CaymanHost Blog - Web Money & Marketing

The CaymanHost On Twitter

This is just a very quick update on my social networking activities because I've decided to join Twitter at last - if you're interested on following me around I can't guarantee any life changing Tweets but it looks like it could be fun. See the sidebar or follow me on Twitter here.

I'm also pretty active on Facebook and if you want to send me a friend request there please do. I don't do alot of marketing there at present, but if you want to know a bit more about me personally that's where you'll find the dirt on this island boy including things like the music I listen to and what's going on with me down here in the Caribbean....I think of it as my Jimmy Buffet area of the web, a Tiki Bar where I relax a bit.

I'm also on MySpace nowadays, and I'm busy building a friends base on there too. More serious focus over there if the flippancy on Facebook is too much for you. If you want to join in and promote yourself and your business, I display all my Twitter friends on there too so it's a cool way to get some exposure to their huge membership base. I'm aiming for 50 new friends a day on Myspace, so we'll see how I get on.

TCH

Blogging For Money and Profits

If you haven't read Andy Beard's recent posts discussing the effectiveness of blogs and whether or not blogs suck I recommend that all bloggers drop in on him and take a look. I was going to leave a comment but realized it would probably be a bit too long and decided to post about it instead.

Andy's post, prompted by the new sales blurb from Ken Evoy of SBI, has led to some interesting debate on the matter. (Andy links to the page in question).

Not long ago I had been in some discussions with Josh Spaulding regarding the same thing, and we concurred that a blog in the overcrowded internet marketing niche is not likely to be a very effective income generator - at least not directly.
A lot of the commenting over at Andy's blog supports this.

In relation to my own blog, it has been apparent to me that blogging is not the platform to use if you are seeking to make money online.

There, I've said it too, so let's qualify the statement.

This particular blog has been running for a little over a year and looked at solely in terms of revenue generated you would have to call it a dead loss. Shocking? Well, no, not to me at least. My blog is just another tool in a box filled with tools. Blogging can give you a leg up in search engine placement and is an effective way of getting some traffic and SERPS positions. Sure you might sell a little advertising, maybe make a few affiliate sales and a little Adsense revenue perhaps but it's very difficult to generate what could be considered a full time income.

It is Ken's claim that blog posts have the shelf life of a daily tabloid newspaper, and although that's maybe a bit of an exaggeration, the point he is trying to make is valid. Indexing of blog posts is very fast nowadays, particularly by Google, but maintaining a good position in the SERPS for older posts is not something you can automatically rely on.

Looking at his comparison charts regarding Wordpress and SBI the bias is obvious, but then it is a sales page. I would contest some of the points made and I've used Wordpress as a CMS rather than a blog and found it to be very flexible and effective. Some of the features Ken would have you believe are not available to WP users will depend on your hosting company for one thing, so there is a bit of generalization going on.

SBI has certainly made me more money than this blog though, just through the affiliate program and it's not something I've promoted much at all. It sells though, because it is a good service.

If the bulk of your visitors are bloggers themselves, particularly if they are bloggers hoping to make money online, they are usually too busy trying to build their own traffic and subscriber bases to be all that interested in yours. I made a comment once that if you actively comment on other's blogs, you will receive comments in return but let that aspect slide and those comments will dry up very quickly. This has always seemed rather pointless to me, a kind of "conscious driven" commenting.

It's the same mentality that drives a lot of people on social networking sites - getting swamped in an endless stream of applications purely because they feel that they might be perceived as a "misery" or "impolite" for not responding to each and every request. In the end, it overwhelms even the most dedicated MySpace or Facebook user. I can say that because I've made that mistake and let the benefits of Social Networking as a sales funnel slip away. It's something I intend to correct if I can..........

Let's be honest, commenting can become a chore, moderating comments can become a chore, and blogging can become a chore. Those who enter the blogging arena with high hopes of making good money from the venture, are invariably disappointed. That's when it really does become a chore and they drift away, disillusioned.

This is the crux of all the observations made by both Andy and Ken. Blogging does require a lot of work and if you measure it as a ROI, it usually doesn't stack up.

In my experience a lot of RSS subscribers are not avid readers and most are not reading blogs looking for products or services to buy. They are far more likely to be looking for information on how to grow their own subscriber base and how to improve their visitor numbers and revenue.

You will find it extremely tough to sell anything to such an audience. Indeed, even trying to persuade them that there are better ways to approach making money online than blogging and providing free services to get them started, meet with far less success than you would expect. Just to prove this to myself I'm including a link to a free minisite software application - just one way of diversifying and spreading your money making wings.

Josh gave a telling example a while back citing sales of a product derived from his successful EZ-MoneyOnline blog versus sales from his listbuilding tactics. I forget the specifics but it was around the ratio of blog: 2 sales. List: over 40 sales.

My own listbuilding ventures regularly net me signups and sales, but the blog really doesn't deliver. I've measured this in the past, and there really is no contest. To generate, for example, 100 signups to a free program over a seven day period through capture pages and opt-in emails is entirely possible. With a blog post I am lucky to see two or three over a much longer period.

Why is this? Both audiences are looking for ways to make money online after all. I can only conclude that bloggers see themselves as bloggers and not marketers and are reluctant to diversify. This, if you really want to earn money, is not good. Multiple streams of income should be something you work towards.

I think that as a blogger, you must avoid tunnel vision and understand that you need to do more than blog if you want to make money online. For me, the blog has not really even been that successful from an affiliate marketing standpoint - again, I'm talking directly. I still believe that a blog is an important part of any marketers arsenal, but if you try to view it purely as a money/time equation it just doesn't compute.

Even those with a good RSS subscriber count will tell you that conversions can be very disappointing, although I'm betting that the subject/niche you blog in does have some bearing on that. 

My advice is this: do not to blog solely for the purpose of making money.

If you want to turn blog readers into customers you will often have to find other ways of getting them into a sales funnel - through your list building or niche specific newsletter for example.

TCH

Hosting | Marketing & Autoresponders | Affiliates 

Can You Ever Trust An Online Marketer?

Ever since I first went online back in the early 90's, there has been no shortage of scaremongers and those who delight in telling stories to ignite fear and mistrust of the internet. I'm not saying none of these are justified, plenty of them are, but there are people who would have you believe that you should never trust anyone online - period.

In terms of all the millions of people who decide to try and make some extra money, or even a full time living on the web, the failure rate is extraordinarily high. I believe that one of the reasons for this is the paranoia instilled in them by others. FOBRO I call it.

If you are going to try and make a go of it online, you are going to have to suspend your belief that everyone out there is a con artist, a liar, and a ne'er do well. If you don't, you probably won't make it.

Let's take a step back though and consider why so many people believe that the internet is swamped with dishonest, bad or downright shady characters. Well, it is true that there are plenty of those types operating online, but in all honesty the internet is no different to the real world. Applying a little common sense is all it really takes to stay out of trouble. When you see one of the many variations on how to make huge life altering amounts of cash online in no time at all and without lifting a finger, sure, keep that healthy skepticism close at hand. 

As someone who recommends and sells on the internet I am well aware that overcoming customer doubts online is a difficult and ongoing battle, particularly if you are an unknown entity as opposed to a household name. Anyone who sells anything online will inevitably face dealing with an unhappy customer at some point, and unfortunately, the "FOBRO factor" (Fear of Being Ripped Off) often makes this an even more difficult task than it would normally be.

You constantly come across individuals online lashing out at people and companies who they perceive have done them wrong - sometimes they have a case and sometimes they don't. In the internet marketing field, this kind of thing is rife. Some would argue that is because the arena is full of hucksters and I'm not going to deny that there are some less than honest people out there. However, I have also found that people's complaints often arise from a situation for which they share equal blame. I've touched on this in relation to web hosting before but let's look at other some other areas.

Let's take the person who buys an IM product that calims to show them how to make money from a specific venture. They buy the informational product, read it and then do nothing. Naturally, they don't make any money and somehow make the leap of imagination that they have been cheated. But have they? If the product they bought promised information and delivered it, they surely got what they were prepared to pay for, did they not? Their failure to act on said information does not, to my mind qualify the seller as a cheat or a liar.

There are many examples like this, and sadly they often arise from a lack of understanding or knowledge. I recall a product launch over a year ago where many people willingly parted with their cash only to realize that they had neither the knowledge or systems in place to use what they paid for. Why? Because they didn't understand or even look into what it was they were buying, got caught up in a huge marketing whirlwind and then claimed they had been ripped off.

I had a recent experience myself where, due to a slight glitch with a payment processor, I was accosted by an unhappy customer. I should add that the amount of money involved was very small, and that it took me 13 minutes to respond to the initial email. Despite immediate action which would have resulted in her receiving her download within the hour, her FOBRO mentality blinded her to all reason.

I refunded the money right away. Why? Because to argue would have been pointless, the customer having convinced themselves that someone was going to disappear with their cash and laugh at them from the safety of their luxury yacht anchored in the Bahamas, paid for with their ill gotten internet millions. So, instead of a really good bargain, the customer has a war story to tell and another "terrible experience" (her words) online to add fuel to the fire. FOBRO. Justification - absolutely zero. This is how the mentality thrives and is indicative of society as a whole. A sheep bleats, and other sheep will naturally follow.

The owner of the program in question is a very honest and respectable marketer. I would also add, that I consider myself honest and trustworthy too. My mama raised me right.

It is also true that many people still have a hugely irrational fear of giving out an email address online. There really is no need. One thing honest marketers really don't need is being labelled a spammer. As a result, double opt-in email marketing is the only path they will follow. This is great for you whichever side of the fence you are on. If someone offers something for free to get your email address and you really want the gift, sign up. The FOBRO should not stop you - it's what grandma used to call cutting off your nose to spite your face.

You can always set up an email account specifically for the purpose with Gmail or similar. If you really don't want to hear from the marketer again, opt-out as soon as you have the gift. It's simple, there should be no FOBRO. In actual fact, being on a few email lists is far  more likely to be of benefit to you. Does it bother me when people subscribe just to get a free book or report and then remove themselves? No, it doesn't - I offer the information freely and can't expect to hold a person hostage in exchange and wouldn't wish to. That attitude is the only one to have as far as I'm concerned.

So where am I going with all this? Well, I'm trying to point out that just because somebody sells something online, or recommends services or products, or points you towards something that is free, there is not always a catch. A lot of the time, these offers are very genuine, even the free ones and yes, even the internet marketing ones.

For you, as a marketer, you need to believe that sometimes, there are really people who are offering to help you. Yes, a reasonable degree of caution is advisable, but if everytime you see an attractive offer or read a testimonial or endorsement and your FOBRO kicks in immediately, you might not be cut out for making money online. You have to keep it all in perspective and understand that sooner or later you will find yourself in a postioin where you wish or need to buy something to help you in your own online marketing efforts.

Nobody can force anybody to buy something online, nor can they force them to download a free product or take a free trial or anything else. When it comes to the Internet, as a medium of communication you, the user, have complete control. If you're not happy about any aspect of an offer, ask before you buy - isn't that what you would do in the "real world"? As far as free things go, what do you have to lose? Marketers, despite their sometimes less than enviable reputations cannot turn up on your doorstep and threaten death if you won't buy their latest offer.

So, despite the horror stories from your neighbor, your workmate, your relative or friend, keep an open mind, use a little common sense and remember that making money online does not have to be a dirty word.

TCH 

Ultimate Viral Marketing Method

The Ultimate Supertip - The Greatest Viral Marketing Idea Of All Time...... 

This post is going to be short and sweet and it's for anybody still trying to make money online. Whether you've made your first affiliate sale, are still waiting for that elusive first sale or are raking in regular commissions already - this is for you.

It's been described as the greatest marketing idea ever devised but I'll leave you to decide that for yourself.

All you need to do is download a copy of this free ebook - you won't even have to give up your email address - that's right, no opt-in required. Read the book and where you take it from there is up to you, but if you never read ebooks or have sworn off them for good, I think this one will change your mind.

All I'll add is that it works. Trust me I've tried it and the results are very good indeed. Oh, and you won't need anything aside from this free book, no software, no website...it's for anyone and everyone who cares to try it. Enjoy the read and let me know how it works for you!

When you get inside you'll see a membership site offer that is worth its weight in gold and free bonuses that are genuinely worth a lot of money and really worth having if you want to make money online. I can honestly and wholeheartedly give this my endorsement and recommendation as one of the very best offers online today, and anyone who reads my blog regularly will know that I don't often give such glowing recommendations.

I'll give you an example of just one of the perks - a year's silver membership at SureFire Wealth ($147 value) for only $10 has to be worth having - visit the SureFire Wealth website and see for yourself. As I say, that's just one of the bonuses and there are plenty more. Add them to the amazing viral power of the whole idea and I think you will be impressed - if you want to know how to start a flow of small commissions into your payment processing account on a regular basis, this is a great place to start. 

You really have nothing to lose by taking the first step and reading the book - you can thank me for the information later :-) 

Testimonials abound from some very big names including:-

Great idea Harvey! - Mark Joyner
Simpleology.com

Work of a masterful genius... a very intelligent piece of marketing on the Net. Brilliant. -Dr.Mani
EzineMarketingCenter.com

Harvey, you're a freakin' genius. I bought the product and am dizzy with anticipation over the coming results! -Jonathan Leger
AdSenseGold.com

To Download Your Free Copy just click on the cover image.

Free Listbuilding Video

Back in March I posted about the excellent My Viral Spiral free list building service. In order to explain a little more about the program I have made the following video showing you exactly how it works.

Watch The MVS List Building Video Here (Opens In A New Window may take a while to load) 

Once you have watched the video you may be interested in some of the programs mentioned and used as examples and how to get the very best our of using it.

The link to the landing page used as an example in the video. There are plenty of useful reports included in the system so you are not restricted to using just this one. I have also arranged with the program owner to let you have some of my own products to use including the Beginners Guide To Web Hosting, Article Marketing Expert and The Adsense Masterplan. You will find them all in your member's area after you sign up.

The system used for OTO pages and redirects. This free program makes it easy for anyone to set up OTO's and I highly recommend it. This is also the tool behind the second redirect page shown in the video - Passive Profit Robot

The power behind the system - My Viral Spiral 

Third Party Autoresponders from GetResponse and Aweber 

I apologize for my hesitant speaking style, but I hope the information will inspire you to start building your own list.

TCH

Internet Marketing Toolbar For IE - Add Your Links

I have just completed work on an internet marketing based toolbar for Internet Explorer (Sorry I couldn't make a Firefox version) and you can see a shot of it below. It includes search facilities via Google, Yahoo and AllTheWeb, a bookmarking feature, cache clearing, clipboard viewer and more, but most importantly it is loaded with links to useful internet marketing sites, downloads, tools and tips. So, here's an offer for my readers and fellow bloggers and marketers.

If you want to use this to promote your online efforts, please read on. 

If you would like to download the toolbar and give it away to others, I will place a link of your choice into the dynamically updating text ads that run prominently on the right hand side of the bar. This is free, in exchange for your help in spreading the toolbar to others. 

Still interested? Here is what you need to do:

1) Download and install the toolbar - (Internet Marketing Toolbar Download - Click Here)

It's guaranteed adware and spyware free because I'm not clever enough to do that kind of thing :-) 

2) Send a note to me via my helpdesk and provide me with the following information:-

a) Your Ad Text (max 41 Characters)

b) The URL you wish to direct visitors to. This can be to your own salespage, blog, affiliate program, whatever, provided that it is Internet Marketing or hosting related.

Important - I will not accept links to MLM programs, gifting sites or anything remotely scammy, so please don't ask me to. I want to maintain a reasonable level of quality for users. Links to lead capture pages are OK provided again that they are of a reasonable quality and don't promote anything in the categories already mentioned.

It's an internet marketing toolbar, so let's make it valuable to users and spread your advertising messages.

I will not be checking on who has or has not installed the toolbar - but obviously the more you give it away, the more exposure your links will be getting. I am operating on the basis of good faith - if you contact me with your link I will assume you are going to use it and promote it, as it is in your interest to do so.

You can refer people to the download link provided here if you can't or don't want to host the installation files yourself. 

That's it. Once I get your message I will add your link to the toolbar as soon as possible providing it is acceptable and confirm one way or another via email.

I look forward to receiving your ads :-)

TCH 

Link Cloaking and Tracking Questions Answered

Not long ago I wrote a post about cloaking affiliate links, but it's still a subject that I am asked about more frequently than almost any other. This surprises me because there is a lot of information out there if you go looking.

When someone asked me the other day what system I use myself, I didn't really have a simple answer because I test and use various methods depending on what I'm doing. In the spirit of helping others out, here are just a few more tips and tools you might find useful. (all of which I use or have used myself).

1) Doing it yourself with PHP (described in the earlier post, if you want to check it out) for those with a web hosting account.

2) Free Third party services offering cloaking and tracking. There are a lot of these about and I can't claim to have used them all, but I have tried ClickAudit and still use it from time to time, and Viral Link Tracker which I also think is worth a look.

Third party services like this are the easiest option for those who don't have a hosting account of their own. Both are simple to set up and fine for anyone wanting basic click count. Viral Link Tracker has several additional features, the usefulness of which will depend a lot on what you are up to, but it does have a viral element.

There are several others but some I would not recommend because they have been overused by too many people pushing too much rubbish and as a result, to my mind, look rather "spammy" and obvious. That's just my opinion though and I'm not naming names.

The new kid on the block, which I only read about today, is a new service from the excellent LeadsLeap program. If you don't know about LeadsLeap, it's an interesting take on viral promotion and advertising. You can read all about it in my previous post on The LeadsLeap Traffic and Listbuilding program. Don't be too put off by the landing page, it is actually a very effective viral tool.

Anyway, the program owner continues to refine it and introduce new features, (a viral blog and a private messaging facility to name a couple) the latest being a link cloaker. Just so you can see how it works, I have taken one of my raw affiliate URL's -

http://wwkiosk.com/members/mosnell/

and applied the LeadsLeap effect like this:

http://www.leadsleap.com/go/10229

If you click on the cloaked link you will notice the "countdown" advertisement at the top of the page. (It can also be placed at the bottom) This can be turned on or off with each cloaked link you create - it has the potential to be annoying and distracting, so I would think carefully about how and when you use it. I just included it for the purposes of this demo. The address bar in the browser will not show your affiliate link, only the Leadsleap shortened URL.

3) Cloaking your links using software that is capable of encrypting the redirect and preventing even the most dedicated snoopers from viewing your page source. This is for those with a hosting account only.

Once upon a time you paid for these things, but they are now freely available. I've been using a couple of them in recent months - one is Cloaker Buzz. Download it, install it, run it, type in your URL, press a button and it turns out the HTML required. Save it, upload it to your server inside your chosen directory and name it "index.html" and you will have a fully cloaked link, like this one, where snoopers that view the source of your page will come up empty handed and where the URL in the browser address bar appears as you dictate.

http://www.thecaymanhost.com/passive_profit_robot/

If you like this idea, you can get a free copy of the software through this link - Cloaker Buzz Link Cloaker. It is also capable of advanced cloaking and the employment of cookies to ensure your commissions don't get swiped.

Another free option can be found at this membership site, and will do the same thing. All you have to do is sign up for a free account and the cloaker is just one of the tools you get to enjoy.

PLR Wholesaler Sign Up Page

OK, that about covers cloaking, but what about tracking if you don't want to use a third party service? Well, I only usually bother with tracking clicks in my email campaigns, and here's how I do it.

I cloak the link using a software application as described in 3 above. I then convert that link to one that I can track from within my autoresponder service. Let's take the example I used for Leadsleap - my cloaked link www.thecaymanhost.com/kiosk/ then becomes this

http://kioskcities.ws/cgi-bin/t.cgi?k=caynews2:2

I use an autoresponder service provided by my host, but if you use one of the third party sevices they will usually offer full tracking of your links as well as more detailed stats on delivery rates, and mails opened etc. which, as users will tell you, is a great benefit for tracking and testing their campaigns.

The final option is to install a tracking and cloaking script on your server. There are several available but this one is free, simple to set up, very effective and works on both Linux and Windows servers. You will require an available MySQL database.

The Ultimate Link Cloaker Download Page

OK, that about covers it, I hope you will find that one or some of these solutions fit the bill for you.

Remember, there are plenty of paid options too, ranging in price from a few bucks up to nearly $100, and there are even people selling the information contained in this post. Save your money, because there really is no need to buy link cloaking software, and you now have all the information you need.

Adsense Policies and StumbleUpon Bribes

I try to avoid "update" type posts in general but there have been a few changes here that I wanted to mention to readers.

Firstly, following Josh Spaulding's post regarding Adsense Rules and Policies you will notice that the blog now contains a clear link to my privacy policy - thanks for the heads up Josh! If you have an Adsense account I suggest you go and run an eye over what Josh had to say.

Others may also like to refer to an older post of my own regarding Google Adsense Policies and another guideline that is still being broken by thousands of Adsense Publishers who are heading for imminent Google account suspension.

Secondly, in the face of increasing spam I have altered my contact system and installed a basic help desk system. Nothing fancy, but hopefully it will stop the harvesting bots.

Thirdly, you might have noticed the big Stumbleupon logo in the sidebar just below my RSS feed. I'm testing a script that offers SU users a free gift (in this case a copy of the excellent Cloaker Buzz software) in return for Stumbles. If you Stumble two pages from my domain, you will be given access to the download. I will be changing the gift on offer from time to time, so for two Stumbles, it's a pretty cool offer.

If you like the idea of free marketing software, scripts and ebooks, you might want to consider joining my newsletter that often includes goodies to help my readers with their marketing efforts and they will always go to my subscribers first.

You can do so by grabbing any of the free gifts at the following URL's

Article Marketing Expert

Absolute Beginner's Guide To Webhosting

Adsense Income Blueprint 

I've been very busy with product creation and article writing in recent weeks and thus the relatively quiet blog.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible :-)

TCH

Hosting | Marketing | Autoresponders