A couple weeks ago, I told you about a new plugin called amInterests that could help you give your prospects exactly what they want. That plugin is now ready for sale. You can watch the video to the right to see what it’s all about.

If you prefer to read, here’s a quick summary of what this plugin does:

• amInterests allows you to ask a question at the beginning of the signup process. You can then offer a relevant upsell based on how your prospect answers this question. (If you’d rather not make an offer, you could simply present relevant information based on the answer.)

• If you are marketing business to business, and you have multiple products available, you might ask, “Are you more interested in growing your business or implementing systems to free up your time?” Based on the answer, you could make a relevant offer or present specific information. (This question-and-targeting method can be used in any business.)

• The placement of the question is included naturally in the signup process using amInterests. See the screen shot below for an example.

Just add a simple question to the signup process, then provide a relevant offer or information based on the answer.

The screen shot above is from a membership site that teaches people how to write effective sales copy. But there are two distinct groups of people who want to learn how to write copy that sells: online entrepreneurs and freelance copywriters.

By asking the prospect to identify himself, the owner of the site can now make an offer relevant to who that person is. For instance, you might offer business owners a copy critique and offer freelance copywriters an information product about getting more clients.

One of the questions I’ve been getting is this: “How is amInterests different than the amStrategy plugin?”

The biggest difference is that amInterests is used at the beginning of the signup process while amStrategy comes into play at the very end of a purchase.

While amInterests allows you to ask a simple question to better target your offers, amStrategy allows you to ask a whole series of questions — post-purchase — so you can follow up with a phone call.

The purpose of this phone call is usually to see if the new customer is a good fit for your higher-priced programs and services… those that are too expensive to be completed on a web site.

Most online buyers have a threshold of what they will spend without talking to somebody first. This threshold is usually around $3,000. If the price is higher than that, it’s good to get on the phone to answer questions, objections, etc.

This is where amStrategy can be a big help to you because you can ask a number of qualifying questions and get the answers before you get on the phone.

As you can see, amInterests is a much simpler plugin, but highly effective if you know there is a natural division among the prospects that are coming to your site.

The cost of amInterests is $249. But for the next 48 hours, you can get it for just $62.25. Please use the special link below to get your copy of amInterests for just $62.25 (offer expires Saturday at 12 noon Mountain time).

Buy it here now!

Ken Gary

As I told my friend the other day, I’m much better at developing new plugins for aMember than I am at marketing those plugins. Sometimes I develop a new plugin, move on to the next plugin… and then forget to tell you about the one I just finished!

Anyway, such is the case here.

I’ve basically finished a new plugin that lets you laser-target your prospect’s interests and give him exactly what he wants. This is the latest in a series of plugins I’ve developed to help you bring in more customers and sell more to those customers, thereby increasing your revenue and profits.

So how does this new one work? Like so…

When your prospect first signs up in Amember, you can ask a well-phrased question to learn more about him. For instance:

What are you most interested in right now?

• Starting your first membership site
• Optimizing a membership site you’ve already created

Based on how the person responds to this question, you can then present a relevant offer.

Obviously, the offer you make to a person who is just starting his first membership site will be different from the offer you make to a person who is optimizing a site he has already created.

Let’s Look at Another Potential Scenario…

Imagine for a moment that you run a membership site for dog lovers. And also imagine that you have information tailored to owners of different breeds. You could ask a simple question to tailor your sales message instead of the offer itself.

What breed of dog do you own?

• Golden retreiver
• Labrador
• Poodle
• Shih Tzu
• Pug
• Boxer
• Doberman Pincher
• German Shepherd
• Bichon Frise
• Terrier
• Basset Hound
• French Mastiff

Based on how your prospect answers this question, you can present a sales message customized to that individual person. In all cases, you might be selling the same product: a membership to your site.

But — you can now customize the sales message to persuade a higher percentage of your prospects to become members.

In the right hands, this new plugin is like having the ability to…

Eavesdrop on Your Prospect’s Most Intimate Thoughts.

Indeed, it’s market intelligence of the most valuable kind!

Naturally, I’ll be offering this new plugin for sale soon. If you think you might be interested in getting this plugin, please leave a comment below. Suggestions and feedback are also welcome. Thanks!

Ken Gary

P.S. I am currently planning to call this new plugin “amInterests.” Do you like it? Have an idea for something better?

UPDATE: The amInterests plugin is available for sale now, click here.

How would you like to turn every sale you make into two or three sales, automatically?

Now, you can, with the amOffers plugin for aMember.

The amOffers plugin lets you easily upsell, cross-sell, and downsell each and every new customer who purchases a product from you.

When new customers purchase Product A, you can automatically offer Product B, and maybe even Product C, if you want.

Design Your Offer Funnel, Then Sit Back and Profit!

Using the amOffers plugin, you can create a series of upsells and downsells that will be triggered by a) what your customer buys… and… b) how your customer responds to subsequent offers.

For instance, assume that your new customer has bought Product A for $49. When this sale takes place, you can have amOffers automatically present Product B for $499.

If the person declines this offer, you can then offer Product C (a scaled down version of Product B) for $299.

In this scenario, Product A is the initial sale, Product B is a new product offer, and Product C is a downsell – a fallback position if your customer declines Product B.

This is just one hypothetical scenario.

If the person had said yes to Product B for $499, then you might choose to present a third option – we’ll call it Product D – for $1,995.

How you design your “offer funnel” is totally up to you.

Even better, you can have up to 5 offers in your offer funnel. You can set up different products to trigger different offer funnels – or have all products trigger the same offer funnel.

Best of all, the plugin is smart enough to know what products your customer has purchased, so your customer will never see an offer for a product they’ve already purchased – no matter if that same product is included in your offer funnel or not!

Do you sell more than one product through aMember?
Do you plan to sell more than one product?
Then you need the amOffers plugin.

If you’re using aMember, and you are selling more than one product (or would like to sell more than one product), then you need amOffers.

It’s easy to install. It’s easy to use. And it’s the fastest way to get your new customers buying more of your products and spending more money with you.

So let’s recap what amOffers does…

• amOffers helps you create an offer funnel.

• You can create up to 5 sequential offers to be automatically presented after a customer’s initial purchase.

• This plugin is ideal for one-time offers, related products, unrelated products, upsells, downsells and cross-sells.

• Select as many products as you want to trigger the offer funnel. (Conversely, you can leave the offer funnel turned off for certain items, e.g. consulting services.)

• The aMember scope and product requirement logic is used to make sure your customer is not offered something they are not qualified to purchase – or have already purchased in the past.

Your cost? Only $249.

Limited-Time Special Offer! As part of a marketing test, you can get amOffers for just $124.50 when you request it today.

This discounted price includes FREE lifetime upgrades and unlimited use on sites that you personally own.

Ken Gary

P.S. If there was one aMember plugin that would easily pay for itself within the next week, this is it.

P.P.S. This is one of the most valuable plugins I’ve ever created. There is no guarantee the price on this page will be the same when you return.

P.P.P.S. Some people have asked me, “Ken, what’s the difference between the amUpsell and amOffers plugins?”

This is a great question, so let me try to explain…

amUpsell lets you upsell just one thing at a time on the thank you page after a person buys a product from you.

If somebody bought a digital camera, you might offer an extra memory card.

But amUpsell is only good for one upsell. It does not let you create an entire offer funnel with multiple products.

This is what amOffers does.

So which plug-in is best for you?

Well, if you have only two directly related products, then you will probably only need amUpsell. But if you have multiple products (directly related or only indirectly related), then you will probably need amOffers.

Click Here To Watch how easy it is to install this plugin.

Click Here to Order Now!

How would you like to turn every sale you make into two or three sales, automatically?

Now, you can, with the amUpsell plugin for aMember.

The amUpsell plugin lets you easily upsell each and every new customer another product or service.

When new customers purchase Product A, they will automatically be offered Product B, and maybe even Product C, if you want.

An Instant 122% Increase in Revenue?

Let’s say you’re selling a $49 product. And let’s say you have a $299 product you’d like to sell to your new customers after they get the first product.

With amUpsell, you can automatically present your $299 offer to new customers.

Let’s assume 20% of customers decide to accept this second offer. How much does that grow your revenue?

Here’s the math:

          100 new customers at $49 = $4,900

          100 new customers x 20% = 20 upsells

          20 upsells at $299 = $5,980

          Total Revenue = $10,880

Did you catch that? In this example, you’d make more money on upsell offers than you would on your initial offer!

Even more shocking, the upsell offer creates a 122% increase in total revenue!

This is not a gimmick or some technique that’s going out of style. Upsells have been used with great success not only in online businesses, but also in infomercials, retail stores, and even restaurants.

“Would you like to supersize that?”

McDonald’s has created a super profitable franchise business with a few key techniques. One of those techniques is the humble upsell.

When you order a meal, you will likely be asked, “Would you like to supersize that?” When you order just a sandwich, they might ask you, “Would you like some fries with that?”

Simple questions. Powerful results.

And this is exactly what amUpsell does for you. It lets you automatically ask the simple questions that add fat profits to your bottom line.

If you’re using aMember, and you are selling more than one product (or would like to sell more than one product), then you need amUpsell.

There is no faster or easier way to make more money every time you make a sale.

So let’s recap what amUpsell does…

• amUpsell helps you automatically offer more of your aMember products to new customers.

• If your customer buys Product A, you can offer them Product B on your thank you page. (Normally hard, now EASY.)

• You can use one upsell product B for as many trigger product A’s as you wish. Chain them together.

• You specify the sales copy that is shown when the upsell is offered. It can come from the trigger product, the upsell product, or both.

Your cost? Only $67.

Limited-Time Special Offer! You can get amUpsell for just $33.50 when you request it today.

Thanks,

Ken Gary

P.S. If there was one aMember plugin that would easily pay for itself within the next week, this is it.

P.P.S. Click Here To Watch how easy it is to install this plugin.

During July 2009, more than 60 business and personal development experts are presenting some of their best content… for free.

The month-long event is being sponsored by MaestroConference as a way for them to showcase their technology.

What makes MaestroConference so special?

1. Breakout Groups — During each call, participants can be split out into breakout groups where they can answer questions, share insights, and get to know each other in a small, intimate environment.

2. Hand-Raising — Have a question? Just press #1 on your phone to raise your hand. The call host will see you have a question and pass the mic to you!

3. Orderly Q&A — Ever been on a call where people were talking all over each other to get their questions answered? This problem goes away with MaestroConference. Each person gets a turn — without being interrupted.

I’m a big fan of MaestroConference, and during MaestroMonth luminaries like Jack Canfield, Michael Port, Deepak Chopra, Mariann Williamson, Terri Levine and many others are presenting.

Remember: These aren’t just presentations… you actually get to engage with experts… talk to them… ask them questions… in a fun, interactive environment.

I promise you, you’ve never experienced anything quite like a MaestroConference.

So what are you waiting for? Click the link below to register FREE for MaestroMonth so you can connect with these experts during July…

http://maestroconference.com/

By itself, aMember membership software is good; with aMember plugins, it’s great.

As you might already know, aMember protects your private membership content areas and manages your membership subscriptions. I’ve not been able to find anything better. But when you tack on a few aMember plugins, it becomes a supercharged internet marketing platform…

Amazing Internet Marketing Plugins for aMember

I’ve written an entire suite of plugins for aMember that will help you automate things like upsells, offers, physical product delivery, shipping costs, email integration, enhanced thank you page and more.

amUpsell: Upsell Individual Related Products

amUpsell: Upsell Individual Related Products

• amUpsell helps you automate up-selling more of your products in aMember.
• If your customer buys Product A, you can offer them Product B on your thank you page.
• You can use one upsell product B for as many trigger product A’s as you wish. Chain them together.
• You specify the sales copy that is shown when the upsell is offered. It can come from the trigger product or from the upsell product or both.
• Purchase amUpsell Today!

amOffers: Sequential Offer Funnel

amOffers: Sequential Offer Funnel

• amOffers helps you create an offer funnel.
• Tack on up to five sequential offers after initial purchase.
• Good for one-time offers, related products, unrelated products, upsells, downsells and cross-sells.
• Select as many products as you want that will trigger the offer funnel on the thank you page when they are purchased.
• The aMember scope and product requirement logic is used to make sure your customer is not offered something they are not qualified to purchase.
• Purchase amOffersToday!

amStrategy: Collect Customer Intelligence So You Can Make Smarter Sales Calls

amStrategy: Collect Customer Intelligence
So You Can Make Smarter Sales Calls

• amStrategy helps you automate a Strategy Session Survey that your call center can use to offer the right premium products to your members.
• Set it so that when certain products are purchased the Strategy Session is shown before the thank you page during checkout.
• The results are stored in the member’s profile and emailed to as many email addresses as you specify.
• When a member completes the questionnaire they are taken back to the thank you page where they get to see their receipt for the purchase they just made.
• You can hyper-link directly to the survey page in emails too so members can fill out the survey at times other than when purchasing.
• Purchase amStrategy Today!

amThankYou: Thank You Page Enhancement

amThankYou: Thank You Page Enhancement

• amThankYou shows your customers all of their products and receipts that they have purchased during the current visit, not just from the last order.
• It shows the product URL, additional URLs and incremental content links for every product.
• Your customer does not have to go to their member page first to use the products they’ve just purchased.
• You can display a piece of “thank you” copy that is unique to each product. This could be a “poor man’s upsell”, download instructions, Google AdWords code snippets or anything you need to put on the thank you page for that particular product.
• If the amUpsell or amOffers plugins helped them make multiple purchases then the receipt for each and every purchase that day will be displayed, not just for the last order.
• Purchase amThankYoul Today!

amSales Funnel: Includes amUpsell, amOffers, amStrategy and amThankYou

amSalesFunnel: Includes amOffers, amStrategy,
amThankYou and amUpsell

• amSalesFunnel gives you four amazing marketing and business plugins at a reduced price: amOffers, amStrategy, amThankYou and amUpsell. (See individual descriptions above.)
• These plugins all work together to make your aMember-driven web site more automated, more user friendly and hopefully more profitable.
• Save money when buying these four plugins in this bundle instead of separately!
• Purchase amSalesFunnel Today!

aMail: Synchronize Member List with Email Service Providers

aMail: Synchronize Member List with Email Service

aMail is an aMember plugin that keeps your members subscribed and unsubscribed at your favorite autoresponder: AWeber, MailChimp, AutoResponse Plus, etc.

• Automatically subscribe your members to the list that you specify when they purchase your products.
• Automatically remove them from the same lists when their subscriptions run out or if their subscription is cancelled by the member or the admin of your site.
• Allow your members the ability to unsubscribe themselves on their member page. You can also unsubscribe them from the admin page.
• Purchase an aMail Plugin Today!

Get a coupon worth $30 off of an
aMail plugin when you join Membership Academy!

aMail for AWeber

• Integrates aMember with AWeber.
• Handles one global default active list and/or active list per product.
• Can import login, address and custom fields into AWeber.
• Option not to send unsubscribes because when a member is unsubscribed only they can re-subscribe themselves by going to AWeber personally.
• Purchase an aMail Plugin for AWeber Today!

aMail for AutoResponse Plus

• Integrates aMember with AutoResponse Plus.
• Can manage separate pending, active and cancelled lists for your entire membership and on a per-product basis.
• Option not to send unsubscribes because when a member is unsubscribed and then are re-subscribed it adds a new member record to your list or is ignored depending on your ARP settings.
• Purchase an aMail Plugin for AutoResponse Plus Today!

aMail for MailChimp

• Integrates aMember with MailChimp.
• Can manage separate pending, active and cancelled lists for your entire membership and on a per-product basis.
• Can subscribe, then unsubscribe and then re-subscribe your members to your lists with no trouble.
• Purchase an aMail Plugin for MailChimp Today!

amProtect: Integrates Content Management System with Member Protection

amProtect: Integrates Content Management System
with Member Protection

• amProtect is a WordPress plugin.
• It let’s you protect individual posts and pages one-at-a-time.
• Just check a box next to the product(s) that allow access to that post or page.
• Mix-and-match which aMember products give access to your content.
• No group hierarchy to worry about. You can create mutually exclusive protected content.
• Simple setup. No additional WordPress or aMember plugins are required to make this work.
• Use amProtect alongside the aMember WordPress plugin seamlessly if desired. It will not interfere.
• Purchase amProtect Today!

amPhysical: Integrates aMember with Disk.com for Automatic Physical Product Delivery

amPhysical: Automate Physical Product Shipments

• amPhysical is an aMember plugin to help you automate physical product shipments through a service like: Disk.com, etc.
• It works with one-time product shipments as well as recurring payments for programs like a DVD-of-the-month product.
• Set it up and forget it!
• Currently there is only a version for Disk.com, but you can request a new version for your favorite fulfillment company.
• Use this with the amShipping plugin to completely control the shipping costs associated with your physical products.
• Purchase amPhysical for Disk.com Today!

amShipping: Add Domestic or International Shipping Charges to Your aMember Order

amShipping: Add Domestic or International Shipping Charges

• amShipping allows you to set up domestic and international shipping charges on any of your products and applies that fee to the order during checkout.
• You can specify which countries should be charged at domestic rates.
• All other countries will be charged at the international shipping rates.
• It is a good compliment to the amPhysical Plugin.
• Purchase amShipping Today!

amAnalytics: The Future of aMember Reports

amAnalytics: Business Intelligence for Membership Site Owners

• Do you know the month that most of your members drop out?
• If you did do you think you might be able to offer an incentive at just the right time to keep them in your program?
• These are the kinds of answers amAnalytics, a monthly web reporting tool, will be designed to give you.
• If you are interested in being notified when this program is available please sign up here.

A lot of people are use to the way that the standard aMember WordPress plugin works with hidepost and the more tag to give away some teaser content while still protecting the rest of the post.

They want to know if that is also possible with my amProtect plugin.

The answer is definitely yes, and in fact it is much easier since you do not have to use hidepost or any other plugins. This post is an example of how to do it.

If you want to read the rest of this post then you must first purchase my amThankYou plugin. Don’t worry, because if you do not already own it you can get it free right now. Just use coupon code B635F06FE0 and order your free amThankYou plugin for aMember here and then come back and read the rest of this article.

Ok, well if you are reading this then you’ve ordered my free amThankYou plugin and have signed in. That right there shows you what it is like to read blog posts protected with amThankYou. Now let me show you how to set up your WordPress posts with amProtect.

Step one is to decide when you are writing your post how much of it you want to show on your home page and in the archives and on the search page. Usually you’ll write a very enticing introductory paragraph that will make your readers salivate to read the rest. Then after that paragraph you will insert the “more” tag.

This picture shows you what that looks like when you are editing your post. You can click on it to see it more clearly.

Put the more tag where you want to start protecting content.

Everything above the tag will display on your home page when you make your post. Everything after it can only be read when they click the continue link. That is when the amProtect plugin kicks in and makes sure that they are a) one of your customers and b) has an active subscription to one of the products you specified on your custom title tag.

Here is how you go about protecting a post to work with a certain product or products. You add a Custom Field to your post called “amember_products” and you type in the product number from aMember. My amThankYou plugin that I required you to purchase before you could read this post is number 54. So here is a screen shot of what it looks like when I set up the post to only be read by people who own product 54 in my aMember installation.

This is how it looks when I add product 54 to the amember_products custom field.

You can enter more than one of your aMember products separated by commas like “54,55″ for example if you want to allow more than one group of customers to have access to your content. It works on pages too. amProtect makes it easy to control exactly who sees what content. The advantage it has over the normal “group” method of protecting WordPress content with aMember is that you can create mutually exclusive content for different groups of customers if you want to. You can still use the old method along with amProtect if you want to also.

But getting back to the topic at hand…

One other thing you should do to make your teaser text show up in the archives, categories and search results is to use the Excerpt field. You can re-use the same introductory paragraph or craft something in particular to show up when the blog post is shown on a category, archive or search result page. WordPress will use your excerpt instead of the first so many characters of your post.

Put your teaser text into the excerpt field for archives and searches.

It is actually good practice to write a great summary of your article that makes people want to click into it and put that in the Excerpt field even if you aren’t protecting it.

So now I hope you have a better idea of how to use the amProtect WordPress plugin for aMember and how it can help you better integrate WordPress with aMember.

>> You can watch a video that shows you how to install the amProtect WordPress plugin for aMember here.

It’s a great deal on a great plugin so please purchase a copy today…

PS: One reason I wrote this article today was to make sure that the amProtect plugin still works with the new version 2.8 of Wordpress…and it does!

amThank you is an aMember plugin that makes your Thank You Page simply amazing!

amThankYou: aMember Plugin for Thank You Page Enhancement

Do You Use aMember to Sell Products?

Now You Can Create Intuitive “Thank You”
Pages with the New amThankYou Plug-in!

When you process orders through aMember, your customers will typically see a thank you page that looks like this…

Do you just want to show your customers this?

Notice that there is one receipt, and that the customer must now log-in to the Member Area to access his product.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this… but it can be much better.

So here is what the amThankYou Plugin does…

Wouldn't you rather show your customers all of this?

At first glance you might miss the improvements. So let me point them out.

First, notice how there are multiple receipts listed. If a customer purchases more than one product or membership in a single session, all receipts will be displayed, not just the most recent one.

The customer can see each individual product and how much he paid for it. Much clearer and easier to understand.

Secondly, notice how there are links at the top directing the customer to each of the products he has purchased. He doesn’t have to go the Member Area first. He can simply click the product link to go directly there.

This process is simpler and less confusing for the customer. Plus, it eliminates the step of going to the Member Area first; he can access his products in one click instead of two.

Thirdly, you can display “thank you” page copy that is unique to each product. For instance, you can add a product description or special post-purchase instructions to each product. Whatever you write will appear on the thank you page after a purchase is completed. (Not shown on the example, but it would appear in between the links and the receipts.)

So let’s recap what amThankYou can do…

• Provides individual product links and receipts for each product a customer has purchased during a single session (not just the last product that was purchased).
• Gives the customer direct product links so he doesn’t have to go to the Member Area first. (Access products in one click instead of two.)
• Displays unique descriptions for each product on the thank you page. Automatically show product descriptions, special post-purchase instructions, or whatever you like.

Your cost? Only $20.

Don’t hit “refresh” though… this offer could be gone by then.

Simply enter the Coupon Code “B635F06FE0” during the order process to get it free.

Why am I doing this? Because, quite frankly, I want you to start using this plug-in and earn your trust so that I can have the opportunity to sell you the other aMember plug-ins I’ve developed.

It’s that simple.

With that in mind, click the button below to get amThankYou for free right now.

Ken Gary

P.S. Installing the amThankYou plug-in is a snap. I show you how in a short 8-minute installation video included with your purchase.

One of the big questions after you install your first WordPress blog is, “What are the best WordPress plugins to use on my blog?”

There are plugins to accommodate just about any need you might have. WordPress plugins help you automate tasks, get more subscribers, insert video and audio into your posts, hide content from non-paying members, get better search engine rankings and the list goes on-and-on. With the right plugins you can turn your blog into a podcasting machine, or a shopping cart, or a photo album. With WordPress at the core of your site as your content management system and with the right kind of plugins the sky is the limit and the world is your oyster.

Ahem.

You can find free plugins at WordPress.org which is where you can download most of the suggestions I give below.

So what are the basic plugins everyone should have, no matter what? Here are a few suggestions to get you started based on my experience with WordPress so far on my own sites and on the many client sites I’ve helped set up.

Akismet – This plugin comes with your WordPress installation and it’s the first one I recommend that you enable and configure. It helps prevent comment spamming on your blog automatically and you gotta love that. It requires a WordPress.com API key that you can sign up for and get for free. It’s great to check into your WordPress Dashboard and see “Akismet has protected your site from 42 spam comments already, but there’s nothing in your spam queue at the moment.”

If you want to add another layer of comment spam protection you can also install WP-SpamFree. It seems to stop some SPAM that Akismet misses.

All-In-One SEO Pack – Since you’re spending so much time, money and effort on your blog you want people to read it right? Well that means getting it ranked well in search engines. The All-In-One SEO pack provides you with easy ways to fine-tune the way your posts appear to the search engines. It lets you specify the exact keywords and phrases you want the search engines to rank your posts for. I think this plugin could be one of the main reasons that WordPress blogs get ranked so quickly and so highly.

WordPress Duplicate Content Cure – Another plugin to help you with SEO. Duplicate content cure is a very simple, yet effective SEO plugin that prevents search engines from indexing wordpress pages that contain duplicate content, like archives and category pages.

Google XML Site Maps – This is another plugin to help your blog get indexed and ranked well, this time specifically for Google. The best way to tell Google about your site is by putting an XML sitemap on your site formatted to their specifications. This plugin automates the process for you so you don’t have to know XML or the Google specs. Each time you update your blog this plugin updates your site maps and that tells Google precisely what they can find on your site. It gives you an edge over your competition in the search engines if they are skipping this important step of site building.

Ultimate Google Analytics – Another great plugin to help you if you are using Google Analytics on your site. (You ARE using Google Analytics, right?) Besides being a quick way to put the Google Analytics tracker code on every post/page of your blog without updating any templates, this plugin can also help you track the use of your admin pages and keep track of your downloads and how many people use your external links which is what I like best about it.

Register Plus – This plugin lets you customize the WordPress login page. If anyone besides you uses your blog to login and make their comments or if you allow other people to post on your blog this can allow you to make the login page look like it is a real part of your site. You can add a custom logo, let people pick their own password, use a captcha to keep out those pesky robots, add additional profile fields for your users and more.

cForms – You don’t want to expose your email address to spam harvesters but you do want your visitors to be able to contact you, am I right? cForms allows you to easily put a contact form on your web site. It can handle much more than that though. You can set up any number of forms for any purpose you have. The only downside to this plugin is that they are constantly updating it with new features, which is great, but usually you can’t just click the automatic upgrade button to install the new version. They usually make you disable, install and re-enable it after you download it, unzip it and FTP the updates to your site. But I find that it is worth it for what it can do.

FeedSmith FeedBurner – Google has acquired FeedBurner so if you have a Google account you can get a free FeedBurner account. FeedBurner and the FeedSmith plugin allow you to redirect your WordPress feed into FeedBurner and that allows you to know how many people have subscribed to your blog via RSS. You’ve probably seen these little graphics on blogs that say how many readers they have. This is how you get that.

Action Comments – This is not a free plugin but it is worth every penny if you are building a list with your blog by using an autoresponder service like AWeber. This plugin adds a checkbox to your comments form so that when visitors comment on your blog posts they can choose to be subscribed to your list automatically at the same time. If you have a popular blog that generates lots of comments then you could potentially build a big list very quickly. They say the money is in the list! You can purchase this plugin by itself or it is also sold as a bundle with two other plugins: Action Popup – pops up your list subscription form when they try to leave your site, and Action Optin which allows you to change your regular on-page form with a version that submits the form in the background so the visitor does not leave your page when they subscribe to your list. All three are very powerful.

My Affiliate Link for Action Comments: http://kengary.actioncomments.com.

The Regular Link for Action Comments: http://www.actioncomments.com.

MemberShip Academy aMember Widget and Incremental Content Plugins – If you are using WordPress as a part of a membership site that is being protected with aMember then I highly recommend getting these two WordPress plugins for aMember from the Membership Academy. The aMember widget allows you to put a member signin on your blog pages. Once the member is signed in they are greeted with their name and they have links to their profile page plus you can configure it for them to see the products they’ve purchased from you so far with links to them which makes it easier for them to consume your products which makes them happier customers. The Incremental Content widget can show your members their next months lessons as you release the content incrementally to them. Get it? They are both available once you join the Membership Academy, which I highly recommend for anyone with a membership site (if you want it to be successful that is).

My Affiliate Link for Membership Academy: http://www.membershipacademy.com/

The Regular Link for Membership Academy: http://www.membershipacademy.com

amProtect – This is a plugin I myself wrote and I sell it here on this site. It works with aMember to completely hide and protect posts and pages from non-members or members who have not yet purchased a specific product. It is best for those situations where you do not want anyone to know about content that they have not purchased yet.

I use a lot of other plugins too for things like adding videos to my posts, keeping track of how many views each post gets, and other “application specific” tasks that I need for each of my blogs depending on how I use it so I won’t go into all of them here. Suffice it to say you can get a plugin for whatever you want and if you can’t find a plugin to do what you need then let me know…maybe I can write it for you. And remember, if you need any help installing or configuring plugins for your WordPress blog I provide a WordPress Plugin Installation Service right here at Kencinnus Web Site Development.

I’d love to hear what your favorite WordPress plugins are so please tell me in the comments below.

And, oh, until the technology catches up I have not yet found the plugin that would allow you to send a different designer scent of your choice for each post to the reader’s Smell-O-Matic enabled browser. But I’m sure it’s coming and will be available first in the media console of your flying car.

amPhysical is an aMember plugin that helps you automate your physical product delivery through Disk.com.

amPhysical: aMember Plugin for Disk.com

If you are mailing CDs, DVDs or other Course Material such as Books, Notebooks or Binders … anything that you can arrange to be mailed through Disk.com to your purchasers, subscribers or members then this plugin will automate the fulfillment tasks.

• It fully integrates with aMember and Disk.com.
• Works with one-time products as well as recurring products like “DVD-of-the-month” programs or monthly lessons.
• Keeps track of what has been shipped to each customer on their customer record in aMember.
• Prevents sending duplicate physical products.

>> If you would like to have the amPhysical plugin for aMember automate your physical product delivery using Disk.com you can purchase it here.

amProtect is a plugin for WordPress that allows you to protect posts and pages with aMember subscriptions.

amProtect: WordPress Plugin for aMember

Create Customers-Only Content in Seconds!

The New amProtect Plugin Allows aMember and Wordpress to “Talk” So You Can Create Customers-Only Content on the Fly!

If you sell digital products through aMember, then you’ll find amProtect to be particularly helpful in delivering post-purchase information to your customers — and to ONLY your customers.

amProtect is perfect for:

• Providing additional tutorials and training to people who purchase your products.
• Delivering bonus reports and articles to purchasers of a particular product.
• Offering “surprise bonus” reports to new customers.

Every product in aMember has a unique product ID. By using amProtect, you can get Wordpress and aMember to “talk” to each other using the product ID.

Here’s how it works:

First, install and configure the amProtect plug-in in your Wordpress blog. Then, when you write a new page or post, select the unique product from a list of all of your aMember products. Save your work.

Once this is done, only customers who’ve purchased the product associated with the unique product ID you’ve used will be able to view the page or post.

If the purchase of more than one product should trigger access to the content you’re protecting, you can select multiple products on your post or page to give different groups of customers access to it.

Example:

Let’s say you’ve created a series of blog posts that demonstrate how to use a software program you sell. You only want customers of this software program to see or have access to your instructional blog posts.

So… if your software is called “My Software,” then you would check the box next to “My Software” in the list of all of your aMember products when creating your customers-only Wordpress posts.

Until somebody purchases “My Software,” they will not be able to see or read your tutorials. Although they WILL be able to see the “teasers” when they search your blog or go to your categories page.

Good news! Search engines will be able to “see” and index your teaser copy, too. If you craft really compelling teaser copy, you may be able to bring in new customers who want to get access to your customers-only content!

So let’s recap what amProtect can do…

• Gives you the ability to protect individual posts and pages so they are only accessible to customers who’ve purchased a certain product(s) through aMember.
• Allows you to create mutually exclusive protected content. (There is no group hierarchy to worry about.)
• amProtect is a Wordpress plugin so it is very easy to install. No additional Wordpress or aMember plugins are required to make this work.
• No need for any users to ever be created in WordPress with amProtect.

Your cost? Only $35.

Think about it… if you “reel in” just one new customer as a result of the teaser copy you write for your customers-only content, you will have paid for this plugin and then some.

Simply enter the Coupon Code 4D1C330835 during the order process to save 43% off the normal price.

Why am I doing this? Because, quite frankly, I want you to start using this plug-in and earn your trust so that I can have the opportunity to sell you the other aMember plug-ins I’ve developed.

It’s that simple.

With that in mind, enter the coupon code and click the button below to get amProtect for $20 right now.

Ken Gary

P.S. So long as your customers are logged into their primary aMember account, they will automatically be able to access all customers-only content they qualify for. There are no additional passwords to worry about — a huge time saver for you!

>> See an example of a post protected with amProtect that shows how it is done here.

>> If you would like to start using aMember to sell and protect your products then purchase it today.

aMail is an aMember plugin I wrote that syncs up your members with your AWeber lists.

aMail: aMember Plugin for AWeber

• It automatically subscribes your aMember customers to the AWeber list that you specify when they purchase your products and subscriptions through aMember.
• It automatically removes them from those same lists when their subscriptions run out or if their subscription is cancelled by the customer or the admin of your site.
• It optionally allows your customers the ability to remove themselves from your AWeber lists from their member page.
• It gives you control over which pieces of customer information from aMember gets imported into custom fields in AWeber to further personalize your emails.

We all know that email deliverability is crucial for the success of a business. “The money is in the list!” Even though aMember has some pretty terrific email and list capabilities built right in, most people who own that software and install it on their server know better than to make heavy use of those features.

Keeping your server from being blacklisted for SPAMMING is a full-time job that is better left up to somebody else and we all know that the somebody else who is best is AWeber. We like the fact that they spend their time making sure our emails can get delivered to our customers even if they can be a pain about the rules sometimes.

The Story Behind The Plugin

When I first started using aMember myself I immediately wanted it to integrate with AWeber. So did many of my clients. It was puzzling to me that there was a spot on the aMember site for an AWeber plugin but it said,

“Unfortunately we have found a few problems in existing AWeber integration, so downloads are suspended. Once the problems are resolved, new version of integration plugin will be released.”

But it has said that for years. The scuttlebutt was that AWeber didn’t like the plugin and so aMember took it down.

I spoke with AWeber and they said they didn’t have any problems with their plugin. So I spoke with aMember and asked really nice and they gave me a copy of the plugin. I began to learn how it worked and to install it on a my client’s sites and I could see that it had a few problems as far as I was concerned.

First of all it didn’t get the main job done very well.

That job is to do what every aMember owner wants which is to automatically enroll their customer into the proper AWeber list when they make a purchase. Of course the customer has to complete the double opt-in process as well…always will.

With the plugin from aMember, once the customer completed their purchase, they had to perform one more step and submit the AWeber signup form. Sure, that form was automatically generated by the plugin and appeared on the thank you page with all of the fields already filled out so all the customer had to do was click on the submit button, but most customers would ignore it and your list would remain empty.

That was the biggest complaint I heard from my customers about the old plugin.

Sure, there are ways to automatically submit the form with Java script but does that actually stay within the spirit of what AWeber wants you to do in regard to letting your customers know they are being added to a list?

No.

Not only that but then you lose control of your thank you page for customer receipts or up sell code and one-time-offers that can be based on the purchase they just made from your site. That is too high of a price to pay.

I had other complaints besides that too.

My first problem was that the plugin was supposed to let you specify a different list for every product…but it really didn’t.

There were some bugs in the code that prevented that from really working properly which was no big deal for me to fix but it was a little frustrating to discover that at first. But what if you had the option turned on for multiple products per order in aMember and you wanted the customer to get put on a different list for each eligible product? This is especially important if the information you are sending out in your AWeber list IS the product! It didn’t work. You could only have the customer subscribed to one list per order and the automation rules at AWeber, while terrific, would not always be able to necessarily get you out of this jam.

The second thing that really confused and angered the customers which in turn causes problems for site owners was the aMember newsletter subscriptions checkbox on the member page.

When your customer checks a box on your site that says, “Unsubscribe from all e-mail messages.” then they do NOT want to get another email from AWeber. That just makes them angry and they’ll report it as SPAM in a minute. They don’t want to hear you try to explain to them about how that checkbox only controls emails from the aMember program, blah, blah, blah.

So a lot of my customers have asked me to remove that section from the member page. I always thought it would be better if it was integrated and could control AWeber.

Another thing that was impossible but would have been nice is if you, the site owner and admin, could unsubscribe someone from one spot.

Customers don’t read the bottom of their AWeber emails and follow the instructions to remove themselves from your lists when they want off. They reply to the email or they come to your site and say, “Please take me off of your list.” So you have to go into aMember and check the unsubscribe box in their profile and then you have to go to AWeber and look them up there and stop their subscription. Sometimes they have multiple subscriptions so you have to sit there and go through all of your lists. You have to do that because if they want off you have to honor their requests because you are a good Internet citizen, right?

Those were my biggest complaints so I decided to do something about it and write an aMember plugin I would be happy with and proud to sell to others with the same problems and desire for total integration between aMember and AWeber. I wanted to be sure it would meet AWeber’s high standards for deliverability and that it would be something they would be happy with and approve.

I sat down and wrote the first version before I spoke with AWeber. I still feel it was the best way (and I won’t tell you how it worked) but when I discussed it with them they shot it down and said they didn’t want subscriptions coming to them like that. They pointed me to their email parsers and explained how it worked for PayPal and Authorize.net and other shopping cart systems like that. I took their criticism and advice and completely rewrote a second version to their specifications. Now I had something that would subscribe a customer to whatever list you specified when they purchased from your aMember program.

The next thing I did was apply how AWeber allows you to unsubscribe customers from lists via “remove” emails. I tapped into aMember newsletter controls and solved the integration problems with unsubscribing as successfully as I solved the ones for subscribing.

For good measure I fashioned thank you page templates that improve the chances of your customer actually performing the double opt-in process that AWeber requires so that you have a much higher number of customers receiving your emails. One set of these thank you pages work within the aMember purchase process and the other set can be integrated with AWeber’s normal web form and subscription confirmation process so you can get the same results for opt-in pages you might still have for free lists on your web site.

But does AWeber allow this?

There were some who were skeptical that AWeber would ever approve of an aMember plugin that utilized the email parser because of the issue with having an audit trail of the customer’s IP. But they allow it from PayPal, so why not aMember I thought? Besides they are the ones who told me to use their email parser.

Since I honor the “unsubscribed” flag that the customer decides to set or unset during the signup process, and since I send the admin payment confirmation email through the AWeber email parser just like their other pre-defined parsers and since I include the subscriber’s IP address as a custom field in AWeber for proof, plus as a bonus since I allow the customer to unsubscribe them self when they want to — I was sure my plugin would be allowed for anyone if they follow all of my setup instructions.

I went to AWeber one more time and asked for complete assurance that this would be alright with them. I did not want them to come back later and say that they had a problem. I showed them the customers who were subscribed to my AWeber lists through the aMail plugin on my servers and their email parser and this is what they emailed to me:

As long as these people understand that they are being added to your mailing list, it is okay to set up a parser for them. We do understand that subscribers sent to us through a parser will be from the same IP address – that is not a problem.

Go for it!

Regards,
Nick Moore
Customer Solutions Specialist
AWeber Communications, Inc.
http://www.aweber.com

Think You Can’t Do Email Marketing?
Let Us Show You How… Live!
http://www.aweber.com/blog/live-webinars/

AWeber will let you play as long as you follow their rules.

>> If you would like to start using AWeber to build and manage your email lists then get an account today.

>> If you would like to start using aMember to sell and protect your products then purchase it today.

>> If you would like to have the aMail plugin integrate the two of them then you can purchase it here.

The video I include in this post shows how it works and how to install the aMail plugin into aMember and integrate it with AWeber.

A.J. Brown is the CEO and Founder of Trading Trainer. When A.J. needed someone to do some heavy-duty web design and programming, Ryan Healy, his copywriter and a friend of mine, suggested he talk to me. A.J. approached me about a job redesigning the user interface for a brilliant online tool his developer had created that makes using covered calls as easy as 1-2-3. Normally I’m the one doing the programming and not the designing but this was a fun challenge that turned out to be the beginning of a great relationship between Kencinnus and Trading Trainer. We’ve since collaborated on a number of other projects.

Kevin Smith was the programmer of the Black Box Easy Money System. He works for A.J. on his Trading Trainer membership site where they have a number of tools for the serious options trader. Kevin developed this latest tool and to keep him doing what he does best A.J. made the smart decision to find someone else to “pretty it up” and integrate it into the design of the rest of his membership site.

In the video I’ve included in this post you can see the before-and-after as I explain a bit more about the web design and programming elements of this project. Besides using some nifty tricks for displaying the reports in a good looking table with tool tips, the whole thing uses PHP and Smarty templates to make it easy (for someone like me) to integrate with the PHP tool it was created with and to update it and add to it.

While the Black Box is separate from his site’s main member’s area, it is still integrated into his site’s aMember membership program which controls access so that only current subscribers can use the tool. It includes video training specific to the tool, a support desk and affiliate program that is shared with the rest of his site, plus he has a fantastic invite-a-friend script attached to the tool in order to help his subscribers spread the word for him. They’re happy to do it for the returns on their money they are seeing from using the system.

A.J. Brown

“Before working with Ken, we were presented with an opportunity that had huge potential (adding ~500 qualified buyer leads to our list per week, and ~$200K to our bottom line per month) but no way to implement it online. Immediately after being introduced to Ken he prepared a conceptual solution for us to approve on how to make it happen. It was as if he could read our minds. They say programming can be high quality, fast or inexpensive — pick any two. Ken proved them wrong. He’s the complete package: problem solver, project planner and manager, and programmer. He kept working night and day till it was perfect. He came in under budget. Within six months, because of working with Ken, our bottom line will be exploding with profits.
-A.J. Brown, President of Trading Trainer”Click the play button above to listen to A.J. Brown’s testimonial for Ken Gary.

When the Black Box Easy Money System project was complete I also helped Ryan Healy launch the product. Ryan wrote the sales copy for the optin page, email campaign and sales letter. A.J. created a series of videos showing the prospective subscribers exactly how the system works. I created the web pages with all the bells-and-whistles you could imagine for the product launch.

If you’d like to check out the Black Box Easy Money System product launch pages click here.

I appreciate my friend and copywriter Ryan Healy for recommending me for this project. If you have a similar project you’d like to hire me for please use the contact form to get in touch with me.

Thanks,

Ken Gary

In this video I show you how to change your WordPress blog’s RSS feed into a FeedBurner feed.

Transcript of Video

Hello. It’s Ken Gary from Kencinnus.com. Today I’m going to show you how to install and setup a FeedBurner Feed for your WordPress blog. And a WordPress blog…it has an RSS feed, which is great for people who are interested in your website to be able to sign up and whenever you post a new blog post, they get notified of it in whatever reader they’re using – a real popular one is Google Reader.

And that’s great. People can subscribe. They can get your updates, but you really don’t know what’s going on. That’s where FeedBurner can come in because it can tell you how many people are subscribed to your feed. It can make it easier for those people to subscribe to the feed, and it can do some other amazing things too. I won’t even talk about all of them, but it can automatically ping Technorati, if you wanted to set it up that way.

But I think besides telling you how many people are reading your blog and giving you an idea of who’s listening, if you happen to have to change your blog at any time, like from one place to another, all you have to do is go into FeedBurner and change the address of the blog, and boom, all your new stuff’s going, and you don’t lose any subscribers.

So what we’re talking about though is to be able to put a little ‘chicklet’ like this on your website. This is Step 2; but it will give you some social proof on how many people are reading. I’ve got five whole readers on my “scrapbook” kinda blog, kengary.com – but this is what we’re after.

So the first thing that you want to do when you are going to set up a FeedBurner feed is go to FeedBurner.com. Get an account, which I’ve already done. Sign into your account, which I’ve already done, and I’ve already set up a few of these. But what’s really great is one account sets up as many feeds as you want, for as many websites as you want.

Again, I’m going to show you WordPress, but this will handle any kind of RSS feed. Here’s a subscribed feed for our RSS. Down in the left-hand corner of the screen, you’ll see that it says trubalanceknives.com/feed. That’s the typical address of a WordPress blog is just ‘/feed’. But whatever your RSS feed is that’s what you want to do there. If you are only a podcaster, then maybe you’d check this. But I find that I don’t like to have it checked, and it’s something you can change later if you want.

So you click ‘Next’, and you’re going to go through some different steps. Now here is where you can customize. Now it’s picked up the title of my blog, and it’s trying to cram it all together for me. I’m going to make one little change here. You can make it say anything you want, and as long as it’s not taken, you’ll be able to activate. If you’ve got a unique web domain, then probably this will be unique to you too.

Good. I’m all ready to go on that. That’s now my new address for the feed that I want to tell everybody about, and there will be some steps you’ll have to do to make that happen. We click ‘Next’ because we’re only at Step one of 2. We definitely want to click ‘Track to Click-Throughs’.

And that’s another good thing about FeedBurner. It gives you some statistics. You can even upgrade to a pro account and get a lot more, and if you get really going with it, you might want to do that. But being able to tell what’s going on with your blog and how effective it is, is great. If you’re going to do any kind of marketing at all, you must have analytics and trackers.

All right. Now we’re there. We’ve got a few other steps that we want to do. We know what our feed detail is. We know that it’s http://feeds2.feedburner.com/TruBalThrowingKnifeSociety. We might want to optimize the ‘Smart Feed’. ‘Smart Feed’ knows what the person’s reader normally is, and I’ll show you that later.

Now that’s all we have to do. We can go back to our WordPress blog, and depending on what theme you’re using and what plug-ins you might have, there are some different ways to convert over. The one thing that you’ll want to do is go get the FeedBurner plug-in: FeedBurner FeedSmith Plug-in. You can google that, download it, and upload it to your blog. I’m assuming that you already know how to do plug-ins with your blog authorize.

Now once this is set up, one of the things that you first do is go to the ‘Settings’, and then go down to the FeedBurner ‘Settings’. Here it will remind you what you do here. Type in ‘Feeds’, ‘FeedBurner’, and ‘TrublancedKnives’.

‘Trubalancedthrowingknives’ actually is what I called it. And if you want to you can set up more feeds for your comments and everything, so that you can also push that through.

Now that this plug-in is filled in, anytime I use Kencinnus.com/feed it’s really going to go through FeedBurner. Now if I show you the home page, this ‘Subscribe’ link hasn’t changed down there. I’m using the ‘Thesis’ theme. So there’s one more thing that we need to do under ‘Appearance’.

We need to go to the ‘Thesis options’, and down here is a ‘Syndication Feed’ for if you’re using a service like FeedBurner. So he’s all ready for that. So if I do ‘http:’ and put in the feed there, I’m going to leave it as ‘Subscribe’. I’m going to go ahead and leave that link up there, although in the future, I’ll probably show you a different way.

Now on my home page, when I go to ‘Subscribe’, it’s going to go through the FeedBurner. You see it down there in the lower left-hand corner. But how about getting this ‘chicklet’? And how about we put it right here? There’s probably a way we can put it up there. We can edit the template and do that. If you really want it up there that would be fine, but I’m just going to put it down here for now.

The way we get that is we go to ‘Publicize’, and we get the ‘feed count’. Now here are the default colors. I’m really going to want it to match my site. So I’m going to go with black and white, and then I’m going to a activate it. And when I activate it, it’s going to give me the code that I want. And now what we can do is we can go to the ‘Widgets Editor’. Now in the ‘Thesis’ theme, there’s ‘Sidebar 1′ and ‘Sidebar 2′, so I want it to go into ‘Sidebar 2′.

So I’m going to change this over to ‘Sidebar 2′, and I’m going to show what I have in that. And what we do is add a ‘text widget’, and we edit it. For now, we just call it ‘Subscribe’. You can get as fancy and as great as you want on that. Put the code in there, hit ‘Done’, and we save the changes. So now what we have, if we refresh this, is our ‘Subscribe’ button. If we don’t like where it is we can, of course, put it up there, or down there. I think that’s where I want it. It’s kind of the standard I’m going for.

And so now, we have the ‘Subscribe’ button now. I’m sure there are some reasons not to put it up there until you get some decent readership, but let me show you what happens when you click onto ‘Subscribe’. This is for RSS, right? Did you see how that changed? It’s the Smart Reader. It knows that I always use Google to subscribe.

So I click that and add it to my Google Reader, and voila – it’s in my reader, but it’s going through FeedSmith. And it takes a while for this to update, but eventually, it will update. It will show me the number of readers and give me lots of statistics. You can check out as much of this as you want. Now that’s the basics.

Now the next thing I’m going to show you is how to add an AWeber email form that does two things: It will update the counter on your FeedBurner. Plus, it will update Twitter for you.

So see you next time. Thanks.

I really like how Perry explains How To Make Money With Social Media. He really makes it clear and simple so if you’ve been wondering what all this new stuff is about that you’ve been hearing about lately watch this video.

If you like it too then go on over to DrivingTraffic.com and sign up for their Internet Traffic Report. That could be your first foray into Social Networking!

I finished setting up two WordPress installations today for Gail Daniels. She is a professional female voice talent and radio personality recently of WDEN fame. She has hung up her own shingle. Moving herself off of MySpace onto her own domains with her own blogs and more makes her professionalism really stand out.

I’ve loaded her site with WordPress plugins to really accelerate her search engine rankings, usability and performance. She can even upload voice samples and have them play in her posts so that potential clients can listen to her talents.

She and I are discussing several potential upgrades to her site that will skyrocket her business capabilities plus we may even be partnering on some new projects in the future if our plans work out. Stay tuned.

Here are her two sites:

http://www.gailforceproductions.com/

http://www.gaildaniels.com/

“Thank you so much for great work you did on building my sites. As a busy mom and wife I just didn’t have the time to sit down and figure out all the in and outs of building a web-site. You took the suggestions I gave you and ran with them. You did all the work and now I get to have all the fun! Everyone keeps asking me how I did it. I just tell them I am a genius!”

– Gail Daniels