I’m attending the World Internet Summit in London at the moment.

It’s run by Tom Hua and Brett McFall from Australia.  This is the 43rd WIS they have run … in many parts of the world.  There are eager internet marketers from Europe and UK here at the moment.  I haven’t met anyone from further afield (except the Australians in the team) but I guess when the conference is in, say, the US, the delegates are mostly from there.

One very exciting feature of the Summit is that “we” launch a product and market it and see how much money can be made over the 4 days of the conference.  The product has been prepared in advance as has all the sales copy, website and videos.  The first thing to happen is that all the delegates are encouraged to purchase the product and sign up as an affiliate.  Then we go out an promote it!

The product is a application that captures a prospect’s facebook e-mail name Read the rest of this entry

Hello again.  I’m glad you came back for the first batch of tips.  Welcome!

I have been a little longer getting this written and posted because I have been in the throws of moving.  I have shut down my home in the UK and moved to Spain where we have a small “finca” or olive grove.  We travelled by ferry from England to Northern Spain, then drove down through Spain to Andalucia – the southern most province.  “We” comprises my husband and I, 2 huskies and a Jack Russell-with long legs!  The dogs go in the kennels on the ferry and we go up several times during the crossing to give them walks around the decks.  The weather was very kind to us – the sea was calm and we had sun most of the time we were driving.

We were very lucky!  It snowed in northern Spain the day after we went through and now there is terrible weather in the UK!  Here in Andalucia it is cold and raining – with some short sunny spells.   This explodes the myth of constant sun in Spain!

Well – more of the olives later.  For now, let’s get on and answer the question …

Why Build A List?

Before you start building your list, it’s important to understand why you need one. Sure, you hear everyone saying that building a list is the “thing” to do, but if you don’t understand the reasons, you won’t be as motivated to do so.

More …

Whenever you speak with another Internet Marketer you’re probably likely to hear the following questions come up at some point:

Do you have a list?

or

How big is your list?

If your answer to these questions was “no” and “zero,” then this series of blog posts is definitely a place to start. On the other hand, if you do have an established list, there’s always room for improvement. I recommend that you make it a priority to continue to learn strategies for increasing your list size and also increasing the amount of income generated from it.

Having a list can literally be your ticket to earning the kind of income you dream of earning. Many marketers focus on getting to the top of the search engines to build their businesses, but having a list can literally “Google-proof” your income. If, heaven-forbid, you get dropped from the search engines tomorrow, there’s no need to close up shop – if you have a list.

It doesn’t matter whether your business is online or off; having your own list of customers or prospective customers means that you can get them to visit your website, blog, or store on command. This ability to summon traffic on command can keep your income steady through good times with Google and the not-so-good times.

Over then next few posts I will be giving you 101 tips to improve your business by list building .  The tips will be grouped by section, and include tips for list building, promotion, autoresponder copy, and making sales. Ihope that as you read through my posts, many of the tips will resonate with you.  Feel free to grab them and implement them into your business.

The important thing is that you don’t just read these tips — you have to put them into action. Whether you’re just starting with list-building or are an old pro,  applying the tips one tip per day or so,  you’ll soon understand why the fortune is in the list!

I’ll be releasing these bit by bit over then next few weeks – if you’d like to get ahead and have them delivered into your mailbox, just sign up below:

Following on from yesterday’s post I’d like to take a few moments of your time to answer the question:

Why is Jen blogging about her son’s gap year?

Well, I find that my entry into internet marketing followed a very similar path.

For several years, I have been planning on making money online.  In fact, it was probably about 10 years ago that I first heard about this “new way to make money online – called Affiliate Marketing”.  Off and on since then I’ve looked into it but always gotten distracted or gone off at a tangent.  Finally this year I knuckled down and spent time researching how it’s done, what you need to succeed and how to get started.  Call this “Advance planning”, if you will.

Finally in April, I signed up with Alex Jeffreys on his course, handed over my dosh – and began studying and learning.  My first “presence” online is this blog. I have taken some time to settle into my own “style” on the blog – having tried many different things as you’ll see if you scroll through the posts – “life and times”, promotions, “how to”, and so on. Some posts I am now not happy with but I have decided to leave them as it may help other newbies to see my development in years to come!

Since then I have learned a host of things with regard to blogging, marketing, list building, squeeze pages, etc, etc.  Not to mention the “types of marketing” – blogging, affiliate marketing, niche marketing, and several others for which I can’t come up with a “tag”.

I have also done a lot of shopping – sadly not all “window shopping”!  Several times I have followed new launches avidly – as a buyer instead of a marketer.  I have made some mistakes of buying products I cannot use or will not have the time just yet.  I think that there is a whole new world out there that the newbie gets shown and it’s like a magnificent toy shop – so many gadgets, “automators”, work savers, time savers, etc.   I have come to realise that, for me at least, good old honest hard work – or “grunt work” as the Gentle Mentor says, is the only way to go at the beginning.  Then when you have a good idea of what you’re doing and where you’re going, then automation may kick in and help.

In my preparations for making money online I have come across a few (gems that I intend to hold on to.  And the big bonus is they are all free in the first instance.

1. The Simple·ology Course.  This is “The Simple Science of Getting What You Want”.  The first level of the course that takes 40 days – each day there is a selection of video, quiz, experiment, writing, reading.  Very simple and short tasks.  It is designed to help you clear your mind, determine where you want to set your sights and to steer a straight course to achieve it.
2. Alex Goodall’s IMI Organizer .  This is a system using mind maps for organising all those 100s of reports, software, articles, etc that you download and write and then “lose” on your hard drive.  It’s a method for step by step putting an item in a logical place which is then cross referenced by subject, topic and type.  Ingenious!  I’m slowly getting my hard drive organised and, believe me, it’s much easier to find things and has reduced the number of multiple downloads I do!
3. DavidWalker.TV I have been following David’s blog for some time since coming across it while on my course.  A few weeks ago, David offered to give 3 people a one-to-one on how to decide what to write in your blog.  I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of those people and David gave me nearly a whole afternoon – I don’t think he intended to but with interruptions, etc, it ran to that!  I had mentioned that I wanted to home in on Affiliate Marketing so that was what my one-to-one was about.  This really helped me – not only to come up with ideas for blog post topics but to focus my attention from all the available options to this path.
4. The Gentle Mentor – aka Gary Bacchett.  He runs a 3 times weekly “chat room” using the webinar software.  He goes over the basics of internet marketing, highlights useful products, answers your questions, you can show him your screen – using screen- sharing, and much more.  And all for free!

And so my “real” journey begins!  I plan to get my head down – finish the Simple·ology course, finish getting my hard disc “IMI Organized” and firm up the plan for my posts as per  DavidWalker.TV’s brainstorming session.  I’m really looking forward to it!

I’d love to hear how you got into blogging, what your sights are set on and how you are doing in getting there.  Do leave a comment below.  Thank you

My youngest son has just departed for his Gap Year project in South Africa and it has been a hectic time getting everything sorted.

For several years he’s been thinking of taking a “gap” year after finishing high school and before going to university.  First he did a lot of research into what he’d like to do, where, how and who with.  Then he picked a company – asked them lots of questions and finally handed over his dosh for the travel, accommodation, etc.  Advance planning showed his passport was valid but he needed some vaccinations – so he got those under-way.

Then there was a period of waiting, continuing his studies and sitting the final exams.  Finally that was all over – and, yes, he did really well and got the grades to get to the university of his choice.

Now we started the preparations in earnest!

We sat down and listed all the things he was likely to need – camera, backpack, toiletries, clothes, etc, etc.  Then we did some research – window shopping, comparing prices, features, trying samples.

At this point we stopped and took a checkpoint. We looked at the budget and revised the list of “needs” in the light of the available cash!  I can tell you that some things quickly turned into “nice but not essential” in the light of our “research”!

The next phase was actually acquiring the items required and keeping them somewhere safe, all together, so that when it came to packing we wouldn’t waste time hunting for them – or worse, losing them and having to buy a duplicate.

At last, after a few last minute scrambles it was off to the airport with a carload of friends for the great departure!

Good luck, son!

Now, you may be asking:  “Why is Jennifer blogging about her son’s gap year?”

I’ll tell you tomorrow in my next blog post …