Are you like a Pigeon ready to get plucked?

I’m a psychic…

I know that today, you’re likely to receive mails with one or more of the following subject lines:

“Wow… He Just Lost 22 Grand!”

“Some Guys Have The Worst Luck…”

“How To Protect Yourself From 99%+ Hacks”

“Are You Open Game For Hackers?”

“Home Insurance, Pet Insurance… Google Insurance?”

How do I know? By using scrying water? My cristal ball? Cutting open *Pigeons* and studying their liver?

Oh, I see more…

“2012: More Hacks Than Ever…”

“What if you lost everything?”

“Are You Open Game For Hackers?”

“[AWESOME] Easy Steps To Prevent 99%+ Hacks”

“It Could Happen To Anyone…”

The Hour of Truth Has Come – No, I’m not Psychic

I sometimes know which scratchcard to buy, but that’s about it.

The reason why I can foretell that you’ll probably receive mails today with the above mentioned subject lines is that a new product is launching today.

- affiliates get 100% commission

- affiliate can win nice prices

- BUT there has been no review copy and the product is not for sale yet

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU?

That the people, who recommend this product, probably haven’t tried it, but just uses pre-written emails to give their recommandations about it – to you!

So that you – who trust those people – go and buy this product.

I have nothing against this product

Since I haven’t seen it, I cannot say to you: stay away. It’s no good. It might be good.*

I’m just suspicious, because I’ve noticed that if you get preview copies, it’s normally because the product delivers value. If there’s no preview copy… Well, sometimes it’s because the creator have something to hide.

This mail is meant for you to be suspicious of the recommendations you get. Not everybody has the same criteria for promoting stuff that I have.

- I want to try the product myself

- I must love the product myself

- The product must be useful for you

If not, I don’t promote the product.

If you see recommandations that you have your doubts about, don’t hesitate to write back and ask more questions.

If the person who recommends the products don’t know how to answer simple questions about it, he probably hasn’t seen it, and is just recommending it for the sake of the profits – not for your sake.

Be careful – it’s a jungle out there!

Have a nice day

P.S.While it’s hard, if not impossible to protect yourself against hacking, you can ease the pain by having a good webhost. I was happy to get help from Hostgator, while one of our biggest sites got hacked. They found the leak, cleaned up the files, and sent us notice about everything they’d done, and how we could close that hole (a forgotten blog that hadn’t been updated). Sign up for Hostgator here, and use “malkadiscount” as a discount code to get the first month for 1 cent, or use their own offer, if it’s better.

One of the latest buzzwords on the Internet is “curation”. When I first heard about it, I didn’t understand a thing about it. Then little by little, as I learnt more, it dawned on me:

Content curation is nothing new. It’s only the word, used in this connection, that is new. I laughed when I discovered that I’ve actually been doing curation since 2003, but back then it didn’t have a fancy name. My friends just – unrightfully – called me the “Copy & Paste Queen”!

Yeah, with friends like that you don’t need enemies

Mashable shares five awesome tips for great content curation in a blog post from a few days ago. The author of the blog post is no other than Steve Rosenbaum, the author of Curation Nation.

I fully agree with his tips, although I’m guilty of not following #2 as well as I should. This is a short resume of the five tips:

Curation Tip #1: Don’t just use curation. Create, too. A combination of both works better than doing only one of the things.

Be part of the content ecosystem, not just a re-packager of it. Often, people think of themselves as either creators or curators as if these two things are mutually exclusive. What a curator really should do is embrace content as both a maker and an organizer. The most successful curators include sites like The Huffington Post, that embrace the three-legged-stool philosophy of creating some content, inviting visitors to contribute some content, and gathering links and articles from the web. Created, contributed, and collected — the three ‘c’s is a strong content mix that has a measurable impact. Why? Because your visitors don’t want to hunt around the web for related material. Once they find a quality, curated collection, they’ll stay for related offerings. 

Curation Tip #2: Follow a schedule. You don’t need to blog daily, but decide how often you will blog – curated and created stuff – and follow that schedule. This is my weak point. I have the best intensions, but a hard time following them. Don’t do as I do. Do as I say in this case

Curation Tip #3: Post on multiple platforms. Don’t just post on your blog. Post on YouTube, Tumble, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Be visible.

Curation Tip #4: Read and comment also. Don’t just write. You must participate in the community. Not just spit out content yourself. Even a re-tweet helps and is easy to do.

Curation Tip #5: Share. Don’t steal. Add a link back to the site you’ve curated from.

Allow me to add a tip: If you find an interesting post that is a curated post, go to the source, and curate that post.

Publishing Kindle books is among the hottest money making ideas at the moment. It’s free and easy to publish book on Amazon, but if you want to sell them, you need a great eCover.

In this blog post, I will cover (lol, pun not intended) two ways to produce great, professionally looking Kindle book covers, without going to Fiverr.

In the first option, you simply click, write and drag your way to the cover. It probably cannot be any easier than that.

In the second option, you use either PhotoShop or Gimp and an awesome template. This is very easy, although not as simple as the first option, and you have more freedom in your choices.

For your convenience, I’ve tested both methods, and I did it for real, so to speak. My husband and I are both launching Kindle eBooks, so what better oportunity than to make our eCovers using these two methods?

Let’s get started.

Create Your Kindle Book Cover Online the Easy Peasy Way

Sam England and Lina T is launching a new service today. It’s called “Instant Kindle E-cover Generator“, and that is no lie! In less than a minute, you can have a nice cover created and downloaded to your hard drive, ready to upload to Amazon, when you’re setting up your Kindle book for sale.

You can hardly find anything easier to use than this. You write the name of your book, your name (or the author name), and you add a picture. If you like, you can change the colour, the fonts, and add or remove some neat effects from the picture and background colour.

I created this eCover for my husband’s book in a few minutes:

Oh, and if you’re wondering what the answer to that question is, remember that my husband is married to me, so of course it’s heaven

More Freedom with eCover Templates

If you prefer to do some of the work yourself, you should opt for the eCover templates for either PhotoShop or Gimp. They are awesome, and if you know how to open one of those programmes, they are very easy to use.

This product is called “Instant Kindle and eCover Creator“, and you can also use it to make 3D covers for other eBooks.

I had already made a cover for my new Kindle book, but when I got hold of these templates, I made a new.

You can see my old cover to the right, and the new one to the left. It looks much more professional, don’t you think? And then it’s easier to see and read from inside the Kindle, if potential customers are searching for books about curation.

If you like to take a look inside and see how you can use these instant templates, watch the short video below.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Now, You Might be Wondering: Which of the Two Products is the Best?

What is best? Chips or chocolate? Salat or steak? Champagne or beer?

Well, it depends on your style, your taste and your mood.

Sometimes, you want something nice, quick and easy, and then the first option is the best.

At other times, you find it fun to tweak the result, play around with the elements, and then the second option is the best.

If you hate using Photoshop or Gimp, then choose the first option.

If you prefer to do as much as you can yourself, then the second option is the one you should go for.

Check them out – they are both great products that I will continue to use. That’s for sure.

Here are the links again:

First option: “Instant Kindle E-cover Generator”

Second option: “Instant Kindle and eCover Creator“

The eBook Pinning Kindle Profits taught me a sneaky (yet honest and ethical) trick to make my Pinterest pictures go viral.

This is very handy to know, because if you pin a nice picture and hope to get some affiliate sales, or maybe you want to promote your Kindle book that way, if nobody sees your pin, or if nobody shares it, you know what?

You’ll make no sales.

This is what I’ve learnt from the book:

You Create a Story with Your Pictures

People love stories.

From we were about one years old, we’ve loved to listen to stories. And we still do. That’s why people read books, or watch movies, or listen to their hair dresser or bar man.

We love stories.

And we share stories!

That’s one of the secrets to go viral – whether it’s on Pinterest, YouTube, or anywhere.

In Pinning Kindle Profits you get a nice tip to create a story line with your pictures. You simply chain them together by adding the link to the next picture in your story in a comment to your pin.

That way, you can chain different boards together, or chain pictures together belonging to the same board.

Easy, and your followers get a full experience by jumping from picture to picture in your story.

Of course, this is pinned (sorry for the pun) out much more in detail in the book.

Click here to learn more

Yesterday, somebody contacted me and asked if I could recommend some kind of software to make money with. I answered that there is no such thing as push-button software, but what wasn’t it that he really wanted?

Something creative, he said.

And immediately, I thought of Pinterest.

Pinterest is creative, and you can make money with it, if you know how to do so.

What I learnt from the eBook Pinning Kindle Profits only take a few minutes to set up, and you can use the knowledge to sell Kindle book (your own or other authors’) or just about any product you like.

I learnt so much from the book, and got so inspired, that I took action directly after.

Click here to learn more

You’re probably just as fet up with it as I am – all those emails telling you to get this, buy that, and purchase this.

But if you want to promote something, how can you do it without being like those cheesy online sales people?

Easy! You give people free tips instead.

Giving away free tips has made me a fortune! I started in 2004 (as far as I remember – maybe 2003 or 2005, it’s not important), and for years it paid our rent and all other expenses.

I made all those nice money with AdSense, and from selling my own products or affiliate products through my tips. Back then, it took a lot of work, but today you have short cuts, and people actually love the modern kind of tips even more.

You’ve heard about Pinterest, right?

You “pin” pictures, but you can add text to your pins, and people can click through to the place the picture was found on.

But that’s not all.

The eBook Pinning Kindle Profits shows you a nice way to make money on Pinterest, just by giving your followers tips. You can sell your own Kindle eBook, other people’s Kindle books, or any kind of product you like by using this method.

I cannot go into detail here, and it would also break copyright rules, but one of the tips you learn is how to share tips with your readers and turn them into money.

Click here to learn more

If you’ve written a Kindle eBook, and you’ve done all the right things, like asking people for reviews (and gotten none), giving it away for free, promoted it through your blog, and you still have no sales, you’re probably tempted to give up and say:

This stuff doesn’t work!

Well, it does.

There are people making a fortune on their own Kindle books, and I have a couple of books there that has sold a bit, even though it’s not in a fitting niche (I later learnt that Internet marketing doesn’t sell on Kindle).

So, it can be done. But how?

The book Pinning Kindle Profits offers an interesting solution. You use Pinterest. It’s free to use, and you can even use it in a way that will make your followers happy.

You can use the same method to promote just about anything. You’re not limited to promoting your own eBook. You can pick others’ Kindle book, or totally different products.

Click here to learn more

You can make a lot of money by having your own digital products to sell, but what if you’re just starting out? Or if you don’t have the time or knowledge to create your own eBook?

Then affiliate marketing is probably for you. You can buy eBooks on ClickBank or Warrior Forum and promote them to others.

Aye, again, there’s a minor pebble here… Some of the ClickBank products cost $97, and you might not have the budget for that. What to do then? Recommend something blindly and hope for the best?

NO!

Your reputation is at stake here. I’ve read marketers who are so fet up with the high ClickBank refund rates. I can’t say that I’ve experienced it myself, because I only recommend good, highquality products that can give the reader a lot of value. But if you pick a product that looks good from the sales page, you might get something bad, or just something that is not related to your audience.

What is the solution then? I’ll tell you what I just discovered.

You’ve heard about Amazon, right? Yes, they sell a lot of tangible goods, but they also sell Kindle eBooks. And those eBooks are often priced very low. You can get books about weight loss for $14 that would cost $97, if they were sold on ClickBank.

Now we’re talking!

Of course your share of $14 will be less than what you could earn from a $97 product, but if – on the other hand – you could sell a lot more copies easily and by free means, wouldn’t it still be interesting?

And you can. If you combine Kindle eBooks with Pinterest, you get an explosive cocktail. This is not something I’ve just come up with. It’s a proven method, and I learnt about it in the eBook Pinning Kindle Profits by Barbara Ling. Awesome book! You can use it to promote just anything you want, not only Kindle eBooks by the way.

Click here to learn more

In copywriting, we talk a lot about features and benefits. Do you know what the difference is between the two?

In short, my definition is that the feature tells you what a product does, while the benefit is what the user can obtain from that feature.

The feature of a smartphone could be a build-in camera. The benefit to the user is that he can easily carry around his phone as well as a camera to take snap-photos when ever there’s an occation, and even make video clips.

Another feature of a smartphone could be that you can install a Kindle reader on it for free. The benefit is that you don’t have to carry around heavy books, but can read on your smartphone and always have your library with you.

While it’s obvious that you can make money with that knowledge on a sales page, how can it help you make money with Pinterest?

Well, as you know, you can pin picures on Pinterest, but instead of just giving them some tame name, you can spice it up by using a benefit, when you add a title to your picture. That will make it more interesting for people to see what you have to share, and to share it with others.

I recently read about this in an eBook that I really love. It’s called Pinning Kindle Profits, and while you can use it to learn how to promote Kindle books on Pinterest and make money, you’re not limited to that. You can use it to promote anything you like, any affiliate product, you want, any of your own products, or even just any of your blog posts.

Click here to learn more

Pinterest is the new cool social picture sharing platform, and obviously, smart marketers have found ways to make money on it.

You can make money on Pinterest. The problem is that it often seems almost rude, when you throw your affiliate link in the face of people, and they will probably neither share nor like your salesy promotions.

There is a way to make money on Pinterest and make your followers happy at the same time. You can also make your pictures go viral and make even more money, just by using one of these smart tricks.

First Step to Promote on Pinterest Without Being Rude – Think Like Your Followers

Right, start thinking like your followers.

You’re now one of your followers, okay? You can even give your follower a name, if you like, and if it makes it easier to think like her.

Let’s call her Shannon.

You’re Shannon, and you’re waking up. It’s 8AM, and you look outside and see that the sky is blue and the birds are singing.

What goes through your mind right now?

“I need to buy stuff, and I’ll go to Pinterest to figure out what to buy from somebody’s affiliate link!”

No?

Probably not, and I bet that you should expect that to happen only on rare occasions.

Your followers are much more likely to go to Pinterest to get entertained, to see cute pictures, to learn something, or to… OH! Stop!

That’s the key!

Give Your Followers Tips and They Will Share

Instead of selling stuff, give your followers tips they can use. Add some great pictures, and you’re ready to go viral.

This is one of the tips – but explained in much more detail, of course – that I’ve learnt from a new eBook that just launched a few days ago. It’s easy to flip through and get ideas from, and you’ll be running before your feed even touches the ground.

The book is called Pinning Kindle Profits, and you can use it to learn how to promote Kindle eBooks or just anything you want. I was really surprised of how many ideas that book sparkled in me.

Click here to learn more