SezWho Blog Comment Plugin

After first encountering the SezWho comment plugin on Andy Beard's blog some time ago I finally got around to looking at it more closely.

It's a simple and clever idea that basically allows you to display the commenting activity of visitors and by hovering over a commenters avatar or a link that says "check me out" you can see what else they have been reading and discussing, thus making your blog's comments far more interactive and also rewarding participants with more than just a backlink. It also adds voting options to your comments.

The other great side effect, at least as far as I'm concerned, is that it weeds out comment spam too. Many people are now using software to track down DoFollow blogs and abuse the generosity of the blog owner by attempting to use commenting purely to gain free links. If it's done correctly there's nothing wrong with that, but blatant comment spammers now have a new enemy in SezWho.

I noticed a couple of old comments today that originally looked perfectly legit on face value, but checking out the SezWho links showed that the individuals in question were posting identical comments across a large range of other "do follow" blogs. BUSTED! These were immediately marked as spam for Akismet to chew on.

So, if you are thinking of spamming blog comments, don't think it's smart to get your commenting software to search for a keyword and then cut and paste the same comment to all the blog posts that it finds. It's not big and it's not clever - comment wisely, contribute something and avoid upsetting blog owners, because ultimately, you will only damage yourself.

I can't install the plugin on this blog - but if you're on Wordpress, Blogger, Movable Type, Drupal or use BlogCatalog you can use the service. It's also available for PHPbb bulletin boards - recommended. And if any clever coder wants to develop a NucleusCMS version.......

TCH

Your Blog And The Law - Online Legal Requirements Explained

This post doesn't apply only to bloggers because anyone with an online presence of any kind really needs to be aware of some of the legal snares that can catch you out online.

I've made available a free copy of the Web Legal Kit for you to download which will help you with a host of legal issues covering things like:-

The CanSpam Act |Online Advertising |Copyright |Intellectual Property Rights | Disclaimers |Privacy Policies |Testimonials and more.

Because it's free I'm asking you to opt-in to one of my newsletters to get it, but I like to think it's a fair exchange. If you're already one of my subscribers, don't worry, I'll be sending out a download link in the near future. 

All you need to do to claim your copy is to click on the cover to the left, fill in your details and click on the link in the confirmation email  I send you.

As with any of my lists you won't be bombarded every day with ridiculous marketing launches but you will benefit from many free offers including tools and software that I use or have used myself.

You can opt-out at any time with one click on the link provided in every email I send out.

Enjoy the software, I hope you will find it beneficial and that it will help you to understand a bit more about online legalese.

TCH 

Choosing An Autoresponder Service Or Software - Free Or Paid

Continuing with the autoresponder and listbuilding theme of recent posts, and having read Lord Matt's interesting post regarding email management software, I thought it was time to cover autoresponders in more detail.

You have various different options:

a) Sign Up For A Third Party Service (Free or Paid)
b) Buy an autoresponder script to install on your server
c) Find a Free Script To Install On Your Server
d) Piggy Back on Someone Else's System

The first option is to whip out your credit card and splash out on the services of Aweber or GetResponse or similar. Many people will recommend this to you and there is much to be said for employing these pro autoresponder services - best deliverability, tracking, ease of use, avoidance of spam complaints, commonly easy to integrate with other services and more.

I confess that I use neither but I will benefit if you order through one of the links above as I am an affiliate - this is another reason why so many are happy to recommend the services because they can earn nice commissions from doing so. I just think that is something that should be clarified. There are several other paid services if neither of the above suit you.

Also under the umbrella of third party services come the free autoresponders. In my opinion, a possible choice for non commercial users, not so good for business or professional use. Why? Well, the services are normally paid for by advertising, meaning unwanted ads on your messages over which you have no control. Not all services are ad supported though but other limitations can often make them of little use as a professional solution.

The other problem is that free services can attract spammers. This can have an extremely detrimental effect on the service and it's domain, which will not help you or your business in the long run. I've listed a few free services below, but it is by no means comprehensive, is in no particular order and doesn't necessarily constitute an endorsement of any of them as I have no experience of using them.

FreeFollowUp.com

ResponsePilot (Limited Free Trial)

AutoRespondersForAll (No ads)

123Response.com (free with upgraded service available)

FreeAutobot.com 

SendFree Autoresponders (free with upgrade available)

The next option is to buy a script and install it on your server. The upside of this is that you pay once and don't have to worry about monthly fees and will have full control over your subscriber base.

On the downside, you need to know how to install the script properly, set up a database etc. or have to get someone to do it for you. You need to be careful so as not to fall foul of your hosting company's mailing restrictions or overloading a shared server, you may run the risk of more spam complaints, and find that undeliverable mail is a greater problem than with a paid third party service.

Kiosk.ws

Not strictly in this category but they offer unlimited autoresponder services for their hosting customers all run on their own servers, not yours, meaning no installation difficulties for you and all covered by your hosting costs. You can get a sneak peek in the free ebook The Absolute Beginner's Guide To WebHosting

Media Autoresponders

I recommend this one as it has a lot of powerful features and is reasonably easy to install, although like any script it's easier if you have a little experience. This script is hosted on your own server and requires the following as a minimum:

1.) Catch-all email
2.) POP3 access to email accounts
3.) MySQL (version 3.23 or higher)
4.) MYSQL database
5.) PHP (version 4.2.3 or higher)
6.) Crontab 

The script comes with resell rights too and includes all the sales page graphics and HTML code so it does represent pretty good value for money.

AutoResponder Unlimited

I used to sell this as a stand alone product but you can now get the script plus a lot more besides for just $10 through the above link - download the book for full details, it's free and there's no obligation to buy anything.

The third option is a free script - there are several around, some better than others. The same installation and usage issues apply of course, but if your budget is zero, and used wisely, they can be OK.

If you choose a hosting company who offer CPanel and Fantastico you could install something like PHPList which I have found useful for a couple of my mailing lists/newsletters. Even if you don't have Fantastico, you can still get the software for free but installation won't be as simple. I use it to manage things like my author newsletter from one of my article directories and would recommend it to people using Article Dashboard for example. PHPList is free and pretty configurable no matter what size of list you are managing. This means that you can control your email broadcasts without fear of overloading your server or upsetting your hosting company.

AMLM Lite - Free Autoresponder (A Newsletter Opt-In Is Required to get this one)

Finally, if you read my earlier post regarding listbuilding with no autoresponder, you could join a system that enables you to build a list through a service like MVS. The downside is that you will face certain restrictions on mailing out to your list and will not really have ownership of your own database. Full explanation in the Listbuilding Video I put up here.

These ideas will help you decide which kind of autoresponder service is going to suit your needs and budget best. Good luck with whichever solution you choose.

TCH

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