TerenceBlog - Internet Marketing

This blog if "temporarily" outdated

2009-05-18T08:32:00.001-07:00

Due to my schedule, I've decided to give up in Internet Affiliate Marketing. I am still interested to study "Revenue Sharing" but I do not think I have much time to update it.

So, it has been only several months until I left this blog behind. Anyway, I am still happy to buy this domian, terenceblog.com because I think it's cool ;)

And I am still writing blog, it's been my habit since I was 18, so you still can get me in MSN spaces ;)

All the best ;)

Here's Why Using Camtasia Can Increase Your Affiliate Checks

2009-04-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

Since there are already lots of people getting into affiliate marketing, it is no wonder that the competition is getting stiff. The challenge is to try and outdo other affiliates and think of ways to be able to attain this.

There are also many tips and techniques being taught to these affiliate in order to best plan their strategy for their program to work effectively so that more earnings will be achieved.

What better way to wow your prospects and customers than to record and publish top notch, full motion and streaming screen-captured videos. Nothing like feeling your hard work getting paid by having your customers jumping up excitedly in great anticipation to buy your product right there and then.

This is Camtasia in action. It is a proven fact; giving your customers something they can actually see can explode your online sales instantly.

You do not need to have trainings and education to be able to know how this system can work for your affiliate program. Anyone can create stunning videos, from multimedia tutorials and step-by-step presentations available online. The process is like having your customers seated next to you and looking at your desktop, as you show them the things they need to see and hear. All this done step by step.

For those who does not know it yet, how does Camtasia works?

1. It can record your desktop activity in a single click. No need to have to save and compile all your files because it is recorded right there and then.

2. Can easily convert your videos into web pages. Once converted you can have your customers visiting that certain page. Videos are easier to understand and take in unlike reading texts which oftentimes is a trying thing to do.

3. Upload your pages. Publish them through blogs, RSS feed and podcasts. You may want your Camtasis videos to get around and reach out to other people that may be potential customers in the future. Nothing like being visible in many sites and pages to advertise yourself and get your message through.

There are other things you can do with your affiliate program using Camtasia. You can…

Create stunning multimedia presentations that are proven to increase sales because all the senses are engaged. This also has the tendency to reduce skepticism among hard-to-please customers.

Reduce refunds and other customer issues by demonstrating visually how to use your product and how to do it properly. Complaints will also be minimized because all the facts and the presentation are there for the customers to just see and hear about.

Promote affiliate products and services using visual presentations. This is an effective way of redirecting your viewers straight to your affiliate website after they are finished with the video. Make the most of the presentation by putting your site location in the end and make them go there directly if they want more information.

Multiple your online auction bids exponentially when you give your readers a feel of what you have to offer. Based from reports, auctions that includes pictures increases bidding percentage by 400%. Imagine how much higher it will be if it were videos.

Publish valuable infoproducts that you can sell for a much higher price. It will be all worth the price because of the full colored graphics menu and templates that you will be using.

Minimize miscommunication with your customers. Instantly showing them what you want they wanted in the first place is making them understand clearly the essence of your affiliate program. The good thing about multimedia is, nothing much can go wrong. It is there already.

These are just some of the things you can do with Camtasia that can be very helpful in your chosen affiliate program.

Note that the main purpose of using Camtasia is to boost the income that is generated from your affiliate program. Although it can be used for entertainment and enjoyment purposes, which is not really a valid reason why you choose to get all through that trouble.

Try to focus on the goal that you have set upon yourself to and achieve that with the use of the things that may be quite a lot of help in increasing your earnings.

The 3 Things To Avoid When Emailing Your List

2009-04-16T05:36:00.001-07:00

When you decide to have an opt-in list, it is not just a matter of sending your subscribers your promotional newsletters or catalogs. There are many things to consider in avoiding many complications. While there are so many ways you can make people subscribe to your list, there are also some things you must do to avoid subscribers from wanting to get off from your list.

Aside from that, you also want to avoid any problems with the law and your internet service provider or ISP. There are now many laws and rules that are applied to help protect the privacy of the internet users from spamming and unwanted mails. With the popularity of the electronic mail as a medium for marketing because of the low cost, many company’s have seized the opportunity and have flooded many people’s e-mail accounts with promotional mail.

But, with an opt-in list, you avoid this annoyance because people subscribe to the list; they want to receive the newsletters and promotional materials. They have consented to being on the list by subscribing themselves, just don’t forget to put an unsubscribe feature everytime in your opt-in list so that you avoid any confusion. There may be times when an email account was provided when the real owner didn’t want to subscribe.

It is essential that you keep your list clean and manageable. Arrange it by using the many tools and technologies available for your opt-in list. Do not worry; your investment in this marketing strategy is well worth it with all the coverage you will get which will likely be converted into sales then to profit.

Keep yourself and your business out of trouble and potential run-ins with the law and the internet service providers. Keep your operation legit and clean. Your reputation as a legitimate businessman and a legitimate site depends on your being a straight and true marketing strategist. As a tip, here are three things to avoid when emailing your list.

1) Take notice of your unsuccessful sends. These are the e-mails that bounce. Bounced emails, also known as undeliverable messages, are those messages that, for whatever reason, were not successfully received by the intended recipient.

There are bounces that happen or occur because the server was busy at that time but can still be delivered in another time. There are also bounces because the inbox of the recipient is full at that time. There are those bounce messages that are simply undeliverable ever. The reason for this is that it may be an invalid email address, a misspelled email address, or an email address that was abandoned and erased already.

Manage your list by putting markings on those that bounce. Erase an email account from your list so that you have an accurate statistics and records as to how many are actually receiving your mail. You may also want to check the spellings of your email addresses in your list. One common mistake is when an N instead of an M is placed in the .com area.

2) Always provide an unsubscribe feature in your site and an unsubscribe link in your mails. When someone in your list files a request to be unsubscribed, always take that request seriously. If you don’t take them off your list and keep sending them your e-mails, you are now sending them spam mail.

When you are reported as a spammer, you and your business can get into a lot of trouble. You can be reported to the authorities and maybe blacklisted by many internet service providers. You will lose a lot of subscribers this way and many more in potential subscribers.

3) Do not provide pornographic or shocking and disturbing content in your newsletters. It is hard to decipher the age of the recipient and many complaints may stem from these. Controversial issues also are to be avoided to not be branded by your subscribers. Stick to the nature of your site and business.

Always remember these tips in this article so that you can have a healthy relationship with your subscribers as well as be kept within the boundaries of what is allowed in sending mails to an opt-in list.

Don't Get Caught With Google Adsense Click Fraud

2009-04-10T08:09:00.000-07:00

Many web site owners are getting their Google Adsense account terminated when they have done nothing wrong to deserve the punishment. Considering the money that they are getting from Adsense, they would certainly want to get back into it.

Considering the money to be made with Adsense, it is no wonder that they would want to get back into it.

It is that same consideration why the Google Adsense click fraud is thought of and why many people are getting into it.

Click fraud is the act of clicking on ads for the purpose of costing the advertiser money. It is simply the same as paying out cash for false leads. Many people website owners are aware of this fraud and are sharing the same sentiment that this is the one big problem that Adsense is facing.

How do you prevent being involved in this fraud?

Majority of web hosts are offering access logs. Once this is offered to you, it is necessary that you hand it over to Google as well. This allows them to look for any suspicious activity on your site. Problems like this are very serious and giving it to them is saying that you would want to help them in any way you can in solving the problem.

It can also help if you have a click monitoring software. If you do not have one yet, you should try and get one. There is absolutely no major factor preventing you from having one because most of this software is free.

As usual, all the information you have received should be turned over to Google. This is showing Google that you too are fighting against click frauds and is in no way a part of it.

Study your server logs and watch for any activity that seems suspicious. Report anything that you may find odd, may it big or small thing.

You may want to consider disabling ads for your own IP address and local geographic area. This will certainly prevent accidents and will not make Google mistake another user as you. You can do through a htaccess file. This will avoid Google mistaking as clicking on your own ads and be kicked out because of it.

Keep your Adsense off on pop ups and pop unders. Your ads should not be displayed on content sites that promote illegal activity or tampering of the legal rights of other people or business. Included in this are the content that is considered adult and gambling ones. If you think that you may be breaking this rule, immediately remove your content or Adsense from the web page.

Be truthful and confess up to Google about times when you might have clicked on your own as, whether accidentally or intentionally. Or the times when you have done something that is against the Terms of Service that they are implementing. Be honest about anything that you may have done that is wrong. Confessing is way better than Google learning about it eventually. It would mean eventual termination and no getting back what you have worked so hard for.

Do not tell your family or friends about Adsense on your website. Chances are they may start clicking on them to help you make money without you knowing it. They may be doing more harm to you than help by trying it in the first place.

If ever someone you know chanced upon your Adsense, make sure they understand that they cannot click on your ads under any circumstances. It would be wise to brief them on important things about Adsense and what not to do with them.

Most pay per click networks have different measures in hand to protect website owners against click frauds. Other search engines can track more than 50 data points, IP address, browser’s information, user’s session info and pattern recognition. They also have “systems” available that detects fraud. Not to mention the specialized teams monitoring how things are going and helping advertisers stop click frauds.

Google offers suggestion on how to avoid click fraud. Using “negative keywords” can be used to keep your Adsense showing on products and services that are in no way related to yours. Adding tracking URLs to your links so you can track the traffic coming from Google.

Do not be caught in the Google click fraud. Be aware and be wary.

Having a Good Sunday...

2009-04-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 11am as usual, going for breakfast "Loh Mee" with my sister and mom, it was delicious and right after we finished it, the rain falls and I reacted like 'omg what a time', my sister felt my reaction and told me do not rush because we have been rushing from Monday to Friday, and it's time for us to get ourselves refreshed and slow down our movement.

Very true... and sometimes a little thing can make us happy, just like I got myself a Goats Milk Shampoo and the feeling is like winning a lottery hehe.

Stay happy, no matter what, good things only goes to happy person. So even bad things happen, stay happy ;)

5 Important Rules in Website Design

2009-03-30T03:41:00.001-07:00

When it comes to your website, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are seven important rules of thumb to observe to make sure your website performs well.

1) Do not use splash pages

Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like "welcome" or "click here to enter". In fact, they are just that -- pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the "back" button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.

2) Do not use excessive banner advertisements

Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valueable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.

3) Have a simple and clear navigation

You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don't know how to navigate, they will leave your site.

4) Have a clear indication of where the user is

When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don't confuse your visitors because confusion means "abandon ship"!

5) Avoid using audio on your site

If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they're not annoyed by some audio looping on and on on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it -- volume or muting controls would work fine.

3 Reasons Why Adsense Is Important For Content Sites

2009-03-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

To know why Adsense is essential for your content sites is to know first how this works.

The concept is really simple, if you think about it. The publisher or the webmaster inserts a java script into a certain website. Each time the page is accessed, the java script will pull advertisements from the Adsense program. The ads that are targeted should therefore be related to the content that is contained on the web page serving the ad. If a visitor clicks on an advertisement, the webmaster serving the ad earns a portion of the money that the advertiser is paying the search engine for the click.

The search engine is the one handling all the tracking and payments, providing an easy way for webmasters to display content-sensitive and targeted ads without having the hassle to solicit advertisers, collect funds, monitor the clicks and statistics which could be a time-consuming task in itself. It seems that there is never a shortage of advertisers in the program from which the search engine pulls the Adsense ads. Also webmasters are less concerned by the lack of information search engines are providing and are more focused in making cash from these search engines.

The first reason why Adsense is essential for content sites is because it already has come a long way in understanding the needs of publishers and webmasters. Together with its continuous progression is the appearance of more advanced system that allows full ad customization. Webmasters are given the chance to choose from many different types of text ad formats to better complement their website and fit their webpage layout.

The different formatting enables the site owners the possibility of more click through from visitors who may or may not be aware of what they are clicking on. It can also appeal to the people visiting thus make them take that next step of looking up what it is all about. This way the people behind the Adsense will get their content read and making profit in the process.

The second reason is the ability of the Adsense publishers to track not only how their sites are progressing but also the earnings based on the webmaster-defined channels. The recent improvements in the search engines gives webmasters the capability to monitor how their ads are performing using customizable reports that has the capacity to detail page impressions, clicks and click-through rates. Webmasters and publishers can now track specific ad formats, colors and pages within a website. Trends are also easily spotted.

With the real-time reporting at hand, the effectiveness of the changes made will be assessed quickly. There would be time to sort out the contents that people are making the most clicks on. The ever-changing demands would be met while generating cash for the webmasters and publishers. The more flexible tools are also allowing webmasters to group web pages by URL, domain, ad type or category, which will provide them some accurate insight on which pages, ads and domains are performing best.

The last and final reason is that the advertisers have realized the benefits associated having their ads served on targeted websites. Thus increasing the possibility that a prospective web surfer will have an interest in their product and services. All because of the content and its constant maintenance. As opposed to those who are no using Adsense in their sites, they are given the option of having other people do their content for them, giving them the benefit of having successful and money-generating web sites.

Adsense is all about targeted content, the more targeted your content is, the more target the search engines’ ads will be. There are some web masters and publishers who are focused more on their site contents and how best to maintain them rather than the cash that the ads will generate for them. This is the part where the effectiveness is working its best.

There was a time when people were not yet aware of the money to be achieved from advertisements. The cash generated only came into existence when the webmasters and publishers realized how they can make Adsense be that generator. In those days, the content were the most important factors that is taken quite seriously. It still is. With the allure of money, of course.

Website in Progress

2009-03-16T10:33:00.001-07:00

I've finally finished the Ebook for business. It's a salad recipe books and I wish the Malaysians like it. I don't know how to make salad, so I gathered those information from the net and hope it helps.

The website is in progress. The competition for the keywords "Kitchen Appliances" doesn't seem many, it is only around 60000+, so let's see if I can do it like what I've promised.

There is another Learning Preview from my NLP guru this Saturday, I enjoy working with him and there is always someone you can learn from :)

Apply TuneMoney? Don't Do it Until You Read This...

2009-03-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

You may find a topic in this blog about TuneMoney written couple of weeks ago. I've written some benefits of using TuneMoney but sorry mate, I just have to take back those words from now on.

So the story begins...

Story 1)

I applied my TuneCard on 22 January, the card supposed to be ready for collection at my PosOffice branch in a week time, but I understood that it was CNY period so I expected it would take longer than a week. Time passed and after 3 weeks of no any respond, I started to feel worry if the card has lost during delivery.

Few days later I received a SMS from Tunemoney that collection at PosOffice was no longer available. They claimt that they are adding a value service to deliver the card to doorstep. Well, I wondered "Where the hell is my card now? In PosOffice or where?".

I've sent an email to their customer service department and no response was given. I called them twice and the first staff told me that my card has been sent and it took several more days to receive. Wait...and wait....nothing received...Then I called the second time and the staff told me my card was about to be sent in a week time...WTF? Were they serious in tracking customer's card status? I don't know.

Ok eventually it took me about a month to receive...

Story 2)
After activation, I reloaded money via Maybank2u to my TuneMoney account (Ok since they have terminated their business relationship with PosOffice, you can no longer reload your money in PosOffice). In general your account would be reloaded once the transfer go through. However my account didn't show any sign of reloaded although my Maybank account has deducted the money.

3 days later I reported this to them via email, few days of waiting only I realised "OMG I shouldn't use an email since they would not reply the email". I called them on Friday and the staff said it couldn't be solved until Monday since they do not operate on weekend. I gave them another call on Monday and the same staff told me it couldn't be solved on the same day since it was public holiday. Ok I could understand the situation so I have determined to be patient, and appreciated the staff called Alvin to be helpful for my trouble. He said they would call me once the matter is solved.

No call on Tuesday, and until today, I couldn't wait anymore and gave them another call. The staff told me the case has been passed to finance department. To make him understand the situation, I spent my time and effort telling him the whole matter and informed him to take this as an urgent matter. After a few hours he called me and said "We cannot solve this problem. This is not the TuneMoney error but some error has occured in your Maybank account. You have to take your payment slip and go to the Maybank counter to get the refund."

End of stories...

To be honest I was ok with my misfortune, the lesson is nothing to do with your luck, but the shocking point is their willingness to help the customers getting out of troubles, and also the speed of getting things done.

I've heard a lot of experienced card users saying the bad things about TuneMoney and finally I understood what they say so...

Next SEO Destination

2009-03-08T08:37:00.000-07:00

After receiving a success of getting ranked No 1 at Google search for two very general keywords, my next SEO target is helping my home business to get ranked No 1 for keyword "Kitchen Appliances" and "Bathroom Accessories" for Google search Malaysia.

The current website is professionally built but it does not comply much with SEO. So to get the job done, first of all I need to analyse who is currently ranked No 1 in the search engine, then analyse the reasons of it and in the end starting on onpage optimization follow by offpage optimization.

Another project of mine is being a publisher in Clickbank, also in 2009. I have a great content ( My NLP guru would contribute on this) and what I need now is someone who can do more on the technical part. Requirement for this person would be:

1) Who can create an attractive and sales conversion sales letter.
2) Who can understand chinese and translate into "American English".
3) Honest, Passionate, Money minded, Able to take responsibility and lastly,
4) Who has experience in Affiliate Marketing.

If you think you are the person, you can send me an email and tell me more about yourself.

I Vote For Clare

2009-03-05T08:22:00.000-08:00

The government of Queensland is giving away this "Best Job in the World" to one person on earth. Queensland Premier Paul Lucas, who confirms that Queensland is seeking applicants who want to be "paid to explore the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, swim, snorkel and generally live the Queensland lifestyle." The best job in the world pays 150,000 Australian dollars (US$103,000) for six months of this demanding labor.

Applicants need to submit a 60 seconds self introduction. Around 35,000 applications received 50 people have been short-listed, one of them is Jackie from Malaysia.

150,000 AUD for this type of media exposure? It's way to cheap and Australian government has done a fucking smart job for this. Anyway have you vote yet? I am giving my vote for Clare Wang from Taiwan.

I think the top 50 are great but Clare deserves some credits for having such a cute shirt ;)

Oh ya, you can view the 50 candidates here and submit your vote too.

I hope Malaysia government would give away a 'Best Job in Malaysia' for Malaysians too ;)

So Many Affiliate Programs! Which One Do I Choose?

2009-03-04T09:56:00.001-08:00

Ask questions first before you join an affiliate program. Do a little research about the choices of program that you intend to join into. Get some answers because they will be the deciding point of what you will be achieving later on.

Will it cost you anything to join? Most affiliate programs being offered today are absolutely free of charge. So why settle for those that charge you some dollars before joining.

When do they issue the commission checks? Every program is different. Some issue their checks once a month, every quarter, etc. Select the one that is suited to your payment time choice. Many affiliate programs are setting a minimum earned commission amount that an affiliate must meet or exceed in order for their checks to be issued.

What is the hit per sale ratio? This is the average number of hits to a banner or text link it takes to generate a sale based on all affiliate statistics. This factor is extremely important because this will tell you how much traffic you must generate before you can earn a commission from the sale.

How are referrals from an affiliate’s site tracked and for how long do they remain in the system? You need to be confident on the program enough to track those people you refer from your site. This is the only way that you can credit for a sale. The period of time that those people stay in the system is also important. This is because some visitors do not buy initially but may want to return later to make the purchase. Know if you will still get credit for the sale if it is done some months from a certain day.

What are the kinds of affiliate stats available? Your choice of affiliate program should be capable of offering detailed stats. They should be available online anytime you decide to check them out. Constantly checking your individual stats is important to know how many impressions, hits and sales are already generated from your site. Impressions are the number of times the banner or text link was viewed by a visitor of your site. A hit is the one clicking on the banner or text links.

Does the affiliate program also pay for the hits and impressions besides the commissions on sales? It is important that impressions and hits are also paid, as this will add to the earnings you get from the sales commission. This is especially important if the program you are in offers low sales to be able to hit ratio.

Who is the online retailer? Find out whom you are doing business with to know if it is really a solid company. Know the products they are selling and the average amount they are achieving. The more you know about the retailer offering you the affiliate program, the easier it will be for you to know if that program is really for you and your site.

Is the affiliate a one tier or two tier program? A single tier program pays you only for the business you yourself have generated. A two tier program pays you for the business, plus it also pays you a commission on the on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsor in your program. Some two-tier programs are even paying small fees on each new affiliate you sponsor. More like a recruitment fee.

Lastly, what is the amount of commission paid? 5% - 20% is the commission paid by most programs. .01% - .05% is the amount paid for each hit. If you find a program that also pays for impressions, the amount paid is not much at all. As you can see from the figures, you will now understand why the average sales amount and hit to sale ratio is important.

These are just some of the questions that needed answering first before you enter into an affiliate program. You should be familiar with the many important aspects that your chosen program should have before incorporating them into your website. Try to ask your affiliate program choices these questions. These can help you select the right program for you site from among the many available.

Avoid The 3 Most Common Affiliate Mistakes

2009-03-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective and powerful ways of earning some money online. This program gives everybody a chance to make a profit through the Internet. Since these affiliate marketing programs are easy to join, implement and pays a commission on a regular basis, more an more people are now willing in this business.

However, like all businesses, there are lots of pitfalls in the affiliate marketing business. Committing some of the most common mistakes will cost the marketers a large portion taken from the profit they are making everyday. That is why it is better to avoid them than be regretful in the end.

Mistake number 1: Choosing the wrong affiliate.

Many people want to earn from affiliate marketing as fast as possible. In their rush to be part of one, they tend to choose a bandwagon product. This is the kind of products that the program thinks is “hot”. They choose the product that is in demand without actually considering if the product appeals to them. This is not a very wise move obviously.

Instead of jumping on the bandwagon, try top choose a product in which you are truly interested in. For any endeavor to succeed, you should take some time to plan and figure out your actions.

Pick a product that appeals to you. Then do some research about that product to see if they are in demand. Promoting a product you are more passionate about is easier than promoting one for the sake of the earnings only.

Mistake number 2: Joining too many affiliate programs.

Since affiliate programs are very easy to join, you might be tempted to join multiples of affiliate programs to try and maximize the earnings you will be getting. Besides you may think that there is nothing wrong and nothing to lose by being part of many affiliate programs.

True, that is a great way to have multiple sources of income. However, joining multiple programs and attempting to promote them all at the same time will prevent you from concentrating on each one of them.

The result? The maximum potential of your affiliate program is not realized and the income generated will not exactly be as huge as you were thinking initially it would. The best way to get excellent result is by joining just one program that pays a 40% commission at least. Then give it your best effort by promoting your products enthusiastically. As soon as you see that it is already making a reasonable profit, then maybe you can now join another affiliate program.

The technique is to do it slowly but surely. There is really no need to rush into things, especially with affiliate marketing. With the way things are going, the future is looking real bright and it seems affiliate marketing will be staying for a long time too.

Mistake number 3: Not buying the product or using the service.

As an affiliate, you main purpose is to effectively and convincingly promote a product or service and to find customers. For you to achieve this purpose, you must be able to relay to the customers that certain product and service. It is therefore difficult for you to do this when you yourself have not tried these things out. Thus, you will fail to promote and recommend them convincingly. You will also fail to create a desire in your customers to avail any of what you are offering.

Try the product or service personally first before you sign up as an affiliate to see if it is really delivering what it promises. If you have done so, then you are one of the credible and living testaments aware of its advantages and disadvantages. Your customers will then feel the sincerity and truthfulness in you and this will trigger them to try them out for themselves.

Many affiliate marketers makes these mistakes and are paying dearly for their actions. To not fall into the same situation they have been in, try to do everything to avoid making the same mistakes.

Time is the key. Take the time to analyze your marketing strategy and check if youa re in the right track. If done properly, you will be able to maximize your affiliate marketing program and earn higher profits.

Ebook Creator Software

2009-02-25T11:40:00.000-08:00

Honestly I don't rate this blog much, if I am a newbie or someone trying to learn from other sources. I don't have any problem with the content I written in this blog, but all topics doesn't seem to have a good structure. And that's because I have no time to arrange them at this point.

Anyway this blog serves the purpose of jotting down ANYTHING I've learnt in the marketing world. Perhaps as an affililiate, I don't need a software to write ebook (that's what a publishers need, not an affiliate). But again to serve my purpose of writing this blog, this is a really good software which I want to share with you. And it's free.

EWriterPro allows you to write, edit and save it in PDF file. You could also set a password for your document if you like. I've used it and it's really user friendly. If you are new in writing ebook, this software could do you a favour.

Ok enough of writing, here's the download link.

Now I am looking forward to find a good software to create ecover, and of course, I would share it when I find it :)

The AutoFocus Feature

2009-02-23T12:45:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure about others but I've this "Autofocus" feature in my eye structure, in terms of marketing/advertising tools around me, in the online and offline world.

For example my eye would look at the restaurant name board rather than the food inside, and watching the oven and figure out what brand they were using rather than the storis of the film(when I worked in a kitchen appliaces firm).

In the online world, I try to find out what Autoresponder software a site owner use rather than what freebies I would offered when I sign up to their newsletter. Lastly, I know the first site which appear on Google Search result doesn't guarantee you the best content, so my mind would autofocus to 'gosh how does this site rank on the top of Google!? I must figure it out'.

I used to see a funny plumber who kept looking at water tap around him. That's his 'Autofocus'.

So what's your Autofocus? Pay a bit more attention when you observe things around. It helps you to learn things in unconcious way and enhance your career development.

By the way, I admit I'm like other guys in the picture, my eyes do have built-in Autofocus when I see pretty girls :p

Affiliate Marketing

2009-02-20T08:05:00.000-08:00

If you recommend Old Town White Coffee to your neighbour, and she visits Old Town White Coffee because of your recommendation, the restaurant’s revenue will have increased because of your referral. However you do not see any of the cash benefit that Old Town White Coffee does!

Now, as an appreciation, Old Town White Coffee has decided to reward you 10% of every amount of your affiliate (previously your neighbour) spend in the restaurant for lifetime. You have a new intention now, you are now recommending your other friends, girl friend's friends, auntie, uncle, Bobby, Frankie bla bla bla to the restaurant because once they become the affiliate, you would have cash automatically goes into your bank when they consume in the restaurant, even when you are sleeping.

This marketing effort is known as Affiliate Marketing, the concept sound simple and fair enough but the key points is problems such as tracking, especially if you are doing this offline. Several types of Affiliate Marketing are such as:

1) CPA (Cost Per Action), eg Firefox 3 runs CPA to promote the spread of Firefox. Seriously, I love Opera, and I think Firefox sucks, probably the most overated software on earth, but it's Affiliate program has made it one of the most successful browser business over the years.

2) CPL (Cost Per Lead), is usually used for offline business, eg insurance company. The toughest problem an affiliate face in offline business is tracking whether he has brought sales to the merchant. In this case, some companies would pay a fixed commission to affiliate for every potential sales they brought.

3) CPS (Cost Per Sales), or known as revenue sharing. Online retailers and instant online travel agents are perfect examples of merchants who offer a revenue share commission. The affiliate earns a percentage of the sale.

Whether you are doing business online or offline, you would be amazed by the result Affiliate Marketing can offers you. It's not a magic or genius calculation, the reason is that everyone is doing something with an intention. With Affiliate Marketing, you are giving your affiliates an intention to spread your company names around. (In this case, even if there is a cockroach in your affiliate's drink, he might just flip it away and keep quiet!)

Affiliate Marketing has been used long time ago, like 90s. However this marketing tool is well known after the creation of Jeff Bezos's Amazon.com Associate Program. The growth experienced by Amazon.com as a result of their Affiliate Marketing is well documented, and accounts for about 40% of their revenue.

TerenceBlog is now ON AIR

2009-02-19T08:37:00.000-08:00

I've received my TuneCard 2 days ago, and I've used it for the first time today - buying www.terenceblog.com with USD $10.

So www.ringgitsoeasy.blogspot.com will now be officially changed to www.terenceblog.com. It's 10 alphabets shorten! I love it!

REMEMBER - IT'S www.terenceblog.com . BOOKMARK IT!

Besides that, using a customized domain is definitely looking more 'professional' (although the truth is that I am not!).

Talking about the main reason, I am going to use this blog to jot down my internet marketing ideas and a lots of practical experiment, or you call it trying. No matter how confident you are, the last step is always make it into action. Some experiments are such as my Adsense and email marketing . It concludes that a domain name would serve my purpose better :)

The second thing you may notice is that I've changed my blog title "Review from a Malaysian Netpreneur" to "TerenceBlog - Dot Com Lifestyle". The new title makes me feel easier because I don't really like the 'high position' names such as gurus and netpreneur. I've this idea after new domain was purchased. So a simple one will do.

Happy Valentines's Day

2009-02-13T18:54:00.000-08:00

Although I've spent a very romantic Valentine's Day on 8 hours flight plane last year, this year is actually no worse off. While you do not have a girl friend to celebrate with you, and you do not want to spoil your mood by reminding that you are 'single and lonely' walking in a shopping mall, perhaps the best thing you could do is dating with your computer.

For those who has a valentine to celebrate with, do it a creative and surprise way, as an appreciation for your partner walking along the journey with you. Can make it a unforgetable 214 like shown in the picture, but not in a crowded area lah of course! :)

Happy Valentine's Day from Terence :)

How to Add Favicon into Blogger

2009-02-11T06:49:00.000-08:00

I've noticed that there are a lot of blogs lack of favicon. Favicon is a tiny image which you can see beside the URL address in your browser. For RinggitSoEasy, you can see a Malaysia flag resembles favicon.

Benefits of using Favicon:

Stand out among the bloggers. When your readers have a ton of bookmarks, yours will stand out among those who don't have a favicons.

Professional. I always give credits to Blogger for giving cash to my wallet and make my life easier, but I am getting a bit bored with . I know it's cute but I want something special :)

OK that's enough talking. How to add a favicon into Blogger? It's simple like ABC. Just follow the steps:

1) You need a 16 x 16 icon with ".co" as the format. That's a bit of work isn't it? Don't worry, I am using Iconj to do the work. It also provides hosting of ico file. If you are lazy to create the icon yourself, you can even grab it for free in that website. After you generate the icon, you should get something like this: (Click on the image if you can't see clearly)

2) Sign in to your Blogger, go to "Layout", and under the sub categories go to "Edit HTML". Under the topic "Edit Template", you can see a lot of codes, try to scroll down a bit and you could see a code like this:

3) Copy and paste your favicon code below that and you should eventually get something like this:

4) Click "Save Template'. Work's done :)

Using the Wrong Internet Tools - Leads you to the Wrong Results

2009-02-09T13:20:00.000-08:00

Whether you are working for Adsense, software developing, publishing e-books, affiliate programs or other internet earning which you can think of, using the right tool is no doubt a part of road to success. Well, at least the guy could have use a thinner tights during robbery.

Using the right tool in offline working society is just as important as online business. While I was working in marketing department for a retail company before I started online business, I've learnt and discovered so many advertising tools. Some really works, and some waste your time and money. Eg I've learnt that in my field, I'd rather spend more money on The Star than other publications.

Timing is equally important as applying the right tool. I know The Star exposed my company name to the maximum, but when is the best timing? A funny thing I've found out is that publication on Friday is better than Saturday and Sunday, after carefully compared the results. Why? I've analysed that Friday is the best time for readers to sit down and read the newspaper before having 2 days off on weekend. While weekend is the time for them to relax and hanging around with their family. Also, I've found that consumers tend to plan their weekend activity on Friday, so any promotion getting published on Friday is just the right time to send them a signal what to do during weekend.

If you are another earners of Adsense, make sure you keep a close tracking on every changes you make, eg changing ads position, font colours, ads format and so on. There are several tools available at the market, at a reasonable price. But before you are thinking twice about paying the money, I could provide you a free tracking tool, CSV Adstats 4.0.

I could write a more in depth analysis about this tool in the next few articles.

Adsense Section Targeting

2009-02-08T09:57:00.000-08:00

Google's crawlers take 2 weeks to re-visit your website. Keep in mind that the more relevant the ads, the higher the chance that user will click and you will make money via Adsense. For your information, Google's crawlers do not read images and flashs.

Section Targeting is a technique which I use to ensure the crawlers read the keywords I want it to put attention to. Simply insert a simple HTML code into your website, the crawlers will know that which part is important. By using Section Targeting, your chances of getting relevant ads in your website is higher.

For example, when you are running a blog about making money via internet, and you are writing a content which use a lot of good paying keywords such as "make money online", "work at home", then highlight this content with Section Targeting, Google's crawlers will read it and know that it worths more attention.

Here you go the code for Section Targeting:

<@-google_ad_section_start->
The part which you want to emphasize
<@-google_ad_section_end->

PS: Please change symbol "@" into "!" for the whole code.

My purpose of writing this blog is to share some simple ways I found to earn money, however sometimes I do share some jokes or funny images. However I do not want this kind of irrelevant content to affect the quality of ads I get. To avoid this problem, simply insert the following code so the crawlers will ignore the irrelevant content.

Here you go the code for ignoring your irrelevant content:

<@-google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore)->
The part which you want crawlers to ignore
<@-google_ad_section_end->

PS: Again, change the symbol "@" into "!" for the whole code.

You can highlight or de-emphasize as many sections as you wish, but you can't put them around particular keywords or phrases.

Lastly, you might ask, is Section Targeting code legal?
Yes, it certainly is. In fact, Google recommends that you highlight 20% of text in your website for better targeting :)

PS: This topic is using Section Targeting too ! ;)

Cheap Mail Delivery - only RM0.30 a Year

2009-02-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

Yes, you are right, only RM0.30 a year, or even life time (if you do it properly). The mail I am talking about is not e-mail, but traditional mail which you recieve at doorstep from the postman.

There is a little trick of using the same RM0.30 stamp for UNLIMITED delivery. Yes, tried it before.

1) Put glue on the stamp's surface.

2) Wait until it dries and stick it on your envelope.

3) Remind the reciever to put the envelope into the water (Wait, of course with the letter already taken out)

4) Haha you are right, the stamp chop would be washed away.

5) Wait unitl the stamp dries, it can be used again, and again, and again, and again... with the same trick repeated.

This is how I saved money during primary school with another mate, using the same stamp for a year.

Of course, you don't even spend a cent sending an email today, but if you stick to the traditional mailing, that's how it save your money.

Better save the money and belanja me Ramlee burger ;p

Stop Sucking My DickHead !!

2009-02-06T11:06:00.000-08:00

lol, I don't bluff you, right?

They are famous Owen (the hippopotamus) and Mzee (the tortoise), survivor of 2004 tsunami.

They gained media attention after forming special friendship among themselves :)

Here you go another one.

Simple Adsense Tips

2009-02-06T01:56:00.000-08:00

You could Google it and do a deep study of how to improve your Google Adsense. Below are simple, but valuable Adsense tips for you.

1) Leaderboard - Best at the top of the page.
Example :)

2) Square & Rectangle - Embedded into text itself.
Example

3) Vertical ads & buttons - Slip down the side of the page.
Example: Your site? :)

4) Vertical link units - Placed next to link units.
Example: Your site?

5) Horizontal link units - Go at the top of the page between blog entries or above and below directories.
Example

6) Image ads - Shouldn't be used at all.

Credits to Joel Comm, New York Times Bestseller "The Adsense Code".

Is Autoresponder (follow-up mails) really that important?

2009-02-01T04:10:00.000-08:00

The very common complaint I heard from other netpreneurs is that they got a huge traffic in their website, and some of them even have a large list of subcribers, but it just could not turn them into the real thing - profits.

Are they not serious enough about their business? No, many of them even spend more time than me. They've sacrified their precious time with family and the kids, taking a daily trip to the park, having a wonderful lunch in a Chinese restaurant. They spend most of their time dealing with their subcribers, or scratching their head that how to turn those traffic into profits.

Here is the secret, a secret which many internet gurus out there are applying - Auto Responder software. The first great thing about Auto Responder is that it shows people you are still in business! Another thing is that by using Autoresponder, it shows that you are more professional. Did you know that it takes an average of 7 times contacting people before they'll make a purchase? It's true!

The Pros know and so do your competitors. Last but not least, Autoresponder really save up your time. Let the tools do the tasks for you, and better spend more time with other stuff or spending a good time with family.

I love to help people save money in their wallet, here is a good recommendation. FreeAutoBot is a free auto responder website which allows you to manage UNLIMITED mail lists. CLICK HERE to see more about FreeAutoBot.

Or here is the World Number 1 Rated Auto Responder - Getresponse. Getresponse is highly recommended by majority of internet gurus because it really helps them to maximise their profits. CLICK HERE to see more about Getresponse.

Another good one would be AWeber, this is used by some of the famous internet guru like Joel Comm.

So there is no more excuse that you do not have time spending with your girl friend or wife now ;)