Amazon.com Affiliate Code Updates for CaRP, CaRP/WP and Affiliate Afterburner 30 Mar 2012 at 8:20pm
Amazon recently discontinued support for the affiliate API version that was being used by CaRP’s Amazon affiliate example code, CaRP/WP and Affiliate Afterburner. I’ve released updates to all three. (The only modifications that were required were changing a date string in a few places — functionality was completely unaffected.) CaRP’s Example Code You can download the latest [...]

Affiliate Afterburner/WP v2.1.2b and Grouper Evolution v1.7.1b Fix ClickBank ... 8 Feb 2012 at 8:04am
Affiliate Afterburner/WP v2.1.2b and Grouper Evolution v1.7.1b are available for download. The ClickBank helper code in both has been updated to support changes to ClickBank’s ad format. To upgrade, download and unzip the latest archive from the page linked to above, and upload clickbank2rss.php (in the Grouper helpers folder), overwriting the old file.

Email Marketing: 5 Hot Words to Avoid 12 Jan 2012 at 7:31am
While most internet marketers have turned to social media to sell their products and services, developing a strong email campaign is still an essential component to the entire internet marketing field. In fact, some experts forecast that consumers will contribute about $67.8 billion into the U.S. market simply from making purchases through email marketing this [...]

Giving 25% of Sales to Charity 4 Jan 2012 at 12:02pm
I was reading something last night that got me thinking about a slightly different approach to business. Yes, it’s necessary to make a profit. I’ve got a family to support and bills to pay. But there’s no law that says businesses can’t support bigger goals other than just fattening the bottom line. So here’s what I’ve [...]

How to Keep Your New Years Blogging Resolution 30 Dec 2011 at 10:05am
So, you’ve resolved to blog 5 times a week this year. Or 3. Or 1. Whatever frequency you’ve chosen, odds are you’ll need something more than just a new years resolution if you’re going to succeed. According to Psychology Today, “The average New Year’s resolution is abandoned before the Christmas credit card bills arrive.” I’ve seen [...]

What I’m Working On: Machine Vision Software 29 Dec 2011 at 11:07am
A few months ago, I shifted gears to focus on a few major projects, some of which are outside of the webmaster and marketing tools space that I’d focused primarily on for quite a while. One of those projects is a new website to sell a machine vision software package that I’d done some contracting [...]

CaRP Evolution 4.0.21a Adds HTML5 Support to Podcast Plugin 23 Nov 2011 at 12:24pm
CaRP Evolution version 4.0.21a is ready for download, with updates to the Podcast plugin. First, you can now choose to play podcasts using the HTML5 <audio> tag instead of the Flash-based audio player. However, right now, even some of the major browsers that support the audio tag don’t yet support MP3 audio with the tag. So this [...]

CaRP Evolution 4.0.21 and Affiliate Afterburner/WP 2.1.2a 4 Nov 2011 at 10:07am
CaRP Evolution 4.0.21 and Affiliate Afterburner/WP 2.1.2a are ready for download. The change to Affiliate Afterburner/WP is simply that its copy of CaRP Evolution was updated. SEO Content Factory will also be updated with a new version of CaRP once I’ve finished adding some new features to it. In the mean time, you can update SEO [...]

Going Quiet for a While 3 Nov 2011 at 8:26pm
I’ve been blogging daily for nearly 14 months now. 2 years ago, I hardly would have believed that possible. But with the right software, it hasn’t been all that difficult. However, I’ve just committed to a few major projects with a business partner that are going to consume as much time as I can give them [...]

Getting Pingback Links Approved For Your Blog Riffs 2 Nov 2011 at 8:09am
The other day, Robin over at Profit Blog shared some good tips on how to ensure that your blog comments get approved (rather than getting junked because they look like spam): The reason so many marketers are unsuccessful with blog commenting is because they cannot understand what it means to add value. So below are a [...]

Internet Marketers, Stop Paying the Alternative Stupid Tax 1 Nov 2011 at 9:10am
Before we get to internet marketing, let’s talk about the “Stupid Tax”. According to the Urban Dictionary, it’s: The cost associated with engaging in any state sanctioned form of long odds gambling, i.e. playing the lottery. Why “Stupid Tax”? As I wrote back in July: I once calculated that winning the lottery is about like picking the right [...] Limited time offer (the biggest discount I've ever offered): get $616.59 worth of software and services for only $99. Visit http://customers.geckotribe.com/offers.php for details.

Happy Halloween! 31 Oct 2011 at 9:13am
We finally got our pumpkins carved last night. The kids sketched out their designs and then drew them on the pumpkins for my wife and I to carve (they’re a little too young yet to do it themselves, but are old enough to enjoy seeing their designs finished.) For mine, I decided to try something a [...] Limited time offer (the biggest discount I've ever offered): get $616.59 worth of software and services for only $99. Visit http://customers.geckotribe.com/offers.php for details.

Would You Like to Have Social Features Added to SEO Content Factory? 28 Oct 2011 at 9:31pm
SEO Content Factory users, I have a question for you. There’s been a bit of uproar lately from Google Reader users over Google’s plans to removing sharing and social features from Reader. It got me thinking, something like that could be added to SEO Content Factory. My question is, would you be interested? What I’d probably [...]

Leveraging Your Assets 28 Oct 2011 at 8:53am
I saw an interesting tweet the other day from Dr. Mani, but I’m going to give it to you one half at a time. Raise your right hand and repeat after me, “I will not skip ahead and peek at the second half.” Okay, here’s the first half: Success Key: Leverage everything to your advantage… This is an [...] Limited time offer (the biggest discount I've ever offered): get $616.59 worth of software and services for only $99. Visit http://customers.geckotribe.com/offers.php for details.

Free WordPress Plugin Adds Signature to Emails 27 Oct 2011 at 12:06pm
I just finished tweaking a WordPress plugin I’d created for myself that adds a signature file to the end of any emails that WordPress sends out (eg. comment notifications generated by other plugins…), and now it’s available for free download (you’ll find it in the “WordPress” section — sign up for free if you don’t [...]

Multiple Streams of Income, or Focus on One Thing? 27 Oct 2011 at 7:22am
Question: should you focus on one thing, or diversify? Answer: no. You should do both. But in the right way. Today, Terry Dean posted a collection of 21 habits of successful entrepreneurs. Two that jumped out at me were: 3. Choose one market and focus on it. It’s tough for experienced marketers to manage several different markets at once. A [...] Limited time offer (the biggest discount I've ever offered): get $616.59 worth of software and services for only $99. Visit http://customers.geckotribe.com/offers.php for details.

Introductory Reverse-Discount Price? 26 Oct 2011 at 8:24am
I was going to say “introductory premium price”, but I think we’re a little muddy on the meaning of “premium”. When I hear “premium”, I think “better”. But in fact, premium means “a sum added to an ordinary price or charge.” It’s what you pay extra to get something better. Normally, we expect introductory prices to be [...] Limited time offer (the biggest discount I've ever offered): get $616.59 worth of software and services for only $99. Visit http://customers.geckotribe.com/offers.php for details.

"There Must Be 50 Ways to Lead Your Customer…" 25 Oct 2011 at 8:09am
How do you get prospects to buy your products? Not by convincing them to want it, but by showing them that it’s what they already want. A few days ago, Bryan Eisenberg shared a list of 20 reasons why people buy. Here are a few (click the link to see the rest that he lists…and then [...] Limited time offer (the biggest discount I've ever offered): get $616.59 worth of software and services for only $99. Visit http://customers.geckotribe.com/offers.php for details.

How to Sell More at a Higher Price 24 Oct 2011 at 8:55am
I was browsing the archives of Dr. Mani’s blog today and came across this article about pricing (discussing something he learned from Dan Kennedy): That lesson in pricing remained one of my most profitable in the 15 years I’ve been creating and selling infoproducts online. It distills down to this simple principle: “Price lesser than value — [...] Limited time offer (the biggest discount I've ever offered): get $616.59 worth of software and services for only $99. Visit http://customers.geckotribe.com/offers.php for details.

Affiliate Afterburner/WP 2.1.2 Fixes Bugs 24 Oct 2011 at 7:47am
Affiliate Afterburner/WP version 2.1.2 is ready for download with a few bug fixes. If you don’t yet have Affiliate Afterburner/WP, you’ll still got about a week to get it and save 75% off a bundle that includes most of our products. Changes in this version include: Fixes a bug that under some circumstances could cause your blog [...]

Affiliate Afterburner/WP 2.1.1 Improves Randomization 18 Oct 2011 at 2:32pm
A small upgrade to Affiliate Afterburner/WP is ready for download. If you don’t yet own Affiliate Afterburner/WP, you’ve still got a little more time to get a deep discount on it and a bunch of other products here. This revision improves the randomization of ads. When randomizing items within an ad block, previous versions always displayed the [...]

The Problem With Firefox App Tabs 7 Sep 2011 at 10:28am
What I like about Firefox’s App Tabs is how narrow they are — just the width of an icon, plus a little padding. What I don’t like about Firefox’s App Tabs is how narrow they are… I use an App Tab for Google+. I’d also be using them for GMail and SEO Content Factory if it [...]

How to Embed One XML Format in Another 25 Jul 2011 at 1:33pm
I’ve got an idea I’d like to suggest, but don’t feel inclined to champion right now. So I post it here and either come back to it later, or let someone else run with it. First, a little background. While working on the Atom feed format, one issue we ran into was how to embed XHTML content [...]

Are You a Twitter Dater? 13 May 2011 at 10:34am
What kind of Twitterer are you? Today, @RyanHealy asked: If somebody isn’t following back, does that influence whether you unfollow them or not? My first reaction was, “no, I follow people to read their tweets, not for the follow back.” I’ve always felt that unfollowing someone just because they don’t follow you back proves that you were lying [...]

Is There Room in Internet Marketing for an Honest Guru? 11 Jan 2011 at 12:51pm
Yesterday, Joel Comm published a post titled Where is the Integrity in Internet Marketing on his blog. I feel compelled to respond. Joel recently announced that he’s stepping back a bit from the “guru” role. I sense some of his reason for reduced involvement in this post. He writes: It wasn’t until a couple years ago that [...]

Bad Form, eBay! Bad Form! 2 Dec 2010 at 8:27pm
I got an email from eBay today. The subject line was “don’t disappoint them – get the hottest toys”. I understand that marketers want to tap into emotions to motivate people to buy. And that’s okay. Up to a point. Let’s make eBay’s message a little more explicit: “If you don’t buy everything your kids want through eBay, [...]

How Very Ironic of You, SpamArrest… 2 Dec 2010 at 12:30pm
I got another of those emails from SpamArrest today asking me to verify that one of the emails to my mailing list wasn’t spam. This time, something on SpamArrest’s website struck me as ironic, if not downright hypocritical. SpamArrest is a whitelisting service — they block email from anyone who the recipient hasn’t opted in to [...]

How To Become An Authority In Your Field 12 Oct 2010 at 10:47am
I read an excellent article on How to Become an Authority In Your Field today. It’s a guest post by Leigh Peele on Yaro Starak’s blog. Here are my comments on the 6 keys she mentions (I won’t cover all of them — click the link above to get the rest): 1. Go the extra mile [...]

GAP Logo Flip-Flop Inspires Kneejerk Reporting 12 Oct 2010 at 7:25am
Last week, the GAP unveiled a new logo to a fairly negative reception. Personally, I think they deserved the backlash — the new logo was generic and unmemorable. Yesterday, they abandoned the new logo and reverted to the old one. This morning, Econsultancy reported the news: But did Gap make the right decision by ditching its new [...]

The Danger of Following Anti-Gurus 8 Oct 2010 at 9:11am
A few days ago, I posted about the Danger of Following Gurus. Today, I need to expand on that a little. A firestorm has been brewing around a group of the Old Gurus who call themselves “The Syndicate”. Jason Jones, a.k.a. The Salty Droid got his hands on a recording of two of them discussing business, [...]

The Danger of Following Gurus 5 Oct 2010 at 1:21pm
The big gurus of internet marketing have amassed large fortunes and learned a lot along the way. So how could it be dangerous to follow them? Let’s ignore the question of whether they’re stringing you along, giving you just enough information to keep you coming back for more each time they launch a new product, but [...]

Andrew Hansen on Being A "New Authority" 22 Sep 2010 at 3:36pm
On his blog today, Andrew Hansen wrote: It’s a long known marketing principle that when people are trying to make a decision, one of the tools they use is to take guidance from authority. “Hmm, what should I do? Ohh… this expert guy says I should do X – he obviously knows better than me”, is [...]

The Death Of Twitter? 16 Sep 2010 at 3:42pm
Ryan Lee wrote: Ok, so Twitter is about to hit 2 BILLION tweets a month. BUT, with all of those tweets, is your message getting lost in the masses? As more people are following hundreds (or thousands), do they really see YOUR message? …I use Facebook or my blog for updates. Here’s what I think. Your followers aren’t seeing all 2 [...]

John Mayer Quits Twitter, Leaving 3.7 Million Followers Behind 15 Sep 2010 at 9:46am
This seems like a bad move to me. Stan Schroeder quotes John Mayer saying: I had 3.3 million Twitter followers back in March April when I announced that I’d be predominantly posting on Tumblr, a site that takes all of 25 seconds to sign up for. Five months later I have just passed 50,000 followers, a fraction [...]

The Facebookification of Twitter — Will It Prove Deadly? 14 Sep 2010 at 4:48pm
Ben Parr wrote on Mashable: Twitter is about to become a major multimedia destination, thanks to some new partners and features. Earlier today, we reported that Twitter is bringing multimedia to the stream. If you tweet a link to a video, for example, it will be embedded and play right in the Twitter stream. Twitter has “multiple [...]