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Michael Mayhew’s Internet Marketing Blog

July 1st, 2008

Google Adsense Referrals Is No More?

Just received this email. Google is retiring Adsense Referrals.
Here’s a copy of the email.

===========

Hello,

Thank you for participating in the AdSense Referrals program.
We’re writing to let you know that we will be retiring the AdSense
Referrals program during the last week of August. We appreciate
your patience during this transition and here are some alternative
options to consider:

* Google Affiliate Network: As part of the integration of
DoubleClick, the DoubleClick Performics Affiliate Network will now
operate as the Google Affiliate Network for advertisers targeting
users located in the United States. Similar to the AdSense
Referrals program, the Google Affiliate Network enables publishers
to apply for advertiser programs and get paid based on
advertiser-defined actions instead of clicks or impressions. For
further details, please visit:
www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork.
* AdSense for content ads: If you have less than three AdSense
for content ad units on a page, you may wish to replace the
referral ad units with standard AFC ad units.

If you currently use referral ads, either to promote Google
products or offerings from AdWords advertisers, AdSense Referrals
code will no longer display ads beginning the last week of August.
We encourage you to take the following steps before the product is
retired:

* Remove the referral code from your site(s): Please take a
moment to remove all referral code from your sites before the last
week of August, so you can continue to effectively monetize your
ad space.
* Run and save all referrals reports on your desktop: Create
and save all reports related to the referrals program on your
desktop, so you continue to have access to your valuable campaign
information

Why is this happening?
We’re constantly looking for ways to improve AdSense by developing
and supporting features which drive the best monetization results
for our publishers. Sometimes, this requires retiring existing
features so we can focus our efforts on the ones that will be most
effective in the long term. For this reason, we will be retiring
the AdSense Referrals program. If you have any additional
questions, please visit our Help Center:
http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=14882

Sincerely.

The Google AdSense Team

———————————————————————————————

Email preferences: You have received this mandatory email service
announcement to update you about the retirement of an AdSense
feature.

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

========

Your thoughts?

June 14th, 2008
June 5th, 2008

Hannah Montana Ferris Wheel Survivor!

Yep. I’m a Hannah Montana Ferris Wheel survivor :)
I was there as a guardian for my son. Both he and my wife are working as paid extras this week.

On this video you can see the accident…

My son and I are in the seat right above where the lighting equipment struck.
My wife and another woman were seated right above us.

It’s hard to see on that video, but the Mom below us with her son took
a direct hit. Tore the right side of the basket off and damaged the whole
structure on the left. UNBELIEVABLY, and I stress unbelievable. They were
not hurt. When I saw that thing hit, I was terrified that they were both
killed. They definitely had an Angel with them!

As for my son Brandon, age 10, I was so proud of him! We both sat there
as a lighting structure the size of the foundation of a large house came
hurling at us. He didn’t even cry!
We thought it was going to hit us for sure.

My prayers go to the family who took the hit. While they were not physically hurt, they were
very emotionally shook up.

This was one accident that could have very easily had a different outcome.

6 more inches and they both would have been killed. I hope the Movie Studio realizes just how lucky they were in avoiding a terrible tragedy.

Brandon woke up this morning at 9:30 A.M. The first thing he said was,
“Dad, I’m never riding a ferris wheel again that’s got a crane next to it!”

I’m just glad we can laugh about it.

My wife is there today working and told me that the Ferris Wheel is full of mannequins.
Let’s just hope that they don’t put one in that crane! :)

May 26th, 2008

The Pros And Cons In Establishing An Ebay Store

Ebay has provided some amazing opportunities for many people to earn online. This widely popular auction site has become the primary destination for users who wish to purchase anything – ranging from tangible products to digital items – hence making eBay a website visited by millions of people every day. Because of the volume of transactions happening in its pages, eBay has also become a virtual market place where thousands, if not millions, of dollars exchange hands on a daily basis as well.

Do you want a piece of that big, big pie?

Then you must first have to establish an eBay store.

Now, this is not a strong recommendation. This article is not meant as a sales pitch for a membership with eBay, rather, it seeks to present the advantages and disadvantages of building your own eBay store. You must remember that eBay isn’t the only place where you could peddle your goods. It is a good place where you could sell your items, but there are other alternatives you could consider. Should you settle with eBay? Or should you explore the alternative options? Let’s study the matter more closely.

There are most certainly a lot of benefits that could be gained from establishing your own eBay store. Let’s take a look at them.

* You’d be able to sell in a hotly visited environment. You’ll be able to expose your products to a wide array of prospects.

* Once you have upgraded to a Featured Store, you’d be given $30 worth of PPC keywords per month. This means that your store would appear prominently in the results for the particular keywords that users will search for. Such would most certainly drive more traffic to your auctions.

* A Featured Store would also deliver some advanced reports for your auctions. You could use the statistics delineated therein to improve the way you construct your sales pages, and the way you present your items for better efficiency in your future offers.

* A Featured Store will also allow you more eBay pages, which would mean more exposure for your products. It’s still a numbers game. The more auctions you have running, the more earning opportunities you could capitalize on.

* A Featured Store would allow you to reduce the size of the eBay banner appearing in your every auction. This would give you the chance to work on your page and bring the focus of your visitors to the items you will be selling.

* Ebay provides a certain level of seller protection and dispute resolution for potential problems you might encounter with your buyers.

Though these are great advantages for your online business, please bear in mind that they do not come without cost. There are also other disadvantages that are attached to having your own eBay store.

* Ebay stores don’t come free. A basic store setup would cost $15.95 per month. A Featured Store status would cost an even higher $49.95 per month. And the king of all kings, an Anchor Store, would require you to spend an onerous $499.95 per month.

* Having your own eBay store would pressure you to perform well when it comes to your sales. Though some may consider this as a benefit since such will motivate the seller to plan his course of action, the dangers will be experienced when you fail to earn enough profit to cover the cost of your subscription.

* People go to eBay expecting the best deals in the online market. You have to compete at this level, otherwise, the moment people would see the going rate for your auction, they’d immediately hop to the next item up for sale.

* You’d be bound by eBay’s selling policies. You cannot go around some of these restrictive policies, otherwise, you account can get suspended, or worse, terminated.

Establishing an eBay store is a solid choice for a business model. But you have to determine your goals as well as your marketing plan. Would an eBay store help you accomplish them? Or would selling your own goods in your own website, or through some affiliate automation program like www.clickbank.com , www.paydotcom.com or www.cj.com be better for your online business?

The choice is yours.

Written by Michael L. Mayhew
Michael Mayhew is the owner of “Ecommerce Automations Software”.
Start Your Own Affiliate Program or Two-Tier Affiliate Program.
You can get additional information on the Ecommerce Automation Suite at:
http://www.ecommerceautomations.com/
(c)2008

May 26th, 2008

How To Set A Price For Your Online Product

Internet marketing, by its very name is about promoting your products online. But to believe that internet marketing is all about, well, marketing, would be quite restrictive.

Assuming that you have already acquainted yourself with the intricacies of product creation as well as the myriad forms of advertising tactics that can be implemented online, we will now discuss a matter that could make or break your success in internet marketing.

Now, what we will be discussing is a subject that many online businessmen have taken for granted. It is that very thing that would connect your business to the affirmative action of your visitors. It is that very thing that would convert your visitors into paying customers.

We’re talking about the price for your product.

How exactly should you price your product? Naturally, you would want to reach a range that would recover the investments you have made for its creation and promotion. This is called the break even point. Anything above the break even point would be considered as your profit. Naturally, again, you would want to attain as much profit as possible.

So these are the two things that determine price:

1. how much you have invested; and
2. how much you want to earn per item

There are two approaches that are generally used when it comes to pricing. Let’s take a look at them.

1. Price your product a little over the break even point, and rely on the volume of items you will be able to sell.

2. Price your product substantially higher than the break even point, so that every sale would reap some substantial rewards.

If you foresee your product to be a hot seller, then the first approach would be the best one for your needs. You could just rake in your earnings through the several sales you will be able to achieve.

If you foresee slow sales for your product, then the second approach would be more appropriate. Each sale would give you what you need, and you won’t be pressured to sell a lot of items to realize your earnings.

But both approaches have their own shares of problems. Pricing your product too low might just give your prospective customers the impression that your product is of inferior quality. Pricing your product too high would alienate a large segment of the market.

Personally, I say that you should price your product for what it’s worth. Let the market forces take care of themselves. If you bestow a fair price for your product, you won’t have to worry about the backlash of consequences. Each product is a different case, and it merits special attention when it comes to pricing. Keep this in mind when deciding on the right price for the same.

But here’s a very secret tip: you could use the price of your product to tremendously boost your sales. Yes, you read that right. YOU CAN USE THE PRICE OF YOUR PRODUCT TO TREMENDOUSLY BOOST YOUR SALES. This is through a process called dynamic pricing. Dynamic pricing can create an urgency that would compel people to purchase your product as soon as possible.

There are some tools that would allow you to implement dynamic pricing for your offers. The way it works is that you’d offer a product for an amazingly low price, with a warning that after a specified period of time, the price would increase. This increase would continue until the offer is priced beyond your market’s budget.

For example, an eBook can be offered for a mere $5 today. After 25 hours, its price would increase by $5. And after another 24 hours, the price would again increase by $5… and so on and so forth. The result would be mass hysteria, as the members of your target market would line up in a hurry to purchase your offer while it is cheap.

Dynamic pricing is one of those novel marketing strategies that has proved successful for many online businessmen. It’s worth the try if you want to experience an immediate rush of incoming orders.

Written by Michael L. Mayhew
Michael Mayhew is the owner of PrivateLabelPublishers.com
You can get 300 SEO Optimized Articles Each & Every Month
Plus Article Submitter & Content Re-Writer software:
http://www.privatelabelpublishers.com
(c)2007-2008

May 26th, 2008

How To Make Your Own Video Products

Here’s a not-so-secret secret: the market is getting tired of the usual eBooks and special reports that promises the most revolutionary information. They want something new… something more… something that they could actually respond to. And it as become an Internet marketer’s challenge to come up with novel products that would excite a market slowly sinking to indifferent stupor.

And the most encouraging product types that have been invented in recent months are video products. Yes, video that you could actually watch from your monitor screen. Video that is accompanied by audio commentaries, which seek to inform, if not to entertain.

There are many reasons why video products are better than written works, which have become passé after a decade or so.

* People respond more to what they could see and hear, rather than what they could merely read.
* People are more stimulated with what they get to enjoy watching.
* Some information which cannot be clearly conveyed with written works can actually be demonstrated with video presentations.
* Video presentations present information in a clearer, and often, more concise manner.
* Video presentations are viewed as more professional products compared to their counterparts.

Indeed, video products are easily better options compared to conventional varieties. But the problem that most Internet marketers experience with this medium is the seemingly complicated process involved in their creation. This, however, should not be the case. With the right knowledge on how to proceed, you’d realize the creating a video product is easier than baking an apple pie.

Let’s take a look at the essential steps.

1. Select a subject you want to tackle, preferably a subject you are already familiar with.
2. Select a particular aspect of that topic which you will want to discuss. It should be something engaging and helpful for your future customers.
3. Prepare an outline of how you will discuss the said aspect of the subject.
4. Do your research.
5. If your subject involves a certain niche, get a digital camcorder and record the appropriate material. You may choose to add your audio in real time, that is, while you’re filming your footage, or later on, during the editing process.
6. If your subject involves online affairs, download the screen capture program at www.camtasia.com . This would allow you to capture your computer screen’s movements in .avi format. Camtasia would also allow you to record the audio in real time, or you may prepare a different audio file via Windows Sound Recorder and synchronize both formats later on.
7. Edit the materials using a video editing software program. There are many of these for sale, but if you want something readily available, Windows XP comes with a movie maker program already.
8. If you will offer your video product for download, convert your file into .wmv format to compress its size.
9. If you choose physical delivery, burn your video product on CDs or DVDs, and prepare them for shipping.
10. Then you could market your product already.

Nothing is complicated about it. Creating your own video product is indeed that simple. Anyone could do it, actually. And the applications for this type of creation are amazingly diverse.

* You could add video components to your sales page to increase your response rate.
* You could offer downloadable video lessons to increase consumer confidence.
* Instead of preparing a written manual, you could demonstrate what is needed to be done with a software product you’re offering through a series of videos that can be packaged with your item.

The possibilities are endless. The above examples are just a sampling of the many doors that video products can open for you. If you want to favorably position yourself in the online marketing field, do consider creating your own video products as soon as possible.

Written by Michael L. Mayhew
Michael Mayhew is the owner of PrivateLabelPublishers.com
You can get 300 SEO Optimized Articles Each & Every Month
Plus Article Submitter & Content Re-Writer software:
http://www.privatelabelpublishers.com
(c)2007-2008

May 24th, 2008

Ten Reasons Why Your Small Business Should Establish A Web Presence

“But mine is just a small business,” you might answer when asked about establishing a web presence for your enterprise.

Though such a reply is expected, it is often justified with facts. The truth of the matter is, even if your business is not big enough to warrant a Fortune 100 citation, it will greatly benefit from all the advantages that the World Wide Web can offer. Turning down those advice to acquire your own domain name and to create a website under a professional web hosting service can cost you immeasurable losses you may not even realize.

Let us take a look at 10 compelling reasons why you should avail yourself of a well positioned web presence in this, the digital age.

1. The world – the ENTIRE world – can become your market. Indeed, whatever audience you’re catering to right now would fall pale in comparison to the global market that the Internet can open up for you. Imagine taking potential orders from people, unbounded by geographic borders and restrictive economic systems. The Internet makes laissez faire look like child’s play!

2. Your products can be exposed to 50 million people. Studies show that there are 50 million people online, at any given time. All of these people are your potential customers, and all of them can possibly get to know about your products.

3. Increase your sales. Since you’ll be catering to more prospects, the chances of bagging a sale or a deal would be better. It’s a number’s game, and you’ll be turning things to your favor.

4. Market your goods or services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Your website can become your digital store that will operate on auto-pilot. You could log off the Internet, and your website can still promote your products, process payments, instantly deliver items, and even take care of some post sales concerns. No need to hire human assistants whom you have to pay some overtime and night shift differential salaries.

5. Add to the professional reputation of your business. Establishing web presence, especially with a sleek, easily navigable, and professional-looking website, would greatly help build your brand and increase costumer confidence.

6. Delivery is no longer a problem. The advent of the Internet has totally revolutionized the way courier services conduct their business. Nowadays, they could deliver items to the farthest corners of the Earth. You won’t have to worry about the location of your customers. Anything, and we do mean ANYTHING, can now be delivered right in front of their doorsteps.

7. Convenient payment processing options. You don’t have to settle for checks or money orders that take some time to mature, though they will always remain as options. There are a lot of merchant accounts available that would allow you to process credit card payments instantly, and the funds you will receive can be transferred to your bank account.

8. Security is no longer a major concern. With SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encoding, you could protect your transaction pages against unwanted intrusions.

9. A lot of marketing tactics can be availed of for free in the World Wide Web. Strategies like viral marketing, article marketing, forum marketing, membership marketing and the likes often require no financial investment, or at the very least, a minimal amount to get you started. The results they promise, however, are quite amazing.

10. Correspondence with your prospects as well as your existing customers would be made easy. Digital delivery of messages is instantaneous, you’ll receive them the moment that they are sent!

Though change can bring about a lot of uncertainties, especially in business, it should not be outright dismissed. Establishing a web presence, regardless of the size of your business, can only offer a world of benefits for your industry.

Written by Michael L. Mayhew
Michael Mayhew is the owner of “Ecommerce Automations Software”.
Start Your Own Affiliate Program or Two-Tier Affiliate Program.
You can get additional information on the Ecommerce Automation Suite at:
http://www.ecommerceautomations.com/
(c)2008

May 23rd, 2008

How To Find The Best Resale Rights Offers

Resale rights are quite popular these days. They have become great alternatives to actually creating your own products. You won’t have to spend time, money and efforts in preparing some products to sell. And since these resale rights products will be sold to quite a number of people, the cost of purchasing the same can be kept at a minimum.

But not all resale rights products are built alike. Some are simply better than others. When you want to dabble in the potentially rewarding world of resale rights marketing, you have to consider some things in order to secure the best deal for your needs and expectations. Let’s take a look at the factors you have to look out for to guarantee success with resale rights offers.

* Be on the lookout for products with resale rights that are being offered fresh, meaning, they have never been sold anywhere else before. A lot of online marketers are interested with product creation alone. They’d rather leave the marketing aspect of the business to their customers. These people churn out products and sell the same with resale rights. It is how they do business. And since these products will be fresh, the market will respond to them quite well.

* Be on the lookout for products with resale rights that are still at the peak of their market life. These are products that are still experiencing good sales. The market has yet to be saturated with these items, and there is a lot of room for you to market the same to the aforementioned audience.

* Be on the lookout for products with resale rights that will be sold to a limited number of people. Remember, each purchaser of the resale rights to a particular product would be your competitor. You’d want to have as little competition as possible. A product with resale rights that is sold to 100 people would limit its profitability. A product that is sold to 20 or less people would be perfect, as there is enough room in any given market for all players to earn some profit.

* Be on the lookout for products that offer private label rights as well. Private label rights would allow you to alter the said works, and even name yourself as the author. Purchase two or more similar products with private label rights and you could mix and match their contents to come up with a totally new work that can be marketed as something fresh and innovative.

* If you’re on a tight budget, then try to find products with resale rights that are at the tail end of their shelf life. These products should be selling at bargain prices, given the fact that there is little room in the market to sell the same. How could you earn from them, then? Well, you could choose to offer them for free to attract the attention of potential leads for your other products. Or, you could offer a unique selling proposition and support the said product with a battalion of bonuses that cannot be found in other offers. This would make your package an irresistible option for your target audience. Or you may even use such products as bonuses to jack up the value of the other products you will be selling.

The bottom line is, with the right resale rights product, you could potentially earn substantial income. It’s just a matter of finding the most favorable deal for you, and with the tips we have discussed above, there is no doubt that you will be able to procure the best possible deal for your business.

Written by Michael L. Mayhew
Michael Mayhew is the owner of PrivateLabelPublishers.com
You can get 300 SEO Optimized Articles Each & Every Month
Plus Article Submitter & Content Re-Writer software:
http://www.privatelabelpublishers.com
(c)2007-2008

May 23rd, 2008

How To Make Solo Ads Worthy Of Your Investment

Sometimes, advertising can be quite expensive. Though it is true that in the Internet, there are a lot of marketing channels you could avail of for free, often, you’d be competing with countless ventures in the said venues. This would result in difficulties with regards to having your business message stand out among the rest.

Hence, quite a number of Internet marketers have tried paid options. One of these is paid solo ads in electronic magazines, or eZines. It is widely believed that having a certain space in a popularly distributed eZine would be a very effective way of sending out your business message. Let’s analyze further.

The Power Of Ezines

People subscribe to eZines because they want to avail of the information that would be shared by the said publication. Basically, they DECIDE to receive the eZine issues. This points to a desire on their part to be able to read about the subject catered to by the said eZine. This is why an eZine’s subscriber base is usually called an opt-in list, because users opted to subscribe to the service.

How could this benefit you?

Well, since eZines have a dedicated base of subscribers, you’re sure to tap into a highly targeted market. Often, the failure of most marketing strategies is that they target a general market. The people who would receive their business message may not necessarily have the minutest interest on their products.

With eZines, you’re sure to have a subscriber base that would be perfect targets for your marketing campaign? And why not? They, after all, are subscribed to the eZine because they are involved with its subject. There is no reason why they won’t show the same fascination your what you will advertise.

Choosing The Right Ezine For Your Solo Ad

There is one rule in choosing the right eZine for your solo ad: it’s not the number of subscribers that matter, it’s how responsive they will be. You may find more success with an eZine that has 5,000 readers rather than one with 100,000 subscribers. Ezines with a smaller subscriber base usually mean a more focused audience. These are subscribers who opted for the service because they really want to, not because they were swayed by a sweeping promotional campaign that would reward them with a freebie in exchange for their subscription.

To know whether a particular eZine is responsive enough or your needs, ask the editor the following questions:

* What is the average number of subscribers that decide to make some purchases per offer, vis a vis the total number of subscribers the eZine has?
* What is the conversion rate exhibited in the mailing list, per offer?
* How many repeat advertisements has the editor gathered in the past months?

Writing Your Solo Ad

Once you have chosen the eZine that you know would serve you well, it’s time to write your solo ad. Keep in mind the guidelines below in composing your promotional piece.

* Decide on a format. Should it be a straight advertisement or an article that would promote your business? I would recommend the latter.

* Craft an attention getting headline. The headline is your chance to capture the interests of your readers. This should be fascinating enough to compel them to read the entirety of your piece.

* Your ad is not a sales page. It would serve you well to treat your ad as a means of capturing leads for future offers instead of directly selling your readers a particular product. People would want to read an informative piece, and they generally dislike being told what to do. Suggest your business if they have relevant needs in the future, instead.

* Make your ad concise. It doesn’t have to be long. The longer your ad, the harder it will be to sustain your readers’ interest. Go straight to the point.

* Enumerate the benefits. This should be the focus of your ad. What’s in it for them? Why should they choose your business? Why should they spend their hard earned money for what you are offering, and what you will offer in the future?

* Impress upon them a sense of urgency. This would be what people label as a call to action. Tell them why they should act as quickly as they could. For this purpose, you could afford them a discount or free bonuses if they would decide to buy your goods within a stated period of time.

These guidelines would assure that you will be investing on a solo ad that would be worthy of the money your will spend.

May 23rd, 2008

How To Choose A Product To Sell Online

Any veteran internet marketer will tell you that the first step towards attaining online wealth is to find a hungry market, or a niche, if you will. A hungry market is almost always profitable, given the great demand for appropriate products, as well as the virtual absence of competing enterprises servicing the said segment.

Once you have selected a profitable market, or a niche if you will, it’s time to think about what product you could offer. Products are the items you could sell. They are the ones that will ultimately deliver some profits for you. Business is all about selling something, after all. You have to offer something to get another thing in return.

Here are the more popular items you could sell online:

* Traditional information products. These include eBooks, special reports and even articles. They are excellent choices because all you really need is information and the writing skills to put them down in writing. The best way to convey information is through the written word. Also, traditional information products are capable of being delivered digitally. You won’t have to worry about shipping costs and storage space. Everything would be stored in your hard drive, and you just have to retrieve the same whenever someone purchases what you have to offer.

* Non-traditional information products. With the many things made possible by the internet, a lot of possible vehicles for information have also popped up. Products like video lectures, audio lessons, and podcasts have become prominent items that have proven to be hot sellers. Non-traditional information products are not limited to these choices, however. You could always come up with something new. The limit is your imagination.

* Tangible goods. You could also sell physical items. However, you have to bear in mind that such requires storage space (which can become problematic if you’re planning to sell high quantities of different products) and shipping charges (which can be a drag when it comes to really large items).

You’re not only limited to products, however. You could also sell your services online. Here are some examples of the kinds of services you could offer to prospective clients:

* Consultancy
* Web design
* Search engine optimization (SEO) advise
* Graphic design
* Data encoding
* Ghostwriting
* Copywriting
* Customer service handling

This requires appropriate skills. If you’re good with writing, then you could most certainly find a lot of clients who would hire your services for a fee. If you’re good with web design, you could be employed by some webmasters who are in need of good websites.

Choosing the right products or services to sell would depend on a few considerations. Let’s take a look at them.

* What product or service is most appropriate for your target market? What do the people in the said market need? What do they want? What product is most accessible for them?

* What product or service will you be able to offer? Some products require financial investments. Do you have the budget to pursue such? Or would you be better off in creating a product that requires little financial demands? Services require certain degrees of skills. Do you have those skills?

* What product do you think will be able to sustain profit for a long period of time. The length of the earning potential, or the market life, of the said product should be enough to reap great earnings for you. Profit, after all, is the bottom line for every business.

Once these considerations have been satisfied, you could safely say that you have found the right product for the business you want to pursue.

Written by Michael L. Mayhew
Michael Mayhew is the owner of PrivateLabelPublishers.com
You can get 300 SEO Optimized Articles Each & Every Month
Plus Article Submitter & Content Re-Writer software:
http://www.privatelabelpublishers.com
(c)2007-2008