Babies and software.

It’s been a nutty few weeks and I apologize for the lack of posts.  I suppose I do have a couple good excuse though – a software and a baby.

 We’re wrapping up the final stages of our new affiliate shopping system – StoreStacker.  Our developers have absolutely outdone themselves – the software is, in a word, rockin’.  More details en route, as we get closer to launch.  I don’t want to ruin any surprises…

 Secondly, my wife and I had our first child a few weeks ago.  She weighs in at approximately 6 lbs, 11 oz, has a towering stature of 1 and a half feet tall.  She’s about to sneeze in this one…

And here’s my wife, Abbie, a couple of days after giving birth.  She’s a champ…

Also, we had a thought and would like to get some feedback on it.  The idea is to turn this blog into a venue for marketing questions and answers.  So, instead of a commentary on whatever takes our fancy, you can take the wheel and get the answers YOU want.  Have a question about blogging?  No problem.  Questions about links, SEO, or traffic acquisition?  Fire away.  So, this is the general idea.  User-directed commentary, if you will.

Let me know what you think and email me here.  If feedback is positive, we’ll see about starting it up.

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Karaoke…

 Poetry slams, open mic nights and karaoke - the ”original” user-generated content.  Who could have guessed your local watering hole would be the precursur to one of the web’s most profitable trends?

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C’mon, dare me – say I shouldn’t buy it.

 
Something curious happened to me the other day.  We were having connectivity issues and, in talking to the Comcast (my isp) guy, he mentioned cable ‘insurance’.  Basic idea is this – if there’s a problem with your internet and they send a tech out to your address, one of two things will happen:

a) the tech will find out the problem is their fault and fix it free of charge
or
b) the tech will find out the problem is your fault and you pay a $50 service fee.

However, there’s an insurance policy.  So, if I have the insurance in place and the tech comes to my place of business and finds out the bad connection is my fault, I’m not charged the $50 – it’s free. 

Long story short, the tech/salesperson on the phone told me he didn’t think I needed the insurance.  Contrary to what I would have assumed should happen, this instantly piqued my interest.  Here was a guy specifically telling me NOT to buy the insurance, so I stopped, hesitated, then proceeded to weigh the cost (which was low) and benefits of the insurance and ended up buying the insurance plan.

I later thought about this peculiar transaction.  If the sales guy had given me the ’sell’, told me about all the benefits of having insurance, etc etc, I undoubtedly would have said no.  Is this because I hate to be pitched?  Possibly.  But more than likely, the ‘pitch’ itself is what devalues the service.  If you have to ’sell’ me on the product, it’s probably a piece of crap.  However, as in the case of the cable insurance I purchased, the fact that I was told NOT to buy the product opened me up to wanting to really scrutinize the offer.  Something that, had I been given a regular sales presentation, never would have happened.

I’m so numb, so jaded by sales pitches, that someone has to literally tell me, “Don’t buy my product“, to get me to take a look at their offer. 

The lesson here is this.  If you’re trying to sell people something, they’re wise to your ways.  This is old news, yes.  There’s talk everywhere of banner blindness, drops in ad effectiveness, etc, etc and this scares a lot of people.  It shouldn’t though.  If anything, I believe it’s a good thing.  It means that those individuals and companies that shoot straight, tell it like it is and whose mission is to simply and completely meet the needs of their customers/traffic/audience, win.  Do that and do it well, and your sales will reach heights that no amount of fluffing could achieve.

Image courtesy of PA Pundits

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it’s about time

There’s something new on the horizon. A new kind of media that I predict is going to take the web by storm. It’s called ‘blogging’. You probably haven’t heard of it, but put ‘blogging’ down as my BIG prediction of 2007. It’s gonna be huge!

Ok, so I’m a little late to the party. Here’s the deal though: I make money with my own blogs and my partners and I have created a popular blogging / seo software (albeit, on the blackhat side of SEO), so, we thought it was about time we start a blog that feeds our own industry.

——–
Better late than never, right?

What this blog will be:
A combination of thoughts, ideas, what I’ve done, what I’m doing, theories, other people’s thoughts, other people’s theories and a bunch of other juicy stuff with a focus on the internet, marketing and business. To put it simply, if I put it here, I believe it’s something you NEED to know to forge a successful carreer on the internet. Ok, there will be some fluff too. Gimme a break.

What this blog will NOT be:
A soapbox from which to peddle our own marketing products. Sure, I’ll mention them from time to time, but hey, we do some good stuff. For the most part though, I’ll stick to pure info. Most of it will be on topic. Some of it won’t. Who knows, maybe I’ll even slip in my famous pot roast recipe.

Here’s a quick bio about me/us, so we’re fully acquainted.

I grew up in the land of Microsoft (Redmond, Washington) and went to the University of Washington. After graduating with a relatively useless degree, I bounced around between sales jobs and finally landed on the web. Ahh, to be home. I met Omar (one or my partners in Halfagain LLC) 4 years ago while running the affiliate program of an herbal supplement company. He introduced me to Kirill (our third and final partner) and we struck out on our own. All of us had a background with marketing on the web and had each made a modest killing. We started with the creation of our first product the Blogsolution and branched into content creation, rss feed manipulation and on. Long story short, it’s worked out nicely for each of us.

Our breakdown looks like this:

Kirill (or “K”) – amazing (and I DO mean AMAZING) guy who heads all of our software projects
Marius “Omar” Oancea – our ‘product idea guy’ and head of customer support.
Scott Trimble (me) – I handle most of our marketing ventures and ‘relationships’.

So, now you know us. We’re practically friends.

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CommissionJunction plugin goes live

Our much anticipated CommissionJunction integration went live today, which means the products and merchants offered through CJ.com are now available to promote through your StoreStacker stores!

Easily one of our most powerful plugins, CommissionJunction adds a huge ~14 million promotable products to your quiver.  Virtually every niche and every market is covered, so no matter what market you’re serving, you’ll find solid offerings for your readers.

Because CJ has such a large number of products, we also created a tool to help you find the merchants that offer the products you want to promote.  This, of course, is included with the plugin.

You can see more informatin about the plugin here – http://storestacker.com/commissionjunction.html

This page also includes a new tutorial video that shows you how to use it (it’s nice and easy) – http://www.storestacker.com/tutorials/cj.html

To get the CJ plugin now, click here – http://halfagain.com/checkout/?g=SST

And to take advantage of StoreStacker for $1, click here – http://storestacker.com/order.html

Enough links for you?

Please note, because a significant amount of our server resources are needed to serve these datafeeds to our customers, the CJ plugin is charged on a recurring basis rather than a flat rate.  But don’t worry, the power easily justifies the payment.

Let us know if you have any questions.

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Killer Email Copy [StoreStacker]

Below, I’ve posted 3 email templates for your affiliate enjoyment. The 1-Day-Before and Launch emails are relatively interchangeable – they’ll just need a few edits if you choose one over the other.

There are only 3 items you’ll need to insert into your emails: your affiliate link, their name and your name at the bottom. Affiliate links are available in your admin area of http://Titanpay.com.  Their name is probably insertable by your email service.  Your name is available on any mail that you’ve received recently .  Here you go!

———————————–

1-Day-Before Launch

Hey [firstname], I have an important announcement for you today.

I’ve been around the web long enough that I’ve either seen or used pretty much everything out there. Every once in a while, though, something revolutionary comes along that really makes me sit up, take notice and get excited. And today, I’m excited.

StoreStacker, one of the web’s most powerful affiliate marketing tools, is re-opening.

AFFILIATE LINK HERE (get it from http://Titanpay.com)

You know buildanichestore, goldencan and all the other affiliate site builders out there? Forget them. StoreStacker is evolution at work.

First released a little more than 3 months ago, they closed their doors in well under a week after selling out of 1000 copies. StoreStacker is now re-opening to new customers.  This is your chance to get an affiliate powerhouse that actually does what it says it will – help you make more affiliate commissions.

And if you don’t believe it, check out some of the 20+ testimonials on their site. These stories are amazing. Revenue that has gone up by 5 times, top ten ranks in Google and more. These results have been demonstrated in only the last 3 months or so, just think what the next 6 months could hold.

AFFILIATE LINK HERE (get it from http://Titanpay.com)

If you’re already using an affiliate site/store builder, you need to check this out. If you’re not, you need to check this out. StoreStacker makes everything about affiliate marketing easier, faster and more profitable.

As they say though, time is money. They’re giving away free plugins to their first wave of customers. (Plugins are what allow you to pull products, articles and more from affiliate programs and the true power behind StoreStacker.) Getting in early is an easy way to save some cash.

It opens Thursday the 28th, at noon sharp (eastern standard time).

AFFILIATE LINK HERE (get it from http://Titanpay.com)

YOUR NAME

 ———————————–

Launch Email

Hi [firstname],

StoreStacker. The name seems to be on everyone’s lips lately. In the past 4 months, it’s gained a following that’s really quite remarkable – especially in such a short time. What is even more remarkable, is that sales were closed for most of this time. (They opened for less than a week back in April and sold out of 1000 copies).

Since customers of products usually say it best, here are a few reasons why it might be making such an impression…

1) “New traffic is coming in off new search engine listings, people are coming back to my sites and the most important part, my affiliate revenue, has increased by more than double.”

2) “My revenue is up, literally, at least 500% across the board.”

3) “Setup was a snap and the web interface is very intuitive…to tell you the truth I didn’t even read the instructions first.”

4) “There is a new kid on the block and it wipes the floor with BANS.”

5) “This is truly a set it and forget it goldmine!”

And my own thoughts on StoreStacker?

*** I’ve never seen ANY affiliate marketing tool as powerful and with as much potential as this – and I’ve seen them all.

Why is this so important today? Because StoreStacker is opening to new customers – Thursday, August 28th at noon sharp, eastern standard time.

AFFILIATE LINK HERE (get it from http://Titanpay.com)

StoreStacker allows anyone to build a complete affiliate store on any website or blog (new or old), pulling products from ebay, amazon, clickbank, overstock, regnow, and more, literally ’stacking’ them into one website. Pictures, descriptions, and prices are all imported, including your affiliate ID, automatically.

You can even pull targeted content using RSS feeds and relevant videos direct from Youtube.
So, you can easily create a full website with content/articles, videos and products, all targeted to any market you want. StoreStacker can be added to any existing website for additional monetization OR can be used to build a completely new site, from the ground up. It’s automatically SEOed and automatically updates with new products, articles and videos.

No other site builders do this.

NONE. ZILCH. NADA.

Every purchase comes with 12 free templates, video tutorials, user manuals and round-the-clock support.

AFFILIATE LINK HERE (get it from http://Titanpay.com)

StoreStacker is THE affiliate product of 2008. If it’s delivered for other users the way it has, think what it could for you.

YOUR NAME

 ———————————–

Follow Up Email

Hey there, I’m making sure you caught my email on Thursday about the StoreStacker’s re-opening. If you’ve already checked it out, you can ignore this email. But, if you haven’t, you shouldn’t dismiss this as yet another lame product launch. StoreStacker is the real deal.

AFFILIATE LINK HERE (get it from http://Titanpay.com)

If you have existing websites, StoreStacker is the perfect way to additionally (and easily) monetize them.

If you need to build new websites, StoreStacker will build you a beautifully SEOed, commission-pulling, content-packed, video-enabled, affiliate site in minutes.

If you do affiliate marketing, StoreStacker will help you do it better.

If you don’t, StoreStacker gives you a compelling reason to start.

If you want to target many niches and many markets, StoreStacker was designed for you – allowing you to build money-making websites targeting virtually any niche, any market.

StoreStacker users are making money NOW. It’s that simple. You owe it to your bank account to check it out.

AFFILIATE LINK HERE (get it from http://Titanpay.com)

YOUR NAME

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Remember What Your Mother Said: Say ‘Thank You’.

Here’s a quick little thing I’ve been doing since starting this blog that’s been GREAT for initiating new relationships -

Blogs naturally get links.  I make a post, one of our readers finds it interesting and posts a link to us for their own readers. But, instead of doing the ‘usual’ thing and simply looking fondly at the new links to my blog, then moving onto my next task, I’ve started individually emailing every person that links to us and thanking them.

The problem:  It’s easy to think of the internet as a faceless environment, so, the idea here is to think of your website as if it’s a brick and mortar business.  Think of it this way.  If you run a sandwich shop and the mechanic across the street is continually sending his customers over to your place for a sandwich, wouldn’t you personally thank him?  Maybe set up some kind of beneficial relationship?

The web’s no different.  If Joe over at thecarblog.com is sending traffic to your Honda blog, he’s doing you a MASSIVE favor.  So, thank him!  Send him an email, say hello and see if there’s anything you can do for him. 

Sure, it can be a bit time consuming but trust me, it’s worth it. 

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