Fred Black: Internet Business Blog. tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1 2010-07-07T12:06:44Z Internet Business without the Fake Gurus and Over Hyped Lies: Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Copywriting, Home Business and more... Movable Type 3.34 Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 3: iFrames! tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.230 2010-07-07T04:32:42Z 2010-07-07T12:06:44Z Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 3: iFrames! In Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 1 I showed how to setup a Facebook Fan Page and in Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 2 I showed how... Fred Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 3: iFrames!

Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 3: iFrames!

In Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 1 I showed how to setup a Facebook Fan Page and in Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 2 I showed how to use Static FBML to customize the page and to create a form that the user could fill out and it would send you an email using AJAX without ever leaving Facebook.

In this article I'm going to show how to use these techniques to make a Fan Page use Static FBML to display an iFrame.

If you don't know what an iFrame is, it's a method of embedding a web page in a web page. A portion of the main web page has a "window" that is another web page, from the same web server, or from a different web server. There's lots of uses for this and I won't cover them here.

I'm a little hesitant to show this information because I fear that Facebook will block it from working as they have other techniques to display iFrames.

You can see an example of an iFrame in a Facebook Fan Page on the Fan Page for my photo gallery site: www.facebook.com/pqGallery after you click the "Like" button, click the "Slideshow" Tab. Once on the "SlideShow" Tab, click the "Click to Load SlideShow" Button and you'll see an iFrame load that contains a dynamic image slideshow.

Why do you have to click the "Click to Load SlideShow" button? Because Facebook will not automatically start an AJAX command, they require the user to click something. This has the obvious down side of the user having to click something to see your iFrame, but the upside of giving you the ability to have several buttons that they could choose from to load exactly what they want to see.

So, how does this work? First, you HAVE to master what I covered in Part 2. If you can't get that to work, the iFrame technique will not work. Once you can do that, you can use the same technique to make the iFrame. Instead of processing a form and sending an email, the php code that you put on your server sends back to Facebook, via the AJAX connection, the code for your iFrame... and it works!

Below is the exact Static FBML code I use on the pqGallery SlideShow tab. Please Note: you will need to change the call to my server and my php file - I've put in a comment just before this line of code:

Below is the exact content of the PHP file that gets called. pqGallery actually generates this for you for embedding iFrame slideshows of images, so all I had to do here was to copy and paste the code it generated.

As with the examples in the previous articles, it can be frustrating to debug this type of setup. However, eliminating one element at a time until you get something to work is the best way, then, add back what you removed, again, one element at a time and then you'll find the offending code and can work to fix it.

Until next time,
Fred

]]> Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 2 tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.229 2010-05-17T13:00:35Z 2010-08-11T18:21:01Z Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 2 In Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 1 I covered the basics of adding a tab and or box to your Fan Page using the Static FBML app to create custom... Fred Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 2

Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 2

In Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 1 I covered the basics of adding a tab and or box to your Fan Page using the Static FBML app to create custom landing pages and information boxes.

In this article I'll cover using AJAX (AJAX is NOT a cleaning product! AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) to allow you to get information from, or to interact with, a visitor to your Fan Page without the visitor ever leaving your Fan Page. The operation appears seamless and totally integrated... because it is! If you don't know anything about AJAX don't worry - I'll give good examples.

If CSS, HTML, Inline Styles sound like a foreign language to you, get my FREE courses:

Exactly what does AJAX do? It enables a web browser to communicate with a web server without having to constantly reload pages. This communication allows information exchange to occur with the web server behind the scenes and then update the page and information the user is viewing, usually in response to user input.

The example I'm going to use is a simple form that sends an email to yourself. In a real world example, you may setup something to allow a visitor to ask you a question, sign up to your mailing list, order something... the ideas are as endless as your needs and imagination.

Static FBML can create a Tab or a Box in the left column of a Facebook Fan Page. My example is live and working as a Box in the left column of My Fan Page here: www.facebook.com/InternetBusinessBlog - go ahead give it a try, it works.

The image at the top of this article is what the box looks like. Below is the code. The top part of the code is the JavaScript / AJAX portion and it's pretty well commented and should be easy to follow. The bottom portion is the HTML portion that makes the visible part. Basically when you click the submit button an AJAX object is created to communicate to the web server. Then we create a call-back function (fancy way to say a function that the server calls when it's done) to do whatever we need to do with the results returned from the server, and, a function to handle any errors that may occur. Then we tell the user we're submitting the form and we then submit it. That's it... when the results come back we update our page with that info. If you use this example, or follow it, you will need to replace my server and my file with your own (note that it is in multiple places).

So much for the Facebook side of things, what about the code that runs on the web server? Here is the PHP file (in this example: facebook_comment.php) that gets executed to send the test email. This is pretty simple code that just sends an email. The sky is the limit as far as what you can do with your code.

Note: I cannot support everyone out there who may try this. If you run into a particular problem, post about it here and maybe someone will help you out.

The Trouble with Boxes...
Static FBML can create a box in the left column or a full page tab on your Fan Page. You can create multiple occurrences of Static FBML on the same fan page. See Part 1 for instructions for both. One note, I had trouble getting it to show up in the left column. I finally fixed it by clicking the "Boxes" Tab and my Static FBML form what there... Next I clicked on the little pencil looking icon in the top right corner and selected "Move to Wall Tab" and it showed where I wanted it.

Debugging Static FBML
Debugging your code for a Static-FBML page can be tricky. Facebook obfuscates the HTML and JavaScript that it renders so that if you look at a View Source it's hard to read. I use Firefox and watch the error console for clues as to where my problem may be. I also use the FireBug Plugin for Firefox as well to help with debugging both code and CSS.

When debugging, if instead of AJAX handling the return from you web page on the server and it staying hidden it suddenly pops up as a new browser window, you'll know that something with the AJAX call or call-back has a syntax error. If you're really stuck, removed as much of your code and functionality as possible until you get a very simple version working and then add back a little at a time until you find the line of code that is causing problems.

Stay tuned for part 3...

Until next time,
Fred

]]> Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML - Part 1 tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.228 2010-05-05T12:40:02Z 2010-05-17T13:01:10Z Customize Your Facebook Fan Page with Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language) What is a "Fan Page" Facebook Fan Pages are for businesses, bands, products, websites, and organizations. It works very much like a standard Facebook profile in that you can... Fred Create a Facebook Fan Page and Customize with Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language)

Customize Your Facebook Fan Page with Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language)

What is a "Fan Page" Facebook Fan Pages are for businesses, bands, products, websites, and organizations. It works very much like a standard Facebook profile in that you can post status updates, photos, videos, etc. For brick and mortar businesses you can configure your location, hours and parking information. You need a regular or personal Facebook page to setup and configure (administrator) a fan page; you can't just have a fan page. You can configure multiple administrator accounts so that more than one person in your organization can update the fan page. Custom URL for Your Fan Page: Once you reach 50 fans, you can set a custom URL for your Fan Page. For example: http://www.facebook.com/fwblack - Go to this link http://www.facebook.com/username/ to set a custom URL for both fan and personal pages. Note that you cannot change it once you set it, so put some thought into your URL. Like vs. Fan In April 2010 Facebook changed the "Become a Fan" button to a "Like" button. Prior to April, someone could click the "Become a Fan" button for your Fan Page and they would be added to your fan list. Now they click the "Like" button which does the same thing. Personally I prefer the "Become a Fan" button, but Facebook feels the "Like" button is "softer" and requires less of a commitment therefore should increase the number of fans. One of the nice things about a Fan page is that when someone "Likes" you by clicking the "Like" button it is displayed to all their friends that they "Like" you, and that should increase your number of fans. FBML = Facebook Markup Language Just like with a regular Facebook profile you can add tabs for different functions and apps, one of the differences with a "Fan" page is you can add a tab with an app called Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language) and use your own HTML and limited JavaScript. This lets you setup custom welcome pages, request forms, email signups, etc. You can even setup a form that submits using AJAX so the user never leaves Facebook. This is very important as part of the "culture" of Facebook is that people don't necessarily like to click something that takes them off of Facebook. I will show how to do this AJAX submission in the next post on this topic. Boxes vs. Tabs Static FBML can create a box in the left column of your "Fan" page, and/or, a new Tab. JavaScript Facebook FBML does not let you actually use just any JavaScript directly. Instead they have compiled a library of JavaScript that you can use. If you try to use something besides the commands they allow, it will be commented out or removed when the page is rendered. Images You can embed images you've upload to your Fan page using FBML, but it's easier to upload images to your web site and reference them from FBML. Default Landing Page Once you create your Static FBML tab, you can set which tab a new visitor to the page (meaning a non-fan and a non-admin) will see first. (Once a person "Likes" you, or is an administrator, they will default to the Wall tab). To set this:
  1. Click "Ads and Pages" in the left column of your facebook profile.
  2. Click edit on the fan page and then
  3. Click edit in the Wall Settings Section
  4. In the "Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else" Select the name of your Static FBML tab.
Getting Started - Adding Static FBML to your page To add Static FBML to your account:
  1. Type "Static FBML" into the search box.
  2. Click on the "Static FBML" that shows and then
  3. Click "Like" this will make you a fan.
  4. In the left column click the link that says "Add to my Page", this will open a dialog box that lets you select which of your "Fan" pages to add the Static FBML app.
  5. Click the "Add to Page" button beside the "Fan" page or pages you want to use Static FBML, then
  6. Close the "Add Static FBML to your Page" dialog box.
  7. Click the "Home" link in the top right corner
Selecting Box vs. Tab Static FBML can add a tab and/or a box in the left column of your Fan Page.
  1. Click "Ads and Pages" in the left column
  2. If you have multiple "Fan" pages, select the "Fan" page you want to edit
  3. Scroll down until you see the "FBML - FBML" (or the name of your FBML tab or box) section and click "Application Settings".
  4. From here you can click "add" or "remove" to add or remove the box or the tab.
External CSS vs. Inline Styles You can use either. Like using external images, you call an external style sheet from YOUR web site. If you call an external style sheet, use this syntax: In the example below I used inline styles which are easier when doing something simple like this example. In one of my subsequent articles on this topic I'll change to external styles sheets in the example. If CSS, HTML, Inline Styles sound like a foreign language to you, get my FREE courses: Editing Your FBML Page
  1. Click "Ads and Pages" in the left column of your facebook profile.
  2. If you have multiple "Fan" pages, select the "Fan" page you want to edit
  3. Scroll down until you see the "FBML - FBML" (or, [name] - FBML once you give it a name) section and click "Edit".
  4. You can edit the HTML code here.
I prefer to edit HTML it in a text editor and paste it in vs. editing in this little box. Creating More Tan One FBML Tab for Your Fan Page If you want more than one, you can do that too!
  1. Click "Ads and Pages" in the left column of your facebook profile.
  2. Click "Edit Page" for the Fan Page you want to edit,
  3. Scroll down until you see the "FBML - FBML" (or, [name] - FBML once you give it a name) section and click "Edit".
  4. Below the fields for the box click "Add another FBML box";
Basic Example: Below I'll give you the exact HTML code I used to create the FBML tab for my pqGallery Fan Page.... I didn't use any of the FBML codes, just regular HTML and I referenced images from the pqGallery web site. As mentioned above, I used inline styles. Please visit the pqGallery Fan Page... and become a "Fan" by clicking "Like" - also checkout pqGalleryand setup an account! I've included a screen shot because in the next few articles on this, I'll keep modifying the code to create different examples. You can look at the code and this screenshot to see what it does.
pqGallery Facebook Fan Page Static-FBML Tab Example 1

pqGallery Facebook Fan Page Static-FBML Tab Example 1, Created using the code shown below.

HTML Code For pqGallery Fan Page Static-FBML Tab This is the actual HTML code used to create the Tab shown in the screen shot above and on my pqGallery Fan Page... Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML - Part 2 Until Next Time, Fred ]]> Texting Social Media Updates - Useful vs. Useless tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.227 2010-05-03T12:41:00Z 2010-05-03T15:56:30Z Texting Social Media Updates - Useful vs. Useless You know you need to have social media in the mix of tools you use to promote your services, products, Internet business, and web site. It's part of marketing yourself or your... Fred Texting Social Media Updates - Useful vs. Useless

Texting Social Media Updates - Useful vs. Useless

You know you need to have social media in the mix of tools you use to promote your services, products, Internet business, and web site. It's part of marketing yourself or your business. But... maybe you're one of those people who have to drug screaming and kicking into the social media fray! If you've not setup a Facebook or Twitter profile, you should. It's another way for people to find you. Like a lot of activities, there's not a direct correlation between the amount of time you spend on social media and the business return you get from it. However you need to utilize social media and used correctly it can add to your bottom line. Keep in mind that it can be a huge time draining activity. There is a danger that you can spend a lot of time interacting and posting and not get much work done. But, that does not mean that it's not a valuable tool. So what's a good way to balance the usefulness with the uselessness? One suggestion I have it to make short updates to Facebook and Twitter and not spend time playing games, socializing, etc. If someone comments on something you've posted, and you want to respond, then do so, but you don't have to treat Facebook and Twitter like your business phone. In other words, check it once or twice a day and do not jump to respond when someone comments. A good way to keep your profile current with fresh updates, if you're busy and away from your PC a lot, is to update from your cell phone. If you have a smart phone you can load an app to do this for both Facebook and Twitter. If like me, you don't really care for smart phones, you can use pretty much any mobile phone with text ability to text updates. This makes it easy to send a quick status update each day - you simply text what you want to say to a special number, just like sending a text to anyone. Below are the instructions for setting this up. Note that Facebook, because they support uploading photos and video via texting, does not support all cell phone carriers. Facebook
  1. Login to facebook
  2. Click on Accont in the top right corner and select "Account Settings"
  3. Click on the "Mobile" tab
  4. Click "Register for Facebook Text Messages"
  5. Select your country and carrier (step 1 of 3)
  6. Click Next
  7. Text to from you phone to the number shown with the message shown (on my test it was the letter f) (step 2 of 3)
  8. Click Next
  9. You will receive a confirmation code back in a message on your phone, enter it in facebook (step 3 of 3). Note: you may want to uncheck the "Add my cell number to my profile" box.
  10. Once configured, you can text messages (status updates), photos, and videos to the number shown from your phone.
Twitter
  1. Login to Twitter
  2. Click on "Settings" in the top right corner
  3. Click on "Mobile"
  4. Select your country and enter your mobile phone number (you can check or uncheck to let others find you by your mobile phone number)
  5. Send a text message to the number shown with the word shown (on my test it was the word GO)
  6. Twitter waits for you to send the message... it will then verify your phone.
  7. Once configured, you can text tweets to the number shown from your phone.
Until Next Time, Fred ]]> Success or Failure in an Internet Business Depends on Who's Looking Back at You in the Mirror... tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.226 2010-04-28T04:04:07Z 2010-04-28T04:28:20Z Success or Failure in an Internet Business Depends on Who's Looking Back at You in the Mirror... Photo by Lee Hinshaw Success or failure in ANYTHING, not just an Internet Business, depends on your perception of reality. Does that seem... Fred Success or Failure in an Internet Business Depends on Who is Looking Back at You in the Mirror.

Success or Failure in an Internet Business Depends on Who's Looking Back at You in the Mirror... Photo by Lee Hinshaw

Success or failure in ANYTHING, not just an Internet Business, depends on your perception of reality. Does that seem like a strange thing to you? Do you think it depends on your email list, your copywriting skills, and your ingenuity in creating new products to sell? No. Those things can be learned, outsourced, bought, etc. and you will STILL fail. The key to success is knowing who you are, where you are, where you're going, how to get there, and the fact that you WILL get there. Do you think you have all those attributes? You may think you do, but you probably don't. I don't. But I'm getting there! What's the difference between you and Donald Trump? If you took Mr. Trump out of his tower and put him in your situation without any of his resources or contacts, how long do you think it would take him to amass a new fortune? They say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem... likewise; the first step to achieving any goal is identifying the problems, YOUR problems, that are separating you from success. Regardless of what goals you have set for yourself, either consciously or subconsciously, your chances of achieving those goals and obtaining success, is directly proportional to how accurately you see your current situation and reality around you. None of us see ourselves, or our world, as it truly is... we perceive it. Our perception skews reality, like shadows on a dark night keep you from recognizing a close friend walking towards you... or an enemy walking towards you. Take this example (true story) of an elderly woman in an assisted living facility. She's suffering from memory issues. She can remember 40 years ago like it was yesterday, but she can't recall yesterday to save her life. When she looks in the mirror she swears she's looking at her mother and that her mother lives "in there". It's a very sad, disturbing story. I believe the majority of people view reality with no more accuracy than this elderly woman. I think when you and I look in the mirror, the image we see is no more accurate than what this lady is seeing. In fact I could be even farther away from truth, farther away from reality. There are people who are grossly obese who don't see themselves as huge when they look in the mirror. There are other people who are pencil thin, who stick their fingers down their throat and make themselves throw up because when they look in the mirror, they don't look skinny, they see themselves as fat. Watch a few documentaries on the National Geographic Channel: actions, beliefs, and physical traits that to one culture may be desired and valued, to another culture may be shunned or disgusting. It's all a matter of reality, of the reality a person is living in. Maybe you're in a bad marriage. I doubt you started the marriage off not loving and liking one another. It's unlikely that when you said "I do" you were thinking "I'll give this a try, but in 3 years I'll probably have an affair with Mike from the office". Maybe you're in a bad financial position. I doubt that you set out to be in debt or broke. Those are common, understandable problems. Maybe you're a drug addict and will do anything, including trading sex for drugs, to get that next syringe full of your heaven to stick in your veins. It's all a matter of reality, your reality. For you to become a cheater, your reality had to make it ok for you to break those marriage vows. For you to stick a needle full of heroin in your arm, your reality had to make that an OK thing for you to do. The majority of people live in a reality that makes either activity unacceptable. Most people also live in a reality that makes financial failure the norm. It's reality. It's normal. We follow the well worn path: go to school, get a job, don't ask too many questions, pay too much tax, retire in debt, die... even if you manage to do really well by most standards and retire positive and not in debt, you still spent most of your life working. Why? Because that's our reality. What's the difference between Donald Trump and you? Or Donald Trump and the disheveled middle-aged man that took your order at the drive-through today? Their perception and expectation of reality. What do you think would happen if you switched places with Donald or if he switched places with the guy in the drive-through? Do you think Donald would still be working the drive-through in a year? How do you think the drive-through guy would handle taking on Donald's life? Both would face tough challenges but I would expect Donald to fair better, much better because his perception of reality is that he's a winner, he's a success, and that he will eventually come out on top. If the drive-through guy possessed that perception of himself he would not be working the drive-through. It's not only thinking you will succeed, that's no more than wishing. Its understanding how everything you do affects reality. Its understanding ALL the things you say, read, write, watch on TV, who you spend your time with, everything, I MEAN EVERYTHING, bends and alters your perception of reality. And your perception of reality IS your reality - there's not a difference. We need to start examining our reality with the same uneasiness that we hold for the elderly woman who sees her mother when she looks in the mirror. When we start to do this, we start to see the entrapments that keep us captive. Who's looking back at you when you look in your mirror, and what problems and limitations do they bring with them? Until next time, Fred]]> Bullets from God - The Greatest Copywriter of All Time? tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.225 2010-03-19T04:13:43Z 2010-05-03T15:57:35Z Moses with the Ten Commandments by Rembrandt (1659) I was sitting in a meeting today talking about the redesign of a web site to increase conversion. Someone in the meeting pointed to a section of the web page and suggested... Fred Moses with the Ten Commandments by Rembrandt (1659)

Moses with the Ten Commandments by Rembrandt (1659)

I was sitting in a meeting today talking about the redesign of a web site to increase conversion. Someone in the meeting pointed to a section of the web page and suggested we put a bulleted list right there, and then someone else asked how many bullets should be in the list... he replied 5 to 7 is max. I kind of agree with that number so I said 7 max. But later I got to thinking... hum... no, I think 10 is a good max. There's really not a maximum number. There's no rule that says "Thou Shalt Not Create a List of Bullets that Containith More than 10 Bullets"... but that does bring me to my point... The Best Bulleted List of All Time? The Ten Commandments is one GREAT bulleted list. Those 10 statements have survived thousands of years. How many people can quote some or all of the Ten Commandments? Even a large number of the people who can't, maybe even most of those who can't, have at least heard of the Ten Commandments. How many copywriters can create copy that has that kind of staying power? Can YOU beat THAT control? (for those that don't know, a "control" is the version of copy or the version of an ad that converts,or generates the most sales, the best). There's some debate on exactly how many commandments were on that set of stone tablets that Moses came down from the mountain holding... but I'm going to attribute that to our (meaning human) issues and nothing else. God didn't put any fluff in his bullets, he did waste any words: they were engaging, concise, and to the point. For example:
  • You shall not murder.
  • You shall not commit adultery.
  • You shall not steal.
  • You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
  • You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
No problem understanding where God was coming from, what the point is, and what's in it for you (or me) is there? Bullets work. Period. Bullets work because people skim and jump around and don't spend time reading every word you write. As mentioned above, most people can quote some or all of the Ten Commandments but not the surrounding text from the Bible? Bullets work! Fancy vs. Plain? You can dress up your bullets with fancy graphics like check marks or little diamonds - or you can use the standard dots, numbers, or letters. Another great technique to draw the eye to a set of bullets is to alternate bolding the text (bullet one is bold, bullet two is plan, bullet three is bold, bullet four is plain, etc.)... What Should Bullets Say? Bullets can, and should, cover the same things that are covered in your copy, they just do it quicker, faster, and more to the point. Bullets go Bang with Benefits! Bullets should stress the benefits of your product or service foremost and its features second. A benefit is what results from a feature: for example "Spend More Time with Your Family" or, "Eat Desert without Any Guilt". You may be saying... hum... You shall not murder is not a benefit or a feature... and you're correct, but God was selling eternal life and salvation - a little different from the things we sell. How Long is Too Long? I've worked on sales pages that have bulleted lists that were too long. If you have a large number of bullets, break them up into groups so that you don't fatigue the reader. (I don't have any facts or figures to support this claim, but my guess is that fatigued readers don't buy, they move on.) Don't forget bullets when writing. Bullets reemphasize your points, as well as, pull in readers who are just skimming the text. Until next time, Fred ]]> Success is not Sticky - You Have to Hold the BALL! tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.224 2010-02-05T20:19:04Z 2010-02-05T20:23:32Z Success is not Sticky - You Have to Hold the BALL! Failure holds you back. If the status quo is not where you want to be in life, then it holds you back. I've written about it here on... Fred Success is not Sticky - You Have to Hold the BALL!

Success is not Sticky - You Have to Hold the BALL!

Failure holds you back. If the status quo is not where you want to be in life, then it holds you back. I've written about it here on this blog before. Everything pulls you back to where you are when you're trying to get ahead in life, when you're trying to improve yourself. Your situation, your friends, your family, your debt, everything... maybe not intentionally, but everything holds you back. Success isn't that way. If success was sticky you wouldn't have scandals and sad situations like Tiger Woods, John Edwards, Brittany Spears... well the list is pretty long so I'll stop. If success was sticky, celebrities, sports stars, and politicians would actually still be role models that we could feel good about our kids looking up to. Instead, failure is pulling at them to, in spite of their successes. The reasons are different though. When you're in failure mode, your mind is overwhelmed with the situation of failure. Every step can be a struggle. Work two jobs and you're too tired to do your best job at either one, and if you have children, you'll miss spending time with them and that makes you frustrated and angry too. Get behind in your bills and the phone calls and letters will drive you crazy. Constantly trying to figure out how to pay this or keep this on and woops, that check bounced, takes it toll and soon you're yelling at the ones you love the most. It takes incredible dedication and focus to claw and inch your way out of that situation. It can be done. Most don't make it out though. A successful person does not have these same worries. You'd think they would be able to reach new heights of creativity and productivity with the clarity of mind that not worrying about all those failure things can bring. Some do. Some keep it. A lot fail. The human mind is a very sophisticated instrument. You can walk into a smelly bathroom and after a few minutes you no longer notice how bad it smells because your brain adjusts a few things and re-centers what "normal" smells like. Or after changing a dozen diapers, you no longer gag... and before long you can keep eating while making record fast changes. The brain works against you too. Success can lead to thinking you're bullet proof, to thinking that you can get away with things that are wrong, or with sub-par performance. Success also brings followers, people who may or may not have your best interest at heart, people who want to pull themselves up to you but end up pulling you down. The key is focus. This weekend is Super Bowl Sunday. If you watch the game you'll see some excellent examples of focus. Quarterback who can keep their cool and look around for an open receiver downfield, and throw the ball accurately, all the while a bunch of 250 to 300 pound (or more) massive, angry, incredibly strong and fast guys are trying to kill him. You'll see receivers look only at the ball as it makes its way to their outstretched hands... all the while knowing that another player is running at them as hard as they can and will try everything they can to obliterate them and make them fumble the ball. All the while thousands of fans scream as loud as they can. You'll see coaches execute their plans, evaluate, compensate, and adjust trying to out-coach the other coach. If anyone of the starting lineup gets hurts or starts slacking off, there are several ready, willing, and able players on the bench to take their place. If the quarterback throws too many bad balls or interceptions, there's someone to take his place. The effect of focus and the fact that success is not sticky is easy to see with sports. It's easy to watch a great dancer, an exceptional gymnast, any Olympic athlete and know the years of training and focus it took to reach the top. It's just as easy to understand that if they stop working out, if they stop practicing, if they start eating junk food and smoking, they will quickly loose their position at the top. What's hard is having this same understanding in others areas. I've heard someone say that they didn't like the book or movie "The Secret" because it said just think about it and it will happen. No work involved, just think about it and sit down and the world will come to you. That's not what it says. Back to our sports examples: athletes go through very detailed mental pictures of winning before a competition... and no one doubts the effectiveness of those exercises. The Law of Attraction is basically the same thing - get it in your head and then work for it. Get the image in your head of what you want to do, where you want to go in life, and then work for it. Focus. Focus. Focus. Keep your eye on the ball... you can catch it... don't worry about how much it's going to hurt when you hit the ground... don't worry about the footsteps you hear running to tackle you... catch the ball... don't drop it... when the play is over and the dust settles and you're in the End Zone holding the ball, it will be worth it! Until next time, Fred]]> Birthday Salute! tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.223 2010-02-02T17:56:11Z 2010-02-02T17:59:02Z Our youngest, Walker is 5 today! Here we are last night getting ready for bed... part of our normal bedtime routine... after reading 3 books! Until next time, Fred... Fred Until next time, Fred ]]> New Layout tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.222 2010-01-22T16:19:56Z 2010-01-22T16:20:15Z If you've been here before, you can see that I have a new blog design... it's very different that the previous layout. Let me know what you think! Fred... Fred If you've been here before, you can see that I have a new blog design... it's very different that the previous layout. Let me know what you think! Fred What's the Value of a Link to SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.221 2010-01-11T04:30:02Z 2010-01-11T13:07:29Z I have a great example to share that shows just how much a good link is worth. I spend a lot of time working on SEO (Search Engine Optimization), both for myself and for clients/customers. There're a lot of "standard"... Fred What's the Value of a Link to SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

What's the Value of a Link to SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

I tracked the page rankings for a few keywords and we took a major hit (shown as drop "A") in the graph. This occurred because I basically scrambled the site around and didn't tell the search engines what I was doing. Notice that only Google seemed to care. And that we were pretty much ranking #1 or #2 on Yahoo and MSN (Bing) for the keyword phrase I was tracking. There was another problem. This site was hosted on a Unix box using Apache as the web server (no, that's not the problem). Because the blog was originally in the root of the site and because the blog software is WordPress, the rewrite engine was on for the root. But I had moved the blog from the root to a "blog" folder. So when a search engine spider would crawl the site, trying to locate the old pages with the old names (that no longer exist), they would get a partial, messed up, broken page - Instead of getting a 404 page not found, they were getting junk. Because of this, the old pages were not being removed from the search engine index, AND the search engines thought the site was garbage (but only Google seemed to care). Once I found the source of the problem and turn off the rewrite engine for the root, that problem was solved (somewhere near the end of October on the graph). Back when I started working on their blog, I added a link to their blog from my blog. My blog has a Google Page Rank of 3, so it has some decent value. You can see over time and with more SEO effort on my part, such as submitting articles, etc. their ranking in Google improved for the keyword phrase I was tracking. Toward the end of December that client became a non-client. I was cleaning up my blogroll around the end of the year and decided to remove their link. Look at the drop at "B" on the graph - that is the result. As far as I know, that's the ONLY thing that changed! It's hard to tell from the graph, but the drop occurred on January 5th 2010. Notice again, Google is the only one that cared. Their blog is still pegged at #1 on Yahoo and MSN(Bing) for the phrase I'm tracking. Why did Google care when Yahoo and MSN(Bing) did not? I'm not totally sure except that it appears that Google is much more sensate to problems on your site, drastic changes, etc. But this does show the value, especially on small, fairly new sites with not many inbound links, of good, solid, one-way links from sites with good page rank. Want to know more about SEO? SEO Secrets Revealed. Until Next Time, Fred ]]> Internet Business Ethics 101 tag:www.pqInternet.com,2009://1.220 2009-12-31T21:48:56Z 2010-01-19T20:13:48Z Internet Business Ethics 101 Class Sit up pay attention, you're about to learn something... Something I've paid dearly to learn, but you don't have to... as long as you pay attention and heed my advice. Being a victim is a... Fred Internet Business Ethics 101

Internet Business Ethics 101

Class Sit up pay attention, you're about to learn something... Something I've paid dearly to learn, but you don't have to... as long as you pay attention and heed my advice. Being a victim is a hard pill to swallow. No one likes to admit they were a victim. Criminals, rapists, child molesters, conmen and the like know this and count on the fact that a lot of their victims will not make public what happened to them. Knowing this, they live free to strike again another day. There are plenty of fake gurus, lame products, and "takers" in the Internet Business, home business, and marketing arena these days that count on the same quirks in our human nature to get away ripping people off. Over the last few years I've been taken in by one... I'll name names below, but keep reading for now. Hardly an hour goes by without an email showing up in my inbox (just think how many were trapped by my spam filter) hawking the latest plan, formula, or product that just earned someone hundreds of thousands dollars in just minutes or days without doing much of anything. These are obvious lame products, yet people still fall for them. It's hard to imagine, but people still fall for the Nigerian scam letter from the wife of the late Mr. x who was the so and so in charge of so and so's vast fortune... Before I go any farther, let me say that there are honest and ethical people in this business. In fact, I would bet that most are. Just like a barrel of apples, one rotten one can ruin the whole thing. It's a shame that one or two rotten apples can tarnish those who go out of their way to help others and to make sure their products and services are first class. If you're really sharp and have followed my blog for a while, you've noticed I've removed a few names from my blog roll. One of the names I've removed lately is Eric Graham, The Conversion Doctor. I have a DVD product in which I interview Eric, it's called Masters of Online Income - The Eric Graham Interview - I'm pulling that product from the market today - the last day of 2009. Why? Because I no longer feel comfortable promoting or being associated with Eric in anyway. Over the past year my opinion of him has steadily dropped. You're known by the company you keep and if I'm selling a DVD that features me interviewing Eric, people will assume that I approve of his business tactics and dealings - I do not. The DVD we made contains good material. I worked hard to create it, and have never recouped what I paid for the time I spent with Eric - but I don't want to sell it anymore. There's nothing dishonest in the material on the DVD, and if you have one, it contains good advice. But I feel uncomfortable selling it. What exactly happened? I have followed Eric's blog for some time. He calls himself the "Conversion Doctor" because he has performed hundreds of tests on his web sites and his client's web sites to determine what factors will improve your sales. The things he's suggested that I've tested tend to be true. The truth is, I paid for one of his packages that included a day together followed by a year of email coaching (among other things) and he has not followed through on his end of the deal. I've since been in contact with others who have had the same experiences. In fact, there are several complaints to be found from his dissatisfied clients (I'll give the link to a few below). From time to time Eric promotes a "special" on a "package" that includes some variation of a day-long visit where he would flies into your town and spends the day working with you. Usually the package is combined with 6 months to a year of email coaching, 2 to 4 phone calls and / or web meetings, creation of joint ventures, new products, offloading his overflow of copywriting work to you, opening the doors to you to other "big" names in the Internet Business arena from his "huge" rolodex, etc. In the video promoting the package I purchased, he totals up its value to be around $47,000 and offers to discount it to $4,997 if you'll provide a video testimonial of how much he's helped your business. The day-long visit can be used for anything - working on your business, creating new products, etc. I took him up on one of these specials at the end of 2008. We had some scheduling issues and instead of Eric coming to my location, I went to his location at the end of December 2008. During the planning of the trip, all using his public email address, we had no communication issues what-so-ever (this would later change). We spent the day together and planned out a membership site, tweaked an existing sales letter I had for an existing product, and recorded the video for the DVD. We also recorded a video testimonial from me about how much we'd accomplished that day. I had assumed the testimonial he wanted would be at the end of the year after he had helped me improve my business - so I was a little surprised when, at the end of the day, he want to record a testimonial. When I returned home, I realized he had never given me the email address for his coaching program. I had to ask him for it. That's when things started to go south. I had problems with the video from the start. My video camera had jammed so we used Eric's video camera for the interview. I happened to have a small external hard drive with me and left it with Eric for him to copy the video to and ship to me. It took a while but it finally arrived, at which point I proceeded to drop the box the drive was in (geez). When I connected it, it didn't work. I emailed Eric to have him copy the file to something else and he no longer had it. His email responses started taking longer and longer. He could not locate the file. A couple of months went by. I took the drive out one more time to try it and got it working - and was able to copy off the video. I proceeded to work on editing it and creating a DVD. With most email coaching programs like this, it's common to ask the coach one question a day and get an answer back the same day or the next day, at most a couple of days. Most of my emails to Eric went unanswered - what I mean here is completely ignored, no responses at all. The few that were answered took weeks and some took 3 months - without any mention of the lapse of time. It's like he just woke up one day and answered a 3 month old email. I would get fed up and send him a scathing email saying how frustrated I was with his help and how disappointed I was in him and would summarize the questions I'd sent him that he never answered. A couple of times, in response to these hostile emails, he would forward me a month (or more) old email to me that I never received asking me if I ever received it ("did you not see this" he would ask). I have all his email addresses and domains in my spam white list, so I know he never really sent these "missing" emails. Back to the DVD: for some reason I had a lot of problems editing the video from Eric's camera - the video and audio out of sync - like a Japanese monster movie. After a ton of work I got it fixed up and created a really nice DVD. The time had come to make the sales letter. I had figured Eric would help with this, but that was not to be. After several emails he sent me a long copywriting preparation worksheet - which I really like by the way - to fill out and then create the copy from. There were also flash videos of him talking about the worksheet and a sales letter template he had made (which he said was just for me but later he made public on his blog). So I created the sales web site and got it launched. All along I was looking forward to Eric promoting the DVD to his huge email list. He had said he would mail his list about it. I had been a subscriber to Eric's email list for years and never saw any email from him promoting the DVD. I thought this was strange. I emailed him a few times about it with no response from him. So I went to his blog and I noticed he'd had a few blog posts that I didn't get email about either... one of which was about my DVD... but looking in my stats, I had no traffic to speak of from his blog. So I filled out the form to sign up for his email list and instead of it saying I was already subscribed, it let me sign up... seems I'd been removed... strange. I emailed a blogging buddy of mine who I knew was also on his email list and he said yes, Eric did send an email about the latest blog posts, include the one about my DVD... that included a link to my sales page... but where was the traffic??? I could understand if people showed up and didn't buy, but I only saw 5 to 10 visitors from his blog and no bump in traffic what-so-ever around the date of his mailing about my DVD. My conclusion - he either has a very small email list, or it's very stale. Over the course of the year, I slowly stopped trying to get help from Eric. I've sent a few emails telling him how frustrated and disappointed I was. Also over the course of the year, he has made several more videos advertising the same or similar packages, one or two using my video testimonial. I've asked him to stop using it. He was supposed to help me get other "big names" in the business to agree to do more of these interview DVDs for the Masters of Online Income site (which was supposed to be a membership site). During the visit he gave me a list of web sites and names. That was his help in opening doors for me. I actually did email every one of these names (that I could find contact info for) telling them that I was working with Eric he had given me their name and that I wanted to interview them. It's pretty easy to count the number of positive responses I had - 0. I assumed, as you probably would, that he would pick the phone up and call one or two while I was there and we'd get something setup and started. Our original plan was for this to be a membership site with me doing one of these video interviews a month. It's embarrassing to admit to the world that I was taken by Eric. He'll probably say I didn't follow his plan to the letter and that's why I was dissatisfied. But the facts stand that over the course of a year he responded to and answered only a small handful of emails and never followed through on the other items on the list of things in the package. I've also exchanged emails with two other people who have had the same experiences and I've heard from a top Internet Marketing Coach who says he's heard the same complaints from several of his clients about Eric. My point here is not to bad mouth Eric but to present the facts. I do actually think he knows how to improve conversion and that when he says things like "make links blue and underlined" he's right. But I want to warn people NOT to purchase one of his package deals or other consulting services. He's running one now titled: "How to Make 2010 Your Best Year Ever!" for $1997. My advice - DON'T DO IT! He's also raising the price on his Web Site Evaluations.com, "due to extreme demand" by $1000 on 1/4/2010. That makes the price almost $3000. Again, he does not take credit cards for anything over $1000 so you have to wire the money, use an online check, or overnight a check. My advice - DON'T DO IT! Here are a few links to others who have been taken as well: http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/graham-advantage-c200917/page/1.html http://emarketworks.com/category/eric-graham/ http://www.elanelan.com/EricGraham.htm (this one contains screen shots from the video promoting the same package I signed up for) You may be wondering why I've not pressed Eric for a refund. First, read the posts at the 3 links above. Eric does not take credit cards for these big packages, only checks or wire transfers for items over $1000. Geez, I wonder why! But, I didn't pay Eric with money; we traded something of equal value to the cost of the package. I have asked for it back, or the cash equivalent, but, like the complaints in the links above, he has never respond to those emails. Actually he responded to one with the copywriting worksheet and videos mentioned above, contained in a forwarded month(s) old email he says he sent but that I must have never received... with no mention of my refund request or returning my property. So that's today's lesson. There are good guys you can trust, and I'll keep them in my blog roll. But there are a few rotten apples that will spoil your day. Do your homework before spending a large sum of money with anyone - use a search engine, type in their name and add the word scam, rip off, etc. - you might be surprised what you find. You can thank me later! Oh... please Digg, Stumble, etc. this post so that as many as possible will see it... Until next time, Fred
Update: Ryan Healy posted a blog post titled Internet Marketing on Life Support - he referenced my issues with Eric and also two other problems in the Internet Marketing field. Eric responded to his post with some pretty farfetched lies about me and what happened between us... and tried to make this sound like it was my fault! Eric has had a huge response to his post.
]]> Exploding Your Copy (and life) From Sissy to SEISMIC. tag:www.pqInternet.com,2009://1.219 2009-12-04T14:23:13Z 2009-12-04T14:33:03Z Exploding Your Copy (and life) From Sissy to SEISMIC. I love the color gray. I also hate the color gray. Grey is a great color for some things... like a nice grey suit, socks, or even my hair! But it's... Fred Exploding Your Copy (and life) From Sissy to SEISMIC.

Exploding Your Copy (and life) From Sissy to SEISMIC.

I love the color gray. I also hate the color gray. Grey is a great color for some things... like a nice grey suit, socks, or even my hair! But it's a really bad color for life, copywriting, marketing, first dates, race cars, etc. Passion is anything but gray Political Correctness is so gray Specifics are not gray at all Generalization is gray, and when you generalize you loose people. Want to make a difference in this world? Want to stand out? Want your message to be heard? Then you want to be vibrant. You want to be dynamic. You do not want to be a gray person or have a gray personality. Why do you think celebrities do such strange and stupid things? Because it get's them attention and media coverage. One way or another that usually translates into more money in their pockets. Then again, I think that some celebrities become so addicted to it that they can't stop doing strange and stupid things! Like the flamboyant mating dances and displays of some birds, the biggest showoff and most colorful bird gets to mate and pass on those colorful genes to a new generation! I think it's built into the deep recesses of our cerebral cortex too. The end result: more people care about utterly stupid and worthless reality shows than real suffering and real issues. More people read about Tiger Woods than the laws and programs our Congress and Senate leaders are voting on. What does this mean when it comes to making money, selling something, writing copy, marketing, or living life? Be the colorful bird! Make your copy interesting and vivid. Make your presentation colorful. Take a stand. Don't play it safe. Too many people are obsessed with being politically correct: pc this and pc that... it MAKES ME SICK! If you think playing it safe and trying to please everyone and not insult or offend anyone will get you ahead, think again. It doesn't work in most cases. Lukewarm gets lukewarm results. If you want to sizzle then you need some HEAT! What if you just have a grey personality and just can't seem to muster any color whatsoever? You can try roll playing. Sometimes I go into my TV Evangelist alter ego! Screaming and hollering and making wild motions with my hands! Maybe when it's time for you to write your blog posts, or write some copy, or go on a date, you put on a particular jacket, shirt, or hat. And BAM! You're now seven shades of hi-gloss purple passion instead of flat, dull gray! It takes courage to stand out! Inside even the most subdued person there's a star bursting to get out. Fear keeps their starlight locked inside, just like a black hole stops even light from escaping from it's core. So GET FIRED UP! Get some PERSONALITY! Go from wuss to WONDER! from plain to PASSIONATE! from dull to DAZZLING! from empty to EMPHATIC! from so-so to SO WHAT! from sissy to SEISMIC! Be the colorful bird! Until next time, Fred]]> Long Tail Keywords tag:www.pqInternet.com,2009://1.218 2009-11-13T03:29:20Z 2009-11-13T12:04:15Z Long Tail Keywords What is a "Long Tail Keyword Phrase"? This is the definition in my "SEO Brain Dump" which is only available as the bonus to my SEO Secrets Revealed course... Long Tail: Refers to a less searched, more... Fred Long Tail Keywords

Long Tail Keywords

What is a "Long Tail Keyword Phrase"? This is the definition in my "SEO Brain Dump" which is only available as the bonus to my SEO Secrets Revealed course...
Long Tail: Refers to a less searched, more specific keyword phrase. For example, "Internet Business" is a broad keyword phrase. Because it's broad, meaning it covers a lot of sites and a lot of sites try to rank well for it, it's hard to get your site to rank well for that term. However, "Internet Business Coaching Program" is a more granular, specific term. Fewer sites try to rank well for it and less people search for it. Is that bad? No, actually it's good if you're selling Internet Business Coaching because the people who do search and find you are more likely to do business with you.
Why is it better to have fewer people landing on your page, site, or blog? It's better to have targeted traffic, or traffic that's interested in what your site is offering or is about. If you had to choose between 10 "targeted" visitors who were looking to purchase your product or learn about the topic of your blog, or 1000 visitors who had only tangential interests in your products or subject, which would you choose? Even if you're not very smart at all, the obvious answer is 10 "targeted" visitors. As your momma probably told you, you can't make up for a lack of quality with quantity. Well, maybe your mother didn't tell you that, but she sure should have! That's what long tail keywords are all about. Because they are more specific, they're more targeted. Because fewer sites are trying to compete for them, they're easier to rank for too. So it's a win/win situation. You can use a couple of methods to gauge competition for a keyword phrase and also how many searches are performed per month. The quick and easy way to determine competition is to do a search in Google for the keyword phrase you're interested in, for example if you are selling "blue banana brushes" then you'd just type this in Google and see how many sites are listed. This particular search on this particular day says 1-10 of about 145,000. (I tried to pick something that would not exist!). You may also want to go to the next page of results to see if the 145,000 figure changes. The next quick thing you can check is to do this search in Google, "allinanchor:Blue Banana Brushes". This "AllInAnchor" search will give a lower total figure, in this case on this day, 1-10 of about 955. This search gives the number of pages that have links to them that use the words in the phrase "Blue Banana Brushes" in the anchor text of the link. This figure can more accurately represent the stiffness of the competition for ranking for this term. Now what about finding out how many searches people perform for a term? You'll need to have a Google Adwords account. Sign up for one and you can use the Google Keywords Tool. You don't have to fund your Adwords account to use the Keywords tool. In the Google Keywords tool, you type in a keyword phrase or list of keyword phrases and the tool will return to you the number of monthly searches, both US and Globally. This will give you a feel for if it's worth trying to rank for. There's no fixed formula for determining how to use the information you've just gathered. I wish there was! For example, I rank very high for "Internet Business" (which is NOT long tail), currently, today, if you do a search in Google for it, it returns 1-10 of about 439,000,000. The AllInAnchor returns 7,020,000. These are BIG NUMBERS and I RANK #2. It was very hard and took a lot of work to get there and continues to require effort to maintain. These numbers are NOT what you should shoot for! Look for smaller numbers. For example "Copper Cooking Pots" returns 1-10 of about 1,440,000 and 731,000 AllInAnchor. Big numbers, but doable! Google Keywords tool shows 1,300 searches last month (October) and Global Monthly Search Volume of 1000. Not big search numbers, but if you nail the #1 spot then you'll get some highly targeted traffic. I would probably play around to find a related or similar keyword phrase that has more search traffic but still kept the doable competition numbers. So there you have some solid advice on how I select keyword phrases to target. Once you've done that, how do you get your site to rank high on the first page, or even number 1? I spell it ALL out in SEO Secrets Revealed. Get it today! Until next time, Fred]]> I'm a Slasher! tag:www.pqInternet.com,2009://1.217 2009-11-12T04:10:09Z 2009-11-13T01:24:58Z Masters of Online Income - Price Slashed! I've Slashed the Price on one of my products from $193 all the way down to $29! Why? Because so many people are hurting for cash right now and this DVD spells out... Fred Masters of Online Income

Masters of Online Income - Price Slashed!

I've Slashed the Price on one of my products from $193 all the way down to $29! Why? Because so many people are hurting for cash right now and this DVD spells out how to make money online using some of the easiest methods out there. Get it here: www.mastersofonlineincome.com/ Fred]]> Start Your Own Home Internet Business with these 7 Easy Steps... tag:www.pqInternet.com,2009://1.216 2009-09-24T17:45:11Z 2009-09-26T18:27:34Z Start Your Own Home Internet Business with these 7 Easy Steps... I'm going to layout for you a different way of finding a product/market/etc. and setting up shop online. I sell one product that I physically handle (meaning box and... Fred Start Your Own Home Internet Business with these 7 Easy Steps

Start Your Own Home Internet Business with these 7 Easy Steps...

I'm going to layout for you a different way of finding a product/market/etc. and setting up shop online. I sell one product that I physically handle (meaning box and ship). The others are either electronic (as in downloadable) or shipped by a distributor (DVDs or CDs) and I never touch the order. What is the one product that I physically handle? Blue Glass Bottles. Yep... you read that correctly, Blue Glass Bottles. How did I get the idea? It comes from a book titled Zero Limits by Joe Vitale and Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len (Hawaiian Ho'oponopono master). In the book, Dr. Len says that drinking water from a blue glass bottle that you've placed in direct sunlight for over an hour will help clear problems from your life. When I read this, I said to myself, "I want a blue glass bottle". However, I couldn't find one that was big enough to make the effort worthwhile. I searched online and didn't immediately find what I was looking for. I finally found exactly what I was looking for, but I had to buy a case (12 bottles). Being that I was already selling information products online I tried to find an easy way to sell this product online. There are businesses that will fulfill orders for me, but we're talking low volume here and it is too expensive at low volume. I decided to go the simple route and put up a web site and ship the orders myself. I knew if I sold an unexpectedly large number of bottles I could hire help or use a fulfillment service. So I ordered a few cases of bottles. I made a web site. I used what I know about Search Engine Optimization to optimize the site. And I was in the bottle selling business. I started getting orders! I've not paid for any advertising. My traffic comes from my blog and from search engine traffic. No, I don't make a lot of money doing this; however it's a small regular stream of orders. It's a perfect way for someone to get comfortable running a home-based Internet Business. I didn't even bother to try and figure out if there was a market because the startup investment was so small: a case or two of bottles, a Paypal account, and a simple web site. I figured the best test in this case was to just do it. Here are the steps:
  1. Identify a product. Joe Vitale is a popular author - he sells a lot of books. So I knew that I was not the only person that would want a few blue bottles. You can do the same thing by staying current with trends and new books, etc. If you find something that you want, but have some difficulty finding it, or finding it exactly like you want it, start thinking about filling that void. It may be a situation like mine where you end up packing and shipping the product yourself or you may find that you can drop-ship it from the distributor or manufacturer.
  2. Get a PayPal account. Very simple. Just go to Paypal.com and signup for a merchant account. In my bottle example, I already had an order system in place that I plugged in, but, you can just go directly to Paypal from your order page, I show you how to do this in free course Make Money Online.
  3. Setup a web site. You'll need to purchase a domain name, and a hosting account. You can do both at 1and1.com . These days, most hosting accounts come with a ton of features and options, but stick with the basics. You can learn about making web-sites with two more of my free courses Web Site Creation and Interactive Web Site Scripting. Working though these courses will give you enough knowledge to make a basic web site that can take orders.
  4. Setup a Google account (if you don't have one) and setup your site in Google Webmaster Tools. See my post Google WebMaster tools for more information.
  5. Link to your new site from your other sites (if you have any). Post some valid comments on blogs that allow you to leave a URL with your name. This will help get your site indexed by search engines.
  6. Write some articles about your product and put them on your web site. You can create a blog if you want to and put it "under" your site (www.mysite.com/blog) or you can just add more pages to your web site manually and put an article per page. You don't have to do this, but it will help get traffic from search engines. I'm not going to go into all the whys in this post, but just trust me, it helps.
  7. Optimize your site for Search Engines. I have a product to show you how to do this and save you a huge amount of trial and error: Search Engine Optimization Secrets Revealed.
The above 7 steps will get you going and get your feet wet. From there, you will be much more comfortable selling other peoples products as an affiliate, or selling "virtual" products that you never see, touch, or handle. Get my Masters of Online Income DVD to learn how to tweak and master the selling process, find affiliate products, use Google Adwords to promote your product, and take your online business to the next level! Until next time, Fred]]>