Contributors Needed for Newbie Training Giveaway

I just signed up to be a contributor in the Newbie Training Giveaway put together by Bill McRea. Bill put this event together to help new internet marketers get started in 2009.

The event will run from January 7 to January 31, 2009 and Bill still needs contributors.

These giveaway events are a fantastic way to build your subscriber list. Many marketers mistakenly assume that the people who download information from a free giveaway are just freebie seekers and will never buy anything. This is the wrong assumption to make. It’s true, many will be freebie seekers who never buy but so are those that sign-up at your website. Once you have a subscriber on your list, they will start to hear from you and eventually start thinking of you as an authority. Soon it will come that they are in the market to buy because it gets to be too time consuming for them to sift through the internet (or their hard drive) for the information they seek.

Basically, it’s a numbers game and the bigger the numbers on your list, the more buyers you will have.

So, consider joining this giveaway if you have a product that suits a newbie marketer. Additionally, there is an upgrade option where you can compete to win prizes and offer one-time-offers to those who download your giveaway item. It’s worth looking at, here’s the link:

Newbie Training Giveaway

I have a product entered in the giveaway and, if I do say so myself, it’s a good one (that’s the cover in the pic above). It’s called “Get Started Growing Your Website Traffic” and it’s going on sale after the giveaway. Anyone who is a newbie marketer will truly benefit from the information included in this report. So, if you want the info and you want it for free, keep your eyes open for the start of the “Newbie Training Giveaway” that will start on January 7th. Sign-up for my mailing list and I’ll send you a reminder.

Bill is looking for only quality information products that can help newbies break the learning curve. If you are interested in participating now is the time to get involved.

Newbie Training Giveaway

This is a good way to get your internet business started.

Cheers!

Reba

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WordPress 2.7 Upgrade - It Was SCARY But It Worked

I finally decided to upgrade to WordPress 2.7. I knew I was going to have to do it someday, but I was so scared that something would go awry with my Revolution Theme.

Yeah, if you were following me on Twitter two weeks ago, that was all I was talking about. “Has anyone upgraded to WP 2.7 with a Revolution Theme?” I never got an answer.

So I was scared it would be a huge mess and I’d have to spend days and dollars fixing it.

Well, as usual, the mind imagines things much bigger than they really are and even though it was scary (especially the part in the instructions where it says to delete all your files-ahhhhh), the upgrade went smoothly and it appears everything is working properly.

The new dashboard is FABULOUS!!! So much more intuitive than the old one. I still need to spend a little time getting used to it but that’s no big deal.

So, if you still haven’t upgraded, don’t be scared. If I can do it, you can too. Just be extra careful to follow ALL the instructions step-by-step.

Here’s the link to the instructions, remember, step-by-step, each and EVERY step:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress_Extended#Step_3:_Verify_the_backups

I should talk, when I got to Step 13: Add security key definitions to the wp-config.php file, it said all versions from 2.6 up had a security key. Well, I had version 2.6 and I never added the security key! Shame on me! I added it this time, I’m now secure.

Good Luck with your upgrade! You’re going to LOVE it!

Cheers,

Reba

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StomperNet Insiders’ DVD of the Month-Volume 1

Brent and I got home from our trip to California on Sunday night and my box from StomperNet was sitting on the front porch carefully hidden by the newspapers that our neighbors had kindly moved from the driveway for us. Yay! I had requested Monday as a vacation day because I knew I’d be tired from the trip and I wanted a day to work on my business, timing couldn’t have been better.

If you read my review of the order process when I ordered my free Stomping the Search Engines 2 that came with a free issue of Net Effect, the new internet marketing trade journal from StomperNet, you’ll remember that I purchased ALL the upsells and the box on the front porch had not only my Net Effect magazine, but 18 DVDs as well. Talk about overwhelming!

Anyway, I decided to dig in and started by watching the Net Effect Companion DVD, it’s called StomperNet Insiders’ DVD of the Month Volume 1. This first volume was free just like the magazine. Going forward it will cost $19.97 a month, and in case you didn’t remember, the magazine, Net Effect, will be another $39.97 a month. That’s a grand total of $59.94 each and every month (plus shipping), but after seeing the information covered by these publications, I’m thinking it may well be worth every penny.

I’ll be honest, when I was offered the companion DVD during the order process, my first thought was, “Sure, I’ll take the free month, and then I’ll just cancel after I get it.” I’m sure that’s what a lot of people thought. However, now I’m thinking twice about making that move.

I haven’t had time to read the Net Effect magazine yet, but I did watch the DVD and I can’t tell you how impressed I am. I’ve been studying internet marketing for quite some time and search engine optimization has always baffled me. I seemed to understand the simple strategies but for the life of me couldn’t wrap my mind around all the details. It was just too overwhelming for me. Keyword lists, landing pages, Web 2.0 sites, LSI, and all that SEO “stuff” was just too hard. So, I never did it.

Now, here we go again. More SEO “stuff”. But somehow after watching this DVD it doesn’t seem so hard. I don’t know, maybe it’s the presentation, maybe Andy just has a way of simplifying the details, or maybe I’m just ready this time, I’m not sure, but it just doesn’t seem so hard now. What I do know now is that I’m going to do this stuff because I’m sick and tired of fooling around and not making any money. And if search engine optimization is a way to get more people to my site, then I’m going to do it.

So, what did the DVD include?

It mostly covered linking both within your website and links coming to your site from other websites. It explained how the search engines read your pages and assign where it will rank. And best of all, it covered why linking to subpages in your site will get you more traffic than always linking to your homepage.  Andy Jenkins shared some secrets on how to make the search engine spiders read your site the way you want them to read it. And at the end, they gave a list of authority sites you can use to link back to your site. Tons of great information that I have never seen anywhere else.

Having this kind of information can truly make or break a website, I just wish StomperNet hadn’t given it away for free. That’s another reason I think I’ll stay on with the subscription. I know a lot of people signed up for the free trial but will cancel for various reasons, not because the information isn’t valuable and worth every penny, but because they can’t afford it right now or just don’t want to spend the money for whatever reason. So, since not everyone will have this kind of great information going forward, it will give me a edge and everyone needs and edge, right?

So, how do I plan to use this information to benefit you as my reader?

Last week I posted that I needed a plan and that I would post one before I left on my trip to California…well, I made my plan and posted the 2008-09 Editorial Schedule for this site and I plan on keeping that schedule. I also stated that I wanted to make public the things I do to make this site an authority site and still plan to do that. Many of the things I’m learning in these DVDs I will use to grow this site and as I use the concepts, it’s my plan to write about them as a case study. So be sure to subscribe to the feed and my newsletter list so you can stay updated.

By the way, the free offer is available. If you want a free copy of Stomping The Search Engines 2 along with the first issue of Net Effect, just click through one of my links. All the “extra” bonuses they were offering through last Monday are gone, but that shouldn’t stop you from ordering the STSE2 and Net Effect for free, or well, for the price of shipping. It’s great information that just may make the difference in your success.

I’ll report back in a few days with the steps I’ve initiated using the new information I’ve learned.

Cheers!

Reba

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Stomping The Search Engines 2 Giveaway

So, I don’t know how many of you got all the emails last week about the free give-away that Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkins were doing with their Stomping The Search Engines 2, but let me tell you, I was inundated with email from all the “guru type” internet marketers wanting me to get the free e-course through their link. And believe me, I was interested because this was the biggest internet marketing give-away I had ever seen!

In case you haven’t given your name to all these guys yet and didn’t get all the emails, let me fill you in. Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkins wrote an audio course several years back called Stomping The Search Engines. It was a success and became a big seller in the internet marketing circles. After that, they coupled up and started a high-end membership site for people who are serious about search engine optimization. The site is called StomerNet and it costs $797 PER MONTH (yeah, I said per MONTH) to be a member.

Well, I guess they started to realize that they were missing out on a huge market of people who can’t afford the $800 a month price tag and decided to re-write their first product and came out with a sequel. At the same time, in order to catch this same market, they decided to create a printed trade journal and call it Net Effects.

So, being the great guys they are and to get Net Effects out to the masses, they decided to give the new Stomping The Search Engines 2 away for FREE when you subscribed to Net Effects. And to top that off, they were giving away the first issue of Net Effects too. I mean, who could pass up that deal? Free stuff!

It should have clued me in when I got all the emails that there was more to this “give away”. Why would anyone take the time to bother their email list with something they weren’t going to earn money on, right? Well, me, being the internet marketing hoarder I am, of course wanted my free stuff and went to make my order.

Poor Brad and Andy. There were so many people gobbling up the free offer that their servers went down. They ended up delaying the launch until the next day when they could get their act together. I made my order after everything was fixed and it was as slick as ice. Yeah, you go to make your order and even before you put in your name they’re offering another free item ( a DVD to go with Net Effects that will cost you $20 a month after the first month). I say okay to the free DVD making a mental note to cancel after I get the free one and $12.86 for shipping, press the order button.

Then came Offer #1 that was ONLY good at that very moment, and you got it, it was a really good offer.

Offer #1 was to purchase five new courses that hadn’t been released yet. The offer was sweet, purchase one at half-price and get the other four for free. These courses will retail at $197 each when they are put on the market. So, for $97 I’ll get five new DVD courses, a total of 64 DVDs. Yeah, I bought it.

Offer #2 was to purchase the “brain dump” that new StomperNet members get when they pay their first $800 payment. It’s a huge course with tons of internet marketing info. The offer was $247. Again, a pretty sweet deal and I figured since I run an internet marketing site, I need to be educated, right? So yeah, again I whipped out my debit card.

Here’s where I got a little upset but then again, I’m sure they will fix it. When I got my email receipt for the “brain dump” package, I didn’t get charged $247 as the offer said, I got charged $274! Does someone at StomperNet have dyslexia? So far I’ve emailed twice with no response. They owe me $28. I’m sure they are super busy and will eventually give me my credit, I just need to be patient. Well, it’s not like I won’t email them AGAIN this week <<wink, wink>>.

In the end I feel I got a fabulously good deal but really, I need to wait and see how good the information is. I’ll probably get everything late next week or the week after and I’ll start pouring through it. Then I’ll make a post with my assessment.

If you’re interested in getting the free deal, it’s still being offered. The links on this page are my affiliate links and if you decide to buy I’d super duper appreciate you using my link, even if you don’t buy anything, even if you just want the free stuff.

You just need to click over to the Stomping The Search Engines 2 unbelievably annoying page that starts playing announcement music loudly every time you go there (it’s okay the first time when you want to see the video, but don’t go twice ~ annoying!!). Watch the video, read about the product, and then click on the link at the bottom of the page to get signed up and order your FREE stuff.

I know not everyone has a weakness for internet marketing learning materials like me but none the less, you really should at least take advantage of the free stuff. You can’t beat an offer like this, I’m sure you see that, just hold on to your horses when you hit the upsell pages and click on the “no thanks” buttons (not like me clicking “I WANT IT”!!).

Here’s my link again, CLICK IT for:

FREE Stomping The Search Engines 2 and
FREE first issue of “Net Effects” Printed Internet Marketing Trade Journal

I’ll let you know what I think when I get the STUFF!!

Reba

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Wordpress ~ Simply A Necessity

What more can I say? Wordpress is simply the only way to run a website. Even if you don’t want a blog, you still need Wordpress for content management. I’ve been using Wordpress for years and believe me, it’s changed a lot over those years…for THE BETTER! When it comes to a content management system (affectionately referred to as CMS) you won’t find a more simple or cheaper alternative (it’s free!).

I’ll definitely be writing more about Wordpress as I think I’m going to have to do some tutorials or something but for right now I just wanted to get a post in the “Build Your Website” section of the the site to let you know where I stand and what I’ll be teaching on this site.

Also, to add to the “use Wordpress” mantra, only use Wordpress in your own hosting account, that way you own and have control of the content. There is an option to use Wordpress on a hosted site where the content is hosted by wordpress.com, don’t do it. It’s just like using a Blogger account, don’t do it. You’re at the mercy of someone else, don’t do it.

Here’s the link where you can download the most current version of Wordpress ~ and IT’S FREE!!!

http://wordpress.org/

Notice the .ORG ~ NOT .COM.

In another post I’ll give you links to two Wordpress plug-ins that are must haves.

Reba

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How to Cloak Affilate Links

Selling affiliate products is a great way to make money online and I’m sure that’s exactly what many of you do, plan to do or will figure out that’s what you need to do. I’ll cover what affiliate marketing is in another post but for now I want to make a simple post to explain what I do to hide my affiliate links.

Whenever you become an affiliate for a product or company, you will receive a specially coded link that when used by a website visitor, it will set a cookie on that visitor’s computer to tell the product owner or company that your website or you referred the visitor to them. If that visitor buys something, you will earn a commission. The link is an integral part of the process as that’s how the company paying the commissions knows to pay YOU.

For the most part, the links that are assigned are long and ugly. To top that off, some people will not use the link, they remove the code that identifies you as the affiliate. In order to “fix” that, the best way I know is to “cloak” the link. Here’s how:

So, if I were to give out the URL http://www.yoursite.com/info/revolution-theme the link would send visitors to revolutiontheme.com using your affiliate code.

There are a few things I want to mention regarding this process that may cause some mix-up. First, when you make the file in Notepad and save it, the file may save as .htaccess.txt. You will need to change the name of the file to exclude the .txt if you want it to work. Also, be sure it has a dot (.) in front of it.

Second, when you upload it to your server, it is considered a hidden file. You may need to change the settings on your FTP program to show hidden files if you want to see it in the directory.

Post any questions in the comment section.

Reba

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Does Your Website Cater To An Aging Audience?

I was reading one of my favorite blogs the other day, Copyblogger, and James Chartrand had a great article about designing your website so it caters to an aging audience. His article struck home instantly as I find myself quite often in the same situation he describes in his article.

Does your website cater to an aging society? Well, I had to ask myself the same question. James recommends a 12pt or larger font size, black or very dark gray on a white background. First thing I did was check the CSS file in the new Revolution Theme I had just purchased and installed as I thought the font size was just a bit small.

The CSS said 12px or 12 pixels. Hmm…was that the same? I thought, no way, it’s just too small. So I changed it to 12pt or 12 points. Points is a unit of measure for measuring font size. Wow, that made a huge difference! And huge in the literal sense. It was too big, certainly James didn’t want me to make all the text on my beautiful new blog 12pt, it looked like everything was typed in bold. So what was I to do?

I decided to go somewhere in between. In playing around with different point sizes, I found that 12px was equal to 10pt. And 10pt was too small, 12pt was too big, 11pt must be just right. It’s 10% bigger than the 10pt but doesn’t look like I’m typing everything in bold.

If your audience includes people of like age to you and me (BOOMERS!!!), don’t forget that it’s a bit harder to read a computer screen than it was a few years ago. Our eyes have probably changed a little. Keep the background as white or a very, very, pale color, and always use black for your text. Gray makes us squint and if a customer starts to squint, they might just leave.

One other thing I don’t want to overlook, there may be a few places on your site where you have a heading, logo or graphic of some sort where you’ll want to use reverse color, or white text on a dark colored background. This is fine for graphics, but never, never, never, do white text on a color background for your body text. There is also one combination that you should never use as it just does crazy things to the eyes, young and old alike, never use red on a blue background. If you don’t believe me, try it, it doesn’t work.

P.S. I checked out James’ blog, Men With Pens, and he has a Revolution Theme as well, and it looks like he never changed his CSS file to 12pt. James…are you going to practice what your preach?

Reba

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