2 Reasons Why I Love Aweber

aweber email marketing

Let's be honest right up front. I could slap you Aweber. Because there's things about using the Aweber email marketing tool that really:

 Slams My HOT Buttons
Into Maximum Overdrive!

Firstly, they've got this crazy yellow bar that steals 30% of your valuable screen real-estate sitting on the bottom of your window…

And the darn thing stays there until you slap in a 'non free' email address. If you're thinking "well, dude, that's fair enough" then let me ask you this…

Do you really want to be setting up a different, unique email for each of your 30+ different niches? (I'm just going to assume you've got your hot little hands on a few niches!)

Because, like, if you've ever set up emails inside your web host then you'd know it takes more than a little fiddling around to get it right…

[Read more...]

How To Start A Blog That Everyone Loves

How to start a blog using wordpress

How do you start a blog that everyone loves?

An impossible challenge, or do-able?

Whichever the case, there's some essential things to do first.

Firstly you need to dose up on your chosen medicine. For most of us caffeine does the trick – after that you're PUMPED and jumping around ready to express yourself to the big wide world in any way possible!

And secondly, once you're 'loaded' you'll need a mini guide – something like:

This 'How To Start A Blog' Guide…

But let's get the housekeeping out of the way first. (Ie. the stuff you need to do in order to get your blog up and running!)

[Read more...]

How To Manage Your Outbound Links With The Studiopress Link Generator WP Plugin

Link generator Wordpress plugin

Have you ever noticed people using links that look like this…

http://yoursite.com/go/linkname?

It looks pretty nifty, don't you think? I thought it was some sort of paid link tracker or link generator tool. Just recently though, as I moved into using the excellent Studiopress WordPress theme to run my sites, I discovered exactly where that link originated from, and I'll show you how to use it yourself.

One caveat though – (as far as I know) you need to be using Studiopress to be able to use this excellent link generator. (Correct me if I am wrong!) It is a WordPress plugin though so there may be something similar available if you run a different WordPress theme.

Why Do I Like This Link Generator?

The first thing that grabbed me with this is that it is super easy to use. All you do is upload the plugin and activate it. Then in your WordPress dashboard you'll see a section called Simple URLs. Just click on Add New Link and it's straightforward from there. (See the images below for clarity).

The great thing about this link generator is that you no longer have to use a redirect page. This is what Studiopress says…

By avoiding page based redirects, which is the current trend in masking affiliate links, we avoid any issues with permalink conflicts, and therefore avoid any performance issues.

Previously I always used page based redirects… What that means is that I would get my affiliate link, put it into an index.html file and inside a folder, then upload it to my site. (Making sure the permissions were right, etc).

That process works well (mostly), but it does tend to eat up a lot of time!

Using this link generator WP plugin makes things MUCH easier. And it makes your outgoing links much cleaner, and easier to manage.

Plus you can actually see how many people actually clicked on your links from inside your WordPress dashboard. Let's see if I can show you what I mean…

link generator wp plugin 1 How To Manage Your Outbound Links With The Studiopress Link Generator WP Plugin

Once you've uploaded the plugin, you can see how simple it is to add new link. You name your link – in this case I called it 'Traffic Dashboard' (because it's a great product and I wanted to promote it), and add the URL information below (that would be your affiliate link). Then you need to publish the post. (It's not really a 'post' but you still need to hit publish so you can create your link).

link generator wp plugin 2 How To Manage Your Outbound Links With The Studiopress Link Generator WP Plugin

Then you get to see what your URL link looks like… How easy is that? That step takes probably less than a minute to do… and no more uploading page redirects! Here's what the links look like inside your WordPress dashboard…

link generator wp plugin 3 How To Manage Your Outbound Links With The Studiopress Link Generator WP Plugin

Much better than having an incredibly long Clickbank (or Shareasale) link, right?

The only catch is of course that you need to be running a Studiopress theme to use this excellent little link generator. Although there probably are other WordPress plugins that do a similar thing.

UPDATE — my bad — as far as I know you can use this plugin on any WordPress theme! Here's where to download the simple urls plugin.

What do you think? Have you used a plugin like this one to make your link management easier? Let me know in the comments below…

 

Using Article Underground To Snap Up More Website Traffic Than You Can Handle (Video)

I’ve gone and created a high speed, approx 2-3 minute video on how you can use Article Underground to get yourself more website traffic.

To create this video I used Keynote for my iMac, and I also used this fantastic little tool to optimize my YouTube video. That tool just let’s me keep the video ad-free and gives me more choices about the look and feel, etc.

Another tool I used was IShowU which is the software for creating a Camtasia styled screen recording. Great for Mac users and nowhere near the price of Camtasia.

The only thing I need now is some sort of timer so I can create videos under 3 or 4 minutes. I think video watchers like the short video times. But hey, that’s just what I think. I could be WAY wrong on the matter.

This is how I created the video…

First I laid out my ideas in Keynote.

Then I prepared IShowU for the recording.

Read through the video a few times (NB. the more you read through your video the better it seems to sound!)

Then I wrote out a description and uploaded the video to YouTube…

To find out how to do very efficient and effective videos yourself have a look at Kevin Riley’s Video Recipe.

Anyways, back to Article Underground…

Why would you consider promoting something like Article Underground?

Er, 2 things…

A) Because it works, (gives you more website traffic).

B) Because it is a RESIDUAL product that will earn you dollars for every month your customer stays signed up.

So…

It makes a LOT of dollars and sense to promote residual products instead of the one time ebook sale, right?

(You do the same amount of work to promote each, right?)

That’s why I do it… And why you should too!

Anyway, leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Enjoy the video…

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Find out how cool Article Underground is here

icon smile Using Article Underground To Snap Up More Website Traffic Than You Can Handle (Video)

 Using Article Underground To Snap Up More Website Traffic Than You Can Handle (Video)

Can You Create Your Own Hot Selling Digital Product In 24 Hours?

Holding Chris Rempel's 24 Hour Hot Product Formula

I’ve just invested in Chris Rempel’s ‘24 Hour Hot Product Formula‘ and you can see a snap I took after I printed it out below.

As per usual with the stuff that Chris creates, my initial peek is that it looks super TASTY with a lot of interesting insights from a guy who walks the walk.

The guide itself is only 28 pages but there’s no wastage. He links out to his videos which is where the real ‘aha’ moments will inevitably happen.

I don’t know about you but for me the way Chris ‘thinks’ fits my approach to the whole ‘earn money online’ concept nicely.

The dude is a winner.

Success leaves clues… and the guys that ‘lead the way’ will often leave clues in the form of ideas, manuscripts, ebooks and so on that happily explain how they do it.

What you need to do is to TAP into that.

Here’s how to do it

I’ll see you on the other side. icon smile Can You Create Your Own Hot Selling Digital Product In 24 Hours?

rempel1160 300x225 Can You Create Your Own Hot Selling Digital Product In 24 Hours?

Chris Rempel's 24 Hr Hot Product Formula In My Hands

So…

Can You Create Your Own Hot Selling Digital Product In 24 Hours?

YOU BETCHA!

Sorry about the dis-orderly, early morning, need-a-shave look!

Let me know how you go…

Here’s how to do it

icon smile Can You Create Your Own Hot Selling Digital Product In 24 Hours?

Article Submission Software – Does Easy Push Button Traffic Help Ease The Pain?

2715242153 5f41b9b3eb m Article Submission Software   Does Easy Push Button Traffic Help Ease The Pain?
Image by Esther Kirby via Flickr

You know, there’s people out there that think it’s crazy to spend good money on tools like article submission software. How do I know? Well, simply because I was once one of them…

Why on earth would anyone fork over a monthly payment just to get their articles (and videos) submitted to an article submission service? That’s just plain crazy, isn’t it? Well maybe. On this page, I’m going to share just why it might be a wise move…

Firstly though, you’ll need to know what EasyPushButtonTraffic is. If you’re not familiar with it, think of it as a powerful and very handy software tool that will save you heaps of time. Now crack open the hood and you’ll discover there’s a heck of a lot more grunt in the engine than just simple article submission software.

What the EasyPushButtonTraffic software does is let you submit articles, videos, podcasts and press releases to a whole cackle of sites, at one convenient sitting… Hence the name of course.

So… all you need to do is press some buttons and it works, right?

Well, almost, but not quite. You see EasyPushButtonTraffic is a nice piece of work no doubt about it. If you’re a master of video creation, crank out press releases with alarming regularity, or can’t stop podcasting, you’re pretty well sorted. EasyPushButtonTraffic looks after all of these neatly, allowing you to choose where you want to submit, press a few buttons, and get ‘er done.

But, article submission is a whole different ball game. Now let me tell you why. Before you get in there and submit your articles you need to log in to all the sites you want to submit to and set up your account. And then, after you submit your articles, you need to go back to all these sites and check that your profile is sorted and all your T’s are crossed and I’s dotted…

Now I don’t know about you but to me that sounds like a lot more work than just pushing a button, right? Well, it is… But how else can this be done? And before you tell me that you can do the same thing faster by hand, EasyPushButtonTraffic comes to the rescue by conveniently letting you log into all the websites that you need to, whilst you’re logged in.

All in all though, the only part of this software that made me think I’d be faster doing it myself was the article submissions. It was when I looked at the time I’d save using the video submission tools I knew instantly It’d be well worth its monthly fee. Have a look and see what you think…

Click here to see how Easy Push Button Traffic can help you…

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icon smile Article Submission Software   Does Easy Push Button Traffic Help Ease The Pain?

 Article Submission Software   Does Easy Push Button Traffic Help Ease The Pain?

The 70% Principle: Why You Never Get Projects Off The Ground

202px Edo period advertising in Japan The 70% Principle: Why You Never Get Projects Off The Ground

Image via Wikipedia

http://www.psychotactics.com/art70-percent

Have you got eleven seconds to learn a simple principle?
A principle that will radically change the way you do things?

You do, don’t you?

Ok, tick, tick, tick… here’s the principle.

It’s called..um… the 70% Principle.

So what’s the 70% Principle?

If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing 70% right.
You can always come back to do the 20% later.

Yes, read it again, and no, the math isn’t wrong.

If you’re going to build a website, a 70% effort is fine.
If you’re going to do a presentation a 70% effort is fine.
If you’re going to bake a cake, for that matter… do you need all the ingredients?

The perfect cake? With all the perfecto ingredients?
Or the cake with ’70%’ of the ingredients?

The ‘perfect’ wording on a website?

Or the ’70% perfect’ wording on the website?

And nope this isn’t a case for mediocrity.

No one is telling  you to do crappy stuff. No one’s saying that you need to keep your project unfinished. But in the quest for perfection, most of us never start.

The 70% principle is about getting your best effort out and into the hands of your clients. That you don’t need to start off with a 100%-kaboom-wow-start.

So let’s tell you about our ‘who pushed me?’ start in 2002.

We started Psychotactics,in the year 2002, with a 16 page booklet. We called it the ‘Brain Audit.’ And indeedy-doo, it started with just 16 pages. Those 16 pages, we cheekily sold for $20 or thereabouts.

And you know what?

We weren’t trying to keep the pages down to 16 pages, but we certainly weren’t trying to pad up the contents of the book either.

The 16 pages of information were all we knew at the time. And yes, we could have made it 100% perfect, but decided to put our 70% effort out anyway.

Did I say, put it out? I meant, I got ‘pushed’

You see, I wasn’t keen to sell the Brain Audit. I wanted to get the e-book just right. But I was forced into putting it on the market.

I was forced to putting it on a sales page, by another marketer who promised to promote the book to his audience.

And he never did promote the book.

I reminded him. Gently. Then became a bit of a nag. But that promotion never, ever happened. What did happen was that the ‘Brain Audit’ began to sell.

And as it turned out, I was able to add the next 20%, and the next 20%, and the next 20%.

And yes, the math still adds up.

Because all along, that ‘so-called incomplete’ product was selling. And when you think about it, which product or service of yours is ever complete?

As your knowledge grows; as your customers ask more questions; as you apply the concepts in different ways, your product or service gets better all the time.

And today, the Brain Audit is a comprehensive document that not only helps you understand how the customer thinks, but is also the basis for being a member of 5000bc; for doing any of our courses like the copywriting course, product-creation course.

What started out as a ‘who pushed me?’ product, now helps us get thousands of customers. And helps us grow our business considerably from year to year.

Kinda like the iPod, you see.

When the iPod came out at first, it was just 10GB (yeah, pathetic ten gigs).

Then it went up to 30GB. And hey, we got video too. Then whoopsy-doo, it was 60GB. And uppity up it keeps going, both in size, features and ease of use.

Where’s the market for the perfect iPod?

There’s no market for the perfect product or service. The product or service that your customers want, is the product or service you have now.

That 70%-perfect product/service, will do fine for your customer.

How can I be so sure?

Could this article have been at least 30% better?
Couldn’t I have found more examples? More case-studies?
Put in more details, perhaps?

Tweaked my words just so to make it richer, more vibrant?

Sure I could. But you’ve got the point, right?

If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing 70% right.

You can always fix the 20% later.

Product Offers: Links you should visit.

1) “I received more response from my direct mail and email advertising than I have in the past.”

I would recommend the Brain Audit, because it lays out a successful approach that I was immediately able to apply, unlike all the other “systems” I’ve invested in the past.”

Becky DeGrossa, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Judge for yourself
http://www.psychotactics.com/brainaudit
2) The Secret Life of Testimonials: How and Why you need to use testimonials as part of your strategy.
http://www.psychotactics.com/testimonial_secrets
3) Find Out The Psychological Secrets of Compelling Websites…
http://www.psychotactics.com/website-secrets

© 2001-2008 Psychotactics Ltd. All rights reserved.
Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon a secret library of small business ideas? Find simple, yet electrifying ideas, on copywriting, public speaking, marketing strategies, sales conversion, psychological tactics and branding. Head down to http://www.psychotactics.com today and judge for yourself.

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icon smile The 70% Principle: Why You Never Get Projects Off The Ground

 The 70% Principle: Why You Never Get Projects Off The Ground