Contents

1. Introduction
2. Fr33bies
3. Marketing and Tech Tips
4. Business Programs
5. Paid Email/Survey/Surf
6. Guest Article

Introduction

A big welcome to all new subscribers. I hope you enjoy my home business tips and feedback.

This month's drama was a broken leg for my 10 year old son. On his first kick of a soccer game. And this is one active kid we're talking about - heavily into competitive swimming, soccer, athletics - and just before the school sports carnival. He'd already qualified for the cross-country run, so this is a real patience-tester.

Fr33bies

Even though I don't have Macromedia Flash, I couldn't resist visiting CartoonSmart.com to see some free Flash lessons. You download the lessons from the site and play them. There is also a link for a free 30 day trial of Flash, which if you have some free time set aside, is long enough to create something good. The demonstration on how to draw an animated face is simply stunning. I''m definitely going to have to save up for a full version of Flash this year. Although Xara also looked good. I put some buttons from Xara on Best Australian this week, having got a free copy on the front of an IT magazine this month. They also have 30 day trials at xara.com.

Marketing and Tech Tips

I used to recommend livingwizards.com as a source for the best traffic exchange programs, until they stopped having a free viewing option. But I visited TrafficHoopla.com after seeing it advertised on NoMoreHits. If you click on the "Top Ranked Programs" it shows the current results, so is useful to check before you commence an advertising campaign.

Still on traffic exchanges, the newsletter for CashCLicking says that they are the number one marketplace traffic exchange on the internet. According to TrafficHoopla, CashClicking, and their other program WebMasterQuest, were numbers 4 and 5 on the current week's testing. So regardless of measurement criteria, they should definitely be included in the programs you click on each day/week/month. They also allow sale of click credits, and have just introduced the ability to put credits up for auction. Definitely a quality, innovative group there.

I tried out WebPageAnalyzer to see how fast my sites loaded. Home Business World was great at 3 seconds, but my recently revamped site for Flowers Australia needs some fine tuning because of the images. An excellent resource.

Heard about a new site: GuruDAQ. It mimics the NASDAQ by giving a rating to popular internet marketing gurus, I think based upon their Alexa ratings. These are the guys who should be competing in MJV5000s Internet Marketer of the Year competition. A good reference point for finding "qualified" gurus for advice or newsletters.

In case you were wondering which fonts were good to use for text on your site, here are Microsoft's Basic Core Fonts: Arial, Comic Sans MS, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, Verdana. I've been learning a lot at webproworld.com, especially on cross-browser coding. I had used a nifty colour graduation for the background at dogs-only.com, only to find out it came out as white on white in all non-IE browsers. I really do have to change that.

Business Programs

Can is continuing it's spread into different areas of the internet. They have the recent World Trade Directory, which still needs more listings before it will be really useful. Now they are now starting their own search engine. You can add your URLs here or they will be searching the web in the following days.

I spent a lot of time revamping all my websites this month, and building a new site to advertise my web design skills - Sydney Web Design. I chose the name because according to Overture, 6000 people searched for "Sydney Web Design" last month, so there is some demand. And the top position on Google for the term had only 29 incoming links. So it'll be interesting to see how I rank after a few months. Wish me luck.

Paid Email/Survey/Surf

After a few weeks, I see why everybody was raving about MistyandSamsCash. Lots of emails daily, good prices, and good layout. One of the few I've been glad to join this year.

It's lovely to see payments in your email, even when they're small. Clicking2Rewards always pays each month, and today was my first from electric-blue-clicks. Thanks guys/girls! I have been kind of slack with those two programs. Just listed them on A Get Paid Site, and click ads when I remember. But I have managed to get a downline of 90 in my first line for Clicking2Rewards - a personal best. And just through free search engine and forum signature advertising. Not bad.

AYS has decreased my balance to indicate that a cheque is on it's way for a nice amount. I had lost my confirmation email, so wasn't sure of the request date, but everyone on the forums just said to wait. And so it finally happened. Patience pays.

Guest Article

Here's an article that tells it like it is:

"THE TRUTH ABOUT UN-SEXY MARKETING" 
by Carmen Maranon of MarketingChick.com 

Look at some of your favorite marketing sites... those 
you've bookmarked because the writer of the ad promised 
to teach you how to become successful. 

"I'll show you how to increase the number of your opt-in 
subscribers without paying for leads, using worthless 
free services, ad swaps, etc." 

"Get more traffic to your site quickly with my super duper 
1-2-punch method that's easy enough for even my legally 
blind, 91 year old grandmother to pull off!" 

"Learn how to whip up sizzling ad copy that will increase 
your sales and have visitors begging you for more!" 

You read over these magic pages with drool sliding down 
your chin, and excitement in your heart. You whisper 
under your breath, "This is definitely the solution 
to boost profit for my business!". 

You download the material (or access the membership site) 
and as soon as you get your burning eyeballs on the 
product, you shout in anger, "This is a scam! I'm not 
getting what I thought I was getting. I better get 
my money back!". 

(Maybe you're not all that dramatic and just quietly 
feel like you keep seeing the same old information 
that's not exactly for you...) 

Sound familiar? 

PEOPLE... these sales letters are *NOT* lying to you!

* You CAN increase your subscribers for free. 
* You CAN get more traffic to your site quickly and easily.
* You CAN write copy that will greatly increase your sales.

Yes, You Can!

"But, but, but... those ebooks and courses say I have to:
write articles to show potential customers I really know 
what I'm talking about... team up with other webmasters... 
practice writing copy by rewriting an already proven copy 
on paper by hand... put subscription boxes and pop-ups on 
my sites... Conduct a split-test for all my marketing 
material... research my market... participate in forums..." 

Why, you are absolutely correct! 

It ain't sexy, is it? 

That's because you were hoping that...

Revealed inside the product is the address to a secret 
website where hundreds of thousands of people gather and 
wait for you to find them so they can all subscribe to 
your newsletter and make you a millionaire. 

Or maybe someone will finally confess that those 
"guaranteed hits" programs can really work, and the 
traffic you get from them are really targeted to exactly 
what you're selling, and there really is a place where 
you can spend just $10 for a gazillionbillion "hits" 
that will convert to a bazilliontrillion new customers 
anxious to throw their life savings at you. 

How about a magic word, number, or whatever else you 
fantasized about... that you simply insert into your 
existing site or copy, transforming it into a wild and 
uncontrollable money machine without having to put 
any effort into learning how to write... 

Whoa there, hot stuff! Take a cold shower and come 
back in 10 minutes. 

Look through your hard drive and see just how many 
marketing products you own. Have you read through 
them all? Do you put into practice, split test, 
and fine-tune all that they teach you? 

How many articles have you written for the market 
you're targeting? Are you testing different pay-per-click 
techniques? Do you split test your web and sales copy? 
Name 20 webmasters or online business owners you've 
contacted to possibly team up with. 

What inspired me to write this is an e-mail I received 
from someone who asked to cancel his Internet Marketing 
Support Network membership. 

"Cancel my account and refund my money [$1]. I need to 
make money ASAP, but, what you teach in there is how to 
find and create products and instructions on how to sell 
it on the Internet. That's not what I'm looking for." 

So, what were you looking for? To pay a buck and wake 
up the next morning to find thousands of dollars in your 
bank account just for being a member? 

It's an inevitable fact. No matter what those sales 
letters say, you must be prepared to sweat. It takes effort, 
testing, persistence, perseverance and constant improvement 
and fine-tuning to be successful. 

No matter how boring a technique or strategy may seem, 
give it a try. You won't find it so dull once you start 
seeing the orders come in : ) 

I'm SO not sexy. I'll leave that to JLo and Ben. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
About the Author:

Carmen Maranon :: MarketingChick.com
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