SmilingPartners

There are two bills in front of Congress that, as usual, go way overboard to take care of a perceived problem. The Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House. This is bad, bad legislation, and if you have any interest in or already are into online marketing, you need to pay attention.

The bill goes too far in attempting to enhance the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and Constitutional experts say there are serious free speech infringement issues and other unintended consequences.

Please read the article below. If you have questions, simply google “sopa” for millions of articles. You can check Wikipedia.org, but not until tomorrow. They’re blacked out for the day to raise SOPA and PIPA awareness.

Note:  Please feel free to forward this newsletter to any Internet marketers you know as the contents herein are vital to our industry’s future as well as ours!  Actually, I encourage and urge you to forward it and ask those people you know to carefully review it and take action.  Let’s be heard. Today.  Thank you!

Hello Fellow Marketer,

This is the single-most important newsletter you will have received from me to date, and undoubtedly, one of the most important emails you will ever receive.  Why? Not because it is from me, but rather, because of the URL below I encourage every one of my subscribers, including you, to visit, carefully read and take action against SOPA and PIPA, two proposed U.S. laws that threaten the income and business of every single Internet marketer, including you and I, and the livelihood of literally millions of other people and their businesses around the world.

Since many sites are shut down today in protest of SOPA and/or PIPA, including the Warrior Forum, I ask that you visit http://americancensorship.org/ now, carefully scrolling down the entire site to find out what you can do to join in today’s protest, such as, at a bare minimum, emailing* Congress from within this site if you are a U.S. Citizen or, if you are not a U.S. Citizen, electronically sign an online petition that is being sent to the U.S. Department of State.

*Comment   – If your email Congress from within this site, I advise you to write your email in your own words as by doing so, your email will most likely have a stronger effect than simply sending a form email.

As Internet marketers, I believe we all share a responsibility to take a few minutes to do our part in opposing these stifling laws that would create a wide-ranging chilling effect on Internet marketing and YOU.  This site, http://americancensorship.org/, allows each of us to do that small part regardless if you are from the United States or not.

Last, but certainly not least, when contacting Congress, there is nothing more powerful than a member of Congress receiving a written letter from their constituent that is sent via U.S. Postal Service; it shows how much you care about your cause and makes your Congressional member take notice, especially if receiving hundreds or (hopefully) thousands of letters in the mail.

To send a letter to your Congressional member, simply go to the following site to look up your Senators and Representative’s respective contact information:

http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

As I stated when writing an email to Congress, I again advise you to write your letter in your own words; again, this will give your letter more power and not just be another cut-and-paste form letter that will not have nearly the effect as a personal letter has the potential to do.

If you thought today was scary not being able to access the Warrior Forum as well as many other sites you may visit regularly, just think if the Warrior Forum was gone “just like that…poof” forever?!  What about YOUR sites?! Please do not think it is not possible because it is, which is why it is so very important that you take action today by doing your small, but vital, role.

One voice may not be heard, but thousands upon thousands of voices cannot be ignored!

Thank you for your time and consideration in reading this newsletter.

Let’s make this a great day!

To Your Internet Marketing Future,

Anthony W. Devine
www.anthonywdevine.com

Every now and again there appears on the internet marketing horizon a new product touting the ability of its promoter to make a full time decent living from just a few minutes a day filling out online surveys. Usually they’re a directory of the places to sign up for these lucrative surveys; there might be some instruction, but not much.

I’ve avoided most of these schemes, but the latest caught my eye, so I forked over my $19 (a $20 discount because I’m smart enough to exit sales pages now to find that “wait, don’t go box” to see if I can save some money). Again, I was caught up in the newest way to make easy money. One of these days I’ll learn.

I dutifully signed up for the first page’s offerings, figuring if I don’t make my $19 in a month, I’ll get my refund. So let me tell you about the past few days.

First off, I’m only interested in those sites that actually give me some money for the survey. Being entered into a drawing doesn’t work for me. I’m one of those poor souls who don’t EVER win those things. So that took me a few hours, because they all have a bunch of other offers to look at after you’ve signed up. Those lead to more sign-ups and more offers and more sign-ups and more offers, and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Although they promise they don’t sell your information, they apparently have a whole bunch of friends they give my email address to. I’d signed up for a new email account specifically for the offers, and it was filled the next day with offers. The spam filter was also kicked into overdrive, as I found another 50 or so clearly spam mails.

It took a few mails to figure out that I was in a merry-go-round of offers, with each company suggesting that I sign up for other offers, generally all the same. It was like company A offered companies B, C, D, and E. Then company B offered companies A, C, D, and E. Then C offered A, B, D, and E, and so on. It got quite confusing to try to figure out if I’d signed up for one or the other already, so I just signed up again. I’m registered 3 or 4 times with a few companies, because they apparently aren’t able to check for duplicates.

The surveys themselves aren’t bad or difficult, but I found myself spending 25 minutes this morning on a survey that pays $.90. Not exactly the best return on my time. The best paying are the offers that require you fulfill an application process, signing up for a free month of this that or the other thing, requiring that you give a credit card number, and of course putting the onus on you to remember to cancel the membership before you’re charged. There are a few that actually require you stay enrolled for at least one billing.

Since I’ve had enough experience with continuity programs in internet marketing, I’m not about to give any of these people my credit card number. Either I forget to cancel or the cancellation process is so annoying it’s uncomfortable.

I’m pretty sure I’ll make the $19 back, and when I do I’ll cancel all these survey spots. I don’t see any way that this can become a source of any real money without taking part in the trial offers. And it seems dishonest to me to sign up for them when they’re something I don’t want or intend to keep at.

So I guess it’s back to the reality that there really is not any quick and easy, use no effort kind of make money scheme. You really do have to work. It’s not overwhelming work or difficult work. It’s just work you have to keep at.

I really do want that bright shiny make a bajillion dollars product still…

If you’re on any internet marketing email lists, you’ve probably noticed how many promotions there have been lately. It seems everybody and their brother and their grandmother are promoting so new “loophole” or “secret” new method for building your internet empire and making a bajillion dollars by tomorrow.

And if you’re as gullible as some of us, you’ve actually purchased some of these products, only to be inundated with 7 or 8 or 10 up sells, and then to find a piece of crap product.

I am on the list of a marketer who I’ve found to be honest and blunt in his criticism of these offers, and he’s made an excellent post about what’s happening. It’s well worth the few minutes it takes to read – and don’t miss the comments, either, for more good stuff:

Check out Jason’s blog here: http://48hourreport.com/myblog/stayawa/comment-page-8/#comment-3234

And if you’re looking for good internet marketing information from somebody I think you can trust, sign up for his newsletter.

Take a look and let me know what your experiences have been.

How do you get people to sign up for your mailing list? One way is with an ethical bribe. See how here.

ListBuildingClub.com If you’re a new Internet marketer, you may need something special to get people to sign up for your list. http There are many ways to create an “ethical bribe,” which is what we call a giveaway product that encourages people to give you their information. ListBuildingClub.com In this short video, Pat Marcello shows you how to create an ethical bribe using information that you didn’t create yourself in an ethical way. http The ListBuilding Club is a membership site from Overcome Everything, Inc. where thousands are taught the methods of building an online marketing business from scratch… the right way. Follow Tellman Knudson and the Overcome Everything team as they help you to learn what it is you need to know for online success!

I’ve ranted before about getting sales videos where you can’t do anything but start and stop them. There are no controls to skip ahead to get to the meat of the information or the pitch.

I have decided that those marketers who send me those videos will no longer have me on their list. It’s certainly not going to put anyone out of business, but I continue to believe it is a blatant disrespect for me that allows them to send their videos in that way.

That being said, here is the text of the message they’ll be getting from me if I can send a reply or open a support ticket:

Dear Marketer:

I’m sure your video was interesting, but I’ll never know. I have started a new policy for my email: when you send me a video with no controls other than start and stop, I will unsubscribe.

It’s nice that you think your message is so important that I should give you 22 minutes of my time, no questions asked. Absolutely, one has to have some ego to be a successful marketer. However, you show that you have no respect for me or my time.

Had I been able to skip through your video to find the meat, I may well have found something of value to it. As it was, I quit when you started with the hype-y “How Would You Like to Make Up to…”

You may be making lots of money with these tactics, but you won’t make any more from me.

Regards,

If you feel the same way, feel free to copy this email. Maybe we can get some respect back.

MicroNiche Finder is an amazing tool that just keeps getting better.

I don’t even know how long ago I first bought this amazing tool, but it seems at least a couple of years. I do know there have been 8 upgrades since I bought it (lifetime upgrades are included in the purchase price); I can’t even remember all the great stuff that’s been added, but the result is a tool that I can’t imagine being without.

Okay, so I should tell you what MicroNiche Finder does. I guess you could say that at its very basic it’s a keyword tool. The thing is it is so much more than that.

You enter your keyword query and the program returns the suggestions. It will give you broad results, exact results, local searches, global searches, a graph representation, exact phrase count, ad cost, commercial intent, measure of backlinks, and strength of competition, and that’s just the first part. You can narrow the dig on the search terms returned, get more terms from google, and on and on and on. You can dig and hone and explore until you know everything there is to know about your search term.

Then there’s a filter feature, so you can get only the results you define, such as minimum local or global search, ad cost, minimum or maximum number of words in your phrase, and all kinds of other criteria.

WARNING: You have to watch your time carefully – either that, or plan your day around getting completely and totally lost in your search.

Oh, and I didn’t tell you about another really incredible feature: you can find out whether the exact phrase term is available as a domain name, either .com, .net, or .org. Just this feature alone can save a ton of time.

I guess I sound kind of over the top about this tool, probably because I am. I’ve looked at a number of other keyword tools, and even tried a few. One highly recommended tool was going to take me a week to learn to use and understand, it seemed.

MicroNiche Finder is a highly intuitive tool to use. Plug in the word or phrase you want to investigate, push the button, fill in the Google captcha (did I tell you the results are pulled right from Googe?), and wait a few seconds. You can have everything you need to know to make a decision on whether to pursue a market in minutes.

I’ve been able to find some lucrative micro niches that I would never have thought about without this tool. And I will admit that I’ve also lost a few, well several, hours fascinated in finding lots and lots of new ideas. In fact, I had to make a promise to myself that I wouldn’t buy any more new domains until the ones I already registered have sites built. So fair warning.

Anyway, take a look at MicroNiche Finder. See if it doesn’t fit right into your online business.

I’ve been pretty lucky in the last few years with the products I’ve purchased from internet marketers, in that I haven’t had a problem with someone honoring their guarantee. I guess that made me let my guard down.

I recently purchased a product that would help automate getting sites ranked. Yeah, I know, that kind of thing is iffy right now, with Google’s new adsense formulas or changes or whatever. I know that, and that’s why I made sure to check the seller’s reputation, and I made sure to make a copy of the guarantee and to note the 30 day mark on my calendar so I could make my decision before the time was up.

I did make my decision at 28 days and entered a support ticket. It took 2 days to even get a response, and that was to ask just what I’d done to make the system work. I responded with my actions and reminded the seller that the guarantee didn’t define any particular numbers of actions (in this case, building sites). I put 19 sites into the system, and I decided I’d better see how it worked before I committed myself to buying more domain names.

I haven’t heard back, now 3 days after the last answer, so I decided maybe I should dig a little deeper into this guy’s reputation. I had seen before that he was generally rated to have a good product, but might be a little slow on the customer service. Now I found that there were a number of comments further along in the Google search results that he wasn’t very good at honoring his guarantee nor refunding money.

I’m hopeful that he’s had something going on this weekend and that’s why he’s slow in his response. However, if he hasn’t responded by a couple of more days, I’ll be back to give you a name. And I’ve already checked that I can purchase a domain name that should get his attention.

The real word here is be sure you check beyond the first couple of Google pages when you do your research on a seller. I certainly will be following that path. And I have decided that along with saving a copy of the guarantee, I’m going to be sure my notes tell me just which marketer recommended the purchase.

A trend I’ve noticed lately is the number of emails I get telling me the marketer has got this sweet deal for me – something free! Wow!

They’re generally pretty light on information about what this free product is or who’s list they’re telling me I should sign up for. Nor does the water get any clearer when I get to the squeeze page. I’ve seen as few as three sentences, and all they basically said was “sign up.”

I’m apparently just supposed to trust that they’re going to send some information I actually want or need, and further I should trust them that they’re competent to even tell me about the subject.

I’ve quit signing up for these kinds of things, primarily because I’m on so many lists now that I rarely have fewer than 80 or 90 emails daily. I am trying to unsubscribe from the lists I know aren’t giving me any particular value.

For awhile I stayed on lists to see what kind of stuff was being marketed and what the effective subject lines and texts contained. It was kind of an internet marketing mantra that you should do this. However, I’ve pretty much ruled out the internet marketing field as one I’m likely to enter. It’s way too crowded now, and apparently there are thousands entering it each month, at least judging from the number of new names I see showing up.

Another thing I’ve noticed is the number of offers I’m getting for products I know have been around for at least a couple of years, if not more. I know that marketing and selling principles are consistent, so those offerings don’t bother me. But I also know how much eBay has changed in the past couple of years, and adsense seems to change every few months. How valid can these ebooks be?

So now unless you’re a marketer I’ve seen offer real value, I’m unsubscribing when you send me one of the “look at this free thing I got you” or “I paid for this so I could give it to you” emails. I know you’re helping somebody out; I don’t know whether it’s because you’re a good person or because you’re being paid. I guess at this point I don’t really care. I don’t think it’s free if I have to give up by email address, and I really don’t want to be on any more lists.

So thanks, and buh-bye.

Have you noticed that the Facebook “Like” buttons have started showing up on sites – like the one over <— at the end of that left column?

I’d noticed them in passing on some of the marketers’ blogs, but didn’t think about it until I was reading a post from Yanik Silver on his Internet Lifestyle Blog. The post is called Multiplying the “Facebook Accelerator Factor,” and he talks about getting into the Facebook trend that is picking up steam in the internet marketing world (in fact, one the the biggest launches recently was a $1,000 product aimed at Facebook marketing).

At any rate, Silver says this button from Facebook is more than worth applying, because their studies have shown readers are 4 times more likely to hit the like button as they are a thumbs up button, and he’s already seen benefit.

The button is dead-easy to install. Just go to http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like. You plug in a little information, and the application generates code. There are two codes: iframe and XFBML. The second is something to do with javascript and requires an understanding way above mine. But the iframe just plugs right into your post, or in my case, a text box.

I have added the code to a number of my sites and will be anxious to see what happens. They’re non-internet marketing sites, which feels to me more likely to generate “likes,” but I really don’t have anything to base that on. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I think they look kinda cool.

Does talk of search engine optimization make your eyes cross and your brain go numb? It does for me.

Even with all my side trips to new ways to make me an internet millionaire, SEO has been a constant. Although I do admit that in the beginning I had the “if I build it, they will come” mis-perception. Of course, all those get rich yesterday schemes, with pictures of a mansion with a Lamborghini out front, never quite get around to addressing just how you’re supposed to get eyeballs on your site.

I’ve been working on a site now for two and a half months. It’s for an as-seen-on-tv product that pays a nice commission. Google had recently done their latest revamp, so I was very careful to use traditional methods: original content, slow  back-links, article marketing, etc. I made a few early sales, then this month, nothing, nada, zilch.  So depressing.

I’d run Rank Checker every morning (that’s an add-on to the Firefox browser) only to have it come back with the site unranked. I couldn’t figure it out – “why doesn’t Google like me?” cried my inner five year old. The sites that Google wasn’t supposed to like, with Yahoo answers and YouTube videos pulled in, were ranking. Woe is me!

Today, though, all is well with the world. I’m at #15!! After being nowhere for most of August. I don’t understand a bit of it. I do know the most helpful marketers warn of this and counsel patience (not my strong suit). But I am now a total believer.

I still don’t like SEO much; the tedium of doing it right gets to me. But I am coming to understand that a lot of what makes a website work involves tedious tasks. There may be magic software out there that will do much of it, but it still requires operator input, and that gets boring. However, I also realize the elation that I’m feeling right now over my #15 spot makes up for quite a bit!

So keep at it, even at the darkest, most boring moment. Trust me, finally getting some ranking makes it all worthwhile.