It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie (I know, late again).

You always hear people say that "the money is in the list." What they mean is that it is critical for an Internet business entrepreneur to collect contact information and then maintain contact with prospective customers. Of course the obvious question is, how do you entice prospective customer to provide you their e-mail address in the first place?

Just as you see on this blog, most Internet marketers will provide something of value in exchange for your name and e-mail address. So, if you want to collect people's names and e-mail addresses, you need to provide something of value yourself. I do that every Friday. However, delivering free content can be a real challenge if you are just starting out in a new niche and have little to offer.

That's why this week I'm offering you a free report from a world-famous information marketer on how to create a free eCourse in just one day. As it happens, one of the best things you can give away for free in exchange for prospective customers e-mail addresses is an eCourse. eCourses provide the customer with useful information, condition the customer to expect e-mails from you, and in some cases eCourses provide you with an opportunity to place affiliate links.

So, if you are interested in learning how to create complete eCourse in a day or less for free, you can download this exciting report from my members area.

Enjoy.

Join My Mailing List And Get Free Stuff

As always, opt in to my list to get access to all the free stuff (opt-in box in the right hand sidebar). As soon as you opt-in and confirm you subscription, you'll receive instructions on how to log into the members area.

Thanks,

Mark

It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

OK -- well, actually it is Saturday. I was out most of the day today (had to drive from Dallas to Austin and back today -- yuck).

I just noticed on twitter that our friends over at Google are offering $250 of free Adwords Advertising for new accounts.

Try Google AdWords with $250 in free advertising.

Kick off an AdWords campaign today with $250 in your account. AdWords lets you reach people at the moment they're searching for what you offer. Your $250 credit is a great way to try this accountable advertising medium free of charge. Offer ends January 31, 2009.

Enjoy.

Join My Mailing List And Get Free Stuff

As always, opt in to my list to get access to all the free stuff (opt-in box in the right hand sidebar). As soon as you opt-in and confirm you subscription, you'll receive instructions on how to log into the members area.

Thanks,

Mark

It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

This week I have added a collection of free themes with Master Resale Rights to the collection. There are lots of times when you might need a quick and dirty free theme for a project -- so here you go. The themes are in HTML, WordPress and Joomla formats.

I have not really checked out these themes from a quality perspective, so if you like them (or don't), be sure to let me know by leaving a comment below.

The themes cover the following five niches: Business, Computing, Health, Sports and Travel.

Here's what you can and cannot do with the themes:

[YES] Can be given away
[YES] Can be packaged with other products
[YES] Can be edited completely and your name put on it
[YES] Can be added to free membership sites
[YES] Can be added to paid membership sites
[YES] Can sell Resale Rights
[YES] Can sell Master Resale Rights
[NO] Can sell PLR rights

Enjoy.

Join My Mailing List And Get Free Stuff

As always, opt in to my list to get access to all the free stuff (opt-in box in the right hand sidebar). As soon as you opt-in and confirm you subscription, you'll receive instructions on how to log into the members area.

Thanks,

Mark

It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

The MasonWorld Internet Marketing Dictionary

This week I am introducing my brand new and heavily under construction Internet Marketing Dictionary. What is that, you say? Well, thanks for asking. Let me tell you...

When I started this blog, the stated purpose was to document my Internet Marketing journey, and to help other people along the way. Since that time, I have had numerous "Internet Marketing" conversations with people that were just curious or just getting started.

In many of those discussions, I have found myself using words that people didn't know -- terms that were specific to computing and/or Internet Marketing.

A Resource For People

So, I decided to build a place inside MasonWorld.com where I could collect Internet Marketing terminology and explain what the words mean at the most basic level.  Thus, the MasonWorld Internet Marketing Dictionary was born.

As it happens, WordPress blog posts make a perfect medium for something like a living dictionary, as they allow for easy editing, comments and debate (which I encourage).

You'll notice that the initial dictionary is fully functional but "light-weight" in terms of content.   To start the dictionary, I obtained some PLR definitions and used those as a starting point for this project. So, there are lots of terms missing.  I'll be adding definitions throughout the year.

If you see some Internet Marketing terms that you think should be included, feel free to drop a comment in the dictionary.

Note that you do not need to opt-in to my email list to access the dictionary.

Enjoy.

Join My Mailing List And Get Free Stuff

As always, opt in to my list to get access to all the other free stuff (opt-in box in the right hand sidebar). As soon as you opt-in and confirm you subscription, you'll receive instructions on how to log into the members area.

Thanks,

Mark

It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

The Money Is Still In The List

Well, you know I believe that (I have certainly said it enough).

This week I am offering a free report on email marketing by Ryan Ambrose.

In this report, Ryan covers some of the basics.  So, if you are just thinking about starting a list, this is not a bad place to get started with the basics.

Enjoy.

Check it out. You'll like it.

Join My Mailing List And Get Free Stuff

As always, opt in to my list to get access to all the free stuff (opt-in box in the right hand sidebar). As soon as you opt-in and confirm you subscription, you'll receive instructions on how to log into the members area.

Thanks,

Mark

It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

When I was a kid, I was really excited about one thing at Christmas -- Toys.  So, today I thought it might be nice to throw in a free pack of PLR articles for Christmas about (you guessed it) Christmas toys.

You can use this PLR on a blog or website or however you choose.  In fact, you will find a PDF in the zip file that explains all the rights that come with this product.

Enjoy.

Check it out. You'll like it.

Join My Mailing List And Get Free Stuff

As always, opt in to my list to get access to all the free stuff (opt-in box in the right hand sidebar). As soon as you opt-in and confirm you subscription, you'll receive instructions on how to log into the members area.

Thanks,
Mark

It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

OK -- I know. It's Saturday. I am getting caught up. Long week.

Today's freebie is a little different. Usually, I offer something that you can get by opting in to my mailing list. Today, I am just pointing you to something free that Microsoft is offering that I think is a really cool (and important) tool.

You need to back up your stuff.  Now.

Regular backup is critical. If you have never been in the middle of a legitimate data disaster, it is hard for me to explain that stupid feeling that you get in the pit of your stomach when you lose hours, days or months of hard work. If you've been there, you know what I mean.

As a certified computer geek, I have messed with more than a couple dozen backup tools on windows and Unix platforms over the years. I've used free ones, expensive ones, and shareware ones. I've used good ones and bad ones.

Just for the record -- by far, most of the backup tools that I have used over the years have been total crap. There are some exceptions, but mostly they were all flawed. They always seem to be too hard to use, unreliable, buggy or slow.

However, recently I needed to backup the internet marketing junk on my home desktop and on my laptop and sync the two results. I have needed to do this for a long time, but I have been dreading it. The backup software that I use on my home network has issues, and does not do "file sync" very well. So I went looking for a solution.

I settled on the free SyncToy 2.0 from Microsoft and a 8GB USB drive. What a great and reliable utility.

Now, I am not a big Microsoft fan -- which makes me think they must have bought this tool from someone. Anyway, I sync both machines (a directory on each machine, actually) to my USB stick. This lets me travel with all my data, gives me triple backup security (two separate hard drives and a stick), and ensures that data saved on the laptop is available on the desktop.

Check it out. You'll like it.

Join My Mailing List And Get Free Stuff

As always, opt in to my list to get access to all the OTHER free stuff (opt-in box in the right hand sidebar). As soon as you opt-in and confirm you subscription, you'll receive instructions on how to log into the members area.

Thanks,
Mark

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

OK -- this is really cool.

I was cruising around on Mike Filsaime's Butterfly Reports site and I found a report called "How to Use Google to Find eBay Best Sellers."  I checked it out, and inside the report I learned about a guy that is scanning eBay looking for items with more than a certain number of bids (40 in his example).

Now as you know, I have a number of eBay sites running phpBay, so this is very interesting to me.

Anyway, the guy apparently gives away the lists of items and the software itself for free.  I plan to check this out in some detail in the near future -- but for now I have uploaded the report so you can see for yourself.

As always, opt in to my list to get access to all the free stuff (opt-in box in the right hand sidebar). As soon as you opt-in and confirm you subscription, you'll receive instructions on how to log into the members area.

Thanks,
Mark

It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

I have written in the past few weeks about how to make money writing your own eBooks, and I even published a report on how to write your own eBooks. I published the report using the $7 secrets formula for it's distribution.

But I Don't Want To Write

Don't want to write? You can also make money using Private Label Rights content (content written by other people that you have the rights to use).

To help you understand that, I have a free report from two famous internet marketers that I personally trust available for you this Friday. The title of the report is: Private Label Rights (PLR) Secrets: How To Use PLR Products To Create A Money-Making Small Reports Business.

As always, opt in to my list to get access to all the free stuff (opt-in box in the right hand sidebar). As soon as you opt-in and confirm you subscription, you'll receive instructions on how to log into the members area.

Thanks,
Mark

It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

I been doing some research with my Internet Marketing Guru buddy Josh Spaulding this week on pop-ups (pop-under, pop-over, light boxes, etc.).  I was motivated to do this based on results pop-up optin results published by  Caroline Middlebrook.  She published the graph below on Twitter to show the dramatic impact of the lightbox on he opt-ins:

So, I went looking for the best pop-up script.  Aweber has something simple available, but you cannot completely customize it (e.g you cannot completely control the graphics.).

I found "You Can't Block This" -- it is one of those "unblockable" JavaScript popups with lightbox effects.  It also does peelaway ads.  Since I knew that Free Stuff Friday was coming up, I grabbed the resale rights copy, and am offering a private use copy to you at no charge.  If you want to buy the resale rights or even the master resale rights, you can check out the You Can't Block This home page.  Once you have resale rights, you can sell this product yourself and keep the profits (or give this product away to your list).

I have this up and running on a test page here if you want to see it.  I have it set to only show once -- so if you want to see it again, clear your cookies.

As always, opt in to my list to get access to all the free stuff (opt-in box in the right hand sidebar).  As soon as you opt-in and confirm you subscription, you'll receive instructions on how to log into the members area.

Thanks,
Mark

It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

As a reminder, the information you need (URL and password) to get access to all the free internet marketing goodies in the archives is available in my Internet Marketing Newsletter each week.  You can subscribe in the sidebar to the right and I will send you immediate access to the entire archive.

This week, I am adding an eBook to the collection.  The topic is Article Marketing -- and how to drive traffic to your niche websites using article marketing and re-written PLR.

The eBook is by Matt Callen and addresses a lot of the questions that came up the other day in the comments of my post about his Simply PLR Membership Site.

It's a pretty good read, and I agree with most of the stuff in the eBook.

As always, opt in to my list to get access to all the free stuff (opt-in box in the right hand sidebar).

Thanks,
Mark

Hey -- Happy Halloween!

It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

As I promised yesterday, we are spending a week blogging about lists. The problem is that it is also Free Stuff Friday, and I know how you love that. So, I am combining Free Stuff Friday with a post about lists.

If you read my blog, you already know that you can use "free stuff" to get people to sign up for your list.  This is a good approach because it provides value and builds trust.  A better approach is to get people on your list by selling stuff (as done with $7 Secrets), but giving stuff away is a great place to start.

You can give away information, software, content, merchandise, discounts, you name it.

In this example, we'll talk about giving away PLR content.

What Is PLR Content?

One thing that you hear about a lot in Internet Marketing circles is content that comes with "Private Label Rights (PLR)." Typically, if you buy content with PLR you are licensed to use that content in various ways. Things that you can usually do with PLR might include use it to make eBooks, publish with or without modification, combine it into longer content, split it apart into shorter content, use it in an autoresponder series, put your name on it, etc.

I say "usually" because PLR rights are almost always given specifically for the content you are buying, and restrictions can change depending on the authors wishes.

One thing that you usually cannot do is resell unmodified PLR to other people.

What are Master Resale Rights?

Master Resale Rights (MRR) usually gives you the right to resell something and keep all of the profits as long as you make no modifications to the content. MRR does not usually give you the right to reuse the content for another purpose (like re-publication under your name).

To illustrate all of this for you, I bought Master Resale Rights to a package of PLR articles on weight loss. I am making these articles available to you these articles as this weeks Friday Freebie.

Specifically, when I bought this PLR with MRR rights, I got the rights to:

(Yes) Submit to article directories
(Yes) Can be offered as a bonus with other Products - if changes are made to the articles
(YES) Can be edited completely and your name put on them
(YES) Can be used as web content
(YES) Can be used as a blog post
(YES) Can be broken down into smaller articles
(YES) Can be combined to make larger articles
(YES) Can be used as an e-mail/auto responder sequence
(YES) Can be added to a membership site
(YES) Can be Sold at any Price

I am NOT giving you MRR.

I am giving you PLR rights to these articles.

This means that you can:

(YES) Can be used as web content
(YES) Can be used as a blog post
(YES) Can be broken down into smaller articles
(YES) Can be combined to make larger articles
(YES) Can be used as an e-mail/auto responder sequence
(YES) Can be added to a membership site
(No) Can be Sold at any Price (Unless completely edited)

As usual, all you need to do is join my email list (see the opt-in box at the right) to download this report and other free stuff. Why not sign up today!

So How Can This Help Me With My List?

Now, I don't use a lot of PLR -- but here are at least 3 ways you can use it to help build a list.  Note that I always recommend that if you do use PLR that you rewrite it completely, adding your own voice and augmenting it with your own experience or research.

• Give PLR (when you have MMR) away to your readers as an opt-in gift (like this post)
• Use PLR on a blog as posts to attract readers to your opt-in box
• Send PLR content to your list as valuable content after they opt in.
• Use PLR to write an eBook for use with $7 Secrets

Enjoy.
Mark

P.S. -- If you really want the resale rights to this package of articles, you can have the resale rights for $5 by purchasing through the paypal button below.  Your paypal receipt with the title "Weight Loss MRR" will serve as your license to resell these articles (or use them as you see fit).  Note that you will still need to opt-in to the email list to get them, as I have not set up a separate download just for MRR.

List, List List.  All I ever hear about are email lists.  Are you sick of hearing about email lists?  Oh, I hope not, because as they say, the money is in the list.

A Week Of Posts About Lists

As I mentioned to you a few days ago, my buddy Josh Spaulding recently released a new eBook about how he manages his email list.  It is excellent, and I recommend it highly.  It's so good, in fact, that it has motivated me to take some serious action.

Starting today, I am posting a series about building lists -- here is what you can expect:

• Today (Thursday) -- This post about the importance of lists
• Tomorrow (Friday) -- A post about how you can use free stuff to build your list
• Saturday -- A post about Jonathan Leger's $7 secrets formula (for building lists)
• Monday -- A post about how you can use quality Master Resale Rights products to build your list
• Tuesday -- A post announcing my new eBook about writing eBooks ($7 secrets style)
• Wednesday -- See what the fortune cookie says about lists

The Purpose Of A Mailing List

If you spend much time around internet marketers, you’ll hear them talk about “the list”.  That term refers to their mailing list, which is made up of people who have requested to receive information from them, usually in the form of email newsletters.

For many internet marketers, the bulk of their income comes from marketing to the people on their mailing list.  A person’s list can truly be their key to success.  I know of several examples of "normal" people making a living on line using their list.

As Josh points out in New Age Email Marketing, some people mistakenly believe that the bigger list they have, the more successful they will be.  This is not necessarily the case.  There are a lot of ways to “get” subscribers, such as contests, list swaps, and even through list purchasing.  It is possible to achieve a high number of subscribers through these methods... but that doesn’t always guarantee success.

Instead of focusing on the number of people on the list, focus on the quality of the list and how interested the people are to receive the information.  A list of 1,000 very interested people will bring in much more money than a list of 10,000 uninterested people.

More important than that is trust.  Are you offering something of value (usually free information) to your list, or are you just asking them for money all the time?  Do they look forward to getting email from you, or do they hit the delete key without reading your mail?

While you think about those questions, here are some tips to help you build a great list:

Easy sign-up process

If signing up for your newsletter is a complicated process, many people will simply click away.  It’s also important to make sure the sign-up box is easy to see.  You'll notice that my opt-in box is at the top of my sidebar.  The graphics are professional, and I am asking for a minimum of information.  Some people place it at the bottom of their sites and if the visitor doesn’t scroll all the way down, they’ll miss it.  Many studies suggest that placing your newsletter sign-up box on the top right portion of your website will yield the best results.

Here is an example of easy -- an opt-in box right in the middle of a post:

Promote your list to your target market

Knowing your target market is another big key in creating a great list.  The more targeted the people on your list are, the more likely they are to purchase your products or services. That is one of the reasons that blogs are so great for list building.  People are visiting your blog because they are interested in the information there.  In that case, your target market consists of the people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer.  This is important.  Obviously, if you sell natural baby care products, you probably wouldn’t want to promote your list by purchasing an ad on harleydavidson.com.

Offer a freebie

Many people offer their subscribers a freebie in exchange for joining their mailing list.  I'll talk more about this on Friday, but that is exactly why I offer the Friday Freebie on MasonWorld.com.  This freebie could be in the form of an ebook, a special report, an audio recording of a teleclass or some other information product.  When doing this, it’s always best to stay close to a topic your target market would be interested in.  Going back to the example of someone selling natural baby products, a great freebie would be a small guide filled with natural baby food recipes.

Stay At It

Building a great list, full of targeted readers, will take some time to develop. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t happen overnight.  Over time, the list will grow and it can develop into one of your best business assets.

Did you like this post?  Why not sign up to my list?  That's the point after all.  You'll receive lots of helpful content and notification about new blog posts.  You'll get the occasional special offer.  You will never get SPAM.

Sign up today.

Hey -- It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

Affiliate marketing is an important revenue stream for a lot of marketers on line today.

The Friday Freebie today is a mediocre report on affiliate marketing that is completely loaded with affiliate links. If you are new to affiliate marketing, then you can skim this report to get a decent introduction to affiliate marketing. If you know what affiliate marketing is and are looking for advanced strategies, this is not the report for you.

In that case, you might check out the Secret Affiliate Code, which I bought myself and recommend.  Also, there is a new version of Secret Affiliate Code out -- Secret Affiliate Code 2, which I have not looked at yet.

Note that this "60 Minute Affiliate" report is loaded with affiliate links (that is why it is free). Some of the products recommended in the report are OK -- but I do not necessarily endorse the products mentioned in the report.

If you have specific questions about products mentioned, please drop me a comment.

Hey, you get what you pay for. As usual, if you are interested in downloading the report, just opt in to my email list in the right sidebar, and download instructions will be yours.

Have a great day.
Mark

60 Minutes To Affiliate Marketing

Hey -- It's Free Stuff Friday again, and time for the Friday Freebie.

I talk a lot about Article Marketing -- but the challenge with article marketing can be writing the articles.  I totally get that.  Sometimes it is hard to come up with topics to write about or strategies for writing articles.

This free report will help you get going.

As usual, all you need to do is join my email list (see the opt-in box at the right) to download this report and other free stuff.  Why not sign up today!

Enjoy.

Mark

It's Friday Freebie Time Again

Like most people in internet marketing, I have an entire hard drive full of "free eBooks".  Just like everyone else, I often download free stuff from the internet with the best intentions to read, learn and use the information within.  Then, sometime later, reality hits, and I realize that I have a hard drive full of "stuff" that I have never looked at.  Well, I was cleaning some things up on my laptop and I ran across License To Print Money -- a free eBook about making money with ClickBank.

Just Ignore The Promotion

Now, the marketing purpose of this eBook is to promote a membership site at the end of the book.  I don't know anything about that membership site.  So, I am not encouraging you to sign up for the membership offer inside.  I don't know anything about it.

I did read this eBook, however, and I am recommending it here for a couple of reasons.

1.  If you have not thought about making money with ClickBank products, you should.  This eBook outlines a reasonable (although not the only) approach to promoting ClickBank products.

2.  This eBook outlines some solid traffic strategies for any project you are working on - press releases, article marketing, classified ads, Squidoo, etc.  These are all good fundamentals, and this is a reasonable overview.

Download Your Free Copy Now

So, for details on how to download the Friday Freebie, simply join my free MasonWorld Internet Marketing newsletter.  Since I hate spam as much as you do, you will not get any spam from me.  Instead, I'll send you useful free tips on Internet Marketing and occasional promotions of products that I personally believe in.  Best of all, you can unsubscribe any time (but I don't think you will want to.)

Sign up now! I hate spam as much as you do!

Best regards,
Mark

Hey, It's Free Stuff Friday time again.  This Friday I am adding an eBook about Resale Rights to the arsenal for free goodies that you can download just by signing up for the MasonWorld Internet Marketing newsletter.

You may remember several months ago when I got really excited about a new site by Mike Filsame called ButterFly Reports.  The ButterFly Reports concept is a viral marketing strategy.  In the strategy, a report author writes a report (eBook) on some topic.  The report contains affiliate links.  Users of the site are able to rebrand some (but not all) of the affiliate links in report and distribute it.  This gives people an incentive to promote your reports.

I really felt this concept would explode and be incredibly popular.  As far as I can tell, it has not exploded, but it is growing steadily.  And, as a result, there are some pretty decent reports on the site.

So, for Free Stuff Friday, I am adding a pretty decent report from Mike's site -- How To Make Money with Resale Rights Products.  To get the report, and all my other Friday Freebies, all you need to do is join my email list below. I'll send you download instructions immediately (even if it is 2AM).

Sign up now! I hate spam as much as you do!

Mark

photo credit: moonrat42

Free Stuff

I'm really into Free Stuff lately, so I had to share this with you.

When I first got started in Internet Marketing in 2007, one of the first things that I found was a new blog with a large and growing following by a Brit named Caroline.  Something about her transparent style captured my attention, and I have been reading her stuff ever since (along with her nearly 3000 RSS subscribers).

There are lots of things to like about Caroline.  For starters, she is all about the truth with a no-nonsense approach to just about everything.  Secondly, she always digs into the important deails.  The two of great qualities really shine in her latest product, Stumble Rush.

But You Said Free Stuff

Well, that's the thing.  I did say "free" and I did say "product." Confusing, huh?

Over half of Caroline's product is actually free.  It is an amazing try-before-you-buy thing.  I personally think she is giving away too much, because there is no fluff anywhere in the entire thing.   You will be stunned by the quality.

The entire course is polished multimedia and driven by email, WordPress and Video (hosted on Amazon S3).  The entire thing includes 20 or so lessons.  The first half of the lessons are free.  In the free course, you will learn

• How to create content that gets stumbled
• Mechanics and ethics of StumbleUpon submission
• How to pimp out your profile!
• How to get more thumbs up votes
• The basics of networking on StumbleUpon
• Traffic boosting tips
• How you can correct mistakes

Hey, I Do Not Need To Know That Much About StumbleUpon

Yeah, I know.  That is what I thought too.  I think you are wrong (I was).  If you feel this way, I challenge you to go take the first 3 free lessons and comment here.   Once you see the information she is offering in this course, I feel confident that you will think it was time well spent.

Yeah, Sure, But What Is The Catch?

There is no catch.  Sign up now for the free lessons.  You will be amazed.  If you like them and want more, buy the advanced course.  Note that if you do buy the advanced course some day, that I will get an affiliate commission.

However, if you don't love the free course and you don't want the remaining lessons, seek professional help immediately.

Just kidding.  If you don't want to buy the advanced course, just don't.  That is another thing about Caroline.  She is a zero-pressure personality.

Regards,
Mark

One of the first things that I needed to do when I finished my Niche AdSense Themes for WordPress product was create a sales page.  Now, the best thing to do in this case is spend a couple hundred dollars to hire a pro that does this for a living.

But, I was on a budget for this project, so I decided to create the sales page myself.  To do that, I bought some simple mini-site templates with PLR.  Since I know you might need to create your own sales page, I have decided to give them away as a bonus to my list subscribers (the rights that came with the purchase allow this).

So, if you want the same templates that I paid for to start my first product site absolutely free, just enter your name and email address below and they are yours to use on your own sites.

I hate spam too, so you will never get any spam from me (privacy policy).

Last week I said the I was planning on writing several posts on lessons learned in creating my Niche Adsense Themes for WordPress project.  Well, here is a really important one -- don't try to do everything.  Some stuff you should simply hire out.

But I Can't Afford That!

I know what you are saying.  You cannot afford to hire someone.  You are not making any money right now, and until you do, you have to do everything yourself.  I know the feeling, but I am going to argue that you cannot afford not to hire stuff out.

What Is Your Time Worth?

See, you are making the assumption that your time is not worth anything -- that it is cheaper to do it yourself (whatever it is).  Well, what is your time worth?  Let's say you normally make $50,000 per year.  If you do, your time is worth about $25/hour.  Seriously, when you spend an hour on your business, your business, you are essentially investing $25.

Let's say that you had an employee named Joe that you were paying $25/hour, and that Joe was very busy.  So busy, in fact, that really important stuff was not getting done.  If everything does not get done, your business does not make money.  Problem is, some of the stuff that Joe is doing can easily be done by a $10 high school student.  But you are paying Joe $25/hour to do that work, and not getting other stuff done at the same time.  You are paying Joe too much for non-critical work, and more important stuff is not getting done.

You are Joe

Guess what.  You are Joe.  So am I.  There were a couple of things that I needed done for Niche Adsense Themes that I could have done if I wanted to, but it would cost me more to do them myself than have them done.   And, I did not want to do them.  I did not want to do the theme graphics, and I did not want to do the HTML version of the templates.  I also needed some CSS help.  Cost to me was under $200.  The Themes generated $1000 of revenue in the first 10 days (and it was a simple narrow product with a bad sales letter -- more on this later).  And, the time saved was measured in DAYS (or maybe weeks).

How to Outsource

I recommend that you try outsourcing right away with something (anything) simple.  Give it a try, and you can get a feeling about what is possible.  I personally perfer ScriptLance.com, but there are tons of services out there, including eLance.com and RentaCoder.com.

Software is a really good thing to outsource.  I outsourced the creation of www.thebigworldproject.com, for example.  I knew how to code that project, but I did not have the time.  Likewise, anything that sounds like WordPress maintenance is easily outsourced.

Just go to scriptlance.com, sign up, post your project and see who bids and how much.  Read their qualifications, talk to them on the private message board, make sure they understand the requirements (good specs are critical to outsourcing) and let it fly.  You will enjoy the freedom of having some guy in Malaysia work for you while you sleep for $5/hour.  He will be thrilled to have the work, and you will be thrilled to have the work done -- win/win.

If there is interest, I will post a "how to use scriptlance" video to the Free Stuff area.

What are your experiences with outsourcing?  Let me know by dropping a comment.

Regards,
Mark
photo credit: Aaron Escobar

The Beatles said it best - "The Best Things In Life Are Free." Of course, the hook to that song is "Give Me Money - That's What I Want." It's pretty clear to me that John, Paul, Ringo and George would have made a great Internet Marketing Team.

Many of you know that I have a 3 part strategy for my internet marketing business. I am building adsense mini-sites, thin affiliate sites using phpBay and popshops, and working on information products and list building.

Since internet marketing is a hobby for me, I have been trying to learn about information products without spending $1997 on an internet marketing information product that may or may not be great. Pretty funny -- I am trying to avoid buying the kind of product that I want to build. I may need professional help.

The Best Things In Life Are Not Free

In the last few days, I have come across two "free" products that are worth mentioning. I have put "free" in quotes because they both require opt-in emails. Make no mistake here -- the reason that these people are collecting your email is because they want your permission to market other products to you. So we are clear on that, right?

Also, if you use my links to click through to these products, I will get credit for referring you. If you buy something, I will get a commission. Note that I am actually not endorsing any of those paid products. They are probably great, but I have not reviewed them. The free porducts that I did personally spend time reviewing are great. My point is, I am not trying to sell you anything, but there is an affiliate program and I want to be crystal clear about that.

So we are clear on that too, right?

OK, great!

Excellent Free Video Course

The first thing that I want to tell you about is the free video course on mini-sites from Michael Rasumssen called Mini-Site Profits Exposed. Like everyone else, I got email bombed by everybody from Mike Filsame to Jimmy Carter on this one this week. I never know what to think about these huge launches, but I decided to take a look. All of these big money guys are "Moving The Free Line" and that means that there is some quality free stuff coming out these days.

I was interested in this because if I am going to be successful selling information products, I will need good mini-sites. This free video series comes in 12 parts, and is really great. The quality of production is surprisingly high. The video series provides an excellent introduction to mini-site design, structure and flow. There is a section on squeeze pages, sales copy and site automation. Michael covers affiliates, sales growth strategies and traffic. The amount of content in this free video course is amazing. I don't agree with absolutely everything in the series, but I am also not making the kind of money that Rasumssen is making.

Excellent Free Slacker Report

If you are wanting to get started in information products and you are bogged down trying to figure out where to start (we have all certainly been there) -- then I have a eBook for you. I got an email from James Jones promoting a "free" eBook called the Slacker Way that James co-authored with Terry Gibbs. I like James and his Micro Niche Finder product, so I decided to take a look.

In the eBook The Slacker Way, primary author Terry Gibbs discusses a collection of topics that information marketers need to know. He covers what it means to be a "slacker," how to get started with an information product, how to build a network of affiliates and JV partners, how to knock off your own products, how to use pseudonyms, PLR content, public domain content, and a host of other topics.

It's a good read and a nice free guide. If you are thinking about getting into information products, this is a good free resource.

Regards,
Mark
photo credit: Cane Rosso