Associate Programs Newsletter #229

I'm having an unscheduled holiday - in hospital - and that has persuaded me to write about a very important subject most of us probably avoid but
shouldn't.

CONTENTS:

1. What hospital is teaching me about Internet marketing
2. How Rupert doubled his earnings in one month
3. New resource: Marketing Forum Watch
4. A friendly affiliate forum - and links to your site
5. Instead of sending me a "Get Well Soon" email...
6. Thought for today

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1. What hospital is teaching me about Internet marketing
=============================================

I'm sitting up in bed in hospital writing this. I'm here for 10
days or so getting immuno-suppressant therapy for a rare blood
disorder called aplastic anemia.

A dual drip line has been sewn into my upper arm and it stays
there 24 hours a day. They're pumping me full of a cocktail of
chemicals to try to teach my T-cells to stop attacking my immune
system.

The doctors insist that what they're giving me isn't chemotherapy
but it seems awfully similar to me.

The effects of the treatment the first day weren't nice. The ill
effects included rigors - the shakes so bad I could hardly talk.
I felt as though I'd been thrown out in the snow naked. I had a
raging temperature, and then I was so hot I felt as though I
was lying on a heated bed.

If a few drops of this non-chemotherapy stuff happen to fall on
the floor, the nurses call it a "cyto-toxic waste spill" and they
wear plastic aprons and thick rubber gloves to clean it up.

And this is the stuff they're pumping into me.

Come to think of it, every nurse who enters my room always wears
a plastic apron and rubber gloves.

Believe it not, this is the less invasive option. If it doesn't
work, the next line of attack, in about six weeks, will be a bone
marrow transplant, where they kill my bone marrow and then pump
in someone else's.

Relax guys, you don't have to launch a bone marrow drive. I'm
lucky. One of my sisters turned out to be a perfect match.

It's all pretty scary stuff, and it's given me plenty of time to
think.

I don't want to sound too morbid, but perhaps you ought to think
about this...

What would happen to YOUR Internet business if you were run over
by a bus tomorrow?

Or what if you were incapacitated? Yes, I know - I didn't think
it would happen to me, either.

Or what about burnout?

It's easy to suffer burnout when you work crazy long hours for
far too long. Are you prepared for it? I ignored the warnings for
years. I eventually slowed down a bit, but too late to prevent
this illness.

What if you merely grow old, or tired of the business and want
out?

Do you have an escape plan?

Even if your Internet business is just a part-time one earning a
few hundred dollars a month, you wouldn't want to see that thrown
away, would you?

* Do you have a spouse, business partner or friend who could
step in and run your business?

* Even if the person you have in mind has the necessary skills,
could they find all the information they needed, such as
passwords?

* If there are regular procedures you do, are they written
down - in such way that someone else could follow them?

* Would the business collapse totally without you?

* Imagine if the person looking after your estate wanted to
sell your business? Would they be able to find a neat list of
all your web sites? Would they have any idea how to go about
selling the business?

* Could your business be sold? For how much?

* Would the business be sold for a fraction of its true worth,
depriving your spouse and children of many thousands of
dollars? Considering the price you're likely to get, it might
make more sense to get someone else to run it.

Consider this...

You've probably spent several years creating a business on the
Internet. Wouldn't it be an awful shame if the fruit of all that
effort was thrown away because you hadn't told anyone how to
handle it?

Here's your action plan:

TODAY, start a Letter to Survivors file on your computer. Start
jotting down a few things they'll need to know. Keep the advice
simple and easy to understand.

You could also use this 41-page Estate Planning Organizer:
http://www.kathleencotton.com/articles/estate-organizer.pdf

Tell someone the Letter to Survivors exists. You can also write a
note - a Letter of Wishes - and attach it to your will. It could
tell people where to find the Letter to Survivors. Such an
attachment won't be legally binding but it's still extremely
useful for the person trying to sort out the mess after you've
gone.

If you have employees, consider giving at least one of them more
training, so they're ready to step into your shoes. You should be
doing that anyway, so you can take decent holidays.

If you don't have an employee, I strongly urge you to consider
hiring one as soon as you possibly can. It frees you up to do the
things you prefer doing and gives you time to step back from the
business and do some serious thinking.

If you're like me, you'll find that your best money-making ideas
come when you're taking a break, not when you're working.

IDEAS?

If you have some good ideas on the smooth passing of a business
to a successor, or how to prepare a "just-in-case" file, I'd love
to hear from you. If I receive some useful tips, I'll publish the
best of them.

NEXT WEEK:

Some tips on your Letter to Survivors, or Letter to Successor.
Are you starting to suffer from burnout? If so, you'll need to
read this article. Hint, hint... Please help me write this
article.

UPDATE:
Eva Rosenberg kindly started a "Get Well Allan" discussion thread on the Associate Programs Forum. I'll add occasional updates on my health to that discussion. Anyone who registers at the forum can receive automatic email notifications of updates in any discussion threads they want to keep an eye on. That's the easiest way for me to keep anyone who's interested in my health up to date. Sorry it's such an impersonal arrangement, but this is the best way to keep people informed without exhausting myself. Here's the "Get Well Allan" discussion thread: http://AssociatePrograms.com/discus/viewtopic.php?t=226

======================================================
2. How Rupert doubled his earnings in one month
======================================================

The figures are now in.

Just over a month ago, my assistant Rupert added AdSense to one
of his affiliate sites - http://www.cheap-computers-guide.com .

I've just been looking at the stats.

The site's affiliate income dropped but it did so well from
AdSense that the site doubled its total monthly income.

That's a fabulous result just for a pasting a little bit of extra
code into each page.

Rupert's little site, created and promoted using Site Build It -
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/buildit - now earns about $500 a
week.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the AdSense revenue
over the next couple of months, as advertisers calculate their
return on investment.

(Sorry I can't give you the exact stats. I would if AdSense's
rules allowed it.)

I wish I could tell you that all sites could double their income
simply by using AdSense, but of course that's not true.

You need have highly profitable keywords.

I describe six ways of doing keyword research in my article "How
to boost your AdSense revenue" -
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/search/adsense.shtml .

Rupert used mainly technique No.6.

He's been using it again this week while adding more pages to the
site.

Right now, there's a lot of fuss because Google did a really
stupid thing. It added a "Related Searches" feature to AdSense.

People were able to click on "Related Searches" and visit your
competitors, so Google had placed exit links on your site and
wasn't paying you anything at all for them.

It's worrying that a company as smart as Google could do such an
astoundingly dumb thing.

There was so much outrage that Google quickly "temporarily
disabled" the feature.

With or without that ill-planned feature, AdSense is a wonderful
money-spinner, as long as you know how to use it effectively.

However, there are many traps to avoid and tips you need to know.

The best, most comprehensive source for tips on how to use
AdSense effectively is run by Ken Evoy.

For anyone using AdSense, or planning to, this is a fabulous,
frequently updated, "must-read" resource.

Have you checked out Ken's latest updates on AdSense?

Read them here...

http://makemy.sitesell.com/adsense/

__________________________________________SPONSOR__________

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Google AdWords." [www.page-zero.com.] What you DON'T know about
pay-per-click can cost you plenty. That's why I'm releasing
my new Pay-Per-Click Advertising Buyer's Guide in July. Who's
telling the truth, and who isn't? This comprehensive report will
retail for $129. But if you contact me now at
earlybird@page-zero.com you'll be eligible for the early bird
discount price of $77, exclusive to readers of Allan Gardyne's
newsletter. Affiliate inquiries welcome!
___________________________________________________________

==============================================
3. New resource: Marketing Forum Watch
==============================================

Want a quick way to scan or search for your favorite topics on
lots of message boards?

Here it is.

Michael Wong has just launched a new tool called "Marketing
Forum Watch". It offers constantly updated headlines from
popular Internet marketing and search engine optimization
discussion forums and message boards, including the Associate
Programs Forum.

So now if you post a message on the Associate Programs Forum -
http://AssociatePrograms.com/discus/index.php - your message could be
seen by people scanning Mike's site.

To help people find - and read - your posts, be sure to include
key phrases in the heading. For example, if your post is about
AdSense, include "AdSense" in the subject line.

Here's the new tool

http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/marketing-forum/

==================================
4. A friendly affiliate forum - and links to your site
==================================

While in hospital I still drop in at the newly revamped Associate
Programs Forum - http://AssociatePrograms.com/discus/index.php - each
day.

After a bumpy start, it's developing into a nice friendly place
for affiliates to ask for advice or help other affiliates.

I won't embarrass anyone by naming names, but I'm really grateful
to the experienced affiliates who are taking the time to write
thoughtful, helpful responses to questions asked by other
affiliates.

You're awesome, guys!

The tips you give can make a world of difference to someone who's
struggling over some tricky aspect of affiliate marketing.
Perhaps it could even help turn someone's part-time hobby into a
full-time business.

The forum now has 160 registered members, and I don't know how
many unregistered members.

On an average day we're getting as many posts as the old message
board received in a week, so that's nice start.

Please drop in and have a look around. You'll find a friendly,
helpful bunch of people.

Check it out...

http://AssociatePrograms.com/discus/index.php

================================
5. Instead of sending me a "Get Well Soon" email...
================================

If you're thinking of sending me a "Hope You Get Well Soon"
email, please don't be offended by what I'm going to say...

I really appreciate the thought, but right now, I don't need a
whole bunch of emails for my fuzzy brain to handle.

Instead of writing to me, what I'd really prefer you do is spend
the time going to the forum. Write a helpful answer to some
else's question. Or ask a question.

If I see a rush of posts on the forum today after this newsletter
goes out, I'll know you're thinking of me.

If you're going to do it, do it now.

And remember, if you register and add your URL to your signature,
that's one more link to your site every time you make a post
helping someone or asking a question. That's an easy way to get
an extra link.

Go there now...

http://AssociatePrograms.com/discus/index.php

(So far we've had 773 posts - The number is at the bottom of the
main page of the forum. It will be interesting to see how many of
you care enough to make that number go up. If you don't care
enough to do that, perhaps I should quit writing this newsletter.
Just kidding! Still, on the other hand...)

=============================================
6. Thought for today
=============================================

"I'll beat this thing." - Allan Gardyne.

I'm not going to drop dead any day soon. Apart from this weird
blood disorder, I'm slim and fit from taking hour-long walks by
the sea each day. I'll beat this thing.

[UPDATE, 2007: I did.]


All the best

Allan Gardyne