Michael Campbell has released the latest ‘Internet Marketing Secrets’ newsletter. The featured article is titled “How to Write a Press Release… The New Way”. [Newsletter Reprint]


Michael Campbell’s latest ‘Internet Marketing Secrets’ newsletter is reprinted here.

Internet Marketing Secrets

Issue #126 – July 12 2007

In this Issue:

1) New Ways to Bypass Squeeze Pages
2) A Search Engine to Heir Google’s Throne
3) Show and Tell, Putting Videos to Work
4) How to Brand Videos with Affiliate Links
5) Finding Real Wholesalers and Dropshippers
6) To Incorporate or Remain a Proprietorship
7) Are You a Hedgehog or Fox in Your Market
8) How to Write a Press Release the New Way

All this and a lot more in this issue of IMS. Enjoy!

INTERNET MARKETING & SEARCH ENGINE NEWS

Bypassing Squeeze Pages

I don’t mind trading an email addy for something of value. If someone is offering an hour long audio, a how-to video, an ebook, or something worthwhile, I’m ok with it.

What bugs me, are people that use squeeze pages, for a sales letter. Gee, how convenient. I have to give personal info, just to get sold to.

If you’re sick and tired of it, like I am, here are two tips, to help you bypass those pesky squeeze pages.

The first trick I wrote about once before. It’s a service called 10 Minute Mail. You get a disposable email addy that self destructs in 10 minutes.

10 Minute Email ==> http://www.10minutemail.com

The second is a little more involved, but you can do it right from your browser.

In Firefox choose Page Info from under the Tools menu. (View menu in SeaMonkey.) Then click on the Forms tab. Look for the Field Name called redirect. Enter this url into your browser to bypass the squeeze.

So if you’d rather go straight to the sales letter and not be squeezed, try looking for the redirect page. It doesn’t always work but it’s worth checking. If it’s not there, no worries. The 10 minute email works every time.

Then, if it turns out to be something of value, and you want to receive further communications from this person, go ahead and resubscribe with your real address.

New Search Engine to Heir Google’s Throne

There’s a new search kid on the block that uses natural language processing, to try and understand, what it is, that you’re truly searching for.

It searches for the meanings of words, instead of keywords. So the words themselves, don’t even need to appear on the web page.

Their goal is to make search more natural and intuitive. To parse your query and attempt to match it, to every sentence, of every web page, across the entire internet. They aim to provide the highest quality results. Even better than Google.

One things for sure, it’s going to take a whole lot of computing power to pull it off. But thanks to Moore’s Law, it’s finally a reality.

Keep your eyes open for Powerset Natural Language Search, which officially launches this September. Or if you prefer, go sign up for the Alpha testing.

If they invite you to come on board, you’ll get to “train” the search engine and give your feedback on what is likely to be “the future of search.”

Future Search ==> http://www.powerset.com

Blogging to the Bank 2.0

Rob Benwell has released the sequel to his successful blogging formula. At the age of 22, Rob has accumulated wisdom beyond his years and shares his insights, into what’s working in today’s blogging market.

Without the use of automated tools, Rob takes you though all the steps necessary to generate a decent living through your blogs. You’ll learn about picking a niche, doing the research, producing the content, promoting the blog and getting the traffic.

This far beyond a scheme or short-term tactic. It is a blueprint for long-term success. (Just one of Rob’s blogs earns nearly 4K per month.)

So if you are blogging, and it’s not profitable, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be. Perhaps you just need the right advice. Then you could be Blogging to the Bank.

Want Profitable Blogging? ==> http://www.cdzn.com/btb

Show and Tell, Put Video to Work

It’s the dawning of a new “wireless” video era. Thanks to Apple TV and the iPhone, you can now watch YouTube and other videos, on your widescreen TV, cell phone, or video iPod. This means “home made” video just became a whole lot more popular, viral and important.

The days of watching and listening to what you want, when you want, are rapidly closing upon us. One day soon, children will be asking, “Did they have network TV when you were a kid?”

It’s a funny feeling when I can sit on the couch in the living room, and have content streamed to my TV from the computer in the office. If you can put something in iTunes, you can watch it on TV in the next room. All you need is the Apple TV and an Airport Extreme wireless base station.

This means I don’t have to sit in front of the computer, to watch and review training videos from content providers. It also means watching less regular TV, and having more “self directed” entertainment.

And it’s not just amateurs on YouTube and Google. Video is everywhere. There are hour long comedy acts. All sorts of documentaries, cooking shows, home improvements tips, how things work, and how to make things work type videos.

My favorite has to be accidental infomercial… Indulge me here, and let me entertain you on a short visual journey.

It was a rare moment when I found myself watching a medical show on TV. I spotted a piece of equipment that I’d seen many times before.

I didn’t know the trade lingo, but knew it was some kind of an agitator. (Researchers, medical and crime labs often need to agitate solutions.) It’s a big piece of gear, where you load up the glass jars and it shakes them as long as you want.

Two things came to mind. This thing looks expensive. And I wonder if there’s an affiliate program so I can sell it. I looked it up on Google, and found myself watching several videos on medical lab equipment.

It was just a regular guy, with no acting experience, he simply explained… “This big unit can hold up to a dozen quart sized jars. It comes with different size racks for different sized jars.”

“It can heat or cool, plus or minus 1/10 of a degree. The racks are removable, and the walls are made of inert material, so it’s easy to clean and sterilize.”

He switched it on and closed the door to demonstrate how quiet it was. Then he smiled and said, “It even comes with a built in shipping pallet, so a forklift can move it, wherever you want. It’s portable.”

Now… if I was in the market for this product, I just learned everything that I needed to know, to make a purchasing decision. What a perfect video… and it lasted less than four minutes.

Do you have product you’re trying to sell? Imagine making a short infomercial, to demonstrate its features and benefits.

You could show-off the goods to your prospects and existing customers. You could help people make a purchasing decision and sell a lot more units.

While you’re at it, why not start an affiliate program, if you don’t already have one? Your affiliates become your sales force and can use the video to extend your market reach, which leads to additional sales and traffic.

Like I said at the beginning, this is the dawning of a new era. Not just video. But wireless video, internet everywhere, and it’s always on. So get out that camera… you learned how to do it in kindergarten… it’s time for show and tell.

How to Brand Video with Affiliate Links

Video branding is a really good idea. I know for a fact that the better you demonstrate a product, the more sales and commissions you get.

But usually it means bugging the publisher (the product’s creator) for a custom affiliate page, or my own branded version of the video. Usually it never happens, or I have to wait days or weeks, until they finally get around to it.

Thankfully, those days are over. With Affiliate Video Brander, I can use the publisher’s video to create my own branded video. I don’t need to host it or stream it. And it automatically redirects to the publisher’s sales letter – or any page of my choice – when the video is over.

A word of caution though… Never use the Brander to steal commissions. Use it only on videos where you have express, or implied, permission to do so. In other words, use it only as an affiliate of a publisher, retailer or manufacturer.

Ok, that said… I can see this tool being really handy when a publisher’s server is too slow for my liking. I can brand the video and host it on my server or LibSyn instead.

But where the Brander really shines, is where a video describes a product like software, or anything involving technology. That’s because video is finally catching on with the mainstream, and we’ve got institutions like, medical equipment manufacturers, producing online video, to showcase their products.

By branding the video, and putting my clickable link on a product, I can help the publisher, or manufacturer, get a lot more reach and exposure from their video. I’ll also help them get a lot more sales, and expand their customer base as a result.

Affiliate Video Brander is a win-win solution for everyone. As a publisher, you can give affiliates a powerful selling tool. As affiliates, you can take the publisher’s videos and use them as your own preselling tools.

If you are selling anything online, either as a publisher, or an affiliate, this cool tool – and a few minutes of video – will help you sell more, of whatever it is, that you’re trying to sell.

Get the Video Brander ==> http://www.cdzn.com/avb

Incorporate or Remain a Proprietorship

I just realized that I’m writing this on the seventh day, of the seventh month, in the seventh year… 070707. On top of that, my corporation is seven years old today.

Should you incorporate? It’s a question that I get asked nearly every week. There’s an entire chapter on the benefits of incorporating in Clickin’ it Rich.

Download Clickin’ ==> http://www.cdzn.com/fun

But if you don’t feel like downloading it, and reading it, let me ask you a simple question. Would you rather be in a 35% or a 17% tax bracket?

Or in other words, if you earned 100K per year, how much would you rather pay in tax, 35K or 17K? It’s a difference of 18,000 dollars.

Your results will vary depending on where you live. But no matter where you live, incorporating might save you a lot of coin in the first year alone.

You’ll need two professionals to pull this one off. Don’t try and do this yourself. Ask your friends, or consult the local associations, to find a lawyer, and an accountant, that specialize in small business.

Even if you’re only making five thousand per month in affiliate revenue. Incorporate right from the start. Keep your finances and records clean, and separate from your personal ones, and you’ll never have to worry about them.

Incorporating a company costs about 500 dollars. Then the filing fees and annual report costs, are about 500 per year after that.

Don’t worry if you don’t know how to file a report, or have annual meetings. That’s what the lawyer does for you. All you need to do, is sign two pieces of paper, once a year and that’s it. She does all the rest.

An accountant will cost about 1,000 dollars per year. For that amount, she will work with the lawyer, to secure all the necessary documents for your files. Do your yearly taxes. And offer financial advice.

These two professionals will cost you, about 1,500 per year. But they can save you 18,000 per year… remember? How can they do that? By playing within the corporate rules.

Paying yourself a low salary and collect the rest of your wages in dividends. You can also pay your spouse. This ‘income splitting” can pay for all the household needs. You can also maximize your retirement funds.

The corporation can also deduct everything as an expense. All the consumables like mobile phone air time, internet access, training materials, and travel to seminars. All the assets like computers, software and office furniture.

But don’t even think about dividends, income splitting, consumables or deductions. Your account and lawyer, look after all these things for you.

So yes, I highly recommend that you incorporate. Don’t even concern yourself how to do it. Just go get an accountant. Then get the lawyer. (Your accountant might refer one.) And start saving a lot more of your earnings.

Incorporating is one of the smartest things that you can do. And one of the most profitable over the long term. You’ll save year after year.

For the sake of example, lets say my company is now seven years old. Multiply those seven years by 18K per year in savings. That’s 126,000 dollars I’ve saved, by playing within the corporate rules.

Your government has given you a rule book. Are you playing the game to the max?

Get professionals on your team, and you’ll be surprised, how quickly things turn in your favor. And instead of just playing the game, you start winning the game instead.

Finding Wholesalers and Dropship Companies

Many of you know that I spent a couple of years, as marketing director for a major online retailer. Besides marketing, their biggest challenge wasn’t finding suppliers… they’re everywhere. It was finding real authentic wholesalers.

Forget about using the search engines. They, and the PPC ads, and the directories, are full of middlemen, acting as if they represent the manufacturers. In reality, they are just buying from someone else, marking up the goods, leaving smaller margins for you.

It takes weeks, sometimes months of legwork to find the real wholesaler. And when you finally do, the profit margins can be huge. I’m talking double or triple of what you were making before.

Fortunately – these days – there is a directory of real wholesalers, that is staffed, and managed by professionals. They attend the trade shows, ink the deals, do the market research, and secure the supply stream, so you can avoid doing that work yourself.

You’ve probably heard of the name, World Wide Brands, but you may not know about their product called OneSource. It’s a low one-time fee, and you get unlimited lifetime access, to their product sourcing, and marketing research tool.

It doesn’t matter if you’re into eBay, auctions, liquidations, online retailing, or dropshipping, and just want a storefront, without having to touch the physical inventory. There are thousands of wholesalers to choose from… and they’re all in the OneSource catalog.

So if you’re looking for wholesale goods, and I mean real wholesale products – without amy of the middlemen – then OneSource, has everything you’ll need, to find products.

Take the OneSource Tour ==> http://www.cdzn.com/wwb

INTERNET MARKETING AND SEO FAQs

The Hedgehog and the Fox

Question: I saw a fascinating show on PBS the other night. But I can’t remember what it was called. The guy was talking about hedgehogs and foxes in business.

It was the story behind companies like Starbucks, how they became successful, and evolved into great cultural icons. Do you know which show I’m talking about? I’d love to know more about it.

Answer: Yes, I saw it to. The show was called “From Good to Great” or something like that.

The hedgehog and the fox, is actually an ancient Greek aphorism by Archilochus. It simply states, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”

It became popular through an essay by Isaiah Berlin, where he divided the world into two types of thinkers… hedgehogs and foxes, based upon the ancient parable.

The fox is sneaky, and always trying to scheme up new ways. Their world is complex, always on the move, and they never tend to focus on a single unifying theory.

The hedgehog is simple. They organize the world into a single unifying concept. The fox, for all his cunning, is defeated by the hedgehog’s one defense.

According to Isaiah Berlin’s essay, “There exists a great chasm between those, on one side, who relate everything to a single central vision… and, on the other side, those who pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory… The first kind of intellectual and artistic personality belongs to the hedgehogs, the second to the foxes.”

In short, hedgehogs set goals, and they have systems by which they accomplish things. Foxes, tend to go off in all directions, without a methodology, goals, or systems to achieve success.

When applied to a business, it means “Know Your Self” and your core competencies. Have a well defined culture. A vision. Know who you are. What you are about. And what you are trying to achieve.

Plan Your Way to Success with Goal Setting Activities: http://www.internetmarketingsecrets.com/125/goals.html

The concept was widely popularized by Jim Collins’ #1 best seller, “Good to Great.” Why some companies make the leap… and others don’t.

According to Jim, “Those who built the good-to-great companies were, to one degree or another, hedgehogs. They used their hedgehog nature, to drive toward what we came to call, a Hedgehog Concept, for their companies.”

“Those who led the comparison companies, tended to be foxes, never gaining the clarifying advantage, of a Hedgehog Concept, being instead, scattered, diffused, and inconsistent.”

It’s fascinating stuff. But unfortunately, the theories in this work and others like Earl Nightingale’s “The Strangest Secret” are often repackaged, retold, resold and touted by many direct marketers, as if they invented them.

My advice to bypass the marketing crowd, and avoid second hand knowledge. Go straight to the source. Set up your own personal library, of business books, audio and video recordings.

Get the Good to Great audio, and rip it to your iPod. Then let your ears feast on this wisdom, while you drive, workout, or walk in the park. And while you’re at it, mix in a few classics like Earl Nightingale’s “Lead the Field” and Jim Rohn’s “Art of Exceptional Living.”

Successful people never get tired of learning. And being in audio, you can listen as many times as you like. Slide this wisdom into your brain, and it won’t be long before your little hedgehog, is leading the field, with an exceptional life.

Pay Per Action Affiliate Programs

Question: Hey Michael, I just finished reading your newsletter this morning, and one of the topics that stood out for me, was Gauher Chaudhry’s course.

I read your commits about it, and I am interested in the course. I wonder if you would be able to shed a little more light on it, based on your experience using the course, and applying his techniques.

Answer: Sure… the gist of it is… to set up offers on landing pages. They are PPA (pay per action), so it’s not like a normal affiliate program. People don’t have to buy anything, in order for you to get paid.

To get a trial pack of some product, people fill out their name and address, and you get paid for convincing them to take that action. They then click off to the publisher’s site, and off of yours.

It sounds simple enough, and it is. You can get paid for something as small as a zip code. Or you can take up a few notches.

What Gauher does, is apply direct marketing techniques, to people that have never seen them before. He attempts to collect the email addy for himself, so he can send a series of followup autoresponders, with related offers on them.

He also shows more than one offer on the same landing page. Very often, people will sign up for both offers, from two different companies, and he gets paid for both. Then, he has a pop-under, which means a lot of people sign up for a third offer.

Then, a couple of days later, and a few more after that, the email start coming from the autoresponder. He then sends the prospect to another page, with a couple of related offers. Needless to say, he can take one click and make the most of it.

What I did, was take my marketing background, which is years of writing and designing advertising collateral for print. I added Perry Marshall’s PPC wisdom, which is how to advertise using Google, AdBrite and other pay per click, or “classified” type ads.

Perry’s PPC Coaching ==> http://www.cdzn.com/pmc

Perry’s PPC Seminar ==> http://www.cdzn.com/pmt

Then, I sprinkled on Gauher’s techniques, of applying direct marketing tactics to the general public, who haven’t seen the likes of pop-unders, mulitple offers and autoresponders before.

Gauher’s PPC Formula ==> http://www.cdzn.com/ppc

It’s a sales process, or conversion funnel… whatever you want to call it. How well you do, depends on how good your process is, and how big your market is.

If you can consistently generate a 400% return on your advertising dollar… try and reach as many people as your budget allows.

Then, return the profits back into your business and repeat the process. It’s a proven path to success.

FEATURE ARTICLE

How to Write a Press Release… The New Way

You can get the word out, about any new web site, paper, article, or event, with a press release. And the fun part is, it’s like releasing a balloon filled with helium. You never know how high and far, this one little effort will travel.

Hey… Wait a sec… Where you going… Don’t stop reading now… This is fun and easy to do. It’s not at all like the old days. Everything has changed… and here’s why:

Once upon a time, the press release had to be news, or at least newsworthy. There were very few media outlets available. There was a finite amount of space, in the newspapers and broadcasts. You had to have a significant event, to get noticed and published.

Thanks to the internet, those days are long behind us. Press releases get read from PR sites, newsfeeds and blogs. They are pushed out to the masses via RSS feeds, where fresh eyeballs are willing to subscribe, and read topics they are interested in.

So what I’m telling you… is to forget everything, you’ve ever learned, about press releases. The old school rules no longer apply, even if the crusty old gatekeepers hate to admit it.

The audience has expanded from just a handful of journalists – whom used to control the space – into millions of consumers with internet connections. From now on… people are in charge of what they consider to be newsworthy. Not the mainstream media.

Smart marketers are using press releases, to talk directly to buyers and consumers. And the release can be on any topic that you choose.

Don’t wait for something big to happen. Send press releases all the time.

The purpose is not to get some newspaper phoning you up for an interview – but it’s a bonus when it does happen. It’s to help get exposure on any topic that you choose. It’s also a way to increase the amount of permanent backlinks to your site.

Now lets talk about the search engines. You can pepper the press release with keyword rich copy. You can optimize the headline and synopsis for findability.

You can send visitors straight to a landing page and provide a deep link into your site. And depending on the service, you might even get social bookmarking and tags included, as part of the deal.

Are you… Publishing a white paper, newsletter, podcast or ebook? Creating a new web site, how-to, course, CD, DVD or online video?

Are you… Holding an event, show, seminar, summit or conference? Are you, or your boss, speaking at, or attending an event as a guest of honor?

Have you… Modified a product, created a new one, have a new twist on an old idea. Did you win an award, get a new customer, or get mentioned in the press?

If the answer is yes, to any of the above… write a press release. And just like that little helium filled balloon, you never know how high, far, and fast it will travel… or where it will end up.

Recently I spent 250 dollars on a press release. So far, the headline made over 83,000 impressions. The full press release, was read over 2,400 times.

Best of all I’ve already received 294 new customers. That’s a mere .85 cents per customer acquisition cost.

And I got all this – at the time of this writing – in just 18 short days. And the best part, it’s still growing… it’s like that little balloon, floating higher and further, up and away into the webosphere.

(Update: After 32 days, it’s now 3,062 reads, 377 new subscribers. Only 66 cents to acquire each new subscriber. Now that is a great return on investment. 🙂

Where will your press release take you?
—
Legal stuff…

Copyright 2006 Dynamic Media Corporation. All rights reserved world wide. All trademarks and servicemarks are property of their respective owners.

The information contained in this newsletter is the opinion of the author based on his personal observations and years of experience. Neither the author or publisher assume any liability whatsoever for the use of or inability to use any or all of the information contained in this publication. Use this information at your own risk.

Privacy Policy: I never sell, rent, trade or lend any information about my subscribers to anyone, for any reason, whatsoever. I assure you that your privacy is respected and well protected.
—
Michael Campbell

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Did you like this newsletter? Now you can get the same ideas the pro’s use, including tips, tricks and sneaky strategies, when you subscribe to Michael Campbell’s Internet Marketing Secrets Newsletter. Subscribe now and get two of Michael’s best-selling ebooks “Clickin’ it Rich” and “Revenge of the Mininet” as bonuses, just for signing up.

*IMNewswatch would like to thank Michael Campbell for granting permission to reprint the latest newsletter.

 

 

 

 

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