You need content for your site, your marketing, your videos and your social media sharing. You use content in your podcasting, forum posting, content sharing and blog posts.  So, basically, you need content for just about anything in order to create or promote your online products and services.

But, if you’re like most people, creating and managing all of that content is time consuming and generally just a pain in the neck!

You can outsource writing for as low as $5 an article (500 words) to $40.00 and up.  Or you can sit at the computer for most of the day, typing until your fingers hurt. But there is a third alternative! You can use what the gurus have been using and profiting from for years now.

The difference between how they use this resource and how you have used it in the past is often the difference between their income and yours.  They use it to leverage their knowledge and time by using specific techniques so that even the search engines recognize it as original content.

No black hat work-around techniques.  This is straight-up, just-what-Matt-Cutts-ordered original content, infused with your ideas and your voice.

Definition

Private label rights, also known as PLR has been sold online for about a decade now.  Unfortunately, it has developed a bad reputation from poor business practices.

However, true to the original intent of the product, you can still find some of it that retains its quality and versatility.

Basically, PLR is content is written by one person and sold to multiple people at a reduced price.  So, while one original article written for a client may cost as much as $40.00, a quality PLR article may cost just 20 cents!

Each author who sells PLR will define exactly what you can and cannot do with the material. So, be aware of the terms of use and understand that there is NO legal definition of PLR.  This means that any court will define the use of the content you purchased by the terms of use published by the PLR author.

Best Practices

In order to achieve the originality demanded by search engines to please their customers, there are specific techniques that must be used.  The true gold of using private label rights is the research behind the content. Good PLR is researched first and written second.  With some rewriting, quality PLR will give you enough solid information so you can add your voice and ideas to create an original work.

This means that you are not facing a blank white screen, unsure of where to start your content creation. But rather you have ideas, thoughts, philosophies and wisdom already on the screen, ready for you to instill with your own voice and ideas.

15 Different Ways to Profit from PLR

1. Memberships: Create a monthly income for yourself and use PLR to enhance the content.  Creating new and interesting information each month just got easier when you rewrite private label rights content that is well written and well researched.

 

2. Offline Businesses: Businesses require content on their sites and in their ezines.  Use PLR that is injected with the owner’s personality and content from the business to create an original piece that makes the business owner happy and leverages your own time and energy.

 

3. Offline Classes: Are you teaching a class at the local college?  Use PLR to help develop the class syllabus and boost the content you cover.

 

4. Sales Pages: Copywriting is an art.  It touches on the hot buttons of the customers in that niche.  You’ll be able to pull out those hot buttons from well-written PLR and include key phrases that pique the interest of your readers.

 

5. Affiliate Training: Selling your own products? Develop your affiliate army by training them with private label rights content and inserting your own product information.

 

6. Brandable Reports: Affiliates need viral reports that spread the word about your product but are branded with their affiliate links. PLR can help you create those reports without breaking the bank or your fingers!

 

7. Physical Books for Marketing: Looking for a unique business card in your market? Let your ebook be your business card! You don’t have to carry the book – just send people to Amazon where they see it listed for sale.  Voila! You are the expert.

 

8. Home Study Courses: Coaching and teaching people specific techniques just got easier when you incorporate excellent PLR in the development of your content.

 

9. Ecommerce Site: Rank higher in the search engines by incorporating content with links to products for sale. This creates a great internal linking structure and when your articles rank in the search engines, you’ll get readers who click the links and reduce your bounce rate!

 

10. Answer Sites: When you provide quality answers to people’s questions you become the expert. Now you don’t have to create each answer individually – just rewrite them with your own voice.  After you have met the terms of use for the answer site, (like Quora and Yahoo! Answers) you can include your website link and drive traffic to your pages.

 

11. Bonus to Long Time Customers: Have long term customers you want to reward being staying on your list?  Rewrite and add value to a good piece of PLR – it should take you as little as an hour to rewrite and finish a 7-page report that gives your readers value.  You become the hero for a couple of dollars and 60 minutes.

 

12. Printed Offline Newspapers: Yes, there are still offline newspapers! And offline business owners still read them.  Get in with CONTENT and not advertising.  When you call on customers, reference the article or bring it with you.

 

13. Training Guide: Are you teaching readers to train their dogs, get ripped abs or play croquet? Find PLR in the niche and incorporate it into your training guides.  Do NOT use it as is!  Rewrite it and put your own ideas in the content to increase the value and create an original piece of work.

 

14. Wiki Page: Become the author of a Wiki page in your niche and then link your blog to your Wiki page, an authority site.  What a boost to your search engine results!

 

15. Tips Report: Readers LOVE tips!  Create a report with the best tips in your niche and gather your information from quality PLR.  It reduces your research time and leverages your time and money.

Would you like 30 more ways to profit from private label rights?  Watch a video with tons of information that you can start using today and check out the a deeply discounted price on her PLR Profit Program – 3 Blueprints, workbook, checklist, list of resources and audio case study that provides the MAP you need to create quality products using PLR. Get 30 More Ways here

There’s also a large number who go on to mention that they are in their 50′s, 60′s or 70′s and who ask whether they are too old to be taking on the task.

For everyone and anyone who thinks like this, please watch the video below. It’s brilliant and explains the George Burns picture above.

BTW, my mom is now 98 and in her 80′s she learned how to use a computer to use email to communicate with our family abroad and read her favorite online newspapers. With a little bit of help from me and a “for dummies” book she actually had more knowledge of some computer terms than I did.

Ergo, it is NEVER too late and you are NEVER too old!

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below.

Cheers,

Big bummer!

Fortunately however, Shawn Collins and Missy Ward (the conference co-founders) have made it possible for everyone to take part, whether or not you can actually get to the conference.

For Affiliate Summit East 2013, they’ve added a Virtual Pass to the conference.

This pass provides access to all of the videos filmed during conference educational sessions, and will be available approximately four weeks after the event.

Yee-ha!

So, if you’ve always wanted to attend an Affiliate Summit – the best affiliate marketing conference for affiliates, merchants and managers bar none – but are unable to do so – pick up a Virtual Pass today!

BTW, the fastest way to see a list of educational sessions available on their site is to click on ASE13 in the upper right-hand corner of the landing page.

In the Beginning There Was No Security

First consider why we know (or at least used to think) that PCs were safer than mobile devices or cell phones. PCs are what introduced us to the concept of online transactions. Because PCs were locally based, and hardwired, they were always perceived as safer means of communication than using a cell phone. (Much like a landline was considered safer than a cell phone) Even when WI-FI was introduced it was considered highly unsafe, because of potential breaches and hacking.

However, as technology improved and people became used to the concept of online transactions (made possible through brand name companies that stood by said transactions, like eBay, PayPal, Amazon and so on) eventually a shift occurred. We were introduced to secure systems and ultra-secure hardware, as in Linux (a Windows alternative so simple and protected, it was the government’s choice) as well as the Blackberry device, and the VPN (Virtual Private Network) option, which scrambled IP tracing and encrypted information.

Revolutionary Technology

And yes, when the iPhone and other notable mobile units first came out, there was a great deal of trepidation about relying on 3G or WI-FI to conduct business. iPhones and particularly unprotected WI-FI connections were said to be highly dangerous in comparison to hardwired PCs. Blackberry was singled out as the best choice in secure usage, followed by the Linux-derived Android system. The Blackberry in particular earned a great deal of ink for being “too secure,” thanks to modern encryption technology. In fact, a recent article at ZNet reported how the Indian government’s intelligence services can’t even break the Blackberry’s encryption in hopes of counteracting terrorists threats.

Another issue that bears consideration: more people are starting to trust their mobile phones and tablet PCs than their own desktop computers. Why? Sure, desktop PCs have the hardwiring and the tight encryption…but users are now so protective of their smartphones that they are avoiding taking risks downloading suspicious apps. A survey by Metaforic reported that 12% of users stated that the effort and security questions of downloading apps didn’t justify the convenience for online banking. However, 14% of the users said that using a PC system prevented them from accessing online banking.

More Changes Ahead

It’s easy to see the potential for abuse here; Google’s Android system is so open to third party developers that it is now considered one of the most insecure systems for popularity alone—despite a fairly secure system, better than old iPhones.

On the other hand, mobile banking allows users to securely access their accounts in confidence; they always know where their devices are, and hardly ever leave it unattended. The mobile banking sector, for instance, is now tied to an individual. There is no middle man. Furthermore, fast fraud notification and geo-location features are preventing fraud from taking place.

And just remember this. In the coming years, biometric based security will grow significantly. It’s not going to be for desktop computers—it’s going to be for mobile systems. We’re already getting devices like the Ice Cream Sandwich, which actually relies on a person’s face to unlock the phone. Siri for Apple already recognizes voices, and more is coming in speech to text technology.

Lastly, consider that Decisive Analytics compared the latest iPhone and iPad designs and actually declared them more secure than the Blackberry. Now how’s that for rapidly advancing technology?

Huh?

Quick like a bunny to my email account to see if I missed the notice, but nothing there other than GAN’s latest ‘new advertisers’ announcement which arrived less than a week ago. I feel sorry for those new merchants! All that work for naught.

Anyway, I searched and found this post linked from within their affiliate network:

We’re retiring Google Affiliate Network effective July 31, 2013. We’ll continue to support customers over the next few months. Read the announcement here.

That post goes on to say:

Our goal with Google Affiliate Network has been to help advertisers and publishers improve their performance across the affiliate ecosystem. Cost-per-action (CPA) marketing has rapidly evolved in the last few years, and we’ve invested significantly in CPA tools like Product Listing Ads, remarketing and Conversion Optimizer. We’re constantly evaluating our products to ensure that we’re focused on the services that will have the biggest impact for our advertisers and publishers.

To that end, we’ve made the difficult decision to retire Google Affiliate Network and focus on other products that are driving great results for clients.

We’ll continue to support our customers as we wind down the product over the next few months. And there are other products that can help you achieve your goals. Affiliate publishers can continue to earn AdSense revenue through the AdSense network. And marketers can take advantage of other CPA-oriented Google tools like Product Listing Ads, remarketing and Conversion Optimizer to drive valuable online sales and conversions. These areas are growing rapidly and we’re continuing to invest heavily in them.

Thanks for your support of our affiliate product, and we look forward to helping you grow your business in the future.”

In short, how hard they worked to make improvements but decided to shut the network down anyway and that you can still make money with Google Adsense.

Personally, I feel no great loss. My merchant affiliates within the GAN network were few, primarily because I couldn’t stand their clunky interface.

If on the other hand you will be impacted by GAN’s closure, do not wait until July to act on this news.

Find replacement merchants as soon as possible on Commission Junction, Linkshare, Shareasale, Pepperjam or any of the other affiliate networks and start changing your links right away. In many cases, you will find the same merchants on those networks… perhaps with even higher commissions. If you can’t find your current merchant or a replacement, contact the merchant and find out to which network they plan to move.

So, what are your thoughts about the Google Affilaite Network’s closure? Will you be impacted or not? Do you care? Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

“Dutch-clean” is a saying for good reason and growing up in the culture, I embraced the fanaticism wholeheartedly.

It’s a time-wasting curse that I’ve been working to un-do for years — EXCEPT when it comes to my business and especially when it comes to my email list.

Without a doubt, my subscriber list is my most important online business asset.

You’ve probably heard it said many times – “the money is in the list” – and that is absolutely true, even as an affiliate marketer. Simply put, you cannot build a business online (or off) unless you build a list.

That said, really responsive subscriber lists need to be carefully nurtured, fostered and occasionally culled to become really worthwhile over the long term.

One of the best reasons to keep your list clean is because each subscriber costs you money.

For example, Aweber’s pricing plans start at $19 per month for up to 500 subscribers (NOTE: the first month is just $1).

For between 500 and up to 2,500 subscribers, you’ll pay an additional $10 per month AND then an additional $130 per month for between 10,001 and 25,000 subscribers?

Seriously, with subscriber numbers like that, $130 per month is a pittance to pay in terms of how much income you’ll be generating.

However, it’s SUCH a waste of money to pay for names and email addresses of people who have UNsubscribed from your list!

Yup, almost 50 thousand subscribers UNsubscribed that will cost you — well, the ‘contact us’ amount.

That’s why you must take care of your list!

The easiest way to cull your lists is to delete those who are unsubscribed.

To do so, login to your Aweber account, select the list that you want to manage, click the Subscribers tab and then select ‘search’ from the drop-down that appears.

Next, you’ll want to select ‘Stop Status’ is ‘Unsubscribed’ and you’ll get a page resembling the following graphic.

See all those ‘Stop’ statuses? Time to get rid of them! Deleting 152 subscribers is EASY… just click ‘Erase’ at the top right-hand side of the list of unsubscribers, then go to the bottom right-hand side of that list and click ‘Save’.

To save time, select the ’100′ tab in the same area, to see 100 entries per page.

But if you need to delete thousands or TENS of thousands… then Aweber’s staff can and will do that for you. Just send them a request through your account.

Aweber also offers a number of other methods to delete unproductive subscribers as shown in the following graphic. In this example, I’ve chosen to display those who subscribed from Nigeria.

It’s also worthwhile to delete those that are undeliverable.

For more information on how to keep your Aweber account list(s) clean and efficient, take advantage of their free live webinars and extensive help files in the customer area.

And if you don’t have an Aweber account – check them out now. It’s only $1 to try out their system for the first month. I’ve been using their service for almost 15 years and they get my highest recommendation!

Happy spring cleaning. I’m off to do likewise.

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

How is that?

Social media marketing!!

Man Internet marketers use social media marketing to grow their businesses likewise.

For example, Michael Stelzner (the guy who wrote the book on white papers) founded a site called Social Media Examiner.

He relied 100% on social media tactics to drive traffic to his site.

In less than 5 months, he was declared the #1 small business blog in the world by Technorati, added more than 13,000 email subscribers, brought nearly 100,000 people a month to his site and is ranked as one of the top 4700 websites in all of America by Alexa.

He didn’t advertise, didn’t rely on the press and almost none of his traffic is coming from search engines.  Nearly overnight, his site has become a top destination for businesses.

This all took place via social media. He simply leveraged the power of sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to deliver the kind of results that would’ve cost him a fortune in the past. He didn’t spend a dime on marketing, just his time.

Social media is the new marketing frontier because it bypasses all the costly middlemen and allows you to rapidly connect with your customers and prospects! AND this presents an enormous opportunity for you.

SO WHAT’S THIS ABOUT?

By now you’ve probably heard the buzz about Social Media Marketing World happening in San Diego on April 7, 8 and 9, 2013.

Michael (and his team) have been working for months to bring the best minds in social media marketing together at Social Media Marketing World.

The conference includes more than 49-expert led sessions from the biggest names in social media marketing. It takes place at the waterfront San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina. It includes a private networking cruise on the largest private yacht in Southern California and much more! Presenters include Guy Kawasaki, Mari Smith, Chris Brogan, Sally Hogshead, Dave Kerpen, Michael Stelzner, Jay Baer, Amy Porterfield, Mark Schaefer, Jesse Stay and experts from Walmart, Zappos.com, Sony Electronics, TaylorMade Golf and SAP; as well as Brian Carter, John Jantsch and Mitch Joel–just to name a few. Together this team of “who’s who” in social media will help you succeed using practical tactics.

BTW, you don’t need to be a techno-geek to use and benefit from social media. You might be surprised to learn that most social media marketers are aged 30 to 60 and have only been using social media for a few months. In fact, even traditional businesses like Ford Motor Company, Clorox and State Farm Insurance are heavily focused on social media. This is not some “young kids” phenomenon.

The focus of the conference is to empower you to build social media marketing plans, track your social media results and learn from other successful businesses. You’ll also discover how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Foursquare and Groupon to attract high-caliber customers and grow your business during this economic slump.

Not only can you gain amazing exposure for your business with social media marketing, you’ll also generate traffic, increase sales, gain qualified leads and build new partnerships.

Visit the site now.

Here’s to your social media marketing success!

P.S. – Early bird pricing ends Friday March 8, 2013.

P.S.S. – Last but not least – if you can’t attend the conference, you can pick up a virtual ticket.

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

1. First, you learn to sell other peoples’ products,
2. then you learn to sell your own, and finally;
3. the BIG bonus — you get other people to sell YOUR products.

One of the best places to start selling real products online is through Amazon – something I’ve been doing for years with my Super Affiliate Handbook. My other book is marketed on Amazon through its publisher McGraw-Hill. Both products contribute nicely to my income.

Actually, I’ve been rather slack in not producing the Kindle version yet… but I’m sure that would be another nice income supplement.

And remember, Amazon isn’t just about books – they market everything, almost everywhere.

Did you know that of Amazon’s $60 Billion in annual revenue 41% of that (over $25 Billion each year) is produced by entrepreneurs selling products within Amazon’s web site?

Perhaps, best of all for my affiliate marketing students, is that those who are ineligible to join the Amazon affiliate program are more than welcome to become Amazon entrepreneurs.

Two guys who are doing very well as Amazon entrepreneurs are Matt Clark & Jason Katzenback — who earn over $100,000 profit each and every month by selling real products on Amazon.

A few days ago they released a video in which they discuss the opportunity, show how they are doing on Amazon and just how scalable the business is. You can watch the video here. (There is no opt-in email required, however you do have to submit your address if you want to take advantage of their PDF offer – which I suggest you do).

Their 2nd video answers the most-asked question about selling real products online… “What the heck will I sell?“.

They show you how to find golden opportunities on Amazon, what people are looking to buy with little competition, as well as how to find and deal with suppliers. They also manage to prove that the process is easier than you probably think it is.

I highly recommend that you watch both videos.

You’ll learn about the marketing model as well as mistakes to be avoided and building your own brand.

Yes, this is a pre-promo for their upcoming course, The Amazing Selling Machine (yet another name that makes me gag a little). But if selling real products appeals to you, this might be the right course at the right time… it WAS endorsed by one of my original online business mentors, John Reese.

John liked the original version of this Amazon selling course so much that he lent his extraordinary skills to Matt and Jason to help with development and production of the product.

And to me… that’s a HUGE endorsement.

So, check out video 1, video 2, get the PDF and let me know what you think.

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

And then there are those who assume that I was born to be successful, whereas they are somehow flawed and have no chance at success.

For all of them, I have a story to tell…

Mom and Dad were 45 and 38, respectively, when I was born. I was their first and only child.

As recent immigrants to Canada and not particularly social, my parents had very few friends and rarely had people over to visit.

Because my mother worked as a night nurse, I was not allowed to bring friends home to play in the after school hours or on weekends, as her sleep was not to be disturbed.

Inheriting their ‘short people’ stature, I was always the smallest and and therefore the last kid to be picked for sporting events at school. Actually, I was never really ‘picked’. I was the kid whom the team that lost the toss-up had to grudgingly accept.

Those factors alone left me isolated and intensely shy.

And then, for good measure, they installed the self-doubt and lack of self-esteem software.

As quiet as I always tried to be, my mother was forever angry with me for making noise and waking her up. Of course, the squeaky wooden floor between the bedrooms or door hinges that were never oiled were never to blame … everything was always my fault.

Excellence was not encouraged, simply expected.

However, despite multiple awards, school crests and constant straight A’s, they were never satisfied and I was never good enough. Comments like “You’re not ____ enough”, and “Why can’t you play the piano like ___?” were doled out daily.

Phrases such as ‘good job’, ‘well done’, ‘smart girl’ or even ‘I love you’ had escaped my parents’ lexicon.

As icing on the cake, my dad was a clinically-depressed alchoholic (a mean drunk) and my mom was his Dutch Calvinist (zero sense of humor) co-dependent.

Moreover, my mom was quite frank about never having wanted kids.

Small wonder I lacked in all the good ‘selfs’… confidence, worth, esteem.

On the other hand, I had gained self-doubt in spades.

Fortunately, I developed interests that eventually led to a few self-esteem enhancing achievements; a career as an air traffic controller, making big wads of money as an affiliate and later authoring a book and speaking on the subject.

Better yet, I’d made some very good friends along the way.

So, when 3 years after leaving my air traffic control job, my earnings tanked so badly one month that I seriously doubted my future as an affiliate marketer — I made an important phone call to one of those friends.

I simply asked “If this all goes for a sh*t, can I have a room at your place?” to which my friend immediately replied, “Yes, of course“.

Whooosh!

And just like that, all of the fear and self-doubt vanished in a second.

Ditching the fear gave me the brain space to find out what I’d done wrong, correct it and keep moving forward with my business — which has been successful ever since.

My ah-ha moment came in knowing that I had someone on whom I could rely if and when I needed support. Simple as that and nothing mattered more.

That happened a decade ago and I feel so fortunate to have completely shed the shackles of fear and self-doubt.

That, to my mind, is complete freedom.

I don’t know what will help you create your ah-ha moment — but I do hope that you get there.

Maybe it’s deciding that you’re too old to hang on to someone else’s crap view of you any longer. Or, choosing to ignore the negative inner voices. Or, embracing the wisdom in that ageless classic by Wayne Dyer, “Your Erroneous Zones“. OR, it could be years of therapy… but that gets expensive, so maybe you should get the book first.

Besides, about half of the therapists you ever meet will be more screwed up than you ever could be. Seriously, that information is based on experience.

So, do whatever you have to do… but do it.

I think what ultimately changed my life in so many ways was that I never stopped trying.

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

P.S. I should say that I feel not one speck of resentment for how I was raised or the people responsible. I actually feel sad that they themselves were so scarred and unhappy.

Ironically, I am grateful. For, if not for the years I spent hiding in my room, reading scores of books and pouring my soul out to my diaries – I may never have become a rich, happy writer.

Well, there is no better place to do either or both than at an industry conference.

Listed below are a few of those that I can heartily recommend as worth your time, effort and resources.

Underground Online Seminar

Performance Marketing Summit

Social Media Marketing World

Affiliate Management Days

About: Affiliate Management Days – Mastering the Management of Affiliate Programs is the must-attend event for affiliate managers who are responsible for their company’s affiliate marketing strategy, management and operations. Whether you have an existing affiliate program or you are creating a new initiative, AM Days offers you the most valuable insight into how other online retailers are successfully implementing and managing their affiliate programs.
Where and When:

San Francisco, California – April 16 – 17, 2013
London, England – May 15 – 16, 2013

Check out Affiliate Management Days

Affiliate Summit East 2013

SES Conference and EXPO Series

About: SES is the leading global event series about search and social marketing. Focusing on tactics and best practices, SES events bring together thought leaders and industry experts—from private consultants to representatives from the search engines themselves—to provide YOU with the skills to succeed in online marketing.
Where and When:

• SES London February 18-21, 2013
• SES New York March 25-28, 2013
• SES Shanghai May 29-30, 2013
• SES Toronto June 12-14, 2013
• SES San Francisco Sept 10-13, 2013
• SES Hong Kong Sept 2013
• SES Berlin Oct 2013
• SES Chicago November 4-7, 2013
• SES Singapore November 2013
• SES New Delhi December 2013

Get more information on a SES Conference and EXPO Series event near you!

Stay tuned for more!

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,