“Why?” I hear you asking because I agree it’s a bit strange to stop selling all your products, isn’t it?

He gives 3 reasons:

1. To free up time for personal interests

He does a lot of work for Christian based companies and he wants to spend more time doing that sort of thing.

2. To streamline his business

Jimmy has over 100 products/services for sale and that takes a lot of effort to keep running. He wants to end up with just 1 or two products and that will free up a lot of time to do number 1 above.

3. To maximize offers

Again, rather than market 100 products he wants to concentrate on marketing just one or two.

So why am I telling you all this?

I already have many of Jimmy’s products and they are the best around. You may have seen some of my blog reviews of Affiliatenaire. He always over delivers. See the links here:

Affiliate Marketing Strategy

*** DISCOUNTED PRICE – TODAY ONLY ***

As Jimmy starts to ‘retire’ his products he is dropping the prices and they become even better value.

The first offers are for ALL of the special reports at http://www.webuildyourblog.com/srzone.html

As part of this special promotion, the prices of ALL small reports at the site, http://www.webuildyourblog.com/srzone.html have been discounted to only $10 each!

Please note: the link above is an affiliate link and the description of the reports will still read “$15”, but when you click on the order link, it will show that you are only being charged “$10”.

At that price I purchased several – you cannot go wrong with Jimmy’s products. Check them out yourself:

http://www.webuildyourblog.com/srzone.html

Post from: Blogging Guide

Jimmy Brown is Retiring

Case is a great Internet Marketer and over the last year or so we have become great Internet Blogging buddies.

Here’s the post…

Google Adsense is one of the first options that comes in mind when thinking about monetizing your blog. That’s because it’s so easy.

You just sign up for an Adsense account, select the ad types you want to display and copy and paste the code into your blog theme or use some plugins to achieve that.

But then the most important question arises: What kind of ads should you display and where? And how should the lay-out look like?

Or, put in other words:
Which ads perform best on my site and generate me the most money?

If you’re not familiar with Adsense or want to refresh your memory, then watch this video from the Google Adsense Optimization Team in Australia first, because below I will build on what’s discussed in there:

As shown in the video above, visitors to various blogs, or niches, react different on various kind of ads. Some even don’t react at all and just click away.

Therefore there’s only one way to find out if your Adsense works well and if you get the most out of it: TEST! (Ah, you’ve heard that before, haven’t you?)

So, how do you quickly test the effectiveness of the ads to improve your Adsense income?

Well, first off, the best place to start publishing your ads is above the fold. That is the part of your website that is visible without scrolling, in general the top part. That’s where your enticing headline is and you’ll start your post with the main keywords of your content.

Second, as an example, I’ll explain to you what I did on my blog to test the various ad types to find the one that performs best.

The ads that I tested were limited due to the sizes of my blog. I choose the 300×250 Medium Rectangle, the 336×280 Large Rectangle and the 468×60 Banner. They all fitted well into my blog, but you may select other formats. The testing principles stay the same.

Here’s how you set up your Adsense ads.

1. Create Ad Channels

Before or while creating your ads, you can specify an Ad Channel. Create one for every ad you’re going to use and name them appropriately after the ad you’re creating and the place you publish it on your site.

We’re going to use them in the reports later on, where we can decide which ad channel makes most money.

Example: I created 3 Ad Channels named aim-top-300×250, aim-top-336×280 and aim-top-468×60.

2 Set Up The Ads

How to best set up your Adsense ads is out of the scope of this article, but if you Google the subject you’ll find lots of info out there. You can also watch the video again for some basic information.

Example: I created the 3 ads mentioned above and included the appropriate channel in each of them.

3. Create Text Files And Upload

After setting up the ads, you place the code in text files and appropriately named them after the ad type. Then uploaded them to your server.

Example: I ended up with 3 text files, containing the code for the ads that I’ve created in step 2, appropriately named aimtop300×250.txt, aimtop336×280.txt and aimtop468×60.txt

Now you’re ready to test your ads.

All you have to do is …

4. Publish Your Ads

To do that, you just go inside your theme file called single.php (for individual posts) and find the line that starts with

<?php the_content

(If you also want ads to show up at the home page and pages (as opposite to posts), you should also do the same for index.php and page.php.)

If you’re theme doesn’t have a single.php file, just search for that line in your theme directory. Should be somewhere in there.

Now, just above that line, add this one:

<?php include ‘http://www.yourdomain.com/path-to-ads/adfile.txt’;?>

Example: I included <?php include ‘http://www.affordable-internet-marketing.com/ads/aimtop336×280.txt’;?>

But…

that displays only 1 ad, and we have more ads to test and we want to show them all evenly.

Right!

So we’re going to toss a dice to decide which ad to display. We therefore use PHP.

Don’t worry, nothing complicated. Just replace the ‘include’ line you’ve just added by the lines below using copy and paste:

<?
$dice = rand(0,2);
if ($dice == 0) {
include ‘http://www.yourdomain.com/path-to-ads/adfile1.txt’;
}
elseif ($dice == 1) {
include ‘http://www.http://www.yourdomain.com/path-to-ads/adfile2.txt’;
}
else {
include ‘http://www.yourdomain.com/path-to-ads/adfile3.txt’;
}
?>

Basically we toss a dice… choose a number between 0 and 2 and store it into the variable $dice.

If the $dice was a 0, show AdSense ad 1. If the $dice was a 1, show Adsense ad2, otherwise, show the third ad.

Example: this was the code I added just above the <?php the_content line:
<?
$dice = rand(0,2);
if ($dice == 0) {
include ‘http://www.affordable-internet-marketing.com/ads/aimtop336×280.txt’;
}
elseif ($dice == 1) {
include ‘http://www.affordable-internet-marketing.com/ads/aimtop300×250.txt’;
}
else {
include ‘http://www.affordable-internet-marketing.com/ads/aimtop468×60.txt’;
}
?>

5. Watch your Adsense Reports

Now, all you have to do is let them run for some time.

Closely watch the results in your Adsense account. Display your reports per channel, so you can see which ad earns you most. You need a significant number of clicks first before you decide which ad performs best, so be patient.

After you’ve found the best ad, you can rinse and repeat the whole process using different lay-out variables for that ad or/and test other Adsense ads on other places.

There you have it: a quick way to find the best Google Adsense ads.

Let me know what you think. Share you thoughts in the comments below.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Post from: Blogging Guide

How To Quickly Find The Best Google Adsense Ads

Enter the hallowed halls of the internet with caution.

Do not take this space anything but seriously.

Whatever the reason for you stepping into cyberspace, be careful how you present yourself.

Of course, most people have now been on the internet for many years and the younger generation being net savvy the moment they let out their first scream are not going to heed any words of caution.

This does not mean that you shouldn’t take note of these words of caution and implement some sound strategies from this day onwards. It also does not matter for what reason you are using the internet and why you are putting your details online.

You could be a proud granny sharing the photos of your grandchildren with all of your friends, or you could be a young person setting up a profile for career purposes or maybe a newbie internet marketer finding your feet. The same applies to all.

But let’s go back a step and reflect on what’s going on out there in the technology field. There are two newish trends that are of interest. One is called Cloud Computing and the other is the Netbook.

What do these two trends mean to you the internet user? Probably in the scheme of things you wouldn’t really even spend one nanosecond on thinking of either of these. ‘So what’ in fact would be your idea of a good response.

Maybe not.

Let’s have a look at Cloud Computing first of all. The Cloud is about using an environment online that allows you to complete a string of tasks without having to use any software on your computer, except for your web browser. And once completed the results are saved onto an external server.

Some purists might complain here and say that when you upload your photographs from your camera or smart phone you are using software such as iPhoto or other windows type application. Sure you are. But once you load your images on to Flickr you have moved them into the Cloud.

Not only have you moved them into Flickr, an online photosharing community site which is part of the social media space, but you are going to leave them there. And the moment you do that, they no longer belong to you anymore. That’s the nitty gritty about the whole thing.

You might think those images are yours and belong to you. But in terms of true copyright laws and the terms and conditions of the site which you never bothered to read, they no longer belong to you and Flickr may do with them whatever they wish.

Have you sat up yet? Rubbed the sleep out of your eyes? Had a bit of a fright? Not?

If that didn’t scare you it means that the material you have uploaded to the social media sites such as Flickr, YouTube, Facebook or Twitter are good stuff and don’t show you or your family and friends in a bad light. You have nothing to hide, you mutter under your breath.

That’s good. In future though you might want to bear this in mind and screen every bit of data you post on any social media site. That applies to words, names, pictures, video, sound, graphics you name it. Be careful of what you send out about yourself.

So what about the Netbook then?

That takes the whole thing one step further. Not only are you giving your info to the Cloud out there, but you are using a gadget that is designed for you to use the internet for everything. The principle of the Netbook is that you use applications and facilities available on the internet. Say goodbye to Microsoft and Adobe and hello to free software on the internet.

Isn’t that a good idea? Why would that be a problem? It means that when you compile an article, like writing this one, all the bits that you chop and change, reword, maybe even delegate to the trash can because it’s no good, all these bits stay in cyberspace. You have no idea whether any of these items are actually trashed. Where does the trash go to? You don’t know and have no control over it.

If one were to think of Google as the Big Brother, then consider the fact that Google has brought out Chrome it’s own browser software. It also has Android an operating system for the mobile platform. Then they offer a host of free software available for you to do anything with from e-mailing, writing letters to compiling presentations, as long as you stay online.

And while your mulling over that snippet of information, did you know that Google owns YouTube and Google maps and Google Earth?  Do you know what Google Earth does? It takes photographs of the street in which you live. Good thing Google’s slogan is ‘Don’t be evil’, although it’s only the unofficial one. Let’s just hope they stick with that. In a few years time they are going to own all of your data.

Post from: Blogging Guide

Why you need to build your online presence with caution

Simon Cowell in normal mood!

We all have good experiences, days, weeks, times – whatever we wish to call them

And we have bad times, don’t we?

During my working week, I experience both and rather than just sharing theory, knowledge and advice, I thought I’d make a change and share with you my good and bad ‘working’ times I have experienced this week.

But rather than good and bad, I’m going to call then my ‘up’ times and my ‘down’ times!

Why?

I’m not that keen on the word ‘bad’. I’m not that keen on the word ‘down’ either but couldn’t think of anything else. Any ideas?

Anyway…here goes…

That's what we want, isn't it?

‘UP’ Times

1. I’m a big fan of John Carlton and he wrote an excellent post this week about customer service and the lesson of having a great product and great service.

It’s a ‘reminder’ lesson for us all and is definitely worth checking out, click here:

How To Lose Friends & Persuade People To Hate You

2. I purchased a short report called “Exploiting Product Launches” from a well know internet marketer. Cost me $10 and it’s a great little report which shares three ways to get loads of free traffic for any new product launch. Now just have to put the ideas into practice.

Now why am I mentioning this?

Well the report came with certain ‘resell rights’ and for those who signed up to my free guide “Build your own profitable blog in 45 minutes”, I shall be sending you a free copy of the report – so check your email inbox!

3. This week I received my latest report from Angela’s backlinks with 30 more great backlinks you can build for free. And in this months report, I received 30 sites of page rank 6 and higher to build backlinks to my sites.

As a result of my backlink campaign which includes Angela’s backlinks, some of my keyword phrase are now in first place for Google, which is excellent.

Check out my blog post entitled, How to improve page rank by having a link building campaign

4. I’m an avid user of Market Samurai and this week they just added their new Monetization Module to the already fantastic tool.

Check out this link, if you don’t have Market Samurai and you spend hours looking for the right keyword phrases to use – use this tool and get it down to 10 minutes!

No affiliate link here, I’m recommending a great tool.

‘DOWN’ Times

1.    Twitter and those stupid, spammy automatic ‘follow’ messages. I hate them!

“Click here for free unlimited traffic, money, sex, friends…”

“Lose 10lbs by tomorrow – click here”

“Thanks for the follow. Can’t wait to get to know you, better” Yeah right you do!

Have you EVER clicked on one? I never have.

I decided to turn all mine off.

Small little rant over!

2.    Here’s Your 21 Day Step-By-Step System to xxxxxxx – Guaranteed

What do you think when you read that headline?

I have removed the actual wording to what the headline was referring to – just for confidentiality.

I came across the headline this week and because of the subject matter I was ‘hooked’ and I read the rest of the sales page.

Started skimming the sales page and thought I wondered “how much?”

Saw the big ‘Add to cart’ button but no price. I scrolled up and down the sales page (it was long), still couldn’t find the price!

In the end I had to do a search for “$” and there it was, in the smallest font possible. And it was a monthly membership.

Monthly?

That didn’t match the headline “…21 Day Step-By-Step System to xxxxxxx – Guaranteed”

Why would I want to join a monthly membership, when your headline says “21 days” and why try to hide the price?

Be open!

Be up-front!

I made a note of the creator’s names. Closed the sales-page. Gone forever!

3.    Time!

I know we all don’t have enough time to do all the things we want. But some good ‘on-line’ friends have given me access to their products for review and I just didn’t have the time to review them and I feel bad about it.

In my in-box, I have the following to review:

“How to earn a full-time income through freelance writing”

“Learn How to Make Web Video That Sells”

WordPress Blog Training Videos!

Also I purchased, Mass Article Control. It was recommend by a good friend who I trust enormously. I purchased it but have not yet got round to evaluating it. But it is getting rave reviews.

So there you have it – my “Up’s” and “Down’s” of the week.

What were your on-line “Up’s” and “down’s” this week?

Post from: Blogging Guide

The internet marketing bad times

Establishing a credibility as an internet marketer depends on many components.

I’ve previously spoken about how your credibility starts with your name and your expertise levels.

Another area is your presence in the social media space. It is vitally important who you hang out with and how you interact with people.

As a very simple example: imagine yourself at a conference you are attending as a delegate. You see the list of speakers and you notice that predominantly they are together. There is a kind of aura of expert knowledge attached to them. Then there are some people that are not speakers but also socialise with them.

What do you think of the people that are friends with speakers but are not speakers themselves? You tend to think of them as having similar expert status. In the same way, you as a delegate meet up with other delegates and people who did not attend the conference will automatically think of themselves as not as knowledgeable as you.

Why do people fight to get to study at Harvard rather than the University down the road? It is because the association with this name provides you with un-quantifiable extra points. It gives you a momentum that you would not get from the learning institute near you.

The same applies in the online community. In fact probably slightly more so. It is so much more difficult to acquire credibility online. You are not a physical presence, people cannot look you in the eyes and have an opinion of you as a person. They depend on a whole lot of other clues to evaluate your credibility.

One of these vital clues is who you are associated with and who associates with you. With other words who is following you on Twitter could be as important as who you follow on Twitter.  Who your StumbeUpon buddies are could be vital to whether you are considered credible or not. What about your activities on Digg?

It’s important to see what material you bookmark and comment on. What bloggers do you read and support? Where do you leave comments? What kind of comments do you leave? Who do you praise? In fact how do you comment? Are you one of those people who only finds things to criticise or do you encourage and support?

How do you behave on forums? Do you ask relevant questions? Do you answer and help other forum members if they have a query? Do you come across as a credible person or as an arrogant know-all? All of these different activities add to your online presence and determine your credibility over all.

When you look at this picture it becomes obvious that whatever you do online has to be based on a consistent view point, a moral code so to speak. An image of what you wish to be seen as. If that image does not fit into your internet marketing strategy you will need to change the image.

Above all else, you need to remember that the internet has a very long memory. What you say and do online stays around for a very long time. So be careful. Be sure that the presence you have online is good for your business, whether online or offline.

Post from: Blogging Guide

Your On-Line Credibility Depends On Who You Hang Out With

Credible?

In a recent post I talked about, your Credibility Starts With Your Name.

And you have to have credibility in your expertise.

Having professional credibility is the one concept that most Internet marketers know about and take to heart. They understand that in order to be able to sell your own eBook on a topic you have to have some credibility as an expert in this field.

There are a fair number of Internet marketers who know this, but who think because it is the Internet they can get away with pretending to be an expert. And many do get away with it and manage to sell bogus products to many people.

In general though they cannot build a sustainable business this way. The Internet marketers who really make a solid living and build a good business are the ones that can show expertise and who build credibility in this way.

This doesn’t mean that you need to be an expert to start an online business. But if you want to become somebody who is respected and whose products are bought then you need to acquire this expertise.

Somehow some Internet marketers seem to think that they can acquire instant wealth by jumping on the bandwagon of money making opportunities. There are many of these instant wealth promises. They generally start with the words: I used to be poor like you.

Regrettably, as is the case in the real world, there are few opportunities online where one can become wealthy overnight. As an Internet Marketer anticipate you will have to work hard for your income.

One of the areas you will need to work hard on is your professional credibility. You will need to determine what you would like to become expert in and work truly hard at showing that you have the expertise in the field of your choice and that the online public is justified in trusting you.

Once you can show you have expertise and the credibility in your field then you are able to sell your own products. You can endorse other people’s products in your field, you can joint venture with other experts and sell a product showing your combined skills. You can invite subscribers to your information.

In each instance the public who believe in your expertise, in other words with whom you have established a credibility, will buy your products or service. You are credible therefore you may be believed.

This applies to every field imaginable. Social media gurus will be believed and their books bought if they have established themselves as credible experts. A top marketer such as Seth Godin has established himself as a marketing guru. Any book he now publishes will be bought by a fair number of people, even before any critical acclaim has been noted.

This does not mean that Seth Godin was born as a world renowned marketer. He has spent many years speaking and writing books on his favourite topic. He has had to work at creating his credibility, just as you will need to do as well.

Your professional credibility is the sum of what and how you write. It is composed of the knowledge you bring with you and have acquired, the way you present your knowledge and how willing you are to interact with people in sharing your knowledge.

Post from: Blogging Guide

Nurture Your On-Line Professional Credibility

It’s never that easy of course. Most people know this. But it is still really hard to ignore the call that some fairly unscrupulous people put out. As a new or even seasoned internet marketer the big point is to be cautious. Buyer beware!

Let’s have a look at what the term actually means.

By definition joining an affiliate program means that you as the affiliate undertake to send new visitors and buyers to a business for a reward.  When you achieve a result, which is pre-determined in the affiliate program you sign up to, then you get paid.

There are several players involved in the affiliate marketing industry. There is the merchant who offers the product or service for sale, the network, the publisher which is another term for the seller and the consumer.

This business model has grown very quickly and has led to establishment of a secondary tier of service providers including Affiliate Management Agencies, Super-Affiliates and Specialized Third Parties vendors.

For internet marketers it seldom matters whether they sign up as an affiliate direct with the company such as with Amazon or via an affiliate management agency such as Commission Junction.

Affiliate marketing has certain elements in common with ordinary online sales practices. Marketers might use traditional advertising methods. They might also use organic search engine optimisation, paid search engine marketing, e-mail marketing and display advertising such as banner ads.

On the other hand affiliates might use methods which are more internet specific. This could be in the form of writing revues on the products and services offered by a partner on their own blog or on social media platforms. What it boils down to though is using one website to drive traffic to another.

The most active sectors for affiliate marketing are the adult, gaming and retail industries. The sectors which are expected to experience the greatest growth are mobile phone, finance and travel sectors. Several of the affiliate solution providers anticipate growth in the business-to-business sector as well as advertisers who might add affiliate marketing to their mix.

Amongst the most commonly used compensation methods eighty percent of affiliate programs offered today use revenue sharing as their method of reward. It’s also called cost per sale (CPS).  Some nineteen percent use cost per action and the very small remaining percentage uses cost per click (CPC).

As examples Amazon would be considered a cost per sale merchant. The affiliate gets paid a commission if a sale has been completed whether this is a book or a DVD. The customer will have reached Amazon via the link on the affiliate’s website.

A cost per action payment would be made if a visitor introduced by the affiliate signs up to an e-mail subscription service or an online dating site. A cost per click example is something like Google’s Adsense program. The affiliate shows text ads on his site and if anybody clicks on the ad the affiliate receives a very small commission.

Post from: Blogging Guide

Understanding Affiliate Marketing

But it’s not that straight forward. Naming your business requires you to consider your entire business strategy up front. It means you have to decide what you want to achieve, what you might wish to sell and what image you are going to want to present to the internet world and more specifically to your possible customer.

Let’s have a look at some of the issues here.

Calling your company ‘Sexy Girl’ or ‘Hot Stud” will not be the right move if you are hoping to establish a serious business that sells computers, serious books or even green technology.

It will take a considerable amount of time to brand those names to make people think of them as representing a serious business. The image that pops up in your possible customer’s mind when he sees those names has nothing to do with serious business.

If you want to sell sexy lingerie, or naughty pictures, possibly even pornography then the name would be an advantage and certainly add to the credibility of the business.

If you are an avid gardener and want to start up a small business online you might want to go for a name such as Gardening Guru. In that way you already establish in the minds of a visitor that you want to be taken seriously and that your intention is to be knowledgeable on this topic.

Regardless of the examples above, the only person who knows what the best name would be to select is yourself. You need to be able to identify with the name you have chosen and feel comfortable with the fact that it represents you as a person and that it shows your integrity and credibility.

Once you have your name selected then it is important to decide whether you wish to go the free route and create your blog using a free service such as WordPress or Blogger or whether you will pay the small fee to have your own domain name and site.

In general, if you wish to be taken seriously and have a credible presence online, it is advisable to buy and establish your own domain name and if you can get it, one with the .com extension.

This means that when selecting your name you need to keep an eye on whether the domain name is actually available. Sometimes it means you have to tweak your name. Most often it means you might have to add a word or two to make it unique.

It also requires you to pay for your hosting. One advantage is that the internet has become so popular that hosting services are truly competitively priced and it is affordable for even  the smallest business to set up their own name site.

Once you have your name and domain name selected and reserved you are ready to start with the next step in building your online credibility.

Post from: Blogging Guide

Credibility Starts With Your Name

Adam Wong is a typical example of how anyone, regardless or age and experience can realize their dreams if they simply just use the right strategies and take massive action.

In his early years, he invested in himself and attended several ‘Wealth’ programs.

But Adam didn’t do what 99% of individuals do when they finish learning about a topic. He did what only 1% of the population do…he took took massive action and applied everything he’d been taught.

He did not hesitate at all. He decided that he did not want to get stuck in a normal 9am-5pm job like everyone else and eventually decided that he would become an entrepreneur as an Internet Marketer.

When he applied himself wholeheartedly, the results he got were truly inspiring. Within two weeks of launching his business, he generated US$10,011 worth of sales. Within a year and a half, he hit a record US$21,154 a month in December. He continued to build his online business until today, it generates a six figure income while he just works four hours a day from his home.

Grab The First Chapter Free

All his friends call him a LUCKY BASTARD to have such a great life with a great income. So, he decided to write a book (which honestly is a VERY GOOD READ) to teach people exactly how he did it and how anyone can achieve the same success he has on the Internet.

A few months a go, Adam gave me a ‘draft’ copy of his book to read. I couldn’t put it down. I know Internet Marketers who charge $2,000 a month to tell you the same stuff as what Adam has included in his book, Lucky Bastard!

And right now, Adam is giving you the chance to download the first chapter right here:

http://www.webuildyourblog.com/luckyb.html

Although I will say that Adam is a LUCKY BASTARD (he won’t mind me saying that!), he is also a very clever one.

Read more about my thoughts on Adam’s new book:

http://www.webuildyourblog.com/luckyb.html

Post from: Blogging Guide

The Lucky Bastard!