If you’re like me, the approach of Christmas means that you’re already thinking about how to improve your Internet business next year.

And ‘improvement’ often means saving money on your business dealings.

To help you do just that, here are some pretty sweet deals that I’ve found that are just for Internet marketers.

1. BlueHost Web Hosting

Usually $6.95, Bluehost’s rate is down to $5.95 per month and here’s what you get:

• Unlimited Domain Hosting
• Unlimited GB Hosting Space
• Unlimited GB File Transfer
• Unlimited E-mail Accounts
• Free Domain
• Free Site Builder w/ templates
• Secure Shell, SSL, FTP, Stats
• CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MySQL
• $75 Free Google Credit
• 99.9% Network Uptime Guarantee

Seriously, if you don’t have your own domain name and hosting yet, get it NOW with this incredible deal. INCLUDES a FREE domain registration.

Or, buy someone else a domain name and hosting for a year or two, i.e. your nephew… which is what I did for our godson when he was born.

2. Wishlist Member

Thinking of starting a membership site in 2012? Look no farther than Wishlist Member — which is what I use at Affiliate Blogger PRO. For a limited time, the WishList team is
giving away over $400+ in gifts to their customers. The offer ends December 31st, 2011 @ 11pm PST. So if you order WishList Member, you’ll get a bunch of very cool “extras” – including custom drawn icons, graphics, plugins and
more.

3. SBI! Site Build it!

SBI! is an all-in-1 step-by-step system of process-and-software that builds thriving businesses. Their new Blockbuilder (BB2) and Site Designer (a 3.5 million dollar upgrade to SBI!), is a slick, seriously advanced site designer and builder.

Their Christmas deal is a Buy one, get one free holiday special that ends December 25th, 2011 at midnight. Includes a 90 Day Money-Back Satisfaction & Success Guarantee. If you want all the bells and whistles included (not a DIY project), SBI! is the way to go.)

4. Trend Micro

Protect your business / computer investments!! Get savings of 40% off on all of Trend Micro’s best-selling products until January 5, 2011. Includes Trend Micro Antivirus +, Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security and Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security. NOTE: Trend Micro is the antivirus service that I use personally.

5. Underground Seminar

Give yourself the gift of a great Internet marketing conference this year. Yanik Silver is hosting his 8th Underground Seminar and this year will be no less dazzling than the rest. Previous speakers include Bob Parsons (CEO of GoDaddy), Tony Hsieh (CEO of http://netprofitstoday.com/go/zappos), Tim Ferris (Tim Ferris – Multiple New York Times Best-Selling author including the The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich), Gary Vaynerchuk (New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best-Selling author) and yours truly.

The event is ALWAYS sold out, and getting in early gets you a discount and extra bonuses. This is one conference I do recommend for those who want to make the most of their Internet marketing businesses. Order NOW and you’ll save 40% … The Regular Price $3495, Today it’s $1995.

Oh and don’t forget, I’m keeping my Academy / Affiliate Blogger PRO pricing down at a ridiculously all-time low until the New Year as well. So if you want to get in on that deal, sign up before it goes away forever!

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

Are you a newbie thinking about starting the next great ‘make-a-million-online-overnight-at-home-while-you-sleep.com’ blog to rake in big bucks from the Internet marketing business opportunities niche?

Think again!!

PLEASE think again.

I’ve had numerous discussions with my colleagues throughout the many years I’ve been involved in the Internet marketing space — and we’ve all talked about ditching the niche entirely.

Seriously, the IM niche is NOT a fun place to be unless you have a LOTS of experience and unlimited grit. Even then it’s not really fun.

The only reason I and my friends remain in this market is NOT about love or money. We stay because we feel that there have to be at least a few of us who represent value, honesty and integrity in the space.

In a nutshell, we hate to see the many ways in which hopeful netpreneurs / online entrepeneurs get ripped off and totally disillusioned.

Here are just a few.

1. The products sold are mostly crap. In too many cases, products purported to be the ‘latest and greatest way’ to get a site to the top of Google’s listings, or build a list of ten million subscribers or make $17,398 (all overnight) is a rehash of a product that was first introduced in 2002, didn’t work at that time and has been relaunched every year since.

   Another con job is when info marketers take someone else’s work (such as my Super Affiliate Handbook), outsource it for a rewrite and then try pass it off as their own product.

   Experienced Internet marketing niche researchers pick up on and report these thieves quickly.

   However, unless you’ve been in the IM niche for a long time, you won’t recognize either the players or their bad (or stolen) products.

   That leads to the next problem…

2. Selling crap will ruin your reputation. Many IM marketers in the last decade have gone down in a ball of fire after buyers publicly complained about the shoddiness of their products or total lack of customer support.

   Affiliate marketers who enthusiastically promote those products without doing proper reviews lost respect with their audiences and suffered a similar fate.

3. List mining. Too many newbies who learn enough about the Internet Marketing niche to successfully build a huge list of subscribers – completely dessimate their lists on the possibility of winning an XBOX or iPad during a big IM launch.

   Trading your list for an iPad will never replace what you will lose in terms of future sales… for a couple of reasons.

   Most marketers in the IM niche don’t pay for the leads you send them.

   Many others don’t pay on upsells.

   Their primary interest is NOT in how many sales you generate.

   Oh sure, you make commissions on the initial sale, they make money and that seems to be a good thing.

   In reality, however, it’s ALL about the qualified leads that you send that they capitalize on for years to come and are lost to you forever.

   They continue to sell directly to them over and over again — and you’ll never make another dime on the leads you took time to capture and cultivate.

These factors have become SO much more prevalent since the U.S. economic downturn began and the scam artists jumped on the opportunity to take advantage of those who’d lost their homes and/or jobs and were now looking for online business opportunities to shore up their incomes or avoid bankruptcy.

The situation has now gotten so bad that it almost makes me sick.

I learned my lessons in this industry the hard way — trusting my valued subscribers to those who turned out to be (or into) into scam artists. I finally refused to promote all but one or two — but you can avoid those issues right from the start.

Either stay out of the internet marketing “make money online” niche completely — or, spend gobs of time doing your homework to make sure that the business opportunities and products that you promote in the internet marketing niche are HIGHLY valuable to your subscribers.

The key point to remember is that you need to place your hightest value on the trust you build with your readers – don’t squander it.

Don’t get me wrong.

There’s plenty of money to be made online in SO many different niche markets — but opting for the Internet marketing niche is a big mistake for 99% of newbies for the reasons discussed above.

I’m thrilled to announce that I will be speaking at the Unlimited Power Online event in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, November 20 – 21st, 2009.

After speaking to the organizers of this event at length about their plans, I couldn’t refuse their kind invitation because unlike typical
multi-speaker events, attendees will get time to ask questions and have their questions answered.

Faculty roundtables will let you sit down with the Expert Speakers during panel discussions and ask WHATEVER you want to ask.

The other Expert Speakers presenting at Unlimited Power Online include:

1. Raymond Aaron, America’s # 1 Success and Investment coach.
2. Harlan Kilstein, the ‘Copywriter of the Guru’s’
3. James Schramko, Multiple Revenue Stream expert.
4. Simon Coulson, the U.K.’s leading Internet Marketing expert
5. Ron Ipach, author of “The Lazy Man’s Way to a Successful Life”
6. Andrew Lock, WebTV expert
7. Dean Hunt, the leader in buzz marketing
8. Jimmy VEE and Travis Miller, authors of “Gravitational Marketing”
9. Dave Crane – Master of NLP
10. Ernesto Verdugo, the Art of Abundance

During the conference you’ll learn powerful goal setting strategies, how to write cash-sucking copy, create multiple streams of income, massively increase the value of a customer, identify your strengths and weaknesses, how to get and use free publicity… and more.

Read more about the conference agenda now.

Furthermore, after the conference is over, you aren’t left on your own, not knowing where to take all your new ideas. Right Selection (the event organizers) will provide you with a participant’s forum with an exclusive ‘members area’ where you can find literally hundreds of articles, videos and audio programs to continue your education.

Tickets for the 2-day conference are a very modest $379 and include a host of very worthwhile bonus, not least of which are the audio recordings from the 2008 event which featured:

• Mike Filsaime
• John Carlton
• Russell Brunson
• Mike Koenigs
• Barry Dunlop
• Andrew Lock

The 2009 Unlimited Power Online conference will be held November 20th & 21st, 2009 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates at the Centre Point Auditorium of the Dubai Community Theatre & Arts Centre

Note: A percentage of the proceedings for this event will be donated to the Just Like My Child Foundation.

I hope to see you there! Get your ticket for the 2009 Unlimited Power Online conference now.

P.S. Leave a comment below if you will attend and we’ll plan to meet up.

Regardless of what or how we sell online, Internet Marketing is what we all do. Get a grasp on the basics here…Certain ‘basics’ apply to all Internet Marketers – even Affiliate marketers

Certain basics apply to most Internet Marketers, and some of those basics include learning how to:

1. Choose a niche and do market research
2. Choose a name and Register your domain
3. Set up website hosting
4. Develop content for pages, product reviews, newsletters, etc.
5. Design and build your site
6. Monetize your site
7. Drive traffic to your site
8. Build a relationship with your visitors

Visit the individual links above to learn more about a specific topic. Alternatively, you may want to consider a tutorial that covers all the topics in one very detailed package. The course that I recommend most highly is – reviewed here.

Happy learning!

OK, don’t laugh… or try not too… but here’s my Cannes Film Festival entry… NOT.

I put together a little video tour of my home office (7 minutes, 55 seconds) during which I show you exactly how low-tech an internet / affiliate marketer’s office can be. See the equipment list here…

You’ll see all of the equipment I use – including my computers, printer, keyboard, backup power unit, external hard drive and even my chair (hey! don’t laugh.. your desk chair is one the most important pieces of equipment! ) and hear what I really think of some of the stuff I’ve bought…

Anyway, it’s all proof positive that you don’t need a lot of stuff to operate a highly successful home-based businesses on the Internet! Enjoy!

Mark your calendars! On Monday June 14th at 4PM Pacific (7PM Eastern) Derek Gehl and I will be getting on the horn to discuss affiliate marketing from the perspectives of both merchants and affiliates.

Derek has promised to share his strategies to building one of the most powerful affiliate programs in the world and I’ll tell you what I’m doing now to earn even more as an affiliate.

And just in case you’ve never heard of Derek Gehl (is that possible?), Derek is the former president of the “Internet Marketing Challenge” who also worked closely with Corey Rudl, founder and CEO of the “Internet Marketing Center“. Derek took the reigns at IMC following Corey’s untimely death in June 2005. Derek is also Entrepreneur.com’s “E-Business” columnist.

Although this call is for members of IMC’s Internet Entrepreneur Club which features a monthly Strategic planning call with Derek plus exclusive access to his latest Internet Marketing research and proven strategies.

But don’t worry if you’re not already a member of the IEC. Derek has agreed to give you access to the club through a $2.95 trial membership.

So, sign up today to listen in on Monday’s call as Derek Gehl and I spill the beans!

How would you like to be able to ask Derek Gehl (CEO of the Internet Marketing Center) and his team of experts unlimited questions about your business ideas, website, salescopy, traffic strategies and more…?

Well, now you can…

As a member of Derek Gehl’s exclusive “Internet Entrepreneur Club“, you will enjoy access to Derek’s private testing laboratories, where his most lucrative ideas for generating massive traffic and profits on the Internet are discovered — every single month.

… So you’ll always have the hottest strategies you need to snowball your income by $4,500… $7,500… even $11,750 per month or more using Derek’s million-dollar research.

As a member of the “Internet Entrepreneur Club” you will enjoy:

• A monthly 60-75 minute conference call with Derek, where he’ll be giving you the inside scoop on his latest market research, as well as his personal opinions on what marketing strategies and tools are worth your time — and which are NOT — based on his own test results for that month! (A $1,250 per month value!)
• Access to interviews with industry experts and success stories making HUGE six- and seven-figure incomes — people who you couldn’t otherwise PAY to speak with you… even if you could find them! (A $795 per month value!)
• UNLIMITED ACCESS to Derek’s team of Internet marketing specialists in his brand-new Discussion Forum — for member use ONLY! (Priceless value!)
• Ask unlimited questions, get FREE reviews of your website and get FREE critques of your salescopy — done by Derek’s team of experts in the ‘members-only’ discussion forum! (Priceless value!)
• Priority “red carpet” seating at any of Derek’s seminars! Just let the IMC staff know that you’re an IEC Member, show your card, and just like Hollywood Stars on the red carpet, you’ll enjoy sitting in the front row — in a seat reserved exclusively for you!
• The opportunity to network with like-minded entrepreneurs, get their candid opinions, and establish valuable business partnerships.
• A package mailed to you every month, with a CD recording of the latest conference call, as well as Derek’s private “Industry Update Newsletter,” packed with all the important strategies, news, and resources he couldn’t fit into your 60-75 minute calls. (A $297 per month value!)
• … plus tons more!

Best of all, you will get unlimited access to Derek’s multi-million dollar annual investment in research and testing (a value of over $2,342 per month) for just $3.19 per day… only $97 per month.

Check out the “Internet Entrepreneur Club” today!

Note: Products listed is no longer available.

What’s going to happen to Internet and affiliate marketing in 2007?

Do you know…

• Which markets are predicted to be the hottest?
• If email marketing will survive?
• What’s in store for online multimedia?
• If social bookmarking will continue to be effective?
• Which search engine is going to beat Google & Yahoo?
• Which demographic group is expected to EXPLODE over the next 4 years?

Don’t know the answers? Then, I have 2 sources of information for you.

First, Jeremy Palmer and I are doing a FREE teleseminar on December 29th at 8PM Eastern, 5PM Pacific called “Affiliate Marketing in 2007: The Outlook”.

The second source is a book that was originally published a couple of years ago and has been completely updated for 2007.

The book is “Internet Marketing Predictions” by Mike Mograbi and for the relatively modest price of $27, I think it’s a highly worthwhile read.

Information is power. Get it, use it, and dominate your niche!

So, Ed has been a resident of ‘The Valley’ for 2 weeks now and is starting to settle into his new abode (my house) and his new role (retiree) quite well.

As we were planning this venture, we discussed how Ed planned to occupy his time, other than play golf and do 3 million handyman jobs around my circa-1955-constantly-in-need-of-maintenance property.

When I suggested that he assist me in my business to supplement his retirement income, he eagerly accepted the proposal.

That said, you should know a little bit more about Ed.

I built an affiliate web site for him a few years ago. I signed up for all the programs, set up the autoresponder series and a pay-per-click campaign. I showed him how everything worked and gave him a copy of the Super Affiliate Handbook to refer to when he couldn’t reach me by phone.

There wasn’t much to do other than tweak the PPC campaign for the first few months to make sure it continued to deliver traffic at a steady rate and push out new offers to newsletter subscribers.

The site generated $1300 US in profits during its first month online.

Now one might assume (and you know what they say about ass-uming) that amounts like that would be enough incentive to keep anyone motivated to keep a site going.

Boy, was I wrong!

Apparently, Ed finds watching TV much more fun than making money on the Internet.

As it became obvious that he wasn’t about to build a relationship with his subscribers, or monitor the PPC campaign, we shut the campaign down and the site eventually slipped into all but oblivion.

So now that I’m a whole lot smarter about what motivates Ed, I showed him my extensive Internet marketing library and suggested he CHOOSE a specialty in which HE was interested.

Flipping through my CD/DVD catalog he almost immediately honed in on Jim Edwards’ and Mike Stewart’s “Website Video Secrets” course.

Now, I had been very impressed with the depth and scope of the “Website Video Secrets” course when I received it back in January.

With a deeper appreciation for people’s preference for watching over reading (see picture of Ed above), I was encouraged to start using video online to enhance my Internet and affiliate marketing efforts.

Moreover, I knew that like blogging, using video to create content would attract tons of free traffic.

It’s almost like the early days of the Internet all over again.

Because there aren’t that many videos online (relatively speaking), it’s easy to get your videos found. Upload it to Google Video and other video directories as well as your site, have it resolve back to your sales page and voila! – yet another way to build your subscriber list and create more sales.

Great stuff that free traffic!

However, the fact that I didn’t have a camcorder at the time kind of stopped me in my tracks.

A few months later I purchased a Sony DCR-DVD505 4MP DVD Handycam Camcorder and started using it to… well, you know… film the family cats.

Although Vic, Darcy and Bennett are highly entertaining, I don’t think they’d help to promote or sell many dating service memberships. Too, I wasn’t about to ask some poor fella if he minded having our first date filmed.

Let’s also not forget that I’m so NOT a geek and am completely allergic to technology that requires plugging in yet another wire. (I kind of fast-forwarded through that part of the course).

Unfortunately, therefore, producing video for the web slid to the bottom of my HUGE projects pile… until Ed came along.

Not only has Ed (with the help of Jim and Mike) shown me how easy it is for non-techies like me to create a video, he’s come up with a plethora of great ideas for quick-shoot videos that don’t involve embarrassing ‘some poor fella’.

Cool.

Actually, we did film one how-to video, but it was my first (bad) attempt at building a hanging moss basket, and neither of us thought that my colorful language would go over well with viewers.

So, now I’m keen again and we’re about to do another video that doesn’t involve moss…

Take TWO!

Cheers ~ Ros