There are A LOT of free training videos on this page.
PLEASE BE PATIENT AS THE VIDEOS LOAD.

These modules are in no particular order. Each section contains a short tutorial video followed by text training to help you in some aspect of Internet marketing. These  were compiled as a series of answers to common questions that we receive from our members. If you like the information on this page you may want to also check out MY UNFAIR ADVANTAGE.

CPanel Secrets

 

One of the most under used tool collections is probably sitting right under your nose. Its a powerful application called C-Panel and it really is your website “Control Panel”.

Traditionally, we use c-panel to add domain names, set up an email account and occasionally access our FTP (File Transfer Protocol) – but low and behold – C-Panel is much much more than just that.

Have you ever wondered about installing a support desk, or a membership site like a forum? How about your own classifieds website or your own CRM to manage your customers?

Does this all sound foreign to you? Sound like something you need to outsource?
Well… yes you can outsource and pay hundreds of dollars for someone to install something like a blog or forum OR you could just open your C-Panel and click on the happy face

The happy face icon is known as Fantastico Delux. When you open Fantastico you will see the fantastico page where you have a wide assortment of scripts to install. On the left side bar you will find Blogs, Content Management Software, Customer Relationship Software, Discussion Boards (forums), E-commerce shopping cart scripts, F.A.Q. software, Image Galleries, Mailing Lists Software… (Yes – an autoresponder!)

That’s just the begging, there is survey software, sitebuilder scripts, Wiki software, form generators and the list goes on and on.

Most people just look at Fantastico as a shortcut to instal WordPress but it is soooo much more than that. As a matter of fact, chances are that you’ve spent money buying an application that is already available to you via your C-Panel. That’s right, you are already paying for these things because they are included in your monthly hosting fee.

Don’t freak out! Installing these software scripts to your domain is easy as pie too. The best way to learn more is to watch the tutorial videos that are provided right on the C-Panel home page or you can just do a google search for the application name and surf to find some free set up videos. Or… you can just open your C-Panel, click on fantastico, choose a script and click to install it.

In most cases you’ll just be prompted to answer a few questions so Fantastico can create your database and make a user name and password for you. Like I said… easy as pie! Give it a whirl and save thousands by using what you already got!

 

Managing Webmail

 

Email is a big “time hog” for all of us. It’s important that you make the process of managing your emails as seamless and consolidated as possible.

Many people use many different email providers, like Yahoo, MSN, AOL and even Outlook or Windows Mail to manage their emails. In my opinion this should all be done via Gmail. Gmail is free and it enables you to easily recieve emails from all your websites as well as originate emails from your websites all “under one roof” (so to speak.)

Before you begin, be sure to get a free Gmail account at Gmail.com. I recommend an address like YourName@Gmail.com. Keep it simple, but don’t worry if its not available, your customers will not ever need to see this exact email address because you’ll be creating addresses at yourwebsites.com.

Your first step is to open your Cpanel and click on the “Email” icon. This is where you can create an email address for any of your sites. For example… one of my sites is www.DJmixTools.com. I can easily create an email address that looks like this: Admin@DjmixTools.com. When corresponding with customers and prospects in that niche, I’m sure you would agree that this sort of an email looks alot better than.. SexyBaldGuy347@Hotmail.com
(Thats just an example… not my own email… I’m just sayin.)

The second step is to create a forwarder for the new email address you’ve just made. Once again this is done from Cpanel by clicking on the “Forwarders” icon. Simply enter the email name and the site it belongs to and then enter the address you want those emails forwarded to. (That would be your new Gmail address.) In my case I forwarded Admin@DJmixTools.com -to- MyName@Gmail.com

The final step is to add the new email account (Admin@DJmixTools.com) to your Gmail account settings. This will enable you to originate emails from that address right inside your gmail. Everytime you compose an email there will be a drop down box in the “From” field allowing you to choose which account to mail from.

To set this up, just click on “settings” in the top right corner of your Gmail and then click on “Accounts & Imports”. In the “Send Mail As” section, you now want to click the button called “Send Mail From Another Address”. Gmail will now ask you to enter the address you want to send mail AS (in my case it was Admin@DJmixTools.com). Next, Gmail has to confirm that the address actually belongs to you so it will automatically send a verification code to that address.

Since you already set the forwarder up in your Cpanel… that verification will arrive right in your Gmail! Just copy the code and paste it in the verification field… Viola! You can now send and recieve emails for any or all of your websites right from your Gmail account! You can repeat this process as many times as you like for as many of your sites as you wish.

 

Webspace FTP & Site Folders

 

It’s important that you understand your webspace and how it works. Many peolple find this confusing so I’ve layed it out in a simple process map below. Click To Expand:

It all starts with your hosting company it’s very important that you have good, reliable hosting. I use d9Hosting because it is owned by internet marketers and they understand my needs. A hosting company is something that you will have for life so do not pinch the pennies here as it is probably the single most important part of your business.

Your hosting company has powerful computers called servers. These servers are divided into partitions that customers rent on a monthly basis. The monthly fee depends on the amount of memory and bandwidth of your partition. The partition is your own little space on the server and we call it your webspace.

You control your webspace with a program called cPanel, cPanel is provided by your hosting company. This is where you set up your domains and create email accounts etc. etc.

In order to get files, folders and websites to display on the internet you must first create them on your computer and then upload them to your webspace. Every piece of data stored on your webspace has its own unique address which we call a URL. Uploading data to your webspace is done through a process called FTP which stands for File Transfer Protocol.

We keep our webspace organized using a free software called Filezilla. Filezilla is free and easy to use, you can download it HERE, The Filezilla screen is broken up into two halves. The left side displays all the files and folders on your computer and the right side displays all your files and folders on your webspace. To put files on your webspace all you do is drag from left to right.

Your webspace is divided into files and folders like a big outline. The main folder is called public HTML. This folder contains subfolders. Each one of these subfolders has the name of your respective website. Inside of that site folder, is where you put all the files and folders that make that website display.

These additional folders within the site folder can be accessed from your browser by putting a /foldername behind your main domain name. For example, http://yoursitename.com/subfolder.

To access a specific file within that subfolder you add yet another / with the name of that file and the files extention (file type). For example, http://yoursitename.com/subfolder/ebook.zip.

A website is made of an index page which you design in your html editor on your computer. Most websites will contain images so you will reference those in an image folder. Also, any aditional files or documents that you will be linking to can all be inserted into your main website folder. Once your site folder is complete and working perfectly on your computer, you can open filezilla and drag and drop the site into your public html folder. Now your website is visible from any browser on the planet.

In conclusion, remember that its all organized like a big outline and every piece of data in your webspace can be accessed by typing its exact address or location into a web browser.

 

Basic Squeeze Page Set Up

 

There are many types of squeeze pages, this module explains the basic squeeze page fundamentals. This is the process map that I review in the video. Click to expand:

Squeeze page is made of three pages, a landing page, a confirmation page and a download page. The main purpose of a squeeze page is to capture the visitors name and email address. This is typically done by way of an ethical bribe. An ethical bribe is where you offer something of value for free in exchange for the visitor to subscribe to your list.

Regardless of how good your free gift is or how enticing your bribe sounds, it all means diddly squat without traffic. It’s important that you understand that traffic is the life blood of your squeeze page and list building. Therefore you must set aside time to drive traffic daily. No traffic is free. There are two ways that you pay for traffic, you can pay with money or you can pay with time.

The landing page is the first thing your visitor sees. The key to a successful squeeze landing page is to keep the design simple. Avoid fancy graphics that distract the visitors eyes from the message. Studies have found that a product image on the left and a web form on the right tends to work best. Create a captivating headline and use simple copy points to describe your freebie. I have over 2 dozen squeeze pages, take a look at the most successful one below. I have split tested every single part of this page and this was the winning formula: SEE IT HERE.

The moment your visitor clicks the submit button, they must be taken to a confirmation page. Do not overlook this step. Always ask your visitor to confirm their subscription before they get their free product. I recommend an audio message with exact instruction. Many auto responders do this for you.

Once the customer goes to their email and clicks on the confirmation link, they are officially subscribed to your list. It is very important that you keep in contact with them as a smart marketer, you will have a pre-made auto responder series of emails, at least 30 of them. These emails are preset into your campaign to go out every 3 to 4 days. Use these emails to build a relationship with the subscriber.

Now its time to deliver the free product. I suggest that you always do this by means of a download page. Don’t just send them the link to the product in an email. By sending them to a download page, with a link to the product, you can also make them affiliate offers or invite them to another one of your websites.

The final thing that you remember in the whole squeeze process is that you’re in business to make money, not to collect names. Always try to monetize the back end of your opt in process with offers to congruent affiliate products. This means that if they opted in for a dog training book, you should suggest dog training products and not an ebook about stock trading. Also, invite them back to their blog to learn more about you.

Here is a link to a FREE SQUEEZE PAGE TEMPLATE that has worked well for me.

 

Create A List And Install A Webform

 

Everything you do online should be aimed towards building your subscriber lists. To do this you must have an autoresponder service. Do not pinch pennies on this service because it is one of if not THEE most important part of your online business aside from hosting.

I have multiple autoresponder services but that was a foolish mistake that I made as a NOOB and now I’m paying the price. I recommend that you use one service only and in my experience that would be either Aweber or ProSender. I have tested MANY auto responders but these two are the best and the interface looks exactly the same for each.

To create a webform you must first make a list. A list is a campaign, basically a database that records, stores and manages your subscriber information.

There is actually a wizard that walks you through the process. Start by opening your Aweber and going to the “Create And Manage Lists” section and then click on “+ Create A New List”

Next you have to enter the basic details of your list. Name the list, be sure the name corresponds with the website that it is associated with. Then enter the list description, your company name, logo and site address.

Once you’ve saved the list settings you have to create the confirmation email and the welcome email. The confirmation email is what the subscriber receives immediately after they click submit on the webform. This email is mandatory to be in compliance with the CANSPAM act of 1993. The most important setting here is the confirmation success link. This must be a valid URL to which the subscriber is taken when they click on the confirmation link. Typically this would be the site where they receive their free gift or whatever you ethically bribed them with to get their name and email address.

Your welcome email is an email that is sent out automatically to welcome the subscriber after they have confirmed that they want to be on your list. This email can also contain a direct link to your confirmation success page if you wish.

Here is Aweber’s tutorial video on how to create a campaign:

Creating A List -Getting Started (Aweber Tutorial Video)

 

Now for the webform…

Now that you have a list campaign you can create the webform that will capture subscriber details. This is done in the “Webform” section. You can actually customize the appearance of your webform and once its complete just copy the code onto your website for the form to appear.

There’s 3 parts to making a webform, just Design, Settings and Publish. In the design tab you select a template, you can pick a color and style that matches your site theme. This is also where you can customize the fields like if you want to also collect phones and addresses.

In the settings tab you name your form and you set the “thank you” page or what should be the “GO CONFIRM PAGE” this is the url that the subscriber is instantly taken to when they click on “Submit”. Aweber has a few premade pages that are pretty good. I strongly recommend the video or audio page. Also you have to select the “Already Subscribed” page which I usually just leave to default but you can redirect to wherever you like.

Finally, the publish tab. This is where you copy the code that you will make the form appear on your site. You can use the Javascript code (shorter) or you can use the HTML code (longer) either one will work on your site.

Once you’ve copied the code, just paste it into your website and “VIOLA!” You can now capture names and emails on your site to build your list!

Here is Aweber’s tutorial for creating a webform:

 

Creating A Webform (Aweber Tutorial Video)

 

Installing A Blog

 

Installing a blog is quick and simple. It’s important that you consider the purpose of your blog carefully because that will determine several factors in the installation.

Here’s what I mean, are you gonna be using this blog to promote a product or are you just going to be using this blog as a way to communicate with your subscribers? You see, if you’re going to be using your blog to be promoting a product I recommend that you buy a unique domain name for each blog you install. This is important for various reasons.

The domain name should be as close or relevant to the product name as possible (this will help with search engine rankings). If you’re just installing your blog as your own personal site, you may consider yourname.com as the domain. Ultimately, you can install as many blogs as you want under any domains as long as you put them in a subfolder like /blog. For example: yoursitename.com/blog.

Once your blog is installed, you can choose from thousands of free themes. I mean, there’s literally thousands and thousands of themes. You can spend days going through them all. Some themes have two columns some have three, some are built for video and audio. Each blog theme has a unique flair of the designer. You’ll be tasked with choosing a theme that is suited for your end result.

For example, if your desire is to entertain the viewers then a flashy theme with vibrant colors may be the way to go. But if your blog purpose is to sell the viewer, then you should stick to conservative layouts that will convert better.

To install your theme log into your cpanel using the log in and password provided by your hosting company. Once in your cPanel, click on the Fantastico Deluxe icon (the little happy face). This will bring you to the Fantastico page.

Next click on wordpress and select new installation. Choose the domain where you want to install the blog from the drop down list. Then enter the name of the subfolder you want the blog to go in. If you don’t want your blog to go into a subfolder, just leave that field blank and it will automatically be installed in the route of that domain. Create a user name and password and also enter a nickname for yourself (I usually just use admin as my nickname).

Finally, you can enter a description of your blog if you wish. Once your blog is created, be sure you enter your email address so you can have a record of the installation. Now when you go to that domain name you should be able to see the default WordPress blog theme that says “Hello World.” You’ll be able to change this theme and upload any theme that you like once you log into your dashboard.

Pretty much everything you do to your blog is done in the dashboard. You can log into your dashboard by simply putting a /wp-admin behind your domain name, then enter the log in name and password you created. Your dashboard is where you create posts, add images and edit the look and feel of your blog. Play around with it and become familiar with your dashboard. In the next module you’ll learn how to update and customize your own theme.

Customizing Your Blogs

 

First and foremost, know that the possibilities are endless. As you learned in the prior video, a simple google search for “free wordpress themes” will yield millions of results. Once you’ve found the one that you like, you can download it to your desktop. You’ll be using your ftp client (Filezilla) to install your new theme. Once you open filezilla, locate your blog folder. Within that folder you will find another folder called wp-content and inside that folder you will find yet another folder called themes. You need to upload your new them to this folder.

It’s very important that you upload your theme properly. Here’s what I mean, when you downloaded your theme it was probably in a zip file. Before you upload your theme it has to be completely unzipped. Upload the folder that contains all the theme subfolders. Sometimes this can be tricky because some zipping programs may create a folder with the same name within itself.

Once your theme is uploaded, if you return to your dashboard you should see it as an available theme in the appearance section. If your theme is not visible then you did something wrong during the upload. Once you see your theme, just click to activate it. When you return to your domain and refresh the page you should see your new theme.

If your theme has a header graphic, you can save it to your desktop and edit it with your favorite image editor (Gimp). Just make sure that you don’t change the dimensions before you overwrite the original image or else it won’t fit into your theme and it will look like crap (been there done that).

Most themes have a sidebar which contains widgets. Widgets are cool, widgets are our friend. You can use a text widget and paste your html in there for it to display pretty much anything that you want. For example, you can use it to display a webform so people can opt into your list, you can display a graphic of a product you want to give away and you can even put affiliate banner inside of your widget as html text.

Finally, be creative with your posts. Engage your visitor with as many methods as possible, not just text, but also with audio and video. When you create a post you can add html in it as well, to paste youtube videos and even family photos. Like I said, your blogging is only as limited as your creativity. Have fun and post daily. The more you post and the more relevant the content of the post is to the title, the better you will rank in the search engines.

Creating Buttons

 

Mouse over buttons are cool. Because not only can you click on them, but when you scroll your mouse over them, they change colors. This doesn’t take any fancy programming or designing skills. As a matter of fact, I am going to share a free secret resource with you that will make you look like a pro when it comes to buttons and text design.

The website is called cooltext.com here you can actually create and download text images, animated logos and even mouse over buttons. To create a mouse over button, just select the style that you want, the size and the colors and click to render. The tricky part is what you do with the code you’re given.

It’s very important that you save both of the images in your image folder. You see, the way a mouse over button works is it creates two different color button images. When you hoover the mouse on the button it simply swaps images. Make sure that you edit your code with the exact location of your images. If you just use the default code that you’re given from the website, the button won’t display.

So there you have it – just another sneaky little tip to make your life easier you can create cool buttons and text at cooltext.com

 

Cool Videos That Convert!

 

In this module I am primarily going to talk about the onscreen work or rather the computer work associated with video flair creation. There are several stages to this creation process and each stage requires it’s own tools. It may seem a little complicated at first but once you understand the basics you’ll be able to contemplate all source of alternative that will speed this process up for you.

Let’s start by covering the things you need. Now obviously if we’re going to be editing video you will need two main components for your project. That is the video clips or the portion that will actually be seen on screen and you will also need the accompanying audio that will be heard as the video plays. It’s important that you understand the clear distinction between these two things. You’re final video file is comprised of two tracks. One is the video stream the other is the audio stream. They need to work together harmoniously and they need to be edited in stages for this to happen.

With every new video project I start the first thing I do is create a new folder on my desktop with the name of the project. Inside of that folder I create two more folders one is named audio the other is named video. Next I go on a scavenger hunt, I envision what I want my final product to look like and I start looking for video clips and images to piece together and achieve my desired look. Some of these pieces may require me to get on camera and shoot original footage, some of the may just require a screen capture on my computer and maybe some of them just require pictures that I am going to flash on my screen at certain points in the video.

The best way to keep focused is to write out an outline with a pen and paper. I like to doodle, what that means is I’ll actually draw little pictures on the paper of what I like to accomplish with my video. I make notes and I follow the basic 5 steps to a presentation, as you learned in VoxFlair.com , intro, short story, presentation, rehash. You wouldn’t believe how helpful it is to have a piece of paper to refer to as you’re editing video. As a matter of fact, in many respects, it’s a necessity. During editing I find myself having to write down lots of time, locations and frame numbers as references. So it’s very important that you keep a notebook and notes as you create your project.

Throughout all of my experimenting with video I’ve stumbled upon a formula that really works very well to grow my list and make sales. I try to start my video projects with an exciting, animated text clip and I tend to end my videos the same way. These are what I call bookend videos, they can be a word flashing in, a series of pictures or some otherwise distinctive clip that hits the viewer between the eye balls to grab their attention. I always make sure that my bookend clips have cool sound effects. For example, if a word fly’s in really fast you hear a swoosh sound. This is the sort of thing that the big movie companies use in movie trailers to really grab the viewers attention and it has worked wonders for me online as well. I’ve learned to add low music in the background for ambiance in all my videos too.

Another part of my formula that I’ve realized is hugely responsibly for the success of my videos is that in between the bookends not only do I get on camera, but I also find a way to implement photos and screen capture. This makes my overall project dynamic, there are lots of changes going on to keep the viewer engaged. This is particularly important if you’re going to be delivering lengthy messages. Always remember the avatar theory. Avatar is a movie that was nearly 3 hrs long but the time felt to go right by simply because the viewer feels entertained every single minute throughout those three hrs.

Entertaining doesn’t mean you have to be funny or wear a costume, it simply means that you’re not boring. My definition of boring is a three hr lecture by a monotone college professor standing at a podium. But if that professor covered the same subject matter but used several delivery methods, we would be far more engaged. So things like maybe, projector slides, pictures, props and even movie clips can turn any boring college lecture into a fun and entertaining experience even thought the subject matter is the same. This form of thinking is important for you to keep in mind when it comes to video production. VoxFlair.com

 

Maximizing Youtube

 

Many people frown upon using Youtube videos on their sites because they claim it looks “un-professional”. Here’s what I have to say to that… “HOGWASH”. Youtube is a quick and easy way to get high Search Engine rankings and drive traffic back to your websites.

Google owns Youtube and the two work together like a charm. You can drive lots of traffic to your websites and dominate page rankings for your specific keywords rather easily if you maximize the power of Youtube. I have personally ranked on the first page of google many times by simply creating a Youtube video for my keyword.

There are two components to consider in this process. The first one is putting your video on Youtube properly. First you have to create a good video that entertains, informs and entices the viewer. (I described how you can do this in the prior module)

Once your video is created you must upload it to Youtube and set “Video Information”. These are your video title, video description, and video tags. Always start the tittle with your targeted keyword. In the description (most important) be sure that the exact url to your website is the first thing you enter. In the tags, keep it simple with no more than 10 keywords and always start with your targeted keyword.

Now that your video is uploaded to Youtube, the second component of the process is put the video on your blog. You can do this by simply copying the embed code from Youtube and inserting it on your site. You can edit the size of the video and the color of the border. You can even remove “related videos” so your visitors wont be tempted to click away.

This is a quick and simple process that I recommend you do with all your websites to maximize your SEO, traffic and sales!

 

Gimp Madness – Building Images

 

If you’re like me, from time to time you may convince yourself that you’re a graphic designer and that it’s actually worth the time it takes to create your own graphics. I’ve long since graduated to outsourcing anything that takes me more than an hour to do and cost less than $100 to have done professionally. That’s a simply formula that I came up with after hours of beating my forehead against my CRT monitor.

Those days are long gone and now I can afford a flat screen, actually several flat screens thanks to the fact that I leverage my time by outsourcing things like graphics. I use a company called Planet Divinity to build my images for me now and I definitely recommend you do the same as it is in the best interest of your productivity.

In case you’re stubborn, I’ve created a 30 minute tutorial on Gimp. I call it Gimp Madness because in all sincerity, making your own graphics is MAD. When I first started building websites, I just couldn’t afford to buy Photoshop and even if I could it was way beyond my level of comprehension so I settled for making images in Microsoft Paint. Yeah go ahead and laugh… but its true, and as a result my websites looked like hammered dog shit and my business suffered.

Gimp is a free software with alot of the same functions as Photoshop, the main difference is you don’t have to re-matriculate in college to understand it and like I said… it’s FREE. The main thing to remember when using Gimp is that it builds images in layers as opposed to a flat one dimensional palette like Microsoft Paint. Think of it like a canvas sitting flat on a table. As you add an element to your canvas you do so on a transparent film called a layer. Kind of like those old transparencies for an overhead projector. (I’m showing my age again aren’t I)

Anyway, your project will be composed of several pieces, images and text and colors. Each one of these pieces sits on its own transparent layer and all the layers sit on the canvas. Heck you can even cut the canvas away and put the entire image on a transparent background if you like!

Play around with Gimp and get the feel for working with layers. I hope you use the experience to strengthen your “Outsource Mentality”. Below, you can see the image I created in the video.

You can download my final image by clicking HERE. Or better yet… here is the XCF file or the Gimp file with the layers I created during the video. Once you’ve downloaded gimp, feel free to download my Gimp image file HERE and open it with Gimp so you can see the exact file I created with all its layers.

 

Jing Screen and Image Capture

 

Jing is an awesome free software from Techsmith. Jing basically enables you to capture what you see on your screen. You can either take a snap shot of your screen like a photo or you can actually shoot a digital video of it and narrate as you go. Most of the screen capture videos on my blog were recorded with Jing.

Jing enables you to add notes and edit your snapshots. This is very useful when communicating with your outsourcing staff to point things out on a website. My favorite part is that you can choose to either save your recording to your computer or you can upload it to Screencast for free. Jing will automatically let you paste a URL of the snapshot/recording so that you can share it with others.

There are 2 versions of Jing, basic and pro. The main difference is that with the pro version you can save your Jing recordings in different formats. With pro you can also upload directly to your FTP or to Youtube, (very cool) Jing is a resource that I use practically every day in my business. Give it a go… you’re gonna love it!

 

Outsourcing

 

One of the things that I had a heard tome wrapping my head around was “Outsorcing”. For some stupid reason I convinced myself that I had to learn everything about internet marketing and do it all myself too. Whet the hell was I thinking?

People that need a hole can buy a drill, they can take the time to drive over to “Home Depot” peruse the power tool section and find a good deal. Then they bring their shiny new drill home and read the users manual before they make their hole. The entire process took about 2 hours… At least that’s what you would think right?

Here’s how that analogy relates to internet marketing… Marketers that need a whole go to google and begin researching “hole drilling” After several hours of surfing they end up opting in to 5 hole drilling lists and purchase 2 ebooks on drills and bits. Next they download a “FREE” drill assembling blueprint.

Next, they go to home depot and buy the motor, the handle the chassis, the power cord and the bit mount. Then they realize they need some specialized tools and electronic supplies to put their drill together so they order those online and wait 12 days for them to arrive. Once they have their special tools, parts and blue print they begin assembling the drill themselves.
Once completed the drill does in fact turn on and spin, however it isn’t powerfully enough because they settled on the cheaper motor in order to afford the special tools. The hole doesn’t quite turn out the way they wanted and by now they are so frustrated that they give up on it all together and blame the hole drilling industry for their embarrassing failure.

I know you are in the business of building websites not drilling holes but do you? One of the keys to succeeding in business and in life is to KNOW YOUR LIMITATIONS. There comes a time where you must face that it simply makes sense to let someone else do something for you in exchange for money. Let the experts do their thing FOR you while you leverage your time.

For many of us this seems like a great notion but we convince ourselves that we can’t afford to outsource. I personally did this to myself without ever even having looked into the prices of outsourcing. Did you know there is a website where you can get tasks done for you for $5. Yes, five dollars. The site is called www.fiverr.com, and for more complex tasks there are sites like Vworker.com (RentaCoder) where YOU can name your price and watch people bid on your job.

Any part of your business can be outsourced, specially those tasks that you dislike. I use a simple formula, if it will take me more than 1 hour to complete and someone else can do it for less than $100 then I outsource it. Period. What’s your formula?

Here are some cool outsourcing resources:
Fiverr
Vworker
Odesk
Guru
Elance

Social Media Branding

 

What the heck is social media anyway? Well my friend… it’s the wave of the future and if you don’t know much about it then you need to learn or you’ll be left in the dust. Social media is literally shaping the way humans communicate. Websites like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Myspace are redifining communication as we once knew it.

Through social media websites, one can have a circle of friends and followers with witch they communicate and share information with. You no longer have to “Remember to tell that story to each of your friends whenever you see them again.” Just write it on your “wall” or send a “tweet” about it for all your friends to see.

Social media enables us to share small things in our everyday lives that dont necessarily warrant a phone call. These websites make us feel more connected regardless of physical distance between us. The greater majority of internet users have made social media sites a daily task on their surfing routine. They login to see new photos or videos from friends or perhaps to post about what happened in their lives today.

Social media sites enable “potential followers and friends” to find you based on what you post and by the friends you have in common. These gives businesses and entrepreneurs a huge advantage in the development of a customer base. More and more we are seeing newscasts and live TV shows post their “Twitter Feed” live on the screen during television broadcasts. Famous actors and actresses utilize Facebook to “connect” with their audience. And even Rock Bands and Rap artists leverage this power to their advantages.

In my opinion, the recent US presidential election was hugely influenced by social media. Obama was one of the first candidates to show such a heavy social media internet presence throughout his campaign This enabled him to reach alot more young voters (target market) than his opponent. Brilliant marketing.

I strongly recommend that you create accounts in the main social networks and post to them daily. Let people get to know you. Speak from the heart. Share photos and videos and invite followers back to your blog. On the blog you should also display icons that lead visitors to your social networking sites. This will create a web of credibility and establish your brand while your presence is made to be known.

Follow Me On The Social Networks below:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Youtube
• RSS
• MySpace

Membership Sites

 

If you’re just starting to market online then I must advise you that the sooner you begin creating membership sites, the better off you’ll be. When I truly discovered the power of membership websites, my income exploded, before that it was all just nickles and dimes. In the beginning, the newbie mindset is often misguided. Many rookie internet marketers think that the first thing they have to do is create a website and a product to sell. That is true but typically they go about it the wrong way. They create an HTML website that’s typically just one or two static pages.

So you may be asking…. “what the heck do you mean by static web pages?” a static website typically means that there’s no script (software) running the site. It means, that there’s no database retaining customer information. There’s no shopping cart capable of creating multiple membership levels. Static websites typically just have a payment button and a download page. Don’t get me wrong, there’s money to be made with static websites. I definitely made money with static websites. But like I said before, it was all just nickles and dimes and the six figures didn’t start rolling in until I learned to leverage membership sites.

A membership site is dynamic in nature. It offers options to the visitor. It has the power of displaying upsells and downsells. Every member, whether paid or free can create a unique log in and password. You can select what level membership sees specific content all through the script settings.

A membership script is software you install in your domain via FTP. Kind of like a blog, it has a back office or a dashboard where you can select the setting for your website. In most cases, this back office also serves as a CRM which is how you manage your customer relations. The database stores all your subscriber information. You can communicate with them, add notes to their account, upgrade, downgrade or even suspend it.

One of the best and most profitable features of a membership script is its ability to do recurring billing and drip monthly content. I can’t stress enough how powerful it is to have several membership websites that automatically produce income on the first of every month. I’ve tried a few membership scripts and for me, the most effective by far, has been butterfly marketing, which you can get for free here.

FINAL NOTE.. membership scripts require an installation process and a set up that may be more advanced then you’re use to and may take some time to learn. But like I said in my first sentence, the sooner you begin creating membership sites, the better off you’ll be.

 

Upsells & Downsells

 

This module covers something I call page flow. This is essentially the process that a visitor goes through when making a purchase on your website or at least it should be. There are many different ways to set this up and the method I described in the video above, as simple as it may seem, it has served me quite well. As a matter of fact, it has served me to the tune of nearly a million dollars over the past few years.

The premise is simple, it basically deals with offering your customer multiple options to suit their purchase mentality. Every customer that begins the sales process is somewhat interested in your material. However, they are not all equally committed to investing their money. Therefore, it behooves you to custom tailor the process for each of them.

It all begins with your landing page. This can either offer something for free to get the process started or it can call on the visitor to make some sort of a payment, even if it’s a free plus shipping offer. Those that take action are taken to the payment page. This is where you collect the customers information. Conventional wisdom tells us that the next thing we should do is give them the product they have purchased, but marketing genius tells us that true profitability comes from showing them a one time offer next.

At the one time offer page, you present them with a great value congruent with the product they just purchased. Your customer is now faced with a decision. They will either choose yes to purchase the OTO or they will choose no thanks to decline. In either case, the process is far from over.

Now this is where the magic happens. If the customer chose yes and took you up on the one time offer, you know that they are highly committed You are obligated to present them with one final offer. As Marlin Brando would say, “this is where you make them an offer, they can’t refuse.” The secret formula here is simple, half of your OTO buyers will also buy your upsell as long as you use this simple formula. For the upsell, give them double the amount of stuff you gave them in the OTO only this time, charge them half the price, that makes it a no brainer and I have found time and time again, that approximately half of your OTO buyers will also buy your upsell.

But what about everyone else? How about all those people that paid the low amount on the first page but declined the one time offer? Well, as marketers it just simply wouldn’t be prudent to let them off the hook. Those customers are taken to what we call a “downsell.” The downsell formula has to be a no brainer as well. I’ve found that if you remove a small portion of the product, but still give them the basic meat and potatoes, half of them will be willing to pay half the price of the OTO to purchase your downsell.

So when it’s all said and done, you’re left with four types of members.

1. Free members (those that only paid the small price upfront and then purchased nothing else)
2. Silver members (those that paid the small price upfront, declined the OTO but purchased the downsell)
3. Gold members (those that paid the small price upfront and purchased the OTO but declined the upsell.)
4. Platinum members (those that purchased the small product upfront, plus the OTO, plus the upsell)

Naturally, the greatest amount of members you will have are free members followed by silver, gold and platinum respectively. The great thing about this is that you know exactly how committed each member is which gives you huge leverage with further marketing efforts.

 

Understanding How To Get Web Traffic

 

If there’s one thing that I get asked more than anything else it’s “Omar, how can I get traffic to my website?” Unfortunately, my response is typically harsh, because in many cases the person asking the question finds themselves in this dilemma due to pure stubbornness.

Why stubborn? Because they still haven’t accepted that internet marketing is a business. It’s a business of online selling, where the product itself is of little consequence. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean that I advocate selling crap, what this means is that you shouldn’t be so hell bent on one particular product or website. Sell what sells or rather, sell what people are buying. It’s much easier to sell what someone wants to buy then it is to get someone to want to buy what it is you’re selling.

What I am trying to say here, is that you need to do your research first. You need to find the traffic first and most people that find themselves in a traffic crunch, are in that dilemma because they did the opposite. They found the product first or they built the website first and now their life is completely consumed with driving traffic daily with expensive ad word campaigns and with the never ending quest for a guru to promote their product. In conclusion, how do you get web traffic? You don’t get it, you don’t create it, you find it and you divert it. You find the need, you create the solution and then you put a sign for the solution in front of the needy potential customers.

 

Keyword Research

http://hlsfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/SubscriberAppreciation/KeywordResearch.mp4

 

Millions and millions of people look for things on the internet each and every hour of the day. How do they look? Well the majority of them, almost all of them, are typing something into a search bar somewhere. What they’re typing is called keywords or key phrases. If your site contains those exact keywords it will be returned to that seeker in the search results.

Unfortunately for you, thousands and even often times millions of other websites are also included in those search results. It is every marketers desire that their website be the number one site returned by the search engines to that product seeker, this is called rank. Your site is on it, but it might be on the six hundredth page and the product seeker rarely searches past the second page of their results.

All search engines have a grading system for websites that are targeting similar keywords. The better they grade you, the higher you will rank on their results page. The best way to rank high is to target keywords that are very very specific this can be done a number of ways by using key phrases instead of just a word, better known as long tailed keywords. For example, if your website sells travel supplies the word “vacation” may not be the best choice for many obvious reasons. The main ones being cost and competitiveness.

By using Google’s keyword research tool you can see the exact amount of searches conducted locally and worldwide for any keyword you can think of. Better yet, Google will even display related keywords and their results. This process will better help you pinpoint specific keywords. It will also help you avoid keyword traps like indian head massage.

 

Twitter Targeting

 

Twitter is not a toy. Many people look at social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and they see them as toys. As places to go and have fun, and connect with friends. And yes, they are all that. But for entrepreneurs like you and me, Twitter can be a very powerful tool.

Social media websites dominate internet traffic. Here’s what that means in plain English just to help you understand. At any given moment, more people surfing the web can be found on a social network site than any other website period. That means, people, “your potential customers” are in the social media networks. Think of this like fishing in the ocean, what if you knew that special spot where all the big fish are? What if the bottom of your boat was equipped with a special fish detecting sonar system that could tell you exactly where to stop and fish?

Your fish are found on Facebook and Twitter. They’re all there but what are you doing? Are you just playing and swimming in the water or are you there to fish? Or are you the person in denial that stays on shore building sandcastles in the sky?

Twitter is an excellent source for potential customers as well as joint partners and affiliates. I think of it like being at a party or a social get together. As you’re mingling through the crowd, you’re listening to others and all you do is insert yourself in the most interesting conversations. So, what if I told you exactly how to find the interesting conversations on Twitter? You can find people that are shopping around for your product or maybe you can find someone that wishes they had a product like yours to sell to his friends. It’s a win win win scenario. So go now and insert yourself in the twitter conversations by going to www.search.twitter.com.

 

Article Marketing Traffic

 

Article marketing is effective, affordable and relatively simple. The concept is basically to saturate the internet with back links to your website. This is done by creating niche specific articles that target a specific keyword related to what you are selling. Each article you create will have a “Resource Box” at the bottom. A resource box is nothing more than a blurb about you, your website, or your product. The key is that the resource box contains a link that will bring the reader to the site of your choice.

Creating articles can be outsourced to ghost writers. All you have to do is send them a list of tittles and keywords and they will do the rest. I have used a company called cyberhubonline.com and they are very affordable. Just be sure to always read and customize the articles once you get them back from the ghost writer.

The next step is to submit your article to as many directories as possible. This is the only tricky part in the process. See, there are thousands of directories called Ezines (Electronic Magazines) as a matter of fact, there are just too many to subscribe too. This makes the whole article submission process quite tedious. Moreover, to be truly effective you can’t submit the “same exact” article to every directory because it will actually hurt your search engine ranking.I use 2 integral components that make this all go smoothly. An article spinner and a mass article submitter.

“Spinning” an article means that you are creating multiple versions of the same article by replacing, and reorganizing certain words. By using a spinner software, one can actually create several hundred variations of the same article in just a matter of a few minutes. Some spinners are more effective and produce more “natural” articles than others. Here is a free one you can try articlechanger.net (not too fancy.. but it works)

I use SubmitYourArticle.com this is a more sophisticated application that not only spins the articles for me but it also submits it to hundreds of Ezine Article Directories for me at the click of a button. This saves countless hours for me.

Article traffic is not instant, it takes time to build and the key is getting hundreds and hundreds of articles out there, each linking back to your site. With time and the help of a spinner and mass submitter you can literally saturate the web with your links and get some serious traffic back to your sites.

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