Internet Marketing Secrets
Issue #77 - by Michael Campbell - August 04 2005
To subscribe free click ==> Internet Marketing Secrets Newsletter
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Take the Guess Work Out of Keyword Research
(So You can Concentrate on Your Profits)
If you've been online for any length of time, you know that keywords and niches are everything. They are the foundation upon which everything else - from PPC ads to websites - are built.
If you're already good at making webpages and playing the affiliate game, seriously consider the new Keyword Avalanche Research (KAR) Service. Simply join up and start using their keyword research to tap into hot markets with PPC landing pages, Portals or Mininets.
Yes, these guys really do make over $20,000 U.S. per month. But the real value - in my opinion - is the private forum showing exactly how they do it. You don't have to guess or face a learning curve. Just follow their step-by-step guide to setting up portals.
Membership is seriously capped at 1,000 members and they're nearly sold out. So don't get caught on the outside looking in, this party's just getting started.
Imagine earning 20K per month? ==> http://www.cdzn.com/kar
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Internet Marketing News, Views and Clues
Clickbank Changes Refund PolicyIf you use Clickbank as your payment processor, you'll need to change the language on your sales letters to reflect the current refund policy. They've reduced the time from 12 weeks, or 90 days, down to six weeks. In addition, the refund seeker will require a valid "reason" for the refund when requesting it directly from Clickbank.
According to my sources at Clickbank, "Refund requests received within 6 weeks of purchase may be approved by our customer service team if the customer provides evidence that their case merits a refund."
Part of the reason for the change was the feedback they received on their recent survey. I'd also like to think that some friends and I had a little to do with it as well.
In conversations with other marketers that use Clickbank, it turns out that we all have the same problems with, "Professional Refund Seekers." These people - or group of people in the case of one country - are easy to identify, as they buy and return everything.
They often buy and return the goods within 10 minutes of the purchase. They buy and set a reminder to return on the goods on the 89th day. They buy and return the goods with each new upgrade or version of the same product.
So to put a stop to it, we compiled a list of such names and reported them to the Clickbank security department. Many have had their card numbers and email addresses blocked from further purchases as a result.
So if you are selling products and want to combat professional refund seekers, be sure to report them. Who knows, maybe someone will start a central database and we can all contribute our lists of troublemakers, along with their known aliases and email addresses. Then all future purchases could be compared to the list.... Hmm... one can only wonder.
All that aside, you'll need to hurry and update your sales letters so they do not violate the Clickbank policy. Their "official" position on refunds is, after six weeks - other than certain exceptions - all sales are final. Get the full Clickbank story here... http://clickbank.com/refundfaq.html
RSS to Blog (R2B) Pro is Ready
It's been a long time coming and it's finally here. Michelle Timothy has been very busy creating a colossal monster edition of her R2B software.
In case you missed it the first time round, Michelle's R2B software solves the two biggest problems that most blogger's face on a daily basis...
1) Finding relevant content for their blog posts
2) Finding a reliable automated way to make those posts
In addition, it prevents burn-out. Not everyone wants to post to their blog every single day. But now you don't have to worry about that. Post when you want, and let the software make posts for you on the other days, or when you're on vacation.
Michelle gave me a summary of what's new in the Pro version. In addition to the - Hurray! - one time installation, random posting times, and only one cron job needed to run multiple blogs, there's a whole whack of new features...
You can now Blog to more blogging services like MSN Spaces, Typepad, MovableType, LiveJournal, Blogger and Wordpress. There's more ping sources. More search engine results sources. More News Sources. More of everything really ;-)
You also get an enhanced text area in the control panel. A second text area for content inclusion with each post. The ability to save Word Press and Typepad Posts as drafts. And my new favorite thing to do... you can add the "nofollow" tag to links.
But that's not all. As a bonus with your purchase you also get EZcron. It let's you schedule random RSS to Blog posts from your desktop, if your server - like some large discount hosts - do not give access to cron, or restricts your cron usage.
So now you can stop stressing, sit back and relax. If you are still posting to your blog manually, take a break and put your feet up. Put your postings on autopilot.
R2B will keep your blog busy, fresh and profitable, while you concentrate on other things. Then when you want to post... go ahead. It will be waiting for you when you return.
What R2B can do for you? ==> http://www.cdzn.com/r2b
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Post RSS to Your Blog Automatically
Right
now I'm posting relevant content to my Blog without lifting a finger.
Every day, the automated software checks the RSS newsfeeds for my
keywords - the ones that match my blog content - and posts the news
headlines into my blog.The AdSense ads runn down the side and automatically change to match each post. And before the purists scream spam, it plainly isn't. It's news from around the world, which matches your keywords, which matches your blog. It's like having a hands-free revenue stream on auto-pilot.
Ready to Blog Automatically? ==> http://www.cdzn.com/r2b
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New Experiment Achieves PR5 in 10 Pages or Less
People often wonder how many pages are required to get a decent PageRank. They also wonder how my Minisites can be so effective when linked together in a network of sites called a Mininet.
Know what? It's as simple as following the steps in my system called Revenge of the Mininet, and concentrating your PR using the nofollow attribute according to Leslie Rohde's Mastering PageRank video.
Every once and a while I set up a series of experiments. Not so much for the nay sayers, or the "oh yea... prove it" types, but for myself. I want to be sure what I teach still works.
I took two domain names. One was just registered for a period of a year. The other I had already owned for a year, but never did anything with it, and just renewed it for three more years.
I set up a small site on each domain. They used the same hosting company and shared the same IP address. The pages were simple text only pages, with nothing more than a few paragraphs on each page. They consist of a home page, a sitemap page, and seven internal pages.
The home page has nofollow links to all the internal pages. The only static link is the one to the sitemap. The sitemap has static links to all the internal pages and a nofollow link back to the home page. All the links leaving the internal pages have nofollow links.
The last thing to do, was to let search engines know about the new sites, by linking into them. I took two PR4 pages and linked them to the home pages of the new sites in an identical manner. Within weeks, all major search engines discovered and crawled both nine page sites.
The experiment was designed to test two things. Would a new site be sandboxed by Google... or only if it was on a new domain name? Would two incoming links be sufficient to start the PR concentration process as shown in the Mastering PR video?
Two months after the sites went up, Google updated its PR in the toolbar. The first site, the one with the brand new domain name, registered for a single year got sandboxed. In other words, Google came and spidered the pages, but the PR remains less than zero, greyed out and unranked.
The second site also got spidered, but the results on this one were very different. A PR1 on the home page, a PR5 on the sitemap, and a PR4 on each of the seven internal pages.
Remember, these sites are nearly identical in terms of content. They are exactly the same in linking structure.
The only major difference is the history of the domain name. How long ago it was registered. And how many years into the future, it has it been reserved
As you may have heard, Google filed for a patent that takes the history of a domain name into consideration, as part of the ranking algorithm. There's also a lot more history like cache data and nameservers taken into consideration.
(If you're up for a little "lite reading" you can read the full patent application here: http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html Just do a quick search of the "Published Applications" and search for 20050071741 to find Google's recent Patent Application )
The experiment shows that the sandbox theory appears to be real. Seems it was a "patent" testing ground for taking the history of the domain name and applying it as part of the ranking algo.
And as many new webmasters have found, it can take three months or more, before you get released from the purgatory known as the Google sandbox and start to appear in the Google search engine listings.
Ok, back to our test results. How did I get such a low PR1 on the home page and manage a staggering PR5 on the sitemap? Well, PR just means a page is important, not what it's important for.
To determine what a page is important "for" depends on the incoming links. And the best way to get a page known for something, according to Dr. Andy Williams and Jason Potash's research, is to write an article and have it spread all over the internet. But that's another story.
PageRank - or why a page is important - goes way back to the hubs and authorities ranking system of citation analysis, that is part of the very foundation of Google.
In my test, the sitemap is considered a very important hub, because it links to seven other pages. It is the only page on the internet that links to those pages. And the only way to find this important sitemap is from the home page, thanks to the way PR is concentrated within the site by using the nofollow tag.
Since the sitemap scored a PR5, at least PR4 gets passed along to each of the internal pages. So why the lowly PR1 on the home page? Well... that's my fault.
In my zest to get the experiment completed, I forgot to make normal static links back to the home page from each internal page. I accidentally left all links on my internal pages as nofollow links. What I should have done is completed a PR feedback loop with the seven PR4 internal pages, linking back to the home page with static links.
Even though I've made the changes, it will take another three months before the PR gets updated in the Google Toolbar. So we'll have to wait and see.
To conclude this little experiment, yes... a decent PR can be attained in 10 pages or less. Does it help you rank better in the SERPs (search engine results pages) ... yes. But it is only one piece of the ranking formula.
You still need incoming links. The incoming links must build a reputation for what your page is about. The PR is added as a matter of page importance. And finally, as my research is beginning to show, the age and history of your domain name will be taken into consideration as well.
So if you plan on creating a new site for yourself or clients, you may consider building on a domain name that's been kicking around for a while. Then on top of that, go and register it for a least three more years, to show that you are indeed serious about owning it and hanging on to it.
The amount of time you spend in the sandbox, your PR and position in the SERPs may depend on it.
- - Adv - -
New Video Improves Your Rankings on Google
PageRank
(PR) is a mystery for most people. That's because there's so much bad
advice out there. Fact is... it's a simple mathematical formula, no
voodoo, no mystery, no magic.The Mastering PageRank Video Course (by Leslie Rohde creator of OptiLink) will show you exactly what PR is. How to get more. How to conserve what you have. How to concentrate it. And how to create it... out of nothing!
Some people have doubled their online income by applying these techniques. Will you be next?
Want to improve your PageRank? ==> http://www.cdzn.com/pr
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Experiments with Bad Neighborhoods and the ODP
In other experiments, I wanted to find out a couple of "what if's" that have been bugging me. I wondered what effect an ODP listing (dmoz.org) and a "bad" nameserver would have on my positioning in the SERPs.
The first thing I did was to take a PR5 site and ask ODP to remove me from their directory. Yes, most people would think that I need my head examined as it's getting nearly impossible to get listed in the OPD. But having a couple of friends on the inside and for the sake of the experiment, I had my site delisted.
The OPD was the only change made to this site which held a steady PR5 for over a year. Blammo, down to a PR2 in the next Google update. Hmm, so that's what an ODP listing can be worth, the difference between a PR2 and PR5. Interesting.
And if you still can't get into OPD, my friends tell me that the easiest way is to go after your city editor and make friends with them. Instead of trying to go after "internet marketing" and waiting for up to two years to get listed, approach it from the angle of "your town" and get listed in your local geographical area. The PR that gets transferred to your site is nearly identical.
The second experiment involved a third party nameserver not affiliated with any particular hosting company. As part of a coaching session for a client, who could not get found in Google even after a year, I discovered he was using a nameserver service that catered to known spammers.
We simply moved his nameservers to respected hosting companies and the client appeared magically in the SERPS in the very next update. Not only that, the pages performed respectfully showing up in the top ten spots for many keywords.
So to prove it was the nameserver and not some other factor, I logged into my registrar and switched a couple of my domains over to the service.
In the next update, I lost all PR, was greyed out, even banned perhaps, and lost all positioning in the SERPs. Hmm, now what was that they were saying about being careful about linking to and associating with "bad neighborhoods?"
I've seen domain names get nuked. IP addresses get toasted. Even entire C class blocks get banned from time to time. But this is the first instance I've seen of an entire nameserver service being blacklisted.
So if you've been struggling and still don't have any search engine positioning after all your efforts... it may not be your fault. Maybe you just need to switch your nameserver to a reputable hosting company and let your web sites "be found" in a better neighborhood.
Internet Marketing FAQs, Secrets and Strategies
How to Prevent Accidentally Spamming Your CustomersQ - I am going nuts! I need a reasonable priced way to send out 5,000 emails to my customers about once a month.
I just tried GoDaddy and they require my street address, city, state, zip code to be displayed on every email. They say if that info is not included the email is automatically spam?
This is unacceptable to me & I don t think it's required "by law" as they stated. Would appreciate any referrals ASAP.
A - You might want to consider using AWeber Systems to manage your readership and send mail. It's an online service that most professional marketers use. I've been using them since 1999 and have been very happy with their service. http://www.cdzn.com/aws
You can visit them to get full details, but some of the highlights in addition to autoresponders, double confirmation, personalized mail and list management, are one click remove links, split testing of sign-up forms, hover-in pop-ups, open rate tracking and spam counts. They also allow you to import lists of leads and to block email addresses.
If you buy a yearly subscription it's the most affordable option at only $14.95 per month. If you add additional accounts, you can get them at a 30% discount.
And best of all, a few times over the years certain people have tried to take a "run" at me and accuse me of being a spammer. AWeber quickly steps up to my defense and their System by showing the authorities my status as an information publisher, proof of the complainants double confirmation status, and the whole thing quickly fades into a non-event.
AWeber is also on the "white" list or "safe" list for most large email providers. This would include the likes of AOL, Yahoo and MSN. It essentially means that incoming mail from AWeber gets past the guardians and has white list permission to be delivered to subscribers. Come to think of it, I wouldn't trust my mailing to anyone else.
And yes, GoDaddy.com is correct and it is the law. Not only must you provide a one click remove link, you must provide your physical "dirt-world" address on any outgoing broadcast. Even if all your subscribers have confirmed their subscriptions.
AWeber automates the personalization of the broadcast and automatically inserts your physical address, date, time and dozens of others if you choose to use them.
Two of the customization fields I use all the time are: [!firstname_fix] and [!contact_address].
[!firstname_fix] inserts the recipients first name with proper capitalization, and the [!contact_address] automatically inserts my physical mailing address at the end of the communication, like this...
President & CEO Dynamic Media Corporation
[!contact_address]
Providing successful marketing strategies since 1988
I hope this helps and that you come over to the same email broadcasting service that we "professional marketers" have been using for years... And will continue to use for many years to come.
But whatever service you use, be sure to include a physical address and a one-click remove link. It's the law. It's good business practice. And it prevents you from "accidentally spamming" your customers.
- - Adv - -
Xsite Pro Provides Total Site Management
It's not just a web site builder and html editor. It allows you to put AdSense ads wherever you want. It automatically adds new pages to the site map as you create them. It increases PR by taking long wordy pages and breaking them into as many pages as you like.
Add to this keyword analysis, Google XML Sitemaps, a pop up generator, an affiliate wizard, article pages, reciprocal linking pages, auto generated navigation, privacy statement generator, powerful built-in scripts, page creation wizard and more, from an easy-to-use tabbed interface.
Ready for Total Site Management? ==> http://www.cdzn.com/xsp
Don't watch the video ==> http://www.cdzn.com/xpv
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RSS to HTML... Hotter than the Summer Sunshine
The new Power-RSS software by Adrian Ling is the biggest hit of the summer. Everyone is jumping on this bandwagon, because unlike so many other "fads" and "traffic schemes" this one builds your website slowly, legitimately and automatically, converting keyword rich RSS newsfeeds into static web pages that search engines love. Here's just a sampler of the flurry of questions...
Q - Does the software have to be installed on the server, or is it a desktop software? If it has to be installed on the server, can you help me?
A - The software is server based, but it's quite easy to set up. The documentation is very thorough and there's screen shots of every important step. There's even sample pages for you to look at. After installation, all that's left to do is modify the templates to match - the look and feel of - your existing site.
If you hit a snag during installation, Adrian Ling the author of the software will help you out. Or if you prefer to have Adrian install the software for you, he charges just $30. All you need is Unix hosting with a Cpanel and the ability to run PHP scripts.
Adrian told me, "The exact server requirements are: Unix / Linux server. PHP version 4.3.x or higher. And the ability to run cron jobs." Most "quality" hosting companies fall under this category.
Q - Can Power RSS be used on multiple sites with one copy?
A - Yes. Just install it on more than one server. Multiple installs makes perfect sense if you are trying to target multiple keywords or build content on multiple sites.
Adrian told me that, "You can install it on all the websites you own - but you may not install it on your client's site. You can however, purchase the software on behalf of your clients and install it on their sites. You can of course then charge them for it."
In future versions of the software, Adrian plans multiple RSS feed sources, to target different keywords, and have the software allow a lot more flexibility in the archived pages.
Q - I'm looking for a non-Javascript RSS to HTML converter. There's a lot of RSS software on the market but they're all Javascript based and either push or pull content. Unfortunately the search engines can't see it. Is Power RSS different?
A - Yes! Power RSS is exactly what you are looking for. It takes an RSS feed and generates static html. It builds a web site at the rate of one page per day and doesn't involve the use of a blog.
It works on autopilot. You install it and it just runs in the background, slowly building your site from RSS feeds based on your keywords. It archives an html page at the end of the day and puts Adsense ads on it as well.
In addition, the second part of the script makes a news page for your site. Every time you refresh it, it contains different RSS content. That means the spiders will index it every single time, as it changes with each and every visit.
The software also utilizes the nofollow tag on links leaving your site (if you choose to use it) to help concentrate link popularity & PageRank internally. In a word... it's really cool :-)
Ready to Get RSS to HTML? ==> http://www.cdzn.com/r2h
Q - In your last newsletter you mentioned new software that adds pages to your site everyday. Is this like an automated blog builder, similar to it, or something completely different?
A - This is totally different. It's not a blog. It's a whole new generation of RSS tools that creates static HTML web pages on any web site that you manage. Pages that the search engines love to spider and humans love to visit.
Plus, it automatically archives one random RSS feed to HTML at the rate of one page per day. It works with your existing web site content. And it comes with an easy to use RSS aggregator.
Got Power RSS yet? ==> http://www.cdzn.com/r2h
Q - My sites are very focused on particular themes. I'd like to automate adding content, but will this software actually create HTML pages that look good? Also, I'm worried that software might drift too far off my central topic. Are you confident that Power RSS will match my existing content?
A - Yes. Now you can turn those dynamic RSS feeds into good looking HTML web pages that search engines love to spider. Power RSS makes it easy to automatically generate keyword rich content that matches the rest of your site.
In addition to automatically generating web pages, it includes an RSS aggregator, so you can put breaking news stories on any pages that you choose. You'll always have fresh content for human visitors and for the search engines. Power RSS keeps them both coming back for more.
Q - Where can I see some current examples of pages Power RSS creates?
A - In addition to the samples Adrian has on his website, I set up a couple of sample pages for my readers to look at. There's links to the samples from the full page RSS Tools PPC ad below:
http://www.justclickherenow.com/rss-tools.html
BTW... if you're interested in using the full page PPC ad above (and several more like it) for your own personal use... I have a special deal for you. If you are interested, email me (askmichael at mac.com) and lets chat.
Q Q Q Q Q Whew! There's a least 100 more questions about Power RSS, but we've simply run out of space.
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That's it for this issue my friend. Thank you for reading. We'll chat again soon. Until then, here's wishing you all the best for online success.
Michael Campbell
President & CEO Dynamic Media Corporation#108 - 383 East 37th Avenue Vancouver BC Canada
Providing successful marketing strategies since 1988.
For marketing advice & coaching phone +1 604 874-6655
Read the Internet Marketing Secrets Blog or tap the RSS Feed
Author of....
Revenge of the Mininet... Advanced linking strategies and diagrams for increased revenue from search engine optimization and affiliate programs.
Clickin' it Rich... The complete work from home business training system. How to fire the boss and set up a home business using nothing but affiliate programs.
Nothing but 'Net... An internet marketing strategy that generated $750,000 in less than a year, with no advertising costs.
Internet Marketing Secrets Newsletter... Sign up now to get your free subscription. Learn how to harness the money making power of multiple internet revenue streams like search engines, affiliate programs, paid advertising, opt-in email, newsletters, ebooks and a lot more in Michael Campbell's internet marketing secrets newsletter.
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Legal stuff...
Copyright 2005 Dynamic Media Corporation. All rights reserved world wide. All trademarks and servicemarks are property of their respective owners.
The information contained in this newsletter is the opinion of the author based on his personal observations and years of experience. Neither Michael Campbell or Dynamic Media Corporation assume any liability whatsoever for the use of or inability to use any or all of the information contained in this publication. Use this information at your own risk.
Privacy Policy: I never sell, rent, trade, or lend my email list to anyone, for any reason, whatsoever. I assure you that your privacy is respected and well protected.