Why Do Direct Sales Companies Disallow Online Advertising

Today, I received an email from a fairly large company that recently turned to direct sales...asking me to remove a banner on my website. The banner was purchased by a rep of that company and she paid Linda to have that banner placed on my site. The banner makes no mention of the actual company name.

Of course, I was kind of irked that the person from this company (or supposedly from this company - how am I REALLY to know?) contacted me to remove the banner because it violated their consultant agreement. The consultant bought an ad from us and we delivered.

So, I wrote back and suggested that she contact the consultant who can then ask us to remove the banner. I haven't heard anything back and Linda still hasn't taken the banner down over 12 hours later. So, I don't know what's up...but I really don't think it's up to us to make these judgments, do you?

BUT...the main point of my rambling post is that, why do these direct sales companies get so hung up on net advertising? These are the companies that fall behind when they restrict their reps this way. Let's face it, a majority of the people that go for these direct sales opportunities are moms and they want to work from HOME. They don't necessarily want to tote their wares to party after party each night, just to make a few bucks. The Internet provides a terrific opportunity, so why do these companies waste it?

Even Pampered Chef moved into the 21st century and gave their reps websites and allowed them to advertise. I'm sure they would say the benefits have been monstrous.

I guess the company in question from the banner fiasco had a rep email spamming and so they nixed all the Internet advertising. How shortsighted, especially for such a large company (if you have kids - believe me, you have their products in your house) who should be able to see this. I guess I can understand the fear about email marketing and limiting that somehow, but how does somebody advertising on a website pose a problem like that?

I dunno..this ground-floor opportunity may be moving to the basement and it's flooded and cold down there. :(

An Internet Based Mom's Guide to Marketing is Now Free

It was a huge decision, but I'm glad I made it. I poured a lot of sweat and tears into the 132-page manual for moms to market their websites...but I've decided to make it free. I have seen so many moms talking on boards or even emailing me and saying they want to buy the ebook, but aren't sure they can afford the $20 I was asking for it. Well, if I can give that mom a headstart, so she can see how investing $20 here and there for her business can drastically increase her profits...my job is done.

To get the ebook, you have to be subscribed to the newsletter...and if you're already a subscriber, you will get a download link on Monday, so please don't resubscribe. We will try to filter out duplicate subscriptions...but there is a chance you'll get a couple copies of the newsletter on Monday if you subscribe twice.

You can find the information at WAHM-Internet-Marketing-Guide.com

An Affiliate's Dream? Directory Generator from Armand Morin

I know a few people who have made a decent amount of money, just by creating a directory of products filled with their affiliate links. They optimize the pages for search engines and then funnel the traffic to the affiliate products.

I have always thought this was hard and kind of tedious work. I love creating content and engaging in interesting discussions when I write for the web. But I have to admit, I've always been curious about using this approach to affiliate marketing.

Well, something has piqued my interest further. Armand Morin has announced his Directory Generator last night. Directory Generator allows you to create extensive website directories where you control the contents of the directory.

Directory Generator also allows you to integrate Amazon products with your affiliate link...and integrates AdSense and Websearch too. It comes with some great bonuses, including Armand's very own keyword tool. He told me about this tool in Chicago and said he would never sell it...but it seems he's now giving it away for free. ;)

Be Careful with "Nicknaming" Your Website

I know a lot of people will shorten their website name or reduce it to initials when talking about it. Internet Based Moms is often affectionately called "IBMoms" (if you can be affectionate with a website - LOL).

Well, long ago I purchased the domain name IBMoms.com to protect that name and to ensure that anyone entering that into their browser can find the site. I haven't thought about it much since, but glancing at my site stats I see 63 referrals from IBMoms.com just this month (redirects to main website)...so the name is getting out there. If I didn't have that domain name, people might be totally lost.

So...that $7.85 investment has certainly paid off! My visitors didn't get lost. ;) Do you have a nickname for your site and do you own that domain name? You may want to lay claim to it now.

Traffic Secrets Success Story - Watch it in Action

As if you aren't already tired of hearing about Traffic Secrets and John Reese...but I'm putting my money where my mouth is, and I have started a new blog that you can follow along if you want to see a Traffic Secrets Success Story in action. With hordes of people proclaiming that anyone who bought the program is stupid, I think I'm up to the challenge of proving them dead wrong.

So, here's what it's all about:

I'll take you through the various DVDs and CDs and then let you follow along as I put my plan into action. An XML, My Yahoo and Bloglines feed is available for this new blog...so you won't miss a thing.

Go to Traffic Secrets Success Story now...you've already missed 5 entries. ;)

So What about Pricing Your Information Products

Certainly, there has been some heated debate about this lately, but I just want to talk about the average Joe or Jane who makes information products. How much should he or she charge?

It really bothers me when I see people tell others that they shouldn't charge more than $10 for their expert information. And it upsets me even more when authors believe people who say this. The most important thing to remember is that the person who doesn't think your information is valuable is NOT your target customer. So forget about them. There are plenty of people willing to pay what your product is worth.

What you want to focus on is the value of the information you are providing to your customer. How much money can they make in a few months from using your product or how much could they save? If your product has nothing to do with money..you'll still need to evaluate it's value. Will your product boost their self image; will it allow them to drastically increase their enjoyment of their hobby? What does it provide and how much is that worth to your customer. Certainly, it's more than $10.

And realistically, it's easier to find 10 people to pay $30 for your product than it is to get 30 people to pay $10. Do the math and make sure it's worthwhile for you.

The Incredible Hulk Hits The Net

I wrote about this in my newsletter a couple weeks back, but after traveling the net today...I really see that there is a seriously problem with bad behaviour on the net. It's like people become a whole new "invincible" person when online and they often engage in very innapropriate and abusive behavior to their fellow human being. 150 pound men suddenly take on 6 foot 2 giants that weigh in at 300 pounds. Although it makes for a good soap opera, it really is just plain old bad behavior.

I was just surfing around today, minding my own business and came upon a number of forums where people were just out and out attacking each other...calling each other names and insulting each other in any possible way they could. I even got caught in the whirlwind after making a somewhat innocent post that was attacked. I attacked back, but I quickly apologized. I'm all for debate...but I'm not for personal attacks.

(And side note: If you think I'm talking about Fred who posted at Im4Newbies - if you followed the link in my last thread....Nope...not talking about him. I would have said everything I did right to his face.)

So before you post another message on a board, or before you send another email...just think...is this really me? Would I say this to this person's face? If the answer is no, save the message in a text file and come back to it later.

The 'net will be a nicer place and you'll be a much more likeable person. Now, have you ever turned into the Hulk online? "You wouldn't want to see me angry" either, but we gotta maintain some decorum.

John Reese - Traffic Secrets Backlash

Okay, how could I have an Internet Marketing blog without mentioning John Reese and his Traffic Secrets? The whole thing has created quite a roar as many slam John for creating such an expensive program and others who step up to defend this 34 year old, who has been marketing online since prior to the Internet.

Here's just a few discussions and comments of note (you'll get my 2 cents worth at a few of them):

> At IM4Newbies : The Calm after the John Reese Hurricane - Differing viewpoints on the marketing campaign that John set up. Watch out for Fred...he's a piece of work. LOL

> At Self Starters Weekly Tips : What is it with these Gurus - My friend Patty (Hi Patty!) questions the price of the product which retails at nearly $1000.

> KellyMcCausey.com : Affiliate Program Rebate Offers : What Does it Mean for the Future? - She doesn't name names, but the dates make me think I know what she talking about. ;)

> At Marketing Tools Review : Clash of the Titans - Hock asks why John doesn't cater to the "little guy"

> At Associates Programs: $1,080,496.37 not a bad day! John Reese Thoughts/Comments? - Some praise and some lashes at the BRILLIANT sales copy (IMHO).

> At HowtoCorp.com: Congratulations, John - A little praise and then some criticisms of the canned emails sent out by a number of big guys.

> From Marcus Allen: Traffic Secrets Review - Negative review from someone who has reviewed the program. Much of his negativity rests on the fact that a lot of the information is for newbies. Come on, this happens with ALL marketing products.

> And on Internet Based Moms - Ooooooh....wait...nothing. John forgot to reach the Internet Marketing work at home mom crowd and his program went virtually unnoticed in the large work at home mom community.

Like the whole launch process or not, John has written up an informative PDF report outlining all the details: How I Made 1,080,496.37 on the Internet in Less than 24 Hours...without Spending One Penny on Advertising

Well, I just got my course today, so I'm off to study. I have filled out my goal sheet, which says I will have 25K visitors per day to Internet Based Moms in 30 days. I'll let you know how I do. ;) WOWEEEEEEEE!

Thank you Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero & Alexandria K. Brown

Thank you ladies! The line up for the Power Moms Cruise is settled now that Lorri & Alexandria have agreed to join us in February 2005. I can't wait!

> Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero is highly sought-after copywriter who is going to teach moms all about writing web copy that sells your products for you. She's also going to help moms overcome the obstacle that we often face about "tooting our own horn".

Click the play button to hear a bit more from Lorrie:

> Alexandria K. Brown - AKA "Ezine Queen" is a high-profile speaker and email marketing specialist. She going to teach moms all about using email to automate your business and to effectively market your products.

Already on the line up:

> Lynn Terry of Self Starters Weekly Tips - Sharp as a tack affiliate marketer, web developer and adored by the work at home moms who know her.

> Lynette Chandler of BizDome.com. Lynette is the super smart "techy" marketer. She's going to teach moms how to unleash the power of technology (even if you are technophobe like me) to make your business more profitable and easier to manage.

> Tracy Lyn Moland, author of Mom Management is our time management specialist who will help you determine your personal best productivity and time management skills...without going completely insane with hyper-tasking..the trap many of us moms fall into.

More details will come soon! Be sure to take a sneak peek at the Power Moms Cruise and ensure your signed up for the Internet Based Moms newsletter to stay up-to-date on all the details.

"Underground" Blog is Coming

Yeah, I've been trying to maintain a theme and stick to Internet Marketing topics here...you know, "real business-like", but I have so much more to say. :) So, for those of you who love the gossip; chit-chat about being a mom in business; stuff about movies and music...you will want to add the following blog to your feeder or your My Yahoo page:

AliceSpeaks.com

This is the "underground" of my blogging and we're gonna have some fun. This is the last time you'll hear me mention it on this blog...so add it to your feed now. :)

$300 Scholarship for Women's Web Workshop

I'm gearing up to go to the Women's Web Workshop September 10-12, 2004 in Denver Colorado. This is going to be a great little trip because the hubby and the kids are coming along and I'm also bringing --- for free --- a member of Mom Masterminds...so I'll certainly be in good company.

The Women's Web Workshop is your opportunity to learn from some great women in Internet business, all in an easy-to-understand and hands-on environment. If you have been to other marketing seminars, you know you often sit in a crowded room and someone at the front tells you about how to run your business. There's little to no interaction and you don't get a chance to fully understand the concepts presented.

If you're like me, that's just not good enough. When I was at the Publishing Profits Seminar in June, I learned tons. I'm not going to lie to you; it was a great seminar. I'm still busy applying all I learned and my money was well spent.

Still, every time a speaker was presenting his topic, there was no opportunity for interactive learning. I kept putting my hand up to ask questions, but I was told to put my hand down and that a few questions would be allowed at the end of the seminar.

To me...that's the way seminar speakers can increase their backend sales by selling their products, but that's not the optimum way for me or you to learn. The Women's Web Workshop is different and I can't wait to meet you there. You can get all the details at Women's Web Workshop - I've even arranged for a $300 scholarship for you at that link. :)

$10 off Coupon to Truth about Traffic

Kelly and I have been working on it for a while and it's almost ready...it's the Truth about Traffic. It is a self-study course the exposes the scams and myths regarding website traffic and also helps you build a solid targeted traffic-building plan for your website.

The only things that's holding us back is that my laptop is still MIA and contains all the important files we need to finish it up. Crossing my fingers to have my 'puter back and ship shape early next week.

It really makes me want pull a Zoolander and Hansel and smash the thing to get the files out. But I digress...

Anyway, we wanted to let everyone that yes...the product is still coming (and Mom Masterminds have already received a sneak peek at what it's all about) and we're offering a $10 off coupon to those who can site tight and wait a week or two more.

You can claim your coupon by visiting the Truth about Traffic website.

Juice Boosted - They've All Gone Crazy for FREE Money

A few forums I've seen have gone crazy over this "Juice Boosted" opportunity, where you get people to sign up for free to speed up their dialup connection. They will pay you a whopping £27 GBP and £1.78 GBP for each sign up your referrals make.

Here's the thing:
The service doesn't launch in October and you don't get paid until then. Hmmmmmmmmm.....

If you'd like to know who owns Juice Boosted, here's the Whois info. I didn't confirm it's accuracy:

onJUICE.com
27 Old Gloucester Streetowner
LONDON, United Kingdom

phone: 44.8707202094
fax: +44.8707620458
owner-e-mail: 2d57454556b6983fbee100beb89b0200-826579@owner.gandi.net

I am no expert in Internet connections, so I make no comments to the legitimacy of this program, but there are others who do:

Scam Alert: Juice Boost
Juice Boosted Scam
Scam Alert : Juice Boosted
What the? Juice.com: Please explain
Is Juice Legit? (skip through to 3rd page)
Techies Say Juice is Not Legit


Read those forums carefully - particularly the least one - before you even think of signing up...okay? So many people are saying, "Heck it's free. I have nothing to lose". That's simply not true. You have everything to lose when it comes to your reputation. Just be suspicious of programs that offer you:

- a dumptruckload of money for referring people to a free service
- who won't pay you for 2 months because they service isn't ready yet

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE? Yeah, I think so. If you are looking to make a little cash for referring people to other companies, there are plenty of legitimate "pay per lead" affiliate programs. One safe way to do this is by signing up for an affiliate network that has a solid reputation and they can find these companies for you.

A Few Affiliate Networks with Pay Per Lead Programs
> Affiliate Fuel
> Commission Junction

Use your noggin and you'll do okay.

Why Should I Write Content? I Want to Sell Products

Recently, I was involved in a forum discussion where we were discussing building websites and I guess the subject turned to how many pages we actually had on the Internet. Somebody wondered why we have all this content, if we're trying to sell a product. This gentleman's method was to develop a product, put up a sales letter, hit his email list and get affiliates to promote the product. That's a fine and proven marketing method.

But writing content also prepares you for the passive income we all so desire and what a lot of people forget is that CONTENT is actually a SALES tool. When you write an article, you need to have a plan...so that it will sell for you (sometimes better than any sales letter). Here's the key ingredients to any content I create:

1. Make sure people are interested in this topic. Visit WordTracker and enter a few keywords related to your proposed article and see what people are searching for. This is what you should base your article around.

2. Optimize your article for search engines. Read this article for more tips: Economical Search Engine Optimization : Do it Yourself

3. Make sure to recommend related products; resources for further reading right WITHIN you article. Don't leave it to your byline.

4. For more marketability, rewrite those articles and have others websites publish them for you too. You want to rewrite them because you don't want people to beat you out on your chosen keyword phrases and you also don't want to get filtered out of search engines for duplicate content. Here's a starter list of where to distribute your content.

It really is that simple. It's easy to get targeted traffic to your website by writing articles. What you do with all those visitors is up to you. ;)

Further Resources:
> How to Create Website Content Fast - Helps you create REAL content, REAL fast.
> Turn Words into Traffic - Learn from Jim Edwards that has generated tons of sales and visitors from his content

How to Create a Website in 5 Days

I just finished reviewing, Bina Omar's ebook How to Create a Website in 5 Days and must give it my stamp of approval. If you are relying on a web designer or struggling to finally get a professional website online...this is your guide.

It breaks down the website building process into very simple steps and is written in such an easy-to-understand manner. I really love the interactive tutorials included which ensures that you fully understand the process of building your website.

You can read my complete review of How to Create a Website in 5 Days or visit Bina's website for more details.

CB Clicks - Does the 'Net Really Need Another Ad Network?

On Friday, Armand Morin launched a new ad network, CBClicks where you can conveniently have your Click Bank ads appear on your website and on the websites of your downline. It's a pretty neat concept and it's nice to get a reward for referring others (which Google AdSense doesn't do) to the program.

I will not be replacing my Google ads on my site because I prefer to get paid quite handsomely per click, rather then hope somebody buys something based on an ad I post to my site. However, I am testing the program on some new websites to see how it goes.

There are a few things about CB Clicks that I really like:

You can specificy the width and height of your ad and how many ads you want to appear. This means you can really blend the ads into your content. You can also choose your colors (just like AdSense) Here's a couple examples:

> CB Clicks Example 1 (wide ad in "list format")
> CB Clicks Example 2 (in a side nav bar)

The key to high click throughs is to have the ad blend in with your site, CB Clicks definiately you do that. AdSense just doesn't offer these sizing options.

A Bit More Cumbersome, but Sometimes More Targeted

You can't just add a bunch of code to your sites and have CB Clicks determine their content. You have to choose a ClickBank category and you can add a few keywords, so the program picks out ads for you.

This can come in handy when you have pages that always serve PSA ads or you just want to make a few targeted ebook recommendations after an article (Secret: book recommendations are how I make a good chunk of change off my websites!).

Take a few moments to check CBClicks out. After all, it's free. :)

I've Got the Techno-Blues : No Battery, No Server, No Service

So, I wake up to find my batter or my charger for my laptop doesn't work anymore. It's too early around here to go to the store and remedy the problem...so I decide to load up my desktop. Of course, none of the MANY emails I have to respond to are on the desktop, so I'm a little stressed about the situation. Plus, "Outlook", which has become my personal assistant has my list of things to do today (and there are a LOT of things to do) cannot be accessed.

Hmmmm....why didn't get the hubby to help me set up the network, so I could access my laptop from here? Now, I have no direction and I don't know what to do. :(

So, I think...okay...while I wait for the store to open, I'll catch up on my message boards, upload some new pages and get a few administrative details done. FORGET IT! My VPS (Virtual Private Server) is down and it contains many of my website. My host, Servint says there is some emergency maintenance and it will be up soon. They say, I can also check on the forums after to find out exactly what happened, so I do appreciate the service and openness of my host....but I want my server NOW!

Look at this, I'm so lost that this is all I can think of to post my blog. We are truly slaves to technology aren't we? I can't spell anymore without a spellcheck on my computer and I can't do math without a calculator. Now, I can't even think because a few things don't work.

Have you experienced this?

Increase Your Brain Power - Interesting Forum Posts

Here's some interesting posts from IBMoms and Web Writing Profit:

> Not necessarily a blog... - Using a blog to deliver free content to websites

> What Are RSS Feeds? - Hmmm...thank goodness for Lynette. She's a smart cookie with this stuff.

> Blog Roll - Hey, I don't have a blog roll. I should add one!

> What Blogs Are Not - Blogs - Using blogs to make your website management easier.

> QuickPayPro - Alice your opinion please? - Kara wants to know the difference between using ClickBank and QuickPayPro for automatic digital delivery

> Have you thought of being a Virtual Assistant? - The topic of this week's WAHM Talk Radio Show

> How are you shipping your products out?? - Ahh...shipping, the dirty details of a product business.

> On-Line Traffic - Someone asked for advice on traffic and it never fails, someone recommended an search engine auto-submitter. ARGH!

What is a Link Farm Anyway?

It's one of those things that webmasters are told to avoid...but what are they REALLY? I've written some information on What is a Link Farm & Why You Should Avoid Them" and here is an excerpt:

"A link farm is when group of website owners get together to link to each other. One main links page is created with links to all the participant's websites and each participant places that links page on her website. Voila! Instant links to your website.

Now whether or not your purpose is just to help promote one another as opposed to boosting search engine rankings...you still run the risk of being punished or banned by search engines. Search engines cannot understand motive and this could be seen as an "illegal" link popularity scheme."

It's as simple as that. Unfortunately, many people don't really understand this concept and are lead to believe that certain linking practices are above-the-board, when in fact they are link farms. If you participate in a program where you place code on your site that links to other members in the linking group and in return all those people link to you...you are participating in a link farm

If you need tips on how to get QUALITY incoming links to your site, check out this article:
Planning a Link Building Strategy

I welcome questions: If you aren't sure if the program you are involved with is a link farm, post your comments here.

My First Speaking Engagement in 8 Years!

It was awesome! I love it. On Sunday I spoke at the ICEA (International Concierge & Errand Association) yearly conference. I worked with Tracy Lyn Moland to deliver information on getting publicity and writing press releases. It was my first speaking engagement in about 8 years, so it was great to get back into the swing of things.

Public speaking in your area of expertise can be very lucrative. Not only can you be paid well for your time, but you can also create information products to sell at events..and that can be EXTREMELY lucrative. If you'd like to learn more about selling info products online and through speaking events, I recommend you attend Fred Gleeck's boot camp this October.

I attended one of Fred's events in June and I have to tell you, it's because of that event that I am reaching record sales and will have launched 6 complete information product courses by year's end. Get yourself on a plane to New York in October and you will NOT be sorry.

Did She Do It? Info Product Course Update

Okay, I wimped out a little bit, but I did get a mini-course ready for my speaking engagement on Monday. I decided I needed my sanity and didn't want my family to kill me. I could only do a small course and created a press release writing guide that teaches people to write press releases that will get noticed...all on a budget! To me, approaching press release writing is just like any other marketing plan and this guide focuses on using marketing techniques to write and get press releases published.

I sold several copies and have a few left. I'm giving them away to Internet Based Mom's toolbar users this week. Kelly and I are working on a much involved version of the product and that will be available for sale later in August or September. If you'd like to get a free copy of the mini course, make sure you have toolbar downloaded to find out how to win.