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Big Dog Heavy Hitters Review

One of our own commentors here, Rick Katz, has a free report he’s giving away.

The report is available at BigDogHeavyHitters.com. It promises to show you how to market like the “big dogs”, and without going broke.

The report is quite well done, and favors substance over presentation. The report follows the trend of some of the latest Internet Marketing techniques, which basically say to market your primary opportunity only to those who have invested some time already, such as by purchasing a less expensive report or by downloading a free report. Only market your primary opportunity once you’ve built some trust. (As a side note, while this sort of approach is recently a fad in Internet Marketing circles, it’s been the recommended way of doing things all along at SBI!).

The report then also breaks down the qualities needed by any marketing campaign in order to successfully implement the techniques he talks about.

And true to his own advice, Rick offers a solution to all of the above at the end of the report. I’m currently testing out the solution, so will have more to say about it after I’ve seen what results it gives.

In the meantime, head over to BigDogHeavyHitters.com and get your free copy of Rick’s report. It’s good stuff!

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Squidoo and Yuwie Earnings Update

It’s that time of the month when both Squidoo and Yuwie show the earnings for December.

Earnings at Yuwie were $3.77 down from $4.36 the in November. The main reason for the decline is that my own personal usage of Yuwie plummeted during December. I had a four week break between semesters, and spent very little of it on the computer. The computer time I did get was spent writing posts for this blog. The amount earned per 1,000 page views also dropped 3 cents, which contributed to the overall drop.

Earnings at Squidoo were $13.43, up from $8.93 in the previous period. My two highest rated lenses earned $6.23 each, and the rest of the amount is from the remaining lenses. The amount earned per lens has increased steadily for months, nearly doubling for the highest rated lenses. And this with my lens maintenance being at about the same level as my Yuwie activity, so all my lenses dropped in the rankings considerably.

It’s interesting to compare the two sites.

Squidoo is a way to write web pages that are then monetized in various ways, and you share in the earnings. Yuwie is a social networking site that shares ad revenue with you.

Squidoo can clearly outperform Yuwie in terms of earnings. Each of my two highest rated lenses at Squidoo earned more than I did in the entire month at Yuwie. And Yuwie earnings depend on getting referrals, while Squidoo earnings depend only on your ability to write quality lenses.

The other site of that argument is that literally anyone can generate page views at Yuwie. After all, it’s just web surfing and socializing. If you can point and click, you can earn something at Yuwie. Squidoo, on the other hand, requires you to write quality content. Junk gets rated low, and makes nothing. Out of nearly 30 lenses I’ve written, only two earn more than a few cents each month.

Both are opportunities to make money online free. Which is right for you?

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Using Free Keyword Analysis For Post Titles

The only way to get reliable organic traffic for your blog is to know the basics of search engine optimization.

Today, I want to talk about using free keyword analysis tools when you’re trying to come up with a title for a new post. It’s important that your title contain keywords that have some search volume attached. As far as Google is concerned, the title of your post is one of the most important indicators showing what the post is about.

Let’s use Google’s Keyword Tool as an example. Let’s say I want to write a post about a new camera we just got (the Canon Powershot S2 IS). So maybe my initial thought is to name the post, “My New Canon Camera”.

At Google’s keyword tool, if I type in “canon camera” into the keyword box, and click “Get Keyword Ideas”, I’ll see that there is a good amount of search volume for that phrase. But there’s also quite a bit of advertising competition. That doesn’t necessarily means it’s a bad idea, since we’re not advertising. But if there’s that much advertising competition, there’s probably quite a few websites, too.

Going to Google.com and typing in “canon camera” (with the quotes), I see that there are nearly 3 million websites with that exact phrase. Ranking well for it will be difficult for a blog post.

Okay, back to the keyword tool. If I look down the list, I’ll find that some people are searching for the exact name of my camera, “canon powershot s2 is digital camera”. The search volume isn’t as high as “canon camera”, but there’s far less advertising competition and the keyword is better targeted.

Going to Google and searching on “canon powershot s2 is digital camera” (with the quotes), I see there are only about 25,000 websites with that exact phrase. Much better than 3 million!

So I’d name my post something like “Canon Powershot S2 IS Digital Camera First Impressions”. That tells Google that my post is about that particular camera, and the post will then rank higher for it than it would have for just “canon camera”.

Taking a few minutes before writing your next post can help to ensure more organic traffic in the long-term.

P.S. It’s also important that your post title appear in the URL, so if you’re using WordPress make sure to set up a custom permalink structure.

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Top 10 Reasons To Be An SBI! Affiliate

Regular readers of the blog know that I an a huge fan of SBI! for creating niche websites.

I’ve neglected, though, to talk about being an SBI! affiliate, which is also a great opportunity backed by SBI!’s professional support. So here are my top 10 reasons to be an SBI! affiliate, even if you don’t purchase an SBI! site.

#10: It’s Free

Okay, so any decent affiliate program should be free, but some aren’t. And it’s only reason #10.

#9: Track Clicks To Sales

The built in link tracker you can use as an SBI! affiliate tracks clicks to sales, so you’ll know exactly which promotion is converting visitors into sales, and which aren’t. This can be used to target specific landing pages to specific markets, once you figure out which ones work best.

#8: Two-Tiered Earnings

Recruit affiliates, and earn a bit of what they make, too. The amount isn’t much, but it’s something.

#7: Tons of Landing Pages

Most affiliate programs give you one landing page only. SBI! has landing pages tailored to different markets you may want to pursue.

Trying to sell SBI! to work-at-home-moms? Use the WAHM landing page, or the WAHM Master’s Course ebook. Or maybe you’re targeting webmasters, so you’d use the Webmaster Business Course page.

Want to market to college students? Try this landing page. Or this one, for marketing to retirees who want an online business.

And there are others for auction sellers, people who want to sell e-goods, people who want to sell hard goods, people who want to sell real estate, and more.

There are also other ebooks you can give away, pages that educate on some aspect of Internet Marketing, free tools and services, etc, etc. All of which place your cookie on the visitor’s machine, so that if they purchase SBI! after browsing through the website, you get the customer.

#6: The Best Support Forums I’ve Seen Yet

The SBI! forums are simply the best I’ve seen yet, with members helping members and quick responses from SBI! employees, too. There are lots of ideas for promoting SBI! there, including some great offline tactics.

#5: Great Support For Offline Sales

Not only do you get tips for offline sales in the forums, but SBI! has a training package you can download designed to help you make offline sales. There’s also an order form that allows you to take orders offline and enter them yourself from your computer, ensuring you get the credit for the sale.

#4: Name Park It!

NPI! is a tool available to SBI! affiliates. You can purchase a domain name through NPI!, and redirect it to another site (such as one of the SBI! landing pages). But you also get unlimited subdomains that can each be redirected to any URL you choose. Use these to shorten URLs, or to create a unique domain for use in Adwords ads (where a given domain can only appear once in a list of ads, so if someone else is already using sitesell.com, the chances are good your ad won’t even show).

All for the same as the cost of a domain name elsewhere.

#3: Embed Videos On Your Blog That Sell SBI!

They’ve provided a bunch of videos that you can embed on your blog or other site where you promote SBI!. Just like the landing pages, there are videos targeting different markets. Here’s one targeting work at home moms:

URL= “http://wahm.sitesell.com/complete4.html”;

And here’s another targeting people who want to get out of a day job:

URL= “http://workfromhome.sitesell.com/complete4.html”;

Each video sends people at the end to a particular landing page, with your referral link.

#2: Make Money By Helping People Succeed

SBI! is one of the few “opportunities” that is really committed to helping people succeed. You earn a commission, and you help someone start an online business that could transform their lives.

#1: Get Lifetime Commissions

At SBI!, when you get a customer to make a purchase, they’re your customer for life. You not only getting a commission from the initial sale, but every year they renew their site you get ongoing commissions.

And if they ever buy more sites, which many SBI! owners do, you get commissions on those sites, too. The SBI! philosophy is, your customers are yours for life.

Conclusion

So not only am I an SBI! fan, but I think the affiliate program is pretty terrific, too. There are more than 10 reasons, but I couldn’t quite come up with 100, so I stuck with a top 10 list. If I didn’t cover your favorite reason to be an SBI! affiliate, leave a comment and let me know what it is.

If you’re not already an SBI! affiliate, click here to sign up.

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How To Get Trained To Write Niche Sites

Okay, so if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’re probably convinced that writing high quality niche sites with original content is a great way to make money online.

But…can you do it? Can you write enough original content on a topic to fill up a website? The more articles you write, the more hooks you have in the water to tempt visitors from search engines. 30 pages would be a minimum number for a viable niche web site, 50 would be better, and even more is best.

How long would that take you? Would you run out of ideas before finishing?

The best thing to do is to write the website before you purchase a domain name, buy SBI!, or anything. So you know you’ve got it in you to do all that writing and keep your energy and enthusiasm for the subject.

But come on, who wants to write a 50 page website and not be doing anything with it? And there’s an advantage to having a website grow over time with search engines, too.

So how do you know if you’ll be wasting your time and money the first time you try to write a niche website?

The short answer is, write a niche website for someone else first. Do it for free, and you’re not out anything if you fail.

Realistically, nobody is going to pay you to write a niche website when you’ve never done one before. But there is a website that will let you be the editor of a niche website, and write articles each week to add to it. It’s free, and you don’t get paid anything, but you get a great deal of training and experience in writing articles for a website.

The site is BellaOnline, and its angle is that it’s a site designed for women to visit. Luckily, they allow men to be editors, so we’re not left out in the cold. But the site itself is targeted toward women web surfers.

They have umpteen dozen different niche websites under the BellaOnline banner. Each has an editor who has full control over the content on their website.

Including the ability to use affiliate links to earn income from recommending products.

The requirements to be an editor are that you must write one article each week for your site, maintain a presence in your site’s discussion forum, and be reachable via email for your visitors.

BellaOnline is the absolute best place I’ve found online for a new writer to start out. Your copyright stays with you, and you can at any time request that they remove any or all of your articles from the site. They don’t mind affiliate links, and don’t require that you share any of your earnings with you. They have an extensive training program to help you succeed.

You’re basically getting an existing niche site, complete with traffic, to do with what you want. I’ve just recently become the editor of the Role Playing Games site, which had been idle for a few months. Within hours of posting my first article, over 50 people visited it, and the traffic stats estimate about 5,000 page views a month.

It’s really a win-win arrangement, and by the time you’ve written 30 or 50 pages at BellaOnline, you’ll be confident enough in your ability to write your own niche website to know you wouldn’t be wasting the money by getting an SBI! site. And you’ll probably be able to write that 50 page SBI! site in record time.

Go here for a list of content areas at BellaOnline that are open for editor applications.

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Quality Niche Sites versus MFA Sites

In November, the niche site I’d put up over the summer and then completely neglected made a bit over $11, up from $1.63 in October and $.12 in September.

My prediction in my last update on this site was that the November earnings were about the limit for the traffic possible for the site, given that it had basically no original content.

December proved me wrong, with the site making a bit over $21. This could be a seasonal effect. We’ll have to wait for January to see if the earnings return to normal.

Ultimately, I think your time and effort is better spent creating quality niche sites, rather than MFA (made for Adsense) sites. MFA sites are characterized by little original content, while quality sites contain nearly all original content. Put the time and effort into a quality niche site, and your earnings could be in the thousands per month, rather than $21.

So why do so many people use MFA sites?

1) They’re quick and easy to put up, since you need only pull together a few articles from online directories, find some affiliate products to promote, and write say-nothing reviews of those products.

2) Many people feel that they don’t know enough about a niche to create a lot of original content.

3) The theory is that by creating a lot of these sites, you can make the same amount that you would from one quality site.

As for #1, there’s not much to say. MFA sites are quick and easy to put up.

As for #2, my firm belief is that everyone has in them at least 3 quality niche sites based on their own personal experiences. And these are niches that are not about making money online. Stamp collecting, deer hunting, car buying, weaving, quilting, etc. Everyone has several hobbies that other people are also interested in, around which a quality niche site could be built.

As for #3, at $20 a month, I’d need to create 50 MFA sites to equal the income from a moderately successful quality niche site. The argument goes that since the sites are easy enough to create, you could put 50 of them up in no time. That’s true enough, but that argument ignores one critical aspect of MFA sites.

Each MFA site (like each quality niche site) must be built around a keyword concept that has proved itself profitable through extensive keyword research.

Finding these keywords is not particularly easy. You’ll find people online selling keyword lists, but you won’t be the only buyer. Why put up a site only to find yourself competing with a hundred other people for the same niche?

Far better, in my opinion, to do the keyword research for those hobbies you love, find a profitable angle on one or more of those hobbies, and then spend the time to create quality niche sites around those keywords.

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Upgrade to WordPress 2.3

Just a quick note that I’ve upgraded the blog to WordPress 2.3.

This was relatively painless, although one of the plugins I was using turned out to be incompatible (the EXEC PHP Widget), and so I had to find a replacement. For part of the weekend, none of the PHP code I was using in the sidebar was showing, so the top commentators list, featured posts, etc, was gone. It’s all back now.

Also, at least one comment seems to have been lost in the transition (one by Chris on the Fast Directory Submitter Review post). Sorry about that Chris! At the end of the contest I’ll give you one extra entry into the random drawing to make up for it.

Hopefully everything is in order now, but if something blows up on you, please use the contact form to let me know.

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The Year’s PTC Sites In Review

One of my efforts in 2007 was evaluating paid-to-click sites, those sites that pay you to view advertiser’s sites.

These sorts of sites are dead simple to start, and many are outright scams. They either don’t pay when they say they will, or they offer ridiculous amounts of money for each ad you view, or both. But some have kept their quality through the year, paid out when they said they would, and even improved their offerings over time.

Adbux

This is probably the most controversial of the sites, with many on the Internet calling it a scam site. Over the year it’s emerged as one of the quality paid-to-click sites. The admins have no only weathered the controversy, but have added paid offers to the site, too.

The number of ads available in Adbux has increased over the year, to the point where without hardly trying you can make $0.15 a day, clicking links in between your other web surfing. They’ve also added an Ad Alert feature, which will run in the background and alert you when new ads are available. By running that, you can often catch short-lived ads and boost your daily income.

Payout is a low $10, and payout is made reliably on their published schedule.

A couple of hints about getting the most out of Adbux…promote your referral link to get referrals, but do not purchase referrals through Adbux itself. That’s a crap shoot, and most of them will likely not continue to use the site long-term. Also, do not upgrade until you know that you have enough active referrals to earn back the upgrade fee in the increased earnings you’ll get.

ClixSense

This program is rock solid, and hardly ever seems to change. This past year, the only change was that you now earn from premium upgrades 5 levels deep instead of just 1. Your potential referral earnings are much greater that way.

You do not earn from your referrals’ actual clicks in ClixSense. Instead, you get $0.10 from referring a member, and if you are a premium member yourself you earn when anyone in your 5 level downline upgrades to premium.

The premium upgrade is $10 a year, and is well worth doing immediately upon joining. Many of the ads are only available to premium members. Typically, the night you pay your $10 to upgrade, you can immediately get back $5 of that by clicking on all the premium only ads that still have clicks available.

Once you’ve worked through that backlog, you’ll find a good couple dozen ads each day. Most pay $0.01, but some go as high as $0.05. The theoretical maximum is $5.00, but that only happens when someone goofs when placing an ad. There’s no real reason for an advertiser to go above $0.02 (which puts their link above all the $0.01 links). But some do.

Myster-E-Mail

I have to admit, this site was a pleasant surprise.

At first glance, it seems like a typical paid-to-click site. The links are often vastly underpaying (as low as $0.0001).

But the admin is the most professional I’ve seen in a long time. The site has no minimum payout level, so if you’ve made the money, every week she’ll send it to you via PayPal. I’ve become accustomed to getting $0.15 or so into my PayPal account on a regular basis from Myster-E-Mail.

I don’t recommend the upgrades, although the free referrals only upgrade is worth it. You’ll quickly earn back the cost from clicking ads alone, let alone getting a few referrals to boost your earnings.

Above I said that many ads are vastly underpaid. I personally do not bother clicking on any ad that pays less than $0.001, and I’ll usually skip those unless it’s convenient. My time is worth more to me than I’ll get by clicking on an ad that pays less than a tenth of a cent.

So here’s my success strategy with Myster-E-Mail. Log in every other day or so and click on any ad that pays more than a tenth of a cent. Click the tenth of a centers if they’re on the same page with the higher paying ones, and ignore anything lower.

Also ignore any of the paid emails they send you. You’ll get a lot, and it’s best to setup your email client to automatically filter them out.

You’ll leave some money on the table this way, but you’ll also make the best use of your time and get regular payouts.

Hits4Pay and DealsNCash

These two are paid email sites, but they send very few emails. And each email simply contains a link that takes you back to the site to view the advertisement.

Each of these sites pays well for viewing the ad itself, $0.02 and $0.03 respectively, and each pays you for every ad one of your referrals views. Payouts are promptly made on their published schedule.

Both of these sites are run by the same people, and so they operate in similar ways. Both are also rock solid sites, with no changes throughout the year.

These sites seem, at first, as if you earn more slowly than the others I’ve listed. Payouts are relatively high (in the $20 range), and they send so few emails (an average of one a day, but generally clustered) it would take a long time to reach payout. They’re highly attractive, though, because they send so few emails and it’s dead easy to view their ads when you do get the emails.

The real earning in these two sites comes from recruiting others. You earn as much from your referrals’ activity as you do from your own (in general, the pay plan between the two sites is slightly different). So as you build a base of referrals, your earnings in these programs can skyrocket.

Conclusion

These were the best of the paid-to-click sites I found this year. I expect them to continue to be quality sites into the coming year. Other sites have come and gone throughout the year, but these have remained solid, and in some cases, improved.

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Fast Directory Submitter Review

Fast Directory Submitter is a program that allows both automatic and manual submission to link directories. Fast Directory Submitter competes with products such as Link Directory Submitter (click for my review of that product).

Fast Directory Submitter is a free download, but without paying money you’re limited to submitting each site to 150 directories. This certainly gives you enough room to get a feel for the program.

The program does what it needs to do, and has a nice user interface. Directories are listed along with the date you submitted to them, the anchor text used, and other info. You can easily sort the list so that directories you have not submitted to are displayed first.

The program makes it very easy to mass submit to large numbers of directories. This isn’t a technique I’d recommend. Adding directory links gradually over time is more natural looking to search engines, and a better technique. But it just takes a little discipline to run the program every few days and submit to a few more directories.

One of the things I did not like about the program is that you must create an account to use it. In the Internet Marketing world, knowledge of what niches someone is targeting is useful information. Doing everything through an account makes it possible for them to know what anchor text you’re using and to track the websites you’re submitting. I’m sure that the Fast Directory Submitter folks respect the privacy of their members, but it’d be a smarter bet to not require an account to use the program.

Once you’ve used up the 150 directories you can submit to for free, you must pay $15 per website you are promoting to unlock the rest of the directories (currently a bit over 2,000).

If you’re promoting a single website, like a blog, then this is a good deal. If you’re promoting multiple niche websites and create new ones often, then a program like Link Directory Submitter will be a better value (a one-time payment for unlimited websites).

Click here for the Fast Directory Submitter page.

P.S. Since Fast Directory Submitter is a free download, the above is not an affiliate link. If you like the program, and decide to purchase upgrade credits for one or more websites, doing so through this link will help to support this blog, and not cost you any more than if you bought them through the Fast Directory submitter website.

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SBI! Mentoring Available

As part of my effort to provide exceptional value to those who follow my recommendations, I’m starting a mentoring program for anyone who purchases an SBI! site through one of my links.

I’d been planning on offering a web site with tutorial information, similar to what I do for my Marketing Pond referrals, but the SBI! material is already exceptional. But there are aspects to the process that may not be obvious the first time through, especially if you are new to Internet Marketing.

So to provide extra value, what I’ll do is personally help anyone who purchases SBI! through one of my links to identify a profitable niche and do the initial site design (identifying appropriate keywords for tier 2 and tier 3 pages). My focus will be on helping you to build the skills and judgment needed to do it yourself, rather than simply doing it for you. But I’ll offer advice on what I would do, too.

This offer is also good for whoever wins the January contest, so good luck to everyone who enters!

Also, I’ve recently received notice that the buy-one-get-one-free Holiday special has been held over until January 4th. So you still have a couple of days in which to get two SBI! sites for the price of one. SBI! is a great value as it is, cutting the price of two sites in half is even better. And now, you can also get personal mentoring from me as you work through the action guide.

Click here for the two-for-one special.

Note that you’ll purchase your first site through the order form. When you receive your “Get Ready For Site Build It!” email with details on getting started with your site, there will be a link at the bottom of that email for redeeming your free site. You have 9 months in which to redeem that second site (or give it to someone else), and the one year subscription for that second site doesn’t start until you redeem it. So you can take your time building your first site, and only redeem the second when you’re ready to start another site.

If you purchase an SBI! site through my link, use the contact form at this blog to request your personal mentoring. Send me your first name and the last four digits of your telephone number, to allow me to verify the purchase. Also let me know how far you’ve gotten in the SBI! action guide, and we’ll go from there.

P.S. To be certain of getting credited as my referral, and being eligible for the mentoring, it’s best to clear your cookies before clicking through my link to order.