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If you have been trying, or even succeeding, in building a business online you will appreciate the challenges of marketing on the internet.

You will also know that everyday you receive offer after offer of the next and latest solution to all your online business problems. And, depending on how persuasive the sales techniques are, you may be persuaded to part with yet another  30, 60 or even 90 dollars for the next ebook that promises to make a difference.

It’s not often I recommend ebooks (which is slightly ironic, as I spend a lot of time writing them!) simply because very few of them actually offer anything new or different.

Rosalind Gardner’s Affiliate Handbook is probably the definitive tome on  affiliate marketing (you’ll find that mentioned in another post here), and there is also another, slightly shorter offering, that has now joined my list of ‘must-reads’.

The first thing I need to say is that for a long time, the title deterred me from reading this book. I am not a fan of silly titles and anything that is a-la-rich-jerk usually leaves me cold. However, I’m very glad I overcame my initial reluctance and scepticism as the content is, in my opinion,  some of the best available at the moment.

Whether the title leaves you hot or cold, this inexpensive ebook is a must read as you make your business plans for 2008. Implementing the strategies suggested within its pages has transformed the last quarter of 2007 for my business, and I see no reason why it should not do the same for yours.

This is not only a book that tells you what the problems are - it also offers a solution. Better still, the solution is not made of cobwebs and feathers, it is a detailed and comprehensive business strategy that works. I write this review having tried it for myself.

The book is not a precursor to an expensive upsell. The strategy laid out does not involve you following affiliate links to buy expensive tools and scripts. Everything the stategy suggests can be achieved through your own efforts. If you do nothing more than read the sales page, you’ll have the bones of a plan for 2008, such is the generosity of the author.

I invite you to explore the site at Confessions of Lazy Super-Affiliate (Does that title do it for you??) and at the very least read the sales letter and if you want to find out more $29.95 is not going to break the bank, even at this time of year.

One thing I do know, if you buy it, read it and then IMPLEMENT the strategy - your business will grow and succeed in 2008. It really is that good!

I recently came across two sites, new to me, which I believe supply some of the best quality private label material I have seen to date.

As a customer you have a choice of subscribing monthly, in which case your purchases are effectively discounted, or you can just buy individual items or packs. The beauty of the system is that, however you approach the site, you buy credits which are good for the future. They don’t have to be spent all at once. This means you do not end up with a hard disc drive full of PLR material in niches about which you have no enthusiasm! The way this is set up, you can pick and mix and buy what you need.

Not only is the material excellent but it also comes with little extras that make a world of difference including graphics files and fonts.

In addition, those of you who write, can sell your work through the site. Individual articles are accepted for sale, provided they are of exceptional standard.

The owner, Stefan Everaet, has designed his sites to incorporate  areas for his customers to communicate with each other. It seems to me that this is so much more practical than adding yet another forum to a site.

Stefan’s second site provides ready made, beautifully constructed, affiliate stores which take data feeds direct from Share-a-Sale. You can see an example of just such a store here with the caveat that at the time of writing the set up is not yet complete with articles - www. gardeninginfocenter.com

If you would like to do some niche affiliate marketing there is no more affordable way to start than with one of Stefan’s stores offered at Niche Content Stores

If you would like some top quality content for your niche site I invite you to explore Niche Content Packages 

And don’t forget, if you write, top quality article submissions are also accepted for sale through Stefan’s sites.

A successful affiliate will do more that simply advertise third party products.

To enjoy success the smart affiliate will develop a reputation for themselves in a niche market which will allow them to build a genuine relationship with a list of ardent fans.

By only ever offering the best of products to their loyal followers, their recommendations will come to carry weight and the ‘pre-selling’ will be a piece of cake. Of course, if an affiliate chooses to promote every new product released - regardless of whether or not it is likely to provide value - his or her credibility will soon be diminished.

Ken Evoy has produced an interesting resource - The Affiliate Masters Course - which offers a total solution to affiliate marketing.

Ken has some very definite ideas which he has proven to work. His book covers everything from web site building and content writing to search engine optimisation. Best of all, his book is FREE and can be downloaded from here.

For those wondering why Ken makes his books available free of charge, no-one can explain it better than Ken himself………

Which does, I must admit, lead one to ask…

“So why are you giving it away?”

It’s our hope that you’ll see that the most cost-effective
way to build a successful site is by using the full Site
Build It! (SBI!) system to carry out all the strategies and
techniques that are outlined in this course.

Like anything with true potential, parts of the Affiliate
Masters Course require some perseverance and effort.
SBI! removes the complex and/or tedious work, allowing you
to focus on what you DO know… your business.

SBI! is the future of Web-hosting. There’s no need to learn
HTML, FTP, Web site design, or the finer points of Search
Engine optimization. SBI! removes ALL the technology so
that you can SAVE TIME and FOCUS on using your KNOWLEDGE and
PASSION to develop valuable content for your site.

Yes, by offering the “best book of its kind at any price”
FOR FREE, we ARE hoping that you’ll see the value of Site
Build It!…

But, as you’ll see, if you’d rather do it all manually and
pay for Web hosting separately, ALL the traffic-building
sales-generating information you need is included in The
Affiliate Masters Course, ready for you to use and succeed.

Either way you choose, I wish you the success you deserve.
And you deserve, and WILL get back, whatever you put into
this course.

So how much of the Buy Now Wizard’s sales pitch and promise is real and how much is just good old fashioned “we’d like your money” marketing?

Buy Now Wizard, from 27AM Network Inc, is a “sales conversion boosting tool” which is fancy marketing talk for “this software has features that you can add to your webpages, sales pages, squeeze pages and other offers to grab the visitor’s attention and/or give them more incentive to take action.”

Skepticism aside for a minute, there is common sense here.

If you can grab a webpage visitor’s attention when they first enter your page AND do a great job at grabbing the attention of those who are turning away from your offer and are leaving your page… you greatly increase your ability to communicate your sales message to them.

If you also implement proven sales psychologies that date back to our caveman (and cave-woman!) days, and provide a bigger incentive and urgency for your prospect to take action, it goes without saying that your sales will increase.

There isn’t much of a debate for whether the concepts that Buy Now Wizard is based on would create a boost in conversions. (Which is probably why it can offer a guarantee to its claims).

The questions instead are:

1) Do you need to worry about conversions that much in the first place?

2) Do you need a software to set this up for you?

3) And, if so, then is Buy Now Wizard really your best bet?

I can answer #1 very plainly: of course! Again, not much to debate here.

Consider your current income… let’s say it’s $50,000 per year based on various sales pages and squeeze pages that you run for your business. Let’s say your sales pages average out to 2% sales conversion and your opt-in pages average out to 20% opt-in. This all produces your $50,000 per year.

Here’s a no brainer… if you can boost your conversions by just 50% (ie: take your 2% sales conversion to 3% and take your 20% opt-in conversion to 30%), you don’t need to pull out your Windows Calculator to know that your income would be an extra $25,000 for the year (total of $75,000).

So there’s no need to discuss whether giving some attention to your sales and opt-in conversions is important. In fact, if you do it right, it is the fastest way to give yourself a raise (as I just demonstrated).

Question #2: Do you need a software to set this all up for yourself?

I love automation and simplicity as much as the next person. But how many quick fix products do you really need? Is a software essential for all this?

Well… yes… unless you want to set out to program all of this yourself (that’s no small feat) or hire your own programmer to do it for you (that’s the silly and costly approach but I’ve seen some stubborn marketers take that route).

To be able to replicate some of the attention grabbers of Buy Now WIzard (Browser Warning Bar and Before You Go Exit Window), coding would be required or you need a software. And certainly to handle the automation of the scarcity (limited quantity) and urgency (limited time) tools, you definitely need a software solution.

Alright, so there’s no argument that the Buy Now Wizard principles and functions make sense as being important. There’s no argument that focusing on the conversions of your various offers is critical (though often it’s disgustingly overlooked). There’s also no arguement that a software solution is needed.

That brings me to the 3rd question: Is Buy Now Wizard really your best bet?

To answer that would take a bit of digging around.

Currently, there are a handful of less than impressive tools in the marketplace and only a couple of high-quality and high-value alternatives. I won’t spend time on the low grade “me-too” products.

When looking for the “fear of loss” type functions, the next best product that you’ll find retails for $299.99. Great product but it won’t give you the attention grabbing functions and the price is a bit scary for some.

When looking for the “Before You Go Exit Window” feature of Buy Now Wizard, you’ll find one publisher selling a similar solution for $79.99 (just for that function) and another one retailing theirs for $97.01 initial payment + $99/month.

When looking for the “Browser Warning Bar” feature … well … you won’t find one.

If you chose the alternative independent solutions, you’d be looking at a price tag of approx $299.99 + $97.01 + $99/month and you’re still missing one attention grabbing feature. (Not to mention you now have multiple companies to run to if you need tech support!)

So as it stands Buy Now Wizard takes the cake and comes out the winner.

It’s a solid product.

As with everything else, it has room for improvements. For example, the $299.99 product has a dead-simple installation process, but then again Buy Now Wizard doesn’t take more than a few brain cells to figure out (it comes with a video walk-through to help even technophobes).

Buy Now Wizard is a recommended tool for your online income pursuits.

Should you grab a copy? Do you like seeing more sales for the same offer and from the same amount of traffic (same amount of effort)? My point exactly!

Make the investment and download your copy. It is guaranteed, after all, so you really can’t go wrong.

Just follow this link to learn more about Buy Now Wizard or to download your copy.

Dee

www.pososto.com

The question has been asked of me several times recently so I thought it justified a mutter on the blog.

“Which is the best keyword research tool?”

It is a hard question to answer because I think underlying this question is really another, which is,

“Which keyword tool is the easiest to use; is not going to take up hours of my time in research and will ultimately produce me a neat little list of excellent phrases which are going to hit the number 1 and 2 spot in Google within days.”

That underlying question is of course impossible to answer!

There is no doubt that keyword research is a chore. In another part of my working life I work with new authors and I liken keyword research to the process of writing - there is something about them both that seems to completely wipe the mind of any intelligent thought.

Ideas are - plenty until you sit down to actually work on them and then there seems to be a million reasons to discard niche after niche because they never quite stack up against ‘the numbers’ . And, just what are these numbers anyway? And, how do we know how accurate these numbers are?

It seems to me that keyword research is a process. As with all processes it is something that is subject to tweaks along the way as you find out what works and what does not. So much of the data we would need to establish definite figures, is not available to us anyway. It is all assessed and calculated by the various tools that are available.

Recently, in the Thirty Day Challenge, Ed Dale, Dan Raine and the gang came up with an innovative way to check actual search figures against known data. This is probably as accurate as anyone has ever gotten with keyword research.

The keyword tools that are available all offer some similar and some different functions, although some undoubtedly perform better than others. Some will just combine strings of words into endless permutations. Some will actually search known data sources from which they extrapolate figures for you on which you can then base future marketing decisions. Some will help with Pay per Click programmes. Some will offer long tail phrases. I understand that some will even let the cat out at night before going to bed………

No tool, in my humble opinion, can replace the human input and rationale. The tools can all make life easier in as much as they can create lists of thousands of possible keywords and keyword phrases but I remain unconvinced that the rest of the data is reliable enough for you to back it with your last dollar. You also need to apply your own thoughts and some logic.

Take for example Christmas. If you were to be planning a Christmas marketing campaign most of the keyword tools would be absolutely useless to you in your planning. The data is just too seasonal. You are going to have to take an educated guess about suitable keywords and phrases and constantly track, test and tweak along the way.

For me, the keyword tools all remove some of the drudgery of keyword research but they in no way replace your personal effort. I’m sorry that’s not want you are going to want to hear! There is no magic wand here. I wish there were. I am unconvinced that there is one tool that will guarantee success for you.

I do know that the research stage of your marketing efforts is the key piece that will bring you success or failure. However hard, tedious and dull keyword research seems to be it needs to be done!

So, for your interest I can tell you that I personally use Keyword Elite and Wordtracker and have nothing bad to say about either of them. They both do an outstanding job and there is no doubt that they make a tedious job quite a bit easier. But, neither of them remove the need for me to exercise my brain and make a judgement.

These free guides are available for download:

A Keyword Research Guide from Wordtracker

may be downloaded from the link above

and

Two books on Keywords Adsense and Adwords from Keyword Elite

will be downloaded as zip files when you click on the link above here.

I hope you find them helpful