January 2010
Monthly Archive
Monthly Archive
Martin | : The Kickstart Guide to Making Money Online
Are you bothered by the amount of information Google is able to
amass about you? Browsing habits, tastes, bank details and dozens
of other bits of personal data are able to be directly or
indirectly gleaned from what you do online. As Google are getting
involved in so many different web services, it is clear that they
are capable of being privy to stuff we haven’t even thought
about!
But is it a problem for you?
It isn’t a problem for me. The reduction in so-called privacy is
inevitable. If Google aren’t gathering it, then other people are.
Heck, even my supermarket keeps a file on every item I’ve ever
bought from them. And there is a lot they can glean from my
choice of toilet paper!
I feel the same way about Google knowing everything about me as I
do about the UK government’s proposal to introduce identity
cards, or the idea of being on a DNA database: I really don’t
care. I have nothing to hide.
I have never really ‘got’ the human rights people’s complaints
that these things are bad.
I mean, if having everyone on a DNA database means that a
murderer or rapist is caught quicker then I’m all for it. I’ll
happily swap the possible threat to my privacy for saving someone
else from becoming a victim of a monster.
The only negative I’ve heard about DNA databases is that one day,
an insurance company *might* get hold of the data and refuse me
medical cover because I have a genetic disorder I didn’t know
about.
I don’t think it is beyond the wit of those who govern to
legislate against that possibility.
I digress.
Yes, Google may have vast databanks of info about each one of us.
But they are not the only ones.
A friend of mine used to work for a company that collects,
consolidates and analyses data about individual consumers from
mailing lists, questionnaires, competition entries and thousands
of other offline sources.
You simply wouldn’t believe how much they already know about each
and every one of us.
They can even make assumptions about the way we think or act from
information they hold about our neighbors!
And yes, they sell all that data to anyone who wants to pay for
it.
Living in the Information Age has its consequences. The
redefinition of personal privacy is one of them.
So I’m not bothered. And even if I was, there isn’t a darned
thing I could do about it short of cutting the wires to the
Internet, crushing my cellphone, moving to a tent in the
wilderness and removing myself from the 21st century completely.
Living off the grid might sound like fun, but it would pretty
soon get very cold and very hungry. And very, very dull.
Martin | : The Kickstart Guide to Making Money Online
I wrote about Nicheology the other day, but on reflection, didn’t
really express just how valuable the stuff they offer can be.
In my book Unlock the Secrets of Private Label eBooks I
detail 11 different ways you can use private label
ebook material. Any one of them can make you money and in
combination, the sky is the limit.
What Nicheology offers are two different types of PLR ebooks –
ones called ‘products in the rough’, which are text files that
you can use as the basis of a product of your own, and more
polished ebooks that come with sales letters and graphics already
produced.
As I said on Tuesday, one of the major selling points for me is
not only that you get new products in both categories every
month, but that you get access to the entire back catalog from
the word go. That is invaluable because they have so may books
now, on so many different subjects, that whatever niche you are
in, there is likely to be material there that you can use.
So what can you do with all these private label books?
Well for starters, polish them up, add a few extras of your own
and sell them as your own work. In my researches on ClickBank I
have found quite a few high popularity (i.e. ones that are
selling well) books that are on sale for $47 or more – that I
know are originally Nicheology products in the rough.
And often, several people are selling the same book under a
different title.
I haven’t done that yet (although I’m currently working on
polishing up one title for sale). My use of Nicheology is
different.
First, the site I’m building is a review site of ClickBank
products, themed by a specific niche. I’m using Nicheology ebooks
in five different ways on that site alone:
1. I have taken one ‘Product in the Rough’ and polished it up
into a long-ish (35 pages) report, which I offer as an incentive
for people to sign up to the associated newsletter.
2. I have taken five other Nicheology books and smartened them up
a bit to offer to buyers in each of the sections of the site as a
bonus when they buy a book from that section through my ClickBank
link.
3. Another couple of books have been stripped down into their
component chapters and posted to the site as relevant content
pages that link up to my review pages.
4. Using those same chapters I’ve been able to precis each one
into a 200-300 word blog post. It is very easy to cut down stuff
that other people have written, and fast. I can create about a
dozen good blog posts in an hour this way.
5. All of the books, whether the ones I’m offering as bonuses or
the ones I’ve used as content, are a rich source of ideas and
tips to put in the newsletters I send out to the list that the
site is building for me.
I could, if I wanted to, use the very same material in other
ways:
* Turn each chapter of a book into a short video to put on
YouTube and other sites to provide links back to mine.
* Create podcasts from the material.
* Combine several books into one to create a really good book for
sale in its own right.
* Use each chapter of the books as the basis for an article – by
simply paraphrasing it as you read it. A very fast way of
producing relevant and unique articles.
All this is possible because private label basically means you
can do anything you like (except sell the private label rights
yourself!) It is fantastic!
Now, there will be people who read all of the above and say ‘but
that all looks like a lot of work!’ And they’d be right.
Internet marketing – at least, successful Internet marketing IS a
lot of work – and don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise.
But how much MORE work would it be to create a quality content
site without access to all this good material?
How much harder is it to write a dozen articles from scratch than
it is to paraphrase a book that is already written for you?
How much more daunting would it be to have to research and then
write a whole 50-page ebook to give away as a bonus that to just
read through a few candidates from Nicheology and then tart them
up to look pretty?
It is still work, but a whole world less work than the
alternative!
I don’t really believe in shortcuts, but I do believe in
smartcuts and Nicheology is the smartest investment I’ve made so
far this year. And next time my credit card expires, I’ll be on
to them to give them a new number as fast as I can!
Martin | : Private Label Rights
Sometimes I feel like such a dummy.
When the obvious is staring me in the face, I so often look
everywhere but right at it. And guess what? I’ve done it again!
As long-time readers if Kickstart will know, I am a big fan of
private label ebooks. The idea that someone will write a book
that you can then take for mere pennies and turn into a product
to sell is beyond magical to me.
In fact, I love private label ebooks so much that I wrote the
first (and as I rather immodestly still think, the best) ebook on
the subject of how to make great money from using them. Unlock
the Secrets of Private Label eBooks has been on sale now for four
years and if I had to sit down to write it again, I wouldn’t
change a thing.
Well, there is one thing I would change (and probably will for
any future updates I release) and that is the section on where I
recommend my favorite source of PLR ebooks. You see, most of the
really good sources have dried up and I haven’t found anything as
good to replace them.
That became a real problem for me a few days ago.
I’m in the process of creating a big affiliate website. It has
loads of ClickBank products that I’ve reviewed and I wanted some
good PLR material to use as content for some of the pages, blog
posts, and tips. My site is themed, so each section is about a
different, but related subject. To encourage sales I wanted to
offer a different bonus book to anyone who buys a recommended
ebook through my link.
I also wanted a really good ebook to offer as an incentive for
folks to sign up to the newsletter I’m launching alongside the
site (actually more of an ongoing autoresponder series than a
newsletter, but you get my drift).
So you can see that suddenly I needed a LOT of good private label
ebook material and I needed it fast.
Trouble was that my favorite membership site has been having
difficulties lately and I couldn’t use them. And none of my other
sources were up to the job.
I needed a PLR ebook site that would give me access to a huge
library of ebooks from the very start – not drip-feed me material
over the months.
So many membership sites only allow you access to the current
month’s offerings and future stuff as it is uploaded. The back
catalogue is either closed to you, or only available at extra
cost. Not good.
The answer, when it hit me, was blindingly obvious.
When I first wrote my book, the #1 PLR ebook membership site was
called Nicheology. I loved it and raved about it whenever I
could. But there was a big problem – joining was very difficult
because they kept on restricting membership and forcing people to
get on a waiting list.
I was happy because I was already a member, but recommending it
to others was a frustrating experience all round.
Then two things happened simultaneously:
1. My credit card expired
2. The owner of Nicheology sold out to someone else.
I vaguely thought that the change of ownership would be a bad
thing (although I had no evidence that would be so) and so never
bothered to give them a new credit card number. My membership
expired.
Well two days ago it struck me that Nicheology might be the
answer to my problem if they are still half as good as they used
to be. So I checked them out.
And was blown away!
I was able to join with no problem at all, had immediate access
to the entire back catalogue and to my joy found that the new
owner has taken the Nicheology site to a completely different
level.
It is fantastic!
Within a few minutes I had downloaded 8 ebooks that fit the theme
of my site – some are fully-formatted ebooks, and some are what
they call ‘products in the rough’, text files that you can format
for yourself.
I have more content that I know what to do with and all the bonus
products I need.
And all for a trial price of just $1!
Of course, I will not be canceling my membership – Nicheology is
just too valuable to allow it to slip through my fingers again!