Creating your first website can seem like a pretty daunting task if you've never done it before. Sure, you can outsource the job to a web designer, but then you are giving up the freedom of having complete control over tweaking and changing things as you see fit. You are completly at the mercy of someone else's time table. Ok, you might be thinking, "yeah right, I can't even spell HTML, let alone learn it!" You may also have seen various [tag]web editors[/tag] out there that seem intimidating and are usually expensive too. Did you know that there are some great open source stuff out there? For example, Nvu (pronounced 'N-View') is a fantastic open source web editor that is FREE. I love that word. There are so many things out there available as open source, that you could literally build your [tag]internet business[/tag] using free tools. You can even create your graphics and logo with an open source (free) program called "Gimp". There's tons of documentation for this software and it has quite the following. I have to admit that I use [tag]Photoshop[/tag] myself for creating my logos and other graphics, but if I would have been more up on open source in the past, I probably could have saved some serious cash. Back to Nvu, if you can use a basic word processor or MS Word, you can build a web page. Nvu is very intuitive and easy to use. I also like the fact that even when working in WYSIWYG (Visual) mode, the generated code is very clean. Most [tag]WYSIWYG[/tag] editors are relatively easy to work with but generate messy and over bloated source code. I originally coded the AmazingCloaker website using CoffeeCup Visual HTML Editor. I thought it was a pretty decent product for 49 bucks, but the HTML code that is generated isn't nearly as clean as Nvu in my opinion. Sure purists will tell you to just do the whole site in HTML and forget about visually designing the site. There's a heck of a lot of advantages to knowing HTML, but saving time is my big thing, and I can knock off a basic webpage in less than 15 minutes with a visual editor. If I want to fine tune, or customize a table, I usually jump into the code editor and hand code it. You'd be surprised how easy it is to learn HTML. Anyway, I completely re-designed the [tag]AmazingCloaker[/tag] website using Nvu! I'm currently working on a new product which is a video course on how to design a web page from the ground up. This is geared for the [tag]internet marketing[/tag] beginner or intermediate level who wants to design a decent page, optimize it for the search engines and get pointers on writing good sales copy. I'll also round off the course by showing you how to set up a blog for your website using wordpress. Everything I will be using in the course will be open source software, so if you've ever wanted to get serious about internet marketing, but building that web page was too intimidating or expensive, then keep checking back. I'll be announcing on this blog when it will be available. The website where you can check out the course will be designed in my tutorial, so you will actually see the end result as the website itself! How cool is that?!
Monthly Archives: April 2007
Does AdWords make you a grumpy bear?
Google [tag]AdWords[/tag] can be your best friend, or it can bite you in the butt big time. I don't claim to be an AdWords expert by any means, but I can speak a little from experience from playing the game. When I began dabbling in AdWords, I had one strategy in mind. Use the shotgun approach with generalized keywords to get the biggest volume of traffic possible to my website (PlayKillerGuitar.com) and the numbers would take care of the rest. I was thinking that with a conversion ratio of 1%, I would make 10 sales per thousand visitors. Hmmmmm, easy money. I set up my campaigns and waited for the sales to come pouring in. Well they did, somewhat. I sold about 10 tutorials at 20 bucks a piece that month and made a cool 200 bucks. I was a king! Then came the debit from my bank account from AdWords. 250 bucks! YIKES! I didn't make any money, I lost 50 bucks! From there I tried using different keywords, lowering my bids, changing my ads, looking at competitor's ads and websites to try and get a clue on what they were doing. You name it, I tried it and still I was paying out the ying yang and ending up in the hole every time. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the heck I was doing wrong, so I did the next logical thing. Told myself that AdWords sucks and turned off my campaigns. Deep inside I knew that people out there were actually making good money, because I would see the same ads running week after week. Then I stumbled accross a book by [tag]Perry Marshall[/tag] called "Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords". I had to get on a waiting list because it wasn't released yet, but it was worth it. When it arrived it was hot off the press, a brand new release, and I got to say that it was the best 17 bucks I ever spent. Every page seemed to point out all the things I was doing wrong and illustrated the right way that it should be done. For one thing, I wasn't setting up my campaigns properly and my keywords were way too generalized. Your keywords need to be very targeted. Man was I green! I thought I was pretty savvy, but Perry Marshall showed me just how green I was. I learned other valuable things too like the importance of CTR (click thru ratio) and how to keep it high by pruning off the non-performing keywords. The strategy here is less traffic but quality [tag]traffic[/tag]. I started making a profit, even with my 20 dollar tutorials. AdWords still isn't my favorite form of traffic generation. I much prefer the free methods such as [tag]article writing, blogging, SEO[/tag], etc., but at least I can now say that I've tamed the beast, somewhat. PPC is a great way to get a brand new website rolling for your product until the free techniques start kicking in. That's what works for me anyway. I'm still on my way up, so who knows, maybe next year I'll look back and think I was crazy. This is what works for me so far, and when something works, why not keep doing it, right?
A Little Bit Of Action
Woohoo! I was chosen to receive a USB DVD burner from James Brausch, who has a great Internet Business blog. Thanks James! It took me about 5 minutes of effort to spout off what I felt and it paid off. Putting a little effort into your internet business can yield the same results! A minor change to your sales letter can double your conversions. Taking an hour to write a free report with some affiliate links or simply to show why your product is valuable can crank your profits instantly! A few minutes here, an hour there towards your internet business goes a long way when you add it up at the end of the week. If you have a hard time getting motivated, just decide to spend a few minutes on your business today & inspiration will come naturally. You may suddenly find yourself accomplishing great things that you weren't expecting just 5 minutes ago. Nike really got it right with the phrase "Just do it".
Maybe 98% is too low
James Braush on many occasions will point out how few people will actually take action on anything. He is giving away a free USB CD burner to a selection of his choice that cares to take 2 seconds to trackback to his blog. And pay the shipping! According to James, 98% of the population never take action when it comes to doing anything that requires self motivation. After 3 days of seeing no response, I’m starting to think that the figure is closer to 99.8%! I didn’t respond because I was the first trackback on a book and didn’t want to be greedy, but what the heck. If you read this James, I’ll take it. I can use it for promoting some of my products on DVD. Especially my guitar tutorials from PlayKillerGuitar.com. Maybe I won’t be selected, but at least I can say that I tried – darn it. I at least made the effort. How about you the reader? Is inaction that comfortable? HMMMMMMM