Statistics has not been nice about internet marketing success. It has been quoted that more than 90% of aspiring marketers failed to achieve their goals i.e. making money from internet marketing venture.

If you like to learn how to be in the 10% group of successful marketers, there’s a free ebook that outlines Six Steps to Online Business Success available for immediate download. And it was written by a well-known figure in internet marketing so the value is there. Grab it now and see if it can help with your progress.

To some this very low rate of success doesn’t make much sense owing to the allure and seemingly simple ways of making online income.

A very low barrier of entry also adds up to the whole problem whereby many beginners can easily join the bandwagon and abandon it half way through the journey.

Most newbie marketers simply jump on to the bandwagon falsely hoping luck will be on their side. Worst if they come in with the expectation that no or little effort is required to succeed online. That is also a common teaching by so many self-proclaimed gurus while all they wanted was to make their products seem irresistible and get sold.

There are just too many people who simply fall into this “magic pill” syndrome. And many are falling into this nasty trap time and again until they finally throw the towel and swear that this game is not for them. They may tell themselves and others too that internet marketing doesn’t work!

Sadly, another data of internet marketing failure adds up to the statistics.

In reality, to be succesful in internet marketing is not that hard. It’s much easier than offline business but the rule is still pretty much the same be it online or not.

Almost everyone will tell you the importance of taking action. Being online marketing, there are huge amount of information available for a marketer to consume. Anyone can easily get sucked into the black hole of ebooks, videos, email posts, rss feeds etc and spend too much time for the learning part.

Simply the answer is to spend more time putting the knowledge into practice which can be quite challenging because doing actual works is a lot less fun than the initial learning process.

It’s not just the time consumed. The other bad part is that someone might spent a lot of money acquiring those products which most of the times promise no-effort make-money-tomorrow kind of guides. When the marketer doesn’t see the expected income flowing in after a certain time, the disappointment will creep in fast and calculating the amount of money he or she had spent will push him or her to accept defeat.

So is taking action the cure-all solution?

Not really. Precisely it has to be this type of action instead – taking right action in the right sequence or steps.

Just look around us. Everything goes in sequence. Our education starts by going to kindergarten, lower grades, high school, college, universities and so on. Almost everyone follow that route. Imagine putting a car into gear without starting the engine first. See how bakeries prepare our daily breads. And a day starts from morning, midday, afternoon, evening, night etc. This is true in almost every process where a certain sequence of steps has to be followed if we expect to see a defined results.

The point here is that – Internet Marketing is no different.

To be successful, a set of proven steps has to be followed. Be creative as much as you like but keep all the steps intact.

Now, if you have learnt from as many gurus on this subject, the steps basically look like this:

1. Identify profitable niche
2. Offer the right solution
3. Design a website with a strong call-to-action
4. Present a compelling salescopy
5. Build relationships with “opt-in” forms
6. Optimize your site to drive traffic and improve SEO ranking

I intend to visit each of those topics individually in the coming posts but if you do not want to wait I have a free ebook outlining those six steps available for you to download right now. Just click this image.

There are plugins to download for these areas:

• Comment management
• Post related
• Admin related
• Security
• Developer
• Twitter
• Feed related
• Tweaking plugins
• User related
• Spam management
• Social bookmarking
• Google Map related
• Mutli-language translation
• WP Mobile Edition – PDA friendly interface for your blog

The quality is so good that I downloaded almost all of them. See for yourself then…

If you’re into Internet be it for leisure or business, you certainly use a PC or notebook of some kind. And these machines are like drain pipes as they collect garbage along the way and becoming sluggish. As you would do with pipes, computers need to be spring cleaned regularly too. With computers, you might want to do more than just spring clean.

Ok, here we are talking about:

• protect your notebook or PC from security threats such as virus, spyware and phishing attacks
• physically remove unwanted files and registries
• organize file locations efficiently

Virus Protection Softwares

1. AVG Free. One of the most popular ones and it’s free. Easier download it at www.download.com and search for “avgfree”. As I write this, there were already 65.8 million downloads and this is on download.com alone.
2. Avast! 4 from www.avast.com. Interface looks like a popular multimedia player. Offers host of interesting features including boot-time antivirus scan, IM, Newsgroup and Usenet scans and even monitor your peer-to-peer downloads.
3. ThreatFire 3. Quite unique in the sense that it works by detecting the behavior of malicious software. Therefore can theoretically block threats that are too new for other signature-based antivirus application to handle. Get this one from www.threatfire.com

It is recommended that you install 2-3 antivirus softwares on your system for better protection.

Anti-Spyware Tools

1. Ad-Aware 2007. It is one of the earliest anti-spyware application out there and still reigns. Free version available from www.lavasoftusa.com
2. Spybot Search & Destroy. Download site is www.safernetworking.org

Clean Thy Computer

1. CCleaner. Removes temporary files from a number of applications such as IE, Firefox, Opera and those temporary files on your PC. Also has a registry scanner and cleaner. Use the cleaner function with care and always make registry backup before using it. It can also clean the Hotfix files that you accumulate from Windows updates. It’s available from www.ccleaner.com.
2. Secure Eraser. Download free from www.tucows.com/preview/507478. Able to completely remove files from your hard disk or better known as file shredder. Use it with care too as your deleted files are unrecoverable, gone forever.

Remove Startup Clingers

Lots of applications have a nasty habits of starting up with Windows which slows down the machine. One way to check this problem is to run Autoruns from Microsoft. Once installed and run, click on “Logon” tab and disable ones you don’t like. If you get undesirable results, enable the program again and restart the computer. Download Autoruns from www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals.

File Organization

Fragmented files can bring your computer speed down considerably. The good old Disk Defragmenter can do the job well. It’s already on your PC at Start-All Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter. Please run it and you will see the difference. There’s no scheduling option but you can use Windows Scheduler for that.

Ok, go cleanup! Enjoy.

So you have been writing for your blogs and this probably what you need to do:

1. connect to Internet
2. launch your browser
3. log-in to your blogging account or admin
4. work on your draft blog post
5. publish the post
6. re-edit the post
7. re-publish
8. goto #6 until you’re satisfied.

In some systems, you may also find that the following is not possible to be done, or at least very difficult to do:

• paste images
• insert table
• manipulate images such as resizing, add border, shadow etc
• insert video
• enter links easily
• have the article scheduled to be posted at a later time

Fret not, if you’ve been praying for such a tool, the prayer is quite likely answered now. It comes in the form of an application called MS Live Writer.

Here are some features I believe could help us bloggers to be more productive.

• work on draft pages offline
• insert images easily
• painless table insertion and editing
• lots of plug-ins available
• schedule posting
• manage several blog accounts at one place
• able to work on a number of posts simultaneously
• if you’re keen, you can edit the codes too
• editing is much more efficient as there’s little time lost to uploading-edit-uploading cycles.
• interface is also more friendly than most blog platforms
• publish posts directly from the editor without logging into your blog account
• suitable for many web platforms such as Blogger, WordPress, Windows Live Spaces, SharePoint and many others.

I am keeping this one to the last. Imagine something goes down while you are writing a blog post, say the browser crashes or power goes down and you’re already on the last sentence just before you hit "publish" button. If you are aware, there are still blogging platforms out there that don’t have auto-save feature. Having a tool that auto-save your article every few minutes is definitely a must-have.

Now, go give it a try, download windows live writer for free.

If you want to add more bells and whistles, get the plug-ins here.

I hope that Live Writer will make your editing and posting a lot more enjoyable.

Do backup, if you have not already done this. You never know when a server decides to go down or a disaster strikes and by then it’s already too late.

But don’t be surprised that a big majority of website and blog owners don’t backup their codes and databases. I wish you don’t ask why you need to be doing backup but in case you do here are some strong reasons why:

• to avoid data loss as you never know what can happen to your data (and business)
• able to restore your data onto another server if natural disaster hits
• high cost to recover your data (worst if it’s not recoverable)
• data may get deleted by mistake or deliberately
• your hosting could close shop anytime
• your hosting may decide that you go against their terms and close your account
• if you post about your life in blogs and photos, losing those memories can be devastating
• backup is lot less painful than losing your data and website

There are many ways you can carry out backup task. Your hosting definitely provides a method, for database you can learn how to create backup manually and so on.

I always prefer things that can be done automatically. For this time I am going to share a superb WordPress plugins that do auto backup of your blog on schedule with lots of other options. Can even choose to have the backup sent to you by email. Cool.

Like it? Go get it here for free:

http://lesterchan.net/wordpress/readme/wp-dbmanager.html

Another points to consider:

• keep your backup copies at 3 different places
• don’t forget to backup data on your PC too!

Have a nice day!

Event	Date	Contributor	Member
	Mar 19 – Mar 31	signup now	signup now
	Mar 27 – Apr 17	signup now	signup now
	Apr 1 – Apr 30	signup now	signup now

For an up-to-date listing go here.

Enjoy!

Here’s an extensive list of major giveaway events in February:

Feb 22 – Feb 29, 2008 : Internet Marketers Giveaway

Feb 5 : Product Creation Giveaway

Feb 5 -Feb 14, 2008 : 117 Network

Feb 1 – Feb 29, 2008 : 365 Giveaway – Leap Year Special

Feb 1 – Feb 29, 2008 : JV monthly Giveaway

Feb 1 – ? : Giveaway Giant

Feb 7 – Feb 21, 2008 : Big Fat Giveaway

Feb 1 – Feb 28, 2008 : Valentines Giveaway

So go grab your gifts as many as you like while they are still available for free.

If you’re into list building via giveaway events like these, go to this link to signup to multiple events from just one place:

www.giveawayalert.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

What is IM Vortex?

Well, it’s nothing new and it’s something you and me have been going through everyday in our internet marketing adventure. The problem is that you may not be aware of it’s undesired presence. And you’re not alone.

Laser-Focus Shield

Let’s imagine a very common scenario:

1. You see an offer that promises/guarantee an easy way to make huge money on the net within say 30 days
2. You buy it
3. You download, read/listen/watch it
4. Take some actions
5. Make no money still (even after 90 days)
6. After a while
7. (you repeat step #1)

It’s a nasty vicious circle. A lot of people have been sucked into it and if you’re not careful you will be in too. I seriously hope you won’t.

All you ended up with is a depleted wallet, tons of digital dust and thinning of hope of ever making it online,

And… there’s still no money coming into your bank account.

After several buying-but-make-no-money cycles, you’re getting ever closer to accept defeat and ready to throw in the towel.

But, Don’t Blame The Internet Marketers Just Yet!

It’s not their fault. It’s yours.

What happens is that your own defense is very weak. You simply give in to every offer that comes your way. You simply find them irresistible. And this is the root cause of the problem.

What you need here is to learn how you can build a strong shield against those offers and able to choose and select wisely.

See if you suffer from this seldom-talked-about problem and possible remedies here:

Laser-Focus Shield

It’s better to be protected!

…and continue getting more and more opt-ins day in day out, even when I sleep.

The very first giveaway event that I participated was “The Ultimate Giveaway Round 2″ hosted by Scott Case. Thank you very much Scott! This was back in early October 2007.

The problem with giveaways is that they accept contributors mainly via invitations i.e. someone has to “refer” you to the event. So when you first started this could be a big problem as you might not know anyone that would do the sponsoring.

In my earlier post I talked about how I stumbled upon this chance from a friend’s blog. So I went to sign up using his link. Ouch! I got a wrong page i.e. the one for member to download gifts not for contributors.

I’ve got to leave a comment on the blog to ask for help. Yeah, it was the wrong link given. He then posted a new link and my registration was successful. Next step is to present a gift as giveaway.

What do I do now? What gift to submit?

After giving it some thoughts I recalled that recently I signed up at a site that has a free website builder plus a free rebrandable ebook.

HyperVRE

So I headed to the HyperVRE site, downloaded the ebook and started working to rebrand it.

Next task is to build the landing page (squeeze page) and thank you page (download page). Then I worked on the Aweber autoresponder sequence which I actually used for the first time too.

When it’s done, I went back to the giveaway site and entered the ebook as my gift plus other details. As this is my first time doing all these, the whole process took me quite a long time to finish.

Phew! I finally got it done at 3.30 in the morning.

Suspense! Will It Be Accepted?

I really didn’t know what to expect just like anything else that you do for the first time. Not sure what was the acceptable standard etc. Just prayed for the favorable outcome.

Next morning while feeling still very sleepy I checked out my email. I saw one message that made me jumped out of my seat! My gift was accepted and I was officially a contributor (for the very first time!). Did not expect it to happen so fast though.

In the past I used to download gifts from other contributors but now I joined their club instead. How excited!

Things Started To Get Better

When the event was launched I got my first few sign-ups but not that many. I was very excited anyway seeing my first few subscribers ever. You sure know how that “first-time” feeling is like.

About 10 days later I found another giveaway event that was looking for partners so I joined. This time everything has became a lot easier as I only need to submit details of my gift to the giveaway site. The landing page, thank you page, autoresponder form and follow-up emails were from the last event, I just reused them all.

Not only that. When this event launched, I was getting a lot more opt-ins compared with the first one!

So from then onwards I was just searching for new giveaway events to participate and offer my free gifts. One way is to Google by typing “jv giveaway partner” or similar. At the same time I also looked for other items that I can offer too.

I have now made it very easy for you to locate jv giveaway events, just proceed to this site below and you’ll see all of them at one place:

http://www.giveawayalert.blogspot.com/

I just repeat the same process again and again to collect more sign-ups along the way. Just rinse and repeat! It’s so simple, you can do it too. All you need is to put things into action.

Try this one out, you will enjoy it.

*********************************************
The Biggest Course On Internet Marketing
Internet Marketing Explained
*********************************************

If you’ve purchased numerous marketing courses, then you’ll love this. Even if you haven’t, I’m about to save you a lot of time, energy and money.

Arguably one of the greatest all time marketers on the internet has just released his “masterpiece”.

Internet Marketing Explained

• It’s over 54 hours of audio.

• Over 900 pages, front and back of detailed instructions.

• And it’s taken over 13 months to produce.

This course is easily the most comprehensive package on how to succeed online ever
produced, by anyone. You owe it to yourself to take a closer look.

Enjoy!

Hilmy

P.S  The course is a detailed outline of the strategies one man used to build a business that last year did $15 million dollars in revenue.

Find out how here: Internet Marketing Explained