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 

Marketing GiveAway Events - Could You Benefit?

I wanted to talk briefly today about the huge increase in giveaway events and the benefits for bloggers, webmasters, and anyone trying to make money online.

If you don't know what a giveaway is, it's a simple concept. The giveaway owner uses a script to set up a website and then promotes it, asking for others to contribute a "gift" to the site - this could be in the form of an ebook, a script, software or perhaps a membership.

Why would anyone want to give away their products? Well, the benefits are several fold. The operator of the giveaway builds a list, but also gains a team of JV partners who will promote the giveaway on his/her behalf. The owner gets to grow his list, and gains access to the lists of the contributors for promotional purposes as they will be promoting his event.

The contributors, or JV partners, also benefit from the promotional efforts of all the others, and get to grow their opt-in lists too, every time somebody downloads the gift they have contributed. They also benefit from the viral effect, particularly if they are offering viral ebooks or software as a gift. The benefits of an opt-in list have been pointed out so many times, I hardly need to elaborate.

The subscribers all benefit from all the free gifts they get to download in exchange for their subscriptions. They also have the chance to promote the events and share in the profits should any of their referrals purchase things like OTO's (One time offers) and the like.

There is always an unsubscribe option in each mail a subscriber will receive from the list owners, so if you are unhappy about the numbers or content of subsequent emails it's not really a problem. Some listowners will use their lists wisely and often come up with some really good offers and information. As a subscriber of course, you get to vote with your feet as to how useful being a list member is to you. So, you get loads of free stuff, and the chance to learn about a host of new things in the future. 

This is why JV give aways have become so popular in recent months.

In my experience, they do work really well, particularly if some big names get behind the promotional aspects, and as a contributor, it is possible to grow your list in leaps and bounds - far more quickly than is otherwise the norm. It is impossible to predict how many new opt-in members you might get from a given event - it can range from a handful to literally thousands.

So, how do you get involved in a giveaway?

Contributors are usually invited in advance of a new event by email on one of the lists of which they are a member. It is then usually a simple case of signing up to the JV partnership and uploading the details of the gift you wish to contribute. There will be certain rules governing your eligibility for each event. Sometimes the owners will require that you have a list of a minimum size to promote to, but many don't, which allows the little guys to get in on the action.

The usual condition is that to participate as a contributor you must promote the giveaway in question - which of course you will want to do in order to get as many new opt-ins as possible.

The scripts used for these events make it pretty simple to upload your gift. You upload an image, provide details of the product, the URL to your lead capture page, and brief instructions for visitors on how to download your product. That's it. Promote the giveaway before and after launch, and wait for visitors to sign up to your list.

Participation as an ordinary member is simple too. You sign up for the giveaway, and you get to download whichever products are of interest to you, completely free of charge. You will have to join the double opt-in list of each contributor whose gift you want to grab.

Most giveaways are only live for a limited period of time, usually a month, but there are others that run for longer.

If you would like to take a look at some of the events on offer at the moment, here are some links to some of the latest ones. They are packed with hundreds of gifts, but, will only be open for a limited time - once they close their doors, the gifts will be gone. (That's not a sales pitch, it's just the way things work).

The Greedy GiveAway

The Niche GiveAway

The Free Viral Spiral List GiveAway

Lady Angel's GiveAway

If you like the idea of becoming a contributor to an event, you will need to be on the lists of existing participants, but by joining any of the above giveaways, you will benefit from notifications of new events as and when they are launched.

So, that's the world of giveaways in a nutshell. Some work better than others, a lot will depend on the number of people who get behind them, but as an aid to building your list, they can be very effective indeed.

Let me know your experiences and feel free to add your questions. 

TCH

Using Torrent Files To Promote Your Business

A lot of people overlook this obvious free promotional and distribution method so hopefully this article will help those who are unfamiliar with torrents and file sharing applications and introduce a new promotional avenue for your online business.

If you've heard of viral marketing and viral ebooks, you will soon see how using torrents can get your viral marketing products out to a much larger audience.

Most people think of torrent sites as places for sharing music, software and movies illegally, and they are very popular for these purposes, but there also plenty of legitimate file downloads available too. We'll assume that you are not at all familiar with torrents and take this step by step. 

There is a short list of things you are going to need before you can start making and sharing torrent files:-

1) Software to make torrent files -  I use MakeTorrent v2.0 which is a free download and very small.

2) A File Sharing Client - there are several to choose from but I recommend UTorrent 

3) An account with a torrent hosting site such as ThePirateBay.org (again there are lots of others but this will do fine to get you started).

OK, let's assume you have a viral ebook that you want to distribute to the world at large. You have edited the book to include all your referral links, affiliate programs etc. and your raw PDF file is sitting there waiting for you to take action.

Firstly, it is a good idea to compress the book into a zip file. With windows this is very simple, just right click on the file and from the pop up menu select "Send To" and then "Compressed (zipped) Folder". Save the file with the name of your choosing and you're done.

The next thing to do is make a torrent file from the folder you have just zipped. Open MakeTorrent and you will see a screen like the one below.

Select the "Create Torrent" tab and check the "Classic" option. Click on file or dir to navigate your way to the zipped file you just created and ensure the radio button is checked as shown above.

OK, it is vital that before going any further, you put the correct tracker code in the box provided. You will get this from your PirateBay account and you can find the available trackers by logging in and selecting "upload torrent" at the site. You will then see the trackers available. Copy and paste one into the Tracker field in MakeTorrent as shown above. 

Once all this is in order, just click on the "Create Torrent Now" button and presto, you have created your first torrent - congratulations. Save it somewhere safe along with the compressed file.

Next, log into the PirateBay if you aren't already, find and click on "upload torrent" and fill in all the required information. A good description is useful for those searching for files so be descriptive.

As soon as you have successfully uploaded the file, download it. Just click the download link that appears on the site after it is successfully uploaded. uTorrent should automatically open, provided you have associated it with torrent files and this should have been done automatically when you installed the program. 

When UTorrent asks where to save the file, you MUST specify the exact location on your hard drive where you saved the original torrent file. As soon as you do so, the file should show in Utorrent as 100% complete and "seeding" - this means that you are making the file available to others on the web. You must leave uTorrent running to enable others to start downloading the file. If you do not, nobody will be able to get it and start seeding it for others. If your torrent proves popular, you can normally let others take over the seeding after a while, but you should check periodically to make sure that there are not loads of people trying to get it and no seeds available. As the creator of the torrent, it's your job to make it as accessible as possible.

In a nutshell, that's it - your file will now continue to be downloaded and passed around the internet. Hopefully it will bring you traffic, referrals, sales or whatever you hoped to achieve, all virally and with little effort on your part after the initial setup. 

Free Pay Per Click Advertising Offers

Making money online relies almost entirely on getting traffic to you website. Pretty unoriginal huh? Like most oft repeated statements however, it is true.

The law of averages says that the more eyes you can get on your website, blog or landing pages and sales pages, the greater success you will have in making sales. The harsh fact is though, the majority of internet users are looking for information, they are not usually looking to buy things - which is not to say they won't end up buying, it just  isn't their primary reason for searching the internet. I say the majority, because obviously some people do log on with the sole intention of findng a deal on something specific.

The other hard truth is that driving traffic to your place on the web is not nearly as easy as some would have you believe - at least not  without the reach of a huge advertising budget. This is a luxury most bloggers certainly don't enjoy.

When it comes to targeted traffic Pay Per Click advertising is often hailed as the holy grail of online marketing. Is it worth it though? More precisely, is it worth it for you?

Well, there are plenty who claim to have achieved untold riches with a combination of PPC and affiliate programs for example. There is no doubt that some of those claims are true, but people are less willing to talk about failing with Pay Per Click (PPC) - and I'm willing to bet that these are far more commonplace. 

Finding out need not be an expensive endeavor - in fact there are plenty of ways to try PPC without spending a cent. A little research  will show that anyone can grab thousands of dollars worth of PPC advertising absolutely free. Sounds good right?

If you've never considered it before, or the thought of Google Adwords is too scary to contemplate, don't give up on the idea. There are many smaller PPC search engines who want your business, and they are happy to lure you into trying their services by  giving you anything from $1 to $200 or more in free advertising, just for trying them out. This is a great thing for those with little or no budget and lets you start learning about PPC with no risk.

So, how do you get in on this potentially lucrative little number? Well, it's all very simple. The first thing to decide is what you want to advertise  - be it your blog, an affiliate program, a lead capture page or a sales landing page. If it's an affiliate program just be sure that your intentions are not going to see you falling foul of their rules as some don't allow PPC advertising or are very particular about what you can and can't do as an affiliate.

Once you've covered that, decide on what keywords or phrases you want to rank for. It isn't rocket science and you don't need any expensive tools or software in this early stage of your PPC adventures. 

You will find the keyword research tool at Keyworddiscovery.com reasonably good and you can use Google's External Keyword tool too. I also make use of a nice little piece of free software which you can read about at my earlier post on Niche Marketing Keyword Tools.

OK, armed with the phrases you want to rank highly for, it's time to go and grab some free trials. Remember, you can often bid from as low as $0.01 per keyword or phrase and this will often give you the top listing, so even if the search engine is only offering you $5 you'll still get 500 free visitors. Many offer a lot more, so you have every chance of getting seen by a lot of people.

Below is a list of just some of the search engines you can try - only one or two are affiliate links so don't be mean please. None of these require you to give up your credit card details or pay any kind of deposit. There are plenty that will match your deposits every time you make one, but, for the time being we'll concentrate on 100% free! Just visit  the site, look for the signup link and follow the instructions to grab your free advertising.

SeekPony - $25 Free Signup Bonus

Search99.com - $85 Free Signup Bonus 

LeapSprint - $25 Free Signup Bonus

SeekHawk.com - $25 Free Signup Bonus

1CoolSearch.com - $25 Free Signup Bonus

MyWaveHits.com - $10 Free Signup Bonus

FindLaunch.com - $25 Free Signup Bonus

LetGizmoFindIt - $10 Free Signup Bonus

SurfTheWeb.com - $75 Free Signup Bonus

SearchPost.net - $550 Free Signup Bonus

MySearchPoint.com - $10 Free Signup Bonus

MammothSearch.com - $10 Free Signup Bonus

GoldenWheel.net - $20 Free Signup Bonus

FindLaunch.com - $25 Free Signup Bonus

911Search.com - $5 Free Signup Bonus

GoGiga.com - $5 Free Signup Bonus

EndFind.com - $100 Free Signup Bonus

Allseeks.com - $10 Free Signup Bonus

OK, that's a lot of free traffic, but I'm sure you can find more. These offers often change in the blink of an eye, so get in quickly is my advice. Some of them may also disappear from view altogether after a while but some will stay the course. Free advertising is free advertising though, and it's never good to look a gift  horse in the mouth :-)

I should also mention Bidvertiser who don't operate on a keyword based system. Advertisers select categories or specific sites on which to advertise and it does work pretty well. You can grab $20 worth of free advertising with Bidvertiser when you sign up, but you will have to register a payment method. You can also sign up as a publisher if you want to run their ads on your websites or blogs and that's free of course.

TCH - Marketing | Hosting | Residual Income 

PPC Ads For Publishers From ADS-Click

UPDATE

Since  writing this I have discovered that the Javascript generated by Ads-Click was causing the infamous "operation aborted" message in both IE6 and IE7, rendering the sites unreadable in Mirosoft's browser. If you have installed Ads-Click you may want to check your own sites. Thanks to Dan at Ads-Click who has provided a fix for the horrible IE. Insert the  following line enclosed within <script> </script> tags.

document["tc-adsclick-fix-ie"]=30; 

Bloggers looking for fresh advertising and monetization options might be interested in a lesser known service from an outfit called ADS-Click. There are a few things that set this one apart from things like Adsense and other traditional PPC advertising options for publishers. There is no referral program at present and they currently have around 3500 publishers using the service.

Firstly, you will find that ADS-Click gives you a far greater deal of control over the PPC ads you wish to display, and several options on how to display them. Like Adsense, you can leave the program to choose ads based on keywords relevant to your content, or you can pick the keywords manually. This is a nice option because the program will tell you exactly what each keyword will pay per click, so, if you only want keywords paying over a certain amount it's easy to find the higher paying words.

The really neat thing is, you can then choose to display your ads in a variety of ways, you are not restricted to just the Adsense type of text blocks, although these are available in default and infinitely customizable sizes. You can also use the program to display inline text ads, converting words within your content to clickable ads, just like Kontera or Chikita but without the annoying pop up bubbles. This is only an option if you choose the Best Performing Keywords option. Then again, if you prefer a nice tag cloud of relevant keywords, you can have that too! Up to fifty keywords, manually or contextually selected displayed  in a customizable sized tag cloud. But they haven't left it at that - there is also an RSS option that I've not experimented with yet. Read the full article for demos and screenshots..........

PPC Advertising - Fresh Ideas

After my usual Sunday off, relaxing on one of Cayman's beautiful beaches, eating Tamarind Balls and drinking ice cold stuff, I've been taking stock of some of my monetization efforts on this blog of late and as a result have been looking for alternatives  and trying to decide what should  stay and what should go.

I have recently dropped the use of AdEngage which simply didn't work for me at all. That's not to say it's a bad program, just that it doesn't fit my blog at the present time, and I didn't  attract any advertisers at all since signing up with them. I'm also considering discontinuing Kontera ads on this site (see previous post) as although they have been working reasonably well, they seem to alienate a lot of readers.

Actually, I don't really know why I'm bothering at all with this blogging work. I've won the lottery so many times over the weekend and in so many different countries that I awoke this morning to find myself rich beyond my wildest dreams. All I really need to do is reply to some emails and wait for those huge seven figure checks to arrive. If only I had the time to scambait like Snoskred over at Life In The Country, but I just can't see it being possible. I shall be spending the rest of my days just trying to get through those piles of money. Apologies to all you poor people, but as the song says, "Some Guys Have All The Luck"!!!!!

 However, read on for some alternative monetization ideas.......

Widget Bucks Performance and A Kontera Poll

Over the past ten days or so, I've been experimenting with Widget Bucks and despite reservations expressed by some about Widget Bucks' code, I have to say I'm quite pleased with the results. Ten days is hardly much time on which to base a decision, but click throughs have been surprisingly high and in monetary terms those clicks are quite valuable. The ads are served contextually or, you can specify products from a selection of categories.  Initially the skyscraper was only available on a 160 width, which broke my layout in IE6, but they are now offering a 120 skyscraper, which is fine for my narrow sidebars...........(read more by clicking below)

Google Adsense - Thousands Still Breaking The Rules

I am prompted to write this very quick post in the hope that it will save a lot of people a lot of disappointment. Most of my regular readers probably won't be interested in this as they are a knowledgeable crowd :-). However, based on what I have been seeing lately, it's an educational need for thousands of Adsense hopefuls, working their way towards their first $100 payment threshold.

Think of this as a public service announcement. I did write about it a while back but it obviously warrants a repeat posting.