Current Issue
16
July 2010
From Ian Traynor
York, UK
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In
This Final Issue..
- My
Grand Retirement Sale .. the last few days!
- My
Search For "Passive Revenue" ..
how I'm going to spend just a little of my time during
retirement
- Thumbs
Up #1: Underground Traffic Blueprints ..
no "upsells", no "continuity" -
just good training and advice
- Thumbs
Up #2: Info Product Killer #2 .. Wow! What a cunning
technique! Better hurry, though. See the cut-off point
below.
- Thumbs
Down: ClickBank Wealth Formula .. could
have been a good one. Shame about the delivery
- The
Future Of My Private PLR Club .. it's continuing,
but with some changes (for the better for my Members)
- How
To Easily Build A Toolbar Or An "App" ..
I'm going to have fun playing with these online tools!
- Making
The Most Of Google's Tools & Services ..
there's over a hundred of them!
- The
Download Library .. the final freebies..
some of my commercial products :-)
- Keeping
In Touch .. five ways you can keep up with
what I'm doing.
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Hi!
So
this is it.. the final, full edition of "Marketing Update"!
The first issue came out 14 years ago - on 8th July 1998, and
had such gems as "Writing good headlines", "adding
alt tags to images" and some personal development advice
("Avoid the negatives") - and I used a now-defunct
service called
"ListBot" to deliver the newsletter. A year after the
first issue came out, I still only has 250 subscribers, compared
with the 10k I have today.
Yes,
it's a big step, and a hard one, to just abandon publication
after all those years. But life is short, and I want to slow
down a bit.
---
I'm
not disappearing completely, and near the end of this "Update",
I've given a number of ways in which we can keep in touch,
if you want to.
---
I've
had a load of good wishes expressed by many, many subscribers,
and I want to thank everybody who has emailed me, or who has
placed comments on my retirement announcement page:
http://www.Ian-Retires.com/the-announcement/
You
may notice that I've replaced the BuyIanADrink link in the "Final
Reminders"
section of this newsletter with an invitation to donate to the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds via my JustGiving web
page, and I'm inviting you to support this charity, which works
with conservation projects all over the world, and not just in
the UK.
I
personally will be making a donation to the RSPB from the proceeds
of.. wait for it.. drumroll..!
My
Grand Retirement Sale - Ending Soon!
By
the time you read this, there will be just five short days
before my Grand Retirement Sale closes for good. It's the ultimate "Subscriber
Deal" and the biggest sale I've ever run.
But
the price isn't the biggest :-) If you haven't yet looked to
see what's in my Sale, here's your chance:
http://www.Ian-Retires.com
There's
nearly $2k of real value in my sale.. and
this isn't some fancy, made-up figure. It's the prices at which
everything in the sale is selling.
- 14
of my own products - some really special ones
- 12
gifts from my internet marketing colleagues -
some great ones :-)
- Huge
discounts on five of my best selling products
That's
what you could be accessing in just minutes from now.
But,
as I said, the sale ends soon - next Wednesday, 21st July at
12 noon EST (5 pm BST). And you know me - I always close deals
promptly. So, if you've been sitting on the fence, don't wait
any longer:
http://www.Ian-Retires.com
On.
and there are some "unannounced" bonuses. You won't
see them mentioned on the sales page :-)
My
Search For "Passive Revenue"
In
my retirement, I plan to spend maybe a day or so a week developing "passive
revenue streams" - the sort of projects which you spend
a little time setting up and then letting the revenue come
in over time without doing much more work.
I've
got a few such streams already, including my product review
site (IanRecommends.co.uk) and some content-rich sites which
bring in AdSense revenue.
I've
got quite a lot of experience with such projects, but I don't
aim to spend much time on developing new streams. Hey, I'm
retiring :-)
So,
over the past few weeks, I've been looking with interest at
several new launches - well, more than just looking.. I've
bought into each of them.
Two
get the "thumbs up" from me. One get's a definite "thumbs
down"! Let me tell you a little about each of them. First,
a "hype" warning.. the sales pages for each of these
products are absolutely crammed with hype and screenshots of
ClickBank accounts and so on. Let me help you to see behind
the hype:
*
Thumbs Up #1: Underground
Traffic Blueprints
Your
inbox has probably been deluged with emails endorsing "Underground
Traffic Blueprints" ("UTB"). This made me suspicious.
Normally, when there's such a feeding frenzy amongst internet
marketers, it often means that the product either has massive "upsells" behind
the cover price, or some sort of "continuity"
(recurring fees) or both.
So
I was pleasantly surprised to find that UTB has neither. It's
just one very reasonable price to get access to some really
powerful video training, all devoted to the holy grail of IMers
- getting more people to visit your websites.
In
the main section, there's over 6 hours of video training. The
emphasis is on using Google Adwords PPC marketing - but with
a difference! I know from personal experience that it's only
too easy to throw money away with AdWords. Now I haven't had
time to watch all the videos yet, but from what I've seen already,
there are techniques, completely new to me, that is going to
help me to get AdWords traffic a lot cheaper than I've been
able to so far. And there are resources which I've not heard
of before.
The
bonus video section (only available until July 20th) is all
about a traffic source which I've been thinking of using, but
have not been certain how to avoid screwing things up! I'm
certainly glad that I have access to these videos.
The
videos are all very high quality, and my only criticism is
that there are no downloadable transcripts of the videos.
But
I suppose, that at the low price that's being charged, that
would be too much to ask.
So,
a "thumbs up" from me for UTB. But if you're going
to get these videos, do so before 20th July (next Tuesday)
to make sure that you also get the bonus videos. Oh, and there
might also be a price hike next Tuesday:
http://www.IanSays.com/IUse/UTB
* Thumbs
Up #2: Info
Product Killer 2010
You
might, just might, get this before the price hike at 3 pm EST today,
Friday! Sorry I couldn't let you know earlier about
this, but even at the increased price, this is
great value.
OK, "Info
Product Killer 2010" ("IPK") is all about affiliate
marketing - but with a difference. The technique, which is
better suited to tangible goods, such as electronics, is simple
in concept. You set up a mini-site for the product you're endorsing,
but you aim to get to this site only people who are on
the point of buying this product!
It's
a brilliant concept, again, completely new to me, and it's
certainly one which I will be using in my retirement.
In
addition to this technique, there's some extremely valuable
training on "on-page search engine optimisation".
I've been doing this for years - but perhaps not as well as
I should have been. Although the SEO training is focused on
the affiliate marketing technique at the heart of IPK, you
can use these techniques on any website.
One
thing which makes IPK really stand out, in my opinion, is the
fact that you get to see real live websites that are actually
using these techniques. Quite often, the originators of such "systems" don't
disclose their own websites. But Craig Kaye (who lives about
40 miles from me!) lets his IPK members see some real, practical
website examples. And you can find them easily on Google -
they're very well ranked.
The
videos are of good quality and, important to me, there are
some excellent PDFs backing up the video content.
As
I said, you might squeeze in under the price hike if you are
quick. But IPK is well worth it even at the higher price.
http://www.IanSays.com/IUse/IPK
Oh,
there are a few "upsells" to go through before you
get access to the Members Area. They were aimed at people who
struggle to build web pages, so I didn't go for them. But you
might find them valuable.
Thumbs Down: ClickBank
Wealth Formula
"ClickBank
Wealth Formula" (CBWF") gets the thumbs down from
me, not so much because of the content of the training videos
(which isn't too bad) but because of the shoddy way that it's
delivered.
For
some reason, Anik Singal and Saj P decided to use the QuickTime
format for their videos. For me, and probably for many other
people, this meant that the videos wouldn't play online. So
I was faced with the prospect of downloading a large number
of huge video files.
Sorry,
guys, that doesn't work for me. And the Members Area itself
is pretty clunky. There are multiple videos on each page, and
before you can scroll down (at least with my Google Chrome
browser), you have to wait until all the videos start
loading. In addition, there are no PDF transcripts of the videos,
which might just have turned my "thumbs down" into
a "thumbs up".
If
you want to, you can see the sales page at cbwealthformula.com
(the most over-hyped sales page of these three products), but
I'm not endorsing it!
CBWF
is an example of how a potentially good training product has
been spoilt by poor delivery.
* The
Future Of My "Private PLR Club"?
I'll
repeat what I said a couple of weeks ago: I will continue
to operate my Private PLR Club. But I'm going to make
some changes in the coming months:
- I
will be raising the monthly membership fee for new Members.
Existing Members will continue to pay the current low monthly
fee.
- I
will be setting up an Affiliate Scheme for
Members, once I've found the right software. I want Members
to share some of the success of the Club and to be rewarded
for introducing new Members.
- I
will be able to spend more time on training Members.
This has already been an important aspect of Club Membership
and I want to extend it.
- I
will continue to find and add new high-quality content to
the Members Area, maybe introducing some additional product
categories.
Joining
my Club is going to be the only way that you will continue
to get my help and advice about internet marketing. It's
a service that my Members really appreciate.
http://www.PrivatePLRClub.com
* How
To Easily Build A Toolbar Or An "App"
You're
going to have fun playing with this one! "Conduit"
is a free online service which lets you quickly and easily build
a browser toolbar or a web-based application.
These
can be great ways for your visitors, as the Conduit site says "take
away a bit of your website". I can see this also as an
excellent way to build viral applications, which can travel
around the planet, continually promoting your site.
There's
also a Conduit Marketplace, where you can share your stuff
with thousands of webmasters. And there are thousands of apps
in many different categories - including games. I'm going to
have a play around with some of this stuff. It looks like a
lot of fun :-)
http://www.conduit.com
* Make
The Most Of Google's Tools & Services
It
wouldn't seem right not to mention the World Dominator in this
final edition of "Update"! Despite its efforts to
reach into every corner of our lives, I, personally, am fascinated
by and have benefited a lot from the stuff that Google makes
freely available.
For
example, I check my Google Analytics stats almost daily. This
gives me a vast amount of info about what's happening on my
many websites:
https://www.google.com/analytics/
I
also check Google's Webmaster Tools area fairly regularly.
There's a lot of good advice there:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
There's
also "Website Optimizer", a way of improving your
web sales pages through "split testing":
http://www.google.com/analytics/siteopt/
And
then there are Google's taken-over services, such as YouTube,
Feedburner, Blogger and so on. You can get more services here:
http://www.google.com/options/
..
and explore what Google is currently experimenting with here:
http://www.googlelabs.com/
Of
course, to access most of these services, you need a Google
account - and this is available only if you have a Google email
account - Gmail:
http://mail.google.com/mail/
I
knew that someone must have compiled a li.st of Google's services
and, sure enough, a search turned up this page with over 100
Google services listed:
http://www.IanSays.com/GoogleServices
Happy
Gooooogling!
The
Download Library
This
is it - the last freebies I'll be adding to the Download
Library. And I've made them some really special products
- stuff that I've been actively selling.
But
now, as a "goodbye present", you can have them as
a gift!
The
Download Library will still be available to you in the future,
and I won't be changing the password.
Also,
I won't be too bothered if you send other people to the Download
Library, armed with the Username and Password.
Hey,
this could be the ultimate incentive to get new subscribers
for you - or the ultimate bonus for anything you're going
to sell!
And
that's another parting gift for you :-)
"The
Affiliate Success Toolkit"
A great collection of tools
and resources, all aimed at helping you to boost your affiliate commissions. Currently,
I'm selling this collection for 67 bucks.
I've
not even allowed Resale Rights for this whole package before,
But now, I'm giving it to you to
do with what you like! I hope that you don't devalue
this product by doing anything silly, such as giving it away.
But I'm not placing any restrictions on you.
I've
included a complete sales page for the Toolkit - along with
sales pages for the individual components of the Toolkit.
"Profitable
Blogging For Seniors"
It seems appropriate to
make this a gift on the eve of my retirement! I was selling the Personal
Use Rights to my 88-page eBook for just 7 bucks, but "up-selling" the
Resale Rights for 27 bucks.
Now
I'm giving you the full Resale Rights version
worth 27 USD! And it comes complete with one of my professionally-crafted
sales pages.
Don't
worry if you're not as old as me - the advice is good for bloggers
of any age :-) But it's an example of taking a product with
wide appeal.. and selling it into a narrower niche.
"ScrollerControl"
This
is one of my Premium Products, which I'm currently selling
for 67 bucks on this page:
http://www.scrollercontrol.co.uk/
Now
I'm giving it to you completely f'ree - together with all the
bonuses described on the sales page.
So,
what does "Scroller Control" do? In a nutshell, it
lets you put highly graphical scrollers on any of your web
pages. It's easier to show you rather than try to describe
it further - it's pretty powerful! You can see working examples
on the sales page, and I've put a couple of demo scrollers
in the Download Library.
All
the scrollers on all your web pages are controlled from one
Admin Panel which you install on your web server.
I've
included my detailed User Manual in the package, and some other
useful stuff as well. You shouldn't have any problem getting
it up and running.
But
please note, because this is a "freebie", I can't
give any personal help with the installation or use of ScrollerControl.
Access
the Library here. You'll need the access details,
which have been sent in the email edition of this newsletter
Some
final reminders..
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Just
a few short days before my Grand
Retirement Sale ends. Don't miss it! Ends
on July 21st.
Who
needs more website visitors? Everybody! There's some
great advice in Underground
Traffic Blueprints. Go there before July
20th to pick up a great bonus.
There's
some really neat techniques in Info
Product Killer - and you'll also learn a
lot about search engine optimisation.
You'll
continue to get help and advice from me if you join my Private
PLR Club. Sign up now, before the price
goes up.
Get
the final freebies I've just added to the Download
Library. And these are real, saleable products!
Enjoyed
my newsletter? Want to show your appreciation? Please
support my selected charity, the Royal Society
for the Protection of Birds. Go to.. http://www.JustGiving.com/Ian-Traynor
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Keeping
In Touch
I'm
not going to disappear - I'll still be around :-)
If
you're interested, there are a number of ways to keep in touch
with me, in addition to email:
1)
Connect with me on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Ian-Traynor/812738632
2)
Follow me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/Ian_Traynor
3)
Link up with me on LinkedIn:
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/iantraynor
4)
If you're interested in my photos, I post them regularly on
Flickr - mainly nature and travel pics. You don't need to be
a Flickr member to view my pics (but only Flickr members can
comment on them):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iantraynor/
5)
And, of course, become a Member of my Private PLR Club!
http://www.PrivatePLRClub.com
So,
that's it.. the last full "Marketing Update" :-(
You may hear from me from time to time - I'll be disposing
of some of my domain names, and maybe even some of my products.
Oh,
and I have a vague idea of publishing a report describing all
the tools and resources I've used in my active internet marketing.
But that's just a plan at the back of my mind.
And
I'll probably send you a final reminder about my Grand Retirement
Sale!
I
have really enjoyed the contact with so many friends and subscribers
over the years. And when my wife, Ruth, had her successful
battle with cancer over a year ago, we were both touched and
moved by the fantastic messages of support from so many subscribers.
I
hope that you succeed in all that you attempt
and that you find happiness in all that you do.
Kind
regards
Ian
Traynor
Professional Webmaster
P.S. Well,
it wouldn't be like me to fail to have a final sales message
in a "P.S.", would it? LOL!
Don't
miss out in my Grand Retirement Sale. It gives huge value,
and it ends at noon EST (5 pm BST) on Wednesday, 21st July:
http://www.Ian-Retires.com
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