Pictures from The MindValley / SMART Event
I’m probably the last person to upload pictures from the SMART Seminar / Mind Valley dinner and hang-out session earlier this month. Thanks to Vishen for organizing such a great event, which is a great break from the otherwise boring life of an Internet marketer 
Granted not all the pictures are here but can see more from all these Facebook profiles.
This is a picture of me and Alexandra Cattoni from MindValley. In case you’re wondering, yes Mind Valley is filled with beautiful talented people. It’s not fair I know but life’s never fair. If only I knew about Mind Valley when I decided to quit my job in TM three years ago.
That’s me, Ewen Chia, Vince Tan and Edmund Loh.
With Anik Singhal and Ewen Chia, two of the world’s top super affiliates. I never got the chance to speak to Ewen much before. But during this event I realized he’s a really nice down-to-earth guy and I suspect that’s because he had to work really hard to get to where he is now.
On the left are Brian Wong and Vishen Lakhiani, the co-founder of Mind Valley. Their blog is a must-read too if you’re serious about Internet marketing. Brian Wong is a NuSkin Diamond and he’s pretty successful in the MLM and personal development market, plus he drives a Lotus Elise.
And a picture of (almost) everyone including Patric Chan and wife Emily, Mark Joyner, Simon Leung.
I hope Vishen and Mind Valley will organize more events like this – and I hope I get invited too
GMail Themes in New GMail Version
Whoo..
I logged into Gmail to day and found that they have a new version, with added themes! Cool.
Now you can customize Gmail to match your personality with over 30 themes to choose from. Themes range from simple color-only variations to some pretty funky and even weird ones (see below)
In some cases, you can also customize by location. Some themes change during the day, and we use the location information you provide to correctly time these changes with your local sunrise, sunset, and/or weather. If you select one of these themes, you’ll see a Country/Region drop-down menu appear. Select the country you want, and then enter a city in the field provided. If you don’t enter a city, or enter an invalid one, we’ll set your location to the capital city of the country you selected.
(Will anyone ever use the theme above?)
I finally settled for the “Graffiti” theme below. It’s supposed to change colors according to the time of day, so I’ll just see what happens for now. If you don’t already have the themes feature in your Gmail please wait and you’ll get it soon enough.
Awesome Singapore Night Safari and Zoo
I went to Singapore last weekend partly for the SMART Seminar (although I made an appearance for only a few hours) and to take a short break from my business activities. We we there for three days but unfortunately could not go to as many places as I had hoped. Maybe another trip there soon?
One place I’ve always wanted to go was the Singapore Night Safari – heck this has been 10 years coming! Although me and Sheila don’t think it was as good as the Bogor Safari in Indonesia, it was still interesting enough to keep me interested. I have a short attention span, mind you..
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures with Flash, and that meant it wasn’t worth taking any pictures of the animals at all since all you’ll see is darkness. I did however manage to get some “fish therapy” at the exit of the Night Safari and that was really interesting.
I’ve seen a lot of “fish theraphy” outlets spring up in Malaysia over the past year but never tried it. The moment you put your feet in the water the fish immediately start to nibble away.
Did you know that a Malaysian zoo worker jumped into the white tigers enclosure and died the same day we were there? I didn’t know about it too till I read the news the following day. It’s a pretty freaky story of how someone could just lose their mind and decide to take their own life in the most unusual way!
Going Aboard The Singapore Flyer
A view of Singapore city at night from the Singapore Flyer, supposedly the largest wheel in the world. This was one of the places I visited when I went to Singapore recently and although it did not meet my expectations, the ride was still quite interesting.
The full view of the Singapore flyer, taken on our “Duck Tour” the next day.
Here’s the full view of the Singapore Flyer Pretty intimidating huh?
You could go onboard the Flyer in the morning to have a clear day view of the city, or you could go during sunset to catch a romantic glimpse of the sun setting amid the skyscrapers. You could also go at night, like I did, to see the lion city fully lit.
Software Developers Vs Internet Marketers
I remember bringing up this topic recently while having a drink with some Internet marketing friends here in KL. If you feel strongly about this topic, do leave a comment.
Our conversation centered around buying software. We noticed a BIG difference between buying software from Internet marketing gurus, and buying software from developers.
Let’s take membership site software as an example. Depending on what it’s supposed to do, membership site software can be quite complex and intimidating to the non-tech user, especially newbies. So you can either buy the membership site software from an established developer like Amember or you can get a membership site from an Internet marketer, for example the Butterfly Marketing script.
Buying Software from Developers
By “developer” I mean a person or company (usually made of programmers) who develop a particular piece of software and sell it online. One thing I noticed is that their software tends to be very well coded, does what it’s supposed to do perfectly, and seldom crashes. Even if it does crash, there is usually a good deal of online support available.
However, the downside is that these developers seldom understand the complexities of online marketing and therefore do no develop the applications that users want. Amember for example, still does not have a OTO or One-Time-Offer plugin, and their affiliate program interface is pretty sad. Reporting functions are lame too.
But Amember does what it’s supposed to do – which is protect folders and files while accepting membership payments – extremely well. It’s also, in my opinion, pretty easy to use.
Buying Software from Internet Marketers
The Internet marketing group seems to understand online marketing much better, and develop their software with the purpose of making it easier for users to sell more products, get more members, train more affiliates and get more viral traffic.
However, most Internet marketers seem to operate from the hit-and-run business model – let me explain. When Mike Filsaime launched Butterfly Marketing, a vital part of his system was the membership site script. It was not the first to have features such as OTO, but it certainly did OTOs and upsells / downsells better than any other script.
After the initial launch and hype died down, it seems that Mike Filsaime had already moved on to other projects and any new development to the BFM script was abandoned. A great product no doubt, but the fact that it’s no longer being developed would mean that support becomes limited, and as a result it would not make sense trying to use the script in the long term unless you’re a programmer.
Anyone who’s tried to use the Butterfly Marketing script however would notice how disorganized the system is, and the lack or documentation and support. Also, a lack of a parallel community that supports to develop related applications and guides for the software.
The Verdict
Unfortunately as far as buying marketing software is concerned, it seems that you cannot have your cake and eat it too. If a developer makes a really good piece of software that has all the features I want plus more in the pipeline, I would prefer to be his customer.
I’ve been using Amember for over a year now and their support is always great. The only reason I may want to move away from them is if they do not have features that I really need.
Internet marketers who develop software do a good job as well, but it seems that their dedication and attention to keep on supporting their creation is simply not there. Although a few exceptions like John Delavera (Fantasos), Jonathan Leger (3 Way Links and Instant Article Wizard) and Brad Calen (Keyword Elite and SEO Elite) have the best of both worlds, in reality most Internet marketers would eventually abandon their software in search of easier, faster money.
Your opinion?
Aweber Integrates Twitter Into Their Service
If you have an Aweber account you would know this by now – you can now send updates on your latest broadcast to your Twitter account.
According to the Aweber blog:
Today, we’re happy to announce that you can now use your Twitter and AWeber accounts together to expand the reach of your email newsletters.
For now, you can only use one Twitter account for all your broadcasts, but there are hints on improving this service is it turns out to be a hit with Internet marketers and bloggers alike.
Kill The Guru Contest
This is fun. Have fun shooting the gurus, and let me know if you can beat my score of 22.
- Take a screenshot of your highest score and post it to your blog.
- Then post a comment here with the URL to your blog post
- Link back to this post not required, but appreciated..
Its as easy as that. The shooter with the highest score wins $100 cash sent to your Paypal account. Get shooting now!
This contest is from 24th - 30th October (11.59pm EST) only. Winner will be announced here as soon as the contest is over.
NOTE: In your screenshot please include parts of this post, for example the first line of text at the bottom, for verification.
UPDATE: Winner is Gloson Teh with an inhuman score of 44. He sure killed a lot of gurus on his way to the top.
I Will Be At The SMART Seminar Malaysia and Singapore
It’s been more than a year now since World Internet Summit Singapore and WIME in San Francisco. It’s time to get to an Internet marketing event, and this year it’s The SMART Seminar by Stuart Tan and Simon Leung.
It happens on the 7-9 November in Malaysia and from the 14-16 November in Singapore.
Events like this are a great way to meet other Internet marketers, socialize, and maybe even form new partnerships. To all Malaysians, you can get a discounted ticket price from me so I hope to see more of you at the event.
To all my Singapore friends, I hope to see you at the Lion City and maybe catch up on some stories.
Get Big Fast or Die Slowly
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, had a simple but revolutionary concept that literally changed the world of e-commerce and it’s place in history. He called it “Get Big Fast”.
Let analyze the sanity of this theory, and how to apply it to your online business.
GET BIG FAST.
Well actually, similar ideas have long been covered in self-help books, using the term “delayed gratification” although it was used in reference to the individual and not a business. It basically means instead of reaping the fruits of your labor now, why not invest it for the future? The rationale is that if you can delay gratifying or satisfying your needs now, you can have even more in the future.
For example lets say you just made $200 on the Internet in the last month. You have two choices: spend the money or re-invest it into your business.
The first option gives you instant gratification, and after all it’s your hard earned money so why not spend it to give yourself a treat? By all means go ahead, spend your first online check on brining your family out to a fantastic dinner.
But what about the next check you get? And the next? And the next?
Do you go out and buy a new car (like so many Malaysian business people do) or re-invest it into your business to create more products, get more leads, build a stronger brand and woo new partners?
That’s exactly what Jeff Bezos thought about when Amazon was but a dream. He decided to forfeit all profits to expand the Amazon brand, customer base and inventory. According to Jeff, when you’re in a rapidly growing market you should forget about profits and focus instead on market share. That’s because when the market matures, you will be one of the biggest players in it and stand to get the highest profit.
Amazon should have, and could have, been profitable much earlier. Amazon’s first “reported” profitable quarter was in 2002 – but it was really profitable at least a year before that. All the profits went into making the business bigger,faster. This helped Amazon evolve form a small startup into one of the largest online economies of our time.
Have you ever wondered how history could have been much,much different if Bezos decided to take out Amazon’s first profits and get himself a nice Ferrari or yatch?
History is littered with thousands of would-be millionaires who just could not control their urges of self-satisfaction and leading “the good life”. Lets try not to be one of them.
Get big fast. Do it.
Unique PPC / Keyword Research Tools
Was going through the PPC Classroom material finally, and I found their range of keyword research tools to be awesome. I’ve been doing some PPC using Google AdWords for a long time now but I’m not a hardcore user like pure PPC affiliates are. I just relied on my trusty Keyword Elite to do most of the work, while I also use the Keyword Suggestion Tool.
I know that serious PPC affiliates always recommend more tools to get even more keywords and get an advantage over everyone else who just relies on the “common” keywords. But I never seemed to find any that I could understand and use easily.
But in PPC Classroom, I found several simple but effective keyword tools:
Keyword List Cleaner - Enter your list of keywords, and you can remove duplicates, whitespace and even convert keywords from/to uppercase or lowercase.
Google Match Type Tools - Easily build Google "match type" keyword lists and negative keyword lists. Plus they have done all the hard work and listed tons of common negative keywords you can use for most campaigns. You can also generate exact / broad / phrase matching keywords.
You wonder why AdWords doesn’t allow you to do this easily within their system?
Key Phrase Multiplier – Enter your primary and secondary keywords, and it generates a whole lot more keywords based on possible combinations.
AdWords Ad Writing Tool – This is perhaps the most interesting tool of all – it helps you write AdWords ads easily. There’s a chose of Headlines, Ad Copy and “Power Words” that you can basically just select to create your ad, then fill in the blanks with your keywords.
The problem with writing AdWords copy is that the space is extremely limited. So you tend to settle for words other than what you really want to use. With this tool you are presented with many synonyms you can use. It also tells you how many characters are left.
Typo Generator – Misspelled keywords are a gold mine, and although my trusty Keyword Elite does give me typo keywords, this tool allows you to specify what type of typos you want, such as:
- "Missing Letter" will systemically delete letters from each keyword.
- "Double Letters" will systemically double letters within each keyword.
- "Reverse Letters" will systemically reverse letters within each keyword.
- "Skip Spaces" will remove space between multi-word key phrases.
- "Inserted Letter" will systemically add each letter of the alphabet within each keyword.
- "Missed Letter" will systemically replace one letter from each keyword with each letter of the alphabet.
PPC ROI Calculator – Enter your keyword cost data and your sale commissions as well as conversion rate, and it will basically tell you if the campaign is profitable or not. Good to roughly predict the profitability of affiliate programs you want to promote.
Long Tail Keyword Generator – Most keyword research tools will not give you massive long tail keyword data. For example using this tool you can add colors, city / area names and other words before or after the keyword to create long tail keywords easily.
Geo Keywords – Sometimes people go to Google but type in keywords to find information about their specific state or city only. This keywords lets you add those “geo” locations to your keywords.
The basic idea with all these keyword tools is to create a massive keyword list, hopefully uncovering keywords that are not used by too many people yet. Then you would have a lot of clicks with virtually no competition.
PPC Classroom also comes with a full guide to AdWords / Pay Per Click advertising designed by Amit Mehta, who made over $2.4 million dollar in affiliate commissions last year with no list, no products and no website. From what I see, the information in there is really good plug it’s an “ongoing education” thin which means that they will be adding webinars, teleseminars and additional content from time to time.
I highly recommend you check out PPC Classroom.
Free Work at Home Tips
Testimonial
Thanks Gobala for your WordPress Adsense System. It really helped meto get started with blogging, which I had no knowledge about in the past. I was able to set up my blog with 2 days.That's amazing!John Tan
JohnTanBlog.com
