It may surprise you, but there are a lot of things that get on my nerves! But since I only have so much time to write, I’m only going to tell you about one of them now. And that one is… not making any sales! That totally perturbs me, and for good reason!

A while back I put together a free ecourse on a niche topic, with about a dozen emails to be sent over the course of a month. The course was built relating to an ebook I was selling, and as the ecourse went on, the subscribers were subjected to a few ads. These were all ads for the full ebook. Not only were the subscribers highly targeted prospects, but they were given a special deal on the ebook. A real special deal. I figured quite a few people would buy, but it just didn’t work that way…

I advertised the course, even did an Adwords campaign, and got people to signup. I was expecting to see some clicks or something after a month or so, when the subscribers would be getting the final messages from the autoresponder. But nope. Nothing at all.

So what did I do? Nothing. I pretty much forgot about it and hoped for the best.

Well, an entire year went by, and still nothing. I finally got fed up, and, for the first time since the initial work, I took a look at the ecourse to see if I could figure out the problem.

I’m not sure if it was my keen eye for marketing, or just common sense, but the problem stared right at me: Instead of ordering links in the email, I had left [insert order url here] in the message. I guess I had put the course together before finalizing the sales page…

It turns out, you need to actually give someone a URL if you expect them to go and buy something!

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Is it even possible to see any legitimate trends in your Adsense reports? I was just thinking about this after reading another blog entry about Adsense fluctuations. That article pointed out the huge differences us publishers see on a DAILY basis!

I mean, if you just start out and make a few cents a day, you’ll see an upward trend if you add 100 more good sites. And if you get banned from Google, well, you’ll sure see an abrupt downward trend! But for the most part, it seems like Google gives us random figures!

I’m not exactly complaining about Adsense, but doesn’t it just make you wonder?

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I recently purchased some nifty software that lets you create large content websites quite easily. I’ll be using this to create more test sites, giving me three categories: Quality hand-built unique content sites, pre-built website content packages, and software-built content sites.

This software looks like the best I’ve seen for this purpose. I’ve purchased resale rights to it too, so I may offer it for sale if I like it.

I’ve downloaded some free site builders before, but never bothered with them, as they look like crap. And I have skipped out on other site builders because they cost well over $100. But this may be just the ticket. Stay tuned…

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A combination of auto-surf and web browser toolbar advertising, InstantBuzz loses its buzz instantly. I can’t say this is any better than those autosurf traffic exchanges.

This software displays another toolbar on your browser window and has a small text ad, which changes each time the page refreshes. The good news is that you may get some targeted traffic since people do choose to click on your ad. However, by clicking, I think they earn credits, so they may just be clicking everything to earn more credits for themselves.

Everyone knows those autosurf programs are worthless… so why did I join this? I got a free code for 25,000 credits. I figured I could get a few clicks with those, so I took a few minutes to sign-up. My credits were gone in about a day, with 1 measly click-through.

Do yourself a favor and don’t bother with this one.

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Earlier today I launched a new website based off of a bunch of ready-made adsense websites. So I now have a 1000+ page content site that took about 20 minutes to setup, not including time to upload files.

I’m interested to see if a site like this can make more money than my other sites that I put A LOT of work into! Although I’d be happy to make a lot of money, it would be kind of disappointing if you think about it… But that’s how lots of people make money with Adsense - huge sites filled with free articles.

I registered a catchy domain name for this site (http://learnaholic.info) so hopefully that helps it stand out. More details and test results to come…

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I had to send an email today, and I did. (Good story, huh?)

So I sent the email, but a few hours later I got a message back from the Mailer Deamon or whatever his name is. Turns out the ISP of the recipient has blacklisted the IP address of my hosting company! My important email was returned to sender for no apparent reason!

Granted, I’m sure there are some other websites on this IP address. But more than likely, the ISP blacklisted me for no good reason. Although I’m mad, I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner. These days I expect to have to jump through hoops and pay huge fees to get my emails delivered! (And then getting them read is even harder…)

Moral of the story: Spam has caused tons of problems. Email can be a pain in the ass now. Overactive ISPs suck. Shared hosting accounts suck.

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This year I’ve been shifting my focus from Adsense income back to affiliate income, like I used to do before Adsense came about. I make a lot more money that way, even when I’m focusing on Adsense, so I’m not sure why it’s taken me this long to make the decision to go back! (especially with how fickle Adsense is, even with new competitors…)

So anyway, about landing pages. They’re a big deal, especially if you’re using Adwords to send traffic to your minisite that is pre-selling something. An email from Jim Edwards recommending a new ebook reminded me of this, so thanks Jim! (I didn’t buy the book, but I might…)

You need to get the visitor to take action. One action. Don’t confuse them with multiple offers and some Adsense thrown in for good measure.

What I have for you today is an example of a great landing page, in my opinion. I was doing some research on Google about being a stunt double, and one of the sponsored results caught my eye. Some kind of ebook about how to get started in the industry. I started reading the page, and in no time I was ready to submit my info, but then I realized I had fallen victim to a great work of internet marketing without even knowing it!

http://www.stuntworksecrets.com/

That’s the page. Simple yet effective. Check it out and maybe you’ll learn something.

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