An Informative 'Guest Post' from Adam Carn

Please read and engage with Adam Carn, who is launching an exciting turn-key program to quickly get a money-producing website up and running. Enjoy!

GUEST POST
Climbing To The Top: Newbie’s Guide To Making Money Online.
By Adam Carn

If you're a newbie to making money online, you're either confused as hell or have information overload and don’t know where to start. I actually don’t blame you cos I was once a newbie too. Although it was a long time ago I do understand how it feels. I have come a long way and now and make a good living purely from the internet. You’re a newbie, I once was a newbie, we’re the same, I’m not some type of super human, I‘m not any better than you. If I could do it, then you definitely can too.

What I want to do is to clear your mind, I want to detangle your thoughts and put you on a straight path. I’m going to tell it how it is. REMEMBER, I’m just going to direct you, I’m not going to walk you through the tiniest step otherwise we’d be here all day!

1) Pick Your Passion.

Pick something you’re either good at or something you’re passionate about. Really think about this one. Don’t pick something like “weight loss diet” just because some expert said it’s a good money maker unless you really are passionate about the topic.

If you absolutely love Formula One Racing, pick that. If you’re good at hair dressing, pick that.

2) Your Online Presence:

How do you do that? Simple. You need a website or a blog.

Don’t panic. It’s not that difficult. If you’re a total newbie then I recommend setting up a http://wordpress.org blog because you can easily update that with new content whenever you want. To do this you will need a domain name and hosting.

You can get a domain name from http://godaddy.com
And for hosting I recommend: http://ezhost123.com

Pick a domain name related to your chosen topic. Pick either a .com .net .org or .co.uk domain name. Try keeping it quite short if you can. Pick a catchy domain name. Make it either professional or fun. Some will tell you that you need a keyword rich domain name, ignore all that, because you need to brand yourself! (more on this later).

You then setup your Wordpress blog onto your new domain name.

3) Two Words… BRAND YOURSELF!

I don’t care if you’re a newbie or a guru. You need to brand yourself. Brand your name, if you don’t want to use your real name use a pen name. Also name your blog. Don’t just name it, BRAND IT! Give it some POW!

Branding yourself or your blog/website is probably THE most important thing you can do. Why? Because this will be your online identity for everyone to see. Branding will give you recognition, with recognition you will gain trust, with trust you will gain power and with power… You will make money!

Here are some examples:

John’s Java Joint - johnsjavajoint.com - Coffee related niche

Kool Kuala Klub - koolkualaklub.com - Kuala related or could be a cool name for any niche you choose!

Passion For Fashion - passionforfashion.com - Fashion related niche

These are just examples (good ones though!).

TIP: When you pick a name for your brand make sure a domain name is also available for it. Your brand name and your domain name must match.

Branding doesn’t end when you have picked a name. Nope, you need a logo baby! A good one too! Not only that, your blog needs have a sharp, clean design.

Don’t know anything about design? Relax I got you covered.

You can design your own logo quickly and easily with this free logo designer: http://www.logoease.com

For your Wordpress Blog, there are hundreds of stunning free themes to choose from. They’re easy to install too. You won’t have any trouble looking good!

Wordpress blog is easy to install onto your domain name, for more info just search on Google.

Looking good is EXTREMELY important. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a novice or an expert. You need to have a strong presence on the net. Because like in the real world, first impressions count on the internet too. You wouldn’t go to a six figure job interview wearing jeans and t-shirt would you? You wouldn’t stand a chance.

4) Let The World Know Your Opinion:

You have an opinion right? Good, now express it. Don’t be afraid, go nuts. If you’re passionate about something it’s easy to express your opinion. Turn your views into writing and post it on your blog. Simple. Passion is magnetic, it’s not something we see much on the net really so use it to your advantage. People love reading passionate stuff. If you’re good at something people will want to learn from you.

You should develop a style, it can be wacky, it can be aggressive, it can even be slightly rude but you need to develop a style and it should show in the content create. This is all part of branding yourself. You don’t want to sound like the rest, you want to be unique because you are.

5) Getting Recognised:

Ok you got your blog, you branded yourself, you posted your first article on your blog now how do you get people to notice it?

Well first you need people to notice YOU before they notice your blog!

Here are my recommended methods.

-- Sign up for http://twitter.com (free). Twitter is a fast moving social networking platform where you update your friends on what you’re doing throughout the day and they update you as well. The beauty of Twitter is that it becomes so fast moving that you can literally chat with your followers. You can follow your friends friends, they can follow you, you can join in their conversations and build relationships with them, it can get really fun. It’s a fun and easy way to get recognised. Once you get some recognition you can show them your blog, they’d be happy to look at it and tell their friends about it. It’s all very powerful stuff. It’s like a viral effect.

Whenever you make a new post on you blog you can tell everyone on Twitter.

-- Use http://socialmarker.com to bookmark your blog on social bookmarking sites like Digg, Stumble Upon, Propeller, Delicious, Furl, Technorati and Reddit.

-- If appropriate, submit your post as an article to article directories such as: http://goarticles.com , http://articledashboard.com and http://articlecity.com .

These methods will get you a lot of traffic to your blog.

6) But How Do You Make Money?
Ok the easiest way to make money from your blog is by being an affiliate. An affiliate is someone who sells something on someone elses behalf and is paid commission for it. The best affiliate programs by far are from http://clickbank.com . Sign up with them, it’s free. Browse their marketplace for products related to your blog. Get your affiliate (hoplink) link. And put it at the end of your posts on your blog. Add a little description for it. With Clickbank you get huge commission like up to 75% and $70 per sale!

Other affiliate programs worth considering are http://google.com/adsense and https://affiliate-program.amazon.com

These don’t pay as much as Clickbank but I recommend them very much.

There you have it. If you get stuck on anything, a simple search on Google should be all that’s required. I have given you the plan, it’s time for you to take action.

If you follow these steps it won’t be long before you see money rolling in. And like a snowball effect it will keep growing, so will your reputation, so will your brand and so will you. Your recognition grows, your brand grows, your money grows, you grow and so on. You can really FEEL the snowball effect here can’t you?

Once your established in this, you’ll become a pro. You’ll be recognised as an expert. You will have power.

I hope you enjoyed this post.

Adam Carn
http://syteblack.com

---------------------------------------------

You can follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/adamcarn

SyteBlack.com your super sleek money making website. Totally newbie friendly.

Sir Richard Branson - Genius Marketing 101

Richard Branson, yes 'that' Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Books, Virgin Atlantic et al, has launched a unique method for advertising and promoting his latest book, 'Business Stripped Bare'. A link to the video can be found, at the end of this post.

The Strategy
OK, picture this, a group of men and women dressed as businessmen and women, except without pants, just undergarments and knee-socks, strolling the streets of London during commute hour to promote Richard's latest book, 'Business Stripped Bare'.

They were offering the first downloadable chapter of Richard's book using a business card handout scheme, and getting the attention of all! How easy this was to implement, no huge marketing campaign, no public relations and product launch headaches, just people to people, a proven technique for generating sales for hundreds of years!

How I Found Out About This...
Mr. Branson recently started 'following me' on Twitter (www.twitter.com) a free, live messaging / contact service that has received the attention of some major United States corporations. I have of course begun following him.

I read his previous 'tweets' by looking at his 'Profile' page. There was a tweet and the URL within to watch the hilarious video, but also hugely successful marketing efforts.

About Twitter
Twitter limits your messages to 140 characters, and URL's are shortened to permit fitting them into the space allotted. Twitter permits the ability to read other users 'tweets', their individual outbound messages to add to the publicly-viewable stream of messages, or with the option to privately 'direct-message' those you are 'following'.

Start Using Twitter Today!
If you are not using Twitter, I highly recommend you begin at once! I have made some very important contacts, and received inumerable value from using the service.

In a previous post, a contact made on Twitter led to my attending BlogWorld Expo 2008 and meeting Shoemoney, John Chow, Jim Kukral, Robert Scoble, Doc Searles, Laura Fitton and Zac Johnson, the current 'thought-leadership' in Affiliate Marketing.

Here is the link to Mr. Branson's video:
http://entrepreneur.virgin.com/2008/11/12/nearly-naked-business-people-take-over-london-2/

Please leave me a comment if you liked this post, and buy Mr. Branson's book here in America please, we need the economy to turn around quickly! Respectfully, Nicholas

Jim Kukral Launches The Biz Web Coach Today

Hello Readers!

I've been in a deep SEO-study for a bit, trying to see if this will enhance my on-line marketing efforts, or at least get slapped by Google?

Anyway, exciting news today! Jim Kukral @ www.jimkukral.com is launching his re-branded site today here:

http://www.jimkukral.com/

Jim is a very helpful, knowlegable internet marketing consultant and coach.

I met Jim at BlogWorld Expo 2008, where I videotaped approximately 20 sessions in two and one-half days of the Expo.

Jim was the moderator for many of the sessions, and he kept the sessions lively and informative.

Hoping that Jim has massive success with his re-branding launch today!

Respectfully, Nicholas Chase

Off the Radar Screen - Hunkered Down - Success Around The Corner?

Hello Reader! You have probably wondered if I 'fell off the earth', as I have not been posting for a while. Truth is I've been hunkered down in my modest bungalow, trying to figure out my next on-line marketing move. With the current economic turmoil out there you would think I would just give up my dream of a home-based, on-line marketing empire?

The news media would have you believe that the sky is falling. This is mis-information. A few 'criminally-greedy' wall street players, have brought this upon themselves and the world market.

The government, in trying to clean up the mess made by others, is only exacerbating the issues.

Emotions run the stock market. Bad news causes stock to rise, a perverse reaction for sure! Bad news should not cause investors to profit, but it has been this way since the beginning of the stock market. The wealthy people are only going to get richer because of the government 'bail-out'. Are you going to see any of this bail-out money? Not unless you are a large bank like B of A.

The BlogWorld Expo 2008 experience in Las Vegas, really opened my eyes to what is possible in on-line marketing. The presentations I saw there like Gary Vaynerchuk's, www.winelibrarytv.com really drove home the point that hard work, long hours, and dedication to your dream, no matter what or who may try to talk you out of it, is the only strategy that will bring you success.

If you truly have done your homework, are or becoming a recognized authority in your chosen market niche, and have a passion for your chosen products or services offered on your website or landing pages, and you post every day, you will eventually find that web traffic will find you!

Gary stated that he responded to every email or comment made on his website for an entire year. He engaged the customer for his wine products in a meaningful conversation, and others discovered his knowledge and dedication were the real deal. He spent years studying wines and food, so that he was able to answer every question posed to the satisfaction of the requester. He also visited other authorities in the wine business, left comments on their blogs or websites, and started a conversation that helped him to grow his business to a current value of over $60-million dollars!

If you are genuine, people will sense your expertise and want to do business with you. If you treat people poorly, your reputation will be ruined, as news travels faster on the web than any other medium today. Newspapers are printing hours-old news. The tv news is at least 2 hours behind real time to assemble the stories and air them in edited-down video formats.

The web is instantaneous, Twitter, My Space, Facebook and other sites are read by millions of people per day, and this is the new paradigm for Web 3.0. People want the truth, a space that the traditional news media cannot compete with, nor do they have the time or money to fully analyze the data, and provide a resultant meaningful story.

Currently, they report something very irresponsibly, like "extremely high fire danger today!" And the insane person with the highway flares goes out to wreak havoc on an innocent society by startng fires on the day with guess what? "The Highest Fire Danger". How stupid can they be? Why not announce that the fire department will be attending training today, "Gee, I hope there won't be any fires today"? (I got off-subject here, but that 'high-fire-danger news-reporting' issue makes me mad!).

The relevance of the web is so pervasive, that people like Matt Drudge are now followed by Presidential Candidates! Matt has become a hit because he publishes timely stories, that are controversial to traditional news-gathering techniques and institutions, and he is quicker to publish before the mainstream media even can discern that the story is developing. Matt has become an authority in his space.

How will you become an authority in your market niche, and how do you convince your customers that you are the real deal? Most important technique taken from BlogWorld Expo 2008. BE YOURSELF! BE HONEST! Be the kind of marketer people like to talk about in positive terms. Become the best at what you do. Outshine the competition by being as authentic as you possibly can be!

Truly successful marketers put their customers first. Need to exchange a bad product? Fed-Ex it overnight and eat the cost. You will have gained the trust of a customer who was unhappy, and now is very happy with the way you have treated and valued their business. Go out of your way to be helpful and you will beat your competitor's who do not do this or do not even care!

This customer will talk positively about you, and cause others to want the experience of the same level of service 'that they are not receiving elsewhere'.

How many of you are tired of voice-menus? Companies used to answer their telephones. Now it's all buried in voice-menus, hoping you will quit before successfully obtaining the ear of an actual human being! Make sure you place your telephone number on your contact information page, answer you telephone on the third ring maximum, and if necessary call your customers back promptly.

They will be totally shocked and surprised at the level of care this demonstrates to them, and you can usually resolve the issue during this brief telephone exchange. Use this time to ask your customer if the experience could be improved, or if they could pass along their positive experience in a forum comment?

Customer Service has been pushed to the bottom of the priorities of most of the companies I deal with. And yet they tell you in their advertising, how much they value their customers! If you only do this simple act consistently, you will see a tremendous boost to your traffic numbers, serving the people who are making your company grow! Imagine a reader seeing all of the positive feedback from previous customers! Goodwill will be established, and you will be successful.

Social Networking is the current buzzword. I know of one software architect that is releasing his product using Social Media, and 'viral-marketing' as his main marketing focus. In this way he tightly targets his potential customers, who are already savvy web users or successful Pay-per-click, Affiliate Marketers, and his software tool will be much easier to market to this selected group! By the way, the product is called iSpionage at www.ispionage.com

Please leave me a comment below, I will respond! Respectfully, Nicholas

My Dinner with John Chow and Shoemoney!

BlogWorld Expo 2008 in Las Vegas! My dinner with Shoemoney and John Chow!

Nicholas Chase at Market Leverage dinner with John Chow, a very happy fellow!
Photo Courtesy Gary Ng - www.iphoneincanada.ca (c) 2008


Market Leverage dinner winners with from left, Greg Morgan, a winner!, Zac Johnson, Jim Kukral, Nicholas Chase, also a winner!, Darren Rowse 'The Problogger', Ryan Hupfer of Hub Pages.com, John Chow, Shoemoney, Gary Ng, a winner! and Debbie another dinner winner!
Photo Courtesy Zac Johnson c 2008

Hello!

I've had a life changing event this week.

Check out this photo of me at dinner with the 'thought-leaders' of Affiliate Marketing and on-line advertising! The Market Leverage dinner at Envy Steak house, in the Renaissance hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada at BlogWorld Expo 2008!

I started on Wednesday, trying to get a pass to BlogWorld Expo 2008 in Las Vegas. Just missed one from a Twitter person I was following. I'm fairly persistent when I have a goal, so then I found one of the BlogWorld partners on Twitter, and offered my videography sevices to the BlogWorld team. Not only did they accept, but I was given an unlimited-access pass to all of the events.

As a videographer, the challenge was to setup and record each panel or presentation, with minimal time between speeches to move and reset the camera, recorders etc. I lost some pounds schlepping my hand truck with my gear all over the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Everyone at BlogWorld Expo 2008 was kind and helpful!

Rick Calvert and Dave Cynkin the BlogWorld management were simply amazing.

Thanks guys, you really helped me, I hope that I have been of assistance to you!

As a blogger and Affiliate Marketer, the information there was as cutting edge as it could be. A partial list of the presenters included, John Chow, Shoemoney, Zac Johnson, Brian Clarke, Jim Kukral, Shawn Collins of Affiliate Summit, Patrick O'Keefe, Dave Taylor, Darren Rowse, 'The Problogger', Guy Kawasaki, Steve Rubel, Michael Brito of Intel, Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV, Robert Scoble, Doc Searls, Timothy Ferriss of the '4-hour Workweek' book, and Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park.

Guy Kawasaki and Nicholas Chase after the Keynote Luncheon with Steve Rubel
Photo Courtesy Dave Cynkin c 2008

I visited with Guy after his Keynote Luncheon talk with Steve Rubel, very illuminating, especially how he expressed his feelings towards Steve Jobs and Apple Computer, and how for a mere $$$ five-million-dollar $$$ signing bonus he would come back!

As an added bonus, check out the photos! Yes, I had dinner with the thought leaders at BlogWorld Expo. John Chow, Shoemoney, Zac Johnson and Brian Clarke, Tyler Cruz and my Market Leverage team, including, Debby Phillips, Market Leverage's Digital Media Specialist,
my Affiliate manager Jennifer Fluker, Dina Riccobono, Marketing Manager, and the Market Leverage TV, Production Manager Judson Forman and the Market Leverage CEO!

The Unique Blog Designs team was there as well, Nate and the crew, as John Chow recently utilized their excellent services in redesigning his website at: www.johnchow.com

Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park with Nicholas Chase after Sunday Keynote
Photo Courtesy Dave Cynkin c 2008

Meeting Mike Shinoda of the band Linkin Park was a real highlight on Sunday. He was accessible and candid about how blogging had secured a Warner Brothers record deal for the band. He related how all of the band members were artists, and the band name came about because Lincoln Park, a real park in LA had been registered previously. To get the dot com they changed it to Linkin Park, brilliant!

Mike was adamant in his opinion that emerging bands no longer need a large record company, with the power of the web they can self-distribute digitally, and bypass the management hassles.

Timothy Ferriss, author of The '4-Hour Work Week' was very well received by the packed audience for the Sunday Opening Keynote with Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, and Rohit Bhargava the moderator. Timothy stated that to be self-published these days was practically impossible, as the store shelves are dominated by the book publishers. As a test, Timothy printed some books, and stealthily placed them in a prominent spot next to other hardback books in a bookstore and then watched the shelves for a day to test his theory.

The Market Leverage Dinner

I arrived late after packing my video gear away, and Dina Riccobono introduced me around the room. All of the legendary bloggers and thought-leaders at the two tables were very accessible and nice to me, a newbie Affiliate and blogger. Their words of encouragement and sense of humor were genuine and fun! I was fortunate to meet my Affiliate manager, Jennifer Fluker, and she offered her professional assistance to my on-line efforts.

John Chow came over after the meal, with a huge wad of cash, and asked who wanted to hit the tables! Check out the photo of John and I and that wad of cash! Market Leverage had a cashinator machine set up in the exhibit hall, and you had one minute to 'grab-cash' before time was up. Tyler Cruz wore a coat into the booth, and won the cash, to be donated to another attendee later.

John and I, we had a good laugh about Michael Kwan crashing a Segway, version 2 in Canada at the factory test track! It violated the known laws of physics to see Michael crash the Segway, and break the Flip Mino video camera he was holding when he crashed! I believe NASA Ames and the defense department want to study Michael's brain, to insure none of his synaptic neurons gets into any future space vehicles! We laughed for a long time about poor Michael Kwan.... John kids him on a regular basis on his blog. www.johnchow.com

Zac Johnson had some encouraging words for me, and even offered to help, handing me his personal business card. Thanks Zac! Check out Zac's excellent blog at: www.zacjohnson.com

It was exactly this kind of community and family approach that all of the panelists and Affiliate / Bloggers attending the show exhibited all weekend. How refreshing from the corporate, button down, need-to-know environment of some trade shows.

BlogWorld Expo 2008 was a life-changing event for me, all launched becuase of a simple act of kindness on my part to assist where I could. This is an important recurring theme for all of us working 'on-line' to remember and practice daily.

Jim Kukral was helpful to me all weekend, even though he was busy moderating panels and watching the time for the panelists. He made sure that each panel had sufficient time for interactive Q and A and the attendees asked some very well-formed questions. I hope I wasn't in your way too much Jim, with my sensitive microphones and all that equipment! Check out Jim Kukral at The Flip Daily, www.JimKukral.com

I have started following these smart people on Twitter, an application that permits 140 characters per small instant text messages called 'tweets'. When you send a message you are 'tweeting' someone. They can 'follow' you and you can follow them, sort of a 'what are you doing now kind of tracker scenario.

Today I discovered something strange and wonderful, some of the thought-leaders are now following me! Ok, got to stay on track here, so much is happening so quickly, it's a testement to the 'Power Of The Web', how quickly one can get recognition for a small act of kindness.

When tweeting, "I'm making cheese-balls" does not have the same impact as saying: "I'm having dinner with Shoemoney and John Chow, Jim Kukral, Brian Clark, and Darren Rowse, Zac Johnson and Tyler Cruz at Blogworld Expo 2008!!!"

Shoemoney has the record for largest ever adsense check, over $133,300.00 for one month's profit on Google's adsense advertizing program! He spent some time with me after the panel he was on, and discussed family and how the web community is strong and vigilent in it's desire for self-informing each other, and not depending on traditional news outlets who move too slowly for the web attention span!

Shoemoney gave some time to me, after the SuperPanel to be interviewed, discussing the web community and being a real person to constituent bloggers out there. He said that he would remember me next year, and wanted to hear about my successes online. I'm even more dedicated now to make this online business grow! I'll try to host the video here real soon!

I'm tired but elated to be getting assistance from the best in internet marketing in the world! Oh, and after Shawn Collins of Affiliate Summit needed some assistance with his new microphone before his panel presentation, I assisted in temporarily mounting it to his tripod, we talked after the event, and he gave me a unlimited Platinum Pass to Affiliate Summit 2009!

www.affiliatesummit.com

I'm really just touching down after all of the excitement of the past five days. It's Christmas, and New Year's Eve, and my birthday all rolled into one fantastic present!

Keep tuned to these pages for more BlogWorld Expo photos, and how being authentic has certainly helped grow my on-line presence and reach.

Respectfully, Nicholas