Don't Believe Them

I am stuck in Atlanta. My plane had a mechanical problem so the good people at Delta Airline paid for the stay at a local hotel. I love my life in America. Extremely sorry that greed ruined it.

Online marketers are people who are trying to make your wallet thinner.

They often claim to have the golden key to making money online. They tell you if you do this or that you will achieve lasting success.

Don't believe them.

Scoop: they have experienced some success but that does not mean that the techniques they want to sell you still work. Let me put it this way.

If you were earning a fabulous amount of money with your Internet techinques, would you want to share them with the world? Many of these marketers simply found a small wormhole where they could fool Google into getting some clicks to their website.

These people are modern day snake oil salesmen.

Don't believe them.

Visit: http://www.workathomeprofiles.com

You can make a living on the Internet

A friend of mine called me yesterday. I had not heard from her by phone in a few months. I did send her a special eCard for Christmas two days before.

She is a web marketing pro. That means she worked like a dog for seven years building her own websites and taking chances on other web properties. Two years ago she told me one of her ventures was providing a living for her and her husband. She was not getting rich off that business, but rather she was more comfortable.

She also sells candles. For the past two years she worked diligently to build a large team (downline) in her candle business.

Her check this month is $37,000 for her candle business. That's pure profit, friends.

People say you can't make money on the web. Yes they can.

Greg Cryns
PLR Articles for your website
Expert website creation and development
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Interview with Mike Long - successful article marketer

Recently I met Mike Long via Twitter. I was impressed by his Profile and a description of his new book "Article Bully".

Mike's description of his book struck me as totally honest since I had many reservations in the past with the claims touting Article Marketing as a wonderful way to earn money. My experiences do not generally support this claim. So, I figured an interview with someone who had success could shed some light on my research and doubts.

Here is the interview:

Q: "Article Marketing" means different things to different people. What does effective article marketing mean to you?

Mike Long: To me, effective Article Marketing simply involves using the power of stories and information to get the word out about yourself and your level of expertise to a group of people who are desperately seeking the material you are providing.

In other words, Article Marketing gives you the power and ability to be heard, by leveraging the power, popularity, and visibility of sites like EzineArticles.com. I believe that a focused, targeted, long-term Article Marketing campaign can be more effective than putting those same articles on your own blog - especially during the critical first 12 months of launching your business.

Q: You said that article marketing is becoming a "huckster's arena". Please elaborate.

Mike Long: Despite the fact that no one knows my name, (or confuses me with the other Mike Long who has worked with John Reese in the past) I've been at this for a very long time. I pre-date many of the best known guru's on the net.

I've mostly stayed away from the Internet Marketing niche over the years because it has a dynamic that is very uncomfortable to me. The market can be roughly broken down into two groups: 1) people who recognize an opportunity when they see it, and take advantage of it - even if it means taking advantage of some people too, along the way, and 2) people who want to be taught, but are easily confused and overwhelmed by the endless options on the market. Which means they endless buy products without ever actually taking any action.

As IM has matured, the first group in particular has changed - and not in a positive way. That group is getting larger, and seems to be attracting folks who know how to sell, but don't necessarily know how to deliver. I've seen an increase in major customer service problems among marketers, and the products as a whole are often short-sighted and stop working once the winds of change blow across the internet (which happens often as Internet Marketing is still in its infancy in the big picture.)

In my view, the Internet Marketing niche is beginning to resemble its Network Marketing counterpart - a place where only a handful have any *real* opportunity, with the rest being more or less shut out from the process, or are only there to make that small group at the top richer. Too many people are focused solely on the sale, and aren't asking themselves the most basic of questions - "How can I help people?". Hence my use of the term, "Huckster's Arena".


Q: Over the years I've worked many niches hoping to make money with Google Adsense. Some were successful, but most were not. What do you think I was doing wrong?

Mike Long: From my perspective, the only thing you did wrong was the you completed Phase 1 in your Internet Marketing approach, but you never moved on to Phase 2. :)

In The Article Bully Domination System, I teach a very narrow approach. It won't be for everyone, but I can just about guarantee that no one will be lost or confused about what to do next after reading it. My approach is to have people initially work anywhere from 5-12 niches while solely focus on Article Marketing. They can create any type of landing pages they want, as long as they don't spend too much time on them during this initial phase.

For people who have never earned a penny online, I highly recommend setting up Adsense landing pages. I still remember the very first $1.60 I earned. It ignited the fire that kept me going, and can do the same for others just starting out.

From there, I have several questions that I want you to ask as you look at your niches and measure the results of your work. The answers to these questions will help you choose one - and only one - niche to work in.

That is the start of Phase 2, and Phase 2 is the basis around which the book is built - becoming a dominant authority (an Article Bully) in the ONE single niche of your choosing.


Q: There really is only one search engine these days, right? The age factor of a site is a big factor in getting Google to trust you. Backlinks from good sites are getting harder to obtain, especially one way backlinks. If these are true, how is it realistically possible to break through and make sales?

You won't like my answer - hard work, consistency, focus and volume. :)

Google has become sort of like a Zen riddle to me - the less I focus on and worry about Google, the better my rankings seem to get.

This comes back to trying to break the short-sightedness habit that so many Internet Marketers (myself included) have fallen into over the years. While I know that buying an aged domain is popular, the best way to have an aged domain is to have a plan, buy a domain, and age it yourself - without giving up on it and moving on to the next domain before its had a chance to mature. :)

And of course, one of the best ways to obtain high quality backlinks to your site is by writing articles and posting them to Ezine Articles. But most people won't stick with it because it's hard work. You can't simply take a "scattershot" approach by writing 5-10 articles in a niche and wondering where all your traffic is.

Life on the net no longer works that way, and the sooner you get that out of your head, the sooner you will see the paths to success are still clear and wide open. It just takes more work now. And since it takes more work, doesn't it make sense to ensure that all of that effort is focused on one single niche?

Start out with a skeleton site. Get it live, get some basic info and monetization on it, and get it aging. Then start writing articles. Lots of lots of articles. This is easier then it sounds. The method I show in my book should allow you to write a unique, helpful article every 10-15 minutes. Best of all, even if you know nothing about your chosen niche when you start, you will become and expert within weeks to a few months if put in a consistent, daily effort.

The traffic, backlinks, and rankings will all come if you are willing to put in the time, and have the patience. One of my closest friends in this business has become an article authority in a very low-paying niche. Most of his money is made in Adsense. He averages about 7 cents a click.

He also makes 6 figures a year with his one site.

Do you know how much traffic you have to generate to make $100,000 a year 7 cents at a time? Of course, I would highly recommend finding a little higher paying niche if you can. That's why I added Phase 1 into my process. But his case shows that it is possible to earn a nice living even in a poor paying niche, if you are willing to put in the daily effort to build it.


Q: Can you build a successful niche site only with social networking?

Mike Long: I guess it depends on your definition of 'social networking'. My initial answer today is "no". I also reserve the right to change my mind at a later date if the trends I study start moving in a different direction. :)

I do believe that Article Marketing could realistically be termed "Business Social Marketing". Article databases exist for the purpose of other business owners to locate and distribute the work of others. The authors are almost always reachable via email and website if desired. We all come together as a group under a single site with a single purpose. Those are some of the definitions of a social networking site. Yes, the direct interaction is missing, but it has some similarities.

All that being said, I do have a Twitter account (www.Twitter.com/ArticleBully) and I'm experimenting with it right now. But at this point, I haven't seen enough promise from the marketing aspect of social networking to warrant putting a tremendous amount of time and effort into it. Especially when I have found more effective uses of my time. :)


Q: Which social networks that you visit every day?

After spending way too much of the past 15 years sitting in front of my computer, I've actually gone in the opposite direction and I've tried to get out into my local community more, to see what good I can do there. I do have a Facebook account, and its been great for finding people I'd lost track of over the years, and I have the Twitter account that I mentioned above which I'm currently testing.

Otherwise, I've come to view social networking sites as a bit of a "time sucker" for lack of a better term. Don't get me wrong, I believe that relationship building is possibly the most important part of the sales process, and it's the piece that is increasingly going missing in the approach of many new marketers. But in my niche, I just feel that I can reach more people who are interested in what I have to say, and provide better service to them, by using other methods.

Thank you, Mike!

Mike Long's new book "Article Bully" will be available around May 26, 2009 through Clickbank.

Click here to read more about and order your own copy of Article Bully.

Photo by amhd

Greg Cryns
The Mighty Mo Website design and promotion.
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Forced continuity - a dark side of Internet Marketing

Understand please that I have no problem with selling information of any kind on the Internet. However, I do dislike some of the techniques used both on and off the web to separate people from their money.

One online marketing method I dislike very much is call "forced continuity."

The problem is that some very well recognized internet marketing people use this method, especially to increase the number of subscribers to their monthly training and information sales ventures. I think this has the potential to create an overload of mistrust and doubt by the same people who create good incomes for the internet marketers.

People, just because some "gurus" use this forced continuation does not mean they are to be respected for it.

I saw an offer to join a "program" a couple of days ago. The price is clearly announced as "$1.00 for the first 30 days." Fair enough. The announcement is not hidden in small print. The option to discontinue the program is also clearly stated.

But most successful internet marketers are not new kids on the block. They have studied techniques by the money makers. In fact, these techniques to get you to send them money are now getting seasoned and now have a cookie-cut look and feel. Except for a small minority of marketers, if you see one, you've seen them all.

It is laid in stone, I think, that if you can bring in someone for a $1.00 trial, the odds are that this person will not notify you to cancel the program either because he is embarrassed to do so or he just forgot to do it.

But I did something that many people do not do. I read the very long text ad carefully. Yes, the $1 peek charge was true. The continuation charge was $97 per month. Excuse me? Did I read that right?

Here is how it works. If you do not cancel out the program your credit card will be charged $97 on the 31st day. (or is it the 30th day?) Doesn't matter. If you have not cancelled you will owe the $97 IF you notice the charge on your card.

Well, I guess some things are worth $97 per month but not too many, in my opinion. If there was an iron clad guarantee that if you followed their methods you would achieve a certain monthly income in return, then fine, I would not object.

In fact, that may be another way to market. Make a guarantee like that for the first year. If you product is that good then I predict that the people who are genuinely successful will not ask for their money back. My experience on the Internet is that a very high percentage of people are extremely honest. I first learned that marketing products on eBay.

To be fair, most Internet marketers are very clear when they talk about the actual monthly cost. They don't hide the fact, but frankly, I don't think they stress it enough.

I wrote the owner of this product a short email asking if they would accept Pay Pal since I could not see that possibility when I clicked to the payment area. She said, "Sorry, no Pay Pal."

Hmmmm, that is strange? Or is it?

See, IM people are very aware that it is very easy to cancel recurring payments in Pay Pal. They also know it is not so easy to do the same through any other credit carrier. They know that you may be embarrassed about cancelling but more likely, they know you will forget to contact them before the 30th day.

There was a very long thread over at Warrior Forum about this subject. Many pros and cons were posted.

Here are a very few links I found for you to investigate.

Be sure to read this forum exchange: http://ablakeforum.com/index.php/topic,585.0.html

Carolyn Middlebrook wrote this fine article about Forced Continuity.

Michael Fortin wrote an article about forced continuity. He is more forgiving than I am.

The US Government has a page on forced continuity. Mainly it says BE CAREFUL. It also gives phone numbers you can call to complain. Use them.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/products/pro07.shtm

The topic is about offline business as well:
Check this out: Forced Continuity - The good, the bad, the questionable

Search "forced continuity" and you will find a lot of references.

My opinion is that this is a practice that needs to be ended for the good of the IM industry if not for the good of any individual.

Frankly, most of the time if they won't take Pay Pal, I won't buy it at any price.

That is my opinion. This topic has been raised many times. I don't think the concept has saturated the marketplace buyers yet by a long shot. I am passionate about persuading people not to use this technique.

Many guru types do not agree with me. I hope they feel free to post their reasons here. Let them know about this article.

What is yours? Please comment.

Photo credit: shari c

Greg Cryns
All About Paso Robles, California

Blog what you know about and be an expert

Picture: Riverview Bobs roller coaster in Chicago. Riverview no longer exists but I know a lot about The Bobs - I rode it scores of times and I still have the bruises to prove it.






I made a Twitter post (tweet, damn, I hate that word!) this morning and I regret doing so a bit but I approve the message.

"Observation: The number of Twitter Tippers are gaining on Life Coaches. Will there be PhD's offered for both soon?"

Twitter is an easy way to become an expert at something. Not because it is so easy to learn or to explain. Talking about something that you know well and love makes it much easier to explain and makes you a real expert if you spend enough time on the Twitter site.

Not only that, if you show people the benefit of your experience you are doing more than reporting. That is what most bloggers do, report. There are not enough expert bloggers out there, in my opinion. (I am not exempting myself from that crowd either).


Sometimes I will blog about things I don't really know about as well as I could or should. ("should" is another word I try to avoid entirely). I try to stay focused but I admit that I do stray. It's not that I am trying desperately to fill space on my blog. Lately I've learned to bring in guest posts to handle those times when I don't have the motivation or energy to make a blog post.

What I am trying to get across here is this: sometimes it is better not to post at all if you are not an expert on the topic.

For example, I know a lot about article marketing. I've done research. I've written a lot of articles. I feel I can blog about that and make a connection with my readers.

But I don't know all that much about teleseminars. I think it would not be a good idea to spend time researching that broad topic and passing a short article along to you here, or anywhere. I have little experience with teleseminars except to observe that you better be ready to hear a huge sales pitch at most of them.

I know quite a bit about my home town. I know a lot about raising kids (I have seven of those that I admit to). I know a lot about selling services (I was an insurance agent for many years in the business market). I know a lot about Little Debbie snack cakes (I was a distributor for that company). I know a lot about insurances and mortgages. (I've bought and sold a few of my own houses).

I also know a lot about internet marketing in general but, frankly, there are many areas of that subject I don't know enough about.

If you don't really know much about making money on the Internet, please keep it between you and the wall.

Picture: Bubble Gum Alley in San Luis Obispo CA - home of Cal Poly and avery cool place to visit.


Greg Cryns
All About Paso Robles (I know some about this town too)

3 Step system to become a guru - Terry Dean

(image taken from the video described below)

I did not know who Terry Dean was until today. How did I miss him? I don't know. What woke me up is the video linked below. In that video he said he mentored guru Jimmy Brown (a fellow I greatly admire).

Terry boils down the journey to becoming a guru to three basic steps.

3 Step system to become a guru - from a Terry Dean presentation

1. FAIL a bunch of times - "I suggest you do that as quickly as possible."

2. You accidentally discover something that works by TESTING

3. Tell everybody about your genius, but your forget about Step 1 - but you don't tell anyone about your failures


How to become an expert. You write a book! "It doesn't even have to be a good book."

1. create a basic outline of what you want to write
2. make a working title that will likely be changed later
3. write down some basic points that you want tot talk about
4. start writing and don't quit writing until you are done
5. write quickly without deleting "Write it ALL until you don't want to write any more."

Here is the video I took these notes from.

Terry Dean's website

"Pretty websites win awards. Plain websites with good copy make money."
~ Terry Dean

Greg Cryns

Scentsy - a warm and lasting gift

Work At Home Profiles

We all need customers

How important are you customers to you? Do you take them for granted? If you do you may find your checkout time from your business will come very soon.

American Airlines was the first major airline top develop a websigte that let passengers plan their trips and book reservations, as well as access real-time flight information.

What was different about the apporach by American is that the site was designed specifically for the company's 32 million most profitable customers- its AAdvantage frequent flyers.

Along the way, American learned some important lessons.

American discovered that customer profiles are important in order to be able to tailor offerings for each customer. And it discovered the value of the Internet as an interactive marketing channel.

Greg Cryns
http://www.workathomeprofiles.com

Marketing spam

A guy went up to the office of Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley (the father).

Daley says, "Who sent you?"

Guy says, "Nobody."

Daley says, "We don't want nobody nobody sent!"

This applies to internet marketing email too.

If all that you send to your list are greedy "buy this" messages then you are SPAMMING too.


greg cryns
http://www.ziparticles.com
http://www.workathomeprofiles.com

Jack Humphrey's "Top 142 Social Marketing Blogs on the Web"

I don't know him personally but I like and admire Jack Humphrey. He is an expert on internet marketing.

Recently he published "Top 142 Social Marketing Blogs on the Web" and then he explained why he put this list together on his radio show that broadcasts on Fridays. The point about the "Top 142" is that he put up hotlinks to all 142 blogs. Jack is not afraid to link out from his blog. More importantly he suggests that we all do more of it.

I agree. The more good info we give YOU, our readers, the more readers we will get. It works that way. You are not losing ground, you are gaining ground by posting good links.

For myself, I will visit each and every one of the Top 142. I want to see what they offer. I want to learn more about Interent marketing through blogging. A lot of other people I talk to also want to be successful bloggers. Not so many will pursue it with vigor. That is actually good for the ones that do.

Less competition. ;P

Learn about Twitter at Twitter Squeeze

Greg Cryns
http://www.wahmsearchengine.com
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/calgreg