Marketing Musings by Jack Humphrey

2004-03-03T05:40:00.000-08:00

New Free Markting Tools at EquipMint.com

Webmaster Traffic Tools / Power Linking News

03/03/04

New services added to EquipMint.com for free traffic and free
content.

We have been busy at EquipMint.com! Our new members are enjoying the site immensely. You can see what some of them have to say here:
http://www.equipmint.com/cgi-bin/adtracker/main.cgi?c=001&owner=jdh358

1) Fly-in Ads Exchange: Get some great exposure with 1000 credits to start your Fly-in Ad campaign. Simple to use and VERY effective form of advertising. Plus it's f!ree! Just go to our fr!ee business tools section here:
http://www.equipmint.com/cgi-bin/adtracker/main.cgi?c=2&owner=jdh358

Then select Fly-In-Ad Exchange and follow instructions.

2) Create Live News Feeds: Need to add dynamic live news or weblog content to your site for increased stickiness and visitor value? The easiest tool to date for creating a page of content from any RSS feed link is also located here:
http://www.equipmint.com/cgi-bin/adtracker/main.cgi?c=2&owner=jdh358

Just click on News Feed Generator link and follow directions. It literally takes just minutes to add all kind of content to your pages and you don't have to limit yourself to just the drop-down list of sites. ANY RSS link from peoples weblogs or any site that feeds content via RSS will work with our tool!

To recap: You now have at your disposal an unblockable fly-in ad program to generate traffic, and the ability to add pages and pages of content to your site to increase the value of your visitors' experience and increase the length of their average stay on your site.

You also have, when you are ready, the best m!arketers membership site on the planet with EquipMint.com.

2003-12-12T06:26:00.000-08:00

Webmaster Traffic Tools Friday Edition

12/12/03

In This Issue:

1) The Best JV Tool System I Have Ever Used
2) Guest Article:
"Climing Mount Profit (Starting from the Top)" by John Reese
----------------------------------------

I have made a lot of sales utilizing the Joint Venture
methods you have undoubtably heard about if you have been on the
net doing business for long.

It is an obvious fact that top marketers utilize join ventures
in order to reach "beyond themselves" to a larger customer base
without spending a great deal of money on actual advertising.

(What you are reading now is the result of a successful joint
venture partnership in fact!)

Roy Oron, a JV Master, has come up with a set of tools that
simplifies the whole process down to a simple 1-2-3 system. I
have used his tools recently and have to tell you, I wish I had
these when I was starting out. I cannot imagine how many more
JVs I could have gotten when I launched Power Linking!

If you have ever wanted to excel at joint venture marketing, now
is the time to check out what Roy has developed. It simply
blows away anything I have ever used before to locate and secure
new partners to make easy sales to whole new groups of people I
couldn't reach otherwise.

Click the link below to learn more
http://EZCommercePro.com/ez.cgi?adminid=30&id=1275

FYI - Recently I did my year-end calculations in preparation for
tax season, and I noticed that I did just under $50,000 in
business in 2003 JUST from joint venture partnerships! JV'ing
is a component of my marketing campaign I will never take
lightly, and neither should you!
---------------------------------------------------

Editor's Note:
I was honestly stumped today when thinking of what I could
provide my dear subscribers to make your Friday Edition worth
opening.

Then I went to the Warrior Forum to read the latest threads and
what falls into my lap but what I now consider one of the most
important articles I think you will read in 2003.

John Reece is simply amazing. He has been around longer than
most any other online marketer, and has insights that only
someone as "old" in internet years can have.

This is something you will definitely want to print and read
again later no matter WHAT stage of your business you are in
right now.
--------------------

"Climbing Mount Profit (Starting From The Top)"
By John Reese of MarketingSecrets.com

I have been an entrepreneur for most of my life. I started
my journey as an entrepreneur at age 11. Ironically,
it was running a BBS (bulletin board system) with a computer,
a 300 baud modem, and a phone line in 1981.

(BBSs essentially became the Internet that we know today.)

It would take me nearly 15 long years of being an entrepreneur
before I would really make much money. And by that I mean
more than $6,500 in a single YEAR which didn't happen
until almost 15 years later.

I have made every mistake in the book and invented several
new ones when it comes to being an entrepreneur.

I was in nearly $100,000 of debt by age 22 -- mainly from trying
every business possible.

I practically ruined my health by age 25 and it almost killed me.

(I ended up in the emergency room with a body that was so
overworked and stressed that it was trying to shutdown.)

BUT... I eventually turned things around. Through hard work,
faith, and perseverance. But I won't kid you, it wasn't easy.

I did finally start to make a good income. I was finally able
to get out of that mountain of debt. And then the best thing of
all
happened -- I was able to learn how to GROW my business.

I was eventually able to make more money in a single month
than the entire amount of debt that I had racked up by age 22.

But I was only able to start having success when I learned
to grasp a powerful concept that I am about to teach you.
I honestly believe that this one concept can change your life,
because it changed mine.

No matter what stage you are at with your business, whether
you are just getting started and dream of leaving your real job,
or whether you are already making good money online, I have
an absolutely critical question to ask you...

WHAT THE HECK DO YOU WANT?

Reread that question. Then reread it again. Take your time.

I ask you, "What the heck do you want?"

Since we're talking primarily about business, I am relating this
question to HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU WANT?

Seriously, how much?

When people used to ask me this question, I used to have
a simple answer... "Millions!"

And even, though, that honestly WAS what I wanted, that wasn't
the "right" answer.

The right answer is something SPECIFIC. It doesn't matter how
big the amount is, it matters how specific the figure is. In
other words, $5,000,000 if that's what I really wanted.

But that first "big" figure should be more of your "ultimate
dream" and not what you will settle for to be happy and live the
lifestyle you'd be perfectly happy with. Take it from me, when I
ended up making a lot of money, I quickly realized I didn't need
anywhere close to a large amount to basically do and buy
anything I wanted.

So you need to also answer this question...

HOW MUCH WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY?

And don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to tell you to abandon
your dreams of some huge amount of money. You can still grow your
business and work towards that, and it certainly can still
happen.

That's not what this is about. This is about something much more
powerful.

So you need to decide on a figure that will make you happy. Such
as an annual income that will allow you to live the life you want
without having a real job if you still have a job. Or that next
level of lifestyle if you already work for yourself.

Whatever it is you really want, you need to be SPECIFIC about
that dollar amount. For me, when I was in debt up to my nostrils,
I eventually set that want at $40,000/year for income. I figured
if I could just earn $40,000/year I could live a modest life,
not be overly depressed about money, and "eventually" pay off my
debt.

Setting that goal for me changed my life. Within less than 90
days of setting that realistic and achievable goal, I
accomplished it.

Now how on earth did that happen when I spent YEARS trying to
make money and was going literally nowhere?

It's simple.

I learned to climb what I call "Mount Profit" starting from the
top.

I wrote down $40,000. I then worked the numbers BACKWARDS
to figure out how much I would have to earn per month and then
per day in order to achieve that figure. Then I figured out how
much my product would have to cost and how many people I
would have to sell it to. (Or whatever my business model was.)

It was EASY. It was very simple MATH. There was no more
guesswork.

There were no more mysteries. I knew exactly what I had to do to
get what I WANTED. So I got to work and got it. And it happened
very quickly because I had FOCUS on what I had to do.

I believe the #1 problem that entrepreneurs have is that they
have no FOCUS on what they really WANT. They simply think, "I
want to make a lot of money."

Well, I've got news for you, if you think that way, you're DOOMED
and you might not even realize it yet. NO ONE just goes out and
makes some mysterious amount of money from their efforts.

And no one makes a million without making one dollar first. Write
that down.

In order to accomplish whatever amount it is that you want, you
must have a specific dollar figure in mind. You must then work
the "math" and process backwards to create a plan to accomplish
that goal.

You must work that process back to the smallest incremental
action step of your path to achieve what you want.

Have you ever heard...

"The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step."

Well, business is the same way. The journey to a million dollars,
or even $100,000/year, must begin with a single dollar.

In order to accomplish that single dollar, you must put a '
system' in place to earn that dollar. But if I told you all you
had to do is earn one dollar to be incredibly rich, you'd
quickly and easily figure out how to do it.

Do you realize that if you can figure out how to make $1 of
profit that you are 90% of the way to making $100,000/year and
beyond?

All you have to do is REPEAT the process of what it took to make
that $1 of profit. It's called scalability.

Did you know that Mount Everest is exactly 29,035 feet high?

Well, you might not know that, but I can guarantee you that
anyone that attempts to climb Mount Everest knows that. And they
know that before they take one tiny step up the mountain.

That 29,035 feet must be the dollar amount that you want to earn.
You must have a very SPECIFIC amount in mind for the next
financial goal you wish to accomplish. And set that goal as a
realistic figure so it is easily reached. You can always revise
your goals as you go.

That's why I stated earlier that the ultimate lifestyle you want
is a lot cheaper than you realize.

So stop falling into the trap that you are just "working as hard
as you can" and however much money you make will be the result.

I am trying to tell you... THAT'S THE KISS OF DEATH.

That's the best way to keep from making money, if any.

You need to learn to THINK of everything you want backwards.
Reverse engineer what you want. Visualize what you want and
"see" what the path is to get back to where you are now.

Then start walking down the path towards what you want. And do it
one small step at a time. Because the only way to get from here
to there is many small steps. There is no other way, so why waste
your time doing anything else.

With Internet Marketing, it at all starts with one Web Site
visitor. Then one opt-in subscriber. Then finally one order.
Not 100 orders, not 10,000 subscribers, not 1,000,000 visitors.
ONE of each.

So stop making all of this HARDER than it really is. Start
getting ONE MORE of each of everything you want and then SCALE
that to achieve your SPECIFIC goals.

You CAN climb your "Mount Profit" no matter how high it is for
you. But remember to plan your climb by knowing EXACTLY how
high that mountain is before you start your climb. You stand a
much better chance of reaching the top if you aren't just
climbing in the dark.

-----------------------------------------
John Reese is an Internet Marketing pioneer that has
been actively marketing online since 1990. John has
sold millions of dollars worth of products and services
online and his network of Web Sites have received over
1.4 BILLION Web Site visitors since their inception. You
can learn more about John, his home study courses,
and subscribe to his free ezine by visiting:

http://www.marketingsecrets.com

(c)2003 MarketingSecrets.com. All rights reserved.
-----------------------------------------

Enjoy Your Weekend and Happy Holidays!

Jack Humphrey
http://linksnoop.com
(Have you published your link here yet?)

2003-10-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Webmaster Traffic Tools: Friday Edition

10/17/03

================================================================
This Issue:

1) Announcemets from Jack
2) Editor's Note on This Week's Article
3) Article: "Reciprocal Linking is Dead!"
4) How do I find out about things before everyone else?
===============================================================

If you saw my mail from Wednesday, you saw that I was very
excited about a new service Miquel Alvarez has put together.
http://www.webexpired.com/enter.htm?id=jack

Since then I have been running the software on my system and
have been turning up very interesting results for expired domain
names.

I am also monitoring the entire web for domains that I want BAD
when they expire. The whole process has been far more
educational than other similar things I have used in the past to
locate and purchase valuable expired domains.

I have turned up some great ones and also found some domains I
have purchased to become "sister sites" of some of my more
popular domains for cross-linking purposes.

As I progress, I will keep you updated so that you are the first
to know when I grab that "holy grail" domain that will send my
sites even more traffic!

If you haven't checked it out yet, here is the URL for
WebExpired: http://www.webexpired.com/enter.htm?id=jack

-----------------------------------

2) A note about this week's article: "Reciprocal Linking is
Dead!"

Many subscribers are going to be surprised that I ran this
article today. "Isn't Jack the guy who wrote Power Linking?"
http://power-linking-profits.com

Yes, I am that man. And when I saw Mike's article, I saw a
perfect chance to reiterate why I am so adamant about content in
Power Linking 2. In Power Linking 1, reciprocal linking itself
was still the #1 way to grow link popularity. And the focus of
Power Linking 1 was mainly around going out and finding powerful
reciprocal link partners, among other tatics.

A lot of people still don't know to this day how much different
Power Linking 2: Evolution is. Many continue to assume it is
merely reciprocal linking "on speed."

In terms of raw statistics, I would say that Power Linking 2 is
roughly 15% about reciprocal linking and link directory
management! The rest is an education on the many other ways to
saturate your market with links back to your site.

If Mike's article comes as a shock to you, it might be time for
you to shift your focus on reciprocal linking to reflect it's
true importance. Reciprocal linking is one tool of the vast
array of tools you should use to spread yourself out over the
net. It is not now, nor has it ever been, a magic bullet unto
itself.

Only Power Linkers know the true difference between reciprocal
linking and Power Linking. If you haven't seen the difference
for yourself yet, best get yourself over to
http://power-linking-profits.com and find out ASAP.

Finally, one item of contention in the following article. Mike
says that Google dosn't show backwards links for sites under a
page rank of 4 or 5. While this is true, it is not an
indication of what Google does behind the scenes to place a
value on links coming to your site that have a page rank of 2 or
3.

I believe, as do many SEOs I talk to, that it is way too early
to knock off linking with other sites just because they don't
have a high PR.

Simply because of the fact that no one outside the programmers
at Google knows for sure what the complex algorithms Google uses
to gauge page rank is doing with those links.

I believe they are still relevant and should be treated as such
until there is clearer evidence from Google that they are
ignoring those links even when calculating link popularity for
your site.

So don't run out and destrroy your links pages just yet. But do
listen to what Mike is saying below and remember that Power
Linking has always been about content and spreading your links
across a wide variety of linking methods, not just reciprocal
links.

Reciprocal linking has always been one tool in the tool box, not
the only tool you should use.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Feature Article: Reciprocal Linking is Dead!
by Mike Banks Valentine ©Copyright 2003

It was bound to reach this point, and now I've firmly put
my foot down as of this past week and have begun to tell
all potential future link partners I won't "swap links."

I will link, but I will not "swap links" with anyone now.
I require content in the form of articles, press releases
and news, quotes, testimonials or some form of content.

I link from the resource box of articles or contact info
from the press releases, URL's of the honest testimonials
I receive and contributed tutorials. Now the really bad
news is that I must like the articles or content which
are contributed - and I must play the role of editor to
wannabe contributors and discard pieces that don't meet
standards I set.

What was it that ruined strict reciprocal links for me?

It happened when I received a polite link request from
an apparently well-meaning reciprocal link partner and,
as always, clicked through to his requested linking URL.
I was forwarded immediately to an affiliate program page
which this scammer hoped to slip by without my noticing.

If I had merrily added that link to my links page, he
would have another linking partner and would increase
his link popularity for his cloaked forwarding URL.

My heart sank as I realized that yet another worthwhile
and accepted, valuable web protocol has been subverted,
perverted and is now being abused.

Reciprocal linking is dead!

Now just because one scammer has abused reciprocal links
and distorted the true purpose of this practice, does it
have to mean that everyone else will do this? No. But it
does mean that others will adopt the scam technique and
the value of links pages will drop dramatically because
webmasters will no longer trust the process. We can't.

Scammers are a tight knit group that love to share their
scams and schemes with each other. Reciprocal linking is
definitely dead and this scam will inevitably go viral,
just as every other abuse and scheme before it have done.
Reciprocal links pages are as dead as FFA links pages.

Google has already seen the writing on the wall and only
shows backlinks with a PageRank 4 or better. Webmasters
seeking reciprocal links have consequently adopted a new
strategy when seeking link partners. They breathlessly
announce that the page your link will go on is ranked at
PR4 at Google.

What's next? PageRank creep! Now that linking has been
perverted, Google will begin showing backlinks with PR5
and then PR6, etc. Reciprocal link partners will claim
that your link will be placed on a PR7 page and so on.
Google essentially negated PR1, PR2 and PR3 by showing
no backlinks with those ranks from their own index!

So after a bit of agonizing over the state of the web,
thinking about how I can't even troll through the 2500
messages that are quarantined by my SpamFilter program
because I don't have time, I decided to end link swaps.

Email used to work. FFA pages used to work. Reciprocal
links pages used to work. Free classified ads used to
work.

What still works? Content works and I am reluctantly
going to insist on content from anyone who wants links
from my sites or client sites. I've got to like what
the contributor has to say and I've got to agree with
their article before I'll publish it and link back to
them from that article, press release or news.

I've even drafted an email note to use as a template for
response to those requesting reciprocal links:

I'd be happy to link to you, but my current method of
linking is through articles, not links pages. If you'd
like to contribute an article for publication, I'd be
glad to link to you through the resource box.

Take a look at those articles I currently use and
send your own articles for linking consideration.
Be sure to include a resource box with the linking
text included within it.

The articles are the only way I link to anyone now.
If you don't have any, consider writing a couple
specifically for this purpose. I'm sure you also
know the value of distributing well written articles
for use by other web sites and ezines.

http://tinyurl.com/pu8m

The above link leads to a contributed tutorial article
which discusses the value of contributing articles to
other sites and lists article distribution sites and
free content email lists.

The first few recipients of this email response to their
reciprocal link request have responded with polite but
obvious surprise.

A couple have said simply, "Oh, I see."

I don't usually hear back from them if article distribu-
tion is not something they already do. But a few smart
webmasters have set about writing content to distribute
with their link requests.

I now do this routinely for search engine optimization
clients that retain me for linking campaigns. If that
client doesn't write articles of their own, I will then
ghost write articles for them and distribute them as a
part of link requests to increase client link popularity.

Success on the web is becoming increasingly complex and
that means that specialists are becoming more valuable
to web site owners seeking visibility and avoiding scams.

The latest scam is cloaked reciprocal links URL's that
redirect to affiliate program sales pages.

Reciprocal linking is dead!

===========================================================
Mike Banks Valentine is a Search Engine Optimization
Specialist practicing ethical SEO for Online businesses
http://SEOptimism.com

Take our Search Engine Quiz to test your Skills Level
http://SearchEngineOptimism.com/search_engine_quiz.html
===========================================================

4) How Do I Find Out About Things Faster Than Most People
Online?

Simple: I belong to the biggest, most successful group of
online marketers on the planet: The Internet Marketing Warriors
http://www.warriorpro.com/cgi-bin/w.cgi?15014

Have you heard this before from me? Yes! But do YOU belong to
this elite group yet? Many of my subscribers do, yet some still
don't believe it when I tell them this is the biggest reason for
my success today.

The page you are about to view talks about everything that is
included in a Warrior Membership. Yet it doesn't even scratch
the surface of the importance of the Warrior Forum. THAT is the
reason above all else to be a Warrior Member!

Become a member today, and join the ranks of the finest, most
astute internet business people around the world!
http://www.warriorpro.com/cgi-bin/w.cgi?15014

Jack Humphrey

2003-10-09T00:12:00.000-07:00

The Definition of Power Linking
-by Jack Humphrey

What the heck is Power Linking? Let me show you!

1) Go to Google and type "jack humphrey marketing" in the search box.

THAT'S Power Linking. The first TWO pages of Google search results showing the many different ways I get links. Articles, reviews, blogs, affiliates, forum posts, reciprocal links, press releases, it goes on forever.

The point is not to show I am ranked for the term "jack humphrey marketing" - that's no big deal. It is to show you what a Power Linking campaign does for a website and business.

Any one of those results and many many more can and do show up for competitive keywords that ARE fantastic rankings to have in the search engines.

2) Go to Alexa.com and type in "webmaster traffic tools" and check the Alexa ranking. Now Alexa is a search engine for webmasters. This wouldn't be a significant number for a pet food site. But my market is webmasters and it DOES matter what my Alexa ranking is.

Now type in "Power Linking" in Alexa. I think you get the picture!

You basically need to be interviewed on CNN to get the kind of traffic I get if you don't Power Link.

3) How about inbound links to Webmaster Traffic Tools (my free membership site for webmasters) and Power Linking Profits? Over 3200! THAT is Power Linking!

4) How about Top Google listings for good keywords?

Try these:

getting links #1
targeted traffic tools #1
traffic tools #2
targeted traffic #3
getting traffic #4

There are many others, but you get the picture. THIS is Power Linking.

5) Linking via word of mouth? Yep - building a reputation online is work, but that work pays off in ways you cannot imagine. Power Linking teaches webmasters to take their businesses way more seriously.

I cannot tell you the number of referrals I have gotten from past customers. Sales I could never have made to cautious people who have been burned before are suddenly slam dunks when one of their friends says "It's OK - you can trust this guy!"

From providing a killer product or service, to top-notch customer service, webmasters get way more professional when a lot of people are looking and buying.

After all, it is embarrassing to get all that traffic and have people landing on a dud page with crud products and ugly, broken links.

Power Linking creates internet marketing professionals.

THAT'S Power Linking.

Notice I didn't mention one thing about a link directory? While that is an important part of a Power Linking campaign, it is merely a default part of a whole system and NOT the entire focus of a true, professional marketing campaign.

Power Linking is Internet Marketing. It is how professionals market online.

So, the next time someone asks you how Power Linking compares to "Product X" you can tell them there is no comparison. There are no competitors. There can be only one #1.

If making your website the center of attention in your market niche is the most important thing to you, you will want to follow the webmasters and small online business owners who have come before you and learned from someone who obviously knows how to market online.

Leave the amateurs and hobbyists behind and step into the world of a professional online marketer. Check out Power Linking 2: Evolution here:
http://power-linking-profits.com

=================================================================
Jack Humphrey is a full-time professional internet marketing consultant and author and can be found at
http://jackhumphrey.com and http://webmastertraffictools.com

2003-10-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

Top 6 reasons to have a powerful linking system in
place for your website, no matter what you sell!
by Jack Humphrey

1. Drive Traffic to Your Site
A website without it is dead, even a thoroughly beautiful, effective, mouth-watering site. You must use tools used by the pros if you are going to drive targeted traffic to your site. One of the best, most underutilized tools on the net for ANYONE with any sized budget
can use is: reciprocal linking.

2. You must create a presence on the web by linking your site with others. Because that's what the most successful sites on the web all have in common: They link with sites they would like to share visitors with and they drive traffic to their sites for free with a good, themed link directory. Not a directory of random links, but a directory of links most suited for your visitors and relative to the products, services and information you have on your site.

That's what you expect to be listed in on other webmasters' sites, so that's what you have to provide to them in return. You owe your visitors that and you owe your link partners that.

3. Link Popularity
Google, for example, uses "link popularity" as an indicator of how "important" your site is. That is, if x number of people are linking to you, I mean they actually took the time out to "recommend" visiting you, then your site must be of "x" value to Google searchers.

Webmaster Traffic Tools went from zero visitors and no search engine ranking to a Number 1 listing on Google in less than two months solely because of my linking system. The search engines found me through another site, not by spidering me directly.

You see, when I link, I look for high-traffic sites that are already listed in the search engines with high ranking. Google spiders those sites frequently and 99% of the time they are going to run into your link somewhere else before they get around to visiting your site for the first time directly.

When they see your link they come over and spider your site 1) to guage whether the link FROM the other site is relevant to that site, giving them higher link popularity and, 2) to make their job easier they spider your site because they are already there.

4. Direct Website Traffic
If you have done your job properly and sought out links with sites that have the EXACT kind of visitors you would LOVE to have at your site, you are going to get great amounts of traffic from the links you work so hard to secure with those sites. One good link can give you more traffic than all the search engines combined any day of the week!

5. Branding
It takes consumers sometimes up to 7-10 "views" of a product or service before they decide to buy. Many online marketing experts point to autoresponders as a top way to get into the minds of potential customers repeatedly until they see you are a serious business and take that last look at what you have to offer.

Well, say you have 100-300+ links on sites that your best, most targeted potential customers visit regularly. They visit a site and there you are. They click a link to another related site and, bang, there you are AGAIN being recommended by yet another site they
are interested in and appreciate!

Your name starts to become branded in their minds and they start thinking, "Man, Jack is everywhere and he must be serious business - EVERYONE points to his site!"

You are going to start converting people by pre-qualifying them to be receptive to whatever you offer BEFORE they even get to your site with this system!

6. Pre-Qualified Hyper-Targeted Traffic
If you have a basic, keyword-laden, up-front description you use to put your link description on other peoples' sites, you are generating pre-qualified traffic to your site.

It's the same thing as when you are listed in the search engines properly. If you set up your site to be spidered properly and the result is a link that instantly defines exactly what your site is about in the description, the people who click that link come to you with EXPECTATIONS!

If you have done your job "on-site" and you fulfill those expectations, you are basically licensing yourself to print money!

With the walls of your customers down, all objections remaining to be dealt with on-site, after they click your link should be dealt with in your sales copy, or in your autoresponder sequence when you get them signed up on your list.

Then its all over. You have the last piece of the puzzle in turning browsers to buyers.

An article is no place to define a complete linking campaign. I wrote a 112 page ebook on the subject, so suffice it to say, there is a lot to this and there's always more you can do to cast your net on the internet sea of opportunity through linking. I hope you have an idea
now of the power and importance of linking and why you should spend a decent percentage of your marketing time on building and running a serious linking campaign for your site.

Jack Humphrey,
http://power-linking-profits.com

2003-09-19T00:08:00.000-07:00

2003-09-18T23:06:00.000-07:00

Boost Your Business and Personal Success by Creating Your Own
Luck -by Jack Humphrey
http://power-linking-profits.com
http://webmastertraffictools.com

Jason Zweig wrote a great little article in Money Magazine
called "R+U Lucky? Some Guys Do Have All The Luck. Here's How
to Join Them" (Money, August 2003 pp85).

In it he describes the patterns that "lucky" people follow and
how to increase your odds of success by basically placing
yourself in the "right place at the right time."

Can you always be in the right place at the right time? Not
really, unless you broaden your definition of that phrase a bit,
as I have.

My Definition of The Right Place at The Right Time: "Putting
yourself in every corner of your market niche in some fashion so
as to be in front of customers and people who can further your
business through partnerships, buyouts, joint ventures and many
other opportunities that only come through the luck you *create*
by being active and involved in your niche."

Zweig talks about the fact that some people seem actually
"skillful" at being lucky. A British psychologist, Richard
Wiseman, even wrote a new book on the subject called "The Luck
Factor." (See www.luckfactor.co.uk)

Wiseman did a study on over 400 people who thought of themselves
as either very lucky or unlucky.

"He found that some are indeed luckier than others, that lucky
people share similar attitudes and that many apparently random
outcomes can be controlled" says Zweig.

Think of the first person that comes to mind who owns an online
business and who you think of as "lucky." Actually, think of
about 5 people. Should be an easy list to make - they are your
competition, or business owners you admire, most likely.

Now, what trait would you say your list of 5 lucky people share?
I would venture to say they all share the same trait of being,
at one point or another, "in the right place at the right time."

How did they do it? Was it really blind luck? Are the odds
dismal? The same as winning your state lottery jackpot?

Not even close! Although there are some people who really
cannot explain their luck, and who truly were just "touched by
an angel," most successful people are successful because they
are engaged to the hilt in their business. They are active
promoters of their businesses in a radical way. They all have a
fanatical involvement in networking themselves and their
businesses.

The biggest mistake I see people make with their online
businesses is that they separate their "self" from their
business. They let the products speak for themselves, which is
ok as one component of a marketing campaign, but that's not
enough. They also successfully market *themselves* as well as
their business. They see themselves as important factors in the
success and identity of their business.

"Lucky" people see no separation of the two in fact. Products
and services are inanimate "things." They are nothing really,
without the people behind the scenes who put themselves in front
of the scenes as much as possible and let others get to know
THEM.

Why do you think so many people come back from conferences with
stories of how they landed a great partner they never thought
they'd even get to answer an email?

Conferences and seminars are the epitome of "creating luck."
The least important thing about them is the formal ceremonies.
The good stuff happens at the bar in the hotel after the
presentations are over. The "good stuff" is being in the right
place at the right time. You are definitely creating luck
whenever you network with peers and possible partners.

If you let yourself get lost in the day-to-day operations of
your business and you don't allow yourself time to think about
the ways in which you can get your "self" in front of the people
who can break you into a whole new league of success for your
business, you will be less "lucky" in business.

There are lots of real rags-to-riches stories on the net.
People are succeeding and profiting online like never before,
but few do it in a vacuum. You will find more often than not
that a story of success will begin with a line like "My business
REALLY took off when I met..." or "I was talking on the phone
one day with...and all the sudden an idea was born."

Want to create some luck for yourself? Get involved in your
business at a level in which you are always in the right place
at the right time. Being active in online forums, calling
people on the phone rather than using email, meeting people in
person who can help you get your products in front of thousands
of potential customers, all these practices are used by the
ever-lucky, most successful people on the planet.

Put yourself into your business as part of the product. Develop
relationships. Run far far away from people who want to sell
you on the concept that you can succeed online without having to
talk with or meet others. Success has never knocked on the door
of people who aren't open to human contact - that's a ridiculous
and self-defeating practice.

If you are passionate about making money with an online or
offline business, good old fashioned networking will always win
out over any other method of advertising.

So, now you have the formula for "creating luck." If you can
sit down this weekend and figure out all the ways you can put
yourself in the right place at the right time to increase your
business - including a powerful linking campaign for your
website - you are going to start to see that there is a pattern
indeed to creating luck and making things happen for your
business.

--------------------------
Jack Humphrey, one of the "luckiest" guys on the internet, is an
Online Marketing Consultant and originator of several successful
online ventures. You can find more articles by Jack at
http://webmastertraffictools.com See also
http://power-linking-profits.com

2003-09-18T23:04:00.000-07:00

Fundraising Cash Machines - The Post That Created This
Full Report.

I posted this in the Warrior Forum recently and thought you'd like it too..
. sorry for the crappy formatting!

Most of you probably don't know that I have a gigantic place in my heart for dogs. Unless of course you have checked out any of my websites. A pic of my two best friends and me grace most of my sites.

Fewer Warriors probably know that I have published a dog food/treat cookbook at http://dogcook.com.

I had the idea for awhile and then used the idea for my subscribers to show them how to create a product, after researching demand, and putting up a site and payment links, and getting traffic from scratch for the new product.

I also wanted to show my list how NOT to do what 90% of us do in the beginning, which is go right into marketing information on marketing!

The final lesson was - you can create a seemingly weird or extremely "nichy" product and sell the crap out of it all day long if you know what you are doing.

OK - lesson taught. Not sure how many applied what they learned, but I know SOME did from the feedback I got.

Anyway, my point is to let you know what happened to DogCook.com and the Healthy Pooch Cookbook that made it evolve into something much better than I had ever hoped.

Non-profit people from dog rescues and shelters (always desperate for much needed funds for the great work they do) started to write to me about my charity page on the site. I offer non-profits special rates on my printed books so that they could sell them to supporters with a good markup to raise money.

And I mean, A LOT of shelters and similar dog non-profits started writing me!

I put the fundraising page up not thinking I'd get much response - especially since the promotion of the site was totally in passive mode. Once I got into the search engines and got a ton of links from other dog-related sites, I quit promoting the thing. Sales just came in ontheir own and I was too busy with Power Linking and other things to run the site much.

So now what I do is answer emails, give quotes on bulk book purchases, do the printing through my other business, http://ebook-printing.com, and then ship out orders all over the country to different shelters who use the books to raise money.

Wow - what a gift to my heart knowing that my book is helping dogs less fortunate than my spoiled brats! It is worth way more than the few bucks I make on the book for sure.

So - here is your FREE GIFT. It's an idea spawned out of the above, and something with so many available topics that if all the Warriors picked a topic, there would still be tons of room for more ideas and markets!

What's your favorite non-profit or cause? How can you help them, given what you have learned as a Warrior about creating products and marketing them online and off, to raise money? (and help YOU make money at the same time?)

Is this a worthy thing to spend some time thinking about? Oh my god, yes! Helping a charity is one thing, and worthy of a project like the above on it's own merits. But no one said you had to create and market a product
totally for free. You have expenses, and your time as a professional is worth something.

If you can structure a product price plan so that your time and efforts are compensated while leaving enough room for your non-profit organization to tack on additional funds to the product for raising money - you have a winner and I will tell you why.

Non-profits are some of the best networked groups on the planet! If a non-profit picks up your fundraising idea, you can count on a small army of folks promoting for you like no affiliate force you can imagine.

Instead of creating a product to "recruit" general affiliates in the typical fashion, create a product for the market your favorite non-profit caters to and let the non-profit sell the thing for 50%-75% commission.

Hell, if it's a big enough group - let them have exclusive rights to affiliate with you and make all the money minus your 40% or so.

I tell you this - I won't GIVE you ideas specifcally that I have come up with, but I can sit down right now and knock out about 50 ideas for an ebook you could create, with demand, to benefit myriad non-profit groups. It is dead easy to do and just takes some thought on your part.

Environment? Don't get me started. Topics abound for interested middle/upper class folks with money who would LOVE to buy an interesting ebook on "How to reduce, reuse, and recycle in your home" etc. etc.

Really, all people need to make donations or buy products to support their favorite charities is SOMETHING in return. Nature Conservancy gets $100 donations from first-time supporters just by sending out nice letters of appeal with some free killer wildife stamps in the envelope!

Think how many ebooks you and your charity could sell if you really put some sweat into creating something of excellent value and interest to your charities' members?

Why give JUST home business people another freakin' affiliate product to sell a couple copies of when there are rabid, explosive markets to be filled with people screaming to sell your product for you?

Here is a perfect example, and it comes from my best friend in the world who started this site without one IOTA of internet marketing knowledge, yet has turned her business into a thriving bastion of ecommerce and charitable giving.

http://nicegift.org (See? Doesn't HAVE to be ebooks either!)

Tell Jill I sent ya.

If someone who knew extremely little about internet marketing can sell hundreds of pieces of jewelry and art on her site to benefit herself AND charity - certainly - you can too!

Consider this my charitable contribution to the Warrior members. If you are in a crunch for cash and just need ONE idea to change your life AND the lives of others through charity, then here you go.

Support your local Humane Society. :*)

Jack Humphrey

Grab the entire free report on starting a career as a Freelance Fundraiser
HERE

2003-09-18T23:01:00.000-07:00

Joint Ventures Changed My Life - Are You Ready to Change Yours?

Looking for a Joint Venture to explode your product reach and your profits? I am a beta test member of JV Alert, and it just launched this week. You should see the people you can put your offer in front of - will BLOW YOUR MIND! Check it out here.

Grab a free JV Course (Brand New) to learn what it means to joint venture your way to success! Click Here

2003-09-18T22:57:00.000-07:00

Joint Ventures: Your Path to Success
By Jack Humphrey

Have you ever wondered how Corey Rudl, Allen Says, Jerome Chapman, and other big time online marketers got where they are today? Did you think they did it all by themselves? Wrong.

There is no guru out there that reached the pinnacle of their success without strategic partnerships playing a huge part. You might be thinking, “Yeah, but I don’t have those connections.” Well neither did I when I started. And neither did any of the big boys you have bought a new info product or service from recently.

Everyone started somewhere on the net to get where they are today, and the biggest start you can give yourself is by making business partners out of the acquaintances you find as you travel the net in search of advice, information, and technical support.

One crucial aspect of finding joint venture partners is belonging to a set of communities closely or directly related to your business focus on the net. If you are selling hosting services, you need to join forums related to webmasters, designers, and anyone with a focus on or need for hosting services.

Let’s take this a step further and say you are offering hosting services and want to find a JV partner who can help you find customers. One great place to look is on internet marketing and web design forums. You will find tons of people with a client base to whom hosting is a central, crucial issue in their individual business development and success.

By participating in these forums you can make friends with designers who constantly look for hosting services to provide their clients with top-notch services geared toward each individual businesses needs. You are providing what that designer needs to offer his clients and you propose a JV. This can include ANYTHING like a cut of the monthly hosting fee for all the clients he/she refers to you.

When you find the right person to help you promote your product, and if you participate in forums you WILL, your business can literally take off over night.

I found an incredible partner for my info product “Power Linking Your Way to 1 Million Hits” on the Internet Marketing Warriors forum. I created a one-of-a-kind product that he saw great potential in, and he provided a contact list for further JVs that rivals any contact list on the net today. And he himself is a relative no-name on the net compared to the contacts he has.

The point is, you never know who you are going to find on the net or who is going to find you, who can change your profit level immensely and immediately. You just have to participate in forums. Become a part of the communities geared toward your niche and participate often. Offer advice, ask questions, trade services or products rather than pay for everything with cash – the possibilities are endless.

And there are no rules. If you see something on the net you want – say an ezine submission service – and you are cash poor/product rich. Don’t take the service price for the final answer. Email people and offer your service or product as trade for theirs. You might find a JV develops, or you might just more effectively utilize your assets that are worth cash. Either way, you win.

When I was laying out a lot of money to start up WebmasterTrafficTools.com and Power Linking, I was cash-poor but product rich. I traded for advertising like you wouldn’t believe and found most people to be very open to methods of payment that didn’t involve the exchange of cash.

Take a look at your assets, all of them. Not just the money you have in the bank. Evaluate what you have to offer people in exchange for services or other products. Thinking in terms of “How can this person help me achieve my goals if I help them achieve theirs?” will go a long way in internet marketing.

You cannot do it alone. No one has. The next time you see a new Mark Joyner product released, think about the web of people and partners he has behind him helping him develop, release and market that product. His name might be the only one on the product itself, but there are others who he has developed partnerships with, in his case on a grand scale, who help him develop and move his products.

Do a search for forums on Alta Vista with your keywords and you will find what you are looking for. Join a couple at first. Lurk and find out what you can contribute. Post questions and find others who are being the most helpful. Feel free to contact them and propose a mutually-beneficial JV. We are all business people. JVs are good business.

If your proposal is good and your product or service is appealing, you should have no trouble attracting others with large opt-in lists or high-traffic web sites to help you market it if you give them a good piece of the pie.

All of our JVs for Power Linking typically get additional commissions over our affiliates. Don’t hesitate to offer more to partners because they will typically outsell an entire affiliate force if they are well-connected, have huge lists of customers, and have established a presence on the web.

For the best marketing forum on the net, hands down, you will want to check out the Internet Marketing Warrior Forum. There are over 30,000 webmasters from all walks of business waiting to help you, and hear about ways they can increase their profits. That’s where I met my current partner and in less than three weeks we generated over $6500 in sales together.

And that's just the beginning! You will see Power Linking all over the net in the coming months and you can be assured it is because of that crucial joint venture I made with one other key internet marketer who believed in my product.

Make contacts. Be part of a community. You will be blown away by the people you find who can help you along the way in your marketing efforts!

Jack Humphrey is the author of “Power Linking 2: Evolution” at and CEO of WebmasterTrafficTools.com.