APD-Marketing Newsletter

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 October issue of the APD newsletter. Sorry it’s a bit late this month, Lee and I have been negotiating some big deals in what for us will be new markets.

It’s exciting stuff and I hope to be able to tell you a bit about it before Christmas (Ouch…I said Christmas…did you see the Christmas ads on the T.V this week? How ridiculous!)

Anyway, as promised last month, I am going to finish off the Internet Marketing route plan to success in this newsletter.

Blame Google for the delay :>)

If you remember back to August I was just about to configure your autoresponder.

Once you have set up your autoresponder (with the “global” settings) and your confirmation page… you will need to send the course parts in sequence.

Now, you can send the content within the body of your emails if you like, I have done this in the past. However, you want to subtly sell stuff in your course…to try and make some money.

Yes, you can have affiliate links in your email, but I prefer to send readers to a page on my site where the course is housed.

This gives me many more options. I can add graphics (and make them affiliate links) or have Adsense on the page, show banners and also have hyperlinks to my own related products or…to be honest whatever I like.

I get so much more flexibility if I get them to a page on my site…plus there are links to the rest of my site! This is not really rocket science is it?

Just a quick note on the subscription confirmed page…this is the web page that your subscribers will be sent to when they click on the confirmation link in the email they receive from your autorsponder (to check they actually did sign up for information).

I don’t sell to my prospects on this page. I simply thank them for subscribing to my mailing list and give them a brief overview of what they can expect. You can use this page to sell or direct to a pre-sales page if you wish.

So, your site is set up, now you have to get people to come to the site.

I will talk on market research in depth over the next couple of months as it is an absolutely KEY area that you must get right…along with your keyword research.

Normally I like to send people to a squeeze page to collect their name and email address so that I can plug them in to my autoresponder. They get value from me in terms of the eCourse and I can sell to them on an ongoing basis. Yes, the money is in the list!

You’ll need to have a way for people to sign up to your list and for this you need to get the html code for a subscription box from your autoresponder. Insert this html in the appropriate place on your squeeze page.

So, your autopilot system is now ready.

Before you do anything in terms of live marketing…TEST out your system. From top to bottom, start to finish!

Here’s a list of things you MUST check!

Once you are sure that everything is working, you can start marketing!

During your market and keyword research you should have worked out all of the main root keywords (for example “social traffic”) as well as a full list of long tail keywords associated with each root keyword.

Again, I will return to how this should be done (in detail) over the next two months.

Once you have found your ten best (high KEI) keywords, you need to market around these. Again, I will deal with the criteria you should use in the research newsletters.

Write articles at the “authority” sites (HubPages, Squidoo, MySpace etc)

Post articles at the main article sites. Lee and I have just tested out Mass Article Control, you can read our review by clicking this link.

The problems are now sorted and I highly recommend this product as a huge time saver!

When you set up your article site memberships make sure you write a relevant author resource/bio box. This is a crucial part of the system that you need to spend some time on. Don’t waste the efforts of your article writing by slapping down an ineffective bio box like, “Derek Armson is an Internet Marketing expert. Click here to find out more info www.internetmarketing.com”

Your author resource box is a mini salespage where your one goal is to get that reader to click on your link. You only have a few sentences to hook the reader with curiosity and then give him a powerful reason why he should click on your link.

In our example, I would probably use something similar to the follow:

“Derek Armson is a Internet Marketing expert who recently developed an eCourse that details a step by step process for building a profitable online business. If you are interested in learning “How To Make Money Online” then get this eCourse and get yourself up and earning in no time at all, please click here: http://www.internetmarketing.com”

Note…most article sites DON’T allow anchor text links in their bio boxes. Where they do, the link would read “click here to find out How to Make Money Online”

Better isn’t it?

So, your article sites are now set up, so pick your first long tail keyword, and write an article about it.

Be sure to include the keyword phrase in the title, the article keywords and an article density of about 2-5%

Writing articles is a pretty basic action. You start of by saying what the article is about (using your keyword phrase). Then you talk about the importance of the keyword phrase and how to improve on it. And then you end with a paragraph summarizing what you just wrote about.

An easy solution is to create “tips” articles, people love these particularly if you use a number as well. I’m not sure why this works so well, but it does! So if our first long tail keyword is “make money with affiliate marketing”, the article would be: “Ten Great Tips to Make Money With Affiliate Marketing”.

The next bit is important. The authority sites have VERY strict rules on duplicate content. Post your articles there first adding videos and images.

Before you post to the article sites, make sure you change your articles! You need to change them at least 15%. This is easier said than done and is why I use Mass Article Control as it has a great article spinner in it which makes it easier to get that variation in a relatively quick time span.

You now need to repeat this process with the remaining 9 keywords! Who said this was easy!

Why so many so quickly? Like I said before, most newbies tend to get discouraged prematurely because they don’t see immediate results. By forcing yourself to write and submit the initial 10 in one shot (over 24 hours), you will see big results quickly.

I can write a decent article in about 20 minutes, but most people (I believe) take a little longer. With practice, you’ll get much faster.

Now, the critical part is to “socialise” your articles, hubs and squidoo pages.

If you use the Instant Social Traffic Formula this is all automated and you can do this very quickly. If not, it’s a long slog!

But you need to bookmark all of your articles and authority pages to as many of the social media as you can.

If you do this you will find that you start to rank very highly on Google Page One for your target keyword. This will of course bring you a flood of traffic.

Clearly you can use Adwords to get paid traffic quickly, but it is becoming expensive and there are more and more hoops to jump through.

If you have done your market and keyword research correctly, your keywords will automatically be in relevant groupings for your ad groups. However, the vagaries and “ins and outs” of Adwords are not for this month!

Having got to this stage, give yourself a break!

eriously, it’s intense stuff. Which is why I use tools such as Mass Article Control to help! (Remember I only ever tell you about tools I actually use and have PAID for out of my own money).

After a couple of days find the next ten keywords and rinse and repeat!

Try and get in to the habit of writing and submitting at least one new keyword rich article every day. Somedays you will do two, or three articles, somedays it just won’t happen…but always try to get at least one done. It should take you no more than an hour a day. Whenever you run out of keywords, build a new group of 10!

Very quickly you will have 40 or so articles floating about. Once you get to this stage you should be getting a fair amount of traffic to your squeeze page. My squeeze pages convert between 15-40% of website visitors. Yours will probably do the same.

You should start to see the gradual increase in daily Adsense income generated. You will also get a growing number of affiliate product sales as your subscribers go through the series of autoresponder messages you are sending them.

At this point, you should have a consistent and growing source of income. If you keep writing and submitting articles the proper way, you should maintain or further grow your monthly income.

What does this mean to you?

Remember to keep plugging new messages into your autoresponder sequence to not only promote new and different products aligned to the niche, but also to give away free valuable information.

I like to give free information two out of every three emails and promote one out of three. It shows you are keen to give true value to your customers.

And with the unlimited lists you can keep on your autoresponder, you can repeat this process as many times as you like in as many niches as you like!

What if you were able to get your first stream to generate $1000 per month? Wouldn’t you be confident that you could repeat that amount in a different niche?

This plan can work in any niche. Just follow it and you’ll do O.K!

Oh, and don’t forget about the ability to send broadcasts out.

Say someone who has a new product wants to do a joint venture with you. He’ll split the profits with you 50/50. So then you send out a broadcast to your list recommending this new product.

Because you have taken the time to develop a relationship with your list, you will have created a level of trust with them - and that is vitally important.

So when you recommend a product, many of your subscribers will definitely review the offer. And you will get a fair number of sales for virtually no work other then sending out an email to your list. I repeat, the money is in the list.

So, that’s the end of part two! I hope this plan helps you. It’s much easier when you have a step by step plan to follow!

That’s all for this month, I’ll be back at the normal time in November, when I will talk about niche research.

Until then…to *YOUR* success.

Cheers now and have fun!

Derek

Instant Social Traffic

Easy Info Product Creation

If you think anyone else would benefit from this information, please feel free to forward this link.

Hello and welcome to the March 2009 issue of the APD Marketing newsletter…the first to be truly, properly Blog based!

Yes, here we are on the new all singing all dancing APD Newsletter Blog and I have to say I am rather proud of it. No, I don’t think the picture is particularly flattering, but it is me!

Just as an aside, the (full) picture was taken on our Mallorcan break in September last year – I was standing on top of a thousand foot cliff with very little behind me at the time, hence the slightly worried look and false smile!

Anyway, on with the fun as this is the first Blog based newsletter I have a real blockbuster for you this month! Loads of great content.

First up, our dear friend Google!

“What are they up to now”? I hear you cry.

It seems our dear friends at Google have had a bit of a hissy fit and have started slapping people around again. I’ve heard stories of existing campaigns that have been running at 5-10 cents per click suddenly being told that Google don’t like their landing pages any more and slapping them up to $10 a click – ouch!

As it happens I’ve had most of my Adwords campaigns shut down for the last month as I’ve been trying to develop a new “free” traffic system and wanted to see what happened if I just relied on that.

So, I don’t have any first hand experience of this, but I will do some research and let you know what I find out.

I’ve also heard that Google is about to flush out the search results. They believe there is too much crap (for want of a better word) at the top of the search results.

The message is that if they don’t consider you totally and utterly relevant, you are gonna get purged! As I understand it from the index all together, not just from the front page!

I heard one Guru describe this as Google throwing all of their toys out of the pram and running off all upset and indignant, telling the entire marketing world it’s their ball and they don’t care if we don’t want to play.

In essence, Google is prepared to turn away millions in advertising revenue for the sake of quality relevance (the quality of course being totally determined by Google and Google alone!)

As far as PPC on Adwords is concerned, this means yet more hoops to jump through to ensure you meet and satisfy Google as to the relevance and quality of your landing page. On the surface it does seem that Google is trying to eradicate the sales landing page.

Personally I don’t think this is the case, but I do think they have set some very stringent guidelines that are quite harsh if they are slapping Internet marketers who have a long and stable PPC history on existing, long running campaigns.

Bearing this in mind, it makes your search engine optimization strategy even more important.

So, this month I am going to give you a basic guide to on page SEO.

Just before I get started on SEO, I want to “de-mark” the difference between free and paid traffic. Yes, you can buy instant traffic with Pay Per Click through Adwords, YSM etc.

However, you need a long-term traffic strategy and that is what Search Engine Optimization brings you. It’s true, PPC traffic is instant, but it that’s it. It sees your ad clicks, looks (if you’re lucky) and goes away again, and in 95% of cases never returns!

Getting your on-page SEO right ensures a steady flow traffic long-term traffic and that’s why it is such an important part to your marketing strategy.

The first thing you need to do is identify the keywords and keyword phrases you want to optimize around. This is vitally important, and you can only optimize a page around one root keyword!

Then you need to build content pages around those pages. Remember, and this is the most vital point - Content is KING, it’s what the Internet is here and Google lives for!

There seems to be this mystique around SEO. People seem to think it is this great mystery that you have to be a rocket scientist to unravel.

What a load of bull! I’ll tell you here and now, it is NOT as difficult as you have been lead to believe!

Once you understand how it’s done! You can have a page “SEO’d” in less than five minutes! I know…you’re sitting there thinking, “Yeah, come on then smarty pants – show us”!

O.K, I will :>)

This is a quick checklist of the main things you should do to optimize you content pages.

1. Your Title Tag should include the buying keyword – easy enough?
2. Use headline tags (H1, H2, H3) these should also include the buying keyword. Make sure you use at least ONE headline tag – always.
3. Your images should have “alt tags” with the description afforded by this tag containing the buying keyword.
4. Now this is important, your first paragraph of each page must include your buying keyword.
5. Each page should be roughly 500 words.
6.You should aim for a keyword density of around 3-5%. That’s 5 times in every hundred words or 25 times in a 500 word article :>) (I’ve got GSCE Maths you know).
7. Throughout the page you should make the keyword (or phrase) a mix of bold, italic and underlined.

So, this is a guide to the basics and some of the easiest and yet most important areas of SEO, it is by no means a definitive guide. To be honest SEO is like a diminishing returns graph. As you get deeper in and apply more and more complicated and advanced techniques, the level of benefit you attain decreases massively.

So, once you are past these fundamentals, the incremental effect is far less.

This guide it is more than enough for your content websites and will allow you, over time, to build decent levels of traffic from the Search Engines - for free!

And, by optimizing your websites in this nature, it will provide a positive knock on effect for your PPC activities, so not only will you benefit from greater levels of free traffic over time…you will also see

1. A better Adwords Quality Score
2. CPC lowering
3. A better CTR
4. Higher ad positions

So, to finish off, say you have completed your research and found 5 buying keywords for your niche. You then need to create five separate landing pages each of which focuses on a different one of your chosen keywords.

Then optimize each page as described above.

Having completed those simple tasks, in time, traffic will start to flow from the search engines! If you do this correctly, over time, you will begin to see more and more traffic from search engines than you do from your PPC efforts!

The end game of this is to try, over time to make your free traffic exceed your paid traffic without spending a penny more! In effect you get double traffic for the same money!

This is simple, easy to implement, good SEO practice at the most basic level. There are many products that go into SEO in far more depth, but, to be honest, for the purposes or Internet marketing, this is more than enough to get loads of traffic flowing to your landing pages.

I’ve even made a video for you to show you how to do these simple techniques, you can view it below.

A Guide To On Page SEO

I have heard it said that this seems like an awful lot of work! However, I have said many times, too many people think they can read a $27 eBook and make millions.
Internet marketing is like any other business; it takes time and effort on your part if you want the success.

As a little added bonus for this first Blog based newsletter, I’ll give you an incite into what it takes.

You see there are two types of people in this world.

The Whingers and the people, who go and do it, take action.

Which category do you fall into?

The Whingers think it’s everyone’s fault but their own.

They whinge, they whine, they complain, they bitch and they moan. They probably do lots of other negative things as well. I’m long gone at the first sign of whinging!

They strut around and act like the world owes them a living.

Everyone is out to scam them.

Internet Marketers who work hard to develop great products should give them everything free! Maybe if they succeed they might hand over some money.

These people have a victim attitude about life. They do NOT take responsibility for their own actions. And, when they do buy a product and don’t have the persistence to see it through and jump ship to the next fad, it’s the fault of the product or person who sold it to them.

It’s never their fault!

In my humble opinion people like this are VICTIMS of themselves! QED!

If this is YOU, you do need to change your thinking NOW if you want to be successful.

I think I said to you once before I did Amway when I was very young. There was a great guy called Bill O’Brien that used to call this sort of attitude “stinking thinking”.

If you suffer, you need to change…if you want success.

On the other hand, there are others who take responsibility for their actions, they are proactive and go out and make things happen.

They are positive, happy and a joy to be with. They say, “If it is to be, it’s up to me”!

They take action and if it goes wrong, get up, dust themselves down and go at it again! They learn from their mistakes and come back stronger for it. They also (and this is very important) realise it is their responsibility.

They don’t blame other people, they realise the outcomes are directly related to the actions they took and there must be a logical reason if things didn’t work out as expected.

In the society in which we live, where most do expect everything presented to them on a silver platter, in this instant gratification society, this type of thinking requires a quantum shift for many people.

It’s everything Napoleon Hill talked about in “Think And Grow Rich”, the principles still hold true today, and if you need to address your thinking, then you can get a free copy courtesy of APD on the Free Download Page.

So, if things don’t go right in your life or business, there is only one person to blame – YOU!

My apologies if that offends, but by now you should know I tell it to you straight!

Of course the flip side to this is…that if your responsible for things going wrong, you can easily put them right!

If you need to lose some weight, you can make the decision to go to the gym, or take up squash or go for a jog!

Hey, I had my third knee operation in as many years four months ago, but I was back on the squash 11 weeks after the op. I was back playing football (soccer) and going to the gym. My body hated it at first, but gradually the fitness is coming back.

If I can do that at 50 and still play in the top 10 of my club’s leagues (with two very dodgy knees), you can too!

If it’s the business, get out and do some more.

Put a new Adwords campaign out, try some variations on the ad content, add some new keywords. Write a new article and publish it at ezinearticles. Put a new affiliate promotion up, build a new landing page, do a product review.

The answers are within you; this is the best advice I can possibly give you. If you want it you can have it.

You can have the big house with a pool, you can have the exotics holidays, the mobile lifestyle, the fast cars…even the yacht.

It’s up to you! As Nike say….”Just Do It”.

Thank you for reading; I hope you have found this newsletter useful. I really want to hear what you think so drop me a line.

Derek@apd-marketing.co.uk

As always…to YOUR success.

Cheers now and, enjoy the ride!

Derek

Internet Marketing from APD

Turn Your Time Into Money

Learn Copywriting

If you feel someone else would benefit from this information, please feel free to pass it on!

Hello Again,

And welcome to the Christmas 2008 edition of the APD Newsletter. Yes, here we are again, the time for festive cheer and plenty of beer.

Indeed, it must be Christmas as I actually got an apology from Google last week! I just didn’t think that happened! As far as I knew Google was *ALWAYS* right…apparently not!

Here’s the story…

Now, you’ll notice I have been very quiet this last month - in fact, I haven’t mailed you anything since the last newsletter. As it happens I’ve been watching the plethora of Internet Marketing launches and have deliberately stayed out of the action, but more of that in a while.

The other reason I have been on the quiet side is I have been launching into a new market and this is how I got the Google apology! In fact, I’ve framed it and hung it on the wall.

I’ve actually been working in the health and fitness market for the last month or so…you can see the results at

www.learn-2-massage.com

I will use this site to demonstrate some good solid Internet Marketing principles as well as the Google apology…better than a slap any day! Yes, alright, I know you can’t wait to hear about it but patience…I’ll get there.

Back to learning to massage.

It’s a three DVD set with 9 bonus eBooks at the amazing price of just $67 (great Christmas present for the wife or boyfriend…end of plug).

Seriously though, here’s the lesson on Internet Marketing.

You can buy the entire series at the site above or you can buy a single DVD (plus 3 bonus eBooks) at the various individual product sites I have set up as follows:-

www.learn-2-massage.com/facial.html
www.learn-2-massage.com/full_body.html
www.learn-2-massage.com/indian_head.html

So, you can start to see the structure of the campaign emerge.

What about name and email capture I hear you cry? Good question. O.K, I have set up ad groups around “learn massage”, “how to massage”,
“massaging” and “massage techniques” – these are the root keywords I am going to test on.

I’ve also got some other ad groups planned out and am building a list of longer tailed keywords, should the test be successful.

These ad groups point to the following page…

www.learn-2-massage.com/learn_to_massage_squeeze.html

This is where I collect the customer’s name and email address in return for a free gift that you will notice is closely related to the main product for sale…this is important.

I have also set up ad groups around the three individual DVD main subjects…

“Indian head massage”, “full body massage” and “facial massage”, these point to the following pages.

www.learn-2-massage.com/Indian_head_massage_squeeze.html
www.learn-2-massage.com/full_body_massage_squeeze.html
www.learn-2-massage.com/facial_massage_squeeze.html

Now, some people say you should drive straight to the sales page. But, I was told by Armand Morin, in person, that…

1.  You need to build a list of customers as that is where you maximise future
sales and therefore profitability (back end).
2.  If they are not interested in your free giveaway they will NOT buy the
product, so you might as well “squeeze” that name and email that can be so
valuable anyway!

He has a point! I am not going to argue with him as he’s made $54 million online.

So, a valuable lesson, always, always, always use the squeeze page model.

Yes, you might have to be a bit “brave” about it, but it will multiply your long-term earnings!

And, finally, if someone buys a single DVD, they are, on successful payment, re-directed to a “stop page one time offer”.

You can see these at the following links…

www.learn-2-massage.com/oto_indian.html
www.learn-2-massage.com/oto_body.html
www.learn-2-massage.com/oto_facial.html

All these pages do is offer people who have purchased one DVD an upgrade to the full package for the extra $40 (a single DVD plus bonus items is priced at $27).

So, there you have a full Internet Marketing model that you can copy (and get your partner a great Christmas present into the bargain)! I am just so good to you…it must be Christmas!

So, what about that apology…don’t worry, I hadn’t forgotten.

This is what happened.

When I set up the ad groups, I kept getting messages from Google saying the URL didn’t point to an actual site. So I made some changes but kept getting the automated message back.

In the end I was absolutely sure I had everything right, (I even check clicked on one of my ads from within Adwords), so I re-saved the ads and sure enough back came the automated message.

So, after a while of digging I found the “email us” button (they don’t make it easy do they? Bless). Anyway, I politely asked (you must be polite with Google) if a human could have a look as I was as sure as I could be everything was right!

Less than 12 hours later an apology arrived for all the time and trouble Big G had caused me and confirming their system had blown a gasket!

What really interested me about all this though was…as soon as I posted the ad group I was given a quality score. Now, if the landing page is so critical to QS and they couldn’t read my landing page…how did they give me a Quality Score?

Answers on a postcard, best answer get’s a free set of massage DVDs! (And a
mention in the January newsletter – Wow, what a great prize!)

O.K, moving on.

I mentioned earlier the incredible amount of “how to” Internet Marketing products that have been launched over the past 4 or 5 weeks. I’ve also noticed the rapidly increasing ticket price on a lot of these products.

My belief is that as the recession starts to bite, more and more people will be looking to build themselves personal protection via an online or home-based business. People are realising it’s not particularly safe out in the job world at the moment and want to become self-sufficient.

Whilst I applaud that with gusto, I think many of the “Guru’s” are taking advantage of that new will and ripping off people with high-ticket items that are either not worth the money or aimed at the wrong sector of the market.

In fact I will be making big changes to my business in 2009. I have partnered with a long time Internet “co-hort” of mine, Lee Brooker, and we will be revamping APD over the festive period, so look out for some major changes in the way we “interface” with you.

The first example of our collaboration is a new home page for Total Control, which you can see at:

www.gain-money-and-power.com

You will notice the implementation of video…another must for the savvy Internet marketer!

As I say, though, next year will see big changes…for example the newsletter will become Blog-based fairly early on, and we will be implementing a co-ordinated Web2.0 strategy. Exciting stuff.

But…the main reason for raising this issue is simply this.

Lee and I are currently building a new product that will be a full, no-holds barred, in-depth detailed inside track “how to” on Internet Marketing. We’ll be showing you exactly how we build our own Internet Business.

It will be video-based training and launch in late January (hopefully)…and I promise you NOTHING will be left out.

The second question…what do YOU want included? What do YOU need to know to push your business to where you want it to be?

The top five answers will get a free copy of the product…and believe me this is one you will not want to miss!

Wow, that’s two give-aways in the same newsletter…it must be Christmas!

Back to all of those Internet Marketing launches, well, too much of the same stuff re-hashed for my liking. And a lot of it old stuff at that.

In my opinion the one that was really worthwhile recently was PPC Classroom, but that is full up for the time being. Keep an eye out in case Anik and Amit make spots available again. If you want to make a bundle in Affiliate Marketing, this is one of the best “how to’s” I’ve seen for a while. No affiliate link as nothing to sell, but keep an eye out if you’re not a current member…it’s good.

Right, that’s it for this festive, bumper, giveaway packed edition of the APD
Newsletter.

I don’t expect to be in touch before the new year now, not unless I get any major news from the markets (notice I’ve steered well clear of the doom and gloom this month as it’s Christmas).

So, all that remains is for me to wish you and your family a happy and peaceful Christmas, enjoy quality time with your family and friends and I hope you all have a prosperous 2009…stick with me and you may well do just that – despite it all!

Peace!

As always to *YOUR* success.

Cheers Now…and have fun!

Derek
www.apd-marketing.co.uk

How To Get Information Product Ideas

If you feel anyone else may benefit from this information, please feel free to pass it on!

Hello and welcome to the November 2008 issue of the APD Newsletter.

I did say I wasn’t going to make comment on the financial markets and economic turmoil this month but I’m going to! I promise I won’t next month (unless something else outrageous happens)!

I have tried to avoid my old City chums this month to be honest, as the tales of woe are becoming a bit boring! But a few continue to call me with useful info, so I will very quickly tell you what I’ve learned as it is useful!

First up…Iceland. The Government knew in APRIL that Iceland was about to go bankrupt. How they could sit by and just let it happen without warning exposed consumers and businesses is absolutely beyond me.

In my opinion, this Government has made some serious gaffs, but that is the biggest of the lot…and it got very little publicity!

And what’s worse is that Gordon Brown has managed to spin the situation to make us think he’s the man to turn to in a crisis! God help us!

Secondly, I’ve had numerous calls telling me this is “the worst I’ve ever seen” in the markets.

I’m not only talking FTSE and Dow Jones type markets here, but also FX and Money Markets (and the like).

The Banks, despite the massive influx of Government funds are still unable to raise funds on the open market at reasonable interest rates. This is why, if you’re on a tracker mortgage, it’s doubtful yesterdays full rate cut will be passed on to you.

The Government may kick up a fuss about trying to get the Banks to pass on the cut and to lend more, but they have created a really juicy “Catch 22” with their actions.

You see the Government want to get the economy moving again so they want the Banks to lend at reasonable rates to get liquidity back into the economy. However, despite the capital injections (which just about saved the Banks) the Banks can still only raise money at 6-7% interest.

So, to make profits and pay back the Government they have to lend at high interest rates.

The rub for the Government is that if the Banks do as they wish and lend at low rates, they make massive losses and can’t pay back the taxpayers money.

What a wonderful Catch 22!

So, do the Government want the Banks to make profits and pay back to the public purse, or do they want them to essentially become “public servants” and help get the economy back on track by lending at a massive loss.

Oh…the irony of it all!

Now if we come back in to the real world what does this mean for the “man on the street”?

Well, I do remember telling you that this would be a mere ripple in the great scheme of things. Ummm…I might have been under selling the situation.

Neither I, nor my friends in the financial community realised the extent of the damage. It is now accepted the financial impropriety of the banks extends into the TRILLIONS!

I did say at the back end of 2007 we were in for a bumpy 2008. That was correct.

I am now predicting 2009 will be much worse! Globally!

This situation is now definitely more than a mere ripple.

If you have savings you will do well in the next 12 months, if you have debt you will not.

Inflation will melt away to be replaced with a degree of deflation. That means your savings will be worth relatively more (even without interest) but also in real terms any debt will become more in real terms.

House prices will continue to fall and by the end of 2009, they will be circa 33% below their peak.

The economy will shrink, by up to 3% - this is unheard of. There will be many bankruptcies and unemployment will rocket.

The services and banking sectors will contract violently. So will manufacturing, particularly areas such as cars and luxury goods (TV’s etc).

Credit will become even harder to come by.

In short, we are going into a very nasty recession that could easily tip into depression of the right decisions are not made at the top.

It is going to be the toughest year you have ever known. I was wrong about the ripple!

Whilst it’s still not a tsunami, it’s quite a big wave, but it could turn into the dreaded tsunami if world Governments are not very careful indeed.

Everyone I talk to, across all sectors are experiencing a severe slow down, 2009 is going to be pretty nasty – nothing and no-one is safe.

You have been warned, make sure you take precautions! I’m sorry I got this wrong, but…if the insiders didn’t know how bad it was what chance do you or I have?

On the bright side, whilst I expect the recession (that we ARE in) to be quite vicious, I do expect it to be over relatively quickly (12-18 months) provided all other things remain equal.

Enough of all that, let’s talk about how to make some money!!!

This month I’m going to talk about Pay Per Click marketing, a subject so vast and so complex…many people fail at this hurdle in their online business! Hopefully not you, and this month I’m going to give you some wise words on the subject of Google Adwords.

First up, if you want traffic quickly, Adwords is the way to get it. Free traffic takes time to build and is an ongoing process. Yes, free traffic builds over time and once you’ve done the ground work it keeps coming.

And, yes, PPC traffic is nebulous, you pay for it, it comes and mostly it goes again.

But, if you want traffic quickly, pay per click is the way to get it.

If you treat Big G right and play by their rules, it can be a real friend.

 However, treat Google bad, or in the wrong hands, it can become a money sucking monster that will quickly cripple your business.

When I first started out I spent £1,397 on Adwords in my first month and got…wait for it…3 (that’s THREE) sales. I sold £210 in products…so as you can see a whopping great loss.

It definitely pays to get good at Adwords.

The first major point you need to firmly ingrain in your brain is that Google’s sole reason for existing is search. Indeed, their sole reason for providing search is to provide the best search engine possible.

That means Google’s reason for existence is to provide totally RELEVANT search results VERY quickly – therefore remaining ahead of the competition and retaining their position as the search engine of choice.

Consequently Google places HUGE emphasis on relevancy of search results not only in the SERPS but also the paid results.

If you are not relevant, you will be slapped!

So, if you place the keyword “red shoes” in an ad group that advertises socks and directs to a landing page about socks, you will be slapped. You may argue the two items are “linked” but in Google’s eyes they are not totally relevant.

Now Google has changed its modus operandi recently. You used to get your
keywords disabled for search. Now, they simply tell you that you are not paying enough to get on the first page of search and tell you what outrageous rate you have to pay to get there.

This is Google “code” for “we don’t think you’re relevant”!

I did hear it called “Google’s Stupid Tax” made me laugh that! Stupid in who’s eyes??? Pardon me, we must respect Google…they will be spidering this :>)

So, when you create a set of keywords that are totally relevant to your ad and drop down to a totally relevant landing page, you will not see those $5 and $10 per click prices.

Here’s an example.

For example, you sell “dog grooming brushes”.

Your initial thought may be to bid on keywords like “pet” and “pet supplies.” Google considers these keywords as too general – not specific enough and therefore not relevant.

People looking for dog grooming brushes will not most likely search on the
keyword “pet supplies.” Think about it…would you?

The person looking for a dog grooming brush already knows what he or she wants.

You need to target your ad directly to the buyer. These sorts of keywords are often called “buying” keywords.

Do this and your conversion rates will increase. So, if you think about it, that’s as good a reason as any to be relevant.  It will also show Google you are relevant. This tends to translate into an increased click through rate (CTR) and a better quality score!

And of course, those two things mean a decrease in your cost per click. Not rocket science is it?

So, if you group and bid on keywords like “dog grooming supplies,” “dog grooming brushes,” and “dog grooming hair brushes”, you remain tightly focussed and relevant.

Each of these keyword phrases has one thing in common: the phrase “dog grooming.”

These are relevant. Make sure each keyword in each ad group has one common word or phrase.

You should always be looking out for new keywords and testing them.

Finding a list of converting keywords is an ongoing process!

You should use a keyword tool. You can use the keyword tool that’s in Google itself to generate new keywords on a regular basis. But don’t limit yourself to this tool when creating your keyword lists.

You can be as simple as using MS Word or other word processing program and enter some of your best keywords. Then use the built-in thesaurus. If your word processing program does not contain a thesaurus, go to www.thesaurus.com or any other online tool available.

This is a simple way to build a well targeted, original keyword list for
any successful PPC advertising campaign. The keyword tool in Google has recently been upgraded and does now offer much more functionality and information.

It is a good tool and of course the results come “straight from the horses mouth”!

You can find the Google Keyword Tool at the following link…

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

If you want to use a paid tool, in my opinion by far the best tool on the market is Keyword Spy. Using this tool allows you to build huge keyword lists in double quick time. And, what’s even better you can literally spy on your competition.

You can see their keywords, their ads and even see how much they’re paying.

If you’re serious about making money online you need this tool. It’s a little expensive, but it will pay for itself many times over very quickly.

Click below to have a look.

http://www.apd-marketing.co.uk/keywordspy.html

Next up you have to make sure your headline, body copy and display URL contain your keywords.

When someone performs a search, the keyword they searched for appears in bold, in the headline, body copy and web address. Ads with more bolded text stand out to the searcher, resulting in more clicks. Again, this is not rocket science but plain commonsense.

To take full advantage of this, you should try, wherever possible to have your keyword in the headline, ad copy and display URL. Sometimes it is just not possible without making your ads nonsensical or spammy, but generally the more often the better.

Again this helps you by driving more focused traffic to your site. Google will reward you for the higher CTR this brings with better quality score and giving you a higher position in the results for a lower cost. Your ad is shown more because you please the Google users because you provide exactly what they are looking for.

Again- The name of the game is relevancy – and Google will love you for it!
Finally, you should create a landing page for each root keyword you bid on.
One of the key “tricks” to getting higher relevancy and higher quality scores in Google’s mind is to drive traffic to highly relevant and specific landing pages.

Each keyword you bid on should be slightly altered so when someone clicks on your ad, they still see the same keyword or something very similar to it in the headline and in the body of your copy on your website.

To give you an example, if you search for “personal trainers in London.” If you then see an ad that says “Personal Trainers in London.” You will probably think “this is exactly what I want”. You click on the ad to go to the website.

The first thing you read on the web site is “3 Personal Trainers In London Reveal the Insider Secrets Of Special Fitness Programs That Can Easily Get You Fit And Looking Great In No Time At All.”

There is a pretty good chance this website gives you exactly what you are looking for. You are unfit, overweight and out of shape and you want a fix, and you just found someone local who can help you - now that’s relevancy at it’s best.

I guarantee you will have a high CTR, low CPC a Great quality score and loads of sales!

So, to finalise, just think relevancy from your ad groups through your keywords, into your actual ad and finally down to the landing page. Keep the root keyword common through the entire sales cycle and you can win the PPC game.

Hopefully you found that helpful. I’ll be back next month with…a bumper Christmas edition! I know, it just doesn’t seem possible does it? I haven’t shouted about it, but this is our second anniversary issue!

Yes, it’s true the APD newsletter is two years old today (well yesterday actually as I’m a day late this month). Why not have a dip into past issues, there’s loads of great info in them to help you in your quest for online profits!

Any questions, observations or comments drop me a line on the usual mail
derek@apd-marketing.co.uk

So, until next month, keep safe, keep positive and keep putting yourself out there.

Persistence is the only thing failure can’t live with!

As always…to *YOUR* success.

Cheers now…and have fun!

Derek

www.apd-marketing.co.uk

Build Your Own Website

267 Great Information Product Ideas

If you feel this information may be useful to anyone else, please feel free to pass it on

Welcome to the May 2008 issue of the APD newsletter.

Yes….the nice weather is here! I played a charity football match
on Monday and got *seriously* sunburnt! You may ask what on earth
I’m doing playing any football matches at my age…especially
against a team of Under 18’s!

As it happens, I’ve been involved in youth football since my son
joined his chosen team at Under 8. He’s now finished at Under 18,
and for the last three seasons we’ve had an end of season
game…Lads v Dads (and guests…we need help!).

At Under 16, us Dads won 5-0. Last year we lost 3-2 to a hotly
disputed last minute goal. This year…well, it was the heat! O.K,
I’ll come clean, we lost 7-3. But, it was a great day out and
approximately £1,000 was raised for my chosen charity Action For
M.E. So, despite the reverse it was a worthwhile day. Monday
afternoon was spent in agony…I ached and hurt in places I didn’t
even know existed!

My son now goes off into senior football after having played for
the same youth team his entire youth football “career”…I applaud
his loyalty. His team have only ever won one trophy in 12 years,
yet he stuck at it and persevered…along with 3 of his friends who
also played all the way through.

That loyalty and persistence will serve him well in his life!

Moving on, it’s time to get down to business. This is part two of
the lengthy tome on how I built my online business. Get yourself
comfortable…here we go.

Last month I covered organisation, dealing with information
overload, the basics of online marketing and Adwords.

This month I’ll take you through the rest of my business model and
the tools I use to “make it happen”.

First up is affiliate marketing.

It took me an absolute age to get my head around what affiliate
marketing is! I have no idea why, resistance to new ideas maybe,
but it did. However, I am happy to report that it is really a very
simple concept. This should clearly demonstrate to you that if I
can do this, you can too!

In very basic terms you promote someone else’s product (through
your website, Adwords etc) and every time a sale is made from your
promotional efforts…you get paid a commission. Why did I have
such a problem with this?

If you want to promote “e” products then the best place to go is
Clickbank. Clickbank is essentially a great big marketplace where
product developers and vendors showcase their products and you can
get a special link that allows you to promote any of the products
“on show” in the Clickbank marketplace.

The link is called a hoplink, and it is a url that goes straight to
the product sales page and has your Clickbank “identity” embedded
within it. So, when a sale is made from that link, Clickbank knows
to credit you with your commission. Simple.

Everything is managed through Clickbank’s own systems and they pay
out commission cheques like clockwork every two weeks. Yes, they do
take a commission of their own, but Clickbank is proven beyond all
reasonable doubt and is the accepted method of affiliate marketing
for “e” products.

If you haven’t got an account, the sign up process is very easy,
just go to

www.clickbank.com

Now, when I first started it again took me a while to unravel
Clickbank, so I have two possible solutions that will really help
you to understand how it all works - very quickly.

Firstly there is the Affiliate Commandments a product from Chris
McNeeny of Day Job Killer and Google Assassin fame.

This is a great little product and it gives you the very, very
basics on how affiliate marketing works. This really is a beginners
guide for the “newbie” affiliate marketer. It shows you how to sign
up for a Clickbank account, how to generate your hoplinks and how
the entire process works in fine detail.

Best bit? It only costs $9.97, less than a fiver in sterling.

You can read my full report on AC by clicking here

Affiliate Commandments Review

Another superb product is Dominating Clickbank by Andrew Fox. This
not only shows you (in more detail and with more advanced
techniques) the affiliate marketing side, it also shows you how to
set yourself up on the product side once you have developed your
own products.

Dominating CB gives you detailed instructions on how to work
Clickbank to your massive advantage and how to make sure you know
exactly how to generate massive sales using the Clickbank system.
This really is excellent stuff and no stone is left unturned.

I’ve only just got this product myself, so I haven’t done a review
page yet, but you can have a look at Andrews sales page by clicking
here.

Dominating Clickbank

Now…don’t go rushing out to buy this product until you have
finished reading this newsletter! I’ll talk more about Andrew a
little later, he is definitely worth knowing!

(Editor Note 2009 - Andrew has more recently released Dominating Clickbank 2

For a free DCB2 report, click the link above)

If you want to learn more advanced affiliate marketing techniques

then I have extensively used Chris McNeeny’s (he’s alsoknown as Chris X)

products Affiliate Project X. and Day Job Killer

Some of the techniques in Day Job Killer in particular have come
in for some stick from Google in their most recent slap, but a lot
of it is still valid.

The areas that Google doesn’t now like on the search network are
the use of “sales puff and boast” type words. “Fr**ee”, “amazing”,
“incredible”, you know what I’m talking about!

The sketch is that on the search network now, you just have to be
totally relevant and totally honest. Your ad groups must be very
tight with a small number of *VERY* relevant keywords.

The rule is the keyword(s) in your ad group must be in and relate
to the ad and the ad must relate as closely as possible to the
landing page. Quality content is king. You see…Google is
committed to giving their customers (the people who search) exactly
what they want, so quality content and complete relevance are what
Google is looking for. Fail to do this on your site and…your quality
score will be poor and you will be charged a very high cost per click.

I heard it called Google’s “stupid tax” this week, whilst that made
me laugh; it sort of sums it up quite nicely!

While we’re back on the subject of Google, I’d like to talk about
keyword research. This is another vital strand in your marketing
armoury if you want to make money (big money) online. Sadly
Overture (now Yahoo) have removed their free tool, I think it’s
only available to customers who actually have a YSM account now.
However, there are still good free keyword research tools available
- thankfully.

You can use either of the following…

DigitalPoint  www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Free Keywords (Wordtracker)  www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

Once you get fully up to speed, I would suggest a proper Keyword
Research Tool. The best on the market by far… is Brad Callen’s
Keyword Elite, click here

Keyword Elite Reviewed

to read my review of this powerful tool. All of the top Internet
marketers use Keyword Elite.

If you want to go straight to Brad’s site click the following link.

Buy Keyword Elite

Quite simply, I have found that my effectiveness on both Adwords
and Adsense has increased dramatically since I employed KE.
Now…remember what I said last month, about the investment in time.
KE takes a while to learn and get right. There are extensive video
training libraries, but it does take some time and effort,
but…your efforts are rewarded in terms of higher profits.

Once you’ve understood the basics and you’re starting to make some
money, get KE, this is a complete ” no-brainer”!

You should also make sure you track *EVERYTHING*!

If you don’t know what Keywords are making you sales or getting you
sign ups, the chances are you will be wasting a lot of dosh on
keywords that are not effective. You’ll effectively be paying out
money for clicks that make you nothing back in return. You see all
keywords are not created equal! Some convert, some convert very
well, others just don’t convert at all.

If you don’t know what is and isn’t converting for you the chances
are that a high percentage of your Adwords spend is being wasted on
keywords that cost but don’t earn.

The best tracking tool by far is Xtreme Conversions by Amir
Darwish. This is the daddy of keyword tracking tools.

If you get the “lite” version, you will need to be prepared to work
in PHP to get your tracking sorted (it’s not hugely difficult, but
it does require a bit of technical understanding). As with all of
the products I recommend, there are excellent training materials.
With XC there are videos and a Wiki as well as a manual.

However, the new V3.0 “Pro” version does everything with JavaScript
and is much easier to use…obviously this is the suggested option!

Again, an investment in time to understand and learn is needed, but
tracking is crucial to maximising your profits.

You can track through Google Analytics, but this does require your
code being put on the vendors download or order page. In most cases
you just will not be able to make that happen. GA is fine for your
own sites and pre-sell pages, but not if you need to put code on
other people’s pages. Would you do that for an affiliate - probably
not? Plus the guys who’s products you will want to promote are very
busy, even if they say “yes” with the best will in the world, they
may forget. It is infinitely preferable to have your tracking under
your own control!

Again, I have only recently employed Xtreme Conversions so I’ll
just give you a link to the sales page please click on the link
below have a look.

Xtreme Conversions

Many people who come into Internet Marketing want to actually
“attack” the Internet Marketing niche itself. Now, I can fully
understand why as it is an insatiable market, and by the nature of
the fact that you are involved in IM, it seems logical to “sell”
into that market.

A couple of points.

IM is now a very advanced market and you do have to deliver *REAL*
value to compete.

It is also a very unique market and there is a very much a
“certain” way to approach the IM market…it is a law unto itself.

Think very carefully about going for this market.

I was going to recommend IM Annihilation by Rob Benwell for people
interested in this market. The product gives a really interesting
inside track on the vagaries of the IM market. Sadly it’s sold out!
But I can still give you a little insight. Rob only entered the IM
market a couple of years ago with his Blogging To The Bank product.
That has now sold approaching $1 million worth! No mean feat.

Rob’s trick is to simply find a new niche within the market or to
find a new twist on an existing area.

Blogging was new when he released Blogging to the Bank and he
demonstrated how he had used Blogs to make around $500 / day. A
clear concise instruction manual that showed something new and
profitable.

His latest effort is based around Web2.0, another growing market
and this eBook made $84,000 from a product development spend of
less than $500.

Obviously, I do work in this market, it’s why you subscribe to
this newsletter, but…it is not my primary market. I realised up
front it was a long haul taking on IM as there are a high number of
“Guru’s” who are very well established. They release top-notch
products that are difficult to compete with and I see it as a
long-term project. It’s a bit of a closed shop!

My two cents worth, as the saying goes!

If you’re looking at the broader niche online marketing field then
the two products I would recommend are Stewart McKay’s Adwords

Excellence as I mentioned last month. Yes, it was under the
“Adwords” banner last time, but he does, through the Ultimate
Adwords Strategy, reveal exactly how he researches and develops
non-IM niche markets. Just one more plug for Stewart as he’s been a
huge help to me click below to have a look (if you haven’t already).

(Edit 2009 - once again, I am sad to report AWE is no longer available)

The other strand to niche marketing is knowing how to communicate
and build relationships with your customer base. You see, the
online buyer has become much more “savvy” these past couple of
years. So, you have to know how to deal with your customer base!

Simply the best product in this area is another one from the Andrew
Fox stable. The Affiliate X Factor. This is an excellent product.
It does deal with IM to a degree, but in short it takes an example
of how to set up a new niche from start to finish. It shows you
everything from the inside out even down to the detail of the
contents of each email in a two month autoresponder sequence.
Andrew also goes deeply into the psychology behind what he writes.
He shows you how to put audio on your site, video and even polls to
help build customer loyalty.

This is a slightly more expensive product, but it is one that has
helped me tremendously with the customer interfacing side of online
marketing. You see I spent 25 years doing face-to-face selling.
And…whilst feature, advantage, benefit and situational selling are
relevant online, there is a different way of “talking” to people
online. There is a lot of character and trust building involved.

When you’re “face-to-face”, that just happens, online you have to
make it happen.

It took me a long time to even realise there was a difference.

I’ve only just finished this six-week course and it is gold, click
here to have a look

Affiliate X Factor

Now, the reason I told you to hold off buying Dominating Clickbank
is that…if you buy Affiliate X Factor, you get Dominating CB
included free.  This really makes AXF a highly recommended buy. It
really has helped me - big time.

If you just want to get Dominating CB on it’s own, the link is…
Dominating Clickbank

So, that leaves our final strand, your own products.

There are two schools of thought on this.

The first one is use PLR products as the basis for building your
own products. There are numerous PLR sites out there and you can
get monthly memberships for around $27-47. Some are free and a
reasonably good source at the free end is Gabor Olah’s site PLR
Wholesaler. Go and have a look.

PLR Wholesaler

If you want to use PLR products as the basis for your product
development a do have a look at Michael Green’s 20/20 Challenge.

Click below to read my review of this one

20/20 Challenge Review

or you can go straight to the sales page by clicking the following
link

Buy 20/20 Challenge

I have to say I am not a particular fan of PLR, I prefer to either
pay to have a product developed or…find a re-sale rights product.

If you do go the resale rights route make sure that only a small
and finite number of licences are being sold to the product. This
type of product should sell for between $197 - 497 and should
include a pre written sales letter.

I’ve been shown examples of $197 products that net $47,000 in
income, selling out at $27-37. A word of caution, such products are
getting more difficult to come by! A brilliant example of how to
work this is also shown in the Affiliate X Factor.

If you want to get your own product developed, which is my
preferred route, you have two options.

Firstly you can write or develop the product yourself. You have to
have some specialist knowledge that people will be willing to pay
for…although it is my contention we all have this, but that’s for

another day. Or…you have to source the product from elsewhere.

There are a number of ways you can do this. You can search the
Internet (simple Google search) for ghostwriters, or you can go to
one of the sites that allow you to hire a ghostwriter.

Here’s four of the best

www.elance.com
www.rentacoder.com
www.guru.com
www.need-an-article.com

You can expect to pay anywhere from $250-1,000 for a 50 page eBook.
A small price to pay if you can then generate even $20,000 in sales!

You can read reviews on most of the products mentioned in this
newsletter at the main site…

Internet Marketing From APD

O.K, that’s it for this month. There is an awful lot of information
here. It’s also why I am a couple of days late this month
(again…poor show). Seriously though, this edition took a lot
longer to write than I anticipated…I hope you appreciate it :>)

I now have brain ache as well, so I haven’t yet decided what I am
going to write about next month. Rest assured it will be solid
useful information to help you win online.

Until then, enjoy the weather.

Asalways…to *YOUR* success

Cheers now, and have fun!

Derek

www.apd-marketing.co.uk

P.S - If you feel anyone else would benefit from this information,
please feel free to pass it on

Hello and welcome to the April 2008 edition of the APD newsletter. A couple of days late
this month courtesy of BT! Sadly, my Internet connection dropped out at 1.15pm on
Friday and has only just been re-connected.

I am now best buddies with the lads at the BT call centre in Chennai after spending at
least four hours on the ‘phone to them over the weekend! We’ve even talked about
cricket and how they are all upset at the pasting India took from South Africa in the
2nd Test!

It must be a thankless job working at a tech support call centre, I should imagine.
However, the BT lads have obviously been on some great training courses as I always
felt calm and collected after speaking to them, despite the fact I was stressing
massively without access to my ‘window on the world’.

If I had a fiver for every time one of them said, “It’s alright Mr Armson, please don’t worry about it”, I could shut down my Adwords campaigns, put my feet up and have a couple of weeks off!

Even though I was very worried about it, I always put the phone down in a state of
calm…amazing! It’s also amazing how reliant we have become on something we now
take for granted. I have to admit to feeling extremely uneasy without Internet access! I
may well write on this subject in the next few months once I’ve had a chance to
crystalise my thoughts!

The funny thing about the entire episode was that…in the end, the problem was two
miles down the road in St Albans! Hey-ho.

Anyway, to the business in hand, this is part 1 of a two-part epic! Are you sitting
comfortably? Then I will begin, it’s a lengthy tome this month!

I’ll start with some food for thought… “To achieve things you have never achieved
before…you need to do things you’ve never done before.”

Last month’s newsletter stirred up a bit of a hornet’s nest! It prompted quite a large
response and some of the comment was interesting. A lot of it went like this… “Oh,
it’s all right for you, you’re successful, you know what to do, how can I do that with a
day job, I don’t know how to do this, that, or whatever, blah, blah, blah.”

OK, here’s the score. Life ain’t a free lunch! No-one is going to give you something
for nothing. You have to put the effort in to get the rewards out!

I even had one email from a guy asking me to ‘give my stuff’ to him for free so he
could be successful and then pay me half his income once he was successful. He was
somewhat put out when I pointed out to him, that, on that same basis…as soon as he
became successful he too would have to give all his stuff away free and we’d both
lose! (Whatever that “stuff” might be).

I would also point out that, despite what many ‘gurus’ would have you believe,
starting an online business does take an investment in learning, which means time.

Again, many of the emails I received wanted to ‘know it all’ in 5 minutes. They
wanted to read a $27 eBook and suddenly be able to build a multi million dollar
online empire in two days.

Sorry to disillusion you, but that’s not how it is! The ‘Internet Marketing’ industry
can be its own worst enemy at times. All the glib sales letters promise you the earth
and to be honest, not that much delivers!

Making money on the Internet is NOT a ‘get rich quick scheme’. It is a proper business that rewards you (very well indeed) for learning the relevant key success skills!

If I was being cynical, I could suggest that many of the “gurus” don’t want to deliver
too much so that they can keep you “hanging on”. Sell you ever higher priced
products that…at each stage deliver a little bit more of what you need, but still keep
you firmly plugged into the sales funnel.

Controversial…but sadly in many cases true! Indeed, it’s what I found when I started
back in this market three years ago. I was caught a good few times early on!

Here’s the truth…it took me 18 months to find out what works and who I could trust,
even at the most basic level (the fact that I’m a technical bonehead didn’t help…still
doesn’t as it happens). However, it does prove that…if a technical bonehead like me
can do it…so can YOU!

You also have to deal with the massive amounts of information that gets thrown at
you when you’re trying to build an online business. I have talked before on the subject
of ‘information overload”’ and the subsequent ‘paralysis of analysis’ it almost
inevitably causes (and yes, I did suffer badly at one stage).

Yes, it took me a long time to cut through that crap AND to find out whom I could
trust in this market. To find the ‘gurus’ whose products really did help me. The ones
who would actually give me help if I needed it and whose products did genuinely
deliver.

So, if you want to leave now, you are excused. If you want to stick around for a hairy
ride and make your online dreams come true, stay tuned. As you know, I do tell it like
it is, I don’t dress things up. So, over the next two months I am going to tell you how I
did it.

This is going to be a warts and all timeline of how I won the online game. Some of it
you will already know if you’ve been a subscriber for a while, but a lot of it will be
new. This is how I went from well below zero to my chosen lifestyle in three years.

So, as the saying goes, “Let’s start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to
start”!

Back in late 2001, my recruitment business had gone bust in the aftermath of 9/11. I’d
scrambled around trying to save it, finally found a white knight, which then three
months later (in early 2002) went bust as well! It was not a good time recruiting IT
staff into the City markets. Similar times to now, as it happens!

I lost a cool quarter of a million, in about 10 days!

So, I pfaffed around trying to scratch a living in recruitment, trying to re-find my
former glories…until 2005, when I made a ‘quality’ decision that a different path was
needed.

This is something that is vitally important. You will not achieve anything until you
make that true ‘quality’ decision that you (that’s YOU) are going to make it work. If
you haven’t made that honest, committed decision, no matter how hard you try, you
will not succeed, believe me I know. Only you can do this…if it is to be it’s up to me!

This is really a whole new subject on its own and one I will cover in a future issue,
suffice to say, much has been written about making that true commitment to succeed.
You simply must make that quality decision that you are going to commit and really
make it happen, otherwise you are wasting your time.

So…the first thing I did was sit down and researched everything I knew about making
money or starting a business. I got out all my old files, newsletters and books and I
researched and read for days on end.

I knew that I had to be responsible for myself and I knew that I never wanted to
answer to anyone else ever again! I was broke, down and out so I had to move fast.

One of the keys was managing the vast amount of information that was pouring ‘into
me’. So, the first thing I did was to find out how the hugely successful ‘icons of
wealth’ made their money and how they brought together their money-making
projects.

I knew that some of these projects were hugely complicated and I was intrigued as to
how successful business people looked at money making. I was also keen to learn
how they integrated the huge number and variety of tasks (and information) that was
required to deliver these projects.

The result was the Total Control eBook. In simple terms this little gem shows you
how to completely break through information overload and also details how money
making works at all levels from the most basic to the very complex.

The methods I discovered and published in this eBook saved my life…literally!

Turn Time Into Money

There is no doubt the ability to cut through the crap and to understand how money
making and information management works are absolutely key!

So, having got my ‘house in order’ and made the decision online was where I was
going, I had to find the best product for giving me the grounding and skills I needed to
make it online.

When I first had a stab at direct response marketing back in the late 90s the full power
of the Internet (as we know it now) had not been utilised. So, when I came back in
2005, things were very different indeed.

The tools I had used back in the late 90s were redundant, so I needed to research from
scratch once more.

The product I found that gave me my platform to build from was Jim Daniel’s Ez
Web Business Builder.

Ez Web Business Builder Review

I found this particular product the best at giving me a proper grounding in the
essentials of marketing online. Your Eguide ‘Paul’ (who looks a bit like a spiv and
sounds a bit like a macho Steven Hawking) takes you by the hand and guides you
through the following subject matter…

Getting Ideas / Niche Research
Keyword Research
Fine Tune Your Idea
Your USP v The Competition
Product Selection
Buying a Domain
How to Install the Free Web Design Software
Website Templates
Customising the Templates
Optimising for Search Engines
Hosting, DNS and Uploading
Other eCommerce Tools
Links And Ranking
Email Marketing
Content Sharing
Affiliate Marketing
JVs

As you can see a comprehensive ‘how to’ guide for the ‘newbie’. So, if you’re at the
‘get started’ stage, this is where I started, and I recommend this is as a pretty good
place for you to start too.

You can download a free report from Jim before you buy. Again, if you are totally
new to marketing online I strongly suggest you do this. It’s called “The Work At
Home Report” (click on the golden key to get it free) and it will ensure you know
exactly what you are letting yourself in for! It’s 187 pages (well, my version is) and
there is no fluff!

Click Here to review and get your Free 187 Internet Marketing Report

You can also see from the above listing that…clearly…being successful online is
going to take an investment from you in terms of time and learning. Be under no
illusion because there is one hell of a lot to learn and if you don’t get the right
information, not only will you fail but it will cost you a stack of money to do so.
And…you will leave Internet Marketing behind disillusioned and unable to
understand how it can work for others but not for you.

I was so very close to this point on a number of occasions. When I look back, I’m not
sure how I managed to stick it out some days when I truly felt like giving up, but, I
stuck at it and sought out the right information.

I’m glad I did!

As far as your own online business is concerned, I believe you should be aiming to
develop a multi-stranded business.

To give you an idea, mine is based on three strands

1.  Affiliate Marketing
2.  Own Products
3.  Adsense Income

Adsense has been the most recent edition to my ‘stable’. I view this as a long-term
project and so far it is only bringing in a few dollars here and a few dollars there. But,
it will build over time as the search engines find and index my information sites. To
be fair, it has been slower than I expected, but I guess I should know that by now :>)

Moving on, one thing I got totally wrong when I was building my business was that I
got some advanced Affiliate Marketing products before I even knew what I was doing
with Google Adwords! Aggghhh, I said it…Google Adwords.

OK, this is vitally important, so please…listen up.

If you are going to build an online business, in any niche, mastering Google Adwords
is an absolute MUST! I know I am sounding like a scratched record here but…in the
wrong hands, Adwords is a money sucking monster, but tame it and it will be a friend
that helps you build autopilot money making systems on a long term basis.

Perry Marshall has a good intro to Adwords product that I think sells out at $47, but I
have not used his products myself. He does come highly recommended, but no
affiliate link as I haven’t used the product and I only recommend products I use and
have paid for with my own money.

I did use Adwords Miracle at one stage and you can read my review here at
Adwords Miracle Review It’s a good product, but I found something much
better.

I think I mentioned Adwords Excellence last month. In fact, I know I have mentioned
it many times in my monthly missives. The reason? It’s the best Adwords product on
the market…by a country mile.

It’s actually a lot more than a product, and as I’ve used and grown with Adwords
Excellence, it reminds me that I must update my online review of this great
service…yes, let’s call it a service.

AWE (as it’s known) is run by a young Scottish Internet Entrepreneur called Stewart
McKay. Stewart is the absolute business when it comes to working with Adwords. In

short he has worked out a foolproof system (called the Ultimate Adwords Strategy)
that ensures you never get slapped by Big G and that your keyword costs are kept to a
minimum simply by playing by Google’s rules.

Stewart explains how to win the Adwords game in words of one syllable that even the
most unsavvy marketer can fully understand and easily implement.

Membership costs just $20 / month (although I think there are still lower level
memberships on offer free).

Included in that membership you get all the inside track on how to win the Adwords
game with bundles of examples of exactly how to structure your account, ad groups
and adverts.

You also get a FR*E*E niche website each month! All of the research is done for you
- the site is fully search engine optimised and all the affiliate programs are researched
and hoptlinks dropped in. All you have to do is make a few amendments to the
content and hoplinks and away you go, you have your own money making site alive
and kicking.

Here’s an example:  www.love-ur-dog.com

There are lots of free keyword research and analysis tools in the membership area as
well as unlimited access to Stewart himself via Skype or email if you have any
questions pr problems. There is also a vibrant and lively messageboard community
that I have personally found extremely helpful. Oh, you also get free hosting for
your sites as part of the deal!

(Edit 2009, I now use Tom Hua’s Hosting Bay - an excellent service)

One thing that is vitally important when setting up a new online business is that you
research your niche, fully and properly. After all, what is the point of selling to a dead
market. Many new online marketers fail because they perceive a market that is not
there. So, they build a product and then market it without research, then….they
wonder why it has failed! Please, do not fall into this trap (as I did a few times).

Stewart also gives you an insider guide to market research. He’ll teach you the best
places to research niches and show you exactly how he does it! Last time I asked him,
he had four niches on the go, making about $13k / month. If that’s where you want to
be, I suggest he might be worth listening to!

Seriously, I have learned so much from Stewart, he really does know his eggs and he
just wants to show and teach others how to be successful online.

Getting the key areas Stewart teaches in Adwords Excellence right will form the basis
of a successful and profitable online business for you. Q.E.D!

Here’s my review (which as I say does need updating as I use AWE much more now
than when I wrote the review)… www.apd-marketing.co.uk/awe.html  or if you want
to go direct to the site, it’s  www.apd-marketing.co.uk/apdrecommendsawe.html
Yes, that is an affiliate link, but as always, I’m sure you can circumvent it if you want
:>)  I wouldn’t be a good Internet Marketer if I wasn’t trying to make a little bit from
my newsletter now would I?

(Edit 2009, I really did champion Adwords Excellence, mainly because it was brilliant. Sadly Stewart McKay disappeared from the IM world in 2008 never to be seen again! The best product I have found since - to unravel Adwords - is Google Cash by Chris Carpenter. I stronly suggest you get this product if you wnat to really understand Google Adwords. Get Adwords wrong and it is a money sucking MONSTER! Get it right and it’s the key to untol profits)

And, finally. Technical. Awww, it’s worse than Adwords! I’ll be honest, I am very
poor technically. Very poor indeed!

Here’s my take. I have learned what I need to know technically and no more. The way
I did it was to find a local Computer Science degree student who wanted to earn some
beer money and employed him for between 5-10 hours a week. He taught me as he
went along. This was very cost effective at teaching me the basic stuff.

I am a great believer in that you should know how everything works ‘under the
bonnet’ and then it’s up to you how much you do yourself.

To leverage time I now outsource a lot of work. I outsource to India and Pakistan (two
companies I have come to trust) and I have also posted specialist projects on Elance
(www.elance.com)  Personally I found it very difficult to let go, but I can assure you,
it is the only way to go once you have some profits coming in. Read Timothy Ferris’
“The 4 Hour Work Week” for the real inside track on this area.

I use Dreamweaver and Frontpage, but you really only need the most basic skills in
both. I have also purchased Adsense and landing page templates. Depending on your
market, a simple Google search will reveal plenty of good examples.

Right, that’s it for this month. A long and involved newsletter, but…vital information
if you’re looking to create a profitable online business.

So, this month I have shown you how to get organised and to overcome  information
overload…and be able to integrate and deal with the huge information flow. How to
give yourself a basic grounding in online marketing and the resources I use to
research markets and win at Adwords. Key stuff!

Next month I’ll be showing you how I got into affiliate marketing and showing you
what I do and use in areas such as SEO and Keyword Research. I’ll also tell you who
the key players are in these areas and show you some of the resources I have used in
these other key success areas.

Until then, keep at it, and remember that persistence is the one thing failure can’t live
with!

As always, to your success.

Cheers now, and have fun!

Derek

Internet Marketing from APD

267 Information Product Ideas - so you can start making money right away!

P.S. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to any friend or colleague you think
may find this info useful!

How Lucky Are You?

Hello again, and welcome to this month’s newsletter. Well, I can’t believe we are now
into September and it has suddenly become very noticeable that the nights are
drawing in. The football season is now well under way and it won’t be long before the
first frost arrives!

I love the autumn though. I wake up on a cold autumn morning and look in wonder at
the bright blue sky. I love the way the yellow, orange and red leaves contrast with the
sky’s blue, I love the way the low sun shines on the shimmering leaves. On mornings
such as this I genuinely think: “How lucky I am to be alive”!

So, how lucky are you? No, not just to be alive…but in life generally.

Whilst you know I like to ask tough questions, I reckon this is a tad easier! I’m
willing to bet you will have a good idea of how lucky you are. Where would you rate
yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the luckiest)?

I was going to talk about looking for product ideas this month, and amazingly (or
should I say luckily) I saw an article on the TV that brought these two subjects
together. Another lucky coincidence was that I’d read an old article from about four
years ago that connected the two subjects as well. So, I thought, as I’d been lucky, I’d
give you my take on this.

Now before I go into this in more detail, the need for product ideas is the one thing
that holds so many people back. It is something I get asked about constantly and it
appears to be an age-old problem. What to sell? How do I get ideas for products?

To be honest this doesn’t need to be a problem!

Anyway, back to the article I saw on TV. This is what happened.

A scientist was walking around Covent Garden with a copy of a magazine and he was
asking people to look through the magazine and count the pictures. He put them under
a time constraint and…if they got the right answer within the time allowed, the
“contestant” won a fiver.

So, people would rush off and count the pictures. Out of 14 people who took the trial
only two won the fiver. There were 77 pictures. OK, difficult to flick through a
magazine and count that many pictures in 60 seconds – very difficult indeed.

However, before he asked people to take this little test, he asked how lucky they were.

Here’s the amazing bit, the two people who thought they were the luckiest were the
two people who won the fiver.

And…even more amazingly, neither of them counted all of the pictures!

OK, I know you’re now thinking this was some sort of trick here…and it sort of was!
About ten pages in, on the left hand side, was a page that simply said in big bold black
letters on a plain white background: “Stop counting, there are 77 pictures”. As it
happens, neither of the winners saw this page (obviously none of the losers did
either).

However, just over half way through there was another page that said. “Stop counting,
tell the tester you’ve seen this page and you have won the £5”. The two “lucky”
people saw this page and claimed their fiver.

So, what’s the point?

Simply this. The scientist stated that there had been many studies conducted and it has
been “probably” proved that lucky people are simply more observant of their
surroundings and the opportunities presented to them.

Now this is a bit of an “ethereal” area, but this little experiment does sort of prove the
point.

I remember from the past an old saying that ”you make your own luck” and that luck
is simply “Labouring Under Correct Knowledge”…and this again, is “sort” of true.

So, if you’re looking for products to sell and build your business with…how
observant (lucky) are you?

How often do you go to forums on-line and look for problems people are
experiencing? A problem solved is a profitable product!

How often do you read about problems in the paper and think about how to solve it? Do you read the business pages to see what is going on?

How often do you get frustrated with a product and say “if only it did this or that”? How often do you wish for a certain service or product?

What are your areas of expertise and what problems are you able to solve? Are these
problems lots of other people have as well? All you need to do to find a forum is go
on to Google and type forum + subject. Read the forums, most of them have an FAQ
section, could this be made into a product? Go try!

There are forums on every topic under the sun and there is sure to be at least one in
your area of either interest or expertise, so see what people are saying there. What can
you deliver to the members in return for profit? It’s certainly easier to build a product
if it’s a subject you know intimately.

So, another difficult question for you…how often do you think you have passed a
product idea by during your lifetime? Ouch! That one hurt. Indeed, it hurt me when I
re-read that old article I mentioned earlier.

I totally missed the relevance of this first time round, but…it referred to the first series
of Dragon’s Den. I’ve dipped into the program occasionally, but the point is this.
Dragon’s Den is full of people presenting business ideas to a panel of wealthy
entrepreneurs each week. What better way to fill your head with product ideas?

I have to admit I can’t believe this one actually passed me by! Each week most of the
presentations get rejected, but…a different slant, an enhancement, a more efficient
version, a version for a different market? I’ve just watched it for pure entertainment,
when I could have been trawling it for profitable product ideas – derrr!

So, how about another slant? What about when you go abroad for your holidays?
Three years ago in Vancouver I saw this amazing gadget that throws a ball for a dog
to chase. It’s a sort of sling that launches the ball a very long way and also picks up
the ball. This means that the dog gets great exercise and the owner doesn’t have to
pick up the ball covered in nasty saliva with their hands.

Guess what? I’ve started to see them over here now. I must admit, I thought it was a
good idea when I first saw it. However, someone saw the thing, thought it was a good
idea and DID something with it and imported the product into the UK. I expect that
person is doing rather well.

There are just so many ideas and products out there just waiting for YOU.

So, why do so many people seem to have this “shell” around them that stops them
“seeing” these things?

I’m not sure, maybe it’s the pace of life these days, but…I have decided that I should take more time over things and just generally, look at things much more carefully. I think this will prove to be a very good discipline regardless, but I’m sure if I persist I will generate some great new ideas for products and / or services.

Maybe I might just get lucky! Maybe you might too!

One thing is for sure, you can sell pretty much anything over the internet these days.
The cost of building a web site is coming down day by day as are all the other costs
involved, particularly eCommerce solutions.

So…you have no excuse for not getting out there and building your own success.
Ideas are simply everywhere, you just have to cultivate the right mindset to be able to
“see” all of that opportunity.

On a totally different subject, following on from my note to you about Adwords
Excellence, I’ve spoken to Stewart at AE today and had a look at the number of
people who took up my referral. It’s really low! I can’t believe that! Did you not look
at it properly??

If you want to make a success of marketing on-line learning how to get the best from
Google Adwords is absolutely essential. I guarantee, if you don’t get your Adwords
campaigns right, you will lose money. Stewart is the undisputed king of Adwords in
the UK.

I cannot recommend this service highly enough and, still, for just a short time longer,
you can sign up FREE. Yes, for no cost. You CAN learn everything you need to
become successful with Adwords for no cost to yourself. If you are serious about
marketing online you just cannot afford to turn this chance down.
So, once again, here is the link…

Editors Note 2009 - sadly the AWE service left the internet in late 2008. A sad loss!

Without wishing to be rude…do yourself a favour and get into this.

So, with autumn nearly upon us and the winter months to follow, this is the ideal time
to spend those dark winter nights getting lucky. Open your eyes to the possibilities
and come next spring I reckon you could be on the path to freedom. What a great
word – freedom.

I’ll be launching further products to help you achieve just that in September. The
Total Control system is now ready and the website is being developed. This will help
you unlock the secrets of how the money power giants do what they do (make buckets
of money).

And I have a referral to an incredible product for you in the next few days. This one
will come with products ready made in it, so you won’t even have to worry about
finding or developing the products! How easy do you want this??

On that positive note, I shall bid you farewell. Any questions, comments or just plain
insults, please feel free to email me, and I’ll try and get back to you as soon as I can.

As always…to *YOUR* success

Cheers now and…have fun.

Derek

Internet Marketing from APD

How To Find Great information Product Ideas