I have found the perfect Wordpress theme for affiliate marketing - click here!

I never though I’d find one.  The most stunning of all the themes in my opinion are the magazine style themes (most of which cost a fortune!) which are completely inappropriate for affiliate marketing.  There are some crappy review style templates but, despite many months of searching I had never been able to find anything particularly good for affiliate marketing.  The one that I use for this blog isn’t bad (I’ve customized it much better on some of my other niche sites).  However, last night after a Twitter post from someone that I follow I found the absolute nirvana or affiliate marketing themes.

You’ll have to check it out for yourself to see why I’m so excited.  Firstly it’s absolutely stunning and looks highly professional.  Secondly it’s immensely customizable.  But thirdly and most importantly it is very easy to create fantastic, static landing pages and call to action buttons.  For the landing page there are several beautiful layouts to chose between that are absolutely perfect for SEO or PPC campaigns.  It also does support conventional blogging - accessible via a blog link - which is great for the SEO benefits.  It is, to all extents and purposes, the perfect theme.  There is even a way of keyword tracking for your PPC campaigns!

It’s sitting here on my hard drive right now and I’m definitely using it for my next project.  If you want to see why I’m so bowled over then check it out for yourself - CLICK HERE!

“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory” is a famous quote from the legendry German social scientist and philospher Friedrich Engels.  I think this is a quote that all internet marketers will be able to connect with.

Stop spending hours in online forums!

Stop spending hundreds of dollars on crappy information products!

Stop thinking what if and if only!

What are you waiting for?  GET TO WORK!

I suspect there is a little snobbery amongst some of the more experienced internet marketers in that the 30DC is focussed on noobs that know nothing about internet marketing.  Although this is it’s primary focus there is so much to be learned whatever level you are at.  It’s a pretty cutting edge course that is claimed to help you make your first dollar online.  However, in practice there is a lot more potential and the techniques that you learn you can build on and build on to earn more and more.  Ed Dale is the face of the course and he is absolutely fantastic to listen to. It goes significantly further than bum marketing (yawn) and focusses on state of the art techniques including Twitter and Facebook.  The preseason training has only just started where they bring everybody up to speed and introduce the tools that you are going to be working with over the course of the challenge.  I have already learned loads and you’ll notice from yesterday’s post that it is spurred me into setting up a Twitter account (please follow me!)

The course itself oozes professionalism.  There are great ways to access the content including iTunes/Apple TV and you can even follow along on your iPhone.

So, why would anybody give away a course like this?  Well, it’s not entirely just for our benefit. They will undoubtedly be plugging the legendary Market Samurai together with some other paid services.  They will also undoubtedly be plugging 30DCPlus (which I subscribe to also) and Immediate Edge (which is a license to print money - BUT FOR EXPERIENCED MARKETERS ONLY!).  However, their recommendations are always spot on and chances are that these are all tools and services that any successful internet marketer should have access to anyway.  What you will also find is that the second rate internet marketers with little or no creativity or imagination of their own will start copying these methods and building them into their own paid courses - there were plenty of these last year.  So, you might as well subscribe now and get this all for free.

Anyway, I have nothing to gain from promoting 30DC.  If you want to learn how to make good money online then join up now.

Here’s the link: http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/

You can now follow me here!

http://twitter.com/AndyMordley

I’m now catching with everybody else and am now on Twitter.  Am on there to learn and network, not to market.  I personally never intend to become one of these I’ll follow you if you follow me morons who spoil it for everybody pumping out mindless spam.  First people that I have started following are Dan Raine (I’m his number 1 fan!) and Ed Dale.  Ed Dale is a fantastic Twitterer - even sends out regular GPS locations so that you can see where he is - he’s been in London recently.  Am also following Richard Branson who I’ve admired for my whole life.

My account it is a bit bare at the moment and it would make my day if you could follow me!  You can find me here:

http://twitter.com/AndyMordley

For many that are new to making money online making that first dollar seems to be impossible!  As a more experienced marketer I do find this surprising.  I can normally set up a website in a NON-internet marketing niche and make $50 a month with very little effort.  And once set up this site continues to make money passivley week in week out.  For these type of sites I don’t use pay per click marketing.  The only risk that I take is the cost of a domain and the short amount of time that I spend creating the content and back linking.  I don’t do any autoblogging or anything remotely blackhat - it’s just simple unique content that any idiot could create published on stupidly simple and basic websites or blogs.  In fact I can set up a site like this every week or two in the evenings after work (yes I have a “proper job” too).

For instance I published a new site last weekend.  Wasn’t a blog in fact - I created it using Dreamweaver (although I could just as easily set it up with Wordpress).  Just four pages of unique content, links to a few afiliate offers and a bit of backlinking.  The result - am on the front page of Google (number 4 at the time of writing) and I have had 4 sales already.  Although I’m not prepared to reveal the niche on this occasion, it really is so simple.  And, I am not using any techniques or tools that I haven’t already written about on this blog.

So, if you are looking to make money online then read this blog very carefully and check out techniques and tools that I use.  The secret is the keyword research (big hint - you need this - click here), the backlinking (big hint - you need this - click here) and some fantastic new methods that I learn’t recently (big hint - this reveals some incredibly effective techniques that you would NEVER think of yourself - click here).

You are not far away from being able to generate passive income on demand.  TAKE ACTION!

Yes, we all make mistakes, including me.  And here is schoolboy error that I made very recently that I hope that we can all learn from.  I found non-competitive buying keyword for class of products in Amazon, published the site last week and have now got the site up to number 6 on the first page of Google.  Based on my keyword research the site there are about 3000 searches a month.  And, guess what - no a single hit!

My mistake?  If you look at the keyword trends the searches for this keyword tail off significantly over the summer months.  Not an obvious assumption for this type of product BUT the data does not lie.  I’m going to have to wait until December before I start seeing sales.

I tend to avoid seasonal products - I prefer products and offers which bring in a consistent income over the course of the year.

Anyway, lesson learned the hard way.  Learn from my mistakes and check the trends for your target keywords before you put pen to paper!

There seems to be a school of thought that competition is good - i.e. if there is competition is a market then there is money in it - and that you should avoid markets where there is little competition.

I disagree.

I spend my life setting up very small and simple websites targeting non-competitive niches. The net is such a vast place that I still have no difficulty finding undiscovered high traffic, low competition keywords. Here for instance is the results of 20 minutes of research last night. Domains with keyword in all available and now registered to me. All keywords relate to a different type of physical product (therefore buying keywords) and there are plenty of products to promote via Amazon, Commission Junction or other affiliate networks:

KEYWORD 1

• Searches per month (in the country I’m targeting): 6727
• Number of competing pages: 4220
• Competitor SEO: Non-existent
• Product price: About $90

KEYWORD 2:

• Searches per month (in the country I’m targeting): 8246
• Number of competing pages: 14 500
• Competitor SEO: Non-existant
• Product price: About $100

KEYWORD 3

• Searches per month (in the county I’m targeting): 15 097
• Number of competing pages: 614!!!
• Competitor SEO: Non-existent!
• Product price: $60

So, if you want to battle it out where the competition is in the make online niche, the weightloss niche and so on and so forth then be my guest.  I’ll stick to finding non-competitive niches where I can set up a simple blog over a weekend that earns a nice $50 to $100 a month.

I’ve made no secret of my recent decision to join Dan Raine’s “Immediate Edge.”  I have just received a very exciting email from Dan:

Hi Guys,

I just wanted to give you a heads up on an amazing piece of software that
I've got for you.

This is seriously going to make your life easier and is worth the price of
your subscription alone.

It will be live on the Immediate Edge on Friday, and without giving too
much away...

...let's just say that this is a serious step to solving any backlinking
issues you've been having  

Check out the Edge blog on Friday for the full reveal.

Dan.

Knowing Dan I’m sure that whatever it is going to be it’s going to be fantastic.  In fact I reckon back linking and getting sky high SERP positions is going to be a whole lot easier!

If you’re as intrigued as I am and want to check out the other incredible stuff that Dan has to offer then click here for more…

I wish I’d joined this program years back!  In fact I remember putting my name on the waiting list when the course was previously full - but I never heard back, grrrrr!  Anyway, it’s now available again and I signed up straight away - bullets have left guns slower!

And if you want to check it out for just $1 only for the first 14 days then check out this link before the offer closes.  Once a member you have the option to cancel within your account page - it’s not one of those programs that you sign up for and then can never cancel your subscription - I’ve been there, believe me.  So, if you’re curious and want to check it out then you have 14 days to go through it at your leisure for just $1!

The Immediate Edge was created by Dan Raine who I have seen described as the “most intelligent internet marketer ever” on many occasions.  Ed Dale, who is one of my favorite internet marketers is also on the team.  Now, I would describe myself as pretty hard to please but I can only describe the content as fantastic - they completely over deliver.  It’s not like the standard courses that we are all familiar with - people teaching the same old junk over and over again.l  This course is really cutting edge describing stuff that I have never seen taught elsewhere.  Most of the advice also comes in the form of step by step instructions or blueprints so it’s very clear what you need to do.  I’ve just in fact been reading some of their training material teaching you how to set up a high profitable CPA free survey site over a weekend - yes - with step by step instructions.

Have you ever wandered how the gurus can consistently make PPC campaigns profitable when to most it seems just about impossible?  Well, there is whopping secret that they are not telling you which is revealed in the Immediate Edge (Newsletter 14 part 2 which has 39 pages on this!) which reveals how to get ridiculously cheap traffic without ever having to worry about getting the Google slap.

And guess what - if you subscribe to the Immediate Edge you also get access to the 30 Day Challenge Plus (which focuses on product creating) for Free!  And, there is a very exciting tool within which enables you to build back links to your sites automatically!  

As highlighted above it’s just currently $1 for 14 days access if you follow this link and you can cancel at anytime!  Even if you miss this offer (due to expire VERY shortly) it’s still worth the regular monthly fees about 10 times over.  Best make money online course ever in my opinion.  Do it!

CPA is red hot right now.  It is SO much easier to persuade someone to enter their zip-code or email address than part with their hard earned cash.  But, for many of you I suspect that you don’t know what you are missing.  Unless you are part of a great CPA network you will have no idea of what incredible campaigns they have to chose between and just how easily these DO convert.  And, a lot of CPA networks are very difficult to get into as they just aren’t interested in the small guy.

In my opinion THIS CPA NETWORK is the very best on the net for the likes of you and me.  Incredible campaigns to chose between (much better then the likes if CPALead for instance) which convert amazingly well.  They are of course only interested in recruiting genuine marketers and you do need to go though a quick phone chat with your affiliate manager before you are accepted.  However, this company is genuinely interested in the small guy too.

In terms of what you need say during your telephone interview, just tell the truth.  If you only make $100 a month selling Clickbank products then tell them that.  I’m not going to reveal the questions that I was asked as this is not fair on the company.  However, it is fantastic CPA network that is a pleasure to be associated with.  JOIN HERE!

The only web-design software that I have ever mastered is Microsoft Frontpage.  It was a horrible program with every site looking completely different in every browser!  However, it was all I could afford when I started out and I did achieve a lot with it.  It was using Microsoft Frontpage that I first started my online adventure.  Then, the content management system/blogging craze started enabling one to create interactive, high quality, template based sites with little or no technical expertise whatsoever.  I followed the craze, learnt how to use Wordpress and Drupal and thought I’d never make the return to conventional web design software.  However, I have recently treated myself to a copy of Dreamweaver and I fully intend to learn how to use it properly.

Why?  Well, Drupal is a bit of a pig.  Although it’s possible to create sites that look more like websites than blogs it’s difficult to customize.  Wordpress is a truly fantastic bit of software but EVERYBODY seems to be blogging at the moment, the resulting websites can look rather bland and again to customize the appearance of the various templates you need coding skills.  The best templates are starting to become rather expensive.  I also hate the fact that Wordpress is SO vulnerable to hackers and have had my blogs hacked on more that one occasion.

The main reason that I want to learn Dreamweaver is because the websites that you can create are infinitely customizable.  And, for most internet marketing applications, appearance (or layout), rather than functionality is the key to making sales.  One of the most important aspects of internet marketing is testing, testing and more testing and with Dreamweaver, the possibilities are endless.  I would also say that if you are interested in PPC (undoubtedly the quickest way to make an absolute killing if you know what you are doing) then it’s much better (in my experience) to link to a webpage highly focussed on promoting your target product(s) than a blog.  When it comes to keyword tracking (essential for PPC campaigns) it’s also a thousand fold easier using a conventional website than a content management system.

For the offline entrepreneurs amongst you the ability to design attractive and well coded websites is a very valuable skill to have.  There are literally millions of small businesses out there with no website or websites in desperate need of improvement.  And, if you are brave enough to offer your services (for which you can charge a lot) they will want a website and not a blog.

I previously went off conventional webdesign software on the grounds that it seemed pointless investing the time and effort in learning them with the existence of the likes of Wordpress.  However, I have now changed my mind.  Content management systems are not the best solution for many projects.  At present, if you want to succeed online then there is no substitute for learning how to use conventional webdesign software.

There is a lot of choice out there and I would be lying if I said that I had tried them all.  However, in my opinion if you’re going to invest the time and effort in learning these skills then learn how to use the best.  Dreamweaver rocks.

Finding a non-competitive niche - where do you start?  The key issue is NOT to focus on what you want to sell or promote but let the market lead you into identifying opportunities to exploit.  One school of thought is that competition is good and competition means that there is money to be made.  This is all well and good,  but sometimes the competition is so fierce that it requires many months of focussed effort to obtain even a small slice of the pie.  The other option therefore is to focus on micro niches of larger more competitive niches.  By being a bigger fish in a smaller sea it’s much more straightforward to establish your territory and use it successfully.

However, how on earth do you go about establishing micro niches?  There a so many to chose from, some of which you wouldn’t think of in a million years!  Well the first thing that you just HAVE to have is a good bit of keyword research software.  THIS ONE is the one that I would recommend for ultra quick keyword research.  Then a great place to start off is just typing in adjectives and seeing what comes up.  So, for example you could type in “infant” or “childrens” or “extendable” or “non-stain” or “automatic” or “cordless” or “reliable” or “top of the range” or “high quality” or “recommended” or “programmable” or “non-breakable” or “non-spill” or “ornamental” or “reliable” and so on and so forth.  The result for keywords containing these adjectives will open up a whole range of niches and, using this great keyword research tool you can quickly establish the competition and your chances of competing.

This method works absolutely great for physical products.  Subscribe to my list and I will teach you a GREAT way of promoting physical products that has given me consistent success.  Don’t underestimate the power of finding non-competitive niches.

Please note that this offer will ONLY WORK IF YOU ARE A US RESIDENT!  If you are a NON-US RESIDENT YOU WILL BE DIRECTED TO A DIFFERENT SITE!

You’ll see from many of my posts that I say what I think.  Generally, I hate the greedy gurus.  But, there is one in particular that I trust and follow - Paul Myers.  I’m sure that you’ve heard of him.  If not head over to the Warrior Forum.  Every post of his is pure gold dust.  Straight to the point, no nonsense advice. 

Anyway, I have stumbled across one of Paul’s internet marketing sites and he is offering some free help.  And, if you subscribe he will literally FORCE you to make money online.  It’s entirely free - no credit card required or anything.  CLICK HERE and I’ll show you.

Perhaps not the best move on my part - directing people AWAY from my blog!?  Anyway, I think it will help you so much that it’ a risk that I’m prepared to take.  Only problem is that it’s only open to a limited number of people so I’d suggest that you head over there right now!  CLICK HERE!

Anyway, zero risk, zero cost and all to gain.  Paul Myers rocks and this is a rare and unmissable offer.  In fact, Paul is confident that he can probably teach most people how to make an extra $500 to $5000 a month.  If anyone can do this Paul Myers can!

I live the UK but all my internet marketing sites are focussed on the US market.  They’re hosted on US based servers and are optimized to rank well in the US search engines.  Why?  Well I think that everybody assumes that the US is one of the biggest countries and strongest economies and therefore represents the best market to target.  Well, that’s all well and good, but set against this is one HUGE disadvantage.  Competition!  Having a large entrepreneurial population the US already has huge number of internet marketers focussing on their fellow citizens.  However, in addition, internet marketers from every other continent are scrambling over each other to market to the US.

And it’s not just the quantity of competing sites that’s the problem.  One of the things which I underestimated until recently is the power of including the keyword in the domain name.  Find a great keyword to target and focus on and chances are that the corresponding .com domain name won’t be available.  Same goes for most .net and .org domains containing a good target keyword.

One of the markets which I feel offers tremendous potential which is much less saturated is the UK.  Sure, the target audience is smaller, but so is the competition.  UK citizens are also used to paying sky high prices in comparison to the rest of the world.  However, based on my recent experiences there is another key advantage - availability of .co.uk domains.  If you come across a great buying keyword with high traffic and low competition the .co.uk domain is much more likely to be available than the corresponding .com, .org or .net.  And, in addition, the domain will tend to outrank .com, .org or .net in the UK search engine results.

Times are tough for internet marketers.  Don’t follow the masses - try something different.  Why not test the water on the other side of the pond?

What is it with internet marketing ebooks and courses these days?  I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember purchasing any ebooks or courses recently and thinking “Great - money well spent!”  If you look hard enough around this site you’ll see a few that I recommend - these are my bread and butter and I love them as they are a bit different to the norm and I think that they are great.  But 99% of the others that I have bought - oh my god!  

The problem is that EVERYBODY wants to launch a product these days.  And a lot of newbies think that the make money online niche the best place to start.  And, despite not ever making a penny online they’ll cobble together a course or an ebook which duplicates what they have read elsewhere.  How many more times am I going to be told that getting a good search engine ranking is all about back links, how many more times am I going to taught that Google has an amazing keyword tool, how many more times am I going to be told that article marketing is a great way of getting back links, how many more times am I going to be told that forum marketing is a good way of promoting my site, how many more times am I going to be told that PPC is a great way of getting targetted traffic, how many times am I going to be told that the secret to making money online is to build a list, how many more times am I going to be told that there is a really good site called Clickbank for finding affiliate offers to promote?  And the list goes on and on and on and on and on and on!?

And all the sales letters make these products out to be the best thing since sliced bread!  Are they kidding me?  Monumental disappointment after each and every purchase.

And the other thing is the cost of some of these courses!  You can pay $10 or $2000 for the same information.  It depends on whether you are just gullible or insanely gullible.

Am I just buying the wrong products?  Is there anything truly unique out there with some truly different and unique perspective?  If there is then PLEASE leave a comment and I’ll check it out.

UPDATE: 07/06/2009

I found one!  A course that is absolutely worth every penny and teaches something DIFFERENT to the stuff that you are used to reading again and again and again!  Check out my review of it here.

If you are entering a highly competitive niche and want stand a realistic chance of ranking in the search engines then you either need top focus on a micro niche or highly specific non-competitive keyword or alternatively find a different angle to focus on to target the niche.  However, what do I mean by finding an angle to focus on?  Well, allow me to illustrate.  

I read an ingenious story about a site that was set up to target credit card affiliate offers.  However, this is one of the most competitive niches there is due to the high commissions.  This site however decided to approach the niche via a different angle - vehicle gas prices!  They set up a site enabling you to compare gas prices in your area thereby focussing on people looking to save money on their gas purchases.  And, on the site they promoted credit cards offering cashback on all gas purchases.  Pretty ingenious really!

There are a wealth of other opportunities.  Just be creative.  If a niche is highly competitive find another angle to target it from.

If you are struggling to get organic traffic to your website or blog the problem is not necessarily your SEO and back linking efforts, it’s probably poor decisions upfront in terms of which keywords you decided to focus on.  The days of being able to compete in the niche of your choosing are gone.  Sure, if you add loads of content to any site you will get traffic.  However, most of this likely to be junk as you are only likely to rank for obscure keywords that crop up in your content.  To really succeed you need to focus on and rank for buying keywords with reasonable amounts of traffic.  

Now I am not saying that you cannot enter competitive niches.  However, what I would say is that to stand any chance of ranking in the search engines you need to focus on sub niches, micro niches or an angle by targeting less competitive keywords.

For guaranteed success you actually need to know how much traffic your are going to get up front.  A well researched project will involve identifying feasible keywords, establishing a high probability of a top ranking and then defining a clear action plan in terms of how to target your keywords.  In this way you should know with a high degree of certainty how much targeted traffic you can expect to receive and know exactly what steps you need to go through to achieve this BEFORE you even register a domain name and start publishing.

This is  fundamental step of any project and if you do this sufficiently thoroughly you should never need to ask why you are not getting any traffic.  The only question that you should ever need to ask yourself is what additional steps you need to take to achieve the traffic estimates that you made upfront.

Ways of achieving the above are something which I focus on teaching to my list.  So, if you want to learn how to achieve almost guaranteed to success without wasting time on non-viable projects then sign up now!  You’ll also get a couple of CRACKING ebooks FOR FREE!

There are SO MANY internet marketing tools and learning references to chose from that it’s almost impossible to pick out the good from the bad.  I have learnt the hard way and wasted staggering amounts of money in the process.  After many years of trial and error here are the best products on the net to help with your internet marketing endeavors:

My list (smerk  smerk!):  Excuse the plug but if you want want some great free ebooks and want to know exactly how I make money online then sign up to my list.  I’ll even show you some of my sites and reveal some of my niches.  Honestly!  I’m sure that you’ll realize why I only share this information with a very select few.  Nowhere to be seen on the main blog!

This great keyword research tool (CLICK HERE): Keyword research at warp speed.  Not only do you get suggestions and search volumes taken from the Google Keywords tool, but you also get the number of competing sites, the chances of ranking (based on the SEO of the competition) and an indication of how likely the keyword is to convert into a sale (and much, much more!).  Many days of research turned into minutes.

This great book (CLICK HERE): Shock horror!  Not a desperately expensive ebook but a conventional book?  Am I crazy?  We’ll if you are the proud owner of this cheap book you will realize that it puts most ebooks and online courses to shame.  Top quality advice (936 pages to be precise) at a silly price.  Enough said.

This great link building service (CLICK HERE): Quickly and easy establish one way back linking opportunities on high PR sites related to your niche.  Did you think that building high quality back links is a time consuming chore?  Think again. 

This great article submitter (CLICK HERE): Semi-automatically creates unique versions of your articles with automates submission to thousands of different sites.  You can even control the rate at which your articles are published to stop your site getting sandboxed.

This great course (CLICK HERE): Surprisingly not many of you lot have been subscribing to this course (there are links all over my site!!).  I can’t understand why - it’s one of my favorites!  The rest of you don’t know what you’re missing.  If you can’t make money following this then you are probably too stupid to ever make money online!  

This great video creation service (CLICK HERE): The conversions and hop through rates that I have achieved with using this service are absolutely staggering.  In fact, you probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you - you’ll have to try it out yourself to see where I am coming from.

And that’s it!  You will very rarely see me plug any other products - even to my list.  Why?  Because I know that these work.  And, these are the only products that I have ever purchased that have withstood the test of time.  I still use these regularly and, for the time being there is still nothing better.

Twitter is RED HOT at the moment.  It’s a great way of generating traffic, building relationships, making sales and building a HUGE list of targeted subscribers.  But, it takes a little learning and a bit of direction to ensure that your not talking to yourself and are using it as productively as possible.  Well, the other day I came across an incredible ebook, and I found it so jam packed with incredible tips and tricks that I purchased the giveway rights and resale rights so that I could share it with you.

For those of you that are on my list, check your in-box now!  I have sent you a FREE copy.  For those of you who are not on my list then just subscribe to my list by entering your name and email address into the form provided (right side of the page).  You’ll then have immediate access to both “Become a Twitter Expert in 24 Hours” and “Beyond the Newbie.”

BUT, if your still not convinced and don’t want to subscribe to yet another list (though bear in mind that my list is a little different to most…) then I’ll sell you a copy for a measly $5 - less than the price of a burger and fries - CLICK HERE TO BUY!

BUT, there is one surprise that I am ONLY going to be sharing with my list (hint - just imagine what you could achieve with this ebook if you had giveaway rights and master resale rights!).

One of the problems that you might perceive with Wordpress is the lack of flexibility in terms of using it for anything other than blogging.  And, one of the things that internet marketers love to do is to create pages on their site that are hidden away from your routine visitors - including thank you pages for subscribing to your email list, offers that you want to promote just to your email list, secret sales pages and so on and so forth.  And, if you add a new page to Wordpress, we all know that the new pages appears as a tab which you just can’t get rid of regardless of what tweaks you make in your dashboard.

One of the solutions commonly employed is to create individual HTML pages using Dreamweaver, X-site Pro or similar and uploading onto your domain.  But, this isn’t a particularly elegant solution as these pages look very different to the pages in your main blog.

Well, there is a very simple solution to this, and it doesn’t involve modifying any code.  All you have to do is install the PageMash plugin.  This not only gives you the option of reorganizing the order or your pages, it also gives you the option of hiding your pages.  If you know the URL (e.g. via a link in an email) it is still possible to access the page.  However, it will not add a tab to your main website keeping it hidden from view.

Anyway, so easy!  I hope this helps!

Many people dream of owning their own ecommerce business. Well, it’s not as simple as just setting up a website and expecting hoards of people to find you and buy from you. It is a little more tricky. And so many that are new to the world of ecommerce focus on what they WANT to sell and with little consideration of what the market wants and the degree of competition. If you go into the most competitive niches such as gifts, jewelry or general electronics then the odds are heavily stacked against you.  What’s more, if you invest in stock and can’t sell it then you could end up in a heap of financial difficulties (unless your ecommerce store is support a conventional retail business and you have a physical shop to sell of your goods).

What’s the solution?  Easy!  Affiliate marketing.  Test the market via promoting somebody else’s products.  This is very easy to do for any niche with the wealth of products available on the Amazon website (via their associates program) or via Commission Junction (there are also many others but I consider these to be two of the best in terms of breadth and depth of products).  If people are finding your site and purchasing your products then you could be pretty confident that this is a viable opportunity and it’s time to consider setting up your own store and selling your own stock. And, you don’t need to start from scratch.  Just add a shopping cart to your site and gradually replace your affiliate links.  If it fails then you have lost absolutely nothing other than your own time and the cost of a domain name.  You could even flip the domain and end up making a few hundred dollars in profit for a failed site!

Even if you already have an ecommerce store, affiliate marketing is still very valuable.  For example, if you are thinking about adding a new product line, test demand via affiliate marketing first to establish whether it is a hit or a miss.

The obvious advantage of your own ecommerce store is that margins are higher and you can charge what you like.  But, make sure that you go into it with your eyes open.  If you test the water before diving in will maximise your chances of succeeding and not making a catastrophic loss.

I just wanted to respond to a few queries about the screencast software that I used to create my back linking video.  The industry standard is Camtasia (very expensive) which is only available for PC.  I am the proud owner of an Apple iMac and therefore can’t use Camtasia.  I therefore use Screenflow which is the Mac equivalent.  Great bit of software and considerably cheaper than Camtasia.  The files that it creates are massive, so I compress these using the inbuilt export to web function.  I then edit the video using Quicktime Pro to insert a text video (simple bit of code which I add to the end of the video) which has the hyperlink built into it.  I then compress it further using Quicktime Pro and then upload onto my server using FTP.

For some of my non-IM niche marketing videos I sometimes also add a backing track - I purchase Royalty Free tracks from “Partners in Rhyme” (quite expensive but you can use the tracks for as many projects as you like). You can also add this via Quicktime Pro.  I also sometimes create video presentations using Keynotes (Apple’s equivalent of Powerpoint but 1000 times more powerful).  If you don’t fancy flaffling around you can create some great highly professional looking videos with images and text with Animoto - you must have the business user subscription though.

Happy video marketing!

Many Wordpress users aren’t familiar with coding and are therefore completely and utterly stumped when I comes to adding email capture forms to blogs.  It is however so important to ensure that you capture the contact details of your visitors whenever possible to ensure that you can continue to contact them and market to them even if they never return to your site again.  

One of the best solutions that I have found to completing this neatly which works particularly well with this autoresponder service (click here) is MaxBlogPress’ Optin Form Adder (which you can find here - it’s free).  It’s just a simple plugin that you can install via your FTP software.  Just add itto the plugs folder, log into your WP-admin folder, activate the plugin and your nearly done.  In the Wordpress tools menu you have the option to create your optin form.  Paste in your autoresponder code from your autresponder service, customise the appearance of the form using the in-built tools and decide where you want to place the form - in the first post, in all posts or as a widget in the sider bar.  

And that’s it, you’re done.  The optin form that you will find on my blog (top right sidebar) was created with this.  Enter your name and email address to see how it works!

P.S. I am using the current version of Wordpress (2.7.1) and the plugin works perfectly!

Hello idiots.  I know what you’re thinking!  I’m like a broken record always banging on about The Niche Blogger.  Well, with good reason - it’s a really great course written by someone that earns a full time income practicing what they preach.  If you’re scared of hard work this one isn’t for your.  However, if you are prepared to work for it the methods that Amy teaches to you really do work.  I would state my reputation on it!  In fact when setting up blogs using the methods that Amy describes, I have (personally) never failed to set up profitable blogs.  None have ever made me an absolute fortune in isolation.  However, the more you set up, the greater your income and it all eventually adds up to a pretty nice earner.  Anyway, don’t take it from me, watch the video below kindly recorded by Amy.  CLICK HERE to check out Amy’s course (and her great looking new website).

Ok, so based on popular demand my email list has finally opened (launched last night in fact).  Please note that this list is only for serious internet markers only - no time wasters please.  For those of you who want exclusive access to some of my best tips (many of which I never post on the main blog - want to keep them exclusive to me and my favored few!) then please sign up now (see top of right hand column).

You’ll also get access to a great FREE ebook which I purchased the giveaway rights to just for you!  It’s a great ebook and it will get you well on track to making good money.

Again, please note that this list is for serious marketers only who genuinely want to succeed.  Although everybody that subscribes will automatically be accepted, if your heart is not in it then I would ask you not to subscribe.  Same goes for active members - if you are no longer interested then please unsubscribe yourself.

The rest of us are going to make a lot of money!