APD-Marketing Newsletter

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 July 2009 APD newsletter.

Wow, what a hectic and amazing month June was! I can’t believe we are already in July and a couple of days late with the newsletter!

However, it has all been worthwhile with our first major launch the Instant Social Traffic Formula.

I’ll be the first to admit we had a few teething problems, but being a first launch I guess that was to be expected! The main issue was the flow through the sign up process…and if you did have problems trying to get signed up, the entire process is ironed out now.

The new sign up process is very smooth, so if you tried and got slightly befuddled, do have another go! And, just to make it truly worth your while, we have added some extra goodies in the free members area. Lee reckons we have something like $497 worth of free social traffic pulling PDF’s and videos in there!

That’s good value in anyone’s book! Here’s what you can look forward to in your free membership area…

7 Easy Ways to Profit from Social Bookmarking

• A list of every social bookmarking site to use right away
• The Power of Social Networking and how you can profit from it
• A list of every Social networking site so you can get started NOW!
• Easy Blogging techniques and how you can apply them for profit
• Why You *MUST* get involved in Video sharing if you want to build an online business
• A list of every video sharing site…and you thought it was just YouTube!
• Insider “Profit from Stumble Upon” video revealing little known money-making strategies

After all, PPC is getting expensive…although I’ll be looking at how you can help reduce your PPC costs in this month’s newsletter.

So, without further ado, let’s get on with it!

You are probably aware that in Adwords your Quality Score (QS) is of vital importance. Get a poor QS and you will pay through the nose for your clicks.

I’m sure, just like me, you have been a victim of the famous “Google slap”! I mean, you just haven’t earned your Internet marketing spurs until you’ve been slapped around by Google a few times!

You know the sketch, when you get that nasty red message and are suddenly “asked” to pay $1.50, $5 or even $10 to make your keywords active again.

But, get a good QS and you can safely sit in position one of the paid results and pay far less than people below you.

So, what’s the hot news from Google then?

Quite simply this. Google has announced that it has decided to change the way QS is calculated (again)! As I’m sure you also know, being in such a dominant position, Google is want to change their view of the world at a moments notice. They do so regularly and without due (any) regard for how it might effect people plying their trade online.

So, in their infinite wisdom, Google has decided that landing page load time is now a very major factor in the calculation of your Quality Score.

What does this mean for you? Well, if your landing page loads more slowly than others competing on your keyword, your QS will drop and you will pay more per click to compete.

That cheap hosting now doesn’t look anywhere near as cost effective all of a sudden!

The bottom line is that Google wants people to use the best and fastest, most reliable hosting companies, so…they penalize poor load times.

And, if you don’t like it, I’m afraid it’s tough. It’s Google’s ball and indeed for the most part their game…and they’ll simply take the game away from you if you don’t play by their rules.

I know some people who find this hard to take and try and fight it, but it’s the nature of the game and…if you do play by the rules you can win big time. It’s simply a case knowing how to do that!

So, make sure you have quality hosting. If you’re on one of the $5 per month hosting plans you are sharing your server with hundreds of other people. If you can afford it a dedicated server is around $170-200 per month. It’s worth it if that falls in your price range.

If not make sure you are on a decent plan with a provider like Hostgator or Hosting Bay (these are the two services I use and I have had no problems).

Secondly, get your webpage / site code cleaned up and optimised for quick loading. If you’re not sure how to do that, just hire someone from eLance, Rent-a-Coder or Odesk. You should be able to get this done for a few bucks.

I’ve had great success using Odesk and have found a few trusted service providers who I turn to whenever there is something Lee or I don’t have the time (or inclination) to do :>)

Finally look into Managed DNS. If your provider gives you a dedicated IP address (if they can’t, change provider!) you can utilise a managed DNS service.

Without going into great technical detail, this spreads your load across 5 different DNS servers all on different backbones. This will effectively give you a significant decrease in your load time as well as a marked increase in reliability.

So, what should you do in the event that you do attract a much-feared slap?

Thankfully there are some easy remedial actions you can take to rectify the problem.

First up do make sure you know what your QS actually is, and with the new Adwords interface, it is much easier to track!

Firstly make sure your landing page is relevant to your ad. They keyword (or phrase) should be in the ad title, in the body of the ad and ideally in the URL.

The landing page should have the keyword in a density of between 3-6%, depending on what is needed to make the page read properly.

On the landing page you should have the keyword phrase in your meta description, meta keyword tags and in the title.

Now this is a hugely important point. You will need multiple landing pages! Sorry, but you do need to put the work in here. You simply cannot optimize the same page for two different keywords or phrases. Therefore logic dictates you have to have separate landing pages each optimized for the relevant phrase or keyword.

Check out the Hub I wrote on this subject as I give actual examples – click the link below.

Basic Google Adwords Guide

If you do put all of this right and your QS doesn’t come back up, there is a “shock” treatment you can apply.

Now I don’t want to be responsible for you burning hundreds of dollars in wasted Adwords costs, so listen very carefully, I will write this only once :>)

If the above doesn’t work…then raise every keyword in the ad group to the bid price the slap is suggesting. This is why I say you need to be very careful with this. To make sure you don’t burn a fortune, DECREASE your daily budget and then make SURE you monitor your spend VERY carefully. Like every 10-15 minutes!

If you apply this technique, you will normally see your QS start to rise within a few hours. Then gradually decrease your bid prices and up your budget until you are “back to normal”.

You have been warned though, this technique does require careful monitoring and I am not responsible if you mess it up!!!

If this fails and you are sure everything is right, contact Google and ask if they will review manually. If you can’t get them on the ‘phone raise a ticket. They are a bit slow to respond but generally very forgiving and do try to help.

However, you should not only rely on Google. As we have proved with the Instant Social Traffic Formula, there are many ways to skin the proverbial cat!

As at 9.30am U.K time this morning, 8^th July 2009, the Instant Social Traffic Formula occupied positions 1-17 on Google for the keyword phrase “instant social traffic”, now that is true power!

All Lee, Alison and I did was apply the formula – Q.E.D!

If you have anything you’d like to say, please add your comments below or drop me a line on Derek@apd-marketing.co.uk and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can.

As always…to YOUR success

Cheers now

Derek

APD Internet Marketing

The Instant Social Traffic Formula

If you feel someone else would benefit from this information, please feel free to pass the address on. If you want to use any of this information on your own site, again, please feel free, but please credit APD Marketing with the information and place a link back to us – thanks :>)

Hello and welcome to the APD Marketing May newsletter.

The weather has been brilliant here in the UK up until a couple of days ago…and we are being promised a really warm summer. So, on that note of optimism, I thought I’d write about goals this month.

Before I get started properly, it’s interesting to note that Lee and I set ourselves some serious “big hairy audacious” goals when we planned out our new product Instant Social Traffic Formula. After all, you might as well go for it. Think about it, if you set BIG goals and just miss, you still achieve something very worthwhile.

Set pathetic little goals and miss, well…what’s the point? You might as well go for it!

Anyway, we’ll be going into pre-launch in a couple of weeks. I know Lee was working on the pre-launch sign up yesterday, so why not get along and get yourself on the pre-launch list.

Instant Social Traffic Formula

What’s it all about?

Page ONE ranking on Google…overnight!

Yep, we’ve tested the system and it’s come up trumps every single time.

Do have a look, this is very hot…AMAZING stuff!

Instant Social Traffic Formula

So, let’s talk about goals! Did you know that only 5% of people actually have written goals?

Did you also know that 5% are all in the top 5% of earners (US based figures). Come what may, the message is clear…if you want to succeed you simply have to have goals set and written down.

Now I know that “life” gets in the way. But having your goals set in stone, written down and ideally backed up by picture “proof” will move you towards those goals much more quickly.

You may well have heard that doing this “tricks” your subconscious mind. This is indeed what happens. For my part I really couldn’t care a jot how it works as long as it gets me to where I want to be!

So whatever your particular goals are, be it a new car, getting out of debt, running a marathon, or simply that luxury holiday in the Maldives, you need to be completely focused on them.

Now having set your goals, it’s no secret that they can be a little awkward to keep focused on and working towards. Some days it all seems too much and you will shirk the task, and maybe need a little motivation to keep moving forward. But you must try your hardest to keep your goals in focus…because if you do the outcome is so worth it!

So, having accepted that you need goals, I am going to offer some help on how you can keep the fire to achieve your goals burning. Because if you don’t have a consuming desire to achieve them, you’ll fail. Plain and simple.

There will be days when it is that “burn” that drives you on through what might seem insurmountable obstacles. Without that burn you will fall at such obstacles!

When I first started online I failed so many times I lost count. But I just was not going to be beaten. I kept my goals in clear focus and they drove me on.

How do I “manage” my goals?

I have a scrapbook with one page dedicated to each goal. I have a heading with the goal and then I have as many pictures as I can find to reinforce the goal, make it real in my mind’s eye.

Now you may think “what a load of old mumbo-jumbo”. OK that’s fine. But let me ask you two questions.

Firstly, do you have written goals? If the answer is yes, great, you are on your way to where you want to be and further forward than 95% of the population.

If not, is your life where you want it to be? Ouch, tough question. Answer honestly!

And, finally, before I get into how to maintain that burning desire, remember success is a journey not a destination. Always keep that in mind…and enjoy the journey.

There will be times when it seems so dark you don’t know where to turn. But if you keep that burning desire and focus on your goals and enjoy the experience, you WILL get there.

So, how do you maintain that burning desire? Here are five steps that have helped me maintain focus and achieve many of the goals in my life. I hope they can do the same for you.

1. Pick the Right Goal. O.K Derek, specialist in the bleedin’ obvious! But is it? Do you really, truly know what you want? If you’re not passionate about the goal you set, you won’t have the burn and you won’t achieve the goal! I could never get passionate about knitting so it’s pointless me setting a goal to knit a jumper, because it isn’t going to happen!

How do you know if you’re focused on the right goal? The answer to this depends on you as a person, but the following test will give you a very good idea:

• If money didn’t exist, would you still do it? (a good example to apply this test to is your job – would you still do your day job if money was not an issue?)
• Are you already working towards it in your life?
• If I gave you $20m right now would you still do it?

The last question really gets to the crux of the issue. You see many goals are simply a desire for money and are nothing to do with the actions needed to build financial independence.

In itself, money won’t make you happy. Remember it’s a journey and you have to enjoy it…it’s the process of getting there that you should enjoy. If you answered no to any of those questions then you may need to have a re-think. It’s important to get this right.

2. You Can Do It. Some people will tell you how much they would love to achieve their goals, and how amazing it would be. Others run away at the first mention of the word goals. Some will tell you how wonderful it would be to achieve their “true purpose”.

So why is it that most people just don’t do it?

The only answer I can come up with is that quite simply most people either don’t truly believe they can achieve their goals or don’t believe in their goals. So, and this really hurts me, they don’t bother to try. Maybe “the system” knocks it out of them, maybe it’s fear. I don’t know, but I find this horribly sad when really, it’s so very easy.

I can’t remember who said this but “all we have to fear is fear itself”. This is so true.

It may well have been my own limiting beliefs that caused my early failures online. In fact I’m sure it was! I had to change my belief systems and I did that through goals and proof.

I think it was Tim Ferris that said (in the 4 Hour Work Week), “Get out of your own way.”

You are the only one holding you back. You can do it. You can achieve every single goal you set. I’ve done it many times, use me as proof if you like! However, you must truly believe. When this belief becomes part of your fabric it will act as a catalyst for generating that burn I talked about earlier.

3. Build Proof Through The Success Of Others. I mentioned proof in the last section. In 99.9% of cases, someone has already done what it is you wish to achieve. Find them!

Find out how they did it. Find out what they used to achieve it. What helped them along the way? Can they help you / mentor you. Can they show you proof? These are crucial questions that you need to answer. They will offer valuable insight into your goal and…provide proof that it can be done!

Not only will this provide practical help in getting YOU to your destination, but by seeing the proof, you will then know for sure that you can do it too.

When I made the quality decision I was going to become an Internet marketer, I found mentors and followed people who had done what I wanted to do. OK, it took me a while to find my trusted people, but I simply copied what they had done. Simple, but outstandingly effective :>)

4. Find “Soul Brothers” On The Same Journey. When you are experiencing “times of trouble”, it is a great comfort to have people who understand your issues and who you can share with. It is helpful if you can find and talk to people who have overcome your particular problem.

I’ll use the Internet marketing example again. There is so much to learn when you first get started. I found some really helpful forums like the Warrior Forum and the sadly departed Adwords Excellence.

I overcame so many problems with help from the people in these forums. Indeed, I met my business partner Lee Brooker at Adwords Excellence. We started out just helping each other out where one of us had a skills gap. We quickly came to realise we had complementary skills and formed a partnership

That partnership has moved both of our businesses so much further forward than we would have got on our own!

Finding others on the same journey will give you a yardstick to measure your own progress and keep you encouraged to stay on track.

5. Become “Goal Aware” Simply put, make sure you are aware of and can ‘home in’ on things that will help you achieve your goals. To give you an example, if you are reading a book relaxed on the sofa and your son is playing away in the background, you would be able to maintain concentration.

However, if an angry mountain lion were to burst into the room, it would definitely attract your attention and evasive action would be instantly taken (well, I would hope so anyway).

So, we naturally focus on things of high importance to us. This “response mechanism” can be trained to help achieve your goals.

How do you do this? You’re probably not going to like the answer, in fact I can hear you groaning already…visualization! For at least 5 minutes during your day you should visualize your life as it will be with all of your goals achieved.

I love my visualization as I find somewhere quiet and drift away into my own little dream world of sun, sea, and a few other s’s! I feel that sun on my back, I feel the warm sand between my toes and I splash around in the cool crystal blue sea.

This really “turbo charges” and brings the goals to life. It tells my subconscious that these goals are important. And, it’s also why I use pictures to bring the goals to life. And, once the subconscious has “got” the message, it will drive you on to achieve your goals.

So, I know all this stuff about goals and visualization might sound a bit “wishy washy”, but…ask any successful person about goals and I bet you every last one of them will have set, written, picture-backed, visualized goals.

Why? Because when they do this…they achieve ALL of their desires!

You must have clearly defined goals backed up by the techniques I have given you here.

If you’re still sceptical, try to suspend that disbelief and commit to giving it a go for three months and see what happens!

I remember once writing some goals down and then losing or forgetting about them. One of the goals was to get an Audi Quattro 2.8. As I said, I totally forgot about those goals. I was having a clear out some four years later and found them.

I was amazed when I read that goal because…sitting on the drive was that Audi Quattro 2.8. I didn’t even get a picture or visualize, yet I still achieved the goal! The power of the subconscious is truly amazing!

Moving on, enough of the wishy-washy stuff for this newsletter :>)

You may be thinking, come on Derek, what about all the hard edged money-making stuff?

Well, I haven’t forgotten that! I have taken to publishing all of the “nitty-gritty” “how to” stuff on HubPages, so…since the last newsletter I have published the following “how to” stuff. It’s all free so please go enjoy!

7 Steps To Easy And Prolific Internet Product Development

Do You Have The Millionaire Mentality?

5 Steps To Internet Marketing Success

Why Most People Fail At Internet Marketing

There’s enough “how to” stuff there to keep you going for a while. If you like the Hubs, please give me a “thumbs up” and leave a comment.

Well, that brings another lengthy newsletter to a close…I do like to make sure I give you great value!

Until next month, set those goals and go for it!

As always, to YOUR success

Cheers now and have fun!

Derek

APD Internet Marketing

Turn Time Into Money