I know there are many “underground” marketers who you don’t hear much about, but the most successful people are the ones who get out there and start their own brand.  Jennifer Ledbetter has her own branded site and name “PotPieGirl” while the marketer Travis Sago is often identified with his Bum Marketing Method fame.  Then there are Product Launch Formula and Mass Control which you can instantly recognize to be associated with Jeff Walker and Frank Kern, respectively.

The point here is that all of these people are successful online, and not just because of their own marketing campaigns, but because they are branded.  Their names, products, and sites are all part of their brand.  And the most important lesson here is that BRAND = RESPECT, and that respect leads to more money.  People will almost always choose something they recognize over something they have never heard of.

Beginning online marketers try to make tiny sites that random people might stumble across.  But the big dogs are the opposite, they have a branded site that people know about.  These people don’t have to prove anything to their buyers, because they are already respected and customers know that they have the goods to offer.  Instead of trying to catch random website visitors, people actually search the internet specifically for these people to find them.  Name recognition is one of the biggest signs of success for marketers.

Branding is important, and not just for internet marketing.  In fact, the best lessons are from brick and mortar businesses that everyone knows.  Name recognition is a major part of branding.  PotPieGirl, Mass Control, PLF, and other names and courses are recognizable names in the online world.  But Nike, Abercrombie and Fitch, Ford, and most successful brands are instantly recognizable by their names.

One main difference between branding online and offline is the use of logos and slogans.  Most branding online is from name recognition, but the most successful offline businesses are also known for their logos and/or slogans.  By the age of ten, most children can even tell you a company name just by seeing their logo (the Nike swoosh, McDonalds’ double arches, the increasingly popular Apple ogo, and countless others).  It is important to have a unique logo that people will recognize if you want to be successful in the long haul.

And slogans are important, too.  If you hear “They’re Grrrrrreat” or “I’m loving it” on a television commercial you should instantly know the company advertising (Kellogs Frosted Flakes and McDonalds).  Even the Allstate insurance company has their slogan, “Are you in good hands?”

There are most likely hundreds, if not thousands, of other examples but it should be clear that the most successful companies have excelled in branding.  Whether it is through a catchy slogan or a simple logo, you can instantly recognize a company.  Whether online or offline, once people recognize a brand they will respect it.  People like familiarity and after you are “branded” then people will trust you and marketing will be much easier.

If you are just starting out trying to learn about internet marketing, then you might not know all the terms and techniques used by experienced affiliates. You need a training system that starts with the very basics, and then moves through the whole process.

Marketing Treasure Map is one of the most recent training systems available, and it is better than many of the courses I have seen. Marketing Treasure Map is an affiliate marketing course that takes you by the hand through every step of the affiliate marketing process, with a focus on free marketing techniques (SEO and articles).

Marketing Treasure Map is different from many of the “ebooks” out there because it doesn’t just have a short written manual. Instead it has a detailed guide that is over 100 pages. But it also includes a video course with 9 different videos for each step, such as selecting a niche market, locating profitable products, writing articles, and creating simple websites.

I believe this course excels because it is very detailed, but it also lays things out in a simple step-by-step plan that is easy to follow. Each step is simple when you follow the instructions, and there is a video for the main steps if you learn better by watching somebody actually do the steps. It is a great course for beginners, and it is cheaper than many other options too at only $25 bucks.

Pros:

• Complete course that has every step of the process in an easy to follow manner
• Includes a 100-page guide and 9 different videos, for visual learners
• One of the cheapest and most detailed courses available for beginners

Cons:

• No personal support (forum or email), although the simple course should answer most questions
• Simple course and does not focus on paid advertising or newer techniques

Overall, this course does not contain anything new that will make you say wow and get rich overnight. But it does have a detailed system that is laid out better than other options and is easy to follow. If you are already making consistent money online, this course may seem too elementary for you. But considering the price, and the easy instructions in the guide and videos, Marketing Treasure Map is one of the better options for beginners wanting to learn how to make money with affiliate marketing.

The other day I stumbled across myecovermaker.com (not an affiliate link) while searching for something completely different.  Good graphics are always nice though, so I took a peek around.  It turns out to be a simple site for making your own ecovers- and the prices are reasonable and it is very easy to use.  Before we go any further, here are a few quick covers I made to try it out:

There are four different free ecover types to choose from (notebook, binder, box, or a stack of books like the examples above).  There are lots of other options too, but you have to pay for them.  You can pay $3.95 to create an ecover of any of the types, or pay $9 a month to make as many ecovers as you want.  Either way, it seems like a great deal.

Here is the catch though…this is not a “design” service, it is just a site for making your own covers.  It will turn any image into a 3d ecover, but it won’t design the cover for you.  There are some backgrounds, stock images, and fonts to play around with to make a basic cover, but if you are making a minisite to sell something you should pay someone to make some really nice graphics.

But if you just want to make a quick ecover for a free bonus guide or something, this is a great option, especially if you just stick with the free ecover design of the stack of books (like the pictures above).  If you are good with photoshop or paint.net (also free) then you could design a very nice cover for cheap.

But even if you don’t have any design skills, it shouldn’t be too hard to take some stock image (maybe even an image from your affiliate site) and add a simple title to it.  I’m not a designer, but I don’t think these covers I made above look too shabby, and it only took a few minutes to make them all.

In conclusion, if you want to make an ecover without spending any money, then check out myecovermaker.com.  I am not an affiliate or anything, I just thought it was a cool site and since some of the ecover design options are free, that it would help some of you.  There is no registration necessary, and you can make a few free covers just for fun if you want.

I recommend making a short pdf report about your niche and include your affiliate links in it.  Then create a simple ecover for it, and give away the free report on your websites.  Give it a try, and good luck!

He made it sound like this is an awesome piece of software and the website even calls it “The World’s Best Market Selection Software.”  Obviously it caught my attention, and apparently close to 40,000 people downloaded it the day it was released (and it is free by the way).  So I downloaded the software, watched his tutorial video, and then took it for a spin.

I don’t think I’ll be using it too much anymore though.  Don’t get me wrong, it is a nifty little tool that does what it says it does, but it is certainly not anything new or special.

In short, it is a piece of software that let’s you search Google for a certain keyword.  Then it will show you the top 10 search results with these specs: URL, title tag, links to domain, links to page, pages indexed, and Page Rank.  This would save you time if you regularly search for all these specs manually.  It only takes a few seconds to get the results and it is very easy to use.

But I’m still not very impressed.  Why?  Because for a “$10,000 software program” I expected something a bit more innovative.  Market Samurai, Traffic Travis, and other software tools have been around for a while and give you these details, as well as a LOT more. Cherry Picker doesn’t even give you the number of searches the keyword gets, so you will still have to use the Google keyword tool anyway.

Market Samurai is the best software available in my opinion because it gives you all these details, plus search volume and other variables, and you can get details on all the backlinks.  There is also a rank tracker tool and other handy tools included with Market Samurai.

But there are other free options that are just as good, if not better, than Cherry Picker too.  Traffic Travis is a free tool similar to Market Samurai (although not as detailed, and without extra tools) that gives you all the information about the top ranking results.  It is more thorough than Cherry Picker.  Also, if you use Firefox there is the SEO for Firefox plugin or the SEO Quake plugin (google them).  You can adjust the settings so that whenever you search a keyword it will give you all the same specs (number of backlinks, PR, etc).

Overall, Cherry Picker is what it is….but it is not anything new.  I already have better tools than it, and even if you don’t you can get better tools than it for free.

But since this new software is free, I won’t knock it too much.  It is all part of the pre-launch for Ryan’s new Perpetual Traffic System.  I am assuming that with this much hype, this will be a high-ticket course that may include better software and a complete system for making money.

I’m not sure if I’ll get it, but it does sound interested.  Until more details come out though, I recommend sticking with Market Samurai or Traffic Travis instead of using Cherry Picker.

First of all you need a “money site.”  This is the website that you are focusing on improving rankings for.  If you have your own product this can be your sales page, or if you are an affiliate marketer this can be an affiliate/review page.  You will be generating backlinks to this site.

But we all know that high PR backlinks are more powerful than low PR backlinks, so we will also try to boost these backlinks with more backlinks.  What you do is set up a series of blogs or web 2.0 pages about your topic.  These are the “spokes” in the wheel.  Each of one these pages will have one link to a separate page, creating a linkwheel.  But every page will also link to your main money site.

So every page you create will have two outgoing links: one link to your money site, and one link to a different page of the linkwheel.  This gives you plenty of links to your money site, but the backlinks to the individual pages also improves the quality and power of these backlinks.

There are no set rules for making linkwheels, so feel free to experiment.  You could have simple linkwheel with only five “spokes” or pages that link to your money site, or you could make a large linkwheel that includes 20 sites.  If you want to take things a step further you could even create a linkwheel for each separate page in your first linkwheel.  This would mean a lot more links to your money site, and all those individual links would each have a little more power too.

Making linkwheels is a fairly simple process, but it can be time consuming.  You could set up small linkwheels on your own, or you could outsource the work and show people what to do.  If you have any auto-blogs or backlink software, it would be even easier to set up large linkwheels.  For example, SEnuke is one program that lets you build large linkwheels utilizing most popular web 2.0 sites.

But these days, as long as you have a site that makes money, it is deemed an online business, so even a sales page could be considered a business website.

I don’t know which of these two categories you are interested in, but you follow the same steps for setting up any website, whether it is for your own company or not.

• First of all, you will need to buy a domain name.  This is the name for your website (the www.websitename.com part).  My favorite domain registrar, and one of the cheapest also, is Namecheap.com.
• You will also need to pay for hosting.  HostGator is my favorite since they are affordable and reliable.  You can host an unlimited number of websites for less than $10 per month.
• Now you will actually need to make a website, unless you just want a blank page.  There are a few options here, depending on your skills and budget.  If you are a web designer with html knowledge then it will be easy to design a site.  If not, don’t worry.  There are lots of tools to help you build a website without much trouble.  Dreamweaver and XSitePro are two popular website building tools.  Another option is to set up a blog using WordPress (this site is an example).

After you make your website and have it up and running, there are some important things to remember.  It needs to follow basic rules of SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.  You want people to visit your site, so it has to be keyword optimized so people can actually find it.

Use focused keywords in your website title, article titles, and throughout the content.  For example, if you really do have your own company, it is understandable to want to get your brand name out there.  But if you want visitors, you need to focus on keywords that actually get searched for…which means location based keywords.  As an example, a website title of “Welcome to My Chiropractor Site” won’t be as beneficial as “Houston Texas Chiropractors- Pete’s Family Chiropractic.”

These are the basic steps to starting a business website.  You can find a lot more information on these, or post a comment at the bottom and I will help any way I can.  It really isn’t that hard to build a decent looking website, so instead focus on optimization and getting visitors that could possibly turn into customers.

This could possibly mean a job for you, but unfortunately it also means there are many scams out there.  Google does actually have employees, and they have job openings frequently.  You can work for them in person at one of their many locations, or you could work online checking ads for search engine placement.

But…be sure that whatever you look at is legit.  All of the real jobs Google has will be listed on the official Google site and not somewhere else that seems a little fishy.  I have personally known an Adwords quality score checker that worked online for Google, so they do have legitimate jobs.

However, since Google is so popular, there are a lot of scams out there to trick people that don’t know how Google works.  There are tons of offers out there that say “Get Paid By Google- Work From Home Only 1 hour a day- Get Paid $500 a Day” or something similarly ridiculous.

Then these special offers will tell you to sign up for a FREE start-up kit from Google to show you how to make money.  All you need is to pay shipping….which is where it turns into a scam.  After getting your credit card info, they will charge you up to $100 a month every following month until you contact them and stop it, which is often difficult to do.

Technically these offer sites aren’t “scams” because they say what will happen in super tiny print on a different page of their site.  But they know that nobody will read it and will fall victim to their trap.  That is why despite technicalities, I still think of these offers as scams since you will lose money on a “free” kit and never make any real money.

So if you really want to work for Google, check Google’s official site for job openings.  And expect it to be a real job, not some get rich quick scheme.  If you see a site that says you can get rich fast doing easy tasks for Google, then be very cautious.

Another option that is legitimate is to look into affiliate marketing.  This is not a scam, and you don’t “get paid by Google.”  Instead, you work on your own advertising other people’s products.  This also takes some work and serious effort, but it is definitely worth it and you can get started for free.  You can read the other posts on this blog to learn more about affiliate marketing.

To start with, it does basic keyword research…meaning it will generate a list of long-tail keywords that you could use.  But then it also has many ways of narrowing the results down so you only get the best keywords (search volume, competition, etc).  Here is a breakdown of all the different modules available inside of Market Samurai:

• Keyword Research- This is the main reason people buy this.  You can quickly generate a large list of keywords using Google and other options.  Then you have many ways to narrow down the results so you only focus on profitable keywords (search volume, profitability, competition, etc).
• Rank Tracker- This is a very handy tool that I use frequently.  You can type in the keywords you are focusing on, and put in your website domain, and it will search the SERPS and tell you how well you are ranking for each keyword.  This makes it easy to track your progress and see where you rank.
• SEO Competition- This is another major module, and one of the best parts of Market Samurai.  You type in a keyword and it will search Google and give you a detailed analysis of the top 10 search results.  It shows domain age, domain backlinks, page backlinks, keyword density, and other factors.  All these factors are color coded to show you the strength of competition.  You can also view your website stats next to the top 10 results to see how well you compare.  This lets you know exactly what you need to do to improve your rankings (optimize better, get more backlinks, etc).  This one module is probably worth the whole cost of Market Samurai.
• Domains- This is the newest module, but not one I have used much.  This is a tool to help you find domains that are keyword targeted.  Based on certain keywords, you can find new domains or older aged domains with existing page rank.
• Monetization- If you are new to a niche, this will help you find affiliate programs and products to promote.  You can use your keywords to search for physical or digital products using Amazon, Clickbank, and other networks.
• Find Content- This module will also help if you are new to a niche and want to research it more.  You can search through articles and forums to get niche-targeted information.  This will help you learn about the niche and get ideas for content for your own articles and blogs.
• Publish Content- You can then publish your own content straight from Market Samurai.  For example, write a blog post in one box and then click publish and it will go live on your website, wordpress blog, etc.  I haven’t really tried this module, but I’m sure it would be a time-saver if you update your blogs frequently.
• Promotion- This is another very handy tool, which focuses on helping you building relevant backlinks.  After typing in a keyword you can find high PR blogs, forums, articles, etc that you can comment on.  These are relevant sites that have PR, meaning they will be very effective backlinks to boost your rankings.
• Adwords- They will be releasing a new Adwords module at some point.  I personally do not use PPC, but if you do then this will probably be helpful.  I prefer free methods of marketing, and Market Samurai helps you a ton with improving organic rankings.

You also get a lot of help and SEO training within the support section of Market Samurai.  There are many videos (around 30)  that show you how to use each module, then more videos for advanced tips, and they also keep you up to date with new videos.  Here is just one short introduction video to give you an example of the training:

Overall, I believe Market Samurai is the best keyword tool I have used.  I have tried other keyword tools, and this one has all the same features but also does a lot more, without costing more.

If you are just starting out and are on a tight budget, then you might want to stick with using the free Google keyword tool for now.  But once you are making some money, then Market Samurai is the best tool to use, and will speed up keyword research and competition analysis.

You can also get a free trial to test it out.  After registering for the free trial version, you should be mailed a discount link if you do decide to buy the full version.  The choice is yours, but you should at least sign up for the free trial and give it a test run.

Sign Up For a Free 12 Day Trial of Market Samurai!

However, you will find that unfortunately there is a lot of junk available on Clickbank.  There are definitely some good courses and software available for all kinds of niches, but there is also a lot of junk that is overpriced and doesn’t deliver any value.  It can be difficult to convince someone to buy something that doesn’t have any value.

One alternative is to promote physical products.  If you promote name brand products or stores, people will automatically trust the name brands.  Amazon.com is probably the largest online store and has every kind of physical product imaginable.  Commission Junction and Linkshare are networks that work with well known stores and let you be affiliates for them (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc).

With physical products it is often easier to convert, because the customer doesn’t have to question if the site is legit.  Instead they will know that Amazon or the other well known stores are a good option.  This is a great option, but there are still some downsides.  Here are some tips to help you promote physical products.

Keyword Research- With digital products people always do keyword research, but for some reason many people think this doesn’t apply to physical products.  But it does.  Make sure that you do research and target keywords that are either niche related or product specific.  Make a list of keywords that get traffic that you could also possibly rank well for.

Websites/SEO- Since you will have lots of different keywords, you could make a small separate site or landing page for each keyword.  Or if you have a lot of keywords for a specific niche, you could try making an “authority site” that has many pages that each target a different keyword.  This way instead of splitting your attention between different sites, you are focusing on increasing the PR of one site and all the subpages will bring in niche-specific traffic.  Make sure to use basic SEO principles and target all your keywords.

Commission Rates- Digital products have high commission rates.  Clickbank has commissions of up to 75% which is very nice.  But Amazon and stores with physical products usually have pretty low commission rates.  I believe Amazon only has a 4% commission rate, and most advertisers with CJ.com are under 10%.  So in order to make your commissions worth it, you should try to focus on items with high price tags.  4% of a $10 toy won’t be nearly as exciting as 4% of a top-notch digital camera.

Competition- Unlike many of the digital product niches, there are tons of physical products to sell.  But you still need to check the markets and see how much competition there is.  Find keywords that don’t have too much competition and try to rank well.  Focus on long term success.

I hope this advice helps some of you.  I make most of my money promoting digital products, but I do also have some sites where I sell physical products too.  If anyone has anything else to add, feel free to post a comment and I’ll try to add it to the tips here.

It was a course called “Rapid Income Creator” by John Carter.  I didn’t know much about the course, but since it was recommended I decided to try it out anyway.  It promised to help you make lots of money easily and for very little cost.

Rapid Income Creator seemed to be targeting beginners and people on a budget, but it turns out to be a course on CPV marketing.  Unlike Adwords where you only pay when an ad is clicked and not for impressions, with CPV (cost per view) you have to pay for each impression.  That sucks, but the good side is that you can get fairly cheap clicks.

One downside is that this may not be affordable for budget marketers.  At the CPV networks recommended in the course, you either need to deposit $100 or $200 in order to start, making the upfront fee scare off some people.

Another downside is that this paid traffic doesn’t convert very well.  Your ads are displayed on toolbars, etc that people can get.  Most people will just ignore these ads, and even if they don’t they are not as likely to be big spenders (or why would they want all the free stuff like toolbars, games, etc).

The course promises to make it very easy to set everything up and they give you offers, keywords, urls, and landing pages.  It is basically as simple as it gets and they have a few “ready to go businesses.”  BUT, everyone gets these same things, so it is oversaturated and won’t work as well.  They do try to add more content, but it is still the same stuff for everyone.

So what do I think of Rapid Income Creator?  Meh.  Feel free to pass on it.  Of course this is just my opinion, and maybe other people have had success with it.  But I don’t think it is anything special.  If you ever read the Warrior forum, you will find many other people who don’t like it either.

Another thing to consider, I think it costs $49.  But if you close the sales page there are 5 or 6 pop up/exit pages that try to sell it to you, and you can eventually get up to 20% off.  Having to click that many times to leave is very annoying, and I don’t like how people who buy it at first have to pay more.

One more thing…I didn’t really approve of this course, and got a refund.  Suddenly I started getting TONS of phone calls all the time.  I hate spam on my cell phone!  I was seriously getting about 20 calls a day.  Apparently they were because I “ordered a John Carter course online.”  I told them I wasn’t interested and the caller became irate and started saying that apparently I was interested since I ordered it.  I said that I refunded it and wasn’t interested anymore and hung up.  The calls kept coming for a while….

Bottom Line: This course may work very well for some people, but in my opinion you should stay away from it.  You will save money and time investing in advertising costs that won’t convert, and more importantly you may save your phone from unwanted calls.