Internet Marketing

EBAY KILLED MY BUSINESS OVER A £2.00 DISPUTE 

Before I direct you to the full article, let me quickly explain , why I have included this post, basically I have recently discovered that the key to Internet Marketing success is to learn how to develop your own writing skills. For too long now many new Internet Entrepreneurs have relied on stealing content, or simply rehashing something which has already been written, now don’t get me wrong I have done the same with some of my websites but the key is to create original content and the only way to achieve that is to start writing your own. Now I am still learning myself but your comment’s will be most welcome, please take a look at my first article “ebay Killed My Business over a £2.00 Dispute“. This is a true story

I had a meeting today with my good friends John & Mel at Business for Breakfast to discuss how I could help with creating a sub-site for their ongoing franchise promotion. You can see the results and progress of the site at www.bforbfranchise.co.uk

If you are considering a franchise opportunity they currently have available opportunities in the following areas Click here.  Business Networking is a great way to grow your business both on and offline. There are many similarities to the concept of Internet Marketing, to be successful you must build up your list and establish joint venture relationships.  Business Networking has a similar philosophy, business relationships are based on (know like and trust), almost all successful joint venture partnerships are built on the same principles.

Now to recap I registered my domain name (www.dodietswork.com) on the 11 July 2007, and over the past few days I built my site and loaded it up to the server on Friday 13th July, so how long do you think it will take before it is visible in Googles organic listings.

Well take a look at the screen shot we are not yet on the first page but we are competing with over 50 million results, so that’s not bad considering the time. The site is currently listed on the second page for the search criteria “do diets work”

Over the coming weeks I will monitor how much this site has generated in income, from the various affiliate and monetized features, please bear in mind that I will not be running any ad campaigns to try and generate traffic to this site it will all be done naturally just to prove a point.

So it’s Friday the 13th (spooky), Now I have just checked my domain and I can now upload my content. Basically this is done in three phases.

Phase one is creating a database on my server for the new website, this is explained fully in my video and PDF download. If this is all new to you my instructions are easy to follow so if you have never done this or feel queasy when someone mentions MySQL and Php don’t worry it is quite a simple process. Anyway the first phase is to create a database and set up a user name and password.

Phase two is to load up your Wordpress files and install and configure the website.

Phase three is to log-in to the Wordpress interface on your new site.

Next it’s building the site and adding content, before you start to add the content you need to activate some essential plugins which have to be uploaded separately to your site (these steps are included in the video. Once you have activated your plugins and decided on the theme it is to start building. Now during my research on day two and three I decided roughly what categories I would have on my site plus the main parent pages I also decided on a theme (this is the look and feel of the site). So the next step is to create your main content pages on your Website/Blog (this is included in the video). 

Monetize the site, once you are registered with Google Adsence this is the quickest way to monetise your site, depending on the theme design will determine where you will publish your Adsence ads. (how to do this is included in the video). So unlike many of my fellow Internet Enterapners I am going to show you the site I built from scratch in less than five days, visit http://www.dodietswork.com,  any comments you have will be most welcome.

So yesterday I registered my new domain name www.dodietswork.com and as mentioned in the previous post it will be at least 48 hrs before I can upload the content. So in the meantime I will be very busy sourcing the content for the site,  but before that if you are just starting out and are wondering how I am going to get my site populated quickly and create a professionally designed and a functional website, the best place to look and now the most popular way to creating a site, is by using Wordpress (blogging software). Now look you can learn to do this yourself but depending on your current level of computer literacy will depend on how quick or long it will take you to build your site.  However if you want to find out how you can cut your learning time down to a minimum take a peek at my tuition video.

On with my task, so while you are waiting for your domain to be propagated, you should be sourcing content for your website, depending on the market you are in you will also have to decide what it is you are going to promote or sell. Now when most people first start out they create a website and add tons of affiliate links from any number of affiliate providers. Listen don’t make this mistake focus on your core product, for example all the products promoted on my new diet site will obviously be diet related. That way you will create more opportunities in gaining sales, simply because I anticipate that the people who visit my new site will be interested in them.

Now unfortunately if this is you first website you will have to wait until you have some content live before you can sign up to some of the bigger affiliate providers, for e.g. Commission Junction, TradeDoubler, LinkShare and AffiliateWindow, they all require to see your site before you are accepted into the programme. The majority of companies listed have a policy, basically they are checking to see if your site is suitable to promote their products. But don’t despair one of the quickest ways is to register for ClickBank and source some relevant digital products to get you started.

So in summary during the waiting time I visit all my affiliate providers to source products I can add to the site and start to put together relevant content to support the affiliate link. So when my site goes live I can quickly upload my content.

Find out what I will be doing on Friday the 13th (It will not be unlucky I can assure you) Stay tuned.

To follow on from the previous post Now That’s Quick after a few hours I decided that one of the most popular categories within the health and beauty market is dieting, almost everyone I know is either on a diet or have been on a diet.  But one of the most common questions I came across was  “do diets work” and if they do which ones are the best.

(Additional info) Now since creating this post have I realised how valuable this information is so although I am about to pass on some great information to you,  what I am going to do is also produce a full guide on how to copy everything I am about to do so you can follow me step by step in getting this site up and running and earning money. All you have to do is follow my formula.

So the first thing to do is register your domain, but wait……. don’t go for one of those cheap options, you need to register with a reliable service provider and one that preferably has a CPANEL set up (more about that in the full guide).

OK so you have a domain idea, the first thing is to check it’s availability you can do that on a number of sites, one I use in the UK is Getdotted.com this gives you an immediate result on availability across the board, ie every thing for .com, .co.uk, .us

WARNING!!! Don’t register a domain with any old provider, once you know that domain is available to buy you must choose a reliable Host. You will find out why in my step by step guide, but basically you need to make sure that the domain is registered to you and not to them as this can cause you problems later.

Right to finish on this second step once you decide on who to register and host the domain this process normally takes up to 48hrs-72hrs before the domain is propagated, without getting too technical this means that your site cannot be seen by typing in your web URL until the DNS is propagated on the server.  This time scale depends on the ISP but on average it is about 48 hrs.

Stay tuned as I will tell you what you should be doing over the next 48 hrs while you are waiting for the domain to be activated.

Another early start the alarm goes off at 04.45am reaching over to quickly press the sleep button before I disturb my wife from her slumber. Then it’s a quick wash and shave, a very quick cup of coffee then it’s off to meet my fellow Networking buddies at our new meeting place at the Holiday Inn, in Manchester. (not forgetting to get dressed first of course).  If you are not familiar with Breakfast Networking it is becoming a popular activity in my busy life as an internet marketer, you see to be successful it’s not just about sitting at your computer tapping away at the keyboard,  remember you are still running a business here, and Business Networking is a great way to meet new prospects.

This mornings meeting was a little thin on the ground, we had a few members away some escaping the appalling weather we have had over that past few weeks, (don’t forget one of the great British pastimes is complaining about the weather), however even if you find yourself sat there with a handful of other people it’s surprising what can happen. This week gave me the opportunity to tell my Business for Breakfast colleagues how the previous meeting was a great success. Let me explain…..

At the last meeting which was the first at this particular venue and only attended by 7 people that includes me? James who runs the hotel just happened to mention a product he was introduced to by his daughter, now this was just an afterthought which he just happen to mention, he had a sample and was keen to show us all, (so what…., I can hear you say), well this is an example of how attending a Networking meeting can radically add another product to your range. The product James was raving about (ok he wasn’t raving but he was a little enthusiastic), was a sample of Littearth Swarovski Handbag range. See pictures above:

Now to cut to the chase here, and finish the post, he gave me the name of the UK distributor who just happens to be in Manchester, so I gave him a call and arranged a meeting that day, as a result, I am now promoting these bags on our Have a Link UK and Have a Link USA website, we are also publishing local stockists details on our Have a Link Directory, on our website at www.havealink.com and helping to source other quality retailers in Greater Manchester and the Northwest of England.

A friend of mine asked me a question today, he said “Mark how quick can you get a site up and running and earning money”.  Now some people say you can do it in a matter of hours, If someone said that to me I would say show me then, because they would be talking rubbish. You see it is impossible to get a website up and running starting from scratch in less than 3 days. Now I don’t mean one of those rip off instant site jobs you see being offered by some of these charlatan guru types, I mean a proper website with it’s own unique domain name, registered to you and hosted on a decent server.

OK back to the story, now I am going to show you how quick I can get a site up and running and listed in Googles index, more importantley earning money so lets go…..

Right it is now Monday 9th July 07, so let’s be realistic here, the first thing we need to do is decide on a domain name, now you may already have one in mind but you should do some research first so that you get a domain name that’s going to be suitable for the products or information you are going to promote or sell. Now normally I do this research at weekend when I have more time, but on this occasion I will start today. So the first thing I am going to do is decide on a market, now you can either decide on identifying a niche or a popular existing market, both of these have advantages. On this occasion in the interest of speed I am going to look at the health & beauty market. I am going to spend at least 24 hrs researching this market so I will be back tomorrow with a domain name and why I chose it.