Review Reality

Moving On!

2009-02-04T15:49:00.003Z

Hi,

I've decided I can't be in two places at once so I've decided to concentrate all my efforts on the AffiliateNicheClub & the AffiliateNicheClub Blog

So, this will be my last post on this blog. You can still download the Big Cat Strategy from the link on the right.

So, It's cheerio not Good Bye!

In the meantime why not check out the AffiliateNicheClub and grab our FREE Sample Niche Report together with 'Bailout Bonanza' our FREE report on Top Recession Proof Marketing Ideas & Niches!

Dave B

New Bonus Niche Report - Bailout Bonanza!

2009-01-08T19:39:00.002Z

Affiliate Niche Club News:-

'Top Recession Proof Marketing Ideas'... We've produced a special bonus report for you called 'Bailout Bonanza' and it is available now from the ANC members area under the 'Bonuses' section.

And there's more... we've added it to our list of rebrandable reports!

With our rebrandable reports you can change ALL the affiliate links in the reports to your OWN. A great way to start a list or keep your existing list coming back for more!

So, existing members should head on over to the ANC Member Site ASAP.

Over the next couple of days we will be sending the 'Bailout Bonanza' report to anyone who signs up just to check out ANC. So, look out for news on that... but don't delay signing up. If you are on our list you'll receive the report shortly. (Note: Only ANC Members will be able to rebrand the report.)

As economic situations develop and change, we'll be focusing on more of these type of depression/recession niches in the members area so check out the ANC Site here!

It's not ALL doom and gloom!

Xmas Songs - Top 10 Countdown!

2008-12-20T21:29:00.001Z

Hi Guys!

Just for a bit of fun I've created a Squidoo Lens stuffed like a Turkey with all the best (or worst...depending on your point of view) Xmas songs.

There's a video vote module, so you can vote for your own favourite or even add your own.

So, head on over there now and cast your vote:-

Xmas Songs - Top 10 Countdown!

There's absolutely no selling going on and all proceeds from the lens will go to 'Save The Children'

The Xmas song 'season' runs right through until New Year's day over here in the UK so let's have your votes, comments and suggestions.

LOL! Here's a taster:-

And yep! They do get worse!!

Dave B

NicheQ - An In Depth Look Into Profitable Niches!

2008-12-09T22:43:00.000Z

NicheQ is due to be launched on January 13th. Unlucky for some?

Well, not if you are a member of Wealthy Affiliate! Because it’s FREE and exclusive to WA members.

What is it?

Here are the details of from Kyle and Carson :-

“We have something HUGE to tell you. It’s been a highly guarded secret of ours for over a year now, but we are nearly ready to let everything out! We are about to unveil our newest amazing system att WA that ALL members will greatly benefit from.

On January 13, 2009 we are launching NicheQ a Niche Marketing Revolution!

The best news…EVERY member at Wealthy Affiliate is going to get instant access to “THE” system you’ve been waiting for. NicheQ will increase your understanding and earning potential within the most lucrative niches on the Internet!

Here is What We Can Tell You About the NicheQ System:-

It’s entirely free and exclusive to Wealthy Affiliate members
It will be like a gold mine for uncovering niches and sub-ncihes
You can leverage the system to skyrocket your sales
It will increase productivity and efficiency (saves you ton of time)
It will help you become an EXPERT at niche marketing
You can use it to build a recurring income monthly income stream
Did we mention that it’ll cost you absolutely nothing?
More info as get closer to the launch date!

NicheQ should be a system that we charge people for, but we are going to be offering it 100% FREE Wealthy Affiliate! Why? Because we understand the value of our members and we want to continue “over delivering”!”

If you check out NicheQ NOW you get immediate access to a really cool and FREE “Niche Hunting” guide by Carson & Kyle from Wealthy Affiliate…which has some great advice on how to spot and dig down on some profitable niches, plus a couple very useful tools we hadn’t really exploited before.

Dave B

Using Twitter for marketing

2008-12-03T14:19:00.001Z

OK, I've found some great Twitter stuff over the weekend...

Twitter can be a really powerful tool in your marketing... Check this video out first...

From John Taylor:-

And then forget about using Twitter in the IM niche (unless that's your bag)... think about using it in your own niches... to find like minded people... people you can emphasise with... people you can target...

# 1 - register an account on Twitter

# 2 - go to http://search.twitter.com to find people with similar interests, i.e. pet lovers

# 3 - Once you have found people who are interested in the same thing... click on their followers then begin to follow them...many will reciprocate... YOU start to build a following.

# 4 - If you have a blog register with http://www.twitterfeed.com/ and get your latest blog posts updated automatically as Tweets on your Twit bit.

#5 - Check out these tools:-

Twhirl
TweetDeck
TwitterFox (which is actually a plugin for Firefox)
TweetyBot

And get Tweeting!!

Check out my Twitter here:-

https://twitter.com/davidrbrown

And Thad's here:-

https://twitter.com/thadroe

Twitter Ye Not!

2008-11-29T14:46:00.001Z

Just joined the Twitter thang...

Check it out here:-

https://twitter.com/davidrbrown

Dave B

Flock To This Now!

2008-11-24T15:20:00.003Z

Hey, this could be old news to some and I’ve been meaning to try this out for months now…

It’s a web browser called ‘Flock’…you nay have noticed that the posts Thad puts up on the ANC blog are tagged ‘Blogged with the Flock Browser’

So, this is a little test for me…

I’m posting this from within Flock itself to two of my blogs… at the same time.

You can do the same with Social Bookmarking sites!

Like anything ‘new’ it takes a bit of getting used to but so far I like what I see.

Check it out on the link below.

Legally 'Steal' Website / Blog Content!

2008-11-18T13:42:00.001Z

Hi,

Lots of complaints in the forums at the moment about people stealing articles, lenses, blog posts, even entire websites. NOT GOOD!

But there is a way to do it legitimately and ethically. And not only does it help you but it also helps the person you are 'stealing' from...

It's all about RSS Feeds and Java scripts. Oooo! Sounds a bit technical, right?

Well, it's dead easy. Here's a video taster...

Legally 'Steal' Website / Blog Content!

I'll be adding this as part of a PDF Bonus for AffiliateNicheClub members in the next day or so.

Enjoy! And use this technique in your own niches and on your own sites and blogs.

Free fresh content...you can't beat it, LOL!

AffiliateNicheClub Blog

2008-11-17T13:03:00.001Z

The Big Secret over at AffiliateNicheClub is now out!

We've got a blog! The AffiliateNicheClub Blog just went live and you can check it out here.

We're gonna be adding tons of cool tips, articles, reviews, videos, ANC News and general nonsense.

It's a public blog so anyone can comment and we encourage you to do so (but read the Blog Rules first, OK?) We'd love to hear your views... so sing out!

Enjoy!

Dave B

And in anticipation of the usual excess number of Daves that are bound to pop by, this is for you...

LOL! Welcome Dave!

Wealthy Affiliate - Accredited Courses

2008-11-15T16:11:00.000Z

Hi,

Wealthy Affiliate - Taking You to School. What's the deal?...

"We have worked long and hard developing two accreditation courses for members here at Wealthy Affiliate. Although we have an abundance of resources here at WA that outline both Article Marketing and PPC, we felt that Lesson & Task based courses could really take someone from a newbie-intermediate to a subject matter expert.

We are offering a one week introductory offer to anyone that is looking to become an expert in the following areas:

(1) Article Marketing & SEO
(2) Pay Per Click Marketing (Google Adwords, YSM, MSN)

Many people struggle online because they are either misinformed or have information overload. They may have some of the right knowledge and some of the wrong knowledge, but when they are mixed, failure is inevitable.

We have spent the last 4 months and 100’s of hours developing our newest accreditation courses! They are task based and will walk you through everything you need to know to succeed with these marketing strategies.

They are based off of the EXACT processes we have followed to earn millions of dollars over the course of the last 7 years online."

There are two courses available:-

The courses are not free but they come with some great bonuses.

Each course is, for a very short time only, $67 each or $104 if you buy them together. Then they are going up in price...to what I don't know yet but you've got less than a week to get them at that price.

Course 1 - Article Marketing & SEO
BONUS 1: A copy of Who Loves Money (no cost) - $77 value
BONUS 2: A copy of Inside the List (no cost) - $67 value
BONUS 3: 100 PLR Articles
BONUS 4: 1000 Hot Article Keywords
BONUS 5: Access to Lifetime Updates
BONUS 6: Full Support (of course)

Course 2 - Pay Per Click Marketing (Google Adwords, YSM, MSN)
BONUS 1: A copy of Beating Adwords (no cost) - $67 Value
BONUS 2: A copy of Inside the List (no cost) - $67 Value
BONUS 3: Access to Lifetime Updates
BONUS 4: Full Support (of course)

IMO at the current price you might as well say the courses are FREE. K & C admit that much of the information is already in WA but these are real step by step courses guiding you be the hand.

Well worth the investment I'd say!

Dave B

PS. To qualify for the discount you must use the links above. Here they are again:-

Course 1 - Article Marketing & SEO

Course 2 - Pay Per Click Marketing (Google Adwords, YSM, MSN)

PS. If you join via WA any of my links I've got some great bonuses for ya! Click here for the details on my website.

Wealthy Affiliate - Taking You to School

2008-11-10T14:08:00.000Z

Hi,

Major new enhancement coming to WA on the 12th...just a couple of days away...

Wealthy Affiliate - Taking You to School.

Not entirely sure what it's all about yet but this is a quote from the WA blog this morning...

"on November 12^th, 2008 we are going to be introducing something to Wealthy Affiliate that is going to help everyone succeed. We are going to make an offer that is exclusive to Wealthy Affiliate members and if you have ever wanted the “full ride” training, everything from start-up to success, you will want to be on board for this.

This is just a few days away…and you will want to be a part of this! Join Wealthy Affiliate!"

Sounds great for the new guys and we'll all learn something so check it out today!

And don't forget if you join now you get 'Inside the List' for FREE!

For a full review of 'Inside the List', THE bible on list building click here.

Dave B

PS. If you join via WA any of my links I've got some great bonuses for ya! Click here for the details on my website.

Affiliate Niche Club - Affiliate Blast On A Friday!!??

2008-11-08T22:08:00.000Z

Hi,

A funny thing happened on my way back from the pub on Friday night. Now, these stories USED to end with... 'and in the ensuing riot...' But I don't drink any more and have stopped falling in hedges on my way home so...

This actually happened when I got back from the pub safe and sound.

Nothing of note on TV so I had a quick look around on the PC, as you do...

And WOW! An explosion of hits to the AffiliateNicheClub site, tons of sign-ups to the list and loads of sales. WTF? Ah ha! Me thinks my evil 'Eye of Sauron' vid resonates with the Friday night crowd. He, He!

But no... it was an affiliate, an affiliate who had sent a mail out to their list and just happened to mention our latest niche report....and POW!

A mail that I guess took a couple of minutes to send out.

So, a great job all round!!

But what if YOU ain't got a list. Well, you can refer to our free bonus guide 'ANC Annihilator' In there you'll find everything you need to get one started...

What else can you do? Get in those forums (with your ANC sig link)... update those blog posts... get a lens going...

In short. Small steps...Into Action!

Dave B

PS. To be an ANC affiliate, you need to be an active members so check out the site ASAP.

Affiliate Niche Club! Take a Peek Inside 'The Eye'

2008-11-05T22:27:00.000Z

Hi,

Just wanted to tell you about a couple of major recent enhancements at AffiliateNicheClub in case you missed them...

Annual Fee Option: Maybe this suits you, maybe not. But it's available if you want it! You can now join ANC for as little as $7 per month! And if you wish to promote ANC you can now get $47 per sign up! Check out the site for more details!

New Bonuses:-

- The Eye of Sauron. The Dark Arts of Forum Marketing

If you think forum marketing is just about adding your sig link to forum posts... think again! Real life example...watch the Dark Lord in action... you will NOT have seen anything like this before! For a sneak peek click here...

For Member / Affiliates:-

ANC Annihilator II: This is our guide to help those members who wish to promote ANC get a head start. But, in fact, it will help you promote any product in the Affiliate Marketing niche! (Recently updated to include more advice on forum marketing and marketing our Annual Fee option.)

AffiliateNicheClub

Dave B

Currency Calamity! Not so Sterling after all...

2008-10-31T13:55:00.000Z

The global downturn took a turn for the worse here in the UK in the last week or two with Sterling taking a pounding against the dollar...and the dollar's set for more of a pounding...

All doom and gloom!

Not necessarily... see, not long back £1 pretty much equaled $2. Now, it's closer to $1.5.

So, let's look at a very crude example. Let's say your monthly income from promoting WA is $300. So, a few months back when converted to £ that would have given you £150 in your UK Bank account. (I'm ignoring charges for simplicity's sake.)

Now that $300 will give you £200! Bit of a difference that. But your WA fee is more expensive (along with anything else you have to buy in $) right?

So just keep some $$$ in your PayPal account. (It's easy to set up multiple currencies in PayPal)

Now, I'm not wanting to encourage you to become currency speculators but that's a simplistic way of doing a practical thing and I guess most of you already do that anyway.

It's the little things that help though in times like these.

Here's another one... a good few month's back Thad put up a great post in DUK about the opportunities that are there in a bad economic situation.

A short time back I turned that into an Ezine which you can see here... (some of you may have seen this already...I often forget where I put things)

Niche Marketing in a Bad Economy

It's not all doom and gloom...more a question of mindset

HTH

Dave B

Affiliate Niche Club - Bonus Bonanza!

2008-10-27T17:43:00.000Z

Just thought I'd let you in on developments at AffiliateNicheClub , 'cause there's been a ton of things added since we first launched...

Niche Reports: There's 3 now in total and one main one will be added each month. These are the 'cake' of ANC but check out the icing!...

We already have more 'bonus' niche reports in the pipeline! These will just keep on coming... as and when we come up with them. (Thad loves doing these, so expect plenty.)

Bonuses:-

- Niche Nemesis. In this report we cover in general how to identify and test a niche and then how to target your niche using both the free & paid methods.The guidance in this report applies to any niche and not just the one we are focusing on in a particular month.

- Real Life Case Study. In this report we cover a real life case study of an actual campaign Thad and I ran... and you see everything... Market Research, The Campaign Structure, The Adwords Campaign and The Results.

For Member / Affiliates:-

ANC Annihilator: This is our guide to help those members who wish to promote ANC get a head start. But, in fact, it will help you promote any product in the Affiliate Marketing niche!

Rebrandable Reports: Remember, that free sample Niche Report you get just for checking out the site. Well, how about being able to change all the affiliate links in that to your own? A great way to start a list or send as a gift to your existing list. And you can of course use it to promote any of the products listed in the free sample Niche Report.

Oh! and whisper this one quietly...'The Eye of Sauron'...it's live and it's happening right now! It's dark and it's...errr...kinda spooky!

So, stick around...one more cool bit of news to come real soon...

AffiliateNicheClub

Dave B

Get Inside the List for FREE!

2008-10-21T15:21:00.000+01:00

Hi,

You might recall that back in April, K & C over at Wealthy Affiliate ran a limited special offer if you joined WA

The offer was, if you joined you would get 'Inside the List' for FREE!

Well, the offer is back on and not to be missed so head on over to Wealthy Affiliate and check it out now!

For a full review of 'Inside the List', THE bible on list building click here.

Dave B

PS. If you join via WA any of my links I've got some great bonuses for ya! Click here for the details on my website.

Kelly Stones Blog - A great example of an IM blog!

2008-10-09T23:19:00.001+01:00

Hi,

If you really want to do a great Internet Marketing blog...check this out:-

Kelly Stone is an awesome blog stuffed full of great advice, review and articles!

And Kelly is a Wealthy Affiliate buddy of mine. Need I say more!

Dave B

One Week Marketing Review

2008-10-04T20:23:00.000+01:00

Hi,

One Week Marketing is a COMPLETE system of doing article marketing, how to get the most traffic out of what you do, and how to get it to convert.

It's written by a Wealthy Affiliate buddy of mine called Jennifer (PotPieGirl) and she really knows her stuff.

It's VERY action and strategy oriented, delivered in a crystal clear way that anyone can follow and put to work right away for free. Jennifer puts tons of effort into making sure you aren't left in the dark and have a focused picture of exactly what to do next.

Also included is a 130+ page Case Study called "A Conversation With Nick". A genuine 'one to one' coaching session Jennifer had with a guy who she took by the hand, and he started making sales within the first week! Gold Dust!

For a Full Review & BONUS details check out my site!

Dave B

The Death of Capitalism!!??

2008-09-28T21:12:00.004+01:00

Are you reading the same headlines as I am? Are you in fear of
losing your job, your home?...

Will the latest bail out of toxic debt by the Fed work? I don't
know the answer but the thing is, we are at the center of the
biggest financial tornado the world has ever seen.

The very death of capitalism!!??

First, let me tell you, you are well placed, if you are take action!

Thad produced a great post towards the end of our time in DUK.
I have posted it as an Ezine and you can view it here:-

"Niche Marketing in a Bad Economy"

And here's another thought...

What has to be one of THE best niches in the current scenario...
'MAKE MONEY ONLINE'. That's what people are gonna be
searching on...

You sit right in the eye of the storm and you can, not only ride it,
but use it to your fullest advantage.

Wealthy Affiliate is a 'MAKE MONEY ONLINE' product...

AffiliateNicheClub is a 'MAKE MONEY ONLINE' product...

And if you join ANC we have made it even easier for you to
promote BOTH.

Check out ANC now and grab the 'Free Sample Niche Report'

We now have re-branding software in place that will allow you to change EVERY link in that 'Free Sample Niche Report' to your OWN affiliate links.


Every single product recommended in that report is a
'MAKE MONEY ONLINE' product.

We will also soon be producing our guide to help you promote
ANC specifically but the advice given will apply to any
'MAKE MONEY ONLINE' product.

So, think hard...the demons are at the gate...small steps...

Into Action!

Dave B

Free Keyword Tracking Tool

2008-09-25T14:23:00.000+01:00

Hi,

For any of you PPC freaks like me, my buddy Thad has found one killer FREE keyword conversion tracking tool!

http://prosper202.com

We've installed it on all our stuff and are blown away by what they're delivering for free.

Does the same thing most paid keyword tracking tools do and then some.

Pinpoint sales, merchant clickthrus, automatically add tracking id's, etc. right down to the keyword level for all your campaigns (across multiple PPC and affiliate networks) right in one cool and very slick interface. You can even watch what a visitor is doing on your site LIVE at any given moment.

Works with:

Direct linking
Single product landing pages
Multiple product landing pages

Check it out

http://prosper202.com

Dave B

Struggling Finding Something to Promote?

2008-09-08T19:30:00.001+01:00

Learn the 'who', the 'why' and the 'what'...

Are you struggling finding something profitable to promote?

The key is to understand who makes up that niche and why they have a particular need or desire then reach out and connect with them and promote products that they are desperate to have.

Well, Thad and I have teamed up again to form the AffiliateNicheClub as we recognize that many affiliate marketers, whether brand new or experienced, skimp on the initial niche market research when looking for something profitable to promote.

Each month we will produce a monthly report focusing on a specific niche, breaking down the who, the why and the what...in addition we'll provide a list of targeted keywords and suggestions on the best ways to target the niche.

You will:-

Gain a valuable insight into a specific niche and also learn how to apply this methodology to any niche.
Find out how to locate those 'hot' buttons that will convert interested 'searchers' into confirmed buyers.
Find out different ways to test a niche and then how to grow and expand your campaigns.
Find out the best ways to conduct keyword research.
Find out how to select and promote the products that really sell.

Just for checking us out at affiliatenicheclub.com we'll send you a free sample Niche Report!

Then if you decide to join us, you will immediately receive your first exclusive Niche Report AND a further free bonus...our 'Niche Nemesis' guide which will help you identify, test and target any niche!

Dave B

PS. Remember, just for checking us out at affiliatenicheclub.com we'll send you a free sample Niche Report!

PPS. Oh! I almost forgot, if you do join us, you can also become an Affiliate and promote the AffiliateNicheClub yourself.

Wealthy Affiliate - Laying it on the line!

2008-08-21T15:58:00.002+01:00

Hi,

A couple of posts back I mentioned that K & C over at Wealthy Affiliates were going to be revealing a $1,000,000 / year niche...

Well, yesterday they laid everything out... it's the 'Weight Loss' market and they've provided everything you'll need to get started and make some serious moola!

Keywords, ready-made websites to use, landing pages...essentially everything done for you!

Well, I think it's pretty awesome...and is probably the closest thing you'll ever get to having a profitable campaign handed to you on a plate.

Taken with the guide it's as close to a case study as you are likely to get.

Wealthy Affiliates

Dave B

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

2008-08-17T22:23:00.003+01:00

News that is...

First the Ugly. How do you like my new avatar? It's funny I always wanted a skinhead
when I was younger but my mum wouldn't let me. (UK guys of a certain
age will know why). Now, age dictates it.

Anyway, the Bad (and old) news is Thad and I closed Destination Unknown last month.

For those that don't know, Thad and I teamed up in April 2007 and formed
bigcatskillz.com to work together on AM projects. The vast majority are
outside of the Internet Marketing area altogether but in September 2007
we launched Destination Unknown
to give people the chance to get real hands on coaching by watching
over our shoulders as we ran real world live marketing campaigns.

We had a blast of a time doing it and best of all we were able to help
several of our members create their own successful campaigns and launch
them on the path to the kind of freedom being a full-time Affiliate
Marketer brings.

But Destination Unknown is now closed.

Why? Thad and I decided that, because of the hands-on, time-consuming
approach we delivered in DUK ...we simply couldn't afford to continue
to offer the level of service we wanted to.

Whilst we love helping people, our main businesses are outside of the internet
marketing area and unfortunately DUK just took too much time away from
our own niche marketing businesses. In other words, we literally
couldn't afford to continue without significantly raising the fee. And
we were just not prepared to do that.

But we are still determined to help... so here's the Good news...

We've been thinking and we have found, both in our own campaigns and in our
experiences with helping others that there is a fundamental key to
success in IM... one that many people fail to carry out in anything
like enough detail. And if you skimp on this the chances are you will
not be able to create sustainable successful campaigns.

And we are now working flat out on how best we can simply and easily pass on
this expertise to everyone...and you guys will be the first to hear
about it.

We aim to go live real soon so watch this space. This
is not going to be a DUK mark II but I promise you it will benefit
everyone. And I also promise you that the price will be so low you will
think we have taken leave of our senses!

That's all for now...more later...

Dave B

PS.

Even more good news...

The new product will have an affiliate program...

Fed up with all the 'bad news'

2008-08-16T12:52:00.001+01:00

Hi,

I'm not talking about the 'real world' bad news...the credit crunch...the price of oil...conflicts in all corners of the globe. I mean that's real bad news right?

No, I mean the tons of mails you've probably been getting from the so called 'Gurus' plugging their latest stuff. Well, they've hit on the idea that if you head up your mails 'bad news'... more people will open them. And it works! Human nature you see...

Well... I've only got good news...

See K & C over at Wealthy Affiliates have come up with a one time limited offer for signing up and joining WA right now. (In fact you have to act before next Tuesday the 19th.)

You should know by now what I think of WA but if you need reminding you can check out my review here.

You should also know by now that I am something of an Adwords nut. In the Big Cat Challenge I recommend you try out the free methods first... article marketing, blogs, etc. to earn your marketing 'bones'.

But to really grow your IM business the fastest way is to master Adwords. But it does NOT come without risk and that's why I strongly recommend anyone contemplating using Adwords grabs a copy of K & C's Beating Adwords first.

It is THE Adwords bible. Period. You can check out my review of BA here.

Well, now here's the good news...

If you join Wealthy Affiliate before next Tuesday you also get a copy of Beating Adwords free! (BA currently retails at $67 so this is a real bargain)

But you must sign up via this special link (or any of the Wealthy Affiliate links in this post). Not the links on my site or blog, OK.

And there's more...

Carson at Wealthy Affiliate posted on the forum yesterday that next week they're going to reveal a 1,000,000/yr niche!...that works out to $82K per month or $2,700/day.

He and Kyle are giving away the keywords, webpages, marketing angles, hot article marketing phrases, and many specific audiences to target... the full monty!

Dave B

PS. Don't forget you must join Wealthy Affiliate via the links in this post and you must act before next Tuesday.

PPS. If you are already a member of WA, I still strongly recommend you grab a copy of Beating Adwords before attempting Adwords.

PPPS. I almost forgot. If you join Wealthy Affiliate via any of my links or grab a copy of Beating Adwords , I've got some great bonuses for ya! Details are available on my site here.

Landing Page Load Time

2008-05-13T06:28:00.000+01:00

Hi,

A couple months ago, Google Adwords announced that they’re going to include landing page load time in their quality score calculation.

I just wanted to give you a heads up that landing page load time analysis is now available on the keyword analysis page.

You can get to this by hovering over the magnifying glass next to any keyword in your campaigns, then click on details and recommendations. It will now tell you if your landing page load time is above average, average, or below average…which now has an effect on your quality score.

So you might want to check your accounts and give them a once over to check how it’s reading your load time.

A couple common things that will slow your page down are too many javascript elements and image sizes that are too big. Video can obviously affect it as well.

Dave B

Wealthy Affiliate Update!

2008-05-08T08:22:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Here's the latest from WA. OK, a so the price has now gone up but only by $9 and they have added yet another free tool called Rapid Writer, (that's on top of free web hosting, free web design tools, keywords tools and tons more... plus the best IM forum on the internet)

Here's the spiel from K & C...

Today is a great day for anyone who is a member at Wealthy Affiliate or would like to be a member of Wealthy Affiliate.

We have just launched a brand new content creation tool within Wealthy Affiliate called "Rapid Writer".

Rapid Writer is a tool for article marketers and website owners alike. Instead of discussing exactly what this tool offers, we have created a full page so you can see for yourself:

======> http://www.WealthyAffiliate.com/rapidwriter.php

This tool is a big deal. Comparable tools out there are sold for $97/mth. Can you believe that!!!! We offer it for no extra cost within Wealthy Affiliate and it is safe to say that this tool is going to make a lot of people a lot of cash!

What about the price increase?

Well, it is not going to be as bad as you think. We have increased the price by a measly $9 at Wealthy Affiliate, from just under $30, to $39. It is still an amazing deal at this price especially if you consider everything we offer.

AND (a big AND), if you sign-up for an entire year at Wealthy Affiliate, you can get your membership at the old price. That's right! If you sign-up for a full year, we will give you access to Wealthy Affiliate for the old membership price.

If you are not already a member, now is an excellent time to join. If you think that updates like this to our system are uncommon, think again. We are always developing new tools, resources and services for Wealthy Affiliate!

Join Now!

======> http://www.WealthyAffiliate.com

Remember, if you are not a member you can still get the old member price if you sign-up for a full year. We can safely say that if you are a member for a full year and apply the techniques we provide within Wealthy Affiliate, you will be making much more than the cost of the membership fee!

======> http://www.WealthyAffiliate.com

Hope to see you soon and we hope all of you enjoy the amazing new tool!

Cheers,

Kyle & Carson
The Wealthy Affiliates
www.WealthyAffiliate.com

I definitely recommend checking out Wealthy Affiliate as soon as possible.

Dave B

Forthcoming WA Price Increase

2008-04-29T15:37:00.000+01:00

The monthly subscriptions at Wealthy Affiliates is about to go up... May 6th

Hi,

Just a real quicky. I gotta tell you this... regardless of where you're at in my Big Cat Challenge...

You know I'm a member of WA and you may know it was by being a member of WA that I was able to quit my day job in January 2007. Well, obviously I can't recommend the place highly enough...

But now they are putting up the price. To what?.. I don't know yet. It's currently a steal at $29.99 / month. In my opinion they could double or even TREBLE that and you would still be getting great value so we'll have to wait and see. I'll keep you posted...

One thing I do know for sure though is ...they are locking the price for existing members.

So, if you are already a WA member...relax...you're already on a winner!

If you are currently sitting on the fence and deciding whether to join or not...well, now's a good a time...so, be sure to check WA out in good time...before May 6th!

Dave B

PS. Just to be crystal clear. If you join WA before May 6th you pay $29.99 / month for life. There will be no future increase for any member already on board.

PPS. I almost forgot...If you join WA via any of the links in this post, I've got some great bonuses for ya! Details are available from the Money Reality site here.

Keyword Tools - A Warning!

2008-04-24T13:19:00.000+01:00

Hi,

There’s always a lot of questions about keyword tools and traffic estimates.

Bottom line, most of them are pretty worthless…

K&C (the Wealthy Affiliates) have spent a ton of time digging really deep on where all these keyword tools get their data.

Their conclusion? It’s all total junk…Wordtracker gets their data from horrible places like dogpile, infoseek, and metacrawler. So do all the rest.

What they’ve always said…the Google Keyword tool is king…period.

Thad and I both agree on that too from our own experience. We both have had single keywords that get hundreds and even thousands of impressions per day, yet on places like Wordtracker they may show like 3, or even none at all.

Even though it doesn’t give specific numbers, the Google Keyword tool seems to be the most accurate. But even still, don’t let that ever stop you from using keywords that aren’t on their tool either. They DO get traffic and conversions.

Certainly use keyword tools for ideas…but also make up your own if you think people will type them in. The vast majority of the time we generate keywords by just thinking about the niche itself. We’ll take a few quick scans of Google’s Keyword tool to get some ideas and themes going, and grab a bunch of core keywords to use, but then also will just sit down with a blank spreadsheet and start brainstorming.

I think this is a very important point…because I’m sure there are countless numbers of IM’ers who fail simply because they rely too heavily on keyword tools.

Dave B

PS. Don't forget you can watch Thad and I work with real live campaigns over at Destination Unknown so be sure to check that out.

Yahoo Min Bid Changes

2008-04-09T14:55:00.000+01:00

Just a heads up in case you haven’t seen, over the next few weeks Yahoo will be ditching their $.10 fixed minimum bids in favor of a system more like Adwords where your minimum bid is going to be variable based on your quality index.

If you’re doing anything sloppy in Yahoo at the moment, probably will want to clean it up a bit…or at least look at where your quality index ratings stand and try to fix any that are low.

I suspect if you just do what you’d normally do in Google…should be fine in Yahoo too. Wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some glitches though.

Dave B

Ad Infiltration - Mega Boost Your Profits!

2008-03-11T15:33:00.000Z

Hi,

Just a reminder that Ad Infiltration launches today! It's an awesome guide on Placement Targeting.

If you are serious about IM you need to look at Placement targeting...If you are serious about Placement targeting you need to get Ad Infiltration.

Dave B

PS. If you get Ad Infiltration via any of my links I've got some great bonuses for ya!

Including 'Power Placements'. Details of an actual campaign Thad and I ran using Steve's Placement Targeting methods. You can check out the details here.

Beat the Google Slap! (Update)

2008-03-11T11:14:00.004Z

Hi,

Thad and I have been doing some testing over at Destination Unknown and these are our conclusions so far:-

Google's reasoning behind their "SLAPS" is to make sure that each page that is listed in their Sponsored search is super highly relevant. This means that your keywords, ads, and landing pages should all be in sync. The Title of your page, headlines, links, and content all play a part in quality score, so keep this in mind when you build your content.

Diversify

First up Google ain't the only shop in town. I really like having diversified traffic. Yahoo, Placement targeting, MSN, etc.

It’s also a VERY good reason to collect emails on any campaign…you have free traffic at your fingertips.

Take Action

If you get slapped here's what you can try:-

1. Get a new domain. There is currently no way around this one.

2. Reworking the content on your landing pages to increase keyword density even more…and add some words that will probably seem relevant in terms of LSI (latent semantic indexing)

3. Add more images to each landing page

4. Link to a couple relevant authority sites in the footer.

5. Change the wording of any opt-in box to include the common keyword of each adgroup.

6. Work the common keyword into more of the anchor text of our outbound affiliate links

7. Since navigation is an important part of QS, experiment with navigation links by placing some relevant navigation links higher on the page…also to help reduce bounce rate. For example, on a comparison page, put some navigation links high on the page which take people to a full review page for each compared product. (Note: these will only be to pages that actually lead them closer to a purcase)

8. Make sure your header image is a clickable link back to the main index page.

9. Break a section of the campaign into it’s own domain/mini-site to keep our theme extra tight.

10. Create a landing page specifically targeting the common keywords you use within your adgroup. This page should have a your keywords within the title tag, within the name of the actual file, in the headline on the page, and within the text of your site (most importantly the first few paragraphs).

11. Make sure your keywords are in your AD.. If you use the common keyword technique, use the common keywords in the title, and description.

12. If you can, use a domain name that has relevant keywords in it.

13. As mentioned in point #10, name your files using the common keywords that you are sending traffic from. For instance, if you had an ad for Wealthy Affiliate with the common words "wealthy affiliate", name the landing page like this: http://www.yourdomain.com/wealthy_affiliate.html

14. Description Meta Tags. Using your common keywords within the description meta tag doesn't hurt.

Review Style Pages

If you are doing a comparison style landing page you may also be running competitive ads on the competing products. Chances are your first ranked product will have a much higher keyword density above the fold.

Google places a heavier emphasis on keyword density and relevancy high on the page in the first few paragraphs. And this makes sense, as Google wants you to slap your visitor over the head with relevancy.

So this is a very important point when you are bidding on names for products which are ranked low and talked about lower on your page. Make sure to also establish a high keyword density and relevant text for that low ranked product higher on the page above the fold….so that high keyword relevancy is also immediately visible without the visitor having to scroll.

Obviously don’t keyword cram…that will just look tacky and will likely do more harm than good. Just tactfully sprinkle your relevant text higher on the page.

Heading Tags

If you are using templates (downloaded) be aware that the designer may not have had Google adwords in mind when he designed the template.

Some template headlines are actually H4 tags, while smaller subheaders lower on the page are H2 tags, so this will confuse Google as to what was actually most important on the page. Make sure you change that so your headlines are H1 and the subheaders are h2, etc…to create more clarity for the bots.

There are no guarantees and the key as ever is relevancy.

Keep going...small steps.

Dave B

Ad Infiltration - Sky Rocket Your Profits!

2008-03-08T11:14:00.003Z

Hi,

It's very rare that I buy any IM products...outside of the Wealthy Affiliate family of products it's even rarer that I mention them to you...usually it's the same old re-cycled crap...Well, NOT THIS TIME! so please read on...

Placement targeting is a really great way of marketing. You can put your ads right in front of your target market.

So, what's the deal? You may have heard of Placement Targeting...you may even have tried it. Either way you will know about Adsense ads. Those ads that appear at the side or the top of websites. If you have been doing PPC you should have been told to switch off the Content Network otherwise Google will display your ads wherever they decide. And they display them on a ton of crappy untargeted sites that you don't want them to, right?

But what if YOU decided exactly which sites to display those ads on... does that sound better? You bet it does!

And that's exactly what you can do with Placement Targeting. BUT WARNING! WARNING! If you get it wrong you can lose your shirt.

Thad and I do a lot Placement Targeting over at Destination Unknown and we've now figured it out but it was a pretty hairy ride and I would NOT recommend you try it without expert guidance.

Right on cue a Wealthy Affiliate buddy of mine called Steve G has produced a cracking guide called Ad Infiltration to help you really rack up your profit levels with Placement Targeting. This guide is literally a 1,2,3 of how to get it right. It's laid out for ya! Steve really knows his stuff.

If you are serious about IM you need to look at Placement targeting...If you are serious about Placement targeting you need to get Ad Infiltration.

You can check out my full review on the site here or head straight over to Steve's site here.

But whatever you do, don't try Placement Targeting without first understanding the full implications.

Dave B

PS. If you get Ad Infiltration via any of my links I've got some great bonuses for ya! You can check out the details here. Including 'Power Placements'.Details of an actual campaign Thad and I ran using Steve's Placement Targeting methods. You can check out the details here.

Google Slap

2008-03-06T14:03:00.000Z

Anyone else?

Google have been up to their tricks again by the look of it.

Perfectly good 'quality' campaigns suddenly getting hit with poor QS. WTF?

Not all campaigns and they don't touch some crappy ones.

Could be another glitch or something bigger?

I found this so we are not alone:-

http://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adwords/3591490.htm

Probably best to sit it out for a day or so if you have been affected until the dust settles and we can figure out the implications.

Thad and I are doing some testing over at Destination Unknown and I'll post up our conclusions in a few days.

Dave B

Guru Danger!

2008-02-16T22:16:00.002Z

Warning! Warning! Warning!

If any of you are on Frank Kern’s list you may have seen this…

There is nothing in it that we are not doing already in Destination Unknown…

Apart from ONE very high risk strategy…

I believe it’s flawed and I’ll explain why later…

Thad and I are gonna test it anyway in Destination Unknown because we like doing things like that!

In the meantime…don’t touch it with a barge pole!

Here’s the vid link (I don’t know how long it will be live)

http://masscontrolsite.com/blog/?p=29

Dave B

Edit: LOL! Check this out from the Super Affiliate Mindset Blog…mainly read the part about position normalization.

Completely blows Frank Kern's / Matt Trainer’s theory out of the water.

http://www.superaffiliatemindset.com/hot-tips-from-the-ppc-summit-day-2/

Google Knol - A Rival to Squidoo?

2008-02-15T14:33:00.000Z

Hi,

One to watch out for in the near future and thanks to a Wealthy Affiliate buddy of mine for bringing this back to my attention.

Google is currently beta testing 'Knol' which is a way people can write and store articles and information. (Knol stands for unit on knowledge in Google parlance)

Anyway, it's being likened to Wikipedia but it's gonna take some time before it gets to that size and scale.

In the short term however, I can see it being a real threat to Squidoo and the Hub.

Knols are very similar and will apparently be uncensored.

It will be interesting to see how highly Google ranks Knols and how it deals with all the inevitable crap and spam.

You can find out more here.

More to come on this one for sure.

Dave B

Don't Be Flagged as a Spammer!

2008-01-31T14:49:00.000Z

Hi,

I've done a couple of videos on List Building. How you can best use your ‘thank you’ page and tips to avoid being flagged a spammer!

List Building Tips Part One

List Building Tips Part Two

Enjoy and take note.

Dave B

Wealthy Affiliate 3.0 Review

2008-01-24T18:56:00.000Z

Hi,

Wealthy Affiliate has been upgraded to Version 3.0 so it's only fitting I've re-done my video review...

Check this out!

Come and check us out at WA. I'd lurve to see ya there.

Dave B

PS. If you join Wealthy Affiliate via any of my links you get the following bonuses (Once you have signed up you'll need to PM me in the forum to get your bonuses):-

Bonus 1

A free copy of my mini-ebook Relevancy Rampage.

Using PPC adwords? This guide tells you exactly how to impove your Quality Score using multiple landing pages as well as how to create a killer landing page.

If you are using Adwords don't miss it!

Bonus 2

A free copy of my mini-ebook Squidoo Storm.

If you are using Squidoo already this will take you to the next level.

Bonus 3

This bonus is a HOT one!

Some of you may recall my buddy, Thad. He's the one that Skypes me and wakes me from my slumbers (he's on US time). Anyway, we got chatting the other night and he tells me all about his first successful IM campaign.

Pretty darn good I can tell you. Well...he's agreed that I can share the details with you!

Aweber Autoresponder Review

2008-01-18T09:20:00.000Z

Hi,

Make no mistake your email autoresponder will become the glue that holds your affilate marketing business together.

Sure, you don't have to build a list to make money at Affiliate Marketing but if you don't you are missing out on multiple opportunities to add value for your customers and you'll lose out on repeat sale opportunities. Building a list can seperate you from all the 'checkers players' out there and turn you into a 'chess player'. (BTW. I strongly recommend you get Inside the List to learn how to both build and market to a list)

So, which email autoresponder should you choose?

Well, this is a no brainer for me...I use Aweber... as do all the other seniors over at Wealthy Affiliate.

What you want from an autoresponder is ease of use, functionality and above all, email deliverability.

Aweber scores very highly on all three and the support is second to none, including a brilliant live chat option. Test drive it today on a free 30 day trial!

Email deliverability: When you start building a list you naturally want as many of your customers as possible to open and appreciate your mails. What might not occur to you is that your customers may not even get your mails. That's because many mail clients now apply spam filters to incoming mails and will screen out mails into people's spam or junk folders based on a multitude of criteria. So how do you know your mails are not being flagged as spam in this way?

Don't worry Aweber has this covered! Each time you create a new message a Spam score is given to the message. Full details are given if you are heading for the danger zone so you can make any changes you need to. In this way you can ensure that your customers are receiving you mails without interference.

Functionality: Aweber has all the functionality you'll ever need. You can create an unlimited number of lists at the push of a button. All your leads are captured and stored based on the list name you set up making List Maintenance very easy. Creating webforms could not be simpler. It's pretty much done for you, either in-line or pop-up forms are easy to do.

Setting Up Messages is a piece of cake and there is no limit to how many you can set up in a follow-up series. You can also do one-off broadcast messages to all or a sub-set of your lists.

The Reporting function is awesome allowing you to view all your subscribed leads and their status and location. You can see what percentage of your messages are being opened and the click though rate from your 'in message' links.

Ease of Use: As with any program there is a learning curve but I found this one really gentle. Certainly, once you have set one list up there is no holding you back!

The support at Aweber is second to one. If you send them an email you will receive an immediate response with a ticket reference followed up by a detailed response within 24 hours. And if that's not good enough you can use the live chat helpline during office hours.

Dave B

Break on Through in 2008!

2008-01-07T14:03:00.000Z

Is 2008 gonna be your breakthrough year in Affiliate Marketing?

Happy New Year!

I was Skyping with my buddy Thad the other night and we got talking about what the hardest part of doing Affiliate Marketing full time... and don't think it's easy for us because it isn't.

We love doing what we're doing and wouldn't swap it to work for the man again for a King's ransom. But we 'work' long hours...and have lot's of failures! We can spend days on a campaign only to see it flop!

So what do we do and how do we keep the motivation going?

Well we agreed motivation to do the work is never a big problem...

No, the hardest part is keeping going through those times. Doing a ton of work on a new campaign and seeing it ending up being a 'failure' is pretty crushing. You know that, right?

So we push each other along, see where we went wrong, try a different approach maybe, we just keep going because we know the lessons learned will help us hit pay dirt eventually. The successes we have far outweigh the failures.

So if you are feeling frustrated by putting in a lot of effort with no results, you're not alone.

But that's another problem with Affiliate Marketing...you are alone or it sure feels like it, right?

Thad and I work as a team and support each other and that's been a massive help for both of us.

When you need that extra support having a community of great and supportive people at Wealthy Affiliate will really push you and help you through those hard times. It did me!

So, if 2008 is gonna be your breakthrough year in Affiliate Marketing keep going, keep pushing and get some support!

All the best for 2008!

Dave B

PS. Don't forget if you want to see how Thad and I work as team you can do so live over at Destination Unknown. And you can take part! Loads of our members are already working on their own campaigns with our help.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-21T14:51:00.000Z

...and a Happy & Prosperous New Year!

What a year it's been! I hope you've had a good one...whether you celebrate Xmas or not here's to your health, wealth & happiness.

Spend time with your families and loved ones...nothing is more important than that.

And look forward to the future with optimism...you can change it!

2008 is gonna be great...it's gonna be your year, right?

Keep going...small steps...Into Action!

Cheers and Best Wishes!

Dave B

Quick Mail Message Tips

2007-12-20T15:09:00.000Z

Hi,

Are you building a list? If you are not you should be...

First, grab your free copy of the Big Cat Challenge to get started! It’s a great guide covering niche research, blogging, article marketing and list building.

Anyway, I just wanted to add a few quick tips on list building...

1) Do your messages in HTML. They look better (the links) for a start.

2) Enable click tracking. This allows you to see how many of your messages are actually being opened and which of your links are being followed.

3) If you are using Aweber (and you should be) take note of the Spam filter. You aren’t sending spam, right? Well you might not think so but all those mail clients out there have anti-spam filters on them that can be triggered by words or phrases in your mails. So, all your hard work goes to nothing as your mails get dumped in your customers spam folder.

4) Add a phrase like this at near the top of your mails:-

YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS MAIL BECAUSE YOU SIGNED UP TO DESTINATION UNKNOWN VIA THE BIG CAT SKILLZ WEBSITE. THERE IS AN OPTION TO UNSUBSCRIBE AT THE END OF THIS MAIL IF YOU WISH TO DO SO.

5) A lot of mail clients like Gmail now show the first line of your message in your clients inbox as well as your heading. So use it! So above that spam disclaimer add one line that will show up.

Example:-

People who opt-in for the Free Destination Unknown campaign planner get this:-

Destination Unknown - Your Campaign Planner! (That’s the message heading or subject)

Message:-

See how we plan our campaigns!

YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS MAIL BECAUSE YOU SIGNED UP TO DESTINATION UNKNOWN VIA THE BIG CAT SKILLZ WEBSITE. THERE IS AN OPTION TO UNSUBSCRIBE AT THE END OF THIS MAIL IF YOU WISH TO DO SO.

Hi, {!firstname}

Thanks for showing an interest in Destination Unknown.

etc, etc.

So in Gmail (and others) their inbox line will read:-

Destination Unknown - Your Campaign Planner! See how we plan our campaigns!

You gotta make them want to open your mails.

Dave B

Somebody Likes The Challenge!

2007-12-15T11:20:00.000Z

I got a mail yesterday from a guy who had just finished Big Cat Challenge...

He likes it!

This was his response:-

DUDE!!! Everything has FINALLY clicked. With all that I have bought, this ACTUALLY laid it out step by step. I have been dying to do some personal blogging. I work part-time with a private Affiliate Program Management company. We have clients on most major networks (Linkshare, ShareASale, CJ, Avantlink). I do some client blogging and really enjoy it. (WordPress). Can you tell I enjoy writing?

I am so psyched. I have already located a niche and have several Long Tail terms with Overture monthly searches around 400 to 1500 (per your book, times 10 for Google). At the same time, after some research, I have found that most of these terms in “quotes” on Google have VERY low competition. One term has 1531 Overture searches a month and only 10 competing Google listings. Very pumped!

Thanks so much, Dave. I had so much info and software clogging me up that I couldn’t think small and in a step by step fashion. Your book (Big Cat Strategy) is better than anything I have. Don’t make me list them here, but I swear I will if it will help others NOT to go through what I have for the past 18 months…Seriously, thanks so much for the light bulb moment. I knew I was thinking too freakin’ hard about all this nonsense.

Keep you posted?? Wish I could share this with your Blog’s visitors to MAKE them opt-in. Let me know if you want to use this or edit it as a testimonial. Least I could do. You have opened my eyes. I think I will be ready to kick some PPC ass eventually, but I’ll have to feel the joy of my first couple of thousand in sales first. How can I repay you?!?!

"How can I repay you?!?!"... You just did buddy...you just did! :)

Dave B

Money Reality - A New Home?

2007-12-02T15:31:00.000Z

Hi,

I ain't posted for a while so I thought I'd better let you know what I've been up to.

First, it's been manic over at Destination Unknown . We have soooo much going down and success is around the corner now for many of our members. I can smell it!

And I've finally got around to updating my Money Reality website and you can check it out here.

This blog will remain the focus of the Big Cat Challenge but I'll be doing other stuff as well on the website.

You can see the latest blog posts on the website as well.

Keep going...small steps...Into Action!

Dave B

Google Placement Targeting

2007-11-15T12:40:00.000Z

Hi,

You might have noticed a new addition to Google Adwords:-

“Site Targeting Changes: CPC Bidding and a New Name
AdWords site targeting is now called placement targeting. And we’ve added CPC bidding, so you can pay for each click or for each thousand impressions on your placement-targeted ad.”

Will this be an improvement?

We're checking this out and testing it live in Destination Unknown right now so I'll let you know how we get on.

Dave B

The Need for Speed!

2007-11-08T21:02:00.000Z

What’s under your bonnet?

Can you make that jump!

Just over a week ago Thad threw me an idea...mmmmm

Well, now we have a site up and the campaign will be going by next week

Fast, right?

Why?

Well, first it’s not a showy thing…cause we're big or clever...

You see, I see this a lot, in here and other places ....

Doubt…

It’s a killer in this business (as it is in all businesses).

You think you have a good idea but then the questions, the doubts start rolling in.

This business is unique in that you can quickly and easily test any market.

And it need not cost you a penny either…

So, that’s why we take rapid action…take action and learn from our failures…

Top Tips:-

1. Get yourselves a test domain (e.g xyz.com). It will more than pay for itself. You can then add as many sub domains as you want. (e.g dogtraining.xyz.com)
2. Ignore keyword tool results and Google traffic estimates
3. Do your research but don’t do it to death. Go with your guts!
4. Get a site up and test. Best research there is. (Use Site Rubix. if you are a Wealthy Affiliate member )
5. Know when you have failed and move on.
6. Remember, you have not failed… your campaign has but you've learned tons on the way.
7. Keep going. Into Action!

Dave B

PS. Oh! And don’t buy any more Guru crap or tools.

Graphics Headaches?

2007-11-07T09:24:00.000Z

Hi,

I've never been one for fancy dan graphics on my websites or blogs and have never really bothered with complex graphics packages.

I usually grab a free template from somewhere and make do with that. It's the message that's important, right?

But I confess I often feel just that little bit restricted and would like to break out of the confines of a template. So, I gotta get Photoshop, right?

Wrong!

I've found a really cool app called the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) and it pretty much does everything I'll ever want to do.

And get this...It's completely FREE!!!

Check it out here.

Dave B

$300 / Day Smackdown!

2007-10-30T13:38:00.000Z

Do you want to smackdown $300 / Day?

Are you still struggling to really make the grade at IM? Do you want to really push on and make a major break through? Do you want to move on from making a few sales, having the odd success here and there?

How does $300 / Day sound?... Good?

That's the challenge...that's the deal...and YOU can take part.

Several Destination Unknown members have started their own campaign threads. They are picking the niches, they are doing the work but Thad and I are right behind them.

And this is not just about making a few sales...getting some success...it's about grabbing a niche by the scruff of the neck and smacking down $300 /Day!

We are calling these campaigns: 'Niche $9000!' (That's $9000 / month!).

Does that sound like a good number to you?

If it does, head on over to Destination Unknown and you can watch everything live as it happens ...

Or better still...Why not start your own Niche $9000 thread?

That's right, as a DUK member you can start your own thread and we'll guide you along to success.

Dave B

Destination Unknown...get on board...follow me...and let's go!

Free PPC Campaign Builder Tool

2007-10-19T12:46:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Here's a neat tip Thad has just popped up over at Destination Unknown:-

Hey folks,

I know Davey boy hates tools…but wanted to throw this up here because it’s pretty cool…and FREE.

Last night I stumbled across a blog post by Derek Beau, who just created a free alternative to Speed PPC a few days ago. You can see the blog post here:

Derek Beau’s Campaign Builder Post

It allows you to quickly create a massive quantity of ads and keywords in a format ready to upload in Adwords Editor.

He bought Speed PPC and realized he could easily create the same thing, sort of, and give it away (minus a few of the fancy perks).

Anyway, I decided to upload it to the members area here for anyone to use (I put it in the freebies Section on the sidebar)

You can check it out here:

PPC Campaign Builder Tool

And I also uploaded the 8 page quick start manual he wrote which is here:

PPC Campaign Builder Manual

Just remember stuff like this is never a magic bullet or anything…it’s just a tool to help automate big, tedious tasks that you may need to get done.

Thad

P.S. - He mentioned on the blog that there may be a couple bugs with browser compatability and he’s working on a slightly newer version. I’ll upload the new version when he does. Also, you can go to his blog, download it, and install it on your own server as well if you’d like.

Good stuff as ever...

Dave B

Site Rubix - Realeased Today!

2007-10-09T13:32:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Just a quick update on Site Rubix. It's FREE!!

But only to Wealthy Affiliates members and you have to be a WA member to get it. All groan...

One way to look at it might be that if you were looking for a website builder already how much would it cost against WA membership. And then think, well, I'll get a website builder with WA thrown in.

Still don't know how good it is yet. I'll have a play later when I get access and provide an update.

Dave B

PS. You can be sure we are going to test it to death over at Destination Uknown

A Crazy Free Way To Track Your Visitors

2007-10-07T17:11:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Just thought I'd tell you about a really nifty application called CrazyEgg.

CrazyEgg generates a “heatmap” of clicks on the page to determine the effectiveness of the landing pages.

We are using it on a live campaign over at Destination Unknown. It looks really neat.

A bit pricey IMO when you get to the paid for options but the freebie one should help with testing.

With the free version you can set it to track 4 pages and 5000 views a month. That should be enough for testing most campaigns.

Check it out here.

Dave B

Site Rubix - A Website in 5 Minutes

2007-09-29T11:21:00.000+01:00

Hi,

On October 9th K & C, the Wealthy Affiliates, are launching a website builder that looks pretty awesome!

Here's a quote from them:-

"Site Rubix is going to change the way Internet marketers and website developers work. It is truly going to level the playing field between those people that can’t (or don’t want to create websites) with those whom are advanced web developers. Building a website has never been easier and producing large campaigns with 100’s of pages will be a breeze with Site Rubix!"

There are lots of questions I have about this as I'm sure you will as well.

The best way to find out more is to sign up to Site Rubix and get the inside information as it comes out.

I have and you can too. Sign up here for all the latest, as it happens!

Dave B

Destination Unknown - The Journey So Far...

2007-09-25T14:27:00.000+01:00

What they think of the journey so far...

Kelly, UK, Squidoo Queen

Never have I met two people who speak the truth, tell it like it is and hold back on NOTHING. If you want to find out how to start your marketing career then there are hundreds of guides out there that will show you how. If you want to start making some serious money with your marketing - Destination Unknown is the place to be! From start to finish these guys are showing you EXACTLY how to do it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hugh, UK

I have something to say about Destination Unknown: what you’re doing here is totally reckless.
Internet Marketers just don’t do this sort of thing, explaining everything from end to end. It’s not good form! I think Destination Unknown is fantastic. I’ve read many posts where people have asked to see *exactly* how a successful internet marketer does things … well here it is.

No crap. No nonsense. Just top quality stuff from two of the most open and helpful IMs around. Thanks for creating Destination Unknown guys.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pede, Ohio

Dave and Thad are doing something unheard of in internet marketing. They are showing their members EXACTLY how to run a profitable campaign. From niche research to keyword selection to product selection to ad writing to landing page generation, it’s all there for everyone to see. Nothing is held back.

If you are stuck and looking for real-life examples on making profitable campaigns, Destination Unknown is the place for you. Even if you have some successful campaigns going, the benefits of seeing how two experienced and successful internet marketers create their profits is invaluable. Destination Unknown delivers the goods.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris, South Africa

Dave and Thad are two of the most knowledgeable, helpful guys around…When they launched Destination Unknown I didn’t think twice about joining. Being able to see how you do research, which keywords you choose, how you setup a landing page etc. is invaluable to me and is already changing the way I approach my own campaigns. Looking forward to seeing what comes next!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why not join them on the journey... to Destination Unknown.

Dave B

Destination Unknown - 2000% + ROI anyone?

2007-09-21T09:33:00.000+01:00

2000% + ROI anyone?

Taken today from a live campaign in Destination Unknown...

Adspend less than $22

It's live and happening NOW!... DUK members have seen the whole thing!

You can as well...

Follow me...and let's go! ....Destination Unknown

Dave B

Understanding Landing Pages - Free Video

2007-09-12T11:47:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Thad has just popped a great video on Landing Pages in Destination Unknown and has agreed that we can share this one with my Big Cat Challengers.

So here's the link, enjoy! :-

Understanding Landing Pages

Dave B

There are more videos and tons of other stuff inside Destination Unknown so why not get on board.

Destination Unknown - Come and watch us play!

2007-09-08T12:16:00.000+01:00

OK, so you know all about Destination Unknown by now so I won't go through the whole shooting match again but...

We have been stunned and delighted at the response to Destination Unknown. We have tons of members and we were gonna put the price up late last night…but we didn’t.

See, I got to thinking…Team DUK…that is sooooooo important to us and it occured to us we would be creating a division. A different group…those who got in early at the special price and those who missed out for some reason.

So we are now holding the price at $47 until we are full up. So, get in while you still can.

Everyone on board is getting involved and we can almost smell the ideas and campaigns people are cooking up!

We are adding stuff almost daily at the moment and we'll be starting the live action next week...

Come and watch us play...

Dave B

Destination Unknown...the Big Dogs are toasted!

Destination Unknown - The Journey Starts Today!

2007-09-04T07:58:00.000+01:00

Hi

If you are already on the Destination Unknown list or a member of WA you will probably have seen this already. I just want to make sure everyone I know is aware of what the deal is...

OK, so you know all about Destination Unknown by now so I won't go through the whole shooting match again but...

Thad & I have been thinking. We have had loads of PMs and mails from people concerned about the timing...

They are gonna be at work, etc

Another big concern is the payment method.

So here's what we are gonna do...

We know we could charge a lot more for this but the introductory offer stands at $67.
The first 100 get in for the special price of $47...

OK, some of you might not get in. So what we are gonna do is hold the special price of $47 for 24 hours!

That should give everyone a fair chance regardless of where you live.

Next...the payment method is Paypal. We are working flat out on opening up alternatives but as things stand for the launch it's Paypal or bust!

If you cannot get in via Paypal you MUST send a mail to the address below and we will keep a slot for you until we get some alternatives in place.

BUT you must send the mail within 24 hours of the launch to reserve your spot at the special price of $47.

Do NOT send me or Thad a PM or mail...only send it to the address below and only send it if you have issues with Paypal.

support@bigcatskillz.com

Dave B

Less than 8 hours to go!... Destination Unknown

Launches TODAY! 11.00am EST.

Destination Unknown - Here's the Deal!

2007-08-31T16:25:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Things are getting hot for the launch of Destination Unknown on the 4^th September.

Thad & I have had loads of e-mails and PMs from people all wanting to know more.

DUK (our pet name for it) is a site like no other...you are going to get everything.

Remember, you'll get to see it all...

How we do niche research
How we zero in on the targeted keywords
How we decide the best platform for the campaign
You'll see our landing pages, adcopy, keywords & results...EVERYTHING!

And DUK will just keep growing, getting bigger, getting better...

We are limiting the membership to 200. Why?...because we want to make sure we can concentrate on adding value to the site. We need to assess and react to any feedback or questions we get and we feel a larger number of members at this stage would detract from the actual campaigns.

So the big question for everyone is cost, right?

Well, Thad and I have thought long and hard about this. We've looked at the market place and we've consulted with our experienced IM buddies.

As I said Destination Unknown is a site like no other...This is not an ebook or even a collection of ebooks (although you will receive one for each campaign)... This is a journey.

And you get to sit on our shoulders and watch us succeed or fail...

You will learn tons as we go along...In a few months time YOU should be punching at our level.

We will be showing you 'real world' niches... ones we could easily keep under wraps!

You'll get no outrageous promises from us about how much YOU will make or when YOU can quit your day job like us. That is down to YOU but you will have learned how to make money online. That is a promise!

So, here's the deal...

For the first 200 members only...

The introductory price will be - $67.00 / month

(And that's fixed as long as you remain a member.)

And as a special offer to YOU...the first 100 can get in for $47.00

(And that's also fixed as long as you remain a member.)

So, get in early...doors open 11.00am EST, Tuesday 4^th September.

Keep watching that countdown...

Dave B

Destination Unknown ...the day the Big Dogs die is upon us...

Destination Unknown - begin Your Journey - 4th September

2007-08-30T13:22:00.000+01:00

I've mentioned Destination Unknown a couple of times now...

Well, we're nearly there and I don't want you to miss out...so check it out...

If you really want a boost... if you are struggling a bit to find success... follow our journey!

Launch day for Destination Unknown is the 4th September.

Get ready to begin your journey...

We get started real soon now and we can't wait. Thad and I have been busting a gut already and we've got some great campaigns all ready loaded for ya...

Then we begin the journey proper and you can take part...

We've got tons lined up already:-

We're gonna Storm the Squid, test a real cool tool and we have the wackiest IM Challenge going lined up. And you are gonna learn loads along the way.

So, seatbelts on...follow me and let's go

We are limiting membership to 200 and the first 100 get a special deal. More details to follow later in the week.

Dave B

Destination Unknown ...coming soon...

Destination Unknown - Follow Me...And Let's Go!

2007-08-23T14:51:00.000+01:00

Destination Unknown launches on 4th September...

What's it all about?

I'm gonna keep this fairly short and to the point.

As you know I'm a full time Internet Marketer. I've just teamed up with a buddy of mine called Thad Roe who is the same happy position. Together we formed BigCatSkillz.com (we'll explain that title some other time)

But we aren't happy at all... we're deathly sick of all the bullsh*t that is out there...all the scams...all the cons.

Internet Marketing is NOT some big secret...some mystery that only a priveleged few 'Gurus' can master.

It's just marketing, common sense, and hard work...YOU can do it too...and WE can help give you a boost to get there.

But here's the deal...Internet Marketing is a game of situations. There's no magic 1,2,3 formula for every affiliate campaign. So we figured you'd like to SEE firsthand what actually works...then learn to apply your own style. Every campaign is different...that's why we call it Destination Unknown. We don't know where the next good opportunity will lead us...but we'll show you EXACTLY how we work to figure it out.

Now, we aren't here to coach you, teach you the basics, or help you with fundamentals of marketing, there's other resources for that...

What we ARE going to give you though is the straight up real deal! You can watch over our shoulders and learn by seeing two full time Internet Marketers run real world campaigns! Step by Step...From Start up to Profit.

So, you’ll get to see it all…

* How we do niche research (I look at girlie mags… Thad does the clever stuff)
* How we zero in on the targeted keywords
* How we decide the best platform for the campaign (Articles, blogs, websites, PPC, etc)
* You’ll see our landing pages, adcopy, keywords & results…EVERYTHING!

Do we always bang out a profitable campaign? Nope. Sometimes we fall flat on our face...so you'll get to see that too (and learn from our mistakes!).

We aren't "gurus" or experts by any means...and don't pretend to be. We're just two full time Internet Marketers who like to have fun and are willing to openly share exactly what we do.

If you want get in on the action...sign up to Destination Unknown and find out more...

And watch that clock...No Limits...It's coming soon!

Dave B

PS. The countdown has begun...September 4th...mark it down

A Great Tip From Travis - Mr Bum Marketer Himself!

2007-08-16T12:20:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Many of you will have heard or Travis Sago, The Bum Marketing legend and one of my Wealthy Affiliate buddies.

Well, he's just sent out a great tip on how to use a really cool site called Onlywire to get FREE back links for your articles, blogs & websites.

And he wants me to share it with you. So, all you have to do is grab a coffee (or a beer) and sit back and watch this free short video...

Watch The Free Video Here!

It's called 'Join Thad as a Free Man!'

...and yes, it is my buddy Thad Roe's blog that Travis uses in the video.

Thad's blog got swamped with hits after this!

Dave B

Are You In The Minority?

2007-08-10T13:34:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Did you know that 98% of people fail at Internet Marketing...

But millions are being made online by Internet Marketers, right? Right!

So, who gets all the dough? The 2% who succeed, that's who...

One of the biggest problems with IM is people come into it sold on the whole Guru 'get rich quick' scam...

People then try IM for a month or two and just give up. But the key is persistence...small steps... Into Action! AND NEVER GIVE UP! There are no tricks or secrets... just hard work.

But the Gurus get rich because you buy their 'tricks' and 'secrets' and the whole thing is just a hill of beans!

Well, I'm fed up with it!

I've mentioned it before but me and a Wealthy Affiliate buddy of mine, name of Thad Roe have teamed up and will shortly be launching our own program.

One that will really blow the Big Dogs away...

It's called Destination Unknown and you can find out more about it here.

You are going to be able to follow our journey to success exactly as it happens...

And we have already got the first steps up the mountain in the bag...

Small steps... Into Action!

It's time for some BIG ones... Into War!

Dave B

PS. The countdown has begun...September 4th...mark it down

Landing Pages - Mistakes to Avoid!

2007-08-04T08:52:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Are you building landing pages? If so you need to check out my Relevancy Rampage bonus. (It comes free with my Challenge or if you buy any of the great guides listed on the right.)

There are also some relevant articles already posted on the blog starting here.

Yesterday a question came up in the Wealthy Affiliate forum about the type of landing pages people should be using. A good WA buddy of mine, name of Hugh DP, popped this excellent response on to the thread and he's given me permission to share it with you. So here it is:-

I use:

- multi-review style sites, 2-8 products compared, rated, reviewed etc.
- single review sites, 1 product pre-sold on the back of a review.
- information sites with inline text links to merchants.

I think the type of site matters less than the value it gives the visitor and the quality of the copy used to pre-sell the product and get visitors to click to the merchant and buy.

I've tried short, medium and long copy too and, again, it doesn't seem to matter, although one needs to write much better copy the longer it is because it needs to retain the reader's interest. I think a lot depends on the typical type of customer one gets in a particular market, but remember that you may needs to cater for different types of customer.

Mistakes to avoid:

1. Waffle. Does everything on the page in some way contribute to the pre-sell? If not, get rid of it.

2. Too official sounding. Be the visitor's friend; let your own style come through in the copy.

3. Too short. Pre-sell before the visitor clicks to the merchant. If you don't, you may as well direct link. A visitor that leaves for the merchant and doesn't buy is unlikely to visit your site again. If a visitor has outstanding questions, they are unlikely to buy, so either you or the merchant needs to answer their questions. But remember that different visitors need different amounts of pre-sell, so allow plenty exit points to the merchant.

4. Too long. It can be long but then the copy needs to be good. Perhaps I shouldn't have said 'too long' ... 'too dull' would be more accurate. A great copywriter can keep us reading for pages and pages, but most of us aren't in that class.

5. Hard sell -> hard sell. If the merchant hard sells, there's no point in you doing it too unless you have a very different angle or can link direct to the merchant's checkout. Two similar hard sells will put the visitor off. Remember that a lot of people visit your site because they want something different to the merchant's site.

6. Uninformed. Make sure you know the product you're selling. If the visitor detects BS (and never underestimate their ability to do so) you won't get the sale.

7. Honesty. If you're doing multi-product reviews, recommend the product you really believe is best (not just the highest payer). If people get a strong impression of honesty from your site, your chances of conversions will increase markedly.

Settle for no less than 40% click through to the merchant. If you're not getting that, work on that area first, before getting more clicks, or you won't be maximizing your ROI.
_________________
Regards,
Hugh

That's really excellent advice and it doesn't just apply to landing pages but also to Squidoo Lenses, Hubs or blogs

Dave B

Wealthy Affliliates - Summer of Love! Success That Is!

2007-08-02T11:45:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Well, the weather has been grim here in the UK but at last the sun has finally decided to come out for a few days...brightens the soul!

But to be honest whenever I feel a bit 'under the weather' I just pop into the 'Success Forum' at Wealthy Affiliate. There's always enough going on in there to cheer you up!

Check these out:-

Made $460 Today! Mr. Bond Thu Aug 02
Brand New Review Page Up & $100.00 Commission Within Hours karinm Wed Aug 01
Squidoo lens is 3 days old and No 3 on Google GrahamH Wed Aug 01
2nd Full Month of IMing....$350 Richer zoomie505 Tue Jul 31
Introducing Us ... and our unexpected $675.78 WA benefit adamaia Tue Jul 31
My BUM success so far... jsandlin0803 Mon Jul 30,
Who Loves Money? I Love Money! Benjamin83 Mon Jul 30,

It's certainly been a summer of love for those guys!

Dave B

PS. You can see my 'Inside Wealthy Affiliate' video review on this this post.

Up The Junction!

2007-07-24T15:05:00.000+01:00

Hi,

You know a lot of people in IM have something of an obsession with Clickbank. Sure, it's easy to sign up and promote Clickbank products and it can be very lucrative...

But it's like anything in the the IM world. Don't put all your eggs in one basket... branch out a bit... there are other affiliate networks out there.

One of the best is Commission Junction. Some people get put off because it's harder to sign up... you have to get approvals... the commission percentages are low (compared to Clickbank ebooks)

Don't let that put you off!

As ever it's all about finding the hungry niche first...find what they want and give them it. Don't limit yourself to ebooks...

People now buy just about anything on the net from high - end plasma TVs to designer purses...

And Commission Junction is where you'll find the merchants.

The stats available and the support is awesome. So head on Up the Junction ASAP.

Dave B

PS. Get the latest on Destination Unknown by checking out this link. There will be much more to come real soon...

Beware the Spammers in Your In Tray

2007-07-20T14:12:00.000+01:00

Hi,

There is a pretty nasty spam thing doing the rounds and I got hit!

What happens is you get a mail failure notice in your in tray...and you think oh no, someone on my list is not able to receive my mails. So you investigate the mail and open the PDF attachment to see if you can find which mail it was and who the intented recipient was.

Bad move! Now, I'm no techy so I don't know if a virus is involved or what but my Outlook froze and I could not send or receive mails for 24 hours. I was in a major panic and very, very angry.

Anyway I've managed to get things working again but I have had to remove Word as my default mail editor.

So if you get anything like this beware. They seem to be of German origin going by some of the supposed e-mail addresses and the PDF appears to be some kind of blurry stock market recomendation in german.

With all the running around trying to put this right I reckon I've lost 2 days effort.

Why do these people do it? What do they hope to gain or achieve?

Altogether now... "WE HATE SPAM... WE HATE SPAM... WE HATE SPAM!!"

Only open mails and attachments from trusted sources.

Dave B

Wealthy Affiliates - Breaking News - New 8 Week Action Plan

2007-07-15T16:08:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Something to get your teeth into...

The guys at Wealthy Affiliate have done it again. There was already a fantastic course for Internet Marketing beginners in WA and now it has been extended and improved.

Check out these learning outcomes:-

What is Internet marketing and how does Wealthy Affiliate fit into the mix?
How WA can help
Using your time wisely, understanding why WE (Kyle & Carson) create resources
Benefits of WA Spaces, Jobs, and taking full advantage of the Forum
How to get help (using help, site map, and contacting us…rules)
Learn the inner workings of Internet marketing & Affiliate marketing
What are Affiliate Networks, and how can you leverage them?
The different "types" of Internet marketing
Choosing your direction
How to become an expert, not a generalist
Choosing an industry and product to sell online
Begin understanding consumers
Setting up a Pay-Per-Click advertising account
Squidoo.com
Understanding the importance of market & keyword research
Using keyword tools
How to leverage your competition
Understanding market research
Hyper-Targeting consumers (understanding the WHY)
Relevancy = Success (broad marketing vs. targeted marketing)
How a website will benefit you as an Internet marketer
Setting-up your FREE WA Hosting & choosing domains
How to build a website
Different types of webpages
How to create landing pages that convert
Using the feeder sites here at WA
Creating free marketing campaigns (how to structure them)
Creating paid marketing campaigns
Organizing your campaigns using WA tools
Creating long term income
Should you become a merchant?
Providing quality customer service
Email marketing
Creating squeeze pages that convert (with examples)
Which autoresponder to use
Effective communication skills
The importance of understanding results
Determining the effectiveness of your campaigns
How conversion tracking works
Proper split testing techniques
Refining campaigns
Bridging campaigns between different IM techniques & platforms
Creating “Your” business
Success lifecycle
Advantages to running an Internet business
Become inspired

Phew! That's a lot, right?

You bet it is... still, if you think you can be a success at IM doing it for 2 hours from the beach you can always spend a fortune on the next 'Guru' scam... and the next... and the next...

Or you can get a reality check and join WA and get help every step of the way...

Dave B

PS. You can see my 'Inside Wealthy Affiliate' video review on this this post.

Destination Unknown

2007-07-14T23:53:00.000+01:00

Hi,

I like this one...

Great song and madness is the last refuge after all

Into the valley...or the unknown

Dave B

The madness is coming... check out your destination

Squidoo Opt-in Form Solution

2007-07-13T17:01:00.000+01:00

Hi,

One of the biggest issues with the 'Squidoo Slap' was the banning of 'iframes', which most legitimate users were using to display opt-in forms. Sadly, the spammers were abusing 'iframes' to re-direct people to porn sites, etc.

Well, yesterday I started a 'Squidoo Slap' thread in the Wealthy Affiliate forum looking for solutions to this problem...it did not take long...

Fresh off the press from Marcus at WA...a way around the 'iframe' opt-in problem.

It's pretty technical and you need a website in the backgound (but you needed that for the 'iframes' anyway):-

From Marcus at WA:-

"Hi all

I've just had time to test it out properly and it does work. This is how...

1 - Create your sign up form with Aweber

2 - Insert it into a blank webpage and upload

3 - Take a screenshot of the live page (ctrl+prt scr)

4 - Open your graphics editing program, open a new document and paste (ctrl+v) the screenshot you have on your clipboard into the new document.

5 - Crop the image so you have just the sign up box left and save.

6 - Upload cropped image to its own webpage.

Now as a test, I just tried entering this in the introduction module, as I'm not a Squid expert I'm not sure how it works in other modules.

In the introduction module, put the following info in using the html option:

'http://www.yoursite.com/index.html' , then 'img border="0" align="left" src=' then, 'http://www.yoursite.com/images/signup.jpg'

YOU MUST INCLUDE THAT IN THE APPROPRIATE TAGS. I can not display the raw code here. Blogger won't let you do that.

The red text should be where you will send clickers.

The blue text is where the cropped image of your sign up form lives

When you save and publish, the full size image of the form will appear on your lens. When they go to click on it they get re-directed to a page of your choice with the sign up on.

Sorry it's a bit rushed, I'm really busy on other things right now, but I hope this helps a bit.

All the best

Marcus"

That's the kind of speed we get solutions at WA

Dave B

PS. If you haven't already...grab a copy of Squiddo Queen now and get free access to a whole forum dedicated to Squidoo.

Squidoo Slap

2007-07-12T12:18:00.000+01:00

Lots of Squidoo things going on at the moment. People have been noticing their lenses dropping like flies from the Google rankings and they are also removing the ability to put an opt-in on our lenses using 'iframes'. As ever this was being abused by spammers who have now ruined it for the rest of us.

Well, I'm afriad there has been a slap so I've created this thread so that people can post updates, solutions, etc

Here's what I understand to date:-

I have just listened to Ed Dale and Dan Raine's Podcast on the Squidoo Slap...as it will become known.

Ed has a wacky theory that Google and Ebay have had a falling out... Ebay get's a lot of free traffic (i.e. non PPC) from Squdoo so...

Whatever, the slap is across the board, according to them and lenses have dropped to postions 90+ or the supplemental hell.

What to do:-

First don't panic. If you have good quality lenses keep maintaining them, make sure you have 3+ modules on there and remove the iframe if you have one.

They point out that this once happened to Ezine and look at them now. Ezine introduced editorial review and came back. That is what Squidoo are doing now as a result of this slap.

So it will come back eventually provided the quality of the lenses is good.

Another suggestion is to switch your best lenses to hubpages...BUT you must make sure they have different content on them or you will be slapped for duplicate content.

No solution yet on the ifames thing but you can always put a link on your lens back to your blogs or websites asking people to opt-in to your list from there. Not ideal but until someone comes up with an answer ...

You can't put iframes on a hub... so don't waste time trying

As more comes to light, I'll provide updates.

Dave B

PS .I have started a 'Squidoo Slap' thread in the Wealthy Affiliate forum so we'll see what comes out of that.

Challenger Hits The Bullseye?

2007-07-07T14:28:00.000+01:00

A buddy of mine in Wealthy Affiliate just sent me this message in PM:-

Dave,

I just had to let you know. It is 1.00 am here in New Zealand and I just checked my e-mails for the last time before going to bed. There was a surprise e-mail for me.

As a result of doing your Big Cat Challenge I set up a blog, wrote a few articles and put in an opt-in form for readers to join up for a 6 week course. The opt in wasn't that successful with only 6 takers to date.

In between I've also had my current campaigns and so my blog has been more neglected than I would have liked.

Well tonight's e-mail was from one of the 6 sign ups complimenting me on my 6 week course, the context, delivery and communication.

That's pretty neat in itself but get this. He then goes on to ask me if I would allow him to refer my course and blog to his mailing list in his next monthly mail out! He is the head of a large retail outlet chain in Australia and has 12,000 people on the mailing list.

Now maybe I'm getting excited before the horse is saddled but the important thing here is you never know who reads these things and of course if just some opt in from his list they become my clients.

So that ain't all bad and it is all thanks to you and the Big Cat Challenge.

As always thanks for everything and tonight thanks for listening.

Lawrence

Now that's a result!

I love hearing your success stories so keep 'em coming.

Dave B

Here's to Your Independence!

2007-07-04T15:18:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Well, it is Independence day in the US, right? So, best wishes and happy holidays to our chums across the pond!

Independence is a wonderful thing and should be cherished more than ever with the way the world is at the moment.

Don't worry, I'm not getting all political on ya!

But is strikes me that even those of us who live in the more privilaged parts of the world can be still 'slaves' if we are not careful.

To our mortgages, bills, jobs... even family sometimes.

But the biggest thing we are all slaves to is time. There just is not enough of it is there?

And that is one of the greatest freedoms of being an Internet Marketer... don't get me wrong I work very hard and for a long hours at times. But is is my choice...

I couldn't have got to this position without Kyle & Carson who run Wealthy Affiliate and all my other buddies at WA.

So, it seems a good time to say thanks. Thanks, guys for my independence!

Dave B

PS. How do you fancy being independent? Wealthy Affiliate is the single most important reason that I am now a full time Internet Marketer so if you want to join me check it out today.

You can see my 'Inside Wealthy Affiliate' video review on this this post.

Guru Scam Alert

2007-06-27T16:32:00.000+01:00

Hi,

It makes me really angry. I mean REALLY angry!!

The way the, so called, Gurus just peddle their re-cycled garbage and present it as the latest 'big thing' to make money online. For them maybe! Not you!

There's one doing the rounds at the moment called 'Project Black Mask' and there will be loads more like it in the future. Be on your guard.

Here's what a Wealthy Affiliate buddy of mine called Thad Roe has to say about PBM:-

"Here's the basic deal with Project Black Mask...while the sales page may sound great, it's primarily just about making money by putting up 100's of worthless content sites and monetizing them with things like Adsense.

1. What a horrible and unsustainable business model

2. How BORING

If these guru types put as much effort into their products as they do their sales letters, they'd probably have something. But nope, they just churn out more weak stuff like Project Black Mask. DON'T BUY IT! - Thad"

Thad's a switched on dude and I value his opinions very highly, so highly in fact, I ain't even bothered to check out 'Project Black Mask'. (I don't even look at any Guru garbage anymore. I still get the mails but I only stay on their lists for the comedy value and to see what they are up to.)

Thad's now going full time at Internet Marketing. Yep! He's packed in his day job like I did at the start of this year. The reason we are both in this happy position is simple.

We both follow the methods taught via The Big Cat Challenge and within Wealthy Affiliates and the WA family of guides; Beating Adwords, Inside the List and Who Loves Money.

If you are still struggling to make some real profits and are not already a member of WA, give it a try. You now get FREE Web hosting as well, comparable to many of the major offerings out there.

YES! FREE WEB HOSTING!

There's a video review of WA on the blog, as well as reviews of all the WA products.

But whatever you do, don't buy any Guru garbage!

Just keep going...small steps...Into Action!!

Dave B

PS. If you are already a member of WA you will know this already. If not here's the scoop:-

Fed up this Guru nonsense, Thad and I have decided to team up together and we are working on a project that will deliver the real deal for everyone who wants to take IM to the next level...To a Destination Unknown...

You can get a taster of what's to come by checking out this link

(NOTE: Destination Unknown does not replace The Big Cat Challenge series and there will be tons more to come via that, so stick around.

Running Wild - Lost Control!

2007-06-23T14:02:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Well, why not?

And put some heat under it!!

Dave B

Free Web Hosting - You Gotta be Kidding!

2007-06-21T13:15:00.000+01:00

Hi,

That grabbed your attention, right?

Well, it's no bull! K & C at Wealthy Affiliate have pulled another rabbit out of the hat...

Free Web Hosting!

It's available right now for all WA members.

Here's the techy stuff:-

-600 MB Space (supports 600 - 6000 web pages)
-120,000 MB Transfer
-15 Email Accounts
-15 Email Redirects
-3 External Domains
-30 Sub-Domains
-15 Domain Aliases
-3 MySQL Databases
-3 Autoresponders
-IMAP & POP3 Supported
-Domain Contact Management
-Webmail
-PHP MyAdmin Database Management

This is comparable to some of the top hosting programs out there. You could easily host 3 large sites with that.

Yet another reason why WA is the place to be.

Check out Wealthy Affiliate today! To see my video review of all the other great features of WA visit this post

Dave B

The $500 Challenge - And The Winner is...

2007-06-19T14:22:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Remember a short time ago, I told you that Kyle and Carson, who run Wealthy Affiliate were giving away $500 for just one great post.

Well, I'm delighted to say the winner is my great buddy Thad with his awesome post:-

"How the Heck Do I Find Something to Promote??!!"

A breakdown on how to find the really hot niches. The ones where people already have their credit cards out just begging to buy!

He really did take this from start to finish and he included a very insightful video tutorial.

Well, $500 is great for one post (he did expand on it and add the video) but it get's better.

K & C have given Thad the option of an all expenses paid trip to Las Vegas!

Every year at WA there is an incentive program for the best WA affiliates. Well, Thad just booked his ticket to next year's trip!

Now, that's what I call a really great reward and thoroughly deserved.

If you want to join Thad and other WA seniors in Vegas get on board as soon as possible. There is still plenty of time left to make the trip.

Check us out at WA or have a look at my video review of WA on this post

Dave B

PS. You'll be hearing a lot more about Thad really soon. We've been working on project together for some months now and we are now starting to get that together. Stay tuned!

Squidoo Queen - Special Offer!

2007-06-14T14:16:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Using Squidoo? It's a great platform but like anything you need to know how to use it for marketing.

A while back I recommended a great guide called Squidoo Queen by a Wealthy Affiliate buddy of mine called Kelly.

You can see my full review on this post.

That post also gives you details of the bonuses you get if you buy it through any of my links.

Well, here is a stop press!!

For a very limited period you can grab a copy of Squidoo Queen for just $17.00

$17.00!! That's a steal!!

Plus, if you get it via my links you'll get an additional special bonus.

For a short time you'll get Kelly's 'Mailing List Miracle Report' + PLR Articles as well as my 'Squidoo Storm' and 'Relevancy Rampage' bonuses.

But you must act quickly. The special price and bonus offer expires on Friday 22nd June at midnight (GMT)

Don't pass this one up! You don't get offers like this very often.

Dave B

Typically Topical - Look for Events

2007-06-12T22:12:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Looking for Hot Niches? Then keep your eye on current events...

What's happening now, what's hot now, what's coming up?

Right now we've got Father's Day... and we're coming up to summer proper.

Weddings are big, big business. What can you promote? Gifts, invites, places to stay, etc

According to recent research 97% of brides now use the Internet to help plan their weddings!

It's also coming up to Graduation season. Graduates get gifts, right?

Then they need help to finance their college fees...

Lot's of opportunities here...

It doesn't matter what the season is, there are always ways to leverage off current events...

Don't forget really 'happening' stuff either. News stories, politics, TV, Movies... anything that's hot...

Keep your finger on the pulse...

This is a really hot topic, in itself, now at Wealthy Affiliate , so check us out and get the latest buzz!

Dave B

Establishing A Brand - What Colour Is Yours?

2007-06-08T14:20:00.000+01:00

Hi,

What do you see?

I see the greatest performer (and salesman)...

AND I...errrr...can dance just like that as well!!

Dave B

Relevancy Rules OK!

2007-06-07T13:36:00.000+01:00

Hi,

A buddy of mine at Wealthy Affiliate just got my ‘Relevancy Rampage’ Bonus and was seeking some clarification…

Here’s a copy of the mails we exchanged in PM in the WA forum. (He wanted me to share them with you so everyone gets the benefit.)

Hi Dave,

Many thanks for sending that wonderful free 'relevancy rampage' bonus guide, it has answered many of my landing page optimisation questions in one go!

Just one quick question if I may: How do we actually link the pages together?

K&C(The Wealthy Affiliates) have advised the you create a review style landing page and the links next to each of the 3-4 products take you direct to the merchant's landing page - but with your strategy, do these links go through to the more specific review landing page for that product and then from here the link takes you to the merchants landing page?

Thanks if you can advise,

Steve.

Hi Steve

The strategy is the same but slightly different

Home Page>Review Page (3 Products)>Merchant 1,2,3 per K&C's model

I add an extra layer

Home Page>Review Page (3 Products)>Lander 1,2,3>Merchant 1,2,3

It's a matter of where you target your ads

So, you are promoting 'sausage making machines'

If your ad is aimed at a review of different machines, you point it to the Review Page. And that's it...don't then send the searcher to your landers...just to the merchants. In this case the landers 'don't exist'.

If your ad is aimed at a particular machine, you point it to the relevant Lander. Your searcher does not even see the rest of your site. He hits the lander then goes to the merchant.

The only link you have on the landers back to the main site is a hyperlink in the footer back to the home page (www.sausagemaking.com) You don't actually want the searcher to ever click on it but it is there. So, when Google checks your machine specific ad, which links to the relevant lander only, they also see the site behind it and give you a good QS.

I hope that's clear...it's difficult to explain without a diagram.

Dave

Thanks Dave, that was a perfectly clear explanation and it has lit up the light bulb in my head nicely!

So just to confirm - the links on my review landing page (next to each product) link to the merchants landing page for that product, and the links on each of the product specific landing pages also link to that products merchants landing page. So the only way my review and landing pages are linked together are by links in the footer just for good old Google bot to crawl for QS purposes?

If this is the case, is it best to put links to my product specific landing pages from the footer of my review page as well as linking back to the review page from the product specific landing pages? or is it best just to link one way?

Thanks if you can advise,

Steve.

That's it but you are over complicating things. Simply have www.sausagemaking.com on the footer of ALL the pages.

The review page and the landers are separate. If your ads target the review page your searcher will never see the product specific landing pages. If your ads target the product specific landing pages your searcher will never see the review page. But Google sees everything thanks to the common footer link.

Dave

Can I just bug you one more time and ask one more thing:

I assume that if Google sees all the pages then I need to make sure they are all relevant to each other by using common keywords across all of them to obtain a high QS? please correct me if I'm wrong....

So, assuming my product specific landing pages are optimised for the keywords associated with that specific product (e.g. 'sausage making made easy', which will have those keywords in the page title, first paragraph etc. - I assume I still need to include my keywords from my review page (e.g. 'best sausage making guides') on the product specific page also in order to make it relevant to the review page?

If you can help then that would be great.

Steve.

Not quite. Treat them separately. Optimise the product specific landing page around 'sausage making made easy'

Optimise the review page around 'best sausage making guides' And that's it!

When Google checks your product specific ad, it sees relevance on 'sausage making made easy' and a whole sausage making site in the background.

When Google checks your review ad, it sees relevance on 'best sausage making guides'' and a sausage making site in the background.

Remember the buyer cycle as well. When a searcher is looking for reviews...he might buy, he might not...but he will opt-in to a list.

When a searcher is looking to buy...give him the solution, the product and maybe get him to opt-in if you can sell related stuff down the line.

Dave

Thanks Dave, you have been most helpful and it is much appreciated.

Steve.

I think that’s a great example of how we help each other out at Wealthy Affiliate.

Dave B

PS. You can check out my video review of WA on this post.

PPS. To get your copy of ‘Relevancy Rampage’ check this post for details of my Big Cat Bonuses.

The Next Internet Millionaire - Will It Be You?

2007-06-06T12:45:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Here's an interesting one...

One of the founders of Free IQ, Joel Comm has created the first online reality TV show.

It's a bit like the Apprentice (With Alan Sugar in the UK, Donald Trump in the US)

Check this out:-

The Next Internet Millionaire

There's a contest for $25,000 at stake and a chance to work with Joel

And here's where you can see all the entries so far:

http://www.nextinternetmillionaire.com/list.php

Anyone fancy a try?

Dave B

P.S. For a free guide on how to get the most from Free IQ click the link below:

http://www.myfreeiqsecrets.com

And.... I Bought the T-Shirt!

2007-06-05T22:59:00.000+01:00

And...errrr...maybe I didn't

Dave B

Adwords Results - Remember Where You Are

2007-06-04T09:51:00.000+01:00

Hi,

There is sometimes confusion among Internet Marketers when using Google Adwords as to their ads actual position.

I mean sometimes you can actually see your ad on the front page. There it is on page 1, position 3...perfect. But according to the Average Position ranking in your Google Account you are at position 14. i.e. off the front page! What's going on?

Well, it's all to do with your location...If you are in the UK you will only see those ads targeted for that market. If you are in US, likewise. Now in a lot of niches the results will be similar but in a lot of other niches they will be very different.

And if you are located outside of the major markets it's possible you will see no ads at all if no-one is targeting your country in their campaigns.

This could lead you to think you have no (or very little) competition on a keyword.

So what's the solution? Well, you need to be able to see what ads are displayed in different countries. That way you can plan your campaigns accordingly.

There is a manual workaround for this but it's fiddly.

A buddy of mine at Wealthy Affiliate , Terry B has found a great little tool that automates the process. Its called AdwordsAnywhere and it's a synch to use. You just select the country you want to see the ads for and away you go.

It's a snip at $9.95. I wish I'd found it sooner!

Give it a try. Click Here to Grab the AdwordsAnywhere Tool

Dave B

What's Your Number?

2007-06-02T13:37:00.000+01:00

Off topic? Irrelevant... so what?

This is freaking awesome...

I have the power...I have the force...

Dave B

The $500 Challenge - The Final Day

2007-05-31T13:43:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Remember a short time ago, I told you that Kyle and Carson, who run Wealthy Affiliate were giving away $500 for just one great post.

We'll today's the last day and there have been some great entries. Here are some of the highlights:-

"3 Days On Google FrontPage With 30mins of Work + Proof" by AV

How to get a Squidoo lens on the front page using long tail keywords.

"Campaign Testing + Optimization Made Easy" by Rento

A 6 step quick action plan to get the most from your adwords campaigns.

"Dominating The SERPS with Squidoo! For the Bums" by kpfingaz

More great squidoo tips.

"How the Heck Do I Find Something to Promote??!!" by Thad

An awesome breakdown on how to find the really hot niches. The ones where people already have their credit cards out just begging to buy!

There are loads more but I hope you get the idea. There are some great people at WA.

I'll post details on the winner when K & C make the announcement. So keep watching...

In the meantime, check us out at WA or have a look at my video review of WA on this post

Dave B

Free IQ - A Market Place For Ideas

2007-05-27T13:55:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Some of you may have heard of this already. It's called Free IQ and it's run by Brad Fallon.

I'm just giving it a whirl and I'll let you know how I get on.

You can check it out here:-

Free IQ

It's a depository of ideas, videos, audio, e-books, you name it. There's tons of free stuff available as well as stuff to buy. You can review stuff and add that. It looks great!

I'm gonna have a good dig around then I'll get back.

You can affiliate to it as well.

Dave B

Free Video Capture Tool

2007-05-23T01:34:00.000+01:00

Hi,

As you know, I think video is a great way to go.

Well, it occurred to me that while you might not want to put yourself on screen, you might want to do a video review. (Like the one I have done for Wealthy Affiliates.)

Now, I use Camtasia for this but at $299 it sure ain't cheap.

So, I thought I'd have a dig around for ya for an alternative.

And boy did I hit the jackpot! It's called 'Freez Screen Video Capture' and it's free! Yep, FREE!!

Just click the link below which takes you to the Small Video Soft website.

Small Video Soft

Download 'Freez Screen Video Capture' and away you go.

I've only had a quick play with it but it does the job and saves your recordings as .avi files. Then just upload them to YouTube and add them to your blog or site.

Note: You will need a mic to record sound but you can get those real cheap. Chances are you have one already. If so great!

Have a play with it, video reviews are really, really powerful.

This Web 2.0 stuff is great fun!

Dave B

Defining Your Niche

2007-05-22T12:01:00.000+01:00

OK!

You might have seen this before (1000s have) but I though I'd pop it up anyway...

Enjoy!

WHAT & HOW !!!

That vid has had over 23000 views... how many go on to visit his site?

Makes you think, right?

Dave B

How to Use YouTube for Internet Marketing

2007-05-19T14:03:00.001+01:00

Hi,

How to use YouTube for Internet Marketing? It’s a good question. Is using YouTube just for kids and comedians? How can we use it in our marketing efforts? YouTube is just for fun, right? Well, yes it is and that’s the whole point.

A picture paints a thousand words…a video?...

YouTube has been around a while and is now a Google platform. Why? Well, Google could see the power of the medium for advertising. There are already tons of videos on there that are simply adverts. For a song, a band, a movie, a car, you name it.

People love short, sharp messages and videos are perfect for this. As internet marketers can we benefit? You bet we can.

Inimitable

There is so much ‘stuff’ in the internet marketing world that is simply recycled garbage. The same old, same old method, trick, gizmo turned around again and again. When any new idea comes out it is pounced on and regurgitated under apparent new guises. OK, you knew that, right?

But what about a video…I mean a really personal one. YOU on camera talking about YOUR passion, YOUR interest, YOUR product!

Who can imitate that?

Slick is ‘dick’

Forget big productions, actors, lighting, directors, etc. Watch an Ed Dale video. As Ed says…’slick is ‘dick’…you have to put yourself on there and more importantly what ever you are talking about has to be good.

Your own presentation can be as bad as you can manage (and trust me bad is easy) but your message must be good. Any product you are selling must be good. Why?

Videos are Viral

A good message in a YouTube video will be spread all over the internet. You must have seen tons already. But I bet you’ve seen even more bad ones.

They can be funny, quirky…it does not matter as long as the underlying message is solid.

Try One

So what can we, as internet marketers, do? One of the biggest problems any marketer faces is trust. Do people believe our message? Do we believe it ourselves?

Well, if you put yourself in front of a camera, you will find out.

Find out now how to use YouTube for Internet Marketing because Web 2.0 is here and now and you don’t want to miss out! Oh! And it’s great fun!

Dave B

Me & My Dalek!

2007-05-19T12:48:00.000+01:00

Hey!

Meet my buddy!

He's one slick marketer...

EXTERMINATE!!!

Dave B

Big Cat Challenge Welcome Video

2007-05-18T13:56:00.000+01:00

I've just added a welcome vid for the Challenge. Let's people know what it's all about!

In my own ...errrr...inimitable styley!!!

Slick it ain't...

Dave B

Big Cat Videos - Wealthy Affiliates Review

2007-05-16T15:51:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Do you want an inside view of Wealthy Affiliate?

Check this out! I've done a video for ya!

Come and check us out at WA. I'd lurve to see ya there.

And get this... Wealthy Affiliate now comes with FREE Web Hosting.

Comparable to many major offerings out there. For the technical details check this post.

Dave B

PS. If you join Wealthy Affiliate via any of my links you get the following bonuses (Once you have signed up you'll need to PM me in the forum to get your bonuses):-

Bonus 1

A free copy of my mini-ebook Relevancy Rampage.

Using PPC adwords? This guide tells you exactly how to impove your Quality Score using multiple landing pages as well as how to create a killer landing page.

If you are using Adwords don't miss it!

Bonus 2

A free copy of my mini-ebook Squidoo Storm.

If you are using Squidoo already this will take you to the next level.

Bonus 3

This bonus is a HOT one!

Some of you may recall my buddy, Thad. He's the one that Skypes me and wakes me from my slumbers (he's on US time). Anyway, we got chatting the other night and he tells me all about his first successful IM campaign.

Pretty darn good I can tell you. Well...he's agreed that I can share the details with you!

PPS. Check out this blog post for the full details

$500 For Making ONE Forum Post!!

2007-05-15T23:40:00.000+01:00

Hi,

That grabbed your attention, right?

Well, that's the deal!

If you make just one great post in the Wealthy Affiliate forum you can grab $500.

Here's a quote from Carson:-

"We are going to be giving away $500 to the person that we deem to have offered the most value in a single forum post. This could be a success story with details on how you made it work, an inspiration life story, a “how to” guide for something IM related, or perhaps some detailed information about how you got over the hump from unsuccessful to successful. Anything and everything is welcome!"

I'm not sure where else you get an offer like this!

So, if you ain't already a WA member...check us out here.

Dave B

Who Loves Money - Into Action

2007-05-12T11:16:00.000+01:00

Hi,

I thought I'd pop these posts up from some of the guys in Wealthy Affiliates who are having success using the methods in Who Loves Money .

"The penny has just dropped!

I've just sat down and read WLM again and decided to put the slow roller through its paces.

In less than 5 minutes, I got 3 or 4 phrases that were really targeted, and really specific. So I checked in at WA and had a look on CB for something suitable to promote....picked one up with a gravity of around 30 with a nice, clean and informative lander.

Searched Google for my phrases....only 1 competing ad. Checked overture, 304..25...and 4 for my favorite phrases. No money in the niche? No way! This is one of the busiest niches out there!

Set up a direct linking campaign and set up a couple of optimised ads. 4 hours later and 7 clicks later.....2 SALES!! More importantly....$18.47 per sale and $0.12 per click!!

I'm amazed at the simplicity...gobsmacked actually!" - Marcus

"I couldn't believe the simplicity of this technique when I read it. Creating my 20 slow roller phrases is now my number one task on my 'to-do' list each day.

The potential is huge and I am definitely looking long term with this. - M"

"I joined WA because of this book. I have been a member before and quit not because I didn't like the site but I was making really good money in the Mortgage Business and needed to focus on that

Anyhow, back to the book. The Slow roller technique and the stuff on market research are golden. How they broke down the broad keyword vs the targeted keyword really set off the light bulb in my head. Did I mention that the Slow Roller Section was money?

Good Work WA -Mark D"

Speaks for itself really!

Dave B

PS. If you want to grab a copy of Who Loves Money AND get THREE great bonuses click on the '+bonus' link on the right hand side of the blog or click the link below:-

Who Loves Money + Bonus

For details of the bonuses click here

How to Use Squidoo for Marketing

2007-05-11T15:31:00.000+01:00

How to Use Squidoo for Marketing? It’s a good question. Is using a Squidoo lens for marketing a viable alternative to buying a domain and creating a fully fledged website? In this article I look at why using a Squidoo lens for marketing can be just as effective provided you optimise the content.

Why use a Squidoo lens

Squidoo lenses are both free and easy to set-up and are ideal if you are still testing the waters on a marketing campaign. Investing in a domain and web hosting not only has an initial cost but you are stuck with them if you choose incorrectly …and you need to know about Web design, etc.

Setting up a Squidoo lens as your marketing platform

Now, it is not the purpose of this article to show you how to create your very first Squidoo lens and I am not assuming you already have one or know how to do it either. The fact is, the process is so easy and Squidoo take you through it in an easy to follow process. So, there is no point in me replicating that here…

However, before you set up your Squidoo lens think very carefully about the Squidoo lens Title and Address…

So, if your niche is ‘fishing tackle’ select that for your title and address. So your Squidoo lens will be ‘http://www.squidoo.com/fishingtackle’ A relevant title and address are very important, so choose wisely.

Creating an effective layout for your Squidoo lens

Add as many text modules as you can. Add relevant graphics and video if you can. Video is very effective as long as it is not a distraction.

Add an opt-in form and display it prominently. If you don’t capture your leads you are missing an opportunity to make potential additional sales.

Add a links section. This will contain the links to your recommended products.

You can add as many modules as you wish but keep things as simple and relevant as you can.

Publish your lens and keep adding to it. You can add articles, reviews, chat posts, anything you want. But keep it relevant to your topic and keywords at all times.

By following these simple steps you can make a Squidoo lens look exactly like a landing page in a website with the added benefit of being able to easily add content. As such, using a Squidoo lens for marketing can be just as effective as a website if not more so.

Dave B

PS. To really get under the skin of the Squid check out Squidoo Queen today!

PPS. If you buy it through any of my links you'll get TWO great bonuses. Check my review of Squidoo Queen for the details here.

Big Cat Bonuses

2007-05-10T22:52:00.000+01:00

Hi,

I've been working flat out to create some great bonuses for ya!

Here are the details and how you can get them. First up, if you join Wealthy Affiliates via my link, you get the lot! (Once you have signed up you'll need to PM me in the forum to get your bonuses.)

Bonus 1

A free copy of my mini-ebook Relevancy Rampage.

Using PPC adwords? This guide tells you exactly how to impove your Quality Score using multiple landing pages as well as how to create a killer landing page.

If you are using Adwords don't miss it!

How do you get it?

If you stick with the Challenge, you get it automatically for free, 2 weeks after the final Big Cat Challenge module. (I don't want you to get distracted during the Challenge)

If you buy any of the products listed on the right of the blog and flagged "+ Bonus", you will get Relevancy Rampage immediately! And there's more!...

Bonus 2

A free copy of my mini-ebook Squidoo Storm.

If you are using Squidoo already this will take you to the next level.

Find out how to generate a monster traffic funnel using Squidoo as part of your marketing arsenal. You too can storm the Squid.

How do you get it?

If you buy any of the products listed on the right of the blog and flagged "+ Bonus", you will get Squidoo Storm immediately! And there's more!...

For a limited time I've got a very special bonuses for ya!

If you buy Who Loves Money though my special link (on the right of the blog) I'll send you the purrrfect bonus to go with it. But you must click THAT link. No others. OK? Good...

Bonus 3

This bonus is a HOT one!

Some of you may recall my buddy, Thad. He's the one that Skypes me and wakes me from my slumbers (he's on US time). Anyway, we got chatting the other night and he tells me all about his first successful IM campaign.

Pretty darn good I can tell you. Well...he's agreed that I can share the details with you! But only on a very limited basis. So that's why I have decided to limit it to the people who buy Who Loves Money through my link.

Here's a little bit more info from Thad himself...

"Here's what I'm going to share with you ....

I'll lay out for you....all the details (except the actual website) of my very first successful Internet Marketing campaign which took me about 2 days to set up, yet I still make over $1000/mo residual income from it...and get this, I hardly spend more than an hour per month with it now! I'll show you all the details of how I did it and why it was my real "light bulb" moment which led me to much bigger and better things.

I thought long and hard about actually sharing this but I know how helpful "real world" case studies are in order to see what really works..."

Sounds good, right? Well I can tell you it is!

So, again if you buy Who Loves Money via my special link. I'll send you this extra special bonus as well as Bonus 1 & 2.

Dave B

PS. Remember, you MUST buy through the special Who Loves Money + Bonus link on the right hand side of the blog to get Bonus 3.

PPS. Remember, if you join Wealthy Affiliates via my link, you get the lot! (Once you have signed up you'll need to PM me in the forum to get your bonuses.)

Hey! Challengers! A Bonus For Ya!

2007-05-10T21:00:00.000+01:00

Hi,

First, a big thanks to all of you who have signed up to the Big Cat Challenge. I hope it's going well for you. I've had some great feed back! Keep it coming...

I've got a special free bonus for ya as well!

Some of you, those who have completed the Challenge Course, will get it real soon. It's up and loaded, so it depends where your are in my mail series. You won't get it until after the end of the Challenge, so please be patient. (I've done this deliberately because I don't want you to get distracted.)

It's an Adwords thing and if you ain't tried that yet, don't worry. Just file it when you get it... for future reference.

I'm sending you a free copy of my mini-ebook Relevancy Rampage.

Using PPC adwords? This guide tells you exactly how to improve your Quality Score using multiple landing pages as well as how to create a killer landing page.

If you are using Adwords don't miss it!

This bonus is also available immediately to anyone who buys any of the products flagged "+ bonus" on the right of the blog through my links. (There are additional bonuses as well depending on the product. Refer to my reviews of each product for details)

Keep going Cats...keep going!

Dave B

How to Create an Effective Landing Page

2007-05-10T15:35:00.000+01:00

Knowing how to create an effective landing page is essential if your targeted customers are to be converted into actual buyers. In the previous article I looked at how you should use multiple highly targeted landing pages to reach your customers at the right stage of the buying cycle. In this article I’ll look at what makes up an effective landing page.

Let’s first look at the purpose of a landing page. A landing page’s main purpose is to compel the reader to take some form of action, to visit a merchant’s page, or to sign up for a report or newsletter. If you are the merchant it will be to make a purchase. Ideally this action should be taken as quickly as possible.

A Compelling and Relevant Headline

Here is an example of a headline from a landing page in the ’make money online’ niche:-

“Do you really want to Make Money Online? I mean REALLY...Are you fed up with all the Scams out there?..Sick of being promised a pot full of EASY money?..If the answer is YES...READ ON!”

Enclose the quote in italics and bold it up in red font colour. In this case the headline compels the reader to ‘READ ON’ with a view to signing up to a free report.

The headline should be entirely relevant to the ad the searcher clicked on to get to it. So if the searcher types in ‘german sausage making guide’ that phrase must be in the headline. NOT ‘italian sausage making guide’

A Clear Exit to Your Merchant

It is my view that you should have only one product being promoted on each landing page. A clear link and exit to your merchant should be prominently displayed immediately below the headline. “Get The Top German Sausage Making Guide Here Now!” would also be a hyperlink to the merchant page.

Into Action

Use ‘call to action’ phrases telling the reader what to do in order to receive whatever you are promoting e.g. "Buy Here!", "buy now, limited offer!" or "sign up now!"

No Other Distractions

Avoid any distractions to other areas of your site or the web. Never use AdSense ads and be very careful with images. It can be the case that an attractive image, particularly a face, actually prevents the reader from reading your sales copy.

Short Punchy Text – Use Bullet Points

Use short, punchy phrases and break them up into easy to read bullet points. Answer any questions your reader may have before they take action. Ask questions yourself and then provide the answers.

Bonuses

If you are offering a bonus make you it is clear what it is and how to get it. Are there any time limits on the bonus. It may be a good idea to set a time limit, as this in itself, is a call to action.

Opt-ins

Don’t miss an opportunity to capture leads. It may be that that is the purpose of the landing page. If that is not its primary purpose, capture a lead anyway. Use a free bonus to do this. There could be opportunities to sell to the customer via a list series.

Tracking

Always track what percentage of your readers exit to your merchant pages or opt-in to your lists. You should aim for 50+% for the former and 30+% for the latter. There are many tools on the market that allow you to do this. (I use Xtreme Conversions)

Landing Pages and Web 2.0

An audio link is a very effective way to ‘replace’ long text sales copy but even more effective is video. The use of video is becoming more common place and in my view will eventually replace long text sales copy altogether.

Dave B

Improve Your Quality Score With Multiple Landing Pages

2007-05-09T16:49:00.000+01:00

You can improve your quality score with multiple landing pages that are more targeted to your keywords. In the previous article I looked at how to improve your Google quality score (QS) by creating a mini-site. Let’s expand on that further and look at how we can also marry that with the customer buying cycle.

First, let’s look at what I call my relevancy radar.

The Relevancy Radar

We’ll use the example ‘sausage making’. That’s our broad niche and our headline keyword phrase. That would also ideally be our domain name. Under that are 3 sub-niches:-

‘sausage recipes’
‘sausage equipment’
‘sausage ingredients’

So, our mini-site would have a home page, and a page dedicated and optimised for each of the three sub-niches. We would also have a ‘contact’ and an ‘information’ page.

Our home page would be a ‘welcome & general description of Sausage Making page’.

Our sub- niche pages would likely be a review style page of 3 – 4 products satisfying the needs of the relevant sub-niche, with links to each merchant’s page. All pages are optimised for their relevant two word keyword phrase. (Include them in your meta tags and go for 5% saturation across the page.)

We are still too broad and not relevant enough so we need to fine tune our relevancy radar. So, if we take the first sub-niche ‘sausage recipes’ and target that further to say:-

‘english sausage recipes’
‘german sausage recipes’
‘italian sausage recipes’

We can now construct separate landing pages for each one, optimised for their relevant three word keyword phrase.

Our relevancy radar is much more finely tuned and you could take that even further depending on your niche.

Let’s look at the customer buying cycle next.

The Customer Buying Cycle

Put simply when people search the internet they go though three main phases:-

1. Research Phase. Where they are looking for general information on a topic.
2. Decision Phase. Where they are looking to compare different products and are likely looking for more information and reviews.
3. Buying Phase. They have come to decision and wish to buy.

So, in our example a customer would find our general ‘sausage making’ mini-site at phase 1, our sub-niche ‘sausage recipes’ review page at phase 2 and our targeted ‘english sausage recipes’ landing page at phase 3.

So what is the best way to market to the customer at each phase of the buying cycle?

The Relevant Marketing Method

At stage 1 of the buying cycle a customer is unlikely to buy but they may do. They are interested, so we would look to capture them using an opt-in form on our mini-site.

At stage 2 of the buying cycle a customer more likely to buy but they may not. They are more interested, so we would look to capture them using an opt-in form on our review pages whilst giving them an option to buy via links to our merchant sites.

I would not run an Adwords campaign aimed at the first two phases of the buying cycle.

At stage 3 of the buying cycle a customer is likely to buy. They are very interested, so we would look to pull them directly to our targeted landing pages using Adwords.

So, when they search on ‘buy english sausage recipes’ they find our ‘buy english sausage recipes’ Adwords ad which takes them to our ‘english sausage recipes’ landing page.

Our ad is highly targeted and relevant and links to a relevant mini site so our QS is great. Our ad costs are low and our ad ranking high. In this way you can improve your quality score with multiple landing pages that are more targeted to your keywords.

In the next article I’ll look at how to create an effective landing page that will convert to sales.

Dave B

How to Improve Your Quality Score

2007-05-08T19:58:00.000+01:00

This series of articles looks at how to improve your quality score within Google in order to optimise your Adwords advertising. Improve your quality score and pay less per click and get your ads ranked higher.

Google’s Quality Score

If you have been running any Google Adwords campaigns you will know that Google assigns a Quality Score (QS) ranking against your keywords: Great; OK; Poor. This has a major impact on both your minimum cost per click (CPC) and your ad’s ranking on the search pages.

It goes without saying that you will pay less per click and your ads will be ranked higher if you Quality Score is ‘great’ rather than ‘poor’ or ‘OK’. So how do you achieve that?

Well the first thing to remember is that this is an ongoing process with Google (and all the other major search engines) to improve their customer’s search experience. In short Google, want people to be able to run a search and then find relevant information as a result of that search. Sounds simple, right?

This process began in 2006 and will continue to be refined over time. The first of the so called ‘Google slaps’ focused on ‘one page’ websites that provided little information to the searcher other than a link to a merchant page.

Thousands of these pages disappeared overnight as the minimum CPC was racked up to $10 and above, forcing many Internet Marketers to re-think their campaigns or exit the business altogether.

Create a Mini-Site

The initial answer was to create a mini-site based around the original landing page. So, a Home page was added, a contact page, an information page, etc. and this remains an effective strategy today. The idea being that your mini-site itself appeared more relevant to the search engines and was therefore given a higher QS. This in turn leads to lower CPC and higher ranking.

That’s not to say your landing page is not relevant, indeed it must be.

You should always use the ‘common keyword technique’ when setting up your ad groups, writing your ad copy as well as the actual copy on your landing page. So, if you are advertising ‘sausage making’ that keyword phrase should be prominent throughout.

In the next article I look at how you can expand this ‘mini-site with a landing page’ model and further improve your quality score using multiple landing pages.

Dave B

Get A Grip On Your Marketing

2007-05-07T19:28:00.000+01:00

Hi,

The talent at Wealthy Affiliates keeps right on producing the goods!

Another buddy of mine at WA has come up with a great guide to kick start your internet marketing efforts.

It's called GetAGrip Marketing and there's a link to it on the right of the blog.

This is a great guide for both beginners and intermediate internet marketers and also contains some 'light bulb' moments for the more seasoned.

It's a well written and well organised book that covers all the angles in internet marketing.

The book covers the following key areas:-

An Introduction to Affiliate Marketing
Finding Products to Promote
Keyword Research and Tools
Article Writing
Website Design
Blogs
Forum Marketing
Google Adwords

There's even a section on how to produce your own Ebook Product and a section on Ebay Marketing that certainly opened my eyes as to the possibilities there.

If you are new to Internet Marketing I'd certainly recommend you check this out!

It's by a guy named Keith Riffle and he's the same guy who teamed up with my other big WA buddy Thad Roe to produce the Free Web Design Ebook which you can also get from the link on the right.

The price is a steal at the moment. At $14.95, he's practically giving it away!

So, I'd check it out now before he changes his mind!

You can visit Keith's site here. GetAGrip Marketing

Dave B