was probably both… a musical genius and a smart marketer. The Beatles ruled the musical world and in some ways I guess they still do.
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Lead Supreme 3.0 and 500000 leads
Is this as powerful as it sounds like? I have no clue, but after reading the sales page and receiving tons of e-mails from various successful Internet marketers about Lead Supreme 3.0, I am thinking that this is something worth paying attention to.
According to the sales page:
Lead Supreme 3.0 is the first and only solution that focuses on profiting from true lead generation and automates every step of the process. In just 2 years we have used it to generate over 500,000 leads - at an average of $XX per lead in profit, that’s over $1.5 million dollars.
What do they mean by “an average of $XX per lead in profit”?
To me it seems that they either forgot to replace the XX with the actual amount, or maybe they just don`t wont to tell us? Anyway, if Lead Supreme 3.0 generated more than 500,000 leads and more than $1.5 million dollars, I bet than almost everybody interested in an online business would be interested to get their hands on this system.
But unfortunately it`s only available for the first 500 people, and only 371 spots are available as I am writing this. I am not going to buy it, but that`s only because the price is a little more than I am willing to spend. I don`t use $4,500 on a product, even though it might be worth it.
Read the sales page for yourself and if you have $4,500 to use on a product, then Lead Supreme 3.0 might be something you should consider.
Internal tags: Dr. Mike Woo Ming Howie Schwartz lead supreme
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Should this Offline Marketing trick be Legal?
Today I received an envelope in the e-mail. It was addressed to me and it was rather thick. I had no clue what it was, but as soon as I opened it I realized that it was an interesting marketing trick. Actually, it was a rather sleazy marketing trick.
The envelope was from an institute of foot and mouth painters (people that can`t use their hands), and it contained many envelopes and christmas postcards that their members had painted. And finally I found an invoice for about $10 with an interesting text.
This was all in Norwegian, but it said something like “you can pay for the cards or you can return them if you want to, but you don`t have to do either of this.”
What they did was send me the product, tell me that I can pay for it or not. They didn`t say that if I like the cards, I should pay, but that`s what I thought when I looked at all the nice cards. How can I keep all those cards without paying for them? I was unsure what to do, but then it hit me that this was just a marketing trick.
I don`t have a problem with it really, but I would guess that a lot of people might have. Because this is all about psychology and that you might be feeling some kind of guilt if you don`t pay for the product. And when the product is being made by people with a disability, you will probably feel more guilt if you don`t pay for the product.
What do you think?
Internal tags: disability marketing trick
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why Baked potatoes are different
A few days ago I went to the store to buy some baked potatoes. To me, they are just big potatoes. You probably know what I am talking about. I hope I don`t have to explain, because I haven`t been using this blog to share receipes (but maybe I should).
While standing in front of the potatoes I had to ask myself once more; isn`t a baked potato just a big potato or what`s the difference to the rest of the potato family (they are one big happy family aren`t they)?
The reason I am asking is that baked potatoes are a lot more expensive than ordinary potatoes. The price is probably 500 % more, or maybe even higher. I had to pay almost $1 for one potato, and that`s a raw potato!
Is this just a marketing trick from the stores?
If we want big potatoes, we would have to pay more, even though they are exactly the same as ordinary potatoes except for them being big. Maybe it`s because we use them differently, the dinner with baked potatoes is a little more exclusive (or something like that).
Why else would one baked potato have a price of almost $1, when you can get several kilos of ordinary potatoes for the same price. Actually, I have no idea what the price is for potatoes… but I know it`s a lot less per kilo than it is for baked potatoes.
Something didn`t feel right.
… but I bought them anyway, and the dinner was great.
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A cool Nickname to Promote your business
I have been thinking, will a ultra cool nickname help you promote your business? Most of us are members of various social communities and other services where members can see our nicknames. Usually I don’t think much about them, for instance when I use discussion forums. I think that a nickname is just a way to log in, but maybe not, maybe a nickname is something you should consider when it comes to marketing?
I have never had a cool nickname before, I have always used something related to my name or one that I just made up a few years ago, that didn’t mean a thing to anybody and not me either.
What if I took the nickname Roadwarrior, do you think that people would start to notice me more than if my nickname was jens?
Or what if I used one of these: Britneys Toy, Ghetto Boy, Big Nose or Albino Boy?
It might work, but I think that I feel more comfortable using my old one, or maybe I should use my domain name instead? slymarketing or slymarketing.com might be the best way to promote my blog using a nickname, but something tells me that it`s not personal enough for me.
I will stick with jens, even though that probably won`t help my marketing.
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An incredible experience with Muse in Oslo
I was there!
Finally, I can say that I was there when people start talking. And people have started to talk, about the latest concert from the amazing british rock group Muse. It was in Oslo yesterday October 23 and I was there, sitting without hardly moving, because that`s what I do at concerts, I am concentrated and focused.
… but I was there.
I have listened to all of their songs, and I have read a lot of reviews. It`s a lot different to be at a concert, to be a part of something so amazing. Suddenly, thousands of people, from all cultures and all ages become one. We are there to be amazed by Muse and Matt Bellamy.
Be sure to watch Starlight from the concert, it was uploaded to YouTube a few hours after the concert (not by me).
From what I have heard, the concert in Trondheim (Norway) a few days earlier was just as good. The video below is from the song Plugin babe from the concert.
Internal tags: matt bellamy muse oslo
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Design should matter even if your name is Technorati
Technorati is using a big Google AdSense advertisement at the top with a white background on their nice green body. My first reaction was, “oh no it looks terrible!” But it`s a good thing that they use a script that rotates different ads.
Is Technorati doing it all for the money? We know that the more visible advertisements are, the more visitors will look at them, and the more they will probably click. And in the end, Technorati will increase their profit.
Technorati is such a great service, and I would hate for them not to earn enough money, but I really hope that they can stop using ads like this. To me, the Technorati site is rather awesome looking, but once they use the big Google AdSense advertisement at the top, the site becomes just plain ugly. I am sorry, but that`s just my opinion.
Will having big ugly banners have any negative effect on popularity in general? Well, it might have, but probably not. If people like their service, and we do, we won`t stop using it because of mistakes like this. (maybe not a mistake, because they are probably earning a lot of money from this advertisement alone).
Sometimes I wish that we didn`t consider money to be anywhere near our thoughts. I just want great service and a great looking website without any interference.
I am not sure what I would do if somebody wanted to advertise on my blog with a really ugly banner, would I accept it or not? Hopefully I would say no, and tell them to come back with a new beautiful banner. But you never know what will happen before it happens, and especially if there is a lot of money involved
Internal tags: adsense design google technorati
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Get your Advertisements on hands with Handvertising
Do you remember the post I did about advertising on feet? Well, it seems that this new company got a better idea. They are placing your advertisement on a place where people actually can see them, well, that is if you are not living in Norway and it`s winter.
This idea is both creative and interesting. I think Handvertising USA can attract a lot of attention from the media, and maybe from advertisers as well.
But I got a few questions;
if you want a major marketing campaign, will enough people wear the ads? How long will it be on their skin before it washes off? How will the company know if the client is still wearing the ad after day 2?
It’s a fact that this is interesting, and if I was going to use handvertising in a campaign I would want to know what kind of people would want to wear an advertisement on their hands? Because I might not want all kinds of people associated with my brand (I am not really sure about that though).
… and if I wanted to earn money by letting Handvertising USA use my hands, what kind of products would I allow? I bet that a lot of people would want ads for a company or a product that they are a fan of, I bet there would be no problem to get people to wear ads for Apple on their skin, but some companies might have problems recruiting enough people. Or maybe if they pay enough, people wouldn’t care?
By wearing an ad on your hand you could get other benefits other than money. According to CEO Mike Brown of Handvertising USA “venues are offering special prices on drinks if the customer has a particular Handvertising stamp. People are requesting particular stamps because they want to fit in and they want the drink special.”
I am looking forward to the future of Handvertising USA, it sure got potential of being something big, but I don’t think I will be wearing one of their ads. My skin is way too valuable for that
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How to use Facebook status for Marketing purposes
Most people are using Facebook to stay in touch with friends and find new friends, at least that`s what it seems to me. Currently, I am using Facebook about once a day, just to see what`s happening - if new applications are added and to see how my friends are using it. Well, I must admit that I am a little curious when it comes to what my friends are up to as well.
But if you think about Facebook as a way to promote yourself and your business (or blog), I think that using the status updates is an interesting approach. I haven`t done this myself yet, but I think you can do it and I think it might be something you might want to consider.
Most people, at least from what I can see, are using the status updates as a way to tell other people what they are doing right this moment. They are either:
sleeping working eating watching a movie reading a book on vacation in class at a party
… or they are using the status updates to show their friends what kind of mood they are in, and they are either:
happy sad confused bored waiting for the weekend in love
But what if you use the status updates to tell your friends that you are:
Blogging an article about Facebook status at slymarketing.com Attending a conference about search engine optimization Trying to figure out how to get more traffic to slymarketing.com
What I am trying to say, is that you could be more specific on what you are actually doing. Instead of attending a conference, tell them exactly what you are attending. Instead of writing that you are blogging, tell them exactly what the topic of your article will be about. This way, your friends will know more about what you are doing, and they might be more impressed and they might even visit your blog.
… but you can also use the Facebook status updates to express your opinions, like:
Reddit is really cool, Digg is not (company name) is a scam, stay away Next update for WordPress should have ….
If you are involved in a home based business, you could be using status updates to tell your friends how you are doing:
Another day to earn money with (company name) $500 from one more sale today This month was my best month ever at (company name) Earning an income online is very easy with (company name)
There are so many interesting ways to use the status updates at Facebook, the only problem is that most of the people reading yours will be your friends. They might not be interested in your blog or your business, they might only be interested in you as a friend and what you are doing with your life and how your family is and so on.
I don`t know this, but if you use the status updates too much as a way to promote yourself and your business, you might end up getting banned. I have not heard of anyone being banned for that yet. but there is a first for everything.
Be aware, you can get banned for having too many contacts or if you publish breastfeeding images or if you use a name that is not your legal first and last name and there are many other reasons why you can get banned by Facebook.
I always find creative ways to use your Facebook status interesting, please post a comment if you have a funny one or an example of how you should use the Facebook status updates.
… and remember, I will always confirm you as a friend if you add me.
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Should you read Teaching Sells by Brian Clark?
I downloaded the free report Teaching Sells a few days ago, yesterday I finished reading it. I didn’t spend that much time to read it, because it was easy to read and it was interesting. I think it took me no more than 30 minutes.
The report Teaching Sells by author Brian Clark is 22 pages long, and the title actually tells a lot about what you can expect when you start to read it. “Teaching Sells: forget everything you know about making money online… and start making some”.
Brian Clark should know what he is talking about, he is the man behind the very successful blog CopyBlogger and from what I have read in this report, he has done a lot of other stuff as well.
What is Teaching Sells about?
The report is about what you should be doing in order to earn money online, without having to rely on traffic from Google and the other search engines. Without you having to attract new people on a daily basis to your blog in order to earn money from affiliate programs or Google AdSense.
I am not going to reveal the contents of the report (because Brian might get a little upset if I do), but as you can read in the title, it`s all about teaching. We all learn, almost every single day. People want to learn, and everybody need to learn new stuff on a regular basis for the rest of our lives. This is what it`s all about. You should become a teacher.
How can you start to teach people what you know and earn money from it?
I think that Brian Clark has an important point. His report tells a short story about why teaching is what most people that are looking to earn an income online should be doing. Earning money from blogging alone is very hard, earning money from promoting affiliate programs is not that easy. So, it might be that we all should start listening to Brian Clark from now on.
I recommend that you download and start reading the report Teaching Sells as soon as you have the time. Brian Clark said something about him launching a business soon, a business where he will teach his members about how to earn money based on the Teaching Sells method. But at the moment, you can only download the report and at the same time register yourself (name and e-mail) for future updates, and I guess you will receive information about when the business will be launching.
I almost forgot, it`s completely free to download the report.
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How to create a Buzz for your marketing campaign
It’s not as easy as you might think, and it’s not as hard as you might think. Word of mouth marketing is a very important aspect, and it’s something you might want to consider for your next marketing campaign. In order to create a buzz for it, you can probably learn something from the slide I found at slideshare (see below):
Internal tags: buzz marketing slideshare
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JK Rowling marketing gay Dumbledore
Sometimes a famous singer can help promote a really good cause, just look at Bob Geldof and Bono. Sometimes one of the most famous authors might say something that helps promote a really good cause, but at the same time her words could also mean that it’s all about marketing herself and her books.
I guess it`s time to present my thoughts on J.K. Rowling and the gay Dumbledore.
The story starts this morning, when I read about the latest stunt from J.K. Rowling, the author of the books about Harry Potter. It was one of the first stories I noticed in one of the major Norwegian newspapers (the article is in Norwegian). My first look at the newspaper headlines was the image below (it says, with rather big letters, “Dumbledore is gay”).
I had to take a look at the article and see what was going on. I am not a huge Harry Potter fan, even though I have read most of the books and watched the movies. So, I wasn’t really aware of any rumors or if this was a marketing stunt, or if it was regarding the actor playing Dumbledore.
The story was this;
JK Rowling was during her American book tour asked if Dumbledore found true love. “Dumbledore is gay,” she replied, before adding that he’d fallen in love with his rival Gellert Grindelwald.
Why did JK Rowling announce this to the world?
If we use a marketing perspective on her announcement, I can think of three reasons:
It will help promoting her books and movies It will helping the gay community It’s how she thought of him as a character in her story
By announcing this, the whole world will for sure get the news, and there will be even more news about Harry Potter. I guess that more people will read the books and more people will be watching the movies. Not because Dumbledore is gay, but because people will be remembered about Harry Potter once more. If they haven’t read the books or watched the movies, they might now. And if they have read the books or watched the movies, they might read and watch them all over again, because they will want to read it / watch it with this new information in mind.
But maybe JK Rowling are looking out for the gay community? The more gay people that appear in books or movies (especially if they appear as a hero), the more visible gay people will become, and the more likely it is that gay people will be accepted as the rest of us. In the end society will become a better place for gay people.
Or, this can all just be a part of the story how she thought Dumbledore should be all along. But she didn’t want to tell us this before she finished writing the Harry Potter books. Now, she can tell the world what she had thought about all along. The secrets of each character.
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Amy Winehouse drugs and Marketing
A great singer and a great performer, but currently she is having problems in Norway. She arrived yesterday in Bergen, and today all the major newspapers in the country published a story about her being arrested for drug possession (the story is in Norwegian).
If this is true, she is obviously having problems. I don’t know much about Amy Winehouse other than from what I have seen and heard of her singing and her performances. So, I am not going to comment the drug problems.
A story like this got me thinking, and I am not trying to be provocative (so please don’t think that I am). But one thought came to my mind when I read this story, and that’s the idea of celebrities having to expose themselves in order to stay popular. As soon as we forget the lyrics to the Rehab song, and we will, we always do. What will she be then, what would any celebrity be as soon as we forget their faces and their songs? They won’t be a celebrity, they won’t be recognized as often and by as many people as today.
I am not saying that this is why she is doing the drugs, I am actually not saying she is doing drugs at all. I am just presenting a thought about celebrity marketing themselves by exposing themselves in order to stay a celebrity. Sometimes they show up without any panties, sometimes a sex video shows up on the Internet, sometimes they get arrested for shoplifting.
… and sometimes it’s all about marketing.
Internal tags: amy winehouse celebrities drugs
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Harvard Business Review uses Important and Rush to Attract more subscribers
Remember the post I did about how Time is promoting their magazine and how they are trying to attract subscribers by adding some urgency to their offer and using words like “final notice”? Well, they are not alone. Other companies are doing exactly the same thing, but using different words.
Check out the envelope I just received from Harvard Business Review:
But will adding the word IMPORTANT to the envelope make people more curious? And the envelope that I was suppose to use for sending them my subscription details got another interesting word, just look at the picture below:
They added the word RUSH to that one. My guess is that Harvard Business Review is trying to tell us that by adding this word to the envelope, they want us to believe that our subscription got first priority or something, but will it work at the postal services? Will our envelope be handled different than other envelopes without the big red letters?
What do you think about the marketing aspect of adding words like “important” and “rush” to envelopes? Does it work?
Well, most successful Internet marketers add some kind of urgency to their offers and it seems that a lot of magazines are doing the same thing, I guess that explains it.
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Will an Image like this have any effect on Your Marketing?
There are many ways to promote your blog or your website, and today I will show you an interesting example.
If you are like most people I know, especially the ones involved with Internet marketing, you are probably using several social communities like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Reddit and more. Services like this requires (well, not all of them requires it) that you use an image of yourself, well, it doesn`t have to be of yourself… but it will be visible when people look at your profile, (and many other places, depending on the community you are using).
You can use an image of a sexy babe to attract more people to your profile and to your blog (and it works), but you can do it another way as well.
If you are not using the sexy babe, or a weird and funny picture to attract attention, you can use a picture like the one above. Well, please don`t use one of me. My point is, you can use a picture where you write your domain somewhere in the picture. This way, people might see it and remember it, just by looking at your picture.
The only problem is that sometimes your image is required to be very small, and then it`s close to impossible to see any text inside it. But if you can use a rather big picture, like the one I have above (120px X 200px) I think that writing your domain name inside will help you market your blog or website.
What do you think?
Internal tags: domains facebook images marketing twitter
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Should you be more Personal in Your Marketing?
It`s monday, my back is hurting, the darkness has surrounded me and the kids are finally sleeping. I am at my computer for a few minutes, before I have to do some of my evening chores. Not sure if I like mondays better than any other day, but my guess is that I don`t - something tells me that I feel like having sunday all over again. I would like to sleep a little longer, I would want the long and cozy breakfast.
Anyway, tonight I thought I would like to ask a simple question and try to provide my answer to it. People will view this different, and many will probably not agree with me, but maybe you will or maybe you won`t.
Should you be more Personal in Your Marketing?
Will your marketing become better if it`s personal, or should you stick to a rule about never to become to involved with your customers? Because if you become personal in your marketing, you might also become involved with your customers. I am not talking about a relationship other than an online relationship, but you might have to communicate in a whole new way and you might have to communicate a lot more than you are used to. It takes time to build a relationship.
Turning your marketing personal, might bring your marketing to a whole new level.
Internet marketing experts do things different, but what I can see from many of the experienced marketers is that many of them are sending very personal e-mails and they post personal posts at their blogs. Is this just a way to earn more money, or is it part of their personality?
Most of the time I think it`s hard to tell, but I guess you will figure out for yourself if you keep reading what certain people publish, at least if you keep reading it for a few months.
Should you send e-mails to your list telling them that you are going to be a father soon, or that your wife is sick or that you have been on a great vacation? I guess it all depends on what you would like to share, it all depends on how personal you want to be with people you only meet online.
I think it`s very interesting to see what more and more Internet marketing experts are doing, they are becoming really friendly.. they are talking to their list as if they have known them for years, and most of the time they haven`t met at all, and they will never ever meet.
I believe that the more personal you become, the more people will be interested to read what you are writing. You want sympathy and you want people to get to know you, and you want them to trust you. But this will never happen if you are trying to be somebody you are not.
If you are not the personal kind of guy, I think you should stay the way you are.
Most people will see straight through you, even if you are online, and they never actually will get to know the real you. You better believe it, people will want the truth. They will want the real you. You might be able to sell something once or twice if you are using the right words, but if you are not sincere, you will never become successful.
… and it`s always about having a long course of performances
Internal tags: marketing personal Thoughts
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one Millionaire interviewing another Millionaire about how he became a Millionaire
It certainly is interesting and it was launched a short while ago, and I bet a lot of people have bought it already, but I am not currently one of them. I probably should have bought it, and I might even buy it sometime soon, but so far I haven`t made up my mind.
Can you benefit from reading (or listening to) one millionaire interviewing another millionaire regarding how he became successful? As you probably understand, this is not a review. Because I have not read it or listened to it, in fact I have not heard or read anything from anybody who have actually read it or listened to it either.
I am talking about the interview that millionaire Russell Brunson did with millionaire Vincent James. It`s called 12 Month Internet Millionaire, and just by reading the title I bet a lot of people will get some interesting ideas that they will make some quick cash from reading or listening to this interview (or that they will become a millionaire themselves in the next 12 months).
A few words about the marketing of the 12 month millionaire
Russell Brunson is using three very interesting facts that will get people to want this interview more than other similar interviews:
convicted fellon 28 years old millions of dollars
This guy Vincent James (I have to admit that I had never heard of him before I read The Internet Marketing Myth by Russell Brunson) is a convicted fellon. By using this in the headlines on the sales page and in the e-mails Russell Brunson and his affiliates are sending, they are really saying that if a convicted fellon can make it big using the Internet, then you can also do it. It`s usually a lot easier to make it if you are not a convicted fellon.
But what do you think about when you read that a convicted fellon will share his marketing techniques with you? I am not sure what I think, but somewhere the word illegal comes to mind or some illicit way of marketing. But this is not what it`s all about (at least not to my knowledge). If this is what comes to most people`s minds, should Russell Brunson use the words convicted fellon in his headline? He probably did some research regarding what people associate with it, at least I would probably have done that.
He is rich and only 28 years old. A young person making it big, we love to hear stories like that. The only thing that beats this is if he grew up without any money at all, with a family that didn`t have anything. This tells us that his system works, if he makes it at such a young age, his system works.
He made more than 100 million dollars in 23 months. This sounds incredible, he has made more money per year (at least the last 1 or 2 years) than the CEOs of FedEx, eBay, Amazon.com, Time Warner, Apple Computer, McDonalds, Microsoft, Nike, Yahoo, Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Goodyear combined. Again, this tells us that his system got to be one of the best. In the headline “12 Month Internet Millionaire” it sort of tells us that this system might help us all to earn $1 million in 12 months, but is this what it`s all about?
It sounds very interesting, and I bet for only $37 this system is a bargain (even though I haven`t read a single line of it).
Why is Vince James sharing this with Russell Brunson?
I bet earning more than $100 million dollars might do that to you, and I bet Russell Brunson had to pay a rather high price to hire him for the 3 hours or so to do the interview (I think that he ended up with 6 hours). And I bet that Vince James might even earn a small percentage of the total sales as well (but I don`t know this). It`s easy to share when you profit from it.
I don`t know him, and he might just want to share his story with the world. Well, he sort of did that already with his book (the one Russell Brunson told us about at Internet Marketing Myths). I don`t think that Vincent James did it all for profit, or for fame alone. I think that most people like to share their success with other people, to tell them how they should do things like Internet marketing. There`s a teacher in all of us.
Why is Russell Brunson sharing this with us?
He benefits from sharing it, he will earn money from all the people buying it. And the product looks very interesting, I guess most people looking to benefit from Internet marketing and affiliate marketing will want a copy of this. He is doing it for the profit, but maybe not alone. He was once a ordinary college guy (like you and me), trying to earn a degree without having hardly any cash. Now, he got it all (even twins)… great way to share his knowledge with the world.
… but I have a problem with this interview
Actually I have two problems with it; the first one is that if this interview is so good as he (the salespage) claims it to be, then will it be exactly that good after thousands of people reads it? A secret marketing system is usually really good because it`s a secret, because only very few people are using it.
I am not sure if this will have any effect on the 12 Month Internet Millionaire or not, but the question needs to be asked (but I won`t be able to provide you with the answer, well, unless I end up buying it).
The second problem, might actually not be a problem. I just wish that a “normal” person would do an interview like this and not a millionaire. A millionaire interviewing another millionaire is not as much fun as an ordinary person doing the exact same thing. It would be awesome to buy an interview from a guy failing to make it, doing an interview with a guy like Vincent James. And that this interview would help him to make it. But I guess that an experienced guy like Russell Brunson will ask the right questions and maybe make a better product and do a better interview than most ordinary guys.
It looks like an interesting product, and I will have to think about it a few more days. Maybe I will end up buying it?
Visit 12 Month Internet Millionaire
Have you bought it? Please share your thoughts on the interview.
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The Marketing trick at Apple Store
As I wrote yesterday, I have been in London for three days, mainly to watch the NBA pre season game between Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves. But I also got time to do some shopping, and I visited the Apple store at Regent street.
The store was amazing, it was big and beautiful with all the awesome products from Apple. I could probably have stayed there for the day, but my friends dragged me out of there after about an hour. I didn`t buy much, but I discovered something interesting while paying for my stuff.
The guy at the counter had a wireless device that he was using when I paid, he used a pen and did all sorts of things on it. I am not sure what he did, only that it seemed to be like a computer and he registered what I bought. At the end he asked me for my e-mail address, he said that they would e-mail the receipt to me. I didn`t get the option of receiving the receipt on paper (but I can`t really remember, maybe it was a paper receipt in the bag).
I have still not received the receipt from Apple, I checked the e-mail address in the store and everything seemed to be ok. Even though I might receive it sometime soon, why are they asking for the email addresses of their customers? Is this because they are really going to use it to send out more offers to them?
This is like what Russell Brunson wrote about in his free report The Internet Marketing Myth. The money is not in the list per se, but it`s in the buyers on your list. What Apple is doing here is creating a list of people actually buying their products, I think that they might be targetting special offers to them. They know that they are already buyers and that they own products from Apple, now they might be offering them even more products.
Another thought occured to me right now, and that is that Apple got the names (and prices) of all the products that people on this list bought in their store. They know that I have bought an iPod, and that they could target advertisements related to iPod products / services to me. Another customer might have bought the iMac, and Apple could start sending offers to this person related to the iMac. This would probably be very effective marketing.
I am not sure that this is how they do it, but I will wait and see if I will be receiving any offers in my inbox sometime soon. And as usual, I will keep you updated.
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Back from an Amazing trip to London
I just want to tell you that I am back from my trip to London, actually I arrived at home about ten minutes ago. The reason I want to tell you this before I go to bed, and I really should be going to bed, is that I am so excited after this trip.
I have been watching my first NBA game ever, a pre season game between Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves. It was at the O2 arena in London, and it was sold out. I am not sure how many people saw the game, but it was many thousands and I was one of them. The game was actually not that good (it was pre season), but I saw the stars, like Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, and I saw the cheerleaders and everything else happening at the arena. It was a lot of fun.
London was a great place to visit. The weather was ok (a little rain, but not as cold as Norway), the hotel was ok (I have stayed at better ones, but it was rather cheap and clean), the food was great and there was a lot of nice places to visit.
We had a great time, everything was amazing. I really want to go back sometime soon. Maybe during the Olympics in 2012 at the same arena? I have been told that the basketball games will be played there. Hopefully I will visit London sooner than that, a great city for a vacation.
I found Apple Store at Regent street and discovered something interesting, it`s related to marketing and I will do a post on that experience tomorrow.
Internal tags: london nba vacation
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How Time is marketing their magazine
I have been subscribing to Time magazine on and off for several years now. I am very satisfied with the magazine and they have some really good articles, but I get a new magazine every week and I just can`t keep up. So, when I realize that I can`t keep up, every now and then, I won`t renew my subscription.
Now, it was this time again. Time magazine sent me a reminder and asked my to renew my subscription. I didn`t renew it and Time sent me the final notice.
This was the first and the final notice, all in the same letter, and it was very easy to understand that it was the final notice. As you can see from the envelope, it had a sticker on it and some really big letters.
What should I think when I receive something like this in the mail?
I started to think that this was urgent and that the offer I got today had to be incredibly low. And then I turned the envelope, and saw that they had some even bigger letters there.
Is this some marketing trick from Time magazine?
Well, I think so. The offer inside was not that good, it was good, but it wasn`t any better than earlier. And I remember that I have paid apx. the same amount for a long time now, and this new offer was no better deal. My expectations were a little different, and of course they were, just look at the pictures from the envelope above. Who wouldn`t have thought that the offer from Time magazine would be incredible?
I am not saying that the price they offered me wasn`t low enough, but according to their marketing I thought that they offered me something completely different. This is sort of like a one time offer, and if I turn down the offer, I will never ever get it again.
But do you know what?
I bet that I will get exactly the same price if I decide to subscribe to Time magazine in a few months from now. And if I do get the same offer, what should we call this kind of marketing?
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Industry Experts Blog Hot Topics in Online Marketing
I have just received an interesting e-mail from David Reich, Interim Executive Director of IAOC (International Association of Online Communicators). He asked me to share some information with you, and here it comes…
The International Association of Online Communicators (IAOC) has just begun the Fall 2007 season of the popular educational blog show, “This Week on IAOCblog.com.” The program is free and open for PR, marketing and online communications professionals, educators and students, as well as anyone interested in discussing hot topics and trends in Internet marketing communications.
The Fall season kicked off September 24 with guest blogger Peter A. Gloor of MIT’s Sloan School of Management, who blogged about analyzing workplace communications. The season continues Oct 15 with computer communications expert Dave Taylor answering that menacing question: Is it okay to get paid to blog?
The blog show features a different guest blogger each week. Our guests are renowned professionals, educators and authors in the field of online communication.
Here is the Fall lineup:
October 15-19, 2007
GUEST: Dave Taylor, Blogsmart, Ask Dave Taylor
TOPIC: Is It Okay to Get Paid to Blog?
October 22-26, 2007
GUEST: Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business
TOPIC: Should CEOs Blog?
October 29-November 2, 2007
GUEST: Dianna Huff, Marcom Writer Blog
TOPIC: Writing Search Engine Friendly Copy
November 5-9, 2007
GUEST: Lois Kelly, Foghound
TOPIC: Conversational Marketing: Mood over Matter?
November 13-16, 2007
(Nov. 12 is Veteran’s Day)
GUEST: Shel Horowitz, Ethical Marketing Expert
TOPIC: Blogger’s Code of Ethics: News or Ruse?
“This Week on IAOCblog.com” takes place at http://www.iaocblog.com. For more information, please visit this site or contact dreich@tulane.edu.
Internal tags: communication education iaoc
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London NBA here I come
At wednesday October 10th (tomorrow), I will be in London (England) with some friends of mine. We are travelling from Norway to watch the NBA game between Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves. This will be my first NBA game ever, and it will be in London.
I am so excited. I think we are going to be 12 people travelling, and we will stay in London at Hilton for two nights. I am really looking forward to the visit and the game, and I will tell you later how my experience was.
Not sure what we will be doing after the game, but I guess we will have to travel around the city and watch some of the famous sites. Now it`s time to surf the web and find the best pizza restaurant in all of London
Internal tags: boston celtics london minnesota timberwolves nba
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How to Market yourself at Work
Today I decided to give you some thoughts about how you should promote or market yourself at work, this is from my own experience and it has helped me a lot. I think that this is the five most basic things you can do and probably the five most important things, if you consider how little work that`s involved.
It`s very easy to do, everybody can do it and it doesn`t matter how much (or little) education you have or what kind of job title you got. Well, not even work experience is required. You can do it and I have been doing it for a long time now.
Never say no Never close your door Always eat lunch with your colleagues Once a month, do something not work related Be personal
Never say no
This might sound rather weird, but never say no has helped me a lot. Your boss and your colleagues will know that they can always count on you and that you will always help no matter what kind of tasks they got for you. By never saying no to anything, you will become popular, at least if you do the tasks they give you and you do it the way they like. Of course, there will be things you have to say no to, but by having the attitude that you never say no, you have a positive attitude that people at your work will appreciate.
Never close your door
I never close the door to my office, it`s always open. People will see me sitting there, and when they see me, they will say hi more often than not, and they will stop by and talk to me, even though they were really just passing through. By leaving your door always open, you are giving a signal to people at your work that they can always come to you if they want to talk or if they need something.
Always eat lunch with your colleagues
This is important to me. When you have some time off from your daily work routines, like when you are having lunch, you should spend it with your colleagues. We have 30 minutes lunch break during the day, and we use this break to talk about everything, both related to work and everything else. This way, we will share important information, information that will help us to become closer and information that will tell you a lot about a person. Don`t sit alone in your office during lunch, even though you think that you have to work during the break. It`s very important to hang out with your colleagues during this short break.
Once a month, do something not work related
I started this at work about a year ago. Once a month, a different person each month will decide what we should do