A lot of my early sites were Amazon affiliate sites and although in theory they could have just been set ‘em and forget ‘em sites, I am always learning new stuff to optimize them even further and increase profits on all of them. But the ones my employees are building today look very different from the ones I built five years ago.

If you are promoting Amazon products, then there are two main pieces of advice I would give on writing product descriptions:

Firstly, I would not simply copy and paste the descriptions from the Amazon pages themselves, as Google not only hates this, but says so in their help pages. Hardly surprising, as they were the first to penalize duplicate content. Yet some Amazon veterans still say it’s acceptable to copy and paste product descriptions. Perhaps they have got away with it for so long, and made a great living that way, they haven’t noticed if their sites have been penalized or not.

And secondly, always include your top keyword phrases to cover on-page SEO. Head over to Wordtracker, where Karon Thackston has written 7 great tips on Writing Product Descriptions, that of course is great advice no matter what sites you are promoting, but with Amazon, people tend to get lazy because most of what they need is already on the page. If you add your own flavor to the articles, you will stand out from the crowd.

Perhaps you have the product or know someone who does, and you can speak from experience. If not, then cleverly rewrite comments from the reviews that people are happy to leave on Amazon. It’s worth spending the extra time to make your pages better than your competitor’s page on the same product.

Tagged with: affiliate products • Amazon products • Amazon sites • Product Descriptions • product reviews • SEO • Writing Product Descriptions

How can you find out whether a person is planning to buy when they carry out a search online?

Use this Commercial Intention Tool to see if people have an intention of buying when they search for your specific keywords.

If you are selling info-products, then forget it – the tool will almost always tell you there is no commercial intention! Even successful info-product websites’ conversion rates are usually under 5%. So to Microsoft, who run the Commercial Intention tool, that is a huge probability of Non-commercial intention.

But the tool is great for telling whether searchers of physical products are likely to buy.

And it could surprise you too. You might think it’s obvious whether people are buying certain products, but there are plenty of physical products out there that people want free information about, but prefer to actually purchase from the high street or shopping mall, so don’t waste your time building sites promoting stuff that won’t sell.

To your success

Tagged with: Affiliate Marketing • Commercial Intention • internet marketing • Keywords • market research

As a firm believer in the Law of Attraction (that what you think about, you bring about), and a member of The Secret website, I have downloaded the blank cheque template from there and filled it with an undisclosed sum – I’ll let you know if and when I reach the obscene amount.

But I just came across this great novelty gift of a One Million Pound Note from GettingPersonal.co.uk and thought that would also do the trick. The idea is that you display it somewhere, so you never lose sight of your goals and what you are working towards.

If you are not yet earning seven figures, you could always display this above your computer to improve your chances of doing so. But as The Secret will tell you; if you want something, don’t think about NOT having it, or you’ll just continue to NOT have it! You need to visualize already having it and it will more likely happen.

Also don’t whinge or complain about stuff, if you can help it. That has immediate effects – trust me! And remember being rich is not just financial, but enriching EVERY area of your life.

Tagged with: engineer your success • law of attraction • Million Pound Note • novelty gift • The Law of Attraction • the secret

Q: How much does it cost to start making money online?

A: Not that much if you know where to look. Here’s a great list of freebies to get you started.

Free Market Research Resources

Amazon Best Sellers List
Ebay Pulse
Google Trends

Free Keyword Tools

Google Keyword Tool
Wordtracker free keyword tool

Free Web Building Software

SeaMonkey Composer
NVU

Free Hosted Websites

Blogger
WordPress.com
Weebly
There are many more but these are favorites with the search engines.

Free Hosted Web Pages

Hubpages
Squidoo
You can put your affiliate links directly in your lenses and pages, as well as the ads that will be shown there anyway, that you get half the profits for.

Free FTP Software

Filezilla
SmartFTP

Free Calls  (PC to PC , Conference calls, and video calls)

Skype
There are others but they don’t touch Skype IMHO

Free Audio Software capable of producing mp3 files

Audacity

Free Image Hosting (without opt-in form)

TinyPic

Free Screen Capture Video

Camstudio
Jing (up to 5 mins)

Free Microsoft Office Alternative

Open Office

Free Photoshop Alternative

Gimp (desktop software)
Picnik (online tool)

Free Tools for Business Ideas

FreeMind   (excellent mind mapping software)

Free Project Management Software

DotProject

Free Affiliate Software

Clickbank – free to be an affiliate. $50 to be a merchant, but you can start with Paypal on your own site if that’s too steep.

Payment Processor

Paypal – ok so it’s not free after small fees, but it’s free to set up and a lot cheaper than a traditional merchant account.

Not sure how to do any of this stuff? Then this next free resource literally has millions of video tutorials on just about anything:

YouTube!

Tagged with: free resources • Free Software • Free tools • free tools for business • internet marketing • low cost startup • making money online

Over at Daily Blog Tips Alan Mater is asking the very important question; What Will Happen To My Blog When I Die? A friend of mine died quite young and sadly no-one is continuing his online work. If you have a substantial online income and a lot of your success is due to your blogs, then you must inform your loved ones ASAP of your login details, and what you wish to happen to your sites and business when you die. Of course the best thing would be to teach as much as you can about internet marketing to a family member, then you won’t have anything to worry about.

Alan doesn’t mention outsource workers, but if you do have them and they are reliable, then either make sure they can run the business for your family, or if your family has no knowledge of making money online nor the inclination to even check emails to see how much they’re earning (which is the minimum you should be striving for), then you should take appropriate steps to be able to sell your sites in the event of your death and plan your business for the future.

If this all sounds too morbid, and you have more pressing things to do, ask your VA to do it, but don’t leave it until you are on a life support machine (imagine having to tell people your Paypal login one letter at a time, by squeezing their thumb).

Photo by Ambient Damage

Tagged with: death of your business • in event of your death • internet marketing • make money online • making money online • Online Business • online income • plan for the future • plan your business for the future • planning ahead • when you die

I think Dan Brock‘s suggestion of using a “Coffee Filter” site by building backlinks to social or articles sites rather than your brand new website, is excellent advice. That way your shiny new site won’t be sandboxed while Google makes up their mind if it offers searchers anything of value, while still getting lots of traffic from the Coffee Filter site and ranking highly.

I learned early on to Tweet traffic to my niche sites (and get posts retweeted) until the search engines found them to be of value, which is a similar idea. But for the first few weeks it does make sense to have most of your traffic coming from your Squidoo lens, Hubpage or a top article site. I have never blasted my websites with hundreds of backlinks because it doesn’t emulate organic growth. Build inbound links at a natural rate and you won’t be penalized by Google.

Tagged with: backlinks • Dan Brock • Dan The Internet Man • Google sandbox • Hubpage • inbound links • link building • search engines • SEO • Squidoo lens

Whinging, moaning, complaining – call it what you like; we all do it far too much. And I really believe it’s because most people simply don’t believe that their lives are in their own hands. We blame those around us, the government, the council, the media, our boss, the bank  – we blame anyone and everyone for our under-achievements, when really we are angry at ourselves, but simply can’t see it. And the irony is that we put an awful lot of effort into doing all this blaming!

With less effort, we could change our own situations and rise above all the pettiness that consumes our peers. If people would read and take notice of only the first chapter in How To Win Friends and Influence People, (Don’t Criticize, Condemn or Complain), they would gain so much, not only for themselves, but for everyone around them. How can constant whinging be attractive?

Those who complain all the time have usually been angry all their lives, but you can change at any time, and be extremely positive. I am living proof of this! Since I took responsibility for my own words and actions, I no longer blame others. If my life is not going the way I want it to, I only have myself to blame. You cannot begin to enjoy success until you take this important step, and make the decision to be happy.

When I first started out in Internet Marketing I signed up for various  people’s newsletters and I found I didn’t have time to read all the emails I was getting. I knew that if I was successful I would get an awful lot more emails, so I asked someone who was very successful; Nicola Cairncross, how she copes with all the emails she gets. And her answer was simply this; “Stop being afraid of success!” I was confused by this at the time because I thought I was a lot more afraid of failure, but now that I am enjoying relative success, I understand what she meant.

If you find yourself unable to take the plunge and just go for it, for fear of failure, you are in fact demonstrating that you fear success, because for many of us starting out, success is in the realm of the unknown. Some of us are used to failure (like I was!) and on an unconscious level it is familiar to us, so we inadvertently seek it out.

While we are thinking only of the problems we will encounter, we will only get problems and no solutions. But once we think of each problem as a solution to be found, or a lesson to be learned, we will only find solutions. Then life becomes easier.

Don’t know where to start? Try this book, that’s a really easy read, thanks to the great illustrations and humor; Being Happy! by Andrew Mathews.

To your success

PS: So how DO I read all my emails?  – I don’t! Customer Support emails are dealt with by my team, and apart from friends and partner’s emails, I read only the emails that have titles with impact; that stand out from the rest. And that is true of most people, so make your email titles irresistible!

Photo by re-ality

Tagged with: fear of failure • fear of success • Nicola Cairncross • positive thinking

I was updating my wishlist in Amazon today and of course they helpfully recommend other books based on your buying habits. Then I spent a while looking at hundreds of books on all the internet marketing subjects that I’ve paid lots of money for via digital downloads. I’ve bought ebooks, special tools and software, video tutorial courses and memberships, and all have helped me a build my business but if you are just starting out, they all add up.

So if you are on a tight budget, it might be helpful to pay less than $10 for a real book, rather than $30 – $100 for a digital product. It won’t be updatable, or as comprehensive as the author’s other products, but it’s a great place to start.

There are lots of books on social networks and how to conquer Twitter etc, copywriting, list building, SEO and well, everything under the internet marketing umbrella.

I only buy and promote products of reputable marketers, but some of them are expensive so have a look at these internet marketing books at Amazon (I’ve sorted them by Bestselling). I can’t say if they’re any good as the only ones I’ve read is Yanik Silver’s Moonlighting on the Internet and Tim Ferriss’s The 4 Hour Work Week (over on the right). And yes, they’re excellent!

(Of course you could write a book yourself and get it on Amazon. There are a few self publication companies out there – just research them thoroughly though, as a friend of mine Sandra Lean got heavily ripped off when her first book No Smoke was published by an unethical company. It’s now published by a reputable publisher).

So check out Amazon for physical Internet Marketing books at great prices.

Tagged with: Amazon • Books • copywriting • ebooks • internet marketers • internet marketing • Internet Marketing books • List building • Moonlighting on the Internet • SEO • social networks • The 4 Hour Work Week • Twitter

NO MARKETING DEGREE REQUIRED

I was asked today by a friend why I go to the trouble of having websites, paying for hosting, paying for auto-responders, etc, when it is possible to make money online without doing any of these.

My response was Why? Where was he getting this information?

The answer was Here. He had researched how to make money online and this was one of the pages he found.

My answer is that the About.com article is saying that ordinary folks don’t want to hear that only internet marketers know how to make money online. It asks “Is anyone making money online besides Internet marketing experts?” and then gives a list of how non internet marketers can make money online.

OK. Firstly those methods do make money – sure – if you want to swap time for money, as you would in an ordinary job, where you are limited by the number of hours in the day. And the article is contradictory of its category; ‘Entrepreneurs’ – who don’t swap their time for money.

Secondly and more importantly; most internet marketers ARE ordinary folks!

Please guys, don’t be put off by the term marketing and marketers. They are just words! Look -  I have dyslexia and aspergers syndrome (a type of autism). It takes me about 6 times longer to do stuff than neuro-typical people. And yet I am making a good amount of money online. I know it’s a cliche, but if I can do it, anyone can.

Not swapping time for money, but setting up automated systems that make money day in day out, so if you need to take time off, you don’t have to worry about the bills being paid. It’s like being paid on a royalty system. You just get sent checks every month, and the more marketing you do (a word that just means driving more and more traffic to your site), the more money you make each month.

It didn’t occur to me before today that the term ‘Marketing’ is intimidating and seen as unobtainable to some. And here’s something else to consider: I have no qualifications in marketing – my degree is in photography, but I met a marketing graduate last year who told me he built a website for a friend and to take a look at it. When I did, I could tell within minutes that I knew tons more than he did about online marketing. So no, you do not need a marketing degree. You don’t need any qualifications at all – just time and a desire to succeed.

Tagged with: internet marketers • internet marketing • make money online • making money online • marketers • marketing • marketing degree • online marketing

Clickbank is very popular among affiliate marketers, mostly because it is such an easy place to start if you want to make money online. Clickbank only deals with downloadable products, and it has its own built-in software to track your affiliate sales.

There are a lot of people giving advice about how to choose a Clickbank product to begin with, and they will all tell you that a product’s “Gravity” is very important.

It’s true – it is important, but what is Clickbank Gravity? And exactly how is Clickbank Gravity calculated?

Some believe the higher the Gravity Score the better. This information can make you waste a lot of time and money, because although it means the product is selling well, it also means there is a lot of competition.

Very few people know exactly what the Clickbank Gravity definition is, but quite simply, it is the number of affiliates that have made at least one sale within the last 30 days. That’s it!

So how does this information affect you as an affiliate?

If you are just starting out it is probably a good idea to look for a product with a gravity score of about 75 – 150. This will enable you to promote a good product that sells well, but you won’t be overwhelmed with too much competition.

Once you find several products that fit the bill, you can then narrow them down further by looking at some other factors such as the Total Paid amount and the Percentage Paid amount.

Hope this answers your questions about the Clickbank Gravity Score.

Tagged with: Affiliate Marketers • Affiliate Marketing • Clickbank Gravity • Clickbank Gravity definition • Clickbank Quality Score • how is Clickbank Gravity calculated • make money online • what is Clickbank Gravity