APD-Marketing Newsletter

 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 August edition of the APD Newsletter.

If, like me, you are in the U.K, you will have noticed that the Met Office retracted their promise of a B-B-Q summer last week.

Talk about stating the obvious. It hasn’t stopped raining since mid June! It’s apparently due to the fact that, for the third year in a row, that naughty old jet stream has failed to “go north”.

So, it’s sitting right above us dropping one low pressure system after another on top of a wet and soggy U.K. If they ever talk about droughts again!!!

Add this to the recession, and as usual the press are having a field day peddling the doom and gloom.

And, this was the subject I was talking to a friend about a couple weeks back. He was fed up with his job and the weather and was looking for a way out. Now the interesting thing is that he had totally ridiculed my Internet marketing efforts when I first got started!

However, he had come to realise that I was having much more fun than him so, given his own situation, he started asking some questions.

In the end, he asked for a route plan he could follow to get started online, so…this is what I gave him! A step-by-step guide to getting your online business up and running…I am good to you :>)

Firstly, a plan is vitally important. Failing to plan is planning to fail! O.K, I know it is awful, but it is true…it’s vital you have a proper strategic plan.

This is where most people starting out fail. I have said many times, and I repeat, there is so much information out there (most of it not very good) that it is very easy to fall into the information overload trap.

If you have a plan, this problem is immediately overcome, you can read my Hub on this issue here, just click the following link Internet Marketing Pitfalls.

The first thing I advised my friend to do was to make the best of his knowledge and interests. Maybe look at a specific talent or experience. List them out.

Then go and have a look in Clickbank and see what products match your areas of experience or interest. Look for products that you have experience in, or a passion about. This is key as you will already understand some of the motivations and mindset of the market.

Having researched Clickbank, pick the first niche you are going to go for!

Then, having decided on your niche, list all of the products and pick the best three based on…

Sales page effectiveness (hint…does it sell to you?)

Gravity (higher the better)

Percentage Commission (at least 50%)

Commission payout (ideally at least $25).

Next, you need to register a domain name that is relevant to the niche. I recommend Namecheap, as the name suggests, it’s cheap - $8.96 If you can’t afford $9 for a domain, then you shouldn’t be here.

Despite what some might tell you, you definitely need a domain. Having a domain name that is relevant (like www.instant-social-traffic.com) helps in so many ways!

It keeps your PPC costs down, increases your quality score and generally helps get you recognised by the search engines (and added PR) because relevancy pertains throughout!

Is this message starting to sink in? The thread through your entire campaign MUST be common! Even down to keyword level (more on this subject in Part 2).

So if we have a site about German Shepherd Dog Training, the domain www.germanshepherdtraining.com would be ideal (no idea if it exists by the way). I tend to use hyphens if the domain I want is not available, as in www.instant-social-traffic.com

There is a lot of argument about this and many people say using the hyphenation harms your effectiveness. I have not found that, and it does allow me to create keyword rich domains that might otherwise have been taken.

Having got your domain, you now need to get it hosted.

I use Hostgator and Hosting Bay for all of my sites. They are both good as recommended in last month’s newsletter, I’ll say no more on this subject.

Both are really easy to use and give you explicit instructions on how to transfer your domains to them. Generally two or three fields to fill in and click the button!

Now, the bit most people dread…you have to put up a website, or at very least a squeeze page to promote your products. Make sure you have a mechanism for collecting names and email addresses. (You will need an autoresponder for this – more in a minute).

Three years ago I couldn’t have built a website if my life depended on it! However, as with all things Internet marketing, there is a learning curve…and you simply MUST make that investment in learning unless you can afford to outsource.

Initially I learned to use Dreamweaver, which is a fair task for a technical bonehead (that’s me by the way).

Nowadays I use Blue Voda. This is a free download product and is so easy to use my Mum can do it! It took my Mum three years to learn email and she still rings me to ask questions about it! So, that gives you an idea as to how easy it is to use Blue Voda. If you can use Word, you can use Blue Voda with about an hours learning – maybe less.

If you can afford to outsource your web build, great go for it.

I use the following outsource sites when Lee or I don’t have the time to do our own web work…

Elance

Odesk

Rentacoder

There are others, but I have built good relationships with service providers at all of these sites.

They can be a bit “hit and miss” to start with and I had some horror stories, but over about 6 months, I have found a number of providers who have done excellent work and I can now trust. If I need work done, I turn to these trusted suppliers.

It’s the same as everything, you have to start somewhere and you can’t expect everything to flow right away. As long as you learn and gain experience from the setbacks, it makes you more effective in the long run.

I’m sure I have said before every negative has the seed of at least an equal or greater benefit within it. Sometimes you just have to look a little!

Back to autoresponders. You need one. I use Aweber.

It’s the best for the budding Internet marketer! There are free autoresponders, but…beware, many of them are blacklisted so your delivery rates will be poor.

Aweber is $19.95/month and worth a bundle more than that for the functionality you get. It’s a professional, well-respected service that will stand you in good stead in the market.

An autoresponder will automate all of your communication with your customers and potential customers.

Why do you need one?

Well, research has proven that it takes seven contacts for people to buy. After years in sales I can confirm this is true. Your customers need to trust you before they will buy as a general rule…and that takes around seven contacts from you. So, if you do not follow up with people who show an interest, you are leaving money (lots of it) on the table!

I like using the seven part free course that allows you to market the products subtly and build trust at the same time.

Again, Aweber is so easy to use. If you can point and click you can do this. And…Aweber now have extensive video training so nothing is left to chance. Everything is demonstrated in fine detail.

Now you need to enter information into your autoresponder.

As I said, at least a seven message sequence.

This is where I think it’s important that you have an interest and understanding of the niche you are attacking. If you have that understanding, then you’ll be able to write your messages as an “insider”. People will relate to you and you’ll be on the “same page” as your readers.

This is so powerful when you are trying to sell – that you can sell from your prospects “point of view”. That you’re seen as an “insider” who understands their problems and troubles.

Yes, you can outsource the writing of your content and autoresponder series, but I don’t like doing that. I like to have intimate knowledge of what I post online so that I can respond effectively to any questions. I think that is important and show’s you are serious about your niche.

There is a lot of information in this month’s missive! I still can’t believe I give all this away free to you every month! I was reading about the Red Hat business model this morning (they give their software away free), but I am convinced that if I keep giving all this great free stuff away…I will be rewarded in full (plus some) for the products I do sell.

Plus, I enjoy writing the newsletter, it’s my subject and it’s fun – and so we come full circle!

One final thing, Lee and I have upgraded the Instant Social Traffic free members area. There is now at least $497 worth of freebies in there that show you how you can start to profit from “social traffic”.

The product itself has been delivering some spectacular results for paid members. I’ll be putting a video up with some case studies soon. Keep an eye out for that.

O.K, that’s it for this month, I’ll be back with part two of the IM plan next month when I look at configuring your autoresponder, the sales process, keyword research and a few other sneaky marketing methods!

Until then, as always…to *YOUR* success.

Cheers now.

Derek

Instant Social Traffic

How To Control Time and Money

Instant Social Traffic

Instant Information Product Ideas

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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!

Hi and welcome to the August 2008 APD Newsletter.

Wow, August already, and for those of us in the U.K summer still hasn’t really
started! Now if ever there was a reason to get your own auto pilot income business up
and running and profitable (so you can run it from beside a Spanish beach)…surely
the British weather has to be a major motivator!

O.K, if you’re not reading this from somewhere in the U.K, you might need to find
other motivation, but for Brits…I would suggest the weather is one of the best
motivators around. Most of my leisure time this summer has been spent in this green
and pleasant (and very wet) land, but I am now at breaking point so I’m off for some
sunshine in a couple of week’s time!

Anyway, enough of my weather rants, back to business as I take a further look at
some of the ideas that came out of the Andrew Reynolds bootcamp a few weeks back.

http://www.cash-on-demand-workshop.com/bootcamp/

I know many of you took up the DVD offer (link above) and I know you’ll be starting
to reap the benefits, but do still read this newsletter as I’ll be highlighting areas of
special interest.

One area that came through loud and clear was regards product development. I have
to admit I was cringing when I heard this! This was me when I first started!

Most people who are looking to develop a business, be that online or traditional,
develop the product first and then look to market it…wrong!

The first thing you MUST do is find a hungry market…before you do anything else! I
know I’ve said this before, but it still amazes me the number of people who approach
me with a product they have spent years developing without doing a scrap of research.

It seems blindingly obvious to me now, but when I think back…I had my idea and I
was totally blinkered. The rose-tinted glasses were on and my product was the best
thing out there and was going to sell by the thousand.

My first experience of this was as a very young and green twenty something. I spent a
fortune getting a range of sepiatoned photographic prints made up and expertly
framed. I then spent a lot more buying a stand at a huge craft fair which ran over three
days in Milton Keynes.

I then sat there on the stand for those three days and sold….wait for it…

TWO pictures. Did I learn my lesson?

Of course not!

When I first went online I read all of the books, watched a load of video tapes and
proceeded to get it wrong again.

Now I have learned my lesson. If I have an idea, I research the market first.

I look for competitive products (these are good by the way), I look for forums where
the subject is discussed, I do Google searches, I use keyword research tools to find out
how many searches are being done online. I look at the magazine racks…in short, I
make sure there is a market before I even think about launching a product.

And, when I first test a market, I do it as an affiliate. I find a product in that market on
Clickbank and I promote it. I set a small budget and I test ad variations and I see if I
can make money.

If I can make money in the niche, then…and only then do I look to develop my own
product.

As it happens, watch this space on this subject. A good friend of mine has developed a
product and I am going to teach him how to market online. At the moment he knows
nothing…and I mean nothing! Adwords got a completely blank look from him! So, I
am going to show him, top to bottom, how to go about marketing online.

Did he do his research? No, he didn’t! However, he was very lucky as he had picked a
very, very hungry market. As soon as he showed me the product I knew. There are
rare occasions when you do just know. And, when I did the online research it did
confirmed what I thought, so…we’ll be sitting down in the next couple of weeks to
market this product.

I’ll be filming the entire process and I’ll be making it available…this will be one you
won’t want to miss!

Anyway, the point is simple…before you spend anything on product development (be
that your time or money) make sure you KNOW for sure that there is a hungry market
waiting to buy.

One of the other things that I got at Bootcamp was a massive injection of positive.
Now, normally I am the most positive person around. Many people have been known
to hate me as I’m one of these annoying people that wake up in the morning and start
flying around at 100 miles an hour, singing and generally being noisy.

However, every now and then it is good to get a new injection of positive to keep you
on the right track and motivated. With the best will in the world, even positive people
sometimes have the odd dip here and there and…there is nothing like an influx of
positive input every so often.

Pat Mesiti was the PMA guru for the weekend…a real bundle of Aussie energy!
Hyper doesn’t describe him, but what great ideas he delivered…I’ll cover just a
couple of the main themes.

In short he said that if you want to have the money, lifestyle and everything that goes
with having a successful business, then your mind has to evolve to the level where
you can deal with wealth.

He cited the example of a very famous American heavyweight boxer who earned over $400 million during his career but was now flat broke and in and out of prison.

$400 million blown on nothing!

The essence of this is that you have to control your own attitude to life and show the
discipline needed to grow and develop with your business.

You do this by making sure you read and watch the right stuff, and set goals and
priorities for yourself.

For example, if you want to build a lifestyle for yourself where you have numerous
autopilot profit streams and you need to learn, say Google Adwords, to help generate
profits…would you give up the “game on TV” to learn what you need to learn?

I talked last month about going that extra mile. I’ve talked before about sitting there at
9pm on a Friday night writing this newsletter. I gave up a weekend to be at Bootcamp.

In short…I have my priorities right and it’s why this week I have spent a day out with
my eldest son, I’ll be off for a luxury week in Spain soon, I’ll be spending three
weeks in Vancouver soon and I got up at 9am this morning and walked the three yards
to “work”!

You see I took the hit a few years back. I put in the hard work, I got my mind focused
the right way and I did what it took to get me to where I am now.

What else did I do to get here?

I set goals. I know, I can hear the collective sigh from here “Yeah, we all know about
goals”.

Do YOU have your goals written down? Do you even have any goals set?

Every positive mental attitude book, DVD or CD will tell you the most successful 5%
of the population are those with written goals! It’s true so please get your goals
written down…ideally with pictures to support.

Andrew did a brilliant session on goal setting and it was an area I had let slip a little
(at least I’m honest with you).

However, after Bootcamp, I was re-invigorated and have re-set and massively
“upped” my goals.

You see…it’s that injection of positive again!

As it happens, Andrew still has the bootcamp DVDs available, and if you haven’t got
yourself a copy yet, I seriously suggest you invest. Click on the link below…

http://www.cash-on-demand-workshop.com/bootcamp/

Invest in yourself, was one of Pat’s main themes. If you want success and you haven’t
got it now, then it follows you will need to do something different in future to get you
to where you want to be. Simple stuff.

Investing in the “right stuff” for yourself (and your loved ones) is one of the main
support pillars of all successful people!

I’ve got some really interesting stuff coming up for you during the course of the next
month, so you will hear from me a little bit more often over the coming weeks, but it
will all be designed to help you really move your business and life to where you want
it to be.

So, stop making excuses and just “DO IT”…start doing something to secure your
financial independence and future lifestyle…NOW.

http://www.cash-on-demand-workshop.com/bootcamp/

O.K, that’s it for now, do read this newsletter again and think about what you really
want. Final word…I am nothing special, I spent 20 years as a recruiter (it pains me to
think about it now)…if I can do it – so can YOU!

As always…to YOUR success.

Cheers now, and have fun!

Derek

Internet Marketing from APD

267 Information Product Ideas

If you feel anyone else would benefit from this information, 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

Choppy Waters Ahead? How Prepared Are You?

Welcome to this month’s APD newsletter. If I thought September had crept up on us
suddenly, it sure ran out the other side pretty quick! Mind you, this morning was one
of those beautiful crisp blue autumn morns that I yearned for last month!

Whilst that was nice, and I took time to take it all in as I went out for a morning
coffee, I was soon down to business. I guess we ought to get down to it as well as
there is a lot to talk about this month.

Firstly…a run on a UK Bank? The first one for a hundred years, who would havethought it, eh? But, I told you back in August that the US sub prime crisis would hitother markets and so it has proved.

Funnily enough it caused my ‘phone to ring hot with lots of calls from my old
recruitment buddies. You see, I worked selling IT personnel to the Investment Banks,
and to a man, they have all been making their large sub prime losses public this last
couple of weeks.

Deutsche Bank $1.5 billion, Citigroup a similar amount. Credit Suisse, UBS, Bear Stearns, they are all having to admit to hundreds of millions of pounds of losses in the US sub prime market.

You see, they brought CDO (Corporate Debt Obligations) which were basically crap
sub prime loans wrapped up in “little” multi million dollar packages. The problem
was that by the time they had been wrapped up, chopped about a bit, re-packaged, re-
financed a few times, and derivatives made out of them…

…it was difficult to see where the final obligation lay! So, the Banks didn’t check them properly and just brought these CDOs assuming they were “good” debt…which clearly they weren’t! In fact, most of them were very, very bad debt.  So, now the Banks are having to admit the
liability and enter the losses on their balance sheets.

The effective translation of that for my old recruitment chums is that many see their
jobs as being in jeopardy. Most of the Banks have now got a complete freeze on
recruitment activity and that has an immediate effect on the recruitment agencies.
Boy, am I glad I left all that behind!

At the moment, the Banks all expect “robust” trading conditions for the last quarter,
but that remains to be seen. If the market doesn’t bounce back, a lot of my old friends
will be finding life very difficult.

It would appear that the wider economy is still doing OK, well, even, but the full
impact has yet to filter through, in my opinion. Retail sales were up last month but the
full force of recent interest rate rises has yet to be felt.

The full impact of the credit crunch has yet to filter through as well. And…there will be (again in my opinion) some serious fallout from the U.S Fed cutting half a point off of U.S interest rates to
try and stave off recession. That is one very inflationary measure they have taken.

And…if the U.S economy does decide to crash land, being the driver of world trade
(whether we like it or not), it will have serious global consequences.

So, a real curve ball of a question for you this month…if the economy does go into
reverse, how safe are you?

What would happen if you lost your job because your company hit bad times and your
number came up on totally the wrong sort of lottery?

How many months could you survive without income? Ouch! That one hurt as well
didn’t it?

It is an absolute truism that you will never be rich working for someone else.

The only way to make money (in any worthwhile amount – unless you want the stress
of being a CEO with a very finite shelf life) is to have your own business.

And, the only place to have that business is online.

Why?

Simply because your costs are negligible compared to running a “bricks and mortar”
style business. So, having given you some ideas about product development last
month, I thought I’d go a step further this month and give you a blueprint for gaining
some more great ideas and then how to go on and develop an affiliate niche online.

This is powerful stuff. So sit tight!

Firstly, if you are just starting out, set yourself an achieveable target. Don’t shoot for
£10,000 / week for starters.

Start small and replicate! Replication is a key idea here.

To start with, target a small amount, say, £50 profit from ONE promotion. Just aim to
make £50 in a day.

Once you are making £50 / day, it opens all sorts of doors. For example, you can now
afford to hire a writer to write products, marketing material and web sites for you.
How much time will that save you? How much more quickly could you replicate if
you had a person to do all of your writing? And that’s just for starters!

You can find writers on Elance and Craigs List.

You see, most people try one thing and if it doesn’t work immediately, they move on
to something else, and when that doesn’t work after 5 minutes, they….well, you get
the picture.

Work on your first promotion until it is delivering at least your target figure. Once
you’ve understood how to make one project work - replicate! This one piece of
information is worth a fortune on its own. I know, I suffered from it for many years.

So, focus on one promotion at a time and get it right and profitable at your target
level.

Now, last month I gave you some ideas on locating niches. If that wasn’t enough for
you, here is a huge list of niches…

http://ezinearticles.com/category-guidelines.html

Have a browse. If you don’t find at least one niche market you can attack after
looking at this little lot, please…unsubscribe. I’m serious.

Dig deeply into your areas of interest and expertise, read the articles, get ideas and
write them down. You’ll find gem after gem in here.

Once you have found an area that you are interested to pursue, go to Clickbank and
search for products in that niche.

Having done that, have a search on Adwords, YSM and Adcenter and see what other
products are out there in the same market.

If you’ve never written an ad before, simply look at the ones near the top and copy
them. Easy isn’t it?

Search Google on related keywords and see what comes up and note down the ones
that bring up the right ads. This will become your list of keywords. Remember to use
“buy” phrases.

Join the relevant products affiliate programs and then create a pre-sell website. These
are so simple to create it’s untrue.

Here’s an example of one of mine for eBook Wholesaler…

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

Then set up your Adwords campaigns and send traffic to your pre-sell page.

Make sure you track conversions so you know what not to waste money on and make
sure you analyse your results.

Wash, rinse and repeat in another niche or variation of the same niche.

By the way, the templates I’ve started using are part of Stewart McKay’s Adwords

Excellence (AWE) product. It’s still hanging on there as a free membership, but I’ve no idea how much longer he will keep it open. (editors note 2009, sadly Adwords Excellence is no longer with us)

Just a reminder, get along to www.apd-marketing.co.uk/apdrecommendsawe.html and
get signed up. New facilities are being added all the time. I’ve no idea how Stewart
keeps this free, but I’m sure he will start charging soon – he has to!

By the way, that’s three months in a row I’ve mentioned AWE, it is such an
outstanding resource, if you are serious about an online business, you have to have a
membership.

Yes, I know I’m repeating myself, but…it’s important!

Moving on, ultimately you really should aim to develop your own products, but if you
want to get a good start online, affiliate marketing is the way to go…and it’s so easy.
You just have to take action. Get something done, even it it’s not right. Once you
have something “up” you can work on it, tweak it and ultimately get it right.

But…you HAVE to do something! Get something out there, don’t just sit on your
backside hoping something will happen, make it happen. The chances of the lottery
finger pointing at you are 14 million to 1, sorry, but you can’t rely on your numbers
coming up. If they do – good luck.

However, I’m not prepared to trust to luck. I’m not prepared to trust to the vagaries of
the economic cycle (even though, in reality, they are only little economic ripples). I’m
not prepared to rely on the whim of a boss who doesn’t give a toss about me.

I’d rather rely on myself thank you very much. This may make you feel uneasy, but
no apologies given, you need to know (and understand) this stuff.

Over the last two months I’ve given you a great insight into how you can get an
affiliate business off the ground and earning. I don’t like pleading, but I will. Please
use this information and make yourself safe!

Choppy waters may well be ahead, so protect yourself now. Enough said.

That’s it for now. I thought it important to get this content out to you this month in
view of what seems to be happening on the economic front. I’ll try and lighten up a
bit in November!

As always, to your success…

Cheers now and have fun.

Derek

www.apd-marketing.co.uk

Control Time And Money

Blogging For Profits

If you feel this information may be of use to someone else, please feel free to pass it on.

Thank God for the Bozos!

Indeed, “Thank God for the bozos of this world, for…were it not for the bozos, how would we know we are successful” – Mark Twain.

What a great quote that is to welcome you to June’s bumper birthday edition of the APD newsletter. Now, whilst I’m sure that may cause you to giggle a little, there is a serious point to opening up with this piece of
brilliance from the great Mark Twain.

You see, we are all successful compared to our parents. Thirty or forty years ago people were lucky if they had a television. I remember many of my family being crowded round the television on World Cup Final day in
1966 (yes, I am that old!). We lived in Wembley at the time and my Mum took me up to the High Street to see the Queen before the game!

True, it was a big social occasion and time for a great big party, but the point was…some of my family didn’t have a TV! It was the same year my Dad got his frst car, and boy did he have to scrimp and save for that car.

It took him years – no personal loans or credit agreements, he had to save and buy it cash. He passed his test in 1963!

Nowadays everyone seems to get a new car every two or three years – not then. A new TV every couple of years as the Plasmas get bigger and better.

The standard of living rises daily as technology creates new and faster wealth. Compared with 100 years ago we (the masses) live in absolute luxury.

We also live in the instant gratifcation society.

And…that brings me to a question I have been asked a lot recently.

“How can I make money quickly on the Internet without a product or service?”

Well, I promised you a bumper birthday edition this month, so sit back relax and inwardly digest!

I mentioned a few months back that Affliate Marketing is the way to go and I suggested for people wanting to start on this route that the Day Job Killer product was a good way to go.

I certainly know one person took my advice went for it. I was delighted when he mailed me with a link to his frst site a couple of weeks back. He grabbed the bull by the horns, brought DJK and did something with it.

It won’t be long before he starts to see the money roll in. Good for him!
He couldn’t really afford the outlay, but he knew he wanted more, so he made that quality commitment to get it.

Six weeks…that’s all it took him. Are you prepared to invest just a little bit of time and money in your future?

The lesson is clearly there, are you ready to follow? If so, this issue is a must read!

The reason affliate marketing is so popular is that you can earn online without having to spend time researching or getting involved in product development. You market a fnished product that someone else has
done all this work on.

This in itself is a massive time saving on your part, it is without doubt the most costly part of any business venture.

Obviously you need to do some research into the product and market to make sure you have a ready and willing audience, but the effort you have to put in is nothing compared to developing the product from scratch yourself.

Check out Clickbank for thousands of products you can market.
So, having found your product of choice, it’s now time to put together your plan of action. This is where, in my opinion, many people get it wrong! The frst thing you MUST do is set up a squeeze page. I’m willing to bet you’ve heard that phrase a hundred times and still don’t understand it.

It’s just a simple one page website that “pre-sells” prospects and has a mechanism to collect their email address or contact details in order that they can receive further information from you. It’s a mechanism to
start building YOUR list.

Why is this so important?

Well, it achieves three objectives.

1.  It builds an opt-in list for you (remember the money is in the list).
2.  You start to build a relationship with the prospects.
3.  It allows you to cross promote other products.
4.  It allows you to market the hugely proftable high ticket back end products.

Now, I know that may sound like a lot of work, but once you’ve set up the web page and the autoresponder that’s it. Each “campaign” will then run on autopilot for as long as the product continues to sell.

Rinse and repeat!

This is what you need to do to get started…

1. A domain. I use Biz Hosting. You can fnd them at www.biz-hosting.co.uk (Edit 2009, I now use Tom Hua’s Hosting Bay - much cheaper and much better service…you live and learn!)

They’re not the cheapest, but they are good. The domain is set up and live within 24 hours and if you have a query, they answer straight away. The control panel and stats are easy to use.

2. Then you need an autoresponder. I use .  It’s very easy to use (especially if a techophobe like me can cope) and they are adding new video tutorials every day.

3. A simple website with a pre-sales message on it. There are many web site templates available on the Internet today and there was even a product launched just this week called “Instant Squeeze Page Generator”. Someone saw a gap in the market and moved quickly to fll it! The basic product is FREE, so go get!! What are you waiting for?

Do you start to see how easy it is to get ideas in this market place?? What a great example this product is!

Personally I don’t use it as I use either Frontpage or Dreamweaver and go from scratch. Instant Squeeze Page Generator will do a great job for you, but…if you don’t want to use it or don’t have the “pay for” HTML programs, or can’t afford them, you can use free HTML generators such as Sothink or NVU or Blue Voda (the best in my opinion).

4. The last thing you’ll need is to be able to cloak your affliate links. In my early days I constantly had my affliate links “hijacked”. I couldn’t understand why my conversions were so low. But, I found out that even
remotely “savvy” people could easily recognise an affliate link. They could then insert their own “code” or bypass the link all together.

So, now I cloak! Don’t make the same mistake I did – cloak from the start. You might hear some people suggest this is a “black hat” technique. I say it’s self preservation… and a “no brainer”.You can do this for free, here’s a useful link…

http://www.thatswise.com/free/lessons/0803.html

Or you can buy a tool to do it for you. It’s a little bit “techy” and I did try doing it for myself, but…in the end, I just decided it was easier to spend a little bit of money on a tool to do it for me.

What takes about 5 minutes to do manually takes 45 seconds with the tool I use.

I use Jim Edward’s Affliate Link Cloaker. It is incredibly easy to use and more than worth the investment of $59. That’s less than £30 in proper money.

Am I making this easy enough for you?

Once you’ve got these items together you then just need to write your copy and you are up and running as an affliate marketer.

Just one simple web page for each product you are promoting, that’s all you need. If you want to make your pre-sales page even more powerful, add a free bonus that can ONLY be sourced through your squeeze page.

This has the double-edged beneft of increasing sign ups and sales. It’s a powerful tool to use.

Not sure what to write? Well, simply go to the sales page of the product you are promoting and pick out a few of the more powerful selling points and use them to write your copy.

Keep the page short, certainly no more than 500 words and make sure you paste the capture drop-down box from your autoresponder into the page. Don’t mention the product by name on the squeeze page, leave that
to the actual sales page you’ll be directing the prospects to. Just show the benefts to entice at this stage.

You should have an autoresponder series set up so that as soon as anyone clicks on the drop down, they get an email with the information they need, that is to say directions to the sales site. Use the double opt in method in your autoresponder and offer a free gift as inducement to “sign up”. Tell them they will receive the occasional mail from you when you have something that will be interesting for them and…you are done!

As I have said many times before, over-delivering and offering outrageous value for money is the way to build a BIG business online. Follow this method and you will have built immediate trust in your prospect’s
minds.

Your autoresponder should be set up to maintain contact every 4 or 5 days initially. These messages should be pre-written ready for when you launch your campaign.

Just a side note about the content of your messages. Some people just market, market, market. I like to make sure I send out good and useful content about half of the time and market the other half. Yes, I do mix
marketing in with content, but I do like to make sure what I provide is useful and worthwhile – particularly as it’s free!

This month’s newsletter is, in my humble opinion, a good example of over delivering. It’s free, but the information contained herein is actually worth a lot of money. Especially to YOU, if you use it as the basis for getting your own affliate empire up and running!

Moving on, another major failing is that aspiring affliates set up one campaign and then expect all hell to break loose and their bank account to bulge with thousands of ££££s.

You have to learn by trial and error and fnd out what does and doesn’t work. Look at other marketers and what they do. Look at Google Ads and see the ones that are there week after week – they are obviously the successful ones.

Build a portfolio of products that you are promoting. Keep the ones that earn (until they don’t) and ditch the ones that don’t – quickly. An old maxim from my recruitment days – “If you’re going to fail, learn to fail quickly”.

This is the strategy to build a long and lasting affliate income. Good luck!

If you want to get into this area more deeply, I can recommend Chris of DJK fame’s other products.

Affliate Project X takes it from the ground up. It does assume some basic knowledge, but some of the tips and tools Chris gives you in this product are very powerful. The reader I was talking about earlier purchased  APX along with DJK and he is up and running. Yes, it takes some time to integrate all of the information, but it is well worth it if Affliate Marketing is the way you want to go.

If you are a complete “newbie” (I hate that word), Chris also has a product called Affliate Commandments.

This is a small PDF document (about 15 pages) that has twelve basic rules that you should adhere to when marketing as an affliate. They are, I guess, things that came to light after DJK and APX were released.

It only costs $9.97. Now, you may be asking, why should I pay out even more money?

Good question.

The answer is simply this. If you are new to this game this product comes with a complete newbie guide to everything “Affliate Marketing”.
What I’ve given you today is a “helicopter” view, a basic template if you like. This add on (to a $9.97 product – that’s less than a fiver in our money) is absolutely invaluable to someone starting out in Affliate Marketing.

It gives you everything, most of it in point and click detail. For a fiver it’s got to be one of the best value products around. It also gives you access to an on-line video presentation. Cracking stuff!

Now talking of copywriting, which I was about eight paragraphs ago. The Write For Riches product is due to be delivered any day. I’ll be mailing you out when it’s here.

This product really is the “be all and end all” of copywriting products. It is a comprehensive package of DVDs, eBooks and MP3 fles that cover every possible angle of advertising, copywriting and headline writing. It even has sales page generator and headline generator software included.

If you want to learn to write copy that will make you shed loads of dosh, you simply must get your hands on this product.

As I say, I’ll mail you as soon as the physical products land at the offce.

Now…as it is my birthday this month, I did promise a bumper edition, so as I hope I always do, I shall deliver!

I got some interesting “insider” information last week that I thought I’d share with you.

If you’re using article marketing or content on Adsense sites, this might affect you.

Google is currently mounting a sustained campaign against duplicate content on the web. So, if you’ve been using PLR content or software programs that “change” or “spin”content or you’re using articles from the
article sites – beware.

If you’ve noticed your ranking dropping like the proverbial stone, this could be the reason.

Google has always maintained it’s raison d’etre was simply to provide quality content for its users. And, being in the powerful position it occupies, it has decided it’s had enough of crap generated and duplicate content.

From now on, if you want to keep your ranking position, it’s not going to be any good at all recycling old and much used articles or content. What you use is going to have to be signifcantly different – unique as well as relevant.

The autopage generators and article spinner tools are dead – sorry.

Google is using a new algorithm which is called LSI, or Latent Semantic Indexing to search out and destroy this type of content. It not only looks at words but phrases as well and it is able to contextualise. That’s to say it can “understand” the context in which a word or phrase, or even a theme is written and…it has over 600,000 phrases as its reference source.

They recently patented this algorithm and it is now in use. You have been warned! Your content MUST now be unique and relevant. The themes must now be consistent and it’s how the themes are weaved into your copy that is important.

If you are going to use PLR or article content, you are going to have to make sure it is at least 30% unique to avoid a duplicate content attack by Google.

You have been warned, keep a close eye on this side of your business.
Well, that’s it for my bumper birthday edition, pretty intense this month, eh? But…lots of useful and proftable information – if you decide to use it that is.

I promise to lighten up a bit in July!

If you have any comments, questions or observations, or indeed anything you’d like to add that might be useful…I’d love to hear from you.

I’ve been reading an old PMA book from the 80s this last week, just to inject a little bit of positive and it has some great quotes in it, so I’ll fnish with….

“Whether you think you will succeed or not, you are right.” – Henry Ford

Until next month, believe you can do it - get out there, do something and go for it.

As always…to *YOUR* success.

Cheers now…and have fun!

Derek

www.apd-marketing.co.uk

Internet Marketing from APD

Turn Time Into Money

Welcome to the May 2007 edition of the APD Marketing newsletter.

First of all I hope last month’s “kick ass” newsletter served its purpose and jolted you into action.

How much have you achieved since Aprils edition?

Another tough question, but…no more kicking backside this month, just a friendly reminder to get on and do something! After all, it is in your own interest…isn’t it?

As it happens, I’ve just put the fnishing touches to actually writing down my entire time management system. So, soon, very soon, I’m going to make my powerful time management system available for everyone. And…since I kicked my own rear end and re-implemented the system, things have been fying. It’s incredible how much I’ve got done.

Edit 2009, this system is now available as Total Control - learn how to control time and money. If you haven’t got it, go get it…it has changed lives!

Alison is just proofng the eBook at the moment, so as soon as it’s ready for release, I’ll let you know. This is a set of really powerful tools that will just sky rocket your effectiveness and ability to get things done. It will also massively increase your ability to develop new projects.

I know it blew Alison’s socks off and she has now implemented the system as well. She is absolutely amazed at what’s happened to her ability to just power through incredible amounts of work in a short space of time.

I’ve got some guinea pigs (in the nicest possible way) working the system right now. Once they report back with any minor tweaks or changes that may be needed, I’ll be putting it out on general release just as soon as I can.

Make sure you watch out for this, as it will really enhance your ability to move on to real wealth!

So, moving on. It is indeed story time this month.

I’ve been having an email exchange with a guy this last week or two. He’s young, enthusiastic and desperate to make his way in Internet Marketing, so we’ve been discussing a few issues this last couple of weeks.

By the way, I love it when people are so enthusiastic, it rubs off on you, doesn’t it?

Anyway, he said something that got me thinking. Basically, he’s decided, as he doesn’t have much seed capital, that he’s going to go the route of affiliate marketing.

My view? If you’re starting at the bottom with very little money, it’s a great way to get going and quickly get up to a six-fgure income (provided you get it right).

So, what did he say?

Simply this…” I’ve been told it’s all about making money not friends.”

I thought I’d mentioned this topic in passing last month. Things such as over delivery being the way to go and proper, quality service - but clearly the message didn’t get through.

It also made me think about an affliate program that I’m in. A program where orders have been outstanding for over a month and I can’t get a reply from the help desk that gives me any comfort.

Obviously I can’t tell you which program it is, but if you knew, I guarantee you would fall off of the chair you are reading this from. So, I thought I would give you the benefit of my wisdom on this touchy, feely subject this month.

You see, the Internet is an impersonal place. You can’t see the person you’re dealing with. You can’t see their offices or what they’re wearing. And, people are naturally suspicious, it’s the human condition – particularly when buying online.

So, I believe you have to offer exceptional service. Exceed people’s expectations.

If you do this, the viral word will spread in your favour. Fail in this or try to pull the wool over peoples eyes intentionally…and that viral word will become particularly virulent and attack you with gusto!

So, here are a few ideas that might just help you get this area right.
Look After Your Customers

It’s much easier to KEEP a customer than gain one. 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers (the Pareto rule for those that are interested). These are two key principles in your customer management.

Offer free stuff, special discounts, basically do whatever you need to in order to keep your customers, to keep them coming back.

Time Keeping

I mentioned above I can’t get an answer from a helpdesk on a key issue with one of my affliate programs. The bottom line is they have five BIG orders that they have just not delivered for over a month. Big-ticket items. All they will say is “they are out of stock”.

Having spent good money promoting them, I want to know when they are going to be in stock so I can turn what is a current loss into a profit. A fair question in my humble opinion!

However, I just cannot get an answer to the question that I have now sent them four times. They fudge the issue constantly. How would you feel in this situation?

So, the rule has to be - always answer queries on time and honestly.

Everyone knows email is almost instantaneous. I know if I haven’t had a reply within a few hours I start getting tetchy about it. I’m sure most people do. So, answer emails promptly.

Don’t Promote Crap

This is the quickest way to lose customers! You only have to do this once and they’re gone forever. Plain and simple. You might make a few quid up front, but…long term the damage is irreparable.

I only ever promote products that I have tried and tested myself.

Test Your Systems

I know this might seem obvious, but…you should test that your sales mechanisms work before you go live or start promoting a product. If you’re working as an affiliate you’ll know, as you would have brought the product yourself. If it’s your own product, just make sure.

People will just go away again if the sales process doesn’t work. I guarantee no one will bother to tell you, so test it yourself.

You Can Apologise

Indeed, if something goes wrong you should apologise. It’s common decency. In this break-neck culture that we find ourselves in, traditional values have slipped.

However, those values are still very much sought after by most people, particularly in business.

Indeed an apology for an error can be turned into a positive, and a customer made more loyal.

I had a situation where a refund just got missed out of the system. I had one very irate customer and rightly so. However, I apologised and made the refund that day. I also sent him a complimentary eBook. He’s now purchased two products from me – I rest my case.

Sometimes things will just go wrong - no matter what you do, so, don’t be afraid to apologise.

So, to sum up, take a look at your business from the customers’ perspective.

Is there a reliable contact mechanism? Is your website professional, does it all work? Does the order process work? How do you deal with your customers?

Just take a second to think how you like to be dealt with yourself. If you apply that to your own customers you won’t go far wrong!

And…finally.

At last, the portal is alive and kicking. Please feel free to go and have a browse and download the free stuff.

All the past newsletters are there (theyre here now actually - March 2009) and the business course in case you missed a part or just lost it plus some new free stuff – enjoy!

I’ve transferred the portal to the main domain at…

www.apd-marketing.co.uk

In the fnal analysis, once I’d got this job allocated it took just one and a half days to complete.

And…that includes sitting down with the developer and doing all of the “business analysis” – that’s putting the design and specification together of how the site should work.

There may well be a few “bits” that don’t quite work properly and a couple of bits still under development. BUT…I did promise it would be done by this month, otherwise I seem to remember I suggested some ridiculous forfeit.

However, it is live – whew!
Both the Time Management and Copywriting products should be ready this month, I’ll mail you when they go live.

Otherwise, that’s it for May, I’ll be back in June with a bumper birthday edition.

As always…to *YOUR* success!

Cheers now and have fun.
Derek

Internet Marketing from APD

One Thing At A Time!

Many, many moons ago (and I mean many), when I was setting up my first direct response business, I was given one piece of advice that has stayed with me throughout the years. That advice was as follows:- “Only ever give your customers one thing to do at a time”.

At the time I wasn’t quite sure about this, but, ask yourself, what are you like as a customer?  Yes I know we all want quality service and think we are discerning consumers, but….. and you know this is true, we can all be pretty stupid on occasions. And, yes…I do include myself in this bracket!

This entire matter was brought home to me very firmly recently when I was
having a chat with one of my colleagues in this great industry of ours. He’d just set up a new website and had two very similar domain names to make sure he caught all customers who tried to type in the variations or had mistyped the URL.

I thought this was very sound marketing indeed.

However, after a while, he changed the offer on one of the domains to something different. Now I think he thought he’d just like to test a variation on the offer, however….

This is what happened. On the Monday morning, the ‘phone became red hot.
Ahh, good you might think. However, people were looking at both and trying to compare one with the other. So, the ‘phone was hot, but with questions like:-

“What’s the difference?”

“Which is the best product?”

“Which product would be better for…?”

“Why is A more expensive then B?”

And so it went on, question after question after question.

When my colleague finished, totally exhausted many hours later than normal that day… sales had slumped through the floor. Very few sales had closed, but web site hits were great. Not good marketing!

The bottom line?

Well, my friend had loads of prospects ready to buy, but they had got confused about the nature of the offer(s), so being unsure, they ordered nothing at all.

So, the message has to be, once you want a prospect to take action, make it as easy as humanly possible for them to do so. Tick this box here, put this
information in there, click this link - sale done!

Make it as easy as possible. As soon as you add some twist into the process
prospects fall out of your sales funnel at an alarming rate.

I remember from my sales days, a saying we used to employ – K.I.S.S.

It stands for Keep It Simple Stupid.

In other words, make it EASY for your prospects to buy from you. Make forms as easy to follow as possible, put instructions in words of few syllables and make sure they have all the information they need to make the right decision. Reinforce the sales message (benefits) at the point of sale.

My friend knew all of this, but thought he would be clever and try to give himself a little sales boost. It backfired badly and is a timely reminder to every one of us in this wonderful business of ours. Always keep K.I.S.S in mind!

By the way, I’m not advocating that you shouldn’t test. You should…but always make sure the tests are separate and you always have a control to refer back to. However, this is a different subject that I’ll cover in a future newsletter. It is also the subject of an entire DVD in our upcoming Copywriting product, more on that later though.

I mentioned last month that the APD Portal should have been live by now.
Unfortunately, it’s still not quite made it. This is the price you pay for trying new technologies – well new to me anyway!

We’ve been trying to build the portal in something called PHP-Nuke. It’s a great tool for building websites that need to hold a lot of information, but…it’s a bit of a law unto itself. The problem has been getting the PHP-Nuke environment onto the APD domain. It’s been quite a challenge!

Anyway, we’re very nearly there now, and I hope to be able to announce the
launch in a few days time. Perhaps another timely reminder to K.I.S.S!

On a different subject entirely, despite my lack of time this last month, I just had to have a dabble with some of the Day Job Killer methods. I am pleased to report that without dedicating that much time or effort, I have managed to mount three campaigns.

I’m still waiting for the sales to complete on two campaigns, but they do look
encouraging. The first campaign made just over £30 in one day. OK, that may not sound like much, but if you tune the methods more finely and get them exactly right, that £30 could easily be £60 or £70. And..if you multiply that over numerous campaigns as suggested, that quickly becomes an awful lot more.

The DJK manual actually suggests that you should be running approximately 100 campaigns at any given time. Each takes between 1 and 2 hours to research and set up.  I reckon if you average out at £45 / day over 100 campaigns that would be £4,500 / day. (Maths GCSE you see).

£4,500 per day for, say 150 hours work, residual type income as well. That
sounds like very good business to me.

I’m not sure if it would deliver at that level day in / day out yet as I’m still testing, but the figures do look good.

So, once I’ve got the portal up and the Copywriting product launched, guess what I’m going to be dedicating some time to? I’ll give you three guesses, I reckon you’ll only need one!

If you want to have another look, here’s the link again.

Day Job Killer - Click Here To Find Out!

I’ll make sure I keep you posted with my progress on this one.

If you want to contact me about anything in this newsletter, please feel free to drop me a mail on  derek@apd-marketing.co.uk  I look forward to hearing from you.

OK, that’s it for March, more next month.

Until then, cheers now and have fun.

Derek

Derek Armson

Internet Marketing From APD

Learn Copywriting

How To Turn Your Time Into Money