Hi Guys,

I arrived in Los Angeles yesterday, and had a meeting with a couple of executives from Clickbank. It was really good to hear from them what is up and coming in Clickbank, and also was a great opportunity for me and my Rocket Languages business partner Jason to voice our requests and ideas.

There are a lot of things coming up that will be great for affiliates, merchants and Clickbank themselves, which will be great news for us all. Upcoming features include physical products in the marketplace (not just download products), french and german editions of clickbank, the ability to charge in the local currency and more.

I’m in Los Angeles until Sunday because my Rocket Languages company was accepted into the UCLA Global Access Program. Which essentially means that 5 of their 3rd year MBA students will be working very closely with us over the next few months doing market analysis and creating a strategic business plan. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this impacts our current plans and business.

After that, my wife Michelle and I will be heading to Hawaii for a week’s vacation. I will probably pop on here to do a blog post or two, but will be taking most of the week off

Anyway, gotta go, have a great week and keep up the hard work on your affiliate sites!

Mark

Hi Guys,

Traffic Secrets 2.0 is launching today (or tomorrow depending on your time zone), it might have actually launched already.

This is the web address for it: http://www.affilorama.com/trafficsecrets

What’s it about?

• Cutting-edge strategies to getting more visitors to your website.
• How to dramatically improve your conversion rates.
• John Reese’s PPC blueprint.
• Video Marketing
• Social marketing strategy
• How to use widgets and software to boost visitors and sales
• Super affiliate strategies
• Keyword science
• Search Engine Optimization dynamics
• John Reese’s overall master plan
• And a lot more strategies worth having a very close look at.

Who is it for?

John was nice enough to give me a copy in advance and I think it is exceptional value for newbies and intermediates.

My Traffic Secrets 2.0 rating for newbies/intermediate marketers (ie if you are earning under $4k a week): 10/10

If you are an advanced internet marketer, then I’d say there is a 70% chance you’d find it to be of great value to you. However I had personally heard of a lot of the strategies before, but I am very much up with the play and do have access to hundreds of these kinds of courses so the fact that I gained a few little gold nuggets in there is pretty good.

My Traffic Secrets 2.0 rating for advanced marketers (ie if you are already earning over $4k a week): 7/10

As always with these big launches I have some great bonuses for you:

If you choose to purchase through my affiliate link below, then you’ll receive the following:

* Super Bonus #1: Advanced copy of Traffic Travis 3.0 -> This is my latest product to be released very soon, you’ll the premium edition without paying AND before anyone else.

* Super Bonus #2: Interview with Affiliate Millionaire Mr A: In my interview with Mr A, you’ll discover exactly how Mr A has built up an affiliate empire which earns him over 65 grand per month! Everything from list building to some sneaky conversion rate secrets that he uses. This interview is invaluable.

* Super Bonus #3: Plus, you’ll have resale rights to the Mr A interview so that you can start selling this interview yourself. ($197 value)

* Super Bonus #4: "The Anatomy of a Perfect PPC Campaign" with Jay Stockwell of Speed PPC ($97 value)

* Super Bonus #5: "PPC Marketing Unleashed" - This is a recorded interview I did for Michael Rasmussen, where you’ll learn how I make over $15k per week using PPC marketing. You’ll also learn how I built up several niche mailing lists of over 1 million people and if that’s not enough, you’ll also receive resale rights to this interview so you can start profiting from it right away. ($197 Value)  

To claim all those super bonuses, simply purchase Traffic Secrets 2.0 through my affiliate link below:

http://www.affilorama.com/trafficsecrets

Enjoy!

Mark Ling

The keys to a highly effective banner advertisement are:

#1: Good Ad Copy, Focus on Relevancy.

If someone is on a page on your website that contains an article about how to stop a dog from chewing, then your advertisement should be promoting something to do with a product that stops a dog from chewing… even if the product you are promoting is a generic dog training product. You should focus the content of your banner on the reason why the visitor is reading YOUR webpage, this will make them more likely to click on your banner.

Here’s another example, this time the banner is focussing on how to train a beagle (rather than just a generic dog training banner):

#2 Fake elements: This isn’t essential, but often it works well, e.g. a fake scroll bar, fake msn messenger box etc. Even a fake check-box that looks like it is part of the page such as the one below:

#3 Animation: Banners with moving elements catch the eye, these can be great, so long as there aren’t other moving elements on the page (otherwise it is overkill).

Don’t with Banner Ads

What usually doesn’t work and is a lot less effective are banner ads that might simply contain a product image, or might seem too cheesy and too spammy that it doesn’t get clicked on.

You need to put yourself in the mind of the visitor and make sure that you make your banner advertisements as relevant as possible.

Want to know the software you need to create such banners?

You can use a free image program like paint.net , or The Gimp , in combination with Ulead Gif Animator

Using Banners on PPC

I’ve just been chatting with Marc Lindsay from PlrPro.com who has just told me that he has been testing using image ads instead of straight content ads for Google Adwords promotions, and he is saying that he has received up to 3 times higher clickthru rates on image ads (which is very high for the content network) and higher conversion rates overall too. I’m going to be trying this out myself very soon, sounds very promising!

Update: Google Banner Sizes

If you are creating Banner Advertisements for the Google Content Network, then these are the banner sizes:

• 468 x 60 (banner)
• 728 x 90 (Leaderboard)
• 120 x 600 (Skyscraper)
• 300 x 250 (Inline Rectangle)
• 160 x 600 (Wide Skyscraper)
• 336 x 280 (Large rectangle) 
• 250 x 250 (Square)
• 200 x 200 (Small Square)
  

All Google content images must have a maximum 50k file size.

Also note that Google also allows swf format, so if you know anything about flash, or have a graphic designer who does, you can use this to create better looking banners that have low file sizes.

I hope this email helps you create a lot better images and banners for your websites, ones that are more relevant and more likely to get clickthrus.

All the best,

Mark

Hi guys,

I’ve written this blog post to help you get more hours out of your day!

I hope that you find these tips helpful, and by all means, comment on these and add your own tips in the comments box.

Tip #1. Use time management software - Recommended: www.clockingit.com.  Every time you have a task, you add it to your task list and punch in the due date. Whenever you are working on a task, you simply click on it and it’ll time how long you spend on each task. This software is also great for your staff to use too, if you have any.

Tip #2. Write ideas down and come back to it later - If you come up with a good idea while working on a task, it can be very tempting to go off on a tangent and think or explore that idea, while not getting the task done that you are supposed to be working on. It’s better to keep a ‘tickler’ file (as Dave Allen calls it, from ‘Getting things done’) and come back to it later OR if you use time management software, add it to your task list and come back to it later.

Tip #3. List 3-5 things that you will do today - This can be written on the previous day, or first thing in the morning. Even if you have a task list that is online, there’s something about writing it down on paper that focuses your mind so that you achieve your micro-goal of getting your day’s goals achieved.

Tip #4. Remove clutter - If you get distracted by items on your desk, or msn chat windows, or the phone, simply remove them. It makes a world of difference.

Tip #5. Check email twice a day - Email is the largest single interruption for many people. When you check your email, I highly recommend that you leave it till after midday as you may discover a lot of fires to put out that are best left till after you’ve done some important work first thing in the day. Don’t keep refreshing your email to check it, just work on your current tasks and only check twice a day at the maximum.

Tip #6. Learn to say no - In order to be truly effective, you have to concentrate and focus on achieving your goals for the day. Be sure that when you add tasks on to your day that you only say YES if the task is urgent, or you can easily get it done while still completing your goals for the day.

Tip #7. Learn to tackle the dreaded task first thing - List your most dreaded task and do it first thing when you get to work.

Tip #8. Separate to-dos from your email - Don’t keep going back to your email to find out what you need to do.  Make sure that you add any to-dos to your to-do list, don’t leave it cluttered and muddled in your email stack.

Tip #9. Try to use the 80/20 rule when it comes to learning and doing. Spend no more than 20% of your time learning and spend 80% of your time taking action and doing.

Tip #10. Get a cell phone that has a calendar or personal organizer. Book appointments into your calendar so you don’t forget them (ensure that it has an alarm that goes off when you have an appointment, or task due).

Tip #11. Keep a separate to do list for personal matters. If you suddenly realize that there is something you need to do and it has nothing to do with your work, write it down in your personal list and come back to it outside of work time. Yes your personal life needs to be organized too.

Tip #12. Delegate. If you have staff or someone that you should delegate a task to (or outsource it), then this will certainly free up more of your time in getting your other tasks done.

I hope these tips help you to get more things done in your day. Please comment on these and add your own to the comments box below.

All the best,

Mark

P.S. I highly recommend that you check out www.clockingit.com for managing your own time and your staff’s time as it is free and very good.

Hi Guys,

Today I’m writing about one of the most important, yet underrated aspects of copywriting… the bullet points.

You use bullet points when writing email marketing copy, sales copy, copy for email capture pages and many other kinds of promotional pieces.

Many people don’t realize that there is a HUGE difference in the conversion rates that you receive depending on how you word your bullet points.

Here are a few tips for you to spice up those bullets so that they increase your conversion rates, rather than decrease them!

1a. Sell the benefits, and don’t give away the ‘How’

Selling the benefits means, write about how the information (assuming it is an info product) will help make the reader’s life better (the benefits for them). As opposed to telling them exactly what they are going to learn (the feature).

What I mean by not giving away the how is, you don’t want people to be able to predict from reading your sales copy exactly what is going to be in the information. If they can predict this, then there is less intrigue and less reason for them to want to know more or make a purchase.

For example, an inexperienced writer might come up with the following bullet point to try to sell a product:

• “Learn the most effective ways to be content with yourself, and not pinning all your hopes and dreams on whether or not you are in a relationship. Delve into the paradoxical truth that not needing a man to make you happy is in fact the best way to attract one!”

But me as a marketer would word it as something like:

• Discover most important secret to attracting a GREAT man.  This is a secret so powerful, that if you apply it right now, you’ll practically guarantee yourself that you‘ll soon be in a happy and mutually rewarding relationship with someone you love.

1b. Even better, add numbers (see the number 5 below):

• Find out 5 effective secrets about how to be happy and content with yourself RIGHT NOW, whether or not you have a man in your life. I guarantee you’ll find that this will make you more attractive to high quality men as a result too.

2. Don’t get too fancy with your language.

Here’s another example of a bullet that was written by a good writer (who is inexperienced at marketing):

• “Too much, too soon” in all its forms will quickly snuff the flames of attraction as we’ll teach you in a section dedicated to the art of discretion and appropriate timing.

"Snuff the flames of attraction" isn’t really every day colloquial language and isn’t simple enough to read. This whole bullet could be better worded as:

• The one thing that a LOT of women do (possibly you included) that will quickly kill attraction in a man. Find out what it is and what to do about it so that you will be seen as highly prized catch!

Or it could be worded as:

• You’ll discover how to let a man know that you are selective and that not any man can have you. There is a certain way of doing this that doesn’t doesn’t involve game playing and he’ll feel you are an amazing catch that he absolutely MUST have!

Does this make sense to you?

I hope it does.

3. Create an enemy

This is a powerful tip to be used in your bullets. What you want to do is create for yourself an "us" vs "them" situation and position yourself as the "us" who is providing the solution to the "them".

For example:

• What the drug companies don’t want you to know about xyz!

or

• Many drugs have harmful side effects! Find out what they are. PLUS I give you more powerful natural alternative remedies!

4. Add a time factor

Create a sense of immediacy in your copy by adding time elements, such as:

• You’ll start having your very first full conversation in Spanish in just 30 minutes!

5. Use "You" a LOT more often than "We"

For example, instead of:

• We’re going to give you the most powerful secret available for doubling your income from eBay.

This is better:

• You’re about to discover the single most powerful secret to double your eBay income in less than 7 days.

Notice how I used the time factor in that bullet point too?

6. Use formatting to bring life to your bullets

For example: 

• You’re about to discover the single most powerful secret to doubling your eBay income in less than 7 days!

Well that brings me to the end of this blog post, have any of you got anything more to add? Comments?

All the best,

Mark