APD-Marketing Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the August 2010 Newsletter.

So…what happened to summer then? Huh? If you’re in the U.K (well the South of the U.K anyway), you’ll know summer started off really well but that it has now reverted to type. Yesterday it rained so hard Alison told me it reminded her of dark winter days in Vancouver (where it rains hard constantly in Winter).

So much for the U.K Met Office promising us a “BBQ Summer”. The second year on the trot they have promised us such a summer and the second time it has failed to materialize! So, we’re going to Spain to get some much needed sunshine – see ya!

On the basis that I’m waiting to go to the airport, it’s going to be a really quick newsletter this month. This and the fact that I have very little to say this month…for a change.

So, what’s been going on and why have I been so quiet?

Well, in short Lee and I have totally changed direction now.

We are now heavily into Adwords Consultancy (we have circa £1m worth of Adwords spend under management) and will finalise the Adwords course very soon. I know I said a summer launch, but it is going to be late September (because of holidays). But, it will be the best, most detailed Adwords course available. Some of the techniques will blow you away, Lee has managed to get a “line” into Google, some of the stuff he’s found out is real gold! Suffice to say, if you spend BIG there are different rules! More on this soon.

We have also finalised our new strategy for online profits and we are overjoyed with it! If I say so myself it’s bloody brilliant! whilst we’ll leave all our “Internet Marketing” stuff “out there”, we will not be developing or building any more products for that market. I’ll still let you know if anything interesting happens or a good product comes along and keep my finger on the proverbial pulse, but not much else.

We have yet to decide if we are going to teach this new strategy, certainly we have to thoroughly test it first. We’re just about to start testing and are still doing some research into added tools we might need. We also have a ITT out for some software development work. If you’re a top notch PHP developer drop me a mail, I may be able to utlise your services!

As for the Internet Marketing market, well not much to report to be honest.

I managed to have an in depth chat with a reclusive Internet multi-millionaire on Sunday and it was very revealing indeed. I can’t say who this Guy is, but it was interesting that he has made so much money that he is now a tax exile. And, he’s made NONE of it from the “how to make money” niche.

His view was very much in tune with my own that the market is full of pretty much duff information. It’s fair to say there are little scraps of useful information in most IM “how to” products that are released, but that is all, scraps.

I also picked up another very interesting snippet of information this week. Did you know that 95% of all “things” sold online are physical products. No ebooks, or download “how to” video, but hard physical products. TV’s, DVD’s, Olive Oil, Clothes and Toys.

It’s also interesting that my conversation also covered the fact that people now expect to buy one $47 “how to” product and make a million. Sorry to burst your bubble but that just doesn’t happen. Why would anyone sell you all their secrets for $47? Think about it, would you?

You see, and I have said this before, working online is like any other business. There are certain things you have to do to become successful, and…in line with other businesses you have to do a lot of them and build that unstoppable momentum  you need to become truly successful.

All the so called Gurus make loads of money online, but…and here’s the rub…they don’t make it from selling how to products to you and I, oh no!

They make it with little underground websites that sell all manner of things. The “how to” stuff they sell is the icing on the cake, but…it is normally re-hashed or out of date techniques that worked well and made them money at one stage. However, as other jump on the bandwagon the effectiveness of these techniques starts to wane and guess what…they sell it to you as a new technique for making money online! Q.E.D

Knowing my point of view at least you’ll know a product is worth it if I recommend it to you!

You see, you need traffic and driving traffic takes a lot of hard work. So, there is no quick fix. Sorry but that’s a fact. If you want to make money online you need to have a strategy and the automation tools to work it, then you have to apply and work that strategy. only then…and over time, and if you persist you will start to make money. Slowly at first, until you hit critical mass when you then have a residual type income. But…it takes a lot of web properties to achieve that, an awful lot!

Whetted your appetite?

More next month :>)

As always, have fun and make money.

Cheers now

Derek

Hello and Welcome to the April newsletter…

…and at last after what seemed like a very long, dark and cold winter here in the U.K, some nice weather!

I’ve been promising myself a holiday for it seems like ages now, but we have been pretty busy and it just hasn’t happened, but, it was nice to be able to sit in the garden, in a t-shirt and enjoy a cup of tea in the sun over the weekend!

So, why have we been so busy?

Well it’s a long story and I don’t want to say too much just yet as we haven’t finalised our plans, but it does involve a change of direction for Alison, Lee and I.

It may even mean the demise of this newsletter.

The reasoning is that it just seems that the Internet Marketing niche has started to get a bit silly! I have always had this “thing” about a lot of “IM” products being recycled, old, pretty useless information.

And, it annoys me that no-one tells you the full picture, or very few Gurus do. The products that they release a fad based rather than rooted in factual, hard profit-making information you need to suceed.

And the bottom line is I’m getting even more pissed off with it.

It also seems that some of the Gurus are getting desperate as well! The headlines on emails are becoming ever more sensationalised. The stories are becoming harder and harder to believe and the sales pitches are getting ever more incredulous.

Headlines like “Accident”, “I was *dared* to do this” and “1.2 Billion Email Leads”, for goodness sake, come on! Credit us with at least a bit of common sense!

I haven’t purchased an “IM” how to product or software for…well I can’t remember!

Don’t get me wrong here, there are good products out there, but the really good stuff is not hyped up, it’s sold factually, under the radar even.

I guess this frustration is one of the reasons we launched Internet Marketing Strategic, because we wanted to really help people and rip away some of the hype.

So, we will be changing direction and soon. Some of that change of direction may be relevant for you, most of it will probably not be.

We are currently researching the tools we need to take us where we want to go!

So, in the spirit of wanting to see you succeed while the newsletter lives (as it has for nearly three and a half years now), I am going to give you as much useful info as I possibly can.

We haven’t publicised this, but Lee and I do the ocassional one-to-one consulting for local businesses. Generally for friends of friends. So, I am going to use an example of from one of our live coaching clients to illustrate a point.

This particular client knew he was spending too much in his PPC budget but didn’t know why, so Lee and I had a look.

In a fiercely competitive market, where clicks are $3.00 or more,  we were able to quickly establish that he was wasting around $77 PER DAY on irrelevant clicks that had absolutely no chance of becoming sales.

Why?

Keyword match-types.

You should (hopefully) be aware that Google Adwords provides three different keyword match types; broad match, phrase match and exact match.

Exact Keyword matching will only show your ad when the search term (what your customer types in to Google) matches your keyword exactly, in the exact same order, no misspelling, no typos, no plural, no partial matching.

Secondly, Phrase Match will match the search term if it includes your phrase somewhere; the phrase “red dress” would be matched to searches for ‘ladies red dress’, ‘girl in a red dress’, ‘make a red dress’, ‘red dress design’, ‘red dress lyrics’. Now, of course some of these are relevant, but some are not and the irrelevant keywords waste your budget.

Phrase Matching is quite tightly targeted though, so the same phrase would not match searches such as ‘red evening dress’, ‘red cocktail dress’ or even ‘dress red’. The words are in a different order or do not form the phrase you’re bidding on, so you should thoroughly research and include each variation in your campaign to avoid missing that traffic.

Lastly, Broad Matching is the widest possible match type, and matches any search which includes the words in your keyword, misspellings, plurals, the words in a different order.

This is fine in some circumstances, but you need to exercise extreme caution when using this match type;

You should research all possible search variations which might match your keyword. But you do need to be oh so careful with broad matching. In the example broad match ‘red dress’, this matches; red head dress, dressing in red, red gingham dress, red white and blue dress, red or
dead dress, red dressing gown and many other, potentially wasteful clicks which aren’t relevant enough.

Can you now see why you have to be so careful?

Yes, some of the terms may be relevant, but other will be completely irrelevant.

You may argue that you wnat the traffic, but what use is a click for red head dress if you are selling red dresses? It’s a complete waste of your PPC budget.

Also, matching one broad match keyword in this way will make it difficult to target that keyword with a relevant ad and to land that searcher on a totally relevant page on your site. This in turn will make it impossible to measure the success of each search term and…of course you WILL pay a lot more for each click.

Worse still, Google will uses what it calls, ‘expanded matching‘ on broad match keywords, often using synonyms. Can you see where this is going?

In a recent example I saw, fujitsu bracket was matched with ‘mount fuji’! And ‘monitor mount’ matched for ’shower screen bracket’!

Completely irrelevant.

So, what should your keyword strategy be?

Depending on your market, budget…

I would recommend bidding on exact phrase matches to begin with.

I would research as many variations as possible and stick with exact match to see what results you get. Once you understand how your market is working then you could introduce some phrase matches, but just a small number and in a separate ad group…and monitor closely!

Once you have monitored and understood your market further then maybe a small number of broad matches could also be included to pick up anything you missed in your research.

You should continue to monitor frequently and in particular the search query report for your account to add more phrase or exact match variations.

Finally, make sure you use negative keywords to exclude the irrelevant searches you find and obvious mismatches. For example if you have “wilson federer tennis racket” as a keyword make sure you have negatives such as wrap, handle, bag etc. (You don’t want to get clicks for tennis bag if you are selling rackets do you?)

One final word of caution if you have been using broad match keywords in your account, removing them all in one go can upset the ecology of your campaign – be very careful before implementing a policy change such as this.

O.K, that’s it for this month, I will be back next month, but as I have said, I’m not sure for how much longer as this newsletter does take up a lot of my time and I don’t think it is going to fit in with our new direction.

Enjoy it while you can!

Have fun and make money.

Cheers now.

Derek

Hello and welcome to the September newsletter.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I understand the full launch will be sometime in October.

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

So, what did I find out?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As always….to *YOUR* success.

Cheers now

Derek

Instant Social Traffic

Gain Total Control of Time And Money

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

 Hello and welcome to the July 2009 APD newsletter.

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

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

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

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

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

7 Easy Ways to Profit from Social Bookmarking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Basic Google Adwords Guide

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As always…to YOUR success

Cheers now

Derek

APD Internet Marketing

The Instant Social Traffic Formula

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

Hello 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

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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

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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!

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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

How Lucky Are You?

Hello again, and welcome to this month’s newsletter. Well, I can’t believe we are now
into September and it has suddenly become very noticeable that the nights are
drawing in. The football season is now well under way and it won’t be long before the
first frost arrives!

I love the autumn though. I wake up on a cold autumn morning and look in wonder at
the bright blue sky. I love the way the yellow, orange and red leaves contrast with the
sky’s blue, I love the way the low sun shines on the shimmering leaves. On mornings
such as this I genuinely think: “How lucky I am to be alive”!

So, how lucky are you? No, not just to be alive…but in life generally.

Whilst you know I like to ask tough questions, I reckon this is a tad easier! I’m
willing to bet you will have a good idea of how lucky you are. Where would you rate
yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the luckiest)?

I was going to talk about looking for product ideas this month, and amazingly (or
should I say luckily) I saw an article on the TV that brought these two subjects
together. Another lucky coincidence was that I’d read an old article from about four
years ago that connected the two subjects as well. So, I thought, as I’d been lucky, I’d
give you my take on this.

Now before I go into this in more detail, the need for product ideas is the one thing
that holds so many people back. It is something I get asked about constantly and it
appears to be an age-old problem. What to sell? How do I get ideas for products?

To be honest this doesn’t need to be a problem!

Anyway, back to the article I saw on TV. This is what happened.

A scientist was walking around Covent Garden with a copy of a magazine and he was
asking people to look through the magazine and count the pictures. He put them under
a time constraint and…if they got the right answer within the time allowed, the
“contestant” won a fiver.

So, people would rush off and count the pictures. Out of 14 people who took the trial
only two won the fiver. There were 77 pictures. OK, difficult to flick through a
magazine and count that many pictures in 60 seconds – very difficult indeed.

However, before he asked people to take this little test, he asked how lucky they were.

Here’s the amazing bit, the two people who thought they were the luckiest were the
two people who won the fiver.

And…even more amazingly, neither of them counted all of the pictures!

OK, I know you’re now thinking this was some sort of trick here…and it sort of was!
About ten pages in, on the left hand side, was a page that simply said in big bold black
letters on a plain white background: “Stop counting, there are 77 pictures”. As it
happens, neither of the winners saw this page (obviously none of the losers did
either).

However, just over half way through there was another page that said. “Stop counting,
tell the tester you’ve seen this page and you have won the £5”. The two “lucky”
people saw this page and claimed their fiver.

So, what’s the point?

Simply this. The scientist stated that there had been many studies conducted and it has
been “probably” proved that lucky people are simply more observant of their
surroundings and the opportunities presented to them.

Now this is a bit of an “ethereal” area, but this little experiment does sort of prove the
point.

I remember from the past an old saying that ”you make your own luck” and that luck
is simply “Labouring Under Correct Knowledge”…and this again, is “sort” of true.

So, if you’re looking for products to sell and build your business with…how
observant (lucky) are you?

How often do you go to forums on-line and look for problems people are
experiencing? A problem solved is a profitable product!

How often do you read about problems in the paper and think about how to solve it? Do you read the business pages to see what is going on?

How often do you get frustrated with a product and say “if only it did this or that”? How often do you wish for a certain service or product?

What are your areas of expertise and what problems are you able to solve? Are these
problems lots of other people have as well? All you need to do to find a forum is go
on to Google and type forum + subject. Read the forums, most of them have an FAQ
section, could this be made into a product? Go try!

There are forums on every topic under the sun and there is sure to be at least one in
your area of either interest or expertise, so see what people are saying there. What can
you deliver to the members in return for profit? It’s certainly easier to build a product
if it’s a subject you know intimately.

So, another difficult question for you…how often do you think you have passed a
product idea by during your lifetime? Ouch! That one hurt. Indeed, it hurt me when I
re-read that old article I mentioned earlier.

I totally missed the relevance of this first time round, but…it referred to the first series
of Dragon’s Den. I’ve dipped into the program occasionally, but the point is this.
Dragon’s Den is full of people presenting business ideas to a panel of wealthy
entrepreneurs each week. What better way to fill your head with product ideas?

I have to admit I can’t believe this one actually passed me by! Each week most of the
presentations get rejected, but…a different slant, an enhancement, a more efficient
version, a version for a different market? I’ve just watched it for pure entertainment,
when I could have been trawling it for profitable product ideas – derrr!

So, how about another slant? What about when you go abroad for your holidays?
Three years ago in Vancouver I saw this amazing gadget that throws a ball for a dog
to chase. It’s a sort of sling that launches the ball a very long way and also picks up
the ball. This means that the dog gets great exercise and the owner doesn’t have to
pick up the ball covered in nasty saliva with their hands.

Guess what? I’ve started to see them over here now. I must admit, I thought it was a
good idea when I first saw it. However, someone saw the thing, thought it was a good
idea and DID something with it and imported the product into the UK. I expect that
person is doing rather well.

There are just so many ideas and products out there just waiting for YOU.

So, why do so many people seem to have this “shell” around them that stops them
“seeing” these things?

I’m not sure, maybe it’s the pace of life these days, but…I have decided that I should take more time over things and just generally, look at things much more carefully. I think this will prove to be a very good discipline regardless, but I’m sure if I persist I will generate some great new ideas for products and / or services.

Maybe I might just get lucky! Maybe you might too!

One thing is for sure, you can sell pretty much anything over the internet these days.
The cost of building a web site is coming down day by day as are all the other costs
involved, particularly eCommerce solutions.

So…you have no excuse for not getting out there and building your own success.
Ideas are simply everywhere, you just have to cultivate the right mindset to be able to
“see” all of that opportunity.

On a totally different subject, following on from my note to you about Adwords
Excellence, I’ve spoken to Stewart at AE today and had a look at the number of
people who took up my referral. It’s really low! I can’t believe that! Did you not look
at it properly??

If you want to make a success of marketing on-line learning how to get the best from
Google Adwords is absolutely essential. I guarantee, if you don’t get your Adwords
campaigns right, you will lose money. Stewart is the undisputed king of Adwords in
the UK.

I cannot recommend this service highly enough and, still, for just a short time longer,
you can sign up FREE. Yes, for no cost. You CAN learn everything you need to
become successful with Adwords for no cost to yourself. If you are serious about
marketing online you just cannot afford to turn this chance down.
So, once again, here is the link…

Editors Note 2009 – sadly the AWE service left the internet in late 2008. A sad loss!

Without wishing to be rude…do yourself a favour and get into this.

So, with autumn nearly upon us and the winter months to follow, this is the ideal time
to spend those dark winter nights getting lucky. Open your eyes to the possibilities
and come next spring I reckon you could be on the path to freedom. What a great
word – freedom.

I’ll be launching further products to help you achieve just that in September. The
Total Control system is now ready and the website is being developed. This will help
you unlock the secrets of how the money power giants do what they do (make buckets
of money).

And I have a referral to an incredible product for you in the next few days. This one
will come with products ready made in it, so you won’t even have to worry about
finding or developing the products! How easy do you want this??

On that positive note, I shall bid you farewell. Any questions, comments or just plain
insults, please feel free to email me, and I’ll try and get back to you as soon as I can.

As always…to *YOUR* success

Cheers now and…have fun.

Derek

Internet Marketing from APD

How To Find Great information Product Ideas