Anyway, in my hunt for what’s good in AutoResponders and getting rather disappointed in my findings, I’ve revisited GetResponse and have been delighted in their offerings.

As I stated in my review of ListWire, one of the things I look for in an AR is the ability to pass a users information back to my Confirmation and ThankYou pages as it makes for a much nicer experience and if you have a few programming skills, a few other little tricks.

I’ve just discovered that they let you choose between using $_GET and $_POST which for us mad programmers is grand!

They’ve also totally revamped their user interface… It’s looking very nice but more importantly – useable. Although I did find a few little gremlins where they’ve not updated things across the site. Nothing major, more niggly things if anything.

And now you can get upto 1000 Subscribers for their base rate of $18 USD per month. Which doesn’t make them the cheapest, but I think if you start penny pinching too much you’ll get yourself into strife.

Now one little beef  is that their live support is only available during business hours. That’s ok but I’m on the other side of the Pond and that can make for a fun time when I’m scratching my head looking for answers. But when they are available, their support is exceptional. So that’s always a big bonus when it comes to customer satisfaction.

Their lowest package is $9.95 USD Per month for up to 250 subscribers. So that makes it an affordable entry price for someone starting out.

Now that I’ve been through the wringer , checking out these other AR Services, it all comes back to the big two. GetResponse and Aweber.

I’ve not been through every single one of course but I’ve tried, Listwire ( only if you really really have too) , Trafficwave.net(apart from the lack of being unable to pass any subscribers information back to your pages, it’s a very good option.) , EmailAces ( It’s interface needs to be like its Free Cousin, Listwire, otherwise it wasn’t impressive ) and the rest can wait another time.

The reason I went out looking, again, at the options is because I’ve got a ton of unloved sites that have various AR’s hanging off  them and it’s time to consolidate and clean things up and put a system in place. And strangely enough, I’ve got a serious writing bug again! ( which happens in spasms )!

So this probably hasn’t given you any real insight into AR’s and why I recommend GetResponse as a good quality 3rd party AR Service, but it’s given me something to write about.

I’ve had to vent a little tonight after spending too much time on doing this.. but it’s been worth it. I’m now much more wiser! Definitely older anyway!

Remember, the whole idea of using an Autoresponder Service is to build lists and give the subscribers good value information and also promote relevant tools as an affiliate. It’s what makes the world go around. So don’t be stingy.

The two most important things, after being honest and having integrity, is your AutoResponder Service and your Web Hosting.

I’ll be back to looking at Webhosting again soon, which is another thing I have to consolidate.

Have a grand one and happy ARing ( if that’s the right term… or it should be!)

[Update:]

I’ve set up a new campaign using GetResponse.  I’ve now set it up such that when my new subscriber clicks on the “Sign Up” button, they are sent to my own custom Thankyou and Confirmation Pages.  And I am able to pass their name and email address back to my site so I can Personalise those pages. Which to me, is a great plus.

The only little gremlin, which I have reported to the GR Crew, is you can set the Data Pass Through to be ON and to use the POST Method, which is located in the Webform Setup. It’s in the advanced section, which is a little hidden…

So the Thankyou Page, which is the page the new subscriber is sent to immediately after joining works a treat. BUT at the moment ,the confirmation page recognises it has to pass the subscribers information back via the setting, but it totally ignores the selected method and falls back to using GET.

Another little “trip up” is, is you are processing the webform id on your site, the POST Thankyou Page, it is called webform_id. In the GET for the Confirmation page it’s called webforms_id. A little ‘s’ has snuck in there. So that’s something to watch for. It’s a simple thing to do and it would appear no one has used this so it’s not been noticed before.

The main fields of name and email address are the same for both. As you would hope they would be.

So now I’ve got the system setup the way I like it, with FULL personalisation which makes for a much more pleasant experience for the New Subscriber.

The site I’ve done this on isn’t so brilliant, it’s one where I quickly knocked up the graphics using InkScape and threw it inside a little PHP CodeIgniter framework so I can expand on the system to give more interaction with the E-Course.

I always like the personal touch! Which not all Autoresponders allow you to do!

You can check out my new creation at… http://www.affordablelistbuilding.com

The Web Form Builder:

GetResponses Web Form Builder. It’s a Drag and Drop, click on it and change certain regions. It’s got a few other toys as well, but it’s very flexible and you don’t have to know anything about HTML or CSS. It’s very user friendly. So that’s a big plus over the others that I have seen to date.

So that’s about it. I’ve now got my system in place. I’ve found an AutoResponder Service that gives me all those nice things that I am after and off we go.

Talk soon

Tim

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Have you ever asked “Where can I find a good quality, Free Autoresponder Service?”

ListWire is one of Free Autoresponder services that has actually grabbed my attention!

It’s owned and run by Gary Ambrose, who also owns and runs  EmailAces AutoResponder Service which is paid service, it’s very reasonable compared to the GetResponse and Aweber companies.

Now Gary is a very successful Internet Marketer and so ListWire has been designed and built with all the things that the Internet marketer needs.

So what makes this good?

Well the Free part isn’t the reason as good as it might sound.

These Services cost money to run, and so to run them as a Free Service they have to get paid somehow. You did expect that, didn’t you. I’ll go into that in a moment. (see my important update at the end as I finally found out more of the HOW and it aint too pretty…)

What I like about this are the features that you get, and they aint too shabby.

It’s very easy to create a campaign which in some AR’s is a barrier if you are just starting out.

There are a few things I “must have” in an AR and one of those is the ability to pass back the subscribers information to my thankyou page so I can personalise it.

You can do that with ListWire so it gets a big tick for that!  Surprisingly, trafficwave.net doesn’t have this feature. It seems they are way behind the 8 ball on this.

You are allowed 12 Campaigns. If you think that’s not many, remember this is Free and a great way to get started out if you are on a low budget. 12 Campaigns are more than enough!

Unlimited Subscribers. Yep, apparently you can go crazy and build big lists with this.

Tracking. This is Vital to know how many emails have been opened, how many bounced and how many left your list. And it’s in a nice simple format that gives you all the Stats at a glance.

Broadcast Message Date and Time: A Broadcast isn’t like the messages you have saved in your Autoresponder Messages or Sequence that get sent out in a pre defined period from when your list member signed up. These are messages you can send out when you think of something important and urgent to say. So you can create these, and it might be like a little mini series for something that coming up, and schedule them when you want them to be sent. This is something you don’t normally find in any Free AR, but it’s included and it’s another feature that you will find invaluable!

Broadcast to Twitter and Facebook: Another handy feature to get your Broadcast “Out There”! So you can broadcast to your List(s) and also your Twitter and Facebook Accounts!

The overall Layout: Ok, well the first time you use this there is going to be a little learning curve. It’s unlikely you’ll think “Oh I need an Autoresponder…” and have it all up and running in 5 minutes. But having said that, once you get familiar with it, it’s a treat to use. I remember using other AR Services and getting completely lost and bamboozled. This is much easier.

Can You Add Subscribers: Yes you can, but the limit is 10 per 24 hour period. Which isn’t too bad. It’s unlikely that you’d be importing leads from another Autoresponder Service. Isn’t it?

Can you Export Your Subscriber List(s)? Again, yes. So if you do need to move your lists to another service, you can. (Please check the Services Terms and Conditions on Adding Subscribers from an existing list you have built).

What’s the downside?

Update – See the important update below, it’s describes a huge downside…

It has what is called a CO-REG (Co Registration) system. For instance, when someone subscribes to your list via the web form, they are taken to a standard Listwire Page which displays others folks Lists that your new subscriber can also join. It’s not compulsory that they do. But this really upsets some people…

Let me see now, Co Registration, hmm who else does that… Ah GetResponse does and that’s a paid service! But with GetResponse you can setup your own Confirmation and Thankyou pages and totally avoid the CO-REG page.

I see CO-Registration as a two way street… Yes, your newly subscribed member gets the opportunity to join other lists… But the same goes for you where your lists are displayed to others and maybe they might just join your list(s) from it!

You do still get the opportunity to have your new subscriber come back to your website where you can give them their information and show them other things…

I used a similar system some time ago, where you could register your site with your signup form to your list and to have it show to others, the “catch” or requirement, was you had to join 5 other lists of interest. That actually worked well and grew my list by great leaps and bounds. Unfortunately, at the time ( and we are speaking of many many years ago when I knew nothing…) I never knew what to write to them… Which I imagine is something that you might be facing.

There is a solution for that, but that’s for another post.

Where can you find out more?

Well the website itself is a good place to start, just go to the ListWire site and take a look.

Conclusion

It’s a feature packed Autoresponder Service and it’s Free! Which makes a lot of folk suspicious. Gary Ambrose is no dummy when it comes to marketing and the CO-REG system is a platform where he can sell advertising etc…So he’s not loosing money on this.

Think for a minute from Gary’s perspective… You build a Free Service that is actually useful… So lots of folk join…And Gary has built himself a list of all his ListWire Users… So expect some marketing emails from ListWire… and if you don’t like them, delete them! Simple. But there is more bad news…. read on…

If it’s a problem, simply don’t use this system.

Rating: 9.5 /10.

Rating: 4/10. (See the Important Update below to see why the Rating was decreased and I’m still being overly kind)

I’m actually really impressed with ListWire and I’ll be recommending it to everyone that’s looking for their first Autoresponder Service.  It’ll leave them with a good feeling, because it is free, easy to use, which won’t leave them with a nasty taste in their mouth and they’ll get to build their list. Maybe they’ll get to build up all 12. Let’s hope so, you can never have enough lists!

 

Important Update – How this system really works!

This might have you looking elsewhere, I am now!

After a lot more testing, I’ve thought it imperative to let you know the actual “FLOW” of how ListWire appears to your Subscriber.

This might be a reason to Not Use this service.

After your visitor enters in their details and clicks on the Forms Submit button, they are taken to a page served from Listwire that informs the user that they’ll get an email with a link they have to click on… At the bottom of that Page is a Link that says … After You’ve Confirmed, Click Here To Continue.

So your potential New Subscriber has to leave that page open, to get back to your Thank You Page After they have clicked on the Confirmation Email Link. I’m sure folk will close that page and what then?

So saying they leave it open, find the verification Email that requires them to click on the link and click on it… They are then taken to the Co Registration Page. So there are a few listings that they can click on to Join! And to do so they need to click on another button – “Send me the Details”. OR they can click on the “No Thanks” Button.

This is where it can be sucky.

No matter which button they click on, they’ll AWLAYS get sent to someone elses website…

In the current case, It’s good Ole Mike Filsaime… Now what if I don’t want my subscribers having to stare at Mike’s ugly mug ( and I mean that in a nice way…) and have to decide if they should join that or not. It doesn’t help me in anyway and it certainly may not help my new subscriber… Who does it help? Well Mr Filsaime of course and also Gary Ambrose.

There is a link on the top of the page that says “No Thanks” but I’m guessing some folk might feel that they need to join this “Not Your” websites list thinking it might be related to you! After all, you did all the hard work to get them to this point and to have Mike butt in is a little rude.

So having clicked on the “No Thanks” link on the “someone else’s website” they get sent to Your Confirmation page… At Last  ( that is if you have set one up!)

Then they have to go – “Oh now I can click on the link on that first page I saw….”. Hmm not very user friendly…

It’s then that they go to your Thankyou page.

There is a hole!

What if the your new subscriber decides to just click on the link on the first page they see. The Listwire Confirmation page. Well they go straight to your Thankyou page, bypassing the Confirmation page. But they’ll get to see that AFTER they find the email and click on the link…

So this system does have some major issues. And now that you’ve read this ( hopefully ) you’ll be able to make a better decision.

But it’s how you get this system for Free!!!!

Which now makes this a little  – well – not very useable in many cases!

Yes, you are building your list and you are also sending your valuable, trusting subscriber, to someone else’s  website. A Website that you have no control over.

The only workaround is…. Go for a paid Service. You get what you pay for! Which is probably why Gary has created this, to funnel folk into his EmailAces Paid Service!

I’m going to take a look at it… Stay tuned.

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This is one of those programs I’ve seen over time but never paid much attention too it! Isn’t that always the case?

Who Says Traffic Exchanges Don’t Work?

Anyway I was surfing some of my favourite Traffic Exchanges to get some points up for another campaign I’ve started doing some promotion on for  a nice Time Management Product, Time Management is one of those things I still need to master with everything I need to do! And as is the way with Traffic Echanges, you get to see what others are promoting and this program popped up and grabbed my attention.

So I joined up as a Free Member to see what it’s all about!

And I had no real idea what 12SecondCommute was about. I was just curious! But I liked what I saw, and still do by the way.

Budget Entry Tools for any Marketer

Now I say Budget Entry as with most folk starting out, cash can be a bit hard to come by to risk on “some program”. So to see the offer to become a member of this for only $14 USD Per Month ( at the time of writing ) if you upgrade in the first 5 days of signing up, is a pretty good deal.

Especially when you see what it provides you with.

Now the average range of tools folk need to get started out is at a minimum of

1. An Auto Responder System
2. A Lead Capture Page system and
3. Hosting , so you have somewhere to host it.

Ok so what 12SC gives you is an Auto Responder System which is laid out to be one of the most simple set ups I’ve seen. Some Auto Responder systems can leave you staring blankly at the page wondering what the goodness you have to do!

And if you just give me a few minutes I’ll fire up The GIMP and grab a screen shot for you…(Click , whiz, bang, Whirl………)

Ok, one Screen shot done. Now  I’m not sure you can glean too much from that, but it’s so nice to have everything laid out for you so you can quickly find what you are looking for.

You’ll also notice a Menu on the Left Hand Side of the above image, that shows a few nice features.

I’m going to Skip to the Capture Page Creator as it’s the second item on our list and  I’ve just had a play with and its nice and simple to use. It has a number of pre made templates, which are quite good, for you to choose from. There is also a range of Stock Photos on various subjects you can use as you wish, which is a nice touch.

Now with an Auto Responder and Lead Capture Page system you might need some hosting to put it all on. Well actual hosting isn’t included in the membership BUT the Lead Capture Pages are hosted for you. Which relieves you of the need to get web hosting, buy domain names and go through setting everything up. You can do that kind of thing later on… maybe! You might never have to!

Hosting is Offered as an extra at 3 different levels, which are all reasonably priced but nothing to “write home” about in comparison with other hosting services. Due to the hosting  being associated, with 12SC  if you are a bit new to all this hosting caper, they’ll probably sort you out. Not forgetting I can help out there as well!

Many Hosting Companies are able to drown you with ( and I mean that in a nice way – meaning they give you lots of info ) all the “how to’s” etc but let’s not get over our heads if you are just starting out.

So the fact you can set up your First Auto Responder and Lead Capture Page – have it hosted and up and running on the Traffic Exchanges in under a Day ( if you are completely new to all this ) or a few hours if you are an old hand, is impressive.

There are others out there that offer this level of service but I’d say this is a way above those I’ve been apart of in the past.

But there’s More.

The next piece of the puzzle is tracking your Page Views. It’s very important to see what your Lead Capture Pages are doing on what Exchanges. So there is an Ad Tracker as part of the system for your use. It’s an often “missed” item that is actually vital for you especially when you are starting out.

Playing Hit and Miss in the Dark might be fun for some, but when you are serious about building a business, you do need to be able to monitor your efforts and not fly blind.

There are a few more things but I do need to mention the Video Training. It’s no good having “stuff” that you don’t know how to use. And being able to learn how to ues these tools quickly and implement them is very very important!

There are also Conferences you can attend and learn more LIVE. This is always nice to have. So you won’t be left out in the cold.

Is there anything bad about this?

I might have liked to have some hosting included, but for the $14 USD per month (if you upgrade within 5 days – else it’s $29 per month – which is a nice incentive to jump in early and at that price it’s a bargain ) I don’t want a lot do I?

I’m paying $44 USD per Month for my Hosting,Auto Responder,Video Conferencing etc at GVO with all it’s whizzy things it has (it’s something to play with later on)  and $21.95 Per Month with another Hosting/Auto Responder Service I’m trying out.

So 12SC isn’t such a bad deal. Oh and not to forget an Auto Responder system can cost you at least $14 per month on it’s own! So with the Autoresponder – Lead Capture Page Creator including hosting and the Tracking System and all the other bits, for $14 USD per month it’s not too hard to see it’s very good value, along with the training that’s included.

It’s definitely a nice place to start from and even for someone like myself who has been around a little while, it’s got my vote and I’ll be giving it a further try out. Hey if it saves me time  – it’s got to be a good thing!

What to do next?

So what you can do is join it for Free and you can Stay as a Free member which lets you use all of the services I’ve mentioned in a limited capacity, but more than enough to get you started. So if you decide it is for you to continue with and upgrade in the first 5 days you get it all for $14 USD per month, else after that time it’s $29 USD per month.

Now as you can quit at any time, upgrading early makes it the obvious choice! It’s a nice little incentive they’ve included to help you decide to upgrade early, but it makes sense to if it’s something you are going to be using.

So you can Join 12SC for Free, try it and see if it’s for you.

Affiliate Program

Yes, this does have an affiliate program and yes I’ll earn a commission if you do join under me, which I would love you to do and help out where I can. So having got that out of the way, you too can also promote this program and earn a commission.

Now you might expect that at this extremely low monthly price that the Commission itself isn’t anything special at 35% for 1st level. And it isn’t, but it’s something.

The thing is, this program has a lot to offer folks like yourself, and it’s not an over priced program so you’d expect it would be attractive to folk and so it becomes a numbers game BUT it’s more important that you use the tools in the program to benefit your own business building efforts – that’s where the money is. Remember that it’s your Business <Insert Your Name Here> (Sorry that I don’t know your name).

The Affiliate commission associated with promoting this program is just some nice loose change Afterall,  everything helps.

I hope that gives you a little insight into how something like 12SC might benefit you and your business building efforts. There are a number of “great” services that cater for various peoples needs”out there” and this is one of them.

Cheers

Tim

 

[UPDATE - 30 Dec 2011 ]  It would seem that the folk at 12SecondCommute don’t take too kindly to you  if you do not upgrade… I’ve just gone back to take another look at their offerings and was greeted with the message “Your Subscription has been expired”.

Now I’ve never come across this before and it’s certainly not a practice I would recommend or ever use… So what if you are a Free Member… What better way to have me upgrade if I’m still on the fence about handing over any money. The nice thing is that the folk at 12SecondCommute have made the decision for me…

Oh well, you live and learn.

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I’ve just been doing some research on Link related Plugins for WordPress and came across this little champion!

It’s called “Broken Link Checker “.

Why is it so great?

It’s free and installable direct from your WP Dashboard. Just go to the plugins section and look for “Broken link checker” and install and activate it. It does say it’s for WP 3.2 and it’s running happily on 3.1.4 at the time of writing.

Once I ran it, it did find a gaggle (technical term for “lots”) of broken links. Some of those I had either misspelled or had just got them plain wrong or they were in fact links to pages that no longer existed.

So that puts it right up there in the “It saved my butt” category! How many folk ended up getting splattered by visiting these dead links in the hope of gaining some further knowledge I wonder?? I mean that’s why you are here isn’t it? Ending up at a “Dead Link” isn’t fun for anyone and real embarrassing for myself.

Now it finds these links whether they are in Posts. Pages or Comments. When you find these lil pesky links, you have a few choices. You can either Edit them, in the case you mistyped something, or delete them, which it does where ever they appear. One other nice feature is that it puts a “strike through” on any dead links it finds on your site.

One “Danger” option is while it will let you delete any comments with the “dead link”,it will delete any “item” which I am guessing is the actual Post or Page. Well that’s what it sounds like so I’ve been a little reluctant to try that option out yet. It will tell you – when you hover over the “Trash” link under the Sources if it’s a Comment or an Item.

The user Interface

I’m a big fan of well written user interfaces and I like the way this one works. It’s very intuitive as it operates the same way as the rest of the WP site in regards to the options appearing for edit, delete etc as you hover over the entry. So once you are in it trying to get things sorted out, if you are familiar with WP, then you’ll feel right at home. So to the Author – WhiteShadow – nice job!

In the Dashboard, down the bottom of the screen, it shows how many broken links, total links and unique links its found. Which is useful.

It’s got a great range of Settings

This makes it fall into the “It’s been well thought out” bumping it right up in the making it even more useful category.

There are 4 tabs where you can tell it what kinds of links to check for. Where to look for them. What links to ignore. It even goes into having a timeout and an allowable Server Load setting so you don’t go stalling the Webserver and getting a smack on the hand from your Hosting Company.

This is something you can set up and have it running every few days if you wish and it’ll email you about any links it finds broken. So you can set the time period if you wish ( by default it’s every 72 hours).

This is nice… You can change the CSS for Broken and Removed Links in the settings if you want to change the default appearance of these.

What would be nice as added features.

The links to the sites are live and clickable, so it’s an easy matter to go and visit them but it would be nice if that happened in a new tab. That would be easily done by adding in the target =”_blank” in the link or having it as a setting so you can choose. While not a huge issue, its just one of those things I notice!

Here’s a slightly big  one in regards to user “niceness”. It would be nice if it gave you a chance by way of a popup or something to ask you “Are you sure?” before you committed to your choice of action. Once you select your desired option, once you click on it, it’s going to happen. There’s no way back if you find yourself leaping out of your seat screaming  “Oh No… I didn’t want to do that…” So make sure you are certain of what you are doing.

A word of caution

With any plugin you add to your site, make sure it works and doesn’t break things. I have no idea what other plugins you are running and of course I cannot say it’ll work with any other plugins you might have. So with any changes you make to your site, please check that it works.

While it works for me… there might be something that will make it go wobbly, so use at your own discretion.

Otherwise, until I find it doing something silly on my sites, I’m delighted with it.

Until next time, have fun and happy WordPressing!

 

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If you find yourself needing to learn something, here’s a tip on how to help speed things along.

Teach it to someone else!

And you might think, “Umm yeah, but I don’t  know what to teach yet!!!”

Well you know the subject so how about writing it down. You can open up your MS Word or Open Office or text editor and start writing a “How To” guide!

Now don’t be silly and start of with something like “How to earn a Million Dollars in 5 Days”. Well maybe you could.

It wouldn’t be very detailed to begin with and would probably be something like “Get 1 million people to buy <insert thing here> for a buck each and bingo!” or “Get 100,000 people to buy <insert thing here> for 10 bucks each and bingo!” or Get 10,000 people to buy <insert thing here> for 100 bucks each and bingo!”. Simple huh!

Ok back to reality!

So pick a subject and create a document.

The next step is to define what it is you want to  learn.

Now from this, you’ll start to discover more detail. Start off using the search engines to look up terms you’ve come up with and start drilling deeper. So by the end of the exercise you should have a good outline of the things you need to implement or learn more about.

If you get stuck, simply ask.

Where can you ask?

Well you can ask at my new membership site  – LookingOverMyShoulder.com where you’ll get either a full answer or directions where to find out more . It all depends upon the question. So give that a try, it’s Free to Join.

The idea here is to discover what you need to know and then find out more about the things you don’t, while keeping a written record of it all.

And what will you end up with?

In effect you’ll have your very own – guide or procedure you can refer back to again and again to do the task or whatever it was you were wanting to learn.

Once you refine it and test it out, you’ll have yourself a product you might be able to  sell to those wanting to know the same thing.

You will definitely be able to teach others, and by doing that you will refine it even more.

It’s the process I go through when writing my guides for my students, but they are mainly of the techie kind but written in a nice easy to follow manner.

These also become guides/scripts for creating videos you can use as an accompaniment to the written version.

I’ve got to get my schedules sorted out and get more done myself.

So hope that gives you some food for thought!

Cheers

Tim

 

 

 

 

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—- === The 72HoursOfMadness Bundled Package Offer has ended – But the Products in this review are still available ==== —-

Some folk say I suffer from madness a lot longer than 72 Hours…

But on a serious note, John and Dave are providing a lot of good content in this sale.  So much so, I’ve had to write about it to let you know of it.  [I'm not making a Dime in doing this. But it's too good to let it slip].

There are 22 products in total with the majority of them ( well 95%) being John and Dave’s Best Selling Products that they produced and own.

A few of the Products that grabbed my attention are

Product # 21 - Butterfly Marketing Secrets – Having recently setup a site using Mike Filsaimes Butterfly Marketing Script, it’s not too bad and as it’s currently free it is a good option if you want to create a Free or Paid Membership Site with Multiple Levels, OTO, Affiliate capabilities, internal support center and its highly configurable, this would be a great resource to have to help you set it up. It’s not a simple thing to play with once you’ve installed it.

So if you can create a get a Membership site up and running, you’ve just saved yourself money with the possibility to earn some serious money.

Product # 14 - Membership Master – So this fits in nicely with the Butterfly Marketing Secrets. Having a membership site and not knowing how to utilize it seems a bit silly. So this is a great resource. Written by Dave himself, you’ll be shown how to set up a membership site from scratch.

How to create and use PLR

Then there are a bunch of Products aimed at teaching you how to use PLR ( Private Label Rights )  and create your own products. Very useful for creating your Free products for List building and generating content for your Membership site ( if you start one ).

Product #4 – Your Software Website – This is one of Dave’s most popular products, with thousands of very happy customers!

This provides you with a way to create a  fully stocked software/affiliate website where you have total control via an admin panel. It is featured with inbuilt multiple earning methods making this  a great income stream for beginners and also advanced users.

Product #22 – John Thornhills Online Training – This was launched in 2009 and is still active and growing. To access it would normally cost you $497 but it’s part of the Madness. So this is where you get to ask John questions in the members only forum. A very good resource to have.

Now I’ve only touched on a few of the 22 available products.

As you can see, there is quite enough there to work with and get something happening.

You can see all the 22 products at Dave and Johns 72hoursofmadness website.

You get everything for just $97. Many of the products themselves cost that much on their own, not forgetting Johns Online Training which costs quite a bit more on its own.

A lot of these products also have standalone affiliate programs where you can make %50 per sale. So what better way to jump in and grab these to review.

NOTE: I am not making a single Penny from this. There is no Affiliate Link . My Soul reason for writing about this is to give you something of outstanding value you can actually use and do something with.

Unfortunately there is a time Limit to this.

And the bugga’s ( Dave and John ) haven’t said when it actually ends – 72 Hours from WHEN guys? Just having received the email today I’m guessing it ends on the 26th of March 2011 ?? Maybe??

UPDATE – I’ve just been informed that it ends at Midnight EST on Friday 25th March – so I was close!

So after that time, it’s apparently disappearing and if you come by and read this after the fact you may feel sad… I’m sure they’ll do more in the future.

Oh, One More Important Thing.

Some of the Products are being updated, which you’ll read about once you’ve visited the site Dave and Johns 72hoursofmadness and read about each product. So if you do buy now you’ll be locked in for the Updates for nothing. That’s not too shabby!

There is a bunch of good stuff there so if you can afford it and have the time to go over this stuff and actually use it, it’s a very good deal.

Where do you get it? Dave and Johns 72hoursofmadness

I should ask for a commission for this, the main thing is that you’ll get some benefit from it and maybe remember me in your Will or something nice like that.

Important: If you do end up purchasing this Sale and need help with any of it, remember that you are also getting access to John via his members only forum as one of the packages so you can go and ask him! Although I’m willing to help out where I can.

Also, If you do end up purchasing this and like it,  I’d appreciate it if you would be kind enough to leave a comment, just so I know it helped.

Cheers

Tim

 

 

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And you might be asking Why?

[Update] – I’ve ditched GDI. It’s not a serious marketing tool and while you can build downlines with it and earn a buck a member, I cant see it being a long term thing. You end up discovering Hostgator for $9 per month for unlimited sites, domain names for $9 per year and get an AR and start list building…… but that’s for another post. Or you can go straight to one of the premier online business building memberships and get cracking.

Well I’ve been itching to do a review of some hosting options and for the newcomer, it can be quite daunting.

Nowadays, most hosting companies offer website builders. Still that’s not going to make you an instant website while getting assistance is, which is something one of these hosting companies does in leaps and bounds and of course I always like to throw in my 2 cents worth!

There are easy ways to make a site and then there are the more advanced options. Going from one to the other isn’t a really big leap once you get the principles under your cap.

Now having said all that, GDI has been buzzing around for years! And from what I’ve been seeing, it’s an alternative. What I am most afraid of still, even having seen it again, is that it is primarily based upon it being the main source of income by promoting it to others. Instead of it being something usable in its own right.

There are other alternatives, even if the GDI marketing machine eludes to it being otherwise. GDI is a marketing tool to market itself. They even state that if you want to have a “real website” and by that I mean a WordPress site or something that requires a Database  ( which any decent hosting provides ) you can host it elsewhere! ie on  another hosting companies server. Which raises my eyebrows…. Ummm what for, isn’t GDI all wonderful and going to make me rich and everyone will want to jump on board.. but oh you want to have a real website…. then you’ll stil lhave to go elsewhere and pay even more.

I really don’t get it.

Now the claim to fame, without them specifically stating this, is that you can only get a .ws ( everyone should have one ) from them. Not true! You can register a .ws domain from just about anywhere. I get them for around $9 USD per Year… Not per Month as GDI charges.

Ok I can’t resist this… You can get a single domain hosting account from Hostgator for $3.95 per month, get the .ws domain name for $9.50 per Year and throw up a wordpress site on it…

GDI , it’s a business?

So what you are really paying for in the world of this  MLM business ( as you do in all of them) in your $10 USD per month , is some really low end hosting ( no database )  and loading to pay for the affiliate commissions for your uplines and a bit of pocket change for GDI.

Is it value for money?

IF you are going to use their tools and work with their teams to promote this, then possibly. Now I know I sound like I’m picking on GDI but the same applies for any business you are in. The rules are the same!

Is GDI an attractive offer?

For someone new to the internet, website building and have never worked with others… well it’s an option. There are alternatives! But it all comes down to budget! As a starter it’s probably got some potential.

Would I be happy promoting it?

Myself, personally, I would have to say it depends! For someone wanting to get up and running with a website and affiliate marketing, I’d make other suggestions. For someone wanting to get their feet wet without a huge outlay, possibly. There are many other things out there that I would recommend. Look, at this stage with my brief look over GDI again I’d wait till I gave this a thorough look see, but at the moment it’s still not got me overly excited.

But I will give GDI this… They are very good at their marketing!

Plus I do know some who have their foot in GDI and some of the other options I’ll be discussing in future posts.

I’m going to give this a fair crack and put my reservations on hold. I’ve probably been spoiled by the hosting etc that I’ve been using over the years and I’m looking at this at the “down the track” point of view instead of the “Wow can you really make money with this!”

GDI has been around a long time, which shows that it’s got longevity  going for it. It’s an INC 500 company, which is nice to know, so you’d imagine it won’t be curling up its toes any time soon ( touch wood!)

It’s all about focusing on one thing and giving it your all and there are some folk who have done quite well out of GDI. Will you and I be one of those! Time will tell.

So much for a short warmup  review.

I’ll be doing a comparison between GDI, Hostgator and GVO very soon. It’s horses for courses and hopefully that will give you a little insight into which one is suitable for your actual needs! Not what looks shiny and you must have it!

Till then

Have fun

Tim

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FreeMonthlyWebsites is a  Service you can join and receive a Free Website on a Profitable Niche each Month. The websites themselves come complete with an Admin Area that steps you through the various actions you need to complete the installation. There is “on page” help provided and overall it is quite a nice setup. It even allows you to add in a Lead Capture Form to build your list with.

There are a lot of features available that gives you a lot of power over your website. Although, some of these are disabled and become active once you join the Premium Service. The Premium Service is only $10 USD per month and that takes you to a whole new level. I’ll list a few of the added features a Premium member receives later on, but for what you get over other similar services, it’s quite an attractive deal… He says with his finger poised over the Buy Now Button. Being a Premium Member allows you to totally customize your new website to make it your very own and implement the  SEO features to name a few .  That is very important to make your new website stand out from the crowd!

To Setup Your Site

It’s a fairly simple process to get your website up and running but it might take you a little while – say about 1 hour – to get your first one setup as you become familiar with the process. Help is at hand here as each section is explained with a Video in the Members Area.

I strongly suggest that you create a document either in Word, OpenOffice Writer or even a text editor to note down everything you do. This will become your record of what you did for your site and it will the basis of your “procedure” for setting up your future sites.

There are one or two things you may want to join – for free – ie Clickbank and Google Adsense if you are not already a member of those. These are what helps monetize your site(s) and the products from Clickbank are already provided in your website.

So All you need to do

1. Download your Website from the Members Area
2. Register a Domain Name
3. Create a Hosting account
4. Upload your files
5. Start setting it up

What you get for Free

As the name suggests, these websites are Free but some of the more advanced features are disabled. But having said that, you do have the ability to modify the provided content, which I strongly suggest that you do.

Some of the provided content I have seen so far has required a tweak here and there. Plus I like to put my “style” into it. But that’s easily achieved through the provided Admin area using the inbuilt Editor. You could edit the content files on your PC using a Webpage editor. The content files are provided in HTML so it’s quite easy to do that, then upload them when you are done.

You can add in your own Privacy and Terms and Conditions Pages. These are optional but gives your site that added credibility.

At the moment – until I upgrade – I’ve created a new website using the latest Free Website from FreeMonthlyWebsites with their current installment on “Making Money With Clickbank”. So I bought the domain http://www.makingmoneywithcb.com . You can visit it to see what it looks like “out of the box”.

Conclusion

While you can quickly create a website using the provided Free Websites from FreeMonthlyWebsites, I would suggest that you upgrade to the Premium ($10 USD per month) service if you want to get the most benefit from them.

Then you can alter the themes, add in your own content and enable SEO to get loved by the search engines. Plus there are many more advantages which are all listed in the members area once you join as a Free Member.

So for a Free Service, it’s a great way to knock up a website, but even more powerful when you unleash everything, with all the extra content, graphics etc you get as a premium member. It’s not a high price to pay. It’s especially good if you don’t want to mess around with WordPress. The Admin area is pretty simple, just fill in the boxes and you are good to go.

They do provide Hosting, but you can use your own if you already have it.

Oh and if you are thinking of creating websites using this service with the intention of “Flipping” or selling the website, It’s not allowed… These sites are for personal use only, which is fair enough.

Some more information.

This is Version 2 of a well established Service provided by the ole timers… Dave Nicholson and John Thornhill and I mean ole timers in a most respectful way.  These two gents have become quite successful online and have helped numerous people through their personal coaching programs and via services such as this one. So they know how to provide good quality programs with this one being high on my list, which is why I’m writing about it. I’m using it myself!

You can Join FreeMonthlyWebsites Here

Some possible questions you may have.

Q) Do these sites suffer from over Saturation?
A) The sites in the membership area are only available for the month in which they are released so their numbers are limited.

Q) How good is the supplied content?
A) The short answer is, It’s Ok. The longer answer is, as with any PLR content, it is definitely worth your while to spend some time reviewing it and making changes. Still for what you get for $10 is a lot cheaper than outsourcing it. Which you could still do if you wish, depending upon what time you have and funds you have available.

Q) What else is provided if I upgrade?
A) You get access to an Ebook you can give away to build your list. [The Ebook is basically all the Free Articles you are given with the site. So if you have to rewrite the Articles, you need to rewrite the ebook BUT you do get some Ebook covers as well]. You get extra Articles [When I joined and got these extra Articles - they are the same articles in the Ebook and Site in Word Doc Format, but there was an extra 4 ]. You get Full Access to all the Admin features so you can fully customize it, enable SEO, add your own advertising, add your own Copyright and Powered By Info and Access to more Themes. Which basically allows you to make your site unique and fully Search Engine Friendly. You are only limited by your imagination and it becomes a very powerful platform to allow you to unleash your creativeness!

So for this release for March 2011 you get an extra 4 Articles on top of those already supplied and they are available in MS Word Format. It’s still not bad for $10!

Q) Can I change the graphics?
A) Yes. You can make changes to the themes yourself, or for $57 USD, you can get a completely customized Theme, which is quite cheap. That offer is available through the members area.
Q) What Training is provided if any?
A) Apart from the Videos on how to setup the sites themselves, there is also training on traffic creation but they are paid courses.

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Which I hope isn’t deemed to be a sign of insanity as talking to yourself is by some folk. Of course I never do that, do I?
– No you don’t!
Thats good then.
– Thank you…

Ok back to reality.
One of the biggest issues is getting what’s floating about in your Skull out onto something you can look at with your eyes and giving your brain a chance to look at things in “blocks”. Or “Doable” bits.

So what I’ve found to be very very helpful, is to open up a Word or Open Office Document, you can also just use a text editor, of if you prefer a pen and paper that’s fine also, and just start putting those thoughts down. It can be as disjointed as you like.

So I’ll start off with what it is I am trying to achieve and then just start a little conversation with myself just like I would if I was talking to someone else about what it is I am trying to do, what I think needs to be done and what things I Need to find out about.

I’ve recently done this to great effect when I tackled installing Mike Filsaimes Butterfly Marketing Script, templating it, making it do what I wanted it to and hooking it up with SMF Forum so when someone joins through the main site they are auto registered and logged into the Forum.

Then I was going into the “things I wanted it to do” and what you get is basically a Todo List so your head doesn’t have to try and “hold” everything in it. Which frees it up to tackle the “items” you end up with. Then you can mark them as DONE, which also gives you that little kick along because you are achieving these little “goals”. Seeing Real Progress is a great way to motivate you and it helps you get through the “tough times” when it all looks hopeless cause you know you’ll figure it out and get it done.

It’s also related to using Mind Maps, which I’ve spoken of before on here. But they are more a visual representation and don’t really let you “pour out your thoughts as such”. Although they are a great way to get started and a great way to categorize items. As in a Forum, working out the board and topic structure. Those kind of things are very well suited to using Mind Maps to figure out.

When I get really stuck, I’ll just ramble on about how I might tackle the issue at hand. Just doing that really does help the solution, grudgingly emerge from under the rock where it was determined to hide under and say “Ok, I give up!!! This is how it is done”. That’s how it feels sometimes. I love getting those solutions from out of their little hiding places!

And then you have your rough draft of your new “how to” guide!

So whatever it is you are trying to do and while you have a fair idea on what it is and what you need to do to get it done and it’s all just too much. Start writing about it. It is a disguise for a Plan, which some folk baulk at the idea. So make it friendly, and write whats in your head. You can tell I never do that! This latest project – I’m currently over 30 pages of “notes”. All without trying to hard.

And I actually do have a mate I get online with who kind of knows what I’m doing, but how he helps me is by just listening. So I talk and answer my own questions. Only problem then is he as to remember what I’ve just done, when I’m having a brain fade… Plus he’s spending his time watching so I can’t go and distract myself with reading emails etc and we really get into that legendary “zone” where great things happen.

So, write it down as your brain comes up with things. Note down the tasks. Write out any issues and from the murky depths , the answers will arise.

Try it and let me know how you fair with it.

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It can be. Initially I think it’s more fear than not knowing what to write. And after having had a quick glance through my previous posts there are a few glaring Grammar mistakes and the occasional “Wrong word”.

But it’s the content that counts. For myself, I use this more as a sounding board to pour out my ideas and findings. I actually find it relaxing and I’m more likely to jump on here and spill what’s floating around in my brain late in the evening, when it’s a little bit quieter.

And I probably repeat myself , mentioning things I’ve written about before, but that doesn’t matter one bit. In fact repetition is a good thing. And it’s only going to look repetitious if you actually read my other posts. I’m guessing some folk do!

Anyway, what inspired this little outburst is my visit to Sokule, where I also like to write a little bit and blast it out to the social sites I use like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, some blogger blogs and InstantBlogSubscriber.

Again it’s fun. I might get locked up for some of the crazy stuff I say, but I can’t be accused of being totally boring, or can I?

So like I tell all my friends, get a blog and write. We all have something to say one way or another.

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