The Latest False Scarcity B.S. – Traffic Anarchy 1 Sep 2010 at 9:32pm
You’ve seen it before, even if you didn’t know it. The sales page screams “Buy now! Only 100 23 copies left!” Then you come back a month later and it still says “Buy now! Only 100 23 copies left!” Either the product ain’t selling or somebody’s lying. One of the latest big sellers on ClickBank is [...]

What’s Wrong With the Old Gurus? 23 Aug 2010 at 11:00am
On his blog today, Ryan Healy rips on a group of the Old Gurus for some unethical and possibly illegal things they’re doing together. He references posts from a few people NOT in the group he’s talking about like Ray Edwards, Michel Fortin and the Salty Droid (if you’re sensitive to foul language, skip that [...]

GMail Marks Own Message As SPAM! 5 Aug 2010 at 8:47am
Okay, this is funny. When I configured my GMail account to send mail as my email address at my domain, it sent a confirmation email to the address I’d specified. That email address forwards everything to my GMail account. After several minutes, the confirmation email hadn’t arrived. So I checked my server logs. Sure enough, it [...]

Examples of Using CaRP Evolution – 2010/07/29 29 Jul 2010 at 12:00pm
I’ve got a few nice uses of CaRP Evolution to show you today. (If you’d like me to link to a page where you’re using or writing about a Gecko Tribe product, submit your link here.) Rodrigo Fernandez uses CaRP to display the latest news about Costa Rica on his Costa Rica Photos site. Corwyn uses CaRP [...]

Open Internet Marketing Chat in the Commons 21 Jul 2010 at 1:42pm
Some people find NextGurus.com’s Mastermind Sessions a little intimidating. First of all, participants have to go on camera and video chat. And second, every participant rates every other participant’s contribution. Now there’s a lighter alternative. The Commons is an informal internet marketing chat room. Drop by anytime to text and/or video chat. You won’t be rated. [...]

WordPress vs. Thesis: Can WP Themes Be Non-GPL? 15 Jul 2010 at 1:48pm
Wow, what a stormy issue this has become! The following was going to be a follow-up comment over on Andy Beard’s blog, but it got a little too long. Here’s my take on the issue: I guess I see it a little differently. Let me see if I can explain in a way that at least [...]

Bad News For 258,250 People: Guy Kawasaki Is Not Your Friend 12 Jul 2010 at 7:38pm
If you look at the Fauxlowers.com homepage, you’ll see Guy Kawasaki in our top 10 list of “Fauxest Fauxlowers”. Last time we checked, he’s fauxlowing 258,250 on Twitter. If you’re one of them and you’re fantasizing think maybe you’re on some filtered list that he actually reads, you may want to close your eyes. Click the [...]

Affiliate Meta Search: Inspiration for Affiliate Bloggers 9 Jul 2010 at 9:48am
Do you ever have trouble thinking of what to blog about or what products to promote with your affiliate links? A new feature just added to Instant Affiliate Accelerator can help. Affiliate Meta Search helps with both sides of the problem: content and products. Just enter your keywords and click “Search”. On the left side of [...]

ClickBank Refund Rates – Affiliates Beware 7 Jul 2010 at 12:05pm
I just posted the results of an analysis of refund rates for 6,764 ClickBank products over on Instant Affiliate Accelerator blog. The results? The vast majority have very low refund rates. But there are plenty that affiliates should avoid (lest they damage their reputations by recommending poor products that customers end up returning). Here’s a chart [...]

The Top 17 Worst “Top 17″ Lists 7 Jul 2010 at 8:48am
If this list were worthy to be on itself, it’d just a be a list. But it takes laziness to be that bad, and I’m just not that lazy. Let me explain. You’ve seen ‘em: “54 great call to action buttons”, “32 cool jQuery accordion menu scripts”, “79 great header graphics for inspirtion”, “15,327 free eCommerce [...]

4 Free Videos: The Great Big Picture of Internet Marketing 5 Jul 2010 at 8:45am
I’ve just released a series of 4 videos based on my free PDF The Great Big Picture of Internet Marketing. Here’s the first video: Watch the rest of the videos here.

How to Use an RSS Reader to Save Time & Become a Power-Tweeter 17 Jun 2010 at 4:21pm
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that I tweet more than I used to. No, you won’t find out more about my breakfast habits or what color socks I’m wearing — most of the increase comes from sharing more links to useful stuff I come across. I’m still not anywhere near the [...]

25 Examples of Using an RSS Feed Parser 11 Jun 2010 at 12:54pm
Especially now that I’m giving CaRP Evolution away for free, I thought it might be useful to make a video to help people get a better idea of what you can do with an RSS parser. For years, CaRP has been my “secret weapon” for easily inter-linking my websites together and reusing my own content, as [...]

Website Review: TheSymptomsOfDiabetes.com 11 Jun 2010 at 12:42pm
In the forum, Jeremy Young asked for a review of his site. I thought I’d do it by video. The review covers tips on choosing a color scheme, keyword selection, ad selection and placement, and more.

Marketing in a Recession 7 Jun 2010 at 2:29pm
I’ve been thinking on and off for, oh, about the past two and a half years about how to sell differently during a recession. Here are a few thoughts: Sell to people whose spending isn’t affected by the recession. Not everybody hurts during a recession. A lot of people make less money, but some people make the [...]

Last Chance to Buy CaRP Evolution Before It’s Free! :-) 26 May 2010 at 8:13am
I’ll have to explain that headline, won’t I? I’m about to completely overhaul the way CaRP Evolution, Grouper Evolution, and some of my other products are sold. Instead of giving away a stripped down version of the apps for free, the core application will be free — the full version. Plugins and add-ons (like [...]

What You Can & Can’t Do On Twitter 25 May 2010 at 7:38am
Internet marketers are infamous for pushing the envelope on what customers will tolerate. On social networking sites like Twitter, pushing too hard can get you unfollowed in a flash. A while back, I got to wondering how likely the average Twitter user was to unfollow someone based on a variety of different behaviors. So I ran [...]

Tweeting From My RSS Feed Reader 21 May 2010 at 8:27pm
I just sent an updated version of Lobster – my RSS feed reader to all CaRP users. This revision adds Twitter support — tweet directly from your feed reader. Lobster automatically generates tweet text from the title and link from each RSS item. Edit it as desired, select which of your Twitter accounts to post it [...]

Guest Post on NextGurus.com & Our Upcoming Magazine 17 May 2010 at 7:31pm
This site is all about giving YOU the exposure you need to become the next guru of internet marketing…or if that’s not your goal, to share with you the knowledge and experience of those who are on their way to gurudom. As of today, you have another opportunity here. NextGurus.com members can now submit articles to [...]

Let’s Get The Ball Rolling…With A Bribe For Posting In My Forum! 11 May 2010 at 7:14pm
I’ve just put the finishing touches on a few last features for this site, so it’s time to get the ball rolling! For one week only, post a reasonably meaningful post in the forum, and I’ll give you your choice of 3 of my website scripts (one is actually a package of several scripts). Offer Details Sign [...]

What You Can’t See CAN Hurt Your Conversion Rate 6 May 2010 at 12:27pm
You know the old saying, “what you can’t see can’t hurt you.” Wishful thinking. In internet marketing, what you can’t see may be the only thing hurting you. Have you ever built an awesome squeeze page — great headline, great copy, great free gift for subscribing, great design — driven a bunch of traffic to it… …and [...]

“Internet Marketers, Start Your Webcams!” 30 Apr 2010 at 10:34am
It’s time for us to talk, face to face. Today. I’m putting the finishing touches on a new website where internet marketers will be able to review each others’ websites, brainstorm, and discuss internet marketing via webcam. Until it officially launches next week, all sessions will be free, so you can get a taste of what [...]

How (And Why) To Build A Powerful Mastermind Group 2 Apr 2010 at 9:20am
A few days ago, I mentioned how important having a “mastermind group” is in learning internet marketing. It’s one of the best ways to get quick feedback on the flaws in your marketing, and what opportunities you may have overlooked. I promised to share more about how to build a mastermind group in my next [...]

How to Learn Internet Marketing 30 Mar 2010 at 3:37pm
A few weeks ago, I posted an article about the difference between internet marketing knowledge and skill. Today, I’ll follow up with a few thoughts about how to develop both the knowledge and the skill. 1. Get The Big Picture When most people first jump into internet marketing, they’re like the proverbial blind men trying to figure [...]

Goodbye Google Reader, Goodbye NetNewsWire! 27 Mar 2010 at 12:37pm
Yesterday, I decided it was high time to scratch an old itch, so I built myself an RSS feed reader. It uses CaRP Evolution’s MySQL plugin to store parsed RSS feed items in a database. I think this is the first time I’ve used that plugin for a real project. My three biggest complaints about Google [...]

Is Twitter Dying? 2 Mar 2010 at 8:15am
This morning, John Reese deleted his Twitter account and sent an email saying he thinks Twitter is on its way out. Even, though, my follower count has risen, the response to my tweets has been on a steady decline. The reason is simple… There’s just more and more noise on Twitter. People are following so many [...]

Why Next Gurus Uses Twitter Login 26 Feb 2010 at 10:11am
Why does NextGurus.com use Twitter to create accounts and log our members in? How does it work? Are we going to hijack your Twitter account? I imagine these questions are going to come up, so let’s answer them in advance. Why do we use Twitter login? I chose the Twitter login system for several reasons: It saves you [...]

Welcome to “Next Gurus”! 25 Feb 2010 at 10:58am
Welcome to the “Next Gurus” blog. In the near future, you’ll discover how this site will create a community where internet marketers can mastermind together, and how the cream will rise to the top so that those who are ready to be the next gurus of internet marketing (is that you?) can get the exposure [...]

Phishing Attack on Twitter 2 Feb 2010 at 12:48pm
CNN has a story today about recent phishing attacks aimed at Twitter. One former Fauxlowers member whose Twitter account appears to have been compromised (Twitter shut her down temporarily) tweeted claiming Fauxlowers was to blame. I’m not going to complain, criticize or name names — when you get hacked, it’s not always clear who did [...]

Blowback from Fauxlowers Hits Fauxlowers.com 27 Jan 2010 at 3:51pm
I discovered this morning that Twitter had suspended the Fauxlowers app, making it impossible to join, log into, or otherwise use your account. The most likely cause: complaints about welcome DMs from people who fauxlow too many people on Twitter. Welcome DMs have been optional since just after this site launched, and they’ve always been customizable. [...]

Optimizing Case Sensitive Queries in MySQL 11 Jan 2010 at 8:52pm
The other day, I ran into a situation where I needed to do case sensitive queries in MySQL. With a little Googling, I discovered that the keyword “binary” makes that possible, like this: select foo_field from foo_table where binary foo_key="foo value" So I tried it out and it worked, but when querying a table with over a [...]

New Stats Added to Fauxlowers Profiles 8 Jan 2010 at 9:29am
I’ve added a few stats to your Fauxlowers.com profiles that you might find interesting. Some are numbers that you could have calculated yourself based on other numbers shown on your profile, but the change will make it easier to see what’s going on without any mental gymnastics. The first is your follower to friend ratio. The [...]

Now for the Real Survey: Why Would You Unfollow Someone On Twitter? 7 Jan 2010 at 2:59pm
Thanks to everyone who responded to yesterday’s survey! I collected a bunch of responses and created the second survey that I promised. This one asks you to rate how likely you are to unfollow someone on Twitter based on various things like whether they follow you back, the content and volume of their tweets, etc. It’s [...]

Survey: Why Do You Unfollow on Twitter? 6 Jan 2010 at 11:58am
If you have about 45 seconds available, please complete this 1 question survey about why you would unfollow someone on Twitter Update: the original survey is closed. If you have…well, more than 45 seconds available, please take the survey created from the results of the first survey. Thanks! For this survey, I’m asking you to type [...]

Tag Your Fauxlowers Profile…Or Someone Else’s! 29 Dec 2009 at 3:53pm
Here’s the next step in the process of transforming Fauxlowers.com from mildly entertaining to actually useful: tagging. You can now tag your profile with terms that describe you and use those tags to search for other members with the same tag (hint: people you may want to follow on Twitter). And if another member hasn’t [...]