Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category

My buddy, Michael Kiernan, has just launched his new blog on a subject that’s very near and dear to me – heart health.

Like me, Michael has a heart condition – though his is more severe than mine.

2 months ago, Michael died on a NY subway train… and stayed dead for 25 minutes. He was brought back to life through a combination of God’s grace, a good doctor sitting next to him (totally by chance) on the train, and a defib unit at the station.

Rather than sit around and whine about having a heart problem, he’s decided to do something about it and help others at the same time.

Michael’s new bog at http://healthyheartguy.com/blog/ is really cool… and I invite you to check out what he’s doing.

Make sure to watch the news video a local tv station did on him.

I’m really proud of Michael for doing this… so please check out his blog and tell him to keep up the great work!

Jim

Jim Edwards here with an article that details one of the
true "secrets" for succeeding online.

When I was starting out full time online some years ago, I
didn’t have anything: no list, no money (fresh out of
bankruptcy), no job.

I basically had a computer, Internet connection, some basic
skills, burning desire, and an idea for a product… that’s
it!

I quickly realized one of the things I desperately needed
was an email list (my own list) that I could develop a
relationship with and we could grow together.

Since buying a list was out of the question, I realized I
needed to "grow" one myself. (I found out later it was a
blessing in disguise, because any list you buy isn’t
NEARLY as good as one you "grow" yourself!)

So I used a technique to build that list which turned out to
be one of the best things ANYONE can do to succeed online…
I created a kick-butt "Mini-Course!"

In the article below, I lay out 5 tips that will help you
start down the same road I took by using simple email
messages loaded into an autoresponder… to generate tons
of subscribers and a flood of website traffic any time you
want it.

Enjoy!

Jim

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5 Tips To Create A Kick-Butt Mini-Course
That Pulls In Thousands of Rabid Subscribers!

© Jim Edwards – All Rights Reserved
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One of the fastest ways to develop, build, and grow your own
list of subscribers is to develop a "mini" course with an
incredibly compelling promise. 

I have personally used "mini" courses to build lists of
several thousand subscribers in as little as a week. 

A "mini" course is simply a series of e-mail’s where you
teach people a specific skill, set of skills, or reveal
other information they really want to know. 

In the process of providing this focused, valuable
information, you prove to your subscribers that you are THE
expert in a particular area – and, you also encourage people
to pay you to get even BETTER information from ebooks and
information products you’ve either written or recommend.
 
An example of a "mini" course offer I’ve used with great
success is the free mini course at www.7dayebook.com that
appears in the exit pop up window when you leave the site.

The promise of this "mini" course is strong and compelling.
Here’s what it says…

         FREE eBook Mini-Course
         "How to Write and Profit from your own eBook…
         while you’re still young enough to enjoy it!"

All the registration page asks for is first name and email
address… and this mini-course has generated thousands of
subscribers!

So here’s the basic formula in a nutshell:
Strong promise+ low risk + high perceived reward = Subscribers

Now, if you’d like to build your own list of rabid
subscribers, here are 5 sure-fire tips for creating a mini-
course that truly kicks butt!

Tip #1 – The Promise

If you want to launch a successful mini-course, target an
audience with a specific need and then make them the biggest
possible promise you can deliver on.

People are pressed for time and rarely see as much value in
something they get for free as opposed to something they pay
a lot of money for.

Add to this the fact that the Internet gets more and more
crowded everyday and you can see that the best offers are
the ones that grab people’s attention by making a benefit-
driven promise they can’t resist.

Even though you offer your mini-course for free, you still
must SELL people on WHY they should pay you with their time
and attention.

Example: If you want to do a mini-course on real estate
investing, look for the biggest and best promise you can
make for people.

Let’s look at these various promises for identical mini-
course content:

Good: How to make a fortune in foreclosures.

Better: How to find and buy a profitable foreclosure within
2 weeks.

Best: How to find and buy a profitable foreclosure property
in your area within 2 weeks – using none of your own money!

** The promise you make has everything to do with whether or
not people sign up. IMPORTANT: After they sign up, make sure
you deliver on the promise.

Tip #2 – Don’t reinvent the wheel

Look for existing content – your own or other people’s – you
can adapt directly or indirectly into the mini-course.

Hey, I understand you’re busy… I’m busy too!

Why would you want to spend 2 days coming up with all the
content for your mini-course if you already have past
information you can adapt!?

If you don’t have any existing material, then find someone
else who has written an article and use that for part of
your mini-course – with their *permission* of course!

You’d be surprised at all the pieces of the puzzle that are
out there independently which you could combine into a great
mini-course without nearly the mountain of effort you might
expect.

Tip #3 – Give yourself lots of chances to make money

One way to build more value into your mini-course and make
sure people hang onto your messages instead of deleting them
is to put lots of quality links into your mini-course.

This allows people to get additional information on specific
aspects of the mini-course.

Some of those links can be to free resources, others to
resources where you earn an affiliate commission, and still
others to your own products and services.

The more links you have that actually contribute to your
students learning the subject of your mini-course and
fulfilling the promise you made to get them to sign up, the
better your chances of them clicking those links.

If you create lessons people save for future reference
because they have great links in them, you’ll make more
money!

For an example look no further than your "in-box"! Almost
everybody has email messages they’ve saved from other people
because they contain links to sites you want to use now or
access in the future.
 

Tip #4 – Build anticipation for the next message

If you’re going to take the time to put together the mini-
course, wouldn’t it be great of the majority of people who
subscribed actually read your messages!?

If you want to launch a successful mini-course, you’ve got
to rise ABOVE the noise of all the other email messages
people receive every single day.

One way to do this is to always end each lesson with a small
"ad" or excitement builder for the next message. You do this
by really playing up a big benefit they’ll receive as a
result of reading the next message you promise to send them.

Here’s an example:

"The next and final installment in this mini-course will
give you five tips for how to get 10,000 visitors to your
website without spending a dime on pay-per-click traffic! So
stay tuned for the next lesson in 2 days…"

It’s a simple, yet very powerful way to build anticipation
for the next message into EVERY message you send.

This simple step helps make them look forward to the next
message so it gets read… not trashed!

Tip #5 – Tell them what they don’t know!

If you’re using the mini-course to promote a product that
covers a much "bigger picture" of the topic as a whole,
constantly remind people that the mini-course is just a
"tiny piece" of the whole product.

Remind them of what else they need to know and tell them if
they buy the product then they’ll get this benefit, and that
benefit, and even more specific information.

Remember, you didn’t publish this mini-course to practice
your typing skills! You are in this to make money, to get
subscribers, and to make sales!

Once you deliver quality content that gives people a real
taste of what’s in store when they actually purchase, then
it’s time to close the sale… you deserve it!

–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website or affiliate links…

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links?
"Turn Words Into Traffic" reveals the secrets for driving
Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate
links… without spending a dime on advertising!
Click Here> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Jim Edwards here with an article and video that will save
you a TON of time and effort between now and the end of
summer!

 "Free ‘Short-Keys’ Save You 5-10 hours typing per week!"

 => http://coolsiteweekly.com/free-short-keys.html

Do you spend a lot of time on email or other repetitive
typing activities?

Want to cut down the time you spend on email by 90% or more?

I’ve just published an article and video for my newspaper
column that should get you really excited!

In this "Cool Site Weekly" article and video I reveal the
FREE program everyone in my office uses to save time and
avoid mistakes when typing emails and responding to customer
service inquiries.

Why is this software so cool?

#1 – It’s free!

#2 – It eliminates wasted time typing the text over & over!

… We LOVE this software!

=> http://coolsiteweekly.com/free-short-keys.html

This article will help you save a lot of time you can use to
build your business… instead of practicing your typing
skills!

To your success,

Jim Edwards

PS – The software, article and video are all free… and
they’ll save you a TON of time… check it out now…

While you’re on my blog, feel free to comment about the
video, software and article

=> http://coolsiteweekly.com/free-short-keys.html

Jim Edwards here with an article (below) I think you’ll
really enjoy.

It’s about 5 rules of online business that apply to
EVERYONE from small mom-and-pop’s to giant multi-national
corporation.

Violate one of these rules and you can guarantee a business
will fail… but, if you abide by them, your business is
virtually guaranteed to succeed faster than by any other
method!

By the way…

Greg Cesar and I are doing a FREE webinar on Thursday
where, among other things, we’re going to reveal a NEW
*search engine* that’s getting millions of views by real
buyers, but 99.9999% of people know NOTHING about it!

This new traffic source could revolutionize your business,
but you have to be on the FREE webinar to find out what it
is and how you can start using it…

Sign up for the FREE Webinar here:

http://www.webinarking.com/googletruth/

Have a great day and enjoy the article (below)

Jim

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5 No Loophole "Rules" For Online Business 2.0

- by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Not too long ago I taught an intensive 2-day workshop in
London, England about operating your own profitable online
info-publishing business on a shoestring budget.

As I stood in front of that crowd almost 5,000 miles from
home, I realized (yet again) that the Internet represents
the great business equalizer of the 21st century.

Anyone with a great idea and the guts and patience to
persevere and act on their ideas can succeed online, often
beating out much larger companies that can’t adapt quickly
enough to prosper or profit.

I also realized while standing in front of those students
that despite arguments to the contrary, people all over the
world buy and sell online for exactly the same reasons.

Anyone who tells you that "My market is different" or "It
doesn’t work that way in my country" never learned the
basic rules for selling online.

Bottom line: Anyone selling anything online – regardless of
their location on planet Earth – must obey the following
"rules" of online business or risk many heartaches and,
ultimately, an empty wallet.

** Target Your Audience Carefully **

What exactly do your customers want and what words do they
use to describe the products and services they will
purchase?

What are their TOP 10 problems / concerns / desires?

Your entire business should center around this list!

Don’t assume you know how and what they want to buy – ask
them!

From this research you will determine the "keywords" your
customers will use to find your business while surfing and
using search engines and sites like Amazon or eBay.

You should then focus completely on these keywords while
constructing your entire web presence, blogs, product
titles, advertising campaigns, article titles, and more.

** Focus Your Website Content **

Your website should center exclusively on those issues
directly related to what you sell online.

If you sell "purple widgets" then only write about the
characteristics, features and benefits of using your purple
widgets.

Take great care in your copy writing to keep your text
focused on one subject per web page and make liberal use of
your keywords and their synonyms.

Constructing your "mini sites" and "landing pages" in this
manner will aid you greatly in keeping people focused on
your sales message long enough to make a buying decision.

Structuring your communications this way will also help you
with favorable search engine placement.

** Consistent Targeted Traffic! **

A website without visitors rates the same as designing and
constructing a 30-foot billboard and then hiding it in your
basement instead of setting it by the highway.

Don’t fall victim to traffic scams which promise thousands
of visitors for only $100.

Those schemes don’t work because the traffic isn’t targeted.

http://AdWords.Google.com makes the best place to start
getting targeted visitors because you only pay for the
visitors you actually receive (pay-per-click), not for the
ads you run.

Also, search Google for your main keywords, see which blogs
and niche-related sites appear. Look at those sites and
target the ones selling advertising to merchants like you.

You can often get significant amounts of good converting
traffic by running ads on targeted websites (and this
strategy is ignored by the VAST majority of online business
owners).

** Always Build Relationships **

Successful online businesses build relationships with their
customers and prospects.

You can only do this if you stay in touch with them through
value-added mailings, emails, and updates.

Online businesses whose only communication involves
repeated "pitches" or opportunities to spend money don’t
do well in the long haul.

A group of loyal customers and subscribers will sustain an
online business owner much longer than a fat advertising
budget ever could.

No matter what kind of online business you operate, you can
keep in touch with articles, updates, videos, info-snippets,
and more!

** Things Change – Use It To Your Advantage **

Understand that creating a successful online business
requires commitment to a process of constant promotion and
continuous education.

You must stay current on cost-effective promotion
techniques for driving traffic to your site as well as any
factors specifically affecting your market online.

The great news is that, as things change, you and your
business can become the focal point and trusted resource
customers turn to (and buy from) for years to come!

–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website, affiliate links, or blogs…

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links?
"Turn Words Into Traffic" reveals the secrets for driving
Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate
links… without spending a dime on advertising!
Click Here> http://www.TurnWordsIntoTraffic.com
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

© Guaranteed Response Marketing, LLC

Jim Edwards here with a Tuesday morning article for all
my loyal customers and subscribers in good standing (that’s
you!)

This article (below) is about the 3 (and only 3) reliable
ways to get traffic when you’re first getting started
online (either your first business or a new niche).

Forget all the rubbish — this article explains traffic once
and for all!

Jim

PS – Have you registered for Thusday’s free event yet?

       Free Webinar Reveals  the Step-By-Step
       "Membership Site P.R.O.F.I.T. Formula"
             Anyone Can Use To Create
         Unlimited Recurring Monthly Income
          With Your Own Membership Sites!…

Grab your seat here while you still can:
=> http://www.webinarking.com/member-site-formulas.html

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"3 Fastest Ways To Get Traffic To
     Any Website or Blog" v2.0

- by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.TheJimBoat.com

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

After all the debate over website design, shopping carts
and credit card processors, every website owner eventually
comes to the startling realization that they need one more
thing to survive: website traffic!

But not just any traffic – they need *targeted* traffic.

In other words, they need people who are interested NOW in
what they sell or offer and are actively looking for more
information right now.

      SIDE NOTE: Here are two key concepts to burn into
      your brain when it comes to traffic:

      1. Immediacy – they want it now (not later).

      2. Relevancy – what they see must be exactly what
         they are looking for, or they’ll keep looking.

Without targeted website traffic it’s the same as building
an expensive billboard and, instead of placing it alongside
a busy highway, hiding it in your *basement* where nobody
can see it.

Upon realizing they need traffic, most website owners run
out and start blowing chunks of money and time trying to
get "hits," but they fail to grasp that there are really
only three (3) reliable ways to get traffic to any website.

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Method #1: BUY Traffic
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The fastest way to get traffic to any website is simply to
BUY it!

The fastest way to buy it is to use the little classified
ads on the right side of search giant Google’s results
pages.

Called Google AdWords, the system allows any advertiser to
open an account with a small activation fee and start
seeing their ads appear on Google within about 15 minutes.

Advertisers only pay when visitors actually click through
from their ad on Google to their website or affiliate link.

But here is where most people stop! Somehow Google got
people to think the ONLY place you buy traffic is from
Google (good for Google, bad for website owners).

In fact, you can BUY traffic from numerous different
sources if you know where to look.

Let’s look at a just a few other places you can look to buy
ads to drive traffic:

1. Yahoo! also sells traffic by the click.
You can find out more here
http://sem.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/searchenginemarketing/

2. MSN also sells pay-per-click (ppc) traffic here:
https://adcenter.microsoft.com/

3. Here’s one I bet you didn’t know about! *Amazon* even
sells pay-per-click traffic through www.clickriver.com.
These are very targeted ads that appear in front of serious
buyers.

4. You can also buy advertising on dozens of other pay-per-
click search engines. Log on to
www.payperclicksearchengines.com for a list of hundreds
ranked by market penetration.

All ppc engines follow the same basic model of only
charging advertisers for targeted visitors who read an ad
based on a keyword search and actually click through for
more information.

A word to the wise on pay-per-click advertising: Watch your
costs and track and measure everything.

Even though you can get traffic for as little as a penny,
you should track your results by search engine and by
individual keyword if you want maximum success.

Many a company has lost its entire advertising budget at a
nickel or a dime per click by not watching their conversion
rates and continuing to pour money into keywords that don’t
convert… while neglecting the keywords that do bring
sales (mainly because they don’t know which is which!).

However, don’t make the mistake of thinking your only paid
traffic sources can come from pay-per-click search engines.

You can also buy ads on blogs and other targeted sites,
either through ad networks or by negotiating directly with
the sites.

http://www.blogads.com makes a great place to start your
research for additional blog ad opportunities.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Method #2: BORROW Traffic
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If you need traffic to a website, then borrow it from
people who already have it… especially people with lists
of loyal subscribers or traffic from search engines,
affiliates, or other steady sources.

"Endorsed Mailings" and "Reciprocal Linking" by other
people represent the two fastest ways to borrow someone
else’s traffic.

If they maintain a list of subscribers, convince them to
send an email out to their people telling them why they
should check out your site.

Also, negotiate a prominent link on their web pages to
siphon off targeted visitors who find their website.

Often the best way to persuade someone to do this involves
paying them a commission, agreeing to do a similar mailing
to your own list, or providing a link to them on your site
(or a combination of all three).

Imagine how much traffic you could get if someone with a
list of 10,000 loyal subscribers told their people to go
look at your website! It happens all the time… so why not
make it happen for you!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Method #3: BUILD Traffic
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If you don’t want to pay for traffic, and you don’t have
any friends with lists, building traffic makes a great
option. Building traffic means you use targeted content to
create targeted traffic.

Let’s look at the 3 fastest ways to build traffic.

~ Article Marketing – Publish articles on specific topics
of interest to your target market. Content drives the
Internet (ever heard the term "Information Super-Highway")
and both consumers and publishers need a constant stream of
new content. Once you publish an article, you can include a
link to your website or blog in the "resource" box to drive
visitors to your site for more information.

This technique rates so effective that you can even use one
of several services to announce your articles to thousands
of website and blog publishers who *want* to publish topic-
specific articles and will link back to you.

~ Blogs – Both search engines and Web surfers love blogs
because they can get updated, relevant content quickly.
Blogs also create a great potential source of revenue for
you because you can run ads for your own products on your
own blog.

~ Social Media – Sites like Twitter and Facebook can drive
large amounts of traffic if you take the time to build up a
following and provide excellent, relevant content people in
your target market value and want.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
BONUS (Expert)
Method #4: "RECYCLE" Traffic
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The most economical way to get traffic involves turning
one-time visitors into regular, repeat visitors that you
direct to multiple sites over time.

You do this by pulling website visitors into your sphere of
influence by enticing them to sign up for your newsletter,
autoresponder sequence, or "mini-course."

Bottom line: instead of just getting one-time clicks, you
get people to sign up to your email list!

Then you keep in contact with regular articles, special
reports, and recommendations enticing them to visit your
own and other people’s websites.

Ultimately, every website owner should orient all of their
marketing efforts towards this end of developing a stream
of recycled traffic, because it costs the least and creates
the best return on time and money invested.

It doesn’t matter if you promote your own product, promote
only as an affiliate, or some combination of the two… if
you don’t recycle traffic and get more than one hit out of
each visitor, you’re making one of the biggest mistakes
anyone can make in online business.

– Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing ebook that will teach you how
to use free articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website or affiliate links…

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links?
"Turn Words Into Traffic" reveals the secrets for driving
Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate
links… without spending a dime on advertising!
Click Here> http://www.TurnWordsIntoTraffic.com
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

** Attn Ezine editors / Site owners **
Feel fr-e to reprint this article in its entirety
in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave
all links in place, do not modify the content and
include our resource box as listed above.

Feel fr-e to substitute your affiliate link in place of
our link in the resource box.

Earn up to 50% on every purchaser you refer!

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If you do use the material please send us a note
so we can take a look. Thanks.

© Guaranteed Response Marketing, LLC