Neil Shearing’s Internet Marketing Strategies

There are lots of people claiming top rankings at the moment… especially for a new product that’s just launched.

Look, I don’t want to single anyone out for some “bad press”, but I do want to stress a point…

If someone presents a “search engine top ten” claim you need to be skeptical.

It’s not easy to get top ten search engine positions for competitive phrases… especially overnight. Google will “know” of several top websites that are likely to get the top spots for ALL high traffic searches in their niche. I mean, c’mon, if you type “make money” into Google, you’ll most likely find high PageRank pages and OLD sites… ones that Google (effectively) TRUSTS.

If your site appears online, you may get crawled quickly… (A site I built recently has been visited by Google’s bots over 30,000 times in November) and even indexed quickly (the same site has 4,000 pages listed in the Google index already), but DON’T expect to get top search engine rankings for high traffic phrases quickly.

So what’s the “truth” behind these claims of achieving top-ranking pages overnight?

Simple. The phrases are NOT competitive.

Take, for example, “home business arlington”. Now, if you type that into Google, without the quotes, you get 3.62 MILLION results.

Does that REALLY reflect the number of pages that are about home businesses in Arlington? No. It reflects the pages that Google knows about where the words, “home”, “business” and “Arlington” appear on the same page. It could be pages about someone in Arlington, Australia selling their mobile home because they went out of business. Well, you get my point. Most of the results are NOT 100% relevant.

Now do the same search with the quotes, and you’ll see FOUR results.

Quite a difference, right?

Let’s forget the arguments about how people don’t search using the quotes… the reason we are using the quotes is to compare the “pin-point accurate results” with the headline figure of “total results”.

Here’s the 24-million dollar question… how difficult would it be to create a page that ranked number ONE for the phrase “home business arlington” when people type it into Google, without quotes?

Answer: easier than falling off a log.

Let’s take a contrary view… the phrase “home business” without quotes… 1.7 BILLION results… with quotes… 4.26 Million.

How difficult would it be to create a page that ranked number ONE for the phrase “home business” when people type it into Google, without quotes?

Answer: seriously difficult.

In summary… to VALIDATE someone’s claim about top search engine rankings, do yourself a favor and do an identical search but include the quotes… that will show you whether or not they’ve beaten real competiton.

I send an email with that subject to new customers 24 hours after they place an order. Well, actually, I don’t sit at my computer with a stopwatch… my autoresponder sends out the emails for me.

It’s a simple little technique that’s really appreciated by customers. I get a lot of, “yes, no problem” replies and some “I didn’t get the download link” emails. The autoresponder company I use, and recommend, are on a different server to my websites, so if the original “thanks for your purchase” email is not received by the customer for whatever reason, they’ll still get the “did you receive your order OK” email 24 hours later… and let me know they didn’t get it… then I can personally send them download details, passwords or whatever they need.

What I like is getting replies like this one, which arrived this morning…

“Thank you for the email. Yes, I recieved everything and have started reading the book. Amazing, I am looking forward to starting some sites after I have finished reading it. The step by step instructions are just what I wanted. Many thanks.”

What was he talking about? Auto Income Secrets.

/rant mode on.

The pound is at 1.93 to the dollar, and the euro is above 1.30.

“Incredibly wild night of action in FX markets as both euro and pound verticalzed in thin holiday trade to take out multiple option barriers and triggered a torrent of stops. Once the EUR/USD crossed the psychologically important 1.3000 level it invited massive inflows of speculative capital as momentum players, option sellers and wrong footed dollar bulls all scrambled for euros sending the pair higher by 70 points in a matter of seconds. The pound also rallied hard taking out the 1.9300 barriers as it made 20 month highs.”

(and is just a few cents away from it’s highest level in 13 years when it tumbled from 2.00 to about 1.50 after George Soros “shorted” the pound resulting in it being pulled out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism [fore-runner to the Euro] )

If you’re in the USA, and you earn money in dollars and spend money in dollars, this is of no consequence to you. But for those of us marketing online, selling in dollars, but converting the dollars into our currency to be able to spend them, this is painful.

/rant mode off.

:-)

Perhaps I should consider raising the $27 price, in response to such positive feedback?

[You delivered a great product, with exceptional information. I have recommended this to friends and will continue to do so!]

[The whole program is extremely well done! Your voice is clear and concise, but natural. You addressed not only the pertinent information needed, but also the functional aspects your audience might want or require. (By the way, I love your voice! ]

[Your program was an investment for me that I could hardly afford, but I am very pleased that I purchased it! Your level of detail and integrity in delivery made a good impression. Once I get my online business going, I hope to buy more of your products and those you recommend. My sincere thanks.]

Those were the thoughts of an Internet Success Blueprint customer that I got in my Inbox this morning.

It took a bit longer than I expected, but the Build An Empire system is sold out. That’s a million dollars in sales in just a couple of days.

Congratulations to Paul Smithson for bringing the product to market, and to all who invested in a franchise.

I hope the websites you build are traffic magnets and you profit handsomely from them. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the system, and your success stories.

I’ve been following the Build An Empire launch closely, as you can tell from the recent blog posts.

What’s interesting (to me) is that the site hit an incredible 251 at Alexa.com (meaning that there were only 250 sites on the whole Internet that got more traffic than BuildAnEmpire.com) but, there are still a few places left!

If you take a look at the sales letter, you’ll see that it has changed considerably since it went live. There are videos, testimonials and lots of eye-catching yellow highlighting going on.

I know lots of people have joined as a result of my recommendation (thanks!), and I know Paul and his team have sold well over 800 franchises. I’m just a bit surprised that such enormous marketing firepower directed at a fine potential business opportunity didn’t sell out in the first 24 hours. If you too expected them to sell out in 24 hours, this could be your lucky day.

According to Paul Smithson, 80% of the Build An Empire franchises have been sold… and we’re not even 24 hours into the launch. This is your final boarding call… click here if you’re sitting on the fence.

There have been a few comments at this blog asking why Paul hadn’t been answering people’s questions about the Build An Empire system at his blog.

Well, today the answer becomes clear. Rather than answering questions one at a time on the blog, which would result in many questions having to be repeatedly answered, and lots of people not being able to find answers to their specific questions, Paul has taken the time to answer 35 questions in a PDF which he’s letting everyone download before launch.

I’ve written out the questions for you here… just for you to see how comprehensive this 15-page PDF is…

—
Can I put a deposit down for a slot, or do I have to wait?

What’s the revenue share?

Can I just keep affiliating the site with niche after niche?

Why is almost every on of the big Internet marketing guys pushing this as if it were a hard sell?

Will the initial inventory of book grow?

How easy is it to breakeven with this system?

What format will the audio be available in?

Can people burn the audiobooks they download to CD?

What if somebody needs any technical help after downloading their audio?

Where do I host any SellDirect or ContentDirect sites I create?

Can we edit the look and feel of the main store to make it look how we want it to look?

Are we able to get our own domain name or do you choose it for us?

For those “mini sites”, after we create them, do we get separate domain names or do we create sub-domains from the main domain name?

Do we have to pay to renew domain names for our main store each year, or is it included in the price?

Does the launch require upfront payment or is there an instalment plan available?

I’m in the UK. Can I have my site display prices in pounds rather than dollars?

Do I need to have your XSitePro to benefit from the system?

If there are 1000 people doing this, won’t all the sites look exactly the same?

If I create pages using the ContentDirect feature, will they be identical to the pages other people create?

Why is there a upfront fee?

What’s the earning potential?

Will the audio files work on an iPod?

What if I don’t have much/any Internet marketing experience? Will I still be able to make money with this system?

What guarantees are you offering?

Isn’t this just another hyped-up Internet marketing offer?

What time is it in my country when it’s 12:00 midday EST?

How are you protecting this audio from piracy?

What titles will be available?

What is the average price of the audiobooks on sale through this system?

Will there be titles available in other languages?

Can I add my own content to the system?

Do I get any instructions?

Who owns the customer data? (i.e. the email address)?

Can I have pop-ups on my site? And what kind of pop-ups?

Where can I get hold of the earlier reports on this system?
—

The launch is at 12 noon, today, Thursday the 16th November.

Click here to get the PDF with all the questions answered. Then, if you’re interested in one of the 1,000 places, be ready at noon, because I expect this to sell out in hours, not days or weeks.

(the Alexa ranking for the site was 861 recently.. meaning it was the 861 most visited site online)

< -- click to enlarge.

This is a world exclusive. Paul Smithson sent me the Build An Empire welcome pack which the lucky franchise owners will receive in addition to being able to access the site-building part of the “Build An Empire” system.

As soon as I got it, I took a picture and asked Paul if I could mention it at the blog. He said that the “official” picture would be released tomorrow, but I could share this graphic on the blog as an authorized “sneak” preview.

OK, so what’s in the package? Well, as I expected, Paul over-delivers. In fact, he over-delivers to such an extent, I’ve said he ”hyper-delivers“.

There really is no need to send out such a quality package. After all, the franchise owner will mainly be buying access to the admin area on Paul’s server where they can build their own, unique, niche websites and monetize them using Adsense and sales of the audio download products. On top of that, they can sign up affiliates and build sites for them while sharing the revenue. Almost all of that is handled server-side.

So why send out a big box? I think it’s the impact the “welcome pack” will have on new franchise holders. It says, “we care about your success and will make everything as easy as possible”. The quality shines through. When people see the quality in the welcome pack, they’ll know they made a wise decision… and that’s good for keeping people on-board and satisfied.

So what’s in the box? Well, there are two step-by-step “partner tutorial workbooks” which walk you through the process of promoting and affiliating your websites… and they are very thorough, with boxes to fill in your answers and checklists to be ticked off… lots of hand-holding.

There’s also a “partner manual” which explains how to access the admin area on Paul’s server and build sites… all the “tecchie” stuff is explained in simple terms and with lots of helpful screenshots. As a nice bonus, there’s an “encyclopedia of internet marketing” which is a very handy 255-page introduction to marketing online… everything from banners and viral marketing to page rank and joint ventures is explained clearly and simply… very handy!

Oh, and don’t forget the cd’s… they’re full of videos explaining the system to you if you prefer video to workbooks, exclusive interviews with people in the “audio” marketplace plus a CD full of articles, software and ebooks to help you learn more in almost any topic of Internet marketing and another CD of graphics for your sites!

This is a great package… and will be delivered to your door when you join the Build An Empire system.

Click this link and join the notification list to get the PDF’s which give you an overview of the Build an Empire system…. and get ready for the launch on Thursday, 16th November.

This is the third PDF in the “Build an Empire” series. In this PDF we’re introduced to the ContentDirect system which allows you to quickly and easily build an infinite number of unique webpages around any niche you like.

That’s powerful!

(sidenote: can you imagine making Adsense money from an infinite number of unique webpages? With Build an Empire you can monetize your sites using Adsense as well as direct sales of audio downloads)

In the PDF Paul talks about generating 100 fitness pages in 10 seconds… with each page being built around a different audio-product. You get the pages as a Zip file which you can either use “as is” or import into an XSitePro project (or a similar HTML editor if you wish… Frontpage, Dreamweaver etc).

For each page there are 20 factors you can customize before they’re generated if you wish to make your pages even more unique.

Click here to read the ContentDirect PDF. You can right-click and “save as” to download the report if you wish.

By the way, here’s what Michael Campbell and Michael Cheney said about the Build An Empire system…

Michael Campbell- “It’s an excellent opportunity for someone that wants a plug-and-play business online, with none of the technical headaches… I really like the “Build an Empire” idea. I see the return on the investment to be very high.”

Michael Cheney - “Seriously now - if I wasn’t already busy and very happy with my earnings I would get this myself… In fact, at the back of my mind I’m still thinking I might go for it! It’s worth doing when you think about it just to get all that unique content and stick AdSense ads on it!”

I got the millionaire next door as a birthday present and just finished reading it.

It basically reaffirmed my thoughts on getting ‘rich’… “Earn a lot, spend a little. Avoid debt, build wealth!”

I did like how the entrepreneurs and business owners described in “The Millionaire Next Door” had a hidden advantage over the high-income “professionals” such as accountants, lawyers, doctors etc etc. That hidden advantage was that the professionals were under social pressure to live an expensive lifestyle… they were expected to be seen, in their professional capacity, in suits, ties. They were expected to live in a “wealthy” neighborhood, with expensive cars. Their children were expected to go to private school. Whether they desired these things or not, the social pressure was there to fit in with what was expected. After all, if your accountant meets with you wearing jeans and a T-shirt, you’re not going to be impressed, are you?

On the other hand, entrepreneurs can wear pretty much what they want, when they want. I certainly do!

Business owners, on the other hand, have the reverse pressure. If they wear sharp suits and drive luxury cars, their employees could very well resent their display of wealth. So it’s better for the business owners to act like one of the employees.

That “hidden” benefit may help explain why the high income professionals struggle to accumulate wealth whereas the entrepreneurs and business owners seem to succeed. 

To accumulate wealth, you need to earn a relatively high income and spend wisely. Know the value of a dollar. Make each one work for you.

The book is well worth reading, but after the initial point is driven home (to accumulate wealth you have to earn a relatively high income, spend frugally and live quite a long time) along with another good point (minimize your taxable income and grow your non-income producing assets) I felt the book ran out of steam. It talks about “how the wealthy buy their cars” and “inter-generational transfers of wealth and what it means to the recipients” for what seemed like most of the second half of the book.

If you’re interested in seeing how effectively blogs can be used to market online, check out the Entrepreneur’s Journey by Yaro Starak. You’ll immediately see that, even though it’s run using Wordpress, it has been heavily customized to look unique.

Not only is it very attractive, but it’s very usable too. There’s a navigation bar at the top, complete with search box, a link to popular articles and a sign up box for his “traffic tips”. There are several quality audio messages introducing different aspects of the site… and that’s all before you get to the blog posts!

What’s smart about this system is that it’s a blog not a website.

Unlike a regular website, each blog post get posted to the main page, its own post page and a separate archive page… creating three pages with one new post. The sitemap is also updated automatically, and new posts are “pinged” to several blog search engines… so a blog really helps you market your content effectively. Plus, people can easily and quickly leave comments… which adds yet more content.

So in making his blog his website, Yaro has done himself some huge marketing favours. When you add quality content to that, the results are spectacular…

Unique visitors: 110,000+ per month
Page Views: 450,000+ per month
No of Articles/Pages: 500+
PageRank: 6
AlexaRank: 24,000-19,000

(data taken from Yaro’s blog.)

Check it out if you’re considering starting a blog. It’s a great example of how a dynamic blog beats a static site… especially when you harness the blog advantages with great content and presentation.