I had mentioned previously that one of my goals was to update my transcription course with some new information and also to publish a version of that to Kindle. I made some progress there – I have the revision written and I’ll be sending that out to the list for that product.

I’m having some difficulty with how I want to handle the Kindle version of it though… Since the product is originally delivered via email they get the main report, plus some bonus short reports, and then there’s a sequence of follow-up messages with more information, Q&A, and so forth. It’s sort of a living entity, I’m always adding to it and sending out little pieces of information to the students. So for the Kindle version I need to figure out if I want to take all those messages and stuff them into the “book” or if I want to somehow funnel Kindle readers to the email list.

I’m leaning towards funneling them into a special “Kindle buyers” email signup page. It could be the last page of the Kindle version of the report that sends them to a URL to enter their email address to get the rest of the ongoing materials. I might include some of the information in the “book” part, because I’m sure not everyone is going to go to the email list and join there to get the rest of it.

The other thing that has me wondering is how to price the Kindle version of the product. Normally it’s a $27 product via Clickbank. That includes updates, a private Facebook group, and all my contact information in case they have questions. I’m having trouble representing that same value squished into a Kindle version.

The other thought that I had was to send them just the report via Kindle and call it a “light” version of Transcription Crash Course for a discounted price and then the URL I send them to on the last page be an “upgrade” to get the list, the updates, the private Facebook group, etc. Does that make sense?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and what you would prefer to receive if you were a customer. Leave me a comment below and discuss….

I don’t have any keyword research handy on this particular topic and I can’t seem to get logged into Wordtracker tonight. This is more of a rough outline directly out of my idea notebook (which ironically is a sort of journal…)

The overall idea was an affiliate site selling journals. I want you take a peek at a few of these popular journals, some of which are over $20 each:

Blank Journals:

Journals with Writing Prompts:

Putting Together a Site Around Journals

The idea I had laid out in my mind when I scribbled this idea down was a site selling the different kinds of journals; leather bound styles, moleskin styles, fancy journals with writing prompts, business journals, pregnancy journals, etc…. There really are all sorts of journals out there. To add to things in the dollar category you could also promote things like pens, bookmarks, book lights, etc…

To get traffic and create content around this topic I was thinking along the lines of journal writing tips and and ideas. A weekly journaling prompt via email would be a great way to get people onto a focused mailing list. There are loads of possible directions to go with this idea.

As always, if you decide to create something in this niche I’d love to see what you come up with. Even if you don’t do anything with this niche idea, hopefully I’ve at least sparked a bit of creative juice in your mind to trigger another idea.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Niche Notebook! Happy marketing

We got so much done in the first month, but we did not repeat that effort in the second month and it shows.

==> Here’s the recap after month one in case you missed it.

We only received about the half traffic in month two that we did in month one. The good news is that traffic was targeted and we still had three sales during the month.

I know three sales sounds like a very small number, and it is, but when you’re selling electronics even three sales can make a difference in your affiliate commissions for the month (in my opinion, at least)

In the second month we managed to add a few pages to the site and we did four more articles for Ezine Articles and also managed to get a few other incoming links. The other thing I managed to get done was fixing the menus and navigation that weren’t working, the theme required using the custom menus within WordPress so I just had to set those up to fix it. That was about all we did, so I would venture to say three sales as a result of such minimal effort wasn’t a completely horrible result!

I did pick up a subscription to Susanne Myer’s Daily Affiliate Tasks to help keep us on track with this site and I’m also going through it and applying Susanne’s lists to my marketing efforts on my cross stitch site. I love having pre-made to-do lists and it helps to focus on one thing at a time. I’m working on week four right now and week five just landed in my inbox so I’m looking forward to that.

Certainly there are some beautifully designed free themes available, and with a little knowledge of CSS, even a beginner can tweak a theme to make it unique.

But free themes aren’t really free. They all have a price tag; it just isn’t expressed in dollars and cents. Instead, the price of a free theme is usually in backlinks. And they’re not always the good kind so you need to inspect your free theme carefully.

Every website owner knows about the importance of backlinks. You depend on other sites linking to you to help raise you up in the SERPs, bring in more traffic, and make more sales. You work hard to build your backlinks through guest blogging, social media, article marketing, and a hundred other tasks you perform every day. Without those backlinks, your site would sink to the bottom of page 12 in the search results – or worse.

That’s why, when you see WordPress themes offered for free, they almost always contain links in the footer that you are required – according to the license – to keep. Web designers looking to build their portfolio and drive traffic to their site might build a theme and offer it for free, provided you keep the link back to their site intact.

That’s a pretty reasonable price to pay if the theme fits with your site and those aren’t the backlinks we’re worried about. I think linking to a theme’s designer is well worth it and a reasonable thing for them to request when they share their work and quite honestly it’s just good manners to link to someone who has given you something for free, whether it’s a single graphic or a the whole blog theme.

But designers aren’t the only ones out there offering free themes. It didn’t take long for some ethically questionable site owners to catch on to this new way of building backlinks. Now it’s not uncommon for free WordPress themes to come with links to gambling, porn, or even prescription drug sites embedded in the footer.
If you really like a theme, you might be tempted to ignore those tiny links, but doing so might put your site at risk. Increasingly, search engines are taking note of which sites you link to, and by allowing links to these “bad neighborhoods” you could be hurting your own search rankings – even to the point of being delisted by Google and others. That’s a pretty hefty price to pay for a free theme.

There’s nothing wrong with using a free WordPress theme, but inspect it carefully to see what you’re going to be linking to. Sometimes the links embedded in the theme are not obvious at first sight. If they’re blended in and set up in a font color that matches the background as hidden links then delete that theme and move on to a different one. If the links in the free theme are actually on a related subject matter then I think that’s perfectly fine too.

I have seen some theme designers embedding affiliate links for products and websites that are related to the theme – especially in hobby niches. I don’t really have a problem with that either. Go to the links and make sure the landing page matches what the words say before you decide on keeping the theme. Those folks with questionable ethics we were talking about earlier will use text that says one thing but a link that goes to something completely different and very unrelated, if you know what I mean.

Typically, the license to use the free blog theme will require you to keep footer links intact, but even so, you might be tempted to simply remove them. Theme designers know this, and to combat it, have begun encrypting their files, making it impossible for you to remove links you don’t like without breaking your theme.

Beyond unwanted links, there is another price to be paid for free themes: poor design and no support. While many free themes are created by good developers and designers, many are not. While it might not seem like a big deal as long as the theme works well and looks good, it can turn into a nightmare very quickly.

You might have noticed that I also changed my theme here on Niche Twitch today …. I picked up the Genesis framework from StudioPress. I’ll be working on updating all my websites to this framework over the next few weeks. It was a difficult decision, there are so many awesome frameworks out there to choose from. I’ll tell you more about that on another day though, I think I’ve rambled on enough for today

If you’ve read my About page here at Niche Twitch you probably noticed that I don’t like the word guru in relation to internet marketing. Simply put, it makes my skin crawl. If you’ve been looking for work at home opportunities or researching anything in this field for more than half a day you’ve likely come across several hundred self proclaimed gurus in the industry claiming to make thousands of dollars per day with the push of a button and blah, blah, blah. That’s a bunch of crap. I know it, you know it, they know it. Total crap.

The problem is they make their fake case studies and videos look shiny and seem promising to the fresh new visitor on their website. They prey on anyone who has a credit card in their wallet, waiting to take your money. And then if they happen to get a little taste of your money they come back for more and try to squeeze every last penny out of you. It’s disgusting.

There is no magic method to internet marketing. There is no secret solution. There is no getting rich quick. There is no sitting on the beach waiting for money to roll in.

Yes, there are profitable methods. Yes, there are helpful solutions and even tools that make things easier as you go down the path. Yes, you can make money, sometimes a lot of it.

However, you can’t do any of those things without first working for it.

There is so much hype and fluff and junk on the internet and these self proclaimed gurus are shoving their empty promises in your face everywhere you go. It’s often referred to as the “dark side of internet marketing,” and I’d say that comparison is about right. Self proclaimed gurus are trying to con you into joining their side full of false hope.

I suppose if that garbage is the “dark side” of internet marketing then the NAMS instructors are the Jedi of the internet marketing world. This is a group of people that teach internet marketing (and just plain business and marketing in general) with integrity. You won’t find a NAMS instructor selling $5,000 worth of junk you don’t need in the back of the room – in fact, they’re not allowed to do that. David Perdew would never allow them in the room if they were going to try to squeeze you for every cent, he’s very protective of the NAMS group and who he allows into the circle to teach people.

Want to shake hands and learn from an internet marketing Jedi? The next NAMS live event is coming up in August:

Maybe you’re not sure you want to commit to a live event – I get that because I was hesitant at first myself when I first joined the NAMS community back in 2009.
So here’s a little “sneak peek” behind the curtain at the MyNAMS community

The community aspect of NAMS offers support, accountability, and additional training before and after the live event. We have weekly webinars, a forum full of supportive and knowledgeable people, mastermind groups, and all sorts of other perks inside the MyNAMS community. Attending the live NAMS weekend event twice a year is the big burst of knowledge – sort of like getting your degree in internet marketing – and the community keeps you on your toes with up to date information and a place to share your ideas and get feedback.

I should get off my soapbox for the night and get back to work editing the report I’m working on. I hope you’re having a fantastic and profitable week. I hope to see you in Atlanta this August!

Again this package is limited to only 30 copies sold. What a great way to get a niche website set up and started in just a few minutes! The popular plugins are already added to WordPress for you and it comes with 5 PLR articles ready to go. The only thing you need to add is your own domain name and hosting.

It’s preloaded to be monetized with Google Adsense, Amazon, and Clickbank links. As a side note, if you’re having trouble getting into the Amazon affiliate program you may want to check out Skimlinks.

Have a great week!

I’ve worked on this site with my son (he’s learning how to use WordPress and write content) for about an hour a day for the past month and it’s time to fully review the results of our efforts.

First, I’ll let you know what we’ve done…

Tasks We’ve Done on the Affiliate Site

In the first week I registered the domain name, set it up in my hosting account, installed WordPress, added a WordPress theme (free one), set up the user profile and plugins, finding affiliate programs, etc… I even got the first two or three posts up within that week. At the end of the first week we had a nice base to work from and I had a little bit of social bookmarking, which led to the site being indexed quickly.

The second week was mostly about adding content and we also started getting some links and thinking about what strategy to use for link building and promotion of this particular site. Since the site is based on reviews of electronics products we decided that social would be important and decided to start using the Twitter account that was set up for it.

Our focus is on long tail keywords (product names, model numbers, reviews type searches, etc) so we’re also doing some article marketing on this one. The first article was about Blu-ray players and it went to Ezine Articles, then we did a few other smaller articles for guest blog posting.

Side Note: I had originally intended to use a few link building services to boost this project in rankings, but if you’re following the recent news around the web a lot of those link building networks were recently de-indexed so I’ll just stick with article marketing and guest blog posting.

In the third week we put together a report about shopping for Blu-ray players and distributed that on the web via sites like Scribd and SlideShare, etc… Added more content to the site and continued to work on getting links for those long tail keywords.

In the fourth week we slowed down a bit due to some distractions, but still were able to update the site with a few more product reviews and articles, and we also were able to add two more articles to Ezine Articles and get a few incoming links around the web. Not nearly as much work as I wanted to get done, but some is always better than none.

Results of the Affiliate Effort After One Month

One Week of Traffic Stats

I’m happy to report that we’re still ranking pretty well for a handful of long tail keywords. But, definitely need to rank better and for more.

I haven’t been able to give link building the amount of attention that I really should, so I need to work on improving that over the next month or so to get that up.

I’m also extremely happy to report sales are happening already! I didn’t really expect much in the first 30 days, but there have been a few Amazon sales of blu-ray players. Yay for referring sales! So that’s my little side project for the moment.

Some Closing Thoughts Today…

I’m glad that my kids are showing an interest in what I do online and they are fascinated by the idea that they can work for themselves and not have to go out and find “a j.o.b” to be able to support themselves in the future. For me, that is what’s truly important right now.

They see the news and the economy in our area right now and they worry what the future holds. It makes me incredibly distraught to have teenagers that worry so much. I don’t remember being so worried at their age.

Lately they’ve both been seeming a bit frustrated and the Trayvon Martin news story has thrown them for a loop. They’ve seen it on the news at home and it has been discussed at length in their schools. They don’t understand how such a horrible thing can happen – and quite frankly, neither do I. How did we as a society get to this horrible place where such tragedy exists?

And not just this particular news story… but many that we’ve seen and heard this year. My heart is heavy from it all and I find that most days I can’t watch the evening news or read the newspaper. On a few days I’ve even had to close my Twitter stream to avoid the constant stream of depressing truth. I know it won’t go away when I ignore, but I have to be careful not to allow it to consume me.

Now that I’ve gone WAY off topic and ranted and rambled a bit…. I’d love to hear from you. What are you working on? Do you have any questions about my side project here? Or maybe you find yourself struggling with the emotional toll of the world like I do? Whatever it is, please leave a comment below.

Enter into the affiliate marketing world, Skimlinks.

I know I’m a little late getting on the bandwagon here. I had heard about Skimlinks in multiple places and avoided it because I was trying to be focused and didn’t want to go off to learn new things at the moment. What I didn’t realize was that it really is a no-brainer affiliate marketing solution. Seriously – it’s an easy button! Let me explain what I mean…

Skimlinks Easy Button Capabilites

First and possibly most notable in the current affiliate marketing environment there is a chance that you’ve been removed from or not accepted with certain affiliate programs or locations because of your physical location. If you’ve had that problem recently, Skimlinks could be the solution you’re looking for. You don’t need an affiliate ID – you’re using their affiliate ID and they’re sharing their commissions with you. Location problem solved.

Maybe you’re in a similar situation to myself where you run a niche specific site (in my case, cross stitch) and you would rather focus on writing the content and sharing good interesting stuff with your readers than hunting down affiliate programs, applying to them, and waiting,… and then adding links, so on and so forth. Skimlinks is a great solution here because if you enable their SkimWords feature they will automatically identify key phrases in your content and turn them into affiliate links for you. Like I said, easy button! All you have to do is write.

Perhaps there is a product you recommend frequently, but you’re not part of that company’s affiliate program for some reason or another. It may be that the affiliate program is notoriously difficult to get accepted to or it may be that because you only recommend the one single product in their line it doesn’t really make sense for them to have you as an affiliate, it might not be a good match with your overall website. Use a Skimlink on your recommendation of that item instead. You don’t have to manage another affiliate relationship and you can earn commissions on your honest recommendation. Easy peasy.

Advantages of Using Skimlinks Over Your Own Affiliate IDs

One big advantage with the SkimWords feature of Skimlinks is that if you happen to be forgetful by nature, like I often am, it’s okay. The SkimWords links appear automatically within your content. So you won’t have a pile of missed opportunities sitting within the content on your website and it might find opportunities you didn’t even think about looking for. That’s a great benefit, in my opinion.

Some of the programs in the Skimlinks database you might already be an affiliate for, like Amazon. You can use your straight Amazon link as usual or you can have Skimlinks overwrite them for. Skimlinks pays out monthly via Paypal and you might get a higher percentage of commission because of their sales volume.

The same goes for other programs, in many cases companies offer an incentive based commission structure – the more you sale the higher your commission rate. Because Skimlinks is all under one ID their volume earns them this higher percentage and they pass that onto you. More dollars in your Paypal account – easy.

And that is the other advantage. Skimlinks pays out monthly via Paypal with a low minimum of $25. No waiting around to reach $100 or higher commission levels and no waiting for multiple affiliate checks to arrive. It all comes in one monthly payment and you can quickly see how your profits are looking each month. Again, easy is the key here.

This is a full website with Private Label Rights about the single cup coffee makers that are growing in popularity. You get a bundle with a WordPress theme, PLR articles, images, etc. You just install it, change the Adsense and Amazon IDs to your own and you’re off and running. The most popular WordPress plugins are already included for you too. It makes getting started really super simple!

And it’s only $17! Sales are very limited, only 30 copies are available. If this is a niche you’re interested in I’d suggest grabbing a package before she changes her mind and raises the price on these

Quick note, these do not have a domain name included so you’ll need to buy that separately. But everything else is done for you!

All right, I need to get back to work again over here. Have a great day and enjoy your coffee!

Tablet devices like the iPad,

But, there’s also another growing segment of the market: small businesses. Well, surely big businesses too, but small business owners are really finding that tablets save them time and increase their productivity, and with a whole host of great reasons…

Tablet Devices are Handy for Presentations

Seeing someone reading a speech from a tablet at your Chamber of Commerce meeting isn’t completely uncommon these days, and it’s certainly better than a stack of note cards. And more and more people are even connecting their tablets up to big screens for their slide presentations. Tablets are just perfect for this and you don’t have to lug your heavy old laptop to the conference.

Using a tablet for your presentation means you can take advantage of the best apps to work on the presentation whether you’re at home, at work, or anywhere else! When you are ready to give the presentation, you don’t need to rely on the computers at the venue to work as they’re supposed to, and you won’t need to transfer your files. Simply hook up the tablet to the big screen and you’ll be ready to go.

As for using your tablet as a prompt, it won’t interfere with you delivering your speech one bit. Unlike laptops, tablets actually lay flat. They don’t get in the way of your face, meaning you’ll still be connected to the audience as you’re speaking as long as you remember to look up and not stare at the screen – use it like you would a sheet of notes, for reference.

Speaking of Notes, Tablet Devices are Great for Taking Notes!

When you’re in meetings or presentations, tablet devices are perfect for taking notes. If you’re wondering whether anything’s better than traditional pen and paper, then the answer is yes!

There are a few reasons for this, but the main fact is that you can input your notes into the tablet with a stylus in your regular handwriting. This means you can write just as fast, but once the meeting’s over your tablet will read your notes and let you search through them! This is something you just can’t do with handwritten notes.

Aside from the handwriting benefits, tablets are also extremely small and take up barely any space on your desk, in your bag, and in your hands. It’s easy to grab your iPad and go, and you won’t need to worry about carrying around extra notebooks or even a laptop anymore!

Stay Up to Date on the Go with Your Tablet Computer

Many people in business travel a lot, and tablets mean that you can turn travel time into productive time. You can stay up to date with colleagues over wireless, and take advantage of the many different productivity and office suite apps available to help you work on projects. Better still, wireless internet access means that tablets can even be used to send data back and forth between employees and a central business database.

Tablet devices really aren’t just for entertainment! More and more businesses are now embracing tablet technology as a way to streamline their processes and get more done with less equipment.

Do you find your tablet helping you be more productive, or are you too busy playing Angry Birds to use it for business?