Posted on April 7, 2010 by Eric
I own a lot of website domains… and I’ve played around with what to put on them for quite some time.
But finally I feel as though I’m starting to get some direction in my online site building efforts.
For example, this blog has moved from a poetry blog, to random ramblings, to a marketing blog…
Well, it’s time for yet another change.
I’ve built a site that is based around my business of helping small businesses do online marketing. I’ve used the domain before, but never for anything particularly useful.
This time I want to create a resource that actually can help people… and hopefully make some money at the same time.
It’s called OutFromTheCrowd.com and it’s all about Vancouver online marketing.
So head on over and check it out, I’d love to know what you think.
So what’s happening with this blog?
Well, really I just want a place where I can write about anything… coffee, cigars, travel, life, wine, Vancouver, cooking, yorkshire puddings etc. etc.
So that’s what it’s going to be… I hope you like it, and if you’ve been interested in the marketing side of my life be sure to check out OutFromTheCrowd.com
But speaking about yorkshire puddings, I’ve gotta run and check on my oven…
Posted on February 19, 2010 by Eric
Well I’ve been away from the blog and PPC affiliate marketing for a bit. Mainly because I’ve been focusing on other things. I’ve had a ton of freelance work to do lately, and one of my clients is hosting a party in San Francisco that has needed a lot of promotional material made.
Plus, I’ve found a new addiction… I tend to be a really intense person when it comes to new things that I like, and coffee is a new one. Not regular coffee… real coffee. I mean if I’m going to be a work junkie and spend my nights working on affiliate marketing I might as well be drinking really good, kick your ass coffee.
For those who don’t know what crema is, I’m not going to explain it… just go here… read… and know that most of what you get in coffee shops has none of it.
There are a ton of factors that go into a really great espresso, and it seems that since I’ve been sucked into the world of coffee geekdom I’ll be chasing them all… as of now, I’m just scratching the surface.
The first thing is a really great coffee grinder. Even if you have an amazing espresso machine, you’ll never make a decent cup if you use either pre-ground coffee or have one of those crappy blade thingies… Go get yourself a proper bur grinder. It doesn’t heat up your coffee when it grinds it, and it will keep all of the ground coffee a similar size (perfect for crema… haven’t you read that article yet???)
I just acquired a Rancilio Rocky Grinder (you can pick it up from amazon here… and yes, that’s an affiliate link). I know I know… spending that kind of money on a grinder seems silly. But really, the difference it made in the coffee is just amazing! I had no idea that the grinder was creating such shyte!
I still unfortunately have a shitty espresso machine. It sucks… I mean it realllly sucks. But I can still get a decent cup out of it, and for those of you with cheap espresso machines (I have a 70 dollar Krups one) here’s how to at least make a drinkable espresso. For any coffee geeks out there, please let me know if there are any other steps I can add, or correct me if need be.
- Fill the machine with cold water (no distilled crap, just filtered).
- Make sure every part of the machine that touches water is clean, and without putting any coffee in it turn it on brew.
- wait until the water has built up and a bit of steam is produced.
- Turn it off.
- dump the water that has come out and pull off your coffee basket and fill with fresh ground coffee from your Rocky Grinder… what, you haven’t bought it yet?
- pack your coffee into the basket a bit. No need for a tamper here or to apply too much pressure… these terrible machines have no pressure.
- By now the water in the boiler will have dropped in temperature… turn on the steam portion and wait until it produces full steam for about 5 seconds.
- Put your coffee basket (portafilter) back into the machine and turn it onto brew.
- Wait for your coffee and turn it off when it starts to change color and gets a bit washed out.
You’re done! With a bit of practice you can get decent (not great) coffee from your crappy machine… suck it starbucks! If the coffee is bitter, you’ve either tamped too hard, or left it brewing for too long. Dump it and try again. I usually get about 1 out of 3 shots that are decent enough to drink straight… the others get turned into americanos…
Why does this belong on a marketing blog? Well I suppose it doesn’t, but I find that a lot of entrepreneurs are very intense people when it comes to their hobbies… besides, how can it hurt?
Posted on February 5, 2010 by Eric
If you don’t know, an email or a zip submit is a CPA affiliate offer that requires the lead to enter in either their email or their zip code. Once the prospect enters that information, you get paid. These offers usually don’t pay a lot, but you can expect to get anywhere from $0.80 – $3.00 for these offers.
There are a ton of different ways of promoting zip or email submits. I want to share one that I have had success with, and it also doesn’t take long to setup. First up, you need to be a part of an affiliate network. My favorite right now is Peerfly.
That part will probably take you longer than 20 minutes, but once you’re setup with an affiliate network, then you want to pick your offer. Peerfly has a ton of zip/email submits on offer and you can pick out about 10 to promote. The key with email and zip submits is to promote a bunch and see which ones convert. They will not all convert, and out of 10 campaigns, you’ll probably only run into 1 or 2 that are really profitable.
Once you have your offers, you need some traffic. CPV traffic is really hot right now because it’s really easy to get started, and you don’t need to worry about quality score or having your own site. CPV traffic will create a popup over the browser of an internet surfer showing your ad. You don’t need to worry about click through rates, or anything else. You just bid on keywords or URLs and you get the traffic.
You can get some CPV traffic really quick by heading over to Direct CPV. When you sign up you need to call them to be approved, and then you can start getting traffic right away. Plus, you’re usually only spending around $0.01 per view of your ad!
Direct CPV traffic can be targeted in three different ways.
First, by category. This targeting is pretty broad and I don’t really recommend it because you don’t have full control.
Second by keywords. This targeting will show your ad when a lead views a website that has the keywords you select. It is best to combine this targeting with the third option.
URL targeting. This is the most exact type of targeting offered by Direct CPV. It allows you to target specific URLs. Just imagine, someone goes to the checkout section of WalMart’s website, when your ad for a $1000 free gift card pops up. Who wouldn’t want to sign up for just their email?
Remember, always test test test. And then, test some more. You will have some campaigns that don’t work… MANY campaigns that don’t work, but after a while you’ll get the hang of things and figure out what works and what doesn’t.
Posted on February 3, 2010 by Eric
Finally after having the dreaded HTC Touch cell phone for over 2 years I have switched… well in reality I switched about 3 months ago, but I wanted to make sure my phone lived up to my expectations before I gave it an overview.
The new phone that I bought was the HTC Hero on Telus Mobility. Even though I had been with Bell mobility for over 6 years, when both Telus and Bell moved over to their new faster 3g network Bell didn’t get any of the new Android phones.
Given that I hated the stupid HTC Touch (worst phone I’ve ever owned) I moved over to the HTC Hero on Telus and I haven’t looked back.
I can do all of the multi tasking that Apple is now toting on their iPhone, plus I don’t have to use iTunes or any other iCrap in order to upload music.
I don’t like the fact that in Canada I can’t get access to the paid android app store, but I’m not complaining ’cause there are still a ton of fun games and great apps to download for free.
The phone comes with GPS, a barcode scanner, compass and of course the HTC Sense UI. The Sense UI is basically your desktop, and it allows you to quickly switch between screens much like the iPhone… but way better. It’s not just a sea of icons, it actually has use and purpose.
I’m sure I’m pissing off the iPhone hordes out there who blindly stand behind their apple god, so I’ll say some bad stuff. The HTC Hero on Telus hasn’t gone to the new android version yet. It can be laggy sometimes (but so can the iPhone). The chin on the phone is kinda weird. It takes freaking FOREVER to boot up if you have to restart it. You can’t install apps on the expansion card (although, at least I have one 
)….
All in all, the HTC Hero is the best phone I’ve owned. I highly recommend it if you’re a bit of a software geek like me, but if you want everything to be super easy and dumbed down, feel free to go to the iWhatever.
PS. Have I mentioned I’m not a Mac fiend?
Posted on February 2, 2010 by Eric
Being a web designer for a number of years I’ve had the pleasure of working with a lot of great local business owners. Some of the ideas and products that I have helped to promote are amazing. Everything from electricians to e-learning to hydroponic grow boxes. But there is one thing that strikes me as odd…
Business owners don’t generally see their website as a lead gen tool.
Sure they want all kinds of salesy information on their site. It may even look like the cat’s ass. It’s on their business cards, it’s under their logo. Hell sometimes it’s even printed on the back of their fancy BMW.
But a lot of these sites lack opt-ins (an opt-in for those of you who don’t know, is a web form that collects info – usually a name and an email/phone number). Even when I suggest adding an opt-in it becomes really difficult to convince the client that it’s a good idea.
Why the hell would you ever not want to collect lead data from your site? You have XXXX traffic every day, and most of those potential buyers will go on their merry way and forget about you. BUT, if you offer them something for free and in exchange they give you their contact information… suddenly you can remind them that you still exist. And when they finally get around to buying in your market, you will still be fresh in their minds.
So how do you go about generating an opt-in for your site?
First you need some type of database that can collect the contact information. I’ve used a number of these companies, including aweber, vertical response. The one that I’ve liked the most, for not only how they’ve designed their site and their copy but also their interface and features, is MailChimp. You can signup for mailchimp here.
Once you have an account to collect the contact info, you will need to create an opt-in form. Mailchimp can generate this for you and all you have to do is copy and paste your code into your site.
So you’ve got your account, got your opt-in on your site, but you still aren’t getting anyone to sign up. There could be a number of reasons for this. One is that they have no reason to sign up. You need to offer something in exchange for your prospect’s contact information. This can be anything from an eBook, to an online quote or a product catalog. These things can all bring in huge lists of prospects that you can mail a newsletter or other promotional materials to.
In the future I’ll be going over in more detail how to increase your conversions, and how a double opt-in process works. Stay tuned and subscribe to the blog to make sure you don’t miss it!
Got questions? Let me know in the comments below.
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