83%

100%

So let me start this time by asking you a few questions.

Have you started your Blog?

Have you joined some good affiliate programs?

Have you set up an ASK campaign?

If NOT, then WHY NOT!

Seriously the one thing I can actually guarantee is that if you just read a lot and don't do anything you won't make any money!!

Go and do it right now!

Well at least as soon as you have read todays missive....

Now what did it say at the top of the sheet, are yes Google Adwords. Now we have mentioned them briefly in previous newsletters but perhaps we should cover them in more detail.

Google adwords are mini classified ads you place on the google search engine site. These are the links you see down the right hand side of the search page.

The important point is that these are very short 'pithy' ads which need to quickly grab the attention of the searcher. More importantly the ads must be finely balance against the keywords that you use.

Much has been said about keywords but they are possibly the most important factors in driving traffic to your site. There are various keyword tools on the net but the simplest one is found within the Google adwords site itself. This allows you to type in any starter keywords and it will give you a whole bunch of similar related ones around the same theme.

How many keywords should you use? Well as many as possible is one answer but you need to make sure that people searching on those keywords would really be interested in your products. One of the archane ways that Google works is that your pay per click for the ads so no clicks means no fee. That is good, but there is a catch. When you bid a price you decide up to how much you are willing to pay for each click. Google then decides how much you pay and what position you lie in in the list based on a whole series of factors.

The popularity of the keyword.

The other bids for the same keywords.

The click through rate.

This last one is vital. The click through rate is the number of impresions taken to get one click through. This is usually expressed as a percentage. So a 2% clickthrough rate means that 50 impresions will usually produce one click. This is Google's way of assessing relevance.  One thing that all search engines aspire to is to provide the perfect search. Ideally the prospect would type in a search and receive one result which is the very thing he is looking for. This would be almost imposssible but it is the target of all search engine engineers. So from their point of view relevance is king!

How many times have you been frustrated by  a search result with several miilion possibilities and the first four or five pages aren't even vaguely correct. So if you copy for the adwords ad is good and your bid price is reasonable and you get a high click through rate then Google assumes you have properly assessed what people are looking for with those keywords. This might mean that you pay less even to be higher up in the ranking. So someone further down could be paying more than you on exactly the same keywords because his click through rate is not as good. Google rewards writers of good ads.

So you need to learn how to write good ads!

One good source of info is a gentleman by the name of Perry Marshall. He has developed a special set of tools and courses which can help you get started. Some of these do cost money but he also produces a short five day course which is free!

Check it out on: -

http://perrymarshall.com/cmd.php?af=364893

One of the best bits about Google Adwords is that it allows you very easily to set up several versions of your ad and do split testing to see which one produces the highest click through rate. Split testing is something that we may discuss in more detail later but suffice it to say that you should always use at least two ads and at least two sets of sales copy and play them off against each other to try to find the one which produces the most income.

One very useful tip that I can give you is the use of delimiters and parentheses. Now before your eyes glaze over too much let me explain.

When you search on Make Money you will get any page that has these words on anywhere and in any order. When you search on "Make Money" you will only get those pages which have these words in this order. When you search on [Make Money] you will only get pages with that exact two word phrase on them.

What difference does that make?

Well it all comes down to keywords and relevance again. The more specific keyword [Make Money] is believed by the engineers to produce more relevant results than the more general term and so often you get to pay less for the same keywords. Therefore when you are adding your keyords make sure that you include all three types. i.e. your list should look thus: -

make money
"make money"
[make money]

This can sometimes reduce your cost per click by as much as 30%. In some circumstances it can even place you higher in the rankings despite this cheaper cost. (For those who haven't worked it out that would be a good thing!!)

Adwords therefore allows you to simply and cheaply test out your copywriting skills in minutes rather than weeks and fine tune your ads through the very rapid feedback of clicks.....

Next time I will be finishing off the course with a summary of all the hints and tips so far including all the appropriate links so if anyone has managed to delete one of the previous newsletters by mistake then don't worry. From then on it is up to you to get out there and start building your very own 'Portable Empire'. Still feel free to email me directly with particular problems. I will from time to time send appropriate hints and tips about new developments and new products you may find of interest.

Till next time.

Take care and keep learning.

Paul Cronin

http://www.EasyInternetEntrepreneur.com

and I showed you the link to get a similar site set up for yourself at: -

http://www.EasyInternetEntrepreneur.Com/pips.html

This is Stone Evans main sales page with my affiliate link in it so people logging in through here will join the scheme under me. This costs them no more and sets up a small bit of reliable income for me. When they do the same for other people they join in under them and so the circle goes on.

Now some people like me might think this sounds like some sort of pyramid scheme scam. So let me reassure you. Look back at my main sales page and you will see links to four main programs.

The first one is Survey Scout at : -

http://www.surveyscout.com/?hop=paulcronin

This is a genuine program where people get paid for their opinions. Everybody has opinions and lots of companies pay good money to find out yours. Survey Scout will pay you an income for filling in the surveys or an income for sending others to fill them in. That is a straight and genuine trade.

The next one is Auction Tips at : -

http://www.auctiontips.com/t.cgi/860675

This is a training course on multiple CDs and Manuals teaching people how to make money from eBay. This course has been used very profitably by thousands of people and so is a very valuable product. They handle the sale. They handle the shipping and they send you the commission on the sale. A great way to start earning without any stock or postage costs to worry about.

The next link is for the Free Dotcomology Book at : -

http://www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-10541/dotcomology.html

This is a great FREE eBook resource designed to get people started on-line. It is good to give away something so useful for free, but it is also a great idea as the eBook is branded with my affiliate links. These links are for loads of useful stuff on the net all of whom will give me a small commission when anyone purchases something through these links. So give away something for FREE and still make money later. A real WIN/WIN.

The next link is Empowerism at : -

http://www.empowerism.com/e/160167/join.cfm

This is an unusual beast as it has shades of multi level marketing in it but also it has plenty of great promotional tools to get your website noticed.

Now you may or may not understand the difference between multi level marketing (MLM), Network Marketing and Pyramid schemes but suffice it to say that true Pyramid schemes are illegal in this country and in the USA. MLM/Network Marketing schemes are perfectly legal. I published a length article on the difference between the two on my blog but in essence the difference is whether there is a genuine product to sell or just the supposed benefit of 'building your down line'. Now this topic is way too complicated to go into here, maybe on a future edition, but Empowerism is a great product and pays a very good commission so the sooner you join then the sooner you can see some genuine return.

The next link is SFI at : -

http://www.moreinfo247.com/9110266/FREE

Now SFI is a Mega Network marketing scheme and it has been running for years in the states with an excellent reputation. It has an enormous variety of products from Vitamin Tablets to Herbal Remedies to Business and Training resources. Their compensation scheme is very complicated but it has a good set of promotional resources so again it is an easy one to get started with.

The next link is to the Internet Warriors Forum at : -

http://www.warriorpro.com/cgi-bin/w.cgi?79664

This is an excellent resource of like minded individuals working in the field of Internet Marketing. This is a great place to learn the ropes and is highly recommended. You will make plenty of friends there. Many members have been in this business for a long time and have immense experience they can offer to help. But don't be too intimidated, there are always plenty of newbies gingerly finding their way around. Do a lot of reading before posting too many obvious questions, but even they do need asking again occasionally.

The next link is to the Internet Marketing Centre at: -

http://dynamic.secretstotheirsuccess.com/t.cgi/860675

This is another excellent training resource and well worth checking out.

Now before this starts to look like one very long sales letter let me simply say that these are just a very good set of examples of affiliate marketing programs. There are many others and a little bit of digging on your own will unearth thousands of good programs you might find interesting and more importantly you might be able to sell to your customers. The above examples are just a few of the best ones with the best commissions schemes for you to make money from. You can of course join them individually or join them all in one go by setting up your own site directly through: -

http://www.EasyInternetEntrepreneur.Com/pips.html

Before I finish let me mention something which will be of interest to anyone going on-line even if you are not too keen on affiliate programs.

You will need web hosting to have even the simplest of sites.

Web hosting varies enormously in price and facilities. Many places will offer free hosting but only with severely restricted facilities.

What if you could get professional full facility hosting for F.R.E.E.?

Well check out Host4Profit at: -

http://www.host4profit.com/cgi-bin/home.cgi?79664

They charge $24.95 a month for hosting which is not bad but not particularly cheap. They are very good and certainly have full service facilities. All you need is a payment account and they can even arrange a domain name for you if you need one, and you will. But what is special about Host4Profit is their affiliate program. They will give you $10 per month for every month that a customer of yours pays for their service. Now that means that if you can just get three people to buy through you then your site is absolutely free! If you get more then these people can produce a regular residual income for you. $10 per month per customer. Refer 50 customers earn $500 per month. You do the maths!

So you do need a hosting service and you can get one that can not only be FREE but it can actually make you money all by itself. That is definitely a WIN/WIN/WIN.

Don't miss out on that one.

Next time I will discuss identifying a market and a product to minimise your set up time and maximise your profits, and other important things, but I had best stop now as this is once again already over long.

Till next time.

Take care and keep learning.

Paul Cronin

All told, and in his words, his bank account was bleeding

"like a stuck pig".

You can tell that he was more than a bit stressed!

So then I think I cheesed him off some more. I said I had recently set up a little web-site pretty much for free. The hosting fees were cheap anyway and the site set up was actually free. I said that I had started a small advertising campaign on Google and the site was starting to get hits and generate sales. I said that I had no premises, no staff and no stock.

"What do you mean No Stock?"

Well I told him that all I did was point the customer in the direction of another website with its own sales page and they did all the hard work in terms of delivery etc and I earned a commission on every sale I generated. This meant that in very short order I had set up a business with as much earning potential as his but with almost no set up costs.

How did I do this?

Affiliate links.

Really this isn't very complicated and very equivalent to a traditional salesman's commission earnings. You scout around the web and find products that you feel might be of interest to your customers. Most of these offer an affiliate service and a commission package, which in some cases can be very significant.

Traditional salesmen may only receive 5% to 6% of the sales price of a product. Affiliate programs of digital products vary widely but in some instances can be as high as 50% or more.

Why would they be willing to give so much away?

Well, especially with digital products the costs per sale can be very small indeed and so the profits can be a very large percentage of the sale price. This means that the largest costs consideration for the main site is the advertising. If you are willing to share that load and send your traffic to their site then they are very happy to make only half of the sale price. Rember with some products the sales price is very high so a 50% cut could be as much as £60 to £100.

This system works so well that some specialist sites have been set up where most of the work has already been done for you. The website designer is willing to give it to you for free as he gets a small percentage of your commission.

As a very good example of this kind of arrangement you can check out the following site: -

http://www.EasyInternetEntrepreneur.Com

This was one of the first sites I set up. It is entirely based around affiliate programs. There are four main affiliate set ups on the front page. Some of them are training courses and programs. Others are MLM and network marketing programs. The set up costs for a site like this are minimal and it even includes a simple email autoresponder program to get you started. Some of the thins like the hosting account and the autoresponder packages are a bit limited in free form but you can get the usual extra benefits by upgrading to the paid for packages. These are still very reasonable and will give your site a very professional feel and increas the chances of you acheiving an income sooner ratherr than later.

You can set up one of these sites for yourself by loging into: -

http://www.EasyInternetEntrepreneur.Com/pips.html

This page will guide you through the fairly simple set up procedure. It will set you up with links for all four affiliate programs and allow you to pick a domain name for your site. Be creative and have fun with the name!

Next time I will discuss other affiliate programs and show you the best and cheapest places to obtain web hosting and other important things, but I had best stop now as this is already over long.

Till next time.

Take care and keep learning.

Paul Cronin

Just in case you're reading never fear!

Would they prefer to cross the mine field with blindfolds on or try to make their way carefully across following the footsteps of the successful soldiers?

multiple income streams...

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step