The Random Blogger

Like many Internet marketers, I’ve read my fair share of books on copywriting, and it can be a confusing subject, just because there are so many opinions on what works and what doesn’t, depending on the author.

So, I was very intrigued to come across a product called The Copywriter’s Brain, which is Derek Franklin’s concise summary of everything he’s read and learned about the skill of copywriting (although that probably doesn’t do it justice).

Now, Derek is somebody I’ve worked with before and respect greatly - his products are always simple to use yet meet a real need - and in fact he created The Daily Goal Machine for me, which is one of those “Victor Kiam” products (i.e. I liked it so much, I asked Derek to create one for me to sell too).

So, what exactly is The Copywriter’s Brain?

Well, it would be easiest to let Derek tell you in his own words, via this short video:

So, what do I like about The Copywriter’s Brain?

Firstly, it’s incredibly succinct - all you need to know about copywriting, information gleaned from the world’s best copywriters, really is on a single page.

Secondly, it’s easy to use, but in case you have any problems, Derek provides four videos to help you get the best of it, both in terms of navigating the tool and strategies for making best use of it.

And thirdly, it does come with two bonus pieces of useful software that are written in Derek’s inimitable style.

Are there any downsides?

Well, the product is delivered as a mind map, which requires you to download some Mindjet MindManager software, although the good news is that this mind map viewer software is free (and available for both Windows and Mac).

So, no deal-breaker there then.

In conclusion, this is a great tool that will help you get your head around copywriting in a unique and powerful way, and the price is a drop in the ocean compared to what you would spend if you were to try to sift through all of the traditional information on something that often been perceived as a “black art” .

I therefore highly recommend The Copywriter’s Brain.

I’ve been involved in various aspects of Internet marketing since 2004, at a guess, and I’ve seen many so-called “gurus” come and go.

I’ve subscribed, at one time or another, to most of their lists, and for reasons I’ll explain here, I’ve also unsubscribed from most of them.

You see, to me, it seems that most of these people might originally come out with something useful and/or good (although many don’t), but after that, and they’ve nothing else to offer, they all bombard you with the same emails promoting the latest “big thing”, just to try to make some affiliate commissions and get to the top of the league tables.

To me, if you’ve one thing to say, and you’ve said it, then that’s it. I really don’t want to receive dozens of emails all promoting the same product launch.

This is even more true when you realise that the stuff that has always worked will always work - without the need for loopholes and fads and fancy scripts, etc.

So after all this time, and after wading through (and mainly deleting) what must be thousands of emails, who do I still listen to?

Sadly, not very many of them.

But there is one person who is genuinely different (well, there are a few, but I may have to write about them some other time) …

… and his name is Paul Myers.

What makes Paul different?

Well:

1. He doesn’t send you a load of junk mail (aka spam) promoting stuff that he clearly hasn’t tested for himself.
2. He doesn’t send you one or more emails every single day, clogging up your inbox.
3. When he does email you, what he says is well-written, unique content that’s useful, educational, often humorous, and that offers a perspective that nobody else seems to offer.
4. When he does promote his own products, of which he has quite a few, then you can guarantee that they will be reasonably-priced (I think the most I’ve paid for anything is probably $27), and yet they offer much more value than most everything else I’ve bought (including the really expensive stuff too).

In fact, I positively look forward to receiving Paul’s emails - to the point that I wish he would write more frequently (although I accept that if he did that, the quality may not be sustainable, not that I feel that this would be a real problem for him).

So, do yourself a favour, head on over to TalkBiz News, and sign up for his newsletter.

Not only will you be glad you did, but you’ll also receive a free copy of his highly-acclaimed book, “Need To Know“.

Anybody who earns their money from the Internet these days knows the need to generate backlinks to their site - and preferably one-way links, as the days of reciprocal (aka two-way) links are maybe not dead, but they’re certainly not in the best of health any longer.

And while you can still try to contact webmasters and ask for a link back to your site, this is a lot of effort and is a lot harder to succeed at these days than it was several years ago.

Internet marketers are nothing if not creative, and so the concept of three-way links and one-way links building services was born.

There has been some debate for years about whether Google can detect a three-way linking network, and I have to confess that I’m sitting on the fence on this issue at the moment.

But one-way link networks - that’s a whole different ball-game!

Jonathan Leger’s 1WayLinks is a great service, maybe the best - until I heard about the imminent launch of a new service called ezArticleLink.

This new service, which is due to launch on 22 February 2010, takes the one-way linking concept even further by automatically building one-way links to the sites that have one-way links back to your site.

(You may need to read that previous paragraph a few times for it to sink in.)

It looks as though they will have two membership levels - a free Silver level and a paid Gold level - and for the next couple of days, you can sign up to be an ezArticleLink JV Partner, get a free Silver account and earn passive income from people who sign up under you (as well as account credits when they have articles they submit approved).

If this sounds a bit garbled, then apologies, but I’ve only just come across this and thought I’d let people know about it, given that the pre-launch phase is almost over.

Anyway, it’s free to sign up as a JV Partner, and you do get a free Silver account, so what have you got to lose?

I’m certainly going to give it a go, and will try to report back on how well it works at a later date.

Since launching our main business website in February 2007, we’ve had to learn a lot about Internet marketing, including what is now popularly known as SEO (i.e. Search Engine Optimisation), which is nothing more than trying to make sure that your site is easily found in the search engines.

Getting good rankings on the search engines used to be easy - ten or more years ago - but there has been a world-wide explosion of people trying to make money online since then, and it’s now no mean feat to get your site listed on the first page of Google’s results.

So, we’ve spent a fair amount of time and money over the past two years or so reading up on SEO techniques, buying ebooks and training courses, and most of them have been fairly so-so, including some that cost thousands of dollars.

Always keen to learn (or maybe always a sucker for more), we recently found a product called Supercharged SEO that promised 100% automated SEO strategies, which, given what we thought we knew about this subject, seemed a bit on the hypey side.

But, the price was only $17, which is practically nothing these days, and so we bought it, not expecting too much.

So, was it worth the money, and did we learn anything new about SEO?

Actually, it was probably the best SEO product we’ve ever bought!

What you get are three well-made videos, with a total duration of about one and a quarter hours, together with supporting PDFs that include copies of each slide from the videos, a list of resources referenced, as well as a few WordPress plug-ins and other code that are part of the strategies he reveals.

These strategies, once you put them in place, truly are 100% automated, as he promises, because once you set the framework up for any given site, the rest just happens all by itself.

You do need to be aware that these strategies are focused on WordPress blogs (and ones that you host yourself, rather than ones hosted by Wordpress themselves). To be fair, he does state this on the videos, and he also says that many of the techniques will work on other types of sites too, but for some of these, you may be left to work it out for yourself.

Having said that, it’s a minor issue, given how popular WordPress is, especially as more and more people are using this platform in place of the regular HTML mini-site / sales page.

I would also say that it’s probably not for the absolute beginner, as some experience and understanding of SEO and blogs would be advantageous. Again though, his explanations and supporting materials are really good, so I doubt you’d have any problems implementing any of these strategies.

So, in conclusion, even if you think you know SEO already, as we did, I highly recommend Supercharged SEO, and I’d be very surprised if you didn’t manage to give your sites the set-it-and-forget-it supercharge that he promises.

I’ve used PHP redirects to cloak things like affiliate links for a long time now, and I’m therefore a bit rusty on the other techniques (e.g. JavaScript and Meta Refresh).

So, when a guy I’m collaborating with on a project or two asked me how to cloak his affiliate links, I started by setting up a sample PHP script for him, but then when I tried to remember exactly how to use the other non-PHP methods, I ran into a wall of amnesia.

As always in this situation, I turned to Google, and happened upon a brilliant website where you enter the URL you want to redirect to, and it instantly gives you copy-and-paste code you can use in all three formats (i.e. JavaScript, Meta Refresh and PHP).

It’s quick, simple, and means you need to know or understand practically no code at all.

The site is called My Redirect Code, and I highly recommend it.

(BTW, my friend has written an excellent short report called Unlimited Profit Streams that’s well worth a read, and it’s only $7 USD. If you can’t make that back after reading and applying what he teaches, then I suspect Internet Marketing isn’t for you.)

I’ve recognised for a long time now that one of the best ways to get additional traffic to your website is to indulge in video marketing (YouTube is the second most visited site on the Internet), but I’ve always shied away from it as being too difficult, plus I’m really not that keen on hearing the sound of my own voice.

Now, I have been somewhat more active in the world of article marketing - after all, words are my thing.

So, I was delighted, a day or two ago, to find a web-based service that converts an article into a narrated video for you.

Use Coupon Code F0C17D97

The service, appropriately called Article Video Robot, has two modes - one, which is fully automated, converts an EzineArticles article into a video in a single click, and one that requires a bit more input from you, but the results are a lot better.

The EzineArticles converter may be simple to use, but I really wasn’t that happy with the end result at all - too much of the text in the article I selected was just lost - it wasn’t shown on the screen, and it wasn’t spoken out loud either.

The manual mode, however, did require a bit of fiddling to make sure that the text-to-speech software did a decent job of pronouncing the words in the article, but I have to say that, overall, I was very impressed with the quality of the TTS, and the various male and female voices you can choose from.

In this mode you can also add photos or video to each slide, either from its built-in stock ones, or from ones you upload and import yourself, and then you can also choose from a range of background images and music.

The final slide in the video shows details such as your name, email address (which is mandatory and which is something else I’m not keen on), and that all-important website link.

Overall, I think it’s a really neat tool with many other features I’ve not even mentioned here, so I do recommend you check out the demonstration video on the Article Video Robot website.

There are two membership levels, which cost $47 and $97 per month respectively, with the more expensive one having more features than the less expensive one (e.g. more distribution credits, advanced editing options, additional TTS voices).

However, the good news is that, although they do offer a free trial, I’ve managed to get a Coupon Code you can use to get a massive 50% off the standard monthly membership costs - all you need to do is enter (or copy and paste) this code into the appropriate box on the order page: F0C17D97.

Although this one’s not free, it’s so cheap it may as well be!

Traffic Armada consists of 52 professionally-recorded videos that cover the 50 different ways to get traffic to your site - fast.

You’ll learn both basic and advanced techniques, how to get traffic for free, as well as much, much more.

All of these videos are supported by a 31-page PDF guide that summarises the techniques taught on the videos.

I’m not going to spoil it by telling you how much this mammoth video tutorial series costs, but if you hurry, it works out at less than $0.20 USD per method.

Even at the regular price, it’s a steal, but if you go there quickly, look for a purple rhinoceros at the bottom of the page, because if that’s clickable, you’ll save even more money!

I highly recommend Traffic Armada - if you’re a complete novice at Internet marketing, then this is a gold mine of information that could otherwise take you years to accrue, and if you’ve already got some experience, you’ll still learn things you didn’t already know.

It’s time for another freebie for you!

If you run any blogs, then you’ll know that keeping them up-to-date with fresh and unique content (as Google especially prefers this to what they call duplicate content) can be a real challenge.

Yes, it’s nice to write your own articles, put your thoughts out there for the world to read (and criticise, maybe), and whatever else you want or need to tell people about, but we don’t always have time to do that as often as we’d like.

Well, that’s where today’s free report comes in - it shows you a quick and easy way to add unique content to your blog in a truly set-it-and-forget-it way.

And the best part about this is … it’s 100% free!

So, download your free report by right-clicking on the ebook cover and selecting the Save Target As…(or Save Link As…) to save it to your computer, and enjoy fresh content as often as you want.

There are thousands of people looking to break free from the humdrum 9 - 5 job every single day, and yet when they start looking online for ways to do this, there is so much information available that it’s overwhelming.

I’ve been in the Internet Marketing business for about five years now, in various guises, and I know that it’s getting harder, not easier, to find good information that you can trust and that actually works.

Let me just list a few of the many ways you can earn money online:

• Run an ecommerce site
• Affiliate marketing
• AdSense
• Create and sell your own information products
• MLM (aka Network Marketing)

Now, the problem with almost all of these is that you need a fair amount of technical knowledge (e.g. to build websites in the correct way) and marketing knowledge, and with the way that things are going online (e.g. more competition every day, Google changing its search algorithms on a frequent basis, the high cost of pay-per-click advertising - if you get it wrong), it really isn’t for beginners unless you have a sound plan and are willing to follow it, without distraction.

You see, that’s another problem with Internet Marketing - you’ll soon be inundated with the next best thing since sliced bread, and all this does is make you take your eye off the ball, and instead of moving forwards with what might turn out to be a good money-making project, you put it on hold (maybe indefinitely), while you try out that new thing you just bought.

And while you’re trying that out, something else comes along, and so the vicious circle continues, ad infinitum.

We actually had plans, when I left my well-paid regular job, and they fell apart almost instantly for reasons that are not relevant here, and we ended up running an ecommerce business.

Now, it’s much more rewarding than anything I ever did in my corporate life - saving dogs from horrendous deaths makes a genuine difference to the families we help - but I actually work longer hours now than I ever did.

Part of that is because it’s our own business, and that’s what tends to happen, and part of it is because the only real way to differentiate ourselves from our competitors is to offer 24 x 7 support to our customers - it’s greatly appreciated by those that make use of it, but it does mean our work and sleep patterns get all out of whack constantly.

So, bearing all of that in mind, what can the absolute beginner (or newbie, as they are unflatteringly called) do to earn an honest buck online?

Well, there is one way that most people could get started with almost instantly, and I’ve managed to obtain a FREE video for you that details (more or less) everything that you need to know.

The first thing you need to do is to download the following file to your computer, by right-clicking on the link and selecting the Save As… option.

• HowToMakeMoneyOnlineFastForDummies.wmv

Now, this file is 52MB, so it may take a while to download!

Once you’ve downloaded it, you’ll need to play the video, which is in Windows Media Player format, and most Windows computers will already have a version of this software loaded and ready to go.

So, grab yourself a drink, sit back and watch this video today - it could well be the catalyst you need to get yourself out of the rat race.

I just came across one of the neatest ways to create really professional banner ads today, and thought I’d share it with you.

Basically, Quick Banner Ads is a membership website where you can create Flash banner ads using a very simple, point-and-click, four-step process:

1. Enter the URL to go to when people click your banner, and four pairs of heading / sub-heading.
2. Choose the banner size, background colour, button style and pattern.
3. Add more optional special effects, such as texture and overlays.
4. Add optional background animation.

Even though it’s really simple, there are plenty of features, and in case you get stuck, they’ve created a load of tutorial videos so there’s always help at hand should you need it.

To give you an idea of what you can achieve, in literally a minute or two, check out this banner, which they created using their own Quick Banner Ads system:

And here’s one that I created, just to test it out, and again, it took me no more than two minutes to produce:

Now, in terms of pricing, they have two membership levels:

1. Basic membership has some limitations, and is $9.95 USD per month.
2. Premium membership has no limitations, and is $19.95 USD per month.

However, if you get in quickly (and I genuinely don’t know when this special offer will end), you can get a 21-day free trial, and Premium membership for the price of the Basic membership.

What have you got to lose?

Try Quick Banner Ads now - I’m sure you won’t be disappointed!