By Kidino @ 13 April, 2008
Here you go, in random order…
1 - I need to get in on the buying frenzy and make some money.
2 - The product owner will owe me when I am doing my product launch later.
3 - The product owner is my friend.
4 - I need to prove that I am a “super affiliate”.
5 - The product is good…
6 - I promote it because others are promoting it too…
7 - I know my readers will love my recommendation…
8 - It’s a product that I personally use.
9 - My readers eat up just anything I throw at them.
10 - My readers will buy it from someone, why not me?
You know I am just being funny here, right? So, you got more to add? ;)
By Kidino @ 5 April, 2008
Launching MiniSiteGallery.com, I announced a mini-site design contest. And the prize, $500 cash prize delivered via Paypal. And that $500 came from my own pocket.
On April 2nd, I announced Luvlee as the winner. And there goes my $500…
So how does it feel to giveaway $500 from my own pocket?
Well, I can’t deny that I have made some bad investments or bad purchase decisions in the past. But this $500 could be one of the best things I did in my online venture. Because with $500, I managed to get MiniSiteGallery.com off the ground with 14 new mini-site templates (2 are my own).
I was thinking about how much it would cost if I were to pay for each of those mini-site templates. Some mini-site designs even charge up to $2500 per design. But let’s take a conservative number. Even at $100 per design, that will cost me $1200.
But the mini-site templates are not the only thing I get. Doing a contest also gives you exposure. You have something to talk about. Alright, I didn’t really get much attention when I only get 12 entries. But I believe I get more than $500 can pay for. I got traffic from StumbleUpon.com, IMNewsWatch.com, WarriorForum.com, and a few more from bloggers. So with all these, I might have just triple or quadraple my small $500 investment…
However, I have to confess that I didn’t know where the $500 was going to come from when I made the contest announcment. But I knew I could do something to raise $500 for the winner. And so I did. Where? The relaunch of DIYeBookCover.com…
I’ve sent the $500 to Paypal…
Anyway, you may want to consider running a contest at your site too…
By Kidino @ 1 April, 2008
DIYeBookCover.com is my first product website, something I sell online. And for about a year plus I took it down and no longer sell it.
At DIYeBookCover.com, I was selling a set of tutorial videos on how to create your ebook cover. And because not everybody can afford Photoshop, I created the videos using Photoshop Elements 2 (a scaled down version of Photoshop). I took down DIYeBookCover when they released Photoshop Elements 4. Now it’s already Photoshop Elements 6.
But recently, I decided to go with the Photoshop Action scripts route. Photoshop Action script is a set of instructions and commands that you record. You can share this script with other Photoshop users to use to create similar work that you do.
Having compiled the actions, I started putting DIYeBookCover together again…
I am happy to announce that last week, DIYeBookCover.com become online again.
If you have Photoshop, you can create 51 variations of e-covers, from ebooks, ezines, CDs, DVDs, etc… this is really awesome. And I really want you to check it out.
[+] http://www.DIYeBookCover.com
By Kidino @ 7 March, 2008
It’s flattering when you meet up with someone who reads your blog and your emails.
And a few days ago, I got an email from Aadile who is from Mauritius, here in Malaysia on a vacation. I thought I’d meet up with him for chat. So this morning, I went to the apartment (owned by his tycoon businessman uncle) where Aadile and his family are staying and we really had a good chat.
It turns out, Aadile just started reading up on Internet marketing since last April … wait, that’s almost a year. Anyway, he has spent a serious amount of money. Close to $5000 USD, all on ebooks, software and a bunch of other things.
But he confessed, he’s at a stage where you call information overload. This is where you are overwhelmed with all the things that you can do online that you don’t know what to do.
Well, my advice to him is just to do it.
When talking with people, my advice has always been this. If you have money, you can wait and sustain for the check to clear into your bank (plus, if you are outside USA, it’ll take a while for the check to clear), you can go with PPC as your main strategy. At least with PPC, you can start to see fast results.
What you do with PPC? I am not really good at this. But I’ve seen friends do it successfully. But when it comes to actually doing it, I don’t think I can give you advice. But in general, if you want a plan, start by promoting affiliate programs. You can do this with a landing page or direct traffic to the merchant. Just do what is best for the affiliate program that you are promoting. If you feel the product requires more convincing, you may want to consider a landing page before sending traffic to the merchant.
And the plan does not stop there. When you found a really good product to promote, what you do is create a similar product of your own. You know that product sells well. You already have a winning PPC campaign. All you need to do is create your own product and put up own website.
Let’s take a look at what happens when you do that…
If you are promoting an affiliate program which pays 50% commission and selling the product at $50, you make $25 per sale. If you spend $10 to make one sale, you profit $15. Imagine if all factors remain the same but this time you have your own product. The product sells for $50. There’s no affiliate cut. You spend $10 on PPC to get a single sale. You profit would be $40. More than double the increase.
Alright… that is if you have the money… What if you have limited funds to invest on?
Well, then you need to build your list first. Get an autoresponder and build a squeeze page. Create a free report to giveaway. Now, start writing articles and get it distributed to article directories.
OK, here’s my strategy when it comes to article marketing. You see, a lot of people do article marketing just for the sake of getting traffic. They write the minimum 400 word requirement and target too much of the keywords.
But the truth is, articles like that don’t really help people much. Why can’t you write something really good. Something worthwhile reading. You still target for the keywords, but this time try writing something around 800 to 1000 words. Articles like that normally are worth reading. Plus you can really “teach” something with those kind of words in your article.
Plus, when you write good article like that, that really provides value and good information, your chance of getting it featured in top websites are a lot better. Imagine getting featured in websites like SitePoint? Can you imagine the traffic you can get? One time I was featured on Shelley Lowery Web-Source.net and the traffic … Wow!
Now, what do you do to get money?
Start by promoting affiliate programs. And later, when you feel that your readers will take it, you can create your own product.
Wow… this has been long. Anyway, what I am rambling here is exactly what I shared with Aadile. I do hope you benefit from this too…
Aadile, it was nice meeting you. In the photo, from the left, Kidino, Aadile, Sahla (daughter), Zakiyya (wife). Sahla got cranky and shy because she missed her nap time. I understand. Iman behaves the same way.
By Kidino @ 6 March, 2008
It looks like Interspire will be competing with MailChimp, iContact, eMail Brain with its SendStudio email marketing application. Interspire is offering a hosted solution for SendStudio. Why didn’t I list GetResponse and Aweber? Well, those two charge by subscribers and the first few companies I listed charge by emails you send out.
Looking at Interspire, who started as a web developer, and then into an ASP (application service provider), it reminds me of a book a read way back. It’s a business book. It was about a guy who started a business manufacturing meat into hamburgers. He supplies the hamburgers to burger stalls in the town. And business was bad for him.
So later he setup his own stalls and sell the hamburgers directly to the consumers. From one stall, then two… then three… then four… And before you know it, he has over 40 stalls setup.
Alright, not really an Internet business story. But this is a similar situation. I think it’s a wise decision for Interspire. All the best to them.
