Grasp The Nettle

Work At Home Ideas That Anybody Can Do

2008-07-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of people out there who are worried about the current economic situation, high oil prices and the looming recession.

Are you one of them?

Many people in that situation are looking for a viable alternative such as working from home on the Internet. They are not concerned about whether they do a paid online job or build an Internet marketing start-up business.

They just want to make some money on the Internet without having to paying anything to get started.

So, let's look at a few work at home ideas that anybody can do. The great thing about working at home on the Internet is that it just doesn't matter...

whether or not you have any prior experience of the Internet or marketing...
where in the world you live (up to a point)...
what your current financial situation is...
whether you are male, female, something in between or none of these options...
what creed, colour or orientation you are.

You could be Miss Purple doing it in the Lotus Position with a candlestick... and still make money on the Internet!

So don't tell me you "haven't got a cluedo"!

When it comes to working at home on the Internet, ONLY THREE THINGS MATTER

You have a computer that ain't busted.
You have internet access.
You are willing to learn.

Sorry, I just thought of a fourth!

4. You are willing to pull your socks up and then work them off!

Okay, enough of the qualifying statements. Here are five ways you can get started working at home for free.

1. Affiliate marketing: This is the fastest way to get yourself set up and making money on the Internet because everything is provided for you. You simply join an affiliate program for free and get your own website with products already on it.

The sales and shipping are all done for you. You earn a commission and get paid directly from the affiliate merchant you represent.

2. Private label right products: The big advantage with PLR is that the products are already created. You can customize them if you want to, but you do not have to. You get to keep 100% of the profits. Check out PLRwholesaler.com which is free to join.

3. Start a blog with Blogger.com: Blogger.com is a free blogging service which is owned by Google. Sign up to Blogger, then join the Google Adsense affiliate program and put ads on your blog pages. You'll earn a small commission every time an ad is clicked on.

4. Blogging for cash: There are thousands and thousands of blogs out there that are crying out for quality content. Blog posts do not have to be very long. Certainly not as long as some of mine! Decide how much to charge per post, how long each post will be and how many posts you will write per month.

Then start contact blog owners until you get a group of clients to write for. You can earn hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month doing this.

5. SFI: Start your own free home business with SFI. SFI is the largest direct selling company in the world. SFI operates in over 100 countries worldwide, so wherever you live you will probably be able to set up an SFI busienss. Incidentally, SFI provide comprehensive free training and are constantly improving on their product range and marketing.

Armed with these five free work at home ideas ANYBODY can work from home on the Internet and succeed online - FAST!

(YES! That includes YOU!!)

Best wishes,

David Hurley
http://grasp-the-nettle.com

Six Ways To Promote Your Website Free Or On A Shoestring

2008-07-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

Here are six things you can do to promote your site free of charge , or on a small budget.

1. Article marketing: This is one of the best methods for promoting your site. You can write your own articles and submit them manually. Personally, I recommend that you use SubmitYourArticle. They offer a service that allows you to automatically rewrite and post different versions of your articles to each article directory on their list.

2. Forum participation: Sign up to as many forums as possible that are related to your niche and post regularly in them. Don't forget to add a signature link to your website! Be sure to post valuable content.

3. Blogging: Write, ping and bookmark 1 x blog article per day.

4. Comment on blogs: Find blogs that allow comments that link back to your site and comment on the posts. Be sure to post valuable content.

5. Website directories: Register your website on as many directories as possible.

6. Social Bookmarking: Organize a cooperative in which each of you bookmarks each other's blogs, articles and fresh website content.

David Hurley
http://grasp-the-nettle.com

How Much E-Mail Is Too Much?

2008-07-01T06:16:00.000-07:00

If you have been building an Internet marketing start-up for any length of time you will be acutely aware of the importance that is placed on building your list of opt-in subscribers.

The oft-repeated mantra that "the money is in the list" is now something of a cliche, but no less true for that.

A cliche is a truth that is mentioned so often that it loses its bite. Most seasoned Internet marketers are aware that the same seems to be true of their mailing campaigns.

New subscribers start off curious, or even eager to receive your mail, but gradually the repeated mailings grow stale, sere and tedious. Eventually, to cite another cliche, the last straw breaks the camel's back and the subscriber clicks the "unsubscribe" link and is gone!

But how often is "every time" and is there a limit as to how often that should be?

Of course, it needn't be like that. There are several newsletters that I am pleased to see land in my inbox EVERY TIME! They offer excellent, stimulating, insightful content almost every time...

That is the subject of today's guest article, by Bob Bly. Bob Bly is an independent copywriter and consultant specializing in business-to-business and direct marketing. He has been a consultant by such companies as Sony, Chemical Bank, J. Walter Thompson, Westinghouse, and Prentice-Hall. He is also the author of more than 50 books including The Complete Idiot's Guide to Direct Marketing, and Keeping Clients Satisfied.

So, without further ado, over to Bob Bly...

"If a fellow wants to be a nobody in the business world, let him neglect sending the mail man to somebody on his behalf."

Charles F. Kettering

By Bob Bly

The other day, one of my online subscribers, CR, complained about a famous Internet marketer. "I unsubscribed from his list," she told me haughtily. "As soon as I joined, I got e-mails from him once or twice every day - and there's no one I (or anybody else) need to hear from that much."

This begs the question: How frequently can you e-mail your online subscribers?

Or, said another way: How much e-mail is too much?

People have lots of opinions about this issue, which they support with arguments that are both passionate and logical.

The problem is: Their opinions are wholly subjective.

The fact is: There's an easy way to objectively and accurately determine the optimal e-mail frequency for your online subscribers.

How does it work?

Well, every time you send another e-mail blast to your list, a small portion of your subscribers will opt out.

Why?

They decide that your content is no longer of value to them... or you are doing too much selling... or they don't like your style... or you are e-mailing them too often.

The "opt-out rate" - the percentage of online subscribers who unsubscribe from your list per e-mail blast - is a Web metric that you can measure. A 0.1 percent opt-out rate means that if you have 10,000 online subscribers, 10 unsubscribed after getting your most recent e-mail.

When your opt-out rate is around 0.1 percent or less, you can rest assured that you are not sending too many e-mails to your list too often. If you were, the opt-out rate would be higher.

But when your opt-out rate gets above 0.2 to 0.4 percent, you are losing subscribers at too rapid a rate. For instance, if you have 10,000 subscribers and you're losing 100 subscribers every time you send an e-mail to your list, you have an opt-out rate of 1.0 percent. That's much too high.

You should measure and keep track of your opt-out rates with every e-mail you send.

Adjust your e-mail frequency, ratio of sales pitches to content, message length, and topics until your opt-out rate hovers around 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent or less.

Then watch what happens if you increase the frequency of your e-mails - if, for instance, you go from one e-mail per week to two.

If you get a sharp upward spike in the opt-out rate - double or more - your subscribers are telling you they don't want to hear from you that often. And you should probably drop the extra e-mail.

On the other hand, if you add an extra e-mail per week and the opt-out rate does not rise significantly, you are safe in continuing at the higher frequency.

But should you?

Yes.

We have lots of preconceived notions about what our market wants - and doesn’t want. And one of those preconceived notions is that people don’t want too much e-mail. But when the opt-out rate is low, your subscribers are telling you they DO want to hear from you often via e-mail.

That's important, because the more times you can reach out to your list with a valuable offer, the more money you make online.

My colleague Amy Africa, a top consultant in business-to-business (B2B) e-marketing, says that one of the most common online marketing mistakes is not e-mailing your list frequently enough.

And if you are making that mistake... you are leaving money on the table.

[Ed. Note: You can make sure that you're giving your customers exactly what they need AND that you're making the most money you can. The best way to do it? Master one vital skill. Learn how from two experts.

And be sure to sign up for author and copywriting master Bob Bly's Direct Response Letter. Do so today and get over $100 in free bonuses.]

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

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David Hurley
http://grasp-the-nettle.com

Look, If You're Not Going To Grasp-The-Nettle, You Can Jolly Well Go And Eat It!

2008-06-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

That's it! I've had it up to here with you lot! Week in and week out I point out how good it is to GRASP THE NETTLE and act decisively in your own favour by mastering the net and working at home on your own Internet business.

And what happens?

Next to nothing!!

At least 95% of you continue your sluggardly existence and do nothing (while the other 5% grasp all the rewards)!

You are a SHOWER!

Idlers one and all.

If you are not going to get up off your lethargic couch, GRASP THE NETTLE then you can jolly well go and EAT THE NETTLE instead!

And see if I care.

So there!

Then perhaps you will realize how much better it would be to put on your gardening gloves and grasp that nettle good and proper!

Still not convinced?

Oh well, check out this crazy link and you'll soon realize how much better it would be to GRASP THE NETTLE than to swallow it!

You see, it is that time of year where, down in the lovely West Country of Great Britain, where the people are all as mad as hatters, they hold the annual World Nettle Eating Championships.

To fully appreciate the event, check out the video. One of the contestants has some interesting stuff to say about goal setting, so take note all ye idlers, layabouts and giver-uppers:

"I think it's all about small targets. I think you've got to break it down to stalk by stalk... I think if you just think about... that bunch of nettles, mentally, you'd be shocked, so I'm going to take it almost leaf by leaf..."

So, what can the nutty nettle eaters down in Wessex teach us about Internet marketing?

Quite a bit, actually:

Set big goals ("Eat 60-feet of nettles in an hour!")
Break it down into smaller incremental steps ("Take it leaf by leaf!")
It is better to wear gardening gloves ("Be prepared!")
It is good to grasp the nettle ("Take action to achieve your goals")
Grasp the nettle, but don't eat it. (Don't blindly swallow every offering that comes your way lest you get stung!")
Well, if you're really going to eat your nettles, make sure you win! (It takes work to succeed, but grasping -or even eating - the nettle has it has its rewards...)

David Hurley
http://grasp-the-nettle.com

How Success University Introduced Me To An Olympian And SAVED Me $14,550 Into The Bargain!

2008-06-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

As part of my commitment to Internet marketing success I am a fully paid up member of Success University. For the first several months of my membership I did virtually ZERO marketing of the business side, BUT I STILL GOT INCREDIBLE VALUE FOR MONEY.

Here's an example.

This month, I "saved $14,550" and ended up exchanging email and cooperating on a joint publicity project with America's Most Dynamic Olympic Speaker, Ruben Gonzalez into the bargain!

First, let me tell you a bit about Ruben.

When Ruben Gonzalez was in the third grade he realized he wanted to be an Olympic Athlete. A few years later, he was so inspired by Scott Hamilton's performance in the Sarajevo games, that he made the "incredible" decision to start training for the Olympics.

Ruben's decision was, by most people's estimation, "incredible" because, as he tells it, he was nothing more than a 21 year old second-eleven football (soccer) player who was supposedly "too old" to start a new sport and get to the Olympics.

But, he did just that. Ruben took up the luge, a notoriously crazy sport in which you hurl yourself down a bobsleigh chute at about 85 miles per hour on nothing more than a glorified sheet of fibreglass.

He survived training, and never quit when everybody ahead of him did, and is currently training for his FOURTH Winter Olympics in 2010.

===
Ruben Gonzalez and Success University

I had never heard of Ruben Gonzalez until the end of May this year when the monthly Success University CD and DVD package landed in my post box.

Yes, every month I get TWO excellent motivational presentations from two or three speakers chosen from a list of over 50 of the most amazing minds on the planet who collectively have helped millions of people achieve astounding levels of success.

Anyway, this month's DVD presentation was by Ruben and, although I seem to say this every month, it was "definitely one of the best and most inspiring presentations I've received from Success University so far...

The DVD runs for almost an hour, and when I looked up Ruben on the Internet I discovered that he charges $15,000 per presentation. So I figure that Success University just saved me $14,550 (Ruben's presentation minus my monthly full membership fee).

If you'd like to save yourself a similar amount, visit Ruben's website and watch the video, ==> http://www.olympicmotivation.com/

===
"Working With Ruben!"

I signed up to Ruben's newsletter at http://www.olympicmotivation.com/7.htm and when the first email arrived, I replied to it and mentioned that I'd used his DVD in a couple of my "English presentation" classes at a women's college where I teach part time here in Hiroshima.

To tell you the truth, I expected little more than a standard auto-responder response, but within five minutes I had a reply from Ruben, telling me about his recent trip to Japan to give one of his presentations. We got chatting and before I knew it we were cooperating on a bit of mutual publicity.

I'll post a link to the article when it comes out. Also, if you are one of the people involved in the Success University article marketing co-op that I organize on the PipsPowerGroup forum, you'll receive a copy of the article to modify and distribute.

Need I add that this is the kind of great value that you get for your membership of Success University? I'd never have met Ruben had I quit SU without looking at the great success mentoring curriculum they offer.

It is great to be able to say that I'm working with a three-times Olympian - but he's not going to get me hurling myself down a bobsleigh chute on a luge any time soon - even if my name is "Hurley"!!

David Hurley
http://grasp-the-nettle.com

Is "Failure To Focus" Your Biggest Internet Marketing Enemy?

2008-06-24T19:49:00.001-07:00

Here, rather late in the month, is my feature article for June 2008, posted on my website yesterday:

You're feeling excited because you've just set up your Internet marketing start up business. Unfortunately, your site fails to generate any sales and no traffic seems to be coming your way.

You notice that one of the Internet Marketing gurus has published a $144 Internet Marketing Course For Newbies. It promises to bring you success - and, although you flinch at the price you jump at the offer...

... read more

Don't Lose Track Of Your Directory Submissions

2008-06-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

If you are as disorganized as I am, or rather, keep all your notes in your noddle, as I do, then you've probably been in the situation where you've forgotten which directory you've submitted to and have wasted your precious time submitting to the same site again, or else you've failed to link to some good directories because you supposed that you'd already submitted your site to them but, actually, you hadn't.

If so, here is a site I found today that offers a free solution and might be worth checking out:

http://www.onewaytextlink.com/

Have fun - and don't give up submitting!

David Hurley
Grasp-The-Nettle.com

It's Choice Not Chance That Determines Our Destiny

2008-06-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I received a success mentoring DVD presentation by Gary Eby called Leadership Business Strategies. During the course of the presentation Gary Eby says that "you can't have a testimony until you've had a test".

That thought has stuck with me ever since.

Today, I was writing an article about how South African golfer Retief Goosen missed the chance to win a golf championship by making two dreadful putts on the 18th hole, and how the next day he recovered his nerve to win the play-off, by two shots!

Anyway, writing about Goosen, who also recovered from being struck by lightning, burned and knocked unconscious during a round of golf, I was put in mind of what Gary Eby had said, and did a quick search on Google.

Here's what I found - a well written article by Sondra Whitt reminding us that each of us is a maker of her own fortune," - or, for the Latin scholars among you:

Faber est suae quisque fortunae

So, without further ado, over to you Sondra!

It's Choice Not Chance That Determines Our Destiny
By Sondra Whitt

As we go through life, we all experience pain, hurts, adversity, wounds - sometimes self-inflicted, sometimes inflicted by others. The wounds that we suffer may be physical, emotional, spiritual, or financial. They may be small wounds that we can easily recover from or so devastating to us that it takes weeks, months or even years to fully recover. People respond in different ways to these wounds. Some people are so hurt and broken that they give up, surrendering to bitterness, self-pity and victim-hood, while others grow stronger and become better people because of the adversity and struggle they've fought their way through.

In Lefthanded Soldiers, author Gary Eby writes that when our "right arms" have been hurt, we can become "lefthanded soldiers," instead of letting circumstances defeat us and leave us bemoaning our lives, getting bogged down in the "what ifs." What if we had gotten married, what if we hadn't? What if we'd taken that other job? What if we'd gone to college? What if we hadn't been so trusting? What if we hadn't made that risky investment? What if we hadn't been in the wrong place at the wrong time? The list could be endless.

"In the real world - most of the time - it's the size of your mess that determines the size of your message," writes Eby. "Where would Abe Lincoln have been without the Civil War? Where would John Kennedy have been without the Cuban Missile Crisis? David needed Goliath to become King.

You cannot wear a victor's crown without having fought a few battles! You can't sing before you talk. You can't run before you walk. You can't have a message until you've had a mess - and you can't have a testimony until you've had a test." In the song Eby wrote about being a lefthanded soldier one of my favorite lines goes like this: "Heaven's cup sure is sweeter once you've tasted hell."

It reminds me of a passage in Libba Bray's book A Great and Terrible Beauty where Miss Moore, the art teacher at an exclusive girls' school was instructing her class one day as they painted a still life of a bowl of fruit. Gemma was struggling to get the shine to look right on her apple and Miss Moore showed her how adding a little brown shadow around the outside curve of the apple fixed the problem. Cecily wondered why Gemma couldn't just add more white to the apple to create the shine. "Because you don't notice the light without a bit of shadow. Everything has both dark and light. You have to play with it till you get it exactly right," said Miss Moore. Gemma's decision to call her painting "The Choice" generated a heated discussion between her and Cecily about Eve's choice in the Garden of Eden - and whether or not it was actually her choice or was the serpent's irresistible temptation - and therefore, his fault. Although she finally conceded that Eve did choose to give into temptation and eat the apple, Cecily was sure she'd do better. "She lost paradise in the bargain. Not for me, thank you. I'd stay right there in the garden." "That, too, is a choice," points out Miss Moore. "A much safer one," states Cecily. "There are no safe choices, Miss Temple. Only other choices," says Miss Moore. "Every choice has consequences."

We make choices every day. When we don't like the consequences of those choices, we're faced with another choice - that of changing direction, making a new choice and enjoying different consequences or staying stuck where we are. "Change is a door that can only be opened from the inside!" affirms Eby. "The willingness to change can be inspired by others but change itself is a personal choice. It is 'Choice' not 'Chance' that determines your destiny."

Sondra Whitt is a founding partner of Purpose Unlimited, whose purpose is to transform lives, leaders and organizations through the power of purpose. She has a masters degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and consults, coaches, writes and speaks on personal and organizational development. More information about the products and services offered at Purpose Unlimited that will help you reach your full potential, discover your purpose, or find freedom from what's holding you back from doing so, are available at http://www.purposeunlimited.com/ On the site you can also sign up for our weekly ezine, access past issues, or get free reports on motivation, change and leadership.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sondra_Whitt
http://EzineArticles.com/?Its-Choice-Not-Chance-That-Determines-Our-Destiny&id=963222

How To Spend Less Time And Get More Clicks On Traffic Exchanges

2008-06-19T21:49:00.000-07:00

Once you've set up a fast loading lead capture page and opened an account with a selection of the top traffic exchange programs, the next step is to generate hits to your lead capture page from all the traffic exchanges.

There are two ways to do this: earn credits by clicking on other people's pages, or upgrade to paid membership and get allocated so many credits per month for each month you remain a paid member.

You can use either method, or both together, as I do with TrafficSwarm and Hit2Hit, which in my experience offer the best value for money, especially as paid membership packages usually allow you to earn more credits per click and so are more efficient.

Speaking of efficiency, you would be wise to use Crazy Browser or Firefox as part of your traffic surfing strategy because their browsers include a multi-tabbing feature. Open a separate tab for each traffic exchange and move from one to the other, accumulating hits at several exchanges during the one surfing session.

The point is that there is no need to work just one traffic exchange at a time and sit idly at your computer waiting for a ten-second timer to elapse before you click again. By working several exchanges simultaneously your click rate will escalate rapidly.

The next step is to leverage your traffic exchange credit earning rate by building a downline in the various Traffic Exchanges.

When you recruit some members under your unique link, a portion of the hits they accumulate will be allocated to you, as the referrer.

I have found that a useful way of building a downline on one traffic exchange is to advertise it on other traffic exchange sites. Also, as your main campaign works to build your list, you can run a feature on traffic exchanges in the newsletter that you send to your subscribers.

As you gain experience you will probably want to add new lead capture pages to test which ones have more pulling power, or to build completely new lists with. Once you have several lead capture pages in play you might want to use a rotator, if your traffic exchange accepts them. A rotator is a page that loads a different lead

Simply put, use several of the top traffic exchange programs, to gather leads, with one or more fast loading lead capture pages linked to your auto responder. Purchase, or surf for hits, or do both. This is still a very effective way of capturing leads.

David Hurley
http://grasp-the-nettle.com

A Better Traffic Exchange Strategy...

2008-06-18T23:23:00.000-07:00

Anyone who is actively building an internet marketing startup business should make a point of using two or three of the top traffic exchange programs in order to build traffic AND generate a regular supply of targeted leads.

Actually, Traffic Exchanges work best when they are used mainly for the latter purpose, i.e. simply as lead-gathering tools.

A common mistake that many eager internet marketing newbies make is to plaster all their affiliate sales landing pages on the traffic exchanges and spend - er, I should say "waste" - several hours frantically clicking. While some sales are certainly generated via landing pages, more than 99% of traffic exchange clicks expended this way are wasted since most people simply ignore the page and move on.

A better strategy is to make a fast loading lead capture page. If possible, make it one which requires no scrolling to read and comes with a short, sharp, irresistibly enticing message (with a generous freebie thrown in), and, of course, some kind of lead capture form. Here is an example of a squeeze page that I am currently promoting on TrafficSwarm:

http://grasp-the-nettle.com/clickfree.html

Once the form is filled in and the "subscribe" button hit, the surfer becomes a lead deposited in your auto responder to receive emails from you.

This is where the money is, because you can promote your business and special offers to all the leads you collect.

Click here for my TOP FIVE FREE traffic exchange recommendations!

In my next post I'll talk about how to generate traffic on traffic exchanges and how to take advantage of several traffic exchanges simultaneously, ... all together, ... and even at the same time!

How To Run A Quick And Easy Website Scam Test

2008-06-18T07:59:00.001-07:00

A year or so ago I posted a blog about how I ran an Internet marketing scam test on a rather dodgy looking website that was making a "too good to be true" claim about how many guaranteed paid signups you'd get if you sent the owner several hundred dollars...

I just wrote up a version of the original blog as an article for my website, titled How To Spot A Scam Quickly And Easily complete with a 7-point checklist and a free online consumer safety eBook thrown in for good measure.

Check it out at: http://grasp-the-nettle.com/how-to-spot-a-scam.html

Have You Pinged Your Blog, My Dear?

2008-06-16T07:43:00.000-07:00

It's funny to think that just a few years ago a question like, "Did you ping your blog, my dear?" would have been utter gobbledigook.

Today, it makes perfect sense!

Or at least, it does if you know what pinging is - surely by now everybody has heard of a blog, haven't they?

Well, everybody except my daughter's grandmother I guess, but that is another story...

So I'm not going to explain what a blog is, except to point out that YOU ARE LOOKING AT ONE RIGHT NOW (just in case grandma has been accidentally, coincidentally or detrimentally plugged into a plugged-in computer...).

Instead, let's have a look at "pinging".

The last time I thought seriously about pinging was when I was thirteen (ghastly age) and liked to sit at the back of the class and ping chewed-off bits of eraser rubber, staples, chewed up bits of paper etc. at the swots at the front of the class. You got bonus points if you could ping a bit of rubber off one of the great flapping lugholes of the chief swot and cause it (the lughole, not the rubber) to turn red.

Ahem, but I digress...

As far as blogging is concerned, pinging is a way of letting search engines know that you've created a new post, or updated an existing post on your blog. A ping is simply a message sent to a ping server notifying it that the blog has been updated with new content.

Okay, so what is a ping server?

A ping server is a web-based service that accepts messages in the XML-RPC format. It uses the information in these XML-RPC messages to publish a list of blogs which have updated content. Some of these ping servers run their own blog search engines, and some propagate the information to a number of other ping servers and search engines.

So how does pinging work?

Many blog publishing platforms, such as Wordpress, have a built-in pinging tool. In the case of Wordpress, pinging is turned on by default and pings go out to one ping server which updates several search engines.

You can also notify a ping server that you have updated content manually by going to their website and submitting your blog's name and URL. You'll need to do that if you use a Blogger blog, like this one.

One popular ping server is PingOMatic, found at:

http://pingomatic.com/.

When you ping PingOMatic it notifies a number of search engines that your blog has been updated. Many of these search engines also have their own ping server as well.

These search engines can then update their listings with new content almost instantly. This of course will give you one-way backlinks to your blog from these search engines, many of which have a high Google PageRank.

4 things you should know about pinging

1. Only ping when you have updated content. Otherwise, your site might be blacklisted as a spam blog, also known as a splog.

2. If you tend to post to your blog and then re-write the post frequently you might want to make sure you only ping when you actually post new content, not on updates. If you are using Wordpress there are a few plugins that make sure that pings are only sent when a post is created.

3. It's a good idea to ping several ping services, especially the ones that notify several search engines. Don't overdo it though. Make sure that if you are pinging a niche search engine that your blog falls into the relevant niche.

4. Make sure that if a search engine is notified by a ping server you are already using that you don't add that search engines own ping service to your list of servers to ping. Because blog spammers have abused ping servers if you are pinging a search engine multiple times your site might end up being blacklisted, and not appear in the search engines at all.

Popular ping servers

Finally, here's a list of popular ping servers you might try to get you started.

http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

David Hurley
http://grasp-the-nettle.com

How To Start Making $25-$35 A Day With Google Adsense

2008-06-10T06:56:00.000-07:00

If you know what you are doing you can make $25-$35 a day from Google Adsense. If you are not there yet, here are some tips to get you on the way...

Tip 1 : Position your ads above the fold

In other words, make sure that your Adsense ads can be seen without having to scroll down. Sad as it may be for you after all the effort you've put in to designing your page, most people don't bother to scroll down, let alone scroll across the page!

Tip 2 : Keep the number of Ads to less than four per page

Let's be clear about this. I mean individual advertisements, NOT Adsense ad units. One well-placed ad unit containing two or three ads is better than three ad units containing four or five. Google places the best-paying ads to the top so the fewer ads there are on your page the more cash you'll receive per click.

Tip 3 : Choose medium rectangles

The ad unit of choice is the 250x250 rectangle which displays 3 ads.

Tip 4 : Blend your ad units into your site

Because people tend to skip over blatant ads you need to adopt the tactics of the chameleon and have your ads blend into your site. Use the same background color, the same font, text size and color. Dispense with the ad unit border and work your text around the ads. That is why the 250x250 block is the best one to use. It can be inserted into a page of text so that the text flows around it.

Tip 5 : Blue links are really-truly links

No matter what colour you use for your background or text, keep your Adsense links blue. People associate blue with links -- and the whole point of what we are discussing is to get your visitors to click on your links!

Tip 6 : Set up channels

If you want to place more than one ad unit per page, give each unit a channel of its own for monitoring purposes. You will be able to check which ads are pulling in the clicks and which are not.

Tip 7 : Watch your CTR (Click Through Ratio)

The number of clicks on an ad divided by the number of page views, multiplied by 100 equals your click-through ratio. Work on improving the CTR of your worst performing pages. Modify the content to make it more relevant so that you get better targeted ads on the page. If you implement all the tips on this post you should begin to see a CTR of between five to ten percent.

Tip 8 : Make sure your Adsense ads are relevant to your content.

If irrelevant Adsense ads appear on your page it is probably because your text or meta tags contains some "false leads". You may need to rewrite some of your page content so that it is more tightly defined and "on message".

Tip 9: Reproduce everything I told you here over many pages of unique content

The art of multiplication is one of the keys to making money with google. Why have just one or two optimized, search engine friendly pages with money making Adsense ads when you can reproduce the technique many times over on a virtually unlimited number of pages. Remember though, your pages should provide genuinely useful content that will help both your readers AND your adsense ads and encourage the one to click on the other!

Once you have mastered Adsense to the extant that $25-$35 per day is no longer a hope but an expectation, you'll be ready to add some zeroes on the the end of that figure!

David Hurley

http://grasp--the-nettle.com/

How To Generate Clickbank Profits Free Of Charge!

2008-06-07T04:11:00.000-07:00

Using a combination of free tools and article marketing to generate Clickbank profits is one the easiest way to make money online.

You'll need a free keyword research tool, a free text editor (or simply use Notepad), a Clickbank account and a Blogger account.

Go to Clickbank.com and choose a product that you'd like to promote and that pays well.

Now use your keyword research tool to find keyword phrases related to the Clickbank product that have between 300 and 5000 pages in Google when entered between quotation marks "like this". Choose 5 to 10 good keyword phrases.

Now you have your product and a set of keywords, go to Blogger.com and get yourself a blog. The blog will serve as the landing page for your product and will pre-sell it to the readers.

You can make as many blogs as you like at Blogger, so make one for each product and give it a product-specific name, incorporating your top keywords.

Begin blogging. Make short posts that include a link to the Clickbank sales page of the product you are promoting.

Now begin writing articles about the product. These are not for your blog. Instead, submit them to article directories. Include one of your keyword phrases in the title and also in the first paragraph and elsewhere in the body of the article.

Note that some article directories do not allow you put your affiliate link in your bio box. Instead, link your article to your blog. Remember, your blog serves as your landing page.

Post one article a day on each article directory and do not post the exact same article to more than one directory. Your best bet is Ezinearticles.com. You can also use Goarticles.com.

Article marketing is a numbers game The more your submit, the more you'll earn. However, not every product on Clickbank is going to be a winner. Some will bomb. This is where you need to be focused. Ideally, you should select one new product each week and test it by posting 10 or so articles and measuring the result. Eventually you will find some winners and concentrate your efforts on them.

You can also augment your sales by promoting Clickbank products to your mailing list.

David Hurley

http://grasp-the-nettle.com

Technorati Profile

If You're Not Reading You Are Retrograding!

2008-06-05T08:45:00.000-07:00

So you want to work from home, master the net, and get rich, do you?

Well, I have a question for you:

How many books about Internet marketing, success, and money have you read in the past year?

If the answer is flat zero, then I guess your Internet marketing profits will be around the same figure!

I may be wrong, of course, about how much mula you are raking in, but if you want to become an expert in your field and enjoy great success, you need to be reading books by the best writers in the various fields associated with the business you are in, as well as books about success, about money, about marketing on the Internet.

Actually, according to Matt Morris of Success University, one definition of expertise is that you only need to read FIVE BOOKS on a given subject to be able to consider yourself an expert!

So, how does he figure that out?

Well, actually, he heard it from a multi-millionaire on a tele-seminar one evening. The guy's definition of an expert was that "an expert is someone who is in the top 1% knowledge level compared to everyone else in the world."

Then he went on to point out: "When you read five books on one single subject, that's more than what 99% of all the other people in the world will ever learn on that particular topic."

So come on guys and girls, if you really are serious about achieving financial wealth on the Internet, turn yourselves into experts by reading five books on each field that relates to what you are doing.

Read, and then apply the knowledge, of course.

Remember, nothing stays still. So you are either advancing or retreating. Reading books related to your industry or field of endeavour and applying the knowledge is the best way to ensure that you are in the vanguard of the advance.

As Sir Edward Gibbon, one of the world's great readers, put it:

"All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance."

If you are not reading, you are retrograding. It's as simple as that.

David Hurley

http://grasp-the-nettle.com

Google Wants To Help You Get More Sales, Leads Or Signups...

2008-06-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

Google is asking website owners a seriously rhetorical question:

==> Does your website need more sales, leads or signups?

If you happened to be one of the 100% of Internet marketers who just answered "YES PLEASE," you might want to check out Google's Website Optimizer tool at:

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

Website Optimizer is an entirely FREE website SEO tool that enables you to set up a split test or even a multi-page test to experiment with different versions of a web-page to improve traffic conversion.

Google states that using their Website Optimizer will help you to improve your web-page layout and:

increase conversion rates
decrease bounce rates
increase the time surfers spend on your site
increase visitor satisfaction (and so increase the likelihood that they will return)
cut out the guess work from website design.

Google is also running a "Website Workout Contest" which you have until June 17th 2008 to enter. When you fill in the online application form it looks as if that gives you a chance to be chosen to participate in the competition.

If you are chosen you'll work with a Google representative to try and increase your site performance stats.

The winner will be "featured in a Google video case study to be released on the Google website Optimizer site in the fall of 2008".

Fame and Fortune beckon!

See: http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer/workout/index.html

David Hurley

http://grasp-the-nettle.com

Feedburner To Add Adsense For Feeds

2008-06-03T07:34:00.000-07:00

This week, Feedburner.com is set to roll out AdSense for feeds to a small group of publishers, in anticipation of a full launch to all FeedBurner and AdSense publishers "coming soon".

So, if you start seeing "Ads by Google" on an ad in a feed somewhere, you'll know it's supplied via Feedburner.

Feedburner already runs a FeedBurner Ad Network and point out that it will continue to place premium CPM ads directly onto subscribers' content, but with the added bonus of contextually targeted ads from Google that will fill up the remainder of their inventory.

For publishers who are not yet placing ads in their feeds, if you are accepted on the AdSense program you will also be able to use AdSense for feeds.

Keep yourself updated with the marriage between Feedburner and Google via the Feedburner blog at: http://blogs.feedburner.com/feedburner/

Focus On Niche Marketing And Sell More For Less Effort

2008-06-02T20:13:00.000-07:00

Instead of expending your time and energy attempting to market to the masses, if you focus on niche marketing you will able to speak directly to a group of people who will be more likely to buy your products.

Once you have identified your niche market you will have to figure out where your niche market is.

This is not as complicated as it sounds. You simply have to locate some of the places where the people who you want to target hang out. For instance, they may like online forums, chat rooms or special membership groups. Once you have found them you can start to explore how to get your advertising message in front of them. You will notice when you begin to discuss your product in these places, you will get much better results than using banners and ads that are presented to a mass general audience.

The key to niche marketing is actually connecting with the people in your niche. Ideally, you should be familiar with what they are in to so that you can speak to them on their level. Take a the time and learn how to communicate your advertising to them in a way that is natural and familiar to them.

You'll will also want to present your advertisements in a way that will interest them, so that they will pay attention to your offer. Keep your advertising style appropriate and be sure to give them something that they can relate to. One other important thing to keep in mind is to never to be condescending or talk down to the people in your niche market. Remember you want them relate to you and want what you have to offer.

The secret to getting to the heart of your niche market is simple. It is a matter of getting to know your customers, finding out what they want and then knowing how to sell it to them. Once you have discovered where they are and what they want you can be pretty confident that they will be interested in what you have to offer.

A final note, however. If you go into forums and start posting blatant ads without offering any valuable help, information, tips and advice, then you will probably be shooting yourself in the foot. Build up a rapport with your niche market. Become identified as the person who has the expertise and the solutions. That way you will establish a platform for yourself from which to discretely promote your products.

David Hurley

http://grasp-the-nettle.com

Generate Income By Selling Clickbank Products To Your List

2008-06-02T06:32:00.000-07:00

For many Internet marketers, selling Clickbank products is one of the key methods of generating cash flow.

The two main ways of making money online with Clickbank are "affiliate sales" and "direct product sales".

Affiliate Sales
Clickbank offers thousands of downloadable digital products for sale covering a wide range of topics arranged in several categories. When sellers add products to Clickbank, they are given the opportunity to set up affiliate sales and set the commission rate.
You can view all the products that offer affiliate commissions via this link:
http://clickbank.com/marketplace/

Click on a category in the Clickbank Marketplace and sub-categories and product listings appear. For example, in the 'Business to Business' category the title of one of the most popular products is:

Data Entry Ads Online - Join The Best! [Earn 50%].

Affiliate marketers can click on the [Earn 50%] link and fill in their Clickbank ID to capture the correct Clickbank "Hoplink" affiliate code for the product. #The "hoplink" is used in all ads directing traffic to a particular product.

Each product Hoplink contains the ID of the affiliate and the ID of the seller so affiliate sales are credited to the correct parties.

Clickbank has an automated tracking system that determines which affiliate, if any, is to be associated with the sale. Although Clickbank feels their tracking system is fairer and more accurate than any other, it is still not perfect, so link cloaking is advisable.

For an excellent, free, affiliate cloaker see: http://www.grasp-the-nettle.com/resources.html

Direct Product Sales (Your Own Products)
A popular way for internet marketers to get their products to the public is by using Clickbank payment processing. Clickbank makes it very easy for anyone to sell a downloadable product through their service and their fees are not likely to be out of the reach of anyone with computer access.

Although not shy about being one of the most expensive payment processors on the Internet, Clickbank makes up for their several imperfections by general ease of use and reliable service.
It is simple to sign-up for a Clickbank ID; just go to Clickbank.com and create an account. You can begin to promote affiliate products immediately after your membership is confirmed. http://clickbank.com/signup/

To sell your own products on Clickbank there is a seven step process:

Signup with Clickbank http://clickbank.com/signup/
Make a "Pitch Page" http://clickbank.com/setup.html#ppp
Make a "Thank You Page" http://clickbank.com/setup.html#thankyou
Make a Test Purchase http://clickbank.com/setup.html#test
Submit Product Approval Request http://clickbank.com/setup.html#limit
Pay $49.95 Product Review Fee http://clickbank.com/setup.html#activate
Set Your Product Price and Start Making Sales! http://clickbank.com/setup.html#setprices

Sell Clickbank Products To Your List
Finally, if you are building your own list with Aweber or GetResponser, or another autoresponder service, you might want to offer Clickbank products to your list.

Here is a resource for generating 3 x Clickbank sales letters per product to use on your autoresponder:

http://grasp-the-nettle.com/clickfree.html

There is no risk involved as you can test drive five of the sets free. The idea is to send your list three messages over a period of a few days. The second and third messages reinforce the first one and increase the likelihood that you will generate sales. Remember, the money is often in the follow-up.

These messages will get your Clickbank affiliate marketing business off to a head start.

David Hurley

http://grasp-the-nettle.com/

Matt Morris: See Your Vision And Achieve Your Goals

2008-06-01T07:06:00.000-07:00

Matt Morris, the founder of Success University, wrote something about goals and vision in a recent newsletter that stopped me in my tracks. Here's what he said:

"We all know what a goal is, but vision is a topic of confusion for many. To put it in the simplest of terms, your vision is how you see yourself. You can set goals all day long, but if you cannot truly see yourself achieving them, your goals will never be realized. To accomplish a goal, you must truly expect to achieve it."

The key word is "see".

How many of us fail to achieve goals because we don't give them real substance in the subconscious by visualizing them taking place?

I could show you pages full of "year goals" that I set for myself each New Year and had failed to achieve by New Year's Eve. They were worthy enough goals, but they lacked vision.

The problem with setting your goals without first seeing your vision is that you are failing to appeal to your subconscious mind with pictures that compel. If you do not appeal to your subconscious with a clear picture it is unlikely that your life will change.

Anyone who is familiar with Matt Morris's story will know that his background was one of poverty and low expectations. By constantly focusing on how broke he was, his circumstances came to dominate his subconscious mind:

Matt writes:

"I had no idea that my vision, which is trained by my subconscious mind, was overriding my efforts to succeed."

The subconscious mind will draw on whatever is to hand. If poverty and failure are the only materials to hand, they will be drawn upon and they will certainly continue to show up in your life.

But you CAN change the vision the subconscious works with. The subconscious level of the mind is influenced by what others say about you, by your experiences in life and by what YOU think about yourself.

So, here are three things to do if you want to prepare the ground and plant your vision deep in the fertile soil of your mind:

Hang around less with people who put you down. Seek out people with vision, mentors to guide you. If you cannot find a good mentor, try an online mentoring programme such as Matt Morris's Success University, which is what I have been using.

Reinterpret your own history more positively. Turn your past into a source of strength, not weakness and self-defeat.

Change the way you speak and think about yourself. This is where positive thinking is important - in the thoughts you think about yourself.

Start to build your vision in thought pictures and impress them upon your subconscious mind as vividly and as often as possible. Again, the support of an organization like Success University will provide you with daily reinforcement and help in this area of personal reorientation.

When your subconscious is impressed with a clear vision it will work towards your goals through flashes of inspiriation, changes in posture, attitude and expectation, which will, in turn lead you to take action or respond to opportunities.

Your vision will lead you through the inevitable failures and false leads that will beset your progress and that would cause you to give up if you had merely set goals and not written your vision in vivid pictures on the tables of your subconsious mind.

Having a vision is ultimately about how you see yourself, and it is that vision that will bring you through whatever tribulations you must face on the path that is set before you. Maxwell Maltz, the writer of the bestselling "bible of self-image psychology", Psycho-Cybernetics describes how "inevitable failures and false leads" are actually an important part of successfully achieving your vision, or "self image". The first thing to understand is that "'You' make mistakes, mistakes don't make 'You' - anything."

Tiger Woods, a man who has spent much of his life in the company of great mentors, talks about failure like this:

"The most we can ask of ourselves is to give it our best shot, knowing that sometimes we will fail. We are often defined by how we handle that failure."

So your mistakes should not affect your vision, your "great expectations" of achieving your clearly seen goals.

In fact, if you have a clear vision, your mistakes serve an important function which actually contributes to your eventual success, rather like a servo-mechanism in a V2 rocket. Your "mistakes" are like "negative feedback" that tells you that "you need to take corrective action to get back on beam," as Maxwell Maltz explains:

"If negative feedback is working properly, a missile or a torpedo reacts to 'criticism' just enough to correct course, and keeps going forward towards the target. This course will be... a series of zig-zags."

Similarly, our vision provides us with an inbuilt "servo-mechanism" that gets us zig-zagging towards our goal, with the aid of negative feedback.

It was when Matt Morris discovered that "vision" was the key to achieving goals, not vice versa, that he "forever broke the shackles of poverty" from his life, went on to found Success University and turn it into the most popular personal development website on the Internet in its first year of business.

You too, can achieve your dreams - provided you turn them into a compelling vision for your subconscious to feed upon.

David Hurley
http://grasp-the-nettle.com

Now Do You Get What PIPS Is All About???

2008-05-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

"Business opportunities come and go... but I've never met anyone more committed to helping people succeed than Stone Evans." - Dustin Cannon

"You can take this business and do whatever you want to do with it. You are not closed in and focused on one thing. You can make this go wherever you like." - Doug Gorman