Mid Life Marketer’s Kick Start

Keeping up to date with domain name accounts, or anything else, is a particular problem for me. This came home to roost and bit me firmly in the bum domain at the weekend, as I started to edit one of my websites. Suddenly - no website! My domain name had expired … my subscription to the Domain Name Register for that particular website was past and I hadn’t received notification from the domain name register. Suddenly the penny dropped. When I signed up for that domain, the domain name register had been accessed using an email address that I deactivated several months ago! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

There are lots of little details in running your online business … and keeping up to date with your domain name registrations is one of the more vital ones. One of the hazards of being sucked into too many separate schemes in your early, inexperienced days is that the information overload will lead to you losing sight of many important details: such as, the expiry date of your domain name(s).

Keep your eye on the calendar folks! You don’t want your prized website to be hoovered up by one of the predatory domain name buyers and have it held to ransom.

It’s really strange how so many of us Internet Marketers buy into all sorts of tools and services that we never get round to using properly.

I subscribed to Leadsleap when it first appeared on the scene earlier this year. Because of the number of different schemes I have used to promote PROSPERIZER, my primary online business, I kind of forgot about Leadsleap. In my absent mindedness, LeadsLeap continued to grow and its active members have been generating very focussed leads and increased turnover. The turning point for me, was when I started looking at the relative costs of the Pro membership compared with the classic PPC system on Google. For that reason alone, if you are working in the “Making Money Online” niche you have a highly targeted audience for your ads in this enormous market. As a pro you are able to have your PPC style advert displayed on LeadsLeaps viral blog for what amounts to something approaching just 6 cents a click. And remember, the readers are your target audience! Well worth a try.

The blog posts themselves are a classic series of tips, how tos and explanations of the basic nitty-gritty knowledge we need and the “arcania” of this marketing world. The information is not in itself highly original or innovative, BUT it is presented in a very simple clear cut manner that beginners can learn from and which clarifies the concepts for us overloaded and confused post-beginners.

These posts are produced by Kenneth Koh who is a bit of a rising star. This is one system where your inbox is NOT buried under the deluge of marketing emails, so many systems produce. Herein lies one of its magical elements. I have included an extract from the latest post below, to give you a flavour of the material. Here Kenneth is trying to encourage you to look behind the “Hoo Hah” publicity that many gurus present about themselves. It’s all too easy to be sucked in by the publicity if you don’t choose a product line that fits your psyche. The full post can be found on the LeadsLeap blog itself!

Here’s what Kenneth has to say about gurus:

How To Come Out With Innovative Ideas That Sell

I’m quite sure that you have constantly been bombarded with offers from different internet marketing gurus asking you to buy their products or other guru’s products.

Let me give you another example. continued on the LeadsLeap blog.

** Prosperizer/Winners Of Wealth Links Update 17th Oct 2008 *
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Prosperizer is beginning to take off BIG STYLE. This is mainly due to the efforts of our dedicated back room team of Simon Tofield, Paul Ward and a cast of dozens. Last week, on the back of the success of the Winners of Wealth; system they launched a whole range of new products which I detail below. The simplest way is just to include Paul’s over excited newsletter (typos and all!!) I’ve just tidied up the links so you can see our information more easily. I’ve been a bit remiss in my own marketing and educational efforts this week as I have been full on, developing a virtual tour for some friends and their hotel. I’ve nearly cracked it!!
Here’s Paul’s email:

Hi Ray

We’ve been absoultely manic over the past few weeks, we’ve
had hundreds of new members join our club, the launch last
week of the WOW Products went down a storm, and we’re all
burining the midnight oil, getting the next range of new
products and websites ready for our members…

…so, just in case you’ve missed some emails, here’s a quick
sumummary of all our latest offers, so you can have a look
and if you like what you see, there’s buttons and forms on
each page to signup.

NOTE. For Winners Of Wealth and Prosperizer you only need to
signup to one or the other, because all the products and
services are available ! PLUS We now have offline payment
options to join our club !

Winners Of Wealth (WOW Tips) - Paper Trade 1 Month for £9.95

Prosperiser (Secret Files) - Money Making Fies for £9.95 (I think he means the “Money Making FILES!)

WOW Products
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Credit Crunch Buster
http://products.winnersofwealth.com/creditbuster/

Racing 4 Cash
http://products.winnersofwealth.com/racing4cash/

Coming Soon….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WOW Paradise - Win & Make Money..

Members Links
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tips & Files
http://www.winnersofwealth.com/members
http://www.winnersofwealth.com/members

Members Forum
http://www.prosperizerforum.com
http://www.winnersofwealthforum.com

Regards

The WOW team
Prosperizer

Now do you think he was in a rush!! I have a good idea how hard these guys have been working for us

After having used and struggled with the black art of Keyword research for the past 8 months I finally remembered that little acronym KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid!

Nichebot isn’t simple by any stretch of the imagination, but like so many high order skills, learning it should be. Only now have I started dipping into the masses of tutorial video and audio help that is available in this awesome tool. I have used the Google Keyword Tool, Word Tracker, Overture (now well and truly moribund); even the Daddy keyword tool, coughing up a pile of cash for each of the
paid options. Has my cash been well spent? Nope! But I think finally, part of it is about to be! The Google and Nichebot combination are the way to go as far as I am concerned.

Like so many people; when I look back over the last several months, I realise I have been guilty of un-focussed dabbling. Too many projects on the go at once and too many techniques being tried out all at one go. Sum result? Frustration! Only now, having given myself a good old fashioned kick up the arse (sealed with a KISS), is the keyword nightmare beginning to melt and some understanding dawn.

All the systems and tools mentioned above are actually very good, but what most people don’t grasp for a long time is that they only (with the exception of Google Keyword Tool) represent a tiny fraction of the search traffic of the web. All of them, even with Google’s new inclusion of the search volume data, only give a flavour of the numbers of searches being conducted worldwide. The other side of the research coin is that most of us have been doing the researcgh process in a perversely back to front manner.

How often have you started to research a niche and shied away from the obvious highly competed niche keywords. Doh! that’s where the traffic and the money are likely to be found, isn’t it? Well, I have just recovered from a failed little enterprise where I attempted to promote an excellent guide to marketing your photography, a guide produced by photographer Dan Eitreim and marketed in Clickbank. I faithfully tracked down the low competition keywords, optimised my landing page and wrote the best set of ads yet. Sadly there wasn’t much traffic on those keywords, either on the search network or the content partners. So I managed to make exactly diddly squat! After pulling the plug on the campaign when the author restructured his own campaign and rendered my split-test landing pages, ads and keywords inaccurate at the press of his upload button; I had to analyse just what the cock-up was this time and I spent quite a bit of time going over the pattern of what little activity my work had attracted. It was only then that I began to realise my niche was a bit of a non event. Slowly, the necessary question began to crystallise in my mind … how should I go about RESEARCHING my MARKET NICHE????

The answer appeared, by surprise almost, while I was listening to 1 of Jim’s archived audio calls. To cut a long story short, I received a digital slap round the lugs and a penny dropped. I hadn’t done my market research with any rigour, before racing off to play with my expensive toolbox to find the “plum” keywords. My campaign was doomed before I had spent my first tenner! Suddenly here was Jim Morris telling me what to do and what to read BEFORE I started even thinking about keywords. Now the advice boiled down to a few very simple tips that I have heard before but never internalised. It was all about discovering the real potential of a niche, to funnel cash in your direction and doing this rigorously: BEFORE looking into the minutiae of keywords and SEO.

Jim’s article 5 Free Powerful Ways to Conduct Online Consumer Market Research to Find a Profitable Niche that has nothing to do with Keyword Research can be found by clicking the link.

The 5 key steps boil down to:

5 What is the top selling product in the niche?

On competition, his advice is to embrace it and then do your own thing to stand out from the crowd. Read the article, it is a very informative 10 minute read.

So, follow this very successful marketer’s advice, check out the niche first; then harvest your keywords and finally; keep it simple stoopid, USE the INSTRUCTIONS with whatever tool or programme choice you make. I’ll see you on the successful side of the fence.
Ray

Why is the, oh so, Alternative Frank Kern trying to achieve world domination like one of the hypnotic megalomaniac arch villains from Dr Who? Come and Save the World at these events. Prove to Mr Kern that he is a misguided misanthrope and the marketing world is far better for adopting the World Saving Marketing Model

Joking apart, Kern is obviously a very confident, very alpha type character with lots of dough to spend on his launches: he obviously loves stirring up the masses and turning up the volume for his product launch events. But even old Frankie boy had to start somewhere with his lap guitar and his marketing.

So what have I got to compete against the big boys with?

Several giveaway events looking for marketers who have at least a small list and the ability to upload a gift and associated squeeze page. If you are stuck on these ideas, get in touch.

These include the IM-REI event, The Internet Marketing Stampede and especially for the newcomers to our weird and wonderful world, the Newbie Giveaway.

These giveaway events are all looking for contributors, they are suitable for anybody who has at least made a start on building their lists.

What Does it do for you ? Benefits Benefits Benefits

Simple - it’s a great way of growing your list … and you know what that means for your sales and long term prosperity … it can literally Save Your Marketing World

Additionally, the Olympic Giveaway is still in full flow and you can get a range of goodies there.

What To Do Next!
You know what to do. Sign up
Upload your gift
promote to your list

Watch Your List Grow!!

Just a brief post this as I’m off out the door to pick the kids up from the airport. More after the weekend.

Way back when I started out in this marketing maelstrom, I knew I would need to invest some of my hard earned cash and probably a good chunk of my savings in tools, education and software in other words; essential business resources, to have any chance of succeeding, without burning myself to a frazzle as I did in my “previous life”.

Like most people who are new(ish) to this way of working for a living, I would log on and be “eyeball smacked” by a dozen different must have, UTTERLY ESSENTIAL, you’re a dork if you haven’t got this piece of myxomatosis, … tools tweaks or widgets.

Even for a marketing resistant mutant like me it was all too much and I now find myself with a rack of gear and software that frankly I don’t really know where to start with. There are some great tools: and for keyword research Nichebot has turned out to be an absolutely brilliant piece of kit. This gives you access to a whole raft of complementary keyword information sources at a far lower cost (it does cost though) than if you were to try and access these services on your own. This ranges from simple scans by Word Tracker right through to the Google Keyword Cruncher. Need a 100 keyword list? No problem with Nichebot. The training videos within the site are absolutely excellent. Chris really knows what he’s talking about and keeps it at a shop floor level that is understandable: even if you’re not a “Google Geek”.

Now marketing Big Boy, Mike Filsaime has released a report that summarises all the software and tools that he uses.

If you are wondering, “What do I need to get myself going?” This free “RESOURCE REPORT” is a good guide to what 1 multi millionaire thinks is the essential package. Don’t be naive though, of course he is trying to sell you something, but the free report is definitely worth the read. If you are about to invest in your E Office, the resource package he is offering on the other side might just be the most cost effective purchase you ever make. I wish it had been on offer before I set out on the last 6 months of spending.

You can get your copy here it is a very informative read, giving the thinking behind each tool.

The third episode is short and sweet. It also reflects the part of this game I just haven’t got on top of as a relative newbie: it’s the whole tracking and testing scene. Without doubt it is completely crucial in helping you avoid wasted dollars and effort and yet the whole concept is furry, fuzzy and incomplete in my head. This is the next big area for me to work on. Here is Willie Crawford’s take on it.

A final element of creating successful ads is testing. You must test EVERY ad that you use. Experiment by changing different elements of your ad. Change the headline or a few words in the ad body. Record the response rate that you get.

Now change the url or capitalization and note the results you get. Just changing one element in an ad can result in 100 times the response rate. Then, when you find an ad that works, stick with it until it stops working. Continue to test other ads for the same product or service, but don’t stop running the one that’s working!

You never know what ad is going to strike just the right chord in your prospects. At the same time, what worked today may not work tomorrow. There are certain advertising concepts that never seem to change but many do.

A classic book called Scientific Advertising is one of the best books on writing and testing ads available anywhere. I use techniques from the book every advertising campaign I run. If you would like a free copy you can download it from my site at:
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=DXH8Z&m=9K9rtmU2IOtW5&b=Vqgqfhm9azWcKnMmU3GJcQ

Download this ebook and study it carefully. Some of the most successful copywriters around regularly mention this book as one they learned to write great ad copy from. Then it’s largely a matter of creating an ad following the proven steps and testing, testing, testing!

To your success - Willie Crawford
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=DXH8Z&m=9K9rtmU2IOtW5&b=xTTuztqlaHuZh71FpO8GDw

A couple of weeks ago I got a message from Dan Foley. Just another in a string of infommercials after I had subscribed to one of his list offers. That’s what I thought at first glance. I read on for a few sentences, because it was obviously a case of Dan TESTING his advertising and trying to get feedback about whether his readers favoured longer articles or “chunked” information. Thinking back, I don’t think I actually answered his original question… “Doh!”

The article was by a guy called Willie Crawford and I am going to put it up in 3 sections on the blog as it was a “Right Riveting Read!”

It set out out in words, even I could understand, how to set up your advertising copy and test the results. So here ya go! Here’s part 1.

My Ads Aren’t Working!
by Willie Crawford

My ads aren’t working! I don’t get much response to my ezine ads! How can I improve my ad response rates? These are comments I hear frequently from associates who advertise regularly online. After taking a look at their ads, here is the advice I often offer them on improving their ads:

First of all, the ad must be BELIEVABLE. Fully 80% of the ads that I review lack credibility. Yes - people want to believe that they can earn a fortune - in a month - with absolutely no work. However, things don’t work that way! If it were THAT easy, everybody would be doing it.

After all, we like to share secrets with our family and friends. Anyone discovering a way to earn money THAT easy would have shared it with their friends .. who would have shared it with their friends….. and they would have shared it with their friends. Soon everyone would know about it and be making a fortune.

This great moneymaker would not need to be advertised since it would be spreading so fast by word-of-mouth.

Your potential customers are very intelligent. They can spot a hyped-up exaggeration when they see one. Don’t use them - make your ads believable.

Starting with the most important part of your ad - the headline. It must be believable and it must grab their attention.

How do you get their attention? You tell them how you are going to solve a problem for them, or how you are going to prevent them from having a problem in the first place. There are many “hot words” that have been proven to grab a persons attention better than others. You need to use these in your headlines too. Examples of these words include:

“Free”
“You”
“Discover”
“New”

Any good book on copywriting will give you more of these terms so I won’t elaborate on that here. If you want a good ebook on how to write using language that excites a customer get a free copy of “The Net Writing Master’s Course”

Here’s a useful blog by Ron Castle on the noble art of copywriting:

After my initial growing pains in this game, I was pleased to find a plain English guide to getting the advertising right. I doubt I’ve got it right yet, but I am now working on it with a lot more of a “clue”.

Keep an eye out for part 2 coming soon to a blog near you!!

By the way; don’t forget there are a whole bunch of giveaway events kicking off at the moment so just have a look at the previous post on my blog. Details of my personal favourites.;-)

Well, those International Moneyspinners are at it again. Paul W, Greg Mc, and the two Simons M&T: are cooking up another humdinger of a project that brings in another raft of opportunities in small business marketing online.

This is one project that has the capability to banish the Monday Blues and brighten up the gloom and doom that the media is peddling about 2008.

Because of my direct connection to 2 of the founding members of project MONDAY PAYDAY, I am in the unfamiliar position of being able to get you in early at the top end of the tree. You would be wise to get in quick, because your earning potential is so much higher in the upper levels; as with most programmes.

Unfortunately, because I’m not actually a founder myself, I’m not privy to all the information that will launch this baby. However, as soon as the info emerges, on Monday April 28th, I will be posting here to get it out to as many interested folk as possible. Watch this Space!!

If you want a little more tantalisation - have a sneaky look at the page from Simon’s Diary that is doing the rounds at the moment. This promises to be a big BIG launch without the usual over hyped “Mass Control” hysteria.

The Secret Diary Files

As a climber, of the rock and ice, rather than social persuasion and a bloke who was in an ivory tower, believing he was completely immunised against the influence of marketing; I still wake up some days and wonder what I’m doing following the on-line marketing path. When I started climbing, I didn’t have a lot of cash - frequently I had none. I used to make my climbing “breeks” from chopped off army surplus trousers and a touch of needle and thread. I was always a bit cautious about the contents of my cranium and I used to lug an old motor cycle helmet around the hills, I certainly looked a state and I certainly wasn’t pulling like some of my smooth talking mates. But the freedom, adventure and the feeling of escape from my hometown where nothing happened apart from the Country and Western Dance on a Saturday night and the after hours punch up on the way home; that feeling was indescribable. Scruffiness almost became my badge of rebellion - I was such a compliant “good boy” back then! What has all that got to do with our marketing businesses? I suppose it’s about looking past the veneer of first impressions when we are trying to crystallise our WHY!

When I look at the image so many people like to project; of the sports cars, luxury yachts and sunny beach lifestyle, I find it grates - at first. I sometimes think many people (myself included all too frequently) miss the real point of all the hard work we do, to have our own businesses. It goes much deeper than the material manifestations of wealth. Time freedom and the ability to be there for the ones you love are the key things for me. And … eventually, I am sure, financial freedom! To me those kinds of freedoms are worth far more than the big house, the Merc or the yacht. And then, when I wind my inverted snobbery down a notch or two and look carefully at the message that the “flash car photo” entrepreneurs are putting out; it’s actually the same as mine. We’ve all got dreams of an ideal lifestyle and we project a picture to catch people’s attention. It doesn’t necessarily define our values.

When I left my job and was able to see my kids out to school regularly, I knew I had found the start of my own road forward. I was looking at a pretty scary fall from high power assistant headteacher to unemployed and broken down ex teacher. I was ready for the change though and the initial “poverty” has been very “motivating”.

You might be amused by my tag of CosmicRay and it might surprise you to know that there isn’t a shred of hippy in me! It’s all the fault of a friend from York 25 years ago, who spotted me strung out on the crux of a hardish rock climb in the Lake District, when I was an aspiring hard(?!)man. “Blood*@ hell,” he shouted up in his wry way, “You’ve got better! You must be getting cosmic Ray!” He was shocked to see I’d progressed onto scary routes. Not too helpful at that precise moment, as I was looking at the prospect of taking a big fall, because I couldn’t work out the sequence to get around a steep nose of rock. When he realised I was in trouble, he quietly told me about the “secret” hold around the corner - I breathed again and an eighty footer onto a ledge was avoided (in contrast to a lad from our club the previous weekend, who had missed the hold). Fortunately he was young and bouncy and got over his battering in a couple of weeks.

This marketing game is a bit like trying to tackle a climb that’s harder than you have previously attempted at the sharp end. Jumping off the career carousel was just as scary in its own way because more was at stake - it wasn’t just me any more, I now had children in a disintegrating marriage to look out for. But now, as then, the quiet word(s) from a friend (and a competitor of sorts) was enough to see me on the road to success and safety. It’s turning out to be a rerun of that same tale, as people give me little pointers and go out of their way to steer me round some of the more obvious pitfalls. I have been amazed at the constant help that is available - we only have to ask. It is very difficult for a person upline of you to know whether your lack of success is due to inaction or a misunderstanding of a new technique you’ve been trying. At the moment I am trying to get to grips with advertising on Craigslist and I am running into all the problems that are mentioned, a bit too quietly in that new course you bought!! BUT I will succeed, I will put into action all the tips that I hadn’t absorbed from my course materials and the new information I am turning up in various blogs. In my next posting, I will try and explain how I have gotten around the difficulties of using Craigslist, without hopefully having broken the rules or misused the resource.

My measures of success may be different to yours, but whatever it may be I am here to help you achieve it, no matter how material or “Cosmic” it may be. What I can’t answer myself, I can soon point you towards an answer, because that’s the way we become successful - by networking and building up relationships with each other. It’s a relationship game! Just like the day when a pal who was very competitive about his climbing realised there was a real problem and was there with a ready answer, a “secret” key that those in the know had access to. If you are looking for a business where help is constantly available from myself and many more experienced folk, I’ve listed some character sketches of my main focus. I’m sure there will be one of these busineses that suits your individual approach.

CosmicRay and the NorthernView bring you a range of opportunities from fast money start ups for beginners to high commitment, serious long term earners.

Prosperizer - a great opportunity with all your tools in one place. Join a superb community populated by individuals who are committed to helping and guiding you to success

eLottery - the ultimate system for playing the UK lottery and EuroMillions. With a little effort you even play them for FREE. If you are looking for a more sensible way to have a flutter, with a business that has an extremely low initial investment then this could be the one.

Plug in to Profits with NorthernViewWealth this is one of many turn key full on solutions. It is almost the legendary “business in a box” that many people need.

uVme - this is going to be the standard by which all on-line skill game web sites are judged. Pure fun and games with a built in business plan, which avoids any gambling connections. :wink

Join me in any of these ventures and we will build strong supportive teams that last.