marketing

10
Aug
2011

I Took One For The Team

Offer closed. A WSO (Warrior Special Offer) will be available soon at a higher price and paying 100% commissions. Stay tuned to your email for details.

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Update: I just realised I forgot to put the PDF documentation in the zip. I’ve now updated the zip to include it, but if you’re one of the people who’ve already purchased you can also download the PDF here or just go back to your download page and grab the new zip from there.

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This Friday we’re going to have a little sale for a brand new plugin that will make your WordPress blog go crazy evil viral all over FaceBook.

Phew!  That sounds exciting doesn’t it?

So what’s it all about and what’s up with the title?

*sigh*

I’ve done something I never thought I would.

I joined Facebook.

And the reason is because we’ve only gone and finally built a FaceBook plugin, haven’t we?  I knew it was only a matter of time really, but I wanted any FB plugin we created to have some tie in to WordPress sites, and it had to have a marketing angle of course, something to do with driving FaceBook traffic to a blog.

And so eventually Like Plus (Like+) was born.  No it doesn’t work with Google+ yet as we can’t get a Google+ account to configure and test it with, but as soon as we can and IF it’s possible, we’ll incorporate G+ into it as well.

(Update: I now have a G+ account thanks to Tim who *just* beat Ray to the punch. Thanks guys. I’ll try to put some time aside for it ASAP, I hae a couple of things I need to get finished first though.)

So I took one for the team and I joined FaceBook so I could use the plugin myself on my own sites.

What does it do?

Well, it’s a little like another one of my plugins called “Subscribers Only”.  In fact the principles behind it are very similar.

How it works is you can hide some important piece of text or HTML on one of your blog posts or pages, and it won’t be revealed until AFTER your visitor clicks the FaceBook “Like” button.

Aha!

So your visitor clicks the Like button on your post or page for a ZIP or PDF or whatever it is you’re offering, and ONLY then can they get at what they’re after.

In return, YOU get a new “Like” on their FaceBook wall, which is then included in ALL their friends FaceBook Newsfeeds…

Muhahaha!  😈

Sorry…

I’m sure you can straight away see how viral this can make your blog?  Hence the evil laugh.  😉

Their friends will see what they “Liked”, and some of them will click.  Some of them will “Like” it too  in order to get at your hidden goodie.  And it will then appear on their wall and their friends newsfeeds…  And so on.

You’d use it in conjunction with some killer offer you come up with to get people to Like it for you. Here’s the sequence of events:-

#1 – Once your visitor has liked it the content reveals itself – it could be a link to download a report they want.

#2 – In the background the Like then appears on their wall and in their newsfeed.

#3 – Their friends then get to see they’ve Liked something and may click the link to see what it is.

#4 – They read the offer and decide they want it too.

#5 – They Like it. Goto #1.

Viral or what? 😉

The way I see it is, it needs to be used judiciously.  If you put it on every single post and page then it will almost immediately lose its effect.  People won’t want to “Like” everything on your blog.

What you need to do is set up a killer offer on a page or post.  Something really good.  Something where visitors will go “Yeah! I want! I Like!”

*click*

I’ve tested it, had it tweaked and re-tested and then had it tweaked some more. I’m happy with it.  So on Friday 12th at 6.00pm GMT we’ll have a little rising price sale.

Now I *could* be really evil and require you to “Like” the post or page first before you can get the link to the sales page, but for now I’m just toying with that idea.

I may even require you to “Like” the page to reveal the buy button.  😉

Yeah I might just do that.  Or some variant on it.

Here’s another idea.

Maybe you get to see the regular buy button with the regular price, but if you “Like” the page for me, then you get to see the discounted buy button instead.

Ooh yeah!  There’s LOTS of ways you could use this when you stop to think about it isn’t there?

And the upshot is, it makes your page VERY popular.

NOW can you see how powerfully viral this is?

Really POWERFUL marketing stuff…

Excited yet?

Worth having?  😎

Please leave a comment below.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business, software, wordpress plugins
21
Jun
2008

Do You Have a Network Of Sites?

We’re getting close to completion of AdSpurt, and I wonder if you could help me?

I need 2 or 3 people that have a network of sites or self-hosted blogs which they’re monetising using AdSense.

What I need you to do is install AdSpurt on a site or two, create a few contextual ads, and see how using that method stacks up against AdSense.  You can either run AdSpurt ads as well as AdSense, or turn off AdSense and just run your own AdSpurt ads.

If you’re interested in doing this, then raise a support ticket at:-

http://www.vendiva.com/support/

under department AdSpurt, with details of the site(s) you intend to install AdSpurt on.

Ideally you would already know of products with affiliate programs that you could promote via AdSpurt on your site, via ClickBank or otherwise.  AdSpurt can be used with any affiliate program and also has a built in ClickBank search functionality to make it easy for you to generate ClickBank ads.

We know there are a few changes needed to be made, but any feedback you can give on usage, potential tweaks or amendments would be great.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business
04
Jun
2008

Other Scripts Coming In 2008

Going on from my post yesterday about AdSpurt, I thought I’d mention a couple of other things we’re working on for your internet business.

I don’t want to give the game away entirely, but one is a script that will turn affiliate marketing on its head. I am totally convinced that this product will shake the entire marketing world to its core, and the whole landscape of blog and forum marketing will change forever.

Good or bad? I don’t know. I’ll just be making the gun, other people will be firing it.  (Okay, I’ll fire it a bit too.  More than a bit in fact.)

Here’s a double warning though, just for you, a (hopefully loyal) reader of this blog.

#1 – If you haven’t created your first product yet, just GO and get your act together and get yourself sorted okay?

I don’t care if you don’t know where to start with creating your first product or what it will be about, just get your thinking cap on right now and remember there’s nothing new under the sun.  Just because someone else has already done it doesn’t mean you can’t do it too.

Otherwise we’d have one kind of car, one kind of pen, one kind of shirt and so on… It’s all the different flavours of the world that makes things interesting, so add your own flavour and style to the mix.

#2 – And if you don’t yet have a blog like this one that you post to regularly, GO and sort that out too.

Do NOT be tempted to use Blogger or BlogSpot or any other free blogging service, you WILL regret it. It should be a self-hosted blog (ideally WordPress), and if you don’t know where to start, post a comment here and I’ll put something together for you to show you how to do it, what plugins to use etc.

You’ll see that script in use here on this site within the next month or so.

The second script has been in the making since 2001, and is a full blown Content Management System (CMS) with a difference.

Instead of having loads of crappy little features that no-one but a geek would be interested in, this is written with YOU in mind. It’s been designed for online business owners to run their internet business through.

It’s already in use on several different WORKING sites in test (the site owners don’t realise what they’ve got because they haven’t been told), and I’ll soon be adding it to the Vendiva.com site and using it as the platform to run my own internet business.

So I guarantee you it will be kick-ass when we release it towards the end of the year.

As well as those two major scripts, there are some other nice little projects and products that I’ll be releasing soon too, so keep your eyes peeled.

-Frank Haywood

(The next script released after AdSpurt will likely be the Instant Survey Script.)

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business
05
May
2008

The POD Report

In the wake of the recent eBay slap at ebook sellers, it’s become apparent that us internet business owners now need to either use the eBay suggested classified ad format, or sell our ebooks on CDs and DVDs.

It would also appear from some reports that you need to make sure you don’t mention ebooks when selling your CDs and DVDs, or the eBay darlings will give you a more personal slap. It seems that “ebook” is a bit of a taboo word on eBay at the moment until the staff get more understanding of what the new rule actually means.

More on that in another post.

Going with the idea of creating “multimedia” CDs and DVDs I think appeals to most people (from what I’ve seen), only time will tell if this format is the one that is most popular.

So I’ve created a short report called “The POD Report” which you can find below as a PDF.

It’s a freebie, so please feel free to share the report with any other internet business owners you think might benefit from it.

Inside the report, you’ll find mention that SmartDD has Kunaki support built in. This is true of V3 which you can get a free version of from http://www.SmartDD.com/. If you’re a V2 full version owner, you can upgrade to V3 for just $27 in the members area.

Back to The POD Report.

Either left click to view it in your browser, or right click and choose “Save as…” or “Save link as…” to download it to your hard drive.

The POD Report

Enjoy.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business
02
May
2008

Unblocking The Flow

What do comedy improvisation and a successful internet business have in common?

Well…  As unlikely as it may seem, quite a bit.

This is more of what you might think is “semi-religious self-improvement psycho babble” (let’s call it SSPB) – it definitely isn’t junk.

One of the things I was taught early on is that it’s important not to “block the flow” in order to be successful.

What the heck does that mean?

It all boils down to not being negative, and accepting whatever comes your way and using it to further your business or your career or whatever it is you’re pursuing.

I like to think of it as “every cloud has a silver lining”.

Example.  The recent eBay slap.  To read what some people were saying you’d think the sky was falling – what a load of old fuss about nothing.

I read the new rule, chuckled and thought “yee-haa!”

See, I knew it would get rid of all the junk on eBay and also get rid of a lot of people who were selling ebooks etc. without understanding what they were doing.  Those people were just making it difficult for the real marketers.  You couldn’t see the wood for the trees.

I sincerely hope you weren’t one of those people who didn’t know what they were doing…

eBay knows that people like to market on their site (and not just sell), and it seems that for now they’re okay about it, which is a refreshingly enlightened attitude for a corporation their size to take.

They’re not blocking the flow.

So eBay have now disallowed the selling of digital products as digital downloads.  And what they’ve done is suggested that marketers use the classified ad format instead.  That’s really cool of them and it opens up a whole wealth of opportunities.

But if you listen to the doomsayers, the golden age is over.

What nonsense.  Things are just different.  And better.  Less competition for starters.

Let’s get back to the original thread.  What about comedy improvisation?

If you’ve ever seen a group of comedians improvise, it can be something magical to watch.

You know how they keep it all going?  They don’t block the flow.

They accept whatever premise the other comedians give them and they just add to it and pass it back.  And forth.  And so on…

The kiss of death to their act is to say no, or refuse to accept the current idea.  They all know that if that happens, they will falter and stop.  So all of them accept what they’re given and use it to their advantage.

It’s a simple rule to follow, and works just as well in business, in relationships, or whatever else you care to think of.

Accept what you’re given.  Make it better.  Put it out there.  And keep the flow moving.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business