I happened across one of the Big Guru’s Blogs today, found my way from Facebook (maybe there’s something to that Facebook thing after all?). I made a comment on one of the posts, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing real exciting here yet.

I hit the main page, scanning the post titles as I scrolled down, nothing really catching my eye yet. I reach the bottom of the main page and click the “Previous Entries” link and reached the end of the line… All I received for my click was that nasty “Not Found” message in big bold type (almost as if they want you to look like an idiot with that kind of message).

Hey, things happen, our websites do not always work without a hitch, I can vouch for that.

Here’s the interesting part of the story…

I was going to be a nice guy and let him know, there was a slight hiccup with his blog, I’d love if some one let me know, thing is, I couldn’t tell him!

After searching the whole main page, there was NO way to contact the owner. I know what it’s like to get spammed, but there are plenty of secure contact options for blogs, even a link to a support desk would have worked just dandy.

The contact thing aside, If I didn’t know this guy from Adam, would I came back to his blog? There’s a chance I wouldn’t because it doesn’t even work right.

Course, he won’t hear it from me, because he’s not listening. Are you listening?

I can’t say every visitors to the his blog is a potential customer, but I’m sure there are some in mix.

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There is no doubt that Viral Marketing can bring a flood of customers and sales. It can also be some of the highest quality traffic you can obtain.

The problem is, for most marketers, it’s the old, “Easier Said than Done!”. And rightly so, it’s tough. Most folks don’t have the resources or the relationships with other marketers to get the ball rolling in the first place. I am a firm believer you can do anything you set your mind too, so I am not trying to be negative. I should probably say, many marketers have a disadvantage, which in reality, most times, is just in their own mind.

So what do you do? How do you level the playing field? A inexpensive little script I found today, might be the road towards getting that viral flood you’ve been longing for.

To be honest I was and still am very excited about it, I can’t wait to use it myself. It’s a very unquie twist to viral marketing.

They call it, “The Bride Machine“. What does it do? Why is it so good?

It’s similar to a Refer-a-Friend script. But so much better and better still, it’s verified referals.

With a Refer-a-Friend script, your users or customers enter their friends e-mail address, to refer them to the page. Problem is, most of those scripts do not and can not verify the entered information. Many people will enter bogus information so they can get their reward.

The Bribe Machine not only bribes surfers, ethically of course, to vote for your page or pages on Digg and StumbleUpon, but more importantly it verifies they actually did the task, before they receive their reward.

Not only are your visitors building traffic for you, they are also building great link backs. Seems to be a win-win situation, doesn’t it?

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Cooking for a family can be tough. My wife and I often run out of ideas, seems like we always have the same-o-meals over and over. Lucky our kids are not too picky, except for our son, he could live on mac-n-cheese and nacho’s if we let him.

The reason I bring up cooking is because I just happened to think about it, kinds makes sense, that cooking is like running your own business. It really is… stay with me a second…

To try and come up with something new or different for dinner, I often visit foodtv to search out recipes. What I’ve noticed, there could be 10 different recipes just for Empanadas, for example. They don’t vary greatly but usually have some differing ingredients from chief to chief. While they might put different stuff in the pot, it still comes a tasty meal.

See where I’m going?

You don’t have to do exactly like the Latest Joe Guru and his million dollar, can’t live without, money making plan. Simply put, if you use enough of the right ingredients, you’ll come up with a success. It’s doesn’t always work on the first try. My wife is a great cook, but there have been some less than edible meals in the past, not many though.

The first step is to get your ingredients and get cooking! The meal is not going to make itself and it’s not going to make it’s way out of the fridge without your help.

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If you’ve ever studied copywriting, you’ve surely heard or read that famous title many times over. Of course it was by the talented John Caples. Thing is, it was written back in 1926, but it’s just as powerful today, as it was back then.

Why do i bring this up?

I was searching for some recipes the other night when I came across an advertisement banner for one of the diet companies. I think it was for eDiets, but try as I might, I couldn’t find the ad again before writing this.

What caught my attention was the working on the ad, can’t remember it word for word, but…

“Losing 60 Ponds was great, but the romance that followed was..”

To make it even more dramatic, they had a video or annimated clips of a lady in major tears, tears of joy of course.

As soon as I read that title, right away I thought of the famous Caples ad.

Goes to show, some things never go out of style. While there are new words these days, as evidence of the ad, some things still work, even 80 years later.

So… Next time you find a old copywriting or advertising book at the local new and used, better grab it because I might be right behind you.

I’ll try to find that ad again, and post it if i do, now it’s bugging me.

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If there is one thing, most likely the biggest factor that stops people making money online, it has to be not getting started. Bare none, no other “problem” comes close. If you’ve read my blog you’ve probably heard me say it many times. Why do I keep repeating it? Because some people still don’t get it.

Hey, I’ve been there, it’s tough to get going in the begining, even down the road I’ve been less than motivated. It’s even harder to be motivated when you really need the cash. Oh boy, I’ve been there.

So how do you “get going”?

Start with smaller tasks, like I talked about the other day, small victories, it’s the best way I’ve found to get on the ball. Funny thing happens, after you get in gear, it seems a little easier to stay in motion. Hard to believe but true. Some times I’ll even completely clean off my desk, like a fresh start, to get myself going. Every one is different I guess

this is one of the biggest challenges of working your own business, you do not have a boss looking over your shoulder, you don’t have the same urgency to work to make sure you get your check.

You have to figure out what gets you in motion, like I said, every one is different, and keeps you going. I wish I had some magic formula, but I don’t.

I can make you one promise, if you work enough, your bond to find success.

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Okay, while I’ve had a facebook account/profile for some time, I never put much into to, actually very little. Guess I had one just to have it.

Come to find out, Internet Marketers are really eating it up. Not hard to see why, as you it is a much better marketing tool compared to say, Myspace.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook become more popular than Myspace. They are not very far behind, Alexa lists them as the 8th largest site, just behind number 6 ranked Myspace.

It’s a marketers dream because you can, well actually market your business. You can add your blog feeds, form groups, add friends, list your websites and most importantly make contacts. You could even gather more Twitter followers by adding the app to your profile.

So what are you waiting for? At the very least get an account just to check out how marketers are using it to increase their business.

While your there, stop by my profile: Ron Killian and add yourself as a friend or just leave a message on the wall.

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When you really look at Myspace, when you really get down to it, user MySpace profiles are nothing more than web pages.

Not exactly a new or brilliant concept. The brilliant part was the addition of social interaction, making it a seemingly new and amazing place to hang out.

I remember way back when you could get a free website from a place called Geocities. Am I the only one that remembers them?

But it was just a plain old website, nothing fancy and the biggest ineraction your visitors had was a guestbook, if your visitors even used it. While it was cool to have your own webpage back in the golden years, they were… well, boring.

How often do you hear about Geocites these days? Can’t remember the last time I saw the name mentioned.

I think part of it was timing, but Myspace sure hit a cord. It was no longer checking out some one’s home page, it was actually interacting with people. They could leave comments, you could leave comments. You could post pictures, trade question and answer polls and more.

It sure helped to make it easier for people to create their own space on the net. In the past you had to know how to make web pages, you had to know some html, not exactly easy for many people.

If you think Myspace was some new incredible concept it’s not, but Myspace is a perfect example of making an old idea better.

So the question is, what could you make better and become the next Myspace?

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The biggest obsticle I’ve come across, even to this day, is getting motivated enough to take action on what I needed and know I have to get done, or finished.

I know I am not the only one, it plagues all at one time or another. Some more than others.

Though I’m not perfected yet, one way I’ve found to get myself out the “not-doing-what-needs-to-be-done” rut is to start with small victories. That is doing little tasks or chores that are easy to actually finish.

Right now I have a new traffic e-book to finish and I need to get a bunch of viral freebies to get going. So how am I getting myself in the groove today?

Doing the laundry. Ya really.

I’ve been the laundry boy here in my house for a while, every since it was admitted that while my wife was great at doing so many things, including getting the laundry started, she had a strange aversion to putting it away. Bless her, she is a fantasic wife and mother, just washing clothes is not her thing. We all have our own.

But this chore is something I can finish and I can feel good about it, more importantly, it’s something that is getting me to take action, which will get me taking action in other area’s.

Works for me.

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Lately I’ve been reading around the net and there are a few people that get it. But only a few, it’s a short list.

Before I go any further, this is not a doom and gloom post, not by a long shot.

Also, I am not spouting off about things I don’t know or only making guesses.

I know about affiliate marketing because I’ve learned the hard way, mainly through trial and error since 1998. I don’t say this to impress any one, I only say it so that you know I’ve been in the trenches for a long time.

I also am in no way an expert. There are things I still do wrong and some things I don’t do, that I should be doing.

Clear as mud now?

When I say affiliate marketing is not a long term income, I am talking about the traditional form of affiliate marketing. That is, gathering and sending as many potential buyers to an affiliate program and hoping for the best. Which is how the majority create their income, least they try to.

The problem with this scenario is you send off all your customers, never to see them again. Either they buy or they don’t. Simple enough and probably the reason it’s the popular route. I have to confess, it’s probably the reason why it’s been my plan of attack for some time.

Here’s where the problem comes in…

You work your butt off sending all your visitors to the affiliate program. Hey, this is cool, they are buying, I’m making good money. I like this deal.

Then comes the bad news, your sites are no where to be found in the search engines, for no good reason. Or just as bad, you see your sites on page 2 and beyond. To make matters worse, the same thing happened to 90% of your linking partners. Two major traffic sources down the drain. And here you thought you had an authority site and you were safe. Not so my friend. There is not such thing as immunity even when your busting your butt for the search engines.

Does this happen? Yep. It’s exactly what’s happened to me in the past.

Since I was taking the easy way out, I now had little to show for my work, except for depressing sales stats.

What can we learn from this more than real scenario? Don’t send your visitors away without getting something out of them. At the very least, get them on a mailing list, then send them off. If you have a list, you still have potential customers for the future. Take away the traffic and your still in business.

In addition, you could also create and sell your own products so these customers become your customers, not your affiliate programs customers. Now who gets the back end sales?

Do the above with products that over deliver and your building your own customer base and word of mouth advertising, that will last long after the search engine and link trade traffic vanishes.

Johnny site builder is right behind you in the ranks and might be working a little harder and smarter than you.

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When I first found the theme for this blog, seemed it was perfect, just what I was looking for.

Since then I see more and more bloggers using this exact same theme. Of course it’s a free public theme, any one is welcome to use it. But I don’t want my blog to look like any one else’s. I wouldn’t be unique.

So… I guess it’s time to hunt up another theme or change this one enough to be different. I could also find a new one and change it as well.

Has any one else seen this same theme in use on other blogs?

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If you have a Wordpress blog, on your own server, not a Wordpress provided blog, you might want to check your security.

Few days back I was the lucky winner of a blog makeover. What a great day for me!

I wasn’t quite the make over I was looking for. My blog was hacked. Yep, lucky ducky me. It wasn’t the first time and if I was smart, it shouldn’t have even happened.

I wasn’t smart because I was using the same password Wordpress gave me when I installed the blog. I also wasn’t smart enough to study it and think to myself, gee, thats really a pretty lame pass. Sure wouldn’t be hard to figure it out. I am not going to go in to why I finally realized it was a less than secure password, don’t want to give any evildoers any idea’s.

If you installed a Wordpress blog, did you change your password, to a combination that’s near impossible to hack? I did not and I paid for it. Lucky I discovered it pretty quickly and it wasn’t hacked for long. Also lucky they just added some redirects to a few pages. Could have been worst.

So take my bad deal and save yourself, today, right now. You could be next.

How did I fix it? I opened notepad and typed in a long block or combination of letters, numbers and combination of lower and upper case. Next I went to the “Users” page, click edit for my user name and pass, then copied and pasted the new password into the “Updates Users Password” boxes. Of course I also copied the new info into a secret place on my pc.

You could even go one step further. If you’ll notice, with default Wordpress set up, you can not change the user name, it’s admin by default. You could create a new user, with a unique name of course, give that user the highest level of security for the blog. After you have added the new user, you delete the default “admin” user. So now the hacker not only has to figure out your password but now they also have to figure out the user name.

Now, for this to work, the new user name must NOT show up anywhere on your blog. You’ll have to remove any reference to the user name. This would include any “Posted by:” references on your blog. If not it wouldn’t be a secret would it?

One last thing, if you happen to get hacked like I did and they change your password, as they did to me, here is a great video on how to recover your password: Recovering Wordpress Password. I hope you won’t need to use it. Learn from me

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I’ve been testing a few Wordpress Plugins for adding Google Analytics to my blog. Last one I activated, just gave me a blank options pages for the plug-in.

Well, think I’ve found one that works pretty well. As they say, so far so good. It’s not an all out Analytics plugin, it just adds the code to your pages so Google can take your visitors. You do track your traffic right?

I’m really happy with it, so I thought I’d pass it on. It’s called Google Analyticator. The latest version even allows the new JS code from Analytics.

Did I mention it was even free?

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Life’s no fun if your not always learning.

Here’s something about Wordpress I learned the other day.

I’ve been getting into using tags on some of my blogs, why not, some easy extra SEO. Though I am not so vigilant on this blog. Wordpress even makes tagging easy with a built in Tag Cloud Widget. Course it’s not all always that great…

After posting on a number of my blogs I was starting to noticed some of the new tags I had been adding to posts, where not showing in the tag cloud. Hmm.. not good. Did I break Wordpress? Wouldn’t be the first time.

I got to asking around and come to find out, the built Tag Cloud in Wordpress has a limit to the number of tags that display. Seems there is not exact number, but the limit looks to be about 45.

Easy Fix…

Get yourself a good tag cloud plug-in. I’ve been experimenting with the Configurable Tag Cloud Plugin and working great so far. Not only can you set the limit of tags displayed, if there even is a limit, but you can also set just about anything else. You can set the colors for big to small, the font sizes and pretty much everything else.

That’s my lesson for today.

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Are you using article marketing to drive traffic to your business? If not, why not?

You’ve probably heard it a hundred times that article marketing can bring you some hot targeted quality traffic, seems every one talking about it.

Why do you think so many endorse it? Maybe because it works?

Well, if you think about it for a moment, it makes sense.

First off, it’s tough these days to get search engine traffic, and it’s sure no instant traffic tap over flowing with buyers. Even th surfers that do come from the search engines to your website, most of them, probably won’t know you.

With article marketing you can hit your mark. Not only will you look like an expert and author, but the fact that your writing is posted on the directory builds some trust with the reader. It’s almost like some one else recommending your expertise. Two birds with one stone?

If you want to get serious about article marketing, not sure why you wouldn’t, you should check out Article Domination Method. A complete guide on how to not only use this marketing venue, but more important, how to get the most of it. It even comes with some articles to get your started.

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Unless you’ve been living under your house lately, you’ve probably heard Ebay has made some major changes as to what you can or can not sell on their auction site. As far as I can tell, the new change is that you can not sell digital or download only products. I’ve seen many folks saying Ebay is not thinking and they will be losing business, ect, ect, ect. Now come on, this is a major company, don’t you think they really thought it out before going through the steps? Of course they did. You can bet they’ve had many meetings and have hash this out before putting it in place.

My thoughts are, it’s their company, though it might sound rude, they can do what they want. I also believe it is a privilege to use their service, not a right. It’s obvious, they believe it is the best for their business and more important, what is best for their users, both buyers and sellers. Course you can never make every happy all the time.

Now, on with the show… this big news totally re-enforces what I posted on the 20th about not relying on one source of income. I don’t know first hand, but I am guessing, there are a large group of folks who will not have much of an income in a few days, if any. I don’t mean this as a, “I Told You so”, more of a wake up call. It’s like realizing you should have backed up your pc, only after it crashes and burns. I’ve lost plenty of digital 0’s and 1’s in the past.

The sky isn’t falling, these people that have relied on selling e-books on Ebay, could turn their digital products into physical products. Better yet, for many this could open a whole new incredible business opportunity for them. A little thing called direct mail thats worked for many years and still works today. Seems these days, all most of us see is the internet. While it’s a great medium to make money, it is not the only one.

In my opinion, I think direct mail is is more wide open today than it was just years ago, because of the fact that so much as moved to the net. I am no expert in direct mail, so it’s just my “Two Cents”. Think about it a minute though, how much direct mail do you get in your mail box compared to, say 10 years ago?

I am also no Ebay Expert, my only rant about the Ebay change is the short notice, they only gave 7 days for the changes to take effect.

So…

How many income streams do you have? How many more will you add? With multiple streams, if one takes a hit it won’t hurt as much. Not like losing your whole business in 7 days.

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Wow, it’s been far too long since I posted here, my bad.

If you know my background, I’ve basically been an affiliate marketer since 1998. Don’t get me wrong, there are many things about affiliate marketing that I absolutely love, but in the long run it can really stink.

I’ll tell you why it stinks in a minute…

What do I love about affiliate marketing?

First and foremost it can be somewhat auto pilot. What I mean is, you send your traffic off to some one else, they deal with the orders, customers, problems, ect. Your only job is to send traffic. the big picture, you could take as much time off when you want. If your the one selling “stuff” you still need to be on call for your customers. Plus as I mentioned, you don’t have all the headaches.

What’s so bad about Affiliate marketing?

You need to keep busting your butt and you need to keep bringing in the traffic. For the most part your sell something, you get your money and thats the end. So it’s a constant battle. I don’t care what any one tells you, search engine traffic is tough to get and it’s even tougher to keep, any one tells you different is not being honest.

I know from experience, you can not build a website, get links, build traffic, then expect it to make money for you for a long time. Believe me, I’ve tried it many times, I know from watching my stats go down hill, it doesn’t work. It only stands to reason, the search engines are looking for fresh, up-to-date content, why shouldn’t they?

Some would argue that if you pushed programs that pay recurring commissions, such as monthly membership sites

One other little thing, with affiliate marketing, it usually takes longer to get your money. You have to wait for the pay period to end, the program to write your check and the mail to get it to you. The exception is if your selling information products such as $7 Reports, as they pay out instantly through Paypal. A good thing of course..:)

Long story short, it’s hard to build up something that you can step back and take too much time off, unless you hire people to do the grunt work for you ( many guru’s do actually).

It’s not all doom and gloom. Maybe I am just a little jaded today..:)

Affiliate marketing can be a great place to start for those that are new to starting a business on the internet. It’s an easy start because all you are responsible for is sending traffic to an offer. Little mess, little fuss. It’s perfect for getting your feet wet with little to no cost.

The point to my rambling for today is not to leave all your eggs in one basket. I’ve seen many people work for years as an affiliate marketer only to be left with little in the end. While I’ve made good money myself over the years, I’ve also watched my income drop quickly when Google stopped loving my sites.

There is nothing wrong with starting out with affiliate marketing, just remember, keep working on other income streams as you go, build streams that will pay you in the future. Better yet, ones that are not dependent on search engines. Don’t just say your going to do, and never get around to it, that doesn’t work, I know..:)

So maybe now the question is, how and what do you build that will work for you, so your not a slave to your business? You could learn how to build Squeeze Pages that Click to build a list that makes you money are into the future. Take the list building one step further and learn Ezine Marketing Magic and really make your list pay off. Just a couple Ideas. Want more? Let me know.

Think you get the point

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Wheither you like them or not they are kicking butt and taking names in so many ways. The reality is, they really are not doing anything any other company could not do, it’s really kind of shocking.

A good case in point is one of their competitors, Barnes and Noble. I love going to a B&N real world store and spending a hour or more, along with many other worms, but when I’m looking to buy online, I’ll buy from Amazon, sorry Barnes and Noble. It’s mainly the price, your buying the exact same product, why should I pay more? They both deliver quickly without problems.

It’s not price I’m talking about in this post, it’s the huge differences online between the two, the big differences in their selling process.

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Okay, it’s a squeeze page I put up the other day, but not bad so far.

Do you track your conversions? Your Squeeze Pages or Sales Letters?

No? Shame on you!

On a new Internet Marketing forum I joined recently, Standing Start Profits, I mentioned one of my goals was to work less, seems I was not the only one in that camp. Then again, who doesn’t want to work less and maybe make more?

I mentioned a few things I was going to do, or ones that I already did to cut my work load but I got to thinking today and realized there’s a big hole most people miss.

Read the rest of this entry

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The other day I was asked to review a new e-book, which I am always happy to do. The marketer asked for the review to gather some testimonials for the sales page. Nothing wrong with getting others to help sell your product, we know social proof can be a very powerful selling tool.

Problem was, least in my mind, this marketer did not ask for feedback, only testimonials. The product was not terrible, it contained a good number of solid ideas, but for me, it was so general, hardly any specifics on how to actually put the ideas in to action. Some of the ideas were not explained very well.

They say, never fall in love with your product or get to close, for a number of reasons. First and foremost you do not want to get in the frame of mind that you are the only one needed to say your product is great. I am not saying this is the case with the marketer I mentioned, but it makes me wonder.

I may be over cautious, but I never feel my products are good enough and I am always looking for reviews. I am no expert e-book writer, but so far the reviews have been very positive, so I must be on the right track. My point is, I want to know if it’s good or bad. I don’t want to trust only my opinion, as I might be too close in the first place.

I’d rather know up front and fix it, than try selling it and have many unhappy customers. I also know, many dissatisfied customers won’t even tell me they were unhappy, they just wouldn’t buy from ever again and probably spread the word. Not a good thing.

Do you ask for feedback on your products?

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Homer Simpson Summed it up Perfectly…

“How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home wine making course, and I forgot how to drive?”

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