This is a very short message, but there is
a very important video I want you to watch.
My friend Anik Singal has put together a
video where he shows you some GREAT techniques
on how to use “pay per click” to make money
very quickly with affiliate marketing:

http://ultimatetools.net/t.cgi?ppcclassroom

Basically, Anik tracked down an affiliate by
the name of Jeremy Palmer who earned over
$1.4 Million in 2006 JUST through PPC. The
guy does not even build lists!

So, Anik gives away one of Jeremy’s actual
landing pages, he gives away his favorite
affiliate networks – he even reveals his
favorite keyword searching tools!

This is definitely a video worth watching:

http://ultimatetools.net/t.cgi?ppcclassroom

See you there!
Andy Huang

• Web Apps Hit the Mainstream
• Ranking for Google Image Searches
• Yahoo September Update Underway
• Is Product Placement In Your Future?
• Poll: Did LinkedIn Lose Out to Facebook?
• Yahoo Podcasts To Close; The Sorry State Of Podcast Search

• Google Gphone?
• Ethics group rips Google on copyrights
• Facebook dominates with new widgets
• Firefox addon makes web development easy
• AOL Is Gussying Itself Up for an Advertising IPO

Microsoft Announces Upgrades to Live Search…

California foreclosures are at the highest since 1997- up 800% since last year. The state reported 5,705 foreclosure filings during the month of June, a foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 317 households — still more than twice the national average.

LA County Records show over 200 foreclosures A DAY!

Because of loose credit, risky lending practices, fraudulent appraisals, and Wall Street greed, borrowers were able to combine a number of features; 100% financing and no-doc loans to buy property for investment or to live in that is way beyond their means. Then they used these houses like ATM machines sucking out every bit of equity.

The rise of these liar loans combined with other factors such as higher debt levels and changed bankruptcy laws, are causing foreclosures to rise dramatically.

In addition, 27 subprime lenders have gone out of business in the last few months. Credit is tightening like a vise in ALL sections of lending- even for A borrowers.

There are $800 BILLION of adjustable rate mortgages that have just started to adjust and are putting thousands of home owners at risk for losing their properties because they can’t afford the higher payments. Add in stiff pre-payment penalties and you have the recipe for disaster.

Without traffic, a website will struggle to fulfill its purpose, whether it is to inform, entertain or to sell. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques are important because a website or blog that is optimized is more likely to be found on Google, MSN or Yahoo. This in turn leads to more traffic. It is in the selection of these techniques that the differences between white and black hats can be seen.

In the old Western movies, the one wearing the white hat was seen as the good guy; the one wearing black was the bad guy (and the one wearing gray was the shifty guy who did whatever benefited him). In the world of SEO, these terms have significantly different meanings – although some people take the moral viewpoint that the white hat is still the ‘good guy’. On the other hand those who follow black hat techniques would say that being black hat is about competing with the search engines while white hat is about competing with your fellow webmasters.

White hat is the term used to describe techniques and methods that fully comply with the Search Engine guidelines (or as some like to say it is ‘doing everything Google tells you to do’). For example, writing original articles for your site would be considered white hat, while the use of software to generate thousands of pages of content automatically would be considered black hat.

Of course, nothing is that simple in reality and there are numerous areas that would be considered gray. For example, using some form of content generation software to modify PLR (private label rights) material to generate pages lies somewhere between these two extremes.

Admittedly, automatically generated black hat sites can generate some serious short-term profits. However, the search engines are getting smarter with their algorithms and when they discover the use of black hat techniques will generally de-index the pages of a site so that it won’t receive any more traffic from that source. In particular, if the software being used for automatic generation leaves telltale signs, known as a footprint, the process of de-indexing can be rapid. The other main problem is that many of these techniques generate content that the search engine spiders love, but are useless for humans (although it can make for a laugh to try to read some of it).

White hat techniques focus on developing content that is original and useful to both spiders and people. The main drawback with white hat strategies are that it takes longer to reach your desired goal, but the results can be significant when you reach there. The other nice thing is that there is much less chance that you will be de-indexed by the search engines and that your site, and any profits generated, will be around for the long haul.

As I was watching CNN on Weekend edition of special report about the 17-year old Ashley Qualls. I went online and found more information written about her in http://www.thomasdemaesschalck.com blog with an article referenced published from Fast Company. The story about this young girl who started a MySpace layout and graphics site called Whateverlife.

I never heard about this site before but she seems to be doing amazingly well, according to the news the three-year old site receives 7 million unique visitors and 60 million page views a month and this amount of traffic help earns her up to $70,000 in advertsing revenue per month. Most of this online revenue generated seems to come through Google AdSense and ValueClick.

At 17 going on 37 (at least), Ashley is very much an Internet professional. In the less than two years since Whateverlife took off, she has dropped out of high school, bought a house, helped launch artists such as Lily Allen, and rejected offers to buy her young company. Although Ashley was flattered to be offered $1.5 million and a car of her choice–as long as the price tag wasn’t more than $100,000–she responded, in effect, Whatever. “I don’t even have my license yet,” she says.

Ashley is evidence of the meritocracy on the Internet that allows even companies run by neophyte entrepreneurs to compete, regardless of funding, location, size, or experience–and she’s a reminder that ingenuity is ageless. She has taken in more than $1 million, thanks to a now-familiar Web-friendly business model. Her MySpace page layouts are available for the bargain price of…nothing. They’re free for the taking. Her only significant source of revenue so far is advertising.

MySpace related sites can bring in a lot of money but this story really amazed me, the kind of revenuing she’s brings in from this site is stunning. Looks like I have been doing something wrong and developing in the wrong niche.

If you like to read the full store, you can find the report from Fash Money over here. One of the interesting point on the article is that a court ruled in January that neither Ashley nor her parents are allowed to manage her finances:

Until she turns 18, next June, a court-appointed conservator is controlling Whateverlife’s assets; Ashley must request funds for any expense outside the agreed-upon monthly budget.

The arrangement, she says, affects her ability to react in a volatile industry. “It’s not like I’m selling lemonade,” she says. Besides, it’s her company. If she wants to contract developers or employ her mother, Ashley says, why shouldn’t she be able to do it without the conservator’s approval?

So the teenager has hired a lawyer. She wants to emancipate herself and be declared an adult. Now. At 17. Why not just sit tight until June? The girl trying to grow up fast can’t wait that long.

SECRETS OF MILLION DOLLAR SALES LETTERS –

FOR MAIL CAMPAIGN & INTERNET

 
            Regardless of what you’re trying to sell, you really can’t sell it without “talking” with your prospective buyer.  An in attempting to sell anything on the Internet, the sales letter you send out is when and how you talk to your prospect.

             All winning sales letters “talk” to the prospect by creating an image in the mind of the reader.  They set “the scene” by appealing to a desire or need; and then they flow smoothly into the “visionary” part of the sales pitch by describing in detail how “wonderful” life will be and, how “good” the prospect is going to feel after he’s purchased your product.  This is the “body or guts” of a sales letter.

             Overall, a winning sales letter follows a time-tested and proven formula:  1)  Get his attention  2)  Get him interested in what you can do for him  3)  Make him desire the benefits of your product so badly his mouth begins to water  4)  Demand action from him – tell him to click the right button or send for whatever it is you’re selling without delay – any procrastination on his part might cause him to lose out.  This is called the “AIDA” formula (Attention, Interest, Desire and

Action) -  it works.

             On your website, your sales page should be the length of what it would be

if were doing a mailing, or longer if you’re using bullets to emphasize benefits to build the desire.  Of course on the Internet you don’t have to worry about letterhead stationery or the cost of postage, which is a considerable savings.  If, however, you want to also do a mailing campaign then the following would apply.  The sales letters in mailings that pull in the most sales are almost always two pages with 1 1/2 spaces between lines.  For really big ticket items, they’ll run at least four pages. – on an 11 by 17 sheet of paper folded in half.  If your sales letter is only two pages in length, there’s nothing wrong with running it on the front and back of one sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 paper.  However, your sales letter should always be on letterhead paper – your letterhead printed, and including your logo and business motto if you have one.

             Regardless of the length of your sales letter, it should do one thing, and that’s sell, and sell hard!  If you intend to close the sale, you’ve got to do it with your sales letter.  You should never be “wishy-washy” with your sales letter. You do the actual selling and the closing of that sale with your sales letter – any brochure or circular you send along with in your mailing will just reinforce what you say in the sales letter.

             There’s been a great deal of discussion in the past few years regarding just how long a sales letter should be.  A lot of people are asking:  Will people really take the time to read a long sales letter?  The answer is a simple and time-tested yes indeed!  Surveys and tests over the years emphatically prove that “longer sales letters” pull even better than the shorter ones, so don’t worry about the length of your sales letter – just make sure that it sells your product for you!

             The “inside secret” is to make your sales letter so interesting, and “visionary” with the benefits you’re offering to the reader, that he can’t resist reading it all the way through.  You break up the “work” of reading by using short, punchy sentences, underlining important points you’re trying to make, with the use of subheadlines, indentations and even the use of a second color, and leaving lots of white space around it.  On your website, the sales letter should run down the middle of the page so the viewer doesn’t have to keep adjusting the screen to see the whole sentence. This is very distracting and more apt to send that client to another website than losing patience reading a long letter.

             Relative to the brochures and circulars you may want to include in your mailing with your sales letter – providing the materials you’re enclosing are of the best quality, they will generally reinforce the sale for you.  But, if they are of poor quality, look cheap and don’t compliment your sales letter, then you shouldn’t be using them.  Another thing, it will definitely classify you as an independent home worker if you hand-stamp your name/address on these brochures or advertising circulars instead of having them printed.

             Whenever possible, and so long as you have really good brochures to send out, have your printer run them through his press and print your name/address – even your telephone number and company logo – on them before you send them out.  The thing is, you want your prospect to think of you as his supplier – the company – and not as just another independent entrepreneur.  Sure, you can get by with less expense but you’ll end up with fewer orders and in the end, less profits.

             Another thing that’s been bandied about and discussed from every direction for years is whether to use a post office box number or your street address.  Personally, I don’t like Post Office Boxes in a business address – because it transmits an aura of instability or temporary location.  If your business is run from home, get a mail box from a post box vendor that has a street address.  Then your address looks like, 1234 Willow Lane, #567, Your Town, and the box number could appear to the reader as a Suite number.  However, if you live in a remote area where your address is 7890 Main St., RFD 42, Box 123, Your Town, then you have no choice but to include both your post office box number, AND, your street address on your sales letter.  When doing it strictly for your website, put your street address, telephone number, and email address at the bottom of the page.  More than likely, the customer will contact you by email, but it conveys dependability if that Internet buyer sees that you’re willing to give your address. This kind of open display of your honesty will give you credibility and dispel the thought of you being just another “fly-by-night” mail order company in the mind of your prospect.

             Above all else, you’ve got to include some sort of ordering page or coupon if you’re mailing.  The coupon has to be as simple and as easy for the prospect to fill out and return to you as you can possible make it. The order page on your website should already be filled out, with perhaps just the shipping left to choice.  If your product is an eBook or software to be instantly downloaded, then you don’t have any options to be chosen.   A great many sales are lost because this order coupon is just too complicated for the would-be buyer to follow.  Don’t get fancy!  Keep it simple, and you’ll find your prospects responding with glee.

             Should you or shouldn’t you include in your mailing a self-addressed reply envelope?  There are a lot of variables, as well as, pros and cons to this question. Overall, when you send out a “winning” sales letter to a good mailing list, a return reply envelope will increase your response tremendously.

             Tests of  late seem to indicate that it isn’t that big a deal or difference in responses relative to whether you do or don’t pre-stamp the return reply envelope.  Again, the decision here will rest primarily on the product you’re selling and the mailing list you’re using.  Our recommendation is that you experiment – try it both ways – with subsequent mailings and decide for yourself from there.

To your continual success!

Andy Huang