Associate Programs Newsletter #465

Wow. Last week's newsletter really struck a chord with people. Today I've got a few extra comments.

Plus, I want to show you the most amazing piece of SEO software I've ever seen.

CONTENTS:

1. My comments struck a chord
2. The 1.5 million dollar SEO tool
3. Thought For Today: We shall neither fail nor falter


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1) My comments struck a chord
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Last week's newsletter caused a bit of a stir.

It was nice to see many of my comments resonated with so many people. Thanks to everyone who contributed some great comments to the discussion. If you missed it, you can see it here: One of our sites was hacked.

One thing out of this discussion that I wanted to raise was the fact that you can still achieve amazing results while marketing with integrity.

Making a ton of money and keeping your ethical standards doesn't have to be mutually exclusive.

We've sold millions of dollars online ethically, and so have tons of other successful evergreen businesses.

Sure, there have been times when we've drifted into the dark side. However, we've found that it doesn't necessarily work any better at all.

In one business we're involved in, we're seeing conversion rates of over 10% off cold traffic. Yet we don't use obnoxious tactics and we don't use a long form sales letter.

In fact for another product (SpeedPPC) we saw improved conversion rates when we switched from a long form to short form sales letter.

So don't drink the Kool Aid. You don't need to feel that if you are not using the cheesy, pushy, used car salesmen tactics you won't make sales.

You can implement the same persuasion techniques in ethical ways without having to resort to the same annoying formula that everyone else uses. All that stuff is just a hangover from the old direct mail days.

Yes, the principles work well, but you can do it in much smarter, more sustainable ways.

You can really make sites that you are proud to show your friends, won't scare off mainstream business customers and still convert like gangbusters.

Look out in the near future for an article series I'm writing on how to sell like a champ online, without being a jerk! :)


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2) The 1.5 million dollar SEO tool
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Last year I met a really interesting guy called Patrick Gavin.

He co-founded "Text Link Ads" which was later acquired for a very large sum by MediaWhiz.

Last year our business was evolving and he was kind enough to give us some really sound business advice. At the time, he also mentioned that he was working on some secret new SEO software.

A few weeks ago he shot me an email to let me know it was ready to go. Today, we started testing out this new software that is now officially known as "DIYSEO".

All I can say is WOW!

Forget about the backyard SEO tools you might have used before. This thing is simply sublime.

It's no wonder. They've spent around 1.5 million dollars of venture capital money on it. The most of any tool in the IM space that I've ever seen. That's not blowing smoke either.

See the coverage on TechCrunch here:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/06/diyseo-raises-1-million-launches-simple-service-to-help-small-businesses-manage-seo/

They have broken down the SEO process into a step-by-step blueprint with automatic feedback on what you should be doing next.

It takes all the mystery and magic out of it (some would say the BS), and turns it into a simple pragmatic process.

At the risk of blowing our own trumpet, we're pretty good at SEO.

We rank in the top 3 on a number of terms that have over 1,000,000 searches a month. So we're not easily impressed.

Both Mike and I agree this this is going to change how we do SEO.

It really is that good. It's the kind of product you see and wish you had created it yourself.

Mike has written a quick review of it here: DIYSEO Review

Really, the best thing you can do is just test drive it with the 7 day free trial and see it in action for real.