I spent today at the World Internet Summit in the UK where we learned about a fantastic new product that they’ve launched as part of the 4-day event. It’s called the “
Amazon Releases “Best of 2009″
Amazon have recently released their “Best of 2009″ top 100 list, as they do every year. It’s interesting to see this technique at work:
It’s worth looking at this not just as a great opportunity to get some popular Christmas presents (yes, it’s only a few weeks away right now!) instead, look at what Amazon are doing through the filter of your own business. How can you produce a “top <something> of 2009″ list? How about a “top blog posts of 2009″? Or “top products of 2009″?
If you’re an affiliate, look at the products that sold best this year, then do a “top recommended products of 2009″ list.
What else?
Well, Read more…
Is Micro-Continuity Any Good?
You’ve heard of Russell Brunson’s Micro-Continutity program, right? Well, I finally ordered the ‘free’ iPod last weekend and was pleasantly surprised to be immediately given the content for download. I’ve been listening to it on my existing iPod
The iPod arrived within a few days of ordering (which is very impressive, given that it was an International order!) and I’ll be writing a more comprehensive review once I’m back home at the weekend.
In the meantime, I’d encourage you to check it out yourself: Micro-Continuity – FREE Today!
Watch out for that review here!
Recommend a Blog Design
I’ve finally realised that this blogs focus on the tech behind Internet Marketing is stifling my creativity! With this in mind, I’m planning a re-branding exercise to bring my blog more in line with my passions. Don’t worry though – the focus will still very much be on Internet Marketing and I’m confident that this move will help to lift the content to a new level.
As part of this, I want to completely re-design the theme that I’m using here and build something clean and fresh from the ground up. With this in mind, I’d value your input. Please use the comments below to send me links of other great looking blogs that inspire you. This will help enormously as I work on my new design.
Thank you for your help in advance! 
How to Make Money with Your Blog
We all know what blogs are today, and those of us who have one are always looking at ways of making money with them. Gone are the days when a blog was simply a techies online journal – they’re now accepted as part of our culture. However, it seems rather curious that we choose to write our random thoughts and display them so publically.
From a psychological perspective, blogging can be seen as a means of release, giving us an outlet for things that we’d otherwise keep bottled up. They can be used to help us get things off our chest and to relieve our emotional tensions.
For students, a blog might be their mouthpiece to a wider audience allowing them to shout out against the system and to connect with others who feel the same way as they do.
However, it’s the business aspect of blogging that interests me the most. In this setting, a blog gives us the opportunity to advertise and sell our products or services in a whole new way. It becomes an essential tool in our arsenal, allowing us not only to market at a whole new level, but also to build credibility by providing valuable free content to our readers.
OK, so it can be good fun to maintain a blog (as long as you enjoy writing…!) Apart from this though, blogs can be used to generate secondary income alongside your main products and services. Here are a few ideas to demonstrate.
1) Promote Other Peoples Products
You’re probably more familiar with this under the term ‘affiliate marketing’. In other words, promote products that other people have created and are willing to give you a cut of the profits for selling for them. This can be very lucrative – especially for information products – and some bloggers make a good full-time income just doing this.
2) Sell Advertising Space
Most people think that this is only possible once you’ve built a huge following, but there more subtle ways to advertise. For instance, many companies are willing to pay to have a review written about their products or services, and they recognise that balanced reviews (i.e. uncovering problems as well as plus points) can be highly profitable due to the trust that accompanies the honesty.
Once you DO have a decent readership, you can start offering more traditional advertising, such as 125×125 ad blocks (like you see on the upper-right of John’s Tech Blog).
Oh, and don’t overlook AdSense…!
3) Don’t Just Look for Money!
It’s your blog, but more importantly, it’s your readership! Why not look for ways to reward your loyal fans by working with a third party to offer a gift (or a substantial discount) to your readers in exchange for a bit of free publicity?
These three ideas only scratch the surface of what’s possible with blogging. If you have any other ideas or suggestions that we can all use to make money with our blogs, then please share them in the comments below.
30 Day Challenge – Day 4
If you’ve been involved in Internet Marketing for any length of time, you’ll recognise a few key things:
- Finding a niche can be frustrating and involve lots of trial and error
- Find affiliate products to promote in order to test a market can be equally frustrating and time consuming
- Pulling together all of the relevant information to make a sales page takes time – even for those of us with a more technical background
Why am I rubbing this in today? Well, day 4 of the 30 Day Challenge has answered our prayers!
Become A Super Affiliate Overnight!
You’ve Never Seen Anything Like THIS!
If you’re guessing in this business you’re losing money. Affiliate marketing is a science and Click Ad Equalizer is the formula for success. Simply put,Click Ad Equalizer is one of the most advanced keyword/affiliate marketing software programs on the market today! With the click of a button, you will be able to find:
30 Day Challenge – Day 3
Day 3 of the 30 Day Challenge (30DC) is a frustrating day! This introduces something from Market Samurai called the SEO Matrix. Essentially, what it does is to find the top sites in Google for your chosen keyword phrase and present you with an analysis of the SEO elements in each case so that you can judge how easy or hard it will be to get a page one listing on Google.
Here are the results for one of my niches:
30 Day Challenge – Day 2
Some people may have found day 1 challenging – especially if this was their first exposure to Internet Marketing. However, after working through day 2, anyone will realise just how easy this type of business can be!
Easy that is, if you have the right tools…..
30 Day Challenge – Day 1
If you haven’t heard the buzz yet, you need to check out the 30 Day Challenge!
This is a free Internet Marketing training program that runs annually (usually in August) and is organised by Internet Multi-Millionaire Ed Dale. The concept behind it is that complete beginners to Internet Marketing can follow along and learn everything that they need to know to make their first dollar online.
Now technically, I don’t qualify. However, no-one cares! Anyone can do this and I like to join in to learn the latest tricks that Ed’s teaching.
So why am I writing this post?
5 Top Tips to Maximize Visitor Retention
To be successful with your websites, visitor retention is a very important topic that you need to consider. It’s always easier to convert a returning visitor into a paying customer as they build up an element of trust as they come to know and love your site. They will eventually stop doubting your credibility and keep coming back for more.
Some of my favorite methods for maximizing visitor retention are as follows: