APD-Marketing Newsletter

Big Bad Google!

Hello and welcome to another year of newsletters. First up I’d like to wish you and yours a very happy new year and hope that 2011 is a year when you really do prosper. Yes, I know it’s nearly time for February’s newsletter but I have only just got back from my Christmas holidays in Vancouver. We got delayed going out because of the snow in the U.K. so we stayed a bit longer.

Now I really don’t like to diss great British companies…but I’m going to. British Airways sort yourselves out!

The day we were due to fly out it snowed heavily and Heathrow was eventually shut down, but…four hours before our flight was due to leave we had two sources of information telling us the flight was cancelled and two other sources telling us it was going. The main source that said the flight was still going was the “my booking” page on the BA website. So, as it was “my booking” I thought I ought to take it’s advice, after all…it clearly stated “we will text and email you if there are any changes to your flight”.

No text, no email and three…yes THREE hours holding on the BA telephone system without getting to speak to an operator.

Sorry BA but completely useless customer service. In fact it was probably one of the worst experiences I have ever had as a consumer. Enough said, I have made my point, so moving on.

I am going to talk of many things this month…well a few, but I am going to start with the economy. I have said many times that watching the news is bad for your health! If you’ve been watching the news this last year, and believed it, you would be right to think that the sky is about to fall in as far as the economy is concerned.

It’s true we are in a pretty deep recession, but…most people still have jobs, and despite the fact most people are being much more careful with their money, there is still a lot being spent.

I was in Future Shop in Vancouver on Boxing Day and you should have seen the bun fights to buy 3D TVs, LED TVs and all sorts of electronics. Some things are sacrosanct, for example the kids Christmas money, and…the nephew duly went out and spent $240 on a Bose speaker system for his PC. The queues were out of the door, and it took him half an hour to queue up just to pay!

So, despite what the doom and gloom merchants tell you, there is still a lot of money sloshing around in the economy and people are spending it!

Generally what happens in a recession like this is that the money moves. It doesn’t disappear altogether, that’s not possible. Of course, it is possible to generate money out of thin air as most western Governments have done with the “Quantitative Easing”. And, hear what I say…this will come back to bite those economies very harshly on the backside!  We are already seeing stubborn inflation in the U.K as the first signs of that “free money” starts to work through. Inflation will get worse before it gets better and that will erode savings and stifle the uncertain growth. (Note U.K inflation up to 3.7% in December – published by the MPC 18th Jan 2011).You would have thought Governments would have learned their lesson. You just cannot put off the pain, you have to take the medicine! Yes, QE dampened the effect of the recession itself, but higher inflation will cause problems of a different nature, but problems nonetheless!

But the rest of the money, as I say, is still in the economy, it’s just in a different place with different people and some has gone to China as they have purchased Western debt.

Your job as an online marketer is to market to the people who are still spending and to make sure you offer outrageous value for money. Make your offer totally irristible. If you do that and what you sell solves a problem makes a hobby easier, cures pain etc you will still do well, despite what you see on the news and read in the papers.

Of course the Bankers have got away with “one”, both here and in the U.S. If you read my stuff regularly you’ll know I still chat to some of my banking chums every so often. I can assure you they will cash in with big bonuses this bonus season, and they won’t take a second glance back at the poor sheep who bailed them out and now sit in abject poverty. Ooo, controversial!

But it is true, Wall Street (and the City) really have no qualms. They’ll pay lip service to Government “requirements” and then just carry on. They knew that Government would bail them out because of the number of jobs they offer and the amount of tax they actually pay. Too big to fail was the phrase I heard used. More like “have your cake and eat it” if you ask me!

Anyway, enough of all this negative stuff, let’s talk about Big G, a subject guaranteed to make us all jump for joy!

It was very interesting to see that the EU are pursuing an anti-trust case against Google. The basis of the case is that Google does not treat all online business fairly and that their algorithm favours certain companies.

Now I have alluded to this in some of my past newsletters and on some of my other websites, but today I am going to lay it open bare for you.

Google has favourites and if you’re not one of their favourites, no matter what you do their algorithm will penalise you!

What do you have to do to be a Google “fav”?

Simple.

Either be a large corporate with a bottomless advertising budget that Google can plunder at will or spend a shed load of money with Google. More controversy :>)

Now, I know there are lots of conspiracy theories flying around, but I have prime face evidence that Google does this.

My Adwords spend is generally very small. I try to get most of my traffic free. However, I have been able to compare quality score on my small account against an account that has a £1 million per annum spend. Guess what? When I put just one keyword in an ad group and it was common through the ad, URL, ad group and landing page I got a QS of just 7.

I could not have been more relevant!

However, on the high spending account I have actually seen, with my own eyes, ad groups containing keywords that are at best laterally relevant getting a QS of 10. So, an ad group advertising, say “oak tables”, getting a 10 QS on the keyword “pine tables”.

Not fair is it?

I’ve also been told, although I am not certain about this, that big blue chip corporates can pay for position one for certain high level keywords, like for example “petrol”.

This re-enforces my view that Big G is trying to marginalize the small business person, and in particular Internet Marketers. I think Google sees people such as me as “clogging up” the SERPS with crap. I will be a very interested spectator at the EU enquiry.

I normally hate big bureaucratic monoliths like the EU, but for once I think they are doing something right. Probably for the first time they’re doing something pro-business rather than banning bendy bananas and cucumbers!

Finally for this month, I have yet another warning about an IM product. I know times are tough, but this is really beginning to annoy me. What is? Well this…people selling IM products and refusing refunds.

This time Auto Blog Samurai is in my sights. I have been testing out some autoblogging strategies over the past six months so I thought I’d see what it was like. The sales page is good and the intro videos were good, so I made a purchase of the top of the range re-bill product.

At first everything went well and I tested it on a Blogger Blog.

Then I tried it on one of our WordPress blogs and it worked initially, but was not bringing the right information in. So, I raised a ticket and got a patch. I employed the patch and it seemed to work for one run, then started to bring incorrect information in again.

By this time I had five blogs set up on ABS.

The next time I tried to auto blog it just wouldn’t bring in ANY information at all.

After numerous to’ing and fro’ing Paul Ponna (the owner) finally acknowledged it was a bug. So I asked for a refund, but after a number of further emails I was asked to hold fire and a fix would be sent to me.

To cut a long story short, lots of going backwards and forwards happened, until finally, when I got back from Vancouver and after another three patches and various versions to download the problem was still persisting. So, I again asked for a refund. I was referred to Clickbank, however, by this time the 60 day refund period had expired so I couldn’t refund through CB.

They are now hiding behind the fact that the refund period has expired. The fact I asked for a refund after three weeks and only agreed to hold on because they were promising a fix that never materialised has nothing to do with it I guess.

Yet more very bad business practice, bordering on theft to be honest. I know times are tough, but as I have said, always treat your customers with respect and you will be rewarded. This doing business “at any cost” will come back to haunt people like this! So, dear Friend, heed my words, please do not buy Auto Blog Samurai, it doesn’t do what it says on the box.

Long newsletter in the end! I’m just getting myself back together after an extended holiday, but I promise more “how to” stuff next month. I did quite a bit of exploration on Facebook and FB Fan Pages while I was away so I may do something on FB next month, how does that sound?

O.K, that’s it for now, take care and as always…

Have fun and make money.

Cheers now.

Derek

Hello and Welcome to the October newsletter.

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

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

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

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

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

Why?

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

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

How do I know this?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The one problem…it’s time consuming!

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

So, now you just have to….

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

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

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

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

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

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

I submit every link to 27 social bookmarking servcies.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers now

Derek

Hello and welcome to the September newsletter.

I know I have written about time flying in the past, but I truly can’t believe how quickly the summer has flown by! I don’t suppose the very dreary summer we have had here in the U.K has helped, but…where did it go?

I’ve just got back from our usual summer jaunt to Vancouver (by the way, the weather there was stunningly good) and it seemed that no sooner has we arrived than we were back off to the airport…and we stayed four weeks this time! (Which is why the newsletter is a bit late this month).

It was also very interesting to note that the plane was full, not a seat to be had. Although I was most disappointed at the lack of goodies in the BA Club Lounge in Vancouver, the previous London flight was delayed so they’d stayed in the lounge and eaten all the food!

Having said that, the flatbed coming home and consequent ability to have three or four hours sleep whilst in the air is a “Godsend”. Firstly it makes the nine hour flight seem a lot shorter and secondly, it virtually negates jet lag…you really should get your online business earning you the necessary dosh to do this stuff…I highly recommend it!

Moving quickly on. I was going to do the second part of The Internet Marketing Route Plan For Success this month, but…Google has some big news…so I’ll finish that off next month – promise!

So, my favourite subject Google – again! I seem to talk about Google an awful lot at the moment. Mind you, it is a key component in your online business so you do need to know what Google is “up to” and how you should respond.

And, at the moment, Google is making a few interesting changes.

Basically, Google is about to launch a new and upgraded version of its search engine. At the moment only the “developer” version is available. This is a pre-launch version Google makes available to technical and marketing people who work closely with Google and use the search engine on their own sites, or integrate with it in some way. So, it’s not available to the “general public” just yet.

I understand the full launch will be sometime in October.

So, in wanting to bring you the most up to date news, I scoured the globe for people with a developer copy. And…I managed to get talking to some of the guys that have been blessed (by Google) with a developer version of the new search engine – code named…CAFFEINE. (Awful isn’t it?)

So, what did I find out?

First up, it seems that whilst Google had been planning to move the search engine forward their hand has been forced by Bing and also a new better Yahoo offering (although they won’t admit to that). If you want to know more about Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) then check back to the June newsletter on the new waves of technology coming through (it’s a great read).

For Google’s part, they are saying that “Caffeine” will improve the speed, accuracy, size, and comprehensiveness of Google search. To be honest, Google delivers all of this already and, in my opinion, any betterment in these areas is only going to be at the fine edges of the margin. It will also provide the basic structure and foundation for Google to move more of a real-time / contextual search model in the future (again more on this subject in the June issue).

There is the odd quirk in the existing Google (like not being able to find a Google Wave image on a Google image search – again see the June newsletter). If these oddities can be ironed out then that will be a step forward albeit a small one.

As far as speed is concerned it seems that “Caffeine” is quicker. About double the speed on some initial tests I have seen the results of. However, the developer version doesn’t have image and video search enabled so that may be a bit of a curve ball.

The number of pages delivered also seems to have been massively increased. A friend with the developer version did a search on the phrase “dog” and got 52 million results in 0.25 seconds on “old” Google and…wait for this…359 million results in just 0.12 seconds on “Caffeine”.  There did appear to be a deterioration in performance of ”Caffeine” when quotes or added search commands were used.

Clearly, though, the index has been extended, made more efficient or whatever, although I can’t imagine anyone trawling through even 52 million results? I have a life to live! And, yes, the speed has doubled, but will the normal user really notice the difference at such speeds? I think not. So, yes Google has managed to double the speed, but will that make a difference to you and I? This is marginal stuff in my opinion.

Accuracy and relevancy are the most vital aspects of search and have been Google’s raison d’etre since its inception.

I guess accuracy is subjective, but in talking to people who have a test version of “Caffeine” most say the results are better in terms of accuracy, but they couldn’t really give a concrete reason why they felt that. When testers looked at “temporal” accuracy, ie; breaking news stories, both versions performed at about the same level.

So as a website owner what do you need to be aware of?

Well, if you have a good architecture, have your SEO set up correctly, your PPC set up correctly and apply your social techniques efficiently, you should see very little difference. The only minor differences you might notice are as follows:-

An increased weighting on domain authority and some authoritative tag type pages ranking (like Technorati and Facebook tag pages) as well as pages on Scribd ranking for some long tail quesries based mostly on domain authority  and anything spammy on page text.

Maybe, just maybe slightly more weighting on exact domain name matching.

Certainly a slightly better (at this stage) understanding of related keywords and synonyms. This will become more and more important as the full benefits of the new architecture gradually roll out.

In conjunction with this as a forerunner to full contextual search more reliance will be placed on keyword search strings as opposed to single keywords. This will help with PPC costs if you do your keyword research properly, but it does make that research far harder.

Tuning down the exposure of video (to a certain level)..yes, I was surprised at this one!

So, there you have it, the first step towards true contextual searhcing as predicted by this very newsletter in June…this really is the place to be for all the hot news :>)

And, talking of HOT news…Lee has gone bananas and dropped the price of Instant Social Traffic. So, get along quickly and get a ton of free social traffic and a Page One Google ranking for your site!

If you are already a paid member, don’t panic, Lee is putting together a very special free bonus for existing members. He’s worked out how to get even more leverage…I’m not sure how he does this, but I’ve seen the beta test results and they are very impressive – it will be with you soon!

O.K, that’s it for this month, back to the IM plan in October, until then…keep healthy and have fun!

As always….to *YOUR* success.

Cheers now

Derek

Instant Social Traffic

Gain Total Control of Time And Money

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

Hello and welcome to the APD newsletter for June 2009.

Wow, we are having such great weather here in the U.K! It’s been absolutely beautiful. And, it’s great to be able to take advantage of the nice weather we’ve had over the past few weeks. I am already sporting a rather nice suntan for this time of year!

Having said that, it has only been snatching five minutes here and ten minutes there in between finalising the Instant Social Traffic Formula.

And, I am pleased to tell you that the product is finished and we have just about got Butterfly Marketing configured (it’s another one of those IM learning curves), so…we’ll be going in to pre-launch this coming Sunday 14th June – exciting times!

What’s it all about?

Simply unlocking Google’s secret back door to page one ranking…overnight!

Indeed, Lee and I have worked out how to use social marketing techniques and tools to ensure page one Google listing in no time at all.

The best thing is…it’s worked every time we’ve done it and now we’re releasing this information to everyone. This is one you are NOT going to want to miss out on, because without it…you’re at a competitive disadvantage in the SEO wars!

More of that in the next few days, I’ll be mailing you soon.

Moving on, this month I am going to talk about what’s happening in the technology world. A new subject for the newsletter, but vitally important if you want to stay on top of the Internet marketing game.

During the last two or three years the pace of technological advancement has been steady and fairly slow, there haven’t really been any stunning “quantum leaps”.

However, over the last couple of months, that seems to have changed with some startling new announcements.

I’ve been doing some research for a side project I’m working on and have found out some really interesting “stuff”.

It’s common knowledge that Google and Microsoft have been engaged in a “tech war” since Google first rose to prominence in 2000.

Initially Microsoft decided the money was in software not search and were somewhat “gobsmacked” when Google finally made search pay big time. Since realising they’d made a mistake Microsoft have been trying hard to take a chunk of Google’s search business.

In the latest salvo Microsoft has launched a new search engine called Bing.

Bing is the upgraded version of the much-maligned “Microsoft Live Search”. In layout it looks very similar to Google, although it has a pretty picture as the background as opposed to the white screen.

I decided to try out Bing and to be honest it delivers almost identical results to Google at the detailed search level. However, with more broad terms it’s clear a different algorithm is being used, as the results are significantly different. This is a good thing in my opinion

Bing also has some nice and different features on the results pages. Overall I thought it was pretty good although I did get some pretty naff results on some searches I ran.

But, it is worth putting on your favourites and using to get a different view occasionally. I also think this will help draw new users to Microsoft Ad Centre, that is also good in my opinion.

As far as Google is concerned they have been making some changes on search recently and seemed to have made the “content is king” and “relevancy” maxims even more central to their raison d’être.

Google have been promising a major announcement on search for some time, so keep your eyes open. But, I think I know what is coming, more on this later.

Another change is that we are starting to hear the term Web3.0 being banded around. What is Web3.0?

Well, Web1.0 was very static and very much a one-way street in that users accessed static information and there was little or no user interaction.

Web2.0 delivered that “interaction” through Blogs, forums and social media. It allowed people to become masters of their own destiny and the small “man on the street” to compete with the “big boys”.

In essence, Blogging and social media changed the face of the Internet.

So, what changes we will see from Web3.0?

The best definition I could find for Web3.0 is that it will be a task based “journey”. Seeking information to seeking validation to seeking entertainment. O.K, what does that mean?

Well, for the technicians…”information will be held in highly specialised silos and will be moderated by a “cult of personality”. Information will be validated by the community and put into context with the inclusion of meta-data through widgets”.

Any the wiser?

Let me try and explain, well my understanding anyway. At the moment search is based around keywords or keyword phrases. These search terms let you see chunks of data based on the keyword (or phrase) you use to search. It’s linear with results presented en masse in order of relevance.

Indeed relevance has been the key word (excuse the pun) for Google over many years.

However, remember the word “context”.

Web2.0 gave us tagging, which I really like as it allows me to market on MY terms as opposed to Google’s…I like tagging! As it happens, it’s a subject I cover in depth in the Instant Social Traffic Formula. Basically, though, tagging allows searching more in line with how people think.

Web 3.0 will take this one step further.

Say you are searching for information on cars. In the Web3.0 environment you would search as you normally do, but contextual algorithms will bring back results that include not only the main keyword, but also sub categories.

So cars might return automobiles, Ford, Honda etc.

So, if you were to dig deeper into the search and say decide to major on Ford (can’t think why) you would then be able to capture an RSS feed that would keep you updated with news on the subject of Ford cars. In reality you would probably dig deeper down to actual model level.

This “contextual” technology will permeate into the social media over time.

Moan for the day! I have to say; I do find this all a bit rich coming from Google though.

Why?

O.K, why don’t you try to put up an Adgroup with the keywords car, automobile, Ford and Honda in it. I have no doubt you would get slapped – very hard! For Google to cry “relevancy” in one breathe and then introduce contextual search in another seems to be at odds?

Maybe Google might change its view, but they do seem to like having their cake and eating it as well. Maybe if Bing can make inroads it will force change upon Google, but somehow I doubt it!

Moving on, but…more on Google a little bit later!

Let’s have a bit of fun and talk gaming for a while. Like you I thought Wii was a pretty major step forward in gaming. Here’s the rap, Wii is going to look pale in comparison to Microsoft’s latest gaming technology.

Announced a couple of weeks ago, have a look at the video below which show you examples of Natal in action.

 Project Natal In Action

I mean, bloody hell, is that cool or what?

Sales of the Xbox and most gaming consoles are on the way down as the market reaches saturation. So something new was needed. Yes, Wii was slightly different, but Natal has NO controller.

Your body becomes the controller. This may even persuade me to take up gaming! It’s physical and properly interactive. Soon, you’ll be able to have a great workout in your front room, and the best bit…it will be fun!

But also check out this video with interactive “child star” Milo. This is truly stunning technology. To be able to transfer data from the physical world into the electronic world so effortlessly is a real quantum leap forward.

You Just Have To Love Milo!

Now I know this is the gaming world and it’s very different from business, but I am sure you agree this is a major jump forward in technology. It can only be a matter of time before Microsoft finds business applications for this technology.

Which brings me neatly back to Big Google and the wave.

Last week they premiered their new Google Wave technology.

I actually sat down and watched an entire 1 hour 20 minute demo. Normally nothing can capture my attention for that length of time. This is going to change the way we work, plain and simple.

So, what is Google Wave?

It’s a web-based tool that allows instant messaging, e-mail, real-time collaboration, forum functionality, wiki and source control all in one hugely functional tool.

Here’s just one of the advantages. Think Skype. If I message you, you have to just sit and wait while I type my message. Then I have to sit and wait for your reply. Still fun, but very inefficient!

With Google Wave we can see each other type in real-time. Not only that, but we can both add information and amend it at the same time. You can invite anyone with a “Wave” account to join in. You can even make some parts of the wave available publicly and some private between nominated participants.

You can import video, pictures, text, whatever you like and the entire wave is hosted centrally with full real-time access for all.

What’s more, it’s open source so anyone can create their own wave environment and have wave applications on their website!

Have a look at the demo yourself. As I say, it’s long but it’s worth it.

Google Wave Demo

My mind was racing! Video sales letters are rapidly becoming the norm in the Internet marketing world. But, what about interactive sales letters? How much of a competitive advantage would that be?

But the part that really interested me is the spell checker. What? The spell checker, why is that so important I hear you cry?

Here’s the REALLY interesting part, the spell checker is truly contextual. In the demo, the demonstrator types in “Icland is an Icland” and in a nanosecond Wave corrects it to “Iceland is an island”.

Now that is very cool indeed.

However, what this shows is that Google has managed to get contextual algorithms working.

This means that the Web3.0 contextual search I mentioned earlier can only be just around the corner!

Contextual searching will definitely change the way search works. It is also sure to mean BIG changes in the way Pay Per Click works as well.

I haven’t thought through how that might happen yet. But if you want to stay ahead of the pack, you will need to understand and integrate these new and upcoming technologies into your business plan!

Exciting and daunting at the same time! Come what may, it looks like we are at the start of a new and exciting “wave” of technology!

One last thing! I was writing on this subject for a new Hubpage. So, I was looking for an image of Google Wave. Naturally I searched on Google images, but found nothing. Here’s the rub, I found the image on Bing! You have to laugh!

O.K, that’s it for this month, another rather long, but I think useful newsletter. I do like to deliver true VFM :>)

Keep a watch out for the Instant Social Traffic Formula, it’s going to be huge, so you will need to get in quick. I’m planning to give my APD list (that’s you) a head start for the pre-launch, so as I say, watch this space. In fact, if you go there now, I think the pre-launch sign up is working!

More next month, until then…

…as always, to YOUR success.

Cheers now and have fun!

Derek

APD Internet Marketing

Instant Social Traffic Formula

Welcome to the May 2008 issue of the APD newsletter.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First up is affiliate marketing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

www.clickbank.com

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

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

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

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

You can read my full report on AC by clicking here

Affiliate Commandments Review

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

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

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

Dominating Clickbank

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

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

For a free DCB2 report, click the link above)

If you want to learn more advanced affiliate marketing techniques

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

products Affiliate Project X. and Day Job Killer

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can use either of the following…

DigitalPoint  www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

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

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

Keyword Elite Reviewed

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

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

Buy Keyword Elite

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

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

You should also make sure you track *EVERYTHING*!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Xtreme Conversions

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

A couple of points.

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

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

Think very carefully about going for this market.

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

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

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

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

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

My two cents worth, as the saying goes!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Affiliate X Factor

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

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

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

There are two schools of thought on this.

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

PLR Wholesaler

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

Click below to read my review of this one

20/20 Challenge Review

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

Buy 20/20 Challenge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s four of the best

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

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

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

Internet Marketing From APD

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

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

Until then, enjoy the weather.

Asalways…to *YOUR* success

Cheers now, and have fun!

Derek

www.apd-marketing.co.uk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Turn Time Into Money

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

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

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

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

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

Ez Web Business Builder Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’m glad I did!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As always, to your success.

Cheers now, and have fun!

Derek

Internet Marketing from APD

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

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

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