As you probably might have noticed, I have been taking part in quite a lot of Giveaways recently. That's because I have set myself a goal. And that goal is to reach the 10,000 subscriber mark before the end of March…

And I am really getting very close. I now have 9208 subscribers on my main Internet marketing list. One of the Giveaways I am putting a lot of trust into is the "Free PLR Giveaway" by my buddy Xavier Nelson and Doug Champigny.

But I also realize there will be a lot of "takers" from these giveaways. Meaning, these are the ones who take whatever is being given away without the slightest interest for the newsletters and messages the author / developer has put together.

This is really a shame and one of the reasons why I am getting tired of the Internet marketing "niche"…

FREE PLR ROUND 4 - DOWNLOAD GIFTS WITH FULL AND UNRESTRICTED PRIVATE LABEL RIGHTS

Anyway, week 2 of the Free PLR (Private Label Rights) Giveaway has just started. It includes a lot of new gifts which have gone live on Sunday - incl. my own gift. Grab your gifts here and put your name on them:

==> http://viralurl.com/visitus/61711885

(If you want my own gift, you'll need to subscribe there, too)

ANNOUNCEMENT: MY BUSINESS WILL CHANGE DIRECTION

I also have an announcement to make… As I've already mentioned above: I am simply getting tired of the Internet marketing "game" or "niche".

The same old crap gets republished and rehashed and people, especially newbies still don't know which of the many ebooks and courses will lead them to success.( I will introduce a highly recommended resource to you tomorrow - it's called Mafioso Marketing. You can download some preview chapters from here ).

The problem is: Most people don't want to try and apply the knowledge to niches but to Internet marketing itself which makes tens of thousands of people flock to Internet marketing - instead of the niches where the easy money is…

While IM might be an option if you have years of personal experience in this area under your belt, it is usually a way which leads newbies to nowhere land as you can only make it there with very innovative ideas and products and not by publishing and selling the same stuff as thousands of others.

I have written an ebook which does not make empty promises but tells you what you need to do in order to make money online - step by step and up to $9,183.21 in one month.

People have been thanking me for having written like it is:

==> http://hopurl.com/41142

Personally, I will be going a different route, too. I will continue to serve my subscribers and customers but mainly with complete, turnkey niche businesses and niche products.

BONUS FOR NEW NICHE CONTENT WEBSITES MEMBERS - PLR TO IM PRODUCT BUDDY!! PUT YOUR NAME ON ONE OF MY TOP LEAD GENERATORS…

I think, the real money is in: NICHE MARKETING.

My Niche Content Websites membership website is a perfect example of what is needed in niche markets: Products (e.g. ebooks and audios) and content websites.

If you're dreaming about multiple streams of income and you want to go the easy way by not having to create your own products in these niches then look no further than here:

==> http://hopurl.com/41143

Sign up for free and if you like what you are seeing then get yourself a full membership - this allows you to tackle up to 13 different niches (you'll get 13 UNIQUE content websites with income streams like Adsense and Clickbank ads for up to 75% commissions have already been integrated).

The next 30 members who are getting a paid membership at Niche Content Websites will receive THE FULL PRIVATE LABEL RIGHTS TO MY "IM PRODUCT BUDDY" SOFTWARE. This means, you'll be able to put your own name on it and start giving it away as your personal lead generator/list building tool! I'll even add my personal squeeze page to the mix (which you can see at http://www.viraldatabases.com/ …).

NOt only that but the PLR gives you the source code, the Filemaker Pro files which allows you to change the whole look and feel of the software.

You can even "nichify" the whole software and create e.g. a "Golf Product Buddy" or a "Bass Fishing Product Buddy" where people within these niches can save the details about products they have purchased. Even in those niches, you'll be able to use it as a lead generator…

You'll receive the complete package after you've made your second (2nd) monthly payment for NCW. And then you simply go to:

==> http://www.ethicalinternetmarketer.com/helpdesk

and enter your subscription ID so I can verify your payments. I'll send you the download link directly after this.

That's it for today… Have a great week!

Tags: adsense, clickbank, ebook, internet marketing, websites

Are you decisive? If you're not, it's going to be a long, disappointing road.

I have been in this online business for a long time now. You know what? I've made a lot of decisions along the way. Some of those were the right ones, but many were the wrong ones. The decisions we make define us.

There are a lot of opportunities out there that will promise you riches beyond your wildest imaginations.

That's great! Except it's not that simple. I don't care what it is, it will take hard work, commitment and decisions… there you have it again.

As an example, let's say you decide your opportunity is to set up a website to sell tennis rackets for lefties. How would you approach this? Would you just set up a site and boom the checks will start rolling in…?

No! First, you have to decide how the website is going to be set up. Are you going to build it yourself? If so, what's best for your website? Do you want it set it up in PHP or do you want to use HTML/CSS? What editor will you use? Front Page (please don't…)? Will everything be based on a Wordpress platform?

Or are you going to decide to hire someone to build it for you?

How will you lay it out? Do you have a logo? Do you need one? What color scheme are you going to use? Do you know the effect of color on your visitors? How do you decide?

What e-Commerce solution is best for you? Consider your monthly volume. If it is going to be over $1,000, a merchant account is usually a good choice. You may consider Paypal in conjunction with a merchant account. If you do consider a merchant account, you also need to look into electronic payment gateways.

Then you have to market the products… Are you going to use pop-ups? Are you going to advertise with Adwords, Banners, E-zines, Article Marketing - and what about Joint Ventures…?

What's my point…? You are going to have to make the right decisions for YOUR business. There are a lot of steps from getting an idea to building the proper platform for the idea and executing it.

Your decisions will ultimately lead to an end result… Did it work? Are you making money?… or is it a do over?

When you decide to pursue an opportunity, it's your decisions that will make your site a success or not.

You must learn to decide. Indecision paired with inaction will find you broke and discouraged…

Tags: adsense, adwords

As a newbie online marketer, there are really only two things standing between you and your website making massive amounts of profits - or going bankrupt right before your eyes.

The first of these two things is how much drive and effort you have to sell your products and work for yourself. You will never get anywhere if you do not have the motivation or the 'know-how-to-run-your-own Internet-marketing-business'. Without either of those two characteristics, your business is doomed to failure.

The second thing that all fledgling Internet marketers must learn if they are to compete with the big boys for potential profits is to write excellent web copy. Your sales copy needs to be fluid, compelling, and totally logical to everyone who reads it. It should sound conversational - but not to the point where a client would rather want to be your friend than buy your product.

It should tell everything there is to know about what you are selling without making false claims or hyping your goods to the point where people do not really believe in your product. And your copy shuld not contain errors of any kind, whatsoever.

But why is web copy so important to an Internet marketer? Because it is the only thing that can really make or break a sale. Your Internet business is not like a brick and mortar store. Your customers cannot eyeball the digital items you are offering. They cannot touch them and feel them or examine the product's box.

A customer who is visiting your website will not be able to call over a store manager to talk about whether or not the product is right for them. Anyone who visits your website has to continue reading in order to get to know more about the product and the willingness to do so depends on how well your web copy is written.

If the copy is good - you will get the sale. If the copy is poorly drafted - chances are you could have month upon month go by without even the slightest tug at your line.

Why Is Tweaking So Important?

Now that you know exactly how important web copy is to the success of your online business, you need to get to work on the basic format that your sales copy needs to take.

As mentioned earlier, your sales copy should sound relatively conversational while still keeping the ability to persuade your customers that your product is the one which can give them the solution to their problems. In order to make your sales copy as good as it can possibly be, you need to start by thinking about what the things are which make your product different from the rest.

Say you are selling an E-Book which you have written about how to get the best and most amazing deals on all kinds of computer programs, just as an example. You want to sell that E-Book for as much as you possibly can - but first you need to convince those who visit your website that they should pay you for your E-Book. This is where your sales copy skills will come into play.

You need to start out your sales copy composition endeavor by making a list of all of the great points about your E-Book (bullet points). Be sure to highlight points that separate your product from the rest of the pack, as there will probably be other people out there who are selling roughly the same product as you.

Once you have compiled a list of the top reasons why a person would want your product, start to write around that list and eventually turn it into a full-fledged sales copy document. If you need inspiration, all you have to do is browse around to other E-Book marketing websites and see how their sales copy looks.

Be sure that your tone is relatively conversational, you are not using any big words or sales jargon, you are using plenty of bulleted lists and colors that will stand out to the customers, and above all else - make sure that your sentences and paragraphs are pretty short for an easy read.

Writing and Tweaking Your Sales Copy

Once you have your sales copy nested comfortably on your website, you may be tempted to think that your work is done and you can move on to a new project.

But, for the Internet marketer, your work is never done - and if you want to be truly successful, you always have to be on top of things on your website.

Therefore, testing and tweaking your sales copy is a tactic that more and more marketers are utilizing so that they can boost sales and maximize their profits.

Just because you may think that your sales copy sounds good to you, does not mean that it sounds equally as good to the rest of the public. Continuously tweaking your copy can make all the difference in the world in terms of getting your message across to the masses.

If you have recently posted your copy to its website, keep it as it is for now and wait until you start getting some traffic flowing to your web servers. After a few weeks, whether or not you are getting any sales, it is a good time to update your copy.

Start by adding any recent testimonials that you may have received from satisfied customers. Testimonials can really help you boost your sales because they give your copy an extra shot of trustworthiness.

Apart from adding testimonials to your copy, you should just tweak a few of the ways that you have worded your sentences and maybe add or remove a few bulleted lists and longer paragraphs.

Post everything back to your website and see if your sales change. If sales change for the better, then keep your copy in its new form.

On the other hand, if sales start to drop, change your copy back and then start from the original again the next time you make some tweaks. By tweaking your copy, you can squeeze more and more cash out of your customers without having to raise or lower your prices.

Tags: adsense, traffic, websites

This weekend, I've been taking some time off and went skiing in Austria (Hochzillertal) together with Joerg, a buddy of mine (he has nothing to do with Internet marketing, though). It was a great trip and we had excellent weather over there. I had to take the easier slopes because Joerg isn't that experienced in skiing and I didn't want to let him ski all on his own all the time:

But I took one of the more difficult slopes at least twice so I could get a little more speed and have some more fun since I really love skiing.

You can see some more pictures here.

It had really been time to take another vacation even it was just for a weekend. It's of no use to keep working and working and sitting in front of your PC all day long. Besides that, I'm really getting overweight because of not being active enough. But I am working on melting some of my pounds again but that's another story…

The point I'm trying to make is: Don't lose sight of why you are building your business. You're certainly not building your business in order to slave away like if you're an employee again. Have something to look forward to - something that helps you to break away from your business. And I don't mean watching TV or playing video games. Get active and cultivate some hobbies of yours. Make entries into your calendar for private things you're looking forward to.

If you have a wife/husband and children, don't neglect them because you are trying to build your online business. Most of the times, working 18 hours non-stop won't get you anywhere near success. You need to work smarter, not harder! Only spend most of your time on revenue generating activities instead of reading dozens of salesletters for the latest "must have" products or lurking into forums without posting anything.

You need to know WHY you are building an online business. Is it because you want to be financially independent or because you want to be able to spend more time with your family or on activities you love? Whatever it is, don't lose sight of it and for every 20 days you work, take at least 1-2 days off without any distractions. Do not get in front of a PC at all during that time. If you have a business which is flourishing and you think you can't leave your business for even 1 day, then you're doing something wrong.

Hire someone to take care of your customer support. Don't be the person who is responsible for everything. Outsource everything that can be done by others so you can be stress free again or at least reduce your stress. One of the great advantages of a web based business is that these kind of online jobs can be done by anyone with a computer so the person you're hiring doesn't even have to live in your own city…

Simply have fun again and enjoy life. It is too short to just waste it in front of a computer!

Let me know what your opinion on this issue is…

Tags: adsense, internet marketing

You're a blogger and most likely, you are constantly hearing about pinging or blog and ping. The thing is, you don't know what it is and what it can do for your blog. Well, that's fine because a lot of bloggers don't quite understand pinging. In this article, I will explain what pinging is, how it helps your blog, and what the best pinging services are.

What is pinging?

When a blog is pinged, it essentially tells a web blog tracking system that the blog has been updated. Thus, pinging is the process of telling tracking services that a site has been updated.

So how does pinging work? Well, a ping service scans blogs for updates on a regular basis. Whenever there is a new update for a particular blog, it is reported back to the pinging service’s site. You can almost think of ping services being just like search engine spiders - both scan sites looking for information, and both report that information back to their specific site. The difference is, a ping service only reports back new blog posts.

Why is pinging useful for your blog?

Pinging, in effect, tells people that there is a new blog posting available. Those who are loyal followers of your blog will see the ping and want to visit your blog. Those who haven’t read your blog before will also see the ping and perhaps think “Hey, there’s a new blog I haven’t been to before, I think I’ll check it out”.

Pinging helps to increase your traffic because it tells people when your blog is updated. Those who visit sites with pinging services will see this information in the form of a ticker on the left or right side, or top of the page. The ticker is usually in XML format and typically includes the title and URL of your blog, as well as the date and time of the update.

OK, so now you know what pinging is. But which websites offer pinging…?

The answer is, there are several pinging services available which you can use to have your blog pinged. We’ll go over some of them right now.

Pingomatic.com

This one is usually the standard ping service which is listed in your blog interface. It pings several ping services at once like e.g. Blogstreet, IceRocket, Moreover and Weblogalot.

Weblogs.com

Weblogs.com is probably the most well-known pinging service. Weblogs.com monitors sites for updates and then pings whenever there is an update to report. Virtually every blog software is available to use Weblogs.

Yahoo’s Blo.gs

Another popular pinging service. This one is offered by Yahoo and has a built-in integration with movable type and other tools. One cool thing about this service is that it offers the ability to give out updates via Instant Messenging services like AOL and ICQ. It is a direct pinging service, so those who sign up for subscriptions to your blog will be sent an email anytime your blog is updated.

Blogrolling.com

Blogrolling allows its bloggers to manage their blogrolls (updates) through a web-based interface. Recently
updated blogs are also highlighted on Blogrolling’s web site. Data is automatically retrieved from other sites like blogger.com and weblogs.com every 5 minutes. Often times your blog is already being pinged by Blogrolling, so you might not have to sign up for it. Search on the site first for your URL before signing it up.

Technorati

Available at http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping, Technorati is another service that pings blogs. It gets its data from a variety of places and is definitely a site you should go to for blog pinging. If you're adding Technorati tags to your posts, it will also give you multiple backlinks which can have a very high pagerank and thus will improve your site ranking in the search engines.

These are just 5 of the many different blog pinging services available. A quick search on Yahoo or Google will reveal many other possible blog pinging services to use for your blog. It is best to ping/sign up for as many as you possibly can to ensure that your blog is well-pinged.

A well-pinged blog will definitely help your blog attract more visitors because not only will you get direct visitors from these services but also valuable backlinks. And since these sites have a high authority with the search engines (meaning, most of them have high Google Pagerank), you can get easy and automatic backlinks from authority sites.

This is especially true when your links can be found on popular so called "TAG" pages. A tag is similar to a keyword. So ping as many many of these services as possible and watch your blog traffic increase.

P.S. You can enter a list of websites to ping e.g. within your Wordpress interface. You can find it listed under "options/writing"!

Tags: adsense, search engines, tags, technorati, traffic, websites