I’ve climbed back up to my pre-divorce weight from about 4 years ago, and I’ve got to do something. So, the folks at P90X did a good job of selling, so I’m heading with them.

I’m even going to keep a category here on the blog showing the progress, maybe even to encourage others.

Stay tuned for the first updates when they become available!

Technorati Tags: birthday, new years resolutions, p90x, weight loss

Reason #1: Article marketing is free. Every business owner knows that advertising isn’t cheap. Every newspaper or magazine ad you run costs you dearly. By spending just a little extra time writing and submitting several articles each month, you’ll save quite a bit of money. Best yet, article marketing doesn’t cost you a dime–just a few hours every week.

Reason #2: Article marketing brands your business. Have you ever wondered how some businesses seem to become so well known in such a short amount of time? They’re getting their name out there. They’re giving away something of value for free to their potential customers. Your articles will brand your business and make it a well-known name.

Reason #3: Article marketing makes you an expert. If you write articles about the subjects you know well, you’ll quickly become known as an expert in your field. Do you run a website on bird watching? Writing and submitting fifty articles on bird watching will show people that you know what you’re talking about.

Reason #4: Article marketing teaches you how to relate to people. You can’t write a bunch of articles without learning how to communicate effectively. The more you write, the more you’ll learn how to get your message across in a friendly, personal tone.

Reason #5: Article marketing creates back links to your website. Without getting into the technical details of this, back links to your website are good and you’ll want lots of them. Back links help boost your rankings in the search engines, thus gaining more exposure for your website.

Remember that article marketing isn’t the cure-all answer to advertising your business; it’s one piece of the pie. You also can’t submit a handful of articles one time and expect to see results.

Article marketing requires persistence and patience. You should plan to spend a certain number of hours each week writing and submitting articles to promote your business. Pencil in this time faithfully and stick to it. Within a few months (maybe even a few short weeks!), you’ll begin to see the results of your hard work pay off.

Ready to jumpstart your article marketing empire?  Take a spin with Instant Article Wizard!  You’ll pump out articles in about 15 minutes, even if you don’t know the subject matter! Get it now!

Until next time,

Mike Paul

P.S. Don’t forget, you really can make $100 a day online.  Anyone can.  Yes, even you!  So stop sitting there thinking that you can’t and get started with 20 Ways to $100 a Day!

Many people have that goal of making 6 figures a year from their online business.  Now, it may not seem like a lot to you, but for many people, making 6 figures a year is more than enough for a comfortable living.  I’m not talking about driving around in a Ferrari or owning a 10,000 square foot house, no way.

I’m talking about living comfortably with your bills paid off, except for maybe your mortgage.  Now, that’s not to say that you can’t make enough online to drive around in a Ferrari, but most people won’t.  And too many get discouraged when they realize that they will never see that lofty goal.

But 6 figures?  Now that’s a goal that is very, very achievable.

Let’s break it down, shall we?

• 6 figures a year means, at a minimum, $100,000 a year.  I’m going to avoid discussing whether that figure is gross or net right now, just to keep the peace.  For now, let’s just assume that $100,000 a year is your gross income.  Once you see the numbers, you can see how to make that your net income.
• $100,000 a year is roughly $8,333 in monthly income.  Still sound too high?  Wait a sec…
• $8,333 a month is roughly $277 a day.  $277 a day.

OK, so now let’s get more realistic.  In order for you to make $100,000 a year in your business, you just need to make $277 a day. That’s 6 copies of a $47 ebook, training course, video series or some other product that you create or someone creates for you.

That’s about 9  $33 CPA leads that you generate through a website, email campaign, survey site, or some other means.

Or, there may be some other way that you can make that money online.  Maybe you design websites.  Maybe you can write articles.  Maybe you can produce audio for someone else.  Maybe you have ad space on your blog/website that can bring in that income.  Or maybe it’s a combination of several different income streams that gets you to that $277 a day point.

Regardless of how you get there, know this.  The goal is within sight.  It’s not some pie in the sky dream that is only achieved by people that you think are smarter than you.  Number 1, you can achieve it; Number 2, they’re not smarter than you.  No way.

So, how are you going to start making your $277 a day?  Or maybe you just want to start with $100 a day?

How would you like to see 20 different ways to make $100 a day?  Check this book out - 20 Ways to $100 a day

You can do it.  Yes, there is work and action that you must do, but you can do it.

Get started here - 20 Ways to $100 a Day

And make sure you keep coming back here or subscribe to the RSS feed for more updates and tips to help along the way.

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, email marketing, make money, make money blogging, make money online

1. Choose a topic that you like, have experience or are interested in.

2. Take the main keyword from this topic and plug it into a keyword research tool.

3. Look at the search count. If it is about 30,000 per month, it’s a good niche. If it is below 30,000 searches, there is very little market and therefore it is not a good niche. If it is way above 30,000 searches, there is probably too much competition and therefore it is risky to enter this niche market.

That’s it. Based on those three steps, you are supposed to find a niche. What’s wrong with such a teaching?

Firstly, there is no research into the competition. No step is taken to discover how strong a competition you face in that niche.

Secondly, there is no research into long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are defined as keyword phrases of at least 4 words (the more words, the better). Every marketer knows the importance of long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords can lead you to lucrative sub-niches.

Thirdly, there is no research into the tendency of the searchers to buy. It’s not only a matter of whether the searchers have money or not. Some people in a particular niche market may have money but are not intending to buy anything.

So here’s how the gurus really do their niche and keyword research:

1. Examine your own interests, abilities, knowledge, experiences. Anything from these may be a potentially good niche to market to.

2. Identify what’s hot in the market i.e. what is currently the most talked-about thing, what’s buzzing or new in town. Is this a potential niche?

3. From the above two steps, identify potential niches. Then run these potential niches through these ‘filters’:

a. Are people in this niche ready to buy and not merely information seekers or looking for freebies? For example, ‘how to score an ‘A’ in your SAT examination’ would probably not be a very lucrative niche because it would interest only students who may not have the money to buy anything much.

b. Is there a problem that the people in this niche cannot solve themselves? Any niche involving technical expertise would nicely fit into this criteria. For example, ‘how to solve Windows Vista registry problems’ would likely be a good niche because very few people are technologically competent enough to deal with these problems.

c. Do the people in this niche have an urgent crisis that needs to be overcome? The more urgent the better. For example, ‘how to stop your teenager’s drug habit’ is an extremely urgent crisis that begs for answers.

d. Is there an ‘evergreen’ need in this niche that is not a just a fad? ‘How to improve your golf swing’ is an evergreen need compared to ’strategies for World of Warcraft’ (World of Warcraft is a PC game). Once the fad for World of Warcraft is over, the market in this niche disappears.

Obviously, the more ‘yes’ answers you get to the above questions the more potentially profitable a niche is.

4. Once you have identified a potentially profitable niche based on the steps above, it is time to look for some long-tail keywords. These long-tail keywords will reveal some sub-niches which you can further profit from. For example, if you type in ‘golf swing’ into Wordtracker, you would get a whole list of related searches. Look for keyword phrases with four words or more. Some of them are ’stack and tilt golf swing’, ‘biomechanics of golf swing’, ‘what is the proper weight distribution during the golf swing’ etc.

5. To find out how much competition there is in this niche, simply type in all the keywords you have into Google’s free keyword analysis tool. This tool will give you the estimated advertiser competition (which is the same as marketer competition), average search volume for the previous month and average monthly search volume. The great thing is that this tool also gives you synonyms for the keywords which means you get more keyword suggestions. You identify keywords with as little competition but as many searches as possible.

Now that we’ve covered those 5 tips, I’ve got something else for you.  5 free videos on Niche Market Research that will show you how to find untapped niche markets and absolutely dominate them to add another income stream to your business.

Get your 5 free videos here, but hurry!  I literally don’t know how long this guy is going to keep these videos available.  I don’t think he wants too many people to find out the secrets!

Until next time,

Mike Paul

Technorati Tags: market research, niche domination, niche market, niche research

My own efforts online have been hindered by a number of things, none of which are anything that I can’t overcome or deal with.  I just have to decide to take control of them and become the master of my own destiny.  I’m sure you’ve come to that point as well, at least at some point in your life.

It’s one thing to have a bunch of great ideas that are going to help you achieve your dreams.  It’s another thing to put those ideas into action.  A great idea doesn’t pay the bills.  A great idea doesn’t get you out of your day job.  You want to know what does?

Action.

Focused, purposeful action.

I’m talking as much to myself as I am to anyone else.  I’ve had a ton of great ideas over the last year or so.  How many of them have I implemented?  Only a couple, and of those couple I haven’t followed through on any to their full extent.  The blog you’re reading now is one of those ideas.

Expect that implentation to change, starting today.

How much longer are you going to wait?  How many more days are going to pass before you finally “do something?”

How much more time are you going to spend thinking about what you might have before you finally start getting it?

I’ve spent the first few days of this year re-evaluating my online efforts and getting refocused.  Today, I start putting ideas into action.

My goal for this year - leave my day job and go full-time online.  By July.

There, I’ve said it.  I’ve put it in writing.  Now I’ve got someone to be accountable to.

And if you’re willing, leave your goals in the comments below and we’ll both be accountable to each other.  Don’t let another day pass without doing something to move your closer to your goals.  Get that web page up, put up a new post on your blog, send an email to your list.  Start building a list, for that matter.  Do something.

You’ll see your goals come closer every time that you do.

See ya next time!

Mike

Technorati Tags: goal setting, goals, new years resolutions

Successful internet marketers employ certain tried and true principles of sales psychology in crafting their copy. Here are some of those principles.

1. Personalization

People respond to friends more than to acquaintances. The exception is with someone so well-known in his field of expertise, like Tony Robbins in self-improvement. Then people would readily trust in such an expert rather than their close friend but only when it comes to that expert’s area of expertise. In every other situation, all things being equal, people trust their own friends more than mere acquaintances.

Thus successful internet marketers know how to befriend you to gain your trust. They do so in their sales copy and subsequent follow-up messages. For example, the tone of their words would be friendly, informal and personable, using personal pronouns as much as possible. You get the feeling they are talking to you as if you have known each other for decades. So their emails would contain your first name rather than ‘Dear Sir’ or ‘Dear Madam’.

Another way successful internet marketers befriend you is by identifying with you in the problems or issues you might be facing. If you are reading a website about improving your golf swing, the marketer might tell you how terrible his own swing was not too long ago. He speaks as though he were you! Or supposing you are reading a website about internet marketing, the marketer may well tell you that he is very fed-up with all those gurus who mislead newbies like you and that he knows how you feel because he was once misled also.

Bear in mind that at times the words you read are actually ghost-written. Obviously no one internet marketer can be experienced or knowledgeable in so many fields (niches). That’s why all marketers use pen names at times. This way, they assume different identities according to the different niches they market to. All these methods are not wrong, as long as the marketer delivers useful content in a sincere, non-manipulative and respectful way in all his correspondences with you.

So be aware of what the marketers are trying to do. There are times you might need to take their words with a pinch of salt. This leads to the second principle.

2. Engagement

A good novelist always starts by setting the scene of the story. He gives you the big picture first before thickening the plot and going into details. The successful internet marketer is no different, except that the marketer does not have the luxury of wasting words. He knows he only has 5 seconds to engage with you otherwise you would move on to another website at the click of your mouse.

So the first step that every internet marketer makes in engaging with you is to write an attention-grabbing headline. Headlines using the words, “How to….”, “Discover the ways to….” or “Who else wants to know the….” are very effective in engaging with you because it arouses your curiosity. By doing so, the marketer quickly tells you what’s in it for you. All this is well and good but you must be careful of one thing.

Be careful to analyze the claims of the marketer. They must fulfill two criteria. It must be believable (not just hype) and it must be fair (minimum or no risk for you). Successful marketers make their claims believable and fair through various means. For example, they use testimonies of people who have benefited from their products in the past. They may also show you statistics of their own records (such as their income) or ‘before and after’ photos of themselves. To make their offer fair to you, most marketers give a money back guarantee or include lots of bonuses with their main product.

3. Action

Everything the marketer has written thus far is geared towards getting you to take action. It would be either to buy the product or give your email address or some other form of action. Successful marketers use two time-tested methods to do so. They are urgency and scarcity (or a combination of the two). The urgency method is by saying that there will be a price increase after a certain time. The scarcity method is by saying there will only be a limited number of units of the product sold. There are modifications and combinations of these two methods.

With all this information, you can see through all the gurus’ methods of making you buy their stuff. This will help you be more selective in buying as well as equip you to make your own offers to your prospects as well.

One guy who uses this to his advantage is Rob Benwell. In 2006 he dished the dirt on the tips and tricks to making a fortune using blogging. But as time passes the old systems become obsolete and new techniques are required. This is where his brand new, fresh off the press Blogging to the Bank 3.0 system comes into play.

For those who know who Rob Benwell is like me, you’ve probably made a killing using blogs.

For those who don’t, he’s the story:

Back in 2005 he was struggling to make any profit online, had dropped out of college and was getting deep into debt. He was trying all the techniques the gurus tell you and wasn’t getting anywhere fast. All of that went in the bin and he started using his own techniques and started making more and more money using simple blogs. In early 2006 he shared this with the world and had a great ebook called blogging to the bank. Tons of people got rich from using these techniques (including me). He then spoke at Online Marketing Legend Yanik Silver’s underground Seminar where he revealed even more of his underground strategies. Then July 2007 he released Blogging to the Bank 2.0 which showed users his new methods to creating online wealth using blogs. In total both versions have been read by over 50,000 people across the world.

But as I said earlier, the techniques used in these ebooks are now showing there age. Some of them are not even working in the slightest! This is where blogging to the bank 3.0 comes into play.

It’s full of great new techniques that work online right now! Everything’s explained in plain English with all the fluff cut out. I got hold of an advanced copy of the book for a much higher price than what it actually sells for and it has been worth every single cent! I got it in the afternoon and by the evening I was creating new profitable blogs. Within a couple of hours of them being active I had made a nice little profit.

Blogging To The Bank 3.0 teaches you Robs new step by step blueprint to creating highly profitable long term niche blogs using the newest optimization techniques. There’s even a section on advanced Search Engine Optimization. Most people think SEO is difficult but Rob explains this nice and simply so even the blogging newbie will understand it.

Blogging To The Bank 3.0 is a breath of fresh air and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to make easy money online.

Click below for more information about this system

Blogging To The Bank 3.0

Technorati Tags: Blogging, blogging to the bank, make money blogging

The vision of a “golden life” varies with each person. How essentially simple life is, and how we complicate it. Have you ever wondered how to make major changes in your life? Action assumes importance as you contemplate making changes. Most of what you have encountered in your life, so far, is the result of your beliefs. There are two great blessings in man’s life, thoughts and action. To change your life you must start by changing your habits of thought. “Impossible” and “can’t” must be removed from your thought processes. Science has proven that when you think you can do something that your mind will find a way to do it. Once the mind has found a way to accomplish what you desire, then action is required. Where there is action, there is life and creation. One of the turning points in your life will be when you discover the power of action, your power of action. Life has an amazing way of working out when you choose not to give up, but to harness your power of action.

Do you want to have a wildly successful business? For maximum effectiveness in life, love or business, it helps to have the right habits. Wisdom with the power of action is the true secret to wealth in life as an entrepreneur.

One of the laws of success is that the universe rewards those who take action. Action is the foundation of success. You are programming yourself for greatness and success when you take action on your goals and ideas. Acting on your goals will bring success into YOUR life. There can be no success without it.

Awaken your potential knowing that the power of action is within you. The power of action is just like dropping a stone into a pond. The ripples continue outward affecting everything around you. Education is great. Knowledge is great. Experience is great. Planning is great. Ideas are great. But the power of action is gigantic. Without it the rest is useless. You must take action to get what you want.

Technorati Tags: change your mind, destiny, taking action

Here’s the quickest way to get started:

First, make a list of all the things you need to do that you have been putting off, you probably have this “to do” list already drafted in your office. Then, go to a quiet place where you will not be interrupted for about 20 minutes. Go through each item on the list and write down your excuse(s) for not having completed the task already. Maybe there is a money problem, or you do not think you have enough education or the proper qualifications. Whatever it is, just write it down and do not worry about how it will be resolved right now.

Next, go through the list again and write down the benefits you currently enjoy because you are procrastinating on these tasks. Yes, you are receiving a benefit for not doing the task; otherwise you would have done it by now. For example, if you wrote down that you do not have enough education, then the benefit you are receiving right now by not getting an education is that you have more money than you would if you were spending it on school. Another benefit of this same item is that you have more time to do what you want, instead of spending it in school. Remember the old saying “time is money.” Are you really making enough money in your current position to make it worth the time spent there?

Next, look at all the reasons you have listed as excuses for procrastinating, and the benefits you are receiving. Do these still make sense? This is the time to sit down again and make a plan - a plan that you will stick to and not put off for any longer. Now is the time to make a “to do” list that you will actually do! First, while they are still in your thoughts, quickly write down a list of things you will do to make your dreams a reality. Then, go through the list again and put them in the order you will do them (example: Do you need to get a loan before you can go to college?) Also, write down the date that you will complete each item.

Finally, hook up with a group of like-minded individuals.  Whether you realize it or not, your level of success is greatly influenced by the people surrounding you.  Surround yourself with a lot of negative, lazy, procrastinating people and guess what you’ll be?  Find a group that will help and encourage you…and give you that swift kick in the pants every now and then.   Such a group exists and it’s known as The Internet Marketing Inner Circle.

It really is the Inner Circle.  You’ll be working right alongside some of the brightest minds in Internet Marketing who WANT to work with you and see you succeed.  Take a giant leap forward in achieving your dreams and check out The Internet Marketing Inner Circle.  You’ll be glad you did.

Technorati Tags: destiny, procrastination, stop procrastinating

Everyone who has been in Internet Marketing for any length of time knows that one of the most popular free traffic generation tactics is writing articles. Every guru teaches you to write keyword-centric articles in a properly chosen niche and submit them to article directories. This is a tremendously effective technique that creates backlinks to your website. The effects are basically two-fold. Firstly, your website increases in Page Rank and propels up the search engines and secondly, the articles you wrote also gets indexed by the search engines thus providing another way for people to find your website. All this is well and good and has become common knowledge. But here’s the twist to this technique.

Instead of only submitting your articles to article directories, it is more effective to submit them to website or newsletter owners in the same niche. Offer your articles to them for free and request that they publish them. Chances are high that they will if your articles have good content, thus giving you lots of article exposure to targeted readers. This is more pro-active than submitting articles to directories.

Next is the forum marketing technique, another popular free traffic generation method. Every guru teaches you to scour the forums in your niche and make comments, ask questions, offer solutions and attach a link to your website in your signature file. Once again, this is a great tactic to generate backlinks which will ultimately draw traffic to your website. Here’s the twist to this tactic that most gurus don’t teach.

When you join a forum in your niche, take time to read every category therein. Get to know the problems faced or questions people ask in each category. Compile these problems and questions and create a report with solutions and offer this for free to the forum members. Inside this report you put links to your website or blog. Once again, this is a far more effective method of generating traffic than just making a comment or two in forums.

Lastly, there are the free social bookmarking sites that can be used to generate traffic. What gurus teach you to do is to bookmark your webpages or your articles in article directories so that they get linked by social bookmarking sites like Digg or Stumble Upon. Here’s how to tweak this strategy.

Instead of just bookmarking your webpages or blogposts etc, look at what’s highly ranked in the social bookmarking sites first. Search for something related to your niche and if found, then write an article for your blog and bookmark it. Then go to the existing highly ranked post and add a comment to it that includes a link to your blog. That way, you get another quality backlink to your site and draw the visitors reading the highly ranked post to your website or blog. Hopefully, they will vote for your article, too thus pushing your post up the social bookmarking site’s favorite list.

These are the little tricks about free traffic generation that the gurus hardly teach you in their coaching lessons but they use these themselves to earn the big bucks. Now you can do the same.

Technorati Tags: traffic generation, Website Traffic