APD-Marketing Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the November 2009 issue of the APD Marketing newsletter.

I hope you are well and I find you in fine fettle this month.

Another year is drawing to a close! I won’t go on another one of my “time flies by” rants, but it does focus the mind. After all, we will all be making new years resolutions again soon!

So, what am I going to talk about this month? Well a bit of a mish-mash really. Time, sort of, but more the pace of life…particularly in the world of Internet Marketing.

I recently wrote about a new wave of technology and the changes that were coming. Part of that change was Google Wave, and you’ll be interested to know that Google is now rolling out Google Wave (or Gwave as it now starting to be called), so you should get yourself signed up.

http://www.wave.google.com

Sign up and give me a “wave” at “internetmarketingstrategic”

Gwave is going to become a very important tool for you in your Internet Marketing quest.

Indeed, Google generally is starting to move in more and more interesting circles.

The sixty four million dollar question of the Internet world has been “Why doesn’t Google play in the social media market”?

That question is about to be answered.

Google Wave looks like it is going to be the glue that holds this entire thing together, but…if you look at the tools Google has now developed and is now delivering at an incredible pace…their mission seems to have been re-stated as world domination.

What got me started on this whole thing was a great little product I got from Howie Schwartz a couple of weeks back. You would have got my marketing email about it.

Go Trick or Treating With Howie

I know some of you picked this up and the feedback I have had from the people that did make the purchase is very interesting.

I’ve been watching Howie for a long while but always thought his stuff was full of hot air. Not so.

This product (it is still available) is like a sneak peak into Howie’s world and it made me realise what a very sharp marketer he is.

You see he is master of Web2.0. We told you how to automate Web 2.0 with the Instant Social Traffic Formula, and this little product shows you some great new Web2.0 techniques that I certainly wasn’t aware of.

Lee and I will be incorporating some of this stuff into an upgraded version of Instant Social Traffic in the next couple of months once we have tested and made sure we understand how it fits together and works.

And, now Google has started on it’s own quest to dominate the social environment…well it got me thinking!

Now first up, what is Google doing?

Well, it looks like they are pulling a number of tools together to form a monster social networking “environment”. As I said above I believe Gwave is going to be the glue that holds this all together.

Firstly there is Gmail. This is going to be where you keep your friend list. Some new Gmail tools are going to make it easier to find and connect with people as well as save your friends lists.

Google Reader is going to make it simple for you to keep up to date with what is happening on the favourite sites you follow.

They already dominate video with YouTube which is becoming more and more a social network and they are also releasing Google Friend Connect which is the new friend finder in Gmail.

Then their is Google Profiles where you can keep your online “business card”.

Mix this all up, add Gwave and what you have is an all out assault on Facebook, Linked In, Mixx, Digg blah, blah, blah.

Google is set to dominate again!

Now it is my contention that Facebook is not easy to use. It is a social tool that Facebook are now trying to monestize. As it wasn’t a money making model in the first place monetization is proving awkward.

But, with all these very cool tools from Google coming together it is like they are generating a perfect “online marketing storm”.

If you are going to succeed online…you have to be in at the forefront of this stuff! Because as sure as eggs is eggs, Google will give their own tools the highest weighting in the search results!

And, despite what anyone might say, Google is where it’s at. Yes, they have taken their time in maturing this plethora of tools, but it is clear they intend to retain their dominant position on the Internet.

You have to see the online marketing world through Google’s eyes. It’s vital to your success.

And with tools like the “show options” and “wonderwheel” it is becoming much easier to do just that and see the world through Google’s eyes.

It’s like they are telling anyone who cares to look exactly what you need to do to succeed online.

See the World Through Google’s Eyes!

So, to learn all this stuff and implement becomes somewhat time consuming. Add to that the time needed to do all of your Web2.0 and socialization and you need to be in control!

So, this month, I’ve got two things to help you.

I have just revamped Total Control and added some even more powerful time management techniques to it. The bottom line, you need some advanced tools to overcome information overload and paralysis of analysis these days.

The workload to dominate Google is now more than ever. The savvy Internet Marketers are working behind the scenes, using these Web 2.0 and Google Tools to complete dominate any niches they choose.

You simply have to control the most valuable resource you have – time!

Control your time, means a controlled life. Total Control will help you achieve more than you ever thought possible. And, as you massively increase your effectiveness and time and money come under control,..You will feel stress melt away – I can vouch for this!

Get in control now!

Secondly, Lee and I have been working hard on a new review site for you. It’s called Internet Marketing Strategic and you can see the bare bones of it at www.internet-marketing-strategic.com

It should start to gradually come online over the next two weeks.

What is it?

Quite simply we are going to be reviewing all of the new Internet Marketing product releases so you will know, up front, if any given release is right for you.

We’ll be doing in depth product reviews and telling how, where and why you should (or shouldn’t) use any product.

I don’t know about you, but my inbox is bulging every day with new product releases. It’s impossible to tell what’s good and what’s not most of the time. So, now we’re gonna do it for you!

I know some of the Guru’s ain’t gonna like us for this, because if a product is out and out crap, we’re going to tell you.

So, keep an eye out for Internet Marketing Strategic - enter it in your Google Reader account :>) there will be regular updates! If you are subscribed to this newsletter, by the way, you don’t need to get signed up to that list as well

Finally, Lee and I will be at World Internet Summit from Thursday through Sunday next week. There is stunning line up for speakers including Tom Hua and Brett McFall (obviously), but also Armand Morin, Sean Roche, Ewen Chia, Howie Scwartz and a host of others.

At just $197 (plus a free guest ticket) it’s a ridiculous price to help secure your future…plus there’s always the chance you could be the subject of the World Internet Challenge and be invited up on stage to start an Internet business live at the event…and KEEP all of the profits! At the last event in Singapore the lucky subject earned over $22,000 and fainted when she found out how much she’d earned in just four days!

Sign up for the World Internet Summit here.

Anyway, if you are there, look us up, we’d be delighted to say “hi”!

O.K, that’s it for this month, I’ll be back with a bumper festive edition in December!

As always…to *YOUR* success.

Cheers now.

Derek

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!

Hello and welcome to the thirteenth issue of the APD Newsletter. How lucky is that? I can’t believe it was November last year that the first issue was published and here we are a year later, still going strong.

I have to say it has been a breakneck year. I have learnt so much about making money online during these last twelve months. And…it has been a good year! The business is now firmly entrenched and if I’m honest it has only really been this last year that we have started to get a lot closer to where we wanted to be.

So, as we near the end of another year…how much progress towards your ultimate goals have you made?

Ouch, it’s another one of those horribly awkward questions I like to ask you. What have you done this year to get out of…The day job? Debt? The UK? Your rut?

OK, I’ve asked you the question, now I’ll give you a fact.

Did you know that, and I hate to say this, but…the majority of people who fail to succeed in making money online, or indeed in life, do so because of one very common trait?

Quite simply they DO NOT TAKE ANY ACTION!

I find this so sad but it is without doubt the number one reason why the majority of people never make a single penny online. They take no action because either:

They’re scared to, or…

They get totally paralysed by the overload of information (I did a piece on this in the very first newsletter if you want to have a look, November 2006) – paralysis of analysis.

So, procrastination sets in and before you know it, …the opportunity is lost forever!

Is this you?

Having said that, I totally understand if you are in this situation. I spent most of my first attempt at Internet Marketing back in the late 90’s doing exactly this. However, there comes a time when you just have to take an “educated” risk, when you just have to go out there and do something.

Maybe you’ve been burnt before? Just in case you were wondering if this only happens to you, no…it doesn’t. It’s happened to everyone. You, me, my mum, John next door! It’s not the fact that you get burned, it’s how you react to getting burnt that’s important.

I remember once being told that it doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down. You just have to get back up and carry on. Yes, it helps you to learn from the mistakes, and…you only need to get up one more time than they knock you down to win!

Yep, you’ve guessed it, I have been burnt countless times but it never stopped me getting back up, dusting myself down and putting myself out there again. I’ll tell you what… It makes it so much sweeter when you do win!

And, if I hadn’t kept putting myself on the line, where would I be? Do I really need to answer that? In a day job bored stiff making money for someone else, bankrupt, sponging off of my mum, it could be any of these.

So, think about this and make a pact with yourself that you are not going to let a few setbacks stand in the way of your success. Are you? Your success is far too important! Do a bit of daydreaming…what would an online business making, say, £10k per month, mean to you and your family? Play with this idea!

Oh, and enjoy playing with it. See it, feel it, touch and taste it.

You’ll find it very motivating.

Maybe you don’t really BELIEVE you CAN be a success?

Well, I’m here to tell you that I am nothing special. I worked in a bank for three years, an oil company for eight and in recruitment for more years than I care to remember. So, if I can do it, you can do it too (your boss won’t tell you this, by the way).

Whatever you do - at least MAKE A DECISION and run with it! Get something done to secure your future. And…it doesn’t matter if it’s not 100% right to start with, just DO SOMETHING.

You can learn exactly how to do it once you’ve got at least something done! So, make a second pact with yourself. That you are going top put yourself on the line and LEARN what you need to learn to achieve success.

I said that I’d learnt an awful lot this last year and so I have. And, you are going to benefit from what I have learnt. To that end, I am planning to totally revamp the main APD website (again) over the next month or so and make it a “make money online” centre of excellence.

In fact, the project is already underway! I’ll be reviewing and recommending all of the tools and products that we use to make money online. I’ll also be putting up more free information on how to succeed online.

Keep watching - these are exciting times.

And, talking of exciting times, I’ve got something new for you this month. I know I have really banged on at length about product ideas over the last two months, so here’s a rich source of products for you. And…they’re all free.

The following link is a free source of PLR products. This means you can re-brand them and sell them either as they are, or alternatively you can re-write, merge and generally use as you see fit.

Go and have a look…
www.apd-marketing.co.uk/apdrecommendsplr.html

I also made a new purchase last month, and it’s the first time I’ve brought something from Michael Green’s extensive library. If you have PLR products to play with, then you should take a look at Michael’s 20/20 Challenge product.

Michael is without doubt one of the UK’s most successful online marketers. He’s built a huge business over the last six years so he’s certainly not a newbie! However, despite his success, he only works part time! (Oh joy!)

I’ve been watching his products for a while now and what I like about him is that he creates products which are easy to use…but work! Indeed his latest is very special indeed. Quite simply, it is a system that promises to teach you how he made $20,000 in 20 days. The outline and daily action plan are excellent – it’s great stuff. Follow the instructions, and if you do follow the instructions…it does what it says on the box!

The instructions are detailed and ideal for someone who is just starting out online. So, if you really do want to get online and make some money, this is the place to start. Go and have a look…or ready my review.

Derek’s Review of the 20/20 Challenge

Incredibly, Michael makes a guarantee that if you fail to make $20,000 in 20 days after following his plan, he will refund every penny of the cost of the course. You can’t get much more confident than that!

The product has only just been launched, meaning that you can buy it at a huge discount if you’re quick. The price is rumoured to double shortly and I’ve seen Michael Green do this before, so it won’t be an idle threat!

What would you do with an extra $20,000 in your bank account in few short weeks’ time?

Have another daydream, only this time, you really do have the chance to make it real!

I promised to lighten up this month. Hopefully I have achieved that, although I see my old banking friends have been suffering a lot more pain this last month. I can’t believe some of the stories coming out of the City! But, hey, if you want to insulate yourself from all of that and keep your destiny within your very own hands, then what I’ve given you this month is an ideal way to do just that!

Now, go for it. Don’t just read this newsletter and file it away, take the information and take action on it. Go on, you know it makes sense!
Well, that’s it for this month, with just one more edition left before Christmas (agghh, I said it!).

I intend to make December’s issue a bumper edition with lots of extra value that you can digest (along with the turkey and vast quantities of alcohol) over the festive break.

So, if there’s a subject you would like covered or a question you need answering next month, mail me and I’ll do my best to come up with what you want.

Have a great November, and, as always, have fun.
Cheers now

Derek

Internet Marketing From APD

Build Your Own Website

Hello and welcome to the April 2007 newsletter, a little later than usual this month due to the Easter holiday.

And, to be honest I just cannot believe Easter has come and gone! It only seems 5 minutes ago it was Christmas and yet here we are sunny, warm weather, the Cricket World Cup, the Champions League Quarter Finals…Quite remarkable!

So…KICK ASS TIME

So, having reached this milestone in 2007, it got me thinking about how quickly time seems to pass these days. And, it also made me sit down and take a really serious look at what I’ve achieved so far in 2007.

If I’m honest with myself, I’ve actually taken it easy so far this year. When I did take that long hard look at my achievements for 2007 I was suitably
unimpressed.

It reminded me of 2003 when I was first starting out in this business and I just couldn’t seem to get things moving “in my direction” for love nor money.

This in turn reminded me of an old saying that I used to quote at my recruitment consultants back in the halcyon days of IT recruitment.

“If it is to be…it’s up to me”

In other words, no-one is going to do it for you (or me, come to that). YOU’RE the only one that can make it happen. It’s governed by a “universal law” you see. The more you put in the more you get out – simple really.

Take gravity for example. Drop a heavy anvil…and sure as eggs is eggs, it will hit the floor (make sure you’re foot is well out of the way first though). So it is with your own life.

Don’t have the things you want? The house? The car? The holiday?…The
partner even? Life a crock of sh*t?

Well, what have you done about it?

If you don’t have what you want from life the universal laws are clearly not
working for you. You’re not moving the “flow” in your direction.

The only way to make that happen? Simple - Do more.

Get motivated, get focussed, plan and take action.  Once you start to take
focussed action you will notice that things start to go your way again. First of all it will be little things, then bigger things, then…within a few short days of taking massive action you will really be in the flow.

You will feel positive, you will feel better in yourself, you’ll have more energy and lo and behold, you’ll start to notice that things are indeed flowing your way.

Longer term, you will go on to achieve that which you truly desire.

Now, as you can tell by the title of this newsletter, I wasn’t going to do a kick ass motivational bit, but the truth is…I needed to kick my own backside. So, I thought I would share my butt kicking with you.

My goals for the next three months have now been firmly set, broken down into bite sized chunks and believe me…I am definitely taking action! Hopefully you’ll see some of the results over the next three months!

I hope that little slap on the bottom helps you get motivated and taking action as well. Go for it!

If you need some help with this, check out my Total Control product, it’s dynamite for getting you going and taking massive action!

Incidentally, one of the first things I have done in my new “go for it” mode is to drop PHP-Nuke for the portal. It had become a complete drain and was going nowhere…fast. I now have a new, much simpler direction, taken my own advice from a couple of months back! If the portal is not up and running come the May newsletter…well, watch this space!

Moving swiftly on, (as this has now turned into a bumper edition), this is what I was planning to talk about this month!

THE LIFEBLOOD OF YOUR BUSINESS

How many times have you heard the phrase “the money is in the list”? If you’re trying to be successful on-line this is something that you need to have very firmly ingrained on your brain!

There can be absolutely NO doubt, email marketing works. I guess the key
reason it is so powerful is that it enables you to contact the customer instead of forcing or waiting for the customer to contact you.

It is also vitally important because no-one ever got rich just selling one £29 or £49 product from a website. So, you have to be able to capture your prospects details and build a marketing database.

In sales (from whence I came), I was always taught that a customer needed
seven contacts to build enough trust to buy from you. It is my belief that this holds true on-line…it’s possible even more than seven contacts are needed in
this environment , without the potential for face to face meetings.

So, you need to capture your prospects contact details and then market to them effectively over time to build their trust. Once that trust is built, then you stand a much better chance of actually selling them something and tripping them over from prospect to customer.

So far, so good. But… what about the $64 million dollar question?

How do you effectively build your database?

Tough question… no easy answers.

Even in these enlightened days of buying online, people still do not like to give away their contact details. However, the only ethical way to market via email is to make sure you have collected the prospects permission to communicate with them.

Just one word on Spam – don’t. Enough said, I’m not going to bore you with the reasons why not again – I’m sure you’ve heard it a thousand times. It’s simple, always get permission via an opt-in.

So, how do you induce (in the nicest possible way) your prospects to give you that valuable email address?

There are a number of ways.

However, in a nutshell…you have to give them a damn good reason to do it!

You have to provide them with an overwhelming reason to want to hear what you have to say on an on-going basis.

The way I do it is give stuff away free. For example, there is my free seven-part business start up course. I hope you found it useful. Certainly the feedback I get suggests you find it so!

I also offer this free monthly newsletter. I use this as an inducement on another one of my sales sites. Again, the feedback I get suggests that for something that doesn’t cost anything, you find it valuable and helpful.

So, my way of “inducing” prospects to want to hear from me is to provide
outrageous benefits through lots and lots of extremely useful free stuff. I like to think I over deliver.

It’s very easy nowadays to use the little drop pops like I do to offer your
inducement. I get mine free from AWeber.

(please feel free to have a look, they’re excellent) but you can also get them from PayPal and many other sources.

But, come what may, it is crucial that you constantly offer new inducements to make sure your prospects keep coming back. If you do that, there is a much high chance that some time in the not too distant future they will move to the next stage of the sales cycle and become a buyer.

Once your prospect has moved to that buyer stage buy purchasing your initial offer and the trust is there, you can then move on to sell them lots of valuable back end products…and that is where the true profit in this business lies.

On that happy note, I’ll bid you farewell, and look forward to hearing your
success story!

Remember – plan, take action and go for it!

That’s it for now, more next month, until then,

Cheers now and have fun.

Derek

Derek Armson

www.apd-marketing.co.uk

Learn Copywriting

Welcome to the first APD Marketing monthly newsletter that will be looking at all things
“Internet Marketing”.

I hope you will find it useful, informative and fun. I’ll be talking about some of the hot issues in this business as well as letting you know what I’ve been up to and what has and hasn’t worked.

In this issue I’m going to look at some of the traps the aspiring Internet Marketer can fall into and give you an outline plan for getting started.

I hope you find it useful if not, there’s an unsubscribe link at the bottom!

Beware of Traps!

“Internet Marketing” has become a hot topic over the last 3 or 4 years, and it’s easy to
see why. Everyone is trying to clamber on to the Internet Marketing bandwagon and
it’s not really surprising, with the promise of ultimate riches and the millionaire
lifestyle.

But how many people actually go on to really achieve that Holy Grail? How many
truly manage to build that automated, autopilot system that really earns 24 hours a
day? How many so-called “gurus” actually exist? And, more to the point, how many
can truthfully demonstrate that they do live the lifestyle that all the sales letters
promise?

Tough questions, eh?

It is certainly true that the world is your market on the web…and, if you can get it
right, there is no doubt that the lifestyle that we’re all chasing so hard is achievable.

However, if this is the case, why is it so many people fail?

Why do so many people with great ideas and great products end up on the Internet scrap heap?
It might be something to do with some “traps” that can easily snare you if you’re not
careful.

They’re traps that everyone has, to some lesser or greater degree, fallen in to
at some stage…And they’re traps you need to avoid (or fight your way through) to
succeed!

You Gotta Have a Plan.

I believe it was the Mad Hatter who asked Alice in Wonderland, as she stood at the
crossroads:

“Where do you want to go today?”

She replied, “Oh, I don’t much care”.

The Mad Hatter’s insightful reposte was as follows: “In that case it matters not which
road you take!”

Does that sound familiar?

Everyone knows that there are great riches to be earned by marketing online, but not many people have a proper plan to ensure they get their slice of the pie. You see, we’ve all been primed (sold) to think that you put a product (any product)“up” on the Internet and then sit back and wait to get rich.

You sit there watching your email, second by second as one order after another comes flooding in.

Oh, if only it were that easy!

Maybe the copywriters have got too good? It does seem that every product promises
“all you have to do is plug in, sit back and win the lottery”. Do you know what the
chances are of hitting the lottery jackpot? In the UK it’s a whopping 14 million to 1.

This is about the same as the chances of you getting rich employing this approach.

I know that may seem harsh but it’s the truth. One thing I never do is pull the wool over
anyone’s eyes. I tell it like it is.

You see, you have to have a plan. Setting up an Internet business is the same as
setting up a bricks and mortar business. If you don’t do it right – strategically plan
every step and know exactly what all the steps are – you are doomed to fail.

Too many people just expect it to happen without any effort on their part. #]

An Internet business is not a get rich scheme. It needs in-depth planning. It has to be a coherent plan with logical steps and a proper implementation (that means taking action,
between you and me).

It takes discipline and the proper knowledge.

Yes, there are lots of steps…
• find a product
•develop a web site
•get your copy written
•integrate the credit card processing
• set up a Google AdWords campaign
• optimise the AdWords
• do your SEO
• set up your affiliate programs
• build your list, etc.
• set up an autoresponder
• keep in regular contact with your prospects / customers
• plug in a steady flow of products
• build your back-end…and so it goes

Miss any of these key steps out and you will fail. It’s like trying to put up a building
without any foundations – the building would simply fall down.

And, therein lies the second problem…

Information Overload

I mentioned above that there are so many Internet Marketing products that all promise
the earth. It’s hard not to be seduced by some of the great copy that is written. But
how many of these products really deliver?

Well, in actual fact, many do (although, agreed, some don’t).

So, what’s the problem?

This is the problem and I’m sure many of you will relate to this.

You get Product 1 and it promises great riches from, say, ClickBank. You get the
product out, have a look and start to implement the practices. Great, you place some
classifieds and then sit back and wait for the ClickBank counter to start ticking over.

You check after an hour, nothing. You go and have a coffee and come back, still
nothing – ummm?

You place a few more ads…nothing.

“Oh, well, the commissions will start to roll tomorrow.”

When tomorrow comes…nothing. Three days time…nothing.

You make a token effort at a few more ads…nothing. You look at automated ad submission, but it costs.

Still nothing…. you lose heart.

In the meantime, the latest fad product on AdWords has arrived and you start to place
some AdWords campaigns for your affiliate products. But your CTR is poor, and
falling. AdWords get disabled, your campaign is disabled, and you only had 15
keywords anyway. So, that clearly doesn’t work.

Next! What’s next?

Oh, look, a website in a box package including 73 eBooks to re-sell. Cool, errr, but I
need to do some HTML and I don’t know how to do that – it’s too hard. Oh well, I’ll
do that next week.

And, so it goes. Information Overload. And, yes, I do know all about it. My “Biz
Opps” and “How To” bookshelf is creaking under the weight. I used to be a serial
buyer of all the latest fads and systems.

So, you end up with paralysis of analysis and what happens? You do NOTHING!
You wait for the next silver bullet solution to land and get stuck into that…for two
days, a week, a month or whatever, until that doesn’t work either.

So, if you couple these traps together, what happens? I’ll tell you.

The Outcome and the Solution

Without a strategic plan you cannot possibly have any idea where you are taking your
business.

So, each time one of the multitude of new products is launched, you get seduced by
the copy and buy. And, make no mistake, there are a huge number product launches
each month in this wide niche of “Internet Marketing”.

You see them in your inbox by the bucket load…day after day. And, with many “gurus” cross marketing each other’s launches, we see the same product at least 4 or 5 times! So, is it any surprise that you get seduced?

However you don’t have the time to fully integrate the knowledge (assuming it is a
good product) and you end up not “following through”. The product then sits
redundant on the shelf along with the many other products and schemes you have
purchased over the years.

Eventually it is superseded and ultimately wasted.

It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee (as they say). It takes time, effort and
knowledge to start and build an Internet business. It doesn’t happen overnight and it
does take effort and learning on your behalf.

We have all become far too opportunistic in our buying of these “how to” products
and all that they promise. It’s the ultimate manifestation of the “instant gratification”
society!

We have to change our thinking…there are many facets that you need to employ in
building an online business. The process goes like this…

1. Decide on the Niche you are going to sell in to.
2. Do your Research on that market.
3. Put a Strategic Plan in place that includes all of the key steps and actions.
4. Find a Mentor if needs be.
5. Understand what Tools you need to employ.
6. Learn how to use those tools.
7. Take Action and Implement.
8. Persist!

End Game

So, this is how you decide if a product is right for you.

If it does not fit in with your current strategy, don’t buy it! If you have just launched
an AdWords campaign and the product teaches everything you need to know about
starting, managing and optimising an AdWords campaign – great, buy it.

But if it is a product to do with SEO – don’t! Simple?

Yes, the SEO product might be good for you in the future, so bear it in mind, make a
note of it for future reference, but…if it doesn’t fit in with your current strategy – you
simply have to be strong and pass.

Using this example, if you buy a product now and you know you won’t use it for 6-9 months, what’s the point? The parameters for SEO will have changed in that time!

So, once you have your strategy defined, it becomes much easier to persist and learn
everything you need to know. It also becomes much easier to stay on your chosen
path.

It’s like buying a route plan that tells you how to get to New York. Half way across
the Atlantic, you’re seduced by another product that tells you all about the wonder of
Sydney and how to get there. Wow, that sounds really exciting…so you change
course.

However, just as you go past Hong Kong you read about the great weather
and the turquoise seas in the Caribbean. You find a product that tells you how to get
there, so… you change course again.

Are you getting the message? Where do you end up?

You got it – nowhere (apart from lost in the middle of the ocean) and this is what
most aspiring Internet Marketers do!

Do you recognise this?

If you’re an aspiring Internet Marketer, one of the best places to go for a really top
notch product that gives you an excellent initial overview and “how to” of the
business is Jim Daniels and his Biz Web 2000 site.

This is an excellent site with lots of free resources and his “pay for” products are outstanding. I can’t give Jim a better reference than the fact I used his EzWebBuilder product to get started myself. It’s a great product for someone looking to get started in this business and gives a really
good overview of all the key areas.

Each of these key areas are backed up by great resources so you can be sure you know exactly what you are doing. It’s foolproof…as I have demonstrated!!

Have a look at Jim and get a free in-depth report on getting started at the following
link…Ez Web Business Builder
A quick hint, look for the golden key! If you need a bigger clue, mail me back!
I hope this has made you realise that you do have to do some serious thinking and
planning before you get going on your Internet business. One last thing, it does have
to be enjoyable. Whatever you decide to market must really “float your boat”. If what
you pick doesn’t really get you excited, it is very unlikely you’ll generate the success
you crave. It has to be fun for you! The last thing you want to do is trade one job for
another – yuk!

On that happy note, I’ll say goodbye until the next time.

Cheers now, and have fun….

Derek

Please feel free to mail me with any questions derek@apd-marketing.co.uk

Internet Marketing from APD