APD-Marketing Newsletter

Hello and Welcome to yet another Christmas newsletter.

Amazingly this is the fourth Christmas newsletter I’ve written, yes the first ever newsletter was November 2006, so in all the excitement last month (our first ever video edition)…I forgot our birthday. What a twonk!

Anyway, ’tis the season to be jolly and all that so a very happy Christmas from Alison, Lee and myself.

One thing I would be very interested in knowing is if anyone has actually been with us since the very beginning. If you have let me know. To be honest I would be surprised, and I am surprised that the newsletter is still going, especially as I was threatening to stop it earlier in the year. And, as I have said, with the “Internet Marketing ” market not being our main focus these days, I’m not really sure why I do keep the newsletter going.

But, hey it’s the season of goodwill and I want to spread good cheer at this time of year!

However, to start with a definite lack of cheer. I have noticed recently there has been a lot of really slick video sales letters promising “new ways of getting traffic” and “not having to rely on Google” and “this is something totally different”. I guess I got hooked by the sales hype, so I got one of these products to have a look not really knowing what to expect. It’s ages since I bought one of these really hyped up IM products.

So, yes, I bought Auto Traffic Avalanche. At £37 (yes GBP) it seemed a real bargain considering what was being promised. Now I have to say, Lee did say to me “you know it will be full of hype and no substance” (actually he said bullshit), but I assured him I wanted to have a look and if it wasn’t any good I would instigate a refund – immediately.

A word of warning if you’re tempted by this or another similar product. DON’T. I really don’t like to “diss” other people’s products, but in this instance I have to warn you, this product is sub standard and doesn’t do what it says on the tin!

They promise powerful software that will allow you to make tons of profits without recourse to Google. The “software” is a Facebook Ad Scraper that simply shows you some of the ads being shown on Facebook! There is no ability to manipulate it, and if you do try and search it brings nil results. The tutorials show you how to put up a Facebook ad and also tell you about advertising on a Dating site. I’ve also been told that it allows you to submit and get ads accepted by facebook that would normally be rejected by their stringent rules. However I got no instructions on this and could certianly njot see how it might work!

Beware, the sell is brilliant, the product is not!

And, I am not the first to highlight this. I have received emails from at least two other IM’ers warning about this product.

And once they’ve got you…your email box is bombarded with offers that are sub standard as well. Steer clear of this lot! I am really sad to report the Guy behind it is a Brit! And I thought we were so squeaky clean and above all that shinanigans!

To cap it all off, I emailed three times asking for a refund and was totally ignored. I ended up having to go through Clickbank to get the refund. This is type of behaviour and poor product that gets Internet Marketing a bad name!

Anyway, moving on!

I hope you enjoyed last month’s newsletter video and I think it’s something I’ll probably do again when I have something that is mainly tecahing to offer in the newsletter.

Moving on, here we are at the end of another year, and to finish off this decade, I am going to give you some kick ass “butt kicking stuff” to propel you in to 2011.

You may know that I have a product out called the Life Mastery System. In very basic terms I teach you how to manage your life and interlock time with tasks so that you get any money making project you want completed quickly and with ease.

If you happen to be stuck with information overload or paralysis of analysis, then the Life Mastery System will help you overcome these problems with consumate ease! And go on to build money making projects of any size and complexity with that same ease…if you stick to the system that is. And therein lies the “rub”!

Why do I say that? Well here’s a little story!

As it happens a Buddy of mine has implemented the system and called me up this week. I was going to help him build a website for his new fledgling sales consultancy business and also build him a Facebook Fan Page.

Now, my time is valuable and I have been on at him for about six weeks to get me the imagery and content for the site.

That’s all he needs to do.

He rang me up on Monday after another deadline had passed and said, “Oh I’ll leave it until the new year”.

Then he proceeded to talk to me for 25 minutes while he had a stack of work that could have been earning him money. He has 8 contracts on board when he can really only service 3 or 4 and he has implemented the Life Mastery System…but…he’s not  sticking to it!

Now, to be fair, during that 25 minutes, I reinforced the system and told him how to manipulate the system to help him “get out of a hole” and also how to use the extra time over the holiday period to catch up and make a stack of money.

And I made him promise to have the web images and content be ready for me on 4th January. Watch this space!

First thing he is suffering from is information overload and paralysis of analysis. He has too much on and depsite having a system set up he is not sticking to it so he’s got stuck.

He’s also procrastinating which is an absolute  killer!

So, what’s the point of what I’m telling you here?

I may be repeating myself here, in fact I know I am :>)

You only get this precious life once…don’t waste it! Make the most of every minute and use it effectively to build the future YOU want for yourself and your family! This is NOT a trial run! You get one life and that’s it – ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Ooo, that was a bit morbid for Christmas. But if it shakes you out of your complacency and you get out there and do something poistive then it has been worthwhile.

Have a system in place that allows you to manage your life effectively and allows you to achieve what you want out of life.

It doesn’t have to be my system, although Life Mastery is bloody good, but use something to organise, take action (massive action) and achieve.

I’m just re-reading the 4 Hour Work Week and what a great book that is for putting things into perspective. If you haven’t read it get it here UK, here US. This book is a must read for helping you decide what you want from life. Then use Life Mastery System to get it.

The other point to come out of this, is if you are employing a system like this, no matter what it is…even if it’s as basic as a “to do” list…you simply must be disciplined and stick to it. Because if you aren’t disciplined it doesn’t matter what system you have “implemented” it won’t work!

Discipline is one of the foundations of success. Everyone who is successful is disciplined enough to stick to their chosen system.

Add to that persistence and you have a winning combination.I once heard it said that persistence is the one thing failure can’t  live with…I like that!

Back to discipline…what is the point in implementing a system to help you succeed if that system dictates you need to spend two hours calling clients and you spend half an hour of that time surfing the Internet. I have heard so many people then turn around and blame “the system” for their lack of success. NO! It’s not the system, it’s the person (not) using it!

The most powerful phrase I have ever heard is this…and take heed…

“If it is to be…it’s up to me”.

What does this mean?

Simply this. If you are over weight and on a diet but not losing weight, it’s not anyone’s fault but yours. You are the one that puts that chocolate in your mouth. I don’t sit there and force feed you. You are the one that takes another helping of lasagne when you’re full. You’re the one that has a grande cap with four sugars, no-one forces you to. I probably shouldn’t have used the diet example to highlight discipline at this time of year, but hey, you understand!

Anyway, it’s the same with business and life management. I can afford to spend half an hour on the ‘phone wasting time, can you?

I have to question why you would spend half an hour doing something unproductive when your schedule says you should be making sales calls, or building that new squeeze page, or doing keyword research. I suppose it’s O.K if you have no desire to make money and achieve your life goals..if that’s the case go down the pub and drink yourself stupid! After all that’s what most people who have a job do at this time of year!

I also have to question why people are so addicted to soap operas but that’s another subject all together, suffice to say, in my opinion, such TV programs (along with reality TV) are a complete waste of life force. Oh, did you see….

So, there you have it, my kick up the ass for Christmas! And I make no apology. Most newsletters would do it in the new year, but I like to be first and different, so I’ll give yer both barrels for Christmas…something to mull over during the festivities, eh?

Why not use that extra time off over the holidays to get things in order ready to make a BIG push in the new year? Just a suggestion you understand…a very effctive one nonetheless.

Right…I will be back next year (Oh NOOOOO, I hear you scream, not more guilty ridden diatribe – but ask yourself…why do you feel guilty – OUCH! That struck home hard didn’t it?) to make you feel even more guilty! But if that makes you get up, take action and get successful then I have achieved my aim!

On a more serious note, I would like to thank you for reading over the last however long it is you personally have been reading and to wish you a very happy Christmas and a properous 2011.

I hope you feel I have added value to you, your business and your life generally over these past four years.

Please drop me a line and let me know what you think about these critical success factors (post a comment). Best comments get a free copy of the Life Mastery System…a Christmas gift…hopefully for YOU!

I’ll be the sole judge of that though :>)

Happy Christmas.

And, as always, have fun and make money

Cheers now

Derek

Hello and welcome to the first ever APD video newsletter…I hope you like it!

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MAGIC SUBMITTER

Hello and Welcome to the October newsletter.

If you remember last month, I talked about on page SEO (search engine optimisation) and how everything you do simply has to be keyword driven.

So, this month I am going to talk about off-page SEO. These are all the factors you do off of your web page that are designed to drive traffic. So, we are talking link building here! We’re talking social bookmarking, we’re talking Web2.0…oh yes we’re talking classifieds…and yes, we are talking social networking and a fw other bits and pieces as well!

You see there are two ways of driving traffic to your website (page).

You can pay for it through using the Pay Per Click model via Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing or Bing (there are many others as well) or you can opt to drive you raffic for free.

The trade off is that if you decide to drive traffic for free by ranking highly in the organic results, there is a trade off in terms of the time it takes you to do it. The one thing I will say is that I haven’t placed an normal Adwords ad for over six months now (I still use placement targeting and image ads).

Why?

‘Cos it’s too darned expensive that’s why. Google (in it’s infinite wisdom) has decided it would like to major on getting corporate clients and therefore they want to keep the little people away…so the big corporate boys with very deep pockets who will pay ridiculous prices to be top of the paid search engine, will do just that. Pay Google lots and lots of money to stay there.

So, the small marketer is being priced off of Adwords.

How do I know this?

Well, I can’t name names (for obvious reasons), but I have been able to sneak a look inside a £1m per annum plus turnover Adwords account. And I can tell you they do NOT have to play by the same rules. Not only do they have a dedeicated Google account manager who actually rings them (yes, really). They do not have to keep their keywords relevant to anywhere near the same degree you or I do.

So, for example, if my £1m turnover Adwords account is advertising, lets say “chicken legs” they can get away iwth keywords such as “chicken wings”, “chicken breast”, “chicken meat” and “chicken dippers”. Now you or I would find our QS down at 3 or 4 (or maybe even 1) if we did that, but not with our big corporate client. Quality Scores of 10 all the way!

I’m willing to bet he could probably even get away with a 10 Qs for pork related keywords.

And, before you say anything…I totally agree. There is no way it’s fair. But it’s Google’s ball and we all know what they’re like if you don’t want to play by their (arbitary) rules. They’ll toddle off with their nose in the air and take their ball with them.

That is why we have decided we are not going to pay Google for traffic any more. Just to let you know Yahoo Search marketing and Bing are much more laissez faire, as are many of the smaller PPC engines that you can use.

So, nowadays we drive traffic for free by utilising a backlinking strategy.

Now I can hear your brain ticking over and thinking…so if this is the case…why do I still need to make everything I do keyword driven.

The answer is two fold. If you are going to pay Google for traffic via Adwords, then you have to be as tight as you can with your keyword from the keywords in your ad group through the ad itself to the URL to the landing page. Even then you’ll probably only get a 7/10 QS at best.

However, once you get into the search engine page results system, the keyword is everything.

You should be looking to optimise for one keyword alone and ranking as highly as you can for that one keyword.

So, I talked last month about the on-page facets that you can control, so how do you build a link infrastructure that will drive your page to the top of Google. Because this is the other 70- 80% or so.

There are a number of ways to do this and there are a number of online “tools” or “methods” you can use to drive traffic.

The way I describe this is to build JUICE for your site…juice it up with loads of links so that Google recognizes exactly what the page is about and because of the volume of backlinks pointing to your page…Google fires it up the rankings. I have managed to fine tune this process and can now get a page on to page one of google very quickly indeed.

The one problem…it’s time consuming!

So, you have your money page…you’ve worked hard, it looks good the content is great and it’s promoting a Clickbank product with good gravity, you’re all set to go.

So, now you just have to….

Build a series of Web 2.0 properties
Socially network the page
Socially bookmark the page
Write and submit a Press Release
Write Articles and submit to the Article Direstories with a well constructed resource box
Make a video and submit to all the video sharing sites
Submit to the RSS feeders

And then, just for good measure there are the Directories to submit to, classifieds, forums and finally things like Yahoo Answers.

Do all that and I’ll guarantee you page one – probably position one.

Let’s look at Web2.0 properties to start with. Here’s a list of the most prominent…

Hubpages
Squidoo
Knol
Wetpaint
Ximbio
Blogger
Webs
Xanga
Weblog
SOS Blog
My Opera
Thoughts
Web Node

Blah, blah, blah…just so as you are aware…I submit every bit of content to 17 Web2.0 properties.

I submit every link to 27 social bookmarking servcies.

So, it’s a HUGE job, although I probably don’t need as much as I do, but hey I’d rather do more than less :>)

And it’s interesting, in that I was chatting to a “newbie” Internet Marketer last week over coffee and he said to me “Sh*t, I never realised!”, he went on, “I thought you just put a site up and let the search engines find it”. Well, yes you can do that, but it’s a long drawn out process withvery little (possibly no) guarantee of success.

It’s far better to control this yourself. Yes, it is a lot of work, but it’s not difficult and it sure beats commuting every day, especially when we’re getting some wonderful autumn sunshine right now.

O.K, that’s far enough for this month. Next month (and I promised I’ll publish early), I’ll show you what the full link builing environment looks like. I’ve just got a really cool new graphics tool so I’m going to do you a graphic to illustrate everything…then I’m going to show you exactly how I do all of this with a nice video!

So, next month’s newsletter will be a new departure…graphics and video – how cool is that?

As always, until then…have fun and make money.

Cheers now

Derek

Hello and welcome to the September newsletter coming to you from sunny Spain.

I’m siting here on the balcony of our rather spacious apartment overlooking the Med and supping a large glass of rather fulsome Rioja which I have to say is absolutely wonderul. There is also some chorizo by my side and some local pamboli bread (actually I think the bread is Mallorcan), I’ll have to Google it to find out!

And, funnily enough Google is what I want to talk about this month. In fact I am going to talk about SEO (search engine optimisation)  in terms of keyword choice and on page SEO. I’ll deal with off page SEO over the next two months as it’s a huge topic and I want to cover it properly for you. So, after dissing the IM world so heavily last month, I thought I’d give some really top notch information away free over the next few issues!

So, some really good content over the next three months to really help you drive lots of free traffic to your sites, after all, without traffic you are “dead in the water”. I’ve said before traffic is the lifeblood of your business.

The first thing I have to tell you is that everything you do simply has to be keyword driven. You have to understand what people type into the search engines to find what you have to offer. I will go into this subject of keyword selection in more detail at another time, but I will give you an example of what I mean to get you moving along the right path.

Your keywords have to have “commercial intent”. What do I mean?

Well, we have an affilate site that sells LED TVs, however, if I just optimised for the keyword LED TV, this keyword would be wrong on two levels.

Firstly, it’s too high level, not specific enough, it is a “research keyword”, something someone would type into the search engine when they are looking to find out what LED TVs are all about.

Secondly it’s way too competitive and it’s very unlikely I could rank for that term, even if I was the absolute best Internet Marketer on planet Earth…which of course I am…..

Moving quickly on. So, your keywords have to have some sort of commercial intent.

Commercial intent is shown buy the keywords people type in when they have got past the research stage and are actually ready to BUY…they have got their credit card out and the trigger finger is getting twitchy! They have made that quality and emotional decision to buy. The key to online success is to hit your prospects at this stage of the buying cycle.

So, what sort of keywords would they type in when they are ready to buy.

With the Internet being such a great research medium, people ready to buy will type in things like (sticking with the TV model)…

buy samsung 55 inch led tv
samsung un55c8000
samsung un55c8000 led tv

Do you see the difference between this and the much wider phrase LED TV? If someone types in “led tv” my guess is they are wanting to find out about LED TVs and don’t know what they want to buy – yet.

So, the trick is to use keywords that have buying intention.

Now I can hear you all shouting, but…the keyword “led tv” gets 5 million global searches and the phrase “samsung un55c8000″ only gets 4,400 (according to the Google External Keyword Tool on 7th September 2010). Yep – spot on! But, how many people in that 5 million are ready to buy…even if you can get to page one for such a broad and hugely competitive keyword. Which I very much doubt as it would be so extremely difficult. What’s the point of even trying to get a slice of that non-buying action. Even worse if you went the Pay Per Click route. I dread to think what positions 1-3 on Adwords would cost for the phrase “led tv”.

You need to be far more savvy.

Now, the people who type in “samsung un55c8000″ are probably ready to buy…and I have three out of the ten positions on page one of Google for that very search phrase. I sold a few last month!

Do you now understand the difference between these broad, non-buying keywords and keywords with commercial intent in them?

This is such a key element of Internet Marketing that you MUST understand if you want to be successful online.

Now having understood what sort of keywords we need to use, how to we ptimise for those keywords?

Here are a few very simple rules…and they are simple. These are the on page SEO steps you can take to make sure Google recognises and ranks you for the keywords YOU want!

Firstly…and this trips up so many people…ONE PAGE PER KEYWORD!

Oh, that is soooo much work you cry. O.K try and optimise for six keywords and see where you end up if you don’t believe me. You simply MUST have one page per keyword and that keyword must have buying intent.

Then you need to have the keyword in the <title> tag of your page (so that it shows up on the blue bar at the top of the page).

You should also use the kwyword in your headline tags, or <H1> tags as they’re called (because if you look in the HTML the headline is withing the tages <H1> and </H1>.

Then, the final major piece of on page SEO is your content should obviously be about the keyword. These are the main three factors Google takes into account.

Yes they do look at meta tags, domain names, page names and less prominent “H” tags, but you should get those main three facets absolutely right.

Do this and you will be some 20-30% along the road to getting a bundle of free traffic.

You can check out one of our affiliate sites if you like and see how we handle it…

Planet LED TV

Notice how all the factors I mention above are in place.

O.K that’s it from sunny Spain. I’m getting back to my Rioja and Chorizo, oh and the sunshine…and the wonderfully inviting pool. Only a couple of days left before we head back to the U.K so I need to get some serious R & R in!

Next month I’ll start to look at “off page” factors such as link building, directories, Web2.0 and social bookmarking, which provide the other 70-80% of the ranking juice you need to get to the top of the search engines.

Until then, as always…

…have fun and make money!

Cheers now

Derek

Hello and welcome to the August 2010 Newsletter.

So…what happened to summer then? Huh? If you’re in the U.K (well the South of the U.K anyway), you’ll know summer started off really well but that it has now reverted to type. Yesterday it rained so hard Alison told me it reminded her of dark winter days in Vancouver (where it rains hard constantly in Winter).

So much for the U.K Met Office promising us a “BBQ Summer”. The second year on the trot they have promised us such a summer and the second time it has failed to materialize! So, we’re going to Spain to get some much needed sunshine – see ya!

On the basis that I’m waiting to go to the airport, it’s going to be a really quick newsletter this month. This and the fact that I have very little to say this month…for a change.

So, what’s been going on and why have I been so quiet?

Well, in short Lee and I have totally changed direction now.

We are now heavily into Adwords Consultancy (we have circa £1m worth of Adwords spend under management) and will finalise the Adwords course very soon. I know I said a summer launch, but it is going to be late September (because of holidays). But, it will be the best, most detailed Adwords course available. Some of the techniques will blow you away, Lee has managed to get a “line” into Google, some of the stuff he’s found out is real gold! Suffice to say, if you spend BIG there are different rules! More on this soon.

We have also finalised our new strategy for online profits and we are overjoyed with it! If I say so myself it’s bloody brilliant! whilst we’ll leave all our “Internet Marketing” stuff “out there”, we will not be developing or building any more products for that market. I’ll still let you know if anything interesting happens or a good product comes along and keep my finger on the proverbial pulse, but not much else.

We have yet to decide if we are going to teach this new strategy, certainly we have to thoroughly test it first. We’re just about to start testing and are still doing some research into added tools we might need. We also have a ITT out for some software development work. If you’re a top notch PHP developer drop me a mail, I may be able to utlise your services!

As for the Internet Marketing market, well not much to report to be honest.

I managed to have an in depth chat with a reclusive Internet multi-millionaire on Sunday and it was very revealing indeed. I can’t say who this Guy is, but it was interesting that he has made so much money that he is now a tax exile. And, he’s made NONE of it from the “how to make money” niche.

His view was very much in tune with my own that the market is full of pretty much duff information. It’s fair to say there are little scraps of useful information in most IM “how to” products that are released, but that is all, scraps.

I also picked up another very interesting snippet of information this week. Did you know that 95% of all “things” sold online are physical products. No ebooks, or download “how to” video, but hard physical products. TV’s, DVD’s, Olive Oil, Clothes and Toys.

It’s also interesting that my conversation also covered the fact that people now expect to buy one $47 “how to” product and make a million. Sorry to burst your bubble but that just doesn’t happen. Why would anyone sell you all their secrets for $47? Think about it, would you?

You see, and I have said this before, working online is like any other business. There are certain things you have to do to become successful, and…in line with other businesses you have to do a lot of them and build that unstoppable momentum  you need to become truly successful.

All the so called Gurus make loads of money online, but…and here’s the rub…they don’t make it from selling how to products to you and I, oh no!

They make it with little underground websites that sell all manner of things. The “how to” stuff they sell is the icing on the cake, but…it is normally re-hashed or out of date techniques that worked well and made them money at one stage. However, as other jump on the bandwagon the effectiveness of these techniques starts to wane and guess what…they sell it to you as a new technique for making money online! Q.E.D

Knowing my point of view at least you’ll know a product is worth it if I recommend it to you!

You see, you need traffic and driving traffic takes a lot of hard work. So, there is no quick fix. Sorry but that’s a fact. If you want to make money online you need to have a strategy and the automation tools to work it, then you have to apply and work that strategy. only then…and over time, and if you persist you will start to make money. Slowly at first, until you hit critical mass when you then have a residual type income. But…it takes a lot of web properties to achieve that, an awful lot!

Whetted your appetite?

More next month :>)

As always, have fun and make money.

Cheers now

Derek

Hello and welcome to the July newsletter.

I am going to be a little “dark” this month. Why? Well, if you believe what is being written dark times are with us, particularly if you live in the U.K, although I understand it’s not a bowl of cherries over the pond in the U.S either.

Why is this?

Well here in the U.K it’s simply that the outgoing Labout government have spent hundreds of billions of pounds that they simply didn’t have! That has left the Tories holding a baby they may well come to wish they’d never got to hold because they now have to administer the nasty medicine!

However, despite the fact that I try to stay “a political”, I know this needs to be done otherwise the U.K would simply implode like Greece.

It is interesting though that a Government is allowed to first of all sell the family silver, then borrow more than it could ever hope to pay back in the lifetime of three parliaments let alone one and get away with it. If you or I did something of such magnitude it would be called theft or fraud. This is why I stay out of politics…it makes me angry!

Oh, and then…Labour have the gaul to sit on the opposition benches and slag off the Tories for making the cuts. Why is there not a “no party” option when it comes to politics? Perhaps the time is ripe for something new and different, like…an Honesty Party – I just can’t see it though! Having said that I honestly believe Tony Blair came to power with good intentions, but got corrupted along the way. I think the same of David Cameron, but he has one hell of a task in front of him.

But, the bottom line in all of this is that Governments are not actually producers. All they do is spend money that they have taken (some may say stolen) from us by way of tax. Could it be different if Government were removed, tax was abolished and we just paid for all the services we needed directly? I think business would probably make a far better job of providing!

And there’s the rub, the point of this summer, sunshine filled newsletter!

All of the spending cuts will damage the economy. However, having 56% of the productive workforce working in the public sector being unproductive and supported by the productive 44% in the private sector was NEVER sustainable over any length of time…I just cannot understand why Labour think this is possible. The U.K would have crashed and burned if Labour had won the election.

However, what now needs to be done will likely make the Tories so unpopular they will never get elected again for a generation…leaving the door open to Labour to pull the same trick again 5 years down the line.

O.K, I’ll get off the soap box now :>)

As a small business owner what does this mean for you? How does all this information translate to what you need to do?

Well first up, as much as the current course of Government action is needed, the Government are not going to come along and bail you out if you get into trouble. So, it’s up to you! This is a subject I have talk about on many ocassions, the need for you to take responsibility for yourself and your actions. This is more so than ever today.

Why? because business is tight. People are cutting costs like never before and selling anything is going to be more difficult. You have to be the best, you have to shine out from the crowd.

This was brilliantly illustrated this week when we had an estate agent round to value our house.We were elaying a tale of woe from when we brought this house 4 years ago. There was one realtor who used every underhand tactic he could to try and grab our purchase for himself and then when all parties refused he tried to undermine the sale by gazumping.

Outrageous business practices. We were told, with some glee, by two local agents they had gone out of business.

You see, people have got wise, and if they are going to part with their precious money, they not only want the best goods or servcies, they want a keen price and a great overall package. You have to provide that to prosper…you should anyway. Offer outrageous service, be the best you can be and offer the best products and services – end of!

It’s time to stand up and be counted!

So, don’t complain about how dark it is and bemoan the fact you can’t see what’s going on. Put a light on! Do what Winston Churchill did in those dark days. He lit a candle of hope and everyone followed it. Do the same and you will prosper, be a champion in your market.

It is absolutely vital that you join me in a stand against all the negative that is going on! You and I need to stand up for the Entrepreneur, we need to stand up for freedom and business, we need to stand up against the “sheep” who are paralysed by the situation and retain our hope and positivism!

We need to take action – massive action!

Most of all, you and I need to retain faith and belief in our own ability! Our ability to drive our businesses forward no matter what! This is your life and your business and you live (or die) by your own eforts. This is the beauty of having and running your own business as opposed to being a wage slave in someone else’s pocket. Sure, sometimes it’s scary, but Oh, how good does it feel when you win! How good does it feel to se your inbox full with orders, how good does it feel to go shpping on a Monday morning when all the sheep are at work…how good does it feel to do what you want, when you
want and to live life on YOUR terms.

Recognise what is good in yourself and encourage that in others, be a beacon of hope! This will cause a ripple effect as you make contact with more and more people. Have the absolute joy of knowing that YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE – For the better! There is without doubt no better feling of satisfaction than this!

I genuinely hope that this rousing little “speech” will help you go out and be the best you that you can be. To go out there and despite it all make a diference so that you and your family can prosper no matter how dark it gets.

Did you know that cosmetics giant Clairol was born during the great depression? A certain huge coffee company was also founded at the same time.

If you do need an injection of positivism, then get my Life Mastery System, it showed me the way, it can do the same for you!

Never let anyone tell you that you can’t do it, because I’m here to tell you, and the weight of proof says, that YOU can.

I believe in you! Go do it!

Have fun and make money!

Cheers now

Derek

Hello and welcome to the June 2010 newsletter.

I can’t believe that the FIFA World Cup is just a few days away, it seems to have been so far away for so long and now suddenly here it is. Another example, if you needed one, of my thoughts on time and how it can play tricks on you!

Anyway, I know it is close now because I put my World Cup wallcharts up today! Sad? Nah, I love football (or soccer as many of you know it).I’ve stood on the terraces since I was nine years old and it’s in my blood, so I just cannot wait for the soccer feast to start! I will be the proverbial child in a sweet shop! Don’t expect to hear too much from me in June and early July :>)

So, I promised you some information on the people I genuinely feel are worthwhile in the world of Internet Marketing training this month.

To a large degree it really depends on what you are looking to achieve, but when all is said and done there are two people I really listen to when it comes to learning all about how to make money online.

One is very straight down the line, one is a little edgy, a bit “black hat”.

Firstly Armand Morin. I have met Armand a few times now, and I always find his training superbly structured and very easy to understand. There is always a well thought out process and everything fits very neatly into place.

He clearly thinks very deeply about what is the best way to get the required information across, and it wasn’t until I finally bit the bullet and went to an Armand Live event that I really got fully to grips with Adwords. I also learned some amazing techniques that have saved me a fortune in Adwords costs.

If you didn’t act on the emails I sent out last week, you missed a trick as Armand was giving pretty much everything he has ever done through the AMP product, but it’s gone now. And that highlights something else I like about Armand. He said he was going to take the offer down at a certain time and he DID! It wasn’t just marketing puff!

This Guy does what he says he’s going to do and that is in very short supply in the IM market.

So, here’s what you should consider if you want to get some of the best training available on the following subjects…

Pay Per Click Basics – Secret Adwords Tips. I paid over $2,495 for this as part of an overall IM training package from Armand, it has been worth every cent! This is everything you need to know to keep Google 100% happy, your cost per click down and your click through rate high.

Presented in an easy to understand concise video format, this course is invaluable.

Pay Per Click Advanced – Get Secret PPC. It’s the best Adwords course around for new techniques that very few people are using with Adwords. You will get incredibly low cost per click using the techniques taught in this great little product.

If you want to be trained from the ground up on everything to do with making money online, then you should get into something like AM2.0 Silver from Armand. This is a ground up training program that takes you by the hand and teaches you how to make money on the Internet. I guess it’s a sort of “getting started” type training and you can graduate to a higher level program as you become more skilled.

If you have the basics under control and you want more advanced trainings then I would suggest either Internet Marketing Complete (which you can only get on to through one of his other programs) or Internet Marketing Explained. These are detailed products that go deep into each and every corner of how to make money online. I have got both and they are excellent.

In short I have followed Armand Morins training to achieve what I have so far online. If you can get to an Armand Live event do it. You’ll learn the latest advances and technqiues in online marketing and get access to Armand himself as well as training programs that are not available elsewhere.

At the VERY least you should sign up for Armand’s Internet Marketing Newsletter which is free!

Next Howie Schwartz. O.K, this Guy isn’t for everyone. You have to be made of stern stuff to follow Howie. He’s off the wall, which I like, but he’s down and dirty too. He’s “black hat” in some of the stuff he does, but depsite that he teaches very sound principles…and you can’t argue with what he earns online.

I mentioned last month that I was getting a bit fed up with the direction the “IM How To” market is going, and I stand by that. It’s getting too glitzy, there’s far too much puff and boast and not enough good content/substance. Too much reccyled crap about.

What I really like about Howie is that he gives everything away in terms of his techniques. He does this by way of teasers that he uses to promote his products. However if you get everything he releases by way of the free PDFs, then you can piece together his strategies. I’ve had to buy a couple of his products to fill in the occasional gap, but generally you can piece it together.

However, be warned, it takes a lot of work to unravel them! And they’re not for the faint hearted!

And, I got our new direction from Howie. This Guy creates stunning success with affiliate marketing and it’s his strategies for physical products affiliate sales that I am going to be following from now on.

That means I am walking away from the “Internet Marketing” market.

I have thought long and hard about the newsletter, and for now, I will keep it going for now. I’ll keep a watching brief on what is happening in the world of Internet Marketing as I have decided I want to remain informed. So, I will continue to pass on my oberseavtions each month by
way of this newsletter. Although the nature of the information may well change given my stance, but it will evolve and I’ll always endeavour to deliver value to you. If I don’t unsubscribe :>)

But, I will not be building new IM styled products from now on. I’ll add to Internet Marketing Strategic when something is worth adding and there are a few bits I still have to add. I’ll let you know when that is done. You might as well join if you haven’t already done so…it is free and always will be.

So, my new strategy is to sell physical produts as an affiliate. I think it was Jonathan Volk (check out his blog) that suggested 95% of products sold online are physical products, so that’s where I am going.

It’s more fun and the cost of sales is so much less.

I have already started putting the plan into place and already have four sites up – no point in hanging around! It’s great fun selling stuff like TVs and Train Sets (yes, I am definitely a BIG kid at heart). Check out my embryonic site at Train Set Junction, how much fun is that?

Sadly though, in implementing this new strategy I have already come up against a problem that reminded me of why I wanted to move away from dear old IM.

I purchased a product to help me build my affiliate sites. It automated the content for affiliate sales WordPress listings.

The product is a WordPress Plugin from a company called Digitalquill here in the U.K. I really don’t like to bring people down, but I have a duty of care when I find something amiss. I don’t want you getting burned if you decide to go the same route.

So…Don’t buy any of Digitalquills WordPress pluging products.

Not only are they inferior and give very poor functionality, if you ask for a refund you won’t get it. To not offer a no questions asked refund on a product purchased on spec over the Internet is the worst sort of bad business ethics I can imagine.

I have had extensive contact with Matt Houldsworth, the owner at Digitalquill and depsite my protestations he simply refuses to offer me a refund. This is exteremely poor form and I felt I should warn you.

It also irks me that he is a Brit and is clouding our good name for fair play! If you are offering ANYTHING for sale online, you simply have to offer a minimum 30 day, no questions asked money back gaurantee.

Moving on, give me a couple of months to refine my new processes and to find all of the tools I need (I think I’ve identified most of them) and I may run a course on what I am doing. Keep an eye out for the autumn.

Talking of courses, Lee and I have developed an Adwords one day course and we are going to be delivering the first course in mid July somewhere in Hertfordshire UK.

If you are interested in learning all about Google Adwords, how it works and how you can make the best from it, then join our Digital Marketing Online list at www.digitalmarketingonline.co.uk For now this will just be UK, but I can promise you a great fun filled day where you will learn everything you need to know to tame the Google Adwords Money Sucking Monster :>) This is another new strand to our business which again has proved to be so much fun.

And finally…watch out if you’re using Twitter for your business. We just got banned!

Am I sorry? Not really. Truth be told, Twitter did very little for my business. Maybe I didn’t get it right but it doesn’t matter as the APD Twitter account has been banned!

What happened?

Well, take a look at the new search results page in Google. It is outstanding by the way and I love the way you can now break down and refine your searches. However, if you take a look at the new “updates” section that appears when you click the “more” link on the left hand side…you’ll notice most of the results in “updates” are…tweets!

Ummm, so Twitter has got into bed with Google and now thinks it’s a BIG player on the Internet? So…whilst it was OK to market anything you liked while they were growing as soon as they get into bed with Big G, sorry…you’re not allowed to use Twitter for marketing any more.

O.K, I’ll be the first to admit that I probably abused Twitter, as I auto followed and auto posted, 99% of my posts were links to my sites as opposed to “I’m making a coffee”. But, if I’m honest I think it sucks. Twitter were happy for me to be there until they got in bed with Big G and then they don’t like me any more. Cast aside like an oily rag!

Seriosuly though I made very little from Twitter, so I think it was over-hyped and probably only worthwhile if you’re Steven Fry :>) I may set up a new account under my real name, but I won’t try like crazy to build followers like I did before, it’s just not cost effective.

O.K, that’s it for this month and what a lengthy tome it is! I hope you appreciate me and all
this brilliant free info I give you each month!

Keep the faith, and may your team do well in South Africa…as long as England win!

As always, have fun and make money.

Cheers

Derek

Hello and welcome to the May 2010 newsletter.

First up I’m sorry it’s a bit late this month, I managed to get myself caught up in Election Fever! I normally try to stay “a-political”, but this one has been so crucial to the health of the U.K economy I developed a keen interest.

With my son doing a Masters in political science he has also wanted to “chew the cud” over what has been happening, so I joined him for a late night vigil on results night and, well…I sort of got carried away!

So, here we are a few days late.

Second up, you will notice that Lee and I have been very, very quiet this last month. We haven’t promoted a single product and have been re-evaluating our online business.

I hinted at this last month, I also hinted we may pull out of the “How To Make Money Online” market all together.

The problem is as follows:-

If Lee and I are totally honest, we are just not confident enough that the plethora of product launches offer either value for money or information that can help you turn a profit.

The market has become so competitive, but no-one is really giving you and end to end, turn-key solution that will definitively teach you step-by-step how to make money online.

And, with the pace of change, too many of the Gurus are picking out one small slice of the total picture and marketing it to you as a “silver bullet”! In my humble opinion, this is not fair and, worse still it plays on your desire to make a better life for you and your family.

To sum up, when Lee and I looked at our hard drives and book shelves we saw a ton of  “How To Make Money Online” products, but…when we looked at what we were actually using to make money online ourselves, well, out of all those products, probably about 20% of the information!

That means 80% of what we have purchased historically has been a complete waste of money. And, what made it worse was that it was a little bit from this product, a technique taken from that product there. So, you start to see the picture that is emerging here!

There are exceptions to the rule, and next month I am going to give you a definitive list of what I think is worthwhile. But, in truth it really does depend on how you are planning to actually make money online.

The upshot for us is that we are definitely going to completely change our strategy, in fact the process is well under way.

Lee and I are going to make a decision on what shape our commitment (or not) to the “Internet Marketing” market is going to be later this week.

The way it is looking at the moment, it’s likely we will withdraw and go underground and make 95% of our money away from this market.

We have though played around with doing some one-to-one and one-to-few consulting and that has been very successful. So, we may well teach our new strategies at special invite only seminars.

We did our first invite only seminar on Google Adwords last week and had some VERY satisfied customers who can now see the wood through the Google Adwords trees! We also showed two techniques that very few people know about and can help you get clicks at just a few cents!

Again, next month I’ll be giving you details of how you can get on our preferred list for this highly sepcialised training. This will only be for people who are serious about learning how to really win the online game.

It won’t be cheap training, but it will be detailed and will tell you exactly how Lee and I are now making our money online. You’ll need to be prepared to buy some relatively expensive advanced tools as well, which we will show you exactly how to use.

Anyway, that’s it for this month, I’ll be back with everything I have promised you here then. After that, well…I’m really not sure, June will probably be the last IM based newsletter.

Until then, have fun and make money!

Hello and Welcome to the April newsletter…

…and at last after what seemed like a very long, dark and cold winter here in the U.K, some nice weather!

I’ve been promising myself a holiday for it seems like ages now, but we have been pretty busy and it just hasn’t happened, but, it was nice to be able to sit in the garden, in a t-shirt and enjoy a cup of tea in the sun over the weekend!

So, why have we been so busy?

Well it’s a long story and I don’t want to say too much just yet as we haven’t finalised our plans, but it does involve a change of direction for Alison, Lee and I.

It may even mean the demise of this newsletter.

The reasoning is that it just seems that the Internet Marketing niche has started to get a bit silly! I have always had this “thing” about a lot of “IM” products being recycled, old, pretty useless information.

And, it annoys me that no-one tells you the full picture, or very few Gurus do. The products that they release a fad based rather than rooted in factual, hard profit-making information you need to suceed.

And the bottom line is I’m getting even more pissed off with it.

It also seems that some of the Gurus are getting desperate as well! The headlines on emails are becoming ever more sensationalised. The stories are becoming harder and harder to believe and the sales pitches are getting ever more incredulous.

Headlines like “Accident”, “I was *dared* to do this” and “1.2 Billion Email Leads”, for goodness sake, come on! Credit us with at least a bit of common sense!

I haven’t purchased an “IM” how to product or software for…well I can’t remember!

Don’t get me wrong here, there are good products out there, but the really good stuff is not hyped up, it’s sold factually, under the radar even.

I guess this frustration is one of the reasons we launched Internet Marketing Strategic, because we wanted to really help people and rip away some of the hype.

So, we will be changing direction and soon. Some of that change of direction may be relevant for you, most of it will probably not be.

We are currently researching the tools we need to take us where we want to go!

So, in the spirit of wanting to see you succeed while the newsletter lives (as it has for nearly three and a half years now), I am going to give you as much useful info as I possibly can.

We haven’t publicised this, but Lee and I do the ocassional one-to-one consulting for local businesses. Generally for friends of friends. So, I am going to use an example of from one of our live coaching clients to illustrate a point.

This particular client knew he was spending too much in his PPC budget but didn’t know why, so Lee and I had a look.

In a fiercely competitive market, where clicks are $3.00 or more,  we were able to quickly establish that he was wasting around $77 PER DAY on irrelevant clicks that had absolutely no chance of becoming sales.

Why?

Keyword match-types.

You should (hopefully) be aware that Google Adwords provides three different keyword match types; broad match, phrase match and exact match.

Exact Keyword matching will only show your ad when the search term (what your customer types in to Google) matches your keyword exactly, in the exact same order, no misspelling, no typos, no plural, no partial matching.

Secondly, Phrase Match will match the search term if it includes your phrase somewhere; the phrase “red dress” would be matched to searches for ‘ladies red dress’, ‘girl in a red dress’, ‘make a red dress’, ‘red dress design’, ‘red dress lyrics’. Now, of course some of these are relevant, but some are not and the irrelevant keywords waste your budget.

Phrase Matching is quite tightly targeted though, so the same phrase would not match searches such as ‘red evening dress’, ‘red cocktail dress’ or even ‘dress red’. The words are in a different order or do not form the phrase you’re bidding on, so you should thoroughly research and include each variation in your campaign to avoid missing that traffic.

Lastly, Broad Matching is the widest possible match type, and matches any search which includes the words in your keyword, misspellings, plurals, the words in a different order.

This is fine in some circumstances, but you need to exercise extreme caution when using this match type;

You should research all possible search variations which might match your keyword. But you do need to be oh so careful with broad matching. In the example broad match ‘red dress’, this matches; red head dress, dressing in red, red gingham dress, red white and blue dress, red or
dead dress, red dressing gown and many other, potentially wasteful clicks which aren’t relevant enough.

Can you now see why you have to be so careful?

Yes, some of the terms may be relevant, but other will be completely irrelevant.

You may argue that you wnat the traffic, but what use is a click for red head dress if you are selling red dresses? It’s a complete waste of your PPC budget.

Also, matching one broad match keyword in this way will make it difficult to target that keyword with a relevant ad and to land that searcher on a totally relevant page on your site. This in turn will make it impossible to measure the success of each search term and…of course you WILL pay a lot more for each click.

Worse still, Google will uses what it calls, ‘expanded matching‘ on broad match keywords, often using synonyms. Can you see where this is going?

In a recent example I saw, fujitsu bracket was matched with ‘mount fuji’! And ‘monitor mount’ matched for ’shower screen bracket’!

Completely irrelevant.

So, what should your keyword strategy be?

Depending on your market, budget…

I would recommend bidding on exact phrase matches to begin with.

I would research as many variations as possible and stick with exact match to see what results you get. Once you understand how your market is working then you could introduce some phrase matches, but just a small number and in a separate ad group…and monitor closely!

Once you have monitored and understood your market further then maybe a small number of broad matches could also be included to pick up anything you missed in your research.

You should continue to monitor frequently and in particular the search query report for your account to add more phrase or exact match variations.

Finally, make sure you use negative keywords to exclude the irrelevant searches you find and obvious mismatches. For example if you have “wilson federer tennis racket” as a keyword make sure you have negatives such as wrap, handle, bag etc. (You don’t want to get clicks for tennis bag if you are selling rackets do you?)

One final word of caution if you have been using broad match keywords in your account, removing them all in one go can upset the ecology of your campaign – be very careful before implementing a policy change such as this.

O.K, that’s it for this month, I will be back next month, but as I have said, I’m not sure for how much longer as this newsletter does take up a lot of my time and I don’t think it is going to fit in with our new direction.

Enjoy it while you can!

Have fun and make money.

Cheers now.

Derek

Hello and welcome to the March edition of the APD newsletter.

At last, some nice weather here in the U.K, Monday and Tuesday last week were wonderful. So, I took a day out on Monday and Alison and I went for a nice walk around the Hertfordshire countryside in the sunshine.

It was absolutely wonderful to be out walking without a coat for the first time in 2010. It sort of reminded me that we haven’t had a holiday for a few months! Mind you Lee and I have been hugely busy as you will have seen with the launch of Internet Marketing Strategic. If you haven’t joined yet, and you are interested in making some money online, get along and join. It’s free, and you have my promise that it will always remain free.

So far there’s great video tutorial series on running your website (everything you need to kow about control panel), affiliate marketing, SEO and Adwords. There’s also loads of eBooks and website and WordPress templates…oh, and a huge file of website graphics…all totally gratis.

Join Internet Marketing Strategic Now…it’s free!

There will be more great info added soon, so make sure you use it to help you get yourself up and running and making some money on the Internet. Even if you know what you’re doing there’s still some great resources, you have nothing to lose.

And, if you know someone else who might be interested do them a favour and tell them about Internet Marketing Strategic

I have also totally revamped the APD site during February, so you can now find that at APD Internet Marketing – loads of Internet Marketing product reviews and links to all of our own products, which brings me nicely to…

..the launch of my Life Mastery System.

I’m giving you the “heads up” on this because it’s at a special introductory price at the moment, only for APD subscribers…so get in quick before I withdraw the offer.

What is it? Well, it’s the distillation of how I turned myself around from no-hoper to the lifestyle I’ve always dreamed about in just a few months.

It’s a short concise eBook (with some bonus items) that shows how I learned from some of the “money-power” giants of this world. How I learned to control time, money and therefore my life and destiny.

It’s hugely powerful stuff that shows you how to break down time and money into their smallest component parts, exercise absolute control over them and then build powerful money making systems from those minute parts.

You see, most people just do not understand time and money at the most basic level. If you can master the art of doing this, you gain complete and utter control over your life and destiny.

Life will be dancing to your tune, not the other way around!

Please go and have a look at www.control-your-life.info/Life_Mastery_APD_Offer.html

Be quick though as I will be taking this offer down on Friday12th March 2010 and then it’s gone forever…even if you plead with me :>)

O.K, I hope you’ll indulge me blowing my own trumpet a little this month, it’s not very often I take a major chunk of newsletter space to do so :>)

So, let’s get on with some money making info for you.

I talk to a lot of people over the course of any given month and obviously, being in “Internet Marketing” I tend to talk about the subject an awful lot. In talking to many people on this broad subject, one of the things that comes up time and again, particularly for those just starting out, is how do you build a website? I’ll admit it was the same for me.

I don’t know about you, but I have a chromosome lose that dictates I just HAVE to know how everything in my business works. So, as sure as night follows day, I had to know how to build a website :>)

So, I am going to make a very bold statement right here, right now.

This “personality defect” has cost me many thousands of dollars over the last four or five years!

Why, I hear you ask?

Well, it held me back in terms of the time it took me to learn how to build even the most basic website. And, it also held me back because the websites I built were, not to put too finer a point on it…complete and utter crap!

There are three issues here.

Firstly, the time issue, which I have alluded to already, secondly a tools issue and finally a training or knowledge issue.

I’ll take these in turn.

Time, I’ve talked about time many times before and by now you will know my view that time is a very precious commodity indeed. This life of yours is NOT a trial run. This is it, you get one chance and once your race is run that’s it…there is no more. A bit unnerving that, isn’t it?

So, if you’re like me and not wonderfully good technically do one of two things. Either, get yourself some proper training in order to make your self good…or get someone who is good and time efficient at building websites to build yours for you.

By default we have gone into the knowledge aspect of this here. What I will also say is that gaining the knowledge can be very time consuming and costly as well.

Where did I go wrong? Well, I guess I tried to learn Dreamweaver, which is a fairly complicated program, by myself from the ground up. It was a stupid task when I should have been concentrating on the making money aspect.

So, talking of tools, there are now tools that can make your life a whole lot easier. I now use Blue Voda, and it’s great, it’s also FREE – yipee! If you can use Word, you can use Blue Voda with about an hour in the online tutorials.

It’s a great tool and when I do build sites, it’s what I now use and I am now reasonably proficient.

However, it’s still NOT a good use of my time…if I’m honest I have come to enjoy pottering around in Blue Voda, but I can get “lost” in it for hours on end. I repeat it’s not a good use of my time.

So, when it comes to technical stuff, if you enjoy it and you are good at it, then great go for it. But if you are not that way inclined…outsource!

I use Rentacoder and Odesk. I’ve stopped using Elance because prices were going up and I just didn’t seem to get what I wanted on the ocasions I did use it.

When you outsource you do need to be prepared to “kiss a few frogs” first. I had a situation where I was looking to hire someone to do a one week “socialisation” project for me.

I ended up hiring a young lady from China, first time I had used her and she was quite aggressive on pricing and closing the deal. I felt she really wanted the work so despite a slight nagging feeling I hired her.

She never did a drop of work, and I ended up having to go through arbitration to get my money back. I guess the lesson here is trust your instincts, if something appears to be too good or doesn’t feel right, be more diligent in checking it out!

But don’t be put off, because this is a very cost effective way to get work (of all sorts) done and after a while you find a number of suppliers that you trust and deliver good work on time and to budget.

I now have a list of “go to” suppliers for websites, writing, SEO and socialisation.

Outsourcing is how you really start to leverage time in your favour and I have become a great fan. It has also taught me that I don’t have to understand in finite detail everything that goes on “under the hood” of my business…I still like to know though :>)

Oh, and just before I go, one other little trick I have used to good effect in certain circumstances is to use the local University for technical resource. I have developed links with a couple of local educational establishments that have Computer Science departments.

One two occasions I have used final year students to do web development work for me. This is a real win/win as the student can use the project towards their course and you get a young, enthusiastic and hungry technician who is very keen to please to do your work for you…for beer money!

It does take some time and effort to find the right people to talk to and to gain trust, but it can be a worthwhile tap into some excellent resource.

And talking of leveraging time, I had to go out in the rush hour this morning! My daughter came round last night and stayed over (she can’t resist my amazing roast dinners), so I had to get her to college by 9am this morning! It’s a seven mile run, door to door, and it took….54 minutes.

What a waste of time and life force! Although clearly I enjoyed extra time with my daughter, but…I queued in traffic for most of the seven miles! Frightening, why would you want to do that just to go to work? Stay at home and make money online, it’s much more fun!

O.K, that’s it for March, I’ll be back just after Easter with the April newsletter. Argghhhh, Easter, haven’t we only just had Christmas?

I’m sure time goes more quickly the older I get…but that’s another subject for another day.

Until next month, have fun and make money!

Cheers now

Derek