Things got a bit hectic in early July trying to get everything finished in time to go away for a week touring Ireland.
I had to try and make sure our staff could run our printing business by themselves while we were away so produced new prices lists etc.
I also took a laptop so I could keep in touch each day.

I got a bit behind with my online marketing and didn’t promote Your Internet Buddies ‘Blueprint Coaching Program’ when I originally intended too. I’m in their Platinum Coaching Group so know their content is good.

I received an email showing the pre-launch JV table showing me in 12th place. But I hadnt done anything! Affiliate marketing isn’t as hard as I’d thought

This must be because I had a lot of subscribers optin to their list which are then tagged as mine. So when any emails go to these subscribers they count as being from me.

So I’d got 12th place by doing nothing

That made me think if I actually did something I was in with a good chance of a prize (which go to the top ten).

I’d dropped to 18th the next day, but then I sent my first email out and jumped back to 12th.
I sent another email while on holiday and I made it to 9th and won a Flip HD
My first prize in a major IM competition…

Next came the actual launch. I knew this was going to be harder.
Once or twice I’ve managed to get into the top ten in the first few days, then some of the big players sent out emails and knocked me out

The first day I got 12th place again without doing anything – that was from people tagged as mine buying the product.
I sent out a couple of emails and just made it. Equal 9th place on the final day and have won either an Ipod or a video camera.

Two prizes in two weeks, and I’ve gained some credibility as I ended up above some well-known marketers.

It isn’t as hard as it seems when you first set out…

What is the best format for your download files whether they are gifts in a Giveaway, for Adswaps or paid products.

My early paid products were all Zip files. The reason was they contained a bonus PDF file eg resources file that had affiliate links in.
This was recommended by marketers such as Alex Jeffreys (Easy Profit Auctions) , John Thornhill (Planet Forum) and Lee McIntyre (Standing Start Profits).

More recently I’ve noticed a lot of people have direct links from download pages to PDF files. The products given to students in Marketing with Alex 2.0 and also by MyIMMentors used this arrangement and I have done this for my recent free products (except Free Backlinks Generator which has multiple files)

The reasons for PDFs -
It’s quicker to setup, and also apparently easier for people to access since they don’t have to unzip the files (not everyone knows how to do that apparently).

Now I come to the reason for this post – a few people had gifts rejected from a recent Giveaway for using PDFs. I’d entered well over 100 giveaways and never had this happened before.
We were all a bit surprized at this and felt the admin were being over-officious.

Last week I spoke to Rodger Hyatt (who is supervising the Giveaway) on Skype about this and here are the reasons for using ZIP files.

1) PDF files can contain Viruses. Zip files are automatically scanned for viruses.

2) PDFs open directly in browers and some people don’t know how to save them.
Also a browers will be slower and if the PDF is large it will slow down the computer. If a zip file is used then the unzipped PDF will default open in Adobe Acrobat not in a browser.

3) As already mentioned a ZIP file can contain other bonus and resources PDFs or other files like worksheets which benefit both the customer as they get more information and the product owner (form affiliate links)

If you don’t have an unzip program there is a free on here
http://www.camunzip.com/download.htm

(Most people recommend WinZip but that is a trial only)

Having run my own Giveaway I can say it’s harder than it sounds to monitor.
A lot of gifts break the rules and checking everything out takes a lot of
time.

So it’s your choice – will you use ZIP or PDF files?

If you’re running an Internet business it’s almost certain that you’re going to be Blogging. The biggest challenge facing most bloggers is driving traffic to your blog. Here you will find 10 tips from David Walker to help you get more viewers to your blog posts.

1. Get listed in Search Engines

A blog, like any website, will not be listed in Search Engines by default.

To get started you should either add the URL of your blog to Search Engines using the ‘add url’ page or obtain a quality inbound link to your website.

A link to your blog from a web page of Google Pagerank 4 or above will more-or-less guarantee your blog is indexed by the various search engines within a week.

2. Interact with your readers

A common feature of a blog is the ability for readers to leave comments. If your readers are leaving useful comments, don’t ignore them, comment back and encourage interaction.

This will bring readers back to your blog to see how you are responding to their thoughts.

3. Interact with other Bloggers

By commenting on other blogs you will in turn leave a link back to your own blog. Write quality comments or feedback on blog posts by other bloggers in your niche, this will encourage blog readers to follow the link to your blog.

4. Submit your Blog to Blog Directories

Some Internet directories specialise in Blogs only. Submit your blog to as many of these directories as you can, they can drive traffic and provide inbound links which will aid your SEO efforts.

5. Submit your RSS Feed to RSS Directories

Your blog will come with an RSS Feed. There are directories specifically for RSS feeds. Simply add your feed to these directories for the same benefits as blog directories.

6. Allow Readers to Opt-In to Your Email List

You should be looking to build a list of names and e-mail addresses of your readers.

To do this simply give away a free report, video or guide on your blog in exchange for a prospect’s e-mail address.

You can try and upsell them a product or add affiliate links to the free product to help you make money online and then notify your subscribers via email when your blog is updated for an instant traffic source.

7. Bookmark Your Posts on Social Bookmarking Websites

You should enable your readers to bookmark your blog posts on various social bookmarking websites.

This will give you extra exposure to the traffic that is generated on each particular bookmarking website as well as a valuable link back to your website for SEO purposes.

8. Guest Blog on Other Websites

While your personal blog may not be receiving a great deal of traffic yet, it’s highly likely that there are other blogs in your niche that are.

If you write well and know your topic you should consider contacting the owner of a high traffic blog in your niche and ask them if you can guest blog on their website.

If you can demonstrate an ability to write quality, informative blog posts there are many webmasters who will take you up on the offer.

9. Consider Using Video Posts

Blogs posts don’t always have to be dominated by pages and pages of writing – adding video is one way to keep your visitors interested.

You should consider hosting your videos on various video hosting websites such as Youtube or Vimeo. This enables you to not only save on your hosting space but also take some of the traffic that these sites are already attracting.

10. Analyse Your Visitors

Finally, use a web statistics tool such as Google Analytics to see where your viewers are coming from. If certain marketing avenues are bringing you more visitors than others, focus on these avenues to maximise your marketing potential.

Myself an Michael Ottman have been busy for the past few months putting together a Giveaway Event which we planned to launch on Friday June 11th.

We customised the script as much as possible with high quality graphic designed and installed my Michael and various additional changes that I made to the templates and to the copy for the sign-up pages and emails.

We also have some secret competitions planned…

The news leaked out though and the event launched itself on Tuesday and within two day we have over 100 JV Partners.

There’s 100% commission on sales of upgrades and a lot of people are already earning from this.

If anyone hasn’t joined yet then here’s a link. Jump on board and build your list..

http://originalproductsgiveaway.com/summer/go/5/jv

I’d like to pass on my condolences to the family and friends of all of the victims of the events on 2nd June.
Almost everyone in the area has some connection with somebody involved.
Kevin Commons, the solicitor, was the founder of the firm occupying the two upper floors of the building where our printing company operates. He was a customer when we took over the business.
Paul Wilson, a taxi driver who is a customer of ours, was shoot at the crossroads just 2 buildings along from us. Fortunately Paul was relatively lucky and able to leave hospital the same day.

There will be a vigil at 12 noon BST on Wednesday 9th June. We will close for one hour from 11:30 to 12:30.

The following part of the post was written during Wednesday when nobody was sure what was happening:

Today was a nice sunny day to I decided to walk to the office about 11am. Our staff open the business so I don’t have to go in early.

On the way down I passed 2 emergency medics and heard their radio say at least 10 people had been shot!

It turned out the shooting began only just round the corner from our shop and Printing company.

This is a quiet town on the west coast of northern England and you do’nt expect this kind of thing to happen.

At the moments all the shops in town are closed – they were told to lock the doors with customers inside.

This is all going to be on the local news, but hopefully the person will be caught by now, and I will be able to walk home later.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/10214661.stm

Update 2:20pm
The police came round and said it should now be safe to open.

June 3rd
I walked to work again and the town is full of film crews, and reporters are coming into our shop Printpoint.
It was announced that one of the victims was solicitor Kevin Commons who occupied the offices above us.