Blog Posts
Internet Marketing Lies and Stupidity
I have a bee in my bonnet today, and it was caused by an email I received on one of the lists I am subscribed to.
If you are or have been involved in internet marketing for any length of time, or even if you haven't, you've probably at least seen examples of what I'm going to write about today.
I'm going to cover several points in this post
1) Marketers who speak with forked tongues
2) Marketers who patronize their so called "valued" subscribers
3) Marketers who forget that credibiilty is easily shattered
4) Marketers who believe that to mislead or outright lie in pursuit of a dollar is the acceptable norm and is actually fiendishly clever.
The email I recieved was one in a familiar vein, that went something like this:
"If you missed the launch of product blah blah....."
"It sold out in fifteen minutes so don't bother visiting the link because they've all been disabled...."
"BUT, I am going to do you a huge favor! I'm going to give you a copy entirely free, all you have to do is...."
OK, at this point I'm going to say that this kind of ridiculous pop psychology approach to marketing really annoys me although I concede that it probably works on a proportion of the people out there or they wouldn't do it.
Sold out? Really? A digital video information product that is sold out? So they have no more copies of these videos, they destroyed the files themselves or did someone break into their homes and steal their hard drives, raid their hosting company and carry of the servers in the dead of night?
Maybe that is what happened but surely they could contact one of the mugs, sorry, customers, who bought it and ask them for a copy, or am I being naive here? Where is my free copy going to come from? It's all very worrying.
OK, so they've taken down the links on the salespage temporarily. Let's be honest here folks, we all know it will be back up and running in the near future, if it's such a great seller why would you stop selling it? It's not a membership site or a software product, it's just a bunch of videos.
So, I think we can say that heroic email marketer is guilty of sins one through four above already, but not satisfied with this he makes it worse with his special offer to me, his "valued subscriber".
Now remember, although it is sold out, he is going to give me a copy for free. Lucky me, I can't wait, it's too much excitement for a hot and muggy Sunday afternoon in the Caribbean. He tells me that ALL I have to do is take a trial of another Clickbank product for just $4.95. As it's a product I'm very familiar with, I already know that after taking that trial period I will have to hand over a monthly membership fee of $67.00 should I want to keep using it. I also know that the product in question pays a healthy recurring monthly commission to affiliates.
Now, lest we forget, he is doing me a favor, not the other way around, so of course the email neglects to mention any of these pertinent facts.
This is marketing at its lowest level. I don't care what labels the promoter might put on it - bonuses, deals, never to be repeated, you'll thank me forever etc. etc. The truth of the matter is that it is good old fashioned bullshit designed to trick the unwary or inexperienced. The product he is trying to sell, in order for you to get something for "free", is not for the inexperienced either, something I also know for a fact. It's not a bad product, but as usual the sales copy skims over a lot of the facts with a lot of these $$$$$$$! Besides, doesn't something stop being free the moment you hand over money?
My point is this - if you are new to the whole internet marketing hooplah, don't be taken in by people like this who are the reason that marketing online is so damned hard a lot of the time, and please, whatever you do, don't think these kinds of tactics are the only way to succeed and are something you should be emulating.
Find some decent and helpful people to learn from and help others by passing on your knowledge and experience.
For this subscriber, it was a very quick bye bye to that list and I hope I'm not the only one either. Why build a list and completely destroy your credibility with emails like this? (For information on how to use email marketing in an ethical and non-scummy way I recommend you read the New Age Email Marketing Report)
If you genuinely feel that life is too short to live it honestly and don't believe that there is more to life than easy money on the internet, or anywhere else, then you won't care what I think. The "nice guys finish last" philosophy might help people like this guy sleep at night, but do you really want someone like that to get their grubby hands on your hard earned money?
Think about it. That's all I'm saying.
PHOTO CREDIT: ATENCION
tags: branding, email marketing, internet marketing, internet marketing blog, internet marketing business, internet marketing online, internet marketing strategy, liars, marketing lies, marketing plan, marketing, promotion, marketing scams, dishonest advertising
Related Posts
- New Interstitial Links Manager | Clickbank Report News | Marketing Graphics
- Automating Traffic Sales & Leads (Yeah Right!)
- Creating Your Own Ebooks | Tips and Tools For Digital Info Product Creation
- Internet Marketing and Promoting "Free"
- Easy Video Producer Free Viral Video Software
- Internet Marketing Lies and Stupidity
Marketing And Twitter Revisited
Twitter marketing, it's all the rage and since my last post on Tooting Your Twitter Horn I've come up with a bit more to add to my previous thoughts. Some of this has come from experience and some of it from the thoughts and observations of others.
No, I'm not going to retract what I have said previously, I still believe Twitter is a kind of love/hate thing for me, but I have learned a lot more since last writing and much of it is worth sharing. This is not a "do it my way" "do it this or that way" type of offering, just a few more things to share and disseminate to those struggling to find their Twitter comfort zone.
So many people are talking about Twitter that it is fairly easy to find answers to most of the questions you may have, and it seems there is always something new to learn.
My use of Twitter on a daily basis has seen my network grow steadily and there have been no real secrets to this happening. If you participate and seeek out like minded people it is almost inevitable. Yes, there are ways to accelerate the size of your network and I've tried a few of them. Like most new users my choices were not always wise when I first started out, but I have since discovered some very useful and powerful tools.
Hint, many of the scripts that require you to Tweet a message advertising the service are not well received by many but it's up to you regarding the use of individual programs.
However' learning as you go has always been my preferred method online and it will be the same for most new Tweeters. So, let's get onto a few gripes first...mostly everyday things on Twitter.
(These things irritate a lot of people but if you think they are things that will work for you I'm not going to stop you - the Twitterverse is a land of free speech to my mind).
I have come to agree with the overriding philosophy that Twitter is first and foremost about getting involved and interracting with your network. I have struck up some really cool conversations and met a lot of people by participating actively so as far as I'm concerned it was time well spent. By the same token, the mistakes that so many make, seem so blatant and obvious (and we're talking strictly marketing here).
An experienced eye can soon tell the people using services like TweetLater that queue messages and post them on a schedule set by the user who will doubtless be off doing other things with no intention of ever spending time on "social" Tweeting. For them it's just an advertising medium. The fact that their Tweets are monotonously uniformly spaced and are always the same sales messages every day is, I would suggest, guaranteed to turn people off. It's the good old scattergun approach, probably delivering the same old carnage in terms of results.
It's a sloppy tactic and it's probably doomed to failure.
Then we have the "liars". Yes there are lots of them, so let's be frank shall we? There are many examples of this type flowing through the stream of Twitter.
Affiliate links blatantly posted with accompanying false claims "I'm making XYZ a week with this crap and you can too...."usually followed by a hoplink. Alternatively, "I've suffered from XYZ infirmity for years but this cured me....(another hoplink).
Now, if you want people to trust you and buy something on your recommendation, lying is not a good start. Speaking in the first person when it is obvious you have never done anything more than troll your way through the Clickbank marketplace and grab a hoplink is marketing ineptitude at full throttle. And let's face it people, who believes someone who has made a fortune last month, reversed his balding, lost 500 pounds, given up smoking and perfected his golf swing all at once? That's some dude.
Then we have those promoting Twitter tools to explode your following. If you have only a small following yourself how do you think this looks? Be very careful with your reputation, because online, it's often all you have. I know people are looking for simpler ways to build their accounts, but if you behave naturally and talk to others, your following will grow "organically". Be patient or spend lots of money on a pro tool like Hummingbird (see resources below).
Along the same lines are those who brag about success but forget that it is easy for someone to do five minutes of research and blow them out of the water. Prime example was a young lad (if his avatar is to be believed) pushing several sites promising marketing riches and the like. On inspection, each site was an early 90's cookie cutter template with a few PPC ads slapped on and content written by someone probably more accustomed to eating Farley's Rusks and peeing in their Huggies. What's more, the sites were receiving zero traffic, or as close to zero as you can get.
More disturbing however was the individual's fawning and retweeting of a so called "guru" by whom he has obviously been conned into parting with money probably better spent on a college fund, for information worth absolutely nothing. Said guru/marketer was also busy making claims for another of his devotees sites regarding levels of success, totally debunked by looking at the site's statistics.
Now, as I've said before, far be it from anyone to tell anyone that there is a correct way to behave on Twitter, that annoys me just as much, but there are right and wrong ways to behave in life and those should really carry through to what you do on the internet. Yeah, some hope I know but it's worth saying.
On the upside, I have also met some cool people on Twitter and have found some great uses for it. It can be fun, if time consuming, and from a marketing perspective it is certainly worth incorporating into your efforts.
Yesterday I posted a tweet that was picked up by SEO master AndyBeard and the resulting response by way of sales was quite remarkable. Not many high profile users will give you the time of day like Andy, but, if someone with a large and relevant following knows you and decides to press the right buttons, the benefits can be delivered very quickly on Twitter.
I've posted some interesting but by no means extensive, resource links below for further reading. Ultimately Twitter is rising in my list of priorities and I'm now suggesting that maybe it should in yours too.
Oh, and don't forget to follow me @Caymanhost and get to meet some other cool marketing Tweople
Useful Twitter Links
Creating Multiple Twitter Accounts With One Email Address
Learning Twitter (Hashtags, Whales etc)
HummingBird Pro Twitter Tool (expensive but powerful) Best For Those Wanting To Build Networks Fast
Brute Force Twitter - Another network building tool (untested)
Twitter Salvation - Twitter For Small Business Users
Tweeting Too Hard - Tweets and Tweople Lampooned
Qwitter - Monitoring Twitter Unfollowers On Your Behalf
Exit Tweet Generator (For Webmasters Wishing To Promote A Specific Site)
MrTweet - recommend your friends to others
File Twitter - Easily Share Files With Twitter Friends and Followers
Twitter Grader - Find Out How You and Others Rank
Tweet Backup - If You Really Want To Backup Your Twittering
Twitter Graphics - Excellent Selection Of Free Twitter Buttons and Badges
Keeping Up With All Your Friends & Followers Try Seesmic Desktop or TweetDeck
tags: Twitter, Micro Blogging, Marketing With Twitter, Hummingbird, Twitter Tips, Twitter Tools
Related Posts
- Stumbleupon Reviews and Guides
- ClipClip.org - Caution Required
- Tooting Your Twitter Horn
- Facebook (Giving In To The Inevitable)
- Social Bookmarking ClipClip.org
- Bumpzee Sphinn and Kontrib
- The CaymanHost On Twitter
- Marketing And Twitter Revisited
- RSS Feeds And Content Scraping
- Widgets Gone Wild - Download Create Share With Widgetbox
Automating Traffic Sales & Leads (Yeah Right!)
Most of the time when you see a claim like this it turns out to be nothing more than hot air. People use lines like this in their sales copy because they know that thousands of people are looking for that marketing holy grail where they can sit on the beach and sip cocktails with their laptop sitting jauntily under the shade of a palm tree alongside them.
I'll be straight with you, as I always try to be on this blog - that is just a pipe dream and most succesful marketers have worked very hard to achieve success.
I've been absent from the blog a lot in these past few weeks as my wife and I have been hard at work setting up a new business unrelated to internet marketing. We invested a lot of money in that business but we are pleased to be able to say that we did not have to get into debt - no bank financing, no business plan to present to the pencil necks, nothing. We did it due to a combination of luck, being in the right place at the right time, and sheer determination and willingness to risk most of our capital on a new venture we see as having a great future.
The new business has already made us a nice amount of money and we will soon be in a situation where we can draw profits and salaries from the business. Trust me when I say, I haven't done a lot of sitting on the beach sipping Hurricanes - it's been a mixture of blue and white collar work, it's caused some blisters and a true redneck from working out in the sun, but it's one of the greatest feelings in the world to walk across the yard (under those stereotypical palm trees) to get to work, to work the hours I want, to take a break or a day off whenever I choose and to be working in partnership with my wife who fronts our new operation and is doing a great job of generating business.
So, what is the point of this story........? Well, making more money than I've ever done at a conventional job in our first few weeks of operation is the first thing, and secondly, in comparison with my online ventures it's been a lot more physical in many ways and even the light stuff requires a lot of hands on time. I'm enjoying the physical skills and developing my craft, it's very rewarding and a completely different challenge from internet marketing.
I certainly wouldn't want to give up on affiliate marketing, nor my online trading efforts - it's not the easy money that some would have you believe, but it's not that hard either and who wouldn't want regular checks arriving in the mail or deposits into their payment processing accounts? That's the dream right? That's why you're here reading my blog.
My new situation is going to demand a lot more of my time, time that would previously have been spent online, doing what I've done for the past few years. So, I could really use that mythical automated money machine!
That was when I stumbled across something that I found truly interesting and something that I think all my readers will too.
I received an ad for something called the "Automated Sales System" and I almost closed my browser. I'm glad to say that something stopped me and clicked on the video link on the sales page instead.
I listened to the owner of the site talking his service up and demonstrating just what the sytem does and how it can literally help anyone build traffic, generate sales and capture leads. It can do this for any niche, for any product or service you care to name.
It doesn't matter whether you are selling your own products or are working as an affiliate. You don't even need your own website, and that is something I don't say lightly, because I believe all affiliates should have sites of their own. However, this could change that, and without investing every cent you have into PPC advertising.
You don't even need your own autoresponder, because the system supplies them for you, although you can freely integrate your GetResponse or Aweber accounts if you wish.
It all sounds too good to be true right? Well, at this point, I recommend you head over to check out the Automated Sales System for yourself. Watch the video and think of the potential. I honestly believe this is as close to automation of three of the most important internet marketing tasks as you are ever going to get.
That said, it isn't free of course but after you've watched the video, click on your browser's close button and you'll get a really great offer that I think you'll want to buy. (Let's just say it's going to cost you less than 5 bucks to try this for yourself). There is a monthly subscription after that, but it's cheaper than an autoresponder account from any of the big providers!
Every now and then, an idea like this crops up and just stands out from the crap and hype that make up so many product launches and internet marketing crazes. I think it will be a huge success for anyone who gives it a try and will open up new avenues of revenue that you've never even considered before.
I'm going to try it myself and I'll let you know how I get on. Maybe it will make up for the time I'm going to have to spend elsewhere to maintain my beach bum lifestyle in the Caribbean.
When you think of all the possible uses for this it's quite astounding. When using it on social networks for example you can add links to any site, at the same time giving yourself the opportunity to capture opt-in information or just provide a link to one of your own pages. That increases your potential sales and visitors by an untold amount! Without the need to spam you can send people to ANY link, allowing you to share quality information from all over the web and "piggy back" off that information. Just as an example here's a link from one of my recent Twitter messages
Now. if you are put off by the cost of the system let's put it in perspective. No hosting costs, no need to pay for separate autoresponders, - that's a saving of at least $30 per month even as a conservative estimate. If you use a free blogging service or even if you have no website at all, this will be of huge benefit, enabling you to build your own list. So, think about it seriously if you are looking for a great marketing package.
Now where did I put that cocktail........?
tags: affiliate marketing, automated sales system, automated listbuilder, automatic website traffic, best marketing tools, autoresponders, affiliate software, make money online
Related Posts
- Internet Marketing Lies and Stupidity
- New Interstitial Links Manager | Clickbank Report News | Marketing Graphics
- Creating Your Own Ebooks | Tips and Tools For Digital Info Product Creation
- Automating Traffic Sales & Leads (Yeah Right!)
- Internet Marketing and Promoting "Free"
- Easy Video Producer Free Viral Video Software
Tooting Your Twitter Horn
Before going any further, please realize that this comes from an internet marketing perspective, and understand that Twitter is not solely an internet marketing tool, although many would have you believe that it is.
Having used Twitter for the past few months, I have plenty of observations, some of which will doubtless ruffle a few feathers and cause argument, but these are my honest opinions and conclusions as a Twitter user.
On Twitter you will find a large number of idiots, as well as a large number of insecure and opinionated people. Of all the social networking sites I have ever used, Twitter definitely takes the prize for having some of the most obnoxious internet policemen types. What makes me say this? It is the Twitter Horn Tooters, of which there seem to be an endless supply. The one thing that most of them have in common is an ulterior motive or an axe to grind.
By way of a few examples, here are some of the things that I find most unsavoury about some Tweeters.
The Rule Makers - these are the kind of people who feel they have a right to tell everybody else what they can or cannot do with Twitter. What is often noticeable about these types is their blatant "do as I say, not as I do" ethos. The world is full of them and so, alas, is Twitter. It is sorely tempting to tell them simply to **** off, something you would more than likely do in the real world.
These are the people who somehow believe that you can apply the word "spam" to anything and everything that they don't agree with. Newsflash, no Tweet can be considered spam, because you elected to "follow" the person who sent it. In effect you opted in and if you don't like it, you can opt-out just as quickly. On Twitter it's called "unfollow".
Another favorite pastime of the Rule Makers, is to belittle anyone whose follower numbers are less than theirs, somehow making the leap that they are superior in almost every way to whoever they are attacking based on this idiotic premise. Additionally of course, they will attack those who are not building their Twitter following the "right way" and throw out the tried and tested spam arguments, the holier than thou protestations against anyone who has the audacity to try and use Twitter for any kind of commercial or personal financial gain.
Of course, most of them have no intention of trying to open anyone's wallet, they are the picture perfect example of altruism and will often go as far as to tell you how they "value" their followers and dream of only good things for them, whilst extolling the virtues of their latest products and services, naturally, because they genuinely care about the thirty thousand people who follow them. You have to ask, why would anyone want a list of thousands of followers if it was not for business or commercial purposes? Have you ever known a person who had thousands of friends? Didn't think so.
While on that subject, do you really believe that someone with thousands and thousands of followers is even remotely interested in you and what you have to say? Do you think they are ever going to see one of your Tweets, let alone enter into any sort of dialogue with you? In short, are you their friend, their equal? Not in their eyes, which brings up an interesting point in the chosen terminology of Twitter.
"Followers", was the word chosen to describe your network of names on Twitter. Followers, think about that. You can see why it appeals to a certain type of person, and you could draw some pretty ugly comparisons had you a mind to. Those who obsess about the size of their following, those who believe that this somehow bestows upon them some kind of status and importance not enjoyed by the mere mortals who follow them (like sheep?).
Let's move on to another class of Twitter user, usually a bit cleverer than the rule makers, these are the kind who are selling the idea that Twitter is the next big marketing holy grail. Unfortunately, this is usually in an attempt to sell you the latest greatest Twitter fad, guaranteeing to "explode your following and therefore make you rich overnight.
Come on! This is obviously blatant hype and untruths - let me qualify however. I'm not saying that Twitter is useless as a marketing tool because there are plenty of people who have integrated it into their marketing and been very successful. My guess is that if you are in the right niche and target the right people it can work very well. I also think that just like any form of marketing you need to establish yourself with your audience and if they like and trust you they may eventually buy some of the things you recommend to them. However, if you think that just adding countless numbers to your follower count is going to make you a huge online success I'd think again.
People will lie to you online, particularly to try and sell you the latest, greatest guarantee of wealth and success. Think before opening your wallet.
Twitter also has some major flaws as far as I can see. Trying to keep up with even a few hundred people is virtually impossible. Using a service like TweetDeck or other third party applications will soon see you exceeding the flow of tweets allowed. These people with thousands of followers are extremely unlikely to be paying attention to what you are twittering about because it's not humanly possible to keep up with everything. I can fire up Tweetdeck and within a minute I've exceeded the API's allowable traffic and that means I see no new Tweets until an hour has passed.
I follow one or two people whose mailing lists I have been on or am still on, or bloggers whose prose I continue to read. Those kind of Twitter users, i.e. those with an already established base of customers/readers can continue with those relationships via Twitter and in that way it is another useful communication tool.
If you're starting from scratch though, don't expect miracles, that's all I'm saying.
Image Credit: Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten
tags: Twitter, Twitter Sucks, Twitter Truth, Twitter Users, Love Twitter, Hate Twitter, Twitter Opinions
Related Posts
- Marketing And Twitter Revisited
- Bumpzee Sphinn and Kontrib
- The CaymanHost On Twitter
- Need An Incentive To Join Kontrib?
- Widgets Gone Wild - Download Create Share With Widgetbox
- Social Bookmarking ClipClip.org
- ClipClip.org - Caution Required
- Free RSS Feed Creation Software
- Facebook (Giving In To The Inevitable)
- Tooting Your Twitter Horn
Blog Comment Spam (Again)
I've not been posting in the last few weeks for a variety of reasons but I needed to say something about blog comment spam and the dofollow status of this blog.
It's not often that you find yourself thanking a pathetic spammer but on this occasion one such individual did do me a favor.
He or she has been posting countless spam comments using the same IP and email addresses despite my attempts to block all comments from said IP. Today I log on to find a slew of offensive and identical comments the person had tried to post to my web hosting directory. The individual in question, and I hope you are reading this post, is obviously a moron and has not yet figured out that spamming blogs is a fruitless and damaging exercise, particularly on blogs that have comment moderation turned on.
I am glad that they decided to post on one of my Wordpress sites, giving me the opportunity to send all of them to Akismet, which, unfortunately I cannot do on this NucleusCMS blog.
Again, if you are reading, pea brain, you are now officially a spammer and Akismet will send your nonsense straight to the spam filter of any Wordpress blogs you decide to comment on in future. Way to go eh? You dummy.
However, I do need to thank you for pointing out that the comments on this blog had somehow reverted to nofollow, something I was unaware of until your vitriol landed in my inbox. It turns out that the plugin for Nucleus had ceased to work after updating my installation of the platform. It has now been fixed with a bit of manual coding, so thanks for bringing it to my attention.
A polite email via my contact form would have been preferrable but you are obviously ignorant as well as stupid.
Anyway, apologies to my genuine commenters, your link love has been restored and I apologize for the error.
For the idiot spammer may I refer you to the following posts on this blog. Maybe you will learn something. If a blog has a comment policy, try reading it and if you want to participate here rather than try to use it as a link directory to your low rent sites, all you have to do is follow the suggestions right above the comment box. It ain't rocket science.
Blog Comment and Trackback Spam Part 1
Blog Comment and Trackback Spam Part 2
Blog Comment and Trackback Spam Part 3
tags: spam, spammers, comment spam, blog spam, dofollow, nonofollow, nofollow
Related Posts
- Great Free Software For Bloggers
- My Blog Reviewed at Optempo
- Bumpzee Bloggers Are Rubbish
- Deep Secrets Of Successful Blogging
- Are Browsers Misrepresenting Your Blog
- Kontera and Post2Blog Updates
- Five Questions About The CaymanHost Online
- More On Blog Comments and Credibility
- Room In Your Sidebar For Feedjit
- Blog Comment and Trackback Spam (Part 2)
Basic Introduction To Forex Trading
As the title says, this is indeed a very basic introduction to Forex, and yes, I realize not really related directly to internet marketing, but as I talk about making money online and have mentioned stocks on here before, I thought a piece about currency trading might be of interest.
I should start by saying that the world of currency trading is a complex one and it takes time and study if you are to have a chance of becoming successful. Having said that, there is a lot of information out there for beginners designed to make things easier - so much in fact that it can often have the opposite effect and leave potential traders mired in doubt and confusion. I'll give a couple of recommendations a bit later of the places I have found most beneficial in the learning experience.
I should also add that I am in no way shape or form an experienced Forex trader, but I have been doing my homework with a view to taking it up seriously at some point in the future. At the moment it is not a core business of mine, but a venture I have embarked upon in a limited way. More of that in a bit.
In my studies I have noticed several things about Forex, the people it attracts, and some of the many pitfalls encountered by the inexperienced.
Forex is often touted as a way to quick riches, an easy way to make large amounts of money online and a panacea for all financial ills. If you believe this, then you are probably going to be one of the many who get burned in their eagerness to turn your fortunes around in a short space of time.
So, what is currency trading and how do you get into it? In very simplistic terms, Forex (Foreign Exchange) involves the buying and selling of currency "pairs", for example the US Dollar and the British Pound, or the Euro and the Japanese Yen etc. in a variety of combinations. Traders buy or sell these pairs, effectively speculating in a rise or fall in the price of one or the other with the aim of profiting from the trade. For more detailed explanations see the recommended sites at the foot of this post.
The currency exchange is open 24/7 and unlike the stock market there is no physical "currency exchange". Money is traded electronically by banks, companies and individuals all around the world, the market opening on Sunday night and not closing again until Friday afternoon. Obviously there are busier times than others, in particular when the three main markets are open, those being in New York, London and Tokyo.
Currency trading was once the province only of those with millions of dollars available to them but with the advent of the internet the market opened up to a whole new range of speculators in the 1990's.
So, there is a very brief background. For individuals wanting to try their hand at currency trading, all you need nowadays is a high speed internet connection, some money to invest and the services of a broker. Don't be alarmed, there are a huge number of brokers available online today and signing up is made very simple, because all of them are competing for your business, no matter how small a fish you might be. You can sign up with a broker online and literally be trading in a few minutes.
OK, let's stop there for a minute. Yes, it is very easy to get started, but rushing into Forex is a recipe for disaster for the inexperienced. Many online brokerage services now offer new account holders the ability to trade with virtual money. This is a major step forward because now, beginners can start learning about fundamental and technical analysis, place trades, understand trends, and do it all in real time without risking any of their own money. There are plenty of people out there who have no desire to risk any of their own cash and just "play" in these virtual trading arenas for fun and even occasionally profit by winning competitions and the like. Nothing wrong with that, and for the online brokers, every single "player" is a potential trader of the future so they don't mind the players either.
At this point I should explain that there are no commissions as such payable on trades. The brokers earn their money through something called the "bid-ask spread". Basically each time you make a trade, there will be a cost to you called the spread which will vary dependent upon several factors including the amount of your trade, the leverage you apply and the currencies being traded. Just remember that the spread will be deducted from your eventual profit or added to your loss. Sounds like a commission but "you say tomato and I say tomahto" etc. so just be aware that every trade you make will cost you the spread amount and your profit is gross of this fee.
You can open an account with a broker for less than a hundred dollars nowadays but here are a few few basic cautions to keep you rooted in reality.
1) Opening an account and trying to trade with $50 is not going to make you rich. It can be done, but it certainly won't make you gazillions of dollars and it really can disappear in a few horrible seconds if things go against you. Most people will tell you that starting with less than $1000 is a waste of time but like many things, it's a matter of opinion.
The fact that you can open an account for a minimal sum is really only because they want your money :-)
2) Whatever you deposit into your trading account, it must be money you can afford to lose. Seriously. Don't trade with your household budget.
3) Trading without any kind of plan is nothing more than gambling and this approach will see you get burned with Forex. You need to spend time learning how it all works and then planning your moves.
4) Leverage - this is basically what allows you to control much larger amounts of money than you actually have, in order to benefit from the relatively small moves in currency values. An example: You decide to trade a pair and put up $25 and the broker allows you to leverage this amount by X100 X200 or X400 for example. This means that you can multiply your money by up to 400 times i.e. $10,000 and trade with this inflated capital.
Before you get too excited at all those zeros though here is the reality again. Although you can never lose more than your investment ($25 in this case) and there is no limit on your profit, trading with such a miniscule amount is not very wise. Currency prices fluctuate constantly, going up and down often countless times a minute. This is a huge problem if you are only putting down very small amounts, because even if a currency price is generally trending in your favor, any small dip or rise against you will very quickly "bust" your investment.
If you go for high leverage/higher risk, the cost on the spread will likely be a fair chunk of your margin. Let's say in our example the spread is $9.50 - that effectively reduces your $25 to only $15.50 and if the pair you are trading takes a sudden dip, your trade can be over in seconds, as soon as you are down by $15.50 the trade will close out and you lost all your money.
The fact that the trend picks back up and continues as you had cleverly predicted matters not, because you are out of the game and watching the trade go back to its nice upward trend that would have resulted in a profit for you will be downright depressing. If you go and play with a practice account somewhere and try it, you will see exactly what I mean - you can be watching your profit, sipping your coffee, feeling smug and bam! The price dips drastically for a few seconds and it's over for you before you even have a chance to swallow.
So, trading with very small amounts will not make you rich, and it is doubtful you will make any real gains. Just because it's available does not make make it advisable - remember, the broker gets paid whether you win or lose.
As with most things, the greater the risks you take the higher the potential gains, but also the higher the potential losses and it is said that over 90% of people who trade Forex do not make any money and, in actual fact, lose money
Approached with the right mindset, a willingness to study and some patience and thought, there is no reason why you should not start trading Forex though. If all of the above makes you think that it's all bad news, it isn't and you can make money with a relatively small amout of capital if you are careful.
I know because I've done it myself, so let's end on a cheerful note. One morning last week I got up, turned on my PC, checked my various accounts and headed over to my trading site. I was waiting on the London market to open and felt that I had spotted a good potential trade. I placed a trade using $100 and leveraged it to the maximum allowed and within fifteen minutes I had made a profit of almost 200 dollars. Needless to say I closed the deal and took my money.
When looked at in these terms, it is hard to believe that earning $200 a day in any job I could get nowadays would involve a lot of work, but that one little trade earned me a day at the beach and a six pack to celebrate. Could I do that every day? Well, I dont try to be honest and the truthful answer is "probably not", because you are never going to win every trade you make, even if you're the very best. I think one of the biggest secrets of not losing too much is to never be too greedy.
Big time investors will probably chuckle at this point but if you're playing with a small chunk of capital, just don't expect to give up the day job after a few weeks. If you're content to make some useful extra money though it can be done.
Reality check - the next day, I got up all full of confidence and placed a careless trade to see $100 of my capital gone in a matter of 2 or 3 minutes. Yes, it happens very quickly on the Forex and fortunately I pulled out before too much damage was done. But the fall on that occasion was so fast that between clicking my mouse a couple of times the loss had become even greater than the point I decided to quit. Too small an investment, and too hasty a trade with no real planning or research. Bad idea.
If you're making $100 plus a day on Adsense I'd stick with that (zero risk) but if you're loooking for alternative ways to generate income online Forex might be another avenue to pursue. Just be realistic in your expectations, visit the places I recommend below and you stand a good chance of doing it right and realizing some profit from the Forex.
The last "real" job I had paid me a lousy fifty pounds a day on average in the UK - less than seven pounds an hour and I worked a lot of hours, often six days a week. For me, to be able to make a couple of quick and profitable trades that net me up to $100 in a day, I'm happy enough, even if I can't do it every day. I decide when I'll take my money if I'm in profit - if in the space of an hour I've made $20 or $50 on the deal and had promised myself that's where I'll quit, then I do, even if the price looks set to go even further in my favor. I believe in quitting while I'm ahead and a good day's pay is all relative after all.
Longer term trading is for those with generous capital and a lot of skills and they can earn/lose big money. That may sound such small time to more experienced traders, but in these hard times every penny counts. For most of us, taking the "slow and steady wins the race" is a necessary part of learning to win far more often than you lose. If you have the luxury of being able to sit at your computer and monitor your trades for every second that they are open it is possible to close them the moment things are looking good or turning for the worst.
OK. don't get the idea that trading currency is easy - it isn't but it is possible and it can be a lot of fun, especially if you have an analytical mind. Some people will tell you it's gambling, and for many people it is and that's why they lose money.
If you are interested in finding out more, probably the very best resource on the internet for beginners to Forex trading can be found at Babypips.com. I learned a huge amount from spending time at their site, all at my own pace in their "Forex School".
Then, if you would like to try your hand at trading with virtual money, I have found this site to be the easiest to use and learn as a currency trading beginner. The biggest problem with it is reliability and it can sometimes be unavailable due to server and software issues, but fortunately this doesn't extend to people with real accounts trading real money as the real accounts run on different servers. You can register for your free Forex practice account here. If you eventually decide to go for live trading it is simple to fund your account and you can even use Paypal for deposits and withdrawals. However, I recommend if you are serious you do your homework and find a good broker and trade using the excellent MetaTrader4 platform
The downside of the Etoro platform is that the charting features are not much use, and it won't appeal to a serious trader because of it's cutesy animations and interface. You can find excellent free forex charting at various places including:-
Live Forex Charts at Forex Capital Markets
DailyFX.com Free Live Forex Charts
However, if you decide to take up trading seriously, with your own money, you would be better off finding a more serious platform and a broker recommended by more experienced traders. You can find plenty of feedback on how to find a broker and all the trading platforms available at Babypips.com and I recommend reading through their forums if you are a beginner. Personally I think Oanda.com is one of the best for your first account and the free demo is very user friendly.
You will also find daily Forex news at DailyFX.com and ForexTV.com which are both good places on the web when you start trading and need up to the minute economic and financial news that affects the currency markets.
One last tip, when or if you open a practice account, trade as if it were your own money and keep in mind how any losses or gains would really affect you. Just because you are given $50,000 to play with doesn't mean you should use it as it will skew your perception of what your chances and results will be if you start trading for real. If you are thinking of investing $1000 or even just a couple of hundred, play with those parameters and learn what you can realistically expect. Make sure you understand margins and leverage too, because they can bite you very hard.
You can also find a large range of Forex tools, training material and software here
So that's your very basic introdution to tr,ding currencies online, I hope that you have found this post informative and a refreshing difference from my regular menu. There is a lot to learn before you should consider trading for real so don't ever believe that it is something you should jump into overnight. Your comments and thoughts are always welcomed.
Footnote: I have had a few emails asking me for recommendations and what I use etc etc. I'm afraid that it's not something I like to get into because Forex is not for everyone and I don't wish to be held accountable when someone loses all their money! All I will say is that I use MetaTrader4 as a platform and yes, I do use an Expert Advisor, but I steer well clear of auto trading robots, most of which I don't trust at all.
tags: forex, currency trading, beginners forex, learning forex, trade forex, forex scams,
Related Posts
- No More Ebook Sales On Ebay
- Making Money Online - Venturing Into The Jungle
- Caymanhost Blog Update
- The Great Ipod Giveaway
- Oh No...More About Making Money Online
- Making Money Online Part2 - The Basics
- Simple Ideas That Make Money
- Basic Introduction To Forex Trading
- Does Video Make Scams Look Better?
- Make Money Selling Ebooks Online
Easy Video Producer Free Viral Video Software
With the launch of Easy Video Producer, the answer is a resounding YES! Joel Therien, president and CEO of the hugely successful Kiosk.ws, has released a state-of-the-art software package that online marketers are going to love. The program automates the process of recording and embedding video into affiliate marketing web pages with opt-in form templates and built-in backend auto-responders. What is uniques about this is that the software package is being given away for free.
Easy Video Producer is a feature-rich software package that not only records video from your computer's web cam and automatically encodes the file for insertion into any web page, it will also allow you to insert the captured video files into a selection of stylish video templates which are also included for free in the giveaway package. The beauty is in its simplicity as it is very user friendly, requires no technical knowledge and makes video sharing available to everyone.
You can also import video files from other sources to embed into the templates with a couple of mouse clicks.
The look and feel is crisp and it has a very user-friendly interface. All in all, the program is quite impressive and definitely something that most people would be more than willing to pay for.There are some similar and very popular products on the market that are currently selling (and selling well) that cost between $300-$500 on the low end. The introduction of this free option is certain to create a bit of a stir among the competition.
The concept behind Easy Video Producer is to provide a tool for those who sign up and download the free software to be able to generate a massive viral wave of opt in subscribers to grow their own mailing list. Most online marketers will understand the power and importance of this and EVP's free software may be the best tool that most online marketers will have to build their own massive opt in subscriber lists. You don't even need a website or autoresponder of your own to use the system as it is all included in your back office.
Easy Video Producer is poised to be a huge success for anyone who downloads and uses this free software. By giving this away to others, not only are you helping them and giving them a great tool to use, you are also helping yourself. Classic viral marketing at its very best and using something that appeals to a huge online audience, not just the make money and internet marketing crowd.
The official "launch" is today, right now, and the sooner you get in line, the more successful you're going to be in using the power of this new program. Go and take a look inside your own EVP members area, it is free and will always be free, and start using the service to create and share your videos privately or publicly. This is one program that you will want to share with everyone you know or work with and you are getting the chance to join at the public "prelaunch" phase.
Easy Video Producer Free Account - Sign Up Here
You can also read about some more useful video tools for webmasters in our free PDF report Video Scripts That Sell.
TCH
tags: viral marketing, viral video, affiliate marketing, email marketing, list building, opt-in email, internet marketing, video sharing sites, video software, online videos
Related Posts
- Internet Marketing Lies and Stupidity
- Creating Your Own Ebooks | Tips and Tools For Digital Info Product Creation
- New Interstitial Links Manager | Clickbank Report News | Marketing Graphics
- Easy Video Producer Free Viral Video Software
- Automating Traffic Sales & Leads (Yeah Right!)
- Internet Marketing and Promoting "Free"
Review Samurai Stealth Cloaker
Welcome to a new category of posts at the CaymanHost blog where I am going to share reviews of products and services that I use in my internet marketing ventures. These will not be "opinions" but only reviews based on products that I have personal experience of.
To kick things off I am going to talk about a subject that still seems very popular and that is, the best way to cloak your affiliate links. A while back I did post about the methods I was using or had used in the past. If you missed it you can catch up on cloaking affiliate links here. Since writing that post I have continued to happily use my free Cloaker Buzz Elite (see the sidebar if you want a copy or download our toolbar to get it without optin) which does an admirable job and asserted that I would never pay for any kind of link cloaking software. Ah the famous last words of a fool eh?
Always on the look out for time saving tools and easier ways of doing things I felt sure there was a better way to not only cloak my links but make them more manageable. Affiliates will know that after a period of time the number of affiiate links they are using just grows and grows until it is almost impossible to keep up. I had reached this point when the software that is the subject of this review came to my notice.
Samurai Stealth Cloaker, I will say right off is a fantastic little script. Note the use of the word "script" - most of the cloakers out there, including Cloaker Buzz Elite, are windows based software. CBE is great but it still requires you to generate a file and upload it to your server for every link you create which is time consuming and not very efficient. Samurai Stealth Cloaker is different and is basically a small php file that you upload to your server. It takes minutes to do and then you are set to go. Cloaking any link is a simple case of logging into the admin panel, filling out a couple of boxes and you have your cloaked link. It's so easy and so quick I don't know how I managed without it until now.
The program allows you to choose exactly the kind of cloaking you wish to use, from a simple redirect to a fully secure encrypted link. Redirection to any web page of your choosing makes it a very powerful little tool and I'm loving its simplicity and ease of use.
The other advantage is that every cloaked link is stored in one file, making them immediately portable between domains. Each link also contains a basic but very useful counting tracker so you can see how many clicks your links are getting.
Another great bonus is the inclusion of a script for article marketers that completely solves the problem of affiliate links in places like Ezine Articles and that in itself is worth its weight in gold if you use article marketing to promote affiliate programs.
Before buying this tool, I bought another program for $97 and it turned out to be capable of nothing more than the free software I've used forever! I claimed a refund quickly but the point is, don't be fooled by the claims of most so called link cloaking programs. Most of them are a waste of money. Samurai Stealth Cloaker is the exception and is the best money I've spent in a while for a time saving marketing tool.
Cloaking links is essential if you are an affiliate. If you are not doing it already, I recommend you start off on the right foot with this excellent tool
The sales page is one of the most upfront I have seen in a while with detailed videos showing exactly what you are buying and how it works, enabling you to make a well informed buying decision. If only more software vendors were as transparent as Michael Andrews, the man behind Samurai Stealth.
You can visit the sales page for Samurai Stealth Cloaker here, or, if you've heard enough and are ready to grab your own copy you can head right on over and buy your copy of Samurai Stealth Cloaker for $57 for a limited time only. I endorse the product wholeheartedly for affiliates everywhere. It is a genuine bargain.
Buy Samurai Stealth Cloaker Now at the limited time price of just $57.00
IMPORTANT NOTE - remember to test all your cloaked links to ensure that your affiliate link is being tracked correctly. Sometimes, depending on the merchant/affiliate network, certain forms of cloaking may cause failure to track your ID correctly.
TCH
tags: Samurai Stealth Cloaker, link cloaking, affiliate link cloaker, redirecting links, protedting affiliate links, hide affiliate links, cloak links
Related Posts
