Plain and simple? Yeah right. Agent Kitty-Cat David finds out more…

In the 1001 entrepreneurial blogs I read on a day-to-day basis, all of them leave out one single aspect which at the end of the day makes or breaks an idea. Pressure. The deadlines, the stress, the hype, the tension. The whole nine yards. And it kills. The August 1st project? Admittedly, delayed. Whilst progress is being made, it’s not being made fast enough, and looking at the situation realistically, I really can’t see the product being at it’s best to launch on August 1st, and I have no intentions on under-delivering. The design looks fantastic - on a side note. The content is incredible. The videos? I’m struggling to record them. Have you ever tried talking, writing, reading, drawing, navigating a website, clicking a powerpoint slide clicker, glancing at a piece of paper and at a screen, whilst getting your message across with enthusiasm? Thought not.

It’s tough going - but a lesson well learnt. August 1st simply won’t be possible… It’s not the people I’m working with. They’ve been unbelievable. Supportive, excellent in what they do (Max with his graphical expertise, Ryan with his incredible site design, Joel with the scripts and installations, Nate for the support & SEO, the list goes on). The fact is - even with the best team in the world behind you, the most incredible ideas and the biggest commitment on the market - if you don’t have time, things won’t get done.

I feel a philosophical rant coming on - duck and cover. That’s all from me though… In short - prepare for the worst. Set deadlines to inspire motion and action, when the pressure gets too much, remove the deadline. The majority of the hard work should have been done and the pressure eases massively - with me work being done on top of that as a side-effect. It’s complicated stuff, phsyology. A life of an entrepreneur is a rough one though, not all smiles, Million Dollar Homepages and Instant Riches. Am I cut out for it? Who the heck knows. I’m giving it a stab and it’s been a nice journey.

Picture sourced from the one and only CHEEZBURGER monsters!

Seeing as other than the iPhone news that’s doing the rounds, there basically IS no other decent tech news (dry, re-hashed junk that’s been going round for weeks) I’ve resorted to posting photos of deranged kittens outsourced from none other than ICANHASCHEEZBURGER.com - Fantastic stuff!

We’re pretty darn desparate. Anonymous tipsters welcome. Make something up if you have to… Ha!

Judging by the feedback I’ve been getting, you guys don’t (or at least didn’t) know what Affiliate Marketing was. I thought I’d introduce the whole concept to you though and answer three particularly common questions that have come flying my way. For the intro, I have to give credit to the fabulous guys (and gals) at Wikipedia. They’ve summed up the whole business better than I could!

Affiliate Marketing is a method of promoting web businesses (merchants/advertisers) in which an affiliate (publisher) is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber, customer, and/or sale provided through his/her efforts. Affiliate marketing is also the name of the industry where a number of different types of companies and individuals are performing this form of internet marketing, including affiliate networks, affiliate management companies and in-house affiliate managers, specialized 3rd party vendors and various types of affiliates/publishers who utilize a number of different methods to advertise the products and services of their merchant/advertiser partners.

Now the theory is out of the way… On with the Q&A!

Question - Do you need a big website to successfully use Affiliate Marketing?

Absolutely not! You don’t even NEED a website! There are so many ways you can reach an audience on the Internet (whether you choose video marketing on sites like YouTube or PayPerClick advertising on networks like AdWords) it’s reached a point where a website isn’t actually needed to earn an income online, and that’s what Affiliate Marketing is all about. Promoting other people’s products on other people’s websites!

Question - Do I need to have a big list to become a successful affiliate?

Let me tell you a secret… For the first five months as an Affiliate Marketer, I had NO list. NONE. Not even a single person. Building my list was initially slow (but once I knew how to build it I was getting opt-ins by the minute) and I didn’t see any profits at all. Why? I hadn’t built that vitally important relationship with my list. I was sending them the freebies to keep them on my newsletter, reading what I had to say, but they still didn’t have a clue who I was or what I was trying to achieve. You need to connect with your list. Tell them the odd funny story. Share an embarrassing secret or two. So my answer to that question? No. You don’t need a list to be a successful Super-Affiliate, though admittedly, without one, I wouldn’t be earning half of what I do earn today. You live and learn I guess.

Question – Fair enough. You’ve made your point. So where can I start building my list?

My advice would be to check out GetResponse, the auto-responder I use. Their deliverability rates are second to none, their support is fantastic with forums, e-mail support, live chat and a great phoneline all at the disposal of members to use as frequently (or infrequently, as the case may be) as they wish. I’ve never had any reason to really contact the GetResponse support seeing as they have some excellent Camtasia walkthroughs on hand to teach the basics – though it’s great to know that if you do run into an issue, someone is just on the other end of a phoneline.

For those of you who weren’t aware, I’m launching an Affiliate Marketing website which I’m due (or rather ‘hoping’) to launch on August 1st. Some aspects of the site are on track and others (drastically) lagging behind. We’ll see how things go. Affiliate Defined and it’s spiffy little dog blog.

BugMeNot Passwords - Logins that force you to register with them simply to let you read their content really do annoy me - I must admit. Some of the most annoying such sites include The New York Times, PCPro and Custom PC which won’t let you get further than the homepage after you’ve viewed one or two articles. The solution? BugMeNot - ‘Social Password Sharing’. Not in a bad way, but simply to counteract the annoying measures put in place by so many websites. Find a site that BugMeNot doesn’t have covered? Sign up and submit the username/password for general consumption. If you don’t feel like giving away your e-mail address, you can always even use…

BugMeNot E-mail - Make an address up. No signup necessary. For example - when signing up for a new Chicago Tribune account, I could just put in Chicago@BugMeNot.com, then using the nifty BugMeNot e-mail form, could instantly access the Chicago e-mail address without need of a password, etc. Poking through other people’s mail can be interesting, just remember if there’s something you want to keep private, click the delete button to avoid embarassing encounters. As you can see, ‘Mike’ has been doing some rather… Distasteful things.

RetailMeNot - How I love the MeNotNetwork… If you shop online alot like myself and see a little ‘coupon code’ box on a website, chances are that again, like me, you’ll Google the site’s name along with search term ‘coupon code’. Often you’ll get a blank result, but if it saves you even just 10%, it’s worth your while. That’s why I love RetailMeNot.com though. I just put in a site’s URL and if there is an existing coupon code, I’ll be shown it alongside a page full of others. GoDaddy.com, Buy.com, Amazon.com and a whole host of other online stores are heavily laden with coupon codes (some active, some not) and with RMT’s quick-rate system, you can find out which ones work and which don’t. Save a few dollars, get free delivery, free mini-gifts, whatever. You gotta love the site.

To kick things off, we have MailBigFile. Their tagline “the best way to send large file attachments” is rather big, rather bold, and rather hyped - but all the same, after testing the concept, I can’t help but agree with them. If you’re in the process of sending a huge file via e-mail, you’ll know what an absolute pain it can be. Sending a file even just a few hundred MB large (on the odd occassion you manage to send it successfully) will more often than not crash the person’s computer at the other end. Whilst MBF might not completely eliminate the problem, it makes sure that your e-mail system as the sender doesn’t slow down, and also means the recipient simply receives a message with a link to download the file - with the site’s fancy web-based sending system. Just enter your e-mail, the recipients, the file in question and a message.

Switching to the battle of the POTS (plain old telephone service), we’ve got CallTheFuture in a strong lead. Type in a message - input a phonenumber, pick a CallerID name, add in a few extra details and off you go. CTF automatically (at your specified point in time, whether it be five minutes later or in two years time) calls your contact with a simulated computer voice (Diane, William, Emily, Frank, Lawrence or Millie). Naturally, the potential behind such a project is incredibly powerful. Schedule an ‘emergency’ call to go off during a meeting (hence providing a fantastic excuse to leave your companies quaterly mish-mash-bash). Remind yourself of that doctors appointment you’ve got scheduled. Play a prank call on a friend.

Perhaps I’ll expand this later - maybe not. Seeing as we all know Skype is the best in everything though, there’s really no need…

Note: Excuse the iPhone hype - It’s unescapable, yet fantastic all the same. Bear with me.

When you see giant four-foot model replicas of a 4.1-inch gadget, you know Apple’s got one heck of an advertising team waiting in the wings. The ever-so-shiny reflective glass only adds to the ‘drool effect’.

Heads turning left right and centre, but how can you blame them? The hollow iPhone shells had their innards stuffed with high-tec LCDs, mimicing the iPhone’s own touch-screen. Yep - these things are the semi-real-deal. Actual 3D shells of the high-res photo we’ve come to love. Early reports claim Apple staff worked well into the early hours of Friday morning, errecting the giant displays, and sources have it that Apple store employees have been handed out iPhone t-shirts, to drag ever more attention to the phone we love to love. The ever-dominant iPod displays are, in a shock move, expected to be moved to the back of ALL Apple stores to make way for our new, shiny overlords.

Thanks Tom & AI.

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Who will prevail?

In the red corner, we have the iPhone! (Onion)

- Nanotechnology enables it to reassemble itself when thrown against wall.

- Exclusive link to Google Street View so you can watch yourself using your iPhone at all times.

- Takes Polaroids.

- When moved from hand to ear, makes Lightsaber sound effects.

- Prominent Apple logo.

- Reproduces through asexual budding.

- Has way, way more PRAM than the last thingy.

- Comes with an iPhone hat, so people know you own an iPhone during the brief periods you’re not using it!

- Oh, and the iPhone makes telephone calls, is an all-round media centre and has nice YouTube integration.

And then you have poor demented Zune followers. O_o

My thoughts and best wishes are with his family. Credit to the guy though - I’ve never seen an Apple tattoo!

So… Today was a big day for me and my marketing adventures. I yelled at several people, read some e-mail, did some more yelling and setup myself a autoresponder account (highly recommended by the way). What does this mean for you? Well - by signing up to my Internet Marketing rants ‘n’ rave list, you can grab yourself free access to TEN (no typo, I assure you) products to help jump-start your Internet Marketing life. The kicker? These products come with a nifty little thing called ‘PLR’ which stands for ‘Private Label Rights’. Basically, this means you can do WHATEVER you fancy with the product. Sell them on your website, auction them on eBay, just plain old read them if you’re not the one for overly-complicated excursions.

Have some fun and make the most out of them. By all means, I’m not going to make some hyped-up claim and pretend these eBooks are going to change your life, but seriously. It’s free and it’s worth a shot. What have you got to lose? All you Affiliate Marketing squatters are in luck too. By signing up, you’ll be the very first people to know the nitty-gritty inside information about Affiliate Defined, BEFORE August 1st. I’m also hoping to dish out a bucketload of squid other FREE Internet Marketing goodies you can use. I’ll be catching you guys later - in the meantime I’m off to shoot some videos.

NOTE: After putting in your name and e-mail, you’ll be directed to a TechZi 404 page. I’ve still not ironed out all the creases with GetReponse.

Another NOTE: You’ll need to confirm your request to receive information before I can send you your goodies. Just click the link in the e-mail and your address will be confirmed, with your products whizzed off right away.

A while back I asked an extremely simple question.

Who’s making money online?

The response was incredible. Through that one little question - I’ve met some incredible individuals. Some are making money online, and others are simply going round in circles, completely confused.

And again I’ll say it… “Making money online is a heck of a lot easier than people would like you to think… Sure, it really does help to have a great guide, whatever market you’re going into, but how do you think them guys worked out the tactics themselves? They learned through trial and error. Like me, they probably wasted hundreds and hundreds of dollars in the process.” How does this involve you? With tonnes of product out there, promising to teach you how to make yourself rich in ‘4 easy steps’ (which usually contain rubish such as ’sell your blood plasma for cash becoz omg i made like 5 dollars in one hour!’), it really is hard to know what products are the ‘real deal’, and which ones are complete garbage.

I’m not trying to pitch you any products here, so don’t get yourself in a tizz. I’m simply pointing out that a small portion of products are brilliant - others are not so great. My advice? Ask around. Don’t go and blow $100 on a product which turns out to be complete garbage. Ask people on forums such as The Warrior Forum, what these products are actually like. Just because a product has 101 testimonials, don’t presume they’re all entirely true. My general rule, is that unless a testimonial has a full name and own-domain website associated with it, I’ll take it with a pinch of salt or disregard it all together. Why? Complete and utter scams like Get Google Ads Free (which for the record IS a complete waste of cash) can’t get any real people to actually go out their way and make a real testimonial. Why? By making a testimonial - you put your reputation on the line, and in the Internet Marketing business, reputation is everything.

Notice how all the ‘Get Google Ads Free’ testimonials have no websites associated with them - just a name. Use your common sense, people. If something looks dodgy, smells like a rat and makes outrageous claims, chances are something’s fishy - which is EXACTLY why you need to ask people for their opinions. It really is just a case of using your head. Don’t be evil.

Howdy, and apologies for the lack of updates! I’ve been real busy preparing myself for the BBC interview and working on my lil’ Affiliate Marketing revolution/disaster. I just found out I wasn’t made to make Camtasia videos… I sound like a goof, get my words muddled up and find navigating round a screen whilst reading of a piece of paper an art I’m yet to acquire. On the site design side of things, it’s looking great though! The content itself rocks socks (even if I can’t deliver it well…), but hey. I’m getting better!

For the membership software, I’ve got my hands on three separate packages and I can’t decide which to use. CMS-Infusion ($4,000), Butterfly Marketing ($1,500), or aMember ($150)? Seeing as I have the rights to all three - I’m at a loss. I originally started using aMember, but truth be told, the backend interface is confusing at best and whilst it might be an overall secure and well made program, I’m considering giving Butterfly Marketing and/or CMS Infusion a whirl.

Both cost in the regon of 10 to 25 (26.666 recurring actually) as much as aMember - but what’s been bought has been bought, and there’s no point not making the most outta them. Butterfly Marketing, whilst powerful and created specifically for Internet Marketers (a great feature aMember lacks), is old and has lots to be desired - even if it does provide a robust, secure interface. CMS Infusion on the other hand (recently dubbed the holy grail of management software) seems to be an excellent choice for me as an Affiliate Marketer however - choc-full of features and ready to boot out of the box, much unlike aMember Pro.

All the same - I’m undecided. I’ll do the cool thing and ask you guys for advice. You can check out the respective product pages and help me make my mind up… Affiliate Defined has not only been a massive investment for me, but also a life-changing experience. Heck - if the whole project falls apart and never launches, I’ll still walk away with tonnes of new friends, a bucketload of new ideas, and least of all, I’ll be a better Affiliate Marketer than ever before!

Who do I personally want to try? CMS-Infusion. Not because of the hefty price-tag, but because of the sheer amount of hype surrounding the product. In one hour, I received an excess of 35 promotions from “gurus” whose list’s I’m on. Why? It’s a high-priced product with great payouts. The actual quality of the product remains to be seen, but from what I’ve seen personally so far, I must admit, it does look pretty darn good.

NOTE: Though I could have easily got myself a few nice ‘thousand dollar cheques’ by including Affiliate links in this post, I haven’t. Why? Simply because I’m asking you for advice, not pitching a product to you. Asides, I blog because I enjoy it, and because you guys do such a service to me by helping me out… All that said, if anyone does want to buy one of the above products, let me know and I’ll send an aff link your way. Hehe…

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