A couple of weeks ago I recommended a great product about how to build blogs to flip (resell) – BlogFlipz.

About a year ago I recommended another product that was all about how to build WordPress Blogs – WordPress DeMystified.

Well now I have news of a brand new product from the same guy who created WordPress DeMystified, Jason Johns, that shows you, in great detail, how to build profitable niche blogs.

Niche Blog Advantage is so hot off the press that I don’t think that Jason has even mentioned it to his own list yet, but for the last few days I’ve been very happily watching the videos and learning a ton of good stuff along the way.

Jason is a really good teacher. His style is to let you look over his shoulder while he actually does the business – and commentates on exactly what he is doing and why for every step of the way.

The result is that there are no stones left unturned and no possibility of confusion.

It also helps that he has a great sense of humor and happens to sound a lot like Ricky Jervais. Education and entertainment all rolled into one – it is a winning combination!

Jason has broken his new course down into four main sections:

* How to pick a niche (11 videos);

* How to master keyword research (12 videos);

* How to build effective and profitable niche-based WordPress blogs quickly and easily (5 videos);

* Everything you could ever hope to want to know about traffic generation (15 videos).

There is a lot of stuff covered in Niche Blog Advantage that is new to me, and if he has left anything out, I have no idea what it could be! But just in case, Jason has added three sets of bonus videos on Twitter, on Automated blogging and on the hot topic of the day, how to make money from CPA offers. There are over 30 videos just in the bonuses!

You’d think that such an exhaustively complete course (and believe me, it IS exactly that) would be priced at the very top of the market. I know if I’d put in the work and effort that Jason has done I wouldn’t sell it for less than $147, and probably even more than that. And I believe it would be worth every penny.

But Jason has decided to keep the cost low. Very low. Stupidly low (and I’ve been on Skype with him this morning telling him just that).

Frankly I hope that he wakes up and sets a more realistic price for Niche Blog Advantage soon, but until that happens, you can get hold of the best value-for-money product I think I’ve ever recommended.

But don’t be deceived by the silly price. The information Jason teaches is worth a bundle – and the clear way he teaches it is priceless.

http://urlnex.us/nicheblogadvantage

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A question that often comes up in my mentoring sessions, and has cropped up again on the Warrior forum today is whether or not you should use your real name in your online businesses.

Some people are paranoid about privacy and are convinced that even hinting at their real name online will bring all kinds of stalkers, identity thieves and other undesirables running to their front doors.

So they hide behind silly nicknames or meaningless strings of characters in the belief that they are somehow protecting themselves.

Rarely is that successful. There have been one or two people who have managed to brand their nickname, but in all cases that I can remember their real name was in evidence as well.

Online marketing is very difficult and starting out with negative credibility is like trying to run a race while attached to the starting post by a bungee rope. Sooner or later it will drag you down.

I have always used my own name and have never had any problems as a result. In fact, here in Kickstart I share a whole lot more personal information than just my name! And apart from making me a lot of good friends, it hasn’t ever been a problem.

No stalkers, no crazed lunatics and only one groupie – Kim Standerline who tells everyone she wants to be the next Mrs Avis when I’ve done with the first one! Sorry Kim, but if Delia reads this, YOU might need to change your name!

Having said that, there ARE circumstances where using your real name can be a problem:

1. If your real name is already well known in a different arena. For example, a friend of mine is a high profile public figure who took up Internet marketing as a hobby some years ago. From the get go he used a pseudonym because he realized that people searching Google for his real name would just get confused if they came up with IM stuff.

2. I’ve known people who have ‘escaped’ from abusive relationships and who use pseudonyms online to avoid their ex spouse finding out where they now live. You can’t argue with that.

3. People who operate in several wildly different niches may want to use different names to keep the various sides of their business apart. I do this myself if I’m selling ebooks and reports in different fields because ‘Martin Avis’ is primarily known for Internet marketing and I don’t want to dilute that by having too many search engine results for different subjects.

4. Some employers are easily upset if they think that their employees are moonlighting, so in that case, a budding online entrepreneur might reasonably and sensibly use a pseudonym to avoid trouble with their boss.

5. It is conceivable that a person’s real name is too long or too difficult to read and pronounce for the market they are aiming at. In that case, it is often simply good practice to adopt a simpler version for recognition reasons.

In each of these cases it is reasonable and justifiable to use a false name. However, the key is that the false name should be recognizable as a ‘real’ name and not as some anonymous jumble of characters, or, sometimes worse, as a silly nickname. There is no credibility in these obvious fake names.

It is often said that people like to do business with people, and that is even more true online. There is so much suspicion already, why add to it by giving the impression you have something to hide?

What do you do and what are your thoughts on the matter? Comments are very welcome undear ANY name!

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Someone asked on a forum what the world would be like without the Internet.

A world without the Internet huh?

That would be when we went to a library for our info products (only we called them books and the only ones who ever said ebooks were elderly Yorkshiremen).

That would be when social networking meant going out to the local youth club. Or, Heaven forbid, becoming a Boy Scout or Girl Guide.

That would be when a facebook had black pages and the ‘faces’ were stuck in with little paper corners.

That would be when a forum was a place for debate and usually involved cold beer and tipsy girlfriends.

That would be when calling someone a blogger would get you a black eye.

That would when watching a monitor involved staring at the school prefect.

That would be when the most advanced keyboard was attached to a Moog.

That would be when a floppy disc would give you a bad back.

That would be when a payment processor was made of brass, had keys with the denominations and a drawer that went ‘ting’.

That would be when the superhighway was the M1 in the UK or Route 66 in the US.

That would be when CD meant you didn’t have to pay your fines.

That would be when the only time you needed a RAM was when you had a few ewes to be covered.

That would be when a bit was more than you could chew or a byte would need a visit to the dentist.

That would be when Amazon was a river and Google was a misspelled number.

That would be when traffic stopped you getting home for dinner.

That would be when hacking meant you had a nasty cough.

That would be when ‘CB’ would be followed by ‘Ten-four, breaker-breaker, good buddy.’

That would be when file sharing involved manilla cardboard.

That would be when a chat room was thick with cigarette smoke and spilled beer.

That would be when the only place you’d find virtual real estate was on a Monopoly board.

That would be when the only autoresponder in the world was called Kit.

That would be when good hosting meant happy guests.

That would be when second life was what we all prayed for on Sundays.

That would be when Go Daddy involved an egg and a spoon.

That would be when a hard drive was accompanied by ‘are we nearly there yet?’

That would be when being digital meant you could count on your fingers.

That would be when banner ad was a big flag you waved at a football match.

That would be when your bookmarks were made by your kids as school projects.

That would be when one cookie was never enough.

That would be when cross browser support was a patient salesperson in the bookstore.

That would be when going to a flash site got you locked up.

That would be when showing someone your holiday pictures involved a darkened room and a Kodak Carousel.

That would be when an impression was something you made.

That would be when My Space was something you didn’t enter.

That would be when spam was a Sunday treat.

That would be when peer-to-peer networking happened at the water cooler.

That would be when the world was a simpler place; when we didn’t have friends all over the world; when our differences were more frightening; when our horizons were limited; when our imaginations were fuelled by HG Wells or Gene Roddenberry.

That would be when almost everything we take for granted today about technology, the Internet and computers was at best an impossible dream and worst simply thoughts of magic.

That would be the days of our parents – or for some of us, our youth.

And thinking back, it wasn’t so long ago was it.

I wonder what the days of our children will bring.

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