Thursday, July 31, 2008

Good Free Stuff

I got side-tracked today because so many marketers have "moved the freeline" that is is easy to spend the whole day just going through video training series and free ebooks. Some of these are stand-alone, and some are the start of a pre-launch. Some come with resale rights, and some not.

Still other very low cost items came on sale today.

It is hard to know where to start. I think there will be several blog posts just to get through all the good stuff.

James Grandstaff is giving away a lot of great video content on creating squeeze pages as part of a pre-launch to his "Squeeze Page Traffic Secrets." The first fr ee video goes over the basics of why any marketer must have a squeeze page for every promotion. The second video goes in to free and low cost traffic generation techniques leading up to a description of how to generate 600 or more visitors per hour. The last video will be released August 1 and will go into advanced techniques. Access this series at http://www.instantmlmsqueezepages.com.

Sylvie Fortin has had it with shady marketers. She has just come out with a free downloadable book blasting the 15 sins that many Internet marketers commit. One of the pet peeves she shares is that all too many of her clients have asked her freelance company to skimp on help desk services by purposely ignoring requests for refund or requests to suspend a membership. The morons who feel this is acceptable customer service feel the customer is too dumb to notice that they are paying for unwanted services and will eventually just give up.

This poor customer service practice is also one of my pet peeves. I could name some big name marketers who have allowed their help desks to drag their feet on refunds, whether purposely or because of incompetence on the part of the service desk people. I can't tell you how much this has made my blood boil on occasion.

Sophie's free download of "Internet Marketing Sins" can be found at http://www.internetmarketingsins.com.

I'll continue my "moving the freeline list" tomorrow.

Liz Nichols

Friday, July 25, 2008

Keep Posted on Friends and Colleagues With Twitter

Readers are all encouraged to follow me on Twitter. If you do so, I'll more than likely add you to my follow list.

Just today I got the follow notice from marketers I've worked with before, Alan Bechtold and Theo Baskins. I had added both of them just a couple days ago, and now that they are also following me we have the opportunity for quick direct communication using Twitter.

Twitter is for the little stuff we do on a daily basis. It helps folks to get to know you better, and for you to get a unique insight into the lives of some of the people you know as colleagues or mentors. People are so very helpful. If you are having a technical problem and are banging your head against the wall about something that you are doing, then Twitter is out to the people following you. Chances are, someone will come up with an answer. For example, I had not been on Twitter for more than 24 hours when I tried to upload my first YouTube video and found it incredibly slow. At that point I only had 7 people following me, and yet within minutes I had an explanation that helped me to complete the upload successfully. No that's service!

Last evening I joined a new Twitter training series called Twitter Squeeze. For $20 Rick Butts is putting up a series of training videos and other materials to help marketers in Twitter to establish relationships and in the process gradually introducing people who are interested to our products and services. Twitter is NOT primarily a marketing tool. It is a relationship building tool. But it is currently second only to email marketing at getting the attention of people who know you, like you and trust you and generating interest in the products we create and promote. Pitches will be considered spam, especially if anything close to half your posts are there to market products.

Butts' teaching style is funny and informal. He isn't as succinct as he could be, and he kind of wanders around the topic. However, if you pay attention to what he says, you'll get some four and five figure gems, if not more all for your twenty bucks.

As a bonus, Butts includes the download of "Twitter Traffic" by Twitter maven, Tiffany Dow. This will help get you started in this relatively new social medium. Over all, well worth the price at Twitter Squeeze.

Liz Nichols
Twitter

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Why I am NOT Buying Reese's "Traffic Tactics 2.0"

I am sitting here listening to an expert whose opinion I really value, Andy Jenkins of Stompernet, talk about the pros and cons of John Reese's "Traffic Tactics 2.0." Andy essentially confirms what I have also heard from another marketer whose opinion I value, Todd Gross. He likes the product; it's high quality, but it will be like drinking from a firehose for most new marketers.

The market I review for is the raw recruit, the new Internet Marketer. While I have been around a long time online, I am, myself, a relative newbie when it comes to being able to make consistent money either as an affiliate or with my own products. My learning style requires deliberate, hands on, and drill-down techniques the walk me through creating my own projects. If I get it, I do it repeatedly. If I don't get it without a hell of a lot of time and angst, I figure out how to outsource it.

John Reese's "Traffic Tactics 2.0" is not a tool for most beginners. The exception is, it may work for the individual who is not easily overwhelmed by massive amounts of information and requires fairly little handholding. It appears to also be a good bet for those looking for information on keyword research and its importance, creating content, video marketing and social marketing. Andy Jenkin's opinion is these particular segments of the DVD set are outstanding and drill down to a level that will actually help even the newcomer. There are a few other areas where, if you need the specific information, then go for it.

The product is not expensive as comprehensive courses go. (It's under $400.) If you already have some experience putting mini-sites up and are experimenting with tweaking your traffic sources, then this product is for you. If you buy Reese's course just concentrate on the segments that will help you to squeeze more traffic from your existing sites, or build your second or third site with greater effectiveness.

I recommend that if you decide to get it you do your purchase through Stompernet. They will do a complementary job with their bonuses of filling in the gaps on the topic of SEO and the like. If you wish for a more informal and basic level of products complimentary to Traffic Tactics, then go to Michael Cheney's Trafficstupid site to pick up his bonuses for this product.

What I am personally doing is taking a step back from the "Traffic Tactics 2.0" frenzy and concentrating on a level of training that is a little more step-by-step and hands on. Specifically, right now I'm going through Erik Stafford's Fasterwebmaster Silver and I'm personally getting what I need from that. Later, I'll probably go back to some of the specific courses on traffic, list building, and SEO work to fine-tune the niche marketing sites I'm working on now.

I also have Michael Cheney's latest course in hand, "Automatic Income System VIP," and need to go through that and review it in detail. I know that Cheney has a really good list of traffic sources for students to follow, but I have not yet set up a site using his methods. This new training course is not presently available for new subscribers. However, an earlier course, "Affiliate Millions" is presently available on Clickbank at a fairly modest $97 investment.

What I am illustrating in revealing my own decision process on whether to buy this important IM study course is how to evaluate whether a certain product is the right one at the right time and at the right price for you to buy. Under certain conditions it may well be the best thing since sliced bread. In my case, and for many of my readers, it's just too much with too little comprehensive, step-by-step help right now.

Liz Nichols

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Google Nemesis Great for Clickbank Marketers

Those looking for a new way to dominate the Clickbank marketplace will want to get on board with "Google Nemesis," the latest product from the maker of Day Job Killer and the Google Assassin series.

The clever approach taken here is not only training to help those who are just getting started with Clickbank affiliate product marketing, but also to provide buyers with a nifty software tool that will create review pages so that the creator can compare similar Clickbank products and very quickly create review pages for these products.

Reviews are among the hot website categories that Google scores highly now, so doing a review page on a new or hot product is likely to rank you highly in Google.

The software is a little limiting in that it only keeps track of statistics on clicks and sales for Clickbank products, so information product marketers will love this product, but sellers of other types of products will not find it as useful, even though the review page format could work nicely for a whole range of products.

The marketer who figures out a website template format to use with Linkshare, Commission Junction and other major product advertising networks as well as Clickbank will have a really comprehensive product. However, Google Nemesis is certainly a great start for information marketers.

In addition to being more narrowly focused on Clickbank, the only other problem that I see with the product, is that its popularity may kill its ability to make its users any money. In the first day there were already 4000 purchasers for Google Nemesis. I just checked and it has a gravity of over 600 in Clickbank, and this product has only been around less than a week! Unless there is a cutoff on buyers sometime soon, it will lose its value as an exclusive tool, and the value of review pages as a great Google ranking tool may go down considerably. This is always the problem with templated systems.

On the other hand, each site will be individualized by the choice of products users choose to pair and the individual reviews given. So, each website within each template, should be original and should score well in Google natural rankings from that standpoint.

I have yet to try doing a review page, but that is on my short list of things to do. I'll report how I do in ranking and sales when I get this project accomplished.

I'd give Google Nemesis a score of around 8 out of 10, and this may go higher if I can prove my concern about overuse to be unfounded. Give it a try for yourself.

Liz Nichols

Faster Webmaster Silver

Erik Stafford has spared no detail in his latest multimedia course on making money on the Internet, his Faster Webmaster Silver program.

This is, quite simply, the most comprehensive guide for new Internet marketers available today, and it is priced to fit the pocketbooks of almost any new marketer. What makes Erik's approach so unique is that he does not try to fit new marketers into one pigeon hole and insist that you go specifically that one route to making your mark on the Net. He recognizes that different folks will have talents and interests that lead to a particular approach to marketing. Sometimes the niche selected will determine the path to marketing success, and the style of website that will work best.

Erik teaches newbies how to set up a business plan that will fit the market niche and the talents and interests of each marketer. His extensive video library, his written material and downloadable forms cover the basics for each strategy whether it's
  • Affiliate marketing for info products, and selling private label rights products (Clickbank)
  • Affiliate marketing using other types of products (Linkshare, Commission Junction)
  • Ebook creation and marketing of your own products
These are all great ways of getting started in online marketing, and each require a slightly different style of website and different mechanisms for listbuilding and followup. Regardless of the approach, Erik covers the methodology with tools that one can go back to time after time to review.

The complete multimedia package is called the "Silver" membership level. Those wishing more hands-on assistance and help through an exclusive forum and regular membership teleconferences will want to join at the "Gold" level. Both are extremely reasonable for the comprehensive, quality product that the user is getting here.

I've known Erik ever since he released his first version of the Faster Webmaster and the 7 Minute Website. He is a gifted web designer and has become a highly successful Internet marketer in a relatively short period of time. I trust Erik so thoroughly that I have hired him to do a website for me to use in helping people on the brink of foreclosure to understand what is going on. I also took his personal coaching class that he conducted last winter with Theo Baskind, an expert on social networking.

Believe me, you are getting the best possible product and the best possible help to start off your online business when you sign up for Erik Stafford's Faster Webmaster Silver or Gold program. This one gets at least a 9.9 on a scale of 10 in my book.

Have a great day, folks.

Liz Nichols

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Declare Your Financial Independence

When I left my 32 year career in libraries I assessed what it is I'm good at and what I'd like to do with the rest of my life. What I'm good at is writing. What I'd like to do for the rest of my life is write.

Somehow, I got away from my creative high ground and my favorite activities. When I looked at possibly doing magazine writing for a living I realized that even the best authors get about $1/word-- maybe $300 or $400 per article. I didn't think I could live on that or make my financial legacy that way, so I turned to other entrepreneurial ventures.

But nothing else works up my passions as much as putting my thoughts into action through writing. I find few other activities as absorbing or interesting as researching a topic and writing about it, or simply writing about what I already know.

Four or five years ago an entrepreneur could get by without strong writing skills. Once could make sales via the telephone or have someone create a nice looking website as a repository for Adsense ads and one could make a decent living with little ongoing writing. Oh, copywriting has always been important, but that requires a particular persuasive formula and not much real writing skill.

The necessity for real writing skills has come into its own with the proliferation of niche marketing, topic oriented blogs, ezines, and a host of social networking sites that provide a forum for every kind of interest under the sun. Those who express themselves effectively in writing are the ones who will emerge as the experts and the ones others will follow.

This was the message of financial independence I was set to deliver yesterday, on Independence Day in the U.S. Unfortunately, I was called away to my mother's retirement facility yesterday afternoon because of a fall my 92 year old mother suffered. We spent the next six hours at the emergency room getting her stitched up. She'll be ok; the broken bones should mend.

It was a jarring reminder that life can completely change in an instant. We need to seize every opportunity while we have our health and all our faculties to do what we are meant to do in life. For me, now and for the rest of my life, that's being at a keyboard writing away.

Find your passion and declare your own financial independence day!

Liz Nichols

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Hire Me to Write Your Blogs, Articles, E-Books

I'm working on my ELance entry to hire myself out to do what I'm doing for myself much of my time-- writing.

I like to write. If I had my druthers I'd either be writing or reading most of my day. I enjoy the whole process of researching a topic, identifying the keywords that will make that article or blog entry do well in Google's organic listings, writing the article and watching it get ranked high on the search engines. I can't believe that I get to do this for a living!

Anyway, you can now hire me to write for you. I'm a bargain right now. You can try me out for a package of 5 blog posts or articles, 300-500 words, for only $100, where you provide me with the theme, some keywords and a website or other source to check out to help me get material. If I do the research prior to writing the articles I will charge an added $20/hour. Either way, it's under the cost of most of the competition. I will also edit your writing, if you'd prefer, for $20/hour. I am a fast and accurate writer and editor. Your satisfaction is guaranteed, so you can't lose.

I still have some things to add to my profile and portfolio on ELance, but you can check me out there. You can contact me through ELance or Email if you're interested in talking to me about a possible assignment.

Liz Nichols

Advice from Michael Cheney and Joshua Shafran

I looked at two free training videos I recommend to folks.

Michael Cheney did a 13 minute video to show slide of the Internet marketing seminar he attended in Las Vegas. All the major marketers were present and he was able to attend some VIP functions.

The three trends that Michael took away from the conference were: 1. The importance of social marketing right now. Literally millions of people are hungry for the latest training on social marketing right now. This is the new way to create free internet traffic. 2. The importance of creating products prolifically. The gurus never stop creating new stuff. 3. The importance of using experts to fill in the gaps in your own expertise and saving you time. Michael is about to create a product that will help to address all of these trends and secrets to IM success.

The second video was a tutorial by Joshua Shafran called "Don't Shoot the Gurus Yet." Joshua argues that the problem is not the stuff that is created by the so-called gurus. Most of the stuff being created by the tried-and-true IM millionaires are reputable and useful. The problem is, we buy the stuff and then get overwhelmed and don't put it to use.

He suggests that we organize all the e-books, software and hard copy business materials into three lists: business planning and goal-setting materials; marketing materials; technical materials. This will help us focus on what we need first.

The next step is to decide on a business plan and strategy. After that, develop a marketing strategy, and then go to work creating the products, the website and the autoresponder series that will help you to actually make money. Break everything down into definable steps and work on the project a little bit each day. Bit by bit, you'll make progress.

Shafran mentions several products he feels are indispensable. On the marketing side, of course, Clickbank is a great source. He also suggests checking out Hydramedia and Shareasale for products. Some of the technical tools Shafran recommends are Erik Stafford's "The Faster Webmaster," the "MarketingMakeoverGenerator" product, and the AWeber autoresponder system. I anticipate having the Faster Webmaster II available as soon as it comes out in the next week or two. I'll let you know when it comes out. I agree with Shafran that this is the best tool on the market for the web-challenged marketer.

Liz Nichols