Even though you may not believe it’s possible, you can become an author even if you lack writing skills and believe it or not, the solution is dead easy. PLR (Private Label Rights) products are in essence all you need, and in case you’re wondering, this is a concept which was being used even before the Internet became so popular. Of course there are many authors that do write their own work, but there are also many who simply put their name on private label rights products. If you don’t yet know what private label rights products are, let me explain.

An e-book with private label rights for example, is an e-book where the original author permits you to modify it, or alter it in any way you see fit, and of course you’re free to sell it to as many people as you wish. What this means is that you can buy an e-book written by someone else and simply replace their name with your own so that the entire world believes you are the author of that specific book. However, you need to bear in mind that you can’t do all this continuously with the rights you just purchased.

The original author still has final say, so in other words, when you buy a PLR product the sale will include various terms and conditions. These terms will essentially outline to what extent you may change and modify some or all parts of the product. In other words, you may often come across a product where the owner will allow you to change the author’s name but not the content. Likewise, you may buy a product where the owner allows you to change the content but not the name on it. As such, in order to avoid undesirable consequences, it is always in your best interest to study the terms and conditions carefully. Generally speaking, most PLR products allow you to repackage them and to market them as you see fit, including putting your own name on it as being the author.

Obviously, the question of whether or not you can in turn pass on any of the rights you received to your customers depends entirely on the terms and conditions of the sale. Essentially, if the product you bought entitled you to carte blanch rights then you can use the product any way you want, and as often as you want without any problems. This means that you can repackage them, rebrand them, change the author’s name, modify the content, sell them, or simply give them away.

As you can see, even if you’ve never written a single article in your life, and even if you know that you lack writing skills, you can still go ahead and create your own product by using a private label rights product. Over and above the money you can make from the direct sales of your new product, you’ll also have more free time which you can then devote to other important business activities.

Best,

P.S. Have you created your own infoproduct using PLR yet? What’s holding you back from creating one. Give us your feedback below.

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While I understand that some people think everything has already been done in Internet marketing, I think this is just a huge misconception. Although Internet marketing has changed dramatically, and the number of competitors have increased, Internet marketing is still considered a viable source of income for hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs around the world. Internet marketing still has plenty of room to grow, and more and more companies are jumping onto the Internet marketing bandwagon everyday. Having said that, here is another reason why I don’t think Internet marketing is too saturated. Check out the video below!

Best,

P.S. What is your opinion? Is Internet marketing too saturated? What are your thoughts about the video?

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1. Longer Articles Isn’t Better!

Irrespective of what you may have heard, articles should ideally be relatively short with the word count being 300 to 500 words. Bear in mind that when the average person reads through a article they simply skim over it and take in the most important points. If your article is too long, it’s very unlikely that anyone will read it from beginning to end. Also, you should try to ensure that each paragraph only has three or four sentences.

Furthermore, you need not be a skilled writer in order to write articles, but instead, you should simply write them as if you were speaking to someone.

2. Create Multiple Articles

You simply cannot expect to make a huge amount of money if you’re only willing to write one or two articles each month. Instead, you need to create numerous articles relative to the niche you’re involved with. Ideally, you should aim to write approximately 20 to 30 articles each month, and they should of course all be targeted on certain keywords. By writing numerous articles each month you’ll be giving off the impression that you’re an expert in your field.

3. Maintain Quality

You need to realize that even if you’re write 100 articles each month, nobody will want to waste their time reading them if they are all of a poor quality. Basically, good quality articles should contain useful information such as techniques and tips which people in turn can use. In fact, when someone focuses primarily on quantity rather than quality, the concept is known as bum marketing.

4. Submit to Multiple Directories

Irrespective of what you may have heard with regards to submitting articles to one directory, the truth is that you should submit articles to several directories. Remember, the more directories you submit to, the more readers you will have, and the more people reading your articles, the more visitors you can expect at your website.

Here are the top 5 article directories, determined by performance, in my opinion:

1. EzineArticles.com
2. GoArticles.com
3. Buzzle.com
4. ArticleBase.com
5. IdeaMarketers.com

5. Outsourcing

Obviously if you’re a little strapped for cash then you’ll simply have to get by without outsourcing your article writing needs. However if you can afford it then it’s something you should seriously consider, simply because it can save you a vast amount of time. Also, the time you save can of course be better spent elsewhere.

Admittedly, article marketing can require a little bit of time in order to master it but in the end it will prove to be worthwhile. Bear in mind that if you make a point of creating two or three articles each day, you’ll have more or less 100 articles within a month, and when you can do that then it’s only a matter of time before you start seeing money come in.

Edit: Bonus #6 – Target Long-Tail Keywords! Learn more about why you should use long-tail keywords here.

Best,

P.S. If you have any questions or comments on article marketing, please feel free to post them below.

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In this month’s First Friday Favorites, I’ve compiled a list of 7 useful tools and resources to improve your website or blog and assist you with your Internet marketing efforts.

Here are my favorite picks for September 2009…

1. 14 Dofollow Backlink Resources – One of the best ways to get backlinks to boost up your search engine rankings is to submit your site to pages that are indexed and allow dofollow links, preferably with custom anchor text. Also check out last month’s favorites for more dofollow sites.
2. 137 Small Business Twitter Tips (PDF download) – Here’s a great collection of small business Twitter tips from actual Twitter users. They have some really great tips! It’s in PDF format so you can download and save it to your desktop for future reference.
3. 10 Awesome Ways to Integrate Twitter With Your Website – I recently posted this resource on Twitter and what I got back was a lot of good feedback and retweets, so I feel it is worthy of posting it again here in case you missed it. For more great tips like these, be sure to follow me on Twitter.
4. 10 Killer WordPress Hacks – If you own a Wordpress blog, you’ve probably spent a considerable amount of time trying to customize your blog to look and function a particular way. With these Wordpress hacks, you can now get it dones without the use of plugins. The advantage of using hacks over plugins is that hacks uses less bandwidth and loading time on your blog, which in turn gives your visitors a better experience.
5. The 30 Free SEO Tools You Must Know – This list of free SEO tools will consist a mixture of web based tools, standalone software, and Firefox extensions. Some of my favorite tools in this list are Link Diagnosis and SeoQuake.
6. One-Click English Dictionary and Thesaurus for Windows – WordWeb is a comprehensive one-click English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows. It can be used to look up words from almost any program, showing definitions, synonyms and related words. I love this free software! I find myself using this almost everyday to help me expand my vocabulary.
7. 73 Ways to Become a Better Writer – I’m sure everybody wants to become a better writer. The more your write, the better you become as a writer. If you want more writing tips, check out my free report on “How to Write Like a Maniac.” You can download it here.

That’s it for this month’s favorite Internet marketing tools and resources. If you find it useful, make sure to bookmark it. Stay tune for next month’s favorites!

Best,

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, please let me know by commenting below.

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However, one should bear in mind that resell rights products can vary from one to the other in that they are not all the same. Because some have more potential than others, one needs to take various factors into consideration before you choose a particular product. Listed below you’ll find some of the most important factors which need to be considered if you are to achieve any level of success:

• When you decide to purchase resell rights products you should always strive to purchase those which are new on the market. In other words, you should be looking for products which have not yet been sold, bearing in mind that many people who create such products prefer to leave selling to others. Since the market has not yet been flooded with such products, you stand far more chance of being successful in terms of marketing them.
• Whenever you purchase a resell rights product you should be aiming to purchase one which is currently peaking, simply because those are the products which are still in demand and that such, their marketing potential is noticeably favorable.
• It is also advisable to source products which have limited resell rights because in so doing you can effectively avoid excessive competition. Keep in mind that the more people who purchase the product, the more competition you’ll have, and as such, profitability will be limited accordingly. If on the other hand, the resell rights to a product is only sold to ten or twenty people, you’ll be facing less competition which in turn means you stand to make more profit.
• Products with private label rights are also a potentially good option since they can be modified according to your own personal preferences. In fact, you are even able to change the authors name so that it appears as if you yourself are the original author. For example, you could purchase a few private label rights products and then combine them into a single product before putting your own name on it, thus creating a brand new product of your own.
• Depending on your financial position, you could also choose to purchase resell rights products which are nearing the end of their shelf life, as these products are usually sold for a negligible amount due to the fact that they are no longer in great demand. Even though you can purchase them for next to nothing, it is still possible to generate extremely good profits by using them as a means to attract potential customers. They can also be used for the purpose of giving away as free gifts. Furthermore, you could combine several of the products into a single larger package and offer it at a price which people simply cannot resist.

The bottom line is, resell rights products have the potential of generating huge profits providing of course that you choose your products diligently, and that you market them effectively. By applying some of the tips and advice given in this article, you will almost definitely be able to make a profit by marketing resell rights products.

What are some of the ways you do to find the best resell rights products?

Best,

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It seems as though everybody is trying to leverage on Twitter nowadays, or at least that’s how it appears, considering just how many times people ask me how they can get more Twitter followers. While there are many things you can do, I’ve gone ahead and compiled a list of what I consider to be the 8 most important things you need to do if you want to get more followers.

Rather than elaborate any further, here are the 8 ways which I consider to be the best:

1. Link It Up!

You need to link to your Twitter profile from every conceivable place where you have an online presence, such as Digg, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, forum signature, and even in your e-mail signature. Also, if you have a blog, you can provide a link or a button which visitors can click in order to follow you on Twitter.

TIP: A huge collection of free Twitter icons and buttons can be downloaded here.

2. Get People to Retweet (RT) Your Tweet

Not everybody is aware of the fact that they can “retweet” so you need to take it upon yourself to explain to your followers that it can be done, and you need to encourage them to do it, simply because it’s extremely beneficial to your personal brand on Twitter. The more people you have retweeting your tweets, the more places your name will show up, and the more followers you stand to gain.

One effective way to get people to retweet your tweet is to simply, ask! It’s as easy as saying, “Please RT” at the end of your tweet. It has been proven statistically to increase retweets! Just don’t overdo it.

3. Branding

The very first thing you need to do once you sign up for a Twitter account, is you need to upload your photo. In fact, I find it almost unbelievable that so many people simply continue using the default Twitter icon rather than their own personal photo. It’s a well known fact that people tend to have greater trust in you if there’s a face to your tweets. Furthermore, even though you don’t need to be extravagant, you should always add a custom background to your Twitter homepage rather than using the default background.

TIP: You can customize and download free Twitter backgrounds here.

Additionally, your bio is there for a reason, so use it. The bottom line is, your recent tweets and replies are meaningless to others if they don’t know you, and your bio is the only way for you to introduce yourself to others. Leaving it blank will tend to discourage people from becoming a follower.

4. Provide Value

If you’re tweeting simply for the fun of it then this doesn’t apply, but if you want to increase your Twitter influence then you need to give your followers something of value. Value can be described as when you provide something useful to people such as information, interesting links, news, education, inspiration, wisdom, etc.

Generally speaking, it’s much the same as when you try to grow your blog. If people stand to gain by what you’re offering them, they will be more likely to add your name and become a follower. That’s not to say you can’t ever have any light-hearted fun, but if that’s all you do, then even though you may get followers, it’s likely they won’t be following you for long.

5. Display Your Recent Tweets

If you have your own website or blog, then you should definitely use it to your advantage with regards to promoting your Twitter profile. You can do this by using a special Twitter badge (shown on sidebar) or widget which will allow people to view your latest tweets.

6. Add Yourself to Twitter Directories

Just as you need to get a personal website listed in directories in order to attract traffic, you also need to get your Twitter profile listed in directories. Fortunately, this is relatively easy to do. Even though this won’t generate a sudden avalanche of followers, it does help in the long term. Here’s a short list of Twitter directories to get you started:

• WeFollow
• Twellow
• TwitR
• TweetFind
• TweeplePages
• MyTwitterDirectory

7. Tweet Regularly

Obviously if you only to tweet once in a blue moon then surely you cannot expect to get many followers. Ideally you need to tweet as often as possible even though it can be time consuming. Also, when I say you need to tweet often, I don’t mean once or twice a week, but instead, I mean a few times each day. And remember to post quality content because you want to provide value as mentioned in tip #4 in order to maximize your visibility.

8. Show Some Love!

One way for you to get the message across to show that you really do appreciate your followers, is by offering them a free gift such as a quality ebook. You could also offer a gift to those who are willing to retweet a message when you ask them. When the message gets retweeted along with your Twitter username, you’ll be notified via your tweet mentions. Once you have received this verification, you can then send them a Twitter direct message along with the download link to the ebook.

Which of these are the most effective ways to get more followers? What do you do to get more followers? Please comment below.

Best,

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, please follow me on Twitter and retweet this post using the link provided below.

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In this month’s First Friday Favorites, I’ve compiled a list of 8 incredibly useful tools and resources to improve your website/blog and assist you with your Internet marketing efforts.

Here are my favorite picks for August 2009. Enjoy!

1. Screen Capture Tools: 40+ Free Tools and Techniques – If you’re looking for the right screen capture tool, look no further! This is the biggest list of free tools to take screenshots on your computer monitor. I personally use Fireshot (add-on for Firefox) and Techsmith SnagIt (paid) to do all my screen capturing.
2. Spreeder: Free Speed Reading Trainer – We all do a lot of reading on the Internet, given the vast amount of information you can get with just a click of a button. Now, wouldn’t it be better if you could read faster, perhaps 2 to 3 times faster than your normal reading speed. Well, this speed reading trainer is quite effective in improving your reading speed. Check it out!
3. 13 Tutorials & Resources for a Perfect Twitter Background – Since there are so many people using Twitter nowadays, you want to stand out from the crowd. By changing the default background, not only does it look more personal and professional, but you’re also branding yourself as an authoritative figure.
4. 70 DoFollow Social Media Sites – Part of your traffic building efforts is to build quality backlinks to your website or blog. Take the time to submit your blog/website to some of these DoFollow social media sites ranked by pagerank.
5. SurveyMonkey: Powerful Tool for Creating Web Surveys – Want to know or learn more about your visitors and customers, use this tool to create web surveys easily and looks professional too!
6. 33 Free Tools to Make Your Website Better – Free tools to enhance and optimize your blog/website.
7. The Psychology of Color in Marketing – You may not realize it, but colors on your marketing materials do have a subconscious effect on the people who view them. Do you know what kind of message these colors are conveying?
8. A Guide to Google Analytics and Useful Tools – Every successful Internet marketer need to use some sort of tracking/analytics for their marketing campaign.  If you use Google Analytics, then this is an awesome resource to build your knowledge upon.

There you have it! My favorite tools and resources for this month. If you find it useful, make sure to bookmark it. Stay tune for next month’s favorites! Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed just underneath so you don’t miss it!

Edit: You’ll find next month’s favorites now online at: First Friday Favorites – September 2009

Best,

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, please let me know by commenting below or tweet this blog post on Twitter by clicking on the “Tweet This Post” just underneath.

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Here is a list of the top 35 Twitter acronyms and abbreviations that often appear in tweets:

1. RT = Retweet

2. DM = Direct Message

3. @ = Reply to [username] / at (as in location)

4. PRT = Partial Retweet / Please Retweet

5. FTW = For The Win

6. FTL = For The Loss

7. IRL = In Real Life

8. FTF or F2F =  Face to Face

9. IMHO = In My Humble Opinion

10. b/c = because

11. w/o = without

12. JV = Joint Venture

13. OH = Overheard

14. NP = No Problem

15. LMK = Let Me Know

16. LOL = Laugh(ing) Out Loud

17. LMAO = Laugh(ing) My Ass Off

18. BTW = By They Way

19. Plz or Pls = Please

20. FYI = For Your Information

21. FB = Facebook

22. J/K = Just Kidding

23. Tweeps or Tweeple = Twitter Users

24. PPL or Peeps = People

25. TTYL = Talk To You Later

26. TTYS = Talk To You Soon

27. OMG = Oh My God / Oh My Gosh

28. Ur = Your

29. U = You

30. NSFW = Not Safe For Work

31. YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary

32. RR = Re-run

33. RE = Reply

34. TY or TU = Thank You

35. YW = You’re Welcome

What other acronyms or abbreviations have you seen on Twitter that I didn’t mention above. Please add them below in the comments section.

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Essentially, affiliate marketing is all about promoting someone else’s product or service in return for commission. Of course, it’s quite easy to see why so many people choose to become affiliate marketers, given that there’s no need for you to create your own product or service. Furthermore, you can begin immediately simply by signing up to one of the many programs available from Clickbank, PayDotCom, or Commission Junction. Perhaps one of the greatest aspects of being an affiliate marketer is that you never need to carry any inventory and neither do you need to worry about customer service.

An affiliate marketer is really just a middleman who either suggests or recommends certain products or services to people. For example, you may be interested in losing weight and after browsing around online, you come across my website or blog where I have numerous articles relating to weight loss, some of which may recommend a particular website which sells a product you may find useful. You in turn click on the link and go to that site and purchase the product. And because I connected you to the seller, I stand to receive a commission.

As you can see, there is no need for you to create your own product, but instead you simply send potential customers to a merchant who sells the type of product those potential customers are interested in. For the most part, an affiliate marketer is involved primarily with pre-selling, in that your focus is on providing potential customers with useful information relating to a certain product, in order to allow your reader to make an informed decision.

Here are 5 common affiliate marketing mistakes:

Mistake #1: Lack of Focus

Since there is such an incredible amount of products out there which you may choose to promote, many affiliate marketers try to take on too many at once. For your own sake, you should rather start with just one single product and then progress when you’re ready. Whatever you do, never try to hard-sell because your goal is to portray yourself as a neutral party, and your only responsibility is to provide possible solutions to potential customers. You can be rest assured this method will see you making far more sales.

Mistake #2: Not capturing your leads before you send them to your affiliate product site.

Remember, if someone visits your blog or website and you fail to capture their information, you have absolutely no way of contacting with them again. Therefore it is absolutely crucial for you to build a mailing list, or as Internet marketers call it, list building, if you wish to build a successful affiliate marketing business. Starting from day one, make sure to use an opt-in form to capture your lead’s name and email address. That way, if they don’t buy the first time, you can always follow up with them later and try again and again and again. That’s what I call… priceless!

Mistake #3: Failing to treat your affiliate marketing business as a proper business.

In fact many people actually start off with an attitude of, “I’ll just give it a try and if nothing happens within a week, I’ll simply scrap it.” However, one should realize that affiliate marketing is just like any other business and in order for it to work, you have to follow a well planned strategy. Providing you’re willing to treat it as you would a proper business, you’ll be able to focus your efforts on growing your business and remember, the more you’re willing to put in, the more you’ll get out.

Mistake #4: Failing to research the affiliate program prior to promoting it.

I’ve seen this many times, affiliates grabs the first affiliate program that they think is going to be extremely profitable simply because it has a high commission rate or promote it just because every other affiliate marketer is also promoting it. If the affiliate program you’re promoting doesn’t complement the overall theme of your blog or website, you may find it difficult to convince your prospects to purchase the product.

Mistake #5: Not registering your own domain name and web hosting!

Eww, now who wants to visit a site that looks like it was hosted on a free host like Blogger or Tripod. If there’s anything wrong with free hosting, it’s because it looks unprofessional and is not a long-term solution to running a successful affiliate marketing business. $8.81 a year (with coupon) for a memorable domain name at NameCheap and around $5 per month for a web hosting account at HostGator is not going to break the bank. In the long run, it may just help to put more money in the bank.

Do you make any of these affiliate marketing mistakes? What other common mistakes do affiliate marketers make? Please share your comments below.

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