Wednesday Apr 18th, 2007: Issue #792
The whole world is still reeling following the horrendous news of the massacre at Virginia Tech. My thoughts are with the families and friends of all the victims - both those who survived and those who didn’t.
Let’s not forget that even those who emerged unscathed will still be scarred for life.
We live in a dangerous and precarious world where random acts of obscene violence can take life and innocence away in a heartbeat. It is a good day today to hug your children and tell those who matter that you love them. Whoever, and wherever you are.
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I’m feeling a bit embarrassed today.
On Monday I reviewed a new ebook called ‘Get Google Ads Free’ and although I wasn’t as enthusiastic about it as I am about some ebooks I’ve reviewed, I did end with a recommendation to buy. I said this: “On balance, I’d say yes. Not just to satisfy your curiosity, but also because if you read between the hype and bragging, there are some good ideas to be had. Ideas that could make you a lot of money.”
Well, I’ve now had more time to consider the content of the book, and I’ve changed my mind.
Having thought it through I now think that the core idea - which is to place banner-type ads on the landing pages that your AdWords campaigns point to - to offset the AdWords costs - is unlikely to be workable. I’d even say that, on reflection, I think the sales page is deceptive because it effectively states that your advertising will be free. This method does not create free advertising. It attempts to create a separate revenue stream that may or may not offset your advertising costs. A very different thing.
In fact, it is a revenue stream that could even damage the effects of your advertising!
If you follow the logic through, you could argue that ANY AdWords advertiser who makes a profit from their advertising gets free advertising. But that would, of course, be silly. And anyone who made claims to that effect would be laughed at.
I guess this proves something: that I am as susceptible to hype as anyone else.
Now that common sense has returned, I will be asking for refund. The book is NOT worth the $67 it cost.
If you bought it after my review on Monday, I strongly suggest that you ask for your money back too. Go direct to ClickBank, it will be easier. In the unlikely event that you have trouble, let me know. I have a list of people who bought through me, and if it comes to it, I’ll refund you myself.
And I apologize for slipping below the high quality standards that you should expect from Kickstart.
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We had a lovely day at Kew gardens, even if we only managed to see a fraction of what is there. Kew covers 300 acres right beside the Thames in London and is packed with wonderful sights. The only disappointment was the food on offer. It was expensive and very poor quality.
I highly recommend that if you have a day in London, and you like gardens and plants, you spend it at Kew. Two tips: take your own food and allow yourself lots of time. We had nearly five hours there and could easily have spent double that.
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A good friend of mine, and a fellow Kickstart reader, is a guy called Glenn Leader. Glenn, you may remember is the creator of the excellent SLOBS video that showed how to create Blogger blogs on virtually any subject, and to populate them with an unlimited supply of on-target, free articles. The whole process was, and is, easy, effective and natural. Many Kickstart readers bought Glenn’s low cost videos and told me how much they were impressed by them. My original review is here: http://www.urlnex.us/slobs/
[By the way, I’ve persuaded Glenn to put up the sales page for the Kickstart special offer on SLOBS again. So if you missed it the first time round, you can still get the huge Kickstart discount until he takes that page down again. The link is in my review.]
Well, Glenn has done it again. He has created a new set of videos that explain a simple process for doing something that is becoming more and more important for Internet marketers.
Glenn’s new system is called ArtiFact. It is a great name that stands for Article Factory.
As I’ve written several times, article marketing is changing. It is no longer enough to write a great article and pump it out to every directory you can find. The smart marketers understand that these days you need to do a bit more work and send out different versions of your articles to different places.
Why? Because like it or not, the search engines are getting more proactive about seeking out duplicate content. And while none of us truly know how they go looking for duplicates or what penalties they impose when they find it, we are all getting more certain that avoiding the duplicate content filters in the first place must be a good thing.
So, most people are agreed that the very best way to market using articles is to use substantially different versions in each place you allow them to appear.
That means putting a unique version on your primary website. Different unique versions on your blogs. More unique versions on forum posts. And, perhaps hardest of all, sending substantially different versions of your articles to each of the possibly hundreds of online article directories.
But for many people, writing one version of an article is hard work, let alone a dozen - or twenty, or even hundreds!
There are several very good article spinning programs around that can do some or all of the work for you, but they are often more sophisticated than you need - and for many marketers who are just starting out, too expensive.
There are also a lot of programs available that create hundreds of versions of your articles that are all unreadable gibberish.
Glenn has produced a set of easy-to-follow videos, and some easy-to-use templates that allow you to make as many versions of each article you write as you need. And because you do the work (don’t panic, the way Glenn explains it, it is all very simple) every version of your article will be totally human readable.
ArtiFact automates the output of a virtually limitless number of unique versions of any article you feed into it - but the input process is down to you. An average article will take you perhaps 30-60 minutes to feed into the system.
That will be 30-60 minutes very well spent because doing the simple steps that Glenn describes will put you into the very top tier of article marketers.
The price is ridiculously low at just $17.
http://www.urlnex.us/artifact/
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Over half of the places for the next London Lunch (Friday May 18th) have now gone. Don’t miss out - if you want to come, book your seat as soon as you can!
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I’m going to a one-day workshop/seminar on Saturday. It is the first of a series being run by Robert Puddy, John Taylor and Martin Salter - what a crew! There are also several well-known people attending.
The cost is eye-wateringly low. Just $20 (£10) for what looks to be a great day of Internet marketing education and networking. I’m really looking forward to it.
If you can get to Gatwick this Saturday it should be an excellent way to spend the day.
You can register here: http://www.urlnex.us/weblearningzone/ (and no, at this price I don’t get any commission for recommending it to you!)
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I woke up this morning to find that I’ve been tagged.
Becky Hagel tagged me in her blog: http://philomaths.blogspot.com/2007/04/ive-been-tagged-to-list-my-success-tips.html
Now I have to think about how I plan to respond. Ten success tips huh? Is that all I’m allowed!
I had to smile: here in the UK, being tagged has a different connotation to what Becky meant. Here, criminals are ‘tagged’ with electronic beacons that allow the police to see where they are.
I didn’t do nuffin’ guv’ner, I promise!
Oh all right, it’s a fair cop.
Thanks a lot Becky, now I’ve got to do some thinking - about what my top ten tips are, AND about who I can pass the joy on to.
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An Inspirational Thought
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Call someone up just to say hello.
Business is far too calculated these days. Even our personal interactions are often based on wanting something from the other person.
If you phone someone - and don’t have an ulterior motive - you will be remembered. And in a good way. We all like to be the center of attention, however cynical the world has made us.
An occasional ‘hello, how are you’ will do wonders for your reputation. Try it. It is fun, too.
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Who do you know who would love Kickstart Today?
Don’t keep it to yourself - send them to
http://www.kickstartdaily.com today!
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The Quote of the Day
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Jean-Jaques Rousseau said:
“Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well.”
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Today’s Power Thought
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Imagine this conversation at the water cooler:
“Hi, how are you?”
“My shoulder’s playing up today. It’s very sore.”
“I know, my knees are in a terrible state. I can hardly climb flight of stairs without they send shooting pains right up my legs.”
“Yes, I think its from when I played tennis a the weekend, my left shoulder locked up and hasn’t been the same since.”
“And my right ankle is starting to ache as well now, I guess I’m just wearing out.”
“Have a good day.”
“See you later.”
Does it sound familiar? We all do that - think that our aches and pains are far more interesting than the other person’s.
And isn’t it irritating when you are talking to someone who does that to!
The conversation above is what is called a 50:50 dialogue.
Each participant spends 50% of the time talking about themselves. 2 x 50% is 100% - nothing left over for listening.
In any conversation between two people there is the opportunity for you to have 50% of the time (unless you know some very self-obsessed people, in which case they will tend to monopolize if you let them). How you use your 50% determines how well thought of you will be.
That is worth repeating: how you use your 50% determines how well thought-of you will be.
Imagine your 50% being broken up into five equal parts.
Now, when you are next having a conversation, consider this formula:
3+2=10/10
If you can make three parts of your five be about the other person and the other two about anything else (you, football, the weather, work, anything at all) you will get 10 out of 10 as a conversationalist.
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Fascinating Facts
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Let’s talk ostriches.
An ostrich egg takes 40 minute to hard boil. The bird’s eye is bigger than its brain.