December 4, 2012 by

Looking for Writers for a Survival Blog

I am looking for regular contributors for a new survival blog. You would be writing about massive flooding, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, doomsday events, martial law, electromagnetic pulse, zombies, biological attacks, and more. Choose what you write about. Articles are a 1,000 word minimum.

Contributors will get an author bio/signature to promote 2 links along with an additional set of links to their social media profiles and contact information if they wanted to provide it. You will receive a significant amount of traffic.

Interested parties should contact me right away.

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Filed Under: Traffic, Writing Tagged With: , , ,
November 1, 2012 by

I Am Bartering Again, for Guns This Time

Ok, so you know I barter services here and there. I am currently in the market for some guns. I am in Illinois and have a FOID card. I am getting ready for a possible zombie apocalypse and want to stock up while I can.

If you need website design, graphics, seo services, social media marketing, or coaching and consulting, contact me and let’s make a deal. I prefer handguns, and my wife prefers shotguns. I would also like some rifles.

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Filed Under: Bartering, Internet Marketing, Marketing, search engine optimization, Social Media Marketing, web design Tagged With: , , ,
October 30, 2012 by

The Darker Side of PLR

The main thing that holds people back is fear.  It isn’t that they do not have the ability to do something (anything IS achieveable), it is that they do not trust that they CAN do anything, and learn anything.

Many new Internet Marketers find this online world overwhelming.  They are often confused by conflicting information and lack the necessary basic understanding to take them forwards.  Not because they cannot learn, but because they have not found the right tutorial, teacher or teaching method.

One of the reasons for this is the plethora of people producing and selling products on topics they do not understand themselves.  This is the darker side of PLR.

It is too easy to buy a product that has PLR attached and take some simple steps to make it look a bit different from all the rest selling the same PLR product.  All you have to do is:

  • change the title,
  • create new cover graphics,
  • put your own name as the creator,
  • re-write the sales page.

You can then put it back on the market without ever having read it or understanding the content, and therefore not knowing if the method advocated actually works or not.  Some marketers don’t even make those basic changes before selling on.  They just buy a domain name and put the product straight back on the market.

How does any Internet Marketer tell the difference between genuine products that advocate proven methods and ones that are poorly produced and sold indiscriminately, especially when many of the testimonials are written without the writer having read or used the product either?

Many marketers create products that outline ‘proven methods of making money’ that are simply lies.  They are just ideas and the creator of the product has no proof that they work as they have never tested their theory on the open market.  They then give Private Label Rights (PLR) on their product, potentially creating a rush of buyers wanting to cash in on a pre-written document, and let other people sell it on without any verification of its feasability.  Once someone attaches an indication of potential earnings from the method to it then many buyers can be swayed into grabbing the product simply from the compelling sales page.

Of course the saving grace for all Internet Marketers is the money back guarantee offered through schemes such as Clickbank, but often once a product has been purchased this option is not taken up by the buyer, either because they don’t get round to actually looking closely at the product within the guarantee time frame, or they think it is themselves who are at fault rather than the method advocated.  This is particularly true of the new Internet Marketer who can feel quite daunted by technical wording and processes that they are unable to grasp at the beginning of their Internet Marketing career.

If you fall foul of this darker side of PLR use your right to ask for a refund before the guarantee runs out!

If you do use PLR products it is always best to assess the product thoroughly before you sell it on.  Don’t fall into the trap of selling poor quality or misleading products for the sake of saving a bit of time and getting something on the market.

In order to avoid the darker side of PLR you need to make all of your offerings stand out from the crowd.  The best way to do this is by having unique content.  Don’t throw any product you have obtained either through purchase or through a PLR membership site straight back onto the market without a serious re-write.

Look at the main thrust of the argument, the guiding theme of the product, and think about how you can present it in a different way.  Are there any glaring ommissions in the information offered?  Have you had an experience that would enahnce or illustrate the points being made?  Personal experiences are very valuable in your writing.  Your readers will see you as a real person they can identify with and will be more inclined to buy from you in the future if they think they know you.

In addition to the re-write don’t forget the other edits mentioned above – always:

  • change the graphics,
  • change the title,
  • re-write the sales page.

All of these steps will not only help the product to stand out against others that are selling the same PLR, but a good quality product will encourage your readers to come back to buy more.

And at the end of the day returning customers are your most valuable asset.  Don’t let the darker side of PLR tempt you into its shadows.

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October 29, 2012 by

5 Ways You Annoy Me in Social Networks

Today I log into Facebook and I am instantly hit with a stack of notifications. I scroll down and find the usual.

  • My sister’s birthday is today. I comment with a happy birthday and an elderly joke.
  • I see new comments on items I commented on, or items I liked.
  • I see people have shared some of my photos from my timeline.
  • Then I notice that TWO people tagged me in their photos.

Photo tagging has to be one of the worst Facebook features ever. I mean…it’s nice when you get tagged in a photo after you went to a party or some other event, but to get tagged in some stupid inspiration photo or an obvious advertisement just makes my blood boil. I instantly head towards the “remove tag” feature and I make sure to select the “REPORT SPAM” item at the same time. I do this in the hopes that the persons account will get restricted. It’s my way of revenge. People are always trying to take advantage of my name…my celebrity if you will. They want to get their crap on my wall in the hopes that they will get some traffic from it.

Social media is a great way to get traffic and a loyal following. You know where I stand if you have read this blog at all. It’s got a good function, but it also has an appropriate way to be used. There is a right way in social media marketing, and there is a wrong way. Unfortunately, most people use the wrong way. Let me break it down for you…

  • Tagging – This is problem in Facebook, but it’s also a problem in other social networks as well. People get annoyed by being tagged in some stupid photos that have nothing to do with them. The only reason you tagged me was to get me to comment on your stupid photo or post. Guess what kind of comment I will be leaving… Save yourself the headache.
  • Suggestions – This is a problem I have with StumbleUpon. I log in and instantly get slapped in the face with article suggestions by other members that I can care less about. Sure I took an interest in marijuana legalization, but it doesn’t mean that I want to see every single article you write about it.
  • Private Spam – Thanks for sending me a private message with your spam. It’s nice of you to make sure other people didn’t see your blatant advertisement. Now do me a favor…kiss my ass. Probably the worst thing Facebook can do to throw salt in the wound is to leave out a bulk delete feature. You can check everything and “archive” but not delete. Are they stupid? To be fair, Twitter does the same thing. I do not see how it makes sense to leave out a bulk message delete feature. Do you have ANY IDEA how many messages I receive? No wonder why I just leave most of the direct messages in my Twitter account. How’s that helping your server space clutter by the way?
  • Email Spam – This is more about how a company runs things than how users use the service. One such problem is Change.org. It’s the social media equivalent of a petition website. I signed a petition one time against SOPA when it was a big thing. A few months later, I get an email from another Change campaign talking about gun control. She claimed that if guns were made illegal, the Colorado shooting wouldn’t have happened. It pissed me off immediately. I tried hard to understand how someone can be so stupid. Yeah sure…a criminal is going to give a shit about the laws that are in place. IF everyone had a gun in that theater, I guarantee that the gunman would have been killed before the  innocent bystanders. I was also annoyed because I got SPAMMED with a cause I would never believe in. I don’t believe in getting raped by my government. I like my rights, thank you. Keep your spam and shame on the woman that abused the service to spread her stupidity.
  • Games – Fine. One of the things that made social media popular were the games that people can play for free and get hooked on. The reason why they grew so much is because of the forced feature that you can be invited to them. You can block specific apps when you get invited, but you can’t block ALL OF THEM at once. There should be a feature to block all games, or all apps in general, or specific types of apps. You shouldn’t have to manually block every single game that you get invited to. It’s annoying. I don’t want to play with you, so stop it. If you weren’t wasting your time playing those stupid games, you might have started a successful business by now.

Ok, so I packed that list with a bit of a rant, but that’s ok. Got issues with social media? Share them below so I can agree with you!

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Filed Under: Facebook, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Pinterest, Rants, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , ,
August 10, 2012 by

Membership Sites: The OTHER Green Meat

Membership websites are something you probably haven’t considered if you are blogging for income, or trying to make money as an affiliate…but you should think long and hard about leaving cash on the table. It’s fairly easy to setup a member site and you don’t need Duhaime’s Law Dictionary to get into business (although you may want to brush up on legal web jargon). A member site can be created using WordPress and the Magic Members plugin.

I currently have a couple of membership sites in development, and I can give you some quick pointers.

  • Use WordPress and Magic Members for the easiest and quickest setup.
  • Pay extra attention to pages that are locked and ones that are unlocked for guests. You need to provide free info in order to make the sale.
  • Ensure that you have lots of original content before you start marketing.
  • Provide weekly or some other regularly scheduled updates.
  • Send out a monthly newsletter to ensure engagement by members.
  • Offer a free newsletter so you can market to potential customers (and upsell existing ones).

Marketing a member website is just as simple as marketing a blog or any other website. You want to use the same article marketing, blog hopping, and guest posting techniques. Traffic is key…especially targeted traffic. If you are already marketing via another newsletter, you may be able to send out a message telling them about the new membership website.

In addition to the standard marketing, I like to promote my member sites with my ebooks. When I create a new website, I create a couple of ebooks for sale on Amazon, and some shorter “free reports”. All of them will reference the new website somewhere inside of it. Just make sure not to over-do it and spam or you will be reviewed with that information (you may be labeled with that regardless by sabotage).

Later on, I will post a much more detailed article on member sites and marketing. I wanted to quickly post one to spark your interest in the idea of making money this way.

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Filed Under: List Building, Making Money, Sales Tagged With: , , ,
August 5, 2012 by

An Alternative to Ping.fm and HelloTXT After They Cancelled Their Service

Were you burned by Ping.fm when they closed up shop on the free service and offered a much more limited service at a monthly cost using Seesmic? If you are like me, then you probably went and found HelloTXT which was a great free alternative. Then what happened? A few weeks later HelloTXT sent out an email to member saying they would soon be closing their service as well! What a waste of time!

I am NOT happy with the limited options out there that have crazy monthly costs. What is a social media marketer to do?

Introducing Pingalingaling! No that wasn’t a typo. It’s the name of a new APP and service in development by Often Apps.

pingalingaling600x400 An alternative to Ping.fm and HelloTXT after they cancelled their service

The new app and service are being funded through indiegogo and you can find the project at http://igg.me/p/196767?a=550561 and you can get your own license to the app a week before it’s released to the masses. Once you have the app, the service only costs $5 per year. Did you get that? The services out there now cost monthly fees, and Pingalingaling only costs $5 per year to use. If you grab a $100 perk instead of the $25 one, you also get beta access to test the app as well as the first year of service free. If you are feeling ambitious, you can grab the $1,000 perk and not only get 2 licenses and beta access, but also a development credit. This means that your name will be recorded in history right inside of the app where millions of people can see your name!

pingalingaling220x194 An alternative to Ping.fm and HelloTXT after they cancelled their serviceIf you are like me, you don’t want to be ripped off with monthly fees for substandard and limited services. Pingalingaling is sure to be the best social media updater service out there, and you have a chance to make it happen by contributing on indiegogo, and sharing the project before the 90 day deadline.

Head on over to http://igg.me/p/196767?a=550561 and get your copy of this great app that fills a serious need!

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Filed Under: Internet Marketing, Marketing, REVIEWS, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
June 14, 2012 by

PRESALE: Zippy Link Wheel Software

Link wheels using web 2.0 properties are the norm in today’s marketing. The problem is that it’s very time consuming to build them. What if you had the perfect software that semi-automates the process. What if you only had to insert a captcha, and the software did EVERYTHING else?

Introducing Zippy Link Wheel…

Zippy is designed to sign you up with multiple web 2.0 properties or login to existing accounts, setup your link wheels, and ping them for instant indexing!

For a LIMITED TIME, I am offering a PRESALE and a LIFETIME license to this amazing software for just $79.00! I can only sell 50 copies ahead of time and on a LIFETIME license. If you are one of the lucky ones to get a limited copy, you will get lifetime updates and upgrades. Everyone else will have to pay for major upgrades.

Click the PayPal button below before it disappears!


Your Name


pixel PRESALE: Zippy Link Wheel Software

Once I sell 50 presale copies, this amazing deal will go away forever! Zippy is expected to release on September 5th, 2012.

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Filed Under: Internet Marketing, Marketing, My Products, Niche Marketing, search engine optimization Tagged With: , , ,
June 10, 2012 by

I Lost Pinterest

When Pinterest was created, it happened to be the perfect social network for women. I can’t say for certain that it was designed originally for women in mind, but that’s just who it’s target market is for. Of course, after Pinterest went viral, everyone joined in and now the service has blown up.

My wife first joined Pinterest, and I joined suit immediately after. I was curious, but that’s all. I had no desire to actually use the social network because Facebook has been my thing ever since I stopped using MySpace. Just recently though, I decided to use it as a traffic tool. As with any social network, you must use it within it’s terms of service limits. If you go into marketing via a social network with spamming on your mind, you will only get yourself banned and probably hold a grudge.

What’s with Pinterest anyway?

Pinterest is a website where you can “pin” an image to your categorized board. That image links to a source where you found the image, and you can describe the image and/or link on your board. You and those in your network can also comment on pinned items.

Because this is still a young and fast growing social network, you can really benefit by joining in as soon as possible. As the social network grows, there are more people pinning things which makes it a much more saturated place like Facebook and Twitter.

How can I market my business with Pinterest?

It’s a social netwPinterestLogo I Lost Pinterestork. As with any social network, you need to be social for it to be beneficial for you. Don’t go in it with traffic and conversions on your mind. If you do, you will likely spam on accident which will be counter-productive. Instead, you need to actually take interest in what others are pinning. It shouldn’t be too hard. There are lots of things on there that may very well look interesting. Because it’s picture based, it’s easy to spot things you may want to check out and comment on.

You can also share your actual business links. For example, you can setup a board that says “my businesses” and place all of your links in there. Another board for your favorite places to vacation, or another for your favorite foods. That’s what I mean about “taking part” and not spamming. It’s ok to promote your own links, but just categorize them as such and don’t just promote your business. You wouldn’t just go onto Facebook and join a bunch of groups that you can post your link on would you?

Use comments like you would blog-hopping

Pinterest allows you to post comments on other people’s pins. As with blog marketing, if you go to other people’s content and comment, they will return the favor on yours. This results in other people finding your content and commenting as well as sharing if they find your pins interesting.

Commenting is one of the easiest and fastest ways to bring traffic to your boards. Use this technique immediately so you can start benefiting.

TAG – You’re it!

Tagging is something you are probably very familiar with if you use Facebook. When you want to notify someone that you are talking about them, such as in a post or a picture, you post their name. Pinterest ran with this feature and it works the same.

When you tag others (only if it’s relevant though), then you are likely to get their interest and “network” with them in a positive way. Just don’t abuse the tagging feature by naming people that have absolutely nothing to do with your pin. If you see someone really loves trains and you post a pin about trains, then you can tag them and get their interest. If you are selling luxury shoes and tag a bunch of men, then you are likely to be reported and even yelled at virtually by a bunch of dudes.

Titles make or break articles

If you are going to write a blog post, then you want to create a title that catches peoples’ attention. The same goes with pinning. Use a creative title that can possibly go viral.

Be descriptive in your title by mentioning what’s actually in it, but do it in a unique way. For example, the title of this article is “I Lost Pinterest“. That’s an eye catcher right there. You know automatically that it’s about Pinterest. The browser title also shows that it’s about Pinterest Marketing, and this is a marketing blog, so it all fits together.

As always, be creative and follow the rules. Pinterest can be a really big traffic source for you, and possibly get you some new business. You just have to join and take part.

Are you using Pinterest in your marketing campaigns?

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Filed Under: Internet Marketing, Marketing, Pinterest, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,
May 28, 2012 by

New Forum Categories for Developers and Programmers!

Hey everyone! I felt the need to announce the new categories that were setup on the free marketing forum. If you haven’t been there in awhile, please stop by at http://www.brandonconnell.com/forum and join in the fun! I have been getting more into programming and I felt that the categories were needed in general.

Also, if you are new to the forum, then check it out and sign up. It’s got lots of categories and boards for marketing, seo, design and much more.

I am also looking for moderators. If you would like to moderate specific boards or the entire forum, please send me a PM at http://www.brandonconnell.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1 and I will look into it. Let’s build up a great forum!

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Filed Under: Marketing, News, search engine optimization, UPDATES, web design Tagged With: , , , , , ,
March 15, 2012 by

Local SEO on Mobile Devices

Is your lead generation website optimized for mini browsers too? When I do local search marketing, I have to really dig down and find every possible gateway to traffic for my clients. That’s why I understand that many of their customers will find them through a cell phone or tablet like the Kindle Fire, BlackBerry Playbook or iPad.

With this in mind, I like to ensure that I create a website specifically for mobile devices. There is a good service for a mobile website builder called MOBDIS, which will create something professional and bug-free.

With this service, you can:

  • Build great looking mobile sites with no coding
  • Easily add rich media content like product galleries, store locators & videos
  • Add business features like Forms and Coupons to increase customers
  • For Developers, extend and customize with JavaScript and jQuery Mobile

…There is also flexibility in pricing plans and hosting options.

With the competition growing daily in the local search marketing market, I like to have the advantage over my competitors. Understand that more and more people are going mobile, and that isn’t likely to change in the future.

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Filed Under: Marketing, REVIEWS, Traffic, web design Tagged With: , ,
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