APD-Marketing Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the March edition of the APD newsletter.

At last, some nice weather here in the U.K, Monday and Tuesday last week were wonderful. So, I took a day out on Monday and Alison and I went for a nice walk around the Hertfordshire countryside in the sunshine.

It was absolutely wonderful to be out walking without a coat for the first time in 2010. It sort of reminded me that we haven’t had a holiday for a few months! Mind you Lee and I have been hugely busy as you will have seen with the launch of Internet Marketing Strategic. If you haven’t joined yet, and you are interested in making some money online, get along and join. It’s free, and you have my promise that it will always remain free.

So far there’s great video tutorial series on running your website (everything you need to kow about control panel), affiliate marketing, SEO and Adwords. There’s also loads of eBooks and website and WordPress templates…oh, and a huge file of website graphics…all totally gratis.

Join Internet Marketing Strategic Now…it’s free!

There will be more great info added soon, so make sure you use it to help you get yourself up and running and making some money on the Internet. Even if you know what you’re doing there’s still some great resources, you have nothing to lose.

And, if you know someone else who might be interested do them a favour and tell them about Internet Marketing Strategic

I have also totally revamped the APD site during February, so you can now find that at APD Internet Marketing – loads of Internet Marketing product reviews and links to all of our own products, which brings me nicely to…

..the launch of my Life Mastery System.

I’m giving you the “heads up” on this because it’s at a special introductory price at the moment, only for APD subscribers…so get in quick before I withdraw the offer.

What is it? Well, it’s the distillation of how I turned myself around from no-hoper to the lifestyle I’ve always dreamed about in just a few months.

It’s a short concise eBook (with some bonus items) that shows how I learned from some of the “money-power” giants of this world. How I learned to control time, money and therefore my life and destiny.

It’s hugely powerful stuff that shows you how to break down time and money into their smallest component parts, exercise absolute control over them and then build powerful money making systems from those minute parts.

You see, most people just do not understand time and money at the most basic level. If you can master the art of doing this, you gain complete and utter control over your life and destiny.

Life will be dancing to your tune, not the other way around!

Please go and have a look at www.control-your-life.info/Life_Mastery_APD_Offer.html

Be quick though as I will be taking this offer down on Friday12th March 2010 and then it’s gone forever…even if you plead with me :>)

O.K, I hope you’ll indulge me blowing my own trumpet a little this month, it’s not very often I take a major chunk of newsletter space to do so :>)

So, let’s get on with some money making info for you.

I talk to a lot of people over the course of any given month and obviously, being in “Internet Marketing” I tend to talk about the subject an awful lot. In talking to many people on this broad subject, one of the things that comes up time and again, particularly for those just starting out, is how do you build a website? I’ll admit it was the same for me.

I don’t know about you, but I have a chromosome lose that dictates I just HAVE to know how everything in my business works. So, as sure as night follows day, I had to know how to build a website :>)

So, I am going to make a very bold statement right here, right now.

This “personality defect” has cost me many thousands of dollars over the last four or five years!

Why, I hear you ask?

Well, it held me back in terms of the time it took me to learn how to build even the most basic website. And, it also held me back because the websites I built were, not to put too finer a point on it…complete and utter crap!

There are three issues here.

Firstly, the time issue, which I have alluded to already, secondly a tools issue and finally a training or knowledge issue.

I’ll take these in turn.

Time, I’ve talked about time many times before and by now you will know my view that time is a very precious commodity indeed. This life of yours is NOT a trial run. This is it, you get one chance and once your race is run that’s it…there is no more. A bit unnerving that, isn’t it?

So, if you’re like me and not wonderfully good technically do one of two things. Either, get yourself some proper training in order to make your self good…or get someone who is good and time efficient at building websites to build yours for you.

By default we have gone into the knowledge aspect of this here. What I will also say is that gaining the knowledge can be very time consuming and costly as well.

Where did I go wrong? Well, I guess I tried to learn Dreamweaver, which is a fairly complicated program, by myself from the ground up. It was a stupid task when I should have been concentrating on the making money aspect.

So, talking of tools, there are now tools that can make your life a whole lot easier. I now use Blue Voda, and it’s great, it’s also FREE – yipee! If you can use Word, you can use Blue Voda with about an hour in the online tutorials.

It’s a great tool and when I do build sites, it’s what I now use and I am now reasonably proficient.

However, it’s still NOT a good use of my time…if I’m honest I have come to enjoy pottering around in Blue Voda, but I can get “lost” in it for hours on end. I repeat it’s not a good use of my time.

So, when it comes to technical stuff, if you enjoy it and you are good at it, then great go for it. But if you are not that way inclined…outsource!

I use Rentacoder and Odesk. I’ve stopped using Elance because prices were going up and I just didn’t seem to get what I wanted on the ocasions I did use it.

When you outsource you do need to be prepared to “kiss a few frogs” first. I had a situation where I was looking to hire someone to do a one week “socialisation” project for me.

I ended up hiring a young lady from China, first time I had used her and she was quite aggressive on pricing and closing the deal. I felt she really wanted the work so despite a slight nagging feeling I hired her.

She never did a drop of work, and I ended up having to go through arbitration to get my money back. I guess the lesson here is trust your instincts, if something appears to be too good or doesn’t feel right, be more diligent in checking it out!

But don’t be put off, because this is a very cost effective way to get work (of all sorts) done and after a while you find a number of suppliers that you trust and deliver good work on time and to budget.

I now have a list of “go to” suppliers for websites, writing, SEO and socialisation.

Outsourcing is how you really start to leverage time in your favour and I have become a great fan. It has also taught me that I don’t have to understand in finite detail everything that goes on “under the hood” of my business…I still like to know though :>)

Oh, and just before I go, one other little trick I have used to good effect in certain circumstances is to use the local University for technical resource. I have developed links with a couple of local educational establishments that have Computer Science departments.

One two occasions I have used final year students to do web development work for me. This is a real win/win as the student can use the project towards their course and you get a young, enthusiastic and hungry technician who is very keen to please to do your work for you…for beer money!

It does take some time and effort to find the right people to talk to and to gain trust, but it can be a worthwhile tap into some excellent resource.

And talking of leveraging time, I had to go out in the rush hour this morning! My daughter came round last night and stayed over (she can’t resist my amazing roast dinners), so I had to get her to college by 9am this morning! It’s a seven mile run, door to door, and it took….54 minutes.

What a waste of time and life force! Although clearly I enjoyed extra time with my daughter, but…I queued in traffic for most of the seven miles! Frightening, why would you want to do that just to go to work? Stay at home and make money online, it’s much more fun!

O.K, that’s it for March, I’ll be back just after Easter with the April newsletter. Argghhhh, Easter, haven’t we only just had Christmas?

I’m sure time goes more quickly the older I get…but that’s another subject for another day.

Until next month, have fun and make money!

Cheers now

Derek

 Hello and welcome to the April newsletter.

I thought long and hard on what to talk about this month, as without being too obvious…there is one hell of a lot of shit going on “out there” at the moment.

This recession is now becoming the topic of choice almost everywhere you turn.The doom and gloom merchant media are having a “field day”!

It’s time to shake out of it! Yep, things ain’t so good if you believe what’s being written, but…I have some interesting insights for you this month, along with a damn good dose of kick ass positivism.

Are you ready?

Good, them jump aboard because it’s gonna be a lot of fun!

First up, an observation.

I made a quick jaunt to New York a couple of weeks back. Just for a weekend of shopping and fun, weather was awful, but the Big Apple was true to form, it never slept and I didn’t much either.

So, it was a good job I was able to have a good sleep in the first class on the way back (those “cubes” are brilliant).

And, as I was about to doze off, something struck me. New York was as mad as ever. People were flying around enjoying themselves at the shows and spending money in the numerous shops. Bloomingdales was heaving!

Then there was the first class cabin I was in – full. 30 odd seats at $2,500 a pop…sold out, no room.

Business class and even economy plus – full up.

Economy, spaces!

That got me thinking a little bit more, just the first class cabin paid around $75k to travel. So what?

Well, think about it…There is money about! A lot of what is being written and peddled in the media is complete and utter crap!

Yes, I know some people are hurting, but when I think about it, most of the people that are hurting are doing so because of their own bad decisions!

O.K I know you’re thinking Derek is being a bit harsh here, a bit controversial. And, I have written about the “banking crisis” because I have some insider knowledge from the financial markets, but that is to help you understand.

You see…it is all about perception. Remember way back in August 2007 I warned you it’s how you react to what happens that is the key, not what is actually happening or indeed has happened.

There is money out there. The Internet is booming (go back and read last month if you’re not sure about this) and people are making a bundle online. I have some recruitment friends (yes recruitment) who have just raised £3.5 million for a new online project.

Sadly, I had to endure a drive around the M25 (London’s orbital motorway) on Friday, it was chaos. People were rushing around all over the place, it’s the same in the rush hour, it’s a crowded and as busy as ever.

So, what about perception?

Well, if I hadn’t noticed that first class was bursting at the seems and that economy was half empty…I might well have not noticed that all the crap that is currently being written about the recession, is just that…crap!

There is money about lots of it. However the media are battering us into believing it really is financial Armageddon out there.

And guess what?

If you keep reading day after day and seeing it day after day on the TV news “there’s no money”, “we’re all doomed”, “it’s financial meltdown” blah, blah, blah…you are going to start to believe it.

In fact you start to focus on that negative “no money” scenario, guess what…you’ll get exactly what you focus on…no money.

It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You see you have to get your mind right. If you’ve read my stuff regularly you will know that I think you have to base your thoughts in reality. In understanding reality, making rational choices and then taking massive action to make your plans, well, a reality!

Indeed, my Total Control product shows you in fine detail how to control time and money and build systems of cash production in simple, easy to understand step-by-step detail.

But, if you are totally focussed on having no money no matter how much you try you will not generate money!

I heard it called “stinking thinking”, that made me laugh. It’s so very descriptive!

I remember last summer at the Andrew Reynolds bootcamp Pat Mesitti told a story about a boxing world champion (from recent years) who had earned $400 million in a glittering career.

However, just a few short years after retirement he was in and out of jail, flat broke and filing for bankruptcy.

He had allowed $400 million (and some) just slip through his fingers. How?

Drink, drugs, hangers on? Whatever, he didn’t have the “millionaire mentality” so…he ended up with what he thought he was worth – nothing!

You do have to believe you have both the ability to earn the money and the mentality to deal with it (successfully). If you want to be wealthy (wow, doesn’t that sound good…I am wealthy!) that is what you need to focus your thoughts on.

Not the poor stuff, no money clap trap that is being peddled by the doom and gloom merchants!

You simply have to get your thinking right. Now I am not going to give you a load of fluffy PMA here (there is far too much of the “feel good” stuff around), but I am going to refer you to a few books that offer true values in this area.

First up, if you don’t know how to deal with money, you MUST read “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S Clason. ISBN 0-451-16520-9. I believe this may be available for free download on the Internet now, if it is, get it – urgently. If you can’t find a download, buy it anyway!

This book will cost you a few bucks but is worth millions. Quite simply, this book will teach you how to deal with money. Total Control will teach you how to break money making situations down and use them to your advantage and turn time into money. “The Richest Man in Babylon” will teach you how money works at a very basic level. This book should be high school reading…if it was the media wouldn’t have anything to talk about right now :>) – Oooo, more controversy, we are going for it this month!

Secondly, you need to know how the minds of the great entrepreneurs and multi millionaires work. The best book by far is “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. The great Dale Carnegie charged young journalist Napoleon Hill to find out the common traits of highly successful people.

“Think and Grow Rich” took Napoleon Hill many years of researching and interviewing the most successful people, the book is a distillation of what he found out. It is a must read.

It is available in the free download area of the main APD site. Click the link below to get your copy

Free Money Making Information

One of the main reasons people fail is fear. Most fear is fear of the unknown, going outside of your “comfort zone”. The only way to get rid of this (irrational) fear of the unknown is to do the thing you fear!

“Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway” is a great book by Susan Jeffers. I found this book a great help when I was first starting out in sales and I found talking to people a bit awkward. If fear is stopping you, read this book. ISBN 0-09-974100-8

And finally, be happy! Success is a journey, it’s not a destination. If you are not going to enjoy the journey then there is very little point.

It brings me back to a point I made last month, particularly with Internet Marketing. It’s a proper business and there is stuff you need to learn, a set of key skills. You also have to work at it once you have learned those skills. It is a proper business not a get rich quick scheme.

Although funnily enough I heard a story from the Vancouver Internet Summit which suggested that people looking for a business opportunity love all the hype!

This particular speaker said he gave 90 minutes of hard money making content whilst on stage and then sold virtually no product afterwards as he “gave it to the audience straight”.

However, some Guru’s stood there and spouted 90 minutes of fluff and hype and they sold by the bucket load.

Why is it that the “Biz Opps” buyers seem to be suckered by hype? Mind you, I tried a no hype approach on a couple of recent referrals and my figures were well down on my usual more “in your face” approach.

How brutally honest can I be with you?

But, I want you to be under no illusion; you cannot buy a $47 eBook or $167 video course, know it all and get rich in 3 days!

So, be prepared for a journey, enjoy it and be happy. I know there will be times when you feel like giving it all up and packing in. However, it’s the people (like you) that keep going when it gets tough that succeed.

I had so many set backs when I was starting out online, but I just kept getting up (I am a dogged old so and so). After all, you only have to get up one more time than you are knocked down to win.

So, enjoy the journey and be happy. You’ll be surprised at how others react to you if you are a happy individual.

The book “Being Happy” by Andrew Matthews is a wonderful guide to being happy on your journey.

I picked up this little ditty in 1988 and it has been a constant companion. It has brought me so many benefits and helped keep me happy in some dark times. I highly recommend you have a read. ISBN 981-00-0664-0

One last thing, I have re-hashed the Write for Riches product somewhat. I’m “experimenting” with Google at the moment (don’t tell them). Go have a look as I reveal some “Copywriting Secrets” and there’s some great free copywriting info for you there!

You don’t need to sign up as you get all the info that people of the Write For Riches list get, but if you want the MP3, email me and I’ll send you a link. I am just so good to you! Who else gives you all this great free stuff??

O.K, that’s it for April, I’ll be back in May with more rantings to help YOU get rich!

Go for it…as always to YOUR success

Cheers now, and…have fun!

Derek

Hello and welcome to this month’s newsletter, February already! I am in apology mode once more…late again!

In my defence Lee and I have been hugely busy getting the new website up to speed and…it’s amazing how many bugs you find once you start testing! I was once told (many years ago when I was setting up a recruitment business)… ”large projects like this always cost twice as much as you expect and take three times as long”. It’s very true!

The bottom line we are now behind on just about everything! But we keep going! Persistence is the one thing failure can’t live with! If nothing else, I am a persistent old ********!

However, I promise that once everything is ready, it will be a much better “user experience” that you have when “interfacing” with APD :>)

So, moving quickly on, let’s get going.

I haven’t talked about the dreaded downturn for quite a while now. I’m sure you can see for yourself that this is not a normal “blip” now. If you can remember back, I first called trouble when I got home from Vancouver in August 2007. Go back and have a look if you don’t believe me!

I’ll be the first to admit it’s taken a while to really hit the world economy, but summer 2007 was when the sub prime crisis started to break in the U.S.

What I hadn’t realised was the extent of the mess the Banks had caused (mind you, none of my Banking chums knew either, says it all really). So, I hope you have been following Robert Peston for the inside track on this because you do need to understand what is going on. And, he is particularly good at breaking things down into words of a few syllables that we can all understand!

I admit that I got the scale of this thing wrong. I definitely said “in the great scheme of things it will only be a ripple”, but it is bigger than that. I should have guessed when I was told by an exotics trader that a bank (that has to remain unnamed) had posted profits of close to $1 billion in a quarter on derivatives trading. His exact words to me were, “Someone has to be holding the other end of the stick…I’d hate to see what happens when this all unravels”.

It’s unravelling!

I’m not going to explain how the Banks made this mess again, but never before have we had a Banking led recession. And the fact that there is now less than zero confidence in the world’s banks is hurting the global economy big time – even the most robust economies.

However, and I have said this before, the online world is still prospering. It is where you MUST take your business if you want to succeed.

The top ten retailers who operate online saw an across the board 37% increase in Internet sales over Christmas…while the high street squirmed, screamed and squealed (and kicked a bit too).

Nielsen Online reported Amazon was the most visited website in December 2008 with 15.6 million visitors 17% up on 2007 (I think that is a U.K figure). Is it no surprise that Zavvi (ex Virgin music and U.K CD/DVD retailer) is going out of business?

They can’t compete with Amazon in the more niche markets where Amazon clean up and make that incremental profit on the higher margin items.

The world is shifting and Amazon wins because of the economies of scale and variation they are able to supply. It is impossible for the high street to offer this breadth of product, they don’t have enough shop space. And, here in the U.K we see Tesco’s and Sainbury’s (and the other major supermarket groups) offering the top 50 CD’s and DVD’s at giveaway prices, the traditional music retailer is being squeezed out of existence.

Music and film was a large proportion of now defunct U.K retailer Woolworths, again, couldn’t compete with Amazon (they also had other issues as well, but you get the idea).

Littlewoods (a U.K catalogue operation) saw online sales increase by a massive 66% in December. What further proof do you need??

There is NOT a recession happening online! Taking your business online offers you numerous advantages over a traditional business model.

You should be seriously thinking about how you can productise what it is you do? Think about what you know that people would pay for? What do you find easy that others find difficult? What comes naturally to you?

Then…how can you turn that into a product? Ideally an information product that you can deliver via CD, DVD, Online audio or video download. Ebook or PDF report, all are great, cost effective delivery methods for information products.

I have heard it argued that you dilute your offering by not being personal – but that’s not true. You are making your valuable information available to a wider audience at a far lower price than you would be able if you were offering 1 to 1 consultancy.

This is, as they say, a “no-brainer” and is a great way to start your online “information empire”. It’s the only way to go…you know it makes sense!

Yes, there is a learning curve to getting online. But, it’s not that difficult. If I can do it, you can too! (I haven’t said that for a while).

Find a PLR product and get it online!

www.apd-marketing.co.uk/infoprods.html

This was a PLR eBook that I found, (paid very little for) re-hashed, added about an extra 30% and now sell online. Easy!

www.apd-marketing.co.uk/buildwebsite.htm

This one I got from Tom Hua’s excellent Ebook Wholesaler site. I haven’t changed one thing on this site or in this book, this is how the PLR package came. O.K, I know I need to make it unique, but I haven’t had time and it’s doing O.K.

Go to the new site and the free stuff page. If you don’t believe me download Armand Morin’s “An Obvious Truth” or just click this link. Armand is quite explicit about this. He re-enforces what I am saying here, so don’t just hear it from me…hear it from someone who has generated over $50 million worth of online sales.

Time to get tough on you…you have NO excuses. It’s true there is a lot of crap taught out there. And it is also true there is no such thing as a get rich quick scheme like some so called “Guru’s” would have you believe.

You have to make the effort and learn what you need to learn in order to suceed, Internet Marketing is a business like any other…which is where so many people fall down. They expect to read one $37 eBook and earn a million dollars – sorry.

But, if you are prepared to put in a little effort, learn how to do this, it’s not difficult, time yes, brain power…some required. I repeat…the online world is simply not partaking in this “alleged” recession. Whoops, I said the “R” word, not as bad as the “D” word though! If you haven’t been listening, Gordon Brown accidentally called the current recession “the depression”. Oh dear, Gordon. How not to rally the economy, he really has goofed big time with this one (unless he knows something he’s not telling of course).

I think that’s enough for this month. Please do explore the new site at www.apd-marketing.co.uk Let me if you find any “glitches”!

Also remember the new blog at www.apdinternetmarketing.blogspot.com

You can also now catch APD on YouTube under the name apdmarket and why not check out our HubPages at http://hubpages.com/profile/apd%20marketing – do give us the “thumbs up”!

Although, amusingly, Hub Pages haven’t quite worked out what APD is about yet…the Adwords ads on our home Hub are offering pictures of Anna Kournikova and bikini clad young ladies. I’m sure Google will work it out soon, but I did laugh when I noticed!

By the way, I hope you are paying attention to this new strategy I am implementing here! More of that very soon.

And finally…I was really hoping to have the new newsletter blog up and running. It’s coming along, but Lee and I simply bit off more than we could chew this month. You’d think at my age I would have learned, but hey…why not push yourself.

If you aim low and miss your goal, well, urghhh, what have you achieved?

However, if you shoot high and just miss chances are you will have achieved something very worthwhile.

With that thought I will wish you well. If you have any comments, please drop me a mail through the website.

As always…to *YOUR* success.

Cheers now…and have fun!

Derek

www.apd-marketing.co.uk

www.gain-money-and-power.com

www.write-for-riches.co.uk

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

Hello and welcome to the first edition ofthe APD newsletter in 2009! Happy new year.

I’m sorry it’s a bit late this month… I have been snow bound in Vancouver– yes that’s right… snowbound.We went over to Canada for Christmas and landed in a blizzard (not recommended) and left many, many hours delayed with deep snow still on the ground.

Vancouver had 104cm (I think that’s about 3 and a half feet!) of snow while we were there when they norm ally only manage 48cm in an entire average winter.

Of course all of this bad weather played havoc with the flights,and once something goes wrong the knock on effect is devastating… ask British Airways.

W e had a nightmare journey hom e and ended up being awake for39 hours straight.

Now I know why sleep depravation is used as a method of torture!I have only just regained my senses! It was a surreal experience!
And, to cap it all just when you think BA really should do everything possible to make their customers happy after such a huge delay… they left us standing in baggage reclaim for45 minutes without telling us where our bags were… when, you’ve guessed it,they had been enjoying the ride on belt 11 for 30 minutes.

Nice as T5 is, I really just wanted to get home by this time!

This is not how to deal with customer service! Needless to say, BA probably got 50%  more complaints than they would have got without this “final straw”.

M oving on… this month will probably be the last “formal”  monthly newsletter as APD moves to a more “flexible” method of information delivery.

The new website is very nearly finished and the best way I can describe it is that it is like an “online newspaper”.

Alison, Lee and I will be making sure the information contained on the site is a “living entity” which will be updated regularly, as I said last month, hopefully on almost a daily basis.

The newsletter will become blog-based and you will just get a quick mail directing you to the blog when a new post is made. Blogging really does make the entire operation much easier to manage, so I envisage blog content (newsletters) on a far more frequent basis.

The whole ethos will be to get hot and profitable information to you far, far quicker than currently. That has to be good for both you and me.

The new form at will allow me to get better information, better product reviews and news to you faster than before and will make sure that all you need to do to ensure you are fully up todate in the IM world is to be subscribed here. Easy,eh?

O .K, so for the final formal newsletter, I’m going to talk about money not being a problem !

What? M oney’s notthe problem ?

Not a phrase one hears very often, is it? Particularly in these allegedly dark recessionary days.

In fact, I can remember back to my own dark days when there genuinely was too much month at the end of the money and life as a wage slave seemed a never-ending drudge.

Money very definitely was a problem when I got my first mortgage!

However, I’m not talking about life in general here. I’m talking about in business, and the point I’m getting at is that in most cases… money isn’t the problem when starting up your business.

Now, if you’ve hankered after your own business or tried and failed to get started,you will know what the problem is.

I’ll give you three guesses, but I think you’ll only need one.

Got it?

Yep, correct, the idea is the problem .

I read a quote from a guy called Ken Hakuta (he was the creator of some wacky products in the 80′s) and quite simply it was this,

“Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea IS an obstacle.”

This is so true.

I hear from loads of people who all want to get their slice of the e-business pie (and believe me it is a big, big, profitable pie, so why not?), but they all lack this one critical ingredient.

The bottom line is thatyou don’tneed to spend an awful lot of money marketing on the Internet if you’re prepared to put the bulk of the work in yourself. But… .how do you get started without an idea /product/service?

W ell, the first thing to do is to take a step back and consider some key points. Now this has to be done seriously, or it won’t work. And you HAVE to be committed to doing this, or again it won’t work. I hate wasting time, so should you!

So, take that step back, get yourself a pen and paper and start to jot down some thoughts on the following questions:-
1. What are you interested in?
2. What are you passionate about?
3. What topic(s) do you have in depth knowledge about?
4. What do people come to you for advice on?
5. What do you find easy (that others find difficult)?

It is vitally important that you take your time on this and fully consider the implications.

However, what I would say is that many of the greatest successes I know of come when people pursue something that they are passionate about.
Friends Reunited is a prime example of people with a passion making a profitable business out of it.

How much did this site sell for last year?

Think of YouTube, why did Google spend over$1 billion buying YouTube?
Of course, the best side effect of doing it this way is that it doesn’t feel like work, it will be fun.

I think the last statistic I read on this (back when I was in recruitment) was that less than 5% ofpeople enjoy their work.

How sad is that?

Now I have heard it said that this can lead to some obscure ideas and highly specialized products. If that’s what it leads you to, don’t worry.

The Internet is ideal for marketing to niches. Indeed, your marketing costs will be much lower if you only have to target one specialized market. Adwords costs are likely to be much less for a start if you go after one small, specialized niche. It just gets better, doesn’t it?

Anyway, moving on, just one more little tip before I close.

Did you know that most successful entrepreneurs get their business ideas from studying niche markets and then developing a product or service that solves a common problem or need.

You know it makes sense.

This is a beautiful model simply because people will already be actively looking for what you are going to develop.You will already have identified the market and therefore will be able to focus your efforts  “laserlike” on those people most likely to buy from you! O nce you do this, I
guarantee, money will no longer be a problem for you either!

Now, having said all of that, I have given a fairly simplistic overview here. I mentioned last month that I am developing a major new all encompassing Internet Marketing product with Lee Brooker.

I have just finished another part of the course this week and it is an in-depth niche research and product idea development lesson. I’m rather proud of it and if you get your hands on it I am confident you will NEVER struggle for product ideas again!

Lee and I are now just over halfway through so we’ll be out to you later in January with the pre-launch,which you’ll want to make sure you get registered for.

W e’re going to be giving away loads of a azing info just for registering.

The pre-launch info will be just a small taster of what will actually be contained in the product itself.

This really will be a “no fail” option… just what this market needs to blow away the smoke and mirrors!

So, keep your eyes open, it’s coming… soon!

And, just before I finish this last “official” newsletter, some food for thought. I read today (in the London Telegraph) that retail sales were very poor during December and that 2008 will go down as a very bad year all round.

What they also reported, tucked away in a little corner, was that sales online were up 30% in 2008.

I have a friend who works for a major clothes retailer here in the UK, he told me shop sales were down 6% but that online sales were up 12% .

The message is clear. Online is the place to be in 2009.

And, finally, finally, we are in recession, big time. I’m old enough and ugly enough to admit I called this slightly wrong. Even having spent 15 years supplying into the City and with the inside contacts I have, I totally underestimated the magnitude of the current situation.

It is bad, very bad. But… the place that is bucking all the rapidly escalating downward trends in online.

I rest my case!

If you haven’t already seen it and want to know how close we came to meltdown, watch the
December 23rd issue of Panoram a… here’s the link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/program m es/b00gbds9

This is the BBC iPlayerlink, so Idon’t think you’ll be able to watch outside of Europe (or more than a month after publication), but try
anyway, it’s certainly worth it if iPlayer does let you watch.

O .K, that’s it for this month. Hopefully we will be blog-based by the time I next mail you about the newsletter!

Have a fantastic and hugely prosperous 2009.

As always… to *YO UR*success.

Cheers now…and, have fun!
Derek

www.apd-marketing.co.uk

Internet Marketing from APD

Turn Time Into Money
If you fell anyone else would benefit from this information, please feel free to pass it on

Hello Again,

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

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

Here’s the story…

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

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

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

www.learn-2-massage.com

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

Back to learning to massage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

These ad groups point to the following page…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can see these at the following links…

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

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

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

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

This is what happened.

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

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

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

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

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

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

O.K, moving on.

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

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

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

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

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

www.gain-money-and-power.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peace!

As always to *YOUR* success.

Cheers Now…and have fun!

Derek
www.apd-marketing.co.uk

How To Get Information Product Ideas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What a wonderful Catch 22!

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

Oh…the irony of it all!

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

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

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

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

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

This situation is now definitely more than a mere ripple.

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

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

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

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

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

Credit will become even harder to come by.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It definitely pays to get good at Adwords.

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

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

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

If you are not relevant, you will be slapped!

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s an example.

For example, you sell “dog grooming brushes”.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finding a list of converting keywords is an ongoing process!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click below to have a look.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As always…to *YOUR* success.

Cheers now…and have fun!

Derek

www.apd-marketing.co.uk

Build Your Own Website

267 Great Information Product Ideas

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

Hello and welcome to the cold, wet, windy September 2008 issue of the APD Marketing newsletter.

Well…where do I start?

I was in audience with Tom Hua yesterday afternoon and my mobile suddenly went beserk…much to my embarrassment! I thought I’d switched it off!

I mentioned on Friday that I was holding off the newsletter while I was waiting for some hot info from one of my old City chums, little did I know what was going down!

By now you will all have heard the incredible news about Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae.

To give this news a little perspective, these two giants of the U.S mortgage market underwrite (that means guarantee) nearly half of the U.S mortgage market.

What’s that worth? Well between them Freddie and Fanny “own” $5.3 TRILLION of mortgage debt.

That makes Abramovich and Mittal look like small fry!

It’s my guess that my City chum knew this was going down but couldn’t say until this morning…that’s what he alluded to anyway.

It’s also my guess that the Fed announced this on a Sunday to make sure they had at least some degree of control over how the markets reacted. If this had suddenly been announced once trading had opened today, all hell would have broken lose!

Sadly it stole my thunder a little, but I can live with that :>)

It was also interesting that the Nationwide takeover of the Cheshire and Derbyshire building societies was buried in that old chestnut “the bad news day”.

No fanfare, no big takeover, no windfall prizes for account holders, just relief that the smaller account holders savings and mortgages are now safe…after all Nationwide is safe. No, I’m not playing with you here, Nationwide is still a membership organisation (one of the few left) and it has to play by very strict liquidity rules.

So…what’s the point of all this?

Well, if you remember back when all this bad news was first breaking I wrote about how all this supposed economic turmoil was to a very large degree “whipped” up by the press and that these supposed economic tsunamis were, in the great scheme of things, just little ripples.

I still believe this to be true, although this ripple is turning out to be quite a bit bigger than I originally thought.

However, the fact remains that the economy (in the U.K) has just stopped growing. That means that multi billions of pounds worth of business is still completed each and every day.

If you look at the job pages in the papers, they are still full.

I guess an old recruiter never dies…yes, sad isn’t it? But…I still look around the job boards and still occasionally set up job search agents!

So, out of interest, I set up a few job agents for recruitment jobs and not to put too finer point in it was overwhelmed by responses.

The job market is alive and well (if you should happen to want a new job…can’t think why though). Although the City is squealing, but…that seems to be the only market that is. I had to cock a wry smile at that!

Coming back to the weekend. As I mentioned a small group spent the weekend being trained by Tom Hua. He also brought along Brett McFall and Ewen Chia (more of these guys in a minute).

The point is this. These guys are reporting their best ever sales figures. That means the online world is not only alive and kicking, it’s profiting from the uncertainty that abounds.

That uncertainty is more uncertain than I thought, but Internet Marketing will continue to grow and get bigger. And, it is at times like this that people, smart people like you, look to take their destiny into their own hands and build online businesses with long term residual income potential.

It really, truly is the only way to fully protect yourself against the economic “bad weather”. Yes, those ripples might be relatively small, but if you get caught on the downside of one, it can still hurt.

Indeed, if Freddie and Fanny had “gone down” that would have caused a tsunami. Now the poor old American tax payer is picking up the bill!

But, if you put all the hype aside, there is still plenty going on economically and online sales continue to grow exponentially (in all niches)…it really is the only place to be. To secure your own future!

So, what did I learn at the weekend?  First up, I got another serious injection of positive. I just love spending time with like-minded people who just want to learn and grow their businesses… secure their futures. Gain peace of mind.

Would you have been prepared to “give up”…I really should say *INVEST… a weekend to learn more about how to take your destiny into your own hands?

Here’s a little taster of what I learned over the weekend.

How about “how to get a ton of free traffic to your site”?

Sound good?

Actually, that “ton of free traffic” phrase is somewhat overused isn’t it? But, there are many techniques you can use to drive traffic to your sites for free.

And, there is a difference between paid traffic (pay per click) and non-paid traffic. The main difference is this.

Paid traffic is short term. You pay for it, it comes, hopefully it has a look, even more hopefully it buys…and then it goes…that’s it. It is because PPC traffic is so “nebulous” that you *MUST* have a contact capture mechanism on your site!

So that you can collect a name and email address and market other products and services…the money is in the list…but you know that don’t you?

However, free traffic has a more long term nature.

Take article marketing, a great way to get free traffic to your site.

If you write an article about your given subject and submit to an article directory, that article stays there forever.

The article itself should be 300-500 words long and optimised around a *SINGLE*  keyword. That keyword should not be generic or broad, for example “tennis”.

It should be at the “buying search” level (sometimes called “long-tail” keywords). Perhaps a review of the advantages of the “Dunlop Super Server 500” tennis racket. O.K, yes I’m sure you can tell I don’t play tennis! Does a “Dunlop Super Server 500” exist? No idea, but you get the point.

The article should be based around this keyword that people would type in when they have done their research and are interested in actually buying.

Now, having written the article you have the option to put a resource box at the bottom of the article with a back link to your sales page (for “Dunlop Super server 500” tennis rackets!)

Really hot tip…put a benefit in the resource box, don’t just make it about yourself. People (buyers) want to know “what’s in it for them”. Remember WIIFM (pronounced “wiffum”) – “what’s in it for me”. Everyone buys from their own perspective!

Now, here’s another really hot tip for you. You only need to put the article on one site!

Yes, all of the other article sites take from…

www.ezinearticles.com

That’s all you need do. This site is a PR6 and in the top 350 on Alexa! That is some serious “clout”. And…hey presto you have a back link to your site from a PR6 site and Google will start to take notice.

Other people can now use your article on their site, in their ezines (they have to keep the resource box) and suddenly you have a little workhorse out there pulling traffic to your sales page.

How easy is that?

Put twenty articles up and…well you get the picture. A couple of hours work…traffic for life.

If I’m honest I knew this before the weekend, but…it jogged my memory and reminded me that the last time I sent an article to ezinearticles.com was over 9 months ago!

I dread to think how much traffic I have missed out on because I’d forgotten this very simple, but hugely effective traffic technique.

That, is a great example of what you can learn when you go to events such as the (albeit private) one I attended at the weekend.

You get to meet great marketers in person, and they are genuinely giving people, they want to see you succeed, as I do!

They will give you as much time as you need to get your own questions answered and…they will impart great knowledge to you.

Yes, they will sell to you as well! But wouldn’t you in that situation :>)

However…you gain so much at these events.

I can pinpoint the moment my business started to really take off and it was when I started to attend these seminars!

Luckily for you, Tom Hua, Brett McFall and Ewan Chia, plus a host of others are pulling a 4 day repeat performance next weekend in London.

I seriously hope you will be able to make it along so that *YOU* can learn how to take your business to where you truly want it to be.

Click on the following link to get the full story.

www.apd-marketing.co.uk/apdrecommendswis.html

In short, you can spend 4 days rubbing shoulders with *ELEVEN* of
the Internet’s most successful entrepreneurs. Watch as they show you *LIVE* how to build an online business and secure your very own financial future. And I must stress…this isn’t theory, you will see live worked examples of money making websites and businesses built before your eyes.

You’ll get to see the insider workings of successful online businesses.

Do have a look.

www.apd-marketing.co.uk/apdrecommendswis.html

You know it makes sense!

O.K, that’s enough for this month. I hope to see *YOU* at World Internet Summit next weekend.

As always…to *YOUR* success

Cheers now, and remember to have fun!

Derek

www.apd-marketing.co.uk

Why not Learn to Massage!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Turn Time Into Money

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

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

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

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

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

Ez Web Business Builder Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’m glad I did!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As always, to your success.

Cheers now, and have fun!

Derek

Internet Marketing from APD

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

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

Hello and welcome to the first APD newsletter of 2008. First up I would like to wish
you and your family a very happy and prosperous 2008.

I don’t want to start a new year in a negative vein, but sadly I am going to…however,
on a brighter note, the big black cloud will have a silver lining – promise!

If you can remember back to 2007 (yes, it already seems a long time ago doesn’t it?) I
was saying that I thought 2008 was going to be a bumpy ride, and I’ve seen nothing to
change my view on that. Indeed, even Gordon Brown has publicly stated he thinks
things might not be so good this year!

Well done Gordon, very astute. If I could see it coming last summer and it takes you
until January 2008 to realise…just who should be running the country? Send your
votes in now please!

Seriously though…there will be a lot written by those doom and gloom merchants I
was talking about back in August last year. In fact, it would really help to read that
issue again in view of what I am going to say today.

You see it was brought very firmly home to me that the situation is very real.
Mortgage defaults are up, people are not spending so much and believe me when I tell
you the number of jobs out there will decrease during the year.

However, what you must remember is that it is up to you how you react to all of this.
Also remember what I told you… the media will build this up to be a huge economic
wave when really it’s just a mere ripple.

So, what happened to jolt me back into the real world after the festivities? Simply
waiting in the check out queue in Sainsbury’s and listening to two people recount
their stories of a pre Christmas redundancy! It was quite sad as the two guys chatting
were both really down and just didn’t know how to react or what they should do. My
estimate is they were both in their mid fifties.

I also had one of my old City chums on the phone telling me the software house he
worked for had just suddenly, out of the blue, shut down their recruitment branch. No
warning, he got called to a meeting and that was it…out.

The bottom line is that job security is disappearing. It has been disappearing for a
number of years. When I first started work for a clearing bank back in 1976, it was a
“job for life”. Such a thing no longer exists.

I’m not just talking about losing jobs to layoffs and business closings, which is
happening at an alarming rate in some regions. I’m also referring to a new trend that has emerged… outsourcing. And this is good news for you!

Many employers are starting to outsource more and more of the work that was
traditionally performed by employees. Now something that is very interesting has
started to emerge. Yes, the large chunks of work are off-shored to places like India, but…the smaller packets of work are going to freelancers and other specialised “micro-businesses” with just a few employees.

One factor forcing this trend is today’s high speed of technology change. The
necessary expertise to perform certain functions can literally change from year to
year. In many cases it’s simply easier and cheaper to hire different people on a limited
time basis instead of continuously having one employee trying to keep up with all the
different tricks of the trade.

This trend will have far reaching consequences for today’s workforce. Even the more
experienced employees will have to stay sharp. They can’t sit on their laurels anymore
because they will continuously have to prove their worth in new situations, more now
than ever before.

Some consider this outsourcing trend a huge threat to their career. The truth is though
that it’s an opportunity, a big one.

To give you an example, I recently purchased a software product called Keyword
Elite. You can read my review at the following URL…

Keyword Elite Review

Initially I just got the product to help with my own PPC marketing and keyword
research. However, I was telling a friend about it (he used to work for me and now
owns his own recruitment agency in the North West) and he suddenly got all excited.

“I’ve been looking to get into some PPC marketing to see if I can cut my advertising
costs…could you help me out?”

I agreed and spent a few hours researching a market for him. I sent him the results and
he came back to me a couple of days later delighted and with a new niche market
open.

Two days later a friend of his called me asking if I could do some work for him as
well. Personal referrals – very powerful!

You will know from past newsletters that I have relatives in Vancouver. Some of the
family were visiting and they complained they couldn’t make Adwords work…guess
what? Yep, I showed them the product and before I knew it I was doing some
keyword research for their t-shirt printing business!

They gave me a glowing testimonial, and the penny dropped…hey, there’s a market
for this.

This is exactly the sort of work that small and medium sized businesses don’t have the
time and skills to keep up with.  So, I now offer the use of my software product and
services in this area. How cool is that? It pays a premium as well!

What skills or abilities do you have that you can use in a similar way to protect
yourself? Think about it.

And that brings me to another “slant” on this story. It was great to be back at “work”.

The time off was fantastic but I was so ready to dive back into work. What did you
feel on Wednesday 2nd January (Thursday 3rd if you’re in Scotland)?

Taking time completely away from work is a necessity for many reasons that I won’t
go into here. But here’s a reason I’m willing to bet you have never thought of, and
more importantly what it can tell you about yourself and the business you are in…

If your work / business is ideal for you – you should’ve noticed a certain feeling over
the break. With each passing day away from work you would have felt yourself being
drawn back to work.

First of all you just feel a bit uneasy about not “doing something”. But…it keeps building with each passing day away until you just can’t take it anymore. Finally to simply keep your sanity you just HAVE to get back to work.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, the chances are you are in the wrong
business. If you took a (long enough) break and weren’t itching to get back – you need
to evaluate your business and determine if it’s right for you.

If your business is not calling you back while you’re away, it’s likely you’re not playing to your strengths.

I’ve written about this before, so I am not going to go into detail today – but hopefully
the whole reason you decided to go into business (aside from the money) is do
something you love doing each day…so that it’s not just a job…a chore.

Too many people find themselves doing things they hate, and I find that so sad. This
is especially so when opportunity abounds! We are surrounded by opportunity, it’s
everywhere.

So, what about that silver lining?

Well, when the economy turns downward there is always an increased market for the
“how to make money” products. What do you know how to make money with? What
could you turn into a product that could help people make money? How could you
help people earn in return for payment?

When companies have to tighten the purse strings there is always an increased
demand for “packets of work” as described above. What services can you offer that
will fill such a need? What skills and abilities do you have that might be useful for
local / small companies? What are you specialised in?

You should know the market you work in, or your interest of preference…what can you offer to others?

When one door closes, another opens. It’s the old accountancy syndrome I talked
about last year. They make money from doing all the accounts when the economy
does well and also make money from the insolvencies when it goes badly.

Can what you do or want to do be turned on its head?It’s the same as the banks will do in the coming choppy waters. They will hedge and bet on derivatives so that when one market loses, they’ll be on to another that wins.

There is always a way to stand on your own two feet. Everyone has something that is
a saleable asset, and I mean everyone.

Think about what yours is and how you intend to use it for your benefit in 2008. It
may be the best move that you ever make!

This is a vitally important area and I will put up a PDF in the freebies area of the main
site to help you with this over the next week or so. I’ll send a mail out when it’s
ready.

How To Get What You Want (Edit 2009, here it is)

And, finally, just for a giggle, I’ve decided that I need to lose a bit of weight after the
excess of the festive period. So, to aid my discipline in this matter, I have decided to
go public with my efforts. I’ve started my first blog and you can find it at:

(Edit 2009…weight loss campaign over – blog now shut down)

To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing when I started it, so that’s why the name
doesn’t really reflect what it’s about. But, hey I wasn’t going to be stopped!

Feel free to have a laugh at my expense and add comment if you wish.

But, as much of a laugh as this might cause, it does have a serious message. You see, I
didn’t have a clue how to put up a blog, how to put up a post, I still haven’t got a clue
about most of it…but…did it stop me? (Edit 2009, look at me now!!!)

No, it didn’t. And therein lies a very serious and vitally important message. Don’t
procrastinate! Even if you don’t have a clue, just do something. I did and I got a
result. OK, not the best result, but I will get there.

And that’s the vital point…I will get there. It may not be the finished article right
now, but at least it’s up there, available on the world-wide-web and it has the
possibility to make me some money!

In fact…to take this a step further 18 months ago I didn’t have a clue about anything
to do with internet marketing.

Did I let that stop me? Obviously not!

I have said many times before…I am nothing special. If I can do it…YOU CAN too.
On that very bright note, I will wish you all the best for a successful 2008.

As always, I’ll be back next month with more great information to help you profit in
2008.

Now…go for it!

As always…to *YOUR* success

Cheers now, and have fun!

Derek

www.apd-marketing.co.uk

How To Find Great Information Product Ideas

Dear,

Welcome to this bumper, 2007 festive edition of the APD Newsletter, what a treat I have in
store for you today!

Firstly, I’d like to say a huge thank you for all the positive comment I’ve received on
Total Control. I am truly humbled that it has already helped so many people start to
realise their potential. Yes, it really is that quick and easy to implement and I am
getting stories every day from people who have achieved a real “quantum shift” in
their thinking. Phrases such as…

“It feels like I’ve taken the blinkers off.”

“How could I have been so blind not to have seen all this before?”

“I can’t believe what an incredible difference this has made to my business. For the
first time, I really know where I am heading and I know what the end result will be.”

This is making a difference to people’s ability to earn serious money and I am
absolutely delighted. It’s the reason I do this!

So, if you haven’t had a look….

How To Control Time And Money!

So…here it is, Merry Christmas. Actually, I think I said that last year, but there is no
denying ‘tis the season to be jolly.

However, having watched the news this week, you wouldn’t think so, would you?
There’s the normal “bad” stuff, like teachers being put in prison for erroneously
naming teddy bears and politicians being taken to task over financial irregularities
(tsh, tsh). But…that’s not what I’m talking about here.

I’ve been listening very intently to the financial news this last couple of weeks. What
alerted me was one of my old City clients who I keep in touch with. We were just
having a chat and he told me that he thought “this sub prime crisis has a much longer
tail than anyone is letting on”. In other words, we haven’t heard the last of the bad
news on the financial front.

Another thing that really grabbed my attention last week was filling up the car. The
money counter was going round faster than the petrol delivered counter. I almost
dropped the hose! I’m old enough to remember a pound a gallon, and now we have a
pound per litre. That means a gallon now costs £4.55 (it’s 4.54609 litres to the gallon,
in case you wanted to know).

Two issues here. Firstly, if the sub prime crisis is going to rumble on and there are
more big losses to come, there will very definitely be an extended credit crunch that
will very definitely affect the UK. No doubt about it.

I think we might be seeing an early result of this in the delayed Virgin take over of
Northern Rock. I did hear that one of the main backers of the Virgin bid has pulled
out. That may well leave Northern Rock high and dry, and if that happens, it will be a
big blow to the economy.

If the economy and financial markets do start to “slide”, I don’t think the Bank of
England will reduce interest rates. That will cause house prices to tumble and that
nasty spectre of negative equity will arise again. There will be all sorts of other
negative effects on the economy.

For a start, people will not be able to raise funds against the (lack of) equity in their
houses. This is what has fuelled the spending frenzy over the last five or six years as
house prices have soared.

Many people are coming to the end of their “deals” on mortgages. They will not be
able to get such good rates. Any customer less than “prime” will just be unable to get
access to funds.

Plus it will keep money out of peoples’ pocket’s as they have to juggle with continued
higher mortgage payments.

But what makes this all so awkward for the Bank of England is inflation. The problem
is clearly demonstrated by that nasty petrol price shock that I got. The retail price of
petrol has risen quite a bit in the last six months, after all it’s nearly $100 per barrel on
the open market now.

Have you also noticed your weekly food bill recently? I have! It’s gone through the
roof.

With mortgage rates higher, inflation going up, all of a sudden, we don’t feel quite so
rich. And…in real terms, we are not.

However, because inflation is rising and the economists reckon it will break the magic
2% figure next month, the Bank of England will not cut interest rates because it is
bound by its agreement with the Government to keep inflation below 2%. Having said
that, Tesco has just today questioned the Government’s inflation figures, saying its
internal figure is just 0.8%. Tesco are putting pressure on for an immediate cut.

Interest rates are the way the Bank contains inflation and sadly Tesco’s figures are not
what the Bank go by!

So, mortgages remain expensive, food and petrol prices remain high, house prices
start to fall and with more bad news every day, the feel good factor is quickly
evaporating.

The monetary committee sit tomorrow. It will be very interesting to see if they bear
up to the pressure for a cut. Even if they do cut, it is still my view that it’s not looking
good for 2008 at the moment. Bah humbug!

Poor Gordon, he’s only just come to power and he’s already staring down the barrel.
And, to add insult to injury, some naught party members have been doing very
naughty, not allowed financial things behind his back…allegedly (that’s allegedly
behind his back). Well, that has certainly cheered us all up! Happy Christmas Gordon!

Seriously though, you could be forgiven for thinking that I am being the harbinger
doom (and gloom) instead of festive cheer and goodwill. Indeed, it was only a couple
of months ago I was talking about not listening to the doom and gloom merchants.

Indeed, I very definitely stand by the comments I made. I am merely telling you what
I think will happen in 2008 on the financial front.

Those comments were related to how you react to bad news in your own life and
business.

And, therein lies the crux of the issue. You see, as far as I can tell, bad times are a
coming. Now, I do suggest you go back and read the August newsletter again. Having
done that, I have one thing to say to you.

With what looks to be looming it is more important than ever that you have your
destiny in your own hands. That means your own business, up, running and making
money for you. Not for anyone else, but for you and your family.

If you’ve read my stuff previously you know I’m a great believer in that if one door
shuts, another opens. The word on the City “street” this week is that the smart money
is going abroad. Four or five years ago China was the place if you wanted big returns.
But, now China is in the second phase of its economic development. It’s become
much more expensive to open a business in China. So, the smart money is moving.

As we move towards economic slow down in the West, the smart money is going to
go to the next rising star of Asia. I suppose you’d like to know where that is wouldn’t
you?

OK, if you’ve got money to invest and KNOW what you are doing, and only if those
two things are in place. Invest in Vietnam. All the major corporations are throwing
money at it, there is a massive internal investment program and it now has all the cost
advantages that Russia, India and China had before it. It is ripe for massive and
explosive growth. You heard it here first.

Keeping in touch with some of my old City chums does have its benefits!

However, for us mere mortals, there are certain things you can and should do to make
sure you are safe and protected, and indeed making big money in 2008.

With this in mind there are a number of things I would like to tell you by way of my
Christmas present to you. Ahhh!

Firstly, once we get past about the 10th of December, industry in this country grinds to
a halt. I love a party, but I think we take it a bit too far in this country now!

However, that does mean that you’re likely to have about 25 days that you can use
“more for yourself”. I know if you’re in a day job it’s not possible to use 100% of the
time for yourself, but take what you can and use it for your own ends.

To prepare, learn, whatever it is you need to get your business really firing in 2008.
Look after number 1, ‘cos sure as eggs is eggs, the boss won’t look out for you!

If you’re already running your own business take advantage of the slow down to plan
in detail what you are going to be doing first thing in the new-year. Make sure you
have everything ready for a big launch on January 2nd

If you’re in a day job and you want to protect yourself by running your own show, use
the time to learn and prepare. You’ll have time off over Christmas, use it wisely. I’m
not suggesting sitting at the PC all through Christmas Day, but there is a lot of time
wasted over the festive period.

The idea? To hit the ground hard and running on Tuesday 2nd January. To a man (and
woman) everyone is totally pissed off at having to go back to work. So, it is prime
time for business opportunities and the make money market. It is prime time for
anything to do with changing job. It is prime time for booking holidays. It is prime
time for anything that makes people feel better.

It is also true that if the economy does slow down, the market for making money
products increases (almost in direct proportion).

So, be prepared for this and make sure you are positioned correctly for January the
2nd!

My second present to you is a new totally revamped APD website. Boy, am I proud of
this!

The main APD site is a now a dedicated centre of excellence for those who want to
make money online.

Please go and have a good look around…

www.apd-marketing.co.uk

(Editor note March 2009…it’s just been totally revamped again!)

Every single product that I use in my business is not only listed but reviewed –
honestly. You’ll get the inside track on all of the best on line marketing products as
well as the usual free stuff.

The free business start up course is still there as are all the back issues of the
newsletter in a new easily downloadable format.

There is loads of content that you can use to help you get started building your own
website (please do give me the courtesy of a link back to the APD home page if you
use my stuff though – thanks).

If you have any questions email me. I’ll do my best to answer you as quickly as I can.
I desperately want 2008 to be YOUR year. When many around are wilting under the
pressure I want to see you rising to the top.

I have to say, I have just learnt so much in 2007 and have really pushed my business
on. The tools and products reviewed on the site are the way in which I did it. You can
do it too! Why? Well, I’m nothing special. Three years in a bank, eight in an oil
company (that’s how I knew the litre to gallon conversion figure – sad isn’t it?) and
more years than I care to remember in recruitment.

The message? I am nothing special. I have a girlfriend, two ex wives and three kids.

If I can do it…you CAN too.

What’s stopping you? Hey, another tough question, but seriously…think about it. You
wouldn’t be here if you didn’t want something better, something different, something
more. What’s the “burn for you? Is it the money, the lifestyle, the freedom or the
ability to do what you want, when you want…in style.

For me, it’s the time I gain, to spend with family and friends. That’s why I do it.

That’s what it’s all about my friend. The life you want to lead.

So, please (I’m not past pleading), take the bull by the proverbial horns and get out
there and make it happen.

So, my final word for 2007. My very first newsletter talked about paralysis of
analysis, information overload. I understand that, believe me, it held me back for
many years.

What I have done is strip everything down to its bare bones for you. I’ve not only
recommended every single product I use, I’ve also told you how I use them all as
well.

So…I have undertaken all of the analysis and presented you with a clear path to
online success.

As a loyal subscriber, I’m offering to answer your questions on email to help you
along the way. I’ve already done this for quite a few of you reading now. If I’ve
helped you, please let me know so that I can tell others.

That is my Christmas present to you. I hope you will accept it with open arms and use
it. Not just today (and cast it aside like a pair of Christmas socks or pack of unopened
handkerchiefs), but on an ongoing basis. As an added tool in your bid for success.

So, that’s it, there is no more for 2007. Of course I’ll be back in January with the
usual missive and I promise not to bang on about new years resolutions and goal
setting. Well at least not in the January issue anyway :>)

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the APD newsletter over the course of the year,  and
that it really has helped you along. As it is Christmas, to finish up, I thought I’d really
lighten things up, have a bit of a laugh.

My first attempt at an online business was back in 1999. With a good friend, I started
an online horse racing tipster service, called Burlington Bertie. Sadly it faded into
obscurity as my partner (who provided all of the tips) went off into the murky world
on texas hold’em poker.

However, I was looking through and clearing out some of the old “Bertie” files
yesterday and came across this little lot.

To give you a bit of background, each month, we used to send out a newsletter called
“Off The Rails” (quite natty, eh?). And…not really being a serious business (or so we
thought at the time), we used to indulge in a bit of fun each month with a “Fun”
section in the newsletter.

Colemanballs were always a great favourite of our subscribers back then. So, from the
archive files of Burlington Bertie, here are a few of my favourite “Colemanballs” to
provide a bit of light relief this festive season.

These two horses have met five times this season, and I think they’ve beaten each
other on each occasion – Jimmy Lindly

This really is a lovely horse…I once rode her mother – Ted Walsh

This racecourse is a level as a billiard ball – John Francombe

Jockey Tony McCoy was in his usual position of holding a large lead coming up to
the post, prompting Winning Posts Steve Machin to commentate as follows…
Tony has quick look between his legs and he likes what he sees.

And, as they’re Colemanballs, we have to have a couple from the late great David
Coleman himself…

Moses Kiptanui – the 19 year old Kenyan who turned 20 a few weeks ago.

And…his all time classic when introducing Match of the Day in the days when it
followed Fanny and Johnny Craddock

And for those of you who watched the last programme, I hope all your doughnuts turn
out like Fanny’s.

To close, probably my favourite. From cricketing legend Sir Viv Richards.

The West Indies were playing a county match prior to the test series and an
(unnamed) county bowler had Viv playing and missing a few times. The mistake the
unfortunate bowler made was to sledge the great Sir Vivian. Foolishly he piped up,
“Hey Viv, it’s red and it’s round”.

A steaming Richards slammed the next ball into another postcode and told the bowler
“you know what it looks like -go fetch it”

Quality!

On that note I will bid you a happy and peaceful Christmas and a hugely prosperous
new year.

My very best wishes to you and your family.

As always…to *YOUR* success

Cheers now, and have fun (after all, it’s Christmas)

Derek

Internet Marketing from APD