Associate Programs Newsletter #176

Joanna and I offer our sincere condolences to any of you who lost family and friends in this week's evil terrorism.

Although we're half a world away in Australia, TV brought the sickening horror right into our home and hearts. I'm sure we'll never forget those shocking scenes of jets being flown deliberately into the World Trade Center.

Nearly 100 Australians are among the dead and missing.

We fervently hope that the perpetrators will be found quickly and brought to justice, but we fear that this is the beginning of a ghastly new level of global terrorism. Even if these culprits are caught, their tactics can be copied. Also, the free world must be on alert for new kinds of terrorism - chemical, biological and cyber-terrorism.

I thought about abandoning this week's edition of the Associate Programs Newsletter. I'm sickened and saddened and I know we all feel in need of a period of mourning - not just for those who died but also grieving for the loss of freedom and quality of life. After this, the world can never be quite the same again.

However, imagine if every business in the free world took a week off. What an enormous victory that would be for a little group of thugs in Afghanistan, or wherever they are.

The aim of terrorism is to terrify us and cripple us. We must not let that happen.

CONTENTS:

1. Seven things you can do in these dark days
2. Join the 1% who really sell on the Net
3. Predatory advertising a complex issue, says LinkShare
4. Look who's selling GoTo.com shares
5. Easy ways to give money to Red Cross
6. Thought for today: The goal of terrorism

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1. Seven things you can do in these dark days
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Some days, it's awfully hard to get started. It's difficult to know where to begin and what to do next.

If you feel like that today, DO something right now. Don't let the terrorists cripple you.

Start by making the effort to achieve one very small, useful task to build your business. Then reward yourself with a sense of achievement. You deserve it.

Continue this medicine throughout the day, just one little step at a time. Always remember every time you complete a task to reward yourself with a feeling of having done something good.

Not sure where to begin? Choose from any of the ideas on the following list to get your affiliate business moving again. (As you read the list you'll probably be reminded of other useful tasks you need to do. Jot them down.)

Web site maintenance: If you're like me, you probably have several pages you haven't looked at for a long time. Now would be a good time to check them for outdated facts, outdated links, and selling messages which you can make stronger. Just choose ONE page and tackle it right now.

Research: Dig out your favorite marketing manual or search engine optimization book and brush up on your skills. Visit that private web site you subscribed to but never seem to have time to study. Choose ONE marketing idea and implement it.

Search engine optimization: Select a page which isn't performing well in the search engines. Check the title for good keywords. Make sure you've repeated those keywords near the top of the page, throughout the page and again at the bottom.

Keywords: Do some research at Wordtracker.com or GoTo.com on new keywords to use in pay-per-click search engines. Add some of those words to one engine.

Write an outline for an article for a new web page using two of those keywords. Start researching the article.

Make a list: DON'T leave this till tomorrow. Before you go to bed tonight, make a list of the six most important things you need to do tomorrow, in order of priority. Tomorrow morning, start working through the list.

Allow time in your schedule for family and friends. They need you right now, just as you need them.

Strengthen your resolve. Don't let the terrorists cripple us and cripple democracy.

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2. Join the 1% who really sell on the Net
=========================================

Owners of Ken Evoy's "Make Your Site SELL!" have been rushing to download copies of the brand new version, "MYSS! 2002".

The first edition sold tens of thousands of copies, and Ken's fans know that he can always be relied on to OVER-deliver. They know "MYSS 2002" will be at least twice as good as the original.

And it is.

It's the manual which teaches you how to join the 1% of online businesses which really know how to sell on the Net.

This "second edition" is much more than an update. It's like a whole new product. It has been hugely revised, with large new sections and HUNDREDS of new pages.

It now has more than 1,500 pages. It's twice as big and twice as useful as the original, and is chockful of links to useful resources.

If a 1,500-page manual sounds too daunting, don't worry. "MYSS! 2002" is divided into four volumes.

If you want to boost your traffic, for example, you can consult the Traffic-building volume. Be sure to read the section on "huge time-wasters" - the techniques you need to avoid.

Or perhaps you're planning to build an online store. Just study the new Store volume for ideas and resources.

Do you want to know tested strategies which will enable you to sell or pre-sell? See the main volume.

Or perhaps you can't decide WHAT to sell? Read the section on great products that sell on the Web, and use the "16-Point Product Evaluation Checklist" in the Products volume to help you choose profitable products.

You can use the search function, index and glossary and links to help you quickly zip to anywhere in the four volumes to find the help and strategies you need to boost your sales.

"MYSS! 2002" is the ultimate online Web sales reference book.

It shows you how to eliminate all the problems that are killing your sales.

Unlike many ebooks, this is NOT a re-hash of tired old marketing ideas written by a web marketing wanna-be.

These are PROVEN strategies.

As you may know, Ken is multi-talented. A physician, he taught at McGill University in Montreal, he and his wife designed toys and games which earned millions of dollars in revenue, and he created niche investing software.

Imagine a doctor trying to sell self-created investing software on the Internet! It sounds like "Mission Impossible", doesn't it?

However, Ken did it - VERY successfully. After he had learned how to sell on the Internet he then taught tens of thousands of others in the first edition of "Make Your Site SELL!"

That book became known as the "Bible" for selling on the Net.

Ken developed what he calls a "battlefield-tested" system for selling on the Net. He's telling you what actually WORKS for him and will work for you to boost your sales whatever you're selling.

His system became the foundation for an entire range of products from SiteSell, products which have sold by the tens of thousands over the last two years.

Although "MYSS! 2002" is NOT a book about building an affiliate business, it is the essential manual for anyone selling or pre- selling anything on the Net. So affiliates will find it immensely useful.

It tells you how to:

Develop a GREAT product.

Write a site that SELLS with deadly effectiveness.

Attract TARGETED visitors (i.e. traffic) to the site...

... and build your own profitable little empire.

The ebook is easy to read and digest. Ken assumes you have zero technical knowledge.

"MYSS! 2002" is so huge I don't even have space to list the Table of Contents. Here are a few examples of the content...

If you're building affiliate mini-sites, as so many people are these days, be sure to study carefully what Ken says about them.

While mini-sites are often promoted as being easy for beginners, Ken argues very persuasively that mini-sites are a tool for PROFESSIONALS.

He also explains why themed web sites will produce better results than mini-sites in the long run. If you're using mini-sites, you definitely need to read this.

Everyone wants more traffic, so I read the Traffic volume first. I was particularly fascinated by the section where Ken describes how, after several years of success, certain pages on his Penny Gold web site are sinking in the search engines.

He explains why this is happening and what you can do about it.

Also in the Traffic-building volume, be sure to study the section on meta tags and learn how most people are mis-using them.

I've mentioned just a tiny fraction of the tested strategies and revelations in this ebook.

"MYSS! 2002" is the must-have, absolutely essential marketing manual and reference book for anyone selling anything on the Net.

Your competitors have already bought it and YOU need to get it now:

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/myss

[UPDATE: After more than 100,000 sales, Make Your Site Sell! is now FREE.]


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3. Predatory advertising a complex issue, says LinkShare
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LinkShare is conducting an investigation into predatory software, which it says is a very complex issue..

Several readers, outraged by predatory advertising, have asked me about the role of the main affiliate networks.

I asked Stephen Messer, Chairman, CEO, and founder of LinkShare, the following questions:

Has LinkShare made any decisions on predatory advertising?

Do you allow predatory advertising companies such as eZula, Surf+ and Gator to be affiliates of LinkShare?

Do you have a policy on LinkShare affiliates who use predatory advertising?

I believe predatory advertising is unethical. Do you agree?

Here's Stephen's reply (which I received a day too late for last week's newsletter):

"Here is a quick synopsis of where LinkShare stands on the issue of "predatory software". I will do my best to summarize what is a very complex issue...

"The issue was originally brought to our attention a little over two weeks ago when I received a phone call from Brian Clark (of Revenews.com) who asked me if I knew about eZula. At the time I had never heard of them or Surf+, which is similar software. Upon investigation we did find numerous accounts registered in LinkShare under their URL, but none of these accounts had any activity in them. Based on what Brian described to me, I initiated an investigation within LinkShare to better understand the issue.

"LinkShare takes intellectual property law very seriously. In fact, if you look at all the providers, LinkShare is the only one that publishes an Intellectual Property policy right on our home page next to our privacy policy.

"Within days of being alerted to eZula, we were also told that Gator would be offering a new service that might also cause some additional concern. From what we were told this new offering differed in approach from eZula and potentially created a different type of infringement.

"Faced with this new breed of software, LinkShare is currently conducting its own investigation into this matter. Since these issues are new, very complex, and the facts are so unclear, our investigation is focusing on:

"1: Defining the issue and more specifically - what makes up 'predatory software'? Today there is no clear definition to this issue other than the 'I know it when I see it' argument, and that is no surprise since this issue is very confusing. My team and I have spent the past two weeks trying to collect information on everything from who the players are and how they work, to what aspects of web sites they affect. Creating a clear definition is very important for us. Without it, we could not create a clear and consistent policy. A policy is critical to govern our relationship with what is today well over 10 million partnerships. What is difficult is that many of these players will not return calls to share their point of view or do not provide us with much of the information we need to make a judgment. In the past few days, however, I have been able to set up meetings with some of them.

"2: Discover if this technology is legal. If the technology is illegal then there is no need to do any other work. We hold to this policy today with MP3 and gambling sites, which we do not support. To discover this, we have downloaded working copies of the various software and are working with our IP counsel to get their opinion on this matter.

"3: Even if our counsel's opinion is that it is legal, or that certain uses are legal, we need to decide if we will choose to work with this type of software. The mere fact that something is legal does not necessarily mean that we will endorse working with them.

"4: Partner feedback (partners being both the affiliate community and merchants). To gain a better understanding of what the market is thinking we are surveying our membership base and participating in the Affiliate Union discussions to get a better sense of what everyone thinks, and the logic around their points of view.

"In the interim, we have not taken any measures against these players. This interim policy makes sense largely because Surf+ and eZula are not currently working with LinkShare. In the case of Gator, my initial discussion with them brought forth a fact that many in the affiliate community are not talking about, which is that the software only targets the top 50 or so sites on the web and thus has little impact on our partners.

"Our hope is to develop a clear set of guidelines on this issue that will form the basis of an internal policy that not only deals with the legality but that takes into account the hard work that so many of our affiliate partners put into their web sites. I have personally scheduled meetings with many of these software players so that I can discuss the above issues with them over the next few weeks. As our policy formalizes, I look forward to your comments.

"Best regards,
"Stephen."

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4. Look who's selling GoTo.com shares
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In the past six months, only three GoTo.com officers or directors have bought GoTo.com shares, while 33 sold, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The same roughly 11-to-1 ratio of sellers to buyers has held over the last 12 months.

"The CFO continues to sell," adds analyst Darren Chervitz, referring to chief financial officer Todd Tappin.
public.wsj.com/sn/y/SB999703262469182092.html
finance.yahoo.com/q?s=GOTO&d=c&k=c1&t=3m&l=on&z=m&q=l

GoTo.com is changing its name to Overture Services, apparently to avoid being confused with sites such as Go and Go2Net. This seems like a huge branding blunder to me.

Make a note: If YOUR business name isn't very good, change it now, before you have to spend $1 million doing so.

[UPDATE: Overture is now Yahoo! Search Marketing.]

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5. Easy ways to give money to Red Cross
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Amazon.com has set up a Red Cross donations page where you can give money to Red Cross. It's very easy to donate from $1 to $100.

When I checked, the total donated was more than $1.8 million.

http://www.amazon.com

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6. Thought for today: The goal of terrorism
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"As I understand it, the goal of a terrorist act (other than an elemental expression of hatred) is to cause fear, fear that will disrupt the victims' way of life. Yesterday's tragic events in the U.S. have changed history (and I'm afraid it is really going to change before this is over), but I think it's important that we continue with the endeavors that are important to us. It's one small way that we can all stand up to the terrorist cowards." - John Audette.

All the best

Allan Gardyne