Hi,

Welcome to my 2nd newsletter – in this edition I am going to continue reviewing Commission Blueprint 2.0 and update you on my own product ‘Killer Sales Pages’ plus tell you about a couple of books that I have been recommended to me.

But first, a little of what has been happening in Andy’s World this week – well I have decided to buy an iPhone, I have resisted the urge for so long as I already own an iPod and so couldn’t see the benefit of an iPhone particulalrly as they are bigger than the Blackberry I currently own.

But, once you start to see the array of applications that are available you suddenly realise that these things are amazing and allow you to do so much more than receive email to your phone (ala Blackberry!)

I have decided that if I am to own an iPhone I want the best one available and so I am plumping for the 32GB 3GS model which retails (sim free) in the UK at £538.00 – a lot of money!

Once I have got my hands on the said model (there is a waiting list apparently) and lost 3 days playing with it, I will write a further review giving the pro’s pro’s and the odd con!

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This week I needed to send some flowers and as it was last minute I picked up the Yellow Pages and made some calls – the majority of places that I called were unable to arrange (excuse the pun) delivery for the same day, which is what I required so I moved onto the next ad.

On closer inspection of the ads one in particular caught my eye, it was called flowersforlaura.com and the reason for my interest was because the ad stated that the florist supported a charity called PACT which stands for Parents Associated of Children with Tumours and Leukaemia.

Needless to say I called the florists and a lovely lady called Sarah offered to arrange a bouquet and deliver them for me that day – great service and a great charity donation!

Here are two websites you may be interested in visiting;

http://flowersforlaura.com/

http://www.pactfriends.co.uk/

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Commission Blueprint 2.0

As you know I decided to buy this product but not without some trepidation but after a couple of glowing references I was sold and so over the past couple of weeks I have been downloading the many videos and manuals that are part and parcel of this product.

My first impressions were of the excellent quality of the content and to be honest that still remains, the videos are very informative and kind of informal which makes them easier to understand and listen to. The pdf manuals are of the same quality too.

The most amazing aspects of the product though are the tools that you receive, Keyword Blueprint in particular is the best keyword tool I have come across and Offer Evaluator basically tells you whay keywords will make you money and what ones won’t – amazing tool particularly if you are into Google Adwords!

All in all I am very impressed but I am only on module 5 at the moment and there are 10 modules so just starting half way point I guess doesn’t quite qualify me as being totally well read but so far so good!

My aim is to have completed reading through all 10 modules by the time my next newsletter is out, then I have to start implementing what I have learnt – and that is a different story altogether!

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Killer Sales Pages

As you know KSP is my own product and one that I am very proud of, I have started writing the sales page this week and although you would think that should be quite easy bearing in mind that is the topic of my book, I am finding it a little tough going!

You have heard the saying ‘practice what you preach’? Well that’s my problem, I am trying to ensure that everything I have written about is included in my own sales page – I’m getting paranoid!

I have just ordered my graphics too so things are moving along nicely albeit a little slower than I first planned – my launch date is still going to be in October though it may be slightly later in the month than I originally intended.

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Useful Reading

As I have allayed to in the past, my dream is to be able to run a ‘full time’ profitable Internet \ Affiliate Marketing business from a warmer climate than that in the UK and so when I came across a book called

‘The 4-hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich’

I thought it was worth a read – I have ordered it from Amazon!

The second book that ‘took my fancy’ this week is one of Dan Kennedy’s and it is called;

No BS Time Management for Entrepreneurs

Now as time is something I don’t have a lot of at the moment I’m hoping it may help me prioritise and manage my time better – another addition to my Amazon basket!

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Well that’s it for newsletter #2 I hope you have enjoyed reading it, if so please tell your friends to visit my blog  and sign up for my newsletter and blog updates.

If you want to comment on anything related to my newsletter or blog (or anything else really) please feel free to leave a comment!

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My intention is to select the ‘best bits’ from each newsletter I write and post here on my blog so here we go with newsletter #1

Commission Blueprint 2.0

Now unless you have been holidaying on Mars for the past few days I am certain that you will have been caught up in all the commotion that is Commission Blueprint 2.0

I have had numerous emails from people trying to ‘push’ their offer at me at at $497 there was no way on earth that I was going to be interested – so basically I just ignored (deleted) the emails and carried on with my current project(s) ie finishing my ebook.

That was until I had a conversation with a friend and fellow Internet Marketer Phill Hopkins – Phill told me that this product was going to turn Internet Marketing ‘on its head’ and that after buying this product there probably wasn’t anything else to buy, period!

I value Phill’s advice and so I looked at the promotional video and downloaed the 54 page report that accompanies – well I was blown away to put it mildly, the tools that are included in the package are probably worth more that the asking price alone.

Being the sceptic that I am, I also contacted another trusted and renowned Internet Marketer Dr Andy Williams and after his glowing report (you can read it at his blog) I have now decided to take the plunge!

Now $497 is a lot of money and I am not taking this purchase lightly but I am so determined to make this business work for me I am prepared to take the gamble!

Once I have made the payment and downloaded everything I will make some notes and provide an update in my next newsletter.

AdswapMasterclass

Ray Johnson has created AdswapMasterclass which in simple terms is a List Building System that can significantly increase the amount of subcribers on your list.

My initial understanding of how the system works is that you contact other webmasters who have a similar list size to your own and basically swap lists, not swap as in hand over your list in exchange for someone else’s but send an email promoting someone else’s product and in return they do the same for you – in effect your subscribers subscibe to ‘his’ list and his subscribers subscribe to ‘your’ list

Confused? thought so…

Ray has provided a free report for download which explains everything a lot more clearly than I have done!

You can download a copy here;  AdswapMasterclass

Killer Sales Pages

My own product ‘Killer Sales Pages’ is nearing completion and I should have it ready to launch in early October.

The book is ‘fluff free’ and gives a practical 10 step process which if followed will greatly enhance the ability to write excellent sales copy, copy that will get the prospect to take action and in turn become a customer!

My intention is to give my subscribers a ’special launch price’ offer prior to it being offered on Clickbank

I will keep you updated regarding the launch date.

I receive a couple of weekly newsletters myself and I look forward to reading them because they can cover half a dozen topics in one go (issue), something that can be difficult with pure blog posts.

The main topic of my newsletter will be ‘making money online’ (of course) but I will also thrown in news topics and hopefully some humour along the way!

My initial intention is to send my newsletter out fortnightly, on a Sunday (yes I know it’s Tuesday night!) but in time I would prefer to have a weekly issue.

I really do enjoy writing and I hope that I can provide useful, enjoyable reading for my subscribers over the coming months (and years!)

If you are not subscribed to my blog, please try it – you will receive my newsletter every fortnight plus notification whenever I post to my blog, and if you find it is not what you were expecting, you can unsubscribe with the mere click of your mouse!

Please also feel free to comment on my newsletter by leaving a comment here or by replying the email address in the newsletter.

Thanks for reading

Andy

The main problem I have though is that I just don’t have enough time, there are just not enough hours in the day particularly when there is a full time ‘day job’ and also a family to consider – so I have decided to create a time management structure where I spend any time I have spare doing a specific peice of work or job.

For example, one evening I may have 1 hour free so I will write an article or or maybe a post for my blog – on an evening where I have a couple of hours dedicated to my business I will continue with my Masterclass course or apply (more) finishing touches to my book.

It isn’t easy to apply time management to your business when you only have an hour or two spare each day but I once read an article written by Dr Andy Williams where he said that if you only work on your business for 10 minutes per day you are still growing that business!

I have also recently subscribed to a newsletter written by Dan Ho and in one particular post on his blog he talks about momentum and the different types, which one can you relate to?

• Some people ’spurt’ out of the gate only to ‘peter out’ quickly
• Some are very slow and ‘plod along’ never really gaining any momentum
• A few (and the one we should all strive for) strike a steady balance that allows you to maintain volume over the long haul

Now I believe that I have (past tense) been both the first and second type but now think that I am ‘falling’ into the third catagory and hope that I remain there!

That’s all for this post, please feel free to leave me a comment.

Andy

Although I wish I was still sitting around the pool sipping an ice cold Sagres I am safe in the knowledge that if the ‘wall’ ever starts to appear on the horizon again I know where I will be heading!

And this is what is now ’spurring’ me on, not necessarily the wealth that can be attained in this business but the freedom it also offers – if any of you subscribe to Socrates Socratous you will know that he is spending the summer in his native Cyprus, thousands of miles away from his office in California – wow!

On a slightly separate issue, I did take a draft copy of my forthcoming information product which is based around writing ‘killer sales copy’ and as we were staying with my wife’s family who are successful business people (they have an engineering company which receives orders from all around the world) I thought it would be good to get them to ‘proof read’ my ebook – on the back of this I have now been asked to rewrite their company sales letter!

Their business is definately more ‘offline’ than internet based but nevertheless it just goes to show that there are opportunities around every corner!

Have a good week!

Andy

Whenever you market a product or service you probably know that you are never going to appeal to everyone because not everyone is interested in your product or service, however, it may also be because that particular person is not  interested at that particular time – but this does not necessarily mean they won’t be interested tomorrow or next week!

This is what ‘The Moving Parade’ is all about…

Let me give you an example;

You are currently very happy with your car, it is not old nor is it brand new – it gets you to work each day and out and about at the weekend, so when a salesman from the local car dealership calls you to inform that they have a special offer on the new model of your car you are not interested.

However, the following month the job you recently applied for is offered to you – it is promotion as well as a large increase in salary but it does mean that you will need to drive quite a bit more and you are not sure whether you car is up to that task.

So, you are now in the market for a new car and if the salesman called you today with the same special offer then you would be interested!

This scenario occurs everyday in all markets and if the sales person does not keep in touch with their prospects they will never get ‘lucky’ – people are constantly moving in and out of the market as circumstances change constantly.

By keeping in touch with your prospects (list) on at least a monthly basis (weekly being better!) then the chances that you will ‘hit’ at the right time increase tenfold.

This is such a powerful marketing strategy – apply ‘The Moving Parade’ to your internet marketing business and your profits will increase, guaranteed!

There is a scientific reasoning behind this, something about the fact that you have ‘run out’ of the carbohydrate fuel in your body and so it starts to ‘burn’ fat instead and this is when fatigue sets in.

By eating the correct types of food (ie carbohydrates) prior to a race can dramatically reduce the chances of ‘hitting the wall’ but what about the negative thoughts that start to run through the minds of these runners?, this can also cause extreme weakness resulting in the failure to complete the race.

You may be wondering why I am talking about running a marathon, I am hardly an expert in this field though I did once run the Sheffield Half Marathon in 1 hour 31 minutes!

The reason I am writing about this is because I believe I have recently ‘hit the wall’ and no I havn’t been out ‘pounding the pavements’ I’m talking about my Internet Marketing business…

My last blog post was over a month ago and my eBook about writing ‘Killer Sales Copy’ is gathering dust, well if it was a physical book it would be gathering dust but you get my point!

For the past month I have thought about writing a new blog post, completing a chapter of my ebook, posting on other peoples blogs, posting on forums etc but the truth is I haven’t done anything – my head (mind) has been active thinking about what I need to be doing but I just haven’t had the ‘heart’

So I think I can safely say I have ‘hit the wall’ and I really don’t think a plate of pasta is the solution in this case!

I firmly believe that one morning I will wake up with the enthusisam and vigour that I had a few months ago when I spent every opportune moment doing something positive with my online business – I sincerely hope that the morning isn’t too far away but you never know!

I am off to Portugal for a holiday in a couple of weeks and although I will be spending my time splashing around in the pool or building sand castles on the beach with my daughter I will ensure that I have at the very least a notepad and pen to jot down any ideas that spring to mind while I am relaxing – sometimes this is the time when ideas come flooding to the forefront and you need to capitalise on these moments.

I would (if I thought I could get away with it!) take my laptop but I don’t think my wife would be too impressed!

I do believe that the best way to overcome these ‘barriers’   is to  try to work out what it is that is stopping you from doing whatever you are trying to achieve – try to be honest with yourself and confront your fears, sometimes you simply need to take some ‘time out’

Well, I have managed a new blog post today and tomorrow I am going to read through my 70% completed ebook and try to finish one of the few ’straggling’ chapters that remain…

I’ll keep you posted!

1) An apology!!

2) Help Required

3) A FREE Gift

You may have noticed recently that my blog updates (posts) have not been as regular as you might have expected and I apologise for that but there is a good reason;

I am half way through writing my first eBook and I have set myself a deadline (or target) of getting it completed by the end of June 2009 – the problem I seem to be facing at the moment is ‘loss of focus’ I just cannot seem to write more than a few words before I start to question whether my book is staying on course for the topic I am writing about.

In case you are wondering, the book is about how to write good sales copy or a sales ad or a sales page – it focuses on 10 key points that if completed correctly will form a good solid sales page (or ad) that will outrank the majority and stand alongside the best!

Without giving too much away, the 10 key areas are based around;

Preparation

Headlines

Getting Started

Benefits

…and so on

Now any of you who have read my previous blog posts may remember one called ‘Putting in the Hard Yards‘ – it is a short posting but one that I have read a few times myself recently as it focuses on ‘working hard to get the rewards’

I know that ultimately I will be rewarded for my hard work but I have to persevere, remain positive and enthusiastic and NOT GIVE UP! – all of which are easier said than done particularly when you have a full time day job, a daily commute and a family!

I am sure some of you who are reading this are empathising!

Ok, onto my request for a bit of help – as I have said my aim is to have my eBook completed by the end of June but before then I need to give it a name!

I need to register a domain name that relates to my eBook and although I have come up with a few myself I know there are better ones to be had…

Remember the eBook is all about creating a ‘killer’ sales page, sales ad or even sales letter – it will be a simple 10 step process and will be a vital tool for all marketers!

In return I will be giving everyone who sends a domain name idea a FREE eBook worth $47, this isn’t just any ‘givaway freebie’ it is a genuine product that emphasises the impotance of ’storytelling’ when writing yours sales copy or ad – it really does give some good information!

Also if I choose a domain name that derives from this post then I will reward that person with a FREE copy of my ‘Sales Copy’ eBook too!

Please complete the form below with a domain name idea and you will receive your FREE eBook in return – please do not worry if you are already a subscriber to my blog my clever autoresponder AWeber will ensure that you are never added to my list more than once!

Thanks for reading

Andy

LKL Digital Media

It is set to launch within the next two weeks and he has guaranteed everybody who requests advance notification a massive discount if they decide to join.

He is also letting you have a whole bunch of brand new downloads for free as a thankyou for requesting info. He guarantees to upload brand new ebooks and software packages every week (at least 2 but probably more for the first few months).

The big news is that it’s going to be the cheapest membership site on the internet but still providing all the top products that the big boys offer. Anyway, take a look and decide for yourself and get the free downloads while you can as the page and the special opening deal will be getting pulled next week.

I do only ever recommend products that I believe offer fantastic value for money and this is no exception!

Take a look here;

LKL Digital Media

Andy

We have all seen (and read!) those long (long) sales pages ‘brimming’ with testimonials endorsing the product that you are reading about. The more testimonials you read the more you start to believe in the product and the person who is selling it – this is the power of testimonials!

Testimonials are extremely valuable for this very reason – they convince your potential customer that you can deliver on your promises and recommendations. Testimonials also build credibility and they add value to your product, website or blog – This is commonly known as Social Proof.

What is a testimonial?

A testimonial is simply a statement of praise and acknowledgment from a satisfied customer.

What makes a good testimonial?

Using any testimonial is better than using none but the more effective a testimonial is the greater the credibility you will gain leading to increased customer retainment and more sales!

A good testimonial should;

• Be specific – if someone says your product was ‘interesting and informative’ ask them to be more specific and detail what they learnt and what was interesting about it.

• Be positive – I know this sounds obvious but instead of ‘not a waste of money’ change it to ‘every penny spent was worth it!’ (I think you understand what I mean here?!)

• Be clear & concise to the reader

• Have at least an email address (and preferably a web address) at the end of the testimonial – this adds incredible strength and believability to the testimonial

• Always be in quotations marks “This shows that the customer actually said these things”

A testimonial is always stronger if accompanied by a photo – this isn’t always easy but if possible it is definitely worth the effort!

The absolute top accolade would be to get an audio (or video) testimonial – there is nothing more believable to a customer than to hear (or see) someone recommending your product or service.

So now we know the power of testimonials we need to discuss how to get good quality ones!

Here are some proven methods in obtaining them;

• Ask for one – once you have made a sale, contact the person and providing they are happy with their purchase ask them to write a few words about the product.

• Follow up any positive feedback you receive via your blog website and turn this into a testimonial, make sure you contact the customer for endorsement.

• Write the testimonial yourself and send to the customer for his her endorsement.

• Contact well known people (or websites) in your market area and ask them to write a testimonial for you – this can add great impact to your product service.

• Send a ‘broadcast email’ to your list offering a FREE eBook if they send a return email completing the following sentence “After purchasing XYZ (product) I have seen the following results to my business…” (or something along those lines!)

You can change testimonials received from a customer making them ’snappier’ and more specific but do ensure that you ask your customer for their approval or permission.

Once you have some testimonials you need to start using them immediately, please remember you can never use testimonials enough and you can never have enough of them!

As a summary, if you use testimonials in every marketing strategy and communication you have with your customers (and prospects) you will get more traffic, enquiries and sales, guaranteed!

Andy