Earlier today I was talking to a potential customer. And while we were making small talk I had mentioned that Veterans Day is on Tuesday. When I said that, a look of disgust came over his face. This startled me a bit, as I didn’t know what I could have possibly said wrong to upset him. So being the open honest fellow (some may say, nosy) I am. I just came right out and asked. He went on to tell me how these holidays get in the way of his business with the bank’s being closed, post office is closed, government offices are closed, etc… Well after he was finished, I wish I had a mirror, because the look of disgust was now on my face. Now let me make it clear that I was not pissed at him, I was more mad at the way business owners have become.

It dawned on me that we spend so much time pursuing our passions with our business that a lot of us don’t take the time to think of what the holiday is actually about. For instance, if you’re a government employee or a schoolteacher in the States. You have the day off, on Veterans Day. Most everyone else has to work on that day, or take it off without pay. Retailers view the holidays as a time to make huge sales by offering specials. You all know what I’m talking about stuff like, Thanksgiving Day Blowout, Christmas Savings, Veterans Day Sale….on and on…

I guess the point of all my rambling is, there are a lot of us, Internet Marketers included that do the same thing. Let’s face it, if you need to ship a product or transfer funds from your PayPal account to your bank, you will have to wait till Wednesday to do it. Inconvenience. Yes, but just a small one. So I decided to put together a little video to help us remember. So, lets stop a moment to reflect on “What The Holiday Is All About”.

Although this video is about American soldiers. I would like to dedicate this to all veterans in all countries that have served to keep their countries, Free.
I really hope that I don’t offend anyone by going off the main subject of this blog (Internet marketing reviews). But then again I won’t make any apologies, because… what the heck . It’s my blog!

So please take a few minutes out of your busy schedule and watch the video. And as always, feel free to leave your comments below.

Many Thanks to all our Veterans,
Al PaPaGrizz Nelson

Technorati Tags: american soldiers, veterans day

Now if I had a nickle for everytime I heard or read that I would be a wealthy man..:-)

But for many - the question is: How do I build and manage a mailing list of my own?

The short & simple answer is to use a ‘Mailing List Management Service’

More commonly known as an Autoresponder.

The idea being to offer a newsletter or incentive for website visitors to ’subscribe’ or ‘Join’ a mailing list.

And then to send periodic email messages to that list containing links back to offers on the website or to affiliate links to other websites, and thereby increasing the income potential of the list owner.

The list subscribers benefit by being the first to know of offers or receiving ’special’ rates for products or services they may be interested in. As well as informative articles & educational emails from the list owner helping them in whatever subject they may
have an interest in.
(and thereby keeping them as loyal subscribers)
So, doesn’t it makes sense for any website owner to build & maintain a mailing list?

Which brings up another question…

Where does one find a Mailing List Management Company, And how does one choose which service to use?

A quick search on google for ‘Mailing list management’ or ‘Autoresponder service’ brings back 2,640,000 and 227,000 results respectively.

Wow! How is in the heck do you make a choice out of all of the selections?

Well most new marketers will probably choose the services that they have seen every “Guru” and their brothers use like, Aweber or GetResponse.

I still say they both offer a great service - BUT lets take aweber as an example: With my list size I’d now be paying **$49/$69/$149 per month!

What? Hey PaPaGrizz, that would cut into my profit margins!

Your darn right it would, and if I was starting out I know I’d be looking around
to see what else was on offer…

Well my loyal readers,  there’s a service I’ve just found that offers “People Friendly Solutions To Building Your Own Targeted Lists Of Subscribers”

And this is where I’m happy to review and recommend a service called WizardResponder.

They seem to have taken into consideration that there are many ’smaller’ entreprenuers looking to build a part time income and have that grow into something that can eventually replace their ‘Job’.

As opposed to the industry leaders who are investing in more & more complex features and facilities which appeal to the ‘already wealthy’ full time marketers.

With that said - I have found that WizardResponder does have many features that even fulltime marketers would be thrilled to have use of…

**For Example - Look at this list taken from their salespage:

Unlimite’d autoresponders for your business.
If you’ve got 5 Magical products or websites,
set up 5 Wizard autoresponders. There’s No Sorcery
required – no hassle and you don’t need to spend
another dime

Unlimite’d follow-up messages. No one will tell you how
many times you can email your subscribers.

NO restrictive limits put on the magical growth of your
business. You can keep adding subscribers to your
autoresponders and mailing lists right up to a guru
sized 10,000 names!
(And we’ll still work reasonably with you after that!)

The Wacky Wizard Link Tracker. If you need to know what
strategies are working like magic and which ones may
have missed the trick, this bonus built-in a’d tracker
is your method to test, test, test for immediate,
in-demand results.

A Keyboard FREE Sign Up Process. For people who fear
typing and don’t want to fill out forms! Let people sign
up for your autoresponder with just a magical click of
their mouse. Our Opt-In Email Sorcerer will track down
their email address for them! Skipping this step will
help you grow your lists even faster.

Your Own Personal Magical (Autoresponder) Assistant:
Have this virtual assistant automatically take one
subscriber off one list when he or she subscribes to
another (Like from prospect to buyers list) – making
sure you’re not sending the same message to them twice.
And say goodbye to old, abandoned, resource draining
email addresses that are bouncing back to you each week.
These worthless email addresses are automatically
removed from all lists at your request.

Magic Message Scheduler. A “Wand-FREE” service! Pop in
the date and time Friday morning, leave for vacation
that afternoon, and know that your important message
will start Whizzing out on Wednesday automatically.

The Magic Site Brander. Make your sales fly like a
witch straddling a rocket, with this sophisticated
yet simple tool that plugs in each subscribers name
into your web pages. When Merlin The Great visits
a web site that reads “Dear Merlin,” you’re one step
closer to the sale. This advanced feature lets you
do this for instantly and with little effort!

For the average marketer with a list of say 3000 instead of paying out $49 per month - rising to $69 when he/she adds another 2000 subscribers…

The fee for WizardResponder would still be Just $8.97 per month.

And that for a new would be entreprenuer, would seem to be a far more comfortable figure than even the starting price of around $20 that most charge.

Having seen ‘inside’ the admin area too …It has to be said that the whole setting up and managing of ones lists - is Simple if not Easier than most.

With step by step video instruction, as well as a simple to follow design, and then a heap of features as mentioned above - it’s an easy service to recommend.

So if you happen to be looking for a fully featured Autoresponder service, at what I consider to be a very affordable price.

I would highly recommend taking a look at the WizardResponder.

So go ahead and give it a click below:

I hope this Article/Review has been helpful to you!

Al (PaPaGrizz) Nelson

Technorati Tags: aweber, Building & Managing a Mailing List, getresponse, wizardresponder

Just yesterday I had the opportunity to read Peggy’s new book, IM Focused.

I was so impressed that I felt compelled to write her an email. Now you can ask anyone that knows me, I am not easily impressed as a matter of fact most will tell you I one of the most skeptical, hard nosed people they ever met… here is the mail I sent her:

Hi Peggy,

I just finished reading your “IM Focused Book”  and now I am not sure if I should send you a nasty gram, or hug you…

Let me please explain…I wish your book was out when I first got started with IM, because it sure would of helped me to stop chasing my tail and get things done.. although I have learned to focus a bit better, your easy to follow guide lets me stay on course soooooooo much better. ( I know crappy use of the English language, but it makes the point

Your style of explaining things with humor and real life situations made me sad I reached the end.

so with that said, I reckon a hug would be more in order rather than the NG…

Thanks Peggy,

Al (PaPaGrizz) Nelson

Peggy Baron has been working successfully online for several years and lately in the  Internet Marketing arena.  In her new ebook, IM Focused, she tells about how she  initially became entangled in the wrong crowd… the Information Overload Club.  It’s  actually quite a large gang and includes almost all new marketers.

But Peggy found  her focus and started taking great strides forward in her internet marketing.  Now  she’s known as a producer of quality products and she gets things done.  Peggy shares what she’s learned, all her tips and tricks, in this ebook.

Inside, you’ll discover how to stop flitting from project to project and sharpen your  focus to grow your business and get results.  Every new product out there has a shiny  hook with almost irresistable bait.  In Peggy’s ebook there are many tips on how to  put a stop to getting snagged by every single new product.

It’s great when you have lots of valuable information, but when you have scattered  bits and pieces they don’t really help you.  This guide will explain to newcomers (and  even experienced marketers) in internet marketing the step by step information they  need to have to lead them to success in their business.

The ebook also contains Focused Action Sheets that are, in my opinion, worth the price  of the ebook to lost marketers!

Occasionally, a product comes out that really stands out from the crowd.  This is one  of those products. Discovering how to get organized and motivated with the specific  how-to information is invaluable.  If you wish to find the laser sharp focus that will  give your internet marketing business a real boost, you need to get this new guide.

Anyone struggling to focus on their business and make a real living online will greatly  benefit from this new book.   This is the best resource for discovering ways to  become more organized and focused.  Business or even personal projects will be top  notch when using the tips contained in IM Focus.  This guide is written in an  entertaining and humorous manner, and like I said I was sad that it ended.  It is very easy to understand and follow. I Loved it!

Now if your like I was…always jumping from one thing to another and wondering at the end of the day  why nothing was accomplished you need to get your copy now. You’ll definitely be glad you did.

So give it a click to get more details on  how this guide can be yours for a very low price.

IM Focused

Technorati Tags: how to stay focused, IM Focused, Peggy Barron

I would like to give you all an update about my favorite blogging tool FirePow.

I truly love this piece of software, but that’s not half of it.

Usually when somebody creates a product such as software, in the beginning they do a little tweaking and then fixing. Just to work out the bugs. Then your on your own..

But Andrew and the FirePow gang are a cut above the rest of the software community.

Let me explain: in the two months that I have owned the software they not only improved its operation, but have added numerous additions to make the software even more powerful than when it first came out.

Here are a few of the most recent changes that made changes I might add to the better. Here I will be quoting Andrews post in our private forum

“The new Firepow install process is officially available!

I’m just about to post the videos here but for now, key differences to note are:

1. It’s in 3 parts. Pretty much like before but instead of on one screen, it’s on 3.

2. We removed a few options to make the install process simpler but nothing of decent value is lost.

3. Cool new feature “browse” on step 1, where you can navigate through your FTP directories right there in your Firepow software

3.5. New feature where you select your hosting company instead of insert database details. If your host uses cpanel you should be fine, or if your host is listed
there, same goes. If not, you just enter your DB details manually - no big deal. (NOTE: If you have trouble with creating a database with this, please let us know.)

When Andrews says here if any one has any trouble with this that he’ll help, he means it!

4. Cool new “show all themes” feature in step 2 - where you can click the link to see all the themes visual representation at once, to make a faster decision

5. New options “basic install” and “advanced install” - the only difference here is the number of plugins available. Basic Install sets you up a blog with the 12 plugins that we most recommend you use with Firepow, whereas Advanced Install gives you the option to choose which from our list of 30 or so additional plugins you’d also like to take advantage of.

6. New Edit Configuration Area! - This is basically the same too but also split into 3 parts. Now when you want to update a certain element of your blog, you can choose the update button under that area and only those settings will be updated - means faster loading times and less errors - woo!

7. New Repair Blog Button - This is the same as the old “reinstall from scratch” feature - performs the same function.

I think that’s about all.

We hope this is going to make your experience with Firepow a whoooole lot easier.

Post your thoughts, feelings, deep seated emotions, and childhood grievances here.

All the best!

Andrew”

Think that was good it gets better!

I think it was a very next day or a few days later I get this message:

The BNET(blog network) Is now tipping the scales at over 500 blogs!

We added in 200 new blogs from WP.com yesterday for you to ravage for linking potential

Not only that, but word on the streets is that the Blog Network is soon to get ANOTHER powerful tweak that is going to put your link building AND content creation on massive overdrive..

This is just the tip of the iceberg, and they are constantly adding, improving, and making Firepow. The most full-featured, easy-to-use blogging tool out there.

So there is, my friends, if you are really serious about adding blogging to your Internet marketing business. You need to check out Firepow. There’s nothing like it out there, and probably never will be.

Thanks for reading,
Al PaPaGrizz Nelson

Technorati Tags: Andrew Hansen, blogging software, Firepow, Firepow Software

There seems to be hundreds of ebooks and courses on copywriting available these days, which is hardly surprising considering that it’s one of the most important elements of a website!

Without good copy it wouldn’t matter how many visitors a site had - it needs to sell to those visitors.

Yet it’s also one of the most costly considerations for anyone setting up a site, and one of the most neglected…
Usually due to either the overall high cost involved in hiring a professional copywriter, or to the confusion that reigns supreme when one attempts to learn the art of writing good copy from the many ebooks and courses one can buy.

So does SalesLetter ABC add to the confusion? - or is it a product worth consideration?

Here’s my view on this product.
At just 33 pages - it’s probably one of the shorter products in the field of teaching copywriting. So initially I wondered if it did actually include everything you need to know to create a good sales letter.

It also includes a template which can be used as a guide to copy and paste your own content over. This does present an advantage for many who don’t really know where to start, as it’s a simple task to replace the headline with your own and the next section with your own etc. right down to the P.S.’s at the end.

In the report each section of the 10 Steps is detailed with a guide on what should be there.
One of the things I do like about the descriptions is the fact that it each does explain in simple English exactly what should be written and why, yet without the usual 10 pages of detailed analysis that many seem to incorporate.

If anything one of the complaints I’ve always had with most copy courses - is that they are written by copywriters for copywriters. SalesLetterABC does seem to be written FOR the average marketer.
It teaches the basics but without the required degree in psychology that many assume you have!

In the section “Further Tips & Recommendations” I found some common sense, and to a degree, obvious tips, but also some very useful comments that help a great deal for anyone who would otherwise struggle to get started and achieve any kind of structured input.

The first 10 sections of the ebook are also extremely useful for anyone starting out, and they cover some of the basics that the professionals take for granted - yet mean little if anything to the novice.
What I liked about them was the simplicity of explanations….
No in-depth 15 page analysis of the testing and tracking which then established the criteria for higher conversions based on the results of months of tests and which parts were changed for each trial….. Just the answers to the questions like which fonts to write in, what colours work best, etc.

That to me is the strength of the whole product… the simplicity.
It tells of what you need to know, how to do the job, and what things to incorporate to get the best results. But without all the page after page of confusing statistics!

To cram in the 10 sections of the template plus another 12 sections of tips, advice and much needed information, into just 33 pages, shows that it’s all meat and no fluff!

I believe anyone wanting to get started writing their own sales letters would do well to invest in this product and learn from it.
I’m sure they would accomplish the task of completing a sales letter of their own with far more ease than if they had purchased many other products of considerably higher cost.

So it’s a two thumbs up for SalesLetterABC.

Check it out at…

I highly recommend it.

Sincerely,

Al (PaPaGrizz) Nelson

Technorati Tags: copywriting, copywriting how to, copywriting report, copywriting template, SalesLetter ABC

Randy Smith my Mentor!

Hi all,

My Good friend and Mentor Randy Smith who owns and runs the More Monthly site, recently sent me this email.

I am hear to tell you it sure hit a nerve and described my early days of internet marketing.

I asked Randy if I could share it with my readers, and in his usual generous manner he said..go for it!

So my friends give it a good read and thank Randy for this…I know I have

Hi Papagrizz ,

It’s been too hot to work for the last couple of days.
No really - we’re not used it it in the UK !

So I’ve been posting in the MoreMonthly Community Forum,
as well as popping around a few others I frequent.

Anyway - One of the members at MoreMonthly made a comment
about a Feather - and the log and short of it was - That
I remembered an story from my early selling days.

I’ve changed the circumstances a little to drive home a
point about Taking Focused Action..

So I hope by putting it this way - it will help some
people remember, and maybe think twice as they get
sidetracked on this wonderful internet we call
our home business

See if you can think of people who might relate to Joe.
Enjoy

Joe And His Feathers
——————-

An internet marketer named Joe was having final talks
with his mentor after completing his basic training.

“Right” said Joe “I now know enough to get out
there and make some money, so I’m OK on my own”

The mentor wished him luck and said he’d be checking
up on Joe to make sure he was getting on OK and
getting results.

A week later he called Joe…
Here’s their conversation:

Mentor -
“How’s it going Joe?… Have you got your site up
yet?

Joe’s reply was that of so many:
“Well I was going to get it sorted this week - but I
got an email about this great new application that
will really help with building my site….So I’ve
bought it and have been studying how to incorporate
it!”

Mentor -
“Well how much have you got done to your own site in
order to start making some cash Joe? - Have you
even registered a domain name yet?… You know it’s
easy to search Google for Domain names! - I know a
lot of people are quite happy with NameCheap
lately.”

Joe
“Err.. Oh… um, I’ve not really found the time to
grab a domain yet….with all the studying I’ve not
actually got started - but this application is going
to be a great help… It’s A ‘Feather In My Cap’
For Sure!”

Another week past, and the Mentor called again,

Mentor -
“Hi Joe, just checking in on how you’re sites are
doing this week? - Did you at least grab your own name
domain and get some hosting sorted?”

Joe -
“Ah well, you see, After learning about that latest
application - I realised it didn’t quite do what I
needed it too…But - it’s not a problem ‘cos when I
was waiting for a reply from the support desk, I
found another that does work the way I wanted it to
:)”

Mentor -
“So you’ve got that set up on your site then have
you Joe?”

Joe -
“Well no… not yet I did buy a few domains though…
And I went to D9 Hosting and signed up for a great
value account, but don’t actually have anything put
up yet - I will be doing though… This app’s got a
slightly steeper learning curve,.. but hey - it’s
worth it as it’ll be really good!… I tell ya man -
it’s another ‘Feather In My Cap’ is this one!”

Week 3

Mentor -
“Hi Joe, well - what news… are you getting many
visitors yet from the techniques we discussed to
driving traffic? — And what about that link I sent
you for AutoPilot Cash Streams

- What an easy and guaranteed way to build your list!”

Joe
“Or Hi … erm No, I, err don’t really have any
gifts to offer, and All that landing page and
autoresponder stuff is a bit much at the mo…… You
see, I found another new bit of software that’ll
do loads more than the stuff we discussed - and
that’ll help me catch up and get ahead again… it’s
a Real ‘Feather In My Cap’ that will impress even you
boss!”

Mentor -
“Well, We’ll see won’t we…But Frankly - you could
grab some PLR to use as a gift, and even a backend
offer from sites like www.MoreMonthly.com - then set
up a quick squeeze page, Download page and a couple
of Autoresponder messages… and within a couple of
weeks you’d have a business Joe!…Anyway, Talk next
week”

Week 4

Mentor
“Joe - it’s me. Hows sales?.. You must be getting
some by now? AutoPilot Cash Streams hasn’t even
launched yet.. Iand I already have some downloads and
a couple of optin’s… did you get signed up and
add a gift yet?”

Joe -
“No , not yet - But I do have a site up. It’s not
the one we planned, but it was easier, I got it FREE
from another Guru as a bonus for buying some DVD’s…
now I don’t have time to watch them yet… but
this site is really push button simple - so it won’t
be long before I’m rolling in it…. I’m so glad I
bought that package and got these bonuses - there’s
loads in here I can put to use one day… a True
‘Feather In My Cap’ for grabbing this before the
deadline!”

Week 5

Mentor-
“Yo Joe, whaddya know?”

Joe -
“Oh high mate… jeesh, what a week it’s been…
turns out push button really meant push your luck.. the
sites going no where fast - it seems everyone got one
the same, so I found a load of PLR that I was
gonna rewrite to make mine different. After all it’s
pointless having a boring site isn’t it?.. one
that’s just got the same stuff as everybody
else…”

Mentor -
“But Joe - you had a plan already.. you didn’t need
anything extra!… I mentioned before about looking
at www.MoreMonthly.com to grab some products to use…
I know you want your own product - but you could
use the PLR to get started and tell the lsit you build
of your progress as you move on… They’ll be
interested in following how you develop…
Honestly - people love to see others progress!”

Joe -
“Well yeah…BUT - while I was searching for other
PLR stuff - I found this great forum where there are
thousands of people who haven’t made money from
PLR… so I thought I’d be different and drop that
idea… It’s put me a bit behind - BUT… I did get
to see what everyone’s raving about now.. and I was
first in to a new site that will give me an exclusive
product ready made - complete with ALL the tools I
need to promote it and everything… I kid you not …
The full shebang - I’m well happy with this one,
when added to the other stuff I found in that forum
along with the stuff I’ve been collecting… On
their own they might not have been up to much… BUT -
Combined - They’re A ‘Feather In My Cap’ that
will really make me some cash!”

Week 6

Mentor -
“Hi Joe, I’m hoping you’ve got around to getting
Focused on building your business by now… It seems
you are following the steps that lead a lot to
spending more monthly and never making more
monthly…”

Joe -
“Yeah - you’re right…but man - I have so much info
overload… everything seems so hard, there’s so
much to take in, and the more I study and read from
all these people who want to show me new stuff all
the time… the more confused I’m getting! — BUT
HEY, I’ve snagged myself a ticket to an exclusive
offline meeting about Focusing on my dreams… I was
so lucky to have stumbled on this - you know …
this one will be a right ‘Feather In My Cap!”

Mentor -
“Joe… STOP!… There’s plenty of time to perfect
things as you progress. But you really have to FOCUS
and TAKE ACTION if you ever want to achieve anything.
- So next week just spend a couple of days putting
your Plan into Action. Make a decision on which way
you want to go, and start taking steps to get things
moving in that direction… and ignore anything that
isn’t going to help with that Plan!”

Joe -
“No Really - this is going to be the big one for
me… I keep telling ya man - ‘Feather In My Cap!”

Week 7

Joe -
“High, it’s Joe.”

Mentor -
“Oh high Joe, so what’s new did you finally stay
focused and take some action?”

Joe -
“Well sort of… But I spent up on getting to this
meeting, read Pitch Fest, … I should have know when
there was only one speaker and the tickets were so
cheap… but the train fare and hotel costs have left
me a little short :(, I did meet a couple of great people
though - so that’s a ‘Feather In My Cap!”

Mentor -
“So you still haven’t got anything in place to build
your lists then Joe?”

Joe -
“No, I should have just Taken some Action from the
outset, but hey - there’s still time to get in on the
AutoPilot Cash Streams.. I hear there are already over
4000 contributors now… and it’s still around a week
til launch.
So I’ve decided that as soon as I get home,
I’m going to think about checking the blog
post about it at http://www.randolfsmith.com/?p=84
Then maybe get stuck in and build a business….
Hey - I should have listened in the first place…

But I’m pretty sure now that once I’ve sorted this -
It’ll be a ‘Feather In My Cap’”

Mentor -
“Well it’s good to hear you are finally going to
‘think’ about getting Focused And Taking Action…
After all that’s the only way anything is ever
going to happen!”

Joe -
“Yep - of course you’re right… there’s just one
thing holding me back now…”

Mentor -
“Oh what now Joe, for crying out loud!”

(well it’s easy to see how some people would get
frustrated at trying to help people who won’t help
themselves - especially when others are doing their
best to work through things that are foreign to them
- but not always coming up with excuses…

It seems
the Mentor has been saying all along - Focus, Plan &
Take Action… and try to make sure any distractions
are ones that will be of use now - not sometime in
the future when there are a month of sundays or 8 days
in a week!…lol)

Joe -

“Well it seems I can’t actually afford the travel
fare home… and if I can’t get home I can’t get

started… SO I wondered if you could see your way to
lending me some cash so I can get home?”

Oh dear - and to think how much Joe has wasted, when
for just a few dollars he could have been up and

running weeks - if not months ago… Can you imagine
what his mentor might say to this request…

Mentor -
“Tell You What Joe… You’ve kept telling me about
the ‘Feathers In Your Cap’ with all the tangents
you’ve taken instead of following proven advice
for all these weeks - So I have an idea for you

before I hang up”

Joe -
“Sure.. I’m always up for listening to new ideas”

Mentor -
“Great…. Well think about all those Feathers you’ve
collected… now grab the lot of them… stick them
somewhere the sun don’t shine and FLY HOME!”

Man I just love that last line…

LOL

I’m sure that was just something the mentor would
have thought not said… but the moral would be - if
someone who has done exactly what they’re trying to

teach you to do… and you are saying you want to do
the same…

Then FOCUS and TAKE ACTION.

There are many, many ways of creating an online income
and building a business to generate monthly
income and profit’s…

But jumping from one to another and on to the next on

an almost weekly basis, (in my humble and sincere
opinion) will NEVER work!

I wish you well and do encourage you to get involved
with AutoPilot Cash Streams as this type of event
has worked well for me.

http://www.autopilotcashstreams.com/contributor.php?id=1504

this is Randy’s link and I wanted to have a way of thanking him for all the help he has given me and finally getting the feathers out of my A**! Do me a favor and check it out…heck it’s free..

But if it’s not the direction you want to go - then

make your plan and focus on what you need to do to
get to where you want to be.. Then Take Action.

And remember - don’t be spending your cash on
anything that isn’t going to be directly helpful and

move you nearer your goal.

********************************************************

After reading that letter it sure hit home with me that before I met folks like Randy…My name was Joe!

Technorati Tags: autopilot cash streams, internet marketing, Joe And His Feathers

Here I’m talking about management in terms of keeping your site running, monitoring what’s working and what’s not, and monitoring the success of your site so you know how much effort to commit to it on a continual basis.

Here are some of the elements involved in the management area of a successful blog.

1. You need to manage and track your search engine statistics. Here I mean two things. 1. is the doings of your search competition and 2 is the rankings and traffic from various pages of your site.

In 1. You need to be always checking up on your search competition. Just by knowing what sites link to your competitor site can allow you a way to gain new backlinks. You contact the same people and get the same links PLUS keep doing all the good SEO you’re already doing, you can steal their spot.

in 2. You need to monitor your own search rankings to see what search terms are bringing you traffic. At this point you can either choose to focus more of your content on those terms, giving readers coming from those terms more to look at and more opportunities to get pushed to your affiliate link OR you can look harder at the monetization of those pages. This might include testing different affiliate link positionings, changing the text, and more.

Following on from that, something else that needs to be tracked on your blog, is how successful your content is at converting visitors to sales.

This has traditionally been tough on a blogs because the way they are set doesn’t generally allow for any form of split testing. However, a new blogging software called Firepow has made this possible. What you can do is test which content your audience responds best to. You can use variations of two different posts, have them alternate for each new user to the blog, and see which version of the post generated the most affiliate link clicks.

Optimizing your content like this may be the easiest way to increase your bottom line. After all think about this: If you want to double your profits from a site, you can either double your site traffic, or you can double your conversion rate… what’s easier? In a lot of cases, it’s doubling your conversion rate.

Finally, something that needs to be managed on your blog is the updating of your content. The most successful blogs and mini sites always have something new for their readers all the time, and when you’re running more than one blog, this can be an ongoing challenge. The best thing you can do here is get yourself the help of some software like the above mentioned Firepow, which can help you manage a number of blog’s content from one control panel. Something like this will give you the ability to post content on schedules, get notified of when a blog needs updating, and offer you options of how to get relevant content on to your site without your effort.

Combined with all the elements we’ve talked about in previous articles, managing your blog will put the profit icing on your blogging/mini site cake.

I trust that you’ve found this series informative and helpful.

Technorati Tags: "make money blogging", blogging software, Firepow, Firepow Software, seo blogging software

1. Article Marketing: This is essentially (though often misunderstood) the process of having articles you’ve written, published on websites other than your own, for the purpose of including a link back to your site and funneling traffic from their site to yours. You can do this with article directories or with other blogs and websites by contacting the site author. Either way, the extra exposure from these sites can drive through important relevant visitors to your pages.

2. Ongoing Keyword research and SEO: The reason I believe in having a big focus on SEO is that the people who have a specific problem and are looking for a solution, tend to gravitate toward a search engine. Yes there are millions of web viewers who don’t go near a search engine but they can be harder to target and can represent not as high a quality traffic. In other words they don’t tend to make you as much money.

Continually finding new keywords that represent relevant traffic for your products, and continually creating content to target those visitors is about as smart as you can be with ongoing traffic generation.

3. Link Building: This is both for the purpose of boosting your search engine rankings and increasing exposure to your website. You have probably heard that links back to your site from relevant websites indicate your site is more trust worthy and worthy of better SE rankings. At the same time, a link on a relevant website, whether in a piece of content on a sidebar, can increase visitors to your website. You should make it a point to continually do activities that motivate similar sites in your niche to link to you - or even if not in your niche, site’s that could send you relevant visitors.

Finally, remember that when trying to generate traffic to your blog, you should consider your niche before deciding which methods to utilize. As I’ve said before, using a social network might be great, but certain niches might be too technically challenged to know about social networks, and they only use Google.

Some niches might be more easily approached by use of visual media like video rather than article content. The bottom line of traffic generation is where are my target market hanging out, and how can I get my site in front of them in a way that contributes value to their lives.

I hope you’ve found this traffic generation article helpful. Next we’ll look at the management of a successful blog.

Technorati Tags: blog Traffic Generation, how to generate traffic, mini site Traffic Generation, web site traffic

Blogs in particular have become such a popular choice for niche marketers because of their extreme ease of use, ease in maintaining, and ease in updating. Not to mention that the structure of a blog is generally by nature, search engine friendly. AND furthermore, where it isn’t, there is always a third party plugin to make it so.

There are many ways to create a successful blog, and the one you choose should reflect an understanding of your target market. What we’ll look at here is an example of one such method, that focuses on the generation of free traffic, and the promotion of an affiliate program for monetization.

The first thing you need to do is create a blog that’s visually or aesthetically sound. A visually sound blog, other than just looking pretty, is arranged in a way that maximizes all the content you create, by maintaining your readers attention, and drawing the most attention to your affiliate program.

There are a few ways you want to do this:

1. Choose a blog theme with a predominantly white background and with black text. Simple advice, but often ignored. Black on white is the easiest for the eyes to read. Other colour schemes can quickly tire the eyes and make it hard to maintain concentration.

2. Choose a clean and neat theme. You don’t want too much going on. It should be very clear where your content is located, very clear where your sidebar and navigation is located, where your other categories can be viewed and so forth. If a reader comes from a search engine, they should know exactly where they have to click to get the information they want. Generally I say the less options the better in terms of other features on your blog.

3. There are certain pages you absolutely want to have on your site. These are a Privacy Policy page, an About Us page, and a Contact us page. Google in particular looks at these things as indicators of a serious, quality, non spammy site. Furthermore, you want to have an archives page (easily achieved by the SRG Clean Archives plugin if you use Wordpress), so as not to have your archives taking up valuable room in your blog sidebar.

There are more factors but for the sake of this article not being 9000 words, we’ll move on.

Once you have an aesthetically pleasing blog, you need some reader pleasing content.

We’re going to assume here that you have a product selected. Of course the next step after picking your niche (sometimes these tasks are one and the same) is to select a product that you’ll promote to the niche. This is where you’ll earn your cash.

So once you’ve got a product selected, and the base of a good blog created as above, your job is to create some content that the people in your niche will find valuable and use that content to drive your website’s visitors to the merchant’s page and earn an affiliate commission.

At this point, you should have your niche’s keywords researched - by that I mean you should have some idea of what might be a good place to attack the niche from. Ideally you’d have some keyphrase related to your niche that are uncompetitive in terms of the number of pages optimized for them in the search engines.

Where you’d ideally start your content creation is by writing an article on this uncompetitive term, posting it on your site and getting it ranked in the search engines. From here, you can develop as much content on search phrases from your niche, as you desire (remember you got those phrases from a tool like the Wordtracker keyword tool) in order to increase traffic to your site.

Some factors we didn’t get to mention in this article are things like On page optimization, making your pages of content rank well in the search engines - and monetization - the art of getting the highest percentage of visitors to your site actually making you money. But for a basic overview, I think we’ve done alright.

In the next article we’ll look at driving traffic to your website.

Technorati Tags: "how to make money blogging", "make money blogging", "Niche Marketing", mini site

So if you can combine all of the above factors when selecting your niche, you’ll be giving yourself and your new blog the best possible chance of success.

I hope you’ve found this valuable.

Technorati Tags: "how to make money blogging", affiliate marketing system, Niche Affiliate Marketing, word tracker