=>> What To Do With Amazon Earning Hub !! Move Them to Wizzley ??

Hubpages Again Changing The Rules

Unless you are living under a rock - or don't really care about earning money on hubpages - you should be aware that come 1 January 2012 HubPages will not allow you to use your own Amazon affiliate link.

Instead Amazon earnings are set to roll into the HPAds program.

I have one account which is all about making money from Amazon on Hubpages. I'm removing it and moving it to Wizzley - here's why.

Why Using My Own Affiliate ID for Amazon is Important

Now I am far from an Amazon affiliate marketing star - but I certainly make a $100 payout from Amazon most months. I suspect some of you are in the same boat.

As of today (the 26th of the month) - I am earning 6.5% on all sales (except for electronics which only pays out $25 capped). Most months I make the 6.5% (31 to 100 items shipped) tier, and really no one but a beginner should be stuck on 4% (1-6 items shipped) - just give your link to your friends and tell them to go shopping!

There are three main reasons that making money from, and being paid by Amazon, is important for me, and I think you to:

• All of my Amazon sales combined over all my sites plus my percentage on Hubpages are summed to create my tier commission;
• Its a simple and transparent system which does not involve being paid by a third party (Hubpages) who then has access to all my sales data and through whom my income flows.
• I get paid by check not via Paypal;

Amazon Tier Commissions

In the forums Hubpages management has made a big deal about being able to offer a higher (I assume 8.5%) percentage commission, to hubber compared to 4%. Well I do not make ALL my Amazon sales from HubPages - I have several of my own sites which also make Amazon sales.

So although in theory my sales ratio will go from 6.5% (which it is most months) to 8.5% - it will knock some of my actual sales down a tier from my own sites.

HubPages is a No Longer a Transparent Revenue System

One of the reasons I not only joined Hubpages three years ago, but also signed up many others to HubPages - was because I thought their revenue model was very clear and transparent. Hubpages didn't take your money and redistribute it (as Squidoo does) - instead they shared the clicks on your Adsense/eBay/Amazon modules - and for Amazon you got every sale that click generated.

Unfortunately this is now not the case. Amazon holds my money for 60 days, to allow for returns. I sleep well at night knowing that - because I don't expect Amazon to go anywhere, or file for bankruptcy. Google (the owners of Adsense) - ditto.

Hubpages hmm - a small privately held company that I have no idea how close, or otherwise, they are to the edge. After the behavour of the staff in the forums since the first Panda update - I don't trust Hubpages with my money anymore.

At the time of writing its unclear whether you will still be paid under the usual Amazon system:

Paid for not just the item the buyer clicked through on, but also credited with anything else they bought on Amazon in the next 24 hours.

This is the single most powerful thing about the Amazon affiliate system. I regularly get commissions on cookware - but I don't promote cookware. I've had commission on items that I didn't know existed, and items that I didn't know Amazon sold.

My strong suspicion - because of the silence by management on this topic - is that going forward - you will only be paid on what you sell directly from a hub - I bet HubPages will get the "unrelated sales" - you read it here first!

Sales Data is Gold

The other issue I have is that once HubPages is the intermediatory between writers and Amazon - they have all the access to your sales data, and you have very little. Ask any experienced and successful marketer what their key to success is: sales data.

Paypal is Not a Bank!

Paypal is a necessary evil in this line of work. Most of the major affiliate I work with pay me via Paypal - I have several thousand dollars worth of income run through Paypal each month.

An they make a lot of money from me. Because I live in New Zealand they will ONLY let me with withdrawal money to a NZ$ account in NZ. I can't withdraw money to a local US$ account - why not? Because Paypal makes an awful lot of money from exchange rate fees - which are appalling.

Yes I could leave my money in my Paypal account in US$ - and I leave some for expenses I have in my business most of which are in US$ too.

But I don't leave anything more than a few hundred float in Paypal - because there are far too many stories about people loosing access to their Paypal accounts for some perceived problem. Some of those people never get their accounts back, others loose access to their accounts for months.

Paypal is not a bank and is not subject to consumer protection laws such as the NZ Banking Ombudsman.

So leaving money in Paypal is foolhardy as well.

Amazon pays my by check (as I'm not in the US) - I can have the check sent at anytime - because I can put a hold on my account and let the money accumulate with them for a few months if I want to.

I can also hold the check without cashing it for several months at my end - so I can choose to exchange when the rate is in my favour.

Moving My Hubs to Wizzley

I wanted to move my hubs. The question was where to? The obvious answers in terms of sites which appeared well run and to have some longevity were:

• Squidoo
• InfoBarrel

I've used both of them, Squidoo I discounted because they also don't have a clear revenue sharing model. InfoBarrel I've used for a while - but their conversions are very poor and they don't have a good Amazon module.

Then I heard about a new kid on the block: Wizzley - only opened up to the public mid-2011 - and developed post Panda - i.e. after Google slapped some sites it suspected were content farms such as HubPages.

Moving my hubs to Wizzley is not ideal.

Some of my hubs really should be on their own sites - they make good money - but I don't have time to do everything I want to do before the end of the year plus set up a number of niche sites.

Wizzley is a nice alternative. If it works out - I will build niche sites and use Wizzley for backlinks (and revenue).

Wizzley basically provides me all that I've lost at HubPages:

• use of my own Amazon ID;
• instant indexing of articles (my first article was indexed with an hour of approval);
• allowed to use "prohibited links" to affiliate sites that HubPages no longer allows (but did when I created the hubs);
• nice friendly management, who also exercise editorial control, so the site is not flooded with rubbish.

Click here if you want to check out Wizzley

Please note that you Wizzley does NOT accept duplicate content - so you will need to unpublish your hubs and wait for them to be deindexed before you can move them to Wizzley

3 Best Ways To Instantly Double Your Affiliate Sales !!!!!!

When it comes to making money with a blog, advertising can become a headache.

That’s why recently, many bloggers have gotten into using affiliate programs to monetize their blog, and some have seen some outstanding success with these programs.

These few are the outliers, however, and many bloggers struggle to even make a single affiliate sale.

Worse yet, it’s almost always because they are using affiliate links in the wrong way, when they should be taking cues from the big bloggers they follow.

Below I am going to show you how to instantly double your affiliate sales on your site.

It is going to take some extra work and it won’t be easy, but I guarantee that if you do things this way, you’ll be doing them the right way.

1.) Show, Don’ Tell (Using Videos)

One of my biggest inspirations in the affiliate marketing game is Pat Flynn of the Smart Passive Income blog.

While some (perhaps including Pat himself) wouldn’t classify him simply as an “affiliate marketer” (he does much more than that), he is definitely one of the best in the biz.

That being said, Pat is quite a role model for affiliate marketers to follow, because he doesn’t rely on trickiery or false promises in his strategy for getting affiliate sales.

In fact, Pat uses all 3 of the techniques that I’m about to mention, but he absolutely excels at one in particular: showing, not telling.

When it comes to getting the affiliate sale, you have to SHOW the potential customer how a product or service will benefit them, not just tell them about it.

And there is no more powerful form of showing than actual video of the product’s usage.

Now I understand that this won’t be applicable for all affiliate products (such as e-Books), but it is very effective for practically everything else.

It’s effective because it gives people a behind the scenes look of how to effectively use what they are about to buy.

While the sales pages of most products will tout the benefits, sales pages are less likely to be believed, just like advertisements are less likely to be believed.

They show you the product, but what’s the guarantee that it will work as advertised?

That’s where the smart affiliate marketer comes in.

Using a hands on video for the product (uploaded on YouTube, which brings in more traffic!) to guide people through the actual uses of the product and showing it in action will lead you to a guaranteed increase in affiliate comissions, as you earn people’s trust by showing them how they can use said product themselves.

Showing leads to trust, and trust leads to more sales.

Which brings me to my next point…

2.) Be Genuine

There is nothing that will bring your affiliate sales down then if you come off as a sleaze who knows nothing about the product you’re promoting.

Ideally, you will love and actively use the product that you are about to promote before you even consider linking to it.

If you are strapped on cash, and building a new site, this is exacly why you should not be plastering affiliate links and ads all over the place: you should be focused on creating a resource that people want to visit, and promoting the products that you do actively use at the time, but in a natural way.

One of the most natural ways to do just that is to use text-based affiliate links in comprehensive posts that thoroughly cover a large topic.

For instance, AWeber is a popular tool for many bloggers, and they offer a rewarding affiliate program.

If you wanted to promote AWeber, a “review post” will likely not be as effective as a post that highlights the benefits of email marketing and building a list, with a few text affiliate links to AWeber, which you tout as your preferred email service of choice.

This type of post will be much better recieved because people will see that you are interested in providing valuable content and not just getting them to click on an affiliate link.

Now imagine you threw in a video of yourself actively managing your list on AWeber, highlighint it’s benefits and superior capabilities… I think you see where I’m going, be genuine and providing actual usage will build trust, which in turn (say it with me) will increase sales.

3.) Focus Your Offerings

When most people start with affiliate marketing, they tend to get stuck in a phase of “ooh shiny!”, promoting every semi-related product under the sun in hopes of a sale.

What they don’t realize is that instead of being beneficial to their conversions and income, this is a disastrous move to their potential earnings.

Having focus in the products you promote is beneficial for a number of reasons.

First is that with an emphasis on a certain selection of products, you will discuss their benefits more and show that you really use them and believe in their worth, building trust.

Second is that bombarding people with tons of affiliate links is not only in poor taste (which people will catch on to), but it diversifies your options too much.

When give too many choices, many people will opt for none, or take so long to decide that you’ll lose the sale.

Focus ensures people know exactly what products you actively use, will guarantee their familiarity with them as they come back to your blog, and will make your links out more legitimate: people will know you only link to the good stuff, and aren’t just linking them to every product in the world, good or bad, just for the affiliate sale.

Want to learn more about affiliate sales and content marketing? Head on over to Sparring Mind, the marketing blog made just for WordPress bloggers like you, proving that you don’t have to be a tech geek to hafve an excellent and profitable blog.

FX Thoughts for the day : 23-Mar-2012 - 1236 GMT

EURO, JAP YEN and EURO-YEN
---------------------------
Read our current comments and trade recommendations on EUR-USD, USD-JPY and EUR-JPY by registering at
http://www.kshitij.com/fxthoughts/fxthoughts.shtml#register
Our comments on Dollar-Swiss, Sterling Pound and Australian Dollar are given below
-------------------------------------------------------------

USD-CHF @ 0.9110/13...Mixed and ranged
R: 0.9140-50 / 0.9200
S: 0.9100-9080 / 0.9020-00
Dollar-Swiss fell sharply during the day to a low of 0.9067 and has bounced back above .9100 once again. The immediate outlook is mixed. Our view remains the same. We expect the pair to remain ranged between 0.9100-9080 on the downside and 0.9200-25 on the upside. A breakout this range would determine the further direction of move.
GBP-USD @ 1.5832/35...Resistance at 1.5900 holding well
R: 1.5900 / 1.6000
S: 1.5800 / 1.5750 / 1.5700
Cable failed once again to see a strong rise past 1.5900 and has come off from its high of 1.5909 during the day. Our view remains the same. We expect the pair to remain pressured on the downside. Also failure to see a strong rise past 1.5900 all through this week leaves a threat of seeing 1.5700-5600 on the downside in the coming sessions/days.

AUD-USD @ 1.0388/91...Overall picture still weak
R: 1.0400 / 1.0450 / 1.0500
S: 1.0350 / 1.0320-00
Aussie saw a high of 1.0450 during the day and has come off from there once again. Failure to extend and sustain the upmove strongly above 1.0400 leaves the overall picture weak and leaves high chances of seeing 1.0330-00 once again on the downside. As mentioned in the morning, the downside is even open for a test of 1.0200 on the monthly charts.
Happy Trading!

Can Social Media Hurt The Success Of Young Entrepreneurs?

I’m always amazed that interns at my company can do so much with the web. I’m even more amazed at the limitations social media has put on young aspiring entrepreneurs and how it hinders the necessary fundamentals to start a business.
If you want to open a B2C (Business to Consumer) company, than yes, social media helps. In B2C, social media is necessary because the “C” element is all on social media. However, in B2B (Business to Business) models, social media is not needed as much.
What is the basis of my argument?

Decision makers of companies are on average much older than even I, thus they find Facebook confusing, frustrating, or consider it a kid’s game because their teenage daughter plays with it on the car ride to school.
Therefore, no real decision maker has the time to go and look up your Facebook page. If it weren’t for my writing, etc., I would not have learned social media either.
Plus, if you’re selling to another business, use of social media is looked down upon or considered to be recreation in today’s corporate culture.
As a whole, technology is specifically geared towards those who are the kids of decision makers, so they can harass their parents to buy the product, hence the B2C appeal.
Facebook ads are the new obnoxious Saturday morning breakfast cartoon commercials, grown up with the generation that used to pester its parents for the toys advertised during Nicktoons.
When you’re in start-up mode, I recommend that you focus on your website rather than your Twitter profile or Facebook page. The VPs and higher don’t care how cool a timeline is; they want results.
1. The Phone Also Makes Calls
Sales is essential to any healthy business. This means cold-calling until you get the corporate branding that leads your customers straight to you (it doesn’t work the other way around).
The lack of socialization I’ve seen from younger people due to social media is not staggering because they can still speak. The ability to persuade and sell comes from practice and most below a certain age don’t have it. Until your brand is recognized to the point where the customer is beating down your door, you need to be chasing that individual.
Yes, social media is a good tool to find them, especially in B2C, but finding them takes simply a minute. Selling them and coming across in a professional manner is a whole different story.
The only way that people gave me a chance when starting my business is that I tracked them down, cold-called them and sold them. I was able to sell them because they believed in me. The same method is so rarely used by intelligent people that young entrepreneurs have an even greater advantage over their peers than I did… if they are willing to deal with others.
2. “There” Vs. “Their” vs. “?”
Social media’s entire point is to connect people as quickly as possible and make it as seamless as possible for them to connect (the more connections = increased advertising accuracy). Therefore, you can have an hour-long conversation without writing a sentence longer than any in this article.
Short sentences in and of themselves are great. It’s the shortened words common to social media that damage young aspiring entrepreneurs’ credibility.
Writing skills are the foundation of effective marketing and those hanging out on Facebook and texting lack the ability, among other issues, to persuasively write, which is necessary to start a company.
Next time you’re on Facebook talking about how cool your business idea is, consider the following:
Social media has become so popular with the masses because it created an atmosphere where people can connect, express feelings and thoughts, and make friends with fragments and smiley faces, thus decreasing writing and marketing skills.It’s not too late (as I was no Hemingway out of college), but the sooner you learn how to write, the sooner your business will get better.
3. Little Education, High Compulsion, Low Return On Investment
Social media is really addictive because it’s fun. I was given some cool access on Google+ and for literally a day (12 hours) played on the site until I self-imposed a ban on social media from my browser for a few days unless work related.
The programmers and marketers at Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., are more intelligent than you can 99.9999% know. Essentially, it’s their job to keep you on their site. The more often you look at the pair of shoes advertised, statistically the more likely you are to buy that product.
If you like Facebook, Twitter and social media sites so much, study how they advertise and the businesses behind them; it is a great education and the research will be helpful to any entrepreneur.
4. What About Networking?
When you’re on a social media site (let’s use LinkedIn) browsing all the people who can help you with your business, you save your money buying contact packages until you can help them with a problem. Otherwise, you’re just one of the many random people who are out in cyber space selling a commodity no better than the next person’s.
I don’t recommend “networking” for anyone until they have something to bring to the table.
Hone your skills to where the prospective contacts need you before you go and ruin a bunch of contacts, as they won’t answer your duplicate InMail without a compelling reason for their own benefit.
Look at the bright side. If you’re a young entrepreneur and you take the time to learn the key fundamentals of entrepreneurship (which I consider to be sales, marketing and good old fashioned work ethic), then you can Tweet from your yacht 7 days a week about how you once read an article telling you that you could be wealthier than 99.9999% of Facebook junkies.

At age 25, Ken Sundheim started KAS Placement Recruitment and Staffing from a studio apartment in New York. With no industry experience nor contacts, Ken learned the staffing business out of a book. KAS Placement now has two offices and is currently nominated as America's Most Promising Companies in 2012 by Forbes Magazine. Ken has previously contributed to NYTimes.com, WSJ.com, USAToday.com, Forbes and many more.

The Power In Thinking Small When Starting Your Business

Many of us, as entrepreneurs, start off with big intentions to do big things. Although I love dreaming big and hear a lot about people thinking big, I find that there is power in thinking small when we are getting started as entrepreneurs or solo-preneurs.
Thinking small when you’re just getting started gives you permission to start where you are right now. Whenever you’re establishing any kind of goal, it’s important to make sure you start from where you presently are. Imagine planning a trip from Florida to Texas and putting your starting point in your GPS as Alabama. It just wouldn’t work.
In this article and video, I’m going to share with you nine ways you can start thinking small and end up with better, much faster results than you would by thinking big.
When we give ourselves small goals that we can reach regularly, we build confidence as entrepreneurs. Our confidence will have a big effect on the overall momentum we establish in our business.
Establish small bench marks that give you an indication that you are progressing toward your goals.
There might be someone or multiple people in your life who are interested in your life, such as a family member or significant other. When we are just getting started, it can be easy and very natural to share our goals with people we care about. But, later, we may realize that the path to the goal we shared was much longer and challenging than expected.
There is nothing wrong with this unless the people who you shared your goals with also share an opinion with you that shows lack of faith in your success. This can happen sometimes if we have tried multiple times to start businesses in the past and didn’t follow through.
If that is the case, just communicate that you expect moderate results and do your best to surprise them with exceptional results. It’s also okay not to share anything at all with anyone until you make your first dollar. I find that not sharing is the best way for some people to get started if they are surrounded by negative people.
Have a small narrow focus with your business activities instead of a big one: Many people add activities that aren’t necessarily responsible for generating revenue. The truth is, you only need to master the phase of your business that you’re in right now. Focusing on anything else can waste time. If you’re just getting started with your business, then just focus on your first steps towards generating revenue and nothing else.
Mastering one marketing process or one way to bring in business is more important than starting 100 customer-getting activities that never really bring you any benefits. Have you ever seen neglected Twitter accounts or Facebook business pages? They do more harm than good.
When we choose to master one marketing process, we can maximize our return from the resources we invest in by making that marketing process work. Starting small with your marketing process is a more effective approach for most entrepreneurs, because when we start small with a marketing process, we can take the time to master the parts that incrementally create a more profitable marketing channel.
Focusing on just one plan to make one sale is one of the most important things you can do when you are just getting started. The more you can narrow your focus on your first sale, the easier it will be to stay on task and not get distracted with anything but the actions that are going to get you to that first sale.
Many people think they should sell their products to anyone and everyone who could buy them. When you get smaller and more specific with who should buy from you, something amazing happens with your marketing. Your marketing material will be 100 times more effective because you can speak the exact needs and wants and concerns of those people.
Once you exhaust that niche there is no shame in starting a second business that services another niche, but we need to play in an industry that is possible for us to win.
When you bring your prospects down your marketing funnel, the fewer decisions you give them, the more likely they will be to make one. Also, the smaller you can make the commitments, the easier it is for them to take a step when you ask them to contact you.
Thinking small budgets forces us to get more creative and become smarter at our craft. It forces us to keep from wasting resources. Focusing on small budgets will help prevent misuse of finances and insure longevity through your first stages of business development.
It’s easy for many of us to try to throw money at problems we don’t know how to fix. When we force ourselves to figure it out, we become more successful because we understand the ins and outs of the foundation of our business.
I personally have met a lot of people that never start the business of their dreams because they think they don’t have the time or resources. It’s like somehow having a part time business isn’t cool.
These people many times will end up leaving their job before they should and put unneeded stress on themselves and their families. If you’re just getting started, give yourself permission to be part time. Just make sure that you block aside a specific amount of time that isn’t under 10 hours a week to work on your business.
Nathaneal
About Nathaneal
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The Power In Thinking Small When Starting Your Business

Many of us, as entrepreneurs, start off with big intentions to do big things. Although I love dreaming big and hear a lot about people thinking big, I find that there is power in thinking small when we are getting started as entrepreneurs or solo-preneurs.

Thinking small when you’re just getting started gives you permission to start where you are right now. Whenever you’re establishing any kind of goal, it’s important to make sure you start from where you presently are. Imagine planning a trip from Florida to Texas and putting your starting point in your GPS as Alabama. It just wouldn’t work.

In this article and video, I’m going to share with you nine ways you can start thinking small and end up with better, much faster results than you would by thinking big.

When we give ourselves small goals that we can reach regularly, we build confidence as entrepreneurs. Our confidence will have a big effect on the overall momentum we establish in our business.

Establish small bench marks that give you an indication that you are progressing toward your goals.

There might be someone or multiple people in your life who are interested in your life, such as a family member or significant other. When we are just getting started, it can be easy and very natural to share our goals with people we care about. But, later, we may realize that the path to the goal we shared was much longer and challenging than expected.

There is nothing wrong with this unless the people who you shared your goals with also share an opinion with you that shows lack of faith in your success. This can happen sometimes if we have tried multiple times to start businesses in the past and didn’t follow through.

If that is the case, just communicate that you expect moderate results and do your best to surprise them with exceptional results. It’s also okay not to share anything at all with anyone until you make your first dollar. I find that not sharing is the best way for some people to get started if they are surrounded by negative people.

Have a small narrow focus with your business activities instead of a big one: Many people add activities that aren’t necessarily responsible for generating revenue. The truth is, you only need to master the phase of your business that you’re in right now. Focusing on anything else can waste time. If you’re just getting started with your business, then just focus on your first steps towards generating revenue and nothing else.

Mastering one marketing process or one way to bring in business is more important than starting 100 customer-getting activities that never really bring you any benefits. Have you ever seen neglected Twitter accounts or Facebook business pages? They do more harm than good.

When we choose to master one marketing process, we can maximize our return from the resources we invest in by making that marketing process work. Starting small with your marketing process is a more effective approach for most entrepreneurs, because when we start small with a marketing process, we can take the time to master the parts that incrementally create a more profitable marketing channel.

Focusing on just one plan to make one sale is one of the most important things you can do when you are just getting started. The more you can narrow your focus on your first sale, the easier it will be to stay on task and not get distracted with anything but the actions that are going to get you to that first sale.

Many people think they should sell their products to anyone and everyone who could buy them. When you get smaller and more specific with who should buy from you, something amazing happens with your marketing. Your marketing material will be 100 times more effective because you can speak the exact needs and wants and concerns of those people.

Once you exhaust that niche there is no shame in starting a second business that services another niche, but we need to play in an industry that is possible for us to win.

When you bring your prospects down your marketing funnel, the fewer decisions you give them, the more likely they will be to make one. Also, the smaller you can make the commitments, the easier it is for them to take a step when you ask them to contact you.

Thinking small budgets forces us to get more creative and become smarter at our craft. It forces us to keep from wasting resources. Focusing on small budgets will help prevent misuse of finances and insure longevity through your first stages of business development.

It’s easy for many of us to try to throw money at problems we don’t know how to fix. When we force ourselves to figure it out, we become more successful because we understand the ins and outs of the foundation of our business.

I personally have met a lot of people that never start the business of their dreams because they think they don’t have the time or resources. It’s like somehow having a part time business isn’t cool.

These people many times will end up leaving their job before they should and put unneeded stress on themselves and their families. If you’re just getting started, give yourself permission to be part time. Just make sure that you block aside a specific amount of time that isn’t under 10 hours a week to work on your business.

 

How We Made A Three Person Partnership Work

In case you missed it, last week Gideon Shalwick and Leslie Samuel, my two partners in Become A Blogger 2.0, along with me (Yaro), hosted a live webinar.
Before I begin telling you some of the background story about how this new partnership came together and the challenges we faced, I want to make sure you know about our $1 Trial.
This is the very first opening of Become A Blogger 2.0. That means you have the best chance to grab the full course at the lowest price and with the most extras.

During the Webinar we opened up the doors to the Become A Blogger 2.0 Premium course, which includes 9 training modules, my master the mindset audios and 3 special gifts, one from me, Gideon and Leslie.
As I write this we already have 206 new members, which is fantastic (welcome to all of you!).
All the details are available on our sign-up page here -
http://www.becomeablogger.com/specialoffer
The $1 trial is for two weeks, after which, it is $27 a month for six months to complete the course.
The $1 trial ends Monday at midnight, so if you want to sample the first two weeks of the program before committing, today is the day to sign up.
We also plan to increase the fee to $47 by the end of the week, so today really is the best day to join.
Gideon and I enjoyed huge success with Become A Blogger, the first version, three years ago. We’ve had almost 2,000 paying members take the program, not to mention nearly 40,000 people join our email list.
Over a year ago we closed the course down. It was in need of some updating, and Gideon and I were not in a position to do it, so we decided shutting down was the best course of action.
To be honest, I was a little surprised (pleasantly) by how well the program did over the two or so years we had it on the market. It is a beginner course, focused on video, which clearly hit the sweet spot for a lot of people.
We didn’t want to let the service or the brand just die, so last year we began thinking about how we could reinvent and reinvigorate the program.
One of the most successful graduates of Become A Blogger 1.0 was Leslie Samuel. I had been in contact with Leslie for a long time, interviewing him about his freebie trading site, then taking him on board as a columnist and reviewer here on EJ. He had gone on to grow a successful Biology blog too.

Leslie, as I learned through regular contact, is very skilled and knowledgeable about blogging and internet marketing. He’s also a wonderfully friendly guy, very enthusiastic about what he does online.
Amazingly enough, his online projects were created part time, as Leslie works a full time job as a teacher and more recently, university lecturer. This demonstrates to me that his work ethic and efficiency is incredible – something I know is rare and worth learning about.
Last year Gideon was knee deep in his video training products and my focus had switched to CrankyAds. I floated the idea to Gideon about asking if Leslie wanted to join the BAB 2.0 team, and become the main teacher for the reincarnation of the program.
I had seen Leslie’s videos on his own website – his YouTube channel has over a million views – so he knows how to teach with video (it helps that he is a teacher and so enthusiastic, it makes for fantastic video viewing).
We all met on Skype (Leslie is in Michigan, and Gideon has moved to the Sunshine Coast, about an hour away from me in Brisbane) and cemented our plans to launch Become A Blogger 2.0, with Leslie as the figurehead.
Just as Gideon had partnered with me and created most of the videos for the first program, Leslie would come on board and be the new leader for the 2.0 version.
I’ve never worked in a three person partnership before. I’ve done two person partnerships, but adding a third to an existing partnership presented a few unique challenges.
Gideon and I were very clear up front with Leslie. We were going to provide strategic direction and distribution, with Leslie updating and creating new videos, and doing the lion-share of the teaching.
The greatest challenge has turned out to be timing. With three people, scheduling is difficult, especially with Leslie in the US and Gideon and I in Australia.
We also took a long time to settle on a strategy.
When BAB 1.0 launched we used my standard formula – release a free report, then do a series of launch content emails, then open the doors with a long form sales letter. We actually added the ten free videos to the mix as an additional method to bring attention to our service, which thanks to affiliates, helped us reach a lot of people.
We knew the ten free videos needed updating, so that was the first thing Leslie went to work on. We also knew that the entire course needed a review, and revamp. Some videos were no longer needed, while new ones needed to be added. Only a handful were still relevant (mostly the strategic/fundamentals videos), so about 80% of the course needed creating, which Leslie went to work on over a period of months.
Once the course was done and the ten free videos were ready to go, we had to decide how to get all this out to you.
In the end, we decided to test out what is clearly the hottest trend in Internet marketing – hosting a free webinar.
You might be surprised to know that the BAB 2.0 webinar was the first one I have ever done as a promotional tool for my own product (in partnership or on my own).
I’ve been a part of a lot of webinars where I would be the “host” so to speak, bringing my audience some great training from other experts, but these were always other peoples presentations.
This time, Leslie, Gideon and me would have to be the show.
It took us a few months, but after several skype calls, time spent creating slides, work done to combine the presentations and two practice runs, we had a pretty good presentation ready to go.
Last Friday we did our first live run of the presentation, which you can watch the encore for here –
Become A Blogger Live Webinar – Encore Presentation
Besides some audio issues, which only affected a minority of people, the show went off without a hitch. We spent one and a half hours teaching our system for making money with blogs, with another hour or so answering questions and of course, inviting people to join our program with the $1 Trial opening up at the end.
I may be biased, but I’m very impressed with what we came up with. My part of the presentation focused on showing you success stories and then explaining where most would-be-bloggers go wrong. Gideon, our MC, used his wonderful visual presenting style to give an overview of the system we follow and teach (including a cameo from some underwear loving Gnomes) and then Leslie presented a fantastic step-by-step teaching case study, using his Biology blog as the example.
If you are a new blogger or very early in your blogging career, I think you will get a lot out of this presentation
http://www.becomeablogger.com/webinar/encore
Judging by the questions we had during the Webinar, people really loved following along with Leslie’s part of the presentation, dissecting his Biology blog.
He teaches a technique, whether it be for choosing a topic, or getting traffic or making money, then shows how he went and applied the technique to his Biology blog.
Practical examples like this are great learning tools, especially in this case because Leslie was showing exactly what he had done over the previous year following the system Gideon and I teach AND he has done it in a non-internet marketing niche (i.e. he is not showing people how he made money teaching how to make money).
If you haven’t watched the Webinar, I strongly recommend you do so, Leslie’s part of the presentation begins about half an hour into the show, so look out for it.
If you do decide to join Become A Blogger 2.0, during the order process you will have an opportunity to upgrade your account to include private coaching.
Gideon, Leslie and I are hosting 6 live teaching and question and answer webinars, but only for those who upgrade.
We are only doing this ONCE, so it won’t be available as live Webinars for future releases of the course. If you want to speak to me, Gideon and Leslie and get personal support for your blog and business, sign up this week and upgrade your account when you have the chance to do so.
I’ll leave you with the two most important links
The Sign-Up Page For BAB 2.0The Encore Presentation Of The Webinar
Enjoy the free training, and I’ll see you inside BAB 2.0.
Yaro Starak
Still Training
P.S. If you are thinking about starting a new project in a partnership, here is some further reading I published a while ago about my partnership with Gideon –
Is A Partnership Right For You?
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