Wealthy Affiliate Marketing

I Made My First Ever Internet Marketing Sale!!

2007-08-22T14:09:00.001-07:00

I wrote a Squidoo article about 3 weeks ago before I started the 30 Day Challenge.

Check it out:
http://www.squidoo.com/manually-removing-spyware

Anyway, I look in my Clickbank account and there it was: $26.93 from a spyware product.

Here is the screenshot:

I am so much more motivated since it actually works!!

I've learned so much from the 30 Day Challenge and Wealthy Affiliate.

Simply amazing.

Are You Using Features And Benefits In Your Sales Copy?

2007-08-22T12:29:00.000-07:00

I was checking out the Wealthy Affiliate forums and I came across this neat little tip on Benefits & Features.

First of all, do you even KNOW what the difference is between a Feature and a Benefit?

Features: These are the characteristics of the product or service. They talk about what the product or service will do.
Benefits: These are the characteristics that HELP the customer. They talk about how it makes the customer's life easier.

So here's the tip:
Write the Product, the feature(s) of a product, then write the corresponding benefit(s).

Examples:
Product: Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse
Feature: This mouse can be used 10 feet away from the base of the transmitter.
Benefit: This mouse allows you to operate your computer while relaxing on your couch.

Product: School Backpack
Feature: Backpack straps are padded with extra foam for comfort.
Benefit: These backpack straps are so padded that it will feel like you're not even wearing a backpack at all.

Questions to ask:
Feature: What does this product do? What are the technical characteristics?
Benefits: How does this help your customer? Does the benefit make the customer's life easier?

When you start implementing more benefits-driven copy, you will definitely be getting more sales because you are engaging your customer's emotions towards their decision making process.

Here are more resources:
Marketing Features Vs Benefits
Sell Benefits, Not Features
Entrepreneurs: Benefits vs. Features-Know the Difference!

Need More Niche Ideas?

2007-08-20T00:45:00.001-07:00

Check out this post by Mark at 45n5.com:
695 Niche Ideas From the Thirty Day Challengers

He pretty much grabbed all the keywords that took 2 weeks of research in the thirty day challenge and compiled a list for all to see. (My niche is in there too)

I know many will be angry and some will praise him. But I think the message is pretty clear: Internet Marketers need to think differently in order to compete.

I guess this is the halfway point where all the 30 Day Challengers start all over again.

Oh well. Here we go again.

My Question Was Answered!

2007-08-20T00:40:00.001-07:00

That question was: "Should I be moving my tumblr blog after the mass deletion of all the 30DC accounts?"

I log in this morning, and there it was: "ACCOUNT SUSPENDED". I'm in the process of working on ezine articles and I wasn't sure if I should point it back to the tumblr blog or not.

Well I know what the answer is now.

Lesson Learned: Internet Marketers need to come up with ways to be different.

Despite the guidance from our 30DC leader, we still need to think for ourselves on how we can better serve our customers. The key to competition is differentiation. We need to be able to come with different angles to be able to compete in a market.

How To Put Social Bookmarking Buttons On Your Blogger

2007-08-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

I've always wondered how to put those neat little social bookmarking icons at the end of each post. If you take a look at the end of each of my posts, you will see a row of icons.

Here's a little guide to adding these social bookmarking buttons to your posts

First off, you need to download the icons. Right-click each icon and save it to a folder somewhere.
Open a photobucket.com account and upload the icons there.
Follow the resources at this blog: Adding Social Bookmarking Buttons To The NEW Blogger!
Add the code to your template between the "div class='post-footer'" tag
Save changes and enjoy!

You may have also noticed that I have a digg link at the beginning of each post. Here's the guide:

Open your Blogger Template by editing the HTML
Do a search for "data:post.body". This contains the content of your post. You will be placing the code after this tag.
Follow the resources at this blog: Add Digg button to Blogger or Blogspot
Save changes again and enjoy!

Start by "Digging" this post and clicking on your favorite Social Bookmarking icons below!

What A Crazy Week!!

2007-08-17T09:10:00.000-07:00

It's been almost 6 days since my last post and I've been so busy (and lacking so much sleep!). Thank god it's Friday!

Here are the things I've accomplished this week:

Wrote some articles (I'm still behind the 3 per day assignment)
Created my tumblr.com blog for my niche
Signed up in Clickbank and found an affiliate product to promote
Submitted my blog to several social bookmarking sites including stumble, del.icio.us, netscape.com, and digg
Created a landing page for my other niche to use for a pay per click campaign (This is for the Wealthy Affiliate 8-Week Course)
Purchased a domain name and web hosting
Setup Google Analytics and Feedburner for my new websites

Checking this morning, I have achieved ranking between #1 and #8 in Google for various phrases. I think this is really exciting because of the fact that it happened so fast. I was under the impression that getting a organic listing in Google would take weeks or even months to do.

I have yet to see my first sale, but generating traffic is so exciting!

Watch Out When Using Keyword Tools

2007-08-11T01:49:00.001-07:00

There are a lot of keyword tools you can use out there:

Wordtracker
Overture
Keywords Analyzer
Keyword Discovery
etc, etc.

I was reading this article on KeywordWorkshop.com titled "Keyword Data Is Almost Always Wrong".
http://www.keywordworkshop.com/articles/41/1/Keyword-Data-Is-Almost-Always-Wrong

Basically, it states how keyword tools will always have varying results. This is because of the fact that you can't sample all of the searches for the entire world wide web! Even google doesn't have a complete sample of the world wide web. I believe that maybe half of the Internet Users you Google primariliy to search, but this means that the other half uses other search engines.

Quote: from KeywordWorkshop.com
"Wordtracker (one of the leading keyword research companies) samples around 2% of the total Internet search volume. This sample size will provide some relatively stable data for popular keywords, but will proportionally become less accurate as the keyword popularity decreases. In simple terms, the less popular the keyword, the more likely that keyword data source will be wrong."

This is kind of interesting since for most Internet Marketers, we will be targeting Long Tail Keywords which does have less traffic than popular keywords.

This brings up interesting questions:

Which keyword tool should I use?

Wordtracker is able to sample 2% of the total Internet Search volume, which can be a healthy sample, but keep in mind that the less popular keywords may reside in that 98%.

How reliable can a keyword tool be?

Keyword tools may not be reliable because of the fact that the all searches on the Internet cannot be sampled.

If it's not reliable, what should I use if for?

You should use keyword tools to generate ideas. Use the numbers as indicators of popularity rather than exact searches per day/week/month/whatever. I believe that the numbers can be used relatively to each other to determine their popularity.

What else can I do?

Use your head, Internet Marketers need to have creative angles in order to survive in their industry.
Also, when in doubt, use 2 or more tools to verify your results. In the 30DC, they advocate using Google Trends and Wordtracker together to verify the search volume.

Just keep in mind that since you are looking for Long Tail Keywords, you may be passing on a niche opportunity if the Keyword Tools don't add up correctly but you feel that it may be a good niche.

Over time, you will start to understand what might work and not work. Trust your instincts and your gut feeling!

I would have to say that overall, the best keyword tool is your Brain!

Need Resources in One Place? Solution: The 30DC Hotsheet

2007-08-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

Here's a hotsheet of links for the first half of the 30DC.

The 30DC Hot Sheet

Software and Plugins

Smart Digg Button: http://neothoughts.com/2007/04/27/firefox-extension-smart-digg-button/
StumbleUpon ToolBar: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/138
TwitterBar: http://spatialviews.com/twitterbar
Session Manager Toolbar: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2324
Del.icio.us extension:https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1532
TDC Toolbar: http://thirtydaychallenge.ourtoolbar.com/exe
ScribeFire: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1730
SEOplugin: http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html
Garrett's Wordtracker / Trends tool: http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/blog/94/wordtracker-trends-tool/
Google Notebook: http://www.google.com/notebook/download

Niche Research

How to do stuff

Discussions

Hot Lists and Popular Items

Quick Checklist

Niche Brainstorming: Start looking for needs, wants, problems, questions in different industries
Keyword and Competition Analysis: Write down number of sites on Google Search, Wordtracker and GTrends
Niche Judgement: Evaluate keyword against criteria

Keyword Research and Testing

Resources

Keyword Criteria

Competiton: Less than 25,000-30,000 competing sites
Search Volume: More than 80-100 searches per day

Web 2.0 Properties

An EASY way to assess Web 2.0 Properties: http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1933
List of Web 2.0 Sites to watch out for:

Squidoo
Hubpages
Tumblr
Netscape
Ezinearticles
Myspace
Youtube
Ehow
USfreeads
Zimbio

Other Resources

Official Notes for 30DC: Mike Mindel's Blog - http://www.webventurer.com/blog/

30DC: Is The GTrends Technique Really Reliable?

2007-08-10T15:57:00.000-07:00

Someone asked on the 30DC forum about whether the Google Trends technique is a reliable source of determining Google Search traffic. This made me think that it's possible that maybe Dan's method may not be so accurate after all.

Here is the argument I made on the forum:

Quote:

Originally Posted by learningcurve

Hi everyone,

If you have Google Analytics set up for your site, you can track ACTUAL VISITS to your site by KEYWORD...so you can, in fact, determine how much traffic you're receiving per keyword per day (or any other period of time, for that matter.) This is how you'll be able to determine actual traffic numbers for your own keywords and replace MYI with your own phrase as your benchmark.

So, if Dan says he's getting 500 visitors a day on the keyword "male yeast infection" - I'm pretty sure he knows that for sure.

Suzanne

Google Analytics is a great tool and you can check the ACTUAL VISITS to your SITE by KEYWORD. For those who don't know what Google Analytics is, Check out the product tour on their website:

http://www.google.com/analytics/

Suzanne you are correct about being able to see the actual visits for your site. However, your conclusion is incomplete.

THEORETICAL EXAMPLE
Let's say I own a domain called www.mynicheproducts.com. I set up Google Analytics and rank #1 in the natural search of Google.com. I also heavily optimize my site for the keyword "sausage making in my basement".

For the sake argument, let's say that 100% of the time that someone types in "sausage making in my basement" in Google, they ALWAYS click on www.mynicheproducts.com. Let's say that Google Analytics reports that I have 500 clicks per day for "sausage making in my basement". Therefore, it would probably be safe to assume that I can go into Google Trends and just match the numbers with what I have on Google Analytics. Also, the line graph in Google Trends should be the same graph in Google Analytics.

REALITY
The problem is that for the #1 rank you may not get 100% of the clicks every time someone searches for "sausage making my basement". You may get 40%... 60%-80%... who knows... Marketing is almost an art because the science of consumer psychology are not always exact numbers.

A Guess at Dan's Methodology
1.) Take the average of the #1 or #2 spot (i.e. 40% of searches are click throughs) <<< This is where the problem is, how do you determine the average?
2.) Write the average of daily clicks over a week or 2 week period (i.e. 300 clicks daily)
3.) GTrends Baseline = (1 - [% of searches]) * [average daily clicks]

CONCLUSION
I really do like the technique, however, I think it's important to understand how reliable this technique is. The issue lies is how to determine the baseline of a Google Trends line graph.

RESOURCES
Here's an article that may help define the average of different ranking of sites:
Click Through Rate of Google Search Results - AOL-data.tgz - Want to Know How Many Clicks The #1 Google Position Gets?

So what is the Clickthrough Rate of the #1 and #2 spots on Google.com?
The following image is from Redcardinal.ie:

It gives an interesting statistic:

The #1 ranked site receives ~42% clickthroughs of search results
The #2 ranked site receives ~11% clickthroughs of search results

This means that the #1 and #2 spots receive HALF of the search results for a keyword. I don't know how this data was generated but it could be representative of the search results we see on Google.

30DC Criteria

Since our criteria for a keyword is at least 80-100+ searches per day, we should have the following:

If we had the #1 spot for a keyword, we should be getting about 40-50 clicks per day
If we had the #2 spot for a keyword, we should be getting about 8-10 clicks per day

30DC: Day 8 and Day 9 - The Quick Checklist

2007-08-09T23:27:00.000-07:00

Back to the Drawing Board!

Wow! what a wealth of knowledge that was. I found out that all my niches had absolutely no potential in Google Trends. So I began my journey back to the beginning. The funny thing, though, is that the process was much faster the second time around and I was able to find 4 good niches to work with!

It also helps to have Garrett's toolbar: Wordtracker / Trends Tools (30 Day Challenge Blog)

Niche Research Checklist

Niche Brainstorming: Start looking for needs, wants, problems, questions in different industries

Mike Mindel's "Getting Stuck for Ideas?" Post
Google Groups, Yahoo Answers, eHow.com, technorati, wannalearn, etc, etc

Keyword and Competition Analysis

Write down number of sites on Google Search
Write down number of search on Wordtracker

Noticing

Do " + affiliate" search and notice the number of affiliate programs
Look at Google Sponsored Ads to see who is promoting a product

Niche Judgement

Make a matrix of Niche Market, Description/Notes, Umbrella Keyword, Wordtracker, Google Results, and Google Trends.
Criteria:

Wordtracker: 80-100+ searches per day
Google Search Less than 25,000-30,000 competiting sites
Google Trends: 80-100+ searches per day

Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

30DC: Day 7 - How to interpret results and searches for an "Umbrella Phrase"

2007-08-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a screenshot of my "Umbrella Phrase" research:

After going back and forth between Google and Wordtracker, I have finally filled in the necessary fields for my spreadsheet. This is where the science mixes with the art of market research.

The RS Ratio

If you notice in my spreadsheet I have a column called "Results / Searches Ratio". What this is the "Number of Search Results(Google)" Divided by the "Number of Searches(Wordtracker)".

The reason why I use this number is to determine the possibility of penetrating a niche. The LOWER this number is, the more probable I can market to this niche.

For example, I have a keyword phrase: "play the sims game" which gets 7604 searches per day with 896 sites from google.com, so therefore my R/S ratio = 7604 / 896 = 0.117. Therefore, this may be a good niche to market to. Of course, "play the sims game" may seem a bit broad, but it can be used to generate some sort of traffic from it.

Anyway, based on the numerical results, I highly recommend that you use this ratio to sort out your niches on whether it is a good idea or not.

30DC: Day 6 - 3 More Things to "Notice" about your Niche!

2007-08-08T16:03:00.000-07:00

This part is the "noticing" phase. The exercise is mostly about noticing various characteristics about niches:

Sponsored Ads
Affiliate Programs
Daily Searches
Google Trends

Here is a snapshot of the niches I am focusing on:

Anyway, I've noticed that most of the keywords I used to determine affiliate programs, competition, and trends are not really targeted. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised that I might have to go back to the drawing board when researching niches.

Here are some things that I recommend "noticing" when doing market research:

Pay attention to the consumer.

Does this niche solve any problems?
Try to put yourself in the shoes of the consumer: "If I was in the market looking for XXX, what would I search for in Google?"

Pay attention to potential popular resources

Look for forums or groups that participate in the niche market
Dig into these forums/groups to find more information about your niche. You might even find a more targeted niche than the one you already have!

Pay attention to the words and phrases that relate to the niche

Look at how the the niche is talked about within communities
Unbiased conversations are valuable resources. It will usually reveal the needs and wants of the consumer in the market.
It is now your job to fulfill that need and want of the consumer!

I think that this part of the 30DC is more of an art than an exact science. It is important to think in terms of consumer psychology rather than numbers. So, for those participating in the challenge, try to change your mindset to the consumer's and you will see more opportunities as you do your research!

So go out there and start "Noticing"!

Article Marketing Update: What is Bum Marketing?

2007-08-06T13:23:00.000-07:00

After creating my article on squidoo for "Manually Removing Spyware", I wanted some feedback on what others thought about my article. I posted on the Wealthy Affiliate forums and a user by the name of Benjamin pointed me to his FAQ. He led me to a very good resource from Travis Sago about Bum Marketing.

Anyway, my ranking for my Squidoo article has gone from #12,000+ to #2758 over the weekend! The MAIN reason for this was that people were clicking on my article and checking it out because of the post on the wealthy affiliate forum.

The point is, that by driving traffic to the site, it can gain popularity by very simple and free methods such as:

Forum Marketing
Article Marketing
Blog Marketing
Social Networking

I was able to drive about 30 clicks from my forum post. The Article Marketing method suggests that I create an article which refers back to my squidoo article by submitting to ezines or goarticle. The methods suggest providing helpful suggestions through forum posts, blog comments and social networking groups discussions.

I'm guessing that during the 30DC that we will using facebook and teams to help generate to each others site since this is what happened for me in the forums.

I have yet to make my first sale from this site, and from what I heard, it takes time for free traffic to generate a sale since the traffic just trickles in.

More to come in the future!

30DC: Visual Learners! Pay Attention!

2007-08-06T02:18:00.001-07:00

If you haven't done so already... Read all of Mike Mindel's posts on Niches and Markets:

http://www.webventurer.com/blog/thirty-day-challenge-3/

In my last post, I wrote about a cool tool called FreeMind. I started using it develop my ideas and I found it very easy to brainstorm quickly in this tool.

I'm a Visual Learner, How does this help me?

For those that need a visual tool to develop their ideas, this is it! I used Mike Mindel's little formula:
Market + Niche = Niche Market

So using that formula, I applied it to my Freemind Map.

Key:
M: Market
N: Niche
NM: Niche Market

Here is a screen shot of my brainstorming session:

Freemind - Mind Mapper and Visual Research

2007-08-03T10:53:00.001-07:00

Inspired by the image in Life Conquest's Post about "How to go from Niches to Microniches", I went about looking for a visual research tool to develop my ideas. Although I haven't fully started using it to its maximum potential, I wanted to post about the this freeware tool for outlining ideas.

The tool that I am talking about is:

Freemind - http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Here are some screen shots (Click the thumbnail for larger image):

Are you using Feedburner??

2007-08-03T10:17:00.001-07:00

I don't know about you guys, but I am addicted to blogging! I think I am just really excited because I feel like there is a reward at the end of all this hard work. Anyway, I wanted to talk about feedburner.com because I find it a very useful tool.

The reasons why I use it:

It's blogger friendly (as well as other types)
It tracks the number of subscribers on my blog and displays it on my page
It provides the statistics of how many clicks and where they are going
It automatically pings different services when you post (ping-o-matic, bloglines, technorati, etc)
It appends links to the end of each post so subscribers can tag, link, e-mail, and share
Best of all, tt's FREE! (Google acquired Feedburner)

Anyway, Check it out at http://www.feedburner.com

30 DC: Day 3 (a bit delayed)

2007-08-03T10:10:00.000-07:00

Currently, Ed Dale is updating his servers to accommodate the large load of participants that are downloading the materials for the challenge. Apparently, there is a huge surge it network traffic and he won't have the server up until the afternoon.

He posted the alexa for the thirtydaychallenge site vs thesimpsonsmovie and is quite interesting!

Check it out!

Thirty Day Challenge nearly beating The Simpsons Movie

My First Squidoo Lens (UPDATE!)

2007-08-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

One of the assignments in the Wealthy Affiliate 8-Week Action Plan was to create an article. As stated in the previous post, I decided to write about how to remove spyware manually:

http://www.squidoo.com/manually-removing-spyware

Here's an update to my first Squidoo lens:

The ranking went from 200,000+(Jul 31) to 14,535(Aug 1) to 12,710(Aug 2). I'm hoping this means I'll be gaining more traffic as my ranking goes up. So far, I've received 8 unique incoming clicks to my lens with 1 outgoing click to one of my affiliate products, but no buyers.

I was reading a post on the Wealthy Affiliate forum, and they were talking about submitting the article to digg, stumbleupon, and del.icio.us. It seemed to help my ranking a bit, so hopefully it will rise again tomorrow.

I think if I can get this right, I can probably duplicate the process again and again to make a decent amount of income.

This is really exciting stuff and I can't wait to reach my first goal: Making my first sale!

30 Day Challenge - Day 2 (7 Tips to Finding a Great Market)

2007-08-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

In my previous posts, I was talking about having a critical eye and a creative mind. It is very important that when browsing different categories and topics, that your mind is constantly thinking of different ways to penetrate a market.

I came upon this great post by Adomas Kontautas at Income Hero.

He talks about "Find what People..."
...are talking about
...want to learn
...are reading
...are buying
...are searching for
...are asking
...are passionate for

Check out his post now: 7 Tips to Find a Great Market

So to summarize, when looking at a topic or category, ask yourself these questions:

What topics are people talking about?
What are people trying to learn in this topic?
What are these people in this topic reading about?
What things do these people buy that are related to this topic?
What are people mostly searching for?
What questions are people asking about in this topic?
What are people most passionate about?

30 Day Challenge - Day 2 (Research Ideas)

2007-08-02T14:54:00.001-07:00

Here is some samples of what I came up with. I came up with a list of 15-20+ ideas so I just have to pick 7.

Ebay Pulse Method
Computers & Networking > Software > Business & Productivity
1. microsoft office 2007
2. microsoft office 2003
3. microsoft office
4. office 2003
5. quickbooks
6. office 2007
7. office
8. quicken
9. microsoft word
10. microsoft office xp

Niches:
-How to work efficiently in Microsoft Office with useful shortcuts

Google Groups
Best Crock Pot Recipes
Crock Pot Recipes
Category: Other, Language: English
Low activity, 2048 members, restricted
http://groups.google.com/group/BestCrockPotRecipes?lnk=gschg

Google Trends Method (Hot Trends)
ramen noodle recipes
http://google.com/trends/hottrends?q=ramen+noodle+recipes&date=2007-7-31&sa=N

Yahoo Answers
Pets
-How do you get a lazy cat to lose weight?

30 Day Challenge - Day 2

2007-08-02T14:39:00.000-07:00

Day 2 - Getting Ideas

Today's assignment is to get 7 ideas based on the market research tools he gives us in his videos. His methods are very simple to implement and I think anyone with an open mind could probably generate more than 7 ideas easily.

Here is a summary of what I learned about market research.

Ebay Pulse Method
http://pulse.ebay.com

The key to using the ebay Pulse method is to drill down into different categories and try to think of different topics to talk about based on the popular searches from that category.
Opinion: I like this method. It is a good method of getting deeper into specific categories and is definitely and excellent place to start.

Technorati Method (Popular)
http://technorati.com/pop/

There are different blogs to check out that might bring in new ideas
Opinion: Might be a bit difficult for the absolute beginner since a lot of digging and an active mind are required.

Google Groups (Browse All Groups Categories)
http://groups.google.com/groups/dir

Take a look at "Activities" and then drill down into different "Topics".
Yahoo Groups can also be used in the same way
Opinion: This kind of neat because of the diverse and strange topics that people are interested in, which helps to open the mind a bit more to new ideas.

Google Trends Method (Hot Trends)
http://google.com/trends/hottrends

Going to different dates and going down the list looking for things you can write about or a potential product or market you can promote/sell.
Opinion: This may be difficult and requires a critical eye to see the small details. Also, by having a creative eye, a person can see potential in various searches.

Yahoo Answers
http://answers.yahoo.com/

Looking through the categories for popular questions is a good way of generating ideas.
It is also good to think of it as someone is looking for a solution and the Internet Marketer can fulfill that need.
Opinion: I like this method since it shows what people are having issues with. I think this allows the Internet Marketer to think of possible solutions and therefore possible potential products/markets.

30 Day Challenge - Day 1

2007-08-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

Action Steps
Day 1 is very has very simple action steps today which is to watch the video, podcast, catch up with preseason videos and create a list of niches.

On the forum, I am part of the Team Los Angeles 1 group and we are in the process of setting of facebook groups.

Create a list of niches
The list of niches and markets will mainly come from my interests rather than random topics. I feel that it is easier to talk and write about things that I know about rather than trying to learn something and regurgitate what I learn about it like a school paper.

Also, I think that at this stage it is very IMPORTANT to not be biased on what you think will sell or what will not sell. I guess it's more of a idea brainstorming session than deciding what price and what market to sell a product at.

1. Markets and Categories: Hobbies

Computers
Sports

2. Narrow Down into smaller markets

Computers

Internet Security
Computer Repair

Sports

Basketball
Snowboarding

3. Narrow down into even SMALLER markets

Computers

Internet Security

Removing adware and spyware
Preventing identity theft on the Internet
Using firewalls and routers

Computer Repair

Spring cleaning your PC
How to make a computer faster
Best keyword and mice for working more efficiently

Sports

Basketball

Increase Vertical Leap
How to dunk a basketball
Dribbling better
Increase quickness
Best shoes for basketball

Snowboarding

Learning how to carve on a snowboard
Essential gear for going snowboarding

I think I read that another good way of generating niche ideas would be to use eBay categories to get ideas.

My First Squidoo Lens!

2007-07-31T17:23:00.000-07:00

One of the tasks on Wealthy Affiliate's 8-Week Action Plan - Week 2 is to create an article. The lesson plan suggested Squidoo.com, so I figured it sounded like a good idea.

Anyway, I just wrote my first Squidoo Lens and I don't really know what to expect really. I guess it's more of an experiment rather than a deliberate money maker. I wrote about something I knew and attached some clickbank products. Hopefully, I can get some sort of feedback on how this whole article marketing thing works.

How to Manually Remove Spyware From Your PC: http://www.squidoo.com/manually-removing-spyware

I used the following steps to formulate my article:
1.) Determine a market and drill down into the niche:

Computers -> Spyware -> Spyware Removal -> How to remove Spyware -> How to remove spyware manually.

2.) Determine the search demand: Using the general seed word for "spyware removal" listed several thousand search volume using the SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool

SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool: http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/

3.) Determine products to promote in Clickbank:

4.) Write an article on how to remove spyware manually and then create a module for the 3 different products.

5.) Publish the article

I'm kind of saying to myself, "So, what now?". Does it generate natural traffic? I'm guessing people use squidoo as a resource like google, so I guess we'll see what happens.

I have much to learn!

30 Day Challenge

2007-07-30T22:37:00.000-07:00

I subscribed to Ed Dale's 30 Day Challenge at http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com. This will be kind of interesting to do while I am learning at Wealthy Affiliate.

Although I do not know what to expect entirely, I think that the 30DC will be focusing on article marketing, forum marketing and other inexpensive methods of generating that first sale.

My focus for Wealthy Affiliate will most likely be targeted niche keywords for affiliate products using pay per click advertising as the main source for traffic generation.

Wealthy Affiliate 8-Week Course: End of Week 1

2007-07-30T22:23:00.000-07:00

Wealthy Affiliate 8-Week Course - Week 1

In week 1, most of the materials were to:

get acquainted with the forum
post an intro in the forum
get started with the resource center

So far I've read a lot of the materials in the beginner and intermediate sections.

Most of the topics included:

Internet Marketing Basics
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Common Keyword Technique
Ad Copy Writing
How to setup a Web Site
Keyword Research
Performing Market Research

MyBase

Also, I have tried the trial version of MyBase and is an excellent program. The trial version of the WebCollect plug-in is cool as well since it allows you to embed web pages into the database itself. I think I will be making this program as my primary choice for organizing my data and information.

Some of the cool features include:

Being able to attach any type of file to a node (.doc, .pdf, ,.jpeg, etc)
Embedded Web Browser that is able to view your saved web pages
2GB of database size (if it ever reaches that, just create a new database - Each database gets it own tab in the tree browser!)
RTF Styles make it easy to style the page just like a Microsoft Word document
Linking to another node allows a reference to related notes
Labels allow each node to be "tagged" with multiple labels
Custom icons: attach any 16x16 bitmap image to be used as icons for each node
And much more... This program has waaaaay too many features.

Source: http://www.wjjsoft.com/

Information Management

I have been organizing a lot of data so that I can create a process or procedure for creating my marketing campaigns. Here is the outline that I currently am following:

Market Research: Discover Niche to Target
Keyword Research (Niche Demand): Analyze Niche Profitability
Product Research: Determine products to sell within niche
Keyword Research (Product Demand): Analyze Niche Profitability
Keywords Financial Analysis: Find Cheap Keywords for PPC
PPC Ad Copywriting: Write Copy for Different Ad Groups
Create Landing Page: Design Optimized Site for Ad
Testing: Split-test and tweaking

These steps are almost to be taken in order from top to bottom, so I guess I'll find out if my process can be replicated when I actually create my first campaign.

More to come in the future!