June Campbell : Writing from Vancouver

Are new Internet millionaires still popping up, or is Internet marketing dead? Do we have to much competition that everybody is making peanuts?  Can you still get filthy rich on the Internet or  did that dream die when the dotcoms crashed?

 The news is good. I did some research, including using our trusty old friend Google News, and discovered that yes, indeed. Millionaires are popping up. Next,  I interviewed Warrior Forum’s Jeff Gardner of Wealthworld.com. Jeff had only positive stories to tell about people he’s seen make it rich on the Internet. 

 Take record breaker John Reese, for example.  Three or four years ago, John Reese sold an information product for $1,000. He made $1million in one day. Gardner likens this accomplishment to breaking the four-minute mile. For years, people believed it impossible to make $1 million in a day. Then Reese broke the barrier. Since Reese’s success, many have brought in a million a day in online sales. There have been outstanding product launches that brought in $12 million within 24 hours.

Today, Gardner has a story on his blog about Brad Fallon, an Internet marketer who became a millionaire within two years after starting with only two thousand. It seems Fallon is at it again and is launching the next big thing, which Gardner calls the Next Billion Dollar Opportunity.

It wouldn’t surprize me. Hands up, everybody who hopes to be the next Internet millionaire!

Bookmark to

I suppose I have been living under a rock, but I just discovered yet another way that some jackasses involved in Internet marketing manage to make a bloody nuisance of themselves.

I received my Google Alerts this morning. For those who don’t know, Google Alerts is a wonderful service. They will notify you by email every time someone links to your site or posts content containing keyword phrases you have identified. So I get a message that a blog named Porn Videos has linked to my corporate site, Business Writing by Nightcats Multimedia.

Naturally, I check this out right away and I discover that this blog with the outrageous name contains material related to Internet marketing and no porn videos whatsoever. However, they have published an article that I wrote and made freely available in exchange for a live link back to my site.

I get a second Google Alert, and I notice that there is a posting containing one of my keyword phrases ,”split test“. This phrase has turned up on a blog labelled Enema Equipment, and this blog also contains Internet marketing content.

So obviously these twits calling themselves Internet marketers are using deceptive means to attract viewers to a site that contains perfectly legitimate content.

Some days I have to wonder about the future of the human race.  I am not impressed. I will be notifying the blog host, given that this is a free blog and asking them to take a look at these offerings. I think I can manage without links from sites like that

Bookmark to

Internet marketing is challenging enough, what with scammers, spammers, technological glitches, neverending changes, huge competition and customers who are inundated with marketing messages at every turn.

 If we add self sabotage to the mix, it’s game over.

 I’ve just read an excellent book called The Promise of Energy Psychology by David Feinstein .  It’s not asbout Internet marketing, per se. It’s about using EFT tapping to rid ourselves of attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that get in the road and prevent us from achieving our goals.

 With regards to achieving goals, the author asks one very poignant question. “Now that you have set your goal, how do you intend to sabotage it?”

That hit me like a ton of bricks. I knew the answer immediately.

 I suddenly saw with perfect clarify exactly what I do that prevents me from being as successful as I wish to be.  I scatter my efforts and energies in too many directions and do not focus thoroughly on one product or marketing plan.

Now I know what I do to self sabotage, I know what I had better stop doing right away.

How about you?

What are you doing to self sabotage your Internet marketing efforts?

Bookmark to

This morning I had the first of five teleseminar sessions with Brad Yates, co-creator of Money Beyond Belief. We did EFT tapping to attract abundance into our lives.

 Brad offers hour-long teleseminars for only $45 a month. That has to be a super deal no matter how you look at it.

 For those readers who think EFT is crazy, let me assure you, it is based on science and has shown astonishing results in treating emotional problems and to a lesser extent, physical problems.  Now does it work with spiritual concepts like the Law of Abundance?  Well, that’s another story and one we will have to take on faith.

I can tell you that during the EFT tapping session, I experienced a range of emotions and discovered limiting beliefs that I didn’t know where there. I can tell you that for several hours after the session, I was tired, drained and sleepy. Something happened at a physical level, but I’m not sure what.

 Later on in the day, I was ocean kayaking in North Vancouver’s beautiful Deep Cove area. I suddenly understood that I was living incredible abundance already — kayaking through beautiful marine and mountain scenery — only a thirty minute drive from home!  How fortunate can a person be?

As for the material wealth., that remains to be seen. However, I am a strong believer in Joe Vitale and Brad Yates. Money Beyond Belief is on my list of things I intend to buy before too many sleeps have passed. 

And, if you have’t discovered EFT tapping yet, for pete’s sake, what are you waiting for?

Bookmark to

What message does the movie Becoming Jane have to offer to those wanting to do Internet marketing?

Quite a good message, IMHO.

 Becoming Jane is based on the life of the English novelist, Jane Austen, 1775 – 1817. Austen wrote five novels that are considered to be among the most influential in English literature and include Sense and Sensitivies, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasian. Jane’s moving romance novels are favorites even today among women of all ages. 

Despite her expertise penning poignant love stories,  Jane died unmarried at age 41 and was quite likely a virgin. She wrote her novels with little direct experience with her topic, relying solely on imagination, and did this while living in a society that discouraged women from intellectual pursuits of all kinds. Additionally, the culture that Jane lived in viewd novels bits of meaningless fluff that deserved no respect.

One can only imagine the amount of discouragement she must have received, especially at the beginning of her career. Her determination and focus overcame the challenges and she went on to achieve great success.

So it is in the Internet marketing industry, if we can call it an industry. Newcomers to Internet marketing don’t get a lot of support or encouragement. They get hit upon with ongoing sales pitches to buy often worthless marketing packages promising great help but providing little.  The ‘gurus’ and guru-wannabes discourage them from marketing to a niche in which they have little experience. Friends and family often don’t regard their efforts as serious work or regard the online business as a “real business.” 

Lots give up. The ones who have the focus and determination that Jane Austen had usually succeed, and the most successful of all are the ones that break out of the mold and “do it their way.”

If you’re new to Internet marketing, take a lesson from Jane. 

Bookmark to

There’s a huge discussion about writing good content going on over at the Thirty Day Challenge. The furor arose when Tumbl’r unceremoniously suspended every single blog created by  the Thirty Day Challenge participants. Obviously they didn’t read every one.  I’m guessing they read very few. Most of us were guilty by association.

But what exactly is good content for a blog, Squidoo Lens, web page or article? I’ve given it some thought, and to borrow a line from US Supreme Court Justice Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart,  I “can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.”

 Consider this:

1. Some say good content provides informaton that the reader didn’t previously have. Balderdash. I disagree. How can a writer know what information the potential reader will already have?   If I tell you that obesity is currently being linked to a virus, that might be new information to many people. It would not be new information to the people who read the news item in yesterday’s Vancouver Sun, however. Does that mean its bad content?

2. Some people say good content is well written and without errors in spelling and punctuation. Well, yes, I agree that those things are important. But if an otherwise informative or entertaining item has a typo, do we discount the entire article as being bad content? As I always say, if you received a love letter from the one you adore, would you rip up the letter if you found a punctuation error? I doubt it.

 3. Some say good content has to be a certain length. I’m not so sure. If a viewer clicks on a link called, “how to stop your dog from chewing up the furniture,” would you be disappointed if you found the answer to your problem in one paragraph instead of several?  I’m thinking good content takes as many words as is necessary to explain the message.  Let’s face it. if I get a letter from Revenue Canada that reads, “Enclosed find check for tax refund,” I am not going to complain because the nessage was short.

 4. Some say good content has to be well researched, factual and accurate. Well, sure, I agree with that for the most part.  But let’s not forget opinion pieces,  humor writing and so on. Nobody expects humorist Dave Barry to be factual. We just expect him to be funny.

 5. Some say good content is not full of hype, nor does it resemble a thinly veiled sales letter.Once again, sure. Absolutely. Few things annoy me more than clicking on a link to a page that promises information but instead redirects me to a sales page or perhaps takes me to a page offering a tiny little blurb that says something like, “Sausage making is a fun thing to do. You should try. Click here for more information.”  Misleading viewers in that way is more than bad content. It’s downright spammy.  

But are there exceptions?  What about the writer who has discovered a new skin care product that she thinks is the best thing since pantyhose. She tells all her friends about it and then finds out that she might make a little money if she referred people with an affiliate link. So our  gal puts up a little blog brimming with enthusiasm about the product and what it has done for her.  It’s hype but its hype she genuinely believes. Is this bad content?  That’s not so black and white any more.

 6. Some say writing good content means that the reader will be glad they found the page.  Again, not realistic. Who knows what will gladden the heart of anybody?  If you’ve written a web page trashing my favorite band, I’m not going to be glad I found your page no matter how well written it is. And vice versa. 

Writing good content isn’t so clear cut a process, is it?

Bookmark to

Apparently Facebook has a huge role to play in Internet Marketing

 At least, that’s the message I’m hearing at the Thirty Day Challenge. Challenge leader Ed Dale says on his blog, The Tubby Nerd, that he promoted the Thirty Day Challenge, which he says is the greatest Internet Marketing event of all time, through Facebook and other social networking sites. Initially, there was one mailing to a list, but after that it was Web 2.0 technologies all the way. Ed says he is going to build a list of one million people using Facebook.

I joined Facebook a while ago. I am still learning the ropes and at this time, I am not clear about how it benefits me or how I would use it to benefit me. I assume that my eyes will open as time goes on.

In the meantime, Psst!!! Hey, Buddy! Wanna be my little friend? (Facebook friend, that is).

My Facebook Profile

Bookmark to

It was Day 18 of the Thirty Day Challenge when disaster struck!  Our newly published Tumblr blogs were discontinued. Gone forever. Deleted from Tumblr’s database. “We were bad,” sniffed Tumblr. Okay, not exactly in those words but close. Worse, maybe.

It appears that a few of us spammed the system, in Tumblr’s opinion, by publishing web pages with no decent content.  According to the ensuing uproar at the Challenge’s forum, a few people may have put up a cheesy paragraph or two followed by a big fat affiliate link.

 We were all judged guilty by association, so every single Tumblr blog bit the dust.

 Now normally I wouldn’t mind too much. I’ve been doing Internet marketing long enough to know that stuff happens and when it does, you just move on and find another host.  But in this case, I had just spent countless hours “giving love” to my own two blogs plus some blogs belonging to a couple of my team members.

This, of course, will all have to be redone when the dust settles.

That happened on Saturday. Today is Monday and I have reinstated my blogs at WordPress.com. 

Check them out:

How to Make a Resume

How to Make a Diaper Cake

And so life goes on.

Bookmark to

Discusses the two key elements that make the difference between getting an interview and not getting an interview.

read more | digg story

Bookmark to

I love making diaper cakes. Once I learned how to make a diaper cake,  I received so many compliments for my creations. People love these joyous, colorful, fun gifts. What mom-to-be doesn’t squeal with delight when she sees one of these creations made to honor her expected baby?

The good news is they are now that difficult to make, and there is room for much creativity and imagination. Once you know how to make a diaper cake, you can choose from so many styles, sizes, themes and types. You can use nappies of different sizes to accommodate your chosen shape. You can select colors that compliment the theme of the baby shower or that match the colors of the baby’s room. You can decorate your diaper cake with any number of wonderful small items –  bibs, bonnets, onsies, baby powder, baby lotion, small stuffed animals, rattles, baby toys, small blankets, teddy bears, CD’s of favorite lullabies, or even gift cards from the mom to be’s favorite baby store or baby department. “>When you know how to make a diaper cake, you can deviate from the traditional and make your cake in a different shape. Think about a cake shaped like a pregnant woman’s belly, a cake shaped like a bootie, shoe or purse, a cake shaped like a small animal , a cake shaped like a wreath…. Why not tie your cake into a seasonal theme?  Think decorations of birds, flowers, seashells or sun motifs for summer. For the winter holiday season, consider snowflakes, holiday ornaments, Santa Clauses, gingerbread men and so on. Is it closer to Valentine’s Day?  How cute is a diaper cake made with hearts and lace and cherubs?  Easter?  There’s tulips, bunnies and eggs. Fall or autumn?  A diaper cake decorated with fall leaves, pumpkins or even a Halloween theme would be unusual and delightful.

Think about how to make a diaper cake and you’ll be amazed at the different possibilities that come to mind. The good news is that they are surprisingly easy to make once you have one or two under your belt.

Click this link for a video demonstration about  how to make a diaper cake.

Bookmark to